After months of careful planning and brainstorming, you finally dove in to start the right online business that you believe fits your plans and lifestyle. Soon as you figured out who your potential and preferred target market are and what product or service you have to offer, you went ahead and laid the groundwork for your e-commerce venture.
Once you have set up your domicile in the world wide web, the next logical step that you will be thinking of is how you can grow this business of yours and make it flourish in the next years or so. After all, no one starts a store or services hub online and expects it to gain revenue by means of word of mouth, Instagram automation, and other social media networking tactics alone.
But before you expect your online business to bring in the buck, you have to understand what it means to exactly grow it. You will be needing to set some sort of standard that you can measure things up against, should the time come when you need to evaluate how well your business is thriving. Essentially, you can set a few ground rules for yourself so you can exclaim that your business is indeed up for success. A good rule of thumb is to assess the following:
Online presence
You built your business in the online arena where the game is expected to be rapidly evolving. As fast as internet speed rates moved on from a few Mbps to hundreds of it, you are expected to catch up to the online rhythm. So, it is only right to presume that one of your indicators when it comes to business growth is to check how much resonance your business has in the online web. Definitely, having regular and increased site visitors (whether organic or inorganic in nature) is a win-win scenario.
Conversions
While thousands of users flocking to your e-commerce site to read your blog and browse your products monthly is a huge deal for you, business will always be business. This means that your ultimate aim is to get those site visits to become sales transactions. Obviously, the more lead conversions you generate, the brighter your online business’ future becomes.
Revenue
At the end of the day, you start a business to gain profit. Sure you conceptualized this business venture with your passion for something in mind. But reality bites, your online business will only remain viable if you have enough funds to keep it running. As such, it is only logical to put this standard in the mix.
Now that you know where to look if you want to measure your online business’ performance and growth, you can move on to mapping out the details. And by mapping out, this means jotting down solid ideas that can catalyze your e-commerce venture from a budding seed to a fruitful tree. And here’s how you can do it:
- Aim to enhance user experience. In an arena where brick and mortar walls are starting to be a thing of the past, your primary goal is to give each user the ultimate experience. There are a number of ways by which you can do this. Start off by making sure that your website remains to be an enticing one. Just as a physical store appeals to every walk-in customer, your website is everything when it comes to your online business. Make sure the landing page and the rest of your website loads in topnotch speed. The last thing you want to do is to have to choose between having to speed up your site or lose search ranking. Users surf the web and transact online because they want to get things over and done with by means of a click of a button. If they wanted to spend minutes having to search for the product they want, then they would have just gone to a physical store and strolled down its aisles.
- Make your site mobile-friendly. While you are at enhancing the user experience, consider making your site more mobile-friendly. It is no secret that catering to mobile users is vital to businesses. And when your business is built in an online foundation, the greater the imperative for your website to pass the mobile-friendliness test. Smartphones and similar mobile devices are making their presence known in the field of e-commerce, so it is only rational to aim for mobile optimization. In the end, the sooner you realize that the search engine philosophy of pleasing users is more than just a myth, the faster you can get ahead with your online business’ growth.
- Captivate customers with content. So your site’s online traffic counter is ticking rapidly. And as more and more customers learn about your business, you need to offer them content that will show them how much they are valued. Go ahead and spend time thinking about your next product launch copy and spiel. Get that graphic designer of yours to device an infographic on the steps to try out your recent shelf addition. Post as much factual and in-depth write-up you can about how your services bring about change to customers lives and the community. The more high-quality content you create, the more you show your customers how credible and trustworthy your online business is. And when you do so, you magnify your online presence and pave way for more site visitors who can potentially turn into converted leads and, ultimately, as your source of revenue.
- Check out the competition. When you’ve finally finished improving internal concerns, it’s time to think outside the box. Analyze how your online competitors gain more traffic and customers. You do not need a system breach to do this. All you need to do is to spend enough time researching and gathering credible information. Are they using social media sharing to promote their site? Do people subscribe to their loyalty promos? Evaluate their tactics and see how they progress in comparison to your online business. By doing so, you will also figure out your own strengths and weaknesses and you will eventually know how to stand out from your competition.
