These Are the 3 Fastest Ways to Make Any E-Commerce Business More Profitable

When you read the news these days, it’s practically impossible to avoid stories of massive layoffs – especially in the tech sector. Over the past few months, some of the world’s largest corporations have collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers. This says very bad things about the economic outlook today and for the near future – and if you operate a business in the e-commerce industry, it’s likely that you’re feeling at least a little nervous. After all, many of the people who are being laid off could be potential customers of yours.

If your e-commerce business is successful but isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like it to be, it’s entirely possible that the lack of growth isn’t because of anything you’re doing wrong and is rather a reflection of current economic trends. People who are fearful of getting laid off don’t want to spend money unnecessarily, and people who have been laid off don’t have any extra money to spend.

In a slow economy, it can be harder for a small business to generate sales. You might have to spend a little more on paid search engine placements to keep traffic coming in, and you may also have to lower your prices to stay competitive. Spending more to sell products for less definitely isn’t the way to keep your business healthy.

When times are difficult and sales numbers are stagnant, you need to do everything you can to ensure that your business remains as profitable as possible. Fortunately for you, there are avenues open to you in the e-commerce world that aren’t available to businesses in other industries. In this article, we’re going to provide 3 actionable tips that can quickly make any e-commerce business more profitable.

Renegotiate Your Wholesale Prices or Find a New Wholesaler

During a slow economy, the competition between retail businesses can often reach cutthroat levels. You’ve most likely already seen firsthand how this can affect a small business’s profitability. At least once, you’ve probably checked to see what your competitors were charging for a product and found prices that you couldn’t possibly match without losing money.

As difficult as things may be for retail businesses when economic conditions aren’t great, you may have never considered the fact that wholesalers experience the exact same problem. It doesn’t matter whether your business buys wholesale vapes, pet toys, clothes or something else – it’s likely that several other wholesalers offer exactly the same products. Have you ever considered using that to your advantage?

If you discover a competitor selling a product at a price you can’t match, it’s likely that the competitor has found a lower wholesale price than what you’re paying – and when the economy isn’t doing so well, it’s the perfect time to negotiate a more attractive price structure with your distributor. They’ll be especially likely to play ball if you’re able to order products in bulk – and if you can’t get anywhere with your current wholesaler, call their competitors and tell them what price they need to beat if they want to gain your business.

Plan and Execute a Content Marketing Strategy

When you read about how to grow an e-commerce site, one of the first things you’ll always read is that it’s an excellent idea to have a blog and to populate it with high-quality informational content. This strategy is called content marketing. Blog posts have an opportunity to rank well for informational search queries, giving you a chance to generate traffic for search keywords other than the keywords for which your product pages and other commercial content rank.

People who search for informational topics and land on your blog posts might become curious about your products and browse your store. In addition, high-quality informational content has a chance to earn organic links from other websites – and links to your site can help to improve the search engine rankings of your commercial pages.

If you run your e-commerce business by yourself or with a small team, it’s possible that you neglected your site’s blog over the past couple of years because sales were already strong. If that’s the case, now is the time to redouble your efforts. When your website ranks well on its own merits, that’s free traffic – and if you’re not paying Google for traffic, each sale automatically becomes more profitable.

Make Your Blog Work for You by Starting a Mailing List

One of the reasons why small e-commerce businesses often allow their blogs to become stagnant is because content marketing takes a long time to show any obvious returns. Most of the people who search for informational topics are looking for help with the products they already own – they’re not looking for anything to buy right now. They find the information they need, and then they leave. When they’re ready to buy something in the future, they may remember your brand, or they may not. Content marketing cultivates brand awareness over time, but it may not produce results right away. It’s possible, however, to speed things along a bit.

If you want your blog to produce better results for your bottom line, you need to find a way to keep the lines of communication open with people who read your articles after they leave your site – and the way to do that is by starting a mailing list and inviting your blog’s readers to join.

As a consumer, it’s likely that you encounter multiple mailing list signup forms every day when you browse the web – and it’s equally likely that you almost never join any of them. You receive more than enough unwanted commercial communication as it is, and you’re definitely not looking for more. Here’s the solution: You’ve got to provide some incentive that convinces people to give you their email addresses. Offering a single-use coupon code can be effective, but people will ignore coupon code offers if they aren’t looking for something to buy. A monthly random giveaway might entice people who wouldn’t ordinarily want to join a mailing list – and giving away an occasional free product is a small price to pay for having the ability to communicate with thousands of potential customers.