Since the Facebook Live went off on April, 2016 became a year that witnessed greatest gearshift of video content.
So, why did Live Videos set this unparallel benchmark and is considered as one of the biggest trend by industry experts. Let’s look at this like this:
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Phew!! Thats hell of an engagement. So, if you are one of those E commerce brands diving into video marketing, I suggest to start with Facebook. The beauty of Facebook Live or any Live video is it is interactive and engaging. An impressive and meaningful video increases customer’s faith in brand and the product. Brands are using Live videos and why you should too: Audience crave videos. They serve as the best medium for storytelling. With growing shift in online shopping, customers are now moving on to omnichannel, seeking authenticity and an easy shopping experience. This makes it more difficult for you to keep your brand on strong foot and maintain constant touch with your customers. To so so, you need to move beyond the traditional e-commerce framework and generate an interesting content. Speaking of which, video is most popular and most viewed content among customer as it enables them to have crystal idea about the product. Coming to the why part of the question, ● Real time videos create more realistic and instant experience. It serves as a wonderful tool for personalization. ● Live videos creates a communicative channel. Hence, no matter where your viewers are, they feel connected to brand and an important part for the same. ● Video is way better and easier to get into head compared to eye draining written content. The more creative and fast loading video is, the more it is sharable. The best part of live video is, it enables instant feedback from customer, consumes lesser time in identifying the pain area of your audience and you get better idea of their likes dislikes. Facebook beats algorithm big time Let’s accept it! When algorithm hits, it's almost like
Of all benefits you and I have in mind, the most realistic one is: If you want to be visible and reach out in more organic search, Live videos dominates Facebook. As a matter of fact, right now, algorithm is all in love with Live videos than anything else.
Hence, if you make an interesting and engaging live video that is likable and sharable, it will be more relevant in search result and will appear more on newsfeeds. It can literally help you from disappearing from Web. Brands that got it right at first go: (A) BuzzFeed Buzzfeed literally took the internet by storm when it came up with crazy watermelon video. By the time it was over, it had already generated more than 800,000 viewers and was trending all over Facebook and twitter. I think that was the moment we all realized Facebook live was meant to stay forever and is no joke.
Lesson to Learn: The reason Buzzfeed could get a video like this viral was, its understanding and connect to the audience. Live video was to engage the audience and make them part of it. Though, many viewers agreed they didn't even know why they watched 45 mins long live video. But it surely made them glue to screen.
(A) Boohoo.com With over 380,000 views and over 300,000 comments, Boohoo had the top-performing live brand video of 2016. They leveraged Facebooks API to connect to it's audience live, with just series of trivia or images that can be answered about or inquired about in comments, within the set timer consistently flashing a winner every minute.
Lessons to learn: Timing your Facebook Live broadcast with a trending season is surely to give you an upper hand over other brands. Boohoo chose to go live during Black Friday, thereby leveraging customer’s lookout for urge to buy, and engaging them in various ways where they could win a product every 60 secs. Tempting offers helped in gluing customer to site and also generate a great deal of traffic to site, thereby increasing conversion rate by making most of festive season urge to shop. (A) Asos : Asos launched Facebook Live Broadcast in August 2016 called “100 layers of Asos” where two staff members dressed models in 100 layers of Asos clothing in 30 mins. They engaged viewers by asking them to drop their suggestios in comments as to which item should be hand picked first. This went very well for the brand and according to the Digiday The broadcast received 61,600 views, which is on par with the biggest publishers on the platform like the Daily Mail.
Lessons to learn: Live giveaway motivates audience to not be mere spectators and participate real time. This makes them feel counted and important. By engaging them to express their choice/opinion on what to style next, you establish a strong bond with your customers. They will always come back to you under such events. FInal Thoughts: As intimidating as the Facebook Live sounds, there is an easy way out if you are just beginning. For starters you can create series of steps, sequence it from what you plan to do, how can you promote the product in Live. Once you are done, encourage viewers feedback and follow up. This will help you see a motive/purpose in doing it. Once you see that, it's easy to tackle Facebook Live and make the most of it.
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Any e-retailer will tell you how tedious it is to manually place supply entries in spreadsheets. There is nothing quite so tedious as entering entire sales channels modifying quantities, placing entries and yet run out of stock unprepared.
Sadly, e-commerce operators are not the only victims of the manual processing plight; suppliers also experience their share of trouble. Whether it’s taking orders from various sales channels to keeping warehouses inventories updated, they’ve got a lot on their plate. Manual processing leaves a window for errors that can greatly affect business, which is why utilizing automation is essential a for e-retailers and suppliers looking for smoother operations. Order management systems (OMS) can make the ordering of goods and services a breeze. From tracking inventory and vendor information to automating stock deliveries based on customer or production demand, OMS brings out new and innovative solutions for businesses operating in multiple channels. It’s a great move, as long as you chose the best provider. What does Order management system (OMS) do? Integrating shipping service enables on-time delivery of productsTime is of the essence, and retailers are finding it harder than ever to meet deadlines. With Amazon setting order delivery standards so high, it has become more of a compulsion than a need to deliver orders on time. Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping for Amazon Prime customers and has even started offering same-day delivery. That said, small-scale retailers have to be more punctual about ensuring on-time delivery of products, which can be a horrendous task if they do not have an automated system. If you integrate your shipping services into your sales workflow, you’ll save time and energy generating shipping labels and choosing carriers. Most order management systems easily integrate with well known shipping partners like FedEx, USPS, UPS and several others. Be it your online store, your catalog or your warehouse, order management systems match the right inventory with accurate numbers and details of the product to your customer. Your order management system can also track shipments and separate a unique tracking number for customers, enabling both you and the customers to track the order throughout the fulfillment process. This service also simultaneously updates the shipping information on all channels. Another benefit of shipping integration is that it saves you from the tedious task of tracking labels and invoices. It automatically generates shipping labels along with customers’ name and address. In bulk order instances, shipping integration can save you copious amounts of time. Last but not least, order management systems show all the carrier rates in one place. Thus saving you from the time-consuming task of checking several different accounts to compare costs. Finding the best price is no simple task, especially when you are dealing with bulk orders. Order management system integration aids in quick processing by cutting down on manual work and human error. Syncing Inventory management software with OMS allows for seamless business transactionsThe ultimate goal of any business is to get customers to buy your product. However, if your back-end is not efficient, or your inventory isn't integrated with OMS, you are likely to miss out on potential clients. Unsynced inventory creates problems because it's difficult to manage orders that are refunded due to discontinued or out-of-stock items. If this were to occur regularly, it would hurt your business in the long run. Syncing your inventory with an OMS solution ensures orders are always fulfilled according to their requirements. Rusty Birds, a design startup with hand-crafted rustic metallic birds silhouettes that can be used to adorn homes and gardens, didn’t take long to realize how crucial it was to automate their order management workflow. Dealing with end customers and wholesalers, the team learned a lot about how to provide a hassle-free shopping experience for dealing with e-retailers. Namely, the importance of maintaining a smooth back-end process. Rusty Birds decided to choose Orderhive, a robust order management software, and the output was just terrific. OMS benefits extend to Brick-and-Click stores too. For instance, if a brick-and-click retailer sells an appliance in store which won’t be available online anytime soon, OMS inventory features will enable the supplier to connect post-sale data. It will also update the retailer’s website regarding when the product will be available online. OMS enhances scalability and revenue margin of businessAll businesses ultimately boil down to profit margins, generated revenue, customer satisfaction and retention rates. So, retailers dealing in multiple channels have to see what order management does for the fulfilment process. Order management simplifies customer orders by enabling retailers to modify/alter products as they wish -- making it simpler for retailers to remotely access inventory. This enables them to cut down shipping costs as well as speed up delivery time. You can also monitor the cycle time to streamline order processing. Product flaws can also be tracked so that there are less returns and cancellations. With a centralized OMS, you can make sure your customers purchase and receive the order exactly as they intended, while ensuring you significantly increase profit. Allows retailers to focus more on core aspects like marketing & promotionFrom marketing the business to serving the client while monitoring warehouses, retailers work with tight schedules and ever-growing demands from customers. Management and sales representatives in B2B marketing benefit from accurate sales insights. One of the greatest aspects of OMS is that sales reps have detailed order histories at their fingertips that enable them to better understand customers and the kinds of products they’re looking for. Also, having all sales data on hand helps them make informed decisions when providing offers, prices and promotions to clients. Automation will leave no chance for errors that can create future trouble. OMS is an ideal system for all the one-man armies out there that are dealing with various storefronts. Orignal Source: https://www.prontomarketing.com/2016/12/why-you-need-to-integrate-an-order-management-system-with-your-ecommerce-website/ I’m sure many sellers prefer to maintain a separate inventory calendar for managing their holiday sales orders. This is because it becomes easy to analyze performance and ensure appropriate stocking to fulfil every order that comes in.
Inventory management software is surely helping sellers eliminate the risk of running out of stock, especially during the busiest selling days of the year, but yet, many may still find it a challenge to ensure in-time delivery. Not being able to deliver your customer’s gifts or purchases as per their Holiday needs can spread a bad word of mouth for your retail brand! Drop shipping- “Kill two birds with one arrow” Drop shipping eliminates the hassle for performing shipping tasks on your own, as this time-saving fulfilment method directly allows sellers an opportunity to get their customer’s order processed from the supplier’s end. How does drop shipping work? As soon as your store gets an order, quickly communicate sales details to one of your suppliers with stock on hand to pack and ship your customer’s orders on-the-go. This means without having to worry about connecting with shipping services, drop shipping also eliminates the cost and effort behind maintaining separate warehouses to ensure accurate stock flow throughout holiday season. Unfortunately, all is not great about with drop shipping business; therefore, to avoid major pitfalls of drop shipping you can continue reading this article!! 1- What if you are unable to communicate order details on-the-go? Considering Holiday season to be the busiest selling days of the year for retailers, shoppers from across the globe would like to make purchases of the favourite products or send gifts to the friends and family on major occasions that includes Christmas Eve and New Year’s too. Unable to maintain an instant sales order communication with your suppliers can delay order fulfilment process and spoil your customer’s holiday experience. What you can do? Having an ability to sync all your suppliers at one place and being able to view their inventory/stock level in real time, will make it quick to identify the correct supplier instead of coordinating with multiple suppliers to confirm stock availability. 2- What if you are unable to alert for change in delivery information or cancellation? Centralizing your supplier’s can make it easy for you to identify potential ones that are sure of having stock in hand to fulfil your customer’s orders in time. However, considering the holiday season, shoppers from across the globe would like to receive or send gifts at convenience. Not being able to reach out customer’s requirements until order delivered may add negative impact on their holiday shopping experience with your retail brand. What you can do? Mobile apps can be an ideal solution, considering the fact that your drop shipping software allows you to connect with suppliers over their smartphones. With instant messaging or alert over the phone can allow you ensure suppliers take immediate measures to stop orders being delivered at wrong place and assure fulfilment is continued when there is someone to available to receive it. 3- What if you are unable to entertain customer’s product delivery preferences? Holiday season being the best gifting days of the year, customer won’t like if you make them wait for their orders. However, being able to allow flexibility in your customer’s holiday purchase delivery preferences can eliminate the risks of multiple attempts to failure. What you can do? Dealing with suppliers who offer shipment tracking details for all you sales orders that you drop ship can automatically avoid unsuccessful product delivery scenarios. For instance, receiving shipping tracking details you can share information with your customer’s, who in turn, can directly coordinate with the suppliers and request for changes to delivery choices, if any. The Final Advice on Drop shipping for Holiday Season Drop shipping software is helping retailers save time from inventory and order fulfilment hassles. However, adopting the one accommodating the above three major challenges can help you enhance your virtual supply chain performance throughout the upcoming holidays 2016 and for years to come! Online shopping has surely made it easy for people from across the globe to send gifts to their friends and family during the special upcoming occasions that include Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. With so many options available online, how can you assure consumers visit your eCommerce store for making purchases this holiday season? Retaining existing customers can be an easy way to attract holiday sales for your eCommerce store, rather than targeting new ones. You may have come across this in a number of reports based on customer acquisition; however, thinking practically targeting your customers with seasonal deal and offers may not make them think twice about taking actions, unlike new shoppers who have never made a purchase from your eCommerce store. Importance of targeting promotional offers to your existing customers during Holiday season I’m sure sellers from across the globe have already started being loud about their products and holiday offers to attract more and more shoppers towards their eCommerce stores. However, targeting your existing customers with special benefits can increase the chances of potential purchases rather than offering the same content for your new as well as existing customers. Holiday promotional examples from leading eCommerce brand Zappos TopShop Sephora Nordstrom Gap Email marketing an old but effective method of promotion for Holiday Season, let me tell you why?
The increase in a number of spam emails may stop many sellers from the idea of running email promotional campaigns and mostly may depend on click-through advertising which can be expensive as actions will depend on the popularity of your eCommerce brand. Email marketing can an ideal option for seasonal promotions as it will allow sellers to target their customers with personalized products and offers to encourage them take actions on-the-go. Apart from helping you target each of your customer’s individually, email marketing campaigns can boost sales opportunities from customers who have already shown interest in your eCommerce brand. What can be those tips and tricks to perform effective seasonal email marketing campaigns for your eCommerce brand? Holiday season is one the best days of the year to send emails, that will not give you a chance to improve relationship with your existing customers but also, encourage them with personalized content and deals and make easy purchase/gifting decisions during the upcoming holiday season 2016. Tip 1- Create a buzz about the upcoming holiday season Holiday shoppers will look up for brands that allow them to make informed purchase decisions, therefore, having an ability to make your customers access information about the trending gifts and products offers throughout the Holiday season may save them time and make purchases on-the-go. What you can do? Targeting your customers with a Holiday welcome email can make them feel you care for their purchases during those auspicious days of the year; however, infusing a signup form for your brand newsletters can help them gain access to your valuable products and deals to fulfil their holiday shopping need throughout the season. Tip 2- Be loud about the special benefits Allowing easy access to your products can help you attract customers, however, offering seasonal discounts can encourage your existing customers to take actions on-the-go. What you can do? Integrating promotional discount codes or coupons in your email marketing campaigns can ensure your potential customers will make purchases from your brand to make more purchases for less money. Showcasing the benefits of saving money, can encourage your existing customers to increase order value each time they’ll shop from your eCommerce brand during the holiday season Tip 3- Allow them to make quick purchase decisions With multiple options available online, holiday shoppers won’t like to confuse themselves while making purchases or sending gifts for friends and family during those special occasions. Allowing them quick access to products of their choice can help them stick with your eCommerce throughout the season. What you can do? Considering your offerings, sharing information about products that can be good gifts will help you trigger your customer’s purchase decision on-the-go. For example, send emails with multiple gifting product options will narrow down your customer’s search for making their holiday purchases. Tip 4- Offer a value Mostly all eCommerce brands will have their own unique holiday marketing strategies, however, giving a value to your loyal customers will stop them looking up for other brand’s deals during the season. What you can do? Understanding your customer’s purchase behaviour and giving away freebies as per their preferences can automatically make them feel worth of making purchases from your brand, as well as, save their time in finding the best holiday deals online. Tip 5- Create urgency Lastly, you would not like to perform the same email marketing strategy throughout the season. Therefore, ensuring urgency in your holiday offers can allow you perform multiple promotional strategies and make the best out of the season. What you can do? Whether you consider the overall holiday season, or, each promotional campaign you perform, showcasing urgency/a time limit in each email your send to your customers can make them take instant actions in fear to lose the special deals by delaying their purchase decisions. Closing advice If you can’t invest heavily, try email marketing this holiday season! Adopting email marketing automation, you can save time and effort while sending the best promotional emails to woo your customers this holiday season. Best of luck and season’s greetings :) The day you stop marketing will directly hamper the bottom line of your business. Therefore, marketing has always been and will always be the backbone of any selling business. Gone are the days when marketing was limited to print ads, today, with the advancement of the technology Internet sellers have multiple options to promote their products and services. Multi-channel marketing can be defined as offering consumers ability to reach your product and brand information via include traditional methods like flyers, brochures, or even, digital methods like website banners, PR, blogs, and social media marketing. “With the increasing competition in the selling world, the more you make your products information available to consumers the better sales opportunities you can expect with time.” Tweet this Multi-channel selling is already there; however, allowing consumers to connect with your brand via their favorite touch points, and platforms is helping sellers with new opportunities by offering Omnichannel shopping experience to consumers. Omnichannel marketing- What sellers need to know? Considering the brand Apple, consumers who shop online can expect the same customer experience when shopping from an offline Apple store. Therefore, offering consumers with information and innovative experiences across multiple touch points that can include your selling website, social media channels, offline store, and mobile devices will automatically help you attract potential consumers who are active on such platforms on a regular basis. Benefits of Omnichannel marketing According to a 2016 report by eMarketer, the average US adults will consume approximately 6 hours of their usage over digital platforms like desktops, laptops and mobile devices that include smartphones, tablets, etc. Being present on constantly-changing consumer’s choice of touchpoints sellers can: - Meet consumers where they are With multiple options available in the market, consumers are no longer stuck to one platform for making their purchase decisions, and being able to access your brand information across their multiple touch points can ensure you offer them a flexibility to connect with your brand in the way they want. The more places your brand is visible, the better chances of it becoming visible to consumers from their preferred purchase preference. - Identify potential consumer’s preferences Sellers who have not adopted Omnichannel strategy may overlook the benefits of making their brand reachable to consumers via their preferred touchpoints. However, understanding on the usage of consumer touchpoints can help you be in line with consumer’s choice of connecting and dealing with a brand. - Target consumers confidently Being in touch with consumer’s preferences with a brand will need constant tracking, however, analyzing omnichannel tactics offered by popular brands will make it easy for you to come up with innovative ideas and reach out consumers in a way they would like. Omnichannel strategy examples from popular retail brands I- Considering online retail business Nordstrom is one such fashion brand that allows consumers with an omnichannel returns experience, which means the brand allows consumers ability to return their online purchases at the nearest store in The United States. This brand has 334 stores operating in 39 states and Canada. How does it benefit consumers? Allowing consumers an ability to deal with your brand in multiple ways, whether related purchase or even returns, can automatically earn trust and encourage more and more consumers to stick with your brand for long. Tip: Of course, you may not have a chain of stores like Nordstrom does, or may only be selling online. Therefore, affiliating with an offline store or entertaining consumers returns request via your online selling website in case of an offline purchase, can offer consumers a unique advantage of selecting your brand over competitors. II- Considering brick-and-mortar retail business Oasis is another innovative retail brand that allows in-store iPad service. This means consumers instead of standing in those long queues can immediately pay for their purchase from the trial rooms using the iPad, while receipt and the garment will be delivered to consumers within 90 minutes of ordering. How does it benefit consumers? Offering a next-level high street store shopping experience, Oasis is making it easy for consumers to get an idea about the size, color, and style of available products from anywhere on the shopping floor and changing rooms too. Tip: Instead of making consumers dependent on store executive, taking advantage of the latest technology and allowing them with self-assisted product information and purchase abilities can enhance their offline store shopping experience. Also, allowing consumers to process returns directly from your selling website can eliminate them take the pain of especially having to visit the store to make a claim. III- Considering mobile retail experience Starbucks another popular retail brand is allowing one of the most engaging omnichannel shopping experiences via its Reward app. This app allows Starbucks consumers to pay via the app, collect stars, earn rewards, as well as, find the nearest store in town. How does it help consumers?
Considering a recent report of Statista the number of smartphone users in the United States is estimated to reach 207.2 million by end of this year, while forecast to exceed 2 billion users worldwide. This means allowing consumers to engage with your products and services via their mobile devices can make it easy for them to connect with your brand anytime, anywhere. Tip: Helping consumers to use your promotional and loyalty discount codes via your mobile selling website/app, and even alerting them for the same can encourage them to take actions on-the-go. Also, allowing paperless purchase transactions can encourage them to make purchases without the need of having to remove their wallet. Closing advice With the upcoming holiday season 2016 offering Omnichannel shopping experience will surely allow a competitive advantage over sellers who have yet not adopted this strategy; however, being innovative with your tactics and measuring performance for each will determine the success of your Omnichannel tactics with time.
You may have products that are needed to fulfil consumers needs, however, with competition increasing on a daily basis- not offering information that is required to influence their purchase decisions can hamper growth.
Content marketing is here since quite a while now, however, the resources accepted by online shoppers have gone far beyond templates and email marketing campaigns. But the question, are you adapting content marketing methods that are being accepted by consumers over time. Editorial content an effective buzzword for seller in this year 2016 Price can surely be one of the most important influencing factors to online shoppers; however, content is helping sellers to differentiate their brand and products from competitors across the web. What is editorial content? When I say content it does not limit to product descriptions but with the popularity of digital channels, content is now being offered in a way to educate consumers and not just offer them a bunch of selling ads. This can be known as an editorial content marketing effort. To make it easy for you, I have chosen few eCommerce brands that are performing excellent editorial content marketing strategies. Let’s take a look at them: 1. Product tutorial- To demonstrate the use of your product Beauty Bay, a beauty care brand started off with luxury fragrances and today includes skin care, makeup and hair care products too. What makes the brand innovative? This brand allows online consumers an ability to gain access to products tutorials that help them understand the correct choice of product by offering a demonstration of its usage. Benefit to consumers: Online shoppers have multiple choices to make purchases; however, knowing about the usage of products in the most effective ways can help them enhance their purchases each time they shop online. What you can do? In 2015, the number of digital video users in The United States surpassed 200 million. Considering this, adopting product tutorial strategy can help you present multiple usages of your products and increase awareness among potential consumers. Tip: You can individually showcase usage for each, or even offer a mixture of product video tutorials. 2. Digital magazine- To increase trust Net-A-Porter, the world’s premium luxury fashion destination offers product categories that include bags, jewelry, and lingerie. What makes the brand innovative? This brand makes it easy for online consumers to stay updated with the latest products in the fashion world, as well as, gain access to innovative inspirations for enhancing their style-quotient and purchase decision with time.
Benefit to consumers: Allowing digital edition of knowledge-resource (magazine) via a mobile app can eliminate consumers to switch over multiple sites across the web.
What you can do? Potential consumers won’t mind sticking with a brand if it allows them to do so. Having consumers an ability to be updated with the latest styles and trends via their smartphones can help them ensure they are able to access information on-the-go. Tip: Offering a magazine app can be effective; however, ensuring your blog page is mobile optimized can help you frequently convert potential audience to regular visitors and shoppers too. 3. Customer clicks- To engage consumers Free People, a part of Urban Outfitters offers apparel and lifestyle accessories that include intimates and swimwear too. What makes the brand innovative? This brand allows online consumers to get creative and showcase their own style using Free People clothing and products. It’s FP Me profile is allowing fashionistas multiple opportunities to become famous for their classy styles and trends.
Benefit to consumers: Helping consumers to be a part of a brand mixed with some fun will automatically encourage more and more people to participate and gain popularity in their online networks.
What you can do? Be it your social media business account, or, your online selling website, encouraging consumers to be associated with your brand, for example allowing them to share a photo of themselves posing with your products, will help you create a buzz among other fashionistas in the online world. Tip: Announcing a free gift for every image shared by your consumers, can result to better participants. 4. User-generated reviews- To enhance purchase decisions Stitch Fix, a personal styling service allows consumers to style and receive their clothing and accessories as per their requirements. What makes the brand innovative? This brand itself is an innovative eCommerce business idea, additionally; by displaying user-generated customer review surely is an add-on for consumer’s purchase decision.
Benefit to consumers: Shopping online, especially fashion and lifestyle products can be tricky if consumers are not offered with some trust marks. And, direct voice of consumers who have already used the product can give you an opportunity to refrain a consumer from taking a second thought.
What you can do? Extracting reviews from your repeat customers can be effective rather than targeting all blindly. Therefore, by using contact management software and analyzing your customer’s shopping behaviour, keep posting direct-voice of customers on your selling site and social media platforms too. Tip: Adding visuals to your customer’s reviews can create an excellent impact in consumer’s mind while taking Wrapping up With the above, whichever way you go, the kind of content you offer will determine the bonding with online consumers by offering them materials they would like and reflect their ever-changing lifestyles and interests. Allowing consumers to shop for their favourite products and brands at their own convenience is surely increasing the demand for eCommerce business. Below is a list of global markets with highest online penetration rate as of fourth quarter of 2015. Source: Statista With the increasing demand of shopping online, more and more sellers are seen to be expanding their presence online; hence, many may still finding it difficult to withstand the ever-growing competition. In this article, we discuss on those important factors that can help sellers build a reliable eCommerce brand When consumers think of purchasing a product online there are many areas that influence their decisions, however, with multiple options available across the web, it is important on how you win their trust and retain them for your eCommerce brand. Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars behind those promotional tactics may help you divert traffic to your store; however, to bring them back to your brand will depend on the customer experience you offer. Considering Usability: 1- Convenience to reach brand With competition increasing in the online world on a daily basis, sellers need to realize the importance of getting their brand visible to online consumers. Why? With hundreds and thousands of sellers selling identical products online, may not make your brand visible in the crowd. What you can do? Focusing on improved SEO tactics and experimenting with valuable keywords in your content strategy for your eCommerce store can help you enhance your brand ranking in Google and other search engines too. For instance: If you are running a fashion business online, looking up for keywords close to your brand name in search engines can help you utilize the ones that are already trending. 2- Access to information on-the-go Once consumers land at your eCommerce store, they would look up for information and products they wish to purchase. Why? Unable to access information for making strong purchase decisions, consumers will immediately jump to one of your competitors who allow them. What you can do? Allowing consumers to easily spot information they are looking for, can increase engagement level and encourage many to take action on-the-go. For instance: Whether your consumers visit your online store via mobile, the web, or even through social media channels, ensuring accurate information is upfront available for consumers, can eliminate them from giving a second thought on purchasing their favourite products online. 3- Flexible delivery Gone are the days when cash on delivery was a compulsion to withstand competition! Today, with sellers having their brand presence across the globe, consumers prefer to transact with the ones that allow them with flexible payment options. Why? Instead of having to depend on a certain day or date to receive products, many consumers may find it time-saving and effortless if they are allowed to receive delivery of their products as per their requirements. What you can do? With Amazon lately announcing its first cargo service, sellers can expect to offer consumers with the same day delivery. Therefore, considering your target audience and offering innovative delivery options may make them depend on your brand for their future purchase and receive their favourite products in the most convenient ways. For instance: Considering you have more of local customer’s, or, you are using Amazon’s fulfilment centers to stock your products across their multiple warehouses, offering in-store, as well as, a fixed-hour delivery slot will automatically not make your consumers wait longer over a cheap or free delivery service. 4- Access to reviews Direct voice from people is a physiological trigger that helps consumers save time and enhance their purchase making decisions when shopping online. Why? With hundreds of sellers selling the same products online, it becomes difficult to create trust in consumer’s mind. However, having an access to opinions by consumers who have already used your products can eliminate them to jump to one of your competitors even if they are popular. What you can do? Encouraging customer’s reviews are surely helping online sellers enhance awareness for their brand, however, focusing on the relevant keywords and tags in your reviews will automatically make other consumer’s inquisitive to know more about your brand. For instance: You receive an online review and it offers the exact purpose and information that is required to capture consumer’s attention, however, requesting the online reviewers to tag your brand and share them in their social networking can help create trust among potential consumers in their networks too. 5- Fulfilment and returns policy Consumers may not come back if offered a bad shopping experience. Therefore, the time duration you deal with your consumer’s purchase and return orders, will determine the retention rate for your eCommerce business. Why? Offering on-the-spot delivery service like that of a brick-and-mortar store is not possible for any online seller, however, consumers would surely not like to wait longer than what was promised. What you can do? Adopting multi-channel fulfilment software, which allows you to connect your Amazon fulfilment stores as well as other selling channel’s order details at one place, can help process multiple sales order in one go. Return orders can also be tracked in real-time to ensure consumers can get their purchase orders as soon as possible. For instance: Selling across multiple channels you may receive hundreds of orders for your stores, however, being able to auto-sync details at one place can enhance fulfilment processes. Considering Safety: 6- Payment method Having consumer’s pay for their purchases online depends on the transaction safety offered. Unable to offer the most preferred payment method will automatically make consumers hesitant to pay upfront and increase the number of COD orders for your eCommerce business. Why? Consumers who transact online easily trust popular payment options, and not being able to make payment via their regular payment methods can encourage them to discontinue their purchases. What you can do? Authorize.Net, Stripe, PayPal are some of the popular payment options offered by many eCommerce brands to consumers. Therefore, allowing methods that are already being used by online shoppers help you eliminate shopping cart abandonment rates for your online brand. For instance: You brand may allow access to some of the popular payment options, however, unable to spot them on-the-go, will automatically encourage consumers to opt for cash on delivery. 7- Updates to the latest trends You may deal with some of the best-selling categories; however, educating consumers with additional information about using your products can automatically increase engagement and sale opportunities, both. Why? Being able to shop for the latest fashion is one factor that is surely influencing online shoppers, however, an ability to gain innovative ideas about using the products can help them make informed purchases, always. What you can do? Apart from keeping consumers updated with the latest products, increasing their knowledge about your product offering can make them feel you care for their purchases. For instance: Infusing a blog page, or, even video tutorials relevant to your product offerings, can make potential consumers visit your online brand on a regular basis. 8- Multi-language tool Increasing your online brand presence across the globe can be a profit-making idea, however, if consumers are not familiar with the language you offer may exit your site even if your brand had the products and information they were looking for. Why? English considered to be a universal language spoken across the globe, is offered by many online sellers to consumers for promoting their brand and products. However, with many expats settled across the globe can hamper potential opportunities, just because they were unable to understand content that you brand offers. What you can do? Integrating translator tool in your online selling website will help consumers an ability to gain access to machine-translation service to know about your products and brand in the language they are comfortable. For instance: You may be selling your products across the globe, however, not all consumers may be familiar with the same language, therefore, having an access to a translating tool can eliminate Non-English speaking consumers access your brand in the language they want. 9- Shipping charges/Benefits Shipping details is another crucial factor that online shoppers will look-up when making purchase decisions. Why? Consumers who shop online would not like to spend more, especially additional shipping charges, as many online consumers still think it’s a liability to sellers. What you can do? Charging consumers for shipping is an obvious thing as per the delivery location and its requirements; however, not offering clear shipping details can make consumers feel they are being charged extra, who in turn, may discontinue their purchases. For instance: If you are offering free shipping on certain products and mentioning about it on the product detail or checkout page can make consumers feel the benefit and ensure they won’t be charged extra on delivery. 10- Instant communication ability Many consumers who land on your site may not get what they are looking for. And, unable to gain access to information on-the-go will automatically encourage many to leave your site, who in turn, may not return in future. Why? Consumers who shop online try and seek as much as information they can, for the products they wish to purchase. What you can do? Allowing an immediate chat/call support or, even a self-assisted knowledge base can help those lost consumers gain access to information that can allow them to complete their online purchases. For instance: A consumer who has added one of your product to their shopping cart, may be further interested in additional purchases. Unable to find a right match or relevant products, such consumers may drop out the plan of purchasing from your site. This is where instant communication software can be of great help for them and you, both!! Wrapping up Since you are into an online selling business that does not allow consumers to feel or touch the product while making purchases from your brand, offering a unique trust and an excellent shopping experience will not make them feel insecure shopping from your brand in years to come. Godspeed! So, you think of opening an online store, you have a website ready, your products are great, and you have also adopted multi-channel retail management software for your online retail business. That sounds; you are all set to go! What many online retailers overlook is to ensure content and information are allowed to consumers in the most convenient ways. Business owners who are unable to do so may end up losing many potential sales opportunities. This article will highlight the top 5 communication areas that online retailers should focus on and how popular software mentioned below are helping them: 1. Respond via inbound call support With multiple online retail brands offering all-in-one shopping solution, consumers won’t stick to a site for long if they are not getting what they want. This is where communication software can give you a chance to hold back those potential customers by answering their questions in minutes. Popular software that you can consider: Vivocha This software helps retail business owners to immediately communicate with online shoppers who are lost while browsing their site. Allowing a combination of VoIP (audio and video), retailers can offer assistance to customers with concerns directly from their website via Vivocha console. Vivocha’s mobile SDK also allows retailers to interact with mobile shoppers via chat or call support to ensure assistance can be offered to them at their own convenient time and place they need it. How does it help online shoppers? With an instant access to contact the brand, online shoppers may not mind sticking to the site that allows assistance with relevant products and content information from the website itself. How does it help online retailers? Allowing online shoppers to immediately connect with a direct voice can increase brand awareness, as well as, save time and increase the numbers of resolved queries. 2. Assist via Real-time Chat support Consumers don't like to struggle for long in finding information and content to make purchase decisions online. And, unable to offer immediate assistance to such customers will automatically increase bounce rate for your online retail business. Integrating a live chat support tool in your selling website will encourage online shoppers directly ping you, instead of switching over pages to find the information they are looking for. Popular software that you can consider: LiveChat This software will act a real-time support service, allowing online shoppers an opportunity to immediately start a conversation. Offering an ability to get in touch with online shoppers via your website, this communication software automatically triggers a popup chat window to prompt all those customers struggling with your site. How does it help online shoppers? Allowing online customers to gain access to products or information in real-time, will help them make smarter online decisions and purchases whenever shopping from your brand. How does it help online retailers? Having an ability to instantly connect with lost customers in the early minutes of their browsing will help retailers retain many online shoppers and encourage them to complete their incomplete actions and purchases. 3. Offer Help Desk service support Consumers who will land in your online store will have many questions in their mind while making purchases that can include, shipping details, and returns. Unable to get answers to any of their questions can encourage them to immediately exit your site and automatically creates a bad impression about the brand in their minds. Offering access to all that information that are required for making purchases can help online shoppers when in doubt, instead of having to depend on messages, calls, or even, emails. Popular software that you can consider: Freshdesk This software allows online retailers to offer an interactive knowledge-base, making it easy and quick for shoppers to spot answers to their questions from within the website. Apart from focusing content on frequently asked questions by online shoppers, retailers can allow access to product usage via tutorials, technical documentations and much more. How does it help online shoppers? Being able to look-up for required information from within the website will not only allow online shoppers to make informed decisions but also, saves them time and effort when shopping online. How does it help online retailers? With an ability to offer online shoppers a self-assisted documentations- apart from offering a great customer experience, online retailers can also reduce the amount of customer query tickets. 4. Connect with customers on social media Social media being one of the most preferred platforms for consumers to get responses from brands, unable to assist any of their concerns will have a negative impact on your online selling business. Whether you have a single or multiple social business accounts, having ability to communicate with consumers in the quickest ways will spread a unique trust for your brand in the online world. Popular software that you can consider: Zendesk Considering a potential for high engagement on social media between brands and consumers, this software allows online retailers quickly connect with online shoppers across multiple social networking sites. Also, allowing an ability to bring all your social conversations and data at one place, Zendesk makes it easy to offer personalized solutions as per the customer’s requirements. How does it benefit online shoppers? Considering social media sites like Facebook, Twitter to be one of the most used communication channels, such software infuses a blend of fun and trust among social networkers when they interact with an online brand. How does it benefit online retailers? Without the hassle of logging into multiple social media accounts, retailers can get an ability to sync all their social media conversation in centralized system and offer personalized solutions, always. 5. Send emails for incomplete actions First-time consumers who will land in your online retail store may not take action and leave your site for one of your competitors. The reasons may be due lack of information available on your website, or even, on your product purchase checkout page. Unable to keep a track on consumer’s browsing behaviour, you are automatically losing potential customers who have already shown interest in your online brand. Popular software that you can consider: Vero Known for triggering consumers back to your online site, this software allows online retailers to convert lost sales opportunities that have knocked your door. Vero allows online retailers to send Drip campaigns, allowing them to target right consumers with the right information and encourage them to take actions, instantly. How does it benefit online shoppers? Having a doubt with their online purchase decisions, being educated with the relevant information may make it easy for them to complete their actions. How does it benefit online retailers? Being able to focus on potential customer’s preferences and choices, online retailers can get a chance to increase sales opportunities with less of marketing efforts. Wrapping up Now that you know how effective can communication software is, your business growth will depend on how soon you apply them to your online retail store! Godspeed:) Content has always been the key for any selling business, for quite a while now. What more surprising, despite the advancement of technology, yet content is the king for an eCommerce business owner. Role of content for ecommerce Rewind a decade; the assortment of products offered to customers would determine the success of your eCommerce business. Today, with multiple sellers selling identical products online, content allows eCommerce owners to attract the audience as well as keep them engaged with the brand. In 2016 and beyond machine generated content may be a hot topic, however, only sticking to the old practices like “email marketing” may hamper sales opportunities for our eCommerce business. Today, content can be offered through multiple sources that include videos, reviews, newsletters, eBooks, and social media. If you have yet not adapted, or, your software limits you from offering content in the most trending ways, then you are losing money on the table. This is where eCommerce bloggers/consultants are helping sellers to not only present their brand content in the most innovative ways but also, allows them to achieve the most important factors of a marketing campaign. How can an eCommerce blogger help sellers in their content marketing campaigns? 1. Fulfil SEO parameters The way you offer content will determine the engagement level for your brand and products. And, the more engagement, the better visibility you’ll get. Blogger’s contribution Either running their own consulting service or work as a freelancer for multiple online brands- bloggers constantly keep themselves updated to the latest keywords. How does it help? Having an ability to adapt the most trending keywords in your blog posts and articles will automatically help you improve your brand rankings in Google and other search engines too. 2. Create a buzz for your latest updates Personalization is the key to a successful marketing campaign, and not having a complete authority in your content marketing campaigns will automatically lose you potential opportunities. Blogger’s contribution Such experts are not stuck to the blog page, instead, focus on the ever-changing demand of content sources that are being adopted by online shoppers. How does it help? Bloggers allow sellers opportunities to offer their latest updates through videos, images, podcasts, and infographics to ensure brand updates are offered in the most engaging ways accepted by the target audience. 3. Start a discussion on social media platforms If eCommerce is the King, then social media is its Queen! With so many social media sites available over the web, it becomes important how well you distribute content and on which platforms. Blogger’s contribution Regularly updating content or running social media marketing campaigns for multiple clients, bloggers find it easy to spot correct platforms to engage the audience. How does it help? Popular social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn allow eCommerce sellers to start discussions, and with the help of a blogger; sellers can ensure increased brand awareness among social media shoppers too. 4. Address to readers concerns Running an online selling business, apart from content promotional activity, it’s important you assist their concerns on-the-go. Unable to resolve any of your customer’s queries in time can lose potential opportunities for your eCommerce business. Blogger’s contribution Being updated to the latest ecommerce trends and updates, such bloggers are the best source for connecting and offering insights to ensure customer always gets the right solution. How does it help? With an ability to offer quick solutions, bloggers can ensure all reader’s queries are solved, helping you increase loyalty and trust for the eCommerce brand. 5. Support product category management team It’s always helpful to have your content generator and category management team in direct coordination with each other for adapting quick solutions. Unable to address any of your customer’s concern can create a bad impression in their mind and hamper sales opportunities for your eCommerce business. Blogger’s contribution Representing as a solution provider in person, bloggers can have an immediate access to the in-house team and quickly provide them with resources and recommendations. How does it help? Content allows customers an opportunity to gain quick insights on products they wish to purchase, and by integrating a blogger for your eCommerce business can allow you offer them an access to trending solutions and improve customer experience each time. To know more about enhancing your customer's experience, click here. Ghost blogging an optional for eCommerce sellers The word “ghost” may sound funny, however, the writer who isn’t given credit for their work are known as ghost writers/bloggers. This does not mean it is an illegal activity, but bliss for all those sellers who don’t have the time or the skills needed to generate content marketing strategies for their eCommerce business. Major benefits of working with a Ghost writer a- Cost-effective Eliminating the hassle of full-time writer, ghost bloggers can save monthly fees by only paying them for the work they perform. b- Flexible Full-time writers may work according to a content calendar; however, in a case of sudden promotion and site updates, they may not be flexible. Ghost bloggers only bother about the output for they get paid for. c- Result oriented Unlike the full-time or in-house writer, ghost bloggers are capable of pushing their turnaround time offering better results in less time. Closing note So, content! It helps get more customers and easily sell your online products. You may still be struggling to attract customers; however, with the help of an eCommerce bloggers, the benefits of their content can get you thousands of views over the lifetime. Keep Blogging :) Since the dawn of digital, there has been a huge talk on what companies are doing for digital marketing. Whether it’s blogging, paid search or SEO, companies are using unique ideas to reach their audience with the relevant information. The content marketing trend has changed and today; we cannot deny the fact that the best vehicle for content marketing is Podcast. Podcast is an easy consumable content format which does not require any text or video like any other content formats do. It's simply an audio digital file which needs to be downloaded, and listen anytime and anywhere. That’s the reason why a large retail business group is using podcast and getting unique ideas for their online business. Here’s the list of inspirational podcasts for online retailers: 1. eCommerceFuel eCommerceFuel is the best community for online retailers where they can get tips and tricks for their 6 & 7 figure online stores from the founder Andrew Youderian. eCommerceFuel podcast focuses on tips, strategies and stories from the likes of building a store to the nitty gritty of buying and selling a business and giving marketing tips. The recent shows in trending are: Selling a Business, How to Invest & Building Community — A Discussion with Ian Schoen and Reader Questions on Product Development, Buying Sites & More. 2. EcomCrew The founders of ecomcrew - Mike Jackson and Grant Yuan have years of experience in online business. Mike keeps blogging on various topics of eCommerce and retailing and has a huge collection which can be useful for any online retailer or a novice who just started up. EcomCrew podcast is all about building a successful store, improving consumer experience, inventory control and more! A couple of interesting interviews includes Recent changes made on Amazon Review System with a special guest Jeff Cohen and SEO and Ecommerce, containing three-part series. 3. Build My Online Store Every Sunday on Build My Store Online, Travis Marziani and Terry Lin talk on vivid topics of e-commerce and online marketing giving retailers unique tips on promoting brands and products. In addition to blogs and podcasts, Build My Store Online consists of useful resources and services for online retailers. Recent Sunday episodes include Using Postcards To Increase Lifetime Value with Touchcard.co and 10 Email Sequences Your Online Store Should Have 4. Shopify Masters The experts on Shopify Masters podcasts talk about actionable strategies and marketing tips helping retailers in growing profitable online stores. Therefore, these episodes are a valuable resource for any store owner who is looking for good opportunities in online business. Take a look at couple of recent episodes: Disrupting the Market: How Lululemon’s Former CEO Boosted Stock Prices by 400% and How Bento&co Partners with YouTubers and Bloggers to Drive Sales 5. The Fizzle Show The Fizzle show is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs and honest business builders who want to earn their living doing something they care about. The episodes are full of fun, business advice, and entertainment making it enjoyable while listening. The recent episodes include: A Day in the Life of an Entrepreneur(FS166) and 3 Hard Things That TRULY Matter to Your Business (FS165). 6. My Wife Quit Her Job My Wife Quit Her Job is a website owned by Steve Chou and his wife Jennifer where they share their experiences of how they launched their online store BumblebeeLinens.com and earned $100K within a year. The podcast is an interview-based show where Steve interviews successful store owners on what they did and how did they succeed… Tune into a couple of recent episodes including How To Transition From Amazon To Your Own Ecommerce Store With Kurt Elster and How To Make 20 Million Per Year With Only 2 Employees Selling Vacuum Filters With Chad Rubin. 7. 1 Day Business Breakthrough 1daybb.com is a not just a website, it’s an experience brought by Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker who love to bring entrepreneurs together to brainstorm and mastermind to achieve breakthroughs and business growth. Each episode of podcast brings the most pressing problem of entrepreneurs in their own voice which is followed by Pat and Chris thoughts on how to overcome them. Recent episodes from 1daybb include Hotseat #25 (Carrie) - Getting Serious About Recurring Membership Opportunities and Hotseat #24 (Chris) - Promoting a Retail Location with Smart Local Marketing. Note: Retailers can go to the website and listen to the above episodes directly. 8. Niche Pursuits Spencer Haws is the brain behind Niche Pursuits who started creating niche websites using his own principles. He is also the creator of Long Tail Pro- the effective keyword tool which became the part of his business. The podcast episodes deliver practical advice and solutions for creating and running a niche e-commerce business. Two of the most trending podcast episodes include: How Hayden Miyamoto Finds and Scales High Quality Link Building Opportunities in 2016 and How Jon Haver Built an Amazon FBA and Affiliate Site Business That Shattered His $15k Per Month Income Goal 9. Etsy Conversation Podcast Etsy conversations Podcast features inspiring interviews of Etsy and non-Etsy shop owners. The podcast episodes deliver stories of successful store owners who started their business of selling handmade products. A couple of recent inspiring interviews from Etsy shop owners includes Modern Pelage - How Veronica created a business to support her personal aspirations, and more! and Tripawds- Rene and her husband share their experience of which tool they used in making their online business successful. 10. Mixergy Mixergy is a platform where ambitious upstarts learn from experienced mentors through interviews and online courses. The people who speak here are amongst the great businesspeople who take out some time from their busy schedule and teach others what they learned from their experiences. Listen to recent interviews directly from the experts’ desk and get some suggestions: How Jeff Booth went from builder to tech builder with BuildDirect and Sales tactics from a cold-calling machine. End Note: The list ended with 10 amazing podcasts but there are many other popular podcasts from different eCommerce websites which are too worth a listen. The podcast episodes can be easily downloaded for free from these websites or if you have iPhone or iPod, just subscribe to iTunes and tune into any of these podcast episodes. Happy listening! :) :) |
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