Electronic Commerce, also known as E-Commerce, has grown exponentially in the past few years. The growth in prominence of technology has propelled the uprising of online businesses, providing them an ecosystem to thrive in. Based on a report published by Euromonitor, E-commerce is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% globally from 2016 to 2021. With the gradual shift in the consumer preferences to engage in more E-commerce activities, what can you do to tap on this to grow and scale your E-commerce business?
Find Out Where Your Customer is Dropping Out From Your Website
With routine analysis of information being the norm, the most fundamental way of scaling your E-commerce business is to gather as much data as possible to find out where your customer is dropping out from your website. This is something you should do whenever you have a new campaign or launch. For example, you realise that your customers tend to drop out of the purchase journey when they are about to check out. Were there errors on the page? Was the link to checking out working? Were there errors in keying in their purchase details? With such information armed at hand, you can run tests on the website and survey your customers to improve their user experience. Doing the necessary changes will reduce the resources needed and also benefit your E-commerce business in the long run.
Set Up Post-Purchase Automation
By incorporating post-purchase marketing automation into your E-commerce business, you can setup post purchase sequences to upsell to your customers based on their actions and behavior. Some examples you can include in your E-Commerce Business: provide a thank you email to your customer for purchasing your product, provide links to products related to their purchase (also known as cross-selling) or to even have a robot acting as a customer service officer on your website! Marketing automation will make processes like these more efficient.
Content Marketing
As the saying goes, ‘Content Is King’. Creating unique information & content directed at your target market is one of the best ways to market your business. It is also the most scalable form of marketing. As such, incorporating one-of-a-kind content is crucial in your digital marketing efforts. Some useful methods could be:
- Starting online campaigns to boost brand awareness of your e-commerce platform i.e. have your brand ‘stuck’ to your customers’ minds,
- Starting a blog to bring more information to your target audience for content marketing,
- Allow your customers an avenue to create content for you i.e. having a platform to allow your consumers to review your products will generate unique content which pertains to your products. It also helps to increase customer loyalty as well!
Use a Multi-Channel Approach to Marketing
Through the creation and usage of different channels for marketing, it allows your customers to experience your brand more consistently. An example could be to create a microsite, themed specifically to a group of your products or for a specific sale. Another example could be to send personalised SMSes or messages to your customers to thank them for their purchase, or to even send a personalised birthday text with a special sale for them!
Financing
When your E-commerce business gained strong traction, financing will play an imperative role in your business growth. Deciding on the right type of financing methods is crucial. You might choose to undertake equity financing, a bank loan, or alternative financing, such as invoice financing.
For alternative financing, it provides you the flexibility to determine the amount of funding you might need. It also decreases the waiting time for you to receive the funds. With this, you can generate enough working capital quickly to boost your business operations, therefore meeting the burgeoning demand from your consumers.
