3 Tips to Boost Sales for a Home Business

Starting your own online business from home has never been easier. Advances in technology have taken us to a point where anyone with a laptop and an idea can start their own business from home. This has meant that many people who would previously not have been able to dedicate themselves to running a business now have the opportunity to do so. This has been a game changer for new mums.

While anyone can start their own business and many women are choosing to seize this newfound opportunity, they still face the same challenges and hurdles to success. Platforms like Shopify and WordPress make putting together an e-commerce website as straightforward as possible. But store owners still face an uphill battle to attract traffic and keep their sales numbers up.

Here are some of the most effective sales tactics that any e-commerce store owner can utilize and implement to give their sales numbers a notable bump.

Work on Your SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital metric for any e-commerce business.  Your SEO score determines how prominently your website will be listed in the search results when users search for relevant terms. Given that most internet users use search engines to find the content they want online, your SEO score is clearly very important.

There are a variety of things you can do to improve your SEO score, but it is also dependent upon variables that are largely beyond your control. For example, when other reputable websites backlink to your content, this will boost your SEO score for the anchor text. You’re more likely to receive backlinks if you are publishing high-quality content. Therefore, adding a blog to your e-commerce store is a great way of raising your SEO score, and your overall profile.

Another simple step you can take to improve your SEO score is to implement SSL encryption on your site. An SSL certificate lets customers know that any information they exchange with your website, personal and payment information, in particular, will be encrypted and secure. Customers can tell you have an SSL certificate because a padlock icon will be displayed next to the URL box in their browser. They will also see the https:// prefix when looking at your URL.

Build Trust

Trust is one of the most valuable resources that any business has. None of us would hand over our payment information to a business that we don’t trust or have confidence in. Think about what you look for in an e-commerce site, what markers do you use to decide whether a website is trustworthy or not? You probably aren’t even conscious of the fact that you are looking for these things, but if you notice them absent you are likely to turn away from the service.

For example, most of us trust an e-commerce store more if we can see evidence of other people using it and having a positive experience. There are a number of ways that a website can let a visitor know this without having to explicitly state it. A common method is to have a selection of reviews and customer testimonials scrolling along an embedded element on the webpage. Having the reviews scroll attracts the user’s eye, and by using short and precise quotes to illustrate the positive comments past customers have made, you can convey the legitimacy of your business instantly.

Use Abandoned Cart Emails

An abandoned cart is when a visitor to your website puts items in their shopping cart and then leaves your website without paying. Of course, this isn’t quite as rude or inconvenient as abandoning a full shopping cart in a physical store. In fact, it presents an e-commerce store with an opportunity to make a sale.

An abandoned cart email is an email designed to gently remind your customers about the item(s) they thought about buying from you. If you do this right, you can bring the customer back around and convince them to complete the purchase.

It helps to consider the reasons that customers abandon their carts;

• they aren’t ready to commit to the purchase;
• they are put off by the shipping costs;
• they are uncertain about your returns policy; or
• they have found a better deal elsewhere.

If you can successfully address these concerns, and allay customer’s apprehensions, you can accomplish a lot with abandoned cart emails:

• Improve conversion rates.
• Reinforce customer loyalty.
• Reduce your marketing spend.

Abandoned cart emails have the potential to be a powerful tool for any e-commerce business. They are also very cost effective. The coding required to implement them is relatively straightforward, and there’s a growing number of plugins for various platforms to automate this process.

With these tips in mind, you can give your e-commerce sales a lift without having to invest a huge amount financially. The odds are always stacked against you in entrepreneurship, but if you make smart decisions, you can tip the odds in y our favor.