Why now is the time to capitalize on the popularity of ecommerce shopping sites.

There has never been a year like the one we are currently living in. As we continue to experience the fallout from a global pandemic, our lives and habits are undergoing a dizzying transformation — and so are our businesses. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to do all you can to protect your company until the day when the world returns to normal, you’ll want to seriously consider making ecommerce a very important part of your plans.

Get seen by the people who count.

Your ecommercial business needs to cater to your current customers, while also attracting new ones. That means your job is to make yourself visible — burning your brand into the collective memory banks of the consumers who will ultimately buy from you. Start by making sure that your search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are accurate and relevant to what you are selling, and to the shoppers who are doing the searching.

Furthermore, consumers will need to know who and where you are. To that end, check your Google Business listings to be sure that everything is current. If your hours or safety precautions have been modified due to COVID-19, use this platform to make consumers aware.

Enhance your reputation.

Before the coronavirus came along, you may have relied heavily on social media and customer reviews to spread the good word about your company. Then everything, including the publication of reviews on Google, was shut down. These days, you might find yourself feeling a bit bound and gagged, and without any current feedback. Take matters into your own hands by performing the following actions:

• Invest in reputation management software to track any issues that may have arisen with your brand.
• Address and fix any problems that are identified.
• Contact past customers to solicit product reviews to be posted on your site and on social media.
• Demonstrate your compassion and stability during hard times by offering discounts to essential workers.
• Help the community by supporting charitable causes. This will not only aid those in need, but also will further bolster your brand.
• Make a counterintuitive move by spending more on an updated and far-reaching advertising and marketing campaign.

With a little initiative and a high dose of courage, you can conquer while your competitors cower.

Give your digital infrastructure a boost.

Now that you may have some downtime, why not use it to spruce up your website? After all, that’s how most people will be interacting with you for the foreseeable future. Start by doing the following:

• Update your content to reflect COVID-19 related modifications, including your hours of operation.
• Create engaging images and videos to draw people in.
• Increase your site security with a modern payment gateway.
• Optimize your pages to be mobile-friendly.

Making these changes will help to elevate your digital presence above that of your competitors.

Shift your communications into overdrive.

Now that people are becoming accustomed to spending time online every day, you have a golden opportunity to harness the internet to your advantage. Leverage the power of email blasts, newsletters, and blogs to get a buzz going about the latest happenings and offerings from your business. Then follow up with reminders and incentives that will entice people to click through and make those all-important purchases.

Use your content to show customers how you can ease their pain.

Customers visit your physical or ecommerce store because they have a need that they are hoping you can meet. Sometimes they don’t even know exactly what that pain point is, so it should be your mission to demonstrate it to them. Creating engaging, information-rich content (and updating it frequently) is one of the best strategies you can adopt to turn casual visitors into loyal customers.

If you enjoy making fun YouTube videos, create some that highlight how a product you sell works, or how it helps a customer to solve a problem. If you’re not into short filmmaking and would prefer the power of the pen, no problem. Write a blog entry on the topic, complete with illustrations that help a customer to imagine themselves using the product.

Step up your ecommerce game.

It’s no secret that shopping habits are being altered by the pandemic. You cannot afford to lag behind your competitors, many of whom are upgrading their ecommerce platforms to accommodate a new flood of consumers — those who have discovered the safety and convenience of shopping online. Don’t be the last one on the block to use the following ecommerce enhancement tips:

• Diversify the products you are offering.
• Feature your offerings on Amazon.
• Survey your customers to determine their needs so that you can make targeted adjustments to your business model.
• Keep your product pages updated.
• Eliminate unnecessary form fields and other clutter to make checkout as quick and seamless as possible.
• Harness the power of internet influencers to spread the word about your business with their fans.

Although you’re probably not a psychic, you don’t need a crystal ball to know that the upcoming few years will probably contain their share of challenges. Fortunately, the upsurge of ecommerce may just be the trend that saves you. Embrace it; take steps to meet the new challenges and requirements that come along with it, and you’ll be better poised to approach the next hurdle with confidence and skill. In these turbulent times, that is the best that any of us can do.