Regardless of whether you’re part of a brand new startup or you’ve been in the business for several years, growth hacks will still benefit your e-store. Running a business requires a great deal of perseverance, and you shouldn’t get discouraged if your business shifts through periodical ups and downs, growths and declines, as well as reaching a plateau along the way.
Consumer habits are changing continuously, especially in the area of eCommerce. That makes keeping up with new trends an essential part of your business strategy. If you’re running out of new ways to lure more customers and grow your e-store rapidly, we’re here to give you some pointers.
First, we’ll explain to you everything you need to know about growth hacking and the eCommerce industry, and then we’ll move on to some hacks such as designing the website of your customers’ dreams, good product photography and useful psychological triggers. We will also mention the option for you to buy an online store with the help of an SBA Loan.
What Is Growth Hacking?
A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth.
- Sean Ellis, CEO of GrowthHackers
Growth hacking has become such a buzzword in the eCommerce industry. The term was coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis, an entrepreneur, angel investor, and startup advisor. He is the CEO of GrowthHackers and was previously founder and CEO of Qualaroo, an automated user research tool.
In his days as a business counselor, he has helped numerous internet companies grow incredibly fast. He became a one man growth shop, taking charge of the systems, processes, and mindsets behind a business. The problem appeared when he had to search for a replacement before leaving a startup he worked on.
He would end up leafing through piles of resumes of digital marketers but still, something would be missing. According to him, traditional marketers tend to have a broad focus, and what he needed for startups who are just now making their way on the market was simply growth. Therefore, he changed what he was looking for and asked for “growth hackers” whose one and only focus, intention and strategy would be aimed at growing the startup.
As growth hacking develops, even more, it gave rise to various tools, tactics, and methods that weren’t present in traditional marketing. Let us focus on the most efficient in more detail.
Photograph: Serpstat/ Stock Snap
Create Your Own Website
When you no longer want to sell your products on a marketplace such as Amazon or Etsy and decide to branch out making your e-store the only sales platform for your business, creating your own website is the logical step forward. A website puts you in charge of defining your own store policies and taking payment in a way that’s suitable for both you and your customers. It also makes your business stand out from other brands on the market.
This being said, it’s a real challenge to meet the expectations of potential customers with such a high online competition. It certainly takes a lot of time to design the perfect layout, add pages, have a fully-functional shopping cart and more. What you need is the right eCommerce website builder to create a website for you quickly and skillfully.
Don’t forget to optimize your website to be used on mobile devices as well!
Clipping Paths for Quality Product Photos
We cannot stress enough how important it is to present your products in the best light possible. You might start by purchasing a good camera, editing software for the lighting and filters, etc. However, one aspect ends up often overlooked – the importance of a product background. This is where clipping paths come in handy.
Clipping paths go around the product, remove the background, and then allow you to place the product on another background or save it as a transparent image. This technique is also known as “etching”, “cut-outs”, or creating a “silo”. You’re certainly right to think this is a time-consuming job because it involves a lot of work in Photoshop or Illustrator to do the cutouts properly. However, if you want your product photos to look professional, this is necessary.
Luckily, there’re many clipping path services online that will save your time and money and allow you to focus on the more creative part of running an e-store. You should read up more about choosing the right clipping path service company in order to avoid services that will miss your deadlines and produce low-quality cut-outs.
Photograph: Negative Space/ Stock Snap
Making Use of Psychological Triggers
If you want to target your clients directly, general knowledge of some psychological triggers would do the trick. Sleeknote, calls the time we live in an era of the attention economy and goes on to explain FOMO or the Fear Of Missing Out, a real game-changer among digital marketers these days.
How does it work? Basically, it taps into your customers’ fear that your products might sell out as a result of limited quantities. Remember to do this responsibly. A simple shout out that a product is on-demand these days, will be enough to stir some action and motivate your customers to make a purchase.
Buying an Online Business With an SBA
Starting from scratch with an online business is a big deal. You may encounter all sorts of difficulties, from an unsuccessful marketing plan to inventory issues and low reception. Of course, you need money to start with and continue investing. But if you have a well-grounded and profitable idea, worry no further!
When finances are tight, you always have to option to apply for an SBA small business loan. An SBA loan is a loan given to small businesses that are partially guaranteed by the government (i.e. the Small Business Administration). The SBA partners with approved banks which are the ones backing up a portion of the loan received by the online store. In this way, small businesses get the funding needed while lenders minimize the potential risk for them.