Growing Your eCommerce Business in 2021

Why on this kinda green Earth are you still writing about 2021? It’s May, Noelani.

If you wondered that, I get where you’re coming from. Just hear me out. Sure, we’re firmly rooted in the second quarter, but as the year goes on, the growth-oriented and sarcasm-inviting “new year, new me” mentality still lingers. With it comes the desire to continue revamping our workout routines, refreshing our wardrobes, and in the eCommerce space, growing our businesses. 

Even though that motto is eye-roll-worthy, there’s nothing wrong with a growth mindset. 2021 still has so much potential, so let’s dive into it with some eCommerce business growth tips. You with me? 

1. Focus on your existing customers

When people hear “growth,” they might think, “new.” And even though Barney from How I Met Your Mother suggests it to no end, new isn’t always better. Especially when it comes to eCommerce. 

Why? For starters, it’s between five to 25 times more expensive to convert new customers than to retain, fulfill, and sell to existing customers. Not only that, but increasing customer retention even by five percent leads to a 25 to 95 percent increase in profit. With that said, focusing your efforts on your existing customers and customer retention strategy can do wonders for your business. 

Loyal customers are already familiar with your brand and they not only are interested in your products, but they trust them, too. Encouraging existing customers to buy from your brand again is a heck of a lot easier and more beneficial than trying to woo new customers with all you’ve got. 

But it’s more than just about transactions. It’s about relationships. Show your existing customers what they mean to your brand by offering loyalty programs. Think exclusive discounts, rewards, free products, free shipping, coupons, and access to not-yet-released products. Who doesn’t love feeling special? Plus, CJ Affiliate reports that customers are 47% more likely to make a second purchase if easily redeemable rewards are available to them. Need I say a word more? 

2. Optimize your mobile experience

Everyone and their extended family have taken to their mobile devices for everything from garden gnome painting ideas to shopping. No idea what results come up for the former, but the projection that mobile commerce sales will reach 3.56 trillion in 2021 is easy proof of the latter. 72.9 percent of all retail eCommerce is even expected to be generated from mobile commerce, which is a 58.9 increase from 2017. If that doesn’t scream, “Optimize your mobile experience,” I don’t know what does. 

That’s why optimizing your mobile experience with the same effort that you would a desktop experience is huge. A few ideas for optimization are: Eliminating unnecessary words from your website to better serve your customers’ searches, streamlining your checkout process with diverse payment methods, and checking your site’s loading speeds through tools like the Google Mobile-Friendly Test. 

3. Plan your campaigns around data

Impactful marketing ideas are no longer determined by past experience alone. Instead, analytics and data are guiding the way for everything from performance indication to targeted marketing campaigns. By using past data, you can access insights that inform effective strategies and even provide a better ROI. The best part of data is being able to use it to optimize performance and get a better understanding of who to target in your marketing campaigns and how to personalize your customer experience.

Outside of consumer data, analyzing trends with data is a great way to create new campaign ideas and foster growth. For example, planning your campaigns around seasonal events, like Cyber Monday and Mother’s day, is a great way to increase your brand visibility and drive sales. Look at some of the most searched keywords around Cyber Monday last year and build campaigns that complement those.

These are just a couple of ideas, but with Purply, you can review proven affiliate growth strategies and access data-backed campaign recommendations in a snap. As our campaign suggestion engine works every day to ensure you’re hitting your targets, it’s no surprise that each one of our 14.4 million sales conversions can be traced back to a specific campaign

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Regardless of if you’re one of those “new year, new me” folks (I won’t judge you or roll my eyes), I hope this sparked some inspiration. Don’t let that growth mentality escape you, because we’re not even halfway through the year yet. If that last paragraph intrigued you at all, come talk to us!