Do you know what the most important elements of an eCommerce business are?
As a business owners it’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in technology and how they can impact your business. So we gathered the industry’s leading experts and asked them to share their top tips for online success.
In a 1 day special event, eCommerce enthusiasts, experts and representatives of online retail businesses were gathered at the prestigious PayPal offices in Richmond. A packed day full of eCommerce tips, tricks and small business insights, the one day masterclass in association with ePages, shared opportunities for growing your business and optimising online sales and revenue. Experts from 1&1, ePages, PayPal, Trusted Shops and Digital Clicks discussed topics such as making the most of search and how to sell effectively online.
Seasonal Content
André Podeyn from ePages spoke about the importance of continuously presenting new content on your small business e-commerce website. Giving an impression of an active online-store the concept can help to generate traffic, engage with visitors and encourage them to re-visit your online outlet.
Online Payments
Offering world-class payment solutions, the PayPal payment innovations are designed to help improve the customer experience of SMBs. With 9 million merchants and $46 Billion worth of mobile payments made in 2014, Martin Shield from PayPal shared how the renowned payment option can deliver a consistently strong experience across all devices and channels. Making it easier and safer than ever for consumers to purchase confidently from small business websites – a common worry of many online shoppers.
Digital Marketing
Sam Haddadi from Digital Clicks shared how to make the most of search. With several types of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising such as Google AdWords and YouTube available for businesses to market themselves, business owners need to remember to consider the channel that works best for them. It’s important to keep marketing relevant and specific to your business needs.
Online Reviews
Recommendations and feedback all play a vital role in the consumer purchasing decision. Paul Smith from Trusted Shops who talked about the importance of customer reviews. Research has shown that 88 per cent of consumers had been influenced by an online customer service review when making a buying decision. When it comes to trust, 92 per cent trust recommendations from people they know. Therefore it’s important for business owners to consider the image of their business on the web. In addition, customer reviews can help increase the SEO ranking of a business website in search engines.
So what are the most important elements small business owners must consider when selling online? Here are our key takeaways.
1&1 Academy Day Key Takeaways:
- If you make just one update to your website it should be mobile optimisation.
- New content does not always mean more text. Images, videos and product information are all new content you can add step by step – and are also relatively easy and fun to produce!
- The PayPal brand can invoke trust in your business and increase online conversions. Where PayPal is a payment option, merchants have reported 3x higher online checkout conversion rates over traditional cards. Consider a variety of payment options for your customers.
- Make sure your social media (paid & organic), SEO and PPC are joined up to make the most of search engine marketing.
- Negative reviews can in fact be good for you- consider certified accreditations such as Trusted Shops.
In this short video, our delegates and partners share their thoughts on the ePages Academy in association with 1&1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcO24_qGNok