Implementing an online strategy for your e‑commerce can be quite a challenge.
And it’s easy to end up considering overwhelmed with so many details to pay attention to.
But what if we told you there was a tool that could assist you?
One that’s particularly designed for e‑commerce shops and that tells you everything that can be developed on your website to get more clients.
What if, on top of that, it was free?
Lucky for you, this tool does exist – and it’s called Google Grow My Store.
If you’re still unknown about it, give us ten minutes of your time because this blog is going to tell you what Grow My Store is all about and how it can help you give your traffic a huge boost.
Are you ready to grow?
What exactly is Google Grow My Store?
Take a closer look at the tool’s title itself: Google Grow My Store.
And just as the name implies:
Google Grow My Store is a new tool from the tech monster aimed specifically at improving online stores to increase their sales.
What it does is analyze different features affecting the customer experience on your website.
And if it spots any problem states, it tells you how to correct them.
All you need to do is Access the tool, enter your website’s URL, and define if you own a physical store.
To start with, Grow My Store will run a primary test on your website. However, what’s even more interesting is that you can request to be sent the ahead analysis by email (for free).
Let’s take a look at what that involves.
The 8 features that Google Grow My Store analyzes on your website (and how to get an A+ on all of them)
The full report of Grow My Store comprises 22 spots, which are divided into 8 categories.
And we’re not only going to tell you what they are – but we’re also going to give you all the tricks so that Google gives you the highest score on all of them.
Let’s get started.
✅ 1. Product information
Products are the essence of each online store, which is why product cards are the primary things Google Grow My Store analyzes.
The report includes four parts.
➡️ A. Product details
First off, the basics: the card content.
At this step, the tool tests if your product cards are properly filled out with important information (including specific features such as size, color, weight, etc.).
We’re confident you’re competent to go on this one.
But be concerned because it’s not only about having all the fields completed on the card. Your cards must also be optimized to increase your growth rate (with tricks like the ones we described in this post).
➡️ B. Product ratings/reviews
The next step is to check if product reviews are approved.
Why?
Because user opinions have been dispensed to influence 90% of purchase decisions.
We told you about this in the first post on product reviews, where we also explain how you can use them to increase sales in your online store.
➡️ C. Product search
As you know, a good internal search engine can prove very efficient when it comes to turning visitors into new clients.
However, as the report explains, users need to be able to apply exploration filters so they can easily find the product they’re after.
And if Google states so, there must be something to it.
➡️ D. Product prices
The only thing the report states on this score is that your product costs have to be published. Since we know you have this portion covered, let’s take it a step further.
How?
For example, by offering different pricing strategies to increase sales.
You can also create product bundles to increase your ordinary checkout price.
You can’t say we aren’t providing you options here!
✅ 2. Store information
You’ll only see this section if you indicated you own a physical store.
Grow My Store investigates three aspects here (let’s go over them briefly):
- Store opening hours: whether or not the opening and ending times are published on your website. Even though it’s not defined in the report, we advise you to include this data on your Google My Business card.
- Directions to store: that is, apart from giving your shop’s address, it must also be displayed on Google Maps.
- Geolocation: this point’s a bit more difficult. It studies if you’re using your clients’ location to show them to the nearest shop when they search geolocation (“hardware store downtown”, for example) or with Google display ads.
One more thing: don’t forget that the necessary details of your physical store on your website (name, address, phone number) must be the same as those written in business directories (e.g. Yellow Pages), as this favors the local SEO.
✅ 3. Personalization
Next up is “Personalization” or, in other terms, whether or not users have the chance to customize and configure their practice as customers of your online shop.
It’s divided into two points:
- Personalized accounts: apart from the comfort of having your account, Google says “users appreciate being sent personalized content”. Yes, this can also be implemented into your email marketing strategy if your subscribers are correctly segmented.
- Wish lists: in an earlier post, we told you that wish lists were a very important tool to improve the shopping experience and to foster client loyalty.
All e-commerce platforms include an option that enables your clients to create an account. However, you’ll need a plugin to allow wish lists.
✅ 4. Frictionless shopping experiences
In this section, the report highlights how easy you make shopping for your clients.
Specifically, it checks on two aspects:
- Click & Collect: It may be allowed if you own a physical shop. With this option, users shop for a product online but choose it up at the store (a simple but effective way of becoming omnichannel e‑commerce).
- Online ordering / effortless returns: This strange idea simply refers to whether your return policy prioritizes comfort for your customers or not.
Keep in mind that if you don’t own a physical shop, you’ll only see the second point.
✅ 5. Flexible fulfillment
This section addresses different logistic problems, including:
- Basket: whether your customers can check and change the products added to the cart from different devices.
- Next-day delivery: users are getting used to getting their orders within 24 hours. That’s why Google advises you to offer this service even if at a more expensive price (but be sure to hire a reliable delivery company).
- Free returns: the report recommends taking charge of the shipping of returns, as far as possible.
- Multiple payment methods: basically, if you provide your customers to pay through virtual POS, PayPal, etc. Here are all the payment methods you can execute in your e‑commerce (and their pros and cons).
In essence, what Google’s trying to tell you here is that the fewer difficulties the purchase process incurs, the more likely users will be to buy from you.
✅ 6. Customer service
Useless to say, good customer service is crucial to getting more sales and fostering loyalty among your current clients.
And Google knows this quite well, which is how? it’s such an important segment in the report.
Specifically, it surveys these four aspects:
- Contact phone: is it easy to find?
- Live chat: especially for those doubtful possible clients thinking about shopping for a product. Apart from a webchat, here you can offer various help channels such as WhatsApp Business or Telegram. And if they’re attempting to reach you outside your business hours, you can leave it to a chatbot.
- Returns policy: not only if it’s easy to discover, but also if it’s written in an easy-to-understand manner.
- Social media: more and more stores are using social media as another customer service channel, so Google checks if the links to your various social media profiles are published on your website.
For reference, you can also check out these tips to increase your customer service even more.
✅ 7. Security
In this section, Google analyzes if your web is accurately encrypted according to the HTTPS protocol (the lock to the left of the URL).
This protocol prevents hackers from accessing private information from your clients, like their bank details.
And this isn’t just important to instill assurance in your clients. If your website’s unsafe, your SEO positioning may be negatively affected.
✅ 8. Mobile
Did you know that over 92% of users (in Europe and the Americas) surf the Internet on their smartphones?
This explains why Google has produced an entire section dedicated to mobile.
This section includes two points:
- Mobile speed: as you know, a slow website delivers you to lose customers. And this is especially relevant for mobile phones since they’re always slower than laptops and computers.
- Mobile friendly: that is if the object of your e‑commerce is optimized for smaller screens, as explained in this post about mobile marketing.
Remember, tools like Google Search Console provides you lots of information to enhance the user experience of your online store on mobile devices.
👉 What’s your score on Google Grow My Store Tool?
You may have seen that the report only involves very general aspects.
That’s because those are the areas that each online shop needs to focus on to improve its sales.
So if Google has drawn your attention to one of them, you know what you need to do is put the tips we’ve given you into practice and make sure your site gives a top-notch user experience.