Category: Blog

Consumers make and break businesses, and the modern shopper is smarter than you think. They demand more efficient online experiences, greater customer support, and so much more. The modern shopper is also aware that their voice matters. For example, positive online reviews are crucial to eCommerce success. Now more than ever, is the time to start improving your eCommerce platform to attract consumers in 2022. In this article, we focus on what matters to consumers and how online financing can help your business grow this year. 

Better Payment Options

Modern shoppers pay in all sorts of ways. There are so many payment options out there, and having more available to your consumers can help you attract a wide variety of attention. Over and above having a set of standard payment options, you can further support the buying process by integrating online financing. ChargeAfter’s online financing solution is one of the most powerful on the market, giving your customers access to on-demand financing at checkout with zero interest repayment plans. This solution is far superior to traditional financing options available to consumers and is far more impactful for businesses that can outsource third-party financing for greater sales. 

Faster Shipping Services

Consumers demand their products more quickly than ever before. Same-day shipping, express orders, and quick turnaround time sit at the heart of eCommerce success in 2022. It is pivotal that you address your current shipping policies and integrate new methods for quicker shipping facilities. Free shipping is also an added value offering that you should consider integrating as consumers are drawn to businesses that provide as many quality services as possible. If your business is not offering free shipping on orders over a certain value, for example, then your customers will be shopping from someone that does. 

Access to International Items

Beyond faster shipping services, you should consider your international shipping facilities. If you do not service other countries with international shipping then it’s high time you figure out the logistics of doing so. You can access a wealth of new consumers by catering to international shipping, especially if delivery times are efficient. You may have a huge following in a foreign country, so check your analytics and start facilitating an international shipping option. Or, you can distribute your items internationally through third-party selling platforms like Amazon. 

Sustainability

Going green is no longer a trend. Eco-conscious business is a must, and you should be marketing your environmentally-friendly activities where and when possible. From biodegradable packaging solutions to eco-friendly websites, every step that you take to make your business more sustainable will reflect positively on your sales. Furthermore, reducing your carbon footprint can cut down overheads. For example, if you can source materials from local suppliers, you will reduce the shipping costs of getting those materials from international companies into your warehouse. 

Unique Experiences

You need to do more than simply sell products. Today, consumers want unique experiences with eCommerce stores that go above and beyond the expected. Consumers want to feel as though they are a part of something bigger and better. You can provide unique experiences by personalizing your marketing efforts. Simply automating emails to respond to your customers by name is a quick tactic to improve your marketing personalization. You could also create unique landing pages for your various target segments, providing the right information to the right audience. Every act that you take to make your shopping experience more unique will improve the likelihood of converting consumers. 

Focus on what matters most to consumers in 2022 and you will see a rise in your revenue. From introducing online financing to making shopping experiences unique, these are a few suggestions on how to level up your business this year. 

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In the race to become the most popular eCommerce stores in their industries, businesses take shortcuts that can do more harm than good. One of the most common pitfalls that online stores face is failing to create a clear sales funnel. Sales funnels are extremely important as they define your consumers’ journeys and help you tailor experiences to suit each shopper. In this article, we discuss sales funnels in more detail and provide insight into how to incorporate consumer financing into your shoppers’ experiences for greater sales and profit. 

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a model that showcases the journey customers take with your brand, from viewing your ads to clicking through to your website, adding items to their carts, applying discount codes, and checking out. The sales funnel is a piece of marketing strategy that showcases a variety of touchpoints along the consumer journey, and each distinct consumer journey customized to one’s various buyer personas. 

Why a Sales Funnel is Important

Having a sales funnel, or a combination of a few is critical to developing a seamless user experience that results in sales. A sales funnel gives marketing teams a clear scope of the various consumer touchpoints, allowing them to determine any missed opportunities or weaknesses in the shopping experience. A sales funnel also helps you understand what consumers are doing at each interaction that they have with your brand. Are they utilizing discounts to shop more affordably? Are they utilizing features that make their experience more user-friendly? The sales funnel ensures that you can deliver the right messages to the right audience members at the right time. 

How Consumer Financing Supports Your Sales Funnel

A strong sales funnel will support regular sales, but the addition of consumer financing can significantly improve the sales of your online store. What is consumer financing? You may have come across the term already, or maybe you have never heard of it. Either way, if you are not giving your customers consumer financing options then you are missing out on potential sales.

Consumer financing is an integration that provides comprehensive loan options during checkout. It is a third-party integration that requires little management by the eCommerce platform teams themselves. ChargeAfter, for example, is a leading consumer financing platform that handles the integration and management of consumer financing options. Furthermore, ChargeAfter provides partners’ shoppers with a vast network of reliable lenders capable of facilitating each shopper’s unique financing requirements.

Customers are drawn to consumer financing as it provides many consumer-first benefits. Customers can receive financing without having to undergo credit checks, seek the support of financial service providers, and also receive repayments with zero interest. The perks speak for themselves, and eCommerce platforms that integrate consumer financing improve the sales within their sales funnels. 

Choosing the Best Consumer Financing

Choosing the best consumer financing partner on the market comes down to selecting a platform that provides comprehensive coverage and ongoing support. ChargeAfter is one such partner that provides waterfall consumer financing with an extensive range of vetted lenders that have brilliant track records. Over and above deploying the plugin on your website, ChargeAfter provides ongoing maintenance as well as analytical insights drawn from their platform during the business month. This data is accessible to marketing teams and can be used to take corrective actions to improve the sales funnel. This comprehensive support ensures that every eCommerce store seeking consumer financing receives top-tier support and guidance.

Sales funnels form the cornerstone of eCommerce experiences, and you can leverage consumer financing features to improve your customers’ user journeys. ChargeAfter is a leading consumer financing partner that delivers the most consistent and effective support to ensure that you improve your sales funnels and sales. 

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It’s 2022 and businesses continue to evolve strategies to take advantage of new technologies and integrations for increased success. Nowadays, many eCommerce platforms have most of their bases covered. They have a social media presence, a user-friendly and mobile-friendly website, and advertising campaigns to name a few. But, how does one stay ahead of the trend and beat the competition? By introducing novel integrations that the rest of the eCommerce world is still slowly phasing in. In this article, we share the 5 eCommerce integrations that you have to have to win over consumers and beat the competition.

1. Waterfall Consumer Financing

Waterfall consumer financing is one of the most powerful payment options on the market. It is essential that businesses diversify their payment options to cater to a wider audience, and waterfall consumer financing sits at the core of offering first-class payment options. How does it work? Waterfall consumer financing is a checkout feature that lets customers access financing at zero interest that can then be paid off in monthly installments. ChargeAfter is a leading waterfall consumer financing partner that can integrate the feature into your website so that you can start delivering your consumers these benefits. 

2. Voice-Based Search

Google and Amazon dominate eCommerce as shoppers turn to search engines or third-party product distributors to buy their favorite items. Subsequently, Google Home and Alexa have seen an increase in attention as these same consumers look to make their daily lives easier. As a result, voice-based search is becoming hugely popular and eCommerce platforms can target audiences using these technologies by integrating voice-based search tools. 

3. Omnichannel Selling

Omnichannel selling refers to a marketing strategy whereby you attract consumer attention across a variety of touchpoints from websites to social media, physical pop-up stores, and packaging. Omnichannel selling integration allows businesses to push their brand into every aspect of the consumer buying journey. Doing so can build more loyal consumer bases, raising the volume of repeat orders and developing stronger connections with new customers. Omnichannel selling requires several integrations, from social media advertising tools to SEO support technologies. But, the investment is well worth it as omnichannel remains a firm favorite eCommerce trend for 2022.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence makes the lives of marketing teams much easier as remedial jobs can be done quicker, freeing up time and resources for departments to focus on more important matters. From content writing bots to website chat features and more, artificial intelligence is being integrated into every area of the sales funnel. There is also little risk that artificial intelligence will make your employees redundant as you can reassign responsibilities to other areas of business. Artificial intelligence’s role in eCommerce continues to grow, however, competitors may be yet to jump onto the powerful trend this year. 

5. Social Media Automation

Automation is at the heart of modern eCommerce success. Your social media can leverage the benefits of automation to also free up time to broaden your marketing activities to attract new customers. Tools like Hootsuite let teams pre-schedule posts, making the job far quicker. Also, various platforms have bot integrations to answer basic consumer questions before individuals need to call for further information. Social media automation tools are becoming extremely popular as eCommerce companies look to reduce employee overheads or allocate tasks to more pressing areas of the business. 

The modern eCommerce age requires businesses to integrate modern eCommerce solutions, and this article highlights some of the most powerful trends for 2022. From waterfall consumer financing to social media automation, you can improve your consumer journey and stand out from the competition leveraging the most impactful integrations on the market. 

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Whether you specialise in electronics or furniture, your eCommerce store will face rife competition from the vast range of businesses selling their products online. Compound this with the fact that consumers are more careful with their decisions, and you can develop a clearer idea of how difficult it is to win customers shopping with the competition. In this article, we discuss how buy now pay later and several other digital marketing strategies separate the best eCommerce platforms from their competition. You can integrate these strategies into your own business for greater success and sustainable growth.

Additional Payment Solutions Like Buy Now Pay Later

Modern shoppers require modern payment methods tailored to their unique shopping behaviours. When it comes to payment solutions, the best eCommerce stores within each industry utilise buy now pay later services at checkout. These facilities let shoppers secure online financing quickly during the checkout process. The best buy now pay later solutions on the market, such as ChargeAfter, ensure that their customers do not have to submit credit checks to apply for loans, do not receive any interest on their repayment plans, and are given options that suit their specific needs. No matter how big or small their shopping cart is, they can easily purchase with buy now pay later and are more likely to do so using the feature. 

An Exceptional UX and UI

The best eCommerce stores provide seamless shopping experiences for their consumers. User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) are critical components of successful online store design. As many businesses turn to the digital space rather than traditional brick-and-mortar retail, it is essential that online stores mimic the joyful shopping experience that customers have when browsing their favourite physical stores. When it comes down to web design, UX refers to how easily the consumer can navigate through your store and how efficient their journey is to checkout. You can use this helpful resource for tips on how to optimise your website’s user experience. A website’s UI refers to its look and feel. One should not overlook the power of design. If you are selling luxury alcoholic products, for example, then your website should reflect luxury down to the colour, font, and image choices. The best eCommerce stores tap into the specific likes and dislikes of their chosen target audiences to tailor a UX and UI that aligns with their unique shopping behaviours. 

eCommerce SEM and SEO Tactics

Most eCommerce stores are utilizing search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimisation (SEO) in one way or another. But, many fail to comprehend the total value that these marketing activities can have on one’s bottom line. When utilising SEM, the best eCommerce platforms develop comprehensive campaigns using social media advertising, pay per click advertising, Google search advertising, and more. They craft striking visual ads with clear calls to action to drive traffic to their stores and generate more sales. Over and above paying to be in front of their consumers, the best eCommerce sites deploy SEO to drive organic traffic. Organic traffic is one of the most prominent sources of sustainable consumer traffic, far more powerful than paid advertising. Therefore, developing a strong SEO strategy is critical to eCommerce success. 

The best online stores utilise a variety of tactics that others are not or are not integrating to their full extent. From introducing buy now pay later services to improving your site’s UX and UI as well as developing powerful SEM and SEO tactics, your business can leverage these activities to see profitable growth in 2022. 

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You’ve got incredible products, have built a website, and are growing a consumer base with each passing day. But, how do you take your small business to the next level? How do you rapidly grow to compete with some of the biggest and best online retailers in your industry? We have crafted this article to share 4 tips for small business success, including waterfall consumer financing and more. 

1. Support Shoppers With Waterfall Consumer Financing

To achieve efficient eCommerce growth, you need to go over and above the standard online retail practices and integrate novel solutions that provide added value for your customers. One such strategy is to provide waterfall consumer financing to support your shoppers’ purchases. Waterfall consumer financing from ChargeAfter is a financing solution that can be integrated with your website’s checkout page. The affordable feature installs as a button on your checkout page which your customers can tap to access the incredible benefits of consumer financing. Waterfall consumer financing differs from traditional financing plans as it lets customers receive loans without credit checks and at zero interest rates. These are two of the many benefits your customers can receive from utilising waterfall consumer financing. The addition of this feature, through partnering with ChargeAfter, can significantly improve your monthly sales values and volumes. 

2. Encourage Customer Feedback and Strengthen Support

The best eCommerce brands are built on satisfied customers, so it is critical that small businesses also adopt a consumer-first approach to operations. Strategies to showcase your consumer-centric values include encouraging customer feedback regularly. From unboxing videos to reviews, and so much more, customers incorporate brands into their daily lives and they have strong opinions about the companies that they find online. By encouraging feedback, you showcase an active desire to respect their concerns. Then, you should take corrective actions to ensure that you resolve any customer issues or reasonable requests. This process will strengthen your customer support strategy, ensuring that your small business grows quicker than ever. 

3. Don’t Broaden Your Offering Too Much

Online retail is incredibly competitive, and the best way to avoid competition is to specialise within an untapped niche. Whether you are selling luxury wines or sports clothes, stick to your specialization and avoid branching off into other industry areas too quickly. Sure, when your small business has grown substantially you can activate new concepts to tap into new consumer segments. But, to grow your small business to this level you should completely satisfy customers within your niche. For now, you can broaden your consumer base without having to diversify your offering by introducing waterfall consumer financing. It gives more consumers within your niche access to loans that can help them make a purchase. 

4. Save Time Where Possible

For small businesses, time is one of an owners most valuable assets. As teams are not as large and diverse as big businesses, saving time is critical to ensuring all tasks are efficiently met to achieve success. From chatbot automation on your social media pages and websites to email automation for retargeting campaigns, you can walk with a small marketing team to automate as much of your communicatons as possible. This will free up time for you to focus on other areas of the business for sustainable growth. 

From supporting your shoppers with waterfall consumer financing to developing a consumer-centric strategy, specializing within your niche, and saving time where and whenever possible, you can quickly grow your small eCommerce business into a powerhouse within your specific online retail industry. All the best for your growing success!

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Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and if you haven’t begun prepping for a lovely sales season this February the 14th then it is high time you turn to your marketing team to concoct some attractive strategies. We have curated this article to give you some ideas on how to give your customers an incentive to buy leading up to Valentine’s Day. You should jump on these strategies sooner rather than later if you wish to increase sales from couples shopping for their partners.

Fund Valentine’s Purchases With Online Financing

Customers spend a fortune on Valentine’s Day. For this reason, it is one of every online businesses highlight of the calendar year. Now, more than ever, you should introduce new ways for your shoppers to buy from your eCommerce store. You should consider the integration of strategies that help shoppers purchase those expensive items they have been dreaming of giving their partners. Whether your business sells elite watches of boutique clothing, you can integrate online financing to leverage more sales leading up to Valentine’s Day. Online financing from ChargeAfter is a powerful tool that plugs into your checkout page, giving your customers access to one of the most efficient and affordable loan payment options on the market. At the push of a button and without having to go through the stress of credit checks, customers can receive zero interest loans from ChargeAfter’s leading network of lenders. This leads to an increase in sales as customers can finance their Valentine’s purchases without having to consult their financial service provider. 

Start Your Social Media Push Now

If you haven’t already, then start your social media push now. This should include regular Valentine’s Day posts, ad campaigns, Google search advertisements, and other paid advertising strategies. Over and above starting early, you should couple these campaigns with competitions or discount codes. You need to give shoppers an additional reason to buy this Valentine’s Day over and above your customer service and product range, and these kinds of social media marketing tactics drive great traffic to eCommerce platforms. 

Dedicate a Landing Page to Valentine’s Day

Consumers that click through your social media and Google advertisements should land on a dedicated page that speaks to Valentine’s Day. As such, you should create a new landing page to direct your traffic to your competition, a special Valentine’s Day catalogue, and other information about the dreamy day. A dedicated landing page will ensure that you serve your customers the right kind of content that encourages the sales of speciality products through the clever use of calls to action, product photography, and additional features such as online financing. 

Ensure You Can Ship By Valentine’s Day

If you can guarantee to ship by Valentine’s Day, you will win customers from competitor shops as they seek the most efficient online shopping services during this special day. Consult your logistics partner and provide comprehensive insight into delivery due date expectations so that customers are completely aware of your policies as well as when to expect their items. You could also include shipping discounts during Valentine’s Day to offer customers additional value and further entice the sale. 

The combination of online financing from ChargeAfter to fund expensive Valentine’s Day purchases, a strong social media push with discounts and competitions, a dedicated landing page that tells your brand’s Valentine’s Day store, and shipping information that clarifies one’s ability to deliver before the special day will guarantee an extremely successful and profitable February the 14th for your business.

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Whether you have an eCommerce business, are thinking about starting one, or are in the process of integrating one, online selling requires strategizing and developing comprehensive marketing plans. In this ultimate guide to online selling, we discuss how you can prepare your online store for a successful year. We showcase the steps to take to ensure that your eCommerce platform is optimized, attracts your target audience, and drive sales, from market research to consumer financing. 

Conduct Market Research

Market research allows you to closely understand how your eCommerce platform fits into the existing marketplace for your specific products. Market research involves analyzing the current competition, auditing the need and growth potential for a store like yours, assessing the most prominent marketing tools similar businesses use, and clarifying an action plan to drive all of your marketing efforts. This helpful resource provides a step-by-step guide on how to conduct market research. 

Identify Your Target Audience

The next step to running a successful online business is identifying and defining your target audience. This refers to the people that you intend to sell your products to. It is not enough to have a loose idea of these people in your head. You should work with a marketing team to pinpoint the exact person who will benefit most from your products and outline everything there is to know about them in buyer personas. These buyer personas should explain the ideal customers demographics, psychographics, discuss their likes and dislikes, their preferred social media platforms, what drives them to make a sale, what’s important to them, their profession, their household roles, and the list goes on. The reason eCommerce companies develop buyer personas is so that they can send the right marketing material and content to the right person at the right time. This ensures that marketing budgets are optimized and that there is a positive return on investment. 

Build Your Brand Presence

A brand presence involves creating a solid brand narrative, expressing your brand identity visually, and delivering content that aligns with your brand story and visual aesthetic. Holistic brand presence development rests on an appealing corporate identity and digital playbook that will guide the styling of your website, social media pages, and all consumer touchpoints as well as focus your content publication efforts. To build brand awareness, you can utilize social media advertising and other paid media channels to showcase your growing brand presence to new consumers within your target audience.

Optimize Your Storefront for Sales

With buyer personas, a solid market research and action plan, and a strong brand presence, you can drive sales on your website. That is to assume that your storefront is optimized for sales. Optimizing your website is not only beneficial for your google search ranking but a seamless user journey is fundamental to eCommerce success. Shoppers want a website that is easy to navigate and offers additional integrations to supplement their shopping experience. For example, consumer financing from ChargeAfter is a powerful platform that provides consumers with zero-interest financing options at the checkout. Individuals that have access to consumer financing are more likely to convert to paying customers as this form of financing is more cost-effective, quicker, and less stressful than traditional financing options with third-party providers or financial service providers. Consumer financing integration is one of many storefront optimization techniques to support your online selling. 

Conduct market research, identify your target audience, build your brand presence, and optimize your storefront to sell online faster than ever and grow a thriving eCommerce business within your competitive industry.

Advertising, competitions, and influencers drive traffic to websites. These are three marketing tools that eCommerce businesses must implement to support their traffic flow and grow their consumer base. Beyond utilizing these channels to drive web traffic, you can increase the likelihood of converting new consumers to regular shoppers with buy now pay later from ChargeAfter at checkout. This integration gives your customers access to ChargeAfter’s reputable lenders who offer zero-interest financing. The benefits of ChargeAfter’s buy now pay later platform drive greater sales as consumers turn to the powerful integration for their shopping needs. 

Below, we discuss three ways you can drive more traffic to your website that encourages sales with buy now pay later from ChargeAfter. 

Set Up Social Media Ad Campaigns

The most common digital marketing ad avenues are Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Pinterest, LinkedIn, and even Reddit offer advertising, but the three listed above represent the most prominent, cost-effective, and reliable advertising channels. Online stores that do not make use of Facebook, Instagram, and Google’s ad platforms are missing massive audiences to competitors that run social media ad campaigns. eCommerce marketing teams must allocate budget and resources to social media advertising to remain relevant and attract new traffic to the website. 

Let’s take a look at how to ensure these ad campaigns drive more traffic to your website.

Meta: Facebook & Instagram Ads

Meta has developed an effective ad campaign management tool in ads manager that allows online stores and other businesses to run Facebook and Instagram ads. The platform is relatively easy to navigate and empowers businesses to run ads across Meta’s two primary social media platforms simultaneously. With Facebook and Instagram ads, you can drive traffic to your website by utilizing the various campaign objectives Meta provides. When running these ads, the algorithm sends your ads to consumers most likely to take your desired action. This is a fairly simplified approach to advertising with Meta, and you can follow this resource for a more detailed guide on how to run successful Facebook and Instagram ads to drive traffic to your website. 

Google Ads

Google empowers online businesses to run search-based and web ads to drive traffic to their websites. Using Google Ads, eCommerce marketing teams can attract new traffic to their websites through keyword-optimized campaigns and display advertising on other relevant websites and landing pages. Google Ads offers immediate results, and businesses benefit from its affordable cost-per-click system. According to Insider Intelligence, consumers convert within five days of searching for a product. Therefore, Google Ads are essential for generating short-term profit. You can use this resource for a greater grasp of Google Ads and how to run a successful campaign.

Introduce Competitions & Giveaways

If you market a prize big enough, consumers will share your competition with their friends. Competitions remain a staple marketing tool for generating new traffic as, beyond the prize itself, they are completely free. Competitions and giveaways also fall within the realm of user-generated content as consumers encourage their friends and family to support eCommerce businesses through their own social channels. Competitions typically involve liking posts, following pages, and sharing the content with friends. You can improve your campaign results by encouraging consumers to visit your website and sign up for a newsletter to enter your competition. This has the added benefit of building your email database. 

Work With Influencers

Influencers encourage their fans to support their favorite brands, and eCommerce businesses should work with influencers to drive more traffic to their websites. The best influencer strategies involve referral discounts for consumers that utilize coupon codes when shopping with online stores. For example, you may collaborate with an influencer that posts about your products and encourages their audience to use a specific code during checkout to receive a discount on their order. Influencers will take a commission of those sales, which is not particularly costly and small in comparison with the return on investment of new traffic to one’s website.

Drive more traffic and beat the competition with social media ad campaigns, competitions and giveaways, and partnerships with powerful influencers.