If the COVID-19 pandemic was good for one thing, it was e-commerce.

In 2020 alone, online sales jumped 4 percentage points to make up 17.8% of global retail sales, according to Statista. The market data platform predicts that online purchases will make up a quarter of retail sales by 2026.

As a business owner, you may have taken the opportunity to build out your e-commerce storefront. As the worst of the pandemic subsided in 2022, shoppers returned to physical stores and cut back on big-ticket discretionary spending online, CNN reported.

Many of our clients run e-commerce businesses, and sell goods or services online. These are the top five ways I’m encouraging our business owners to entice shoppers back to their online stores.

1. Reach out to your customers

Ask your customers to visit your e-commerce storefront again! Sometimes, it’s as simple as extending the invitation directly via email or text message.

If you’ve collected contact information from customers in the past, and you have their permission to get in touch, reach out to invite them back to your store. Email is a powerful marketing channel for sales, and it lets you contact customers who have already shown they are interested in your products or services.

If you haven’t collected email addresses or phone numbers for marketing messages yet, start now. A popular way to start your email list is to ask potential customers for their email address to receive a discount code. You can also ask to send marketing messages during the checkout process. Just be sure to stay compliant with prevailing privacy regulations, such as GDPR.

2. Update your site’s privacy settings

Speaking of privacy, online shoppers have become more conscious about the data websites collect about them. Honestly, it’s hard not to be aware of all the data that’s being collected when websites have to ask you to allow all cookies. That’s why Shopify included zero-party data — information customers intentionally give you — as a top e-commerce trend for 2023.

If you’re going to use technology that relies on cookies to gather information about users, you have to let visitors know and give them the option to turn off unnecessary cookies. But you can make your website inviting to customers by turning off cookies and allowing them to browse without collecting data. You can still learn about your customers by having them volunteer information, like by creating a quiz that matches them with ideal products.

3. Ramp up your social commerce Social media is where 71% of Gen Z shoppers say they most often discover products, according to Hubspot research. Overall, more than 1 in 5 (22%) of consumers say they prefer discovering new products on social. With the help of product marketing on social media or influencers who show off your products, you can direct potential buyers to your e-commerce site.

Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok also make it easy to sell through social media with native commerce platforms for checkout. Each platform can help you target a different demographic or type of consumer, so figure out the best fit for you. While it can feel like a lot to juggle inventory and sales across social media, the costs might be worth the benefits to your business. And the Certum team can always help you with bookkeeping and tracking on the back end!

4. Livestream sales to shoppers

A rising trend in e-commerce this year is live shopping. (And by that, I don’t mean live in person — I mean livestreaming!) Using a platform with livestreaming capabilities, such as YouTube or Facebook, businesses can show off products, answer questions, and drive to their website for sales.

If you aren’t familiar with live shopping, it’s because it’s still in its infancy in the U.S. It’s an authentic way to engage with your audience, as you can see in this video. Coresight Research predicts that livestreaming e-commerce sales will reach more than $60 billion by 2026. Be an early adopter to get a bigger slice of that pie.

5. Advertise your sustainable practices

Your business might already be engaging in practices that help the environment, such as reducing waste or single-use items, sourcing locally to lower your carbon emissions, or packaging or shipping products with reusable or recyclable materials. Shopify’s research indicates that 46% of customers are more likely to buy a product online if they see that they’re able to recycle its packaging. In short, helping customers feel good about buying your products

and supporting your business — because you’re giving back and helping the environment — can help you seal the deal on a sale.

It might feel like tooting your own horn, but sharing the ways that your business engages in sustainable practices is the only way for customers to know about them. Use email, text messages, and social media to start conversations about sustainable practices and draw consumers to your storefront.

We’re here to share our e-commerce and POS expertise

The team and I love working with our e-commerce clients to set them up for success. One thing we know: A smooth check-out experience is key to closing sales online. QuickBooks Desktop’s point of sale (POS) solution has been a great option for tracking and categorizing sales in your books. As of Oct. 3, 2023, Intuit won’t be updating QuickBooks Point of Sale 19.0.

While you could continue to use the defunct POS system, it will lose functionality and security over time, so we don’t recommend keeping it after October. In its place, Intuit has partnered with Shopify to offer a beautifully integrated POS solution for QuickBooks Desktop — and we think this is the best course of action.

As you invite customers to your e-commerce storefront, keep the customer experience top-of-mind. We’re happy to support you in creating the best online shopping experience for customers. If you currently use QuickBooks Point of Sale and want to explore using Shopify for transactions, drop us a line. We’d love to show you the ropes so your checkout experience is smooth sale-ing!