Ecommerce Tips for Success

Shoppers around the world spend billions online, and this is increasing as consumers grow more confident and comfortable with virtual buying options. This is wonderful news if you are Amazon – but what about the rest of us? What about smaller ecommerce sites? How can you get noticed and make it in the increasingly competitive online business world?

Some tips that ecommerce merchants can put into place include:

• Mobile convenience. By 2015 or so, about half of shopping sessions will be done on mobile devices. The problem is that soon, it won’t be enough to be mobile-compatible. Merchants will have to create mobile sites to accommodate for the needs of these users. The good news is that they’re investing in the right place: “third screen” users typically spend more than offline shoppers (and a bit more than desktop or laptop users as well).
• Watch your product descriptions. Google doesn’t like duplicate content, even if that content is manufacturers’ descriptions. Craft your own using original language; user-generated content is a great option. In a pinch, you can do a no-index metatag:

<meta content=”noindex”>

• Pay attention to your links. Don’t buy them from linkfarms, don’t use sites that do nothing but provide links, just don’t. It does make linkbuilding harder, but it also makes it easier to rank on Google – and easier to avoid penalties! Cultivate links from a variety of resources – articles, forums, blog posts, social media, etc. – and conduct periodic audits to ensure your links are “healthy” for your site.
• Content marketing will ultimately work better for you than traditional product marketing. Google doesn’t want the competition! Instead, they want content. You will rank better, have more authority, and generate those valuable links more easily.
• Run a lean, attractive ship. Make sure your site structure and navigation flows easily and quickly.  Pay attention to factors like load time (very, very important), a streamlined sales funnel, an uncluttered interface, and logical navigation.

Ecommerce is an exciting field, and when you put these tips into action, you can give yourself a competitive advantage, particularly when it comes to mobile.