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Are we even writing about electronic commerce if you don’t talk about the strategies involved in them?

As is tradition, we shall begin this article by delving into the age-old definition of what e-commerce is.

E-commerce, also known as electronic commerce, is the exchange of goods and services as well as the sending of money and data over an electronic network, most commonly the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer, or consumer-to-business.

The terms e-commerce and e-business are commonly used interchangeably. The word e-tail is also sometimes used in relation to the transactional procedures that make up online retail shopping.

With the number of e-commerce websites popping up, it might look easy to build another. But to make it a reality is no easy business. Developing a successful e-commerce business needs several elements that need to come together as a whole at the right time and place for your application to take off.

For this to happen, you need a solid e-commerce strategy or more than one solid strategy. And Thrise promises to help you receive the best care out of the lot.

Any marketing effort you make to advertise your online store and increase sales is known as e-commerce marketing. It applies to both acquiring new clients and convincing existing ones to make another purchase (customer retention).

The internet is what drives e-commerce. Customers use their own devices to access an online store to browse the selection and place orders for goods or services.

The customer’s web browser will communicate back and forth with the server hosting the e-commerce website as the order is placed. The order manager, a central computer, will receive information about the order. It will then be sent to databases that control inventory levels, a merchant system that controls payment data using tools like PayPal, a bank computer, and a merchant system.

It will then return to the order manager. This is done to ensure that there is enough stock in the store and money in the customer’s account to fulfill the order.

The order manager will alert the store’s web server once the order has been confirmed. The customer will see a notice stating that their order has been successfully handled. The order manager will then notify the warehouse or fulfillment department that the product or service can be delivered to the customer by sending order data to those departments. A customer may receive actual or digital goods at this moment, or access to a service may be granted.

Online marketplaces where sellers register, like Amazon, software as a service (SaaS) tools that let users “rent” online store infrastructures, or open source tools that businesses run using their in-house developers are some examples of platforms that host e-commerce transactions.

What does e-commerce marketing do?

·         Makes your e-commerce website more popular

·         Brings your business in front of the intended market

·         Enables those looking for the types of things you sell to find your website with ease.

·         Generating new consumers from website visits

·         Re-engages website visitors to encourage them to make another purchase

·         Makes post-purchase experiences better to boost client happiness and encourage loyalty

·         Reactivates existing clients with timely, pertinent offers and information so they Continue to love shopping with you Encourages more frequent and larger orders

What Kinds of Ecommerce Marketing Are There?

·         Search engines

·         On-site

·         Social media

·         Owned media like blogs

·         Email marketing

·         SMS

·         Non-owned online publications and podcasts

·         Offline marketing e.g. print, TV spots

E-Commerce SEO

Your website will become more visible and accessible through search engine optimization (SEO) (Google, Bing, etc.). Adding keywords that potential customers might use to find products similar to yours is the main goal here. When the search engine realizes that you have what it is looking for, it places you high in the list of results. Search engine optimization for online stores is known as e-commerce SEO.

An example of optimization is writing lengthy descriptions with pertinent keywords on each product page. Getting backlinks from pertinent websites can help your online store rank better. The copy on your home page, FAQ page, and product page copy should all be optimized for e-commerce. Additionally, starting a blog will improve your SEO.

Email Advertising

An important tactic for advertising your e-commerce is email marketing. Being independent of a major corporation like Facebook, Google, or Amazon makes it a channel you own. This makes it more affordable and dependable.

Simply selecting an email marketing service is all that is required. After that, you may begin assembling your email list and launching email marketing campaigns. The key characteristics to consider are:

Transactional emails, such as those for logins and password resets, tracking updates, and order confirmations

Automated emails – sent when a preset condition is satisfied or a consumer takes a specific action

Emails with relevant offers that are targeted to certain client segments based on their online behavior and past purchases.

SMS Advertising

SMS marketing is the practice of using text messages for advertising. It works well for urgently needed alerts, updates, and time-limited offers.

As an illustration, consider an automatic SMS that sends out a special offer on the morning of a customer’s birthday. Another essential e-commerce communication that works well for SMS is shipping updates.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization refers to the actions you do to convert as many website visitors as you can. You’ve put a lot of effort and/or money into getting traffic, so you expect sales to come from it. Without revenue, traffic is nothing.

You can employ a variety of strategies on your website to increase sales, including:

·         Using push notifications

·         Live chat

·         Reviews from users and user-generated material (UGC)

·         Selecting aids

·         Tools for VR fitting and positioning, such as for clothing or furnishings

Commercial use of social media

For e-commerce enterprises, organic social reach is frequently insufficient, and you may need to pay to participate. This often means two things: influencer marketing campaigns and advertisements on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Depending on the social media site, ad formats change. To determine which one is most effective for your e-commerce store, test them out.

Then there is influencer marketing, which involves paying well-known users of social media to advertise your goods. They can assist you in addressing challenging demographics like eco-aware mothers or ardent scent enthusiasts. Additionally, they portray the product as a component of a lifestyle, which improves the brand’s image.

Affiliate Promotion

The intriguing aspect of e-commerce marketing is affiliate marketing. It depends on an affiliate network, also known as referrers, who send customers to your online business and are compensated for each sale they facilitate.

Typically, they accomplish this through blog posts where they discuss your products or just list their top picks in a particular category. One of the recent trends in e-commerce is influencers posting directly on social media in place of affiliate marketing. However, affiliate marketing is still a robust industry for Amazon retailers.

Internet Marketing

You can purchase more exposure on search engines in addition to social media. The most preferred choices are:

Pay-per-click (PPC, Google AdWords) results are displayed at the top of the page for selected keywords

With Google Shopping, a free service, you can list every item you sell along with prices and pictures to reach out to more high-intent consumers.

In order for a potential consumer to see your ad for “cat tree” on a news website, for example, after looking for one, display campaigns (banner advertisements on websites) are dependent on searches and browsing behavior.

PR and Brand Awareness

To increase brand recognition and increase traffic and sales, e-commerce companies utilize public relations to publish articles and prominent customer reviews. According to studies, including PR into a wider digital marketing strategy on a regular basis can boost brand profits by 20%.

Brand awareness can be defined simply as the degree to which your target market is aware of your business. However, relevance and reputation should always be considered when evaluating brand awareness.

In a nutshell, public relations, or PR, refers to all the actions a company takes to uphold a favorable rapport with the general public. According to reports, new opportunities in PR have emerged for e-commerce enterprises due to an increase in demand for online retail.

Content Marketing

The purpose of content marketing is to inform, entertain, assist customers in making decisions, and answer inquiries.

You have the opportunity to share your expertise and values, dispel any potential concerns, and reassure potential or existing customers that you are a reputable company.

The best thing about content is that it works for you after it is created. It can increase your conversion rate if it is search engine optimised and is simple to find on the website. Additionally, it can be used for various e-commerce marketing activities including partnerships, organic social media, and newsletters.

So, What Should You Do?

·       Identify your market and target demographic

·         You must first comprehend your target in order to find the appropriate voice, messaging, channels, and offers.

·       Establish goals based on benchmarks

·         Use industry benchmarks as the foundation for your estimates until you have your own data. Your work will now have a direction.

·      Observe what your rivals are doing.

There is no point in creating the wheel when some of it is probably already working. But also consider how things may be improved. This could help you get a competitive edge.

Automate everything you can

Small businesses need sales to come in automatically in order to scale. The more hands-off you can be, the better. This is where lead scoring, automated workflows, bulk emails, and other marketing automation techniques are useful.

Look into marketing tools that can be of assistance

As you can see, e-commerce marketing is so complex that it can be intimidating. Fortunately, there are resources available to you that may help you get started with many of the strategies described at a low cost.

As you gain traction, gradually add more marketing channels

Expand to more channels and methods as soon as you feel your initial marketing setup is effective. For instance, if you have a dedicated customer care representative, you can include a live chat.

Analyze the results of your e-commerce promotion, then improve and recycle what is effective

Tracking the return on investment is the only method to determine if an ecommerce marketing plan is effective (ROI). Spending money on campaigns that are ineffective is not worthwhile. Try to employ the ones that are effective for a wider audience, then repeat with the remaining ones.

Integrate loyalty into your plan

Customer loyalty is fantastic news because it increases revenue, enhances your brand’s reputation, and draws in new clients who have heard about you via enthusiasts. Additionally, it has a long-term effect, so get to work on it as soon as you can. You will benefit from loyalty tiers, automations, and CRM behaviour insights.

Prioritize profitability rather than just revenue

If you continually pay to get new clients, your profit may suffer. Because of ad prices, one-off sales end up costing you more because there are more returns and exchanges (new consumers don’t know their size, etc.). Driving recurring business from present consumers is less expensive.

Customize the way you communicate

When tailored and pertinent, advertisements, emails, SMS, and live chat produce significantly higher results. Customers appreciate the feeling of understanding and not receiving a generic message.