In a digital era, it is increasingly important for businesses to have an online presence. Here are 8 e-commerce strategies that we hope will help grow the sales of your business.
- Creating a lookalike audience on Facebook
A lookalike audience is an excellent way to reach new audiences that are similar to your existing customers. This makes them likely to be interested in your business as they might share the same interests as your current customers.
How it works is that Facebook will identify similar characteristics among your current customer base (e.g. demographics and purchasing behaviours) and deliver your ad to new users with similar qualities. If you opt for a smaller Lookalike Audience, you will have a result that is more relevant and closer to your original source audience. Whereas, a larger audience will increase your potential reach but less similar to your original customer base.
This is a simple but powerful strategy to promote your e-commerce store to more targeted and relevant audiences.
2. Over-deliver in all you do
Have you been in a position where you were promised by businesses to have great expectations, only to be faced with a big disappointment? Well, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
It is not ideal to over-promise but not deliver results to your customers as it affects the credibility of your brand. It is important to keep your customers happy and it is therefore better to under-promise and over-deliver. This is because you would be seen as providing them with value for money when you exceed their expectations.
Happy and satisfied customers are more likely to help you advertise your brand for free through their word-of mouth. Consider the statistics for word of mouth marketing:
- According to a Nielsen report, 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family over advertising
- 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions
- According to invesp, word of mouth marketing drives $6 trillion of annual consumer spending
So, do not underestimate the influence that comes from satisfied customers in helping to grow your business. Keep your customers happy!
3. Use packaging to promote your product
Has your interest in a brand simply been piqued by seeing their brand packaging somewhere, whether it is a parcel left on your neighbor’s door or the social media stories where you see people sharing the arrival of their parcels. If your answer is yes, it reveals how packaging can be a great marketing tool.
According to Pentago, there are some tips you can use to leverage on packaging for marketing:
- Be creative with your packaging
- Print valuable information
- Have a clear and concise brand name
Why should you care about your packaging? A 2016 Photography Trends Study revealed that almost 1 in four consumers are snapping up to 300 photos a month. Consumers are visual and the power of social media for sharing and visual consumption provides opportunities for brands to share their presence online. Consider some packaging statistics provided by PackMojo:
- 40% of consumers are more likely to share a packaging on social media if it was unique or branded
- 72% of American consumers revealed that their decision to purchase is influenced by packaging design
If you need some inspiration for your brand packaging, consider some of these brands who have taken packaging to a creative level.
4. Make use of user-generated content
User-generated content is to leverage on fans to help promote a brand. One of the most successful brand examples is Coca Cola’s ‘’Share a Coke’’ Campaign. Consumers took over the role of advertisers when they took to social media to share their personalised coke bottles. It was a huge success that Coke sold more than 250 million named bottles and cans in Australia that summer in 2011
User-generated content is one of the best ways for a brand to engage with customers. It is customer-centric and creates an authentic experience for the consumer. Consider some of the other reasons why user-generated content has the potential to be successful according to Tint:
- It establishes a community
- It is cost effective
- The return on investment is high
- It is authentic
If you need other figures to inspire you on the power of user-generated content, consider these statistics:
- More than 86% of companies use user-generated content as part of their marketing strategy
- More than 50% of consumers would like brands to share with them what kind of content they can create and share
When websites featured user-generated content, there was a 29% in web conversions
5. Create urgency and scarcity
Have you abandoned an item in your shopping cart before and received an email afterwards informing you that the sale is ending in 24 hours time and to grab the item before it is gone? Creating a sense of urgency among consumers is a good way to drive e-commerce sales through email marketing. This is especially useful for certain items that need a sales boost on your site as well.
According to the Search Engine Journal, these are 10 some you can consider using to create urgency to drive sales:
- Offer a product or service that people will want
- Have a deadline
- Create a sense of the fear of missing out
- Use words that creates a sense of urgency
- Offer a bonus incentive
- Have a powerful email subject line
- Numbers create a sense of scarcity
- Customise your offers
Consider using this promotional tactic that runs for a limited period, but also be thoughtful in who you are sending these emails out to. It is ideal to segment your customers and send out the promotion to those who have past purchase history of the product or those who have yet bought it but showed interest in it. Relevant and personalised email targeting is likelier to have higher open rates and engagement.
6. Social listening
Social listening is looking out for what customers or people are saying about your brand by monitoring your brand’s social media accounts. Do not underestimate the power of listening, it allows you to gain insights and presents opportunities for you to grab at the opportune moment.
For instance, TOMS Shoes discovered a new opportunity they could tap on which led to an increase in sales. They realised that a huge amount of conversation was generated around Little Pony among those that were interested in TOMS. As such, TOMS quickly reacted on it to push out a line of ‘’My Little Pony’’ themed shoes. Its response was well received, with the shoes selling out in just 48 hours.
Consider some of these ways where you can incorporate social listening as part of your strategy:
- Be aware of your brand’s buzz words
- Identify mistakes and opportunities in real time and act on it
- Know who is talking about your brand
- Respond to customers talking about your brand. Show that you listen.
Customers love it when brands respond to them and social listening is truly a great opportunity to connect and build relationships with people around your brand. It is time to start listening and engaging with them if you have yet to do so as it offers great insights, opportunities and trends that you can respond to at the best time possible.
7. Native ads
Native ads are attractive to advertisers as they don’t really look like ads. They are paid ads that can appear as part of a website’s content as it matched the form and function of the platform. However, there is a fine line to note of in native advertising. As put forth by Eric Goeres, the director of innovation at Times magazine, ‘’don’t trick them. Don’t piss them off.’’ It is important not to use native ads as a form of deception as it will backfire and anger audiences.
When used properly, native ads can promote ecommerce stores in a less pushy way and consumers are often more receptive towards it. DoubleClick’s data suggests that consumers are 2 times more likely to click on native ads as compared to banner ads. Another report by a Sharethrough study also revealed that native ads lead to an 18% increase purchase intent compared to other more traditional banner ads.
8. A/B testing and landing pages
A/B testing is a user experience research methodology by comparing two versions of landing pages, ads and emails. The results generated are insightful in revealing which content is the most effective for your audiences.
Knowing what design or messages works best for your audiences has many benefits:
- Increased web traffic
- Higher conversion rates
- Lower bounce rates
- Lesser cart abandonment
- Increase in sales
We hope that being aware of E-commerce strategies will help in your business and contribute to an increase in sales.
If you need a free consultation to properly grow your business, email us at ask@demellows.com today.