7 ways you can grow your online shop in 2022

Online shopping is easier than ever this year. Whether you’re on the couch on your tablet or on the bus on your smartphone — the choice and convenience of online shopping mean people are flocking to online stores.

Projected to hit $5.02 billion this year, the eCommerce industry is constantly changing to suit consumer trends. Here’s how you can grow your online shop in 2022.

Social commerce

What is it

These days, you don’t have to only buy products from websites. Social commerce is when a brand offers people the option to buy through social networks like Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok.

In 2021, over 50% of users aged 18-24 bought something online through a social media platform instead of just a website. Websites aren’t going away anytime soon — in fact, they’re an important part of your store — but for younger consumers having the option to buy through social media is important. By 2025, in the US the social commerce market will hit $79.6 billion.‍

How to take advantage of it

• Create a Facebook Product Catalogue that automatically updates pulls information from your website. You can integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce, and more, and run dynamic ads that feature your products.
• If you’re in the US, Canada, or the UK consider using TikTok Shopping for younger audiences
• Set up a Facebook Pixel on your website so you can track how many users browse the site from Facebook

Personalised automations

What is it

Automations aren’t new in the world of eCommerce (and neither is personalization) but they are increasingly becoming essential to your customers. In a study in 2021, 91% of consumers said they were more likely to interact with a brand that knows their preferences. Users want to know that you know them. Personalised automation can show your customers this without using up your valuable time.‍

How to take advantage of it

• Automate all transaction emails from your online store, WooCommerce can do this for you.
• No WooCommerce? No problem, use something like ActiveCampaign to set up super smart triggers and delight your customers with offers, coupon codes and a series of wingback emails designed to create repeat business.
• Send more thank you emails. Thank you emails have a 352% higher open rate than any other email.

Ecommerce store optimisation

What is it

2022 is the year you finally get on top of optimising your online shop. Pull out the stops with proper e-commerce search engine optimisation, backlinking strategies, and schema setup. Making sure your products are displaying on search engines correctly, your website is lightning fast, and you are constantly optimising to be user friendly will place you ahead of your competitors this year.

The right optimisation strategy will include taking a look at alt tags, meta descriptions, titles, image sizes at the very least — if you have a great e-commerce growth agency they’ll run UX reports, SEO crawls and keyword reports taking a look at more complex Ecommerce optimisations like natural language processing, conversion rate optimisation and site architecture.

How to take advantage of it

• Go deep into search engine optimization. SEO is a free way for you to earn more traffic and ultimately make more money. This should be baked into your monthly tasks.
• Make sure your site is lightning fast. Nobody likes a slow site, especially not Google.
• Make sure your site is user friendly. Your buttons should be big enough to press without inaccuracy on mobile and your mobile site should load without the dreaded cumulative layout shift (something often caused by various scripts loading in the wrong sequence, which results in page elements moving on mobile after the page seems to have loaded to the user).

Omnichannel strategies

What is it

Put simply, omnichannel marketing is using more than one channel (that is to say, more than one social media account or website or email newsletter) to reach your users. Studies have shown that customers who use 4+ Channels spend 9% more than those who don’t. When you look at lifetime customer values, a 9% increase in spending quickly adds up.

How to take advantage of it

• Make sure you are reaching people through multiple channels. Have an email marketing strategy and a social media strategy as well as a website
• Take advantage of free tools. Claim your Google My Business listing today, don’t delay using channels that have already been set up for you and are free.

Keep payment simple & give options

What is it

When it comes to the checkout process, studies have found that multiple payment options influence shopping cart abandonment rates in a good way. That is to say that the more options you give users for checkout (for example, credit card, PayPal, Stripe) the higher the checkout rate. Similarly, the easier it is to checkout the more revenue you’ll make

How to take advantage of it

• Streamline your checkout. Work with a UX designer to make sure your checkout process is as easy as it can be and that abandoned carts will be minimised. If you can, implement a guest checkout option for users as this will increase conversions.
• Find the right payment gateway for your store. The best payment gateways have multiple options for the checkout process and work with multiple currencies. You want a secure payment gateway and build on top of a stable platform like Visa. If you live in a country where payment gateways are difficult, like in the Cayman Islands,

Augmented reality

What is it

Way back in 2020, Snapchat quietly introduced augmented reality to social media — the world has never been the same since. You can’t touch something when you’re shopping online, and so the use of AR has caused sales to skyrocket across the world in e-commerce as websites find new ways to mimic the in-store experience.

How to take advantage of it

• Websites that sell furniture, and products meant for rooms, can install software on their site that allows users to place items in their own homes — for example Wayfair
• Websites that sell things you can wear can install products to all users to try things on
• Facebook Spark AR Studio is available for anyone. You can create effects and experiences

Work with experts

Head spinning from all the options? When it comes to growing your e-commerce business nothing beats working with experts to achieve your revenue targets.

At Air Vu Media, our developers and designers have over 200 e-commerce sites under their belts and decades of experience working with complex e-commerce projects.

Get in touch with us today for a quick 15-minute call.