Drive Your Ecommerce Sales In 2022 With Easy-to-use Plugins And Add-ons

A sound marketing plan is essential to any eCommerce store in order to build brand awareness, attract potential consumers and ultimately, drive more sales to your store. eCommerce marketing applies to both customer acquisition (getting new customers) and customer retention (retrieving old ones).

This blog is specifically for those who are seeking to generate more sales and don't want to lose customers.

Now you must be aware of different digital marketing channels. Digital marketing channels are nothing but platforms that you can use to reach your target audience with information about your brand, product, or service. For example: websites, emails, social media platforms, organic & paid search, display ads, affiliate marketing, etc.

But have you ever wondered how this works exactly?

Let’s say you have certain products in your wishlist or cart which are yet to be purchased and you start getting advertisements related to the same products on different social media platforms.

No, this is not any sort of magic, but plugins and extensions.

So what are Plugins, Add-ons and Extensions?

A plug-in, which can also be called an add-on or an extension, is third-party software that adds new functions to a host program on a computer, without altering the host program. Basically, they allow you to add new components to a host program or extend its capabilities beyond its original design.

You must be wondering that there are so many plugins but which is the best one. And you are absolutely right. There is no one such plugin which can help you throughout because every individual plugin has its own significance.

Let me help you pick plugins which will satisfy your needs and help you elevate your ecommerce game.

First of all, make sure your customers have a great experience with your ecommerce site. How will you do it? By making sure that everything is specified followed by appropriate information. Also your website should not take too much time to load, as that might make you lose customers. In this case WPRocket can help you minimize page load time.

Nobody likes to enter their login credentials every time so there has to be an auto save or universal login option which you can offer with the help of API.

Now let’s focus on the micro objectives, starting with:

1. Add to cart

Add to cart is very general but has a lot to deliver. If a customer is adding certain items to the cart then it’s not a 100% purchase.

He or she can either purchase or leave as it is or sometimes move items to a wishlist. In case of cart abandonment, you can show relevant advertisements on different digital marketing channels by using plugins like AutomateWoo by WooCommerce , BigCommerce, API, etc.

Not to forget there is min/max cart value which automatically makes shipment free after a certain amount on purchase. In this case BigCommerce can help you.

2. Shipping

If he or she proceeds to purchase, you can use API for payment or WooCommerce for payment, and to deliver you can use DHL delivery service provided by WooCommerce or API tracking to make their purchase experience smooth and satisfactory.

Since we are already discussing add to cart and shipping practices, who hates to get free coupons, referral codes and best deals?

3. Offers and Rewards

I have simplified this as following:

1. Coupon codes by affiliate marketing - You can easily get URLs and you can take the help of API. Or if you are a registered affiliate marketer, then you can derive a personalised link for your audience.
2. Reward codes by UPI methods - API can help you generate the codes or QR as well as WooCommerce.
3. Referrals from friends and family - WooCommerce.
4. By one get one free offer - BigCommerce.
5. Package deals - BigCommerce, API.
6. Membership offers - API.

After working on ‘add to cart’ followed by successful ‘purchase and delivery’, ‘cart abandonment’ and ‘offers’, it's now time for ‘remarketing’. Let’s start with giving your customers offers by mail or letting them know about new launches, and overall make sure to engage them.

4. Repeat purchase

Now that you have the data and history of customers with the help of data monetization by API, you get a brief understanding about your customers. The category they are interested in depends on past purchases. Send your customers mails, ask them to review and rate the products, and make sure they get notifications of your new launches, deals, etc. But how will you handle all of these at once?

The simple answer is that by using API you get data that you start targeting by sending mails with the help of MailChimp, MailPoet, HubSpot, WooCommerce follow-ups.

This is sounding like a filter right?

First you make sure that your customer journey is seamless, then you make sure they purchase the desirable items, then you also make sure to get that purchase reviewed and rated. But is that all? The obvious answer is no.

Now you know how a set of customers makes repetitive purchases and are loyal to you. Let’s call this as:

5. Customer Lifetime value

Taking care of your customers who are purchasing from you repetitively is a must. You can utilize data and with the help of API and MailChimp, you can send them personalized mails.To make mails more creative, you can use MailPoet. Now you can send your customer birthday cards with exciting offers by using MailPoet. There is one more software called as HubSpot which can also help you in sending mails.

Email communication is a must with your customers as you can ask them to either subscribe to the newsletter or unsubscribe from it. You should keep sending remarketing mails with valid offers, best deals, and newsletters consisting of desirable information. Make sure you include some engagement in these mails too by adding some polls, short quizzes, etc.

This can be sufficient but it does not end here. There are more such plugins which provide end-to-end solutions to your ecommerce.

Let me introduce BigCommerce & Shopify to you. I will also brief you about API as I have used this term a lot earlier.

When it comes to Wordpress you can use BigCommerce and WooCommerce as a plugin with respective tools and extensions but you can’t have Shopify as a plugin.

The functions are the same, so is the fulfillment of micro objectives.

Ecommerce KPIs for sales

I am sure now you have understood how to get and apply coupons, how to get relevant ads based on your search and wishlist, and much more.

In case you are wondering about the performance of your ecommerce, let me educate you about KPIs.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a vital part of any business strategy on the road to success.

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are quantifiable measurements that help evaluate the overall progress of a business. Ecommerce KPIs refers to many data points relating to sales, marketing, operation, and strategic initiatives to gauge the successes and shortcomings of online businesses over a period of time.

1.Conversion rate

Conversion rate is a term familiar to any online business owner. Simply put, conversion rate is the percentage of customers that buy things at your online stores. Conversion rate helps store owners identify which channels are most suitable for promoting certain products and determine the effectiveness of different campaigns for better strategic decisions in the future.

Conversion rate = (the number of purchased customers/the total number of visitors) x 100%

For example, if your site received 50000 visitors and 5000 orders last month, the conversion rate is (5000/50000)x100% = 10%.

2. Shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is the percentage of orders that customers had added to the shopping cart but failed to complete their purchase for whatever reasons. Shopping cart abandonment rate can reveal why customers decided not to continue purchasing your products, so you can make adjustments at your stores for a better conversion rate next time.

Shopping cart abandonment rate = (abandoned transactions/the number of shopping carts created) x100%

For example, if your store had 300 shopping carts created but only 40 purchases, the shopping cart abandonment rate is (260/300)x100% = 86.67%

3. Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value gives eCommerce brands the average profit by customers. This is the amount of revenue gained from a customer after subtracting the cost of acquisition and servicing. This can be analyzed to develop strategies that not only attract new users but retain existing ones to spend more as well.

For example, if a typical shopper visits once per month and spends $50 per visit for an average lifetime of 3 years, the customer lifetime value is $50 x 12 months x 3 years = $1800

These metrics will help you track the parameters and work towards bridging the gap in performance.

There you have it! Those are the top ecommerce plugins for launching, managing, and developing your online store. Hopefully, this helps you differentiate between the many options and provide the best service to customers. If you have any questions about the top ecommerce plugins, drop us a line in the comments below.