How to Increase Your Ecommerce Revenue: 10 Ecommerce Experts Share Their Insights
Here at CM Commerce (previously Conversio) the only thing we think about is how to increase your store’s revenue.
Some may think that’s too narrow. I mean, there are other important things to care about, like developing a great brand, giving amazing customer support, and many other important things.
But you know what? I believe it’s better to be amazing at one thing, than average at many.
That’s why we care so much about increasing store’s revenue.
Today, instead of doing what we usually do-that is, to rant about Ecommerce and increasing revenue- we want to bring real Ecommerce store owners to tell us what they have done to increase their store’s revenue.
We gathered 10 Ecommerce experts, some consultants while others are store owners themselves, and asked them:
“What is the #1 thing you would do to increase your store revenue?”
This is what they answered:
Expert #1: Andrew Youderian, Owner of Right Channel Radios
The #1 thing I would do to increase my store’s online revenue is to figure out who my core customer was and where they hung out. Without this knowledge, all of your marketing activities will likely struggle to get meaningful traction.
Sure, you may drive traffic but if you’re not targeting the right people it will fail to convert.
Figure out who your customer is and where they spend time online. Then ramp up your marketing efforts with a vengeance.
Expert #2: Tucker Schreiber, Owner of Bewdly Coffee Company
Funnily enough – and I realize this is for CM Commerce – I found that email receipts, and abandoned cart recovery emails worked best for increasing an online store’s revenue. Why?
Because these emails start a conversation between you and a customer. By sending a receipt that’s full of personality, is customized, offers an incentive or discount – you’re building trust and starting a relationship that increases your customer’s lifetime value. You’re no longer an automated “robot” spitting out templated, rehashed emails. There’s a real human conversation to be had there.
Plus, depending on the product you’re selling – you could end up with a repeat customer as well. And that’s huge for any store.
Expert #3: Richard Lazzazera, Owner of Finch Goods Co.
My number one strategy for growing revenues is to really zero in on your perfect product/market fit. Channels like Facebook and Instagram can be a goldmine for customer acquisition but you really need to make sure you are targeting the right buyer persona or you’ll just be burning cash.
So how do you find your product/market fit? Many times it will come from lots of experimenting so make sure you’re always tweaking your ads, the images and the copy, as well as the audience settings and targeting.
Austen Allred wrote an excellent post on how he sold $4,000 in neckties through Instagram in 2 weeks. In it he gives one of the best examples of his though process to find the right buyers. It’s a must read. Check out the section titled Thought Process.
Once you find that product/market fit, you need to figure out which marketing channels allow you to most effectively hit that particular buyer person. Where do they hang out and which apps and social networks do they use most? Some critical though can help you narrow it down to a few channels, but your true answer will come from experimenting. Finally, once you find a channel that works, focus on that channel and keep testing and optimizing.
Expert #4: Drew Sanocki, Ecommerce Consultant at DrewSanocki.com
There are only three ways to grow a company: #1 increase the AOV, #2 increase the frequency of purchase, or #3 increase the number of customers.
As far as what works best, I find the highest ROI activities involve working with what we already have: #1 and #2. This will make your entire funnel more efficient.
If you can identify defecting customers and reduce their churn, that’s typically the highest-ROI marketing activity you can engage in.
Expert #5: Paul Cunningham, Owner of Leather Head Sports
I’ve always been a big believer in the power of great photography to enable sales in an e-commerce environment.
Of course it starts with a good selection of beautiful products.
I started my business as a hobby. As a craftsman, I was making leather baseballs which are unique and visually compelling.
Good photography allowed me to showcase my craft is a way the caught the eye of influential administrators at Etsy, which was my first online selling platform.
Great exposure on Etsy led to other media exposure, which led to more traffic.
There really is no simple, one size fits all answer to why I have been successful, but I think it boils down to the following:
Create a unique product that is visually appealing and universally appreciated. For me this is leather sports balls.
Capture the beauty of the product with great photography.
Showcase the products in a place where they can been seen.For me the start was Etsy, and as I got bigger, Shopify was a better platform for my e-commerce efforts.
Expert #6: Ryan Barr, Owner of Whipping Post
I think the #1 thing I would do when increasing a store’s revenue is to have a price increase. I know it sounds too simple, but many times small business owner’s feel like the wheels will come off if you increase your prices by 10%.
I know I was terrified to do this even though my products were underpriced in the market.
The thing is though, if you are offering a quality product and great service, people will be happy to pay a reasonable increase. Conversions didn’t slip at all for me and revenue obviously went up.
Expert #7: Jeff Sheldon, Founder of Ugmonk
I’d recommend to investing in good product photography. So many online shops have great products but poor product photography.
When shopping online people can’t physically hold the products and see them in person so it’s vital to accurately convey the details of the items through beautiful photos.
Potential customers will judge the product quality and the company’s reputation through their first impression when landing on a site.
Great photography can drastically improve that trust and convert into more revenue.
Expert #8: Eric Bandholz, Founder of Beardbrand
Every business is at different stages and depending on where your company is will vary what I suggest.
For us, early in our process we found that adding more products was a key driver to increasing revenue.
Beyond that, education has been an important tool. We really want to help our audience understand why our solution is a good fit (or not a good fit) for them. We’ve done a lot of YouTube videos, blog posts, and other content curation to improve grow our audience’s knowledge.
You aren’t going to see immediate results from your efforts, so you need to give it a good solid 6 months of legitimate effort to start seeing the boost in revenue.
The good news is that revenue is a lot more sticky than quick fly by night PPC ad campaigns or other “secret marketing strategies.”
Expert #9: Daniel Bliss, Owner of Blicard Industries
I’ll say be your true self in whatever you do. You have to go out into the world and sell yourself and your business. If you start from a place where you’re selling something that is part of who you are then it’s going to be easy.
There will never be a question you can’t answer honestly and from the heart. People will sense that and respect what you’re doing even if you’re still small and growing + in the end you’ll be happier.
Oh and you could also follow Noah Kagans marketing advice at http://okdork.com
Expert #10: Michael Belasco, President and CEO Inflow and ConversionIQ
The #1 thing I would recommend to increase an online store’s revenue would probably be to work on improving site speed.
It is the only universal item that doesn’t require in depth analysis of an individual site’s challenges and numerous quick fixes can apply for most websites.
Just picking one area however is so hard so for no extra charge here is another: Mobile. There is so much traffic coming through mobile devices now and dragging down overall conversion rates.
Even if desktop business is healthy, there is a high likelihood that overall conversion rates are falling due to mobile traffic.
What did you learn from these 10 experts? Let us know in the comments below.