How to set your ecommerce website apart for 2021

6 Ways to Set Your eCommerce Website Apart in 2021

While eCommerce has been steadily growing over the last few years, 2020 was a year of explosive growth for eCommerce businesses. Business owners that didn’t have eCommerce stores scrambled to quickly set up an online store. Those that already did had to ensure they could keep up with shipping demands, customer service inquiries, and try to improve their website.

Regardless of whether you started 2020 with an eCommerce business or your business is new, it’s important that you’re able to set yours apart from the competition.

In this blog, we’ve outlined some ways to help your business to stand out from the competition in 2021.

Prioritize Shipping

Shipping is one of the most important differentiators for a business. When it comes to offering shopping promotions free shipping promotions far outweigh percentage discount coupons when it comes to closing a sale. In fact, 79% of consumers indicate that free shipping alone will make them more likely to shop online.

Another aspect of shipping to consider is transparency. When a customer is deciding whether to make a purchase online, buy from one of your competitors, or drive to a store to make a purchase a key deciding factor is shipping times. When a customer knows how long it will take for an item to arrive they are more likely to purchase. 53% of consumers indicate they won’t purchase a product unless they long how long it will take for it to arrive.

Offer Chat Support on Your Website

Good customer service is a game-changer for businesses. When a business offers good customer support over the phone or through email, or social customers are more loyal and more likely to recommend them. With the rise in eCommerce shopping also came the need to shift customer service a bit by offering chat support. Most online shoppers are busy and either don’t want to call a business or have had poor experiences with phone support - 56% report being dissatisfied with phone support provided by brands.

People also want immediate assistance, data indicates that the average customer expects their call to be answered within 5 minutes. If you know you can’t make that happen on your end due to limited resources, a chatbot for your website is ideal. This will enable you to quickly respond to inquiries - data shows that the average website chat response is 45 seconds which is way below the 5-minute expectation!

The Re:amaze Chat allows you to respond quickly to customers messaging you on your website. eCommerce businesses even have the ability to use pre-built or custom chatbots that can respond to customers and direct them to the appropriate customer service agent or FAQ page on your website. These chatbots are also equipped to respond to basic questions regarding shipping times, order updates, and product recommendations.

Time Your Campaigns & Emails

If you’re running paid ad campaigns you want to be sure you’re getting the most return for your investment. This means understanding when your customers are online. Statista indicates that Monday is the best day of the week to run ads, followed by Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Additionally, there are even times of the day that are more ideal for sending email blasts to clients. Email marketing is still an incredibly viable form of marketing. Research indicates that 91% of consumers check their email daily, and 66% have made a purchase based on an email they received. So when are emails most commonly sent? According to MailChimp the worst day of the week to send an email is Saturday, followed by Monday. The best day is Tuesday due to high open rates, followed by Thursday due to high click-through rates.

As for the time of day you should send emails the most ideal time is 6:00 am-12:00 pm and 8:00 pm-12:00 am. Emails sent at 6:00 am have the highest click-through rate. While emails sent at night tended to have more open rates. Try to avoid 12:00 pm-8:00 pm. These are generally times when people are busy with work, managing their families, cooking, or running errands which means emails will go unopened.

Get Social

Social media was most of the most prominent means of promoting brands in 2020 and this isn’t going to change in 2021. Many businesses have taken advantage of selling their products through social media. When it comes to using social media for purchases 19% of consumers made purchases on Facebook, followed by 10% makes purchases on Twitter, 9% on Instagram, 7% on Pinterest, and 5% on Snap Chat. While shopping on your website or app will bring in significantly higher amounts of sales, social media is a great option to offer your customers and a trend that is expected to increase in 2021.

Utilize Push Notifications

Push notifications are another great way to reach your customers on their phones. Customers who opt in to get texts do so because they want to be contacted by your company, which already makes them ideal customers. 67.5% of phone users will opt in to push notifications, and of those 52% are looking for relevant information and deals in those notifications. If you’re still not convinced - keep in mind that push notifications boast a whopping 90% open rate! If you haven’t signed up for a texting program for your business now is the time to do so.

Pay Attention to Channel Distribution

When it comes to channel distribution it’s important you know where customers are making purchases. Online marketplaces account for 47% of online purchases, while retailer websites or apps account for 26% of purchases. Brand websites and apps account for 18% of purchases, while other digital purchase points account for 9% of online purchases.

When it comes to communication channels used by customers chatbots lead at 44%, followed closely by Facebook at 42%. With this in mind, it’s extremely important that your business is equipped to respond to customers quickly on these two channels since they will account for nearly all of your business communications. The other main sources for communications are WhatsApp, SMS messages, Email, and Twitter.

These steps are all ways to help improve your eCommerce business. Working to consistently improve your website, communications, shipping, customer service, and advertising will consistently give you an edge over your competition in 2021 and beyond.