For eCommerce in Trinidad to catch up to international competitors and start attracting citizens to buy local, companies need to upgrade and optimize several key components of their game. From our experience working with several successful local eCommerce stores we’re going to take a closer look at five areas we’ve identified that need to be improved.
Internet penetration has hit 69.1% here in Trinidad & Tobago, with just shy of 1 million (942,713) citizens on the Internet in 2020. Our young population , with an average age of 36, is spending more and more time online and finally starting to do a good bit of their shopping there. Ecommerce in Trinidad now needs to get up to speed and take a slice of this online sales pie. In 2017, the government estimated that consumers in Trinidad and Tobago spent some US$500 million buying goods from the US via eCommerce. Why’s the chunk of money sailing away from our islands? Well, because US websites have the advantages of trust, convenience and familiarity over our local equivalents. To catch up and start attracting citizens to buy local, companies need to upgrade and optimize several key components of their eCommerce game. From our experience working with several successful local eCommerce stores we’re going to take a closer look at five areas we’ve identified that need to be improved to survive in the eCommerce environment.
Mobile Strategy
Having a ‘responsive’ version of your website for smartphones and tablets used to be enough to cover your bases when someone wanted to browse your website from any device other than a desktop or laptop. Now, responsive isn’t considered ideal, it mostly just shrinks everything down and re-arranges elements to fit into the new width of the smaller screen. Simply being responsive is now causing you to be out of touch with today’s shopper. You need to completely rethink your mobile experience and design one that is 100% immersive for both phone and tablet, not some version of your website cobbled into another form. In 2019, 67.2% of all retail eCommerce worldwide was done on a mobile device. By 2021, that number is expected to hit 70%, up from 52% just five years earlier. Mobile shoppers want everything as simple as possible, so make sure the “purchase” button travels with them wherever they go on your site. The more intuitive the process, the more sales you’ll make anytime someone visits your website.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel is one of the great buzzwords of the last decade, and it’s a simple case of either you have it or you don’t. The newness of being able to connect to your customer at every point possible along the customer journey has worn off. What once seemed remarkable, revolutionary, and futuristic is now simply expected. If a visitor signs up for your loyalty program on your website, they expect to be able to also earn and redeem those points at your physical outlets. If a customer receives a coupon in the mail after making a purchase at your physical store, they want a spot on your website’s checkout page to enter the code to get their discount. Moreover, they want the same tone and touch to permeate through all interactions they have with your brand. That means having all channels in sync with one another and data flowing in all directions.
Conversion Focused Content
Nascent websites still have the idea that putting SEO keywords in the head and throughout various pieces of content is the way forward to turning leads into sales. Digital marketing no longer works that way. Customers are too indoctrinated into the Internet to fall for parlour tricks and flashing lights when it comes to what convinces them to hand over their hard-earned money. The biggest marketing tool you can use in 2020 is to create value in your content. Not just blogs and Facebook posts either, but evergreen content that attracts visitors to your website today, tomorrow, and into the future. This means spending money and doing the necessary research to see not just what keywords your potential customers are searching for, but what questions they have. Anytime your site is the one who can answer a question that a consumer has, it positions you into a source of authority on the subject and makes them far more apt to trust you for a future purchase.
Trust Factors
See that little lock next to the web address bar on your website? If you do, you are golden, if not, your website is lacking some serious security details that are going to send your potential customers fleeing your eCommerce site like rats from a sinking ship. The fears of many consumers in the Caribbean are spotty connections and a lack of network security when sending their financial information. American websites like Amazon pride themselves on how well they protect user data. If your strategy for eCommerce in Trinidad cannot offer the same promises, it cannot hope to compete. It’s not just about a trustworthy connection for consumers. They also want to have validation that they are making the right choice when they spend money on a product. That can come from testimonials on your website or reviews on yours or other websites that allow users to post unbiased opinions of your company and its products.
Customer Convenience
Customers are a bit like your children when they come to your site – they want what they want right now and are not going to take no for an answer. A big factor for successful ecommerce in Trinidad is live customer support. Shopping online is still a relatively new thing for many people who prefer things they can see and touch. Real people on the other end of the line is still the preferred choice for most consumers, regardless of how impressive Artificial Intelligence and chatbots become. Any and all perks your company can provide to your customers are links in a chain that not only makes them a customer, but makes them into repeat customers. Things like free shipping, referral discounts, and coupons for future use all grease the wheels for a potential long-term relationship.
Maybe the best option is to have a seasoned digital marketing agency handle your strategy for successful eCommerce in Trinidad for you. We have the experience needed to optimize all of the processes and integrate the technology for you so that your efforts far outperform any results you’ve achieved in the past.
If you’re interested in talking more about how we can supercharge your eCommerce strategy, give us a call or drop us a line. We’d be happy to give you a no-obligation quote and discuss all of your options. It’s an investment that pays dividends far into the future and can be the best decision you ever made.
See below for some of the recent eCommerce Development projects we’ve worked on:
From Standard Brochure Site to eCommerce Success
Building Up Buildwithabs
Re-inventing the Digital Insurance Ecosystem for Guardian General
