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Understanding the Importance and Application of E-commerce PPC

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Published: Friday, 07 July 2023 07:29

There are two ways to get discovered by the consumer. You can either invest in organic marketing and wait to be discovered by your customers or pay to skip to the front of the line. One of the most effective forms of this paid marketing is PPC (pay-per-click). This way, you pay a sponsored ad and a fee every time a user clicks on it. This is performance-based marketing that can make your traffic skyrocket in the shortest amount of time. Here’s why and how it should be applied to PPC.

1. Much superior visibility and reach

As an e-commerce business, you’re not just concerned about the conversion rates. Sure, they matter, but so does traffic. A 10% conversion rate on a site with 100 visitor traffic is smaller than a 1.1% conversion rate on a 1,000-visitor site. It’s simple mathematics.

You’ll easily get to the top of the page using PPC. While you will be flagged as sponsored content, more people will get exposed to your presence, and you’ll get more traffic.

Another advantage is that PPC engine analytics are so advanced that you’ll get access to far higher accuracy when targeting qualified leads. After all, it’s in the best interest of these social media platforms and search engines to provide you with a full product.

Unlike organic reach, PPC gives you an immediate boost. In other words, this is the simplest way if you’re quickly rushing to get an initial audience. All you need to do is have your campaign set and approved. When this is done, things will run as smoothly as possible.

You can pick any platform you wish to increase the CTR on. For instance, you can integrate your PPC into your Instagram marketing strategy or just go SERPs.

2. Cost control

The best thing about PPC is that it’s innately made to be easy for budgeting and cost control. The term means pay-per-click, meaning you can set exactly how many clicks you want to buy. You can allocate your advertisement bonus to PPC more efficiently than in other fields.

You also get a chance to measure the exact ROI. In other fields of digital marketing, calculating how much you’re spending for conversion is incredibly hard. Here, it’s transparent and gets updated in real-time.

Still, there are some tips you want to follow to get the most out of this. For instance, you want to:

• Set a realistic budget

• Monitor and adjust bids

• Utilize ad scheduling

• Implement geographic targeting

This last part is especially important because not every market is equally as relevant to you. So, you want to allocate more resources to your advertising in certain locations. This way, you’ll get the maximum value.

It’s also worth mentioning that budgeting becomes a lot easier with PPC. For instance, you’ll already have a video marketing budget; now, you’re adding the cost of advertising this content.

3. Performance tracking and optimization

With PPC, you always get the right numbers. This helps you see if you’ve reached your conversion goals, but you must first set your conversion goals to get this metric.

Next, you must start tracking conversions. Usually, your PPC platform (Google Ads or Facebook Pixel) will provide the necessary tracking software. Still, you need the right PPC marketing company to recognize the most relevant metrics. Sometimes, these are specific ads or campaigns, which could also be exclusively related to keywords. With the help of professionals, you’ll have an easier time tracking these conversions.

Another thing you should consider is A/B testing. If you’re unsure which solutions to choose, you can always set up an A/B test and see how they perform. This way, one will be a clear winner; just make sure to understand the fallacy of some parts of this testing method.

Remember that you’re not the only one innovating and improving your PPC campaign. Your competitors are doing the same. This is why you need to continuously monitor and optimize your presence.

4. Remarketing opportunities

The rule of seven says that an average person interacts with a brand at least seven times before deciding to reach out. You need to find people who clicked on your ad or entered your site organically and target them via your PPC campaign.

Now, because these people have already shown interest in your brand, you can consider them qualified leads. This means that converting them won’t cost as much and won’t take as much effort.  

You need to focus on figuring out your shopping cart abandonment rate. You’re looking for customers who visited your site without making a purchase.

People who have already purchased go to a different category, but even they can be reached via a repeat PPC marketing campaign.

In e-commerce, nothing is more cost-effective than return customers. They cost five times less to convert, and about 20% make up 80% of the profit.

5. Competitor analysis

E-commerce is more competitive than some other industries. Let’s say you’re in the hospitality industry and run a small pizza place. No one will eat at your place every single day. Just because someone has gone to a different restaurant doesn’t mean they won’t return tomorrow.

The problem with e-commerce is that you have too many direct competitors simultaneously. Also, unlike in the hospitality industry, customers don’t have to travel to reach you. Instead, they just click on another link and buy from them the exact product they originally intended to buy from you.

Now, with the help of advanced competitor analytics you’re provided with via a PPC agency you decide to work with, you’ll get an idea of how hard you must try/invest to get ahead. This also needs to be repeatedly measured and readjusted to stay valid.

Wrap up

Finally, PPC is just a tool. The results will depend on where you decide to advertise, how good the agency you collaborate with is, and how much you invest in it. Also, you don’t have to choose between organic marketing and PPC. The truth is that you should use both, and this is when they give the best results. Most importantly, to ensure that you get the results, you need to learn a bit about the subject matter, regardless of whether you’re hiring professionals. 

How Chatbots Can Help Ecommerce Stores Recover Abandoned Carts: Top Tips

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Published: Wednesday, 07 June 2023 05:40

It’s not a secret that abandoned carts are a big issue for any ecommerce company. The statistics are not optimistic: around 80% of shopping carts across the industry are abandoned. 

Of course, it can be very discouraging for shop owners who put their heart and soul into growing their business. However, even with unprecedentedly high cart abandonment rates, there are still plenty of ways to improve the situation and ensure that the majority of your website visitors convert into paying customers. 

One of the ways to do so is using chatbots. Chatbots are customer support tools that use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to automate customer service as much as possible. They can answer customer questions and requests, ask for feedback, remind about unfinished purchases, and serve as virtual shopping assistants helping stores improve their customer experience. What’s more, chatbots are available 24/7, speak multiple languages, and are exceptionally fast in their responses. By providing fast and efficient customer support and assistance, as well as notifying about various promotions, incentives, and special offers, chatbots can really lower cart abandonment rates and ensure that businesses get loyal (and satisfied customers).

However, what are the best ways to use chatbots to recover abandoned carts?

Here are some top tips.

1. Choose the right tool

The good news is that the chatbot market these days is as abundant as ever: it is fairly easy to find a tool that suits the needs of any business. Tools vary in prices, capabilities, personalization possibilities, and offered features like different integrations with social media, CRM tools, and even Google Calendar integration. From FAQ chatbots to AI-powered bots to 3D shopping assistants: there is plenty of choice. Ecommerce stores could really benefit from highly customizable and well-designed chatbots, especially those that come with plenty of ready-made templates and don’t require any coding to set them up. Among the most popular solutions that could be worth trying are Tidio, Drift, Ada, and Replica. 

2. Provide omnichannel chatbot support

You have to be where your customers are, whether it’s your website, email, Facebook, or Whatsapp. Relying on only one channel to reach customers who abandoned their carts is counterproductive: the chances of them returning are pretty low if you don’t use multiple channels. As a business owner, it’s important to know your audience and where they are present the most. Is it Instagram? Cool, there are plenty of chatbots with Instagram integrations. Facebook? Even more! The bottom line is that chatbot usage is not limited to your website only: use its full potential to recover abandoned carts and ensure that your website visitors keep returning.

3. Personalize your chatbot communication

Modern-day customers are pretty picky: they value customized messages and communication tailored specifically to them. A well-targeted personal approach can really make your customers go back to their shopping carts and finalize their purpose, so, it’s vital to offer a unique touch that will make them feel special. The good news is that chatbots are highly customizable: you could use ready-made templates or write the bot communication yourself, as well as think about your widget design and how it blends in with the look and feel of your website. 

Personalized chatbot messages that remind customers about what products they abandoned in their carts and why they are worth buying is a sure way to drastically improve your conversion rates.

4. Use chatbots to ask for feedback

Being your virtual shopping assistants, chatbots can smoothly and efficiently gather customer feedback and customer data shared with them. This will save you lots of time on collecting and analyzing feedback simply because you can leave it to AI. Tracking customer behavior and using data to analyze it is a sure way to gain a better understanding of your customers’ actions: why do they abandon carts? What factors influence their purchasing decisions? What could you do differently? 

Being data-driven is integral to building a successful ecommerce business and, of course, to recovering abandoned carts. Improving your processes based on customer feedback will improve conversion rates, retention, and, ultimately, cart abandonment rates.

5. Use chatbots to optimize your checkout process

The truth is, many customers abandon their carts because they get frustrated with the checkout process. Sometimes it’s unclear, too demanding, or too limiting. There can also be not enough payment options or too many steps like creating an account, signing up for a newsletter, and more. You have to make sure that your checkout process is as straightforward and clear as possible. When it’s done, you can leave the rest to your chatbot: advanced bot platforms can guide customers through the checkout process, answer any questions that arise in the meanwhile, and ensure that the customers finalize their purchase with ease. 

Main takeaways

As you can see, chatbots are game-changers when it comes to recovering abandoned carts. They automate your support and checkout, offer exceptional customer service, gather data and analyze it, and can personalize and customize customer experiences. By finding the right solution and tailoring it to your business and audience, as well as listening to your customers and constantly acting on feedback, it’s possible to drastically decrease cart abandonment rates and turn regular website visitors into happy paying customers. 

Boosting E-commerce Sales with the Power of Chat APIs: A Comprehensive Guide

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Published: Wednesday, 31 May 2023 05:45

In today's cutthroat world of e-commerce, businesses are always on the lookout for innovative ways to amp up their sales and connect with customers. One game-changing tool that has taken the industry by storm is Chat APIs. These nifty little things, also known as Application Programming Interfaces, allow businesses to seamlessly integrate chat functionality into their websites or apps, creating a dynamic and interactive communication channel between them and their customers.

Welcome to our comprehensive guide where we'll dive deep into the world of Chat APIs and explore how they can supercharge your e-commerce sales. From the basics of Chat APIs to implementing killer strategies, we've got it all covered. So, buckle up, and let's uncover the immense potential of Chat APIs for your thriving e-commerce business!

What are Chat APIs?

Chat APIs empower businesses to embed real-time chat features directly into their websites or apps. By embracing Chat APIs, businesses can enable their customers to communicate with them effortlessly, seek assistance, ask questions, and make inquiries with utmost convenience. This direct interaction ramps up the overall user experience and fosters trust and personalization like never before. So after building your landing page or the main website, immediately integrate chat API! 

Key Features and Benefits

Chat APIs come with a whole arsenal of features and benefits that can work wonders for your e-commerce sales:

• Real-Time Rapport: Chat APIs allow businesses to engage with customers in real time, providing lightning-fast responses and swift resolution of queries. This leads to happier customers, higher satisfaction levels, and an increased likelihood of converting them into loyal clients.

• Customer Support: With Chat APIs in your corner, you can deliver personalized and efficient customer support. By addressing customer concerns promptly and going the extra mile, businesses can forge stronger relationships and keep those customers coming back for more.

• Sales and Lead Generation: Chat APIs can be seamlessly integrated with various e-commerce platforms, allowing businesses to initiate proactive conversations, offer tailored product recommendations, and expertly guide customers through the sales funnel. The result? Amplified sales and a steady flow of high-quality leads fuel your growth.

• Data Goldmine and Analysis: Chat APIs empower businesses to gather priceless customer data, including preferences, buying patterns, and feedback. Armed with this treasure trove of information, businesses can fine-tune their marketing strategies, tailor product offerings to perfection, and take the overall customer experience to stratospheric heights.

Implementing Chat APIs for E-commerce Success

Step 1: Choosing the Right Chat API Provider

When it comes to choosing the right chat API provider for your application, it is essential to consider various factors that can impact the overall functionality and user experience. One notable alternative to consider is GetStream. GetStream offers a robust set of features and reliable infrastructure for implementing real-time chat and messaging in your application. However, it is crucial to assess your specific requirements and compare them with alternative providers to ensure you make an informed decision. Factors such as scalability, ease of integration, customization options, pricing, and support should all be taken into account. By thoroughly evaluating the features and offerings of different chat API providers, including GetStream alternative options, you can find the best fit for your application's needs.

Dive into extensive research, devour reviews, and compare different providers to find the one that perfectly aligns with your business requirements. 

Step 2: Seamless Integration

Once you've found your perfect Chat API provider, it's time to seamlessly integrate the API into your e-commerce platform. Most providers offer comprehensive documentation and developer resources to make the integration process a breeze. Ensure that the integration is as smooth as silk, with chat functionality easily accessible to your customers with a simple click.

Step 3: Customization and Personalization

To extract maximum firepower from Chat APIs, it's essential to customize and personalize the chat experience. Tailor the chat widget to exude your brand's unique vibe and seamlessly blend with its look and feel. Consider incorporating chatbots or automated responses to handle common queries like a pro. Moreover, train your support team to provide personalized assistance, ensuring that customer interactions are genuine, heartfelt, and oh-so-meaningful.

Step 4: Proactive Engagement

Don't just sit there twiddling your thumbs waiting for customers to start the conversation— just be proactive. Use Chat APIs to engage customers at critical touchpoints, such as abandoned carts or tantalizing product pages. By reaching out to customers and offering a helping hand or mind-blowing recommendations, you'll skyrocket the chances of turning curious shoppers into loyal buyers.

Step 5: Analytics and Optimization

To keep pushing the boundaries of e-commerce sales with Chat APIs, buckle up and make use of analytics and optimization tools. Keep a keen eye on key metrics like response time, customer satisfaction ratings, and conversion rates.

Unleash your inner data wizard to analyze this treasure trove of information and uncover golden opportunities for improvement. Implement strategies that take the chat experience to legendary levels of awesomeness.

Conclusion

Chat APIs have emerged as a game-changing tool for e-commerce businesses, revolutionizing customer engagement, delivering real-time support, and, above all, turbocharging sales. By harnessing the extraordinary features and benefits of Chat APIs and implementing killer strategies, businesses can leave their competition in the dust and deliver jaw-dropping customer experiences.

Integrating Chat APIs into your e-commerce platform demands careful planning, seamless integration, a dash of customization, and ongoing optimization. Follow the steps outlined in this ultimate guide, and you'll unlock a world of opportunities to take your e-commerce sales to new heights.

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to ride the Chat API wave and surf your way to e-commerce greatness!

Want to Increase Customer Retention? Experts Reveal How Local Payment Methods Can Build Trust in Global eCommerce

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Published: Wednesday, 03 May 2023 08:58

The global e-commerce industry has made it easier for businesses to enter a new market. Also, due to the advancement of technology, local payment methods have become simpler and more interconnected to global markets and payment systems. 

However, not all businesses think about localizing their payment methods for e-commerce. This can cause issues, leading to poor customer experience and mistrust with your international users.

Today, we will discuss how to localize e-commerce payment methods and get some insights from an expert on preparing and creating a plan. To learn more about it, keep on reading!

Understanding Local Payment Methods and Cultural Differences

Now, only a few people would look at local payment methods and consider how culture plays a significant role in customer behavior and payment preferences.

For example, customers from the US and Europe usually pay through debit and credit cards. Meanwhile, Asian countries prefer using cash when making a purchase.

Each region and country has its local payment methods. For instance, Cash on Delivery (COD) is popular in Japan and the Philippines. Meanwhile, in Africa, they prefer to pay through mobile money.  

Many e-commerce businesses that plan to implement an omnichannel customer experience that’s multilingual-focused to cater to international users should consider these challenges. Companies do this to foster a relationship with their users and build brand trust.

And so, it‘s essential that before you get to enter a new market, you should research and study your target market and build a profile of your ideal customer. You can do this by working with professionals like a translation company and global marketing specialists in researching and conducting studies on your target market.

Benefits of Localizing eCommerce Payment Systems

While writing this article, I was fortunate enough to research and talk with some localization experts about their best practices for local payment methods when expanding into a new market. We got some tips and advice from them on some of the best practices when localizing your e-commerce platform and payment methods to an international audience below.

• Increased conversion rates: By offering payment options that are familiar and convenient to local customers, eCommerce businesses can boost their conversion rates. Customers are more likely to complete their purchases using their preferred payment methods, such as credit cards, mobile wallets, or local payment systems.

• Enhanced customer trust and loyalty: Localizing payment systems can also help build customer trust and loyalty, showing that the business understands their needs and preferences. Customers are more likely to return to a website that provides a seamless and secure payment experience.

• Compliance with local regulations: eCommerce businesses that operate in multiple countries must comply with various regulations related to payment processing, such as data privacy laws, anti-fraud measures, and tax requirements. Some of these laws require you to translate your privacy policy template on your e-commerce site. So you will have to hire a translation company or freelance translator to localize and translate this to avoid legal issues and penalties. 

• Reduced payment processing costs: Localizing payment systems can also help eCommerce businesses reduce payment processing costs. They can choose payment providers that offer lower transaction fees or better currency exchange rates in specific markets. It can lead to significant savings, especially for businesses that operate in countries with high payment processing fees.

• Improved cash flow management: Localizing payment systems can also help eCommerce businesses manage their cash flow more efficiently. They can receive payments in local currencies and avoid currency conversion fees or fluctuations. It can also improve the accuracy of financial reporting and forecasting, as businesses can track their revenue and expenses in each market separately.

• Competitive advantage: Finally, localizing payment systems can give eCommerce businesses a competitive advantage over their rivals, especially in markets where customers strongly prefer local payment methods. By offering a more comprehensive range of payment options and a better user experience, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract more customers.

Much of this has to do with the customer experience and how your businesses can make their payment system for e-commerce more interactive and immersive. Because if you’re going to increase profit through a multilingual content strategy, adopting your payment system to your target users’ local payment methods ensures that the whole process for them is as seamless as possible.

Localization Best Practices for Implementing an eCommerce Payment Gateway Strategy for the Global Market

While writing this article, I was fortunate enough to research and talk with some localization experts about their best practices for local payment methods when expanding into a new market. We got some tips and advice from them on some of the best practices when localizing your e-commerce platform and payment methods to an international audience below.

• Translate and localize payment instructions and customer experience: As a tech localization manager, Mitesh Thakur has worked on several translation and localization projects with Tomedes, a translation company that offers technological and multilingual solutions to businesses and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. He explained that many automation tools are readily available in the market as they are much easier to manage and help make work more efficient. Some of them are automated translation tools, which many businesses have used to transform the content of their e-commerce sites and platforms from one language to another. However, these translation tools are limited and still require an expert’s eye, like a translation company or freelance translator, to ensure that the translation and localization are accurate.

• Use a Reliable Payment Gateway Provider:  For Percy Grunwald, the co-founder of Hosting Data, a web hosting services company, adapting to local methods is crucial. So you need to carefully choose a reliable payment gateway provider is critical to ensuring the security of your transactions. Identify providers with a proven track record of reliability and safety while offering multiple currencies that will make transactions seamless and improve the customer experience. 

• Optimize for Mobile: As an experienced financial analyst, Baruch Silvermann, the founder of  The Smart Investor, a company that offers financial education services, stated that customers prefer to use mobile devices when shopping online. You should consider the online payment system you are using for your business transactions if it is mobile-friendly. Research the local payment methods of your target audience if there are any that are compatible with your e-commerce business.

• Multilingual Customer Support: As Percy Grunwald, the co-founder of Compare Banks, a company specialized in banking services and financial products, has stated that poor customer service is one of the leading reasons why people don’t return and buy from a business. Adapting to local payment methods is just one way of increasing customer satisfaction. Having a customer support team that can effectively communicate in the mother tongue of your target market will drastically improve the experience of your international customers. This is because people are more confident in their native language. You can also translate or localize your chatbots to answer inquiries in your user’s native language to enhance its customer experience.

Conclusion

Local payment methods build trust with your target users and make transactions much smoother. So implementing it into your multilingual content strategy for your e-commerce site can improve user experience, increase customer satisfaction, and make your company more competitive. Working with a professional translation company and marketing experts can ensure that the non-native English-speaking user's experience is easy to navigate and the integration of these local e-commerce payment systems doesn't come off as unnatural.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the customer’s convenience and experience. Building trust takes time. You have to think that all interactions as your first impression, and so it has to be great every time. Even if there are issues, your customer service has to be exceptional, especially in this highly competitive market.