In the world of ecommerce you should be concerned about the business of mobile ecommerce. Your website should be accessed via mobile devices. Here are four ways you can increase your site’s mobile ecommerce conversion rates.

Take advantage of QR codes to attract shoppers

Adding QR codes to print advertisements will allow shoppers to scan them and be taken directly to your mobile ecommerce website. The first step in increasing product sales via mobile solutions is getting your customers to your website in the first place.

Avoid drop down menus
Dropdown menus are easy to use on a laptop or desktop computer, when it comes to mobile devices that is not the case. Mobile users do not have the option of hovering over a link, which makes drop-down menus an extra step for shoppers. This added step is an inconvenience which could result in a loss of a potential customer.

Allow users to stay logged in
Your mobile device is your private device. You should feel comfortable remaining logged into websites. By allowing users to stay logged in also eliminates the inconvenience of the extra step and the hassle of typing in a user name and password.

Display product photos effectively
Mobile screens are significantly smaller than laptop or desktop computer screens. Shoppers will not put an item into their shopping cart if they cannot get a look at it. You want to offer photos that show different angled views of the products.

Today people are on the move, which means they reach for their mobile devices to complete everyday tasks. The convenience of providing ecommerce solutions via mobile devices is vital to your business. Make sure to update your mobile site frequently to stay on top of competition!

Content Marketing isn’t just about content. You must actively promote your content to receive continual exposure. Your website content is like your website itself; just because you have one doesn’t mean you will sell anything. You must promote your site through various marketing efforts. The same goes for your content. Update, promote, rinse, and repeat.

If your content is boring or does not provide information that is beneficial to your readers people will not return to your website. Enough said.

You want to incorporate content into everyday communications. Do not rely solely on social media to promote your content. Email is an effective way to promote your website’s content. For more tips check out our recent post on how email is a secret marketing tool that you should be using.

Creating relationships with others is always a plus. Relationships take time to develop. To get started you want to find influential blogs and start commenting on their blog posts.  Send them emails commending their work; you can also promote their content on your blog or twitter. Once an influencer recognizes and appreciates you, they’ll return the favor of promoting your content. Building these relationships is important because it helps your content spread like “Wild Fire”. Before you know it, you will become available to a new found community of followers. Do not be afraid to ask others to share your content. At the bottom of your blog say something like, “What did you think of this post? Leave a comment below and share!” See? It is that easy.

Today, many people prefer to receive content via their favorite social bookmarking site such as Digg or StumbleUpon. Each time you publish new content you want to submit your content to sites like these. By doing so, you increase your content’s exposure.

The main takeaway from this post is to actively promote your content. Here are a few additional ways you can promote your content across multiple channels.

Add social icons to the signature of your emails

Place your social icons in the header or footer of your site

Link to various channels within your content – blog, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

Search engines and human readers alike put priority on fresh content. Blogging makes it easier for your Ecommerce site to get involved with your industry’s online community. Read on for a few tips that will help you write effective blog articles that will attract the right audience, build a following, and most importantly give you the opportunity to put your products in a “clicks” distance away from potential customers.

First thing is first. Think about a problem your product solves or the desire it satisfies. In order for your blog to effectively reach your audience it must show immediate value. Before you begin to write your article, the following questions should be answered clearly.

What did your reader learn or take away from the article?
What was the unique insight you provide to them?

Not all products are self-explanatory or are supplied with clear instructions. Most products can be used in multiple ways. Open up your customer’s eyes to all your product can accomplish. Describe features you believe not everyone is taking advantage of. You want to give your audience insight and knowledge they didn’t have prior to reading your article. In order to sell your products you need to gain your potential customer’s respect and trust.

As you begin to blog regularly you should use analytics to figure out which articles are generating the most traffic, comments, and inbound links to your website. This will help you determine what your audience is interested in. This insight is critical to making the most of your blogging efforts.

What other subjects can ecommerce sites write about to generate traffic to their blogs? If you have any suggestions please share! We would love to hear from you.

Most businesses can get someone to buy a product or service from a website once, but the question is, will they do it again? We want your website to have a better 2012. Read on for tips on how to keep your customers coming back in 2012.

Going above and beyond
Offer something extra with every order. This doesn’t have to be a free product or something that is expensive. It could be as simple as an email that is personal and thanks your customer for ordering from you.  Doing something small and personalized can really help your customers think about you when they need the same product again.

Evaluate your call to action
Your call to action should be precise and help your customer understand what they should do next.  “Lose 30 pounds in three weeks” is an example of a call to action headline that pushes the customer to want to find out more about how they can achieve what the headline says. The most important thing to remember is your call to action is all about your customer. How is your product going to help them? How can you make the order process personal and meaningful?

Upgrade your shopping cart
The shopping cart helps keep tally and keep track of everything the customer is buying.  Making the shopping cart bigger and easier to see can remind the customer that they have something in it and possibly help increase conversions on your site. An example of a good shopping cart is Foxy Press – Shopping cart dynamically updates too!

Improve your return policy
This is a topic that most small businesses do not like to focus on. If you take steps to improve your return processes, you can make a huge difference with your customers. You want to process a refund as quickly as you filled the order.  Nothing builds trust between a buyer and a seller better than the confidence that both sides will follow through with their promise.

How do you keep your customers coming back? We would love to hear your thoughts!

How does your small business start making progress upward in the search engine rankings? Here are four things you need in order to get noticed by search engines.

You need content
This one is kind of obvious. Your content MUST be written to interest both users and search robots. When in doubt, always favor us humans. Write your content so it makes sense to a potential buyer/client, and make sure the content has a personality and coincides with your brand.

Use Flash in moderation
Search engines cannot read any content contained in Flash movies. Using Flash in moderation will add nice visual elements to your website, BUT your entire website should never be built completely out of Flash.

Inbound Links missing?
Getting ranked higher in the search engines is a popularity contest. You want outside sites linking to you. In the search engine’s eyes popularity equals authority. Authority means that others are citing your information and linking to your site as a resource, therefore you must know what you’re talking about.

You need a blog.
Don’t be intimidated, blogs are easy AND fun! Blogs are great for updating Twitter and Facebook. New content also attracts search engines. Be sure your headlines and content have keywords and you will start improving your rankings.