A report shows that e-commerce has become an indispensable part of the global retail framework. Over two Billion people purchased goods and services online in the year 2020.
Also, e-retail services have surpassed 4.2 trillion U.S dollars worldwide. This shows that the e-commerce industry is very competitive. To make your mark in this intense competition, you need actionable e-commerce marketing strategies.
In this blog, we will discuss e-commerce marketing. I will be giving you the secrets of creating a winning eCommerce strategy and great eCommerce marketing tips.
Do you know there are over 24 million e-commerce websites out there? Out of those 24 million online e-commerce businesses, how many do you use for shopping on a regular basis?
I generally use about 5 e-commerce websites. I am very sure even you will be interacting with just 5-10 e-commerce websites.
Now, let me ask you a question: why are you using such a small number of websites in a sea of online eCommerce businesses?
Are these e-commerce websites much better than most? Or are all the other websites kinda similar to you and the ones you have chosen stand out in the crowd?
The reason why you interact with those particular websites can be because they provide ease of shopping, better customer service, high-quality products, and many more.
So, let’s understand what e-commerce marketing is, then we will move to the magical world of e-commerce marketing tips.
What is E-commerce Marketing?
In simple language, when you practice and use some kind of promotional tactics to drive traffic to your online store, that is Ecommerce marketing.
Moreover, you also aim at converting this traffic into your paying customer and retaining them post-purchase.
You raise consciousness about your online store’s product and brand offerings. As you know, the online market is a very busy place and is growing massively in popularity.
So, e-commerce marketing has become a great way for varied stores and organizations to dive into this growing power and capture the market and their targeted customers.
A report shows that the global e-commerce market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.7% from 2020 to 2027.
So, it is about time we pay attention to e-commerce marketing if we want to enjoy the benefits of this market growth in its full glory.
What Can You Do With E-commerce Marketing?
The statistics show that there are 2.14 billion online shoppers worldwide, and e-commerce accounts for 18% of all retail sales.
Therefore, it is necessary to practice e-commerce marketing to be heard, be seen, and be loved. Now, the question is what can you do with e-commerce marketing?
The most obvious answer is that you will use e-commerce marketing to promote your online store and greater sale of your products.
This can be done by using social media, digital content, search engines, email campaigns, amazon marketing, Shopify marketing, Etsy marketing, and many more.
The main focus of doing all these is to attract more visitors and facilitate purchases online and grow your e-commerce business.
Remember channelizing on varied platforms will open up large grounds for your customers. It will provide them with a new world with better purchase opportunities.
Moreover, if you practice all elements of e-commerce marketing effectively, it can surely turn your e-commerce brand into a clear winner.
Now since you have got a basic idea about e-commerce marketing, let us understand e-commerce marketing strategy.
What is an E-commerce Marketing Strategy?
Now you know that e-commerce marketing is the process that you use to drive greater traffic to your online business. However, to get into the world of e-commerce marketing, you need an e-commerce marketing strategy.
Ecommerce marketing strategies include your ideas to carry out your online business efficiently and in a smooth manner. These e-commerce marketing ideas are very dynamic.
This is so because your industry keeps evolving, customers keep changing and so does your strategy. You need to update your strategy to fit in the market space.
You need to think of ideas that can be implemented in your e-commerce strategy. Picking up the right strategies and continuously optimizing them brings better results.
Moreover, you can set benchmarks to measure your goals such as click-through rates, search engine rankings, conversion rates, and more.
Furthermore, always upgrade your marketing tactics so that your e-commerce plans and strategies do not suffer. This can impact your brand growth.
If you want to build the right e-commerce marketing strategy for your business, you need to precisely jot down your brand goals and objectives along with your mission.
Analyze your success and failure journey and come up with ideas in the area that needs a boost. It can include things like your website, your search engine result page, your ranking, etc.
Talking in a real sense, e-commerce marketing strategies take time to implement. It involves continuous thinking and coming up with ideas that make you different in the online business environment.
So, don’t just give up. Remember it is a journey, not a destination.
Your eCommerce marketing strategy must have:
SEO Strategy
Top SEO statistics show that 68% of online activities begin with search engines. Also, SEO drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media.
Implementing search engine optimization in your e-commerce marketing strategy is a very good idea for increasing organic searches.
It can help you rank your online business at the top of search results. This will help you in gaining widespread popularity and drive greater brand relevance.
Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing holds a greater value in the world of e-commerce marketing. It is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing that is being used in the genre of business.
The best thing about it is that it is automated. Statistics show that an approx of 51% of companies use marketing automation.
Automated in the sense that you can set up a campaign for your subscribers who are segmented by interest or in terms of the buyer’s journey.
This is where your email campaign does the magic for you. You don’t need to worry about this marketing tactic when you have a long list of tasks on your list. It makes your marketing task easy.
Social Media Strategy
Social media marketing and advertising is a very powerful way of increasing brand awareness. It allows you to communicate with your customers in both personal and public ways.
It also helps you in garnering greater engagements and boosting traffic. This further helps you in developing a larger customer base for your e-commerce business.
You can use social media channels for varied purposes. It can include selling your product, communicating with your audiences, brand awareness, etc. This will help you in making a rich presence of your business on social media.
Pay Per Click Advertising Strategy
Your pay-per-click marketing will involve 3 things: the ad, the offer, and the landing page. If you want your strategy to work better, you need to keep all three in sync.
Your landing page should form a connection with your ad. Doing this will encourage your visitors to purchase your product. Customize it as per keywords.
This will help your eCommerce business to rank at the top of search engine results. Remember, your landing page is the best platform to boost the benefits of your products to your customers.
Amazon, Shopify, and Etsy Marketing
As an e-commerce brand, it is important for you to promote yourself on the leading e-commerce channels such as Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, etc…
Therefore you need to have a deep understanding of Amazon marketing, Shopify Marketing, and Etsy marketing.
Your e-commerce brand should aim to promote itself on these platforms in order to increase its reach and visibility to the target customers.
Moreover marketing your e-commerce brand on these platforms will help your customers be easily accessible to you and vice versa.
So, plan out your e-commerce marketing strategy in such a way that you add these elements to it as well.
However, you may be wondering will you truly benefit from an e-commerce marketing strategy? The answer is yes. Here’s how.
How Will you Benefit From an E-commerce Marketing Strategy?
Our economy is emerging globally. E-Commerce activities have become very popular these days. They have become a vital component of business strategies and overall economic development.
Starting from local stores to large-scale businesses, all are going online and reaping the benefits of e-commerce marketing.
Moreover, the speed with which technology is evolving has improved the retail experience as well.
This has driven consumers from different age groups to expect a convenient and seamless way to attain commercial services.
Have a look at a few benefits of having an e-commerce marketing strategy for your business.
Turns You into a Global Brand
When you choose to opt for e-commerce marketing, you aim at creating a reach globally.
You can put your products anywhere on the global stage. Your potential customers won’t have to travel to buy your products.
Moreover, physical stores will keep you restricted to a certain geographical location but having an effective e-commerce website will help increase your reach.
Your products and services will reach customers all around the globe regardless of time and distance. It will bridge all the barriers to your e-commerce business.
The world turns into a playground for you with e-commerce and mobile commerce as well. It will also eliminate all kinds of linguistic barriers as your e-commerce will translate everything to other languages.
Involves Low Cost
Most of the time, starting an e-commerce business costs less. You don’t need to start a physical store to make people aware of the products. It can all be done in online mode.
Many companies operate online just to showcase their inventory utilizing electronic commerce.
This not only saves your rental charges but also other things like electricity and extra internet connection in a physical store. This way you save a lot of money.
The only thing you require to start an online business is a laptop and good internet connectivity.
Gives you a Deeper Insight About Your Customers
A great advantage of starting e-commerce and selling online is that it makes it easy for you to collect, measure, and act on customer data.
If you want to be extra focused on your customers and their experiences in online purchases, you need to have customer data to act upon it.
Moreover, it helps you to collect fresh and first-hand data by tracking customer interactions. You will also have a constant loop of feedback to improve your customers’ experiences.
Helps you Reach Out to New Customers
As you already read above, e-commerce marketing can have different ways and formats. Every channel is distinct from one another.
Online Platforms can help you reach international customers as well. Social media platforms can target different markets and reach different demographics.
A very popular online store, Amazon provides a wider set of audiences who are looking for varied products. Moreover, online business is not limited to a physical store.
It doesn’t matter whether you are opening a new online business or you are an existing seller, you can reach anyone at any time.
Reach Shoppers Where They Start Their Initial Purchases
Indeed, most people are continuously involved in using digital channels for various needs.
Research shows that 87% of the shoppers begin their searches for products on varied digital channels. Moreover, 63% of the shoppers move to Amazon to start their product searches.
Your potential shoppers also research online for a variety of things such as price comparisons, brand comparisons, customer reviews, checking inventory level, and many more.
So the only possible way to reach out to them is by making an online presence. Moreover, you always want to make your presence on those platforms where you have your potential customers.
7 Best E-commerce Marketing Strategy Tips
Now, I am sure you know how important eCommerce marketing is for your brand. To ace, have a look at some valuable tips below.
Go for Upselling Your Product
When you use the strategy of upselling in your e-commerce marketing strategy, you are convincing your customers to buy your products. For many businesses, this strategy can be more effective than acquiring new customers.
Sometimes you may have a premium quality product but your customers are not aware of it. This will help you in increasing the visibility of your product.
Make sure your product fits the needs of your customers. Also, be sensitive about the price range that your customers expect.
For example, If a computer brand comes up with an advertisement for a particular model, it will define its features along with upgraded features (a comparison) which is its upselling strategy.
Open a Facebook Store
Statistics show that the US accounts for 190 Million Facebook users. It is the most visible platform on social media and e-commerce marketing. It is connecting people and brands and products.
As per 2018 statistics, 78% of American consumers have discovered products through Facebook.
Users not only spend time chatting or scrolling for entertainment but they also browse and research for products they want to buy.
So you can kick start your sales by opening a Facebook store online. Make sure you are being relatable on Facebook and advertise well.
Moreover, you can join communities where you and your customers will unite and interact. This is one of the great ways to promote your eCommerce brand on Facebook.
Try to Capture Email Subscribers
Email marketing is a very well-known medium to increase your sales and convince your customers to buy your product or services.
80% of business professionals feel that email marketing increases customer retention.
It also offers more intimate interactions. It gives your users a space to express things that they cannot on a social media post.
If you want to start email marketing, promote your newsletter, blogs actively. This can bring more subscribers to your list.
Moreover, you can keep your subscribers updated about upcoming products, discounts, sales, giveaways, contests, and more.
Engage in Live Chat With Your Online Store Visitors
Live chat is a high-impact way to engage with your visitors and customers. It can help you grow your business.
Data tells that 41% of customers expect live chat on your website. Moreover, it is expected to grow by 87% in the next 12-18 months.
Many live chat tools can let you target browsers on certain pages after they have been on your site for a certain duration. It can also happen through email newsletters.
Live chat opens the door to direct communication with your customers. This will help you in addressing and answering their concerns while they are planning to buy.
For instance, Luxy Hair gets engaged in live chat to inform customers about their order status and many more things.
It answer’s the customers’ queries directly thus developing a strong brand-customer relationship.
Integrate With Instagram
Instagram is the fastest-growing social media platform. It has over 500 million daily active users. Studies show that over 130 million people engage with varied brands’ Instagram posts every month.
Your e-commerce business can surely excel here if you strategically use photos that are compelling, appropriate hashtags, posting at the right time, and other related factors.
If you want to increase your reach organically, you can be in continuous engagement with your audiences. This will help in building trust and loyalty.
You can run contests and go behind the scenes to showcase the development of your products. Also adding products to your Instagram posts and stories encourages your followers to purchase your products.
This is a great way for your e-commerce marketing.
Reduce Abandoned Carts
One thing you need to remember here is you are losing huge money every time a visitor abandons their cart while purchasing your products.
It is seen that most of the time your visitors add the item to carts that they like. Unfortunately, they abandon carts during the checkout process.
According to the study of Baymard Institute, approximately 70% of shopping carts are abandoned.
You can address these issues by reminding your shoppers who have abandoned their carts to complete their purchases. You can also do it with discount offers, free shipping, gifts, etc.
Another effective e-commerce marketing idea can be to reduce the rate of abandoned carts by email recovery campaign. This is something that can convince your visitors to make a return visit and purchase the products they want to.
Make the Services Easy for Your Customers
First of all, design your online store properly. A poorly designed store is never welcomed and this might be the reason that your customers are losing interest in you.
Your customers don’t want to come to your store to see messed-up things. They want a platform that can satisfy their needs.
Besides being trustworthy, provide your visitors with a clear value proposition, easy-to-read font, and also easy navigation.
Moreover, distinctly segment your products by putting them under different categories and on different pages. Make the right balance between the texts and visuals.
This will make it easy for your potential customers to buy from your e-commerce store. It further helps in providing improvised user experiences and generating greater retention towards your brand and products.
E-commerce Marketing Strategy Lessons From The ‘Shop’ App
Shopify has recently launched the ‘Shop’ app. To my surprise, there were no products in the app, contrary to what I imagined from a shopping app.
The app provided a blank screen with a search box. As an app user, I was then required to search for my favorite brands there. After doing that, I could either see that particular brand’s products or refer the brand for future interactions.
Here’s the problem with the app. Just like many other online users, I didn’t know any ‘brands’ or let’s say ‘e-commerce websites’ available on the ‘Shop’ app.
If I didn’t know about the brands listed there, I will just type random keywords and discover products just like I do on Google. This gives me no reason to switch from Google search to Shop search.
Too many users like me, that app, and most of the e-commerce websites failed there themselves. And here are my reasons for that:
Either the Shop app thinks we know the names of the brands which we don’t or it is trying to provide an alternative to Google shopping without much benefits for making the switch.
Most of the brands listed there have failed to make themselves remarkable in the digital world which makes it tough for users to search them by names.
The Secret of Money-making E-Commerce Marketing Strategy
To point out, the e-commerce world is extremely crowded. As an online e-commerce business owner, you’re not just competing with other e-commerce owners, you’re also competing with big online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and many others.
Almost half of the e-commerce shoppers go straight to a big eCommerce retailer’s website for shopping. Click To Tweet
With this in mind, you now know that you lose half of your possible leads to big retailers without even being given a chance to try. So, 24 million e-commerce businesses are now fighting for the remaining 50% of the online shoppers.
This should be an eye-opening number for you. This should be enough to make you realize that the online market is not just tough but highly competitive.
Even though the internet has made it easy for anyone to enter the market, the internet has also made it crowded and tough for you to reach your ideal customers.
Your voice gets lost in the crowd without even reaching your audience. There is an audience out there that is looking for the exact products that you are selling.
But as you continue to live in the city of obscurity, your audience is left with no other reason but to go to Amazon or some other big retailers and pick some other alternatives to satisfy their needs.
What can you do? How can you build your existence on the internet?
The answer lies in being unique, irreplaceable, and memorable.
If you’re unique, you will stand out in the crowd and will gain the attention of your audience.
If you’re irreplaceable, your audience will not settle for something similar on Amazon but will always choose you over your competitors.
Moreover, If you’re memorable, your audience will remember you even on apps like Shop or the internet, in general.
How to be a Unique, Irreplaceable, and Memorable Ecommerce Business?
Standing out in the crowd should be the main goal of every business but somehow this is something that everyone remembers very late.
Keeping into consideration how important it is, I will suggest making this a crucial part of your e-commerce marketing strategy.
Generally, building a unique identity is a two-step process –
-
- Market differentiation
- Market positioning
Step 1: Market Differentiation (Part 1 of E-commerce Marketing Strategy)
The process of standing out in the crowd starts with differentiating yourself from others in an e-commerce marketing strategy.
Who are you?
Why are you in the business?
What makes you different from others?
What are you offering that nobody else is?
For example, there are so many websites that are selling t-shirts these days. If you’re also one of those, why do you think I shouldn’t go to Amazon to buy a t-shirt and go to your website for the same.
The answer to this will define your market differentiation strategy for your t-shirts business.
Why Differentiation Marketing Strategy is a Must?
A good market differentiation e-commerce marketing strategy will help you crush your competitors by –
1. Becoming Distinctive
If your online e-commerce business is just like others, then you aren’t giving any reason for your audience to buy from you and not from them.
You have to differentiate yourself so your customers know why to switch from other products to your product.
If you’re well-differentiated, you will attract your own set of customers and retain them.
2. Increasing Your Profits
If you’re undifferentiated, you are fighting only on the basis of price. Imagine what will happen if your competitor lowers its price.
Now, even you have to lower your price and compromise with your profits to remain in the business otherwise you will lose to the competition.
But if you are differentiated, price doesn’t remain a part of your survival and business growth anymore.
If you charge X or X+Y or X+Y+Z, you will not lose customers unless and until you are delivering on the promises that you made as a part of your differentiation e-commerce marketing strategy.
Step 2: Market Positioning (Part 1 of E-commerce Marketing Strategy)
As humans, we build perceptions about everything. We will see another human and without much delay, we will perceive that person’s personality and interests.
We will look at a random picture of a place on the internet and our mind will instantly tell us if it thinks that place is cool, fun, unfrequented, happy, bad, cheap, expensive, thrilling, etc…
Why do some buildings look scary while some are inviting?
To a major extent, our perceptions are responsible for that.
The same thing happens even in the digital world. We visit a website and we instantly form the image of that business based on our interaction with that website.
For this reason, when we go to Target’s website, we know that we are paying less for purchasing more items. On the other hand, when we are on Gucci’s website, we know that it’s a luxury website for highly fashion-conscious people.
Is your website scary or welcoming?
Have you wondered what people think when they go to your website? Don’t confuse it with what you think of your website. They both are very different.
You can think of your website as something world-class that provides the best quality products in the market. But your customer can entirely disagree with that.
How your customers see you are actually dependent on various things. Every time they have an interaction with your company, it shapes their perceptions.
Your website, color choices, content, images, font, emails that you send, pics that you post on Instagram, the way you talk, everything contributes to your brand image.
The Best E-commerce Marketing Strategy Tip for Startup
Don’t enter into an e-commerce business without working on your differentiation and positioning strategy. If you do, you are allowing your audience to see you in whatever way they want which will build many harmful perceptions about your brand.
If that happens, you will find it tougher and very time-consuming to correct your image. Better work on this from the beginning and built a brand image you want them to have.
That’s why market positioning is all about how you want to position yourselves in the target market segment.
In other words, what kind of image do you want your products to create in the minds and hearts of your consumers especially compared to your competitors.
How To Form a Market Positioning Strategy for Your Ecommerce Business
There are two ways of positioning. You can fight on either price or customer value.
If you have chosen to fight with your competitors on the basis of customer value, you have decided to add more benefits to your product than what other available products are offering currently. Click To Tweet
The most important thing you should remember here is that you can add as many benefits as you want but you have to communicate and deliver those values. If you fail to do so, you are going to cause bigger harm to your brand.
In addition, your chosen positioning should be:
Clear
Clarity is very important in any business. If your customers do not understand what you are providing to them, they won’t reach you to satisfy their needs.
Start by asking a simple question- Is it easy for my customers to understand what I am offering?
Step into the shoes of your customer and you will get the answer. This will surely ease up your task. You will also understand what your customers want from you.
Distinctive
Be distinct from what you do. Never copy your competitors.
A distinct image will help you in standing out from the crowd.
Your customers should easily be able to identify how your products or services are different from others. Make your identity in such a way that they stand up and come to you.
Ask yourself: Can my customers easily tell the difference between my offering and my competitors’?
Memorable
When you are clear with what to do in your business, it will automatically make your customers choose you.
Also when you have a distinct personality, you will be able to create a memory in the minds of your audiences. This will help you in positioning yourself in the market.
Your customer should be able to remember what you stand for. If even after all your positioning efforts, you are still a t-shirt seller to your customers, your positioning strategy has failed and you need a new one.
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Why Market Positioning Strategy is a Must?
Increases Your Share of Customers
First, a market positioning strategy helps you occupy a share of your customers’ minds and hearts which makes it easier for them to remember you the next time they are ready to shop.
Improves Customers’ Perceptions
Second, it gives you the ability to influence or shape your customers’ perceptions of you. Not just that, it can help you lead the crowd of online e-commerce businesses. It can help you become the best or the most innovative or the most creative e-commerce business.
Turns Your Startup into a Brand
Last, it will help you in not just getting accidentally discovered by your audience but especially searched by them. Your customers are going to type your name in Google browser to look for you: not by the generic name of your products by the unique name of your brand.
Key Takeaway: eCommerce Marketing Strategy
Crushing your online competitors is a game where you build and shape the perceptions of your ideal customers about you as compared to your competitors.
If you want to set yourself apart in the crowd, you have to do more than just start an e-commerce website. You have to build a brand.
If you think, you’re one of those e-commerce business owners who are still struggling to make an impact on their audience, then get in touch with our strategy team now.
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