No matter where you look online, someone is talking about how great running an eCommerce business is.
Amazingly enough, they all want to teach you how to do the same!
Once you visit any of these guru sites or sales pages, you are then inundated with more remarketing ads on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Why do you ask? Simply because eCommerce is working so well for so many people right now.
eCommerce is growing year on year and according to Statista, retail eCommerce sales in the United States alone, are expected to jump over $700 billion by 2022. With that much money on the table, everyone is looking to step up their game and maximize the performance and engagement of their online stores.
This article will take a look at some of the top tools and recommended solutions for improving the overall engagement and optimization of your eCommerce site. Each of these solutions is unique in their own way, so be sure to skim through each and of them and see if what they offer might be a good fit for your eCommerce site and online marketing methods.
1. AliExpress: Drop ship products
One of the main reasons why drop shipping and eCommerce focused sites have exploded over the past few years is greatly in part to the success and transition of Alibaba and AliExpress.
Alibaba is one of the world’s largest shopping sites, but AliExpress is also the largest source for drop ship products, mostly out of China. The appeal here isn’t just in the potential profits, but also in the fact that many eCommerce platforms allow for direct integration with AliExpress – which means you don’t need to keep sending emails and order requests back and forth to have new orders sent out.
To see what’s currently trending and likely a hot seller, be sure to check out the main AliExpress site and see what type of new products and ideas you might able to market and make some good money with.
Another benefit of working through a site like AliExpress is that you can connect directly with vendors throughout the world. This is an amazing opportunity to grow your online store and brand not just from a profits and margins basis, but also by working with these merchants to create completely customized or original products to sell on your site.
AliExpress is one of the more popular platforms for creating custom products that can be sold through Fulfillment by Amazon as well. In either case, if you aren’t using AliExpress for product fulfillment or even just research, you are missing out big time!
2. mysimpleshow: Video creation tool
No matter where you look, video is in demand like never before. Not just from an audience perspective, but also for eCommerce sites and anyone looking to promote an offer or online business. This is something Facebook had struggles with in the beginning, but they are now dominating the paid video ads space like no one else – thanks to Facebook mobile and Instagram.
A tool like mysimpleshow has made the process of video creation a whole lot easier. Mainly focused on whiteboard and explainer videos, anyone can start creating online videos of their own with the simple click of a button, and dragging images and text to wherever they would like them to appear within the video. Script work and audio-to-text processes are also done live on the site.
According to their production company, simpleshow, the following benefits come into play when using video content on eCommerce sites and in marketing.
- Presentation: Placing the product centre stage
- Customer loyalty: Inspiring trust
- Purchasing decisions: Persuasion in motion
- Avoiding returns: Good explanations reduce disappointment
- SEO: Collect bonus points from Google
- Dissemination: “Shareability” is key
- Simply convenient: Capture the couch potatoes
When it comes to using video for an eCommerce site, there are plenty of things you can do. Such as creating individual videos for your best selling products, running 30-second ads on social media to reach new audiences, and also making boring product information come to life with an interactive video.
3. Business and product name generation tools
One of the most important things for an online business or eCommerce site to do is to try and stand out from the crowd and build a brand name for themselves. It’s not just about having a name that is unique, but it’s also about gaining the trust of your audience.
You can use any of these name generators to come up with a name for your website, brand, business, eCommerce store, and even for new products, you might be selling. This will become very useful if you are going to try and create products of your own through AliExpress, as we touched on earlier.
When trying to come up with a name for your business or brand, be sure to stick with something simple and easy to remember – but also somewhat unique. The same holds true for any products you might be selling.
If you are wondering why an eCommerce site might need to come up with new names for their products, this can help with branding and product searches for future and repeat customers. With so many sites selling the same stuff, bringing your own name and brand to your eCommerce store can give you that additional boost in sales and brand equity that you’ve been looking for.
4. Canva: Graphic design tool
With so many affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs jumping into the eCommerce and dropshipping game, there is also a huge demand for content in many forms outside of just written content. We just covered how to create videos for your site and marketing promotions, but what about fancy images and static ad creatives?
One of my favorite tools that I use on almost a daily basis, is Canva. Best of all, it’s free – but they also have a premium plan if you would like to upgrade and gain access to more features and images.
This tool is great for many reasons, but the most obvious is that it’s extremely easy to use and after a few short minutes of using the platform, you will be able to create some pretty amazing looking visuals. Even better, they have plenty of free templates for you to start with and then customize to your liking, while also matching your eCommerce site or brand in the process. These are perfect for eCommerce site owners, bloggers, or even affiliates just looking to create new ad campaign images.
To learn more about what’s possible with Canva, be sure to check out this article on their site that shows the many different ways you can improve your online presence, increase engagement, and authority through the use of visual marketing and branding.
Canva isn’t just for random images or visuals, it’s perfect for creating promotional images and flyers for your next mailing, or even to whip up a few nice looking designs for your next Google Ads or Facebook Ads media campaigns.
5. Bluehost: eCommerce web hosting
Just like any website or store on the internet, you need to have web hosting. We added Bluehost into this list for a couple different reasons. The first being that many people are using WooCommerce and many other WordPress plugins and templates to create their online stores. These features and tools are included in all eCommerce hosting packages on Bluehost. The hosting platform also offers free auto-install of WooCommerce, Free SSL, and additional PPC Credits for new customers.
When setting up an online store, many online sellers have a domain name and hosting for the main site and shopping cart, but they often don’t have a hosting account that allows for the building of a blog. Without an active stream of new content being added to your site, your store could be missing out on long tail keywords and additional rankings in search results.
Also, all plans with Bluehost include the following eCommerce features and bonuses:
A blog can play a huge role in the overall success of an eCommerce site for many different reasons. Besides providing more content to your audience, and ranking in search results for various keywords and products, it’s also great for building new mailing list subscribers and can also be a creative way to blend interesting topics and sales promotions together on your site. Individual product content is hard to promote, but once you have a blog in place, it can get a whole lot easier.
How to optimize your eCommerce site for peak performance
To win the game of eCommerce, there are several factors that come into play. Right from the beginning, it’s all about selecting the right products and knowing how to target the right audience. After all, if you are not getting customers to your site who are interested in buying, then you are going to have trouble making money with your site.
The good news is, that it doesn’t matter if you are drop shipping, selling your own products, or pushing leads through affiliate marketing – it’s all about testing what works and then testing new alternatives, products, and ad campaigns, to see where you can squeeze out a few extra clicks, conversions and sales here and there.
Be sure to run through the list above and see if any of these optimization, content creation, and marketing tools can help with the overall success of your eCommerce site.
Guest author: Zac Johnson is a world-renowned blogger and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience in the online marketing space and has helped his readers generate millions of dollars online. He shares his story and guidance at ZacJohnson.com