Tag: Online Shopping

5 Ways to Build Customer Trust With Your Online Store

Posted on by chargeafterdev

Building customer trust is crucial for the success of your online store. Consumers who trust brands are far more likely to purchase. Furthermore, trusting customers are far more likely to return to make their second, third, and fourth purchases, and so on. Return customers that are loyal form one of the cornerstones of profitable online selling. They are valuable assets, and in this article, we discuss how to develop them. We showcase five ways to build consumer trust with your online store and turn once-off consumers into long-term shoppers.

1. Introduce Consumer Financing Features

Consumer financing features, or buy now pay later (BNPL) services, are integrations that enable shoppers to access loans from the websites that they shop. Instead of having to find financial aid elsewhere, consumers can use the integrated consumer lending platforms to secure financial support during the checkout process. This creates shopping efficiency and increases the likelihood of making a sale. The consumer-facing benefits of BNPL solutions build customer trust. The easy, affordable, and quick access to shopping financing empowers them, and they perceive this added value as an opportunity to connect with the brands that offer consumer financing. 

2. Improve Your Customer Service

Customer service is critical to building customer trust. A great customer service strategy will drive positive interactions with your brand community, showcasing the value to your existing consumers and those that stumble upon your online store for the first time. You should consider ways to improve all aspects of your customer service, from your time to first response to your time taken to resolve consumer problems. An assessment of these key performance indicators (KPIs) will provide you with insights to make improvements to your customer service strategy. This consistent approach to optimizing internal organization will enable you to build stronger and more trustworthy relationships with your shoppers. 

3. Highlight Your Achievements

Online stores should be proud of and showcase their achievements via their marketing channels. From social media posts to embedding Trustpilot reviews into your website pages, you can start making your most recent successes known to the public. This not only attracts new customers but showcases to your existing customers that you are consistently delivering on your brand promises. Highlighting your achievements is a great way to build customer trust and leverage the positive brand associations and perceptions that you have developed over time.

4. Take Accountability for Your Failures

In the same way that it is important to highlight your successes, you should also take accountability for your failures. There is no such thing as a perfect brand, and owning up to your mistakes is the nature of online selling. Instead of disregarding negative comments and letting uncomfortable leads from falling by the wayside, you should actively manage the negative information about your online store online. You should have a person or team of people, typically the marketing team, engaged with consumers online to answer their problems and provide support when failures occur. This transparency will win the trust of your customers.

5. Ensure You Are Always Reachable

Online stores should ensure that they are always reachable to build trust with customers. The modern consumer is searching for the most efficient services, and your store should deliver efficiency in your communications. You can install live chats or seek the aid of a call center to answer your consumers as quickly as possible. You should aim to reduce the time that it takes to respond to consumers, and deliver 24/7 communication support if you run an online store to successfully build customer trust.

Building trust with your customers is important for developing a successful online store. From introducing consumer financing to highlighting your successes and taking accountability for your failures, you can start building a sustainable and profitable brand community built on loyalty.

 

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How to Reach More Millennial and Gen Z Shoppers This Year With Buy Now Pay Later

Posted on by chargeafterdev

This year, more millennial and gen z shoppers have entered the world of digital retail as mobile shopping has become more convenient than ever. The modern online shopping experience is extremely appealing to younger shoppers as it saves them time and money, that they would otherwise spend on having to travel to brick-and-mortar stores. Furthermore, millennial and gen z shoppers enjoy sourcing their favorite products from eCommerce platforms that align with their interests. This is more possible through online selling as millennials and gen z shoppers have few shopping restrictions in the digital space. In this article, we provide tips and tricks on how to reach more millennial and gen z shoppers this year to capitalize on their growing purchasing power. 

Integrate BNPL Options at Checkout

According to authoritative sources, buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are incredibly appealing to millennials and gen z shoppers. This is linked to the fact that BNPL services provide the most affordable financing on the market and require very little time investment traditionally required to take out loans from a financial service provider. Furthermore, these options do not require credit checks. Most of the shoppers within this category do not have credit cards or may have low credit scores as a result of foregoing the use of credit cards as traditionally done by older shoppers. BNPL options at checkout attract this consumer category as they solve several key pain points, and eCommerce businesses would be wise to partner with the best BNPL service providers to increase their sales to this shopping segment. 

Create Interactive Content

Beyond providing an affordable and seamless shopping experience at checkout through the integration of BNPL services, eCommerce brands should create interactive content that appeals to this younger demographic to win their attention. Dynamic content like quizzes and animated graphics are extremely appealing to millennials and gen z shoppers as they are more interactive than traditional forms of media. Furthermore, the use of these types of interactive content can help brands cut through the clutter on social feeds and Google.

Choose Better Advertising Placements

Hand in hand with creating content is distributing that content via the right platforms and at the right time. eCommerce marketing teams need to understand the platforms that millennials and gen z shoppers use, especially when browsing for products within specific industries. These consumers categories are particularly active on platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit, making these channels ideal areas for advertising placements. That said, you should analyze your key metrics to determine the best areas to approach your younger shoppers. 

Offer Better Deals Than the Competition

Younger shoppers love a good deal, so eCommerce businesses should attract their attention with specials or discounts that are superior to that of the competitors. There are many ways to distribute deals, from coupon codes to influencer referrals, so consider all avenues while developing your promotion strategy. 

Take Advantage of Email Marketing

Be sure to take advantage of email marketing to distribute any and all of your most significant pieces of content. Email marketing is one of the biggest trends in digital marketing, and it applies to millennials and gen z shoppers. You should deliver promotions and other content via an email database that you can collect using powerful email magnets. 

By integrating BNPL services at checkout, creating interactive content, choosing better advertising placements, offering better deals than competitors, and taking advantage of email marketing, eCommerce marketing teams can reach more millennials and gen z shoppers this year to improve sales and grow profit margins. 

 

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4 Reasons You Need POS Financing for Your eCommerce Site

Posted on by chargeafterdev

Running an eCommerce store comes with many challenges. From attracting new consumers to keeping them engaged and converting them into returning customers, there are several hurdles to jump on your way to becoming one of the best online stores in your industry. In the world of online selling, it is important that businesses utilize new tools to gain a competitive advantage. One such tool is online POS financing, a solution from leading fintech providers that enables customers to buy more easily from your online platform.

POS financing is a powerful integration that benefits the consumer by allowing them to make purchases more efficiently and affordably and also benefits businesses by increasing conversion rates and customer lifetime values. In this article, we discuss the reasons that you need to consider integrating online POS financing for your eCommerce platform. 

1. Competitors Are Using POS Financing

If you have not integrated POS financing online, then you are missing out on consumers shopping with eCommerce platforms that already have the integration. Online or BNPL financing is proving invaluable and many online stores are utilizing the feature. Without it, you run the risk of losing customers to these online stores. This is because BNPL financing offers a number of appealing consumer benefits. eCommerce platforms that take advantage of the benefits of BNPL financing are attracting more consumers than ever before, bridging the gap between the best and all the other online stores operating in the competitive digital retail space.

2. Customers Are Abandoning Their Carts

While you may have traffic on your website, that does not guarantee that consumers are converting. Many online stores suffer from high abandon cart rates, an indication that consumers do not have many incentives to make a purchase. If your abandon cart rates are high, you should consider integrating BNPL financing. BNPL financing can greatly reduce your abandon cart rates by encouraging purchases. The ability to receive on-demand financing for purchases at the push of a button is a very appealing prospect for the modern consumer. This feature is a great way of closing a sale and, therefore, increasing the rate at which customers actively move through the checkout process in the consumer journey.

3. Consumers Are Losing Interest

Customers are drawn to online stores that provide new and modern features. Online POS financing is a novel integration that showcases a brand’s desire to push the boundaries of online shopping. As a result, businesses that use BNPL financing online attract consumer interest. New customers that arrive on these eCommerce platforms are eager to purchase using the new features, taking advantage of the ample benefits associated with online BNPL financing.

4. Customers Are Not Buying Again

Customer retention is a critical aspect of running a successful online store. Keeping customers actively shopping is far less costly than acquiring new customers. Therefore, another advantage of introducing BNPL financing online is that it is an appealing selling point to keep consumers engaged for longer. Online stores that offer BNPL financing online benefit long-term customers by consistently keeping them coming back for more of the feature. Customers who shop with stores with online financing can confidently purchase multiple times, acquiring their orders and moving through the sales funnel more frequently. This can have a significant impact on your revenue generation as your return on investment is greater with return customers utilizing this financing option. 

BNPL financing online is a great addition to your eCommerce platform that can help you circumnavigate typical problems associated with online selling. BNPL financing can help you stay ahead of the competition, reduce abandon cart rates, keep customers interested, and keep shoppers returning to make more purchases. 

 

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

 

5 Stages of the Consumer Journey and Where Online Financing Drives Sales

Posted on by chargeafterdev

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.

 

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5 Modern Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Success With Consumer Financing in 2022

Posted on by chargeafterdev

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.

 

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4 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website and Land More Sales With Online Financing

Posted on by chargeafterdev

In this article, we discuss four simple strategies that you can use to drive traffic to your website and increase the opportunity for conversions. In the competitive eCommerce landscape, taking advantage of these tips is the first step to increasing your online store’s profit potential.

After increasing traffic to your website, you should consider strategies to increase your conversion rates. In the modern online shopping market, one of the most efficient ways to do so is to introduce online financing. Online financing is a checkout integration that enables affordable, personalized, and efficient buying. It benefits the consumers by giving them zero-interest repayment solutions at the push of a button, helping you land more sales and drive profit margins upwards.

1. Take Advantage of Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is less expensive than you may have originally been led to believe. Sure, what you put in is what you get out. However, you do not need a massive marketing budget to begin social media advertising testing. You can use the Meta suite of advertising tools to craft attractive sponsored ads that can drive traffic to your website. You can hyper-target specific buyers and set a campaign objective of landing page views to deliver your content to your audience’s social media feeds. To get started with social media advertising today, check out this resource.

2. Increase Your Discoverability With SEO

If you do not have an SEO strategy in place, then odds are that consumers will be unable to find your content when browsing Google. Operating as an index of all online content and serving specific content to consumers based on their search queries, Google is capable of delivering your website to a massive potential audience. By implementing proper SEO tactics and optimizing every aspect of your website, you can win Google’s favor and drive more organic traffic to your store more easily. You can use this resource to get started with your SEO efforts. 

3. Reward Your Existing Customers

Not all website traffic is new traffic. Oftentimes customers return to websites to shop again if there is a strong enough customer retention strategy in place. Customer retention is also far more cost-effective than customer acquisition as return customers are more likely to place more frequent and larger orders. To drive customer retention and increase your website traffic as a result, you can start rewarding your loyal customers. You can offer discounts, promotions, and introduce competitions and giveaways to kickstart your customer retention strategy. 

4. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencers are still powerful brand allies that you can utilize to spread your website’s name and drive more traffic to your website. Influencers are able to persuade their followers to check out your products, using clever marketing and sales strategies that provide consumers with discounts via referral. Both the influencers and brand benefit from this strategy, and consumers benefit from being exposed to new and exciting online stores that they may not be aware of. You can use this resource to jumpstart your influencer marketing strategy and start implementing your first influencer campaign. 

From crafting powerful social media ads to improving your website’s SEO, you can drive more traffic to your website and create more buzz around your online store. When these consumers are browsing, the introduction of online financing at checkout can generate greater sales interest and lead to higher conversion rates. Online financing from ChargeAfter is your ticket to landing more sales!

 

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4 Reasons Shoppers Abandon Their Carts and How to Stop It From Happening

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Online shopping interest continues to climb and stores need to adapt to reduce common risks of online retail. When looking at key performance indicators (KPIs), brands may find that shoppers continue to leave their stores after adding items to their carts without actually making a purchase. This is a concern as many brand owners do not know the reasons why their shoppers may be leaving before making a purchase. In this article, we shed light on the main reasons shoppers abandon their carts and offer a solution to ensure that you resolve these issues before they occur. 

What is Cart Abandonment

As mentioned, cart abandonment refers to the consumer act of adding items to their carts and leaving before actually making a purchase. Cart abandonment is incredibly challenging for the modern online store as mystery shrouds the decisions of consumers as to why they do so. But, we have insight into why based on industry sources as well as an answer to help you minimize the risks of cart abandonment. 

Why Consumers Abandon Their Carts

Below, we explore the main reasons consumers abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase.

1. Limited Payment Options

Consumers want variety and prefer to shop with businesses that can provide payment options tailored to their unique shopping behaviors. Every shopper is different, and brands can attract a wider audience by facilitating a seamless payment experience. Through partnering with Fintech companies like ChargeAfter, brands can also leverage additional payment options that involve comprehensive consumer financing coverage. Consumer financing is one of the most attractive payment options as it allows customers to receive zero-interest repayment plans without having to go through credit checks. The benefits for businesses are that more consumers can shop with their online stores, increasing their consumer base and leveraging greater sales in the process. 

2. High Costs

Consumers often choose to abandon their carts as they fear the high costs when reviewing their items. But, brands can eliminate these fears by integrating consumer financing features. Consumer financing connects consumers with lenders capable of covering the total expense without requiring any interest. This means that shoppers can not only pay for their carts on the fly but do not have to suffer from expensive monthly repayment packages. This is a key strategy for reducing abandonment rates.

3. Web Security Concerns

The modern shopper is skeptical and aware of shady marketing strategies that many brands deploy in the online retail industry. For these reasons, brands need to give consumers confidence in their purchases. Doing so can greatly reduce the risks of cart abandonment rates as building trust is critical to online eCommerce success. Ensuring that you have and clearly display web security coverage is important. From shopping guarantees to online ID protection, every security feature is noticed by the consumer. You can also build trust other ways, and the following resource provides suggestions on ways to build brand trust with your consumers beyond integrating stronger website security features. 

4. Account Creation

Many shoppers steer clear of websites where they have to create an account to shop. Instead, brands should offer guest shopping functionality and continue to make consumer financing available to shoppers that choose this option. Though the checkout process is longer, consumers sometimes prefer this route as it is a more private way to shop online. 

As mentioned, the integration of consumer financing can help brands reduce cart abandonment rates as shoppers are extremely attracted by the benefits that the feature offers them. Therefore, businesses should consider partnering with leading consumer financing platforms to minimize risk and improve sales, seeing long-term and profitable growth as a result. 

 

Want to learn more? Reach out to us here.

How to Increase Social Commerce Conversion Rates With BNPL

Posted on by chargeafterdev

The modern consumer spends plenty of time on their social media platforms, using Instagram, TikTok, an array of apps that offer advertising opportunities for online stores. From advertising on YouTube videos to running campaigns on Instagram feeds, there are many ways for businesses to attract a bigger audience through social commerce. In this article, we discuss social commerce, ways to improve your brand’s social commerce with BNPL (buy now pay later), and the benefits of doing so. 

What is Social Commerce?

Social commerce simply refers to the process of selling online via social media platforms. Today, social media platforms have made this easier than ever, blurring the lines between social media and shopping through the integration of shopping features designed for brands. Facebook, for example, can pull your website’s entire product catalog directly into a dedicated Facebook Shop. Instagram allows you to tag products in posts to encourage sales. These are two examples of ways that businesses can efficiently activate online shopping through social channels. 

Social commerce has gained tremendous traction, and statistics state that approximately “$475 billion in revenue” was generated back in 2020, and this should grow by “a rate of 28.4% annually, reaching $3.37 trillion by 2028”. For this reason, all businesses should develop stronger social commerce strategies to leverage these impressive numbers. Below, we discuss ways you can improve your social commerce.

Ways to Improve Social Commerce

You should implement the following efficient steps to improve your online store’s social commerce and boost conversion rates:

Improve Conversion Rates With BNPL

Before implementing any social commerce steps over and above those that you already do, we highly recommend integrating BNPL features into your online store. BNPL, or consumer financing, is a powerful integration that can improve conversion rates by offering consumers several benefits. Partners like ChargeAfter provide affordable, efficient, and effective BNPL services with a proven track record. You can learn more about the many consumer and brand benefits of BNPL beyond improving conversion rates of your social commerce strategies here. 

Set Up TikTok Shopping With Shopify

TikTok remains one of the most prominent social media platforms, especially among younger audiences. For this reason, we highly recommend establishing a brand presence on TikTok and making use of TikTok shopping facilities through Shopify integration. Using the TikTok Shopify app, products are pulled directly from your website. This is a seamless process that requires little web development know-how and can be done by any brand that utilizes both platforms. Doing so will help you enter a unique social media space where you can improve conversion rates by attracting new consumers. 

Take Advantage of Live Streaming

Taking advantage of social commerce requires brands to stay on-trend and utilize the new features of the platforms that their audiences shop through. Live streaming is an example of a social media feature that brands can leverage to improve conversion rates. Live streaming marketing campaigns let brands communicate more closely with their audience, encouraging a more consumer-centric marketing space that shy away from traditional marketing strategies. This can win brand trust and drive sales.

Engage Your Customers With Messages

A unique method of social commerce is attracting consumer buy-in through instant messaging. Provided that you adhere to social media advertising policies and regulations on your chosen platforms, you can improve conversion rates by talking directly with your target audience. There are many benefits of instant messaging advertising campaigns. This is predominantly because personalized marketing strategies are more attractive to the modern consumer. 

Brands should be using social commerce to their advantage and can improve sales by integrating BNPL services, utilizing TikTok Shopify features to attract younger audiences, using live streaming for marketing campaigns, and engaging customers with instant messaging.

 

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