Top eCommerce Strategies for 2023

With almost $900 billion in US sales, eCommerce enables businesses to market their products online. If you have an online business, eCommerce strategies can help you maximize your potential. The goal is to optimize performance for your brands and products within the very competitive eCommerce market. An effective eCommerce marketing strategy can help you boost revenue and expand your market share. Here are some of the best strategies to consider for eCommerce success in 2023.     

Do Your eCommerce Research

Before even getting started, you’ll need to do some in-depth market research into the niche you want to move into. After determining which products to sell, competitors should be identified and studied. Competitive Intelligence Tools can help you benchmark and track prevailing prices in the market. 

Vendors like SimilarWeb and Owler are great sources of information on competitors and market trends. After calculating your fixed and variable costs, you’ll be able to estimate how much to charge for each product that’s sold in your online store.

Use your findings to build a solid marketing plan that gives you a roadmap to get your business started on the right foot.  

Choose the Right eCommerce Platform   

eCommerce Platforms are ideal for small businesses but are also used by mid-sized companies. These are all-in-one solutions for a business owner who lacks the resources to build and maintain their own site. Shopify and WooCommerce are great examples. This software includes essential features like template-based web builders and shopping cart software. They should also come with integrations to payment gateway software. This enables buyers to make payments with their credit card or through a third party.              

A vital benefit of this kind of eCommerce solution is that you can integrate with wholesale providers that use a dropshipping model. This means you can sell online and have the supplier ship the goods straight to your customers without even having to take on inventory. This approach can save you a ton of money and a lot of effort. 

eCommerce platforms should also include search engine optimization (SEO) features. This will make your eCommerce website easier to find on search engines. These sites are also optimized for mobile, catering to those who do their online shopping from a cellphone or tablet. Recent studies show that up to 7% of all US retail transactions were made from a portable device, a number that’s expected to increase in the coming years.       

You can also choose to list your products on marketplaces like Amazon or Google Shopping. This can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, listing products on these platforms is easy and will give you access to a huge market of potential customers. The downside is that you’ll have to pay for subscriptions and/or surrender a percentage of your sales. 

There are also special options for retailers looking to outsource their online sales process. vendors like Pattern will buy and sell your inventory in online marketplaces. You also get access to analytics that track sales performance.                      

Optimize Your Web Content

Content marketing is crucial for anyone looking to grow their online presence. Your user interface should be simple and streamlined, but with a high-quality, professional appeal. Design your product pages with functionality and ease of use in mind. Navigation should be as simple and pleasant as possible. The number of clicks needed between product search and checkout should also be minimal. Customers love novelty items, so if a new product comes in, highlight it on your home page.        

The checkout process should also be as smooth and streamlined as possible to avoid the grisly phenomenon of cart abandonment. 

All aspects of your eCommerce site should be optimized for SEO. Tools like Semrush and Google Search Console can help you identify important keywords related to a product, industry, or topic. Include detailed product descriptions with each listing to help build buyer confidence. Relevant content and keywords can increase your organic rankings on search engines and make it easier for buyers to find you.  

Activate Your Potential on Social Media

Social media is also a powerful asset that anyone can use to increase online sales. Over 4 billion people are on social media platforms worldwide and this number is projected to reach almost 6 billion by 2027. 

Social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook give online sellers the chance to engage with their target audience at a low cost. Set up business accounts on as many platforms as you can, prioritizing those where most of your niche consumers tend to congregate. 

Social Media Marketing Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can help you get the most out of your social pages. You can post on several networks at once and manage your digital assets through a central hub. You can also create original content to share with your followers.

With so many people on social media, users are often open to shopping or interacting with others while they browse. Popular social networks have created social commerce platforms tailored to this market segment. These features allow users to buy products directly from business profiles without even leaving the social media app. 

Harness the Power of Influencers

Many of the most popular profiles on social media belong to influencers. These individuals or groups produce user-generated content (UGC) with the goal of engaging with a certain niche of online users. Partnering with social influencers can increase your brand recognition on a massive scale. These partnerships usually involve free goods or financial compensation. 

Influencer marketing software can help you identify relevant influencers and manage their compensation. These tools also enable you to track performance and attribute revenue to each campaign that you launch. A popular approach is for the influencer to share a discount code with their followers. The software also lets you see how users arrived at your site. This makes it much easier to determine your influencer ROI and see whether the partnership is paying off. 

Automate Your Campaigns

Whether your business is large or small, business processes should be as automated as possible. 

Marketing automation software can execute routine tasks automatically. These include:

• Landing page automation
• Lead segmentation
• Personalized messaging
• Email marketing

Landing pages are a key feature of marketing automation. These are product pages designed for campaigns that target online shoppers on social media and on websites. You can use templates to create your pages, and the software will automatically integrate them into your campaigns. This is a tactic used to both generate leads and make sales.  

Leads are segmented based on behavioral data and demographic profiles. They can then be scored to identify the best targets for a given campaign. 

For email campaigns, triggered drip sequences can be programmed to make sure the right messages are sent out in a timely fashion. This can include anything from shopping cart notifications to wishing your customers a happy birthday. If users sign up for your email list, an email trigger is sent out prompting them to confirm their contact information. You can also base special campaigns on seasonal events like Black Friday or Christmas to target holiday shoppers. 

You can use customer experience software to personalize content for your campaigns. This enables both personalized messaging and point solutions for ad serving and retargeting. Users will see ads and messages that are tailored to their preferences, search history, and personal information. The tools you select should be fully integrated with your customer database. The more data you have about your customers, the more personalized and effective your campaigns will be. 

The Importance of Digital Marketing and SEM

You can promote your brand as well as individual products by taking out digital ads on social media and on websites through pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Most social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn have their own platforms for launching ad campaigns.  

With search engine marketing (SEM), also referred to as paid search, you can also do the same on search engines. With this advertising model, you have to bid for the right to have your ads appear at the top of search results when certain keywords are entered. Other factors to consider include relevancy, season, and the time of day. If your strategy is effective, websites or landing pages go straight to the top of search results.

Analytics and reporting tools like Google Analytics are used to track essential metrics like your conversion rate. This allows you to gauge the performance of your digital ad campaigns, giving you the insights you need to adjust them as needed.   

Support Your Customers and Keep them Engaged

Once your business is up and running, you’ll have to continually work to attract new customers. You’ll also have to keep existing customers engaged with your brand and satisfied with your service. 

With most buyers nowadays looking to self-serve, consider setting up a knowledge base that enables them to find the answers they need. This includes FAQs, guides, and any relevant information related to the products you’re selling. Forums and discussion groups will get people talking about your products and other topics related to your industry.    

As your business grows, contact center software can help you handle high-volume interactions with customers. These include omnichannel communications via calls, text, SMS, and even video. With live chat, you can have real-time interactions with customers that are shopping on your website. Tickets can be rerouted to the appropriate agents to address any issues without delay.       

Look for software that can track the customer journey across all your channels. This will help you identify bottlenecks in the user experience and also show you what customers value most on your site.

The Right Marketing Strategies for Your eCommerce Business

The marketing strategies you choose should be aligned with your overall eCommerce goals. You can combine these strategies to enable your marketing efforts and improve both your revenue and customer service.   

TrustRadius gives you access to reviews from verified eCommerce platform users from businesses of all sizes. This wealth of user feedback can help you pick the best platform solution to meet your needs. 

If you’ve used software to improve your eCommerce results, make your voice heard by leaving a review! Your feedback can help buyers make better decisions and enable vendors to improve their products.