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The eCommerce Revolution: How to Thrive in a Hyper-Competitive Online Marketplace and Come Out on Top

eCommerce Revolution

Ecommerce marketing is about more than just driving traffic to your online store. It’s also about creating an emotional connection with your customers that inspires them to buy.

Are you tired of seeing lackluster results from your eCommerce marketing campaigns or struggling to find new ways to drive sales and grow your businesses?

You’re not alone.

The eCommerce landscape is more competitive than ever, and it can be challenging to stand out in a sea of online retailers.

But don’t give up hope.

The key to success in eCommerce is understanding your target audience and meeting their needs at every stage of the customer journey.

Every aspect of your eCommerce marketing strategy needs to engage and convert your customers, from creating compelling product descriptions to optimizing your checkout process.

In this blog, we’ll take a deep dive into eCommerce marketing and show you how to build a loyal customer base that will keep coming back for more.

eCommerce Marketing Strategy

Before you start anywhere or decide to increase your budget on your competitive ads, creating an eCommerce marketing strategy is a must.

Why?

Because it’s a roadmap. You need a blueprint to start building a house, and it’s the same with an eCommerce marketing strategy.

The eCommerce marketing strategy will guide you through the ever-complicated world of eCommerce and help you achieve your goals.

The best way to achieve any goal is to state what you want. Otherwise, you’ll likely wander and waste valuable time and resources on eCommerce marketing tactics that may not deliver the results you’re looking for.

While there are many essential elements to creating an eCommerce marketing strategy, the most crucial aspect is understanding your target audience. If you can do that, your marketing efforts will likely stay strong. Get a clear understanding of:

  • Demographics
  • Shopping habits
  • Pain points

You can gather this information by analyzing customer feedback, conducting surveys, monitoring social media, and checking your website analytics.

Once you clearly understand your target audience, it will reflect in your marketing strategy.

Your eCommerce marketing strategy may include the following:

  • Creating personalized messaging and product recommendations
  • Developing targeted advertising campaigns
  • Optimizing your website and content for their unique browsing behaviours

These key elements of an eCommerce marketing strategy should work together to attract, engage, and retain customers:

1. Know your target audience and market
2. Don’t just sell products. Build a story behind your brand and products
3. Have a good user experience
4. Develop a customer retention strategy that includes loyalty programs, special promotions, and personalized messaging to repeat business
5. Develop an email marketing strategy that includes personalized messaging
6. Set up retargeting campaigns
7. Create engaging user-generating content
8. Review your customer journey
9. Develop a content marketing strategy that includes SEO to drive traffic
10. Paid advertising, such as Google Ads and social media, to drive traffic
11. Checkout experience and when you would receive your products

An eCommerce marketing strategy will create a more cohesive customer experience.

As we said before, the eCommerce landscape is crowded. Having a website and a few products to sell is not enough.

If you don’t have a good website or strategy, the customer will leave your website and go find the product somewhere else – like your competitor’s website.

eCommerce Marketing Should Center Around Your Website

Recent research on search abandonment in retail has shown that customers are more likely to abandon a purchase if they have a negative experience on your website.

  • $2 trillion is lost each year from search abandonment globally
  • 78% of consumers view a brand differently after experiencing search difficulties
  • 82% of consumers avoid websites where they’ve experienced search difficulties in the past

To succeed in eCommerce, you must create a positive, engaging, and user-friendly experience for your customers.

What frustrates a customer?

  • Slow page load times
  • Confusing navigation
  • Poor site design

Creating a website that’s enjoyable and easy to use can increase customer satisfaction and drive sales. It’s worth saying again – put your customer experience at the forefront of your eCommerce marketing strategy.

You might have the best custom-designed website in your industry. But you won’t see positive results if you don’t understand your customer’s needs and preferences.

Understanding your target audience and tailoring your eCommerce marketing to their needs will attract more qualified leads, increase engagement and conversions, and build long-term customer loyalty.

Cater to your customers at every stage of their customer journey. You can use data and analytics to gain insights into your customers’ behaviour and preferences. Utilizing this data to create a personalized and engaging experience will keep your customers returning for more.

And what is one way to collect that data?

Your search bar is the most important asset on your eCommerce website.

And yet, only 1 out of 10 consumers say they find what they’re searching for every time.

  • 92% of consumers will purchase the item they were searching for
  • 78% of consumers will buy an additional item to the one they initially searched for
  • 53% of consumers will abandon their carts and go somewhere else if there’s at least one item they can’t find on a website

So, what do we mean by an eCommerce personalized shopping experience?

When a user searches for items on your website, it is much more than a keyword lookup. The search bar and other data points collected aim to deliver personalized recommendations.
Examples of this are:

  • Shampoo for a dog that has allergies and dry skin
  • Short pink dress with long sleeves and comfortable fit
  • Long beard balm with no scent that tames frizz

If the customer searches for these items and your website doesn’t show them exactly what they are looking for, they’ll likely turn into one of the “53% of consumers that will abandon their carts and go somewhere else”.

If your website is confusing, it will drive your customers away, and your other marketing efforts won’t do anything.

Here’s a tip: Use Google’s Cloud AI Integration to deliver advanced search opportunities.

To bring your customer experience a step further, you could try the following:

  1. Create a survey or quiz to help tailor product recommendations and personalize the shopping experience.
  2. Offer product recommendations based on purchase history or browsing behaviour.
  3. Send personalized emails to customers based on past purchases, browsing history, and interests.
  4. Customize your products based on the customer’s colour, size, and design preferences.
  5. Offer a loyalty program that rewards customers for their repeat businesses. Exclusive discounts, free shipping, or early access to new products
  6. Offer personalization based on special occasions: notes, gifting, wrapping, no invoice or receipt, and customer name on the packaging.

eCommerce Web Design: Trends of 2023

With the rapid pace of technological advancements, eCommerce web design trends are constantly evolving to meet changing consumer preferences.

Have you ever tried to design something yourself?

It’s hard.

When you have limited experience or resources, it’s tough to create a beautiful, effective website that consumers today demand.

Let’s explore some of the most essential eCommerce web design trends that businesses should be aware of in 2023:

Dark Mode:
Dark mode is not going away and is becoming increasingly popular. It has a sleek and modern appearance with an emphasis on reducing eye strain and battery consumption on mobile devices.

Minimalism:
Create a clutter-free website. A clean and simple design with plenty of white space helps create a user-friendly experience, making it easier for customers to navigate your website.

Voice Search:
With the growing popularity of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, voice search is becoming increasingly important for eCommerce businesses. Incorporate natural language keywords and phrases and ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. If you need more information about this, check out our AI SEO blog here (LINK)

Micro-interactions:
Small interactive elements and animations help improve the user experience and add a touch of personality to your eCommerce website.

Personalization:
Add personalized recommendations, messaging, and content. Use data and analytics to understand your customers’ preferences and behaviour to create a more customized experience that keeps them coming back.

Mobile-First Design:
If you know your customers are searching and buying on mobile, prioritize mobile-first design, which means keeping the smaller screens in mind and optimizing for mobile browsing behaviour. However, this does not mean you should forget the desktop experience.

Let’s Put eCommerce Marketing Into Practice

Take, for example, Drunk Elephant.

Drunk Elephant is a very well-known skincare brand. However, do they give their eCommerce website the same level of care as their skincare products?

1. We first noticed that it is a mobile-first design. The approach is not necessarily a problem, but the team didn’t consider desktop breaking points, causing certain elements to distort.

As you can see in this photograph, they didn’t consider outside margins. The text is not centered when viewed on a larger screen. It can feel disorientating and brutal to read. They could have kept the full-colour design but brought the text and images into perspective.

eCommerce Site

What’s worse is when you shrink the website down. What is going on here?

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The “shop” does not stand out as a button. However, the entire text is a call to action. If you click on it, it drives you to where that section describes. Asking a user to click in random spots, while not emphasizing CTAs can leave them needing clarification on what to press.

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2. They moved their navigation to a non-standard location and emphasized their account, location, cart, and search bar more. This is fine – the search bar is the highest asset of an eCommerce site. However, how does it handle search results?

We tested “Hair Condition” and found limited product results. The search bar is not intuitive enough to show all “conditioner” products, even when leaving out the “er.”

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When we type “Hair Conditioner,” it also shows shampoo and body conditioner, but what’s sad is there are no bundles. Drunk Elephant could increase their sales by selling two instead of just one.

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3. There are no intuitive searches or quizzes to find the best skincare products. We searched for “skincare oily skin,” and we found no skincare-related products nor any help to find the products we were looking for. We also tried “oily skin” and “skin oily,” and the same results were displayed.

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And last but not least, we feel hardly any emotional connection when we visit this website.

There needs to be more transparent and concise information about the brand’s products and their benefits. We looked for values, aspirations and anything in their images and copy that would evoke emotion — we looked for something that would address the pain points of what their customers feel daily.

Why should I choose Drunk Elephant over LaRoche Posse, Paula’s Choice, or Pro Derm?

Instead of finding that answer, we are bombarded with “refills,” a Bright Side package for morning skincare, and a free smoothie bag.

Did you know that it is vegan? Is it cruelty-free? That they donate to elephants?!

We know that Drunk Elephant is popular because of what they stand for and – as we have always preached – their customers, who serve as ambassadors for their brand.

Their customer experience shouldn’t end on social media, influencer marketing, or in-person shopping; it should be delivered at every step of the customer journey, including this website.

Ready to Take Your eCommerce Marketing to the Next Level?

As we can see, even big brands need help with eCommerce marketing. It can be challenging.

eCommerce marketing should evoke emotions. It should do this with messaging that taps into their values, aspirations, and genuine emotions about themselves and their environment.

Some industries prioritize factual information by being thought leaders, instead of emotional ties within their eCommerce marketing.

You can utilize some of the lists and hot tips above to review your eCommerce marketing or hire an eCommerce marketing agency.

Investing in an eCommerce marketing agency helps you progress faster. We have copywriters, designers, developers, SEO, and marketing experts at your disposal.

We know all the tricks and can bring your eCommerce marketing website to its fullest potential, increasing traffic and driving sales. If you’re still looking for results from your eCommerce marketing efforts, we also offer eCommerce marketing strategies.

Get a free consultation with one of our expert sales professionals today.

Still not convinced and want to see some more of our work? Check out how we transformed an ecommerce brand, Moja Coffee, look at the Moja Coffee Case Study here.

 

    Angeline Manabat
    Web Developer

    Webinar

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