How To Grow An eCommerce Business

Setting up an eCommerce business is easier than ever, but growing a successful company is another story.

Considering that ‘the UK currently hosts 588,000 eCommerce websites’, competition has never been fiercer in making your eCommerce business stand out from the crowd.

If you’re wondering how to grow your eCommerce business, this guide is here to help.

There are numerous things you can do to ensure your eCommerce business doesn’t fade into obscurity. 

To grow an eCommerce business, you will need to:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Prioritise outstanding customer service
3. Find a startup academy   
4. Encourage repeat business
5. Upsell and cross-sell

1. Identify Your Target Audience

The first key to growing an eCommerce business is identifying your target audience.

While you might believe anyone with the internet can find you, it goes without saying not every internet user is your target audience.

Targeting specific buyers will help to make your marketing efforts more efficient. Ask yourself: Who’s already interested in your business or needs your offerings?

User demographics provided by your social channels, such as Instagram, can help you identify your target audience. 

From here, you can use this data to create marketing personas based on characteristics, motivations, and more to identify who you should target.

Identifying and researching your target audience is key to growing any business.

2. Prioritise Outstanding Customer Service

Another tip to growing your eCommerce business is prioritising outstanding customer service.

Customers care more than ever about their interactions with businesses, emphasised by the fact that ‘86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience’.

Investing in a platform that tracks purchases and records all customer service interactions, sales, and other activities is thus crucial. 

Moreover, incorporating a chatbot can also support your customer support services. This automated feature allows customers to voice their questions and complaints and receive immediate responses, directly impacting sales when customers get answers more quickly.

Prioritising excellent customer service is key to keeping your customers coming back. 

3. Find A Startup Academy   

Another tip for growing your eCommerce business is to find a startup academy. 

Startup academy programmes offer a range of benefits, from networking opportunities to vital learning and development when starting a business.

Like-minded individuals will surround you, and you will learn from others who have been in your shoes to help you identify how to stand out in a crowded market.

Are you interested in joining a startup academy? Tramshed Tech can help.

The Startup Academy is a free 10-week incubator programme for pre-start and early-stage tech founders to get their startup ideas off the ground.

Our cohort is supported through mentorship, on-demand content, independent learning materials via the Startup Academy portal, and weekly peer-to-peer sessions. 

To learn more, contact our team or read our blog on five reasons to join a startup academy.

Startup academy programmes offer many advantages.

4. Encourage Repeat Business

A key way to grow your eCommerce business is to encourage repeat business.

When you consider that ‘the cost of acquiring a new customer can be as much as five times higher than retaining an existing one’, the importance of encouraging repeat business becomes all the more apparent.

How To Encourage Repeat Business

There are numerous ways to encourage repeat business. They include:

• Loyalty programmes - Loyalty programmes strengthen customer relationships and encourage customers to visit your website more frequently.
• Incentives - Offering incentives to returning customers instead of new customers exclusively helps establish trust and rewards customers for sticking with you.
• Recommendations - Personalised emails, including recommendations for products related to your audience’s recent purchases, help customers feel more valued and understood.

5. Upsell & Cross-Sell

Lastly, upselling and cross-selling can help you grow an eCommerce business.

These are sales strategies implemented when a customer considers making a purchase.

Upselling encourages customers to buy a comparable product that’s higher-end than the one they were initially interested in. 

Conversely, cross-selling occurs when you encourage customers to buy complementary or related products.

Both upselling and cross-selling aim to give extra value from a sale and have the ability to generate repeat purchases for your eCommerce business.

Upselling and cross-selling can be highly effective when done well.

How We Can Help 

Are you interested in growing your eCommerce business with the help of a startup academy? Look no further than Tramshed Tech.

We understand the challenges entrepreneurs face and have tailored the Startup Academy to support common pain points that occur in the early stages of starting a business.

Get in touch or visit our programmes page to discover how we can support the growth of your venture.

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We are Tramshed Tech: a startup ecosystem home to 50+ companies and 600+ registered members from the digital, creative and tech communities.

We’re currently based in Grangetown, Cardiff Central & Newport, Barry and Swansea. 

Written by Jemima for Tramshed Tech.