Thanks to the immense e-commerce growth in the market even with limited capital it is easy to set up a retail business.
It is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online in 2040.
Structurally launching an eCommerce platform can be a huge milestone achievement for your brand.
And the prospect is massive!
However, to make a mark you need to devise a well-prepared marketing strategy.
The competition is really tough so to get inside the mind of everyday consumers, you need to understand what they expect and look for when shopping online.
In 2017, eCommerce had a sale of $2.3 trillion & it is expected to double up around $4.5 trillion by 2021.
How to build out a marketing strategy for the eCommerce platform?
Plan out your goals & objectives
Be specific & most importantly REALISTIC in your goals.
This will give you a quantitative number to compare once you start executing the plan.
Some of the key areas you need to be focusing on are:
- Sales percentage
- Number of leads that need to be generated
- The rate of conversion.
Also, a few other goals need to be set up at the very beginning.
- What is the purpose of this company?
- What is that you are offering?
- Who you are offering that product to?
Digging into the demographics
Now, after you have set out goals, your primary job would be targeting customers.
If reports are to be believed, millennials & Gen X are the biggest online shoppers, with over 67% of millennials and 56% of Gen Xers preferring to shop online versus in a brick-and-mortar store.
Also, these are demographics who spend more than 50% more time shopping online.
Interestingly, men indulge in high-priced items such as electronics, gears & said to have spent around $220 per transaction compared to $151 per transaction for women!
And you thought only women are addicted to shopping!
So, knowing your customers is as important as selling quality products. The more you know about your consumers, the better you can market your products and services and boost online revenue.
Understanding customer behavior pattern
Once the demographics are in place, it is time to understand the shopping pattern of your customers.
A good business always takes care of the customers; their likes, dislikes, purchasing power, preferences, even their social media behavior.
This will eliminate the possibility of inefficient campaigns that waste money targeting low-converting, unqualified individuals.
Did you know that booze apparently plays a major role in making online purchases? That’s right.
Apparently, men ended up being more than twice as likely to make purchases under such conditions, with 14% reporting to have done so.
Statistics also reveal that 43% of online shoppers have reported making purchases while in bed & 20% of them reported to shop while on the commute.
Payment methods
With around 57% of online shoppers shopping from oversees sellers at least once, the eCommerce marketplace is thriving ever than before.
Haven’t you noticed that all the major sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra has multiple payment options?
Look, when talking globally credit cards are the preferred method of payment, being used in 53% of transactions, followed by digital payment systems (43%) and debit cards (38%).
But when it comes to areas like China and Western Europe, the preferred method is digital payments while cash in mostly preferred in Eastern Europe, Africa, India, and the Middle East.
Platforms for distribution & awareness
After you have done all the research necessary you need to think about the platforms where you want your portal to be.
Think about distribution- the packing, pricing, delivery teams, shipping methods, return policies, etc.
Moreover, for promotions which platforms you will use- social media marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Per-per-Click, Display ads, Content marketing; the possibility is endless.
How to promote your brand on eCommerce channels?
Whether you are a B2B marketer or B2C eCommerce has a mindblowing amount of prospects if promoted properly.
Social media marketing
Have you heard of the term social shopping?
Social shopping is what happens when eCommerce meets social media.
Reports say that around 74% of the consumers rely on social media networks for purchasing. Additionally, 56% of users that follow brands on social media do so to view products.
One advantage of eCommerce is that your websites are highly visual & have a lot of products to show off.
So your success on social media depends on your use of imagery to drive attention and traffic to your product pages.
Instagram can be a very useful tool for eCommerce businesses. It enables you to post a sharp quality photo while creating a personalized aesthetic for your brand!
Role of content marketing
Content marketing is the biggest buzz word for the marketing industry today.
Unfortunately, a lot of brands dismiss content marketing by just assuming it to be limited to blogging or social media content.
But content means to improve your website’s ranking in search engines and answer questions related to your industry.
Content is EVERYTHING.
From ad copy to blogs, videos, website content guest posts. And as long as it is unique, original & SEO friendly content marketing is the way to improve your brand position in the market.
Suggestively, content based on Pareto’s 80/20 rule, which means that your promotions should comprise 80% informational content, and 20% promotional content.
For example, if you are brand selling wedding lehengas; Google’s search for “Haldi ceremony dresses” is more likely to produce product pages like yours if you’ve included that term on the page. This is called creating an optimized ad copy.
Search Engine Marketing
SEM includes both SEO & paid advertising. While SEO relies on your knowledge of Google’s ranking algorithm to optimize content, SEM can also have PPC campaigns, display ads or product-specific ads.
This is why e-commerce marketers often register with Google AdWords and promote their product pages through PPC campaigns.
What are some of the newer trends in eCommerce marketing?
Chatbots
According to data, more than 60% of the customers said to have preferred digital self-serve tools like websites, apps, or chatbots to answer their simple inquiries.
The primary reason chatbots are so popular is that it often takes far too long to speak to a real person when a customer calls a company. Chatbots are faster which means that inquiries are being dealt with significantly more quickly, with the average wait time to access a chat session being 45 seconds.
If predictions are right, then by 2020, 80% of the eCommerce businesses are said to be using chatbots.
Voice Assistance or Virtual Assistance
Voice searches are getting more popular these days.
Remember the new Lenskart app ad? Yes, that’s how VR technology is working.
It’s also estimated that there will be 21.4 million smart speakers by 2020. Voice commerce sales reached $1.8 billion last year, with the potential to reach $40 billion in 2020.
Personalization & Location
Personalization is the practice of creating personal experiences for the customers. This is done by a series of tailored recommendations based on data such as search queries, browsing behavior, purchase history, and geolocation.
Overall, 22% of consumers say they are satisfied with the level of personalization that they are currently receiving.
Another benefit of personalization is that it helps to grow your business rapidly. This is partly because 75% of customers are most likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name and recommends products based on previous purchases.
Staying with the current trend is crucial for any eCommerce site.
Also, even if you have an offline store, maintaining an active online page is vital to deliver results & increase your brand value to the customers.
Make sure to monitor your website to keep it on the right track!
Need any assistance for your eCommerce business? Contact Skyram Technologies for building a tailor-made online strategy for your business goals!
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