E-commerce will continue to grow by 2021.
In fact, Statista predicted that retail e-commerce sales would reach $4.9 trillion in 2021, up from $4.2 trillion in 2019. If you’re serious about your e-commerce business, you’re probably already plotting how to get your maximum share of that pie.
But growing sales actually go beyond the wish. You need a sound strategy that you can put in place to produce results.
Which marketing strategies are going to put you ahead of the competition this year? In this blog post, we’re going to discuss six effective strategies to help you grow your e-commerce business in 2021.
1. Instagram Shoppable Posts
Over the years, Instagram has grown sporadic in the social media space. Businesses are already using Instagram for marketing purposes to reach new customers.
But with Instagram’s shoppable posts, prospects can now buy your products directly from Instagram. This reduces friction when users need to leave the Instagram app for their website.
To use this feature, you need to set up your catalog on Facebook and connect to your Instagram business account. After that, you can tag any product that followers can buy in your posts.
When you create more than 9 Instagram Shoppable posts, you will have a “Shop” tab on your Instagram profile. Here, followers can shop and shop for your products.
Instagram’s shoppable posts provide a platform to market your products where it’s easy for your prospective customers to buy.
2. Personalization of content
With big players like Amazon and Netflix leading the way, content customization is a trend that every e-commerce store has to adopt. Consider that potential buyers are likely to buy from your store when you display products that are relevant to them.
It is no surprise, then, that according to research by Epsilon, 80 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from businesses offering a personalized experience.
You need to consider the following criteria for effective personalization of content:
Previous visitor interactions on your website.
- Demographic data such as location, sex, language, etc.
- Time of visit, e.g. time of day, month, or year.
- The declared interests of the visitor.
Through content customization, each visitor sees a page tailored to their needs with the products they want to buy.
Amazon is a popular example of content customization. From product recommendations to shipping information based on your location, every Amazon user sees an e-commerce store with their favorite products.
3. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)
With Augmented Reality (AR ) and Virtual Reality (VR), buyers get a better view of what they are buying before they complete their purchase.
AR allows potential buyers to add a product to their environment before they purchase it. This shows how a product can fit into an environment.
An example of this is IKEA’s augmented reality app. This app has been downloaded 8.5 million times and helps buyers see how a piece of furniture fits into their apartment.
Over the years, AR has become increasingly popular and this year’s trend will continue. For example, eMarketer predicts that 85.0 million Americans will use AR every month in 2021.
VR goes further than AR and creates a virtual environment for your product. This is usually the case for large products.
Volvo used Google Cardboard to market its new Volvo SC 90 luxury SUV as an example of VR in its application. Google Cardboard took people on a mountain drive to experience this vehicle.
Although VR has fewer numbers than AR, 51.8 million are still a huge number of people. There is obviously the potential for e-commerce stores.
Applying this technology to your e-commerce store will give people a better view of your products before they make purchases.
4. Google Ads smart bidding
If you run shopping campaigns and other advertising campaigns on Google Ads, then smart bidding is a strategy that you should pay attention to. Google uses advanced machine learning to help you optimize your bids for better results.
The machine learning system uses signals such as time of day, location, device, language, operating system, remarketing lists, and other information to set the correct bids.
You can use smart bidding based on the following objectives:
- Maximize conversion
- Maximize the value of the conversion
- CPA Target
- Goal ROAS
Since smart bidding is far from being the perfect technology, you need to monitor your bids and ad performance and compare them to your manual bids. However, the advantage you get with smart bidding is that it helps you save time that you can invest in other campaign activities.
5. Omnichannel marketing
Imagine this situation: your customer has started buying a product on their smartphone and, for some reason, has to stay on the desktop. Do they have to start over on the desktop, or do they keep going where they stopped on their smartphone?
Aside from using different devices, another reality of marketing today is that prospects may have to use channels such as social media, email, phone, and others during business interactions.
With omnichannel marketing, you can integrate all of these interactions together so that you can deliver your brand messages to your prospects. It also helps you reduce friction during the purchase process and increase conversions.
According to Invesp, companies with omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain 89% of their customers, while companies with no omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain only 33%.
6. User-generated content (UGC)
Buyers usually look at other people to make their purchase decisions. That’s why user-generated content has an impact on the purchasing decisions of 84% of millennials and 70% of boomers, according to Bazaarvoice.
What are your current customers thinking about your product? How are they going to use it? What benefits have they had?
User-generated content answers these questions and convinces prospective buyers. It’s easy for customers to send UGC when you enter a social media hashtag.
You can then reset to your business profile. Here’s an example from the BMW repository of the X5 customer image.
Conclusion
Implement a strategy just because it’s popular might lead to poor results for your e-commerce store. To avoid this, make sure you use strategies that are effective with your audience.
Implement these 6 proven strategies for your e-commerce store, and your customers and revenues will grow by 2021.
