It's only natural to expect sales after opening an e-commerce business. After all, e-commerce is all about buying and selling. However, there are hundreds of thousands of e-commerce businesses out there that are doing the same thing as you.
As the competition increases, many online retailers experience a decline in sales. The only way to capture people actively searching for your product is to develop and implement a working e-commerce marketing strategy. The purpose of this article is to mainly introduce 10 e-commerce marketing strategies that work extremely well for dropshipping.
In this digital era, any business can be set up and running in 48 hours or less. For example, with WordPress hosting, a business name and logo, a registered domain, just anyone can create an online store using free templates and start selling. The low requirements to become an e-commerce business owner have contributed to the increasing number of competitors.
Any business that wants to continue making sales or increasing revenues will have to go extra miles to stand out from the crowd. This can be done by focusing on strategies that will set your business apart. Do you want to know how to make your online business distinguished? What's the secret of generating more sales and higher conversion in 2020? We've listed 10 effective e-commerce marketing strategies to attract new customers and maintain old customers.
10 Best E-Commerce Marketing Strategies
If your sales are decreasing and the number of abandoned carts on your website is increasing, then it's time to try something different. In e-commerce, it's never too late to bring in fresh ideas to crown your marketing efforts. With these 10 best e-commerce marketing strategies, you are sure to attract new customers and recover lost sales.
1. Optimize your checkout process
Cart abandonment is one of the leading causes of low sales. After working hard to drive traffic, build trust, and turn them into potential buyers, it hurts that they end up not buying from you. Why? Something's wrong with your checkout page. Most e-commerce marketers neglect this process and end up wasting their marketing efforts. You must ensure that your checkout process is smooth and trustworthy from start to finish. Anything below this will lead to cart abandonment. There are several ways you can optimize your checkout page to increase conversion rates.
· Remind buyers of your return policy
· Add multiple payment methods on your store
· Add discounts for first-time buyers
· Entice returning buyers with incentives
2. Send powerful promotional emails – email marketing
Emails are productive tools that ensure communication between a business and its customers and subscribers or followers. Email marketing has a conversion rate which is 4 times higher than social media, paid search, and other forms of marketing. Sending emails informs existing customers about a new product, upsells, and cross-selling. It can also be used to remind prospects that have purchase intent to continue shopping. A powerful practice when sending out promotional emails would be to provide compelling incentives that will entice your prospects to complete their order. It's hard to resist offers that are sent directly to anyone's email. Once you're able to build an email list for your business, then you can sell just anything to them.
3. Optimize your website for search
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the basics of marketing. It is a free way to get unlimited traffic to your site. By optimizing your website, you make it ranks higher on search engines. Website optimization requires that you research keywords related to your niche that a targeted audience is searching for. After this, ensure that all your website pages are fully optimized for the right keywords. There are lots of free tools that can help with keyword research.
4. Use discounts to convert wish list
As the name suggests, these are the products your visitors wish to buy but could not due to some reasons. It's easy to forget your wish list items when there's no motivation from the site. Some customers need an incentive or a reminder before they buy those items. You can remind them by sending powerful wish list reminder emails, giving them reasons (like price discount) to consider the purchase. Just remember to add a powerful call-to-action to help them reconsider the purchase.
Social media marketing is an excellent way to build traffic and nurture relationships with your customers. It is free and easy to use. Social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter are ideal for e-commerce businesses. With Facebook recommendations and algorithms, visitors can view your products based on their previous searches. When using social media marketing, make sure you don't focus solely on promoting your products. No, that will ruin your business. Rather, interact with your audience by posting relevant content, asking for their opinions, or asking questions about your product or service.
6. Optimize your Instagram page
Instagram is a popular platform for e-commerce marketers to display their products via image and video. When it comes to brand engagement, Instagram leads. Unfortunately, many e-commerce businesses are not making the most out of the platform. Here are some ways to utilize Instagram to your advantage for business.
· Update your profile with your business name, logo, slogan, phone number, address, and email
· Upload only high-quality images and videos
· Learn how to research popular keywords related to your business. There are free tools on the internet to put you through.
· Use the "#" tags in the product description to increase its chances of visibility
· Use Instagram influencers to market your products
When used right, Instagram can engage your audience and thrill them to buy from you.
7. Let customers know that their security matters
Security and privacy are crucial in e-commerce. One way to get trusted by your targeted audience is to make them feel safe. Many customers end up not buying from your store because they feel threatened and unsafe. First, ensure to use HTTPS:// or SSL certificates on your website. The security logo from the SSL service provider increases trust. The security seal makes them comfortable when inserting their credit card information. This can reduce the number of abandoned carts too.
8. Use abandoned cart analysis to recommend products
There are so many reasons customers visit your store, browse through your product categories, add a product to cart, and end up not making a purchase. It might be due to a complicated checkout process or limited payment methods – whatever the case, you have to deal with this first. If your business is challenged with abandoned carts, don't give up yet. You can still convert those abandoned carts into sales. How? Sending abandoned carts emails is an ideal solution. These sorts of emails remind a customer to continue from where he left off. Another trick is to offer similar products that are less expensive; one that the customer might pick interest in. There are tools online that provide recommendations based on abandoned carts. With this method, you're sure to recover otherwise-lost sales.
9. Use customer reviews
Visitors are usually skeptical when they access a new website. This is obvious as they are unsure of the legitimacy of the site. Reviews from customers can clear their doubts and make them trust your business enough to make a purchase. Customer reviews or testimonials add social proof and trust seal to your business. When used right, they are huge drivers of e-commerce sales. You can display customer reviews on the homepage, product pages, landing pages, or promotional emails.
10. Consider your mobile users
Among 100 million online shoppers in the world today, over 70% have made a purchase using their smartphone. While having your website revamped and modern is important to increase user experience, investing in mobile platforms is also necessary. It's rare for you to see a consumer switch to a laptop or computer just to order your product. Designing your website in a mobile-friendly manner and building your own mobile application can make your sales explode. For one, apps are easier to load than websites. They also ensure that your users have a good experience while exploring your products and can order efficiently. Apps are the way forward if you want to continue to develop your brand, boost sales, and drive growth.
Conclusion
If you want to grow your e-commerce business, these strategies can help you. There are a variety of options listed; all you need is to experiment with each to know what best suits your business. Afterward, you execute them properly. When done right, these strategies can help you build trust among existing buyers, attract new customers, and make your sales explode with minimal efforts.
