Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to your eCommerce business -- and let’s be real, specifically for Google. Nearly 88% of consumers use Google as their search engine. Therefore, as a savvy eCommerce merchant, you should care when Google makes any changes to its SEO ranking algorithm. The latest update from the power on high: Core Web Vitals.
Think you’re saving money by deferring improvements to search on your eCommerce site? You might want to think again. While it’s been found that on average 5-15% of visitors to an eCommerce site use on-site search, that 15% of traffic can account for 45% of your revenue.
Let’s break down Shopify Unite 2021. With 2020 being an unprecedented year in eCommerce growth, Shopify dove deep into the technologies, infrastructure, and tools that developers will need to keep up with the ever-changing future of commerce.
Consumers care about your brand’s impact on the planet. This interest continues to amplify, with 90% of consumers saying they are equally or more concerned with environmental issues now compared to before the pandemic. Another survey reported that nearly three-quarters (72%) of consumers are actively purchasing more environmentally friendly products than they did five years ago.
Shopify launched its consumer-facing Shop mobile app in 2020. What we’ve been seeing since then is better conversion rates and higher customer engagement for eCommerce brands that offer it to their customers.
Shop is like Shopify’s answer to the Amazon app. It offers a multi-brand marketplace shopping experience and easy, streamlined checkout (powered by Shop Pay). Like Amazon, it personalizes the experience with product recommendations and tracks your Shopify orders (even pulls order information from your gmail inbox if you didn’t order through Shop).
You’ve done your due-diligence and decided to expand your brand internationally. You’ve pinpointed which regions or countries you want to target. Now it’s time to figure out how to set up your shop. There are two ways you can set up your Shopify store to support international sales. There’s a time and place, and pros and cons for each approach. The trick is asking the right questions to determine which is the right option at the right time for your business.
How do you define your brand’s end-to-end customer experience? Does it cease after the purchase transaction goes through? Consider your own eCommerce shopping experiences – you’re really not done “shopping” until that package arrives at your doorstep. In fact, for leading DTC brands, the customer experience (CX) never stops. These brands strategically leverage ongoing opportunities for post-purchase customer engagement with their brands via lifestyle content, personalized recommendations, and more.
Nearly half of shoppers in the U.S. buy multiple sizes of the same apparel item with the intent of returning the ones that don’t fit. That’s according to a survey that was conducted in the summer of 2019, before the pandemic. With the resultant surge in and broadening of online shopping since then, we can infer this practice has only increased. Which means more brands may be seeing narrower profit margins.
This blog is part of a series about how and why retail brands must “earn the customer” – their trust and loyalty – to remain competitive in a digital world. See other posts, including Earn the Customer with Unique Brand Content on Your eCommerce Site and Earn the Customer with Customer-Centric UX Design.
If your brand is committed to being customer-centric, then every interaction in the customer journey should merit close attention, including post-purchase experiences like returns. Although your gut reaction may be to focus on revenue-generating areas of your business versus profit-sucking returns, it might be time to take a different view (and tap a potentially lucrative upside). “Return” is not necessarily synonymous with “refund.” If you expand your definition to include exchanges and store credit and treat the return experience as a way to support customers, returns can actually be an opportunity to increase customer loyalty and lifetime value.
The year 2020 will not soon be forgotten. The events of the past year have dramatically affected how we live, communicate and work (and shop!), perhaps in more permanent ways than we know. Despite the challenges, there’s a lot to be grateful for – and eCommerce certainly didn’t slow down for the pandemic! As a company that just celebrated 18 years in business, we’ve been reflecting on many things as we enter the new year, including what we’ve accomplished and what’s yet to come.