Our 5 essential tips to help convert more customers and earn more revenue using the BigCommerce platform.
BigCommerce is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce companies in the industry–and for good reason. Their powerful SaaS software is engineered to help online retailers of all sizes, from small-medium businesses to full-scale corporations, maximize their earning and growth potentials through the use of the system’s robust operations feature set and user-friendly search engine optimization tools.
Websites using other competing eCommerce platforms (such as Volusion and Yahoo) would certainly benefit from migrating off of their current system and onto BigCommerce and as officially-certified BigCommerce Design Partners, we at Diztinct can certainly help out with that. But for those who are already on the BigCommerce platform and would like to learn a few pointers on how to attract more sales through your websites, continue on for our 5 essential BigCommerce sales tips.
Getting the Most Out of Your BigCommerce Website
Regardless of which subscription tier your business is on, the BigCommerce platform provides a vast assortment of reporting, analytics, inventory and order management, and SEO tools to enable you to achieve success. However, it’s up to you, the BigCommerce store owner, to use those tools efficiently and effectively to build your empire. BigCommerce can do a lot to improve business, but it can’t do all the work for you.
Our 5 essential BigCommerce sales tips:
- Learn BigCommerce SEO
- Offer One-Click Checkout
- Provide Multiple Payment Choices
- Create Coupon Codes
- Take Advantage of Google Free Listings
Learn BigCommerce SEO
BigCommerce includes basic, but effective SEO tools in its admin section but there are other ways in which BigCommerce can aid in building an effective SEO campaign. You can use the SEO tools in the BigCommerce backend to modify page titles and ALT tags, both of which are easy and effective ways to help boost ranks. Another way to climb up the Google search results is through your inventory; product titles, product descriptions, product photos, and available upsells and cross-sells not only make the information more digestible to your website visitors, shoppers, and potential customers, Google’s web crawlers will be attracted to cleaner SEO which increases your chances of earning a higher spot within the search results. The best strategies can earn your website a spot at or near the top of all relevant search results or even put your website right alongside major retailers who happen to be selling the same product as you are–and since these megacorporations have millions upon millions of dollars to spend on marketing and advertising, being able to piggyback off of their own successful campaigns will definitely help bring more eyes to your website.
For an in-depth explanation on how to optimize product pages for Google SEO, see our previous entry, How to Optimize Your Product Page for Higher Conversions.
Offer One-Click Checkout
One-click checkouts are preferred by both consumers and merchants alike, because multiple-step checkouts frequently lead to high bounce rates and cart abandonment. In the past few years, online transactions have increased significantly, making this a priority. In March, BigCommerce partnered with Bolt to deliver Bolt One-Click Checkout for BigCommerce. BigCommerce merchants can add this integration by connecting through the payment settings in the BigCommerce backend. No additional code writing is necessary, which makes integration fast and simple. Bolt One-Click Checkout for BigCommerce enables one-click registration for first-time shoppers within the existing guest checkout flow, allowing them to freely navigate about the website under one identity without having to repeat the login process at checkout. BigCommerce states that incorporating a one-click checkout can improve conversion rates as much as 53% and extend customer reach.
Bolt One-Click Checkout Advantages
- Keep your checkout. One Click integration allows you to maintain your guest checkout flow. Avoid the hassle of remembering passwords and filling out forms. Shoppers in the Bolt network can easily check out with just one click from your store.
- Ready in minutes. Easy configuration and one-click checkout. Connect your payment processor to BigCommerce’s Payment Settings page, turn on Bolt, and you’re ready to go.
- Integrations. Bolt has over 160 built-in integrations with payment processors, alternative payment methods, tax, shipping, back office ERP, and more.
- Network and data benefits. Log into the Bolt merchant dashboard to gain insights into network-driven transactions. Data on network-driven sales volume, account creation, AOV, and more can be accessed through the embedded accelerated checkout.
- No GMV requirement. Bolt is now available to all BigCommerce merchants, regardless of sales volume.
- Access to the Bolt Network. After joining the Bolt Network, customers can easily shop between all the merchants on the network.
- A personalized post-checkout experience. The Bolt customer experience can be customized easily by merchants. This can mean more conversions, but it can also translate into a happier customer over time.
Provide Multiple Payment Options
You can reduce abandoned carts and bounce rates on your website by offering a variety of ways for consumers to complete their purchases, increase conversions and revenue, encourage customers to become repeat customers, and build trust between your business and the public by presenting them with many options. Alternative checkouts decrease the risk of identity theft and speed up the checkout process. PayPal Checkout, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay all allow users to input their checking or credit information into apps, and scan the phone through a POS terminal with the app of their choice open on a smartphone with NFC capabilities. A BNPL service can help retailers with high-ticket items or large average order values persuade shoppers to complete purchases by giving them the option to spread out their payments. Affirm, PayPal Credit, and Karma are BNPL services that are popular alternatives to payday loans provided by banks and are more accessible to the general population, including those with poor credit or rebuilding their credit or shoppers that just want to space out their payments for their own personal convenience.
Create Coupon Codes
Shoppers love savings and when shopping online, most expect there to be some sort of discount. In a Valassis study from 2020, 72% of consumers want to use coupons and discounts to save money, and 54% say a promotion helped them make an impulse purchase. Coupon codes (especially, when combined with a customer loyalty program) give shoppers added incentive to return to your store and make additional purchases. BigCommerce gives store admins access to over 70+ coupons and promotions that you can schedule, target, and customize right out of the box. Keep in mind that while you can restrict coupon codes to specific users or customer groups (see How to Manage Customer Groups in BigCommerce), coupon codes are often disseminated onto the Internet on bargain hunter websites such as Retail Me Not. Having your exclusive coupon codes leaked to the public might negate the whole meaning behind the word “exclusive”, but at the same time, you can think of it as free marketing. Leaked coupon codes often result in waves of random shoppers that might’ve otherwise not even visited your website or considered purchasing from you. You can use this chance to make a good first impression and turn these new potential customers into loyal repeat customers.
Take Advantage of Google Free Listings
As a result of the COVID pandemic, Google eliminated cost requirements for online retailers to sell through Google. This extended to Google Search Knowledge Panels which became 100% organic, doing away with the previous requirement of paid/sponsored listings. Retailers, shoppers, and advertisers could now take full advantage of Google’s organic search results algorithm. Coinciding with Google Free Listings, the launch of BigCommerce’s Ads and Listings on Google connects BigCommerce stores to the Google Merchant Center for free. Products can be automatically listed in Google’s free listings from there and a smart shopping campaign can also be created to reach a wider audience and increase sales across Google Shopping, YouTube, GMail, and the Google Display Network. The app also includes analytics features to help track performance and identify problem listings/failed listings which can then be repaired in BigCommerce.
Three key benefits to using the Ads and Listings on Google:
- Organize your product catalog in one place: Store owners can upload product listings, create paid campaigns, and monitor and analyze performance from within BigCommerce. Google will automatically sync any changes to ensure a consistent brand experience throughout all Google channels.
- Expand your customer base and drive traffic to your website: To further increase customer reach, merchants can get in touch with the right shoppers at the right time when they’re searching for products across Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and the web.
- Gain more insight: Using Google’s Merchant Center, merchants can measure the impact of each sale and show their products to the most valuable customers to maximize marketing efforts.
Final Thoughts
By incorporating these 5 tips into your BigCommerce web store’s business model, you’ll gain some advantages over your competitors while learning to master the earnings and growth potentials that the BigCommerce platform can do for your online business. But while these tactics can and will help improve your revenue, visibility, and customer reach, they are just part of a strong marketing and advertising plan–a strong marketing and advertising plan that you should’ve already had set in place. If you find that you could use further assistance in this department, Diztinct is here to help. We are eCommerce professionals with nearly 2 decades of experience in custom website design and development. In addition to our custom web design and development solutions, we also offer supplementary services to help you sell more online. These services can be purchased within an eCommerce website package or individually.
Are you ready to give your website and your business the Diztinct advantage over the competition? If so, let’s talk. Get in touch with us today and get ready to make your website work for you.