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Do you need a little nudge to promote your products and services online, we have the best e-commerce marketing strategies for you that are a must-try!
Before we dive deep into e-commerce marketing strategies, we will succinctly look at how the pandemic has affected all sorts of businesses. Over the years, consumers have enjoyed offline shopping and most of them choose to visit different shops to get the best feel and touch of the best product or service compared to online shopping.
However, COVID-19 has favored most of the e-commerce businesses. Research from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reveals how the pandemic has enabled consumers to rely on e-commerce and digital giants for either purchasing or online classes (figure1). The survey shows that the opportunities have shrunk for physical shopping and increased for online shopping for companies who have put e-commerce at the heart of their business strategies.
According to the survey conducted by UNCTAD and Netcomm Suisse eCommerce Association, titled “COVID-19 and E-commerce”, shows that online purchases have increased by 6 to 10 percent w.r.t. various product categories.
We believe that an upsurge in the e-commerce industry post-pandemic would require online retailers to be better equipped, as the competition would be more cut-throat than ever. The conversion rate for your digital store is the one core metric that shouldn’t disappoint you. And, like always, we have got you covered with the top eCommerce marketing strategies that should do the trick.
To cover all the bases, we have segregated these eCommerce strategies into two 3 different categories- On-Page, Off-Page, and Social Marketing strategies.
Let’s start with the on-page eCommerce strategies you should take into consideration.
On-Page eCommerce Marketing Strategies
Upsell and cross-sell with product recommendations
Upselling and cross-selling are the two most trust-worthy tactics in the online business to boost sales. Upselling is a profound choice of brands that sell expensive products. Cross-selling is also an effective method pertaining to selling products related to what is being bought.
Sometimes, customers may not be aware of discounts, free delivery, or other premium products available for the same, lower, or higher cost. Customers seek more reliable evidence to understand how an upgrade is a better fit for their needs.
“Would you like to supersize your order?” is a famous persuading catchphrase often used by online stores for effective selling. You can recommend customers to buy another product with a discount on the total price or by eliminating shipping costs.
For example, if you head to any e-commerce website like Amazon and choose Canon PowerShot ELPH digital camera, it will automatically display other items that are “frequently bought together” as shown in the image below.
Deliver Relevant Messages
In order to get a hold of your visitor’s attention, your e-commerce website should deliver relevant messages. For example, if a prospect shopping for BOB Revolution Stroller, any e-commerce website should suggest closely related items with additional features, which makes it more likely that the customer buys both items. Adding “relevance” and “value” to products encourages prospects to focus and rethink.
Create Scarcity
Creating scarcity is another powerful persuasion technique to get people into a buying mood. As soon as they see how many products are left, customers can act upon a call-to-action. The concept of scarcity increases the demand for your product and enables customers to take immediate action.
Choose The Right Images With Keyword And Data-Rich Title
Choosing the right and clear images relevant to products probably complements the customer’s choice. Product image prompts a positive human behavior action since a customer would not buy without “having a good look” at the product.
Match the keyword search with a brief description and features of the product. Customers do not buy because it is outstanding, they buy because of the benefits and value the product offers.
For example, beautiful and captivating armchairs from made.com suggest that the eagerness makes customers check for new releases.
Use images to inspire consumers, make an emotional connection, and eventually increase the conversion rates. The representation of the images on your website can have a significant influence on the conversion.
Social Proof
Building trust is one of the e-commerce marketing strategies for online shopping portals. Customers trust reviews from peers more than retailer’s words. It is social proof. Products with 5-start reviews convince people to trust the brand and upgrade their buying. Brands do not have to struggle to sell once they build trust.
Behavioral economists at the Amazon development department believe that “consumers will buy more and more, again and again, if they trust you and feel that it is worth paying”.
Over-Deliver To Meet Customer’s Expectations
Most of the online shoppers login to buy and leave. However, some stick around, tempted to spend more time and buy something else. That’s human behavior. Upselling at this point can increase the conversion rates.
For example, free shipping or the same-day delivery promise can make customers extremely happy and build great relationships. You can win an increased trust and enable your customers to come back for better and more products.
SEO Your Product Pages
Optimizing your website for SEO makes it easy for search engines to feature your products in Google Search results. SEO is an essential part of e-commerce marketing techniques to improve conversions. Every e-commerce website must make sure that it has a unique title tag and Meta description with SEO keywords to make the result easy. Also, a keyword-rich product description and URL increases the visibility of your product on the Google Search Engine page.
Make your online store mobile-friendly
This is more like a necessity than a strategy for boosting conversions because nearly 72.9% of people are likely to make a purchase from their mobiles. Now, here’s what you can do while keeping mobile optimization in mind:
- Have a responsive design
- Make sure the text on the website is readable
- Add bigger CTAs
- Regularly check the mobile-friendliness and the page loading speed of your website.
Off-Page eCommerce Marketing Strategies
When the consumer leaves your website, they either become your customers or you need to try better to grab their attention. In the first scenario, make sure that you can keep these customers and strengthen relationships with them. For the latter, you can try out a bunch of subtle marketing strategies to get them to finish what they started on your website.
For Customers
One of the best ways to ensure strong customer relationships is to stay in touch with your customers post-sales, preferably with incentives. You can encourage them to enroll in a membership program, offer special discounts, and keep them updated with the latest from your store.
Membership Programs
Loyalty or Membership Programs give incentives to your customers to keep you at the top of their heads while making a purchase decision. You can choose a point-based reward program, offer discounts, early sales, free shipping, etc.
Two outstanding examples of membership programs that actually work for both the company and the customers are Flipkart Plus and Amazon Prime Membership. A lot of eCommerce brands are now practicing this to keep their customer base intact and attract new prospects.
For the Prospects that didn’t Convert
Wishlist Reminder Emails: A lot of the visitors that did not convert would have put items in the wishlist but didn’t make a purchase. So, your first order of marketing task is to send them wishlist reminders. You can choose to offer discounts or other add-on incentives on the items picked to increase the chances of conversion. It’s also important that you don’t bombard your website visitors with such emails and get yourself tossed into spam.
Lead Nurturing Emails
A majority of people would just browse through your product pages but won’t add anything to the cart. Now, reminding them of buying “something” from your online store would be like shooting an arrow in the dark. Instead, you can nurture them with emails that offer value. The information in the email could be related to a sale, special discount offers, or just content that your audience might find useful. For instance, Sephora has offered a discount on the product and also provided informational content in the same email below.
eCommerce Strategies for Social Marketing
When it comes to marketing, social media is one of the most prominent battlefields. Social commerce is one of the top eCommerce trends for 2021 and definitely something worth spending time and resources on. Now, staying active on your socials is not going to cut it if you need to stay ahead of the competition. If you aren’t already doing it, here’s what you should start thinking about:
Set up Facebook and Instagram Shops
While the Facebook marketplace has been around for a long time, the social media giant has recently allowed sellers to set up their storefronts on both Instagram and Facebook. Here, the customer doesn’t have to leave the app to complete checkout. The ease of shopping and social media’s visibility can remarkably increase your sales. You can always use in-app promotions to increase the reach of your brand and get more people to convert.
Engaging Influencers
Engaging influencers is trendy, sure, but you can keep this option if nothing else is working out or if you have exhausted all the other options. It’s important that you get your influencer game right since there is an abundance of them on social media. While considering an influencer to advertise your products on social media, here’s what you need to check:
- The social media following of the influencer
- Their Audience
- Previous Product Endorsements for references
While you consider working on these strategies, we would quickly like to remind you that you can have most of these tasks automated and it will save you time and energy that can be spent on other eCommerce operations. You can check out the complete eCommerce automation guide here.
So, that’s a wrap on the top eCommerce marketing strategies you need to start working on. Research, analyze, and introspect which technique will work best for your e-commerce website in terms of revenue and management perspective. Also, regularly review and iterate your efforts to make your products better and competitive.
