Common Mistakes Ecommerce Sites Usually Make

Did you know that there are approximately 12-24 million eCommerce sites selling various kinds of products and services on the internet today? But despite this number, over 40% of ecommerce sales still come from retail ecommerce giant Amazon.

If you want to compete with other ecommerce sites, you need to avoid mistakes that can bog you down. While mistakes can be learning opportunities, we all know that it’s better not to commit them in the first place.

Here are some of the most common mistake ecommerce websites are making.

Reinventing The Wheel

One of the biggest mistakes an ecommerce store owner can commit is trying to reinvent the wheel. This happens when they try to provide a unique solution for everything.

Using your time developing customized solutions for everything is a waste of resources. We suggest avoiding this trap unless it has a direct impact on your brand or on your ability to offer a unique selling proposition (USP).

Use platforms like Magento or Shopify rather than inventing a platform for your store unless the unique platform is the direct selling point.

The same is true for other components like shopping cart, web design and navigational elements.

Untrustworthy Design

Studies conducted by Northumbria University found that web design plays a big role in the success or failure of an ecommerce site. According to the discovery users find a design for trustworthy or untrustworthy compared to content.

So unless you’re a qualified web designer stick to classic themes, use a tried and tested platform if design is not a differentiating platform for your brand.

Redundant Product Descriptions

SEO is important in order to land on the first page of SERPs. However, being too redundant in product descriptions will result in next to no search engine traffic on your product pages.

This is because Google will see this as duplicate pages that exist. And if there are already duplicates, the search engine bots will think that there is no need for the page to show up on SERPs.

It is common practice to describe a product or service as thoroughly as possible to overcome buyer objections. However, being redundant in descriptions will not help you or the buyer in any way. Instead of being redundant, offer comparisons to give buyers a reason to purchase from you.

Not Being Profitable

This sounds strange but it is possible for new ecommerce sites to be based on a business model that is not profitable.

You have to think in terms of scaling your business. If your business isn’t profitable now, and your costs scale with production, you will lose money if sales spike.

Profitability is the ultimate goal for businesses. It should be the primary goal not growth. You have to prioritize it over scale while working out the ins and outs of your business.

No Responsive Design

We have said time and again in this blog that responsive design is an important element for having a successful website. Nowadays, more and more people are using their phones not only to browse the internet but also to do their shopping.

This means that your ecommerce site has to be mobile and gadget friendly. Test your theme with Google’s mobile-friendly test and stress test it with as many gadgets you can get a hold of. This is very important because there are many shopping carts that work well on mobile devices but fail once users submit their orders.

Remember over 51% of adults now use their smartphones to purchase online and numbers continue to grow. If your site is not mobile friendly, you’re missing out on sales.

A good ecommerce web designer in Sydney can help you get ahead of the competition. They will ensure your ecommerce store looks professional and is both search-friendly and user-friendly.

 

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Headline Writing Tips To Boost Traffic

We all know that first impressions are important. In content for example, the headline should give the readers a good impression for them to click the title and read on.

This is why knowing how to write amazing headlines is important.

According to the experts good headlines are:

• Extremely relevant to the content
• Contain a keyword
• Generate interests

There is no exact formula on how to write good headlines. However, we have some tips you can check out to help you whip up amazing headlines.

Keyword Driven

As stated above, keywords should be in the headline. But don’t just choose any keyword. Use a keyword research tool to find out what people are searching for.

When you choose a relevant keyword phrase that people are searching for by volume, you boost the ROI of the content.

Keyword rich headlines offer relevant content and value.

There will be times when coming up with a good headline is hard. When this happens write up a couple of headlines until you find something that strikes your fancy.

Short & Sweet  

Remember, it’s a headline so it can be short and sweet. Not every headline has to be lengthy. Sometimes short and straightforward is the best approach. So don’t just discard a headline just because it’s short.

Compelling Statistic

Leveraging a compelling statistic can be a good way to generate interest in readers.

For example “Ecommerce Spending In Australia Increases 24.4% Every Year”

This headline is a compelling read for people in the retail, ecommerce, web design or internet industry. If they are interested in this kind of factoid and how it can impact their business they are more likely to click on the headline compared to something like “Ecommerce Spending Increases Every Year”.

Look At Competitor’s Headline

This tip extremely helpful if you’re looking for some inspiration. We don’t want you to copy their headline (that’s counterproductive). We want you to find inspiration.

You can look at titles of their successful campaigns to see what headlines work and what don’t work.

Use A Question

What question does your content answer? Sometimes questions make good headlines.

For example, if you’re making a guide to the Google search algorithm you can title your piece “What is the Google Search Algorithm? 10 Things You Need to Know”.

Readers will immediately know what to expect and what your article will be about.

Don’t Forget CTA

You can also use a call-to-action (CTA) on the headline whenever appropriate.

Terms like discover, learn, find out, understand, etc. make readers think that they are making an empowered choice by clicking on the title and reading your content.

Sydney website content marketing experts can help turn your words into powerful tools that can generate leads and sales. Good content is important for online success and it all starts with your headline.

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Don’t Miss These Fantastic Digital Marketing Trends

The internet is very different from what it was 20 years ago. Nowadays, we have become more dependent on this technology and use it for almost everything in our lives. We use it not only to connect with friends and family around the world, we also use it for shopping or to do our jobs. Aside from this, mobile phones have changed how we shop and do business.

However, the internet is also becoming more competitive. There are simply too many blogs and ecommerce store who are vying for reader’s and buyer’s attention. Digital marketing trends are also ever shifting. So how do you get ahead and not get lost in the shuffle?

In this blog we will talk about digital marketing trends that are making it easier for marketers to stay ahead of the competition.

Paid Voice Search

Voice search has been going up recently. This is because more and more people are using their mobile phones to browse the web. Most searches happen when users are looking to purchase a product or service. Since mobile phones have limited screen sizes, typing can be cumbersome especially when you’re on your mobile phone.

Paid voice search is gaining popularity because you don’t need to type. Just press the microphone button on your phone or use the smart assistant (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri) and you will be shown the top results. This is why you need to invest in voice search too.

Optimize your marketing strategy for voice search. To do this, you need to understand how users search for information. Question words are very popular in queries. Searchers usually use words like how, when, who, where, when and most of all; why. Adding these words in your content can put you in the spotlight.

Long-tail keywords are also used a lot in voice search. People who use voice search tend to speak naturally. This is why voice searches are more specific. For example, instead of searching for “restaurant in Sydney” they would ask “where is a good pizza restaurant in Sydney?”.

Interactive Content

Content is still king but is quickly being outpaced by interactive content. This is because there is simply too much content online. Readers are now becoming more demanding and want content that is relevant, engaging and accessible no matter what device they use.

Good examples of interactive content include quizzes, surveys and social games. Investing time and money on incorporating interactive formats to your digital marketing strategy can have tremendous payoffs. So make sure to supplement your content with infographics, white papers, case studies and ebooks.

Nowdays, readers have very short attention span. If you can’t keep their attention for 8 seconds, you’re going to lose them to the competition. So planning and implementing an interactive content strategy can help you retain and attract customers.

TikTok Advertising

TikTok is not new but has slowly encased itself in the teen and tween market. TikTok is easy to use. You just use the app to create a short video and then upload and share on social media platforms.

You’re missing out on a lot if you’re not on TikTok because as of this writing there is an estimated 500 million active users worldwide and 66% of users are under 30 years old and 40% of them are between 25 and 30. The reach of this app is enormous.

TikTok launched a bidding ad feature and currently only has the in-feed video ad. They allow you to target ads based on age, gender and geographic location. This means TikTok has a massive potential especially if your target market is within the range of their majority users. This means that if you are targeting teenagers and the college demographics, being and advertising on TikTok can improve visibility and traffic.

Keeping up with the never-ending changes in digital marketing can be daunting. Things change almost instantly and what’s in yesterday might be out tomorrow. However, staying up to date and developing a sound digital marketing strategy can help you adapt to the shifting online environment while staying ahead of your competitors.

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SEO Strategies for Small Local Businesses

Small local businesses are the lifeblood of the community. They hire local residents giving jobs that enrich the community. However, local businesses are facing stiff competition not only from other local themselves but from ecommerce stores that sell their wares from around the world 24/7.

This is one of the reasons why many small businesses are shifting to ecommerce. They want to be able to compete and play in a much larger field. However, having a sound SEO strategy is crucial if you want to survive online.

However, SEO is different for small businesses. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on advertising or hundreds of links pointing to your website, you need to know local SEO techniques and apply these simple strategies to your business.

Increase your chances of ranking high with these tips.

Cost Effective Local SEO Strategies For Small Business

Verify Your Business’ Google Plus Page

Google Plus is a social media platform operated by Google. The first step is to link your Google Plus page with Google My Business which allows SMEs to update their information across Google Search, Google Maps and Google Plus in 1 click. This will help ensure that local customers can find you no matter what device they use.

Local SEO is important because it leads to more purchases than non-local searches and verifying your page on Google Plus makes it easier for you to monopolize search results of your local brand especially if you place a local business card on the right.

However, Google allows anybody to edit our listing, including competitors. Make sure to log in regularly to check that nobody has edited your listing.

PPC Advertising

Having a website is just the first step. The next thing you need to do is to attract visitors to increase traffic and leads. One of the best ways to do this is through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

The idea here for small businesses is to target relevant keywords, understanding the targeted audience and developing a strategy that can convert guests into leads.

Selling a product that is difficult for buyers to find locally makes it a good candidate for PPC because people usually rely on the internet when they want to find rare products or those that are locally made. The same is true for local restaurants, coffee shops, etc.

Aside from this, many purchases are made through mobile phones. Consumers usually want to find businesses “near me”. Since PPC usually dominates the first page of SERPs, investing in PPC for your business is a good idea.

Try combining the strength of social media and local PPC. Understanding how to use these 2 platforms can increase advertising reach without the high cost.

Showcase User-Generated Reviews

Displaying user-generated reviews can be a powerful marketing tool. People who buy products online have no way of testing these products and reviews can give them a bird’s eye view of what it looks like, what to expect and whether the product is worth it or not.

Buyers also like reviews from other people because they feel that these feedback are genuine. This is important because they are looking for authoritative 3^rd party users who can verify the product for them.

Studies by Vendasta.com show that 88% of buyers read product reviews before purchasing a product. It is therefore safe to assume that people are looking for the name of your product with reviews when searching on Google & other engines. This increases the chances of ranking well for search queries that are relevant to your product.

Optimize Images

Ensuring that your images are search engine friendly starts with their filename. There are a billion images online and you don’t want a generic filename like 1234.jpg. that’s guaranteed to ensure that your business gets lost in all the noise.

Search engines can’t read images so it’s up to you to tag the images and use descriptions that use appropriate keywords so bots can “see” your images and indexes them. Most importantly, add local tags so that you can show up for local search results.

Lastly, if you want your images to rank for localized keywords, make sure you add local keywords wherever you can for blended results optimized for a specific local area.

SEO Services in Sydney can help implement local SEO tactics to help your business get ahead of the competition. We optimize your site in order to deliver the right kind of customers to your doorstep.  

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Reasons Why Your B2B Needs Ecommerce

Before ecommerce and digital marketing, B2B transactions happened in person or through the phone. Business cards are exchanged, relationships are formed and face-to-face meetings occurred.

While B2B businesses are still here, many are turning to ecommerce to make transactions easier and faster. A study by Forrester Research shows that B2B transactions have no signs of slowing down. In the US, sales hit 1 trillion in 2018, up 17% from the previous year. The future remains bright with estimates reaching $1.8 trillion by 2023.

With this type of growth, shunning an ecommerce enabled website can be costly.

If you’re the type of entrepreneur who finds ecommerce intimidating, the traditional form of business shouldn’t be your only pathway to success. Ecommerce can make your business easier to discover and accessible to the whole planet.

Here are some reasons why you should consider ecommerce:

Repeat Products

B2B businesses usually deal with the same clients ordering the same product over and over again because you have become their preferred supplier. Shifting your business to ecommerce will make it easier for them to buy from you. According to studies, only 15% of buyers want to speak to a sales person when ordering a product.

When you have repeat customers, it’s an opportunity to provide a subscription-like service. An ecommerce platform will allow customers to purchase the same products repeatedly without speaking to a sales rep. This makes ordering easier and faster.

B2B Customers Prefer To Buy Online

There is a big chance that your rival is already selling their products and services online. If this is so then you are taking a big risk in not implementing an ecommerce platform. People are becoming more and more comfortable buying online. Having an ecommerce site that caters to customers is a good way to future-proof your business.

Data Will Help You

We all know that there are many of the same products being sold online. While this can be a deterrent to some sellers, data can actually help you standout and become different from your competitors.

When you build a comprehensive B2B website, you are providing potential customers an easier way to get to know your products and services. In return you get a lot of data regarding their preferences, location and other kinds of information that can help you make them buy from you.

Analytics can help you determine customer behavior and catalog their needs online. It can also improve their buying process, interactions and identify key metrics that can help you grow your business.

Heightened Customer Expectations

Online shopping is now very popular so many buyers are expecting that they will be able to buy from B2B businesses too. This is because many of us have come to appreciate the convenience not only of buying online but also having the product delivered to our doors. Business to Consumer (B2C) has raised the expectations for B2B customers because they expect the same experience they had from B2C business.

Upgrade Your Website

Technology is always moving forward whether your business is ready or not. In fact, there are many B2B websites that are obsolete and cannot handle everyday requirements. Regardless of your product or service, potential customers might give your business a pass if it your website is outdated or is not mobile-friendly.

If your old B2B site is cumbersome to navigate, not responsive or takes too long to load, you might want to consider upgrading it. If it is too costly to upgrade, entrepreneurs also have the option of creating a new eCommerce website platform at a lower price.

Now is the time to venture to the ecommerce marketplace. A Magento Web Design And Services in Sydney can provide businesses with effective ecommerce solutions. 

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Why You Need An Order Management System

Customer expectations have changed greatly mainly due to the popularity of online shopping. Online buyers want a seamless experience starting from the buying journey to the delivery. With this kind of demand, many ecommerce businesses are looking for ways not only to cut cost of their business but also to deliver customer expectations and market demands.

When paired with a strong ecommerce platform, an ordering platform can provide better customer service and can help you meet their demands. Always remember that competition is fierce on the internet so traditional business methods can fail. Investing on an updated system on the otherhand can fuel continued growth and profitability.

Here are some reasons why your business needs an order management system.

Seamless Ordering

The ordering process starts when the customer orders a product and ends when it is delivered to their doorstep. From the moment an order is placed, the experience needs to be seamless for the customer. If your ordering system cannot provide this or if you don’t have one, you run the risk of losing customers because you could not meet or surpass their expectations.

Centralized Ordering

Customers are usually informed about their order every step of the way. They usually get emails regarding the total amount, tracking number, expected time of arrival, delivery alerts and other details. Without an ordering management system that compiles customer data in 1 place, you would probably have a hard time dealing with the details along with having more opportunities to commit errors.

When you have a centralized ordering system, all customer information is stored in 1 place. This means that it is easy for customer service representatives to get information across various channels to address inquiries about shipping, delivery and cancellations.

Omnichannel Fulfillment

Customers have high expectations when it comes to choice of delivery method and channels of engagement. Shoppers want their orders to be fullfiled exactly the way they want it; from method of payment, type of delivery and address of delivery. Each point of the journey provides businesses with various opportunities to provide amazing customer experience that can help boost retention and revenue.

When you have an ordering system, you can access omnichannel capabilities whereby you can offer customers various options during the purchasing journey. This gives customers more options to purchase items from a worldwide inventory that can be fulfilled anywhere.

Global Inventory & Sourcing

Even if you’re just a small business, the size should not limit your opportunities for growth. Letting the customer know of your live inventory is something an order management system can provide. Aside from this, you also have the option of utilizing a global inventory so that customers have an idea where they can buy their desired product or service.

This means that even if you manage multiple warehouses for your products, you can still determine the fastest and most cost-effective way of delivering said products to customers.

If you sell products on multiple channels, having an order management system will enable you to know which SKUs are selling fast in a specific channel. This means you can easily align inventory to sales which is critical during peak buying season like Christmas.

Investing in an order management system is vital if you want to manage multiple stores, channels, warehouses or websites in different locations. It will allow you to bring everything together so that you can easily manage inventory and deliver customer demands and expectations.

A professionally designed ecommerce store is not only user-friendly, it is also search engine friendly. Customizing ecommerce store specifically for a business is important because it answers your needs as well as your type of customer.  

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Important SEO Factors To Note

SEO is always changing but still remains as one of the top ways to rank high on search engines especially Google. While always changing, SEO is important if you want to get traffic.

Over-time a well optimized website gets more traffic which translates to more leads and sales. If your website does not have SEO, potential clients and guests cannot find your website and all your hard work will go to waste.

However, there are so many SEO factors that you need to consider. All of this work can be intimidating especially to newbies.  In this blog, we will focus on the most important SEO factors that you need to focus on.

Secure & Accessible Website

First of all, you need the right kind of URL. You need a URL that Google bots can easily reach. This means that Google has to be able to find your URL, crawl the page and understand what it’s about. To help the bots out you need:

• You need a website that is well coded.
• A robots.txt file to help Google find site information.
• A site map that lists all of your pages.

HTTPS is not a primary factor for Google to index your site, but it is a “lightweight ranking factor”. However, having HTTPS is still great for your site.

Page Speed Loading

Page loading speed includes the loading speed of your mobile pages. Page speed has been a ranking factor for years. This is because Google wants to let searchers have a positive experience on the web.

Google has announced that they will be including mobile page load speed as early as 2018. If your site does not load fast, it could get penalized.

Mobile Friendliness

Your website should also be responsive. This means that it is screen friendly not only for desktop and laptop users but for mobile and gadget users too.

Google’s mobile-first policy is real. Google has been prioritizing mobile friendliness mainly due to the increase of people who are using their smartphones and gadgets to access the internet. If you’re site is not mobile friendly, it could be missing out on visitors.

A mobile friendly website is:

• A website that automatically resizes to the size of the screen of the user.
• Using large fonts for easy readability on a small screen.
• Easy navigation including easy to tap menu.
• Ensuring that essential content isn’t hidden by interstitial ads.

Domain Age & Authority

Did you know that the top sites listed on Google have a domain age of 3 years or more? Data shows that very few sites that are a few months old achieve top ranking. This means that if you’ve had your website for a while and optimize it, you’re already at an advantage.

In some cases, domain names also matter. Although Google has penalized sites with exact-match domains (those that target keywords), that penalty is generally for spammy sites with thin content.

Authority is important too. This means content has to be great and original.

Optimized Content

Google likes good content especially when it comes to ranking. Google’s algorithm relies on keywords. These are words and phrases searchers use when they are looking for information. They are also the words used to describe what your site is about. Ideally, both of these should match.

Get more SEO tips and how to increase traffic.

User Experience

Google will also take a look at how users experience your website. It uses an AI called RankBrain to take a look at:

• Click through rate – the number of people who click to visit your site.
• Bounce rate – the number of people who leave your site right away because they didn’t find what they needed.
• Dwell time – time they spent on your website after they’ve landed.

These are just a few examples of what Google looks at in order to know how to rank your website. While SEO is always changing, being in the know can help your website rank higher in SERPs.

If you need a SEO expert in Sydney, we can help your website perform better. SEO is an ongoing process and contacting us can help you focus more on your business.

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