How to Increase User Engagement for Your Magento Webstore

The ability to engage directly with customers is one of the biggest advantages that brick and mortar stores have over webstores. However, it’s not impossible to engage your users if you’re a small business operating a website. You just have to work a little differently.

Here we are going to look at some great tips for small businesses who want to improve user engagement for their Magento webstores.

1.    Clustering

A fairly new concept in webstores, clustering involves bringing several items from different categories together. Think of it like using a mannequin to highlight an ensemble.

With clustering, you can emulate the high street experience and offer your users some ideas about how to combine various items in your store into a whole package. It’s all about upselling. A visitor may like a skirt you sell, and thus may feel tempted to buy products that go with it if you’ve used clustering.

2.    Encourage Participation

Users engage with a webstore when they can interact with it. Happily, you have a few tools in your belt when you use Magento to build your webstore.

For example, you can use your blog to encourage discussion about the latest topics in your niche, as well as for creating content that draws the audience in the first place. Allowing users to review products is another way to get them to engage, as is hosting a forum when members of the site can interact with one another. Participation allows to connect with and develop loyalty to your site, which drives engagement.

3.    Personalize Your Webstore

The ability to engage directly with customers is one of the biggest advantages that brick and mortar stores have over webstores.

You don’t have the opportunity to personally greet your customers when they visit your website, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get messages out to them. Personalization has become a major tool for webstores in recent years.

Try to add a personal touch to things like your transaction pages. A lot of webstores also recommend products to their users based on previous purchases. Personalized emails that draw from the data the site collects take things a step further. All of these are ways for you to personalize the experience for your customers, despite the fact that you aren’t physically there to initiate a conversation.

4.    Leverage Instagram

Social media platforms have become key influencers to many shoppers, so you should use them to your advantage. Take Instagram as an example. If you have a photogenic product, you should have an Instagram account so you can show it off to the masses.

That’s a good start, but there’s more that you can do to engage users. Many webstores now send free samples of their products to Instagram influencers who fall into their niche. Just one recommendation from somebody with a few million followers could lead to a spike in sales, all while building your brand on one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

5.    Content Marketing

You always need to conduct a balancing act when it comes to the mix of content and products on a webstore. Too much content distracts away from the product, whereas a site that has no content looks barren in comparison to its competitors.

Even so, content marketing is key to success when it comes to engaging your users. Your blog should be a place where you talk about the latest news in your niche. Of course, you should also try to link the information you post to the products you sell. There are plenty of things that you can do. A cake seller may post some basic recipes, or a fashion website could create a small online magazine.

6.    Give Away Free Stuff

Everybody likes getting something for nothing, so take advantage of that to build awareness of your brand. Use social media to hold competitions that will get people talking about your products and engaging with your website.

For example, you can put an item up for grabs on Facebook, under the condition that a user must “like” your post, share it, and comment on it to enter the draw for the prize. This engages the user and widens you net, so you can pull in some of the user’s friends. You may find that giving away one free item leads to you attracting a bunch of new users.

7.    Reach Out to Other Content Creators

The ability to engage directly with customers is one of the biggest advantages that brick and mortar stores have over webstores.

You aren’t the only person who can create content about your products. There are plenty of bloggers out there who will happily write reviews for anything that you send their way.

There are two things you need to keep in mind to make this tactic work. The first is ensuring the product you send to a blogger is of sufficient quality to receive a glowing endorsement that will encourage the blogger’s followers to visit your webstore. The second is making sure you pick bloggers who fall within your niche and have audiences large enough to justify sending free products their way.

8.    The Value Proposition

You need something to set yourself apart from the myriad of other webstores that users could engage in. Your value proposition shows people what you can offer them, without bogging them down in the details.

Focus on making your value proposition catchy and effective. You need to think about what your users need and how your product meets those needs. Also, make sure your value proposition has a call to action that directs the user to your product. If all aligns as it should, you’ll engage the user and direct them into your sales funnel in one fell swoop.

9.    Speak to Your Customers

We come back to social media once again for our final point. Websites like Facebook and Twitter offer you ways to speak to customers that never existed before. You can use them to get a feel for what people think about your webstore, which allows you to highlight areas for improvement.

Beyond that, social media allows you to speak directly to your customers. Every post you make can spark a conversation about your webstore. Consider social media as an extension of your store and put every effort into building authority for your social media accounts.

The Final Word

It’s not easy to increase user engagement for your Magento webstore. With so many competitors out there, you need to put a lot of work in to attract customers and keep them engaged with your store once you have them.

These tips will help you make a start, but you need to put them into action every day. Happily, Magento offers plenty of tools that will allow you to do just that, so contact us today to find out how we can help you make the most out of your Magento webstore.