Learn From These Amazon Bestsellers in Order to Beat Them
Millions of buyers search Amazon for new products and brands. See examples of the best Amazon eCommerce marketing in order to find ways to beat competition. When it comes to Amazon, lots of sellers say that if you can’t beat them, you should join them. That doesn’t refer to copying either the products or tactics of other sellers. At the same time, the platform offers so much information about best-selling products that successful eCommerce marketing often depends upon researching top products and sellers in order to come up with a profit- and growth-driving strategy for their own business. Learn what kinds of products to look for, examples of top sellers, and why Amazon eCommerce marketing offers the perfect platform to launch or grow a business. Finding Amazon top sellers to research StartupBros, one Amazon marketing agency, has their own simple formula they use to find likely products. While other sellers may use different criteria and not every box needs checking for all products, these look like sensible gauges for new sellers who want to find products to help generate new ideas: They tend to favor products with prices between about $20 and $200. For obvious reasons, it’s beneficial to have easy-to-ship items that can qualify for express shipping. Reasonable prices for the item should allow for a profit margin of at least 50 percent. Current product listings should have less than 150 reviews, indicating the market isn’t totally saturated. The product should generate at least 10 sales a day to demonstrate it has already attracted buyers. Evaluating Amazon top sellers Using the requirements listed above, it’s fairly easy to find some briskly selling products and figure out how another seller could improve upon them for their own business. Pet grooming gloves Pet grooming gloves make grooming and de-shedding a pleasant, comfortable experience for both long-haired pets and pet parents. This listing on Amazon ranks at the top for both cat hair removal products and the pet category for Amazon Launchpad, a platform for innovative startups. It also has an Amazon’s Choice badge, which is a designation for products with generally favorable reviews, immediate shipping, and reasonable pricing. Is there an opportunity to do better? Obviously, the seller does well with this product. They’ve also effectively used images in the heading and description. However, they have very little text in the description area. Not only could these sellers have used text to provide more information, they might have sprinkled in a few more key words or phrases to help with ranking on Amazon and other search engines. Vegetable Spiralizers Spiralizers slice vegetables for salads, stir-fry dishes, or pasta replacements. According to the reviews, the Mueller product performs pretty well out of the box for some tasks. Unlike the pet glove listing, this product page appears to contain both clear photos and plenty of text. In fact, the description even provides tips for setting up and using the device, probably cutting down calls and emails for customer service. Is there room for improvement? For one thing, even many positive reviews mention that this wasn’t the first such device people have had. Mostly, this product has steel blades but otherwise relies upon a fairly cheap plastic body. Less favorable reviews pointed out some problems with the product. These issues include: The bin to catch vegetables was too small. The plastic body felt cheap. The product sliced zucchini well but didn’t perform to expectations with softer yellow squash. A competitor should not have a tough time either sourcing or manufacturing an alternative product that resolves these design flaws. Even if the product would cost a little more, plenty of people appeared willing to pay for quality. Why Amazon offers a great eCommerce marketing opportunity According to the eCommerce platform’s own Amazon Advertising page, customers don’t just use the site to shop for things they already want. In fact, 80 percent of Amazon shoppers also visit to browse around and find new products and brands. Also, because so many sellers have already found success, it’s easy to find top sellers and improve upon their product development and marketing.
CPG Digital Marketing: Top Trends and Tips for Your Brand
Most people still associate consumer packaged goods, or CPG, with items sold on the shelves of grocery, drug, and discount stores – but the category is actually much broader. CPG refers to the kinds of packaged products that people consume and need to replenish, like coffee, dog food, and soap. Historically, limited space on store shelves drove much of the competitiveness in the market. More recently, CPG digital marketing has offered companies the chance to grow beyond the limitations of physical space and sometimes, even to capture a larger share of that. Find out more about e-commerce digital marketing trends for CPGs and how this information can help inform your marketing. CPG Digital Marketing Trends and Consumer Preferences Most people still buy their packaged products in local stores. At the same time, online demand has been growing every year, as demonstrated by these consumer products marketing trends from IRI, an online sales insight service: Online CGP sales grew by over 34 percent in 2018 alone. Online revenue accounted for 11 percent of total consumer packed goods sales. Even more interesting, internet sales of consumer packaged goods made up 64 percent to the total market growth for both offline and online revenue. Which Platforms Sell the Most Consumer Packaged Goods? Besides sales numbers, it’s also informative to see what sorts of platforms most of these sales came from. According to IRI, over half of the sales came from internet-only retailers. Some of the largest examples include such online grocery stores as FreshDirect and Peapod. CGP digital marketing from the websites of mostly brick-and-mortar stores produced about one-quarter of the sales. Companies that directly sell their own products have a smaller but rapidly growing share. How is DTC Marketing Impacting Sales and Growth? Because of the loss of many retail outlets, manufacturers have recently struggled even more for a share of physical store space. To make up for this loss, they have increasingly bypassed traditional retailers in order to connect directly with consumers. According to the Shopify blog, direct-to-consumer, or DTC marketing, has accounted for 40 percent of sales growth in the market. Direct marketing has done more than help established CPG manufacturers offset slowdowns in their traditional selling channels. It’s also launched such purely DTC marketing brands as Dollar Shave Club and The Honest Company. In some cases, new brands have begun their lives online, found success, and then made their way into retail stores. For example, Deliciou is an Australian company that markets their packaged seasoning blends online but has also recently found shelf space inside such large U.S. retailers as Whole Foods. What CPGs Do Shoppers Buy the Most? What kinds of packaged products do people buy online the most? In general, people most commonly turn to the internet to order non-food items. More specifically, vitamin supplements, pet supplies and food, and skin care products, and coffee have enjoyed brisk online sales. Also, shoppers have increasingly begun to turn to online retailers for more sensitive purchases. As an example, the demand for adult incontinence products boomed by 84 percent in the past year. Consumers turn to internet ordering and delivery options for convenience in sometimes, for privacy. What Drives Consumers to Choose Online CPG Retailers? An IRI consumer survey asked online shoppers what options they looked for in e-ecommerce stores. They survey takers could select more than one option. The survey found: Free delivery motivated over half of respondents to purchase online. Almost half said that if the delivery isn’t free, it should be reasonably fast. Four out of ten of these online shoppers also liked in-store pickup options. About one-third of the survey takers would consider subscription services that automatically sent supplies periodically, typically at a discount over just ordering one time. According to the survey, online shoppers also want to find online retailers who will offer them good deals. Over half plan to search for discounts and coupons and use various sites to compare prices. Using CPG Marketing Trends to Inform Your Marketing Strategy Right now, online sales of CGP make up a relatively small but rapidly growing share of the overall market. They can help producers offset increased competition for retail store space through online sales. In some cases, e-commerce marketing can even help new brands get established by making online sales and even getting enough brand recognition to earn coveted slots at brick-and-mortar stores. Now that you understand the benefits of selling CPG online, you can explore ways to get consumers to buy products online that they still may be used to picking up at the grocery store. SEM Marketing for Consumer Packaged Products Just as it’s important to leverage good product placement in stores, you can use search engine marketing to put your brands directly in front of customers. Both for paid and organic SEM marketing for consumer goods, you need to make certain that you rise to the top for the sorts of terms that searchers are likely to use for products like yours. For instance, shoppers might not know to look for your brand of hypoallergenic soap or organic, fair-trade coffee, but instead, they may search for those terms or specific problems your product might solve. To optimize your web pages, make certain you research the kinds of search terms consumers might try. Use those terms to optimize your headings, descriptions, and content. In addition, you should try to build your e-commerce shop’s authority by encouraging high-quality incoming links from other relevant websites. For example, you might seek reviews on blogs, issue press releases, or get listed in high-quality directories. Besides organic search, CPG manufacturers have spent millions of dollars on paid search marketing, according to Search Engine Land. One standard tactic consists of promoting useful content related to their brands. For instance, a packaged food manufacturer might create simple recipes that feature their products. Colgate found success by producing oral health information that related to diabetes. If you find that the direct keywords for your product are too difficult to
DTC Marketing Subscription Box Tips to Move Your Brand
How successful DTC marketing companies use flexible plans, content, and pricing to attract and retain their valued customers. To improve returns on direct to consumer advertising, why not consider a subscription model? After all, it can help improve your company’s typical customer experience by offering convenience and discounts. At the same time, it’s likely to dramatically increase retention. Find out how to add recurring revenue to your D2C marketing plan in order to enjoy faster and more sustainable growth. How to maximize subscriptions to your DTC marketing plan Look at a popular example of a company using direct to consumer advertising for a subscription service. According to Core DNA, a D2C marketing agency, Dollar Shave Club enjoys an incredible 50 percent retention rate after 12 months. Even after two years, that figure only drops to 25 percent. Combining an outstanding retention rate and recurring revenue fueled their rapid growth. Look at the example of Dollar Shave Club and some other successful DTC companies to gain some inspiration. Flexible subscription options can overcome objections Since Dollar Shave Club engaged in DTC marketing, they could offer some flexible options that may have contributed to their retention rate. For instance, they have a “Not-So-Hairy” option that lets customers skip months. It’s interesting to note that they tend to take in more transactions on the second month than the first one. Customers might already have blades for the current month, and this option can overcome that objection. In any case, it’s always a good idea to figure out the market’s possible objections and pain points. Adding in some flexibility to help maximize benefits and prompt quick purchases can help attract more reluctant shoppers. Subscription pricing tactics to reduce competition Because Zuora provides subscription apps to online retailers, they’ve paid attention to the effectiveness of various pricing strategies. In Zuora’s view, competing on the price of a basic subscription may be inevitable for some products. Their best advice to a product marketing agency with stiff competition may be to keep prices as low as possible for the first subscription. Then try to maximize revenues with possible upsells. Of course, they also offered the example of T-Mobile. Instead of solely competing by price, the mobile carrier was one of the first to sell their services without requiring a contract, which helped them double their subscriber base within three years. They still have subscribers who pay monthly fees for services, and often, for extra insurance and to pay off their phones. After getting a phone, many customers also decide to add a tablet or accessories. Their strategy provides an example of a company that offered more flexibility in order to maximize customers and the potential for upsells. Consider using content for marketing DTC subscriptions A more traditional consumer marketing agency may suggest using mostly paid ads to gain brand recognition and attention. In particular, a startup marketing agency could advise very new brands that they need to sell products as quickly as possible to start driving revenue. That can work; however, a lot of companies have enjoyed success by using an inbound, content-driven marketing scheme to attract their audience. Some companies even start with content before they ever offer their products by subscription. As an example, Glossier sells beauty products directly to consumers. The founder, Emily Weiss, started with a beauty blog and strong social media and video presence that offered insights about celebrity beauty rituals. Her content strategy also allowed her to connect with plenty of online influencers. Only after the blog attracted 15 million views each month, Ms. Weiss decided to develop her beauty company. By that time, she already had a huge, loyal audience. Even better, she had gotten to know her market very well. Other brands do it the other way. They begin their product brand and then develop online and in some cases, offline content. Popular kinds of online content include blogs, videos, and even webinars. For offline content, businesses might sponsor such relevant events as demos, classes, tables at festivals, or booths at trade shows. Benefit from loyal customers and brand ambassadors Word-of-mouth marketing still performs very well. By offering a referral program, a DTC subscription business can recruit an army of brand ambassadors from its own satisfied customers. Also, the nature of recurring revenue can make it easier to entice customers to spread the word by offering them recurring discounts or rewards every time their recruit’s subscription charges them. And since recurring customers can offer businesses a high lifetime value, it’s worth an investment to keep them. Loyalty programs can motivate customers to stay subscribed by providing them a way to earn discounts, reward points, or free gifts every time they get an order. Work to create the best customer experience with subscription plans Of course, customers enroll in subscription plans to enjoy convenience and discounts. Businesses should learn about their customers to deliver the best possible experience and overcome potential objections. Some succeed by offering very simple options to maximize efficiency and avoid overwhelming people. Others provide a variety of plans to try to satisfy different kinds of customers. Finding the perfect balance may require some testing and surveys.
Is the “Paradox of Choice” Ruining Your eCommerce Site?
According to the paradox of choice idea, offering too many choices can stress out customers, reduce conversions, and detract from business. The “paradox of choice” phrase comes from a marketing book and a Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz, a well-known psychology professor. On the surface, having plenty of choices seems like a very positive thing. Dr. Schwartz thinks this idea often backfires because people get so overwhelmed by having a great number of choices that they may fail to make any decisions at all. Online shopping offers consumers an almost unlimited range of choices. Recently, businesses have taken a look at eCommerce marketing to find out if having so many options benefits buyers and sellers as much as they might have thought. As with most marketing questions, it can depend upon the business, market conditions, and unique marketing strategies. Can offering fewer choices make eCommerce marketing more profitable? The recent experience of many restaurants can illustrate the idea that offering fewer choices might provide businesses with benefits. Though they’re not typically thought of as traditional eCommerce businesses, a lot of dine-in restaurants had to publish online menus and offer to-go orders because of social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic. To simplify ordering and eCommerce web development, they considered the fact that a few items generally generated most of their profits and sales. Thus, they often trimmed menus and featured only their most popular meals. More than a few restaurants decided to maintain their limited menus even after they reopened because they found smaller menus move improved efficiency more than it turned away customers. During the outbreak, restaurants needed to run as efficiently as possible for a number of reasons, including restrictions on capacity and problems with supply chains. As time passes and things return to normal, some of these places may add back more items to their menus. However, while they need to remain very lean and agile to cope with the outbreak, many have decided that reducing frills and choices solves a lot of problems. Particularly for businesses that need to trim budgets and run as lean as possible, the notion of offering fewer items has obvious merit. How fewer choices might increase conversions To see why limiting options won’t always reduce sales, consider one study from a Columbia University psychology professor. Dr. Iyengar set out a tasting table in a grocery store with 24 different jam flavors. That table attracted 60 percent of the shoppers who passed by. Later, she reduced the selection to to only six flavors and attracted only 40 percent of the customers. At the same time, she enjoyed conversion rates of only three percent when she offered 24 flavors and thirty percent when she only offered six. Even though she attracted fewer tasters to the table, she sold a lot more jam when she limited choices. In response, Dr. Iyengar agreed with Dr. Schwartz’ idea that offering too many options might lead to information overload. She believed more customers turned away because so many choices made them feel fatigue or even stress. How does the paradox of choice impact online sales? An Amazon marketing agency might also keep this in mind when deciding on how many products to offer or even if Amazon will provide the best platform to focus on. Who hasn’t started shopping on Amazon at one time or another and found so many options that nothing ever got ordered at all? According to BigCommerce: Amazon already sells more than 12 million products. Amazon lists over a million products in the home improvement category alone. At the same time, some channels enjoy fairly low conversion rates. For instance, only two percent of Echo owners have used their device to order products. Maybe this audio-only device doesn’t lend itself so well to an eCommerce platform with so many choices. DTC companies and distributors may want to also consult with a Shopify agency to see if they would have a better opportunity marketing with their own distinct shop. Most third-party sellers also use other platforms, so testing more than one option appears prudent. Even then, new sellers should probably consider starting with only a few products. As they grow, they might slowly and carefully expand their offerings and even remove some low-performing products. Finally, trying to become all things to all people can make it difficult to remain efficient. Meanwhile, offering a few, well-chosen options makes it easy to deal with inventory, customer service, and sometimes even eCommerce web development. Businesses with fewer products might not attract as many prospects. Still, if they can balance a lower number of visitors with high conversion rates, lower operating costs, and fewer hassles, maybe they can use this tactic to increase profits. What can the paradox of choice tell you about your customers? Of course, some companies thrive by offering lots of interesting choices. For instance, having lots of creatively named ice cream flavors has appeared to serve Ben & Jerry’s very well. Lots of fans of this company can’t wait to taste the latest creation. Still, Dr. Schwartz cautioned that providing too many choices might lead people to take shortcuts that will prompt them to pick something that they believe is good enough instead of taking more time to find the best solution. He also said people with too much freedom of choice may have extremely high expectations and that increases the risk of disappointment. Perhaps offering lots of flavors works for Ben & Jerry’s because selecting ice cream doesn’t require a big investment. Also, the company’s been very creative about their release strategy and devoted themselves to building customer trust. With the jam experiment, customers were first introduced to an unfamiliar brand. A more expensive and durable kind of product may also take a bigger risk. Is less more for eCommerce marketing? The choice of how many products to offer and which online platform to use can depend upon many factors. These might include the type of product, overall marketing goals, and the
10 eCommerce Marketing Tips to Improve Customer Service
Improving customer service means improving eCommerce marketing in order to retain and attract customers. Learn to improve customer service with these tips. In recent months, eCommerce has enjoyed an incredible boom. At the same time, consumers also have plenty of choices and the means to research them. While online shoppers tend to demonstrate loyalty to brands they love, a poor experience will encourage them to try another internet shop. That’s why you need to prioritize customer service as a key part of your eCommerce Marketing strategy. Consider these key stats from HubSpot that illustrate why you need to invest in high-quality customer service: American shoppers who say customer service factors into their shopping choices: 90 percent American consumers who say they’ve switched companies in the past year because of poor customer service: 49 percent Mostly, it can cost between five and 25 times as much to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Even if you’ve hired a high-quality consumer marketing agency, worked hard to develop your brands and packaging, and done everything else right, poor customer service experiences can keep prospects from making their first purchase and just as bad, prevent a first-time buyer from making a second purchase. Ten eCommerce Marketing Suggestions to Improve Customer Service You can benefit by investing in some fairly simple and affordable enhancements to your customer service. This is true if you market other company’s brands or rely upon direct to consumer advertising. Consider these tested tips to help show prospects and customers that you care about their experience both before and after you make a sale. Create a knowledge Base: You can find plenty of software and plugins that will make it simple to add an online knowledge base to your eCommerce site. You might start by answering the types of topics that customers frequently ask you or your existing customer service people. Show transaction history online: Giving customers the ability to login and see their ordering, billing, and shipping history online will help eliminate a lot of questions and misunderstandings. Create how-to videos: Posting videos that explain how your website or even some of your products work will help answer questions, increase customer satisfaction, and probably even drive sales. Create a scalable team: While a lot of these steps can help reduce the number of customer service reps you need, make sure you can handle peak demand. Offer live chat: According to Forrester, typical live chat sessions can cost up to 30 percent less than comparable phone calls. Some software allows you to use pre-written macros to answer frequent questions, and often, agents can handle more than one chat session at a time. Develop a multi-channel customer service strategy: Besides offering support on your website, you can also consider it on social media channels. This way, you meet customers where they spend a lot of time. Also, by giving an irritated or anxious customer a place to send a message you may prevent them from venting in a public post. Use help desk software: Not only can this software help track touch-points, it can also keep different service channels integrated. For instance, you can keep a record of interactions from social media and your website stored in one place. Offer a 24-7 voice system: Even if you can’t possibly keep somebody online 24 hours a day, you can still take messages that get routed to your held desk software for responses during the next business day. Even in this age of social media messaging and live chat, some folks still like to speak with a live person. Keep your FAQ updated: Once you get your customer service rolling, you should find that some questions occur more frequently than others. Having those clearly addressed in a simple FAQ should head off a lot of contacts and customer frustration. Track and measure customer service: If you want to keep improving, you need a way to measure your progress. In addition to tracking the number and types of request, you may want to send out surveys after a contact to give customers a chance to provide feedback. Even if you initially only provide limited options for customer to get in touch, it’s important to ensure that confused or dissatisfied people have a way to get their concerns addressed. Any growing eCommerce business must attract and retain customers. Poor customer service experiences will turn away customers, even for companies who do a lot of other things right.
The Rise of eCommerce Marketing After COVID-19
Use eCommerce marketing to take advantage of the growing population of regular online shoppers, while avoiding the pitfalls of this digital transformation. As news of the COVID-19 pandemic spread almost as fast as the coronavirus itself, governments started encouraging people and businesses to take social distancing measures. Soon after, even the brick-and-mortar businesses that didn’t have to close their doors, often cut hours to reduce the risks to staff and customers. Both businesses and customers have experienced dramatic changes in a very short time. Still, this sudden shift in shopping behavior has allowed eCommerce to boom. How does the COVID-19 crisis impact eCommerce marketing? As with all crises, some dramatic changes are likely to remain permanent. For instance, business reliance upon eCommerce marketing had already grown at a steady pace. During the pandemic, buying and selling online suddenly spiked. These growth figures come from the Salesforce Global Shopping Index for the first quarter of 2020: Traffic growth: 16% Digital commerce growth: 20% Individual shopper growth: 4% Certainly, marketers expect eCommerce growth over time. Still, these figures from the first quarter of 2020 surpassed the 2019 holiday season, which was considered a productive one. When compared to last year, home goods increased by 51 percent. Active apparel grew by 34% and toys by 31%. Such essential goods as food and personal care items spiked up 200 percent. Is the rise of eCommerce marketing permanent? Each holiday season attracts new eCommerce business. As new shoppers get introduced to online shopping or at least, shopping at new sites, the first quarter has always surpassed the first quarter for the previous year. However, analysts don’t necessarily expect as much activity in the first quarter as occurred during the holiday season. According to CIO Magazine’s report on the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior and eCommerce marketing, none of this is temporary. They believe that the current crisis will create the sort of emotional bookmark that 911 and Pearl Harbor did. Some of these rapidly upset routines will cause people to revaluate and change behaviors long after the crisis has passed. To support this assertion, consider new research from the Capgemini Research Institute: Before the coronavirus pandemic, 59 percent of consumers reported a lot of interaction with brick-and-mortar stores. Just about a quarter of consumers said they expected to frequent stores as much afterwards. Within the next six or nine months, less than 40 percent of consumers said that they expected to return to previous levels of visiting physical outlets. Before the pandemic, about 30 percent of consumers reported a high level of engagement with online stores; however, 37 percent now report this behavior. In other words, consumers anticipate shopping online more and in physical stores less. Will the eCommerce boom end physical stores? Because of these survey results, Capgemini analysts agreed with CIO’s assessment that this bump in online spending would continue even after the crisis ends. At the same time, even the Amazon marketing agency doesn’t want to see local, physical stores vanish. For instance, Amazon purchased Whole Foods and opened outlets to give their customers a better experience. Prime subscriptions offer customers the choice to either save money online or inside a store. People can see, touch, and even smell products. Customers also can choose in-store pickup for deliveries, an option that has proven increasingly popular with other omnichannel outlets. Capgemini also doesn’t expect physical stores to vanish; however, shoppers may have higher expectations in the future. It’s intuitive to predict that survey respondents said they would pay more attention to sanitization issues in stores. They also said that they would be more likely to patronize physical or online businesses that communicated a strong sense of purpose and a commitment to sustainability. Customers will return to stores. At the same time, they may visit stores less and be much pickier about which ones they choose to frequent. Vital eCommerce marketing tips Ecommerce marketing may enjoy a boom because of the coronavirus. At the same time, even businesses with existing eCommerce platforms have to overcome some obstacles: Pre-coronavirus, many businesses focused mostly or solely upon foot traffic and have had to abruptly change their strategy to include eCommerce marketing. This increases competition for keywords, consumer attention, and of course, online revenue. While an established eCommerce brand will enjoy some advantages, they may not entirely overcome the budgets of large companies that need to rev up online marketing fast. As CIO Magazine ironically phrased it, the digital transformation wasn’t entirely prepared for the digital transformation. Some platforms could not handle the sudden and unexpected surge to “Black Friday” traffic levels. Very commonly, retailers suffered because of supply chain disruptions and inefficiencies. Many simply didn’t have the processes and manpower in place to handle the extra business. Even Amazon had to slow down delivery of non-essential items to ensure essential products moved to their destinations quickly. With these obstacles in mind, these essential eCommerce marketing tips can help companies survive and thrive through the current crisis and beyond: Shore up supply chains: You can’t make good inventory decisions without good information. Contact manufacturers or distributors to understand how they’re coping and what you can expect from them. Hedge your bets by finding alternative suppliers. Communicate with customers: Just as you want your suppliers to keep you in the loop, your customers want to know if they can rely upon you to provide them with excellent service and reliable deliveries. These days, people also want to feel good about doing business with you by knowing that you’re striving to improve safety for them and employees. Let people know how well you’re doing through emails, your website, and social media. Revisit your understanding of customer needs: You may believe your business understood your customer very well before the crisis; however, your customers’ situations and needs have changed as abruptly as your company’s have. For example, many beauty products companies started adding hand sanitizer to their product line to help meet customer demand. Understand that customers may
10 Essential Digital Marketing Tips for Your E-Commerce Store
No matter what you sell from your e-commerce shop, you have a great opportunity to grow your business – follow these steps to gain a competitive edge. Amazon, the world’s e-commerce leader, enjoyed over $280 billion in revenue during 2019, a 20-percent increase from the prior year. Even much smaller, independent digital shops can do very well with the right e-commerce marketing strategy. For instance, Shopify powers over half a million e-commerce stores, with over $40 billion in sales and an average yearly growth rate of 74 percent. New or established, large or small, these e-commerce and Shopify marketing tips will help bring more customers to your virtual front door and keep making purchases once they have found you. Ten effective e-commerce marketing strategies to grow your online business The success of established online stores should offer you encouragement. On the other hand, you should also understand that you’re going to need to compete with other digital vendors for attention and dollars. To do that, you first need to make sure people know what you’re selling and why they should choose your e-commerce shop over another source. Some of you may also offer new or unique products, so you’ll also need to introduce an audience to the value of whatever you’re selling. Once you’ve achieved some brand and product recognition, you will also probably have to keep testing and refining your e-commerce digital marketing to enjoy continued growth. In that way, you should view digital marketing as more of an evolving process than as something you can just set and forget. Good e-commerce marketing can take considerable effort. In the end, your effective marketing strategies will also help you enjoy the competitive edge that will help you stand out, profit, and grow. If you’re just getting started or haven’t enjoyed the success you hoped for, consider trying these 10 e-commerce marketing strategies: 1. Create Buying Guides These days, consumers spend time researching purchases online. You could engage online shoppers with helpful content that helps people find the perfect gift for their dad, which air fryer features are worth the money, or types of swimming suits that flatter various kinds of bodies. Whatever you’re selling, people certainly have questions about it. Position yourself as the expert and make shoppers aware of your store by posting helpful buying guides on your social sites, website, and digital store. Besides buying guides, you might also create useful guides to using or caring for various products. For instance, you might sell heirloom seeds and could offer seasonal planting guides or even recipes. This sort of helpful content can improve your marketing and your customer service. 2. Host Giveaways, Contests, and Quizzes You might think it’s counterintuitive to increase sales by giving things away. At the same time, giveaways give you a chance to spark interest in your brand and hopefully, get some positive feedback from lucky winners. Quizzes, giveaways, and contests can also give you a chance to build your subscription list by capturing names and email address. You can also use quizzes to gather marketing information and target your offers and communications to specific interests. Obviously, you should try to tailor any of these events to the type of audience you hope to attract as customers. 3. Offer Promos, Coupons, and Discounts Offering limited-time promotions for some or all of your products can have a profound psychological effect on consumers, according to Psychology Today. The article mentioned that with newer and weaker brands, shorter and more urgent calls to action more effectively overcome buyer’s resistance. Stronger and more established sellers may profit more by extending their sales longer. As with other marketing, you might need to test your limited-time offers to see which promotions and durations provide you with the best results. Also, you can use these limited-time sales as content to promote on your store, blog, and social media. Be certain to encourage your audience to share your coupons and promo codes with their own social circles. Even if one person isn’t in the market for something, they might think of a friend who is. 4. Convert First-Time Buyers into Repeat Buyers Attracting repeat buyers can help you maximize the returns that you will enjoy from your e-commerce store marketing budget. The sooner you can convert first-time purchasers into loyal customers, the more you can profit. If you offer consumable goods, you might start off by offering a substantial discount or perk for people who take advantage of your offer to send your items by periodic subscriptions. Such consumable items as soap, razor blades, and coffee do very well with this sort of marketing plan. Make certain that you clearly demonstrate the savings that subscription purchasers will enjoy on the order page. 5. Encourage Testimonials and Reviews Plenty of successful online stores encourage reviews and testimonials from their customers. They may even go so far as offering a gift card or special discount code in exchange for posting a review on a product or service page. It’s even more helpful if the review form encourages the reviewer to share their feedback on their own social media pages. Either way, today’s online shoppers do use reviews to help inform purchases and even a mix of great and not-so-great reviews may look more credible than a page with no reviews at all. 6. Practice Enlightened Self Interest By associating your brand with a worthy charity you can help improve your community and your positive brand recognition. Figure out what kinds of causes your audience is likely to value and lend your support. One recent study found that Millennials, for example, are even likely to spend more on purchases when they associate the company with worthy causes that they also support. Also, some charities will help promote their sponsors by mentioning the company on a sponsor page or in a newsletter. Your sponsorship of worthy causes also gives you more content for your social media, blogs, and email or text subscribers. That way, subscribers don’t
How Direct to Consumer Brands Can Market Creatively
Direct to consumer (DTC or D2C) brands are capturing the public’s imagination — and also their dollars. Here’s how your brand can market creatively. The ripple effects of the Internet and social media are responsible for countless changes to the way we work and live. Yet the impact these technologies have had on business is no less profound. Today, direct to consumer brands can reach new audiences at a fraction of the cost associated with legacy marketing approaches. In order to do so, however, they need one thing: Creatively inspired marketing and advertising, supported by sophisticated technology and consumer insights. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at three creative marketing tips for direct to consumer brands. Unlock the full potential of influencer marketing Direct to consumer brands have bootstrapped their way to growth by leveraging search tools and social media. Instead of expensive (and poorly targeted) TV campaigns, brands cultivated their audience through digital advertising and social outreach. The results have been impressive, as direct to consumer brands continue to take a larger and larger slice of the overall consumer pie. This marketing approach, when done well, comes across as more organic and less mediated. It allows brands to build a grassroots online audience of loyal fans and brand ambassadors. Influencer marketing can play a critical role in this strategy. Influencers are perceived as more authentic than legacy ads and they often already hold sway over a large segment of a brand’s target audience. The influencer economy also developed organically — it wasn’t dreamed up as some mad experiment in a Madison Avenue ad shop. Given these attributes, it makes for a natural pairing with direct to consumer brands. Growth in the influencer economy continues to be robust — 320 new influencer platforms and influencer-based agencies were launched in 2018. Dealing with influencers one-to-one can be tricky (many aren’t fully professionalized), so it makes sense to use an agency with expertise as a conduit. Focus on simplicity Consumers — and people, generally — dislike complexity. Sometimes the best marketing and advertising messages are most simple and straightforward. This is particularly applicable to direct to consumer brands. Many companies in this category have made a name for themselves (and earned substantial marketing share) by offering a simpler, better take on an existing product. Consider the example of Harry’s. This direct to consumer razor company began with a simple idea: cheap razors are terrible to use, but high quality razors are absurdly expensive. Harry’s entered the market with an excellent razor sold at a mid-range price and began stealing market share from Gillette. Direct to consumer pants seller Bonobos succeeded with an equally simple premise. They realized that men hate shopping for pants, and that most mass market pants fit poorly. Bonobos offered well-fitting pants that found a middle ground between style and comfort — and they sent them directly to consumer doors. The idea was so simple — and successful — that the company was eventually bought by Wal-Mart. This commitment to simplicity isn’t constrained to product designs or marketing opportunity. Direct to consumer brands such as Harry’s, Chewy.com, Bonobos etc. have historically kept their marketing messages simple. They offer a laser focus on the product’s core value proposition, and relay it to consumers in elegantly simple terms. Take advantage of the most powerful tools and platforms TV advertising may offer reach, but digital advertising allows you to target with precision. Direct to consumer brands should take full advantage of programmatic buying when pushing a campaign. One of the advantages a direct to consumer brand often has over brick and mortar retailers is the closeness of their relationship with customers. Because DTC brands deal with consumers directly, with no middleman involved, they have an opportunity to create meaningful personalized experiences. They also have the opportunity to collect an enormous amount of actionable data, which can help them show more relevant ads to their audiences. The takeaway At BIGEYE, we’ve got the experience and domain expertise to help you craft direct to consumer marketing campaigns that get results. Don’t wait to contact us today for more information on how we can help your DTC brand stand out.
To Target: Retail lessons learned from the Lilly Pulitzer collab.
Bonafide “Lilly Lovers” arrived in droves in the wee hours of the morning. Decked out in shades of varying pastels, they came, they shopped, they conquered. A lucky few were even fortunate enough to walk away with coveted pieces from the recent Lilly Pulitzer for Target collaboration. Others returned to their local stores’ packed parking lots – many after waiting in lines reminiscent of Black Friday electronics extravaganzas – without a preppy, patterned shift dress in sight. And that was just the brick and mortar side of the story. Online, shoppers set alarm clocks, filled social media group chats in anticipation, and highlighted favorites from the pre-launch release of the Lilly “look book” at Target.com, long before the much buzzed about website launch on April 19, 2015. The moment the site went live – at approximately 1:00am EST, a similar fashionista frenzy ensued. Admittedly, that was yours truly. In my pj’s, hardly able to sleep a wink – MacBook in one hand, iPhone in the other, trying to take it all in (and with a little dose of Lilly luck, hoping to end up with at least one Nosey Posie printed item in my shopping cart). And my lust wasn’t limited to women’s and children’s clothing – also included in the collection were a bevy of cute collectible housewares, ranging from pillows to folding beach chairs, and oh, did I mention cosmetic cases? So, why all of the hullabaloo surrounding an existing brand’s capsule collection? Moreover, why the unbridled excitement for a brand that was founded six decades ago? AdWeek hit the nail on the bow-adorned head when it comes to retail lessons learned, “Target may have partnered with high-end brands in the past, but Lilly Pulitzer is the first old-guard, social-register brand to sign on, and that makes a big difference.” You’ve got that right. It might just be the brand’s iconic status, and Jackie Kennedy-inspired longevity that actually helped to generate the social buzz to begin with. While some fans – many willing to pay full price in a retail store – were none too pleased at the thought of their treasures potentially “degrading the brand” with a wholesale-style partnership, most “bargainistas” rejoiced wholeheartedly. In case you find yourself scratching your forehead in full-on preppy puzzlement, here’s a little backgrounder on The Lilly Story. Pulitzer, the brand’s founder and namesake was a prominent socialite who, in 2013, passed away as an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, after first marrying into the renowned Pulitzer publishing family. According to AdWeek, Pulitzer found herself, “stranded and bored in her Palm Beach manse in 1959, and decided she needed something to keep herself busy, so she opened a fruit juice stand on Worth Avenue. To hide the stains from the oranges and grapefruits she was squeezing, Pulitzer found some colorful cotton prints and made a shift dress from it.” And there you have it: a fashion success story is born. Palm Beachers embraced the printed frocks, the brand soon expanded, resulting in store openings throughout South Florida, and eventually spreading across the East Coast. Shortly thereafter, Jackie O was photographed in a custom Lilly, only further catapulting the company’s popularity. Return to current day, and “Pink Sunday” as it was affectionately labeled, and the marketing success of the Lilly for Target collab just simply cannot be underscored. According to Roy DeYoung, senior vp of creative strategy for PM Digital, “History is the reason people lined up—they want the Lilly Pulitzer at a good price, and they know it’ll be good, if not exceptional quality, with Target for the price point,” said DeYoung. “But they also know it’ll go fast. Target makes an event out of doing these deals and collaborations every couple of years, and to sell out like this, it’s a circus.” Cue the “under the bigtop” theme music. Starting with the initial online reveal via Refinery 29, and culminating with the aforementioned “look book,” Target rounded out the juggernaut with a commercial spot featuring “the most lavish pool party ever, complete with the likes of Jay Gatsby.” Take a gander at the commercial – (featuring Chris Noth, or Mr. Big for all you SATC fans) – here. I mean honestly, who wouldn’t want to attend a lavish Lilly shindig…or at least look perfectly polished and impeccably dressed like the attendees? Given the buzz, not only did fans line up by the hundreds outside of Target locations nationwide, but racks were emptied in mere minutes. Those waiting in the wee hours at home in their jammies didn’t fail to disappoint either. As a result, the company’s website was not equipped to handle the mass hysteria of online traffic, inaccessible just moments after the mere early leak of links to merchandise went viral. Feverishly clicking on anything and everything that they could (present company included), frustration peaked quickly – and spread voraciously – across social media circles, forcing the retailer to issue repeated apologetic tweets to the frantic masses. With such an overwhelming response – most certainly any retailer’s dream come true – the hot pink elephant in the room is definitely whether or not the laws of supply and demand apply for a limited edition, capsule collection. Is the budgeted retail marketing build-up and buzz worth the potential to upset shoppers (many of whom possess money to spend) when limited product supply leaves so many empty-handed, – making it more the norm that the exception? With no limit to the number of items a consumer was permitted to purchase, the only restriction for Lilly for Target shoppers in this case included a limited 14-day return policy for pieces from the collaboration. According to USA TODAY, this reaction is not atypical of past collabs, as items included in these “for Target” collections are often seen as collectors’ items, fetching more than double the regular retail price on auction sites such as eBay. Not so coincidentally, when Target launched its Missoni line in 2011, the Italian designer’s fan base reacted in