5 ways to boost engagement on your wellness eCommerce site

Have traffic but no sales and engagement

Have you been in a situation in which you have traffic, but sales and customer return rate is low? Well it’s very common and there is no need to stress over it. Unless you don’t enjoy experimenting and testing new things. That’s not the case with you of course, you landed on this article and that’s a sign that you are ready for a change. Change that will help you gain more engaged customers. We will go through several trends in this article that are gaining traction in the eCommerce space and 5 tips for brands in the wellness industry that increase customer loyalty, sells, and promotion of your products.

3 Trending topics in eCommerce 2022

COVID is still going full force and so does online shopping. The global market share of eCommerce continues to grow and so are new opportunities and trends which we have to keep an eye on and here are 3 of them:

Sustainability as a priority

Customers are voting with their wallets for businesses that do their part to protect our planet, therefore eco businesses and slow fashion are becoming more popular. Making an effort to reduce plastic and offer recyclable packaging, regardless of who you are or what you sell, will help you enhance engagement with a currently growing audience, while also reducing your carbon footprint.

Biodegradable packaging for eCommerce brands

Nowadays using the word sustainable in your product line is a great way to get an extra word of mouth marketing just by going one step further than the rest. “Greenwashing” has become a widely used term for companies that are “abusing” sustainability in their marketing, but as long you are transparent and authentic about your intentions, you got nothing to worry about.

AR (Augmented Reality) and eCommerce

There is always a person that won’t shop online because they are not able to try things out visually. AR responds to that. Companies investing in augmented reality are moving beyond high-resolution product photos and allowing customers to see how things look 'on'. Instagram and Snapchat more specifically, are leading that trend with their stories and filters which are already adopted from their users worldwide.

So how can this be implemented to increase engagement with your products?

Augmented reality presentation by Snapchat for eCommerce experiences

Well there is no one way it to implement this, people are experimenting and coming out with many creative ideas. But for a more basic example, augmented reality can let you visualize lipstick or clothing on your body just as the example from Snapchat.

AI and Custom purchasing experiences

AI is getting better by recommending more personalized, accurate product suggestions and user experience. By using artificial intelligence, internet retailers can provide quick help to every customer. Your website's algorithm can easily go through data, calculate stats, and understand client behavior to display exactly what they want to see.

Chat bots from Manychat to keep customers engaged and informed

Most use cases currently for AI are chat bots such as Manychat, where communication becomes automated on Facebook/Instagram and product recommendations to make buying decisions faster and more accurate such as Shopbox.

5 effective tips to boost engagement on your ecommerce store

1. Never forget your CTA’s

Let’s start with guidance, the importance of giving a direction to your user. Making a user-friendly website that has less noise and overwhelming information simply perform better.

That’s why you should keep it simple. Don’t overthink or do.

Less text and animations that gets your traffic straight to the point. Each section, especially on your home and landing pages should have easy to spot call to action buttons to the desired goals you want to lead them to. The last thing we want is someone leaving your website, because of poor navigation.

2. Draw attention through user-generated content (UGC)

Your customers want to be acknowledged by your brand, to feel valued and included in a community. Customers will feel much more driven to acquire your products and explain how they use them if they see your current clients using them on your site and socials. Having gone the way to put together such strategy will result in better photos, web design, and messaging that your customers will appreciate resulting in more returning customers and loyalty.

Beauty Counter gallery for user generated content

To get a better idea of how a UGC campaign make look like, we can look up to Beauty Counter. They have a dedicated gallery page for Instagram photo content of their customers. Instructions are simple, use their hashtag and get featured on their gallery and homepage of their online store.

There are plugins which can automatically upload images that use your specific hashtag, but always take precautions that some users may abuse it.

3. Testimonials – Showcasing product

You have a great product, so show it! Incentivize or just ask your returning customers to give you few words on why and how they chose you over your competitors. This can be great content for both socials and webpage.

Before and after photo content by the brand Hero Cosmetics.

Similar to user generated content, before and after photos work like a charm. Showing the great results of your skincare or dermatology products for example, can give that extra push to get your traffic straight to your checkout page. Hero Cosmetics knows this, that’s why they are using before and after client photos of good their “Mighty Patch” is directly on their product page, but also including their Instagram page for a bit more social credit.

A heads up if you ever thought about doing fake testimonials. Don’t do it! They are easy to spot, and it will only hurt you than do good.

4. Offer subscription

Custom subscription pages can make the ordering experience much more pleasing, having a quick quiz upfront to address user issues and recommending dosages/products is valuable and shows that you know what you are talking about. You’re the expert.

ByHers hair quiz regime recommendation

Hers and Hims are a perfect example of how product subscriptions should look like. Well structured, easy to go through with custom made content. The great thing is that it’s not only suitable for wellness brands but can be adapted to pretty much any niche which requires some information upfront before recommending a certain product. Make it fun and personalized, your audience will appreciate it.

5. Work on developing your brand identity

Supplement branding – minimalism packaging

Customers won’t hang around your website all day, they want to know right away what they are getting themselves into and they're not going to read over every single detail. That’s why we need to grab them by crafting appealing designs that relate with them. To do it we need a branding strategy and more specifically an identity. Within that identity is everything needed for marketing and content needs such as:

• Fonts / Typographies
• Logo variations
• Patterns
• Colors
• Messaging voice

All of this is usually packed in a “Branding Guidelines” provided by your designer, that can always help you with new projects and ideas and be consistent with your image across every channel connected with your brand.

Understand your customers and generate more sales

eCommerce business is very dynamic, with constantly changing client demands that can only be met if you keep in touch with your customers and observing closely in what direction markets are moving. But one thing that will never change is providing personalized experiences and solutions that enriches the life of your audience.