In the early days of the consumer internet, online marketing was at its simplest. You created a website and let it be your online shopfront – that was more or less it. But in real-world terms, that is now the equivalent of putting out a sandwich board in front of your physical shop: useful if you happen to be walking directly past, but very limited as a marketing tool.
That’s where ecommerce marketing comes in.
Australian ecommerce marketing has come a long way in a short time. We have become an export hub for everything from wine to vitamins to baby formula. Because of these trends, our ecommerce landscape has evolved dramatically and in a relatively short period.
In 2017 $8 out of every $10 spent on retail sales in Australia was spent online. With the current pandemic forcing bricks and mortar stores online, and all of us at home shopping online some retailers saw an 800% increase in sales in April of this year!
For the businesses with a strong eComm strategy, the pandemic would have seen a huge increase in sales for their business, but for those businesses that were putting off joining the dreaded internet, they would have seen a crippling decline in sales with no room to pivot while their digital strategy was set up.
Of course no one could have foreseen what was coming in 2020 but those businesses that recognised the power of online shopping and a digital presence for their brand would have reaped the reward of increased sales over the March-June period of this year.
Now that our behaviours will be changing for the long term and online shopping will be the way of the future, now is the time to invest in your businesses digital presence with an ecommerce platform.
For businesses with physical premises as well, offline sales can also be attributed to laser-focused ecommerce marketing, as customers discover products or services online before making a physical purchase. In fact, research by Google suggests that over 80% of shoppers will research products online before deciding what to buy.
eCommerce marketers have plenty in their toolboxes to achieve these twin goals of boosting online and offline traffic and sales. The primary tool is a well-designed, search engine optimised (SEO) ecommerce website. A website that is up to date, mobile-responsive, fast loading, and well-designed markedly increases the chances of all the other ecommerce marketing strategies succeeding. Keep in mind that 79% of purchases are made on mobile.
A sound ecommerce website is just a starting point for a successful ecommerce marketing strategy. Social media platforms, digital content creation, and search engine marketing are just some of the complementary tools that work hand in hand with your website to give you a comprehensive ecommerce strategy.
There are plenty of other options too, so here are the top 13 “major muscle groups” when it comes to building a strong ecommerce strategy.
- Social Media
- Shoppable Videos & Content
- Influencer Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Search Advertising
- Google Shopping
- Local Inventory Ads
- Remarketing
- Search Engine optimisation
- Email Marketing
- Automated Emails
- Affiliate Marketing
If you want to deep dive into each muscle group further so you have all the tools you need for the right eComm strategy then check out Swoops Definitive Guide to eCommerce Marketing!