e-commerce channels Archives

As the amount of e-commerce channels and online competitors increase, businesses must choose the right tactics to stand out.

The e-commerce landscape has evolved rapidly in recent years as more and more “shoppable” digital platforms emerge. Instead of only being able to make online purchases on a company’s website or Amazon page, consumers can also buy products directly through popular social media apps like Instagram or Facebook.

Though there are more avenues than ever to get discovered by potential buyers, there may also be a smaller chance of getting noticed among a growing sea of competitors. To help businesses stand out, 10 Rolling Stone Culture Council members share their top tactics for getting the most online sales possible.

Creating Trustworthy Content

Brands that consistently create credible content win. Podcasts, livestreams and webinars offer an opportunity for consumers to get to know, like and trust you, your products and your services. A strong call to action within this content drives them to your social media or website and invites them to engage with you in a deeper conversation. This begins the pathway to building a customer relationship. – Traci DeForge, Produce Your Podcast

Keeping Things Simple

Regardless whether you’re selling online or in a brick-and-mortar storefront, it’s so crucial to keep things simple for your customers. If you are an online brand, your goal should always be to simplify the process of acquisition for the customer. The fewer steps they have to take to either make the purchase or get the information they need, the more likely it is that you will convert that sale! – Kelly Schwarze, Indie Film Factory

Conducting Research

More customer-centric marketing results in more sales if you invest in low-cost qualitative research. You don’t need a lot of money to distribute polls or an open form to learn what people want and how they feel about a product. Because data-based research is expensive, turn qualitative research into actions by gaining deeper insight into emotions and how your brand speaks to those emotions. – Jacob Mathison, Mathison Projects Inc.

Leveraging Popular Trends

I see a lot of people calling for authenticity from brands, but nobody ever explains what being “authentic” on social media actually means these days. It’s not about sticking to what you know. Sometimes, it’s necessary to jump on trends and have an understanding of what’s working in everyday pop culture and how your brand can leverage that momentum. – Kathy Schenfelt, MISSMANAGED

Getting to Know Your Customers

Get to know your clients or prospective clients. What do they care about? Do they follow a specific sports team? How can you relate to what they care about and start a conversation? Businesses are often turning to tech to scale sales and are forgetting the human, the relationships and customer service. – Ginni Saraswati, Ginni Media

Combining SEO, Marketing and Specialization

Niche specialization paired with a knockout search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing strategy will help bring in sales. It is imperative to stand out by enabling your target audience to find your brand when conducting an informational, navigational or transactional search online. Say you’re a Detroit-based dispensary. Your shop should rank for potential customer searches like “best dispensary in Michigan.” – Evan Nison, NisonCo

Establishing Credibility

Establishing credibility online is the best way to get more sales. You need to make sure your branding looks solid and trustworthy so that when it’s time to close a sale, your potential customer has something solid to look at. – Christian Anderson (Trust’N), Lost Boy Entertainment LLC

Using Email Marketing

In today’s online world, one of the most effective tactics businesses use to generate sales is email marketing. This is because it’s a channel that people use every day and it has high conversion rates. With this type of marketing, you can send out a newsletter about your products and services. Furthermore, this tactic can provide your business with a list of engaged customers. – Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

Acting With Integrity

There are so many hacks online, like those who drop-ship fake products or sell snake oil services. Being authentic and serving with integrity will set any business above the rest. Social proof, great reviews and acting the same in person as you are online as much as possible are key. – Victoria Kennedy, Marisa Johnson

Ensuring Brand Consistency Across Channels

First, focus on creating a strong brand for your customer segment. Your brand should be something that customers can trust and feel good about supporting. Make sure your branding is consistent across all your marketing materials, from your website to your business cards. Employ digital tools to design better brand creatives that deliver a clear message. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day

Feature Image Credit: Urupong — stock.adobe.com

By Rolling Stone Culture Council

Sourced from Rolling Stone

By Sanjay Kumar Kalirona

A branded website is the core of any digitally successful business

The growing popularity of the e-commerce channels and the avenues that these marketplaces presented forced many brands to be digital-first. The brands that were a bit slow to evolve, this COVID-19 pandemic provided the catalyst needed for them to expedite their digital transformation journey. Many were forced to rethink and redesign the entire customer strategy and implement a variety of integrated technologies in order to bring the guest experience into the transformative age.

In this age of digital transformation, customer expectations have also increased. Brands are well aware of how competitive the market space is and realise that they must innovate in order to maintain market dominance. In the not-too-distant future, every business will need to establish an online presence or risk falling behind. Those who are slow to adapt to the changing dynamics struggle to survive.

In contrast, those who cater to internet customers are reaping the benefits. The rules of commerce and interaction are changing rapidly. The reason is simple: everyone is going online, and brands need to stay in touch with customers to keep generating revenue and maintain their market share.

Every brand has a unique digital journey, however, there are some important steps that brands can follow to ensure a successful digital transformation journey. Performance marketing is driving this trend, wherein every entrepreneur, investor and professional want their ROI to better than the other. Tracking the journey of the customer journey is vital to understand consumer buying behaviour. Brands also need to keep upgrading their mark-tech to prompt more customer to buy their product.

Invest in a website

A branded website is the core of any digitally successful business. It is a full-blown digital marketing hub in and of itself. All other online activity must funnel into the website, which converts online and offline visitors into paying customers. A website can also enable brands to increase their offline revenues. Better visibility and online presence through enhanced SEO, well-curated product pages, along with the details of the company and service network can instil trust in prospective buyers. For many, websites can prove to be the first touch point with the brand and thus a great place to etch a lasting first impression.

Riding the e-commerce wave

Once this has been addressed, integrating an e-commerce platform to showcase the hero range is an excellent way to increase online presence and greater sales. Most brands, at the start of their online journey, try to spread themselves too thin. Managing supply chains and maintaining adequate inventory at all places becomes a challenge. The brands should start slowly and gauge the interest level and potential customers they can attract from each platform before adding new online channel partners. Flash sales have proved a good way to ascertain interest level and fine-tune strategy.

Another strategy that Indian brands are gung-ho about is D2C marketing. Brands are now calibrating new-age tools and conducting direct customer transactions on the website. It allows brands to connect with their customers at another touchpoint and control their entire online journey. Implementing structured data, such as the Product schemes, can enhance the user experience. Needless to say, adopting a D2C strategy not only makes the websites look good but must function even better. It also provides deeper insights into the customer profile and their preferences.

Build a social media presence

Digitise the business with social media strategies. Brands have realised they will have to be present where their customers are. To tap into the younger audiences, it is imperative to be active on social media channels. Some social media platforms can also be used as E-platforms. Focus on a limited number of social media channels and master them. Augmenting the digital strategy with video is crucial because it routinely generates the highest ROI and can be easily distributed across all social media accounts.

Increase sales using SEO

Though SEO optimization is commonly viewed as a way to increase site traffic, it is also one of the most effective ways to increase sales, particularly for digitization. The most significant advantage is that organic traffic generates a greater return on investment than any other traffic source. Optimizing the website and online content to attract high-quality traffic is the key to profitable SEO. This is achieved by targeting sales-friendly queries strategically and writing with conversions in mind.

Paid Online Advertising

Digital advertising allows one to generate consistent online sales through channels such as Paid Search ads aka SEM (e.g., Google AdWords) and Paid Social ads (e.g., Facebook and Instagram Ads).

Implementation

Adopt an omnichannel strategy utilising the aforementioned digital methods. With digitisation, even if not every online effort results in a direct sale, they all build something equally valuable in the long run: brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

Businesses that can structure their online presence and drive meaningful engagement can survive and thrive. Despite all the drive toward digital, a majority of businesses still have a long way to go on their digital journey. Building a strong online presence requires a consistent digital brand strategy, and one needs to keep improvising if they want to stick to the growth roadmap.

Feature Image Credit: Representational Image. News18

By Sanjay Kumar Kalirona

The author is CEO and Co-founder, Gizmore, a leading home-grown Smart Accessories, Fitness Gear, and Home Audio brand. Views are personal.