In 2017, 1.66 billion people used the Internet to buy goods. 1.66 billion! That figure is absolutely massive and is continuing to grow each and every day. In a world where online shopping has become the preferred method, it is important for E-Commerce retailers to implement practices that will help them stand out amongst the crowd, build trust, and increase sales.

There are a bunch of easy practices that E-Commerce retailers can implement to help them continue growing and maximize sales. Through increasing buzz, engagement, and reach, the following practices are a great way to stay ahead of the curve.

 

Identify your target audience

Arguably one of the most important things that you can do for your business, identifying your target audience is a crucial. It is a step that needs to be taken early on. Who is your product for? Who are you targeting? What do they like? Why do they like it? How can you use their preferences to win them over and bring them in as customers?

If you are investing money into ads and other marketing materials, but haven’t yet identified your target audience, you are wasting your resources. Know who you are speaking to so that you can use specific tactics that will appeal to your audience. Implement marketing tactics that will resonate with your desired demographic. This will make them want your product, ultimately helping you to increase sales.

 

Always practice great customer service

Word travels. In fact, word of mouth is the primary way in which people hear about companies, businesses, and products! People like to share information about brands with others. When they do this, it is essentially free marketing for your brand. Use it to your advantage!

Just as word of mouth can be a fantastic resource, it can also be detrimental to your brand if a bad customer experience gets spread around. Do your best to prevent this from happening. Bad customer interactions happen every once in a while in business, but by continually offering top notch customer service, you will build trust with customers and decrease the likelihood of this happening.

Always communicate with customers and be there to answer any questions that they may have. Help them in their shopping process as much as possible, and happily solve any discrepancies or problems that they may encounter. By creating a positive reputation, your business will benefit in the long run.

 

Allow users to leave reviews

Much like word of mouth, customers highly value reviews. Users look to reviews to gain insight into previous customers’ experiences. They can be the difference between a user purchasing your product or opting for the competition’s. This makes reviews an extremely valuable tool, as a good review can be just what that user needs to convince them to purchase your product.

A source of free marketing, be sure to give customers the opportunity to leave reviews and reflect on their experience with your brand.

 

Utilize social media

It is no surprise that social media has become a huge marketing tool. The use of witty jargon and interactive content frequently helps companies’ tweets and posts to go viral. This is an incredible marketing resource that can massively increase customer engagement. Companies such as Moon Pie and Wendy’s have taken to Twitter to give their brands a comedic flair and engage with their audiences. In doing so, they have increased buzz around their brands and set themselves up to become favorites among their audiences.

Another great way to leverage social media to a brand’s advantage is through implementing user generated content (UGC). UGC is a fantastic way for brands to engage with their audience as it is completely free and encourages customers to interact! Glossier has implemented a perfect example of UGC by including their customers’ skin care routines on the homepage of their website. Another great example comes from Vans, as they use Instagram to frequently re-post customers’ images. In doing this, customers want to post about their favorite brands in the hopes of being featured. UGC increases buzz for the brand and is in turn a free win-win for both parties.

 

Work with influencers

A fantastic way to leverage social media is through working with influencers. With very large platforms and influential voices, influencers can act as a great tool to create buzz and increase brand exposure.

If you decide that this is right for your brand, do your research. It is very important to be sure you are selecting the correct influencers to work with. Spend some time learning about those that market to your target audience. To do this, look at brands they have worked with before, and check out their engagement rate. Reach out about possible collaborations and find those that match your budget, can adhere to timeline requirements, and are open to your ideas.

To learn more about how to best work with influencers, check out my blog post “How to Leverage Influencer Marketing.”

 

Implement SEO

As more and more E-Commerce companies enter the scene, keeping up with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) continues to become increasingly important. SEO is crucial because it is what Google uses to pull your website content and present it as a search result. To put it simply, SEO impacts how and where you show up on Google. If done correctly, this can truly benefit your business.

No matter the platform used for your business, be sure that you are implementing proper key words, slugs, meta descriptions, and phrases in order to optimize your product listings and website content.

 

Keep email lists and look at who is buying

Email lists can be beneficial for multiple reasons. First, they are a great communication tool.  They provide an easy way to alert customers about new products, sales, and updates. Second, email lists are a wonderful way to see who your buyers are.

When completing the check out process, require users to create an account. This is a super simple way to gather helpful data. Zip codes, age ranges, and other demographic information can help you track customer trends and learn about your audience. By gathering this information, you can update your marketing practices as needed.

Additionally, email lists are a great way to monitor customer changes as your company evolves over time. You may see different consumer bases rise and fall in popularity with your brand, and that will be a great indicator to update your marketing tactics.

Measure campaigns and act accordingly

No matter which type of campaign or marketing practice you decide to implement, it is important to measure the results and so that you may act accordingly. Whether you choose to work with an influencer, increase social media activity, implement more user generated content or increase your SEO, look at your analytics both before, during, and after to monitor website engagement levels and sales and see what sort of impact is happening.

By measuring campaign and marketing activity, you will be able to see what works and what doesn’t. From there, you can determine how best to allocate your resources in the future.

 

I can’t wait to see how these tips help your brand!

Sarah