6 Ecommerce Lead Nurturing Ideas to Boost Your Store Purchases

Has it ever happened that you bought the first thing you laid your eyes on? Of course, you may have liked it or even loved it but the first instinct is always – “let’s explore some more options”. 

Now, the fact is that most online store visitors think exactly the same. In other words, most of your leads float at the top or middle of your sales funnel. If you want them to buy from you then you will have to nurture them. Apparently, nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than those who buy immediately. 

To make things easier for you, we put together six eCommerce lead nurturing ideas to boost sales. This is to ensure your leads know that you are listening to them, are aware of their pain areas, and have the best recommendations. We hope you implement these to drive your sales figures.

1. Focus on a Seamless User Experience on the Website

This is one of the most efficient ecommerce lead nurturing ideas. Your products may be one-of-a-kind but if you don’t have a fully functional, aesthetically appealing, and trustworthy website then how do you think people will even consider you? So how about you get website-ready first?

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind while designing your website.

1. Your website’s load time because the world moves fast and your customers faster! If you want them to stay on then eliminate factors that can reduce your website’s load speed. Here’s a blog that tells you how you can achieve that.
2. Easy search functionality and filter features. This will ensure that your prospects find what they are looking for and keep browsing; one product after another.
3. Solid product descriptions.
4. High-quality photographs because they will sell your inventory.
5. Add videos or even a 360-degree view of your products, when required.
6. Publish reviews to unlock the potential of social proof. Apparently, 89% of users will make a purchase within one week of reading reviews.
7. Trust signals in form of payment security. This is for them to know that their card details and payment info is safe.
8. Take a look at the Slyde Handboards website. Their collection is easy to browse. Besides, on the product page, they list out everything, right from features and specs to shipping and returns. They also have a video and social proof in form of reviews.

What we also loved on their website is the ‘community’ section where they post videos from the Slyde Handboard community of users. They also publish tutorials and photographs to give an impression of an engaged community. In a way, this helps nurture leads and creates a sense of belonging even before you’ve bought them.

2. Establish contact ASAP

By ASAP we mean the moment you see any website conversion. Reason? A lead signing up for your newsletter or setting up an account is undeniably a hot sales opportunity. You are still fresh in their minds. So the faster you answer, the higher your chances of converting this lead into a customer.

A Harvard study stated that “companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers compared to firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later. Yet only 37% of companies respond to queries within an hour.”

One of the best ways to start this conversation is through marketing automation. Apparently, a trigger email (based on the action taking by the website visitor) achieves superior results (better open rates) because the subscriber usually expects to receive it. So power your email campaigns with content and offers that actually engage and nurture your leads. Let’s discuss how you can go about them in the next point.

Source

3. Improve your Email Marketing Campaigns

Everyone sends a welcome email and transaction success emails but you should go beyond it. Send your subscribers discount coupons and ‘buy more save more’ offers. In fact, go full throttle on your email campaigns, especially during the sale season. We say this because it is that time of the year when people are sale-ready and want to spend money shopping either online or offline!

Pro Tip: 6 Ways to Increase Interactivity in Your Marketing Emails and Boost Click-through rates

Other than these offer emails, you should also nurture your prospects through interactive product recommendation quizzes. They not only offer a more personalized experience and eliminate boredom but also enable you to gather customer intel and open up your inventory.

Related Read: Macroscape Case Study: A 36% Spike in Conversion Rates through a Quiz

Let’s say you run a shoe store and your prospect has added a few items in the cart and left. It could be that they were just window shopping but to get them back to their abandoned cart and actually close a sale you can send them an email with a quiz.

First, you remind them of items in their cart and then ask if they want to make a shoe purchase based on their personality. Or, you can direct them to a quiz-format shoe guide. They would definitely love seeing personalized results and will be motivated to buy. However, be sure to implement a DMARC protocol so that scammers don’t send fraudulent offers via your email domain to customers.

4. Engage online visitors with LIVE CHAT

According to MarTech, 51% of customers are more likely to purchase from a site that offers live chat, and about 29% are likely to return to a website with a live chat option even if they don’t end up using it. Another study suggests that about 79% of people who prefer live chat do so because their queries get resolved immediately.

Clearly, these stats reveal that live chat is a must-have feature on ecommerce websites. It provides a personal touch also makes the shopper happy that there is someone behind that window to help them. In addition, it is advantageous for you too since you can have direct conversations with your customers, address their concerns and lead them to a faster checkout.

Take, for example, Luxy Hair website. We love how they use the chat software to serve three purposes: direct chat, search answer and ‘check order’ status.

Moving on, you should display your chat software strategically along with personalized messages. You can do so when they are:

• Reviewing their shopping cart. After all who knows if they are having second thoughts or have last minute questions?
• On a best-selling product page or a new product.
• On the FAQs page but haven’t found an answer.

With that taken care of, you should also track feedback so that you can nurture future leads better. Identify what frustrates, confuses and delights your visitors. Are there other FAQs which are directed at you? Do your visitors use different terminologies than you use on your website? Are there certain suggestions which a large part of your visitors are keen for you to implement?

We are sure that these small conversations will result in conversions. It only takes some planning and strategy.

#5 Send Wishlist Reminders

A wishlist is a collection of products that are saved by your customer because they are really interested in it but don’t want to buy immediately. However, since it’s a “wish” list it means their purchase intent is high. Unfortunately, they can easily forget about it (like an abandoned cart) which is why it’s important you send them timely reminders.

Tell them if the product is back in stock or if there’s a sale on the item in their wishlist or in case there’s a price drop. Moreover, create a sense of urgency and scarcity by informing them about products in their wishlist that are quickly selling out. You can also notify how many users are adding the same items in their own wishlist.

Finally, we recommend you make these wishlists shareable. Who knows your prospect might get one or all of the products in their list as a gift!

#6 Web Browser Push notifications

Straight off the bat, we want to say that browser push notifications are a powerful lead nurturing tool for ecommerce players. And hence, this is one of our favourite ecommerce lead nurturing ideas. Once the user opts-in the conversation happens in real time, isn’t blocked by ad blockers and are alerts are delivered to the customer’s desktop and other mobile devices, even when they aren’t browsing your website.

Let us now discuss some ways you can use browser push notifications.

• Announce upcoming sale price drop and discount offers: Buyers love sale time and for that matter flash sales too because they can grab the products they have been eyeing for less price. To make these sales announcements more enticing you can add time ticker or remind them about the soon-to-expire coupon. Both work excellently to create a sense of urgency.
• Notify about new products and back in stock items: You can retarget and send alerts to those who have items saved up in their wishlist. It will close the gap between their desire to buy and your goal to close a sale!
• Send personalized offers: Personalization is not an option any more. It is a necessity! So segment your subscribers on the basis of their on-page behavior and activities like the pages or products viewed or items added to cart or location, past purchases. For instance, people who have been looking for horror fiction can be sent notification of bestselling books in horror genre.
• Recover abandoned carts and complete transaction: Anytime a user is about to exit without purchasing items they added to the cart, you can push notify them and motivate them to buy before leaving. You can even lure them with special discount offers or give them free shipping.
• Cross-sell: For example, if they added a lamp to their cart then you could recommend an LED bulb!

Recommended Read: Take a look at this guide to cross-selling by Shopify.

Just a bit more…

• Inform them about shipment and delivery: Right from showcasing your inventory to delivery, you can use browser notifications to inform your prospects and gain their confidence.
• Redirect to a blog: Let’s say a customer has been searching for easy-to-grow indoor plants but doesn’t really buy any. You can lead their way by sending them a blog post alert on ‘No maintenance plants + How to Care for them’.

Watch out for notifications frequency though. Show them only when necessary otherwise you risk losing them.

So there you go. Now you have these six ecommerce lead nurturing ideas and strategies to nurture your leads. With consistent efforts, we are sure, you will not only achieve but also exceed your sales target!

If you want to learn more ways to boost your marketing metrics, check out our ecommerce marketing guide linked below!