All online stores want growth in 2024.
Since 2013, INEVO has been working on a large number of Norwegian online stores, at that time we have made up some experience, and now we share our tips for 2024.
These tips include everything from exploiting your own channels, creating better product images, using smart data for more accurate tracking, social media campaigns and e-mail marketing.
Ready to see our best tips?
Let's start with design:
Our best tips:
Cathrine Andrea Knutsen, Design and UX Specialist
"Make sure that your products use one background color and keep it consistent. This is to minimise root on the side, so that the focus is on the products. It is much easier to navigate among category pages and products when all images have the same style and size.
Another important aspect of images is to show the product in the right scale. If you buy a backpack or a bag, you want to see the product on a person. When purchasing furniture, it is useful to see the furniture together with other furniture. Make sure you have the same style on your pictures.
The result is a seamless user experience on the website - which makes it easy for visitors to click, browse and buy!”
Too many online stores fail to show the products they sell.
A survey performed by Digizuite (a INEVO customer) actually found that:
- 90% of all online stores do not use videos on their product pages
- 97 % of all online stores do not use 360-degree image display
- 58 % of all online stores do not use zoom/close-up products
- 46 % of all online shops do not use lifestyle images (image of products on a person).
That's pretty wild!
Bad product images have a negative effect on revenue.
This is such a hot theme that better product images came up twice on this list!
Melissa Reiersen Drying, social media specialist
"I think the importance of good product images and videos is becoming increasingly important, especially in the field of advertising in social media.
Personally, the chances are greater that I buy something I see in an ad if the content is good and they have good product pictures.
And that the design of the ad reflects the mark.
I believe that online shops in 2024 should focus on having good product images that also make social media catalogues more consumer-friendly"
So you should not ignore product images.
Good visual elements make your products more appealing - and that's how you sell more!
Especially when you combine it with your own media channels.
Karl Philip Lund, Partner
"My best advice for B2C online stores in 2024 is to focus on channels you own, such as e-mail, chat/SMS and physical stores.
This approach avoids increasing privacy problems with platforms like Google and Facebook, and is also more cost-effective!
We have a customer who increased focus on e-mail automation in the autumn of 2023, which led to increased sales. Another customer looks at higher online sales near his physical shops."
Paid channels are getting more expensive every year.
You should always be present in payment channels such as Meta, Pinterest, Snap and the like, but there is a growing trend among leading online stores to invest on their own channels such as e-mail, SMS, organic social content and own websites.
Our personal favorite? E-mail marketing.
It's Sebastian's favorite too.
Sebastian Stensli Melvold, OMA (Operative Market Assistant)
"Start taking e-mail marketing seriously and don't look at it as an isolated activity. E-mail should be part of your strategy for paid traffic.
E-mail should be part of the strategy for paid traffic because it complements and enhances the effect of paid advertising.
By integrating email into your paid strategy, you can effectively follow up potential customers who were reached through paid channels, helping to improve conversion rates.
This approach allows longer and more valuable customer relationships, which may in turn increase the return on investment from paid traffic.
Build your list, set up automations directed at different stages of customer travel, and don't be afraid to SEARCH E-POSTER."
E-mail should be your most effective marketing channel.
Nevertheless, most companies still do not use e-mail marketing effectively.
There are too few emails, there is very little automation used, and companies spend too much time focusing on the "next big thing" instead of really doing the basic things very well.
If you take a look at the best online shops in Norway (and for that matter, the world) one thing becomes clear - they have a strong focus on e-mail marketing.
Another channel that provides many opportunities for online shops is Google Shopping.
Katerina Sharapova, OMA and Search Specialist
"My best e-commerce tips are to prioritize Google Shopping campaigns.
How?
Here are the three most important things to focus on, based on what I've seen with my customers this year.
Optimize your product feed: Make sure all product information is accurate, up-to-date and follows Google's guidelines.
Get familiar with the use of feed rules and third party tools like DataFeedWatch: for better flexibility and understanding of how feeds works.
Monitor KPIs: Keep an eye on key metrics such as CTR, conversion rate and ROAS. Analyse these data for identifying top products/groups/tags and areas for improvement
What do most customers do when looking for something specific?
They're Google.
Being visible and having accurate information displayed in Google Shopping can be crucial to whether a customer buys from you or a competitor.
Over time, you should look for trends and patterns based on performance targets to find new ways to improve your campaigns.
The launch of new marketing campaigns also does not need to be too complicated - as Mr Niclas points out below.
Niclas Nilsen, Head of SoMe & E-commerce specialist
"My best e-commerce tips is to stop working with advanced draw.
All you need now is a test campaign and a scalable Advantage+ campaign.
What is Advantage+?
This is a new meta conversion campaign that uses artificial intelligence to find customers who are likely to buy your products. This is Meta's answer to Google's Performance Max.
With Advantage+ you can have up to 150 different ads active, which differ from the old conversion campaign where you should preferably have a maximum of five advertisements running.
We have seen impressive results with Advantage+; an increase in ROAS of 30-50% and a decrease in CPA of 30-50%.
Advantage+ is a campaign that unites all the areas of one campaign.”
Online shops should definitely take advantage of the possibility of using Advantage+, especially in view of the success of NACE and the social media team. This represents a significant growth opportunity!
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence has and will continue to have a great effect on performance marketing.
But the efficiency of artificial intelligence depends on the quality of the data it gets access to.
It needs a lot of data. But even more importantly, it needs quality data.
Hannah Haraldsen Lindelien, Head of Search
"Fokuser more on smart usage of data in advertising.
Google, Meta etc. smooths rules of play for advertisers using automation and AI.
Therefore, there is a great competitive advantage in having quality data available for use in these systems.
And from what I see, there are few advertisers who actually take advantage of this possibility.
Two examples of how to use data:
- Optimize and offer profitability for each product or product group.
- Use competitive price data to manage visibility and consumption
We are a major provider of quality data, especially for first party data.
Getting feedback, notifications or insights directly from customers is a great way to improve traffic, text content and conversion rates. That's why we like the next Nora e-commerce tip.
Nora Aslaksrud, OMA & Team Lead
"The comments and notification field of your products is a valuable resource for identifying improvement possibilities on your page.
Do you receive repeated questions about your product or service?
This is a clear sign that your page does not convey what is important to the customer.
The product pages are among the most important pages in your online store.
Make sure to provide potential customers with the most relevant information to increase the chances of buying and improving the purchase rate."
Here is a quick tactic inspired by Nora's online trading tips:
- Login to your customer service program.
- Search for your best-selling product, like "lip gloss".
- Note all questions related to the product.
- Copy the answers that customer support has used.
- Rewrite them for the web and publish them on your product page.
Try this for 30 days and see if the sale increases. If it's a significant improvement, repeat the exercise for your top 10 best-selling products, and even better, for your top 10 most profitable products.
Even e-commerce tips also underline this.
Even Garden of Emerald, Head of OMA
"Don't be afraid to talk to your customers.
Very few companies actually do this, but it's one of the simplest and most effective things you can do.
Talking to customers by e-mail, or even better, on the phone, can give you valuable insights in a few minutes.
For example, asking them why they've been trading with you today, can give you more insight than any distribution tool that costs thousands of dollars a month.
Asking what other products they could expect to buy from you can help you find the brands or categories that your purchasing team can investigate, thus helping you expand sales and customer loyalty.”
There is no doubt: you will always win if you can know more about your customers and can understand their needs.
Just like Even, Vetle's comment is also centered on colliding with customers.
Vetle South Island, OMA & Team Leader
"My best tip for online shops is to have an informal communication strategy that works next to the normal strategy.
Products and USPs are rarely unique anymore, so the store must be related to customers.
I therefore believe that you will have a greater chance of success and gain more loyal customers if your articles in social media, newsletters and tone of voice reflect the challenges and humor of your target audience.”
The profit comes from existing customers, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't focus on new customers. Of course, it may be expensive in the short term, but not all customers who buy from you will buy again.
So you also have to think about new customers.
Daniel Theodor Henriksen, OMA
"Priorities to seek out new customers.
Although investing in existing customers may produce immediate results in reporting, it appears that obtaining new customers is more cost-effective in the long term.
Growth requires a strategic combination of short term sales activation and long-term branding."
The next tip applies to both new and existing customers.
Have you ever clicked on a website from Google, but left it because it took too long to load?
We all did.
Online shops lose millions (possibly billions?) every year because of slow websites.
So Sander's e-commerce tips are so important -- to make sure your online store is loaded quickly.
Sander Kaasa, Head of Technology & OMA
"Page speed and Google Core Web Vitals have become more important than ever.
Low page speed and non-compliance with Core Web vitals standards may negatively affect your SEO ranking.
In addition, these problems may damage the user experience and lead to increased loss of experience from your online store.
What you can do:
- Run your online store through Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Identify the main obstacles to achieving optimal lateral speed and Core Web Vitals.
- Make changes to Core Web vitals and the page speed is within the higher ranges."
There's a challenge we haven't been in yet.
And that's something we're seeing time and time again.
We've worked with hundreds of e-commerce sites in Norway, and do you know what the most common error we see is?
Bad tracking.
In fact, one of the first things we do when we start working with a new customer is to review their tracking -- because in most cases it's not exactly.
Karoline Thon, OMA & Team Leader
"My best online shopping tip is that the stores need to be better at tracking.
Make sure to collect the correct data and use it actively to follow the customer through the sales area and increase sales.
This will affect all advertising, and will most likely give you a much better ROI than others who don't have this in place."
Good tracking is essential for marketing.
Do you know what else is also absolutely fundamental?
Having a online store that works!
Sometimes it's the basic thing that makes up the difference between growth or no growth.
Right, Priya?
Priya Shringi, Search Specialist
"My best e-commerce tips are to focus on a solid website foundation to make it easier for customers to decide to buy online.
A robust foundation includes simple, user-friendly navigation, fast download times, extensive product descriptions and appealing visual content.
Please include standard images with realistic dimensions and environmental images in real-world environments."
This is well connected with the online trade tips from Anna.
Whatever tactics, channel or strategy you use, it's basically always about the customer.
Setting the customer first and being customer oriented is a long-term work.
But this is deeply anchored in all successful online trading activities.
Anna Mork Holm, OMA
"In 2024 online shops should really be excellent in customer experience and they should be quick to adapt to market changes.
Trends in social platforms like TikTok can quickly change what customers want.
Trades must therefore be able to react quickly.
In addition, the general economic climate will affect consumers’ purchasing power, which requires adaptable price strategies.
It is essential to be able to meet customer expectations throughout the purchase process, from web browsing to after the purchase, inter alia by including personal recommendations and different payment options.
To achieve success, shops need to use technology and data in order to be in the forefront of customers’ preferences and needs, and thus remain up to date and competitive.”
If you've read all the way down here--a thousand thanks!
But we're not done.
We asked another “expert” - ChatGPT.
We love to explore AI and how to use it at INEVO, so we asked ChatGPT about its best e-commerce tips.
We asked almost the same question as to everyone else in this article:
"Imagine that you are an e-commerce expert. What is your best e-commerce tips for next year?"
Open AI e-commerce expert
"My best tip for e-commerce next year is to prioritize personalisation throughout the customer journey.
Customize the shopping experience based on individual preferences, browsing history and past purchases can significantly improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.
Use customer data intelligently to deliver personal product recommendations, targeted marketing campaigns and adapted communication.
This focus on personalisation can create stronger connections with customers, leading to higher involvement and loyalty to your brand."
Not so bad! But, even though we're a little bit partial, we think our own tips are better;)
Work with one of our e-commerce experts
We have capacity for 2-3 new online customers in 2024.
So if you want to increase your revenue and cooperate with one of the online commerce experts mentioned in this article, you can contact us today for an uncommitted meeting. Here we will learn more about your online shop, share market trends, insight and how we can help you grow.
Ready to cooperate with INEVO?