Implementing Website Personification to Boost eCommerce Profits

May 16, 2024

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Many businesses use websites to showcase their products and expertise, but they’re also places to charm, engage and make visitors smile. Personification aims to do this, housing humanlike qualities to change how brands interact online. It can be impactful, and marketers can easily implement it with several actionable strategies.

What Is Website Personification?

Website personification is the delivery of relevant user experiences. It is about incorporating a human touch through various elements to enhance interactivity. Including features with these qualities takes a website from being a functional tool to an engaging partner in the visitor’s journey. While this makes a website feel useful, it also makes it more personal and enjoyable.

Personification sounds much like personalization — the only difference is that marketers use personalization to customize user experiences. They achieve this by adapting content and offers based on past behaviors. It modifies the website to fit individual needs, whereas personification enriches its interface. The purpose is to evoke emotional engagement and captivate visitors.

Marketers may consider focusing on personification to cultivate a deeper connection with users. Although 62% of people expect companies to deliver a personalized experience, personification can create a more meaningful experience.

Why Marketers Should Prioritize Personification Over Personalization on Websites

Personalization is becoming more challenging for marketers to implement in their digital strategies. First, there is the tightening of global data regulations. Then, you have Google’s pending removal of third-party cookies. Each change is reshaping how companies can access and use consumer data.

With third-party data on the brink of becoming obsolete, traditional personalization strategies are becoming increasingly challenging to craft. Moreover, 68% of consumers are uncomfortable sharing their online information, even though they expect personalized user experiences. What are marketers supposed to do instead?

Even though 60% of customers say personalization encourages their repeat business, brands can still deliver high-end experiences by taking a privacy-first approach. Unlike personalized strategies, personification leverages broader audience interest data to qualify impressions. This approach appeals to more website visitors by catering to a wider audience without relying on specific user data.

Focusing on crafting universally engaging, resonant experiences lets you foster an authentic and meaningful connection. Furthermore, it avoids intrusive data collection, helping businesses overcome the adverse effects of regulations on targeting. Therefore, you become more respectful of consumer privacy while aligning your marketing with current legal standards.

Key Strategies for Implementing Website Personification

At first, website personification may seem like a no-brainer, but implementation takes time. It involves strategies that encourage a communitylike experience and focus on the relationship rather than vanity metrics. Here are a few key techniques for incorporating it into your website.

1. Gather First-Party Data to Deliver Customized Content

With third-party cookies phasing out, first-party data emerges as a goldmine for marketers. You can easily collect this information from your Google Analytics and analyze user interactions, such as subscription forms, surveys and engagement. This helps you create more relevant content because it comes straight from the customers. It gives insight into previous interactions, including viewed products or content preferences.

Learning more about your website users lets you create engaging, more responsive experiences. As such, users may feel each interaction caters to them without overstepping personal boundaries. It is like delivering a personalized touch within a personified framework, making interactions feel more human and less like a data-driven transaction.

2. Use a Tone That Feels Relatable

The right tone of voice is crucial for effective personification, turning standard interactions into engaging conversations. It should reflect the brand’s personality with the target audience in mind. Using a conversational and approachable tone breaks down barriers between the digital interface and the user. As such, the online experience feels more like talking to a trusted friend.

Mailchimp is one brand that masterfully uses a relatable tone. The email marketing service infuses its website and communications with a friendly and quirky voice. It welcomes users by integrating dry humor, authenticity and familiarity. The company understands its audience because it relates to the challenges that business owners experience in marketing. Therefore, casual and funny language works to make visitors feel at ease.

3. Integrate Subtle Animations and Humanlike Interactions

These elements bring static pages to life, making the digital environment more exciting and responsive. Animations that mimic human behaviors can captivate users because the interactions can be unexpected. While this strategy is excellent for grabbing attention, it also strengthens users’ emotional connection with the website.

You can find this example on the Creative Boom website, a platform dedicated to the creative industries. Its logo features a pair of eyes at the top left of the page. The eyes often move from side to side by following the user’s mouse movements or when they scroll up and down.

This subtle animation can delightfully surprise first-time visitors. The logo mimics human curiosity and engagement, providing a more personable experience. As a result, Creative Boom is more likely to leave a memorable impression on users than if the logo were at a standstill.

4. Design Relevant Feedback Mechanisms

Feedback mechanisms are interactive elements that respond to user actions. They enhance user engagement, making digital interactions feel more intuitive. They are similar to a conversation with a human by integrating specific design tactics:

Immediate response: Just as humans would acknowledge when they’re spoken to, your website should provide an immediate response when users perform an action. This could be a visual confirmation when they submit a form. Immediate feedback reassures people that their actions were successful and the site is attentive.
Emotionally intelligent reactions: A website should also convey appropriate emotional responses. For example, if a user takes a successful action, the site could pop up with an encouraging message to enhance the feel-good factor of the interaction.
Contextual help and guidance: Offering proactive help can be game-changing when users struggle or hesitate. For instance, if someone pauses for a long time on a checkout page, a pop-up could appear to provide additional information.

Incorporating the Human Touch With Website Personification

Adding personification to your website is about creating meaningful connections with users. Several strategies are available to help you achieve this goal, taking your digital platform to the next level. Ultimately, a human touch will drive positive experiences and business success. A little personality goes a long way in the digital world.

9 Reasons Why Now Is an Excellent Time to Better Optimize Your Site Filters

March 14, 2022

Author: Eleanor Hecks

9 Reasons Why Now Is an Excellent Time to Better Optimize Your Site Filters

One of the biggest advantages of online shopping for customers is the huge selection of items available. However, sorting through everything can be time-consuming, even in a digital environment. Fortunately, you can optimize your category filters and make the user experience (UX) positive.

According to Statista, retail e-commerce in the United States is a $1 billion business and grows every year. The pandemic accelerated the number of people shopping online and increased online stores. If you want to stand out, you need to optimize your site in every way possible. What better place to start than with your website filters?

Here are nine reasons why now is the best time to optimize your site filters.

1. Convert More Visitors

Increased internet traffic means more site visitors across the board. You can take advantage of anyone who starts searching through your products by enhancing your filters and making them more usable. You’ll gain a higher conversion rate when you help visitors find the exact item they’re looking for.

Source: https://www.solostove.com

Solo Stove uses icons and a simple filtering system to help you choose your next fire pit based on size and other factors. The simple filters work for the limited number of products, proving you don’t have to keep a huge inventory to categorize items effectively.

2. Outrank Competitors

More people opened new businesses in the last couple of years to meet the rising demands of online shopping. If you want to do better than the competition, you have to make the experience as easy and intuitive as possible.

Pay attention to what others in your niche do for their filtering and sorting options. Is there anything they could improve? What can you do that’s better or offers a little more?

3. Weed Out Non-Buyers

Every person who visits your site uses up resources in some way. You pay for additional bandwidth, or your website slows down or even crashes during high traffic moments. That’s why it’s vital to weed out people who will never buy from you.

When you add the option to filter down to exactly what the user wants, they can quickly see if you have what they’re looking for. If not, they can simply move on to a different online vendor that does.

4. Utilize Images

Now is a great time to add images to your categories as a quick filtering method. Internet speeds and screen resolutions are faster and higher than ever before. Now is an excellent time to better optimize your filters by adding pictures. You won’t have to worry about site visitors bouncing away because photos don’t load or the site freezes up.

Source: https://www.powerpak.net/buy-online/personal-protective-equipment.html

PowerPak does a great job of using photos to showcase each category. The images aren’t tiny but are large enough for the user to see at a glance. The site offers further filtering options based on size and other factors in a sidebar on the left.

5. Consider the Order

There are many different ways you can order your filtering options. Make sure you go with the most intuitive setup possible. Now is an excellent time to reorder your site filters because there is so much data available about your users. Look at heatmaps of your site to see which things visitors spend the most time on.

Put yourself in the shoes of the average customer. What things might they filter by first? For example, will they initially focus on color or size if looking for clothing?

6. Hide Unneeded Filters

Not all filters will apply to all the products you carry. Hide the ones that aren’t necessary. People may be looking for a better shopping experience, so enhancing how your filters work and paying attention to the results of each type of product can make a huge difference in your conversion rates.

7. Embrace Augmented Reality (AR)

AR is growing by leaps and bounds, so using it within your filtering process enhances the UX of your online store. You can show users how an item might look in their living room, on their finger or being worn.

Source: https://www.zennioptical.com/p/browline-eyeglass-frames/1954

Zenni Optical offers a “try on” feature for most of its glasses. You can use the app or desktop site and a camera to see how different frames might look on your face. The VR becomes a sort of filter to find which styles fit you best.

8. Speed up Your Site

Now is an excellent time to speed up search results. If your server can’t do this quickly, it might be time to invest in a dedicated plan. Users expect almost instant results whenever they browse your site. Google even ranks based on how fast your site performs. Look for script errors or issues with results not loading quickly enough.

Make sure to optimize any images on results pages so the site loads instantly.

9. Add a Search Box

Make your search box easy to find. Put yourself in the shoes of the average customer. They’re faced with thousands of choices and tons of advertising every day. Make sure your results pull up exact terms your customers are most likely to seek. You may even want to offer a popular feature items box.

Improve Your Site Filters

Take the time to improve your site filters and higher conversion rates will follow. Some extra attention to detail can make a huge difference in your site’s UX, whether you make filters easier to find, remove some of the categories or nix things that aren’t working.

How to Connect Woocommerce With Your Facebook Shop

February 1, 2022

Author: John Lawson

Marketing and advertising are the main factors in the success of online businesses and social media have played a great role in promoting an online business. A few platforms on social media have given a real boost to this idea such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and many more.

Out of these marketing platforms, advertising on Facebook gained popularity in no time because of its effectiveness in enhancing social media strategies.

Whereas, WooCommerce has made selling products and services much easier.

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin hence it offers great SEO (Search Engine Optimization) capabilities and adds value to your business website.

You can also hire SEO professionals for better SEO Optimization that help to boost your business sales.

In this post, we will explain how to integrate Facebook Shop with the WooCommerce store to get the best of these platforms.

Facebook to WooCommerce Plugins

It is very easy to integrate WooCommerce into the Facebook shop. This process is facilitated using several plugins.

If you are looking for more plugins for WooCommerce, then check out our Best WooCommerce Plugins for your store.

For now, we will look into step by step procedure to implement Facebook for WooCommerce (by Facebook) plugin so you may have a clear idea as to how to connect the WooCommerce store to Facebook Shop.

Step 1: Create a Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel lets you collect data that helps you track Facebook advertisement activity and increase your conversion rate by running targeted advertisement campaigns.

For this, you need to open Events Manager and login into your account.

Select Connect Data Sources from the menu on the left

On the pop-up menu select Web, and then click on Connect

Next open, Facebook Pixel>Connect. Now, enter a name for your Pixel, enter your eCommerce Store’s URL, and click on Continue

Next, use the Headers and Footers plugin to add the Pixel code. This Pixel tracking code can be pasted into the Scripts in the Header box. Once done, click on Save and WordPress will add this Pixel code to your online store.

Step 2: Setting up Facebook Shop for WooCommerce Integration

The Facebook for WooCommerce plugin lets you connect your online store to Facebook. Click on add to cart and follow the instructions to download the .zip file

On your WordPress dashboard, click on Plugins> Add New. Now upload the .zip file and select Activate plugin. Next, connect this plugin to your Facebook account by navigating to Marketing> Facebook> Get Started.

Your Facebook page will open in a new tab on your browser. Select Facebook Shop in the pop-up that appears and click on Get Started.

Now, choose the account where you want to manage your business assets, product catalog, ad accounts, and your Facebook Page. Once you have selected, click on Continue. Now choose the Facebook Page you want to connect your WooCommerce store with and then select Continue again.

Step 3: Facebook Shop Configuration

The next step is to create a new catalog or use a pre-existing one. Creating a catalog helps you to manage your inventory, by adding titles, images, and product descriptions.

Now, select the Facebook Pixel which was created in the previous step, and name your eCommerce account. Now confirm that you want to associate your Facebook page with your eCommerce store and click on Continue.

Facebook will show you an overview of your settings. Re-check your settings and once satisfied, click on Continue.

Now a pop-up will appear so you can check all the features and information that WooCommerce will have access to. Changes can be made to these features but keep in mind that any changes made will affect how the store functions. Once, everything is reviewed, click on Next.

This links your store to the Facebook platform, after this the tab will reload and show your store’s URL address for confirmation. If the URL is correct, select That’s My Site.

You have successfully, now connected your Facebook page to your WooCommerce Store.

Step 4: Manage your WooCommerce Catalog

Use Google Product Category (GPC) Taxonomy to map each WooCommerce category to a Facebook category. This will enable Facebook to apply a default GPC rate to all your products automatically once entered.

You can provide a primary and secondary GPC in the Default Google Product Category section (Navigate to Marketing> Facebook> Product Sync tab).

However, you can change the settings for individual products by going over to Products>All Products. Go over to the product you want to make changes to, click on Edit. Now on the subsequent screen, select the Facebook tab and use the Google Product Category to change the default settings.

You can also customize the image and description of each product that appears in your Facebook Shop.

Step 5: Creating Product Sets

Creating a Product Set means dividing your products into categories, this may be based on style, seasonal trends, or age category.

This helps customers to navigate through the shop easily and explore similar or related products.

To create a category Go to Products> FB Product Sets. Enter a name and description for the Product Set and assign a category. To manually sync, go to Marketing> Facebook> Product Sync and then click on Sync.

Conclusion

To conclude, adding your WooCommerce store to Facebook will enhance user experience and improve your sales process through better SEO strategies. You will be able to better analyze ad campaigns and performance as well as sync products and categorize to improve customer interaction.

How To Start An E-Commerce Business Using 5 Easy Steps

December 16, 2021

Author: Steve Smith

The trace of e-commerce business was pretty thin and non-existent, even in 2010. However, since then, the marketing scenario has changed massively. Now, standing in 2021, almost every one of us is buying everything through the internal. And, for good reasons as well.

For instance, before the inception of online marketplaces, you had to go out of your house to buy whatever you needed. So, to some extent, it was a waste of time and money (if you had to travel too far).

However, you can get whatever you have ordered without moving an inch from your house with the online business structures.

Due to this reason, the popularity of online businesses is increasing amongst both consumers and entrepreneurs. Hence, like many others, if you, too, are considering going with the hype, we’d definitely encourage you to do so.

Nonetheless, before you jump on the train, we’d like to guide you through the online strategies to develop your business efficiently. So, without making any further ado, let’s begin!

Starting An E-Commerce Business – A Step-By-Step Guide

When starting their first business venture, most novice entrepreneurs tend to be unsure where to begin. So, if you consider yourself to be one of them, this guide would be ideal for you.

Step – 1: Choose Your Niche Or Service Carefully

First things first, when you are starting a business, you must choose your product carefully. If you ask us, we would suggest you perform the necessary research on your preferred niche as well. This way, you can understand the –

Available trends in your niche market
Your competitors and the business strategies they are using
The selling and consumer engagement strategies used by the businesses
The business model that works best for your niche

The recent growth of the e-commerce and online delivery industry will benefit any business beginning its journey. However, if you don’t want to get entangled in the never-ending web of competition, performing prior research on your industry can be vital to succeeding.

Step – 2: Select A Platform

So, once you have selected your niche, we ask you to choose a platform for your business as well. However, there are too many options available out there. So, we’ll be noting down a few of them for your convenience –

Shopify for an affordable beginning and more customization options
Wix for building your website in a modernized manner
WooCommerce for including a shopping cart with your already-existing website
Square for selling your products and services in-person
BigCommerce for catering to a wide array of consumers
Ecwid for beginning with a free-of-cost plan

Once you have grown your business adequately, you may also begin creating your own website to boost your brand awareness even more.

Step – 3: Create Your Service Pages Separately

Have you created your website already? Then, we would ask you to start fleshing out your service or product pages. For example, if you provide different types of packaged goods through your website, you’ve to create separate pages for them.

Here, you must add a wide array of details, such as –

Product descriptions
Specifications and details regarding an item
Selling points

Additionally, it’d also be better for the consumers if they could change the colour, quantity, or style. Finally, keep in mind, your product pages will provide you with the final chance to sell your products. So, make sure to be as detailed as possible without making things too dull.

Pro Tip: Personalize the product description section of your website. Using the provided manufacturer description will increase the risk of plagiarism and hurt your website’s SEO.

Step – 4: Focus On Marketing

Marketing your products in a proper manner will either make or break the growth potential of your business. So, you have to work in this segment as purposefully as possible. Here are some tips that may help you in this regard –

Write niche-specific content on your website to grab your audience’s attention and generate traffic.
Use Facebook Ad tools to promote your business on social media platforms.
Add CTAs (call-to-action) at the right place.
Continuously optimize your user experience.
Use both online and offline strategies to boost your marketing performance even more.
Focus more on authenticity to build relationships with your audience.
Make performance analysis segments of your advertising campaigns to learn what’s wrong or right with them.
Take the help of social media influencers to increase your consumer base even more affluently.
Send news and updates regarding your organization regularly to your consumers.

The online marketing cosmos is pretty volatile and unpredictable. Therefore, if you want to succeed in this segment, you’ll have to create new plans and adapt to recent trends and technologies.

Step – 5: Set Up A Check-Out Plan For Your Business

The overall shopping process can significantly impact your consumer’s overall experience. So, you have to focus on it and ensure that everything’s working as smoothly as possible.

In our opinion, you should avoid asking your consumers about their email every time they try to buy something. It can deter many people from buying anything for you.

Instead, make the whole buying process more manageable and utilize different online payment options, such as PayPal, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.

Keep the email section at the below section of your page to avoid obstructing anyone’s sight. If someone wants to get connected, they will offer their email accordingly.

Finishing It Up!

Congratulations, now you are ready to begin your venture in the vast online marketing industry!

However, if you’re just starting up, you might experience various challenges initially. So, we would ask you to follow our guide closely and be patient in your endeavour.

In addition, you must also try to improve your business in any way possible. It may include eye-catching web design, consistent branding, following the trends, etc.

Finally, try to make sure that all of your required boxes are checked before you begin your business. This way, it will be easier for you to succeed as a business owner and promote the growth of your online store.

Author Bio

Steve Smith is a professional blogger. He is open to take on new challenges in writing different niches and areas of the industry. He has been with LawyersNote , OkayMagazine GlobalBusinessDairy,and TheCasinomagazine to write content and blogs on different niches like Technology and Digital Marketing. Steve Smith believes that if an individual has the correct information at the right time, they can achieve every feat.

Simple Ways to Make Your E-Commerce Site Festive

November 19, 2021

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Even if you sell the same products year-round, during the holiday season, you want your site to appear more festive than normal. You’ll attract site visitors doing Christmas shopping or buying something special for themselves. Decking the halls of your e-commerce store only makes sense.

McKinsey recently forecast a strong demand for consumer products this holiday season thanks to high confidence. Around 40% of survey respondents said they planned to shop earlier due to concerns with supply shortages and longer shipping times. Don’t wait until the last minute to change the look of your store. Focus on the holidays now, as most people are already checking off their shopping lists.

How can you make your e-commerce store look festive without drastic changes? There are several ways to embrace the season and send emotional signals to your users that it’s time to order gifts now.

1. Add a Header Message

A ticker at the top of your landing page grabs user attention and is the perfect way to add in some holiday vibe without too much interference with the overall aesthetic of your site. You can offer a special holiday discount, update folks on upcoming sales or share other holiday news. Just keep it short and to the point.

Glossier added a note to the very top of its website. The background is a different color than the rest of the page, and draws the user’s eye. The note lets visitors know they’re prepping for the Black Friday sale and invites them to sign up for a mailing list to get early access to the event.

2. Add Some Greenery

A touch of holiday whimsey goes a long way toward making your site more festive. Add some greenery or holly to the edge of an image. Tuck a red bow behind a product you’re featuring. Look for ways to add the holiday spirit here and there.

Your page doesn’t need to look like Santa’s workshop exploded on it, but a few elements or adding in red and green helps put people in a holiday shopping mood.

3. Highlight Seasonal Products

If your e-commerce store offers seasonal products, feature them in your hero image and featured products sections. People visiting your site during the holidays may not have considered your site for gifts, but will when they see you offer specific items geared to gift-giving.

Mary Maxim grabs a number of home decor items geared to the holidays and features them on its landing page. At the top of the page, they mention they have a wide selection of holiday craft items and offer a link to shop for those things very specifically.

As you scroll down, you see displays of decor on a mantel, a wreath and a present. They also highlight items such as winter puzzles.

4. Change Up Your Logo

You’ve likely noticed Google changes their logo frequently. They use the same wordmark but add a background, tuck an illustration between the letters or even make the logo actionable. Depending upon how complex your logo is, you can easily top it with a bow, have a cartoon reindeer peek from behind a letter or add some greenery.

Adding holiday elements to your logo is a small change that is easy to implement but adds a festive touch to your site. Users tend to look at your logo before other elements on the page, so it sets the entire tone.

5. Offer a Gift Guide

A gift guide helps show people you’re ready to join in the festivities without putting the entire focus on the holidays. You may have regular customers who order year-round and aren’t interested in gifts. However, those who are can click on the link and see what you have for different types of recipients.

West Elm features a holiday lookbook on its website. Rather than just collect all holiday items into a group, they choose six distinct looks and share how the products look in your home.

E-commerce store owners can also offer gift-giving guides by category, such as for women, men or children. You can separate gifts into monetary categories as well. Use filters and let your site visitors search for the exact right item for their needs.

6. Create Holiday-Themed Content

Another way you can deck out your site is by adding some holiday-themed content. Headlines with words such as “Christmas,” “Thanksgiving” and “Hanukkah” go a long way toward adding some holiday spirit to your site.

Additionally, you can use the content for social media posts and drive traffic to your site. Your regular visitors may be used to typical content and seeing a holiday guide helps them remember you for their gift giving needs.

You can even create a video and showcase some items people might be most interested in purchasing for the holidays.

7. Add Beautiful Images

There are some scenes that scream Norman Rockwell, even with a modern touch. Look for beautiful images you can add to your hero header and your product pages. A family scene, a wintry white coating and holiday-themed items say a lot without any words.

Petsmart utilizes its hero slider to showcase beautiful holiday shots of pets and their owners. Note how the setting features green and red and there are festive touches within the photograph, such as a Christmas tree, red collar on the dog, red headband on mom and even some presents tucked in the background.

Add Little Touches

You don’t have to do a complete theme redesign to get your site in holiday mode. Add small touches and ask for feedback from your visitors. Take a step back and look at your site through fresh eyes. If anything seems bland, you can dress it up with small graphics or snazzy headlines.

While it’s a good idea to add some festivity to the mix, you also don’t want to add so many items that it’s hard to revert your site back in the new year. Add a few things but don’t go overboard.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

How to Set 2022 SMART Goals for Your E-commerce Business

October 21, 2021

Author: Eleanor Hecks

When you’re an e-commerce business owner, you know that you must set goals to achieve success. Many e-commerce brands, no matter their size, miss out on growth because they do not take the time to set goals moving forward.

If you expect to see your business thrive in 2022, here is an overview of how to build SMART goals. And, hopefully, this guide will give you more insight into how SMART goals can benefit you in your business venture.

Why You Need SMART Goals for Your E-commerce Business

As with all things in your business, marketing needs a strategy to obtain success, and it starts with establishing SMART goals. “SMART” is an acronym to help you clearly define your purpose.

SMART goals are crucial in your business. Studies show participants achieving a 33% higher success rate when writing down goals and making a plan of action. Essentially, SMART goals become a roadmap you need to drive toward your definition of success.

This acronym can be a powerful tool in e-commerce. But to create a definitive marketing plan, you must use your SMART goals as a framework to achieve the results you’re looking for in your online business.

What Is SMART?

SMART is defined as “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.” Here’s what that actually means in practice.

Specific

Think of what the goals are that you want to attain in your business. These goals should be specific enough to help guide you in the following steps you need to take to achieve them. But you should avoid setting unrealistic goals to ensure you obtain a positive ROI (return on investment) with your online store. Answer specific questions such as:

What do I want to achieve?
Why is this important?
Who is going to accomplish this?

Measurable

To remain successful as an e-commerce business owner, establish goals that are measurable and achievable. These indicators suggest how much time you’ll need to meet your deadlines. And it helps you stay on track while acknowledging where you are during the entire process of achieving your goals. With this goal, you should be able to answer questions including:

How many?
How much?
When can I achieve this accomplishment?

Attainable

When it comes to business prosperity, you need to establish reasonably attainable goals. Setting a goal should keep you from stretching yourself too thin but should allow enough room for growth during the process. Ask yourself the following questions to set an achievable goal:

How can I achieve this goal?
Is this goal realistic enough for me to accomplish?

Relevant

Relevant goals exist to reassure you they align with your other business goals. This step is to help you remain in control so you can look forward to having your team help achieve them. Questions you can answer to ensure you’re taking the proper steps include:

Is this worth my time?
Does it seem like the right moment to take action?
Does this goal align with my needs?

Timely

Target your goals with a set deadline. This method creates a sense of urgency and helps you to focus on working towards those goals. A time goal prevents daily operational tasks from becoming a higher priority and allows you to seek your long-term goals. When setting a time to reach your goal, ask yourself:

When can I achieve this?
What actions can I start taking today?
How can I accomplish this goal six months from now?

E-commerce Goal Examples

Here are a few marketing objectives you can look at as an example to assist you with establishing your SMART goals:

My business needs to attain 5,000 website visitors to increase our revenue to $100,000 through content marketing within the next six months.
We have to increase our brand awareness by the last quarter of 2022 by partnering with an additional eight to 10 influencers.
We need to increase our store’s conversion rate by 6% in the third quarter of 2022 by offering a limited-time discount on our best-selling products.

Steps for Setting Your SMART Goals in E-commerce

The first step to working through this acronym is simply setting a goal you would like to achieve in your business. For instance, your business can meet higher product demands by outsourcing packaging needs. By establishing this type of goal, you can start breaking it down by determining the steps you would take to achieve these results.

Before you establish these steps, you should understand why you need to reach these goals. Setting your “why” helps you know what your mission is all about when you move forward with the next steps.

After you establish your goal and understand your reasoning behind it, it’s time to commit. This step involves brainstorming how you are going to attain this goal. It’s best to create a plan for when your commitments fail to produce results.

Ask yourself how far you’re willing to execute your plan and when you should stop committing your resources. Once you hit a roadblock, this strategy will guide your team in knowing when to put a stop to reaching the goal.

After you establish a SMART goal, consider making a plan for how you are going to achieve results. You and your employees can accomplish better work performance results when creating a plan of action. Here are a few excellent questions you can ask yourself to create a system:

What costs are involved, and what resources will be required to fund these efforts?
What steps can I take to increase my profit margins?
Which adjustments should I make with my supplier to expand my margins?
What products can I develop to reach my goal?

Taking Action

SMART provides you with the ability to achieve your overall success. Use the SMART goal framework to build your focus and improve your strategies for growth. Only you can start taking action today by using this strategy to improve your e-commerce operations. What goals will you define in your business for 2022?

How to Showcase Your Clearance Sales

October 15, 2021

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Running regular sales allows you to move inventory you’d otherwise take a loss on, bring in customers seeking a bargain and drive traffic to your site via smart marketing methods. However, if you don’t showcase your clearance sales in the right way, you may impact your overall revenue.

Statista reports quarterly on U.S. e-commerce sales. In the second quarter of 2021, online retailers drew in an estimated $222.5 million in revenue. This was an increase from Q1 and an overall increase from 2020. One reason for the increases includes small business owners becoming smarter about their marketing and inventory management.

If you need to clear out old merchandise or offer loss leaders to bring new customers to your site, here are the best ways to showcase your clearance sales.

1. Put Sales Front and Center

One way to highlight your sales is in your hero image. Add a banner telling what’s on sale, sharing an image and a link to the clearance items. This is a great way to encourage impulse sales and move inventory that would otherwise sit stagnant.

Marie Nicole children’s clothing boutique features their current sale in their hero shot, with an image of a little girl wearing an outfit on sale and a note about how long the promotion runs. Note how they also run a narrow banner across the top of the page announcing the current clearance sale.

2. Know Your Audience

Start by knowing who your target audience is and then use language they’ll respond to. If you send out a note about the clearance items, you need to choose words encouraging buyers to take action. Think about what’s worked in the past, run surveys and look at analytics to figure out the best approach.

3. Highlight the Savings

People love a good bargain. Go ahead and advertise just how much they can save by buying the discounted items. Will they save 20% or maybe more? You might use a percentage, or you might use a dollar amount.

Be upfront about how much items are discounted. Ideally, you’ll break even after handling fees, but you may not make a profit on clearance items. The goal is to keep cash flowing through your enterprise and not get stuck with things that never sell. Seasonal items, in particular, can be hard to move as the holiday approaches. A discount can move them out so you aren’t stuck with them for 12 months.

Neway Packaging does an excellent job of highlighting the latest things to hit their clearance aisles. They use an image reading “Up to 50% Off” to grab attention and let users know just how much they can potentially save by ordering from the clearance section.

The headline reading “new items on clearance” indicates additional things get added to the clearance category from time to time, so even those who’ve visited before are likely to check out the page.

4. Use Social Media

According to Worldometer, there are approximately 5 billion internet users with the number growing constantly. Social media is also growing by leaps and bounds.

You can reach your target audience through a social media page, taking out targeted advertising and getting your current customers to share your posts and talk about your brand.

Give them a reward if someone new buys from you, even if it is a clearance item. Points or other perks will encourage your fans to share.

5. Host a Buy a Bag Event

One way to increase sales of clearance items is by bundling them or offering a perk when people buy. For example, some brands team up with companies offering incentives toward a cause and run sales at the same time.

You can also offer a certain percentage off for anything in a category people can fit in a bag. So, if you go to a hobby supply and craft store, you might see a 20% off all fall-themed items back. Or you might use a certain color tag for clearance items.

Look for ways to promote the bag and use it for more than one season. If you run a fully digital store, then the bag is a virtual one, while a brick-and-mortar store might offer a physical bag for sale items.

Ben Franklin Crafts & Framing offers a bag sale on the last Thursday of each month. The discount applies to the lowest price, so people can even get an additional savings on clearance items. They also offer online specials for those who prefer to shop from the comfort of their couch.

6. Time It Right

Moving seasonal merchandise requires perfect timing. You want people to still be interested in whatever season it is. If you try to clear out winter coats, you might have some luck in early January, but you aren’t going to sell many come April or May.

Think about how people use the item and when the right time is to push to clear the last of them out. Some things get used year-round, so may not have a time crunch on them. However, you may have ordered too many and need to make way for more inventory, so can offer a discount to move things out and create space or increase cash flow.

Reach Out in Multiple Ways

When you run a clearance sale, you must let your users know in a variety of ways. Send them a postcard, shoot off an email, post on social media and update your website. The more signs and info pointing to the sale, the more likely people will buy your discounted products.

Medical Equipment Sales Website Design

April 15, 2021

Author: Sean H.

Med-Dyne was looking for a new e-commerce solution for their medical equipment sales.

Web Based Business – Digital Marketing Tips to Increase Online Sales

January 18, 2021

Author: Arslan Haider

In the event that you are maintaining a business over web, at that point there should be intense showcasing techniques. Here, we will talk about some of the tips that can improve online deals.

Deals cycle:

It is smarter to plan a business cycle for the item. Deals cycle is the technique to pitch your item to a client. It incorporates all the means to sell the item. Characterize the business pattern of your item, since it will decide the stage where you should do promote for your item. To put it plainly, all promoting methodologies depend on the business pattern of an item. Research do as well and testing for deciding the ideal deals cycle.

Checkout measure:

It is prescribed to improve the checkout cycle for your item. This is the most ignored promoting technique in a business. You try sincerely and contribute a great deal to arrive at the possible clients, so don’t leave a space for client to relinquish the truck surrender. Build up the checkout cycle simple, smooth and intuitive with the goal that clients may not face trouble. It is the best methodology for keeping your clients flawless. On the off chance that there are a few pages for shopping the item, build up an advancement bar, so clients realize the means to be taken further or have taken as of now.

Item depictions:

Clients consistently search for item depiction, so it is strongly prescribed to add the item portrayal. You can likewise give an item control having each insight concerning the item. It adds believability to your item if you incorporate client input or audits. These audits give a gauge to clients to buying your item. It is obligatory to add a different page for habitually posed inquiries. It is prescribed to compose depictions alongside catchphrases. Furthermore, it will improve the SEO of your site. It is smarter to streamline the depictions that will at last expand the positioning of site and your business will get noticeable, prompting more deals. Along these lines, item depictions assume a focal job in moving your business higher than previously.

Transportation costs:

For better client experience, it is prescribed to show the transportation expenses of an item. It is noticed regularly organizations don’t show the transportation cost and lose the clients because toward the finish of the cycle, clients become acquainted with the delivery subtleties. Show delivering subtleties at the corner where client begins entering his/her data. Clients don’t feel better on the off chance that they begin filling the data with delivery without having the expense shown over the screen. Make your clients of each minor insight regarding the item and the installment. It will carry more clients to your business.

Continue to shop:

It is prescribed to put the alternative of ‘continue to shop’ close to the ‘proceed with checkout’ so clients can without much of a stretch discover it on the page. In web-based business, such alternatives are anything but difficult to join in the checkout cycle.

Types of installment:

To carry validity to your item and site, it is prescribed to add the logos of various types of installment which your business is tolerating. You can add the true and mainstream security instruments to acquire the trust of the client. Security logo will make clients agreeable recorded as a hard copy their charge card data decisively.

Retargeting:

Retargeting is the best showcasing technique. This system become effective when guests leave the site of your business without purchasing anything. Retargeting is the mainstream strategy to catch the crowd for the greatest deal. You can put your items on the sites which are visited by the clients. Then, clients will see your items. Email showcasing is another powerful instrument to promote your business. Send special messages to the guests of your site. This will build traffic to your site, ultimately prompting expanded deals.

Computerization:

Email showcasing is more compelling than the online media tools. Gather the messages of guests through online media and make an email list. Computerization is the piece of email showcasing procedure. Set up the email robotizations like, welcome email, request booking email, checkout email, truck surrender email and so on

Update your site:

It is prescribed to refresh your site every now and again. More established sites are obvious objective for spammers. So on the off chance that you have as of late built-up your business over the web, think about building up a refreshed site. Clients likewise feel good when they visit the site with similar pith as other business sites, in any case there comes a sensation of suspiciousness.

Online media:

Online media is one of the developing and well-known discussions across the globe. Try to have a record on each web-based media stage including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and so forth. It is additionally important to routinely post the material about your business yet shrewd technique is to construct legitimate promoting efforts to develop your business. You can likewise remember video for your advertising efforts and post the video on all web-based media stages.

Assume on the off chance that you are selling the services of carpenters in Dubai over web; at that point, make a video of carpentry work of your organization. This will build the commitment of clients with your business.

Author Bio:

Arslan Haider is the author of the above blog. He has done his Bachelor in Computer Science from University of Wah. He is a professional Guest Blogger at Mediahicon and loves to write blogs on valuable topics.

E-commerce Franchise Website Design

September 17, 2019

Author: Sean H.

The team at Design Web put together an ecommerce website for Waste Brothers to allow people to rent dumpsters for their residential, industrial, or commercial construction projects. This involved many different moving parts since this wasn’t your typical e-commerce site. Instead of buy it once and ship it, we had to set up the site to account for rental of the products, incorporating different rental periods and other aspects of dumpster rental. We put together a bright and modern design for Waste Brothers that incorporated their existing branding.

The other side of the site was to incorporate franchise opportunities for those who were interested in setting up franchises in other cities besides Louisville, KY. We were able to incorporate mapping and individual franchisee information so that the site would default to certain franchise locations depending on GPS location of the client. This was an exciting and fun project to work on!!