As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates digital transformation, e-commerce has now become the most basic means of transaction. In fact, the digital retail market will grow 32% in 2020, accounting for 14% of total retail sales. As a result, online retailers need more than ever, e-commerce marketing tips to fuel their growth. 

Everyone is paying attention to the growth opportunity of the digital retail market. So, if you’re a marketer looking to take advantage of a growing number of new customers, you’ll face intense competition from your competitors as well as everyone else. E-commerce giants Amazon and eBay are also entering the race. Therefore, in order to respond to such a situation, it is important for marketers to identify effective marketing strategies that lead customers to the checkout screen and lead to conversion. So, here are a few eCommerce marketing tips that can help you create conversions from shopping cart to checkout. 

1. Optimize your payment experience

Effective growth marketing is based on experimentation, where, above all else, the shopping cart experience should come first. When shopping online, the first place to check the final payment amount is the shopping cart and depending on the final amount, whether new customers purchase or not may vary. In fact, a study conducted in 2020 found that e-commerce customers did not order and left a whopping 88% of what they put in their e-commerce cart.

Another study found that another factor in cart abandonment was a lack of trust. Consumers may be concerned about security at the stage of entering their credit card information, or whether they can find a more reasonable price at the stage of checking the shipping cost. At this critical stage, you need to build and strengthen trust with your e-commerce customers so they can finish shopping and become long-term customers. 

To reduce customer dropouts from the shopping cart stage, you can try some practical strategies:

• Emphasis on policies that provide benefits: Many customers may be concerned about the effectiveness of their products at the checkout stage. Emphasizing a return policy or money-back guarantee can be helpful at this point. If a purchase is made, the majority of customers will choose to continue using the quality product, and those who do not will also have a positive perception of the friendly service.
• Offer multiple shipping options: Customers get frustrated if they only have one shipping option. So, if possible, offer a variety of options, such as same-day delivery service or free shipping tracking. When customers have a choice, they increase their confidence in the delivery service. Of course, you don’t need to add too many shipping options that are burdensome, you just need to provide enough options to give you a choice.
• Bug Fixes: It may sound obvious, but an error on the checkout screen, no matter how small, can destroy all the trust you’ve built with your customers. Always test your checkout screens and make improvements as soon as you encounter customer service issues.

2. Put customer retention first

Customers who have moved to the retention stage in inducing conversion are like the goose that lays golden eggs. In fact, according to one study , the success rate of sales to existing customers is 60-70%, while the success rate of sales to new customers is only 5-20%. 

That’s why successful e-commerce businesses prioritize repurchasing through customer retention. There are many ways to retain customers, but among them, operating a membership system is the most reliable. This is because you can receive various benefits such as reward points, discounts, and shipping tracking with one membership. 

Whichever benefit you choose, highlight features that enhance the value you deliver to your customers. For example, if you are introducing reward points, highlight the points required to redeem a full or partial discount on the checkout screen. Also, offer a gift to your old customers. 

3. Invest in Responsive Design

Thanks to their smartphones these days, customers can do research before purchasing a product. This is an advantage that no other customer in the history of shopping has been able to enjoy. With this in mind, marketers should design responsive content that customers can use on any device. 

Responsive content refers to web pages and marketing creatives that adapt themselves to devices. Customers shopping on a desktop will see one site design, and customers shopping on a smartphone will see a version of the design optimized for that environment. Since you can’t be sure that customers will download your app before finding your product, your web content should be viewed on the largest screen possible.

So, you need responsive content suitable for desktop, smartphone, and tablet screens. Make sure your images and text scale to the size of each display, and choose fonts and color combinations that are easily recognizable across all platforms. The more accessible your website content is, the more likely you are to reach a diverse audience.

4. Highlight customer reviews on social media

Social validation done by others is an important factor in deciding whether to purchase something using a particular shopping platform. Reviews from others who are happy with your shopping experience, especially from your acquaintances, increase your chances of making a purchase. 

You can highlight the positive testimonials of your customers. According to one study, 72% of millennials said they are considering buying beauty and fashion products they encounter on Instagram. In another study, 71% of customers found products recommended by their peers. When friends around you follow and ‘Like’ a specific brand post, your customer will also be able to take a closer look at the product.

As such, membership schemes, responsive web content, and payment optimization are all important to your e-commerce marketing strategy. Experience more successful e-commerce marketing by building close relationships with customers and reducing cart abandonment with unique programmatic advertising solution.