Latest Ecommerce Trends to Boost Your Revenue in 2020
Ecommerce has witnessed a surge in competition. Moreover, the cost of customer acquisition has steadily increased. So running a profitable business has become challenging.
The primary objective of any business is to grow and generate more sales. To boost revenue, brands must guide “potential customers” through the sales funnel and convert them into “returning customers.” Notice the emphasis on the potential and returning.
Today, eCommerce brands have technology on their side. They can effortlessly implement various strategies to attract more customers. One of them is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO has been around for over two decades now. It has proven to be a driving force for online businesses, and it shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. SEO is a widely applied strategy to increase online visibility and get more sales. However, it is not the only way to attract more customers.
A good strategy entails a combination of various methods and tricks to increase online visibility. In this blog, we are going to mention some of them that can benefit your brand.
What other trends should you use to expand your online brand and hike ROI?
1. Tracking and analyzing data
Businesses typically interact with a diverse target audience. With the aid of segmentation, you can divide and conquer consumers with relevant messages. Demographic information such as age, gender, race, marital status, income, education, and employment, can improve the efficiency of your campaign.
There’s a significant amount of information available about your customer’s online behavior. Through analytics tools, you can understand their needs and preferences. Once you identify the demand for a service or product, you can strive to align your brand with catering to them.
But eCommerce brands can do more than just monitor, collect, and analyze data. They can now customize search results based on past purchases and browser history. This information can, in turn, help to personalize the customer’s online experience.
2. Personalization
According to Gartner, personalization can increase e-commerce profits by 15%. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools, eCommerce brands can easily personalize and significantly enhance the online shopping experience.
By improving consumer search results, brands can provide appropriate product recommendations tailored to each shopper. SmarterHQ claims that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.
So, businesses that promote relevant content and products to these customers have the opportunity to increase sales. Based on this personalization, the sales team can effectively predict the long term shopping behavior of an individual, thus, allowing the brand to boost sales.
3. Apply localization strategies
Consumer buying habits are influenced by aspects such as geographical location, native culture, language, etc. Even though eCommerce has erased all the physical distances, your brand needs to be able to target the local audience and encourage them towards a transaction.
For instance, according to Techjury, 92.2% of people prefer to shop on sites that price in their local currency. This simple localization approach nurtures consumer’s needs and enables a more extensive interaction with your brand.
4. Watch for industry influencers
Influencer marketing remains one of the best ways to market a product and increase sales. People are still inspired by what others are buying and using. When a person expresses satisfaction with a product and recommends it, consumers are more willing to believe them than any advertisement.
According to streamline-marketing, 87% of shoppers are inspired by influencers to make a purchase. As an eCommerce brand, your job is to search for those individuals that have a persona that aligns with your brand’s image.
With a high number of followers on social media platforms, these influencers can be mighty impactful. As consumers can buy directly from a social media post, more eCommerce brands are looking at social networks like TikTok and Instagram to create a hype about their products. Through social apps like these, e-commerce has the potential to grow substantially.
5. Offer better customer service
By asking feedback and product reviews, you can enhance the relationship with customers and develop loyalty. When a brand communicates directly with consumers, they gain powerful insights about how to improve products and services.
Through social media platforms and chatbots on e-commerce websites, brands can now easily offer 24/7 customer service. Ask for their reviews about products. If they face any difficulty, assure them to solve their issue.
Moreover, don’t hesitate to return them their money if they’re not satisfied with the product. This momentary hiccup will go a long way in fermenting long-term loyalty.
6. Smarter payment options
Online shopping has three steps: Look for the product, choose the product, and pay for the product. If you make the first two steps easy for customers without paying any attention to payment methods, you won’t get any sales.
Making the final step in the customer journey as smooth as possible is essential for conversion. Anywhere from 50% to 80% of customers decide to leave an e-commerce transaction at the “payment option.” Ensuring a simple checkout process with multiple payment options will help clinch quick conversions.
As your e-commerce brand grows beyond borders, you need to offer a globally accepted platform regardless of currency. So on top of providing secure platforms for transactions, you need to consider alternate online payment options such as PayPal, Payoneer, Skrill, etc.
7. Promote brand image
For any e-commerce brand to survive, it is very important to project a responsible and positive brand image. Consumers are emphasizing sustainability, suitable working conditions for workers, stopping child labor, and animal cruelty, among other ethical issues.
Another way to promote your brand is to align it with a good cause like this greens supplement brand has done with a charity that provides vitamins worldwide to children and expecting mothers.
According to a study by Cone Communications, 87% of people agreed that they would more likely buy a product from a brand that advocates for an issue they care about. So, as the trends are changing, make sure to incorporate sustainability, compassion, and concern in your branding strategy.
Many brands have successfully integrated these elements into their branding. For example, BN3TH, an online store that manufactures and sells men underwear, now uses sustainable and biodegradable Modal plastic to manufacture its product.
Another example of responsible branding is Patagonia, a famous outdoor clothing manufacturer that gives 1% of its sales to Earth Tax to support organizations around the world working to protect endangered species, restore forests, and promoting sustainable practices.
More recently, Heineken, Airbnb, and Adidas released their campaigns, talking on issues like feminism, racism, and sustainability.
Companies can present a responsible image by promoting ethical practices, altering their production methods, and using eco-friendly material for manufacturing their products. These trends go a long way in improving the revenues of brands.
8. Offer competitive prices
There’s a lot of competition online. By implementing dynamic pricing strategies, you can select the best price that increases the chances of selling your product while also maintaining an acceptable profit margin.
To achieve this, you need to monitor competitor prices as well as analyze seasonal and historical demand. Using the data to alter prices in real-time can help boost sales and revenue.
Additionally, you can incentivize shopping by offering free delivery for orders above a set amount. 60% of shoppers abandon carts because of extra costs such as shipping, taxes, etc.
9. Multi-channel selling approach
Various reports indicate that consumers are still opting for an online and offline shopping experience. By catering to these omnichannel shoppers, you not only have the opportunity to grow your brand across all channels but also increase brand visibility.
Moreover, you can engage with them better and encourage them towards conversion. By utilizing software to sync inventory and customer information, eCommerce brands can exponentially increase revenue.
Final thoughts
The digital landscape is continually changing. Ecommerce brands need to optimize digital strategies for conversion. Efforts range from promoting the brand through ads to offering subscriptions so that customers keep coming back to using multi-channel marketing avenues so that products are more accessible.
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