Let us talk about the downtime phase you face in eCommerce today.
When you're waiting for your launch so you can be 100% active in your business, it can feel like you're not making any progress. But that's actually the best time to work!
I call this downtime, and I've found that it's a crucial part of becoming successful. When you're stuck in a passive state, it's easy to get discouraged and think that nothing is happening—but there are so many things you can do to prepare for your next launch.
You don't want to waste this time! It should be like practice, where you prepare extra hard to show up on game day and dominate. The difference between an entrepreneur who succeeds and one who fails is their mentality during downtime: successful entrepreneurs realize that they should use it as an opportunity to prepare themselves for their next big event, while unsuccessful entrepreneurs wait impatiently for their timelines to approach.
Here are two areas I think you should focus on during downtime:
Experimentation
Use this period to research and learn ways to reach and keep current and potential customers more effectively.- Examples
- Weekly Emails
- Use this time to bond with your current customer-based tone it down on emails trying to sell here. Be genuine make them feel included and involved, share exciting news, give them a little behind-the-scenes action, etc.
- Social Media Posts
- I experimented with the same TikTok post thrice with a different caption, cover, and song. Then I see which out of the three performs better.
- Ads
- Run brand awareness retarget campaigns
- Identify you weak areas such as:
- Copy
- Creatives
- Landing page
Backend work
It would be best if you spent the time reviewing everything it takes to run your business behind the scenes. Here lies the most crucial step go over the process it takes your customer to purchase and make it easier for them.- Examples
- Shorten the steps it takes to get to checkout
- Count how much action someone has to make to get to an item, then purchase, then figure out ways to cut it down. This should always be a priority for you.
- Site copy
- Site photos to match the season
- Email copy
- Your welcome emails play an important part if they will purchase again spend sometime make your email flows more human and less promotional based.
- Email photos to match season
- Apps you use
- Site speed
Now that you have some general ideas on what you can do. Take some to identify ways you can take advantage of downtimes in your business.