If we draw an analogy, physical stores are made up of brick and mortar, while e-commerce stores are made up of Lego. While physical stores are permanent and stiff, e-commerce stores are temporary and nimble. E-commerce stores can be restructured innumerable times and can incorporate all the feedback.
The building, and optimizing an e-commerce platform is easy, but running and scaling it is quite challenging. To scale an e-commerce business, the team needs to identify its audience, refine it and target it. Once you start targeting your audience, the traffic increases but there’s a long way to go before the traffic converts into orders. The conversion rate for a new shopper is 1.5%-2%.
The fact that 72% of all shoppers start their search on Amazon, explains how tough it is for new players to make a mark in the extremely competitive e-commerce landscape. E-commerce players need a robust marketing strategy to reach out to their target audience and convince them to buy a product.
Based on facts, figures and studies, we bring to you a set of digital marketing hacks that every e-commerce player can use in 2020.
1. Use Display Video Demonstration
In 2018-19, video content helped businesses acquire the attention of users like never before. People are spending 88% more time on the Internet watching videos, which can be leveraged by online stores.
With a video demonstration of the product, stores can offer customers a better understanding of the product. Video demonstrations also increase the “time spent on-site”, which means, the user has enough time to purchase before leaving the site.
With content at the helm of all digital marketing campaigns, investing in video content can prove to be a game-changing marketing gimmick.
2. Leverage User-Generated Content
A Business2Community report suggests “Millennials believe that UGC is 35% more memorable than other media”. Another study by Digitalcommerce360 mentioned, “Millennials make a whopping 60% of their purchases online”.
With so much riding on millennials and user-generated content, e-commerce players can leverage both to develop a kickass marketing plan.
How e-commerce players can leverage UGC for marketing?
Use customer reviews with photo and name for promotions: Get over the grumpy ole method of using fake testimonials, start using real photos and reviews. With real photos and reviews being shared on social media channels, users will be able to relate better. Womply recently revealed, “Businesses who reply to at least one in four reviews have a 35% higher conversion rate on an average”.
Urge Customers to Post Photo of the Product: Both Amazon and Flipkart allow their users to post photos of products received in the review section. Customers sharing their reviews along with the photo of the product is no less than a gold mine of UGC for e-commerce stores. They can pick these reviews and share them across social media to garner positive publicity.
3. Customer Retention >> Customer Acquisition
Studies found that Add-to-Cart for a new shopper is 5-6% but for older customers, the Add-to-Cart rate is 23-24%. The study also mentions, “Conversion rate for new shoppers is 1.5-2%, whereas conversion rate for loyal customers is 8-9%”.
Shifting from customer acquisition to customer retention mindset will offer better ROI and instant gratification. Since existing customers help marketplaces generate more revenue and customer acquisition cost is zero, it can be leveraged as a great marketing prototype that offers both funds and growth opportunities.
4. Promote Theme Based Bucketing for Popular Events
Since “45% of customers are likely to engage with a campaign if it is personalized”, creating a theme-based bucket of products and promoting it through social media can bring in some good traction.
E-commerce stores have tried to steal the thunder of festivals by offering gruesome discounts. Their campaigns are so intriguing that people forget about holidays and start discussing online sales. They have successfully acquired the attention and in 2020, they will be looking forward to using the thunder for filling their pockets.
In 2020, e-commerce players will be required to pick a little from catalog, social media, and UGC, combine them and then use it as a marketing tool.
Benefits of Creating Theme Based Bucketing
Every e-commerce player has tried their hands at “Products under $10” and “Based on Your Past Orders” kind of buckets to offer a personalized experience. It is the success of these buckets that online stores keep repeating it.
Creating a theme based bucket is laborious but the gains are just too good to ignore it. Through catalog enrichment, online stores can add attribute values to the products they want to include. Catalog enrichment helps e-commerce stores get rid of varied other challenges of catalog management like:
• Identify and remove the duplicate listing
• Correct misplaced attribute values
• Optimize content to control return rates
Conclusion
With 4G penetration touching 90% mark in countries like India and China, online transactions are expected to rise. Internet penetration is not only urging people to shop online but also pay online. With increasing opportunities, the challenges have also increased.
Every manufacturer is now coming up with its online stores to offer a better experience. Marketplaces and small standalone stores need to buckle up and rely on efficient digital marketing paradigms to win the audience.
The aforementioned hacks are based on customer behavior and surveys from recent years. Reliance on these hacks will not only bring in more customers but will also place the stores at the helm of the growing e-commerce industry.
