E-Commerce

E-commerce firms are always looking for ways to offer a customer experience to their target consumers. Voice assistants or VAs is one of those innovations that can offer a personalized and streamlined customer experience. Voice systems like Google Assistant and Alexa by Amazon has revolutionized the way brands and consumers interact.

Below are a couple of ways these VAs are changing the e-commerce landscape:

1. Voice assistants support smarter grocery shopping

Many people dread grocery shopping because they tend to forget things they should buy. At times, even the use of apps is not enough to make up for poor memory. With voice assistants like Alexa, consumers can go over the things they need for the week by preparing a shopping list.

Amazon’s VA does not only offer recommendations; it can also order food based on a customer’s profile, buying history, and preferences. It helps improve customer experience by streamlining the buyer’s journey and making it easier for customers to reorder the same products they’ve been buying. All these are accomplished without the customers lifting a finger and unlocking their phones.

2. Voice assistants promote security

Many people today are wary of cybersecurity no thanks to numerous security breaches reported. In a way, voice assistants can provide another layer of security protocol. Having a voice-authentication backup, for example, benefit a consumer who’s prone to accidentally ordering products on Amazon. Another way of VAs promoting security in transactions is when a voice authentication is required instead of an e-signature of thumbprint in making an online transaction.

Numerous studies have also shown how voice assistants have made an impact on the e-commerce sector. A study by the Digital Transformation Institute, which surveyed more than 5,000 consumers in Europe and the United States, showed that buyers utilizing this VA technology are willing to spend up to 500% more than they are used to through this mode of transaction.

Email marketing has been around for decades that some digital marketers consider it obsolete. These digital marketers have also fallen in love with social media marketing, and with good reason. There are more than 2 billion people worldwide who are active on social media. But it’s a mistake to believe that social media is the only means to reach target consumers.

In fact, there are instances when email marketing can beat social media marketing in reaching an identified market. Below are some of the reasons why digital marketers should not ditch this traditional form of online marketing:

1. Email marketing can reach a wider audience

While there are more than 2 billion active social media users on the planet, there’s also a bigger audience that can be tapped through email marketing. According to Statista, around 3.7 billion people around the globe are actively using email. Research firm Campaign Monitor also mentions that 7 out of 10 people prefer to receive branded content through their emails, far larger than the 17 percent of those who prefer to receive the same messages from their social media platforms.

2. Email marketing yields better lead generation

People who join an email list enter their personal information voluntarily, indicating that they are interested in your brand. On the other hand, the same can’t be said with social media especially with content that’s promoted or advertised by brands.

Email marketing, therefore, yields better lead generation compared to social media. Moreover, social media is filled with digital clutter that makes cutting through it next to impossible.

3. Email marketing gives better engagement

Email offers a more personalized experience compared to an ad on Facebook or Twitter.  And there are plenty of studies to back up this claim. One study showed that 74% of marketers agree that targeted emails boost customer engagement. Personalized emails, on the other hand, boost click-through rates by 14%.

Online marketing is often misconceived as having an impact only on online business. But this is far from the truth. When properly planned and executed, digital marketing can also boost brick and mortar sales.

If your offline product or service needs a shot in the arm, turn to online marketing to give it the much-needed boost. Below are some digital marketing strategies you can use to drive sales of your brick-and-mortar business:

Online marketing strategy 1: Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has been proven effective in affecting the sales results of brands. Social media influencers affect consumers’ perception of your products and services, in turn creating brand awareness and helping spike your sales.

Influencer marketing is beyond paying influencer contacts to promote or support your product. It involves building a social graph for identifying users who are likely to influence other consumers into buying your product or availing your service. In certain cases, those users don’t need to be celebrities. They can be ordinary individuals whose opinions can be of value to your target audience.

Online marketing strategy 2: Mobile search advertising

Smartphone search engines provide one of the best ways for consumers to find a product or service nearest to them. Phone map results help consumers to locate stores quickly, which practically make these an indirect marketing channel.

Your business can capitalize on this by using the right keywords and ad copy on your landing pages. Remember that today’s consumers want to see information about anything they are researching as quickly as possible.

Online marketing strategy 3: Content marketing

Creating valuable and engaging content is another effective marketing strategy for boosting brick and mortar sales. Research has proved that blog posts and articles with links to a particular brand can subtly promote its product or service and create a lasting impression on the target consumer’s mind.

Start implementing these three online marketing strategies now to boost the brick and mortar sales of your business.

Online marketing is critical for start-ups and established businesses alike.  It is particularly important for small enterprise owners to have a solid understanding of digital marketing as it can make or break their businesses.

Below are three important online marketing lessons that every small business owner should be aware of:

1. Keyword research is critical in online marketing

Ask any digital marketing expert and chances are, he’ll agree that keyword research is the key to search engine optimization.  Before you even go deep into online marketing, you need to have a basic understanding of keyword research and use this to your firm’s advantage.

In keyword research, you can use Google Suggest in researching for the most popular keywords. The standard formula of typing the words ‘how to’ plus your niche term can help you determine the most relevant and appropriate keywords in your niche.

Another way to identify relevant keywords is to steal the keywords of your competitors especially those with a higher ranking in your local search engine result pages.

2. Content marketing boosts traffic

After implementing your keyword strategy, your online rankings should get a boost leading to higher online visibility. You can now shift your focus on content marketing to boost traffic. In creating content that will inform, inspire, and engage your target audience, remember to use your keywords. Your research keywords can guide you in crafting content that your audience will find relevant.

Moreover, it is important that your content is engaging. With access to numerous articles online that often deal with the same topic, it is easy for your visitors to migrate to other websites offering more valuable and engaging information.

3. Social media is key to marketing success

Social media is a huge platform that can generate leads, boost your business, and create brand awareness.  One recent survey showed that 90% of marketers say that social media marketing boosted their business exposure. Needless to say, you should use social media for marketing success.

A company’s success hinges largely on its ability to sell its products and services. To do so, a good sales strategy should be in place. There are different strategies available for growing your online store’s sales but the real challenge is implementing them. In this post, you will learn some of the imperatives to unlocking your firm’s e-commerce growth:

E-commerce growth tip #1: Integrate social media

Many e-commerce stores are now integrated with Facebook or Instagram, making it easier for customers to buy directly through the two popular social media sites. This is one of the best and cost-efficient ways of improving the reach of a business. To get started, you need to create a social media profile that’s dedicated to your business.  Your business logo design should also stand out in order to catch your customers’ attention.

E-commerce growth tip #2: Enhance the packaging design

Online entrepreneurs hardly pay attention to the packaging design of their products. But this has great significance in e-commerce. Packaging design is a vital component of online consumers’ shopping experience. It also helps in building the brand identity of a business. You should also aim to have a product that would be delightful and enticing for customers to unbox.

E-commerce growth tip #3: Create a strategy for abandoned carts

According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is around 70 percent meaning your online store is losing about two-thirds of potential profits on any given day. This underscores the need to have an abandoned cart strategy.

There are several ways to counter this. One is to be honest about shipping fees and other charges up front. Studies have shown that this is the top reason why many customers abandon their carts online.

Another way to encourage your customers to complete the buying process is to simplify the checkout process. Moreover, you should not force shoppers to register with you. And you should also include more payment options.

The e-commerce sector has experienced massive growth worldwide thanks to the increase in Internet penetration. Two of the biggest e-commerce firms– Amazon and Alibaba– are prime examples. In 2017, the Chinese-firm earned an estimated 158 billion yuan while Amazon took in around $178. To say that e-commerce is the future of retail would be a gross understatement. And look for the Internet of Things (IoT) to take the sector to massive heights in the near future.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing e-commerce in many ways.  With AI tools, e-commerce processes are becoming more streamlined and productive. From finding the cheapest fare to predicting the box-office results of a movie, the impact of AI is huge, to say the least.

The increasing demand for distribution for the e-commerce sector has fueled the growth of various industrial and logistics (I&L) leases in the United States, according to a research conducted by an industrial real estate firm based in Los Angeles.  The research analyzed the 100 biggest leases for the I&L space in the first half of 2018 and took into account leases by square footage.

E-commerce leads in I&L space

The study conducted by LA-based CBRE showed that e-commerce players led the way with 33 leases while third party logistic service providers came in next with 23 leases. Some 56 leases were also signed for facilities mainly for the distribution of goods purchased online.  Leases that were signed by manufacturers were at 14 while those made by food and beverage firms were at 11. Cumulatively speaking, the 100 facilities accounted for storage of 67.8 million square feet.

Curiously,  the e-commerce players include traditional brick-and-mortar retailers who have shifted to selling online. These players are now building their e-commerce platforms to better serve their clients.

E-commerce growth impressive

CBRE official Adam Mullen is impressed with the diversity of the sectors comprising the top 100 lease list especially with e-commerce growth.  He added that e-commerce companies also included several brick and mortar retailers that have built their own e-commerce networks.

He added that many of the third party logistic service providers in the list are also serving e-commerce kinds of uses.

Most of the leasing activities cited in the CBRE research were key US geographies such as California, Atlanta, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Dallas-Fort Worth.  The CBRE official also says that it makes sense for big facilities to be located on these major cosmopolitan areas in order to be closer to the consumer population.