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The eCommerce market is booming with new opportunities, and now is a great time to make money from your online store. New eCommerce businesses cropping up every day are proof of the fact that there is still so much to be explored in the online shopping world.
Today, technological advancements have made it so much easier to set up an online store and start monetizing the business. In fact, with the right techniques and strategies in place, you can earn 5X the original amount you invest within the first few months of starting your eCommerce business.
If you’re wondering about the different ways in which you can monetize your eCommerce store and start generating revenue, then this guide is just for you. Let’s dive deep into some strategies that will help you make money from your eCommerce store right from the start.
- 1. Invest in Advertising Right From the Start
- 2. Create a Blog and Use it to Drive Traffic
- 3. Implement Search Engine Optimization
- 4. List Your Products on Multiple Channels
- 5. Set-Up Retargeting
- 6. Leverage Automation Wherever Possible
- 7. Prioritize Personalization
- 8. Make the Most Out of Social Media Channels
- 9. Use Affiliate Marketing
- Final Thoughts
- Recommended Reads
1. Invest in Advertising Right From the Start
Simply setting up your online store and expecting visitors to land on your website can be a huge mistake in the beginning. It is important to gain the right amount of visibility for your online store before you start getting enough traction.
One of the best ways to monetize your online store and start selling your products is by investing in advertising. Organic marketing strategies may take a lot of time to work, and till then, investing in social media and search engine advertising will bring you the first few customers.
So, try to allocate an advertising budget for your online store right from the beginning. Pick your advertising channels wisely. You can do this by understanding the platforms where your target audience is most likely to hang out.
Create visually appealing ads with the right message, and you’ll soon start seeing traffic to your eCommerce store.
2. Create a Blog and Use it to Drive Traffic
Not all consumers will be directly interested in your products. Some may not even be aware of your existence. So how do you capture such a market? The answer is through a funnel. A sales funnel has different stages, namely, awareness, consideration, and decision.
The awareness stage is when the consumers get familiarized with your brand and products. The consideration stage is when they consider buying your products. And the decision stage is when they make the final purchase decision.
To get your target audience inside the funnel through the awareness stage, you should consider creating a blog. Try creating a blog with content that is relevant to your products and is valuable to your target audience. For example, if you sell winter clothing for women, then you can create blog posts around styling winter clothes.
Creating a blog is a great way to attract new customers to your eCommerce store. Users are always looking for valuable information. And if you offer them content, it is more likely that some of these users will get familiarized with your products and eventually convert.
3. Implement Search Engine Optimization
According to a Google study, 50% of shoppers agree that they do some research before making a purchase. This is why search engines such as Google have a major role to play in the monetization of your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of implementing certain strategies on your website in order to rank higher on search engines such as Google. So, when people search for products, your website will come up as one of the top search results. This can lead to massive growth in the amount of traffic to your website and ultimately lead to more sales.
Blogging is one of the best ways to boost your search engine rankings. You can implement SEO for your blog content so that users discover your website when they are searching for relevant information on Google.
You can also implement SEO for your products. This way, your products, along with the prices and ratings, will show up directly on Google search results when users search for product names.
No matter which eCommerce platform you’re using — cs-cart, Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento — SEO is a tried-and-tested way to boost your brand awareness, traffic, and conversions.
4. List Your Products on Multiple Channels
Another great way to generate revenue from your eCommerce store is to promote your products on multiple platforms. eCommerce giants such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc., allow you to sell your products on their platforms. This can be a great way to gain visibility and generate extra revenue during the initial stages of your eCommerce journey.
Therefore, try not to stick to just your online store for selling products. Instead, explore some more options where you can sell your products. You can optimize your product descriptions and try ranking on these platforms. Gaining good ratings and reviews on such channels will not just help you generate more revenue but also make your brand more popular amongst the right audience.
5. Set-Up Retargeting
As a new eCommerce business owner, you’d be surprised to know the vast majority of visitors to your website will probably leave your site without making any purchase. It can be frustrating to know that these people came so close to purchasing your products but then left.
But, there is a way to tackle this through retargeting. Retargeting is when you specifically target the customers who visit your website once. For example, you can set up Facebook Pixel on your website that will keep track of users who visit your website.
You can then set up Facebook and Instagram retargeting ads to specifically target these people. This can be a great way to increase your conversion rate and generate more revenue.
This is because these people are already familiar with your brand and didn’t make a purchase because of 2nd thoughts or because they forgot. Targeting these consumers can yield better results than targeting people who are totally new to your eCommerce store.
6. Leverage Automation Wherever Possible
Automating processes is one of the best ways to accelerate your eCommerce business’s growth and increase your revenue multiple folds. Investing in automation and setting up processes will take some time. But once you have everything in place, the results will be worth the time and investment.
There are many processes in your eCommerce business that you can automate. Right from customer emails, marketing campaigns, delivery service to accounting, you can apply automation almost everywhere.
Automating processes will help you generate more leads, increase your sales, save resources, and retain more customers. Ultimately you’ll start seeing a massive improvement in your business’s ROI.
7. Prioritize Personalization
Today, consumers are no longer attracted to the one-size-fits-all solution. To attract more customers, you should consider personalizing their experience on your online store.
Through personalization, you can offer solutions, products, and experiences that are tailored to fit your customers’ needs exactly. This not only leads to more conversions but also helps you retain more customers in the long run.
There are various ways in which you can implement personalization for your eCommerce store. You can offer personalized product recommendations, upsells, and cross-sells to your website visitors. This way, the average order value, and conversion rate will drastically improve.
You can also send out product recommendations, curation of content, or any other valuable information through personalized emails to your customers. Make sure to also use the email verification process to know that you are sending emails to the right people. This can be easily implemented using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.
Using a CRM tool, you can segment your customers into different target groups based on their demographics, interests, pain points, purchasing behavior, and order history. Then you can target each of these segments through personalized messaging with the help of social media advertising or email marketing. This can be a great way to increase your online store’s profitability by multiple folds.
Social media is a potent tool to promote your eCommerce business and start popularizing your products. Hence, it is important to have a powerful social media strategy in place.
You can begin by analyzing the social media platforms where your target customers are most likely to hang out. Once you pick the platforms, start strengthening your presence on these platforms.
You should create organic content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience. You can also boost your content through paid advertising to quickly gain a following and visibility.
You can also use social selling on platforms like Facebook. These platforms allow you to showcase your products to interested customers. This way, customers can scroll through your products and make a purchase directly from the social media platform. This can be a great way to boost your business’s revenue.
9. Use Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another great way to monetize your eCommerce store. This is when you sell someone else’s products and make a commission out of them. You can do this by signing up as an affiliate for any relevant products or services.
You can put up links to ads for these on your website. So, when any customer clicks on it and makes a purchase, you get some percentage of commission from it.
There are many affiliate programs such as Google Adsense and Clickbank that you can sign up for. This can be a beneficial way to generate some extra income from your eCommerce store.
Final Thoughts
Trends in 2021 indicate that the eCommerce market is on the rise, and hence, this is the right time to start investing in an eCommerce business. Using the strategies mentioned in this guide, you’ll be able to monetize your store in various ways.
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