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The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce Store

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |eCommerce Store|The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce StoreThese days, starting up your own eCommerce store is as simple as clicking a couple of buttons. With the right services, you could essentially build a working website in as little as a few hours, complete with all of your custom-made products and a fantastic website theme. Unfortunately, the ease of making an eCommerce website has created a swarm of subpar stores that are clogging the market, creating an endless sea of competition.

In that sea, there aren’t many eCommerce stores that can actually survive. Unfortunately, the small investment needed to actually create a store means that people aren’t afraid to try and fail over and over again until they hit the jackpot with a lucky idea. So to help you establish a successful eCommerce store without the trial and error, we’ve put together what we believe are the 10 golden rules of a successful eCommerce store. These tips will help you stand out, build your brand and ultimately stand out in a huge sea of competition.

1. Have your own website and email domain

Do not, under any circumstances, use some kind of subdomain for your business such as www.webhost.com/yourbusiness. This is incredibly unprofessional and will scare off all of your potential customers. Furthermore, don’t use an email service like Gmail or Yahoo. Make sure you have your own email domain as well. Both of these tips will make you seem a lot more professional and will greatly improve your chances of success as an eCommerce store.

2. Market on multiple channels and platforms

Make sure you’re not sticking to a single channel or platform when it comes to growing your business and advertising your brand. You should be on many different channels, social media platforms and advertising services to help you spread out and reach a wider audience. To give you a hand, here are some eCommerce marketing tips that you should absolutely follow. As long as you remember to advertise on multiple platforms, you’ll have an incredibly easy time getting your name out there.

3. Hire a web developer

We know that templates can look really pretty and will have loads of customization options. Unfortunately, a template is a template and most shoppers will realize that you’re using some kind of default theme that took almost no effort to make. This doesn’t reflect well on your brand as a whole, hence why it’s vital that you hire a web developer to help you make a good website for your brand. This can be costly, but it’s also a fantastic investment in your brand.

4. Support different payment methods

If your website doesn’t support PayPal then you’re going to lose a lot of business. If you don’t accept cryptocurrency then that’s another chunk of customers gone. Accepting cards should be the absolute minimum nowadays. Make sure you look at the most popular eCommerce payment methods and ensure that you support them on your website.

5. Specialize before you diversify

One of the problems that a lot of amateur eCommerce stores face is over-diversification. They try to add too many products to their website because they’re using a simple dropshipping plug-in, and they try to appeal to too many different people at once. The goal is to minimize the number of products you offer and specialize your brand before you try to spread out and diversify.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |eCommerce Store|The Ten Golden Rules of a Successful eCommerce Store6. Create genuinely helpful content

A lot of eCommerce sites tend to hire general copywriters and will request some incredibly simple articles that have very little relevance to their brand. This is usually a fairly poor way of approaching eCommerce marketing because the content doesn’t provide value to your users. Instead, what you want to aim for is evergreen content that will continue to provide your customers with something helpful to read. This could be a knowledge base of information for your products or even some explanations on how to use the items you’re selling.

7. Make your services work on mobile

Luckily, most modern web hosts and design services will include a mobile-friendly version of your site, meaning you don’t have to do much to support mobile users. However, what you can do to help is optimize images for faster loading, creating larger buttons and links for mobile users to press and potentially having a mobile app for your brand or store. This will open up your business to a huge audience of mobile-only users.

8. Communicate with your audience

It’s absolutely vital that you’re always communicating with your audience. Whether it’s on social media, on your website or even in reviews on a Google Business listing, you should always be happy to speak with your audience, receive their feedback and also discuss what your audience enjoys about your product. This is all valuable information that can be used to grow your project into a successful eCommerce store.

9. Don’t underestimate the power of influencers

Influencer marketing is starting to become one of the best ways for a small brand to spread its wings. It involves contacting influential people on social media platforms and working together with them to promote your brand to their viewers. Some influencers have a couple of thousand followers, while others will have over a million. It’s your job to find out which influencer could best represent or showcase your brand.

10. Maintain a blog on your website

Blogs are fantastic for improving your brand’s search engine optimization and it can also be a place to provide your customers with useful content and informative articles. It’s a great way to improve your brand’s trustworthiness and will provide a lot of value to your customers.

We hope that these ten golden rules have given you a different perspective on how you should run an eCommerce store. We know that creating a website to sell goods is incredibly easy nowadays, which means that you’re undoubtedly going to get a lot of competition. However, setting yourself apart from these no-effort stores is simply as long as you’re willing to invest some time into it.

Marketing Trends You Should Keep an Eye on in 2020

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Marketing Trends|Marketing Trends You Should Keep an Eye on in 2020Marketing is one of the most dynamic fields in the world, and one that changes every day. New technologies are constantly allowing us to reach audiences in new ways. It also allows you to gauge and understand the impact of campaigns, and make adjustments on the fly.

Techniques like email marketing, content marketing, and search have been around for years now, but we are still seeing some innovation in how they are implemented. Let’s take a look at some of the marketing trends that will dominate 2020 and beyond.

Shoppable Post

Chances are there isn’t a single person in your entourage that is not using social media in some sort of way. It has reached virtually all classes and demographics, and has been used as a marketing tool pretty much since its inception. What is not as clear, however, is how many people actually do their shopping through social media platforms.

This represents a huge untapped potential, as 72% of all Instagram users have performed at least one transaction via the app. In one study, it was found that 70% of the Pinterest users surveyed used the platform to make purchasing decisions.

Platforms have been taking note, and are trying to make it as easy as possible for your audience to shop. This is why they’ve introduced shoppable posts that allow viewers to make purchases directly on posts. This allows you to shorten your sales funnel, and prevent leaks. These types of posts are expected to become the norm in the near future.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

While we were in an experimental stage with AR and VR, we are now starting to realize their potential and moving to concrete applications. Both technologies are becoming more common in marketing, and major retailers have already started using it as part of their strategy.

Ikea, for instance, has an augmented reality app that allows shoppers to visualize how a certain piece of furniture will look in a desired space. This could revolutionize the world of online retail, and change the way people shop forever.

Facebook is also betting on AR, and announced last year that it will make AR ads available to advertisers site-wide. According to Facebook’s VP of product marketing, Ty Amhad-Taylor, the goal is to move audiences from product discovery to purchases faster. “Shoppers are now expecting a visually inspired and personalized experience wherever they shop,” he said. “And this is either on their mobile devices and in stores.”

AR allows advertisers to bring both experiences closer together, and allows marketers to drive sales as well. These ads look like any regular Facebook ads, with the exception of the “tap to try” button. Shoppers will then be able to “try” the item in real time.

A More Demanding Job Marketplace

Marketing in 2020 requires students to have a more well-rounded set of skills than ever. While a solid marketing formation is a prerequisite, here are some of the skills that will be expected of marketing professionals:

  • Brand storytelling
  • Social media management
  • Data analytics
  • Serving progressive customers
  • Soft interpersonal skills

According to this piece by Emerson College Online, the marketers of tomorrow will still need to have solid interpersonal skills like listening and communication, even with all the recent advances in technology. Emerson College also puts a lot of importance on progressive audiences, and according to them, marketers who understand how to speak to an increasingly progressive and diverse audience will have a leg up on the competition.

Brand storytelling that is inclusive of all experiences will be needed, and major brands are already pushing towards more diversity in their campaigns.

But one area where marketers of tomorrow will need to be especially proficient in is data analytics. Companies don’t only need to compile data, but they must be able to actually analyze it, and use it to generate results. Data can be used to check if a marketing campaign was successful, and spot trends. Online marketing has the advantage of being easily quantifiable, and knowing how to use data can make a big difference on outcomes, money spent, and return on investment.

Interactive Content

Today’s shoppers are looking for variety and new experiences when they go online, and one of the ways this can be done is through interactive content.

As a matter of fact, a recent Content Preferences Survey found that 91% of responders are looking for more interactive and visual content. Here are some of the reasons interactive content is so powerful:

  • Interactive content is new and different, which allows it to stand out
  • It allows you to keep visitors on your pages
  • It’s immensely shareable
  • It can help build brand awareness
  • It is more engaging

For all of these reasons, we can expect more brands to use interactive content in the future. We can also expect to see more tools and techniques that will make the production and implementation of virtual content easier.

Personalization

Personalization falls in line with interactive content, but focuses on providing highly relevant ads to customers. Shoppers have now become experts at phasing out adverts that have nothing to do with them or their interests, and this is one of the reasons why traditional advertising is losing some of its power. The only solution is to personalize ads as much as possible to build a connection.

In a study that was performed on 1000 people, 90% of them said that they viewed personalization as a positive. But more importantly, 80% of them said that they would be likely to buy if a company was able to offer a personalized experience.

What’s beautiful is that modern marketing methods, such as email marketing for instance, lend themselves very well to personalization. The rise of customer relationship management tools only makes it more powerful.

Lists can be precisely segmented and laser targeted to specific audience based on their prior purchase decisions, interactions, or the stage in the sales funnel. Used in conjunction with a cost-effective mass advertising tool such as email marketing, it allows businesses big and small to have the kind of reach that was only possible for major companies not too long ago.

Smart Bidding

People who are familiar with online marketing tend to also be familiar with automation. But new changes by Google are set to make automation and smart bidding the norm. Google Ads are now using machine learning to optimize your bids. This will allow you to:

  • Have more control over conversion action
  • Allow you to adjust bids automatically when sales stop or start
  • Optimize bids across multiple channels based on specific conversion actions
  • Maximize conversion
  • Avoid having to set a max CPC manually for each keyword

Old Methods Still Going Strong

While new online marketing methods are becoming increasingly popular, that doesn’t mean that old methods are becoming obsolete. Many of the tried and true techniques will still be going strong in 2020. Let’s look at some examples.

Content Marketing

Content will continue to be king in 2020, and continues to be one of the most effective ways to build a brand. Few methods allow you to establish your expertise and authority like quality content does. Content will also continue to drive search results, and play a central role in SEO efforts.

Video Marketing

Another method that isn’t going anywhere is video content. While interactive content will be getting a lot of attention, there is still a large need for traditional video content as well. Video content is not only being used to target customers, but is now being used as a recruitment tool as well.

Marketers who know how to use live video to their advantage will have a serious edge over their competitors. As a matter of fact, it was found that live videos on Instagram Live and Facebook Live were able to retain audiences at 3 times the rate of traditional videos. The average watch time on Facebook live content has quadrupled over the last year as well. People also interact with these videos a lot more. It was estimated that these videos produced 6 times as many interactions as regular videos.

SERP Position Zero

SEO is still going strong, but now, the objective is different. While the goal for many is still to get on the first page, many are trying to go a step beyond and get snippet mentions. These snippets offer additional information related to search queries, and feature a link to the page from which the information was pulled.
Local search will also continue to play an increasingly important role for businesses in 2020. This also means that business will do everything in their power to get more local mentions, and also work on improving their brand’s image with the public. This means more emphasis on reputation management, and concrete steps to improve their customers’ experience, which is great news for shoppers everywhere.

These are only some of the trends you should watch for in the world of marketing in 2020. Make sure that you’re always on top of the most recent changes, and find ways to incorporate them in your marketing strategy.

Ecommerce Websites Need To Focus On Quick And Easy Shopping

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Ecommerce Website|Ecommerce Websites Need To Focus On Quick And Easy ShoppingEcommerce is the rocketship that doesn’t run out of fuel. Year-on-year, ecommerce continues to grow. It’s the way of the future and it makes perfect sense. One of the best reasons why it makes perfect sense is because it makes shopping easier and quicker. These two things lay in the website design field. Navigation is one thing, but the user experience is going to cater for outright speed. Online customers want an ecommerce website to do one thing above all else and that makes it easy for them to find what they want. That’s it, it’s not complicated. Well, in theory, it’s not but website designs have to be unique and interesting which puts a spanner in the works of UX. There are some rules to follow, which for any ecommerce business will make it easy for customers to search and filter their way to the products they desire.

Optimize suggested searches

At the top of your ecommerce website, you should have a search bar. This is best kept right in the middle of the high bar so it’s clearly in view for every page. As visitors click on the search bar, there should be an automated search suggestion. For example, you’re a retail clothing business, a visitor types the letters ‘jea’, your search bar should immediately suggest things like ‘blue jeans’, ‘jeans for men’, ‘dark denim jeans’, etc. However, the trick is to bind your search bar, suggestions and your cookies to remember each search that an individual has made. This way you can optimize the suggestions to include products or similar products they may have already bought or looked at before.

More options the better

It’s important to understand some customers may only be half sure of what they are looking for. They may be in the business of searching for a new pair of jeans but they don’t know what sort they would like. This makes a suggestion bar kind of limited as there are no visual representations of those suggestions. That’s why a faceted search for bigcommerce is invaluably useful. The search results will show images and prices of the jeans but with a filter option, they can decide to only see jeans in their size, in their desired color, brand, price and category. By seamlessly clicking on each option, they can narrow down their search with the aid of changing visuals to accurately represent their options.

Recovering baskets

Many times consumers don’t have the time or the patience to log into their account and start shopping. Sometimes they’ll just swipe and browse items they are interested in. they might also click ‘add’ or ‘buy’. Since they’re not logged in, if they were to click off the page they would lose their basket. However, with a flexible cookies policy, you can remember the machine or the IP address the basket was made from. Therefore it will remember the same items that were selected when that person does eventually log back in and make the purchase for real this time.

The quicker you can find products for your customers, the easier their shopping experience with you becomes. Focus on optimized search suggestions first to get a feel for what individuals may like. If you need help, get a B2B website designer.