7 Basic E-commerce Marketing Concepts
E-commerce is one of the most competitive industries on the Internet. No matter what you’re selling, there’s bound to be at least one other company selling the same products — or at least products that do the same thing.
That means it comes down to marketing to see if you can get more customers than your competitors.
But how do you market an e-commerce company? What specific strategies can help you achieve success?
We’ll cover some of the most important basics to e-commerce marketing on this page. With these principles on your side, you can help your e-commerce company grow to new levels of success. Keep reading to find out more, and CONTACT US
1. Personalization
No matter what you sell, it’s essential that your company relates to your potential customers on a personal level.
Personalization is the process of tracking what your site visitors look at on (and off) your site so you can get a better understanding of their preferences.
Then, once you know their preferences, you can use cookies to each customer an experience on your site that was designed specifically for them.
Personalized website content helps you build relationships with your site’s repeat visitors by showing them the perfect message at the perfect time.
You can even go so far as to offer special deals to certain individuals who buy specific products on your site.
Whatever you choose, it’s important that your site has some degree of personalization. E-commerce shoppers love seeing messages that are tailored to their interests, and it’s a great way to move more products.
2. Product recommendations
Along with personalization, you can also provide product recommendations.
Product recommendations show your potential customers that you pay attention to their wants and needs. It also allows them to get a bigger picture of your inventory and — as we mentioned above — move more products.
You can use product recommendations in a number of ways.
First, you can add your own company recommendations. These would most often be products that are similar to something a customer has already bought.
Second, you can highlight user recommendations. These can be items like wish-lists that your customers share with one another. This also requires your site to have the functionality to allow users to share items internally, but it can pay dividends.
After all, word of mouth is the most trusted form of advertising.
Third, you can use recommended products to show customers products that complement what they’re currently buying. So if someone’s buying a garden hose from your housewares store, you should also show them different hose heads or wall spigots so they’re buying a group of products that work together.
However, once your customers have those items in their carts, there’s no guarantee that they’ll buy everything.
That’s why you need this next crucial part of e-commerce marketing.
3. Cart reminders
One of the most frustrating parts of running an ecommerce store is customers who leave your website when they have products in their carts.
That’s why you need to use cart reminders.
Cart reminders are emails that automatically generate and send whenever someone has a cart of products and leaves your site. The emails can send out a day after the customer leaves, or sometimes as long as a week or month later.
Regardless, the point is always the same — to get that customer back to your site and have them finish their transaction.
Shoppers who have accounts with you have already given you their email addresses so you can communicate with them. They’ve also shown clear interest in the products they added to their cart themselves.
So you’re giving them what they want by reminding them about their abandoned cart. And even if they’re not able to finish their transaction that same day, they may finish it a week later when your email arrives in their inbox.
But carts aren’t the only part of e-commerce marketing that you need to add.
4. Product social sharing
Social media marketing is a critical part of any Internet marketing plan.
But it’s exceptionally important for e-commerce companies.
For every product on your site, you have an opportunity to cause an impact on social media. Someone shopping for your items might find something their friend would like, so it’s important that you let them tweet, post, or share about what you have.
Then, the friends of the person who shared your product will see what they posted. That lets them click to your site — at their friend’s recommendation — and possibly become a new customer.
In other words, social sharing lets your customers market for you. All you have to do is provide the product and the means to share it.
But there’s still one more marketing concept that you need to implement if you want your e-commerce store to really succeed.
5. Product reviews
Did you know that up to 70% of customers check out ratings and reviews before making a purchase? And 63% of customers are more likely to purchase if a site displays product ratings and reviews.
Adding reviews to your e-commerce website provides value to customers and encourages them to buy from your site. Online reviews provide the social proof shoppers are looking for, and they can help your e-commerce store establish trust and credibility with customers.
In addition, new reviews can help keep your site content fresh and improve your chances of earning higher rankings in search engine results.
Be sure to make it easy for customers to leave reviews on your site. You can even offer incentives like coupons, discounts, and sneak previews to encourage customer reviews.
6. Email campaigns
Email marketing accounts for over 7% of all e-commerce transactions, so incorporating a strong email strategy can help your e-commerce store attract more customers and earn more revenue.
In addition to sending abandoned cart emails, you can use email marketing to send personalized updates to customers and potential customers. For example, you can send personalized emails on customers’ birthdays or other important milestones. Studies show that personalized birthday emails have almost five-times the transaction rate of standard emails.
You can also use email to let customers know about new products and even offer exclusive coupons or promotions to email subscribers. Email marketing is also a great way to connect with customers after they make a purchase and encourage them to review the item.
7. Responsive design
Your customers don’t just shop on desktops or laptops. They shop on phones, tablets, and other devices that all show your website in different ways.
So how can you make sure every one of your customers gets the same great experience on your site?
The answer is responsive design.
Responsive design automatically adjusts your website to fit the device that a person is using. So if someone’s on your site with their phone and their laptop at the same time, they can still see and read your site perfectly.
That’s essential to e-commerce because if your site isn’t responsive, you’ll lose mobile customers left and right. Mobile customers are becoming more and more common as well — they make up nearly half the market of e-commerce shoppers.
In other words, if you want to make sure you reach your customers, you need a responsive website right away.
These basic e-commerce concepts are some of the best ways for you to grow your e-commerce company. But what if you don’t have the time to implement all of them?
At Maocular, we work with lots of different e-commerce companies to help them sell products online.
Our team of experts has worked in several internet marketing disciplines for years now. We use this experience to deliver the very best results to our clients day after day.
Do you want to grow your e-commerce company?
Contact Us today to create a new marketing plan specifically for you!
