The pandemic has changed many retail brands from brick and mortar or storefronts, to eCommerce, delivery and subscription brands. Why? Because consumers and business customers have changed buying habits with further use of online shopping… preferring delivery or pick-up to in-store shopping. Will this change as the pandemic eases? Doubtful to ever return to previous habits, with online commerce taking a larger share of sales.
5 Ways to Become an eCommerce Winner
User Experience
The website should be user-friendly. If visitors get confused on the site, they will automatically leave the site. On the website, you have to make it clear what your business does. Everything on the site should load fast, easy to understand, and have large print.
Have creative content, such as:
- Videos
- Images
- Diagrams
Also, a major tip is that your website should also be mobile friendly. Big Commerce states that by 2021, mobile eCommerce sales are expected to account for 54% of total eCommerce sales.
SEO
Google decided which websites get to near the top of the organic search engine results, therefore, search engine optimization (SEO) is important. The search engine uses a combination of algorithms and numerous ranking factors to deliver webpages ranked by relevance on its search engine results pages, states Search Engine Journal.
The problem is the algorithm is always changing, so staying up to date with SEO can be hard. Try not to be salesy all the time. Landing pages with the right keywords will receive a higher score. Google Keyword Planner and Keyword Explorer are two of the keyword tools that can help you.
Promotions
Everyone loves a good promotion. To build a brand, promotions are one way to build an audience. Here are a few ideas to help get your brand started:
- Contests
- Flash Sales
- Multi-purchase Deals
- Free Shipping
- Limited Time Coupons
- Automate Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Get Personal
- Influencer Campaign
Online Advertising
Online advertising is another way to build an audience. As reported by Hubspot: Online Advertising: Everything You Need to Know in 2021
Meanwhile, advertisers are focused on performance metrics like cost-per-acquisition and return on ad spend. With such different goals, it’s no wonder that many marketers view organic and paid as separate from one another.
What if I told you that not only can organic and paid marketing work together, but that digital advertising can help you improve your organic efforts? It’s true.
There are three key ways that digital advertising can help you improve the performance of your organic marketing efforts.
With digital ads, organic performance can benefit from:
- An increase in brand awareness by displaying your content to individuals within and outside of your networks.
- A better understanding of your audiences by leveraging the targeting and analytics of the ads platforms.
- The creation of higher-performing content by understanding what ad content helps you achieve your business goals and what doesn’t.
The goal of any ads strategy should be to get a positive return on your investment, which comes down to whether you’re getting more revenue out of the ad campaign than the cost you’re putting in.
The types are online advertising include social media advertising, paid search advertising and native advertising.
Social Media
Convenience is crucial, so it is time to create shorter paths to purchase. This could include social checkout features or a shoppable social feed. The last thing a customer wants to do, if they saw the product on social media, is look for that exact product on your website. The social media platforms that have been trying this out are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
User-generated content is viewed as the most trusted, authentic and influential content by consumers. How can you implement this into your brand? Share real life customers if they tag you in a post or reach out to influencers that represent your brand to share your product.
Social media is the best way to get your customers involved. A few ways to get your customers involved are in a social competition, launch a hashtag competition, rewards program, or even host a pop-up event.
On-site, mobile app and messenger chatbots have become a way for retailers to engage, inform and promote their products to their audience. Social Media Today states that “Facebook Messenger chatbots, in particular, have become a retail favorite, giving brands direct, 1:1, “always-on” interactions with shoppers, and a new way to obtain quantitative as well as qualitative customer data.”
Staying up to date with the trends is key to winning the eCommerce world. With everything going digital, there are many ways a business can grow their audience. COVID-19 showed a new side of the world that was slowly going to take over.
Additional eCommerce Resources
5 Tips for Making Your Ecommerce Content Better (Modern Marketing Partners)
Retailers: Is Your E-Commerce Website Ready For A Sales Surge? (Forbes)
5 Practical Tips For Small Businesses Making the First Steps Toward Ecommerce (Entrepreneur)
