How SMBs Can Grow Their Ecommerce Revenue in 2024
If you’re reading this blog post you’re an SMB or start-up that is still looking for the secret formula to drive sales and revenue as cost-effectively as possible. There are no secrets or shortcuts to drive sales and revenue but there are proven digital tactics you can implement to grow your business and you’re in the right place to read about them.
Hopefully, you have either a WordPress site with WooCommerce or a Shopify site that sells your products. If you aren’t using one of these sites you already have one arm tied behind your back. Squarespace or other ‘value’ websites have some e-commerce functionality but as you scale you will need to create a new site using either WordPress with WooCommerce – our recommendation – or Shopify. They are simply the best solutions for SMBs on the market and are worth the initial investment if you have forecasted modest growth over the next few years.
DTC is growing but consumers are addicted to Amazon, especially after we were all locked down curing COVID. Before you create an Amazon storefront, we can help you with that, you should ensure you have optimized your online presence to sell from your current website.
Here are 5 steps to improve your e-commerce revenue
- Improve Your Online Presence – This is an obvious step but the devil is in the details and that is certainly the case with the accuracy of your location in online directories. Even the slightest error in your listing will impact your revenue. You need to ensure you are listed correctly with all the online directories so you will appear correctly in search results. You can easily check your listing using Moz here. For a modest investment, you can use their service to improve your business listing on nearly 30 directories including the Google. All listings need to be the same to be effective. If your business is on a street, is it Listed as Elm Street or Elm St.? All this counts and is important. If you are looking to drive foot traffic to your brick and mortar as well, this is a critical step that you need to ensure is accurate on all directories. 82% of shoppers have done a ‘near me’ search. If you listing is not accurate there’s an 82% chance you just lost a sale. This rate is even higher among millennials at 92% conducting ‘near me’ searches when shopping.
2. Google Business Profile – I am going to assume you already have a Google Business Profile, but in the slim chance you don’t, and this is for the SMBs and startups out there, this is important. Getting an account will help you connect with customers using Google Search and Google Maps. Here are the benefits of Google Business Profile listings:
- Build social proof with Google Business Profile customer reviews.
- Total control over your online presence on Google.
- Get discovered for free in Google results.
- Improve your local SEO with Google Maps integration.
- Easy way for your customers to find your physical shopfront
3. 3 seconds – You’ve heard all your life that speed kills and that is even more true when it comes to your mobile website speed. If your website doesn’t load in less than 3 seconds your potential customer is gone. Do you know where your website traffic is coming from? Have you properly optimized GA4? You should at least be checking your dashboard monthly so you can see where your website traffic is coming from. A majority of your website traffic will be coming from smartphones so mobile optimization is critical to your company’s success. Your website speed, for both mobile and desktop is critical for your e-commerce business. Ideally, your website will load in 1.7 seconds. How fast is your website? Click the link to access your site speed.
4. Embrace Ecommerce – Companies that made it through COVID had an e-commerce solution, they were mobile-friendly, and they were easy to find in search results. If you’re struggling to find an e-commerce solution I recommend a turn-key WordPress website with WooCommerce. Core offers this as a service and you can email me for more information at mike.t@coredigitalconsulting.com. If you want options for your e-commerce platform, you can also use a Shopify solution. Shopify is a great solution as well if you plan on never hiring someone to help you manage and grow your e-commerce. If you want to avoid headaches and frustration, I would avoid the Squarespace, Wix, Weebly website world unless you sell one or two products. Is your website or e-commerce solution mobile-friendly? 74% of retail site visits we made using smartphones and 63% of online shoppers orders were done on smartphones. If your website is slow you are losing money and they won’t come back. See #3 above.
Why is Shopping Cart Abandonment so high? – Mobile shoppers, those using smartphones and tablets, have an 84% shopping cart abandonment rate, while desktop abandonment rate is 72%. To fight this high abandonment rate, you need to ensure your mobile, and desktop, experiences make it easier for customers to buy quickly. What might that be, you ask?
- Increase mobile site speed
- Keep the copy short and simple
- Keep the important stuff above the fold
- Simply navigation 5. Promote Your Brand – Assuming you have accomplished the 4 steps above, you’re ready to advertise and drive customers to your website. That is what we do here at Core Digital Consulting. Whether you are a B2C brand or B2B brand, there are several advertising channels to bring customers to your business. If you already have repeat customers and would prefer to not advertise, you can take a longer approach to driving new traffic with organic search or SEO to drive search results.
With these simple tips, you can maintain and grow revenue as your competition drops out or stops advertising.
For help getting started feel free to contact us at, mike.t@coredigitalconsulting.com.