5 Ways to Prep Up Your Online Store for 2020
Jennifer Warren — December 13, 2019 
Times have changed. The eCommerce sector is going through a radical transformation: Type searches are a passé; keyword stuffing is a passe; Google shopping is in; social media is in.
However, here’s the biggest shocker: Online store, on its own, won’t be enough to cater to customer needs. You need an offline store, too, to complement your online efforts. Yes, you read that, right!
These and many other changes are going to shake up the eCommerce sector in a big bang way in 2020.
So, if you are serious about taking your eCommerce site to the next level in 2020, without much ado, execute the following strategies. This article shares some best tips on how to prep up your online store for the upcoming year.
So, let’s start with the strategies:
#1. Get your offline store up and running
No. I am not kidding. If you think that your online store will suffice to keep your customers smiling, forever and ever, forget it.
Reality check: The line between offline and online stores are blurring. Customers look at offline stores and online stores as ‘interdependent entities,’ not independent entities. In other words, if shoppers like something online, they might walk down to your nearest physical store to purchase the same product.
The most significant plus point of a physical store is that it allows customers to vouch for the product quality, and, more importantly, they don’t have to worry about the shipping cost. Further, it facilitates the immediate delivery of a product.
Tips to make your online store offline ready
- Set up pop-up stores in case you haven’t set up an offline store
- Partner with established retailers
- Create one-of-its-kind experiences at all brick-and-mortar stores
- Make use of geofencing and beacons to inform customers if you got a store nearby
#2. Make your site speak-search ready
As it turns out, shoppers these days speak to their phones for search purposes than type searches. For these types of speak searches, popularly referred to as voice searches, customers are increasingly using voice interference technologies such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google voice. These technologies ensure smarter and quicker voice search. According to OC&C Strategy Consultants, 55% of American households are expected to use voice shopping by 2022.
In tune with the rising demand for voice search, Google and Apple are also continuously upgrading their virtual assistants to please their respective customer base.
So, no matter what, make your online eCommerce site voice-search ready.
Tips to make your site speak-search ready
- Optimize for Google’s featured snippet with a short intro of 40-50 words
- Strike a conversational tone in your blog and product descriptions
- Focus more on Q &A by leveraging trigger words and buzzwords
- Optimize for mobile
- Build semantic content
- Focus on the local audience – in terms of content and products
The last point is crucial given that mobile voice searches are 3X more likely to guide the customers to a local store nearby, compared to text searches.
#3. Focus on Semantic Content
Since the launch of Google’s Hummingword algorithm in 2013, keyword stuffing has been replaced by contextual language.
Simply put: Google doesn’t consider verbatim keywords while throwing up search results; instead it focusses on the whole context of searcher’s query since the algorithm update.
This means websites need to focus more on synonyms and diverse terminologies to create a series of phrases and keywords to cover all user queries, naturally.
The update was meant to enhance Google searchers’ overall experience.
Tips get your site Semantic search ready:
- Use a conversational tone in your web copy
- Optimize on-page content for Featured Snippets. This will help your content to top Google’s organic results.
- Use structured data markup to tag elements of web pages and thereby help Google to accurately interpret them.
#4. Optimize for Google Shopping
If your brand is super-known like Amazon, you can ignore Google shopping. Or else, roll-up your sleeves and make your site Google Shopping ready. Why? It’s because the majority of the customers are reaching your site through paid or organic searches via Google. So you need to optimize your website for Google Shopping. For the uninitiated, it’s a powerful SEO tool for online stores. Adding your eCommerce platform with Google Shopping will help you create a PLA (product listing ad), which will help you to top the SERPS on the Shopping tab.
As per a recent study, Google Shopping boosts conversions by 17%.
Tips to optimize your site for Google Shopping
Sign up with Google Merchant Centre. Fulfill their ad requirements, and you can start advertising through this channel.
#5. Focus on Recurring and Customizable Products
It also helps to help the customer with their recurring orders. You can schedule recurring orders beforehand so that customers never run out of their stock. For example, Amazon and Walmart are making the most of this system.
Further, you can even think of offering customized products as per individual preferences. Several online stores are taking advantage of interactive content such as quizzes and surveys to know individual tastes and preferences and serve them accordingly. For example, Native, the brand uses an interactive quiz to conjure customized scent for customers, which could be bought in the form of deo or body wash.
These tips are just the tip of the iceberg. But then, these are some of the essential tips that you need to execute ASAP if you want to make your online store a success in the coming year. Also, you can make use of eCommerce software, with in-built marketing tools to make your site a success in the coming year.
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