How to Transform an E-Commerce Site Into a Consumer Brand?

Shopping trends have evolved with increased online shopping. Needless to say, ecommerce has brought several international brands at our doorsteps at discounted rates. Mobile shopping is also losing out to online shopping.

As per reports, in 2017 about 35 % ecommerce sales have occurred via mobiles which are expected to multiply in the next 5 years. Mobile payments have become the new trend with the option to save the account and payment details on the smartphones for the respective online shopping sites.

1. Importance of Social Media 

The social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat have enabled several brands and retailers to interact and showcase their exclusive and upcoming products to the customers.

Recommended: What Makes Social Media Indispensable for Today’s Business?

About 80% of people agree to the fact that visual replica of these products multiplies product discoverability and 88 % believe it improves brand value. The social media sites have also enabled the feature of tagging products to their stories which improves product visibility.

2. Beginner’s Guide to ecommerce marketing

If you are embarking on a new venture with the launch of an ecommerce site, there are some measures you need to incorporate to make your business a booming one and thus gradually reform your site to a brand in its own!

The measures are as below:

• To begin with, it is easier to flourish and get to be noticed while you get into an alliance with one of the ecommerce partners. This is probably the easiest and affordable strategies to make your brand and site noticed. You may offer discounts or so-called “exciting offers” to the customers who buy from the partner ecommerce store. This way you have the opportunity to grab hold of the customers and learn their preferences from a partnership. This is basically a first baby step towards building up own your brand, and also to advertise it via partnership.
• Rather than looking out for new customers, it is advisable and also convenient to satisfy the existing customers! If your product is unique and authentic, customers will surely come back to your site or search for your brand anyway! But you can always turn them into potential buyers with the help of discounts, vouchers etc once you have the confidence on your existing customer base, no matter how small it is. If your production and manufacturing costs are on the lower edge, you may opt for “Buy 1, get 1” offers!
• Do not focus solely on your target audience. Seek out new customers from other groups too. If your product caters to just the youth, probably the college kids you may think of broadening the horizon to include middle-aged ones too or probably the teenagers as well! For example in jeans, the style, cut and wash may be designed in accordance with the surrounding age groups.
• You may feature a specific product but do not forget to remind your customer of the related products! For example, if you are selling party dresses on your site, why not feature some accessories like shoes and belts too? This is known as upselling where customers are given a wide array of products apart from the ones they actually bought!
• Strategies play an important role in transforming a business altogether. Apart from just selling and advertising the products online, one can also accommodate franchising options. Consider if franchising fits into your product.
• Affiliate marketing is a new buzz in ecommerce sales these days. It is a performance-based marketing methodology wherein the brand owner pays commissions to the affiliates on receiving successful sales. Remember, it is only the successful sales that would count here! In order to develop the affiliate program for your brand, one would need an affiliate software, for example, OSI affiliate software.

3. Bridge the gap between surfing the online brands to real-time delivery

Window shopping is all that sums it up! There is a couple of days or even weeks or months of gap between actually searching for the product, adding to the cart, checking for the price drop alerts and finally ordering it. The journey actually begins from the online display of the upcoming exclusive collection in social media.

The sale goes live, often pre-booking options exist for certain items. Some also wait until reviews come up before the final trigger on the smartphone.

The online retailers or ecommerce sites have a certain role to play here when it comes to influencing the window shopaholics to get their added to cart items right at their doorsteps.

i. Wrap and Present well

The First impression never fails to work! It is how the brands present their stories and advertise them on the social media platforms. Many shopaholics and window shoppers use their Instagram and Pinterest wish list to finalize their shopping cart.

So it is important that the promotional and advertising video and content should be absolutely influencing and attractive to the audience. A successful product advertisement will mean increased customer engagement to know and understand the product better and learn its benefits, in the initial stage.

ii. Demo experiences

Nowadays the wearable products like spectacles, ornaments and clothing brands and retailers offer a try out option, wherein the customers can actually try the clothes themselves before buying rather than trying them out in the trial room for a traditional shopping.

The beauty and make up store also offers a tryout option where you can view the various shades of lipstick or nail paint etc. on varying complexion shades. This allows faster decision making for window shoppers as the feel and touch of the products to convert them to potential buyers!

iii. Feature Happy Customers

When a happy customer speaks of his or her satisfaction and positive experience towards a certain brand, the common buyers feel assured.

The videos or advertisements featuring live customers and photos who have experienced or used the products have been known to drive sales in the recent years quite effectively.

Recommended: 4 Significant E-commerce Tips to Keep Your Customer’s Coming Back

4. Inspirational Stories

There are some ecommerce success stories you need to know before heading out to reach out to the customers. The biggest one is that of Amazon. When it comes to ecommerce sites, Amazon is probably the first name that comes to our minds!

i) Amazon

It started off in 1944 with being just an ordinary and a small online bookstore. It gradually and slowly increased its product base. Amazon is one of those ecommerce brands who believed in affiliate marketing, as mentioned above. This gives way to benefits like:

It enables the sellers to advertise their range of items and trade on the website while the site (Amazon, here) earns a share of the profits thereby.

The product recommendations and suggestions thus provided is what draws the customers back.

ii) Pixie Flaire:

Another less known ecommerce site who began their journey by manufacturing and selling clothing of dolls online via eBay. Also, this was the initiative of a couple who stayed home full time. The demand grew so much that they were unable to manufacture them in accordance with the demand levels.

Hence they decided to go digital and online. They just made their patterns digital. Their success story is solely attributed to their amazing and extensive email and advertisement campaigns, videos and thus moving their physical store to a digitally online platform completely.

iii) Flipkart

Yet another ecommerce store who walked up the footsteps of Amazon but diverted in order to leave its own mark in the domain. The owners of Flipkart were Amazon employees and they dreamt of starting off a brand new online store! Hence began their journey in 2007 by selling online books.

Gradually other products were offered to the customers in some time. A secret to Flipkart’s funds is that the business was started by raising funds with the help of capital funding. The owners actually put up with their words of paying back the investors which were indeed a big step needed to expand it to the large variety of goods and products online.

Also, it as Flipkart who launched the “Cash on Delivery” option. This was the biggest advantage as well as it definitely boosts a customer’s confidence in the brand and online store. It answers the most basic question, what if I don’t get the product but money got deducted from the account, or maybe will I get my money back if the product is not up to the mark etc.

Flipkart is also known to have introduced its own supply chain which ensures better and smooth delivery cycles. Also, Flipkart has owned the other ecommerce biggies like Myntra.com and Letsbuy.com.

Flipkart is truly phenomenal in the way they have handles their failures and have invented new measures in tackling them and set the way for something new and better for the customers.

The brands are at loggerheads with each other when it comes to advertising and bringing forth the best of their launches on social media. With huge competition in the online store, it is all about advertising, marketing and meeting up to the quality of the products and definitely striving for no less than the better.

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