How to grow your eCommerce business in 2020?

Whether you are a B2C, B2B or B2G enterprise, today’s culture dictates that an online presence is crucial to business performance. The global share of eCommerce sales has climbed from a mere 7.4% to a whopping 16.1% in 2020. With growth expected to continue at an exponential scale, the reason for eCommerce success is attributed to the convenience and ease that brick & mortar lack in. With minimal investment, it has proven to have far greater walk-ins to a virtual store through eCommerce marketing, as compared to the traditional route. With retail sales taking a deep plunge, and offline campaigning suffering due to various reasons from the outright ban of billboards to outdated, ineffective strategies, having an eCommerce back up at the very least as crucial to keeping the head above water when doomsday arrives.

How to grow your eCommerce business?

With greater visibility, better business analysis, concrete numbers, and precise marketing strategies, eCommerce has been the reason for the revamping and complete overhaul of several businesses. But the world of eCommerce is vast and complex, and the number of strategies available for marketing work with varying degrees based on the type of business. Given that eCommerce is an open playing field that offers equal opportunities, some cross the line and move ahead leaps and bounds, while others are yet to crack the first code. To simplify things, we have broken down everything you need to know to grow your eCommerce business in 2020 into sizable bites. Use these strategies, and you can be sure that you’ve done everything to get ahead in the online game.

1.  Omnichannel strategies

What is an omnichannel strategy?

Omnichannel eCommerce marketing is the optimal usage of all platforms available to gain popularity/visibility in the online world quickly. Channel simply means the mediums available to communicate with your potential customers. To take a note from the old book, omnichannel marketing is similar to running a full-fledged campaign – You want to be visible on TV, on billboards, and in the newspaper at the same time to create the most significant impact. Same way, in eCommerce marketing, you want to be on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and email apart from your website to get maximum brand visibility. The biggest take away from an omnichannel strategy is that it works hand-in-hand with your brick & mortar store – interconnecting the two types of shoppers and taking advantage of both. In a survey by Harvard consisting of 46000 shoppers, it was found that 7% shopped online exclusively, 20% were store-only shoppers, and 73% used multiple channels.

Why create an Omnichannel strategy?

Crucial to creating a brand image from the get-go, an omnichannel strategy helps you connect with a wide variety of audiences in a personalized manner. Personalization is one of the biggest takeaways from eCommerce 101 2020. Again, this is way more impactful than traditional marketing as it allows you to address different types of audiences in different ways. eCommerce is a mass-communication medium but masks itself in the eye of the beholder as 1-1 media. Every message you put out there creates an environment for building your reputation and upping your brand’s value.

How to develop an Omnichannel Strategy for your eCommerce business?

Omni-channel strategies allow you to be omnipresent and omnipotent. The vision behind your online strategy should always be to create a fully-integrated customer experience, that stays true to its core no matter where your customer first finds you. Consistency across platforms and interlinking that ultimately leads to the buy button on your website is crucial. In the online world, all roads lead to your website – but making the journey pleasant is all on you. Here are a few tips for creating a significant impact on omnichannel marketing:

  • Personalize your marketing strategies. Use email marketing to connect your online and offline shoppers, and personalize your message using readily available automation tools.
  • Make your mobile site responsive. Most people who find you through social media are likely to come via a mobile device.
  • Make your brand voice, loud, clear and consistent. Make sure that you are unique.
  • Create buying guides for product categories on your site. Use blogs to explain your USP. Educate, inform, sell.

2.  Cross Border Commerce

What is cross border eCommerce?

A strategy that has quietly but quickly gained momentum cross border eCommerce is taking your business (B2C, B2B or C2C) global by scaling your eCommerce platform. Cross Border eCommerce is widely expected to grow, with sales projected to $630 billion by 2022.

What is the advantage of cross border eCommerce?

Although many businesses have been skeptical due to legislation concerns, Statista says that 27% of US shoppers interviewed said they shop both domestically and cross-border. For Austrian shoppers, this increases to 71%. When shoppers themselves aren’t afraid to try the new, why limit your TG.

What are the risks of cross border eCommerce?

  • Fraud from payment services is one of the biggest challenges faced by merchants who go global. Picking the right agent who understands social behavior is critical.
  • Logistics and reverse logistics are crucial and may negatively impact the business if consistency is missing.
  • Studying local regulations and taxation rules are critical to cross border success.

How to develop across-broader eCommerce strategy for your eCommerce business

Cross Border eCommerce strategies differ by the size of business. Small businesses can hire international support and ensure that their technology is scalable before jumping the gun. A mid-market company should especially take note of competitors in their selling space, and find a way to fit into the area and create a niche. Before going big on your site straight away, test the waters on platforms like Amazon and eBay to see what model works for you.

3.  PPC Advertising

Pay Per Click advertising makes use of search engine advertising, sponsored listings and more to attract customers to your site. Pay-Per-Click Advertising offers quick entry into the market, unlike slower long-term social media strategies. PPC advertising is highly recommended in the beginning as it provides you with a wealth of data about your potential customers. It is easily trackable and measurable and is highly revered for the insights it can give into further social media marketing strategies.

How to choose a suitable PPC platform?

Three leading platforms offer unprecedented results for PPC – Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads. Google Ads primarily markets based on search engine queries and is quite powerful as you are targeting people who are likely to find you as the solution to their problem. Google Ads are typically focused on Lead generation. Facebook Ads, on the other hand, use interest-based, demographic targeting that doesn’t require searches for visibility. Facebook Ads are all about multiple stages to improve brand awareness, rather than make a conversion straight away. Instagram Ads also follow a similar model as Facebook, but the ads are more visual and targeted to mobile use. Choose your platform or use a combination of both, based on what you are trying to do. If you want conversions, go with Google. If you’re building brand awareness, go with social media.

How to develop PPC Strategy for your eCommerce business?

If your budget is limited, you must consider choosing other options over PPC first. But ultimately, increasing online presence is best done with PPC quickly. If your business is a service, go with Google as it will give you the best results. If you are a B2C platform with severe competition, a combined strategy leaning heavily towards Facebook is the most ideal.

4.  Affiliate Marketing

Touted as one of the best ways to earn passive income, affiliate marketing kicked off in a big way for the last few years. It is based on a revenue-sharing model, where a financial incentive is offered to online marketers who can sell your product.

Does affiliate marketing work now?

81 % of brands and 84% of publishers make use of affiliate marketing. By 2020, they spend on affiliate marketing, which is expected to reach $6.8 billion. 16% of all online orders were through the impact of affiliate marketing. With these numbers, it is a severe matter of consideration to see if your product can fit the affiliate marketing model. Affiliate marketing allows you to grow your sales team indirectly. You can also look into affiliate marketing as a means of capturing data such as e-mail and even just simple survey forms. Affiliate marketing is also a sure-shot way of building trust and enhancing your online credibility.

Most Successful eCommerce stores using affiliate marketing

One of the biggest success stories in affiliate marketing is TripAdvisor. The site receives more than 116 million visits per month and has quickly become the go-to place to find good restaurants and hotels from around the world. Another affiliate marketing site that went viral is the Wire Cutter, which made $150 million of affiliate sales. The site posts about the latest gadgets, outdoor gear and health, and fitness products. Although it works on a niche, the marketing was on point. Amazon Associates, eBay, and GearBest are the best platforms for new affiliate marketers.

Top affiliate marketers to reach out to your eCommerce business

The best way to approach the affiliate marketing strategy is to find influencers. Influencers can sometimes play a crucial role in helping you take your brand global and start your cross border eCommerce journey. You can use influencers for marketing your product for you. You can also approach affiliate eCommerce stores to feature your product and build your brand presence in the online world.

How to Develop an affiliate marketing strategy for your eCommerce business?

If you don’t have a large social media following, affiliate marketing is highly recommended. When you are developing an online strategy for affiliate marketing, pay attention to how your product sells. If you are a beauty brand, using influencers who can show your product in use through social media is the best way to go. Any products that require a certain amount of demonstration should go with the influencer strategy. Using affiliate eCommerce stores is recommended for those who have built a niche product review site with blogs and box opening on YouTube. However, sometimes the best way to start with affiliate marketing is to use your website customers as your affiliate marketer. You can offer bonuses, points and more to customers who suggest the brand to a friend using a unique code.

Conclusion

Building an eCommerce site and marketing strategy that works well is all about understanding your product and your customer base. However, there is no need to fret as you can always try each in tiny chunks and see what works best for your brand. But most importantly, ensure that your brand image stays consistent across all marketing strategies.

Additional resources on eCommerce Success

  1. Ultimate Guide to Selling on Shopify
  2. How to create your first Shopify Store?
  3. How to get more traffic to your Shopify store?
  4. How to get more loyal customers to your Shopify store?
  5. How to do Conversion Rate Optimization to your Shopify store?

Article by AdNabu

AdNabu helps improve sales in Google Ads for eCommerce companies. If you are running search, shopping or display campaigns in Google Ads, Their software will be able to increase your sales. Sign up today for a 14-day free trial from here.

Photo source: Grow your eCommerce Business in 2020

Share on WhatsAppLinks giving error?

Lasă un comentariu

Rules for commenters »

Puteți folosi Gravatar pentru a adăuga avatar (imagine comentarii).