Introduction
E-commerce is a rapidly growing industry, and it is no surprise that many businesses are trying to get a piece of the pie. However, with so many businesses competing for attention, it cannot be easy to stand out. This blog post will share tips on creating an e-commerce strategy to help your business succeed.
1. Know the Competition
If you plan to start an online business, you should know a thing or two about your competitors. In e-commerce, the competition is online, so you don’t have to limit your search to your city or state. Instead, think globally. Start by searching for the product or service that you intend to sell. Then, look at the results, and note which companies stand out the most. These are typically the big players in the industry, so learning how they’re thriving and what they’re doing differently than you is a great starting point.
Another way to better understand your competition is to use competitive SEO analysis tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. You can input a few of your competitors and see a list of their SEO strengths and weaknesses.
By looking at your competitors, you can assess what’s working for them and what you can adapt to help your business succeed. For example, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, as 80% of startups copycat other companies and grow.
2. Build a Unique Value Proposition
Unique Value Proposition or UVP sets your business apart from the rest. It makes customers gravitate toward you and convinces them that they need your product or service. It’s what defines your company.
For example, let’s say you want to open a yoga studio. While yoga is becoming more popular, you can still claim a unique position in the market by offering a particular style of yoga or a specific emphasis (i.e., therapeutic benefits or spiritual centeredness, for instance).
A strong UVP is essential to a successful e-commerce strategy.
3. Define Your Customer Persona
You should develop a specific target audience in your mind when starting an e-commerce business. This mental picture of your customer is called a persona. Whether you’ll cater to moms, athletes, or tech-savvy millennials — or a mix of demographics — having a persona is essential to crafting a successful e-commerce strategy.
4. Construct an Actionable Marketing Plan
Once you know who you’re selling to, you can develop a marketing plan to bring those customers to your site. A good plan includes a mix of traditional and digital marketing strategies such as advertising, social media, and search engine optimization.
5. Build a Successful Marketing Team
You’ll need to strengthen your marketing team if your business grows. Initially, you should hire talented people in different areas, such as paid advertising, social media management, content creation, and SEO.
6. Analyze Your Competition
While you should never let your competitors get in the way of your success, it’s wise to know what you’re up against. Take the time to analyze your competition thoroughly. This means viewing their websites and online marketing strategies. Note what they’re doing right as well as wrong.
You won’t be the only yoga studio in town. So, what makes you different? Perhaps you can offer unique classes like barre yoga or bhangra yoga. Or, you can emphasize a specific aspect of your classes (i.e., flexibility or strength).
7. Define Your Market Penetration Strategy
Once you’ve thoroughly analyzed your competition, you’ll have a better idea of how to get new customers to come to your site and buy your products. In other words, you need a market penetration strategy to help you stand out from the competition.
You might target a new demographic or focus on reaching more people in existing categories. For example, Barista Coffee School expanded beyond baristas to include coffee enthusiasts. In addition, the company launched a “coffee camp” to teach people about coffee in several ways: growing, harvesting, processing, tasting, grinding and brewing, and history.
8. Measure Your Success
You should continually monitor your marketing efforts to ensure they bring in new business effectively. You should rethink your strategy if you spend time and money on a campaign but don’t see a tangible result.
You can measure your success with Google Analytics, a website traffic analysis tool. Looking at your business’s revenue and costs would be best to ensure you’re making a profit. If you aren’t, you may need to re-evaluate your expenses and look for ways to lower your costs (this is also a good idea before you launch your business).
9. Keep Your Strategy Fresh
Once you have a solid marketing plan, keep your efforts fresh and ongoing.
You can utilize social media to keep your name in front of people. For example, Loverly Keto Cookies promotes its products on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as it invites people to join its newsletter.
To succeed with your e-commerce strategy, you must thoroughly understand your customers and the marketplace to determine which products to sell and how to market them.
10. Ensure Security
You must ensure the personal information of your customers is safe and secure. This includes any contact information they provide as well as financial information.
The FTC warns businesses not to provide any contact information using an unsecured method, such as a contact form that isn’t password protected or a form that asks for contact information in exchange for a discount or gift.
You should also ensure all your online transactions are secure by using encryption technology.
