Posts tagged: E-commerce

Since numerous businesses began adopting e-commerce, there has been a significant change in the way retail marketing is carried out.

Ever since businesses started embracing e-commerce, retail marketing has never been the same!

The internet has not only changed the way we buy and sell commodities and services but has had an impact on the way service providers target clients.

Today, to best place their e-commerce businesses, retailers are looking for the best marketing strategies to reach their potential customers and deliver high-quality service to them across all their platforms. It is this impact on marketing by e-commerce that we want to focus on today and elucidate how the internet age has completely changed retail marketing.

How e-commerce transformed marketing

E-commerce has made retail marketing relatively cheaper and accessible to all. The days when it was only possible to advertise via the local newspaper, radio station or via expensive television commercials are over. Thankfully, in today’s world, there are a plethora of adverts available are in the form of social media adverts, pop-up ads or search engine adverts on content platforms. While traditional marketing mediums are still in play, they are the second choice to what digital marketing mediums offer and this is because of e-commerce.

The influence of digital marketing platforms is such that they have lowered marketing expenses and made marketing available to all business sizes. Regardless of how much a business can budget for its marketing campaigns, it is always able to create a campaign online to promote its business.

E-commerce has also transformed marketing into a viable option for the smallest of businesses

Small businesses decades ago always held the notion of not having to advertise  particularly if they provided a unique service or product. This was because the marketing platforms that were available were attached with exorbitant prices, which caused small businesses to rely on the strategic positioning of their business and word of mouth to be successful in the marketplace.

All this is different today due to e-commerce. The amount of similar services and products available online has not only increased, but businesses have adopted ingenious marketing strategies as a way to succeed in the market.

The increase in the availability of data has transformed the way businesses promote themselves

An advantage of adopting e-commerce is the fact that businesses are able to get data and metrics on their services, market trends and target audience. This information has significantly transformed the way businesses advertise their services and products and how their market is targeted.

This information has made it much easier for businesses to comprehend the services and products which are blossoming, the target audience and demographics that are using their products, the locales where their services and products are seeing an upsurge in demand and how long it takes for their products to sell. With this information, they are able to create bespoke marketing campaigns which target demographics with the highest demand to increase their profits.

Marketing strategies have been changed by e-commerce

Since the advent of e-commerce, marketing strategies created by numerous brands have improved a lot. Consumers are able to view ads that are more creative with emotive stories, as well as marketing campaigns which go beyond what a product offers.

The years when a product’s effectiveness and price point were the major talking point of marketing campaigns are long gone. In modern times, brands tend to focus on how their services emotionally appeal to consumers as well as other product aspects that weren’t in existence before.

E-commerce has caused marketing to incorporate content

Another significant improvement which e-commerce is responsible for is the adoption of content into advertising. Whereas adverts were simply created to describe a service or a product, with the content being incorporated into adverts, companies are able to tell their stories. This provides them with the ability to influence consumers in ways they thought impossible.

Numerous businesses understand that consumers are eager for more than simply products and services, which is why they manufacture additional content for them to consume. The way this content is made has transformed the way companies strategize and develop their marketing campaigns. It has also transformed the way their consumers are targeted.

Marketing campaigns have become diversified by e-commerce

Shopping activities of customers are varied and spread over numerous channels in modern times. These channels range from search engines to social media, where people are able to search for products and services. What this means is that businesses and brands now have to create ingenious methods to target their audience. Every channel has its advantages and disadvantages which the brand that uses it must come to terms with. Brands have to find the best channel that suits not only their services and products but also their marketing strategy.

© FOME

E-commerce is referred to as the activity of engaging in business transactions over the internet. It is the buying and selling of services and products on the internet via a website. An e-commerce website, also referred to as an online store comes with features that enable customers to seamlessly search for products, select them, place them in a cart and pay for items at the checkout.

Numerous people have been switching from purchasing services and products at physical stores to the internet. More than 60% of consumers head over to the internet to purchase the services and products that they need. This is because it is an extremely convenient mode of shopping, letting people shop for the products they desire from the comfort of their homes.

Unlike traditional physical stores, an e-commerce store is able to operate around the clock. Customers can simply go online and purchase the products they want at any time, any day. There are numerous benefits for businesses that make use of e-commerce.

Product descriptions

A benefit of using an e-commerce site is that customers are provided with informational sheets containing all the properties and features of the product. This informational sheet also contains ratings and reviews posted by other consumers that have previously purchased the product. This product can also be referred to as a product catalogue, which provides consumers with every relevant piece of information concerning the products they want to purchase. When consumers have this information, they are able to make informed decisions concerning the products they want to purchase. Customers are able to go through detailed information concerning the products they want to purchase. The background information, ingredients and manufacturer information is available to them in a way that was not possible in traditional stores. This is why it can be accurate to say that e-commerce stores offer their customers updated information concerning the products and services they offer, ensuring customers are able to make informed decisions.

They can be found using search engines

While physical brick and mortar stores are able to thrive in thanks to their branding efforts and relationships the owners have developed with industry stakeholders, e-commerce stores are able to have a website that thrives due to a large number of traffic generated from search engines. It can be said that billions of individuals make use of search engines on a daily basis to locate products they want to purchase. Studies have shown that the majority of individuals typically only select links which show up on a search engine’s result first page. The second or even third pages are never viewed. This is why it is imperative to make use of SEO or search engine optimization on an e-commerce site. This ensures that your e-commerce store is visible to crawler bots that search for results. When a store is found on the front page, it is able to increase its revenue, which means more revenue for the business.

It helps to reduce the expenses associated with managing and maintaining inventory

With a physical store, there are various expenses involved in managing inventory. It costs money and time to manage inventory. While physically storing and managing inventory can be costly and tedious, it is actually much cheaper to manage inventory on an e-commerce store. The benefits of an online store include offering its operators features and facilities which can be used to make certain responsibilities automated. For instance, inventory management is one of those responsibilities.

Information on customer’s buying habits

In the business world, information is power. Customer buying habits are extremely important for a business. It can be slightly difficult to analyze a customer’s buying habits in a physical store; however, this is an easy thing to do for an e-commerce store, as you are able to monitor the purchasing habits of your customers. With a website, it is easy to record the baits of every person that visits the store.

As the e-commerce site owner is able to solely manage its inventory, it also helps that the starting cost of an e-commerce store is quite reasonable compared to the expense incurred when building a brick and mortar store. There is no need for any permits or licenses, as you are able to get your store operating as quickly as possible. You also do not have to fork out money for renting a physical space for the store.

A great method in which e-commerce stores are able to help save money is when it comes to maintenance costs associated with having a reduced number of employees. The entire system is fully computerised and online. These are just some of the benefits associated with e-commerce. It can be said that e-commerce is the future and it is definitely here to stay, especially when you combine it with a much cheaper start up cost.

© FOME