Improve Your Online Retail Presence

With the need for online retail success brought into sharp focus over the past few weeks, we have put together five ways to help boost your company’s online presence.

1. See Your Website Through Your Customers Eyes 

Reviewing your website might seem like an obvious action but improvements can be overlooked that could make a big difference in your visitors’ experience. Put yourself in the position of visitors to your site, both existing customers and potential customers.

Does it meet their needs? How easy is it to find what they might be looking for? How easy it is to buy from your website? Does it represent your company values? 

Asking these questions will highlight areas of improvement and ways to make the visitor experience more pleasant. Successful websites allow the visitor to get to where they want to be in as few clicks as possible. 

Use Google Analytics to gain insights about how visitors are finding and using your website. This will also flag up potential quick wins. There are many straightforward guides on how to use Google Analytics to your advantage, now could be a great time to spend learning. 

 

2. Explore Online Advertising 

Take a look at your online advertising options. Is what you’re spending on bringing a return? Or if you’re not advertising online, are you missing out to competitors who are? 

Google Ads is one of the best places to start. Like Google Analytics, there are simple guides to build your knowledge about advertising with Google and even an official certification to be had. Check to see if your competitors are advertising by searching for some key words relevant to your sector. Chances are, they will be. You may also notice their remarketing ads on other sites. 

It’s not as expensive as you may think and you can start small with online advertising. The key is to keep a track of what works and what doesn’t and adjust accordingly. Google even gives you recommendations on what to adjust to maximise return. 

 

3. Know Your SEO 

Whilst you can pay to appear at the top of searches in Ads, it’s important to be at the top of the organic listings (the ones that appear just below the Ads) too. Think about what keywords and phrases your customers will use to find your products. Then make sure your website is optimised for them and variations you can think of 

Many factors affect search engine optimisation (SEO) including headings, subheadings, text content, image descriptions, page speed, mobile friendliness and links. Search engines are looking for how keywords and phrases are used alongside the quality of the website to deduce which is the most relevant for the user. 

Tools like SEMrush can help you identify what keywords to optimise for, how many times they are searched and which of your competitors rank for them. Try to only optimise for the phrases that matter, not ones that are too broad. For example, a retailer selling luxury leather shoes may go for ‘men’s handmade leather boots’ rather than ‘men’s boots’. It’s about the right audience finding you, not just increasing visitors to your site that may not be looking for your product.  

 

4. Be Social 

Your customers will without doubt be consuming considerable social media right now and that is unlikely to change. It might be a good time for you to master a new emerging channel, like TikTok and find new ways to engage with your customers.  

Make sure your content isn’t just about pushing products but adds value for your audience. There has to be a reason for them to want to follow you. It doesn’t have to be one-way; you can create polls, competitions and virtual events that will allow a two-way communication. 

Our new mobile loyalty app is a great way to bring together the power of social media, your website and your products in one place. 

 

5. Embrace Video 

Video is great for SEO and doesn’t need to be an expensive production. Keeping videos simple and short makes it easy to showcase your businesses and products. You can use them to show a human-side to your company, express your values and breathe life into your products. The quick and easy-to-digest nature of video makes it a great way to build trust and enhance communications. 

 

We’re here to help

If improving your online presence sounds like something you don’t have the time or resource to do at the moment, our agency are here to help. They specialise in growing retail brands by driving footfall, sales, traffic and conversions.

Get in touch to see what they could do for your business.