Can you save money on your ecommerce strategy and still grow?

Every business, regardless of size, is forever trying to shave some pennies from every department they can in an effort to increase margins and to stay competitive. There is no more competitive arena than ecommerce right now. Businesses of all sizes are are throwing everything they have at it of late. Especially the big boys and girls. They are closing stores, saving millions on operating costs, and betting the farm on ecommerce. But, is there a way to be smart about it? To compete effectively and save a coin or two?

• Everyone will tell you that the latest in SEO and ecommerce tactics is the emergence of mobile. You must be on every cell phone and tablet or you will be lost. While you must, of course, be mobile ready, because over 60% of searches and time is spent on mobile devices, there is some research that you can take advantage of right now. Some latest marketing research recently published at Entrepreneur Magazine reveals that many companies may be ignoring the desktops in favor of a more mobile heavy strategy. The research states that conversions made on mobile devices, especially cell phones, stood at 1.15% for all of 2016. In contrast, the ecommerce conversion rate for desktop traffic was 3.55% for all of last year. Lowering your costs per acquisition may just show greater results if you throw more resources into your desktop strategy.
• Segmenting your site will help to save money because you will have a stronger handle on what products are moving better than others. Create separate campaigns and landing pages for all of your products. This way you can see what sells and what doesn’t. In this way, you can throw your financial resources at your winners and delete the products that aren’t producing. It offers the opportunity to increase margins, get rid of the dead wood and leave yourself with some resources to try other products.
• Finally, invest in your SEO, seriously step up your email marketing and don’t forget to offer special discounts and free items to entice the traffic. Additional recent marketing research states that you will get back about $38 on every $1 you spend on an email campaign. Not bad return odds. Encourage people to leave their email addresses with you in the form of a free gift or discount if they do it. And, of course, your SEO is an ongoing process that has been showing consistent results when consistently applied.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer