Author: Rodney Laws

How To Use Trust Signals To Let Customers Know Your Website Is Safe

It’s easy to think of online shopping as safe to the point of being anodyne, but this is a result of sticking exclusively to the most well-known stores. Of course you’re going to have a decent experience ordering something through Amazon: it’s a corporate juggernaut with ceaseless investment in being the default ecommerce option. And if you can get everything you need through the usual suspects, then maybe you don’t need to worry about security…

…Except that approach supports a status quo that would utterly doom your ecommerce store.

You need shoppers to expand their horizons, looking to support smaller retailers and ensure that profits aren’t completely swallowed up by a handful of companies. If they won’t wander off the beaten path and take a chance on an unknown seller, you can’t make any progress, and your only option is to operate solely through third-party marketplaces.

You don’t want that, obviously. You want to maintain your independence by running your own dedicated store and growing your brand into a success that doesn’t need to piggyback off the architecture of bigger sellers. But if you’re going to achieve that success, you need a plan to convince prospective buyers that your website is just as reliable as sites like Amazon.

In this post, we’re going to explore how you can use trust signals to convince visitors to your site that it deserves their trust, ultimately pushing them to give you opportunities to win them over. What are trust signals, and what actions should you take? Let’s get into it.

What are trust signals, exactly?

The term trust signal is extremely broad, referring in this context to anything someone can find on your website that will make them more likely to trust your company.

You can, of course, have signals that provide the opposite effect. Think of egregious typos in your homepage copy, implausible prices or claims about order turnaround, or clear inconsistencies in your company details (suggesting that they’ve been altered or entirely fabricated).

When someone who doesn’t know much about your brand arrives at your website, they’ll be unconvinced but have an open mind. Your task is to seize the chance to convince them that you’re worth their time and money. If you don’t, they’ll go elsewhere, and you’ll lose out.

Mention payment security credentials

One of the biggest concerns people have when buying online is keeping their financial details safe. After all, they’re often called upon to volunteer their card information, and that information could easily be abused.

To reassure them that they can order through your store without major risk, you can mention whatever payment security credentials you can muster.

The easiest inclusions are supported third-party gateways that are already trusted, with PayPal being the obvious example. If you make it clear that you accept PayPal payments, people will know that they can trust your payment process to a reasonable extent (after all, they’ll have the option of seeking recompose through that service in the event that they’re unhappy).

And if you take card payments directly, you should have security safeguards in place, so let people know which ones. What schemes are you registered to? What standards do you adhere to? Security badges pertaining to governing bodies can be very influential.

Prominently display social proof

Who wants to be the first person to order from a new website? It isn’t very appealing because it involves charting unknown territory. It’s far better to wait until some others have tried it first, as you can see what their experiences are like. This is part of the power of the social proof, and the part that pertains most strongly to security and safety.

The other part, of course, more closely resembles peer pressure. The more people buy from your store and comment on it positively, the more popular your brand will be, and the more eager others will be to order from you. There isn’t always wisdom in crowds, but ecommerce is one arena in which mass interest and approval tends to indicate a decent company. You can also draw upon customer approval to power an affiliate marketing strategy.

Beyond just including a broad array of reviews, consider picking out some comments that relate to security and putting them on your homepage. The ideal review would outline some initial hesitation (mirroring what most people will be feeling) before making it abundantly clear that there was never any need to be hesitant — but if you have no such review, make the best of the comments you do have.

Offer clear terms and conditions

Ecommerce isn’t as simple as exchanging money for goods.

There are complicated terms and conditions involved: even if you don’t directly comment on them because you don’t have any, your store will be subject to the default terms and conditions for an operation of its type. And the thing about terms and conditions is that the notable absence of them is cause for concern.

Why would you omit such things if you had no issue with customers reading them? And if you don’t want customers reading them, it raises the question of what you’re trying to conceal. By making it easy for people to review your terms and conditions, you can show that you have nothing to hide and are eager to always operate with transparency.

You don’t need to overload your website with trust signals, but they’re definitely important.

Revisit your website from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with it, and consider how it comes across. What needs to be in place to make it seem trustworthy? Figure that out, then add the necessary trust signals.

December 1, 2020
How To Use Gamification To Build Brand Loyalty

Any modern business that isn’t investing heavily in brand loyalty is leaving revenue on the table.

In a time of intense competition and narrow margins, relying on the ability to bring in new prospects is a huge mistake. When leads start to dry up — and they always do — the results are inevitably catastrophic. But loyal customers will always be there to support you.

There are various viable approaches to earning brand loyalty, though, so it isn’t as simple as following a set formula that will compel your customers to stick around. You need to decide which tactics are suitable for your business in particular, and come up with a decent plan for implementing them effectively.

In this post, we’re going to look at one tactic in particular: namely gamification. This is the process of drawing upon game-design principles to create enhanced customer experiences that are significantly more engaging and can encourage users to stick around for longer. Enough preamble: let’s go through some core tips for using it to your advantage.

Make your user interface optimally easy

One key ingredient of gamification is animated feedback following actions.

In a game, after all, the player needs to know the consequences of everything they do so they don’t waste time and effort trying tactics that won’t work. This is also important for customer experience. When you hover over a button, something should indicate that clicking it will have an effect. When there’s a field that needs to be filled in, it’s standard to highlight it in a red hue to make it more noticeable.

By reviewing the entirety of your website’s user interface, you can pick out the parts where it’s anything less than abundantly clear what actions need to be taken, and you can draw upon the game design playbook to make improvements that will keep users moving in the right direction. Remember that your animations and tweaks don’t need to be showy — just useful.

Keep people updated on order progress

Just as your site should indicate when actions have been taken, it should also keep customers updated on order progress. The less information you provide, the more probable it will be that your customers will become frustrated with your store.

Consider the remarkable precedent set by other top brands that draw upon mobile apps to provide rich updates. Often, consumers know everything about their product’s journey — from the moment their order is received, to when it is dispatched from the warehouse, to the exact time it will arrive by courier at their doorstep.

Just as a game questline needs clear steps, your order process needs distinct parts that can be checked off to keep the customer informed. In addition to helping achieve and maintain loyalty, this will significantly reduce your need to provide customer support: if someone can see exactly where their order is in the fulfilment process, they won’t need to reach out to you.

Present the purchase thresholds for rewards

Assuming you have a comprehensive customer loyalty system in place (you certainly should), it’s worth thinking about how clearly it functions. Do you provide rewards on an ad-hoc basis, deciding when a customer has been with you for long enough? Do you have a tier system in place somewhere but communicate it poorly? Neither approach is ideal.

Instead, you should not only have a clear set of reward tiers, but you should also provide progress on the thresholds from the very first purchase.

If a customer can see every time they open their account exactly how far they are from earning admission to the next loyalty tier, it’ll push them to keep spending and reach that milestone — and it’ll be great for driving referrals.

Add elements of customer comparison

Why do customers want to hit reward tiers? For the rewards, of course (they can be quite substantial for big customers), and for the simple dopamine hits of achieving those minor goals.

But there’s another factor that should be taken into account: competitive drive. We all compare ourselves to our peers, after all, and it can be used to motivate us to act.

Video games have high scores and leadership boards so everyone knows which players are the best. While you shouldn’t take things that far, you should think about including statistics pertaining to customer habits: for example, you could tell a particular customer that they’re the biggest buyer of a particular item, and give them a discount as a reward. And if you told the second-biggest buyer of that item, you might motivate them to go for the top spot.

These are just some of the ways in which you can use elements of gamification to earn and maintain brand loyalty. After all, gamification is such a rich subject that there are so many more to be found. Start with these tactics and see how you get on.

November 27, 2020
Why Emotional Motivators Are Key For CRO
The process of conversion rate optimisation (henceforth abbreviated as CRO) is of paramount importance in the world of online business. So much effort goes into the extended process of lead generation, after all: being found in the first place can be difficult enough given the level of competition on offer, and then there’s everything that must be done to find relevant leads.

If you succeed in that endeavour and bring in a significant number of decent prospects only to drop the ball by failing to convince them to convert, all that effort will go to waste. CRO is all about critically examining the conversion funnel and finding ways to make it better. Do it well, and the result will be significant: even a slight uplift in conversion rate can have a big impact.

There are many facets to good CRO, but in this piece we’re going to look specifically at emotional motivators. If you’re consistently failing to convert even highly-relevant leads, this could well be the offending area. What are they, and why are they so important? Let’s get to it.

What are emotional motivators?

When we shop online, we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re making entirely-rational choices. There’s certainly a rational thought process involved, of course: we line up products, read reviews, consider costs, and do what we can to make our resulting actions justifiable. But it isn’t the only process affecting the outcome, because we’re heavily driven by how we feel.

And though I’ve opted for a featured image depicting some common emotional states (worry, anger, happiness, and sadness), it isn’t as simple as charting the desired emotion at any given time. Every online business tries to make its customers happy in a broad sense through working on customer experience, hoping to minimise issues that can bring them to anger. If you want to do CRO properly, you need to go deeper.

That means digging into more complicated emotional motivators: the impulses, drives and often-unspoken desires that influence our actions. Here’s an example: the desire to be part of something. Humans naturally group up and look to their peers for guidance and inspiration, and it’s often possible to draw upon this to construct compelling marketing materials and push referral marketing efforts.

Notably, some emotional motivators are in clear opposition. While everyone wants to be part of something, they also want to be different from their peers. They want the benefits of going with the crowd and the benefits of taking their own path. You can’t often target such contrasting motivators simultaneously, but you can target them separately in distinct cases.

Why are they important for CRO?

This follows straightforwardly from what we’ve already covered. Because our emotional motivators work in the background to sway our decisions, often without our conscious awareness, they can prove significantly more influential than our efforts to make rational decisions. We can’t control them anywhere near as effectively — and when they come to the forefront, they ensure that we take action somehow.

A CRO strategy that concentrates entirely on making practical and logical marketing arguments will inevitably prove inadequate. If you can build your core points around key emotional motivators — while ensuring that the practical points are taken care of — then you can hold attention more effectively and markedly increase the likelihood of earning conversions.

How can you take advantage of them?

So, having been through what emotional motivators are and why they’re so important for CRO, how can you effectively draw upon them for your ecommerce store? Here are some core tips:
- Work to understand your target audience. If you’re going to play upon the emotional motivators of your prospective customers, you need to understand them. Take note of where they spend their time online. Do they discuss things on Twitter, or Facebook, or Reddit? Follow their conversations and glean what you can about their lives. What are their most prominent emotional drives? Do they want to stand out or fit in? Are they looking for excitement or security? The more you can learn, the easier you’ll find it to target the right emotional motivators in ways that will prove compelling.
- Consider all viable types of media. Depending on what point you’re trying to get across, you might benefit from different types of media. Text is obviously the default, but imagery can be extremely powerful for emotive cases. The desire to stand out, for instance, can be catered to with bold and vibrant images. Alternatively, the desire for security could be accommodated with reassuring trust signals (or guide videos).
- Embrace a more informal tone. When you’re trying to play upon someone’s emotions, it isn’t the best idea to take a professional tone that can’t effectively carry emotion. If your copy comes across as bland and unfeeling, it’ll diminish the impact of emotional points. The more you can relax your tone and inject some more personality, the more easily you’ll be able to influence people’s actions.
Wrapping up, emotional motivators are essential considerations for CRO because they’re immensely important in the decision-making process (regardless of what products are being considered). Your marketing — whether on or off your site — needs to take them into account. If you’re not already doing that, make the change now.
November 24, 2020
How To Write Blogs That Increase Ecommerce Sales
Your ecommerce blog is a great way of increasing sales for your business. It can build your brand, increase trust in your company, and give you access to new audiences of potential customers.

There are many ways you can write blogs that drive up revenue for your business.

Rather than providing you with ecommerce blog outlines that might not fit exactly with your company, this article gives you solid ideas and tips that you can use to create valuable content.

From writing SEO optimised posts to incorporating UGC, this is how you can write content that helps bring more business to your ecommerce company.

Create ecommerce blog content that’s SEO optimised

Creating SEO optimised content for your ecommerce blog is a great way to increase your sales. This is because it puts your ecommerce products in front of people that are interested in buying the things you’re selling.

SEO stands for search engine optimization.

It’s a tactic that’s used to increase your rankings in search engines, putting your web pages in front of people that are conducting searches that are relevant to your business.

However, creating this content only works as a sales aid if your rank for the right terms.

Credit: Seobility

To increase your revenue you need to rank for your money words. These are the keywords that will help you drive traffic to pages that will lead people to buy your products.

You need to find the right terms for your business and this means conducting keyword research, then incorporating these keywords into your blog.

There are many great resources available to help you carry out your keyword research and Moz is one of the best places to find them.

The One-Hour Guide To SEO is a great guide for beginners. It features a number of easy-to-digest videos that will give you the tools you need to create SEO optimised content for your ecommerce blog.

Include clear CTAs in your ecommerce blog posts

Using CTAs in your content is an excellent way of writing content that turns your ecommerce blog into a sales tool. The reason for this is that CTAs direct your audience to complete actions that ultimately lead to them buying your products.

CTA is short for call to action. You’ll have seen these used in various types of content already, but you may not have realised that you were being eased towards doing something the site wanted you to do.

There are two vital details with CTAs that you need to get right if you’re going to use them in your ecommerce blog to boost your sales.
- They need to go to the right web pages for your business
- You need your audience to interact with them positively
Credit: Seobility

The first point is the simple one. You can address it by establishing what pages you want your customers to get to. These will generally be product pages, but they could be category pages.

The second point requires more thought. However, there are some best practices you can follow with CTAs to make them more enticing.

The video below gives you some that you can use in your ecommerce blog posts right now. It’s also a good idea to review your previous posts and make sure they’re primed for conversion.

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Explain the benefits of your products in your ecommerce blog

Using your ecommerce blog posts to talk about the benefits of your products is a great idea. You can do this by establishing what the benefits are for your products, then writing a blog post pr series of blog posts that are about these.

For instance, it may be that you sell trainers. One benefit of these is that it makes people fitter. So you could write a blog post about how being healthier has a far-reaching impact on your life, helping you to feel happier at work and home.

In this example, you can show that one of the benefits of your products is that they can help people to get fitter and healthier by providing their feet with the support needed to perform rigorous exercises with confidence. After explaining these benefits in detail, you can include a link to a product or category page to help boost sales for your chosen target page.

Credit: PXFuel

One thing to keep in mind is that you must talk about benefits and not features.

It’s simple to make the mistake over talking about product features over benefits. Features are easier to discuss because it’s more about something looks than how it feels.

Unfortunately, in the case of many products, people don’t make the same connection with how something looks as how it makes them feel. This is because ecommerce is a huge industry and many products look very similar.

And the problem is that if you make this mistake then your ecommerce blog posts are less likely to have a positive impact on your sales.

Use your ecommerce blog to tackle audience pain points

Audience pain points are the questions your audience needs answers to.

They drive them to search for solutions and you can use your ecommerce blog to make your products the thing that eases their pain. Do this successfully and you can increase sales for your business.

Using audience pain points to inspire your blog content is a similar strategy to focusing on benefits, as it addresses questions your customers have and makes your products the answer.

But it goes further than focussing on your product benefits. How? By working backwards from the things that drive your audience and finding ways of linking it to your products – whereas writing content that focuses on benefits operates in the opposite way.

Credit: PXHere

There are many ways you can establish what your audience’s pain points are. One of the best is to create buyer personas for your ecommerce business.

Buyer personas are a market research tool that creates an image of your ideal customers. This takes into account things such as your customers’ behaviour, demographics, goals, and motivations.

Once you’ve got your personas you can create content that addresses their pain points.

You can then use this to increase your ecommerce sales by adding in links to your business’ product and category pages.

Incorporate UGC into your ecommerce blog

UGC stands for user-generated content. As the name suggests, it’s content that’s created by your audience. Not only is it a great source of free material for your ecommerce blog, but it’s also a great way to increase sales for your business.

The reason UGC is so good is that people trust the opinions of their peers as much as recommendations from friends and family.

The point is that they trust them more than your views because they don’t think there’s a vested interest, so including UGC on your blog makes your brand more trustworthy.

Credit: Free Stock Photos

You can leverage this on your blog by including testimonials from your customers.

Returning to the trainer example used earlier in this article, you could add a quote from one of your customers to a post on your ecommerce blog.

It might say something like “I was able to run for longer because these shoes were more comfortable. This means that I’m exercising five hours more every week and I feel much healthier because of this.”

This then helps increase sales for your ecommerce business because it validates your products — if a customer sees that one of their peers is benefiting from their products, then they’ll see it as an unbiased recommendation and will be more likely to buy from your company.

That’s just one way of leveraging user-generated content to build trust in your brand. You can find some more great ideas by watching the video below:

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Think about adding guest posts to your ecommerce blog

Guest blogs are what they sound like — they’re when you publish an article from another site to your own blog. This is a great source of free content for your business, but it also helps to increase sales. How? By giving your business access to new audiences.

Any external site that you publish on your ecommerce blog will have a vested interest in sharing the content on their social media channels. This puts your business in front of new followers and provides a potential new source of customers.

However, you should go further than this. Instead of just adding guest posts to your ecommerce blog, you should enter into a partnership with other sites by also writing content for their blog.

This will improve the chances of you reaching a new audience further still and increase the likelihood of you making more sales.

Great ecommerce blogs your business can learn from

We’ve given you some great tips to help you write and create ecommerce blog posts that will help to increase sales for your business.

To finish things off, we’ve picked out two great examples of ecommerce blogs that you can use as inspiration for your own content.

Shopify: ecommerce blog with lots of informational content

Credit: Shopify

We spoke earlier about audience pain points and how it can help you to increase sales for your business.

Shopify is a leading ecommerce platform and it’s the expert when it comes to creating ecommerce blog posts that tackle the problems its audience (and customers) encounter.

It splits its blog into the following categories:
- Latest Articles
- Business Ideas
- Grow Your Sales
- Product Updates
- Founder Stories
- Shopify Compass
These are focussed on topics that are relevant to both current and aspiring ecommerce business owners – it gives them the tools to start a business and to address any issues they encounter once they’ve launched their company.

BigCommerce: an ecommerce blog that knows how to use CTAs

Credit: BigCommerce

We explained earlier how using good CTAs in your ecommerce blog can help increase sales for your business.

BigCommerce is a popular ecommerce platform and it has a great understanding of how to use CTAs to help drive its audience to its money pages.

Some of the CTAs BigCommerce uses include:
- Linking to free trials of its platform
- Directing them to product pages
- Asking people to sign up to its email list
The last point is an interesting one because it may seem like it offers little scope to boost your sales.

However, by collecting the email addresses of your customers you can engage in audience segmentation. This allows you to learn more about your customers and create targeted blog posts that address their pain points.

There’s no one size fits all approach to writing ecommerce blogs that increase sales for your business – one tactic may work for a rival company but fall short when you apply it to your own.

However, what does fit for all companies is having a set of ideas you can work with.

We’ve given you plenty of great tips for how to write ecommerce blog posts that will increase sales for your business. All that’s left now for you is to start putting these ideas into practice.
November 20, 2020

Best Dropshipping Tools for Ecommerce Businesses

Dropshipping is one of the most exciting innovations in ecommerce since Amazon and its contemporaries changed the way we shop online forever.

The flexibility and low-investment nature of dropshipping makes it a model anyone with a bit of retail knowledge and a great eye for products can make a success of themselves with.

Of course, we all know a project can sometimes only be as good as the tools you have at your disposal. That’s not different when the tools are digital.

To make sure you’re running your business as efficiently as possible, betting on the right product trends and making the customer experience as smooth as possible, we’ve put together a list of the best dropshipping tools available right now. Read on to find out more:

The 5 best dropshipping tools

Tool Name	Supported Platforms	Key Features	Price
Oberlo	Shopify	The leading dropshipping ecommerce tool – slick, great price points and easy to use.	Starter – Free Basic – $29.90 Pro – $79.90
Spocket	WooCommerce	Quick access to products for a more Western audience	Starter – $19 / Month Pro – $49 / Month Empire – $99 / Month Unicorn – $299 / Month
Sell The Trend	N/A	Insight into the hottest products on the market now and how to promote them	N/A
Zendesk	Oberlo	Versatile customer service done your way	Lite – $0 Professional – $15 Enterprise – $49
Answer The Public	N/A	Fantastic insight into the exact questions consumers are asking	Free – $0 Monthly – $99 Annual – $79 / month

Best dropshipping tools for ecommerce platforms

The platform you choose can make or break your ecommerce store. There are a few standout options on the market available for dropshipping specifically. Let’s explore the very best.

Shopify: Oberlo

Shopify is one of the leading ecommerce tools and a must-consider for any dropshipping store owner.

Developed exclusively for Shopify, Oberlo is one of the most recognisable names in dropshipping, and with good reason.

Oberlo is a Shopify app or marketplace that helps you find products you can dropship.

Once you’ve effortlessly integrated Oberlo into your Shopify store you can browse its marketplace for products to sell and add them to your store in an instant. This creates a clear pipeline for your business where consumer orders will be shipped directly from the supplier.

Shopify and Oberlo are phenomenal tools for dropshippers that focus primarily on making the whole process easier. If you’re a Shopify user who appreciates the ease and user-friendly nature of the platform (particularly as a beginner), this is the perfect place to start your dropshipping journey.

Oberlo has three pricing plans — a Free Version, Basic Plan and Pro Plan which all feature increased useability, functionality and features depending on the price.

WooCommerce: WooDropship

WooCommerce is a brilliant free tool that dropshippers looking to run a WordPress website should heavily consider.

Unlike a Shopify store — where hosting is free —— you will need to pay for hosting to get your dropshipping store online. Other than that, it is a simple service that gives you a great platform to bring your dropshipping dreams to life.

WooDropship offers much of the same integration with AliExpress as Oberlo (through AliDropship) — adding products to your site and allowing you to start placing orders. It automates the shipping process to make including items on your store a much more streamlined process.

It’s automated price updated feature makes sure you’re always up to date with AliExpress price alterations — helping you keep track of profit margins and make sure orders remain profitable.

Shopify: Dropified

Oberlo might be the bigger name in the dropshipping community — but a significant number of store owners will nail their colours to the Dropified mast.

While it is slightly more expensive than some of the tools we’ve already covered (including no free plan), it is a versatile tool that does all the basics you could want from a dropshipping platform very well.

Everything integrates seamlessly with Dropified and the essential auto-updating price, profit margins and availability sync makes it easy to keep a store going. It also features its own store with products shipping directly from the US.

Want to manage several stores in different niches? Dropified allows you to do that from one account. And you can even learn how to manage your store better with the helpful training center videos.

Image Unsplash

Best dropshipping tools for order processing

Orders are the heart of a dropshipping business. If you aren’t getting orders, your store is heading nowhere fast.

These tools make the order process easier for both you and your customers.

Note: some of these tools will have their own suppliers, while others will connect to other dropshipping websites.

Spocket

Compatible with both Shopify and WooCommerce — this nifty little tool gives you an alternative way to source products for your store.

Unlike many of the product sourcing and order processing tools we’ve covered so far, Spocket has their own selection of dropshipping product suppliers — 60% of which are based in the US or Europe.

That means you can offer much faster delivery times for your store.

If you’re looking for variety in your store, this machine learning powered discovery tool will make it easy for you to get samples of your product, and get full orders out across the world almost instantly. An excellent addition to your store that helps at both ends of the process.

Ecomdash

A multi-channel inventory management system —— Ecomdash combines traditional ecommerce methodology with dropshipping automation functionality.

This tool can be integrated with a number of high profile platforms including Amazon, eBay and Shopify to manage orders seamlessly.

Features include setting supplier prioritization to route orders automatically, SKU mapping for an accurate tracking of your products, and the automatic updating of your sales channels with shipping and tracking info.

Ecomdash takes lots of little things all ecommerce store owners need done well and puts them in one simple, constantly updating, package.

Spark Shipping

Running a dropshipping store requires a fast, automated process that can happen in the background.

Spark Shipping is perfect for just that — working with all major vendors to route orders to the most suitable supplier, synchronise your inventory and track your orders in detail.

Best of all Spark Shipping is known for its integration with other multi-channel management solutions (such as ChannelAdvisor) meaning if you want to build on your store and back end processes you don’t need to abandon it and it’s benefits.

Best dropshipping tools for website performance

Reviewing and managing your website’s performance is an essential step in improving its overall performance and user experience.

Here are some tools that give you precious insight into your store’s performance and highlight key issues:

Google Analytics

A phenomenally powerful and popular tool that gives you a holistic view into the inner-working of your website and the success of your marketing channels.

Putting aside valuable insights into organic traffic, social media campaigns and email newsletters for the time being, Google Analytics is an essential dropshipping tool. It’s great for getting a full picture of who uses your website, what they respond positively to and how you can make simple changes to improve their experience and attract more like-minded consumers.

An essential tool for ecommerce of all kinds, Google Analytics lets you drill down into your store’s visitor data, allowing you to segment your audience, and decipher not just how they found your store, but what exact steps they took on their customer journey.

From helping you restructure your product pages to recognising what your most profitable landing pages are, Google Analytics is a website performance essential.

ZIK Analytics

Designed specifically with dropshipping in mind — ZIK Analytics is an excellent tool for eBay dropshippers to find products and learn about the dropshipping landscape.

This tool helps you optimise your listings and boost website performance. Best of all, it gives you invaluable insight into what your competitors are up to. With ZIK you can learn from the sellers that dominate the market.

Their competitor research tool is robust and gives you an idea of what products are selling best for them. This gives you key knowledge of the most important factor in dropshipping currently — which products are hot on the market right now.

Image Unsplash

Best dropshipping tools for marketing

By now, everyone knows how important digital marketing is to the success of an ecommerce store — and this is no different whether that’s traditional ecommerce or dropshipping.

Here are some great marketing tools for aspiring dropshippers and seasoned professionals:

Google Trends

Google Trends won’t help you post to Facebook or become a must-follow Instagram account — but it will give you an idea of what products people are talking about and might be a great focus for your dropshipping store.

This is no ordinary SEO tool. With it’s easy to use interface Google Trends gives you a clear indication of what seasonal topics, products and niches people are interested in in raw data terms. There’s no subjectivity — just a case of noticing what buzz is sustainable and what’s a fad already on the way out.

It’s also a great tool for edging out the competition and monitoring their ranking position and popularity online.

In terms of marketing, Google Trends can be used to find related topics and do “content freshness” — essentially create new content to boost your store and stay on-trend.

Sell The Trend

Sell the Trend is a unique tool comprised of many lots of smaller tools.

A newer tool for dropshippers to play around with — Sell the Trend is an incredibly comprehensive product research tool that doesn’t just give you key insights into the popularity and sales history of certain products, but also provides example Facebook ads that will help your products get noticed.

Rather than subscribing to a whole host of product research tools, Sell the Trend gives you everything you could want in a neat package.

In terms of a marketing tool, Sell the Trend is a more dropshipping and ecommerce-focused version of Google Trends. Not strictly designed for marketing but incredibly useful either way.

Omnisend

Email marketing is still crucial to ecommerce — and something any good dropshipping store needs to invest in.

When it comes to professionalism and bulk delivery, there are few better tools than Omnisend.

With Omnisend you can send up to 15,000 free marketing emails per month — more than enough for any good dropshipping store just starting out. There’s not much more to it than that. And what more could you want from an email tool?

Coupled with something like Zoho Mail to create a professional-looking email address, this is a quality tool that will help you get significant exposure in consumer’s inboxes.

Omnisend is very user-friendly for new dropshipping store owners — but helpful alternatives such as MailChimp exist if you prefer a slightly more guided interface.

Buffer

Marketing can be exhausting and repetitive. That’s why any good dropshipping store owner that values their time but wants to create a comprehensive social media profile should make a great social marketing automation tool one of their first investments.

Buffer allows you to create a unique schedule for sharing content on all of your social channels — such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Sure, there are lots of great social management tools that allow you to do just that. However, Buffer thrives in the simplicity of its interface and processes. You can freely edit, move or delete posts from your social queue at will without hassle.

With a great free plan and more comprehensive paid plans you never need to worry about working late filing social posts ever again.

Best dropshipping tools for customer support

Staying in touch with your audience is critical to keeping them on side.

The advent and growth of the social proof phenomenon is point enough that customer service is one of the most essential components of ecommerce, and key to making your store stand out and retain consumers.

G Suite

For fans of Gmail and Google Cloud services looking to integrate them into their customer support — G Suite is the perfect fit.

Unlimited custom email addresses with the added benefit of a familiar Gmail email interface? Sounds good to me. If your business makes heavy use of Google tools such as Calendar or Docs it makes sense to use this seamless tool.

With helpful prices scaled to the size of your business, G Suite is a great starting point for businesses that need a simple way to analyse their customer interactions through email and provide the best support service possible.

Tidio

However, some would say customer support has evolved beyond emails and direct calls. What if you want to complement your dropshipping store with a high quality live chat function?

Tidio is one of the most impressive live chat tools on the market. This adaptable plugin (it’ll work on both Shopify and WordPress among many others) is a brilliant tool that merges marketing automation, bots and live chat functions to improve your customer service output and boost sales.

With a free option and a ton of customisation options to tailor Tidio to your branding specifications, this is an excellent tool for new dropshipping stores looking to make their customer service second to none.

Zendesk

Dropshipping is a unique business model that attracts a huge number of different customers — and each of those customers will have services and support preferences.

Luckily for dropshipping store owners, Zendesk offers all the customer support platforms and functionality a new or existing store could want to flesh out their customer base or expand their services.

This customer service solutions suite includes live chat, call centre phone systems, a knowledge base and a customer support ticket system — all integrated into the same package and easy to use.

With a package this complete, dropship store owners can both react to customer queries and questions in a timely manner, and provide them with the content they need to answer questions themselves — without taking precious time away from you or your employees.

Best dropshipping tools for SEO

For those not in the know, SEO is the unrivaled key to online success in all online businesses, including dropshipping ecommerce.

Comprehensive, well-done SEO can often be the difference between a dropshipping store taking off with a passionate audience and one that fails to capture attention.

Whether you’re just starting out with SEO or an experienced analyst looking for the best possible tools, these are some fantastic options.

Ahrefs

There are too many reasons to list why Ahrefs is one of the most popular and well-respected SEO tools available.

Ahrefs has expanded to become one of the most multi-purpose SEO tools on the market, whether you’re looking to link build or analyse traffic to your store.

It’s most well-known feature is its Site Explorer. This allows you to analyse any website (including your own) and get vital SEO information such as DR (Domain Rating) and number of backlinks. Basically, it’s the best look at what’s beneath the SEO hood of your website you can get.

With a world class UI and exceptional insight into data, there are few better places for a growing dropshipping store to turn for a look into both their own insights and the market at large.

Keywords Everywhere

If you’re just looking for the right keywords to prioritise on your website then a tool like Ahrefs can be a big investment. That’s where a tool like Keywords Everywhere comes in.

This free Chrome and Firefox tool pulls search engine data from a whopping 16 different websites and delivers the results in a neat little package for you to analyse.

Search volume, cost per click and competition level — it’s all here for you to analyse and put to use in your content.

There are lots of tools out there that give you insight into the keywords that could give you mountains of traffic to your website. But few offer the comprehensive overview and access to low-hanging fruit that Keywords Everywhere does.

Answer The Public

It’s great to know what keywords are popular amongst your potential audience — but it’s even better to know exactly what questions they’re asking Google.

Answer The Public is a keyword research tool with a difference. It pulls data directly from Google to give you a comprehensive overview of your keywords as well as any related queries. This is essential information that can craft future pieces of content and the products you build your store around.

Answer The Public isn’t such a brilliant tool just because it gives you insightful data about keywords — but because it puts exact queries in front of your face (incredibly detailed diagrams and all).

Best free dropshipping tools

We all like free stuff right?

Free tools don’t always get the best rep due to their lack of cost, limited features or perceived inferiority in comparison to industry leaders.

However, there are a number of free tools that can help simplify and streamline running a dropshipping business. On top of the great free tools we’ve already covered, here are some brilliant pieces of free dropshipping software.

Google Keyword Planner

In our previous section on SEO we covered a couple of different keyword research tools. While any of these could be used, Keyword Planner is a great free and easy option to use.

This Google tool allows you to tap into Google’s massive keyword database.

Okay, it’s not quite as fleshed out as many leading keyword research tools. But as a free option? There’s not much better than it around. Plus, everything you’re getting is straight from Google.

Amazon Best Seller

Not quite a tool — but something all dropshipping store owners should be using to their advantage

The Best Sellers section on Amazon is a great way to get insight into the popularity of specific products on other marketplaces.

A great little research hack — Best Sellers lets you browse through product categories and subcategories to see what’s popular with shoppers at the moment. While it won’t tell you exactly how many units have been sold, it’s a simple little way to learn what public opinion surrounding the product is before you invest in selling it or use it as a key promotional item.

Clicky Analytics Tool

If Google Analytics doesn’t quite gel with you, then Clicky Analytics might be a better tool choice.

This simple tool is feature-rich — including all the basic Google Analytics data alongside real-time stats. Don’t tell the Google Analytics purists, but we think Clicky might just have a more user-friendly and better looking interface, making it much easier to file those end of the month reports for your store.

If you love Clicky, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans which also includes features such as heatmaps to get a clearer picture of what is and isn’t working on your site.

There are literally hundreds of exceptional digital tools out there for dropshipping stores to take advantage of — with even more being released every day as the model becomes increasingly popular.

These are all brilliant tools to get started and define what works for you and your approach to dropshipping.

November 13, 2020

Best Ecommerce WordPress Themes

In theory, a WordPress theme is a simple collection of templates which forms the front of your ecommerce store. But in practice, they are so much more.

In today’s climate, retailers are clambering to get online. But to stand out from the crowd, you need an eye-catching site — one that will draw traffic and convert. Therefore selecting the right WordPress theme could be pivotal in creating your dream website and finding success online.

But choosing the ideal theme is no menial task. Like Goldilocks’ porridge, it’s all about getting it just right for your business. How would you envision your dream storefront? Start there and think about your message, buyer personas and the overall feel you are trying to create.

Read on to discover some of the best ecommerce WordPress themes for your store, and how they can help create your perfect business.

WordPress theme comparison table

Theme	Page Design	Features	Customisation	User-friendly	Price
Astra	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Neve	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Storefront	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Divi	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐
Flatsome	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Shopkeeper	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Avada	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐	⭐
Brutal	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐

Astra 🥇

Image: websitedemos.net

Cost: Free from the WordPress online shop with premium features available up to $59

Astra is one of the most popular ecommerce themes in all of WordPress; widely used across a variety of platforms for its speed and overall usability.

The theme’s simple but customisable nature lends itself perfectly to flexibility, meaning Astra is not only one of the best ecommerce WordPress themes — it’s a fantastic tool across the board.

The upside of using Astra over similar themes is the overall value on offer; good at everything, master of none. Astra is an all-rounder, making it the WordPress theme to beat for any web designer.

It’s capable of supporting all your ecommerce needs and is rich in features and plugins, including support for WooCommerce and many more.

Here’s the kicker: Astra isn’t one theme, but many. The package allows you to import a variety of templates, each tailored to the nature of your store.

One downside, however, is the design. No matter which template you choose, Astra can come across as a little dated and drab. While many alternatives prove to be more eye-catching, you couldn’t ask much more from a free theme.

Check out how the Astra WordPress theme performed in our rating system:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Quick off the mark for a free theme	❌ Dated and drab design
✔ Ecommerce support and plugins	❌ Maybe too basic
✔ Variety of tailored templates
✔ Simple and recognisable

Overall, Astra isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best ecommerce WordPress themes — if not the best ecommerce theme available for free by a long shot. If you’re a novice looking to dip their feet into online sales, look no further than this all-round gem.

Easy to use, functional and customisable — Astra ticks all the boxes you need.

Looking for a little extra zest? Astra’s purchasable premium features provide an added boost to your selling needs.

Neve 🥈

Image: themeisle.com

Cost: Free with paid versions ranging from $39

Neve is a versatile WordPress theme accompanied by a selection of interesting page designs. You can sell comfortably with a bold, accessible storefront; each design is fully functional and ready for use right out the gates.

The user value of Neve is easily good enough to rival front runner Astra. But the theme really sets itself apart through its instantaneous usability.

Additionally, the page design is stunning, even compared to traditional paid-for themes. Neve is fluid, modern and eye-catching — perfect traits for user satisfaction.

Neve is also fully compatible with WooCommerce and any other similar plugins on the market. This makes it ideal for any small business looking to make a big splash on the web

Best of all? It’s SEO friendly, meaning search engines like Google and Bing absolutely love to see it. By using Neve, you’ll give your ecommerce shop a great foundation for maximising customer reach.

However, Neve falls well below expectations in regards to features. In fact, there are basically none. Its slick design creates sparse, often empty-looking sites. Is this minimalism, or far too simplistic?

For some stores, this is probably acceptable. But it’s a deal-breaker if you’re looking to bulk up your online shop with all the bells and whistles — in which case, you’ll be more inclined to opt for the tried and tested Astra.

Let’s see how Neve stacks up against our rating system:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Instant and responsive page design	❌ Light on features
✔ SEO friendly	❌ Lacking in customisation options
✔ Fast and simple

Considering all the ups and downs, Neve almost beats Astra to the top spot. The page design makes a fantastic theme for any small business on a tight budget.

Neve’s purpose is simple — fast, punchy and concise — but this leaves little room for anything else. For that reason, Neve has to settle for a strong second-place finish.

Looking for a balanced theme? This isn’t the one for your business. Unlike Astra’s all-round capability, Neve is geared to do one thing really well, which makes it shine particularly bright in the world of ecommerce.

Storefront 🥉

Image: themes.woocommerce.com

Cost: Free of charge

Storefront is the optimal theme if you’re looking for quality on a shoestring budget. And as the official WooCommerce theme for WordPress, there’s definitely a case for it to top this list on pedigree alone.

Being intertwined with the ecommerce platform, it comes as no surprise Storefront integrates seamlessly with the WooCommerce plugin. But the benefits of this for online sales extend far beyond a few branded buzz words.

WooCommerce tops the charts in the ecommerce industry, with its platform now hosting almost one million live websites. Building websites with such a well-known brand only serves to strengthen consumer confidence.

However, as themes go this one is fairly limited compared to others on the market. Storefront’s benefits are only applicable to newcomers and if you’re looking for a customisable or more intricate experience, you’ll be left frustrated.

Now the basics are covered, read on to discover how Storefront performs against our rating system:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Great for beginners	❌ Extremely limited customisation
✔ Connected to a respected brand name	❌ Not a great choice for seasoned users

Rest assured Storefront comes with very few downsides; selecting this theme to represent your online store is a solid, reliable choice.

But while it’s made it to our best ecommerce WordPress themes list, if you want anything other than the basics, you’ll be left bitterly disappointed (although its simplicity can also be a massive plus).

WooCommerce’s official theme allows even the most inexperienced of beginners to start trading online, growing the industry from the bottom up.

Divi

Image: elegantthemes.com

Cost: No free version, $89 asking price

Divi shares many similarities with Astra — a fantastic multipurpose theme which does everything to a really strong standard.

in terms of popularity, it is right up there as well. Beloved by users for its sharp design, paired with diverse customisation and plugin options.

Divi is unique to Astra through its stand out drag and drop feature — something that allows you to make live changes to your site through its very own page builder.

Most notably, Divi is incredibly malleable and can be manipulated like putty in the hands of a capable designer. You can create all manors of combinations, to the point where it’s hard to pick out a Divi template from the pack because each page could be unrecognisable from the next.

Divi allows creatives to really get carried away and build something special. But if you aren’t very comfortable playing around with a template, working the interface can be a little tricky. And after forking out the asking price, you don’t want to be left wondering what to do.

Let’s take a look to see Divi stands up to scrutiny:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Fantastic freedom and customisation	❌ Not for beginners
✔ Lots of ecommerce plugins available	❌ Too many options
✔ Real time editing	❌ Quite expensive

It takes a skilled hand to get to grips with a Divi template, but if you can master its capabilities, the designs you can create are magnificent and unique. For experienced and creative pros, this is one of the best ecommerce WordPress themes.

The only problem is that the package doesn’t come cheap. Therefore, it’s hard to justify paying the price when themes like Astra are free of charge.

If you’re a creative soul who has experience in page design, the Divi is the perfect theme for you.

Flatsome

Image: flatsome3.uxthemes

Cost: Premium listing of $59

Flatsome is another versatile theme, which is why it’s garnered a lot of attention within the ecommerce community over the years.

Wherever you look, this theme is topping the charts, and for good reason too — Flatsome is simple, stylish and constantly updated to keep relevant year on year.

This theme is ideal for beginners because you can build stunning landing, product and checkout pages without having to be a coding wizard.

When it comes to the world of ecommerce, converting leads into sales is the optimum goal.
And with fully customisable pages across each stage of the transaction, you can tailor the buying experience directly towards your target audience.

So that’s a big tick for getting the basics in line. But where Flatsome finds its niche is the catalogue view. This streamlines the entire process, placing all your products in the eyline of all the site’s users.

However, given it’s a pretty expensive theme, the idea of only being given six months of customer support is a little underwhelming. As a beginner, it’s nice to feel secure in your purchases. Therefore the online support system is clearly this theme’s biggest downside — along with the price tag.

Think this could be the theme for you? Let’s make sure by looking at Flatsome through our rating system:

Page design: ⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Great customisation options	❌ Pretty expensive for one domain
✔ Always receiving updates	❌ Weak on user support

Flatsome is a fantastic theme and its seemingly infinite popularity only serves to affirm this.

The customisation options, which can be tailored for ecommerce, is a huge plus for small businesses looking to make an initial impact.

But if price is a deal-breaker then you best look elsewhere. Although Flatsome is great at what it does, there are plenty of themes which perform similar functions, either cheaper or completely free of charge.

Shopkeeper

Image: shopkeeper.wp-theme

Cost: $59 premium theme with an additional paid option to extend user support

With the latest and greatest Shopkeeper 2.9 update, this theme is one of the best around if you aren’t put off by the price.

Shopkeeper is a fully responsive package built with ecommerce functionality front and centre. Boasting flash designs and complete WooCommerce integration, online businesses can make the most of their website by using the theme.

Unlike many other themes, ecommerce is the main bragging point. This isn’t a generic theme with a few plugins thrown around here and there.

Shopkeeper — much like its namesake — is all about completing sales in a professional manner. Where the theme lacks in customisation options, it more than makes up for it in overall efficiency.

Containing a selection of set page designs, Shopkeeper makes the most of an open, sprawling layout — perfect for fashion and clothing. If you’re looking to really showcase your items and write informative reviews, look no further.

Additionally, Shopkeeper contains drag and drop features in the same ilk as Divi. And although user support is time-sensitive, there are dedicated YouTube videos to refer to whenever you like.

Here’s how Shopkeeper stacks up against our rating system:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Designed specifically for ecommerce	❌ Takes some time to get used to
✔ Responsive	❌ Paid theme

Cost aside, Shopkeeper looks to be a great theme for any online retailers, big or small. But is it one of the best ecommerce WordPress themes out there?

Its specific design is often a little limiting, and being a paid theme it would be nice to see a little more variety on the screen.

With that being said, Shopkeeper is the perfect theme to showcase products on a pleasing open platform, like a digital catwalk.

Avada

Image: avada.theme-fusion

Cost: $60 premium theme with a paid option to extend user support

Avada’s 7.0 update has allowed it to grow into a really strong ecommerce theme — flush with customisation options, a responsive layout across all devices, and WooCommerce functionality to top it all off.

With all the above and more, it’s no surprise Avada is considered the number one WordPress theme across every facet of its user base. Although the price seems expensive, Avada definitely gives you value for money.

However, learning how to use Avada can be pretty difficult for users who have acclimatised to other themes already. Avada does things its own way — which isn’t necessarily wrong, just different.

But although the learning curve is steep, strangely enough, newcomers have a slight edge, given they haven’t got used to using another package.

Do you want to join the thousands using Avada? Let’s take a closer look to see if it’s the theme for you:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐
Price of theme: ⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Lots of demo sites for starters	❌ Very expensive (price per site)
✔ Integrated front end page builder	❌ Often does too much and gets confusing
✔ WooCommerce features	❌ Not for the faint of heart
✔ Great customisation options

Often people invest in Avada on name alone, not knowing exactly what they are in for.

Avada is fantastic if you can get to grips with it, but overcoming the learning curve is no mean feat. And as well as being expensive and complicated, the WordPress theme offers little free support.

An undeniably brilliant tool for skilled website designers, if you want a simple theme to sell your stock, Avada isn’t that. But if you have the money and can take the time to understand this theme, its upsides are nearly infinite.

Brutal

Image: brutal.demo

Cost: Annual fee of $89 plus an extra $49 to receive year-long support and updates

Does a minimalist design appeal to you? Brutal is a fresh-looking theme, perfect for today’s market.

No pomp, nor clutter, this theme is as concise as it gets, not to mention it is incredibly pleasing to the eye. Brutal is for businesses who are confident in the aesthetic of their product and need to show it off.

As such, this will appeal mostly to fashion retailers and clothing brands, because Brutal lets your designs do the talking.

If you were to pick out an obvious downside, it would be the extortionate price attached to them. All in, a package which comes to just under $140 far exceeds anything we have seen so far.

But is it worth it? I’m unconvinced. Although Brutal clearly has its merits, the emptiness of the theme also means fewer features and customisation options are available.

What you see is what you get. And for a theme that commands such a high fee — that’s simply not enough to warrant the price tag.

Let’s see how Brutal compares to its competitors:

Page design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features: ⭐⭐
Customisation: ⭐⭐
User-friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price of theme: ⭐

Pros	Cons
✔ Best page design I’ve seen	❌ Very expensive
✔ Great for fashion brands	❌ Lacking in features
✔ Very simple to use	❌ Few customisation options

Overall, Brutal is an aesthetically striking theme that would make me proud to showcase a product on.

However, if you’re paying this much for a theme, you’d expect more than a fancy gallery. This is a great theme that I want to love. But for the price tag alone, my praises come with a hint of disdain.

Summary of all the best ecommerce WordPress themes

With millions of different WordPress themes on the market, choosing just one to develop your online business can be a daunting task. Often you will find yourself dipping in and out of redesigns, unable to commit to one theme.

But rest assured, these are some of the best ecommerce WordPress themes out there, and there are few better themes than the ones mentioned above.

With special mention to Astra, Neve and Storefront, each offers something different for your business. And at the end of the day, it’s purely up to your personal preference and needs.

Have any of these themes piqued your interest? Head to the best WordPress theme stores and begin building an ecommerce website of your very own.

November 6, 2020

Why Every Ecommerce Business Should Engage in Referral Marketing

If you run an ecommerce business, you know all it takes is a few quick messages and clicks to make a sale. The same can be true to gain a new customer — if you use referral marketing.

Referral marketing is the process of motivating customers to share your business with others. By utilizing existing relationships, incentives, and word of mouth, an ecommerce business can see exponential growth by using this tactic.

Below, we go over a few other reasons why every ecommerce business should engage in referral marketing.

Referral marketing works alongside your current operations

Take a look at your existing customer communication. Do you post on social media, conduct customer surveys, or send transactional emails? These are all perfect opportunities to include referral marketing.

The best time to ask a customer to recommend your business to others is when they’re at their happiest — usually after a purchase or standout experience.

Make the most of these moments by including a catchy call to action at the bottom of your emails. Something like “Share the love,” “Tell your friends,” or even a straightforward “Give £10, Get £10.” A brief mention of your referral program and its benefits is enough to continue the relationship with your customer.

Referral programs are easy to start

Thanks to specialty software, an entire referral program can be set up in just a few weeks. This is less than the amount of time it takes to conceptualise most other types of marketing campaigns.

Not only can the right referral software tool integrate into your ecommerce site without any difficult coding, it can also track the program’s progress and referral rates.

Many steps can be automated, including sending out the reward incentive or adding new referrals to a list of leads. Plus, all the collateral can be customized with your brand for a completely seamless experience.

Referrals are one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies

Think of referral marketing costs like commission — you only have to pay when you make a new sale.

Aside from any software and management costs, referral marketing is pay per performance ( therefore, low risk). Most of what you spend for are the referral incentives, which are only paid once you make a sale.

For example, say you offer £20 for every successful referral and receive 20 referrals in the first month. The amount you pay for incentives (£800) is only given after you’ve already closed those 20 new customers. If you don’t get a new customer, you don’t pay a thing.

In fact, discounts, store credit, and even non-monetary incentives can be enough to generate referrals. Plus, they encourage repeat business from your customers.

Referral marketing shines on social media

Whereas word of mouth originally took place offline, from person to person, much of today’s word of mouth happens through social media and online communications.

Referral marketers know this, and allow customers to send messages through their preferred social media or messaging platform.

A good referral campaign will include a pre-drafted message that can be customized or used as is. It will also offer a range of social share buttons so customers can easily and quickly send the message to their friends and family.

With businesses inviting their customers, and customers messaging their family and friends, referral marketing maximizes your presence on social networks.

Referrals add to your social proof

Referral marketing also builds social proof. And for an ecommerce business, this can be what leads a potential customer to your business.

It makes sense: When others hear about your brand from their family or friends, they’ll automatically see it as one that’s trusted and valuable.

In fact, 83% of respondents across the globe trust recommendations from friends and family — much more than commercial ads, online review sites, or email campaigns.

And since your customer’s network is likely to have many others in your target market, these referrals will be more inclined to check out your business.

Referrals lead to long-term customer relationships

A goal of any retailers is to form long-term relationships with their customers. Referral marketing helps do that, with rewards that encourage goodwill and repeat business.

Most successful referral programs offer discounts or store credit, which incentivize customers to stay loyal to the business. The referred friend often also gets a similar incentive to increase the odds of a first purchase.

Referral marketing works because in addition to spreading the word about your brand, it forms a mutually beneficial relationship between ecommerce businesses and its customers.

Referral marketing software makes data easy to track

If you run an ecommerce business, you know how important it is to track data. Click through rates, average order value, conversion — these all help inform you about the customer’s shopping experience.

Well, referral programs help round out the picture. Referral marketing software tracks the number of successful referrals per customer, what platforms they use to share, and which rewards encourage the most referrals.

Many marketers even send out an initial survey to see who of their customers are most likely to refer others to a business. These are the best customers to invite to your program and get the referrals rolling.

Plus, if you notice one of your customers is especially active in referring their friends, you can develop the relationship even further and ask them to be a brand ambassador or influencer.

Expand your ecommerce business

The benefits of referral marketing have helped a number of ecommerce businesses expand their customer base.

If you already see some customers recommending you to others, it’s a good time to try referral marketing. The reward incentives and easy ways to share will only help build on that organic word of mouth.

And since referral programs can run completely online, they can be integrated and managed alongside your ecommerce store with ease.

About the author:

Kat Dalao is a content manager for Referral Rock. She’s spent her career in publishing, first as a writer and then as a creative director for a magazine. She’s currently based in New York, where she enjoys doing random projects, exploring the city, and cooking.

October 6, 2020
Understanding Your Google PageSpeed Score

You’ve got a shiny new website all ready to showcase your store’s products. You’ve invested in great product photos. You’re ready to slip the switch and make some money.

So, you launch, investing your first few hundred dollars or so into some targeted Facebook ads.

Crickets. No conversions. No sales.

You look at your stats and, while the ad got good engagement, most of those clicks didn’t translate into full-fledged page views.

Especially on mobile.

“What happened?” you ask yourself.

We explain what happened.

PageSpeed matters

Have you ever clicked on an ad, interested to learn some information about a cool new product, service, or company, only for the website to take forever to load?

What do you do?

Easy, bounce.

You have better things to do than wait several seconds for a page you were only nominally interested in to load.

So, you leave.

The same thing happens to you, when your website is slow. And slow websites are expensive — especially for ecommerce companies — because conversion rates drop by xx as page load time increases by 1 second.

For an ecommerce company, conversion rates and revenue are closely linked to one another.

Testing your website’s PageSpeed

Before optimizing your website for speed, you have to get a baseline.

First, head over to Google’s free PageSpeed Insights Tool. Enter in your website’s name (ex. www.mywebsite.com) and click “Analyze”.

You should get something back that looks like this:

Credit: PageSpeed Insights

Right away, you’ll see a score for this page, based on several factors, discussed in more detail below. As you can tell from the legend underneath the score, a score of 0-49 means your page speed is poor. A score between 50 and 89 is considered competitive. A score above 89 is considered good.

By default, this test only analyzes one page, on a mobile device. More specifically, a mobile device on a 3G network. The idea is simple: if your page loads fast under those conditions, it should load fast under much better conditions, such as 4G networks, fiber connections, or desktop browsers.

Because the test only scans one page at a time, you should test a few different pages to get a sense for overall performance. Or request a complete site analysis from your website developer.

It’s highly likely that pages like your homepage — which may have product sliders, social media feeds, or the like — will run more slowly than pages like your blog, which are largely text. So, run the test a few times on a few pages.

Understanding your score

Once the test runs, you’ll see a section that looks like this underneath your overall score.

Credit: PageSpeed Insights

These metrics can help you start to get a sense for where/how to start improving page speed scores.

But, first, you should know what they mean.

First Contentful Paint

This refers to what marketers call ‘above the fold’ content — the first thing(s) you see when a website loads. For most people, it’s the banner image & text on your homepage. This metric matters because until this First Contentful Paint occurs, the person on your page doesn’t have anything to look at. During this time, they are left wondering what’s going on on the website and are highly likely to bounce if this exceeds 1-2 seconds.

Time to Interactive

Just because you can see a page, doesn’t mean you can do anything on it. Imagine going to google.com and having to wait 30 seconds before you could use the search bar.

That would be terrible and you probably wouldn’t use Google anymore.

Same thing with your website.

While First Contentful Paint shows how long it takes for a user to see something, Time to Interactive measures how long until the user can do something.

Total Blocking Time

Webpages are made up of a lot of code that the browser deciphers into images and text we can see.

But computers don’t see things like we do.

They parse the code.

Top to bottom, until it’s all parsed.

Except sometimes there are scripts or code snippets that have directions to stop parsing until they finish executing. For example, you might use custom fonts and you (or your developer) set up the website so that it doesn’t load until those fonts are available, so it always ‘looks right’.

When a browser can’t parse the content it wants to parse because it’s waiting for some other code to finish running, this is called blocking. The code that hasn’t finished running is blocking all the code behind it from running.

And it’s not a good look.

Largest Contentful Paint

While First Contentful Paint measures how long it takes for the first few elements to be visible to a user, Largest Contentful Paint measures how long until the lion’s share of the content is visible. Once the Largest Contentful Paint has loaded, the page is generally considered “done loading” and the browser is ‘done’ with most of its work — meaning the user should now be able to consume the contents of the webpage at their leisure.

Speed Index

The Speed Index describes (about) how long it takes for the full page to load.

Cumulative Layout Shift

Have you ever been on a website like Forbes when it shifts up or down, so that an ad can be served?

Super annoying, right?

Cumulative Layout Shift measures the degree to which elements on a page move after it’s loaded. The lower the better because users don’t want their experience interrupted unpredictably or without their express consent (e.,g clicking a button).

How to Improve PageSpeed

Knowing a little bit about how the web works and what the different sections above mean is a great way to start improving your PageSpeed scores, increasing conversion rates, and selling more products.

In general, you’ll see a section on your report that looks like this:

Credit: PageSpeed Insights

Unfortunately, everyone’s report is going to look different, so it’s a bit hard to offer specific advice to you without an assessment of your website, but there are a few culprits we see that, when addressed, can radically help improve PageSpeed.

Manage images properly

People are visual and so it’s natural to want to have images on your websites. Fortunately for us, our hi-def cameras and phones take beautiful images.

Unfortunately, though, these images are often massive and bloated, which means they can take a long time to load. Large images at the top of the page will make both your First Contentful Paint time and Largest Contentful Paint times go up.

Your best bet, when uploading images to your ecommerce store, is to shrink or crop them before uploading them to your store. Generally, you don’t need images wider than 1000px (except maybe for an intro slider), so resize images down small enough to increase speed, but large enough they aren’t grainy.

If possible, use .jpgs for photos and .pngs more sparingly. JPG files are usually smaller file sizes and don’t need to be as ‘crisp’ as .png images (like logos and icons) need to be. If you have the technical skills, use .webp images — which are both small and hi-resolution — but have a plan for supporting browsers that don’t support .webp (like Safari).

Finally, ‘lazy load’ images towards the bottom of the page. Lazy loading refers to the practice of not fully loading a resource (image) until the user gets to that part of the page. That prevents the image from being a “Blocking” resource as the page loads.

Clean up your Javascript

The second thing we see a lot of are code snippets in the ‘head’ tag that increase the First Contentful Paint and Total Blocking Time metrics.

When a browser gets to a 3rd party script, it very often has to go off-site to where that script is stored, process it, and then come back before it goes on to the next line of code.

While this might only be a few hundred milliseconds, those milliseconds add up to real seconds. And can destroy your PageSpeed scores.

If your First Contentful Paint and Total Blocking time are greater than 2 seconds and 1 second respectively, this area merits a look.

Remove/reduce unnecessary code

While being able to add and edit your own website content is really helpful, it can also make getting a fast website really difficult. Page builders and Content Management Systems’ (like WordPress or Shopify) themes can bloat your code.

You can easily end up with stylesheets, javascript, and 3rd party resources being loaded on pages where they are not needed.

The result is a site that is unnecessarily slow, but ‘easy to use’.

Fortunately, there are tools your developer has that can allow them to load scripts on certain pages, while excluding them from others. It might take a few days, but they can probably help you load scripts smarter.

Small tasks, big wins

When working on improving PageSpeed, it’s very common to see poor scores across the board. Part of this is the cascading nature of the report — a long First Contentful Paint will generally cascade to a long Large Contentful Paint (afterall, if the first part hasn’t loaded, how can the largest part load?) and long Speed Index. If code bloat is a problem, Time to Blocking and all the Contentful Paint metrics will be high.

So, start with factors related to your First Contentful Paint, such as reconfiguring (or eliminating) Javascript and code bloat. These small tasks will cascade through the rest of your metrics.

Next, address your images, since it’s manageable without a developer — albeit laborious.

Finally, have your developer review the remaining items and work with you to come up with a plan to handle the rest.

By the time you get there, though, you will probably have realized substantial benefits in PageSpeed and should start seeing your conversion rates and sales increase.

Nobody likes a slow website and, for ecommerce companies, a slow website impacts negatively on sales. Head over to Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool, evaluate your website, and get started trying to optimize for speed today.

October 2, 2020
How To Build A Successful Affiliate Programme
What makes a successful affiliate programme? Well, it depends on a variety of factors (such as the quality of your affiliates, your commission structure, your products and services, and the effectiveness of your affiliate management). This article will discuss each factor and a brief discussion on why you should have an affiliate programme for your business.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the practice of allowing other people to promote your products and services in exchange for a commission. This commission is usually a percentage of the profits for every sale. Commissions are only paid when a successful sale is made.

It is a concept that came from old salespeople who only get paid when they managed to sell something. Even the word ‘commission’ came from that advertising model. When salespeople (or affiliates) get paid for every person, they are encouraged to buy a product or service.

Why this works

Affiliate marketing works because you allow expert marketers to do your promotions for you. Instead of doing it yourself, you let people with lists and followers do the heavy lifting. It works because these people are usually experts in converting leads to sales.

You may be wondering how you can convince world-class marketers to promote your products and services. Well, the primary reason why affiliates look for products to promote is they don’t have the time to come up with a product themselves. So they usually look for products from affiliate networks and focus on promotions.

How does affiliate marketing work?

Knowing that it works is different from knowing how it works. While the concept is simple, the process can get quite technical. It is not just about what it can do but what happens in the background. All of these steps are necessary for an affiliate programme to work.

Step 1

An affiliate signs up to an affiliate programme. He or she is then given a unique affiliate ID, which is appended to the product URL. He or she can then use this link to promote the product.

Step 2

When someone clicks on the affiliate link, a cookie is placed on the person’s computer who clicks the link. This action will ensure that the affiliate will get credited when the person who clicked the link purchased the product from the same page days later.

Step 3

When a sale is made, the affiliate cookie is searched on the customer’s computer. If it is there, the deal is credited to the affiliate.

Step 4

The affiliate programme should create reports showing the affiliates all his clicks and sales.

Step 5

Once an affiliate meets a payment threshold, his commission is then released to him.

This is how the process works. But the elements involved are varied.

First, you need an affiliate signup page. This is where potential affiliates can sign up for an account.

Next, you need an affiliate dashboard. This is where affiliates can get access to his affiliate link and his referral reports. This is also where he can request payment.

Then, it would help if you also had an administrative dashboard. This is where you can view all of your Xaffiliates and pay all of their commissions in one click.

Is affiliate marketing right for your business?

Now that you know how affiliate marketing works, you may wonder how it applies to your business. Affiliate marketing, after all, is not for all types of business.

You cannot give away hefty commissions if you have incredibly low-profit margins. You may be far better giving away your products without making profits if you deduct commissions from your low-profit margins.

You need to understand that it is a promotion model that works by giving away commissions for every sale. You need to adjust your profit margins to make room for the commissions.

So how do you know if your business should have an affiliate programme? That’s simple. You look at similar products and services in your industry. If you found that they also have an affiliate programme, it might be a good fit for your business. If not, you may want to skip it and think of other ways to promote your products and services.

It also helps to look at how long an affiliate programme exists in business before you make a decision. Having products and services with longstanding affiliate programmes in your niche is a good indication that you should pursue it.

Another way to find affiliate programmes in your niche is to use search queries that will help you uncover these. Here are some keywords that I use.
- PRODUCT OR SERVICE + affiliates
- PRODUCT OR SERVICE + affiliate programme
- PRODUCT OR SERVICE + affiliate marketing
Once you have decided that an affiliate programme is for you, you can start setting one up on your website.

How to build a successful affiliate programme for your business

The process of setting up an affiliate programme for your website will highly depend on your website platform. It is all about finding the right referral software so that you can set up an affiliate programme in just a few clicks.

Shopify, for instance, has some apps that help you create affiliate programmes. This is what websites like Best Drum Set Labs and Most Powerful Crossbow Labs have used for setting up an affiliate programme on their website.

Here are some of the most popular apps.

OSI Affiliate

Many ecommerce business owners prefer OSI Affiliate or Omnistar as their go-to tool for affiliate programmes. The best part is the software keeps on improving. It considers all the needs of its market and has functionalities for influencer and referral marketing. Maybe these functionalities are the reason why big brands like Macy’s use Omnistar as their affiliate tool. The functionalities are just unique.

LeadDyno

LeadDyno is another popular affiliate marketing tool that integrates with platforms like Shopify. It is popular because of its seamless integration with payment systems like PayPal and Coinbase. These payment systems allow for more manageable affiliate commission payments.

Refersion

Another affiliate platform worthy of your attention is Refersion. It is a tool that has over 100 five-star reviews. Its popularity is mainly due to its free plan, which expands as your business grows. You can upgrade to their paid plan when you get more affiliates and leads.

With the right software, you can set up an affiliate programme in a few steps. This will allow you to have a dedicated admin and affiliate dashboard where all affiliate links are automatically generated within the system.

All affiliate cookies are also tracked within the system, and the corresponding commissions are computed accordingly. With a system like this, you no longer have to worry about manually doing everything; the software will assist you in creating an industry-standard affiliate programme for your business.

Finding the right affiliates

The success of your affiliate programme will highly depend on the performance of your affiliates. Without the right companions, you will only have affiliates by the number. But you will not feel the results.

You’ll know that you have the right affiliates when you see a significant increase in sales.

A few effective affiliates are suitable for your business. Some brands like Twitch even created stringent requirements for their affiliates. They require them to have a badge of honor before they can promote the brand.

While you cannot do this if you are not a big brand like Twitch, it still helps to have your own set of requirements when qualifying affiliates who will promote your business.

There are many places that you can visit where your affiliates may hang out.

Your website

You’ll want your website visitors to know that you have an affiliate programme. There may be some marketers lurking looking for some opportunities to promote your products for all you know. It helps to have a link to your affiliate programme right on your website homepage. You can have it in the announcement bar, on the sidebar, or a pop-up window. This simple gesture can immediately inform your existing website visitors, subscribers, and customers that your programme exists.

Email

They say that your customers or followers are the best people to promote your business. The easiest way to reach your customers or followers is to send an email. One message can contact all of your followers in a single click. So it can be useful for promoting your affiliate programme as well.

Social media

One of the best sources of effective affiliates is social media. It helps that the users have become more active in recent years. You can reach more people if you promote your services on social media. Brands know how valuable social media is. Some brands even choose to promote their affiliate programmes solely on social media, and it works for them.

Influencer websites

You can also promote your affiliate programmes on influencer websites. Influencers are great because of their massive impact on the decision-making process of their followers. You can leverage this by getting influencers in your team of affiliates. A technique that worked for me in the past is to create an exclusive programme for influencers. It can be an affiliate programme, but the commission percentage is different for your target influencer. This usually encourages the influencer to join your affiliate team.

Affiliate networks

Another place that will get you some effective affiliates is affiliate networks. These are the websites that marketers flock to when they are looking for products they can sell. It is a great way to gain exposure for your products and services and find effective affiliates in the process.

Joint venture websites

Some of the best affiliate marketers are in joint venture websites. These people earn big bucks promoting other people’s products. They do this by going after product launches. They look at products they can sell, and then they create content for it before it even launches. When the launch day comes, they are already ready to promote and monetize. This is effective if you are only in the first stage of launching your affiliate programme. This will give your plan some much-needed traction so that you can start getting a team of high-performance affiliates to your business.

How to manage affiliates

Once you have your affiliates, you should know how to manage them. Here are three ways

Have a clear set of rules

Affiliates may seem like they only have one way of promoting your products, and it is posting their affiliate link. But you’ll be quite surprised by how creative they can be. Because of this, it is essential to have a clear set of rules. It would help if you told them outright what qualifies for a commission and what doesn’t. This way, it will protect your system from abuse.

Teach them how to promote you

Some of your affiliates will need some extra help in promoting your products and services. You can provide them with content, emails, and graphics to assist in the advertising process. It also helps if you have a proven way to get sales. You can teach them the system, and this will enable them to be more effective affiliates for your business.

Have a tracking system

You will only see how well you are performing if you have a tracking system. Effectiveness depends on how well your affiliates can convert a qualified click into a sale. With this system, you will also be able to filter your affiliate list and find high-performing ones. You’ll find that you can have a very successful affiliate programme with a handful of top-performing affiliates compared to a dozen non-responsive ones.

Automate your payments

Your affiliate system is here to assist you. It gives you a scenario where your affiliates can sign up and get their unique affiliate ID. And it also gives you a system to automate your payments. Use that to your advantage. Instead of fretting about affiliate paydays, click a button and automate it. This will ensure that you pay your affiliates on time and you keep them happy.

As you can see, there is no single formula for a successful affiliate programme. You still need to launch one yourself to find how it can work for your business.

Author Bio: This article was written by OSI Affiliate Software.
September 16, 2020
5 Emails Every Ecommerce Seller Needs
Email marketing is the most powerful tool in your arsenal to get people back to your ecommerce store. But beyond the typical promotions and order detail emails that you’re used to seeing, here are five key emails that you need to send to improve your shopping experience and increase your ROI (return on investment) and CLV (customer lifetime value).
1. Welcome email
2. Abandoned cart emails
3. Review requests
4. Related and recommended products
5. Re-engagement emails
Ecommerce welcome email

Your welcome email is the first email a subscriber gets after they’ve confirmed their subscription to your list. It’s an easy one to overlook, especially if you’re sending regular emails to your list.

Your welcome email is the first chance to establish your brand and start building a relationship with your customers. Even in ecommerce, people want to buy from companies that they know, like, and trust.

A welcome email is also a great time to delight your customers. If coupons or discounts are part of your strategy, give them a coupon here to use on their next purchase.

Remember, many subscribers will join your email list when they make their first purchase, so your welcome email will arrive later. To avoid the inevitable “can you apply this coupon to my existing purchase?” customer service inquiries, make it valid on any upcoming purchase in the next 30 days.

As an added bonus, you can send a follow-up reminder for people to use the coupon code before it expires.

Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails are pretty routine in ecommerce marketing. Most ecommerce email marketing systems offer an out of the box abandoned cart email.

Take some time to truly customize these emails to align with your brand. If possible, show the products they have in their cart in the email.

You can also use this opportunity to show related products that other customers have purchased, either with or instead of what they’ve considered.

According to Barillaince, the average conversion rate for shopping cart abandonment emails was 18.64%. Take a quick look at your current abandonment rate — and consider what it would mean to your bottom line to get 15-20% of that revenue back into your bottom line.

Abandoned carts emails are also an opportunity to increase the size of your shopping cart by suggesting related or alternative options to what’s in their cart.

Review requests

Consumer proof is one of the strongest tools in your toolbox when selling online since customers are often unable to properly engage with your products until after they’ve said yes.

Reviews are powerful tools to increase sales and provide you with virtually unlimited marketing content to take off the site as well. According to Neilsen’s research, 73% of online respondents use reviews to make purchase decisions.

Send a review request email 1-2 weeks after the product was received and ask for the customers to provide you with feedback. Give the option to reply directly to the email if something wasn’t right and a link to write a review for the product they purchased if they loved it.

While they’re there and thinking about how great their last order was, they may just add something new to their cart!

Related & recommended products

Almost anything you sell online can have another accessory that goes with it. From adding on an AirPod case that matches their new iPhone case to the perfect socks to go with their upgraded running shoes. Finding and recommending the products that your customer needs next is a sure-fire way to convert a one-time customer into a lifetime customer.

Luckily, with today’s sophisticated dynamic email features, you don’t have to build all of these emails manually. With an ecommerce focused email marketing system, you can use all the work you’ve put into cross-merchandising inside your shop, along with the browsing data collected, to dynamically build and send these emails on a regular basis.

Re-engagement emails

Last but not least are re-engagement emails. Also called win-back emails, these emails can get people opening your content and shopping again — or keep your email list clean. As many people as there are out there talking about how to bulk up your list numbers, having a clean email list is even more important. Re-engagement emails should be sent after customers haven’t opened or clicked on emails after three to six months.

The series is simple —- you simply ask them if they want to continue getting the emails. If so, they click through. If not, you will remove them automatically. Have your click-through go to a top-rated or new product category on your shop to encourage them to start browsing as well.

Removing unengaged subscribers from your list means that you’ll spend less each month on your email marketing system plus get better results from every email you send.

Don’t stop there

While these five types of emails are important to support your ecommerce business, don’t stop there! Continue to send traditional email campaigns with special offers like promotions, new product announcements, and shipping updates.

Also, look at your own experiences to identify new opportunities to encourage engagement with your email list. What opportunities have you missed because you simply didn’t know? What information would have helped you make the most of a previous purchase?

Education is a powerful tool that you can use throughout your email marketing campaigns to increase customer loyalty and engagement.

About Brandi Johnson: Brandi Johnson is a marketing consultant and coach with over 15 years of online marketing experience, including content marketing and email marketing. She helps overwhelmed business owners create and implement marketing strategies that support their business goals with less time. You can find her blogging over at heybrandi.com. Her book, Minimum Viable Marketing: Find the Right Pieces to Build Your Marketing Strategy is available now
September 10, 2020

Author: Rodney Laws

What are trust signals, exactly?

Mention payment security credentials

Prominently display social proof

Offer clear terms and conditions

Make your user interface optimally easy

Keep people updated on order progress

Present the purchase thresholds for rewards

Add elements of customer comparison

What are emotional motivators?

Why are they important for CRO?

How can you take advantage of them?

Create ecommerce blog content that’s SEO optimised

Include clear CTAs in your ecommerce blog posts

Explain the benefits of your products in your ecommerce blog

Use your ecommerce blog to tackle audience pain points

Incorporate UGC into your ecommerce blog

Think about adding guest posts to your ecommerce blog

Great ecommerce blogs your business can learn from

Shopify: ecommerce blog with lots of informational content

BigCommerce: an ecommerce blog that knows how to use CTAs

The 5 best dropshipping tools

Best dropshipping tools for ecommerce platforms

Shopify: Oberlo

WooCommerce: WooDropship

Shopify: Dropified

Best dropshipping tools for order processing

Spocket

Ecomdash

Spark Shipping

Best dropshipping tools for website performance

Google Analytics

ZIK Analytics

Best dropshipping tools for marketing

Google Trends

Sell The Trend

Omnisend

Buffer

Best dropshipping tools for customer support

G Suite

Tidio

Zendesk

Best dropshipping tools for SEO

Ahrefs

Keywords Everywhere

Answer The Public

Best free dropshipping tools

Google Keyword Planner

Amazon Best Seller

Clicky Analytics Tool

WordPress theme comparison table

Astra 🥇

Neve 🥈

Storefront 🥉

Divi

Flatsome

Shopkeeper

Avada

Brutal

Summary of all the best ecommerce WordPress themes

Referral marketing works alongside your current operations

Referral programs are easy to start

Referrals are one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies

Referral marketing shines on social media

Referrals add to your social proof

Referrals lead to long-term customer relationships

Referral marketing software makes data easy to track

Expand your ecommerce business

​PageSpeed matters

​Testing your website’s PageSpeed

​Understanding your score

​​First Contentful Paint

​​Time to Interactive

​​Total Blocking Time

​​Largest Contentful Paint

​​Speed Index

​​Cumulative Layout Shift

​How to Improve PageSpeed

​​Manage images properly

​​Clean up your Javascript

PageSpeed matters

Testing your website’s PageSpeed

Understanding your score

First Contentful Paint

Time to Interactive

Total Blocking Time

Largest Contentful Paint

Speed Index

Cumulative Layout Shift

How to Improve PageSpeed

Manage images properly

Clean up your Javascript

Remove/reduce unnecessary code

Small tasks, big wins