Digital еCommerce Marketing 

Over the last couple of decades, eCommerce has grown at a fast pace and has changed significantly the way we purchase products and services. As if eCommerce wasn’t hard enough, the competition is fierce and you have to nail down the marketing to succeed. You have to continuously experiment and adapt your digital eCommerce marketing strategy in order to stay afloat and be a winner.

Rapidly growing and highly competitive

The eCommerce vertical is growing fast. according to Forrester research, is set to comprise 11% of all retail sales by 2018. The entry barriers are lower with the advancement of e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, Prestashop. Marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon offer sellers the ability to set-up an online shop and start trading fast. Drop shipping makes it even easier to get started.

What should you do?

#1 Omni-channel capabilities – There are more and more channels opening up to sell your good or services. Your physical store and website might be the obvious options, but there are many others: from apps to Facebook’s messenger platform, affiliates to Pinterest, your options are growing. Use them wisely and you can see your sales grow.

#2 Pay attention to mobile experience– half of online traffic (and growing) comes from mobile devices. so online retailers who have seamless mobile experience are on the right path.

#3 Comparison shopping  – There are several comparison shopping engines. Make sure you are competitive, but not losing money

#4 Demand for niche products – a significant chunk of online sales is in ‘niche’ products. The long tail is big business. Choosing a niche isn’t easy, but can lead to great profits

How to stay ahead of the game of eCommerce marketing?

Whether you are building an eCommerce brand or are an already established player you need to make a constant effort to stay ahead of the game. The industry is changing continually and at a much faster rate than traditional retailers.

Digital is a powerful tool for brands and there are 4 main brand-building points that you should keep in mind when planning your eCommerce marketing strategy.

• Word of mouth
• Rich and deep content
• Laser targeting
• User trust

Customers like to research before they contact you, and the richer the content (including reviews from other users) the more they will trust doing business with you. They also like to keep in touch with you and receive information, special offers etc. Even if you don’t move your entire sales process online, and still provide face-to-face service, eCommerce might start playing a bigger role for your company at some of the steps in the sales funnel.

You can reach the right audience and even more by ‘word of mouth’. Social media marketing is a great way to use the ‘sharing’ economy to create a buzz about your products and services.

Use different channels

A very common mistake that many online retailers make is focusing most of their efforts in building a killer site but then having no plan how to drive traffic to that site. While it is important to optimize your eCommerce site, there are channels such as  Facebook, Google AdWords, Google Shopping, Instagram and Pinterest that you can benefit from for effective multi-channel e-commerce.

It is important to know your audience, provide a seamless experience on all channels that you engage with and track performance as much as you can. Given that people can start their journey on one channel from, for example, your Facebook page on a mobile device, and finalize their purchase on a different channel and device e.g. your website on a desktop, you have to accept that measuring the sales funnel might not always be accurate. However, it is important for your marketing strategy that you do track and use cross-channel marketing to maximize results. You can find more information about how to manage your omnichannel internet marketing here.

And perhaps more importantly – stay fluid and flexible and don’t be afraid to change and adapt. There are no constants in the eCommerce world, just because you started by selling books and music, such as Amazon, doesn’t mean that you cannot change your business model and respond to the needs of the loyal audience that you have built. Don’t be afraid to try new things even if it means that you might abandon some of your initial plans.