If you have landed on this page, there are two possibilities:
- You have recently built an ecommerce store and are looking for your first customers.
- You are planning to start your ecommerce store and are interested to know the process in attracting the first customers.
Whatever the reason is, we are here to answer all your queries that may arise when seeking for the first customers for your online store. Usually, you’ll find many platforms and websites telling you about what you should and what you should not do in order to grab the eyes of the first customers to your ecommerce store. However let us swim against the wave, for a while, and learn how an ecommerce store can attract its first customers to their ecommerce store. If you have researched well, you might know the importance of analyzing your competitors’ features and services to know the scope of improvisations you’ll need to stand out from them. In this blog, apart from looking forward to your competitors, we will be skimming through the key steps that were followed by some of the ecommerce giants from around the globe. Let’s go ahead!
Steps employed by ecommerce giants to attract first customers
Making the first sales on the ecommerce store is as significant as it is inevitable. It may seem to be a simple task. However, let us break the bubble; getting the first customers to your ecommerce store can sometimes be long and backbreaking. Following are some ways that were tried, tested, and turned out to be successful for many brands in attracting customers for their first sales:
A Beautiful Ecommerce Store
Indeed, when the seller is looking for ways to attract the first customers, they were having an ecommerce store. However, the question is; was it beautiful enough? The very first factor that grabs online shoppers’ attention is the design of the store. The online store or the website is the representation of the business and the crown to the brand. The design of the store can make or break the business within a fraction of seconds. It has to be professional as well as beautiful.
There are plenty of options in the online market to choose from and even if the products are of good quality, if the design of the ecommerce store is no up to the mark, the visitors easily back off. Since the visitors have just landed on the website, they can simply click on the ‘back’ button soon when they find the store less attractive. According to experts, the users’ decision whether to purchase a product or not is completely done within the first 3 seconds spent on the website. The website/ store design defines the credibility of the business and instills trustworthiness among first-time store visitors. Therefore, creating the first impression through the store design becomes all the more crucial.
Establish Visibility
When it comes to ecommerce business, creating room for your online presence is crucial. If online shoppers cannot see your store or website, they’ll never know about your existence. Visibility is the key to establish a successful ecommerce business. Every ecommerce giant you see today had started from ground zero and if they hadn’t established their visibility, probably no one would have known about their businesses even today. Be it your social media handles, digital marketing campaigns, or be it your new store launch, it is important to be visible to the online traffic while creating an abiding first impression.
Many successful ecommerce businesses have established strong visibility in many ways including blogging, SEO optimization, improving site speed, enhanced site reliability, powerful social media presence, and the list goes on. Establishing the visibility of an ecommerce store does not occur overnight. It is time-consuming that may require monetary investments as well as dedicated efforts. Here, site reliability is referred to as a website or store that guarantees speedy loading time that creates a handsome first impression for the first-time store visitors.
Homepage Personalization
It is known without saying that the homepage is potentially the first place where first customers visit when entering the ecommerce website. Therefore, it was vital for the prominent brands who once were beginners as well, to leave a great first impression in their customers’ minds. For instance, Amazon, one of the most eminent ecommerce giants has mastered the art of homepage customization. It offers unique customers with different homepages based on the products and services they liked or were interested to explore (Yes, you’ll need to understand your target audience, their interests, and other necessary details well before seeking the first sale).
There are many online tools and software available online to help you with collecting customer data. However, in order to collect customer data, they must visit your store, due to which this may be something that comes in the later stages. However, you can do some homework to study your target audience and invest in some paid as well as unpaid advertisements. Just be sure that before they land on your ecommerce website, it should be personalized and must provide the probable solutions to the visitors’ requirements.
Affiliate Marketing
Selling products all alone in the online world can be quite daunting and exhausting. Therefore, the best-practiced step to reduce this stress is affiliate marketing. It is a process where businesses let other people market their products and get some web traffic in return. For this, the businesses pay a percentage or portion of the sales generated through the process. The affiliate link is a unique link that gives access to only the affiliate partners for marketing the products. Now, the success of this marketing depends solely on the type of products sold, the method used to target the audience, and the commission given to the affiliate partner. If done right, the chances of bringing new customers to your freshly brewed ecommerce store can double or even triple.
Giveaway Free Samples
Is there anyone who does not love free goods? We presume No One! The brand who looked forward to grabbing visitors’ attention their ecommerce websites, considered giving away free samples to some chose visitors. This creates a rush or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in the visitors’ mind and hence boosts the number of clicks and subscribes to your ecommerce store. However, one fact to be remembered is that for this step to be of use, the prerequisite is to create a strong online presence and most importantly be visible on the first page of Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Ideally, you should be shown on any browsers available and used by the shoppers. However, Google is known to be the most extensively used browser with better results of visibility than all other browsers combined. The more efforts you put in lowering the hurdles of the online shoppers reaching your website, the higher are the chances of getting faster customer visits. This step may not give you monetary advantages, but it can surely help you get that first click on your website; and the rest is upon how you keep them engaged with your store and motivate them to become your customers.
Publishing Press Release
Publishing a press release is the most authentic and professional way to establish the authority of the business in the online world. However, many ecommerce businesses fail to get attention from the media with their PRs. A rich PR is supposed to be clear, concise, interesting, worthy, professional, and exciting. If the businesses have worked well on the PR, right from captivating headlines, to engaging and relevant content, their store is set to grab some serious attention from the media. And after this, they have not only got just get the first click but, many, many, click of potential customers from around the globe.
Conclusion
All the 6 ways listed above that are tried and tested by almost every ecommerce brand out there. You can choose some or all of your choice and attract your first customers that are to stay for pretty long. You might have understood by now that every ecommerce business had started and grown right from the basics and you can aim at reaching their level too. Contrary to the belief of requiring millions for a successful ecommerce business, these are some practically helpful steps to get customers for your ecommerce store. Here’s a bonus: You can create your ecommerce store as well as a mobile application using Builderfly Ecommerce Platform within a few bucks and manage your store, social media handles, mobile apps, sales, marketing, and everything you could possibly imagine, right from a single dashboard. Moreover, you can start your online selling journey for free with its Starter Plan that charges you nothing for creating your online store, connecting your domain, and start selling online. What keeps you waiting? Check out the platform now!
