Do you want to transform your website into a selling machine through eCommerce and digital marketing?
Try these tested eCommerce tips.
1. Influencer Partnership
Social media influencers are content creators who built a community around a common interest. You can partner with an influencer to recommend your products to their large audience.
Influencer marketing for eCommerce isn’t something new. According to a survey by Influencer Marketing Hub, 50.7% of brands working with influencers run eCommerce stores.
It’s not easy to find a content creator who aligns with your brand value, but once you find them it’s a game-changer. They let you reach a large number of potential customers, for this you got to have by your side.
For example, the Indian fashion eCommerce giant Myntra, uses influencer marketing to reach thousands and thousands of their target audience through their app. According to Harish Narayanan, Chief Marketing Officer at Myntra, they have 1000+ influencers working on creating marketing content on and off the app.
2. Invest In Security
Ensure that your eCommerce website is secure with the latest security certificates. Allow your buyers to feel safer when entering their sensitive financial information. Display a security badge to enforce the feeling of trust, security, and safety.
At the same time, provide as many payment options as possible. Go beyond the usual credit card payment. Try adding more payment features like crypto currency, cash on delivery, and PayPal.
3. Run Email Campaigns
Every eCommerce business needs an email marketing campaign to stimulate sales. According to Oberlo, sending 3 abandoned cart emails will result in 69% more orders than a single email could. Buyers who placed an order are more likely to complete it when you remind them.
The power of email marketing goes beyond abandoned cart emails. You can also use it to welcome new customers and foster long-term relationships with them.
4. Install a Chatbot
Consumers see the following advantages of chatbots: 24h service (64%), immediate answers (55%), and answers to simple questions (55%). Chat bots are more than answering machines for your website. They can communicate with visitors, help them, and recommend products. You can “preload” your chat bot with specific answers or let it learn from interacting with customers. Either way, you get a powerful sales tool for your eCommerce small business.
5. Social Media Promotions
During sales seasons, social media can be the perfect place to promote your discounts and coupons. Prepare for the holidays by creating a social media calendar. Your plan should contain the type of content, and when you’ll share it. Prepare it before the sales season begin, and include a variety of promotions and giveaways.
Driving engagement through social media during holidays is more effective when you couple it with a holiday email marketing campaign. Pinterest is a goldmine for advertising your products. Use Pinterest to create boards for each category of products you’re offering. Use high quality photos to feature your products with a link to buy from your website directly.
By integrating your online store with Pinterest, you let your customers “pin” products they want to buy. For inspiration, look at how Etsy is leveraging Pinterest to make more sales.
6. Improve Website Design
Design a website that load within three seconds or less, mobile-friendly, and a pleasure to use. It’s because users don’t wait a few minutes for a page to load. Most people online want to order fast.
Make it easy for them to navigate, interact, and buy from your website. Investing in a smart eCommerce website design will attract the right customers. You can start gradually if it’s much of a commitment. You can start by investing in some product photography to increase your conversion rate. High quality images will help customers make the buying decision.
7. Understand the Customer Journey
The best product in the world won’t sell itself. It’s because people don’t buy the product, but they buy the story of the product. They buy what it does for them. To connect your product to your customer, you need to study the customer first. What makes things harder is that eCommerce customers are different from all other customers.
According to HubSpot, if you work at a , it’s important to understand the customer journey: all the touch points and stages. Most eCommerce sales volume occur in the retention stage. It’s when the customer decide to return or go to your competitor. When you understand how to keep customers coming back for more, it’s “game over.”
It’s that customer-centrist approach that helped eCommerce entrepreneur Kevin Zhang generate $20 million in sales in one year.
8. AI-powered Personalization
Having studied your audience, focus on creating customized offers and deals. Send timely emails, run social media giveaways, rewards, and contests. Surround your customers with targeted content at all levels.
eCommerce personalization will help you increase sales because you give the customers what they want. So, you’ll turn a one-time buyer to a repeat customer. Plus, it gets customers to recommend your brand to friends and family.
It’s the first step towards virtual shopping. Jan Soerensen, General Manager, North America at Nosto, predicts that personalization will only get more sophisticated in 2021 and beyond.
9. Improve SEO
SEO isn’t as good as email marketing for retention. At the same time, it’s a powerful customer acquisition tool.
First, you can use it to attract new buyers through publishing buyer’s guides and product reviews on your blog. Second, you can use email to keep those customers loyal to the brand.
For example, a beauty brand can target keywords like “best skincare products for women.” That way, you can plug your products and get more sales. Of course, it’s not that simple, but you get the idea!
You can also combine it with a PPC campaign for an added effect.
10. Build A Dream Team
Nobody creates a successful eCommerce business on their own. You cultivate it. Thus, you’ll need marketers, product designers, operation managers, customer support, fulfillment, etc. Plan accordingly. Even running a local eCommerce operation takes a team.
So, make sure to find and hire the right talent. Without the right people to make it work, it’ll take longer to work, if it ever does.
With the explosion of online shopping during the lock down, it’s a golden opportunity to grab some eCommerce land. Don’t wait for things to change. It’ll only get crazier. Start applying those eCommerce tips, and sell more.
