by Nick Throlson | Jan 21, 2018 | E-commerce, Web Design
The world of e-commerce is exciting and filled with possibilities. You?ll have read many success stories about people who?ve made their fortune with an online store and perhaps even felt inspired to give it a go. If you?ve always wanted to work for yourself, e-commerce could be a great option, a venture that allows you to call the shots and reap the rewards. It sounds great, but it?s not exactly easy. Think you?ve got what it takes to make it big in e-commerce? Take a look at the following before you dive in.
Getting started
Getting set up with an e-commerce website isn?t as simple as just having an idea and building a website. It has to be a great idea and an outstanding website to stand any chance of success. This 7 part guide on how to get started in e-commerce explains the step-by-step processes you need to go through to build a successful online store. You?ll need to do a lot of research and testing to find out if people even want to buy your product. The initial research is worth it, however, to make sure you don?t invest a lot of time and money into something that won?t pay off.
You?re going to need help
An e-commerce business has a lot happening behind the scenes. Not only does someone need to manage orders and deal with queries, but there are also people responsible for the website maintenance, marketing, finance and other areas. This may all sound like something you can do yourself, but you?ll soon find that it takes a team to get this working. To get a team in place, you might need to source investment or take out a business loan – something that could be a gamble if your venture doesn?t take off.
It could be a long time before you see any profit
There?s a misconception that the money to be made online is instant, and sadly this couldn?t be further from the truth. Your success depends on many different things, and you could go months or even years without seeing real profit. Many people have to retain their income from elsewhere to get by during the launch phase of an e-commerce venture, so don?t think about quitting the day job just yet. There are many mistakes that people make with e-commerce at the beginning, so if you make sure that all bases are covered before you begin – you could see a profit sooner than expected.
E-commerce is a great money-maker if you know how to play it, and could be the start of a profitable new adventure for you. At the heart of every great e-commerce venture is a fantastic website, and there are a lot of elements you need to make sure your website is a success. Do your research, ask others how it?s done and make sure you know what you?re doing before you throw yourself into the world of e-commerce.
by Nick Throlson | Dec 20, 2017 | E-commerce
We all know that in these times when everything has become digital the biggest tool of your marketing strategy is your website. But, of course, it is not enough just to have one. You need to design it carefully in order to allow your users to have free circulation inside it and all the information must be easy to find to make their trip through your sales funnel as fast as possible. Your prospects need to be fully aware of the nature of your business and you need to provide them with all the information necessary, so you don?t get yourself into the position where you will need to explain to your potential customers what is that your company does. In order to help your sales team use their time as effectively as possible in order to shorten your sales cycle, take a look at these tips:
1. Have your answers prepared
Today most of the people are reluctant to buy products or services right away. They want to know everything about a certain product before they purchase it, which results in series of questions that can take for hours. The point is that all these questions are quite similar, so you should gather them around and analyze them to find the certain pattern. When you do, just answer them and put those answers on your company website?s FAQ page. That way you will evade unnecessary questions and make the impression that you?re completely open to your buyers. Maybe it seems too difficult to ?guess? all the questions because people have different ways of putting them, but you just need to use effective keywords and every potential customer will find the way to the answer he or she seeks.
2. Spit it out
Most companies instruct their sales team to postpone the information about the price of a certain product or service until the end of the conversation, which can result in a wasted time. You?re gonna have to tell the price to the customers eventually, so don?t spend hours in the negotiations to realize in the end that they are not prepared for such price from the beginning. Instead, you should make a price page on your website with all the pricing information. That way you won?t be losing your time on people who are not prepared to pay the required sum and that transparency will also make your business honest and trustworthy. Just spit it out and then your salesman will do the rest.
3. Lead them the whole way
When it comes to buying services, your customers will want to know exactly what they get, step by step. We live in capitalist society and our new god is called ?Calculation?, which means that nobody likes surprises anymore, especially when their money is concerned. That?s why you need to tell them in advance what exactly can they expect from doing business with you. That?s why you need to include a step by step breakdown of everything that will be happening once they purchase the service. You can use this breakdown to include some call to action buttons that will additionally drive the interested ones deeper into your sales funnel.
4. It?s not enough being honest, you need to prove it
Today we are surrounded by false information and exaggerating, so you can?t blame your customers if they are not ready to believe everything you say in the beginning. You need to back up every quality you claim to possess. If they are not able to see black and white proof, you won?t have the credibility in their eyes. You need to prove your worth through testimonials and case studies. But don?t brag and flatter yourself, that will cause suspicion immediately. You need to tell stories about your customers, not your company. If you want them to know you offer reliable and super easy storage?solutions, you need to talk about satisfied customers whose life was changed by that product. Yes, changed. You should take examples where your customers were in the transitional moments of their lives like changing homes or expanding the business. This way you will have a voice of a satisfied customer but also an emotional factor to which your potential buyers can connect. They will be sure that you?ll take care of their possessions because you?ll have proven results and there won?t be a need for any additional proof that you?re a confident business choice.
5. Let them know who you are
Tell the story of your company through a portfolio where your work will speak for itself, without bragging. Do it like with testimonials and case studies – concrete results, spiced up with some images and maybe even video. People want to see with their own eyes, and that?s why it?s also a good idea to include pictures of your employees because customers? money goes into their hands. If you give them a face and a name, your future customers will be able to develop their trust more quickly.
by Nick Throlson | Nov 30, 2017 | Business, E-commerce
E-commerce is a spectacularly competitive industry and it takes a lot of a new online store to build a name for itself. With millions of online stores vying for customers? attention, making enough sales to stay afloat can be a challenge in itself. This is why e-commerce business owners have to be smart about their marketing and invest in strategies and tactics that will yield results. One practice that has definitely been shown to yield amazing results is email marketing.
Email Marketing Statistics
In order to best understand the value of email marketing for e-commerce companies, you do not have to look further than the cold, hard numbers.
For one, almost everyone (91% of people to be exact), open their inboxes every day. If we were to compare this to daily users of Facebook or Twitter, where daily use rates are around 75% and 42% respectively, it becomes obvious that a promotional email is far more likely to be opened the same day.
Perhaps even more importantly, email is actually the preferred channel of communication for e-commerce customers. In fact, when they are asked to choose a channel through which they would most like to communicate with online businesses (not just e-commerce stores), nearly 75% of people say email. Another number that should paint a picture is the fact that two-thirds of online consumers say they made a purchase because of an email they received at some point in time.
When we are talking from a simple investment standpoint, email fares far better than pretty much any other marketing tactic for e-commerce companies. Namely, Digital Marketing Association recently came forward with data that the average ROI for email marketing is 3,800% for e-commerce companies. Put differently, for a single dollar invested in email marketing, an e-commerce business can expect a return of $38. On average.
Endless Possibilities
It is important to point out, however, that it is not just about the numbers with email marketing in e-commerce. It is also about the innumerable possibilities of this type of marketing. It may not seem that way to someone who has never done email marketing before, but it is actually a fantastically versatile type of marketing.
Purely promotional emails are probably the first thing that comes to people?s minds. These are emails which inform customers and potential customers about ongoing or upcoming deals that they shouldn?t miss out on. These emails also inform recipients about new products that became available at the store or about time-limited offers that are just ?too good to miss out on?.
And while these promotional emails are the most direct way to use email marketing to boost one?s e-commerce business, they are definitely not the only possibility.
For one, there are the transactional emails that do not contain overtly promotional material but instead serve a different function. For instance, you will set up welcome emails for people who subscribe to your email list or who become members of your website. You will send emails informing people of their purchase and letting them know what they can expect in terms of delivery. If you want to convert your email campaign successfully, you will leverage these transactional emails to tell a brand story, to make customers feel special and to provide a unique experience that will turn them into repeat business.
When you throw in cart abandonment emails, retargeting emails, and a few other types, it becomes quite clear that a smart email marketing practice can do more things for your e-commerce store than any other form of marketing.
Doing it Right
Of course, in order for you to be successful in email marketing, you need to know how to do it right. In an article like this, we can only cover the basics, unfortunately.
For one, you have to start building your email marketing list as soon as possible. Namely, the law prohibits you from spamming random people and you can only send your e-commerce emails to people who have opted-in. In other words, you have to entice people to subscribe to your mailing list, usually by offering special deals and loyalty awards.
You will also want to ensure that you have segmented your email list properly, categorizing people according to a number of metrics that will help you send more precisely targeted emails that have a greater chance of converting.
It goes without saying that you will also want to learn about and experiment with the actual emails that you will be sending to your customers. This will involve quite a bit of A/B testing and serious data crunching, but it will be worth it. The good news is there is no shortage of email marketing tools that can help you with the more demanding parts of this.
Of course, when deciding on the incentives that will stimulate potential customers, you have to factor in your margins. In other words, a 70%-off offer will definitely bring you customers, but if you are losing money on such a deal, it will be counterproductive.
Closing Words
Email marketing is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best ways to market an e-commerce business. That being said, you have to invest time and money in it if you wish to do it right.
In the end, however, it will pay off.
AUTHOR: James D. Burbank is the editor-in-chief of BizzMarkBlog. He has years of experience in advising e-commerce businesses on marketing and brand promotion in general.
