E-commerce businesses achieved sales totals that were unthinkable even only a year ago. Young and older shoppers left brick-and-mortar stores and opted to shop from the comfort of their homes and their mobile phones.
E-commerce has been growing at a rapid pace in recent years, and e-commerce trends in 2024 show that this boost isn't a one-time event. So how fast is e-commerce growing exactly? According to the research, the global e-commerce market is expected to reach 58.74 trillion by 2028. This highlights the importance of having a solid e-commerce development strategy in place. Small businesses need to keep up with the trends and incorporate new e-commerce strategies to stay competitive. Is your e-commerce store ready for growth?
To help you prepare, here are 11 growth strategies for e-сommerce success in 2024.
1. Optimize Your Website
For growth in 2024, let’s start with the basics. Everything else on the list is pointless if your site isn’t optimized for business. Clicks are great, but without an optimized and conversion-friendly site, no one is buying!
Start by running an evaluation and check this must-have optimization list:
- Design. Work with someone outside your company to ensure that your design is intuitive and customer-friendly.
- SEO. If you don’t rank on Google (or Bing), no one will find your site.
- Chatbot. Add a chatbot feature on your site to interact and generate revenue instantly with live customers.
- Appointment/Meeting Scheduling. If customers want to know more about your product, offer them a way to set an appointment with a scheduling tool like Calendly.
2. Create Content... And Then Create Some More!
It’s challenging for e-commerce companies to stand out. The world of punching out a couple of 500-word posts every couple of days is long gone. You need a comprehensive strategy made up of videos, e-commerce blogs, podcasts, and paid advertising to get interaction.
To create outstanding content, businesses must identify what exactly their customers are looking for and create content that fits into that narrative. Building a comprehensive e-commerce business plan with tools like Prepaway can help entrepreneurs forecast potential challenges and opportunities, thereby ensuring they are well-prepared for the evolving marketplace. If you don’t know what kind of content your customers want, use these three strategies to narrow down the answer:
- Survey your customer base.
If you want to know what your customers want in your content, then ask! Create some survey form templates and send them to your customers to get information about their preferences.
- Look at your competitors.
It never hurts to survey the competition. That doesn’t mean you should copy what they’re doing, but it’s a great tool to get inspiration.
- Brainstorm from your own experience.
No one knows your products better than you do. Sit down and brainstorm the things you think customers need to know about your product and create content based on those ideas. Sit down and brainstorm the things you think customers need to know about your product and create content based on those ideas or ask for help from services like Essay Tigers, where experts can clarify to you what content will be the right decision.
- Leverage AI tools.
AI can't substitute real content writers but it sure can help them boost productivity! Try implementing AI solutions like ChatGPT Content Master for Magento, Shopify, or Wix into your workflows and see your workflows speed up.
3. Strengthen Your Social Media Strategy
Many e-commerce businesses use social media in a way that keeps potential customers at a social media channel and doesn’t drive them to the sales site, or they have no sales applications set up on the social media page.
This year, develop your strategy and use tactics like live streaming, social media chatbots, and stories to drive customers to your store. Also, leverage paid advertisements and in-app purchases to convert “ready-to-buy” customers.
See how to build a social media strategy for your business.
4. Filter and Update Your Email Marketing List
An email is an old form of digital marketing, but it isn’t outdated!
However, e-commerce businesses should be smarter about their marketing lists. It isn’t a profitable or effective use of time to blast thousands of emails when only hundreds are useful (meaning an interested party with a current address).
To update your marketing list, send out a short questionnaire to your list. Ask them about products they want to see and what information they would like to receive in the coming year.
It’s a great way to see which addresses are active and dissect the data for better marketing campaigns.
5. Offer Items You Didn’t Offer in the Past
The pandemic has changed the way consumers shop and created a boom for online stores. Globally, customers started buying items that they never purchased online before.
That’s great news! In 2024, take advantage of this trend by offering items you may not have sold online in the past.
Did you have a product that didn’t sell well a couple of years ago? Try it again! You may be surprised by the results now that people are leaving brick-and-mortar in droves.
6. Augmented Reality Experiences
On that note, let’s take an even larger leap into the future. One of the top trends for e-commerce in 2024 will be AR (augmented reality) shopping experiences that imitate actual life.
Don’t worry! That doesn’t mean people will need a virtual reality headset to shop in your store. It means that people should be able to see how your products will look in their homes or in real life.
In that respect, 3D modeling is becoming a powerful e-commerce tool.
Another trend to jump on is live-streaming shopping events that mirror what QVC does on its television channel. It’s an opportunity to take customers to your factory, connect them with experts, break down your products, and show them how to use them.
7. Make Your Store Mobile Friendly
Mobile e-commerce is growing at a rapid rate, and analysts expect the rate to increase by another 22.3 percent in 2024.
Since customers are buying more from their phones, it’s essential for e-commerce businesses to make sure their store is mobile-friendly. Be sure to check your site’s mobile-friendliness with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Another good practice would be to create QR codes for your mobile app and display them on your website, email communication, and content. This would make it super easy for customers to switch from a PC to a more preferred mobile device.
It’s also helpful to build a progressive web application (PWA) for your store. They load much faster than a standard website and allow customers to see what they’ve browsed offline.
Additionally, accelerated mobile pages are another option for your store to create better shopping experiences.
8. Build a Niche Brand
Brand building is one of the most important aspects of any business. But in 2024, building a brand in the e-commerce world is life or death.
The top consumer trend regarding brand niche has leaned towards social consciousness with green and local brands coming out on top. It’s great for those businesses because customers will pay more for brands they see have a vision, drive, or purpose.
UpFlip interviewed Tim & Grace Lukens of Grace Harbor Farms, who built their brand on those green and local principles. They converted their local products and customer base into e-commerce buyers by creating a niche in local grocery stores and at Whole Foods. Now they make over $120k per month in revenue.
9. Enhanced Fulfillment through 3PL
The pandemic drove people away from in-store shopping, but it didn’t negate the fact that consumers want fast, free, environmentally conscious shipping. The problem is that it isn’t always financially workable for smaller e-commerce shops.
To manage these customer expectations, it may be time for your shop to partner with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) to streamline your fulfillment process. Many of these companies are better equipped to handle your fulfillment needs with full-service end-to-end solutions.
10. Go Global
Global e-commerce sales increased because of the pandemic, so overseas customers got a taste of what smaller U.S. e-commerce shops offer. Though the trend isn’t expected to continue to grow at the same rate, the global market is open for business.
If you’re not open to the international market, it may be time to see how you can tap into other areas where you may not have sold before. Who knows? You could have many buyers in Spain or Brazil waiting to purchase your products.
11. Create the Ultimate Checkout Experience
The checkout is the most important moment of your buyer’s experience. Ultimately, you don’t want customers to think too much about their purchase, so they don’t stop themselves from buying.
For growth, make sure that your store has a fast and easy checkout experience set up. Use these principles to expedite your process:
- offer many payment methods
- set up a one-click buying system
- eliminate “add-to-cart” systems and give customers the option to directly buy from a product page
- connect your checkout system to a POS (point of sale) system.
Conclusion
One of the most effective e-commerce strategies for small businesses in 2024 and beyond is to focus on customer experience. Considering the dynamic market of e-commerce development in New York, businesses should also explore innovative solutions to enhance their online presence and customer engagement. Providing an intuitive user interface and a seamless checkout process can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, businesses can invest in growth hacking strategies for e-commerce specifically by brainstorming on ways to use social media marketing and email marketing as well as refining the checkout experience and finding a more narrow niche to tap into to drive quality traffic to their online store and increase sales.
2024 will be a successful year for e-commerce businesses prepared to navigate emerging trends and technology. Be sure to optimize your site and review your checkout experience and marketing practices. With these growth strategies, you’ll be able to handle the influx of new customers and grow your business into the next decade!
