The return on investment is essential because it makes it possible to evaluate the profitability of e-commerce. Moreover, calculating the ROI makes it possible to set up a provisional plan. This indicator is useful for better managing the budget, readjusting certain actions if necessary, developing the activity and making the right decisions. Knowing your break-even point also proves the company’s seriousness, especially with a bank or a financial institution.
TIPS TO IMPROVE THE PROFITABILITY OF A SITE
For your site to be profitable, it is generally necessary that each cost generated for its creation be lower than what the site brings you. A few aspects are necessary to optimize your e-commerce as much as possible and thus hope for good profitability.
OPTIMIZE USER EXPERIENCE
For e-commerce, in particular, the project leader must fully consider the UX. Indeed, there must be a reflection in this direction and UX prototypes made before UI models are born. This lays the foundation for smooth navigation. Providing the right elements in the right places is very important to guide user journeys towards your objectives and benefit from good profitability afterwards. The page loading time must also be fast to prevent a user from leaving the site.
BRING YOUR SITE TO LIFE
First of all, ensure you have access to enough blocks on your site and especially on your home to highlight promotions, for example. Also, you need a blog space that will allow you to feed the site with articles that position you as an expert. Writing blog articles is beneficial for your users but also for Google, which optimizes your SEO (natural referencing). Thus, keeping your site alive means regularly publishing content and updating certain information.
WORK ON THE UI DESIGN
The idea for the site to be profitable is for the user to go through with payment. For this, he must stay at least on the site and enjoy his navigation. Thus, the design should be particularly attractive and modern. Animations are also welcome, in small doses, of course, but the details often make the difference between one e-commerce site and another.
BUILD CUSTOMER/USER LOYALTY
Marketing actions can be put in place to maintain your customers’ traffic on the e-commerce site, such as setting up a newsletter or offering special offers exclusively on your website. Indeed, the e-shopper will feel privileged and will appreciate all the more his navigation on your e-commerce. Also, accessing content only for customers with a loyalty card can be a relevant marketing action.
FOCUS ON PERSONALIZATION
Thanks to cookies, the user experience can be personalized. For example, a user who has been to the site before may see a different message from someone who has never been. It can also be via a notification system. The objective is to offer targeted recommendations to increase sales.
HOW TO CALCULATE THE ROI OF YOUR SITE?
COSTS TO CONSIDER
The costs linked to the development of the activity must be detailed, such as those linked to the setting up of your site and its maintenance, those relating to the stocks to be provided for, delivery costs, costs linked to any providers and the purchase of hardware, software, software, plug-ins or development.
ROI CALCULATION METHOD
After establishing the expenditure items of your online activity, you must have knowledge or at least an estimate of your turnover. Thus, you will be able to calculate your gross margin, that is, the difference between the turnover and each cost related to the realization of the services. Once this margin has been calculated, you must perform this operation : (margin generated by your sales/costs invested) x 100. The result obtained corresponds to your rate of return on investment.
CONSIDER THE MARKETING CAMPAIGN
However, profitability is not only based on the monetary gain generated on the site. Indeed, the profitability is with the conversion, that is, a transformation of a user towards a status which can get closer to a customer. This can be qualitative or at least more subtle than a gross sale.
The creation of e-commerce without anticipating the calculation of the ROI of this one can be the object of regret later. A marketing campaign is, of course, included in the costs invested to calculate the profitability of e-commerce. This contributes to conversion, whether on mobile or desktop, hence the relevance of this on an e-commerce site. Indeed, the embellishment of the offer, in which marketing works, makes it possible to stand out from the competition. Indeed, creating value through marketing, actions on mobile, in phygital can make buying on the web more attractive.
MARKETING AT THE HEART OF THE ROI STRATEGY
ADDED VALUE FOR ROI
To create a return on investment, one must sell more than what exists. That is to say that its margin between the selling price and the actual cost must be quite large. Marketing is, therefore, at the heart of this strategy. Creating value is very important to make the investment less in relation to the gain. It is this search for value that will make the ROI of the e-commerce site important. The web comprises many attributes, solutions and opportunities that digital marketing agencies must look for to maintain a good conversion and purchase rate among their clients.
IN THE SHOES OF AN E-COMMERCE COMPANY
Conversion is certainly a sensitive point, but it also means being constantly on the lookout, searching for ever more novelties and adapting customers and their use on the web. Indeed, online communication tends to be more modernized, and the way of searching is also different ( voice search, for example). Thus, the company that sells its products/services on the web must adapt and, even better, anticipate these upheavals that the web may experience. Thus, communication and marketing teams must look for new data and use it to guide the company’s actions on the web (SEO, customer journey, global digital strategy).
Also Read: What Is SEO Web Design?
CREATING A MARKETING CAMPAIGN
The success rate of a marketing campaign depends greatly on the company knowing its audience. If you do not have an in-house marketing department, it may be relevant to entrust a marketing campaign’s conduct to specialized agencies. Thus, these agencies could study the target precisely and direct the campaign accordingly for a better conversion rate. Indeed, creating a digital campaign is the core business of some agencies, which necessarily optimizes the conversion rate. These agencies are also responsible for providing the results of marketing actions, particularly whether the purchase rate on desktop and mobile has increased.
NATURAL REFERENCING (SEO)
For a site to be visible on search engines, it must be appreciated by Google and be well-referenced. It is all the more important for an e-commerce site to be visible to generate traffic. But it is not enough to land users on your site; this traffic must be qualified. For this, a natural referencing strategy (seo) must be implemented to integrate the right keywords to be found in searches corresponding to what the e-commerce site offers. Then, after having adopted a good SEO, it may be relevant to carry out a paid referencing campaign (SEA).
Thus, the search for value, the embellishment of the offer by marketing, the implementation of a digital strategy, and the realization of an advertising campaign… These are all solutions aimed at making the e-commerce site profitable.