Online business websites like WooCommerce have proven to be immensely helpful to eCommerce or electronic commerce or internet commerce.
Looking at our word of interest, eCommerce refers to selling and purchasing of goods in the internet market with the help of online monetary transactions.
Here comes a thin line of difference between e-commerce and e-business; where e-business covers all the aspects of online business holistically, e-commerce just deals with online transaction of services and goods.
eCommerce’s history dates back to 1994 when a man had sold a CD of the English Singer Gordon Matthews Thomas Sumner (or, better known by his stage name Sting) to his friend through an American Retail Platform, NetMarket.
This was the first recorded online purchase by a customer through the World Wide Web. It’s been twenty-five years since then and Global Retail E-commerce sales are supposed to be hitting $27 trillion by 2020.
Business or entrepreneurship is like life; it will have crests and troughs between the initial point and its final destination. A successful businessman (when you measure success by money) will never want his sales to fall, because let’s be honest, who likes loss? In order to be confident about no losses, you should do something that every good company or brand tags as essential – advertising.
The aim of an eCommerce site, besides flourishing business, is to effectively chase chances, get leads warmed, and re-engage abandoned carts.
It is almost an impossible feat to grow the revenue of your business with very little effort. And in this regard, Facebook Messenger plays a big role.
Activity on social media rapidly increased in the last few years, connecting people globally. On average, there are about four people between two individuals who are strangers, what Facebook terms as ‘mutual friends’, in a chain.
Putting this deep connectedness in use, Facebook Messenger has made marketing easier, bringing together the buyer and seller in personalized communication and making contacting smooth.
The trouble of making the call at a time convenient for both parties is gone, respond at a time you and your customer find suitable. You can even have a detailed look at the product before buying it via images and videos, which cannot be possible over the phone. And all this can be done sitting at home.
Facebook Messenger has outdone emails greatly, thus rising to become one of the best marketing strategies. And when it comes to combating cart abandonment, one of the biggest problems faced by eCommerce owners, how is Messenger different from or even ahead of emails?
Open Rate
Messenger has a higher open rate, of about 86%, while emails have an open rate of just 44%.
Click Rate
Combatting just a 12&% open rate on emails, Messenger has an open rate of 45%.
Reply Rate
Taking it even lower, emails have just 2% reply rate, whereas Messenger is ahead at 27%.
Add to cart conversion rate
Believe it or not, emails have only a meager 3% cart conversion rate, while on Messenger it is 64%!
Facebook Messenger surely is getting ahead of emails in every key aspect. And as a smart online store owner, it is best to go ahead with making Messenger your prime tool for communication in online business.
To make the best out of this, make sure to understand well the Facebook messenger sequences and implement them to perfection.
An Overview
Messenger now directly connects you to your customers, old or potential, not unlike email, but with much more engagement rates. If you can optimize your campaigns on Messenger you can gain hugely and achieve great conversion lifts easily. Choose the right tools and you can set the campaigns on autopilot. This will provide you with more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
However, just sending the messages would not be enough. You must be thorough with how people use Messenger and how they engage with messages, what kind of messages they prefer. You must keep in mind a few tactics to get the maximum benefit out of minimum labor.
Precision: Express more in fewer words
Messenger is not meant for long messages. You cannot write a message of a five hundred plus promotional message on Messenger. To hold the customer’s focus, you need to be short and words are to be spent wisely. This helps boost engagement on your message. It helps in conversions. With just one goal in your message, your customer will find it easy to focus. So optimize your message accordingly.
Be careful of pushing for sales
Putting sales messages at every opportune moment can be tempting, but it can annoy your customers to the extent that they stop business with you. If the main topic of all your messages is promotion s, chances are, they will block and unsubscribe your Messenger handle. Focus, rather, on building a good relationship with your customers. Patience is the key here, taking the optimum amount of time to increase sales. Better than promotions are simple notifications or a general update. The latter would help woo customers, help them build trust in you and hold them to your company. They must be given the assurance that you are the best deal they have got. Promoting your product in every message will only make you appear like a money grabbing con man.
Never forget what you set
Never set a marketing campaign and forget it! From optimizing the landing page for the first time to the outgoing outreach campaign, make sure you constantly act upon the date you collect. Only from iterative gains will you get meaningful gains, keep analyzing the data you collect to improve the effectiveness of your campaign. Even though automation eases a lot of your work, you have to keep guiding it properly for improving campaign effectiveness.
Timing it perfectly
Timing is perhaps the most important factor, as experiments have revealed. To capture the customer’s attention, it is important you send different messages to different clients and understand their intent as well as what can gain their attention the best.
Messenger is not email
Since Messenger is more personalized and less formal, makes sure that should be reflected in your messages. Avoid using long words, complicated phrases or lengthy paragraphs. Avoid extreme formality or business-like attitude. Use Messenger the way people usually see it- as a means to communicate with friends. Make yourself a friend that your customers can easily approach. Use emojis, GIFs or casual words. But be careful not to cross the line of unprofessionalism.
Cart Abandonments
At a rate of 60% to 80%, Shopping Cart is abandoned on online stores; on an average, 67.91%. In simple words, this states that out of a hundred customers that come to your website to shop, 67 of them will abandon their cart. This data will help you assess the trends in the market. Having an understanding of Cart Abandon rates can give you an idea of how the market is changing, making a specific study of changes for each product. This can help you regulate your methods and thus increase revenue collected from your business.
With the help of plugins, email your customers who have abandoned carts for reminders. The plugin retains the settings of the cart after the user abandons it, and on revisiting, restores the cart and all the previous content as the user had set up so that they may complete the transaction. You can control when the emails go, setting up a schedule. You can even add incentives, like a coupon code or discount. The link accompanying the email directs the user to the cart they had organized before abandoning it, as the plugin saves the cart contents automatically. So the user is just left with completing the order. The plugin also tracks the number of abandoned carts and those recovered via management screen and graphical representations.
ChatBots
Messenger bots are an easy way to keep up with your customers. Facebook ads redirect to these bots, capturing a target audience based on their interests. The potential customer is given the option to choose from chatting with the bot by selecting ‘Message’ or with the seller by selecting ‘Conversation’. Be responsive and answer quickly in order to keep the interest of the customer. Setup the bot to greet automatically when a person sends a message, and respond conveniently. Be creative, this will get you enough attention.
ChatBots help customers find products without browsing, explore them easily, manage payment processes, and follow up on customers if they have abandoned carts or after the purchase is complete.
You can consider using Ecart.Chat, which is a great tool for capturing messenger leads, recapture abandoned carts and convert them into sales, enhance revenue through messenger marketing campaigns and comprehend customer requirements easily.
Welcome Campaigns
Many customers expect a welcome mail. In fact, these emails have the highest engagement in eCommerce sites. These welcome messages are greatly helpful in attracting new customers and holding them. When you use Messenger instead of emails, automatically the effect of your message is increased. Welcome the customers, offer them help, provide solutions, and you have a good deal sealed.
In a study, it was found that 79% of companies have found it easy to gain and maintain customers when they provided live chat support. Also, 38% of customers prefer buying from sites that offer live chat support. With simplicity and co-operation, grow your business today with all the opportunities Facebook Messenger Sequences can provide!