Top 8 Ecommerce Marketing Tips For Small Businesses You Should Know

eCommerce sales have reached a staggering $5.5 trillion worldwide as of 2022. If you own an eCommerce store, you’ve struck gold. 

The only issue is that the eCommerce market is very dynamic. It keeps changing every year, every month, and every day. The only way to keep up with the ever-changing market is to use the right strategies to deliver the best customer experience and generate revenue.

Before we get to the marketing tips, we assume you already own an eCommerce; if not, you can easily create an eCommerce marketplace from scratch. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting out or if your business is small; the strategies remain the same. From email marketing, product videos, SEO, etc., you need to nail these techniques the right way to stay ahead of the competition and increase sales.

What Is eCommerce Marketing? 

eCommerce marketing is the range of activities performed by marketers digitally or traditionally to promote an eCommerce store or brand. These activities are done to:

• Increase brand awareness 
• Generate more traffic to the store 
• Foster customer loyalty 
• Boost Word of mouth sales 
• Acquire new customers 
• Generate sales and revenue 
• Retain customers 

eCommerce marketing is thus an undeniable need, and here are the Top 8 eCommerce marketing tips you should follow to boost sales in your online store or marketplace.

Don’t Miss out On Email Marketing 

Did you know that Email marketing generates 4200% of ROI, i.e., it returns $42 for every $1 spent? This makes Email marketing the most effective marketing channel. 

Take a look at your inbox; how many emails have you received from eCommerce websites? That must tell you how valuable it is; even prominent eCommerce marketplaces use email marketing. 

You don’t need to invest much in email marketing. You only need an email marketing platform, and you can do wonders. You can create various types of personalized interactions with customers and foster customer loyalty in your store via emails. 

So, make sure you leverage the power of email marketing; it’ll return wonders irrespective of your business size. 

But before you get started, make sure you build an email list and create a segmented audience. This will ease the pressure and help you reach the right customers at the right time. 

Customer Comes First 

Whether your business is small, medium or large doesn’t matter. You’ll never achieve eCommerce success if you don’t treat your customers correctly. 

You don’t need to physically see them and discuss their pain points to create the best experience. You can easily do it electronically. 

How?

Offer discounts in your store. Discounts will encourage customers to purchase and increase your brand awareness. Also, run customer-centric programs like loyalty programs & referral programs in your store to keep your existing customers & repeated purchasers satisfied. 

Not only can they double your sales, but they will also generate better word of mouth and bring in new customers to your stores as referrals. So provide the best customer service, guide your customers, try to solve their pain points, and create the best shopping experience to increase sales. 

Increase Social Media Presence 

Digital trends show that an astounding 4.65 billion users use Social media. It has quite an audience of its own, and having a presence there is a great way to increase brand awareness & traffic. 

Create a page, channel, or account across various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest & Reddit. Constantly upload posts relevant to your marketplace. You can use product images and videos to educate and persuade users to visit your store. 

You could run ad campaigns across these platforms if your budget allows you to. Remember, running paid ad campaigns is unnecessary if your customer base is small. You can use your pages to promote your products organically. 

Also, publish your product videos on Youtube to attract traffic. 

Product Videos and Images

Electronic stores don’t have sales executives; this is where high-quality product videos and images come into play. They act as sales execs themselves; they entice customers to make the purchase.

As the old saying goes, ‘A picture speaks a thousand words. And this is very applicable in the world of eCommerce. 

You need to use high-quality product videos and images to represent your products as they greatly influence a customer’s purchase decision.

Cross-Sell and Upsell

This is one of the most used eCommerce marketing techniques in every eCommerce marketplace worldwide to increase sales. 

Cross-selling is where you recommend a complementary product to the one the customer has added to their cart. Upselling is where you recommend a better product than the one chosen by the customers. 

Why does it work? Well, customers are vulnerable when they are on the verge of checkout, and a sales pitch at checkout will easily persuade them to act on it. This effectively encourages customers to increase their average order value, generating better revenue for store owners and marketplace sellers.

Optimize for All Devices 

Most eCommerce owners focus on the desktop version of their store and leave out other devices. Trends show that over 68% of customers use smartphones for online purchases, whereas 32% use desktops to buy products. 

This is why optimizing your eCommerce store for all devices is important. Don’t miss out on mobile-friendliness and make your store responsive for smartphones as it generates better sales than desktops.

SEO

The most cost-effective marketing strategy on this list is optimizing your eCommerce site for SEO. 

Use the right keywords, links, product videos, and more to generate organic traffic. Use keywords in your URL, meta-description, product title, and descriptions to increase your SERP ranking. Remember, 90% of users don’t go beyond page 1 of Google. So, getting ranked on the first page of a search engine is essential. 

Keep your content fresh, use the latest digital trends to update your content, and avoid duplicate content to avoid spam hits.

Abandoned Cart Emails 

You’re no stranger to cart abandonment if you own an eCommerce site. Cart abandonment shouldn’t be left unnoticed as it will impact your revenue greatly. 

Abandoned carts are not lost; customers momentarily lose interest in purchasing for various reasons. This cart holds a potential sale in it. 

Sending abandoned cart emails to recover these carts and convert them into sales is a great idea. Optionally, you can add a discount to these emails & encourage customers to return. Returning customers drive repeated sales, so send abandoned cart emails, recover carts and generate better revenue for your store or marketplace.

Wrapping up

Digital trends show that online marketing is vital in helping businesses succeed irrespective of the industry. The tips discussed above can increase your brand awareness, customer loyalty, retention rate & average order value. Employ these strategies in your store or marketplace to stay ahead of the competition in this ever-changing market.