An online eCommerce store gives you plenty of advantages over similar businesses with a physical storefront.
For example, you can easily scale your business, access tools that collect data that help you make informed business decisions, and expand your reach beyond a geographical location.
However, you’re also facing intense competition from established brands and new entrants enjoying similar benefits. To avoid falling behind them, you need to use technology to maximize your eCommerce potential.
And that’s where POWR tools come in. They help you optimize your online store by engaging potential customers and streamlining the shopping process to increase retail sales.
Shortcuts:
- Take a Look at Your Business Plan to Identify Areas to Optimize
- Engage Your Potential Buyers and Existing Customers
- Streamline Your Checkout Process
In this post, we’ll discuss how you can use different POWR tools to maximize your eCommerce potential by engaging your buyers and customers and streamlining your checkout process.
Take a Look at Your Business Plan to Identify Areas to Optimize
Whether you’re starting a clothing business, making handmade toys, or running an online dispensary, a business plan serves as a roadmap that keeps you on track to achieve sustainable success.
Source: HubSpot
It helps you anticipate challenges, identify weaknesses and opportunities for growth, and define clear objectives.
When you’re looking to optimize your online store, your business plan will help you identify the areas of the business that would benefit most from using technology to drive growth.
For example, if you’re looking to grow your existing dispensary, a dispensary business plan puts you in a better position to know where to allocate the resources at your disposal.
This will help you implement your business plan more effectively, drive growth, and stay ahead of the competition (like investing in mobile commerce).
Here’s how POWR tools can help you maximize your eCommerce potential by engaging your buyers and customers and streamlining your checkout process.
Engage Your Potential Buyers and Existing Customers
When looking for products they need, a typical buyer will start their search on social media platforms, search engines, eCommerce stores, and online retailers.
They see a product they want to buy, check the pricing, read a couple of reviews, and compare it with similar products before making up their minds.
Once the buyer pays for the product they choose to buy, the interaction between the buyer and the eCommerce store tapers off. They’re less likely to hear from the store again until a similar product offer exists.
That doesn’t sound sustainable because if you don’t interact with your buyers throughout their buying journey, you won’t stay on top of their minds, earn their loyalty, or build brand affinity.
Source: Customer Marketing Alliance
Here are the POWR tools you need to engage your potential buyers throughout their buying journey to deliver a personalized online shopping experience:
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Live chat app
When looking for products to buy, potential buyers have questions about whether what they’re looking for will meet their needs, features, quality, price, value for money, and more.
A live chat app on your eCommerce store allows you to keep them engaged by answering these and other questions they may have. Treat your website like a social network.
Source: POWR
Responding to these questions positions you as a reliable and trustworthy brand because you’ve shown up when they need you, making it easier for them to buy from you.
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Customer comments app
The comments app helps your customers share their experiences with your product, ask questions, and engage with each other.
Source: POWR
Peer-to-peer interactions create a sense of belonging among your customers. They also provide valuable feedback that helps you deliver products that meet their needs and preferences. With the comments app in place, you can use these interactions to build social proof on social media channels.
Customer reviews and ratings provide potential buyers with valuable insights into your product's reliability (read: quality). This helps to earn their trust and overcome any objections they may have.
There's no doubt that Hootsuite is a popular choice for social media management. However, exploring Hootsuite alternatives can offer unique features and functionalities tailored to your specific needs.
For example, POWR’s social media feed allows you to share what customers say about your brand on social media channels to improve engagement.
Source: POWR
Streamline Your Checkout Process
A complicated checkout process presents unnecessary hurdles to your buyers, leading to frustration and cart abandonment.
For example, failing to answer frequently asked questions during checkout means the buyer will have to look for this information elsewhere in your online store, and if they don’t find it, they leave.
To create a seamless purchasing experience, you need to streamline the checkout process by minimizing friction points. Here’s how POWR helps you streamline the checkout process.
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Asking buyers to provide only essential information
Use POWR’s form builder app to create simple forms that ask buyers to provide the information that helps them complete their purchase.
For example, use these forms as a guest checkout option for first-time buyers to help them go through your checkout process without any hurdles — especially on mobile devices.
Source: POWR
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Providing multiple payment methods
Multiple payment methods offer your buyers options they can use to pay in case their primary payment method fails.
Buyers might also have specific accounts that they use to make online payments, so having multiple payment methods (like digital wallets or BNPL options) makes it easier for them to buy from your store.
POWR allows you to integrate payment buttons on your eCommerce store and set up different payment methods and currencies, making it easier for buyers to make payments for the products they buy.
Source: POWR
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Answering frequently-asked questions
POWR has an FAQ plugin that allows you to answer questions and address common objections during checkout.
Source: POWR
These apps help you reduce the likelihood of customers abandoning their carts, improving conversion rates and maximizing your eCommerce potential.
Conclusion
Integrating technology with your eCommerce store saves you time from repeatable tasks and helps you streamline all your efforts to maximize your eCommerce potential.
Since eCommerce online buying journeys are short, you need to keep your audience engaged. When they’re ready to buy, streamline your checkout process to reduce cart abandonment.
The tools we’ve discussed here will help you get started on maximizing your eCommerce website, but POWR doesn’t stop there.
Explore other tools on our list of plugins that can help you gain more followers online, engage your website visitors, collect information to build an audience, and boost online sales.
Are you ready to take your online business to the next level? Follow our latest blog posts for new ways to wow online shoppers and create a personalized shopping experience.
Author Bio:
Mike Bandar is an award-winning UK-based entrepreneur. A Founding Partner of Turn Partners, the startup studio focused on the acquisition, turnaround, or creation of digital businesses. Through Turn Partners, Mike co-founded Hopper HQ, the Instagram planning and scheduling tool, working with thousands of influencers, brands, and agencies around the world.
