In today’s age of digital marketing, more and more retail stores are creating e-commerce websites. An e-commerce site allows retailers of any size anywhere in the world to have a global market reach. When promoted effectively, an e-commerce site can also deliver immense profitability for customer acquisition and product sales.
Parallel to the enormous growth of e-commerce, most industries and product sectors are dominated by a few major e-commerce giants. These powerful players often have a prominent brand image accompanied by targeted search engine ads and rich online marketing budgets. This has made competing with these e-commerce sites a difficult task, especially for small e-retailers with limited ad spend.
In sectors where it may seem impossible to steal market share from the goliaths of e-commerce, there is always a way to capture a good chunk of customers. The trick is to get the creative juices flowing and discover which channels are the most relevant, least competitive, and profitable. Here are three tips that can help small business e-commerce sites compete with big-budget brands.
Carve a good niche
One of the most important approaches to building a successful ecommerce store is establishing a very specific niche. This is particularly significant for boutiques and small business retailers with highly distinguished inventory. Unlike some large e-commerce stores that offer a wide range of products, determining a very focal niche will help establish a retailer as a specialty provider for a certain category of products. This can help promote greater trust and credibility with potential customers.
Well established e-commerce sites often sell all kinds of products within a certain category, such as “motorcycle clothing.” Take the time to do a little research on the inventory your ecommerce competitors are offering relative to your own product lines. Your goal is to identify the areas that could be most profitable for your e-commerce efforts. This may mean limiting your focus to very select product categories as a general theme for your online store, such as ‘motorcycle leather jackets’.
Starting slowly in a niche that you are confident will drive sales is a great tactic for small business ecommerce. As you begin to master a product category, you can start exploring new categories to expand your sales potential.
Mix up your marketing efforts
Marketing your ecommerce site can seem like a daunting task. However, there are a few main channels that are critical to e-commerce. These include pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, organic search engine optimization (SEO), and social media marketing. Simply put, ecommerce marketing relies on being found in search engine results and being recognized on social media platforms. But before choosing which channels are a priority, think about approaching a marketing plan with a more holistic approach.
Between SEO, PPC, and social media, neither is more powerful than the other. Although each channel is very different, they all share the same degree of potential to attract more customers. Most of the time, including a combination of search engine marketing tactics that use both SEO and PPC is the best approach. Because SEO is a long-term endeavor, using PPC to test which keywords are the most profitable is one of the best strategies. This can save a lot of work down the road by optimizing for keywords that only provide sufficient profit margins.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter help drive more brand recognition. These platforms can help maintain loyalty and funnel traffic to your website. Social media offers a great way to share content, generate interest, and build a following. This can help maintain e-commerce success by promoting repeat purchases and viral sharing of great content that is connected to your brand.
Promote with wealth
Online shoppers, in particular, feed on valuable information that is presented in a rich media format. The use of images, audio, and video can be critical to ecommerce marketing. The ways you can use these media offer endless ideas.
Reviews are a big problem in the e-commerce arena. Customers see a lot of value in quality reviews that accurately describe the features, benefits, and pitfalls of certain products. For this reason, recording your own product reviews or highlights in video form can be a game changer for e-commerce, especially if those videos are optimized and found in search engine results.
Visual stimulation is huge on the internet. In addition to videos, including a large number of images on your product pages can significantly help sales. In fact, mini-galleries of product pages are becoming popular for many eCommerce stores, so adopting this strategy is becoming essential. Using more informative images, or infographics, is also a creative way to attract customers. Social media can be used to share this content, which can help generate more exposure and the potential to go viral.
Successful e-commerce is built on empathy. That is, how well you, as a marketer, can put yourself in the perspective of your target audience. Understanding how to present your brand, as well as your communications, is key. Good ecommerce marketers have a great sense of conscience. They know what their target customers are looking for and how best to inform them of how your ecommerce store can meet their needs.
