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How Cross-selling Can Help Maximize E-commerce Profits

How Cross-selling Can Help Maximize E-commerce Profits
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How Cross-selling Can Help Maximize E-commerce Profits

Are you using the cross-selling strategy to increase your sales in your online shop? You are losing a lot of money if you haven’t considered cross-selling. Both cross-selling and up-selling tactics are effective ways of increasing the order value, including one of the most critical business metrics. Are you wondering what this is? Well, this post will outline what cross-selling is, how it works, and why your online store needs it.

What’s cross-selling?

This is a sales approach designed to generate more sales by recommending related, complementary or additional items to a consumer who has shown commitment to buying a product. These are products that improve or optimize the original item by providing new functionalities. For instance, think about the insurance or casing sold to you whenever you purchase an electronic device.

However, this isn’t merely about providing anything you can think of. The key here is to offer the customer additional value by showing them how you understand their needs. Just like any other sales and marketing activities, cross-selling must be planned and executed strategically.

Differentiating cross-selling and up-selling

Both cross-selling and up-selling help maximize the purchase value and enhance the buying experience of a consumer by adding value to a product. Cross-selling only focuses on the promotion of additional products from related categories while up-selling encourages a consumer to buy a higher-end version of the same item or pay more for extra features and upgrades.

Cross-selling in e-commerce

When you choose to incorporate cross-selling as a sales strategy, you will focus on introducing related products to consumers who view products on your website or have added an item to their shopping cart. If executed correctly, the cross-selling technique will feel natural and boost your client’s purchasing experience by offering them matching products that will increase the value of the product they have bought.

How cross-selling is done

The initial and most vital step to succeeding in cross-selling is finding matching products, and creating offers. Like other e-commerce aspects, the positioning and timing of these offers must be tested. But, a prevalent practice is to provide the right options on the pages of your product especially during follow-up email campaigns and checkout.

Common cross-selling strategies include:

  • Visual aids – This strategy is ideal for lifestyle and fashion products, where clients are mainly driven by visual cues. Use high-quality product videos and images to show the functions of the items in real life and prompt the consumer to purchase the entire package rather than getting one item.
  • Bundling – This involves packing items that go together naturally like a digital camera, camera case and memory card. This will maximize your profits and you should make sure that the client knows that they require these items to use the product they bought initially. Consider providing outstanding discounts to appeal to the buyer.

Reasons for cross-selling in your online store

You must be wondering if cross-selling is worth the effort. Of course, it is! Most retailers have relied on cross-selling for many years for a reason; it works. If you haven’t thought of incorporating it in your store, you are leaving cash on the table. Advantages of cross-selling include:

  • Boosts profits: Many large chain stores usually have high margins on accessories than on main products. Consider using this strategy in your store. If you choose to offer flat-rate or free shipping, you will save money on the small accessories that do not cost extra to ship but still offer more revenue.
  • Increasing the average order size: A consumer who is ready to but a product is likely to get another item if the second item adds productivity to the first item. So, if you spend some funds to market such products to your new clients, most of them will buy more from you.
  • Increased customer lifetime value: Each time a consumer buys your products, they will spend more. This means you will be earning more whenever the customer opts to buy from you.

Cross-selling can help grow profits. If you haven’t yet used cross-selling, consider giving it a try. Once you find the best selling items, get related products that will interest your customers. Present all the products to interested customers during the checkout process or on the product’s page. Do not forget to build trust with clients and avoid pitching too hard.

7 years ago
How a Payment Gateway Helps Your Business Grow
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How a Payment Gateway Helps Your Business Grow

The e-commerce industry continues on an incredible growth trajectory, and as an online business owner, you have to implement the best strategy to leverage this growth. Whether you want to start an e-commerce store, or you already have one running, one of the most important considerations is how to stand out in the crowded market by offering a seamless customer experience. While the e-commerce landscape offers limitless opportunities for your business, you have to appreciate the stiff competition. One of the most innovative ways of growing your business in this highly competitive market is by integrating a payment gateway into your online store.

This article explores how payment gateways work and how using this system will boost your business performance. Keep reading to learn more.

Brief Overview of a Payment Gateway

In the simplest of terms, this is the technology that connects your online business with the payment network.  This system offers your business capacity to process multiple types of payments instantly. The gateway system securely captures payment details for customer transactions in an encrypted format.

This information goes to a payment processor or the acquiring bank in a matter of seconds. A message of approval or decline comes back to your system from the other end to complete or decline the payment. In summary, payment gateways use an encrypted connection to process, verify and accept or decline payments made by your customers.

The payment gateway process might not be the first thing you think of when strategizing for your store’s success, but it should be. This system facilitates fast and secure transactions at your store which is one of the things your customers will always look for before completing a purchase.

Payment Gateways for Business Growth

Now that you appreciate what payment gateways do, it is time to learn more about how this system can help your business grow. Take a look:

  1. Secure Payments

As more people continue shopping online, the issue of data breaches has become a major concern for all online operators and the authorities.  Many consumers and businesses have suffered huge losses due to data breaches and credit card fraud when making online payments. By integrating this right gateway system, you mitigate the risk of fraud through data loss.

  1. Offer Alternative Online Payments

More consumers now look for the fastest and cheapest payment option and your online business has to accept such alternative payments. The only way to accept multiple payments is through a system that allows you to process them easily. By accepting multiple payments, you improve not only your customer acquisition rate and customer retention rate but also sales conversion.

  1. Legal Compliance

Your online business has to comply with the stringent Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and the only to do this is to provide a safe and secure shopping experience. Falling behind on the PCI compliance curve can lead to hefty fines and loss of customer trust, among other devastating problems. By integrating the best payment system into your store, it is easy to streamline the data security compliance process for your business.

  1. Better Decision Making

The best payment gateways offer you crucial data from your customers and you can leverage such information and feedback to make better decisions for your business. Data-driven decisions guarantee better outcome for your business and also enhances the operational efficiency of your e-store.

  1. Broader Market Reach

If you want to grow your e-commerce store, you have to implement strategies that allow you to reach an international market. By accepting multiple payment options and offering a fast and secure processing system, you can easily target the global market. This increases conversion rates and boosts your bottom-line.

If you want to grow your online business, you need to embrace the latest payment system for fast, convenient and secure transactions at your e-store. It will be a win-win situation for your business and the customers. Get a competitive edge in your target market by integrating the best gateway for payments at your e-store.

7 years ago
How live chat can help drive conversions during the holidays
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How live chat can help drive conversions during the holidays

Holiday sales continue breaking different records every year and businesses have come up with innovative techniques to cash in on the shopping craze. According to the National Retail Federation, online shoppers spent $19.62 billion between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. In 2018, projections indicate sales will increase by 15.3% and as an online business owner, you have to adopt new strategies to leverage these enticing holiday sales. One of the most effective strategies you can adopt to increase conversion is live chat. If you have not yet integrated live chat into your e-commerce store, you need to read on to find out how this strategy can boost sales conversions during the holiday season.

  1. Convert potential leads with faster responses

If you have ever tried shopping online and you needed quick assistance, you know how frustrating it can be to start filling forms. Internet users have an infamously short attention span and if you cannot offer prompt assistance, they will quickly turn away.

As an online store owner, you know that every visitor is a potential lead and you cannot afford to lose them due to a slow response. Through live chat, you have a chance to retain potential leads on your website and convert them into buyers.

  1. Provide an exemplary customer experience

One of the reasons many people still go to brick and mortar stores is because of the personal attention they receive. That human connection is crucial for many shoppers and it is a challenge for online stores. However, with live chat, you can now overcome that challenge and provide that human connection by being there for your customers.

Shoppers love the idea of seeing an active live chat because they can ask any question and receive prompt feedback. Customer experience is one of the easiest ways of increasing conversions on your e-commerce website.

  1. Reduce shopping cart abandonment

Almost 70% of shoppers abandon their carts and this is something that should worry every online business owner. You see, customers need guidance on many phases of the purchase journey and if you are not available, they will move on to the next high ranking competitor. For instance, if you take payments online and they would like help with an alternative payment method, live chat would easily solve that problem.

The shopper will not find a reason to walk away. Reducing shopping cart abandonment rates directly impacts sales conversions. If you want to boost conversions this holiday season, it is time to deploy a live chat system at your online store.

  1. Increase customer satisfaction rates

The e-commerce business environment is highly competitive and if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you have to offer a satisfying shopping experience. Now, you might have the best online store in your niche but if your customers have nothing good to say about it, you are in trouble.

High customer satisfaction rates show in reviews and recommendations. Many shoppers read reviews and check customer satisfaction rates before shopping from any store. Research now shows that live chat can keep 96% of customers happy and this is an incredible achievement for your business.

Simply put, installing a live chat system on your e-commerce store boosts customer satisfaction rates, which in turn enhances customer loyalty. Ultimately, you will notice an increase in conversion rates over the busy holiday season.

  1. Leverage bots to drive conversions

If you have stretched your resources thin and you have no one to operate your live chat system, you can use live chatbots to offer helpful responses. This is an innovative way to help customers instantly even when you are not around. For instance, a live chat bot can recommend a page for a potential lead for more details. This reduces bounce rates and increases conversions.

How to optimize your live chat system

To get the best out of your live chat system during the busy holiday season, you need to customize your chat widget to match your store’s style, prepare personalized greetings for your shoppers, hire a chatbot when not available, increase your working hours, and make sure your team has everything they need to respond helpfully to customers.

If you have already engaged a payment gateway partner to improve your checkout system, go ahead and enable live chat to improve the user experience at your online store. It is the most effective strategy to cash in on the mind-boggling holiday sales.

7 years ago
How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to offer a seamless checkout while helping to prevent revenue loss

As an e-commerce store owner, your main objective is to increase revenue in a highly competitive business environment. To do this, you have to deliver a seamless shopping experience devoid of any hiccups. On the surface, it looks like an easy feat to achieve but in reality, providing a seamless user experience is the most difficult thing an online store owner has to do. One area of focus when talking about user experience is the checkout process. While you would like to provide a seamless checkout process, there are security concerns and PCI compliance standards to worry about and finding a balance is not easy.

This article addresses how you can provide a seamless checkout process without exposing your business and the customers to security risks such as fraud. Keep reading.

The risks involved in e-commerce checkout process

Many online businesses have sunk under the weight of security lapses. While the internet has come as a godsend for sellers and consumers, the inherent security risks in data handling pose a big hurdle.  As an online business owner, you must appreciate the magnitude of responsibility on your hands once you start to take payments online.

It is a big convenience to both the customer and the retailer but there are risks of data loss, which can lead to fraud. While your initial concern is cart abandonment, you should not forget the consequences of lax security measures on your e-commerce store.

Stripping down their checkout to the bare essentials might seem like a good idea in providing a seamless checkout process but in doing so, you will expose both your business and the customers to fraud. Worse still, your brand can lose credibility in case of data breaches and it will take a lot of marketing to get back on your feet. In essence, you have to find a balance between providing a seamless checkout process and security checks.

In summary, your business risks losing revenue by relaxing the checkout process in the following ways:

  1. Fraud: Any business that loses customer data during checkout will have to refund the amounts lost. With the increasing cases of online fraud, you need to avoid chargeback claims at all costs because they can drain your revenue. You need to implement effective security systems without complicating the checkout process.
  2. Interchange costs: If you don’t provide billing address information, your business risks an interchange downgrade and associated increase in costs.
  3. Hard declines and soft declines: Hard declines are permanent while soft declines arise when the card-issuing bank can’t complete a transaction. Both types of declines lead to revenue loss and you need a payment solutions company that can advise you on how to minimize these.

Balancing seamless checkout and preventing revenue loss

The objective of your online business is to make money and to do this; you have to seal all avenues of revenue loss. If you are in the process of implementing a seamless payment system, you should also have revenue loss at the back of your mind. To find a balance, consider the following:

  1. Implement basic fraud tools: By working with your payment solutions provider, you should enable the best fraud tools subject to your security risk. Enabling these tools guarantees that you don’t expose your business and customers to fraud and at the same time, you provide a seamless shopping experience. Anti-fraud security such as AVS and CVV lower the risk of fraud.
  2. Request AVS and CVV authentication: To avoid soft declines, ask for AVS and CVV authentication for your U.S customers at least on the first transfer for each customer.
  3. Implement 3D secure system: For customers outside the U.S (Europe or in the Asia Pacific region), you should implement the 3D secure system to deal with soft declines. This system also helps solve the problem of chargebacks. This security system shifts chargeback liability to the card-issuing bank.

If you run an online store, you need to appreciate the importance of providing a seamless checkout process. It is the only way to reduce cart abandonment rates, grow revenue and build customer loyalty. However, there is also the risk of losing revenue through fraud, declines, and interchange costs. For this reason, you should find a balance between a seamless checkout and effective security during checkout. Go ahead and identify the best payment solutions provider to implement a seamless and secure checkout process.

7 years ago
Grow Your Business by Offering Alternative Payment Options
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Grow Your Business by Offering Alternative Payment Options

As the growth of e-commerce continues, business owners face new challenges when they seek to improve customer satisfaction levels. Top among these challenges is how to deliver the best customer experience. Why does the customer experience matter? According to an Oracle Report, 86% of shoppers will pay more for a better shopping experience. This means if you provide the best experience for your online shoppers, they will keep coming back. Offering alternative payment options is one of the most effective techniques to improve the shopping experience on your e-commerce website. This article highlights the reasons to increase your website’s capacity to take payments online from multiple payment methods. Keep reading.

  1. Global Reach

The e-commerce industry is global and however small your business looks, you can target the global market online. The concept of a global village is now real and you can leverage this phenomenon by giving your customers multiple payment options.

When integrating payment options on your e-commerce website, you should remember that some of your target customers cannot use the options available in your country.  By providing alternative payment options, you will grow your global reach which is the dream of every business today. Your international customers will never have problems purchasing from your e-commerce store.

  1. Increase Sales Conversion

At first glance, you might not think the payment solutions company you choose will have an impact on your revenues. Well, you should think again because a YouGov Survey shows that 50% of online shoppers cancel their orders if their preferred payment option is not available.

If you have noticed a high rate of cart abandonment and high bounce rates, it is very likely that your limited payment options are killing your sales. By providing alternative payment options, you attract not only new customers but also retain existing ones who would love to change their payment method. If your checkout process is fast, easy and convenient, your e-commerce store will enjoy higher conversion rates.

  1. Improve Security During Payments

One of the greatest concerns for online shoppers is the security of available payment options. If an online store offers a single payment option, customers who would like to try other secure payment methods might have to abandon their purchases.

When thinking about user experience, the security of your website’s checkout process must feature and this is one good reason to provide a wide range of choices. With advances in online security technologies, the latest payment methods promise secure shopping and your customers will expect your e-commerce store to allow these.

  1. Reduction in Operational Costs

Operational costs for businesses eat into the profits and as an online business owner, you have to seek ways to cut costs.  In the e-commerce industry, you have to pay processing fees for the payment method you choose. If you stick to a single payment option, you will never know how much you can save by allowing your customers to use other payment methods. With time, you can identify those payment methods that eat too much into your profits.

  1. Customer Retention

While most businesses invest heavily in customer acquisition, research shows that customer retention has better ROI. Increasing customer retention by 5% alone boosts profits by 20-95% according to a survey by advisory firm Bain &Co published in the Harvard Business Review. One of the best ways to retain your existing customers is by offering flexible payment methods. Internet shoppers are always on the lookout for new technologies, and they will expect your e-commerce store to accept the latest payment options.

  1. Brand Trust

Online shoppers always look for brands that adopt technologies fast. Such brands are easier to trust and shop from compared to those that stick with outdated processes. If a shopper can’t find their preferred payment method on your e-commerce store, they will most likely doubt your credibility. To build brand trust and loyalty, it is advisable to adopt multiple payment options which will, in turn, lead to higher conversion rates and increased revenues.

  1. Seamless User Experience

Internet users are always in a rush and they have an infamously short attention span. They want instant gratification and if there are delays in delivering this, they will quickly move on to another online store. By providing multiple payment options, you will enhance the user experience at your store, which in turn leads to higher sales, positive reviews and a boost in revenues.

The e-commerce business environment is tough but with the right strategies, you can always stay ahead of the pack.  By offering alternative payment options on your e-commerce store, your business can attain a global reach, higher sales conversion, reduce cart abandonment, and improve customer loyalty and brand trust, among other things.

7 years ago