E-commerce is the fastest-growing industry, and it shows no signs of slowing down. A staggering 51% of consumers shop online on an annual basis, and that number has been steadily increasing since its peak in 2014 (when 54% of consumers shopped online). According to the e-Marketer, e-commerce sales are expected to reach $7 trillion by 2023. That’s a lot of money! For small businesses looking to get into the e-commerce game, now is a great time to do so. But what does it mean to be an e-commerce store? How do you get started?
Start by Doing Your Research
Before you start a business online, take some time to research what your competitors are doing. Find out what they’re selling, how they’re marketing themselves, and how much traffic their websites get. If you have an existing e-commerce business, learn from that as well. Evaluate your brand—what strengths do you have? What areas do you need to improve on? Knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are will allow you to think about how best to market yourself digitally. Have fun with it! Don’t spend hours holed up in front of your computer; instead, go outside and talk to people (the ones standing behind cash registers included). This is a great way to find new inspiration for products or brands you might want to sell. You may even hear of someone who already does what you want to do!
Figure Out Which Sales Channels are Best for You
Research your niche. Learn about all of the digital marketing sales channels for e-commerce businesses and all of their nuances, so you know which channel will be best for you. Try to figure out what marketing works best for businesses similar to yours, including their products and prices.
With digital sales, there are many different channels you can use—you should check out Facebook and Google’s ad platform because both offer relatively affordable ads that can drive huge results. How do you choose? Figure out which sales channels are most appealing and approachable, research which one(s) your audience is using, ask friends who sell online if they have experience with any particular channel, or even go out and buy products yourself on all of them and see how easy or difficult it is to make a purchase. Of course, once you’ve found an e-commerce marketing channel that works for your business, it’s important not just to set up shop there but also to continue testing new ones.
And once you have a solid understanding of how these platforms work, read up on case studies from successful companies with e-commerce businesses to learn what works and what doesn’t—and use those insights as your guide for creating your ad campaigns. Eventually, you'll develop an intuitive sense of what works and what doesn't in terms of driving sales for your particular business.
Build a Marketing Budget
Marketing budgets can be a balancing act: either you spend too much and put yourself in a bad cash flow position, or you spend too little and no one even knows your products exist. That’s why we recommend being flexible with your marketing budget as a way to stay agile, on top of your marketing efforts, and prepared to scale as your business grows.
The Small Business Association recommends 7-8% of revenue should be spent on marketing, but what we see, in reality, is that e-commerce companies will spend up to 30% of their revenue on Customer Acquisition Costs.
Marketing budgets will range between 6-20% of a company’s gross revenue. Newer companies will spend on the higher end of that scale, whereas established companies with much higher gross revenue can afford to spend on the lower end of that range.
Of course, your marketing spend will fluctuate depending on seasonality, competition, and what kind of industry you are in.
Create an Email Marketing Strategy
If you want your eCommerce business to be successful, you must set up email marketing. There are several reasons for doing so, including maximizing customer engagement, facilitating customer relationships, and improving customer experiences with your business. Regardless of what you sell, if you want customers to continue buying from you (and to buy more!), email marketing is essential. To learn how to get started with email marketing, read on! Creating an Email Marketing Strategy There are several different ways that you can use email marketing effectively for your eCommerce business—you just need to know what those options are and how best to use them! Those options are following-
Create a Content Marketing Strategy
What's Your Hook? Ecommerce is a fast-growing industry, but that doesn't mean you can just create a store and expect it to take off. When building an e-commerce business, you need a hook—something that sets your business apart from your competitors. This could be stellar customer service, innovative products, or something else entirely. If you don't have one of these yet, consider using content marketing as a way to build awareness for your brand. Even established companies use content marketing strategies like blogging and videos to get more people on board with their products and services—and they often reap huge rewards from it.
Create a Paid Advertising Strategy
Many e-commerce sites use online paid advertising for driving traffic, increase sales, and boosting brand awareness. Ads can be displayed alongside search results (Pay Per Click or PPC), other advertisements on a publisher's site (AdSense), or even as part of an email platform (affiliate marketing). No matter which you choose, keep your strategy focused on driving visitors who are most likely to make a purchase. Otherwise, if you’re not careful, you could end up wasting time and money on unprofitable customers.
1) Picking your niche - The first step to creating an e-commerce marketing plan is deciding what type of products you'll sell. Don't just start picking random products – think about how these items fit into larger trends that people want to shop for online. This can include: promoting a new trend (like athleisure or retro style), something practical (like running shoes or houseplants), an existing trend but something other than clothes (such as craft beer or pet toys), or some combination of any of these options...
2) Selecting social media platforms - Different social media platforms work better depending on what type of business you have. The first thing I want to emphasize when creating an e-commerce paid advertising strategy is identifying all of your options. The truth is: one size does not fit all when it comes to choosing your marketing channels, which can feel daunting when you’re first starting online—especially if you’re still trying to perfect onsite conversion optimization and internet sales pages before moving into offsite traffic sources like paid advertising. Luckily two rules can guide new e-com entrepreneurs (or seasoned pros who find themselves needing a refresher) into determining which traffic sources offer what kind of value based on their unique situation:
(1) Does my audience already interact with these platforms?;
(2) Is my budget manageable?
Ask yourself these two questions and find out which traffic source is good for you.
Implement Above Strategies Together
So, if you want your e-commerce business to grow then mix out all the above strategies together according to your business and just repeat, observe, and change if required. You are all set to grow.
Hope this article was helpful. If you are searching for the best Digital Marketing agency, do contact Social Croww. Want to learn more? Connect-with-us. We will be happy to answer your queries.
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