Ecommerce stores face a unique challenge: unlike mall retail stores, they don’t automatically attract customers. It would help if you did more to promote your brand by using different ecommerce strategies.
It’s not nearly as hard as it seems. You can generate inbound sales, build your brand, and increase brand loyalty by implementing the right practices.
The strategies that are right for you matter. You can’t waste hours on systems that don’t work in this fierce competition.
We have compiled a list of the most effective marketing strategies that you can implement to bring your ecommerce site to the next stage without wasting time. There are brand examples that you can use to implement these strategies in your own life.
Use live shopping
Live shopping is very similar to home shopping channels. Instead of watching TV, customers now purchase products via mobile phones using real-time broadcasts on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Taobao.
According to McKinsey, while still in its early stage, live shopping may account for as much as 20% of all ecommerce sales by the year 2026.
You can combine influencer marketing with live shopping to get the best results. You could have a fashion blogger endorse your clothing products in a live broadcast and give some styling tips. You can also use this to get the first traction for your live videos.
CAIA Cosmetics’ first live stream recorded a rate of 5%, which was higher than their average website conversions.
Create gift guides
You can find gifts for any occasion, including Mother’s Day and birthdays.
You can also earn more money per sale if you sell gifts. Gift buyers are more likely to spend more money per trip and engage in cross-buying. They also show more purchase frequency.
There’s one caveat, though: Buyers are often confused as to what they should gift. It would help if you implemented a successful marketing strategy for ecommerce in order to capitalize on the buyer’s behavior. Create gift guides with products that will help your audience narrow down their options for gifts. You’re not trying to sell your product but instead positioning it as a solution to a problem.
You can encourage people to make meaningful purchases if you include gift guides that are tailored for specific occasions, such as “gift guides for anniversaries” or “gift guides celebrating someone’s first career.”
Tarte’s website offers a quiz to help its customers choose the best gift.
This quick and easy quiz has only five questions that ask the visitor to provide information about the budget, recipient, and other relevant details.
For more advanced quizzes, could you read our article about quiz makers?
Launch social media competitions.
62% of participants in social media contests share the information with their friends to encourage them to take part.
It is not a big deal that people are always looking for ways to show off their talents and skills in exchange for something.
You can also use this to promote your brand and create buzz about your contest.
You can host online contests in many different ways. You can run games based on events, such as Halloween contests. You could also host quizzes and trivia contests about your niche.
You can get inspired by this Lands’ End example.
The best contests are those that allow your audience to express their creativity and give them the chance to showcase their talents.
Use these contest tools if you choose to implement this ecommerce strategy.
Mobile optimization of your store
The convenience of e-commerce sites is driving the growth of mobile commerce. In 2022, mobile ecommerce sales in the United States will surpass 387 Billion USD, more than twice the amount spent in 2019 before the pandemic.
Optimizing your website or store for mobile in such a situation is an important ecommerce strategy.
It means presenting images of products that load quickly and placing dropdown arrows to reduce the amount of information on the product page.
See how everything is clearly visible in IKEA, including the main elements such as Cart, Inspiration, and Account options.
Integrate social commerce
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat are integrating features for social selling in order to help brands create shoppable content that will increase conversions.
Social commerce is expected to grow in the coming years.
Start with the platform that your audience uses the most. Create content that is appealing to your audience by learning about best practices for each forum.
Hi, Smile’s UGC reel has a link to the Instagram shop where users can buy the products featured.
Use native analytics to see what content gets the most engagement and use that information to create posts with shoppable links.
Leverage UGC
Customers are more likely to buy your products if they see that others have purchased them and liked them. User-generated content (UGC), or user-generated material, is very effective.
Frank Body made the most of this ecommerce strategy by creating an exclusive hashtag, #thefrankeffect, for UGC posts. The company also began rewarding its fans with monthly prizes for creating unique posts.
Check out how they use their hashtags in their Instagram bio.
This hashtag now has close to 50,000 posts, which the brand may use after obtaining permission from the creator.
How to create helpful guides
They love to read helpful content and find product recommendations that solve problems. Consider this example:
Some are looking for solutions to their tanning problems.
Option A: You can recommend products to your customers via your online store
Option B: While reading an article on your website about “How to remove tan with 6 simple steps”, they receive product recommendations.
You’ll get a lot more product sales if the guide is good.
Homary’s blog is an example of a furniture store that has a collection of engaging and educational articles. These articles attract and convert readers.
Search the site using an interactive site search
By entering keywords that match, users can find the exact product they are looking for. Searching for products is two times more likely than browsing.
These shoppers have high buying intent and are usually ready to purchase.
Here are some best practices for site search in ecommerce stores.
1. Place the search box in a place where users are used to finding it.
2. Autocorrect and errors are allowed. If someone enters “erphones” rather than “earphones,” your search engine should optimize to detect this error and redirect the user to the correct page.
3. Filters allow users to search for attributes such as size, color, and occasion.
Create your product suggestions
Product recommendations can be a great way to increase sales and create cross-selling opportunities. In fact, 49 percent of consumers purchased a product that they didn’t initially intend to buy – due to personalized recommendations.
Use apps to help you make creative recommendations, such as Wiser or Product Recommendation Quiz.
Atkin and Thyme is an online furniture retailer that has a clever way of displaying product recommendations. You’ll find a section called “Complete The Look,” which includes cross-selling products for every product that you select on their site.
It can be helpful to people who want to redesign their room by finding similar products that match the feel and look of their space.
You will find a variety of products in this section.
Retargeting emails is a key focus for email campaigns.
You’re missing out on revenue if you don’t try to re-engage customers who have shown a strong intent to buy by adding products to their carts or wish lists.
This ecommerce strategy will encourage your customers to return to your site and complete their purchase.
Retargeting can be done in two ways: either by running creative email campaigns or using retargeting advertisements.