Category: Blog

eCommerce stores and their owners can benefit greatly from a deeper understanding of their customers. From the ways in which customers interact with an online store to how they filter through the sales funnel, developing a clear roadmap of the shopping experience generates insights for optimization and online store improvements. Understanding the five stages of the consumer journey allows businesses to map out the behavior of their customers. Furthermore, it pinpoints areas to focus on and how the integration of new tools like online financing can drive sales at particular points of the consumer journey.

1. Awareness Stage

The awareness stage refers to the first step that consumers take to become aware of a particular brand and the products that they sell online. In this stage, the consumer has a problem that they wish to resolve in their lives by acquiring products that can remedy their pain points. This is what we call a navigational stage as consumers begin to search Google for answers to their problems. They may, for example, search ‘how to fix my television set’. Through the creation of targeted blogs and landing pages, you can provide content to answer this search intent. This brings consumer awareness to your brand and the ability to resolve their problems. 

2. Consideration Stage

Once consumers are aware of your brand and the products that you sell, they move into the consideration stage. In this stage, they show an active interest in your products and compare them to similar products sold by other eCommerce stores. For example, they may arrive at your blog on how to fix their television set and see promotional material advertising the new televisions that you sell. This promotional material can entice them to purchase a new television or electronics from your store as opposed to trying to fix their old television set. They will, at this stage, compare the televisions and electronics that you sell with those that other stores sell. They will be looking at the prices of your products, online reviews from other people who have purchased your products, FAQs, and delivery information to make their decision.

3. Purchase Stage

The purchase stage, or decision stage, is where the consumer makes the final call whether or not to buy products from your store. They may choose to buy, moving through to the next stage of the consumer journey or they may still look for added value to entice a purchase. For example, the integration of online financing can support the purchase stage. This added value offering provides consumers with cost-effective financing enabling them to purchase expensive products, such as a new television. If your competitors do not offer online financing, then you are likely to land the sale. 

4. Retention Stage 

Once customers have purchased from your store, they move into the retention stage. During the checkout process, you will have likely asked them for their email address or other contact information to facilitate the fulfillment of their order. They then become part of your email list and you can keep consumers interested through a customer retention strategy. You may, for example, ask for feedback, send discounts, or offer VIP programs to retain consumers and convert them to return customers. 

5. Advocacy Stage

Customers that are particularly satisfied with your products and service delivery move into the advocacy stage. These customers become brand advocates that share their positive experiences with other customers online as well as with their friends and family. They will actively leave positive reviews and join your brand community as they positively associate your brand with the values that you represent. 

Customers move through five stages of the consumer journey when shopping with eCommerce platforms; the awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy stages. Assessing each consumer’s movement through these stages and integrating tools to facilitate a seamless consumer journey, such as partnering with a leading online financing company, will help you drive sales and generate revenue.

 

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

In order to run a successful online store, you need to ensure that you first have enough traffic flow to your website. Without a consistent source of returning and new customers visiting your site, you will begin to lose out on the potential of converting shoppers. This is especially important when considering that only a fraction of those that browse your website will actually buy a product. In the modern age of digital marketing, increasing the reach of your website is a key objective to yielding profitable success. In this article, we discuss how your online store that integrates consumer financing from ChargeAfter can improve traffic flow and increase sales. 

1. Create SEO Content for Consumers

Content is a great way to attract new consumers and keep existing customers engaged with your brand. But, creating content is only half of the activity. You also need to ensure that the content that you deliver is optimized for Google. SEO refers to search engine optimization, a process whereby you make content crawlable and indexable by Google. In doing so, Google is able to deliver that content to users when they enter specific inputs into the search engine. With better SEO content, you are more likely to appear higher on the search engine results page (SERP). This is great for traffic flow as discoverability plays an imperative role in how consumers find your website. Great SEO content can come in the form of blog posts, optimized YouTube videos, optimized product images, and so much more. With SEO, the sky is the limit!

2. Spy on Your Competitor’s Marketing

Another great strategy for increasing traffic flow is to spy on your competitors to find out where their traffic is coming from. You could use a tool like SimilarWeb, for example, to see the various traffic sources for competitor websites. This data will prove invaluable as you use it to inform your marketing strategies for increasing traffic flow. For example, you may determine that most shoppers within your specific industry utilize their mobile devices to shop with the competition. Therefore, one can determine that a mobile-friendly website is critical to increasing traffic flow. 

3. Take Advantage of SEM

Where SEO refers to strategies to show up organically on Google, search engine marketing (SEM) refers to paid media that can instantly appear on the first page of the SERP. Search engine marketing is a great way to instantly increase your online visibility, drawing customers to your website for as long as your ads are running.

4. Focus Investment on Top Conversion Sources

After assessing your competition, you should run a quick analysis of your own online marketing efforts. The data that you pull from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and your eCommerce platform will direct you to your most valuable conversion sources. Whether it be social media advertising or organic search, determining your top conversion source enables you to make changes to improve your most valuable marketing activities. 

5. Make Everything Mobile Friendly

We have already mentioned that some eCommerce platforms may require a mobile-friendly site to attract new traffic, but the same can be said for all eCommerce platforms. The mobile readiness of your website is a major Google ranking factor, contributing to your position in the SERP. Without one, you will fall behind your competition and your traffic flow will drop significantly. 

As you look to increase the traffic flow to your online store, consider our five tricks to achieving successful results. From SEO content to competitor monitoring, SEM, smarter investments, and optimizing for mobile, these are the top ways to attract more consumers.

 

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

In the modern age of online shopping, standing out from the competition is critical to seeing results. But, it is more challenging than most realize. The biggest and best eCommerce stores have had years to develop every aspect of their marketing to ensure that they capitalize on massive audiences. That said, any eCommerce platform no matter how newly established or not can start improving its traffic by cutting through the clutter. In the following article, we discuss the five ways that you can make your eCommerce store stand out from the competition!

1. Introduce New Technology for Your Consumers

To win over customers, eCommerce stores need to offer new technology that solves their pain points. Integrations and eCommerce plugins not only give consumers a better online experience but that benefit businesses as they streamline processes and contribute to marketing efficiency. When it comes to new technologies, one of the most powerful modern financing tools is buy now pay later services. Buy now pay later (BNPL) services like those offered by ChargeAfter, enable an easy checkout for consumers that require on-demand financing when making a purchase. This feature saves consumers time and money, foregoing traditional interest-rate-based loans from financial service providers. 

2. Create a Personalized Shopping Experience

Personalized shopping experiences tailored to the modern consumer that prefers shopping with stores at the forefront of online selling. In order to create a personalized shopping experience that makes your store stand out, you need to consider strategies to leverage consumer-centric marketing. You could, for example, develop email campaigns tailored to specific customer segments. You could reward loyal customers with discounts and coupons for your store. At every level of the marketing funnel, you should consider ways to personalize your consumer’s experience to give them more reasons to shop with you.

3. Develop Exceptional Content

The best eCommerce stores are active on social media and develop great content for their audiences. From video content to long-form articles, infographics, Instagram Reels, and more, developing exceptional content is critical to standing out amongst the clutter of competition in the online sales industry. This content can be helpful, educational, inspiring, or motivational to encourage your consumers to buy into your unique brand narrative.

4. Invite Your Customers to Be Part of Your Community

Over and above delivering great content for your consumers, you should invite them to be a part of your brand story. A brand is only as strong as its community, and more fulfilled consumers are more likely to return to shop with you again. Inviting customers to be a part of your community can be as simple as asking them to sign up for your monthly newsletter or strategizing a loyalty program to encourage return customers. By putting your community at the center of your marketing activities, you can stand out from the competition and yield a greater return on investment as customer lifetime values increase. 

5. Support Customers Every Step of the Way

Great customer support is critical to eCommerce success as consumers want to feel heard when experiencing difficulties during their online shopping experiences. Whether it be through the integration of a chatbot on your website or providing informative context in the form of FAQs answering common questions, you should consider how every touchpoint can be leveraged to provide better customer support. 

There you have it, five ways to make your eCommerce store stand out! Be sure to introduce new technology, create personalized shopping experiences, develop exceptional content, create a consumer community, and support your customers to stay ahead of the competition!

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

The modern shopper is smarter, younger, and more interested in online shopping than ever before! As eCommerce businesses compete for the attention of the shoppers, one can look no further than the latest fintech solutions to develop a deeper understanding of the wants, needs, and pain points of the modern shopper. New technology, specifically buy now pay later is providing an essential part of the modern shopping experience. These consumers rely on buy now pay later (BNPL) services more than ever before, and this reliance is revealing much about them. In this article, we explore the three most notable insights that buy now pay later reveals about the modern shopper.

Consumers Want Greater Debt Control

The modern shopper wants greater control over their debt. For many, seeking financial support requires third-party assistance. The entire process can be cumbersome and require individuals to undergo extensive credit checks. These credit check processes can, at times, fail and leave shoppers without the financial support necessary to make important purchases. That is where buy now pay later solutions come in handy. They help shoppers shop regardless of their current credit score or lack of credit entirely. The ability to secure financial support through an affiliate in partnership with an online store means that they do not need to discuss financials with any third party or a financial service provider. This gives the consumer greater control over their debt, leaving them more content with their shopping experience than ever before. 

Buy Now Pay Later Supports More Segments

Beyond supporting customers with poor credit or low credit scores, buy now pay later services concurrently service a broader audience. Most modern shoppers suffer from poor credit scores as they are young, often with student debt or not having had enough time to build a positive credit score. These shoppers are millennials and generation z consumers with a keen interest in online shopping. Without providing an accessible, simple, and reliable way for them to shop, online stores miss out on captivating the interest of the modern shopper. Buy now pay later circumnavigates this by appealing to millennials and generation z shoppers through the consistent and effective service of reliable consumer financing. More shoppers than ever before from a range of consumer segments are taking advantage of the benefits of buy now pay later services.

Modern Shoppers Trust Trend-Setting Brands

The modern shopper tends to have an affiliation with trendsetting brands. Think of environmentally sustainable brands, for example. The eco-friendly online marketplace is booming as more and more young shoppers are drawn to brands that are pioneering new strategies and product innovations. There is a consistent need to adapt to new trends and, not only that, but also set them. One such way of doing so is incorporating buy now pay later services. These services are the latest trend in online shopping, available at checkout for consumers to take advantage of. The modern shopper is a big fan of BNPL solutions as it resolves the two pain points that we have already mentioned.

To appeal to a younger, smarter, and more engaged modern shopper, the biggest and best eCommerce stores adopt buy now pay later solutions that facilitate seamless online shopping. Partnering with leading fintech service providers like ChargeAfter, these online shops are able to sustain shopper interest and drive more sales. By providing consumers with greater control over their debt, appealing to more consumer segments, and setting trends that other brands cannot keep up with, the best online stores stake their claim in the competitive eCommerce industry.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

Grow your eCommerce business and enjoy a profitable business year by adopting the latest marketing strategies for online stores. Evolving strategies to incorporate modern marketing strategies can set your store apart. Furthermore, the integration of consumer financing to support modern marketing will yield successful results. In this article, we outline five modern marketing strategies for eCommerce success that you can use to guide your activities. Backed with consumer financing, these tips should help you convert more customers this calendar year. 

1. Geotargeting

eCommerce is incredibly competitive as anyone can create an online store. Platforms like Shopify have made the store set up incredibly easy, and SEO allows businesses to reach audiences around the world. But, when it comes to securing more business, one should consider the geotargeting strategies this year. Geotargeting involves developing marketing material and localized SEO that attracts specific buyers from specific locations. This goes against the more traditional approach to SEO by driving numbers to one’s website. Instead, you want to drive a select few valuable users to your website for greater conversion rates. Instead of opting for broad marketing, this process involves creating niche segments based on location to yield profitable traffic to your website. 

2. Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing refers to the cohesive marketing approach via multiple sales channels to deliver a clear, concise, and consistent brand message to consumers. This approach involves supporting consumers at every step of the sales funnel, from advertising online stores to ensuring seamless delivery and securing consumer buy-in with great packaging and continued communications. Omnichannel marketing ensures that businesses stay front of mind with consumers, encouraging and promoting customer retention as a result. 

3. Live Video

Video content remains the most popular among consumers as it is immersive, engaging, and informative. This year, you can take your video marketing efforts to the next level by integrating live video content into your social calendar. Live video content personalizes your brand and gives consumers a reason to buy into your eCommerce platform. By providing a face behind your brand, you can develop closer connections with your community and increase customer lifetime values. Live video content can come in the forms of social media live videos, webinars, training sessions, and streams to leverage the array of consumers accessing video content via various platforms and channels. 

4. Voice Search

Voice search is an incredibly powerful channel to take advantage of this year as more and more people are shopping via the functionality. By optimizing your eCommerce store for voice search and investigating advertising avenues through the functionality, you can target a new customer segment to drive more sales. Leveraging voice search is a viable and reliable strategy for eCommerce success this year and beyond.

5. Consumer Financing

Consumer financing works hand in hand with the strategies mentioned above as it supports the sales funnel, particularly during the checkout stage. ChargeAfter is a leading consumer financing partner that provides seamless integration for eCommerce stores. The solution invites consumers to take advantage of on-demand financing at the push of a button. This gives them access to financing necessary to make a purchase, encouraging them to filter through the final step in the sales funnel. The addition of consumer financing can benefit one’s business by increasing conversion rates and driving the sale of larger orders. 

As businesses continue to compete this year, it is time to integrate new marketing strategies that can set your eCommerce store apart. From geotargeting to omnichannel marketing, providing video content, optimizing for voice search, and integrating consumer financing, we ensure profitable success through the implementation of these five modern marketing strategies.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

Long gone are the days of brands using one sales channel to drive conversions. In the modern world of eCommerce, having multiple sales channels is critical as brands hope to attract customers from all over the world. From websites to social media platforms and so much more, driving traffic and conversions through multiple sales funnels is imperative to business success. In this article, we discuss multichannel selling in more detail and share how you can leverage waterfall consumer financing to guarantee success.

What is Multichannel Selling?

Multichannel selling refers to the process of using multiple sales channels to drive online traffic and makes sales. It may not be necessary to have a brick-and-mortar store but it is absolutely essential to have an online space for shopping. Then, it would be ideal to serve consumers through various sales channels to broaden your reach and targettable audience. Doing so can help your business attract more consumer interest as you tailor it to specific consumer segments across the diverse digital playground.

Multichannel selling can involve selling products on an online store, marketing those products through platforms like Facebook, optimizing your digital storefronts for mobile, taking advantage of third-party sales platforms like Amazon, and utilizing Google Shopping functionality. A combination of these activities will ensure that you are approaching customers that use a range of methods to shop. 

The Benefits of Multichannel Selling

Multichannel selling is incredibly powerful, and we discuss the key benefits of incorporating a multichannel selling strategy into your online business.

Multichannel selling enables businesses to reach customers where they shop most. Some shoppers prefer to click through Facebook Ads to view websites, others make sales when arriving at online stores from Google Search. Some consumers prefer to order through Amazon and others browse purely on their mobile devices. Multichannel selling ensures that you cater to all types of shoppers.

Multichannel selling facilitates a seamless shopping journey. No matter where your customers arrive from, they are directed to landing pages and along a customer journey that is curated to their consumer profile. You can strategize the best sales funnel possible for each consumer, developing a stronger chance to land a sale.

Multichannel selling is used by the biggest and best brands around the world. Adopting multichannel selling strategies from these companies lets you compete for their consumers and in their digital spaces. Healthy competition makes for better business, and you can see success by leveraging the success of other businesses. 

How Waterfall Consumer Financing Supports Multichannel Selling

Part of making a multichannel selling strategy work is to provide consumers with the best online functionalities possible. The most powerful integration to do this, especially during the checkout stage of the consumer journey is waterfall consumer financing.

ChargeAfter’s powerful consumer financing platform gives consumers access to on-demand financing to complete their orders. The benefits of waterfall consumer financing lie in its ability to approve consumers that may have otherwise not qualified for traditional financing via traditional lenders. As a result, you can approve more customers than ZWyou had previously been able to with a single lender. This will lead to greater sales and larger orders, resulting in a more profitable business.

Waterfall consumer financing can support your multichannel selling strategy, ensuring you remain competitive in the digital shopping environment. So, what are you waiting for? Why not integrate a multichannel selling strategy with waterfall consumer financing today!

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

Struggling to drive as much traffic to your online store as you would like to? Are your conversions taking a dive? In the world of online retail, brands must continue to strive to deliver the best eCommerce experiences as possible. This involves developing marketing strategies and incorporating powerful integrations that make a shopper’s journey simple and effective. From online financing to localized SEO, we discuss the five ways that you can reach more consumers and drive greater traffic to your online store. 

1. Online Financing

One of the best ways to drive sales as you discover strategies to reach more consumers is to integrate online financing. Online financing from ChargeAfter provides affordable and seamless integrated platform that enables shoppers to buy more easily. They can use the plugin during checkout to receive financing for their carts without having to approach their financial service providers or go through extensive credit checks. The entire process happens on-site and delivers a faster time to sell, increasing the frequency of your online store’s conversions. Online financing benefits both the consumer and business, improving customer relationships for sustainable eCommerce success. With online financing, you can reach more avid shoppers as they choose your store over others that do not offer the powerful integration. 

2. Localized SEO

SEO is a powerful tool in an online store’s arsenal to reach consumers. A massive number of shoppers use Google Search to find their favorite products, and optimizing for the platform ensures that you will be visible to these shoppers. You can do broad SEO to drive traffic, however, you will play in a competitive space where your reach is limited by the competition. Instead, you should localize your SEO to your specific area of operation. By narrowing down your efforts through localized SEO, you can compete with smaller businesses operating in your area and win over their customers. This can significantly improve your consumer reach and result in greater sales. 

3. Creative Advertising

If you are not advertising on digital platforms then you will not be visible to a massive portion of online shoppers. For this reason, you need to develop creative ads to punt on social media platforms and Google. These adverts can be designed to drive traffic to your website with the intention of making sales. Creative digital advertising can set your brand apart, especially considering the wealth of poor ads currently running across the platforms. 

4. Reviews and Referrals

To win over new customers and boost your consumer reach, you need to consider the effectiveness of your review and referral campaigns. When consumers shop, they often make judgments based on reviews and recommendations from others in their networks. You can maximize your reach by developing a review strategy to encourage positive reviews and people to share their experiences with your online store. These positive testimonials will reach more consumers and invite them to experience the benefits of shopping with you. 

5. Partners in Business

From influencers to affiliate marketing, partnering with public figures and other brands is a great way to leverage their audiences. If you sell products that align with specific Instagram personalities or brands in other industries, you can approach them with opportunities to collaborate on marketing campaigns. This is a quick way to drive consumer reach and encourage sales by utilizing their reputations. 

To drive more consumers to your online store and increase sales, you should integrate online financing, localize your SEO, develop creative ads, implement a review strategy, and partner with reliable influencers or businesses.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

The eCommerce landscape is incredibly competitive. A quick Google search will reveal the number of online businesses vying for consumer attention, across a range of different industries. Just about anyone can start an eCommerce business, meaning there is so much clutter for customers to sift through. This also begs the question of how reliable some of these platforms are. With so many questions stumping the modern consumer, it is no surprise that many eCommerce businesses fail. There is an increasing need to differentiate one’s businesses from the competitors to stand out, offer exceptional customer value, and generate great returns. In this article, we discuss how you can differentiate your eCommerce business with waterfall consumer financing.

An Easy to Implement Payment Solution

Waterfall consumer financing refers to a financial payment solution that allows customers to receive loans right there on an online businesses website. Customers do not need to chat with their financial service providers or other types of lenders to utilize the online financing solution. The solution is an integrated plugin that appears at the checkout stage, encouraging the consumers to utilize its benefits. 

Beyond being easy to use from a consumer perspective, waterfall consumer financing is an incredibly easy-to-integrate and affordable payment solution. When partnering with market-leading fintech companies like ChargeAfter, you can install buy now pay later checkout plugins extremely quickly. ChargeAfter can shorten the time to implementation and help you reach your sales goals quicker than ever. Furthermore, ChargeAfter can assist with the installation to save you time. The implementation creates efficiency at every level of business and is one of the easiest payment strategies to adopt in 2022. 

Offer Unrivaled Value

From zero-interest repayment options to personalized plans and instant activation without credit checks, waterfall consumer financing is one of the most enticing payment differentiators that you can leverage. It offers tremendous consumer-first benefits that will ultimately benefit your business. It encourages consumers to make purchases as it provides comprehensive customer benefits, driving your average order values upwards. It also facilitates the purchase of more expensive items. For example, customers are more likely to purchase a television or mattress using financing that includes no additional interest. 

The value-added benefits for both customers and businesses make waterfall consumer financing one of the most appealing modern checkout integrations for the biggest eCommerce brands on the market. Customers will buy from your store before buying from a competitor if you have consumer financing in place. It is a powerful market differentiator that some of the biggest eCommerce brands are leveraging today.

Big Data for Big Decisions

Businesses can partner with market-leading fintech company ChargeAfter to leverage the revenue potential of consumer financing as well as receive ongoing support and maintenance. ChargeAfter’s dedicated team provides comprehensive payment analytics for you to use to make marketing decisions from. The insights gathered in these reports are invaluable, adding to the appealing nature of adopting waterfall consumer financing payment solutions. Companies can build impressive marketing strategies off the back of their payment data and gain a deeper understanding of the consumers. This information can help develop stronger customer segmentation portfolios which, in turn, can help drive more traffic to the website and increase sales. The big data from these analytics can ultimately be used to differentiate your eCommerce business from the competitors.

Differentiate your eCommerce business with one of the most powerful, easy-to-integrate, and analytically strategic checkout integrations on the market. ChargeAfter’s waterfall consumer financing solution can set you apart from your competitors and help you start turning a greater profit by increasing consumer interest and attracting more sales.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.