Marketing

E-commerce doesn’t begin on your website. Or even your product detail page on marketplaces. It starts on the search results page. Whether that’s Google, Bing, Amazon, eBay or Facebook, a sophisticated digital marketing strategy is essential for any modern seller to cut through the noise and find interested consumers.

And finding those consumers comes down to understanding how they search, what they see and where they go.

How they search — Today’s most common consumer searches are driven by a real sense of urgency:

• Searches centred around “open now” have tripled
• “Near me” searches have grown 130%
• “Same-day shipping” has increased 120%

What they see — Today’s buyers can consume content wherever, whenever and however they want.  

• Subscriptions to streaming services in Australia increased to 32% in 2017 (up from 22% in 2016), surpassing Pay
  TV subscriptions for the first time.
• 74% of people now multiscreen

Where they go — Smartphones have officially taken over as the primary source for e-commerce traffic.

• 80% of shoppers use smartphones in physical stores to look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations
• Mobile retailing sales in the APAC region totalled $328bn in 2016 – an increase of 64% year on year.

Takeaway 1 — Learn where your customers are searching. According to a study by Survata, only 15% of consumers start their searches on a retailer’s website. Most likely, the rest of them begin that journey on Amazon, Google or Facebook. Leverage the many product advertising options at your disposal to find them.

Takeaway 2 — Make sure your ad content is optimised and test every element of the ad (different images, titles, keywords, etc.) for performance. After your content is optimized, analyse your results across multiple dimensions (date, time, location, device, query, etc.) for maximum return.  

Selling

Do you sell on Amazon? Or do you have an Amazon selling strategy? The former means selling only as much as current marketplace trends allow; the latter involves tools and technologies that empower you to sell above and beyond what competitors in your category are doing. With 56% of product searches starting on Amazon by shoppers in the US, UK, Germany and France, defining your selling strategy on Amazon is essential. It start with promotions like Sponsored Products and continues through thorough product detail pages and customer reviews.

Of course, you’ll also need to reach beyond Amazon if you want to hit new sales goals and records. For example, are you…

Tapping into the full potential of fast-growing marketplaces like eBay and Walmart?

• eBay accounts for as much as 50% of successful sellers’ marketplace sales
• Walmart marketplace sees up to 100 million visitors every month

Pricing products competitively?

• For retailers trading on marketplaces, 52% of sales come through these channels
• 39% of shoppers choose marketplaces as their primary channel to buy online

Reaching consumers as they discover new, niche sales channels?

• At any given time, 3-4,000 unique shoppers are looking at listings on Tophatter
• The world’s #1 shopping app, Wish, has rapidly grown from a small startup to 300 million users worldwide

And the list goes on: Catch, Overstock, Newegg, Sears, Bluefly, Pricefalls, Shop.com, Tanga, Rakuten, Hollar, Fullbeauty… it’s practically impossible to stay relevant to the modern e-commerce consumer without a comprehensive, cross-channel marketplace strategy.

Takeaway 1: Focus on your feedback — respond to complaints and inquiries early and often.  High ratings and reviews can hold as much value as quality content and outstanding advertising, and they often contribute to the marketplace’s algorithm that determines search rankings.

Takeaway 2: Don’t be afraid to “go global.” If you haven’t begun to tap into the incredible revenue potential of cross-border trade — whether that’s across the pond in the UK or across the world in China — you could be missing out on a mountain of sales to ready-to-buy consumers.

Fulfilling

It’s a struggle that even the most experienced retailers and manufacturing brands face: You can have the best marketing and sales strategies expertise can buy, but none of it’s going to make a measurable difference until your orders are on doorsteps in record time. As eMarketer puts it:

“Consumer demand for free shipping is nothing new, but shoppers have been getting more impatient year by year. Amazon Prime’s speed is acclimating shoppers to faster delivery, and these greater expectations are affecting all retailers.”

Fast, free fulfilment is no longer optional — it’s table stakes. The more equipped you are to win this race to the last mile, the better able you’ll be to meet consumer expectations and gain lasting loyalty.

If you don’t find a way to offer both fast and free delivery, your competition certainly will. While 41% of digital shoppers expect same-day shipping as an option, only 26% currently offer it (with 28% planning to offer it).

Many businesses are testing new technologies, from advanced package scanning to drones to robot testing, to better meet demands. Meanwhile, big-box retailers in the US like Walmart and Target are acquiring same-day delivery startups and carrier services, and Amazon is buying up land for its growing fleet of cargo jets.

It may seem like there’s no way to truly keep pace. But with the right tools and technology, it’s still possible to optimise fulfilment operations for even the most demanding expectations.

Takeaway 1: Explore your drop shipping options, whether that means acting as the drop shipper for larger retailers (e.g., Amazon, Walmart) or leveraging third-party logistics (3PLs) providers to drop ship for you.

Takeaway 2: As you integrate with new fulfilment partners, be prepared to meet the unique requirements of every retail, brand and marketplace partner. Also, develop a clear customer service plan and prepare all parties that might play a role in the customer experience.