Use Cases
![[Customer Story] Why TestDome Considers FastSpring a Real Partner](https://fastspring.com/wp-content/themes/fastspring-bamboo/images/promotional/2023/FastSpring-TestDome-blog-thumbnail.jpg)
There’s a significant ecommerce boom going on right now. In fact, according to PriceSpider, traffic on May 3 was up 233% over an average day before the stay-at-home orders started. They also found that sales were up 22% from April 22 to April 28 compared to the week of Black Friday. That’s incredible!
So, what does that mean for you? It’s an opportunity.
There’s a huge opportunity for businesses to increase traffic and sales while staying lean—especially for businesses selling digital products like software and SaaS. Which means now is the time to take these trends seriously in order to expand beyond your current geo-locations and enter new markets.
Not sure where to start? Keep reading to learn about some of the ways you prepare your business for a boost in traffic and sales while keeping your business lean.
1. Optimize your site’s frontend
As an ecommerce business, your website is an essential part of your success. But with the current climate, you may find yourself in need of a digital facelift to match our quickly changing world.
For example, look at your site’s messaging and design and see if there is anything that may take away from the customer experience. Is there any wording that may seem insensitive or out-of-date with our current social limitations? Is there any content that is inconsistent or damaging to your brand?
Make small messaging and design adjustments first, then you can focus on larger web projects like the ones listed below.
2. Overhaul your site’s backend
Now, it’s time to look at your site’s backend. With more traffic, you want to make sure your site’s functionality is up to par. This will ensure you provide the best customer experience possible.
Here are some simple updates you can make to keep your site running quickly and smoothly:
- HTTP cache – You can decrease load time for returning visitors with HTTP-caching methods. This means your site won’t be required to reload content on subsequent visits.
- Image and text compression – Maintain visual quality while decreasing load time by compressing large images and text.
- Code – Clean up your CSS and JS code and delete any unused tags from your tag managers. This will help your site run more efficiently.
- Font-display swap – If your primary font doesn’t load fast enough, a font-display swap will switch out the fonts so your site will load faster.
- Speed test – Now that you’ve tried some new tricks to increase your site’s speed, test your site updates with tools like Test My Site and PageSpeed Insights.
3. Update your checkout process
Did you know that 21% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because the checkout process was too long/complicated?
To help you avoid abandoned carts, take another look at your checkout process. Go through the entire process yourself as if you are a customer, and make sure every aspect is simple and efficient. Ask yourself:
- Are there any unnecessary questions or form fields?
- Are there too many steps?
- If you require customers to create an account, is it necessary?
- Does the checkout flow make sense?
- Is the design of the checkout pages clean and uncluttered?
Your checkout process should make it as easy as possible for your customers to complete a purchase. If you need help improving your checkout process, FastSpring is more than happy to set you up with a high-converting checkout experience that you and your customers will love.
4. Keep customers informed
We’re in a very unique situation right now where customers demand to stay in-the-know. In fact, over 50% of US shoppers want to hear how brands are responding to a crisis.
The easiest way to keep customers informed is to feature banners on your homepage; this is prime real estate that’s hard to ignore. Create a banner that shares information about how you’re supporting your customers. Just make sure your message sounds authentic and genuine. Nobody wants to read corporate jargon that requires a codebreaker.
5. Repurpose content
If you have a blog—which you should—sometimes the best way to create new content or products is to recycle your old work.
For example, you can compile blog posts about a certain subject and create an eBook. Or you can take information from a blog post and create a video tutorial. You can then sell that eBook/tutorial on your site or give it away to your email subscribers.
Don’t let your site content go to waste. Repurpose it as a tool to increase traffic, build your email list, or boost sales.
6. Expand your reach
One thing everyone has learned as a result of this crisis is that the world is small. And with an online business, the world is even smaller.
With that in mind, don’t limit your business to only one geographic location. You should expand our reach as far as possible. And if you’re worried about the barriers created by language, currency, regional taxes, and regulations, stop worrying.
There are tools and services, like FastSpring, that are specifically designed to help you overcome those barriers. So, the only thing keeping you from becoming a truly global business is yourself.
7. Increase traffic
We know online traffic has increased since the stay-at-home orders were put in place, so it’s time to get your piece of it. And with your site’s frontend and backend optimized, you’re ready for the increase in traffic.
SEO
Go through your site and make sure you’re using the right keywords and search terms for your products and industry on each of your content pages. Add internal links between your blog posts and product pages. And since you’ve cleaned up your code, search engines should be able to spider your content with ease.
Social Media
Start uploading content to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The more external links you have pointing to your site, the more traffic you’ll get. And it’s always a good idea to stay active on your social platforms and join relevant conversations.
Things are really weird right now. But despite everything that’s going on, there are still a lot of opportunities available to online businesses that are paying attention. So, while you’re keeping the lights on, try using some of our tips to take advantage of the increase in online traffic and ecommerce sales.
