E-commerce websites have changed the face of shopping and business drastically. Virtual space is always a more feasible and cost effective option to have business in and you get to offer your offerings to the world by right at the distance of a click. E-commerce websites are already the big thing of the hour and the idea is booming. Online shopping is not a very old phenomenon, it has been in vogue for only a couple of years and to be honest the masses in the developing countries are still breaking ice with the idea of online shopping. But the other interesting reality is that around 85% of people who use internet and surf it, shop online and they prefer it mainly because of the following reasons:

• Opportunity to go through a large number of options when you shop. There are a number brands and price ranges and these websites are classified very neatly.
• There is no salesperson standing on your head, pressuring you to buy something. You get full autonomy to choose.
• It offers you the convenience to shop 24×7, you are free to shop at midnight or during your office lunch hours.
• You can shop from home, café, office, train etc. Any place with a connectivity of internet is becomes your shopping zone.
• Online stores offer their products at lower prices, reason being they compensate it by not incurring expenses on a well organized concrete structure and hiring salesperson plus there are not much intermediaries involved which makes it more cost effective.

E-commerce websites are being loved by people and that is what responsible for the intensity of their success at this massive level. But when there are so many competitors in the market already how easy do you think is surviving in the competition? It’s madness out there if we look at this scenario from the perspective of owners of these e-commerce websites. The awareness and popularity of e-commerce websites is so much that, today if you ask a normal person possessing basic internet knowledge about online shopping websites, he won’t need to surf Google to tell you the names of many of them. This brings forward the question how do we attract traffic towards our website and also how to divert the traffic of our competitors towards our e-commerce website.

Attracting traffic and getting visits on Google by users is an obvious requirement and in fact it’s the minimum requirement to stay in the competition with your rivals out there. The tricky part is how to bring your website in vision and attention of visitors so that they visit your website, the outcome of which will be a lot of traffic visiting your website. Every e-commerce website while making transaction has to go through a complete life cycle known as the transaction life cycle during which it has to so many modes of e-commerce like email, social media, telephones, mobile phones etc.  All these modes of eCommerce offer opportunities to attract online traffic to your website. So while planning out your e-commerce websites do not forget to follow the tips and guidelines that will help you enhance the flow of traffic diversion towards your website.

This is not the hour where you can lay back comfortably and be satisfied if you see visible amount of traffic on your website that would definitely not suffice your requirement of reaching the top position and sticking there. You have to be all eyes and ears and have to look for solutions, tips and pros and cons of the decisions you make and steps you take. Among all the above mentioned modes of eCommerce, the best and most used one is social media. Social media is an excellent mode of attracting traffic as well a very convenient method of eCommerce.

There is a very famous idea of customer relationship management which says that to keep your customers close and loyal to your organization it’s very essential to shake hands with each one of them. This doesn’t refer to literal handshake with each one of your customer or visitor but knowing them and staying close to them. The revolution of social media has very brilliantly helped in tackling this problem. Internet is an old phenomenon now and the other eCommerce tools did help a lot like mobile marketing with the help of SMS or email which helps in keeping a large list of relevant people at hand. But social networking has done, surpasses every benefit that other modes of eCommerce provides. It has broken jumped every wall and broken every shackle of distance and that is why it’s a valuable tool for attracting traffic.

Holding the first position in search engines gives you a lot of perks. It’s not only the satisfaction you get by making to the top spot or maintaining that spot:

• Difference in the status of position really hit your click through rate real hard
• Shocking figures- 36.4% of the share of click through rate goes to the top position and stumbles to a just 12.5% for the contender on the second spot.
• It has been found out that the impact of your position in terms of traffic attracting ability is of double intensity when compared between the first and second positions.

This reflects how important it is for a website to reach to the first spot and keep its hold firm there. It is not a cake walk though to reach the top position but someone has very wisely said “where there is will there is a way”. The whole design and strategies you are using for diverting traffic towards your website is needed to be analyzed, how are you using tools like SEO, social media, Research techniques and more? In the following section we are going to classify different tools and strategies that help you reach the top.

Social Media

Social media can be considered as the bread and butter of e-commerce websites! Do you know why? Here are some very intriguing facts that might be an eye opener for you. They are the testimonials of the famous and successful online companies on the role social media plays in their success. Take a look:

• More than 50% of the online sellers spend time up to six hours on social media to market their business every week.
• More than 80% of marketers virtual and concrete both consider the use of social media as imperative to their business.
• Database management is not just confined in terms of fan following or measuring traffic intensity of the e-commerce website now. The online marketers are going way deep and analyzing factors like emotions and sentiments attached with their website. This is a step ahead towards customer relationship management.
• In the United States of America a chunk of social networking website followers prefer to connect to a brand via Facebook.
• About 40% of the online marketers claim that Google+ is critical to the ing of their business

There are plenty of other facts and figures. The bottom line is social media is really important for e-commerce websites and we’ll explain just how to attract web traffic to your e-commerce website using it.

How to get traffic to your website through Pinterest

Pinterest is actually an underestimated social networking website for the purpose of revenue generation. Don’t be surprised to know that it’s third most popular website in the United States of America. Pinterest is projected as a women centric website which is reflected by numbers, 80% of its users are female. The notion is that it’s all about glamour and femininity, but its wearing off over the time and its biggest proof is its user base in Britain which is more than 50% male user base. Pinterest has very wisely made a base for itself which is “females” and is coming forward as a mainstream social networking site now. But the interest and love women have for pinterest goes in favor of driving traffic for eCommerce websites reason being the universal fact of the love women have for shopping and online shopping to them is a treat which is at reach to them all the time.

Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your eCommerce website will be an intelligent decision to be honest. Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. Never ever compromise on image quality and originality: The core competency of Pinterest in images. This is what makes it different makes it different from other social networking websites. There are captions attached to the images that require a lot of heed to be paid to because witty and clever caption will definitely attract your visitors. Good quality, right size of image and selection of which images you select to pin are the important decisions to be made. When you have a witty caption, in case somebody decides to repin your pin he won’t feel the need to change the caption and it will maintain the originality of your pin and source which definitely will help you get traffic.
2. Pin anything that is a hot and get attention: The best part about images is that they attract attention, much more than a simple written text does which a benefit for eCommerce websites because you get to highlight the hottest trends and the newest things in the market through an attractive image. Using fads is great because people follow them blindly. The league of fad followers and up to date active shoppers would definitely visit your website if you will project something that is “IN” and looks appealing.
3. Connect with the followers and they will come after you: There are immense tools available on the internet for example word press, RSS feeds etc. They help you in pooling of your pins altogether through which it can be easily detected who is taking interest and repining your pins and with great ease you will know which is crowd you need to focus on. The gift section of pinterest allows you to set prices for different pins and this make your website prominent to the followers as a result of which traffic will be diverted to your website.

How to get traffic to your website through Instragram

Instagram was initially was launched for iPhone and iPod and was available only on the apple store, but in the year 2012 its services was opened for android and blackberry users as well. Today the service is available on android, blackberry 10 and windows phone. The crowd on instagram has increased at a tremendous rate over the span of its few years. As of today it has more than 30 million accounts on it with more than a billion of photographs uploads. It also allows video uploads up to the length of 15 seconds. Instagram’s famous weekend hash-tag project enables users to upload their pictures in the designated themes allotted by intstagram every weekend. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in the year 2012. The above mentioned features of instagram have their very specific advantage for attracting traffic for eCommerce websites. Let’s take a look:

1. Do not forget to attach the link of your website on your instagram bio: If you wish to attract traffic to your eCommerce website through instagram you must take care of your description in the form of bio on instagram. Because you cannot add much of information stuff regarding your website there, choose you words very wisely. They will represent you on instagram which will be the factor judging which the visitors will visit your website, so give efforts on creativity and smartness there. Now your bio is too precise so provide instagram users a link by which they can directly access your website.
2. Launch a campaign in the form of a competition:  Now not every company is famous enough to have millions of photographs shared on instagram. Many are beginners or not a concern big enough. Well how to make yourself prominent and make your presence felt among these big wigs? Announce a competition of uploading pictures following your set theme and showing off anything related to your website, it could be apparel or an accessory, the bottom line is it must reflect somehow their relationship with your website. Announce an attractive gift prize for the best photo upload. This can help you generate a lot of web traffic as well as business development.
3. Make access to your website easy for the users: Many eCommerce websites make the mistake of missing out very minute points. One of them is giving the users a one click step to their website. For example if you have uploaded an image on instagram of a model who is displaying a jacket your website sells. Beneath the image do not just give them an option to share it. It’s a great opportunity to divert that traffic to your website. Give the option of “buy this jacket” right near the image, so that the user doesn’t go beating around the bush. They will love this ease of shopping you will provide and this will help you get traffic along with the scope of revenue generation.
4. Short video uploading option is a blessing: While describing the features of Instagram it was mentioned that it allows you to upload videos up to the length of 15 seconds. Take advantage of this option. Because the Instagram users already know this won’t take more than 15 seconds to watch, design something very fun add a very attractive jingle in the background, use words that users can’t resist the idea of watching it. These can really do wonders and drive a lot of traffic to your websites.

Keyword research for eCommerce website:

• Whenever anyone starts a business, right from the inception be it a layman or sophisticated businessmen they do homework before starting to work on the idea. This research becomes the base of the business plan. Now when we talk in terms of virtual business world and eCommerce websites the context of this research is in terms of what will be in terms of how anybody searching about your website will access it instantly. This is what search engine optimization all about.
• Never choose a keyword that is too generic: It’s very correctly said that common sense is not very common because making choice of a very generic keyword will obviously lose you the chance of being instantly found out. It’s a very common mistake people make while choosing keywords for content of their products or services, they make it too generic which leads to distortion. For the sake of illustration if you are selling brass cremation urns or compact telescopic ladders choosing keywords as ‘cremation urns’ or ‘ladders’ simply will not definitely drive traffic to your website. It has to be specific use of keywords in various cases like these.
• Do not compromise on brand and revenue just for the sake of getting traffic: The famous Google Adwords Keywords tool and Moz keyword tool are examples of tools that can help you know at what intensity the keywords you are choosing for the content of your website are being searched. Do not make the mistake of choosing a highly competitive keyword as well because it will lead to high bounce rate and your conversions will decline. This will be a bad step for you because it will hit your revenue and brand development hard and that my friend is a mistake you must not make.
• Long tail keywords are far more searched than you think they are searched: Long tail keywords are the keywords where search is made about something using phrases instead of mere one or two words. For example “Female black color leather boots knee length” is a long tail keyword. As a matter of fact data tells us that 70% of the searches altogether comprise of long tail keywords whereas the most popular keywords accounts for just 20% of the search traffic. Long tail keywords can easily be incorporated in your eCommerce website blog, but it must not look like it’s stuffed in the content of your blog.
• Monitor the keywords of your competitors: Choosing the correct and appropriate keywords for your content is something that will require you to do a lot of research work because apart from deciding your own keywords you have to monitor the choice of keywords of your competitors. Every website on internet has Page authority and domain authority and comparing their share with yours on the web space is very essential. The specialized tool called the Moz toolbar works like magic for problems like these installing which you can easily know about your competitors share.

Optimization of your own web page

Taking care of your off page SEO is immensely important but until and unless you do not pay heed to optimization of your own eCommerce website page all your efforts will be fruitless. It will involve you to look after your website, keep in check its design and structure, look into its keyword optimization, reviews of your customers etc. The result of all this will be improved ranking of your site and automatically attraction of the traffic. Keep some of the following points on your tips and they will definitely help you optimize your eCommerce website.

• Presence of keywords in different sections: Location of your chosen keywords must exist just at the right places and on the important locations of your website. This will help you optimise your website in a great manner. Some of these places can be
• the title of the page
• Name of the image of particular product
• In the details and description of your offerings
• In your website blogs
• In the URL and actually this is an important one
• Subheadings etc

Never ever make the mistake of making your subheadings, titles etc vague and sound stupid because it will take a heavy toll on your click through ratings and as a result on your Google ratings. Never stuff keywords at unwanted places and always write content for the customers and not only for the sake of search engines.

• Pay attention on the architecture of your eCommerce website: Hierarchy of management is a very fine example of classification of anything. It helps you understand how anything can be neatly classified. When we talk about an eCommerce website specifically it becomes very essential that this website is very cleanly classified into sections because the finely clear cut its classification and division is the more optimized it will become. The figure reflects a very basic and neat structure of how an eCommerce website should be set as. The nitty-gritty can be incorporated conveniently later.
• Make your website user friendly: The ultimate purpose of existence of your eCommerce website is for the customers and its users. Make it an interactive platform for them, incorporate the chat widget option and give them a feel of welcome and comfort. It must be made sure they do not feel any form of confusion in handling it and if they do help must always be there, be it in the form of FAQ or a completely dedicated Help section. Registration process and a journey to your website must be seamless and pothole free.
• Good things also come in small packages: We talk all the time about internet revolution but must not miss out in taking full advantage of the little revolutionary device which actually we are addicted to. Yes your guess is right and our precious little smart phones are being referred right now. The days of using it for telephonic conversations are already long gone but here comes another interesting fact- 31% of the mobile phone users browse web and go online using mobile phones and the reason is obvious- Convenience. The mobile version of eCommerce websites affect their Google ranking because of the duplicate content it produces but there is a solution to it. All that’s required is that you code your eCommerce website in a manner that is compatible on all devices- mobile, tabs, touch pads and computers. This helps you maintain originality and improve your Google ranking as well.
• Use the right tools for different problems: Unless you use the right tool to solve a problem, you can never fix it perfectly. It applies very accurately on the tools available on internet for dealing with your traffic attracting and SEO problems. There are plenty of them but here are a few names which you will need to use now and then:
• Moz Keyword tool
• Google’s Adwords tool
• Buzz stream
• Screaming Frog
• Merge words
• Broken link finder by Citation labs

Use these tools wisely and for dealing with different problems, they are some of the best and will definitely assist you in finding a way to drive traffic to your eCommerce website.

PPC

The present era calls for multi-tasking, and Pay per Click should form an indispensable part of your promotion strategy. Even though this medium appears expensive, it is known to yield great results in the short term.

Your PPC advertisement should be informative, focused and eye-catching. Don’t hesitate to incorporate pictures to depict your product or service. If you’re uncomfortable writing down advertisement slogans, hire a professional copy writer.

Remember that you need to deviate from disorganized PPC campaigns. PPC is advantageous only when you understand the mindset of targeted audience. All day long, consumers are bombarded with adverts. You need to make a copy that leaves them astounded. Be simple but unique!
Begin with Keyword research. As online world is getting crowded with newer entrants, you need to be very careful while picking keywords. As I explained earlier, focusing excessively on generic keywords is not a wise move. Explore your domain, and discover some unusual yet relevant keywords.

Some Tips for Creating a Great Advertisement Copy:

• Include Keywords in a natural manner.
• Ask questions. This is a great approach to entice users by offering solutions to specific troubles.
• Give Users a reason to click on the advertisement.
• Promise some benefits.
• Try to get some reaction from the customer. A professional copywriter should know this art.
• Flaunt your Unique Selling Point.

Great Design is a Necessity:

It’s a superficial world. So, its time you give your site a complete overhaul. It should be noted that online market is facing a constant flood of shopping portals. In fact, the total number will only increase in the upcoming future. So, uniqueness in terms of web design is a vital ingredient for long term success. This will give your visitors a reason to remember the name of your shopping portal.

You already have pictures in your site. But, this isn’t enough. You are selling products, so images should be glorifying them. Try to exhibit different angles of the product. It will definitely please consumer, and augments his shopping urges.

Earlier in the post, I discussed the rise of mobile E-commerce. So, it is time you get a responsive layout for your portal. This design technique can make your site suitable for different portable devices. Remember that your customers are using a variety of smartphones’ their choice varies, and so the screen sizes on their phones.

Carve a Niche For Yourself:

There are hundreds of portals offering numerous products at one place. So, would you walk on the same route? Chart your own course, and save your business from getting lost in the crowd. Find out some niche products, and offer them to buyers. This will provide you a distinct presence in the online market. For instance, if your site sells men’s wear, offer some unusual& funky products. This will require a lot of market research, but results are worth the efforts.

Be an expert of your domain. Anyway, people are always looking for an authority to dominate their thoughts. Include offbeat products in your catalog, which proves that you possess in-depth knowledge of the domain. And instead of selling hundreds of products, you can narrow your focus to a few products.

Focus on Content Marketing:

Content marketing is not reserved for the big boys in the market. In fact, it makes more sense for new comers to establish themselves via this technique. Set up a blog on your site, and commence blogging for readers. In my view, people don’t generally develop trust overnight. So, the wise move would be to keep them hungry for more. Once they’ve learned to trust your authority, sales are not far.

Of course, you will incorporate trending keywords in your blog. But, your blog is not an exhibition. You are not supposed to sell anything. This section is meant to educate readers, and do it properly. Note that smart content marketing is the latest fad.

Points to Remember:

• Offer a new angle on the topic.
• Be attentive to detail in your writing.
• You can’t run away from research.
• Encourage readers to share your blogs through social media outlets.
• Use catchy headlines to allure readers.
• Incorporate relevant statistics to engage readers.
• Use a lot of pictures.

Win Customer loyalty

You’ve done it all! SEO, PPC and lots of other stuff! But, ignoring customer loyalty can cost your business in the long term. Suppose a customer shops from your site, and likes the overall experience. Now, you must ensure that he comes back for more. Your aim should be a huge and loyal customer base, which will ensure the flow of revenues.

To win customer loyalty, strive to delight customers with great products, efficient customer service, etc. Encourage them to subscribe them to your newsletter. In this manner, you will keep them informed about developments in your site.

Benefits of Customer Loyalty:

• Loyal customers contribute significantly to augmentation in revenues.
• This segment tends to be insensitive to higher prices. Think Apple and its loyal fan base paying exorbitant amount.
• Loyal clients promote your brand/company to their friends and colleagues.
• Advertizing cost is heavily reduced with a significant customer base.

Points to Remember:

• Stay true to your promises. This strategy is essential for customer retention.
• Reward loyal customers with freebies or special discounts.
• Encourage registered customers to spread the word about you.
• Always collect feedback to formulate customer-friendly policy.

Conclusion:

In the end I would like to conclude by saying that all measures and ways have their own significance but some are more effective than others. All you need to take care of is you use right strategy.

• Social media is booming big time, so pay a lot of attention to it and the networks there are immense and people are very close to your reach.
• Always keep your major goal, business development and revenue generation. They are the ends you want to attract traffic for so do not compromise on quality just for the sake of traffic. Gimmicks won’t do the work, because today users are very well aware.
• When you work towards attracting traffic through search engine optimization do not think of having a laid back attitude. You have to strive continuously because Google is continuously updated in terms of algorithms, so stay alert and updated in order to be on top.

The way may be hard but the result is fruitful, so keep working hard and make good money and produce satisfied customers out of your eCommerce sites and not just fruitless heavy traffic.