Innovative E-Commerce Strategies to Drive Sales for Small Retailers

Small businesses are an essential part of the global economy. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they employ almost half of America’s workforce, representing 43.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Their role is just as important as that of a big enterprise when it comes to driving customer satisfaction and keeping local economies afloat.

From mom-and-pop shops to local grocers, people often prefer small retailers because of their value proposition. They offer bespoke experiences, unique products and services, and a sense of familiarity and intimacy — this beats the Amazons and Walmarts of the world any day. However, it’s crucial that their web stores recreate the experiences shoppers get in person in order to improve sales and customer engagement.

So, it’s no wonder that 43 percent of small businesses wanted to invest in their website performance last year. That’s because good user experience (UX) can boost brand legitimacy and reputation, improve search engine optimization performance, and solve cart abandonment issues, among other benefits.

However, beyond the basics of intuitive web page functionality like navigability, low latency, cart abandonment flows, and better filtering options, there are more innovative approaches small retailers can take to step up their online presence.

Let’s explore some of the modern ways your small company can improve its website and the biggest obstacles you must overcome in order to achieve positive results.

Enhanced Product Visualization

If you’re looking to rival giants like Amazon.com with your customized and locally sourced products, then you must take a page out of their book. Something these big retailers do perfectly is get consumers as close to the product as possible with augmented reality (AR) tools, 3D modeling, interactive size guides, and attractive videos and photography. While these seem like big features to take on, the return on investment from these efforts makes it worth your while.

These features aren’t new for the giants, but small businesses don’t always get the support they need to take their web stores to the next level. Thankfully, technology has advanced enough for people to become self-sufficient or get suitable assistance.

To begin with, 3D renders, AR tools, and interactive size guides are definitely things your small business couldn’t craft on its own, but these features are now widely available through a variety of e-commerce solutions that help small and big companies showcase their products' best sides. These features help customers visualize products in their own spaces or on themselves, in the case of garments, making for immersive experiences that draw them to purchase.

These are newer approaches to how people interact with online shopping, but they’re already tried and tested. I had the case of a company in the fashion industry that needed enhanced product displays. After infusing these features into each of the products it sold, it increased its sales by 25 percent.

Higher Engagement With Customized Bundles

Your small company can offer even more unique experiences; you just don’t know it yet. A great way to engage your customers and build their loyalty is by bringing customizable bundles to the table.

Let’s say your loyal customers already created an account on your website. You can analyze their browsing and spending behavior and offer bundles with their favorite products — powered by technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. This will make it easier for them to purchase items as bundles with discounted prices while increasing your sales and possibly lowering your cart abandonment rate.

This shows customers that you’re willing to honor their regular interest in your products and/or services and that you’re dedicating efforts to specifically target and offer them the best experience. This is how small businesses can shine compared to bigger competitors: in a similar fashion to how business owners greet customers at a store, you can welcome them to your online store with the products you know they like.

Likewise, you can create products that customers can personalize themselves. For example, if you sell baked goods, you can offer shoppers a way to customize their cookie jars and put specific items inside (e.g., pastries, cookies, muffins, etc.).

Soak in the Seasonal Spirit With Temporary Displays

A YouGov poll revealed that Americans’ favorite holidays — Christmas and Thanksgiving — rank the highest, followed by Halloween and Easter. Needless to say, the country loves holidays and celebrations, and there’s no better way for businesses to connect with their customers than to tap into the seasonal spirit with a temporary, thematic UI design.

Whether you’re a gift company, a fashion brand, or a seller of perishable goods, your website can change with the seasons to target people’s specific needs and entice them to buy products. For example, during May you can promote Mother’s Day discounts or seasonal products.

Many companies that manage small business web stores can do this with ease, planning site templates for the year with business owners and launching them when the time comes. These are managed options small companies can leverage without breaking the bank or needing tons of technical expertise.

Facing the Obstacles of Website Modernization

Proposing innovations is easier said than done, and it’s understandable when small companies see these changes as a steep mountain they have to climb. The truth is, thanks to technological advancements, all of these options are available to businesses of all sizes without inflating their budgets or changing the way they operate.

One of the biggest challenges small businesses face today — as digital transformation is still underway — is data collection. When customizing experiences, it’s important to gather demographic data like geolocation, age range, gender, etc., and know how to use it properly. Prompting customers to create an account and log in for purchases is an easy fix to gathering data in noninvasive ways.

Furthermore, you can hire e-commerce companies that take care of the rest, from cloud databases to website management. These third parties get to know you and your business needs first, recognizing you’re a small company with different demands and bandwidth than an enterprise.

This ties into the second obstacle. You might feel overwhelmed by thinking you need to make all these changes to your online website at once to reap any benefits. The truth is that small companies move better by taking consistent, small steps and should perform incremental changes rather than hammering everything in one go.

Those that support small entrepreneurs are aware of the time, capacity and budget constraints, building reasonable timelines to revamp websites with innovative approaches, starting with minor changes.

Nowadays, every technological tool under the sun is available for small businesses to thrive and showcase their unique value propositions. What’s important is for owners to understand the innovative ways they can improve their web store and discuss this with third parties that can meet their demands on a budget and specific timeline. Building these UX features into your website is crucial to step into the future of online shopping experiences; you’ll begin seeing the positive results of enhanced customer engagement and customization.

Blake Ellis is a founding partner at CommerceV3, a cloud-based e-commerce platform dedicated to streamlining multichannel retail.