By 2027, almost a quarter of global retail purchases are expected to occur online. This presents an excellent opportunity for those offering their products and services via an e-commerce store – as long as you can get customers to your website.
For e-commerce brands, if you can’t drive traffic to your site, you have no hope of surviving in this hyper-competitive market.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to drive organic (unpaid) traffic to your e-commerce website. They include:
- Search engine optimization
- Social media
- Customer referral programs
Essential e-commerce website features for online success
There are the three capabilities online sellers need in order to provide an experience that meets consumers' actual needs. Brands need mobile-friendly, AI-driven sites with great CX to thrive.
Getting found: Search engine optimization
SEO improves a brand’s search engine ranking and, therefore, the quantity and quantity of organic traffic from search results to their website or web page.
Consumers constantly search for products and services on search engines such as Google, which controls almost 92% of the search market. So, it’s essential that your ecommerce website ranks highly on search engines.
There are many elements to SEO; it’s a process of trying and testing different techniques, including:
1. Using keywords
Keywords are vital in the world of SEO. Consumers conduct online searches using terms, phrases, or words, which means understanding how your target audience may be trying to find you or your niche is super important.
Start by doing competitor research to identify relevant keywords for your e-commerce brand. Several tools can help, including Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, and Ahrefs.
With the right intent, you must then add these keywords to your meta titles and descriptions, ALT image headings, URLs, headings, and body text.
2. Build industry status
Despite the importance of using keywords, in the modern world of SEO, you won’t rank for relevant keywords if you’re not a credible and legitimate brand for the products and services you sell.
Every e-commerce site should build meaningful connections with those in the same industry as them, including influencers in your industry. You can start by publishing SEO-friendly content highlighting the influencer’s expertise, which will build trust and credibility with their followers.
Investing time, effort and resources into a blog and creating valuable content is one of the best SEO tactics.
The future of SEO: Search, trends, content, Google algorithm update
Understanding and learning SEO methodologies that'll help your site rank for relevant terms isn't a job for the faint of heart - and those who can do this are in high demand today. Learn all about the future of SEO and the Google Page Experience update.
3. Link-building
Websites with a solid link-building strategy rank better than those without proper internal or external linking. Search engines use a range of signals to rank the links on your website, including:
- Quantity. Search engines pay attention to the amount of links you have. This means you must be connecting with potential partners, writing blog posts, and creating relevant and credible content for other websites to link to.
- Quality. Search engines also pay attention to the quality of the websites and web pages you are linking to. They consider many factors, including domain address, authority, and rating.
- Relevance. Search engines prioritize the significance of the website or webpage you are linking to. If your ecommerce website has loads of backlinks from irrelevant or unrelated sites, those links are worth much less.
By creating a web of links on your ecommerce website, you’re telling Google and other search engines that you’re an authoritative resource for what people want to buy and that you’re a thought leader in your niche.
Click into the power of UGC marketing on TikTok
User-generated content can be gold for marketing. Find out how brands can leverage the hot social media platform to engage buyers.
Harness the power of social media
More than half of the global population uses social media channels, so it is a very profitable medium for targeting your audience and gaining organic traffic to your e-commerce website.
An active, lively, authentic presence on social media channels like Instagram and TikTok helps show customers that you’re a real business with real people, not just another brand selling stuff.
Here are some examples of how to drive engagement on social media:
- Reply to customer comments and messages
- Post up-to-date content about your products and services
- Post educational or fun content such as videos
- Show commitment. Customers today look for brands that share their environmental and social values.
- Host contests and giveaways to get more followers and increase social media engagement.
Social media like TikTok also is a top channel for organic, user-generated content. Created by users, UCG content is an incredibly powerful tool for elevating your brand, building credibility, and driving traffic to your e-commerce store.
Rewards for referrals
Rewarding customers for recommending your products and services to friends, family or colleagues is a brilliant and timeless strategy. It’s also a low-risk and effective method with great returns. Referral leads convert at a 30% higher rate than leads from any other marketing method or channel.
A solid referral program incentivizes your existing customers to help you leverage new potential customers in return for a reward. Here are some excellent examples:
- After booking on Bounce, you receive a referral link to share with whomever you like. For each person who spends more than $10 on Bounce’s luggage storage service, you receive $5 in credit for your next booking. Your friend, who needs to be a new customer, will also receive $5 off their first booking.
- Invite a friend to sign up to payment app Revolut with your referral link and if they complete all the steps required, and you can earn a £60 reward. The steps include connecting their bank account to their Revolut account, ordering a physical card and making three purchases of at least £5.
- PayPal offers customers a referral link in their app. If a friend joins PayPal using your link and spends £5 within 30 days of signing up, you and your friends will earn a £20 reward.
Want more customers, loyalty, and sales? Using customer data can do that
Top brands are using customer data to understand the customer journey and deliver positive experiences that boost loyalty and revenue.
Driving conversions and loyalty
Of course, after you drive visitors to your online shop, you need to convert them them into buyers. Successful e-commerce websites drive conversions by offering a good user experience through page speed, easy navigation, mobile optimization, quality content, and visual content such as videos, charts or infographics.
After a consumer makes a purchase, brands must keep diligent track of their data to bring them back to their e-commerce site through email marketing, personalized recommendations, and discounts.
Returning customers spend 67% more than new customers, and one of the best ways to entice them back to your website is by adding them to your email list.
Here are a couple ways to encourage customers to sign up:
- Post teasers about upcoming email announcements on social media
- Offer anyone who visits your website a small discount (5% to 20%) if they subscribe to receive emails
In addition, email marketing is also an effective technique for retargeting customers who visited your ecommerce website but didn’t make a purchase. This is crucial because 21% of all cart abandonment emails are clicked on, and 50% of those clicks lead to a purchase back on the website.
Rev up revenue.
Gain loyalty.
Innovate NOW.