As we leave #BFCM behind and look towards the next and last holiday of the year, we want to share a few suggestions that might help your customers drive more last-minute transactions.
One of the biggest hurdles for SMBs running an eCommerce store is cart abandonment. This happens when a prospective customer adds items to their cart but fails to convert them to a sale for the online store. According to research done by the Baymard Institute, an estimated 70 percent of all consumers that add items to their cart will abandon the order.
For SMBs counting on higher conversions during the holiday season, one of the best ways an agency can help mitigate cart abandonment is by setting up transparent shipping policies. With the number three reason for cart abandonment being that delivery is too slow, it is good to make sure that SMB online stores articulate shipping time estimates upfront so that consumers are not surprised.
Tools like Duda’s eCommerce control panel make it easy to add shipping policies throughout an online store or into any email communications sent out when an order is placed. It is essential to remind the SMBs that you work with that it is better to underpromise and overdeliver when it comes to shipping time estimates instead of overpromising and under-delivering. This will help improve your SMBs’ customer experience with their site, making them more receptive to continue to work with your agency long-term.
Another way to add value for your SMB clients’ online stores is by making sure that shipping prices are up-to-date. Shipping domestically is most common among SMBs since costs are typically lower, but many SMBs are looking to expand into international markets to increase sales. This makes it extremely important for agencies to offer eCommerce websites that simplify shipping by offering real-time shipping quotes from available providers.
Within Duda’s eCommerce control panel, leading local carriers such as USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL can be quickly added to determine accurate shipping rates to help SMBs set better prices for their products. These real-time shipping quotes are calculated based on where the product will be shipped to, where the product is shipping from, the dimensions of the boxes being sent, and the package’s weight. All of these details can be added quickly to the platform to save time.
Since many consumers are more likely to purchase a product that ships free, shipping cost estimators are extremely important to ensure that the product’s cost is high enough to cover free shipping. For SMBs that don’t want to offer free shipping for their products, agencies can also help them increase average order sizes by setting order thresholds to reach free shipping. Automating all of these costs for your SMB clients not only helps them increase conversion rates but drastically reduces website build times for digital agencies in the process.
One of the best ways to increase your SMB client’s eCommerce conversion rates is by providing more payment gateways for their customers to make the final purchase. In addition, local payment methods help make consumers feel more comfortable and confident that they are making the right decision buying a product from an SMB’s store.
Conversely, when limited payment options are available, consumers may have a more challenging time converting since they lack the comfort of choosing their payment method. Therefore, making the process of checking out as simple as possible for consumers by giving them extensive options to choose from will drastically increase the success that your SMBs will experience with their online stores.
Today, Duda offers more than 40 payment gateways to make building high-converting eCommerce websites for your clients more effortless than ever. The newest addition to these gateways includes ifthenpay, Eupago, and Rapyd, widely used across most Europe and many other countries worldwide.
Around the holidays, your clients will need seasonal landing pages and ways to advertise their offers. Find a platform that supports online storefront customizations with easy-to-use templates. Templates provide a simple way to make these changes on demand without worrying about clunky designs or loading issues.
From research conducted around Duda’s clients, templates can reduce site build times for agencies by as much as 50 percent. Spending less time building your clients’ websites will not only improve their satisfaction with your work but allow you to focus your efforts on the next client.
Themes are also great when you’re just getting started, but you also want to look for other integrations with your web builder for more advanced design. Look for a solution that offers built-in eCommerce tools like SEO tools and omnichannel synchronization to make it easier for your clients to get their products in front of customers.
Most of the people your clients are trying to reach are likely on social media, so they should be too. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow eCommerce businesses to sell their merchandise without customers having to leave the platform.
You need to give your eCommerce clients a way to link their stores on social media with easy integrations. This will help increase exposure and make shopping seamless. In addition, over the holidays, they will have even more competition than usual, so every click saved increases their chance of closing the sale.
The more integrations you offer, the easier it will be for clients to reach prospects by catering to their target audiences’ platforms most frequently. Of course, spamming every channel will be less effective than purposeful, quality content on a couple of prime platforms, but you need to give your clients a choice. They will appreciate this option to customize, and it will help them perform better during the holiday rush.
Today, most eCommerce shopping is happening on mobile devices. It is estimated that mobile eCommerce sales are expected to account for 54 percent of total eCommerce sales this year. Unfortunately, this means your clients will be missing out on significant traffic opportunities around the holidays if their sites are not mobile-compatible.
Before they publish the final draft of their holiday content, businesses should be able to test how pages look on different screen sizes. Of course, they will want to make sure all functionality works correctly, and everything is readable, videos and images load correctly, etc.
You can also offer clients mobile-specific versions of their site with the right tools. Mobile landing pages should be clean and minimalistic to avoid clutter or usability issues. Use simple calls to action. You should have large, clickable buttons and obvious ways to make purchases and reach out so customers can get in touch with the businesses you serve.
While many SMBs dream of expanding their online stores internationally to reach broader customer segments, ensuring that online stores speak to customers in their native language is crucial. According to the Harvard Business Review, 72.1 percent of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their native language. In addition, nearly 73 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product with information available in their native language.
This makes it extremely important for agencies to offer multilingual online stores for their SMBs to expand into international markets. Creating multilingual online stores will help build trust and brand recognition with your SMB’s customers and give them the competitive advantage they need to differentiate their store from competitors. With more than 53 languages available on Duda’s eCommerce offering, taking your SMB’s online store to the next level will be faster than ever before, just in time for the holiday season.
Now is the time for SMBs to upgrade their marketing strategies to thrive during the final days of this holiday season. By leveraging the right tools, optimizing their sites, and giving clients the tools to put out quality, current content, you will be better equipped to help your eCommerce clients maximize their earnings this winter.
