Shoppers are moving online–fast. With 20.8% of retail purchases now taking place online, your business should be a part of the $6.3 trillion eCommerce economy.
But with almost every business shifting online, setting up and running a successful eCommerce store can be challenging. However, not all hope is lost. Because many newly-formed eCommerce businesses are doing so well, there must be some tested strategies to make your eCommerce venture a success, right?
Yes, absolutely! And after analyzing the top-performing online store, here are our ten non-generic ideas for creating your business's eCommerce strategy the right way.
10 Unique Ideas for a Successful eCommerce Strategy
From marketing to existing customers to acquiring new ones, let's dive into the top ten tactics you can use to create a successful eCommerce store.
#1. Integrate Social Commerce
Social media strategy should be a core part of every eCommerce growth plan. Leveraging social networks like Instagram, Facebook, and more enables you to grow your brand awareness and user base exponentially.
So focus on building a solid social media presence. Here are some basic guidelines to establish your eCommerce brand on social platforms:
- Post content regularly (posts, stories, and weekly live sessions)
- Engage with your users through comments
- Enable in-app purchases and shoppable posts
- Utilize influencer marketing and user-generated content for increased conversion
Also, integrate your social media posts on the eCommerce website. Use Curator to collate and simplify your social media feeds on the website within minutes.
Creating an eCommerce business often involves discovering innovative strategies. One strategy growing in popularity is subscription-based eCommerce. For entrepreneurs looking to build a subscription box, understanding market niches and strategic pricing are two key elements to success.
#2. Leverage SMS Marketing
Though only 47% of marketers use SMS marketing, the 91% conversion rate shows that SMS strategies are still up-and-coming.
With SMS, you can reach your customers within seconds, whether they're connected to the internet or not. In turn, you'll generate better leads, engagement, and actions.
Start by defining your goals and conducting in-depth competitor market research. Create messages for your campaign and automate the process. Encourage your website visitor to subscribe by displaying the opt-in form and feeding the details back into your SMS platform, all while tracking their behavior with website visitor tracking tools.
And once your SMS marketing strategy is in action, make sure you:
- Regularly communicate with your customer.
- Segment your subscribers and personalize their content.
- Provide special discounts and incentives on purchases.
- Drive urgency with stock scarcity messages.
#3. Design Personalized eCommerce Experience
eCommerce personalization means using user data to guide your customer with relevant and contextual experience in real time. It is a form of guided selling that includes everything from personalized messages and site layouts to content and product recommendations based on past behavior.
For eCommerce businesses, crafting a compelling, personalized experience will result in:
- Better conversions
- Improving customer experience, engagement, and loyalty
- Bigger average order size
- Higher repeat purchase
Amazon, the biggest eCommerce giant, aces the personalization game. The “pick where you left from,” ”keep shopping for,” and ”buy again” blocks on their homepage help the user to concentrate on the categories they are most interested in without distraction.
So focus on contextual advertising using segmentation and retargeting to create a unique experience for your prospect. Utilize SEO software to design a personalized eCommerce experience, since it can provide you with valuable customer insights, data, and optimization tools.
PRO TIP: Sending personalized product recommendations via push notifications and emails is a great way to engage with your customer and eCommerce visitors on a personal level.
#4. Invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click campaigns work, especially for eCommerce businesses that drive 46% of their revenue from it. Plus, with a 200% ROI, it's one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies.
It helps you organically drive potential customers to your site and compete side-by-side with direct competitors. The best part–it provides quick results. That's why top full-service marketing experts depend on PPC to drive high traffic and more customers.
However, mastering PPC that gives promising results will take time. You'll have to:
- Choose the right ad platform and format.
- Target keywords with high purchase-intent.
- Optimize your business strategy.
- Create converting ads.
And once you nail it, the result will be well worth all the effort.
#5. Highlight Social Proof & Testimonials
Customer reviews and social proof are great ways to compel your buyer and reassure them about their purchase. The reason is simple–people trust people. That's why word-of-mouth marketing has such a high conversion rate.
So, make your existing customers your marketers.
Encourage them to write testimonials through automated emails sent 5-7 days after delivery. Ask your customers to share their pleasant experiences on social media through praise stories or posts. You can also send customer satisfaction surveys and gather feedback from different applications.
Once you've gathered testimonials, spotlight them on your:
- Homepage
- Product pages (for product-specific testimonials)
- Social Media
- Testimonial page
PRO TIP: You can take it a step further and create in-depth case studies that show the prospects how your products solve problems.
#6. Add More Visuals
A human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. No wonder 75% of users depend on product photos while buying online.
However, only adding well-stocked product pictures is not enough. To stand out, you have to fill your landing page, homepage, and product page with eye-catching photos and videos that make shoppers feel they can reach or touch them.
For best results, mix and match your image library with a range of static shots, UGC, videos, and stories. Your business will depend heavily on these visuals, so ensure you have a wide selection. You can collect them from:
- Social Media Visuals (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat)
- Content visuals (product pages, email marketing, and blog posts)
- Paid media visuals (social media ads, PPC campaigns, and Google shopping)
#7. Integrate PIM Solution
Product Information Management, or PIM solution, refers to the central management of product information for all internal and external channels.
As your eCommerce business grows, managing the ever-increasing product data will become a challenge. But with good PIM software, you can easily:
- Centralize product information.
- Improve product data quality that'll help build trust with your customers and boost conversion rates.
- Streamline product updates and launches, enabling you to stay ahead of the competition and seize market opportunities.
- Optimize inventory management processes. Digitize your paperwork by using a receipt scanner app, legal document scanner, and similar tools.
In a nutshell, integrating PIM with your eCommerce will help save you money, time, and effort in running your business more seamlessly.
#8. Streamline On-Site Navigation
First impressions matter. When a customer first visits your site, your website's UI and UX are determining factors of the brand's credibility–48% of customers agree with this.
That's why creating a positive browsing experience and decreasing bounce rates should be one of your top priorities.
An easily navigable e-commerce site increases the average time users spend on your website–leading to more sales and revenue.
However, don't force your customers to scroll and click too much–remember, people have very short attention spans, and you don't want to give them any reasons to bounce and leave.
Position your navigation bar horizontally, along the top. Keep the navigation option placed at the same location on every page of your site (take Amazon, for example). Be consistent with your new font, color, design, and layout.
Ensure your eCommerce website is responsive and navigable from all devices–desktop, mobile, or tablet. This will allow shoppers to access your site anywhere, anytime.
#9. Split Test Everything
Anything you do with your eCommerce business should be based on concrete research and marketing fundamentals. But once it's up, you want to test it with everything–from image placement and product description to testimonials and risk reversals.
That's where split testing comes in. Rather than relying solely on intuition to convert customers, with split testing, you can:
- Optimize customer experience
- Reduce Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Decrease cart abandonment rates
- Increase Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Use a process flow diagram to visually map out the testing process, identify variables to test, and systematically analyze the results. Once you’re ready, start split testing everything, and don't stop until you reach statistically significant (95%-99%) results.
NOTE: There are usually numerous variables that you can test using eCommerce split testing. But, ensure that, with the testing, you only change one variable at a time. If you change several variables, you'll not be able to get any actionable or trustworthy results.
#10. Always End with CTA (Always!)
Regardless of what kind of eCommerce business you are in, a Call to Action (CTA) is mandatory. CTAs tell your prospects, visitors, and shoppers what to do next and spell it out in the clearest way possible.
You want to walk your users through the next step, how they can purchase, and what they can expect. It also includes a clear layout of the sales page, and shipping details, aligning the guarantees you offer and ending it all with, again, a strong CTA.
Never try to be ambiguous with your CTA (like download our lead magnet or follow us on Instagram). Opt for crystal clear CTAs like 'click for online appointment booking,' 'Buy this now,' or whatever action you want the user to take immediately.
Also, try to reduce as much friction as possible. For example, don't push your prospect into a 10-step buying process with different pages and orders, all of which will give them options to hit the back button.
Keep the buying process short and simple with no unnecessary steps.
Ecommerce Business Strategy — The Way Forward
You are opening or running an eCommerce business despite the entire world as your competitor–that's an achievement in itself. You've taken the hardest step already.
We've shared our success cheat code with you. Now, it's all about constantly optimizing your eCommerce strategies. Choose a few of the above tactics and implement them in your business to reap the most benefits. Then tweak and adjust as your business keeps unlocking new milestones of success.
Learn more about growing your ecommerce business: