Oh, Crop! Killer E-commerce Mistakes You Need to Conquer

10 August 2017

One of the most lucrative and fast-growing industries is the e-commerce industry. It has risen in popularity over the years due to the convenience and accessibility it provides for the consumers, and even for the sellers themselves.

A lot of people have been trying to start their businesses from home, yet they don’t know where to start, and they have no idea about the wide variety of industries they can invest in or the right tools they should use.

Aside from knowing what to do with your new venture, you also need to know the common mistakes and blunders you can commit. Lapses, no matter how small, can be highly detrimental to your business. But as worrying as it all sounds, don’t worry.

You can learn how to spot, avoid, and remedy these mistakes with this simple guide. Without further ado, here are five mistakes you need to avoid to keep your e-commerce business bug-free and in full swing.

Mistake #1: Forgetting Your Market

One of the biggest and most common mistakes online entrepreneurs make is forgetting what their market looks like or who their target audience is. Aside from spending most of your time and effort in honing the perfect product, without actually creating a need for your customers, you also have to know your customer demographic.

Wouldn’t it be ideal to have customers before creating a product, rather than having a product beforehand and then looking for clients? All of your efforts will be rendered fruitless. Know how to target your audience or your buyer persona. A buyer persona is a representation of your customer’s demographics, such as age, gender, profession, and social status.

To paint you a clearer picture, if you’re a designer in the print industry, you need to know your target audience before you begin selling. You won’t sell cheap business cards to upper-class professionals looking to spruce up their portfolios just as you wouldn’t sell overly-priced prints for low-quality products.

Mistake #2: Lack of Social Media Presence

The regular person owns at least five social media accounts. And on average, we spend about an hour and 40 minutes browsing these sites. Can you believe that the number of online shoppers in the United States alone will reach 224 million in 2019! Numbers aside, the stats are telling us to leverage social media in getting our brand out there.

Say hi to social media. Brands are using social media marketing for some highly useful and practical reasons. Some even devise different loyalty program for their avid followers on social media channels. Some of these are because it provides:

Low-cost solution. Social media platforms are an excellent way to get bang for your buck advertising and brand exposure.
Customization. From Facebook Insights to Google Analytics, you can customize your pages to your heart’s content and receive detailed reports on your customers’ demographics and browsing behaviors.
Excellent customer service platform. According to a recent study by Venturebeat, 51 percent of the respondents say businesses need to be available around the clock. If e-commerce brands are now adopting customer service chatbots with 24/7 messaging services, so should you.

If you’re still not convinced, you can think of your social media accounts as your company’s very own affordable business cards, showcasing your brand and the services you offer virtually.

Mistake #3: Neglecting Mobile Optimization

Mobile is everywhere, and the world is accessing the internet through their smartphones. With 80 percent of internet users owning a smartphone, failing to recognize the need for mobile optimization, could mean losing half of your potential e-commerce market. Poor user experience can negatively impact your conversion rates.

If you shift your focus on creating the ideal mobile user experience for your customers, you can increase your brand reputation and customer retention, and avoid losing 61 percent of your clients due to the poor website experience.

As an internet-based entrepreneur, use whatever tools you have at your disposal to provide an optimized user browsing and shopping experience. Bank on your best assets and give yourself an advantage over your industry rivals.

Mistake #4: Faulty Shipping Flexibility

When you first decided to run an e-commerce business, I’m guessing you did for the flexibility it gave you in doing your daily tasks. You didn’t have to meet people face to face, and you could make your timetable to suit your needs. You can now do all of your work at home, and nobody would have to see you in sweatpants.

The same principle goes for your consumers. All customers like to have options, especially when it comes to shipping. According to research, only 1 in 4 online shoppers complete a purchase? 44 percent of cart abandonment cases are due to high shipping costs, and a whopping 93 percent of online shoppers say they’ll buy more if they got free shipping.

Free shipping can increase sales and improve customer loyalty. According to a study from E-tailing, 73 percent of purchasers consider unconditional free shipping as a decisive factor in shopping online. But like all other business aspects, weigh the pros and cons of your business before making a decision.

Mistake #5: Failing to Measure Performance

If you want to succeed in the competitive world of e-commerce, you need to know how to gauge and evaluate your performance. Take note of your business habits, particularly regarding expenses and marketing. Use your business plan as a roadmap to help you steer your way throughout your business venture.

Check your statistics regularly. Update your ledger and see if your business is thriving or failing. Look at your consumer insights and keep up with the masses’ latest trends. Be as specific as you can with your data. Don’t inflate your figures and understand the areas you lack to improve them further.

By monitoring your performance, you are helping your business achieve greater heights compared to passive management. And the good news is, there’s always room for improvement, be it for you or your business.

Takeaway

As John Sagel said, “What we do know now is that the ‘E’ in e-commerce doesn’t stand for ‘easy.’ Opening an e-commerce business can be overwhelming and nerve-wracking, but it can also be a highly worthwhile and profitable venture.

There is no guarantee of overnight success. However, you can set yourself up for the best chance at succeeding. To do so, grasp the basics, learn from seasoned entrepreneurs, and watch out for their mistakes to avoid committing them yourself.

Lucia Patterson

Lucia Patterson is the woman behind TheLegalGuides, a blog solely focused on legal guides, tips, and advice. Lucia loves essay writing and blogs at EssayWritingGuides from her college days.

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Don’t Stick To Age-Old Methods Of Marketing: These 7 Are The Best To Date!

Marketing has taken a rapid pace in the past few years. From the traditional pen-paper and poster stamping tactics, it has landed in the digital world. As per stats, this swift growth has been seen in the past two years than in the previous 50 years. But what makes digital marketing work so efficiently? Perhaps its the prolific content creation, hard-core search engine optimization, white hat link building and more. While these tricks are important, there’s more to these tactics that are often overlooked and scoffed when professionals look at marketing campaigns. If you want to hit the bulls-eye and want to boost sales, here are some tricks that can do wonders for your camping and can increase the sales graph: Video Marketing: Users mostly spend more and more time online, with over a wide percentage of that time to be spent on digital videos. Those digital videos are the weapon to drive more sales. How? Let’s say, you were watching the video of nail art and suddenly an annoying add pop-up; that annoying advertisement is gold who use InStream marketing service. Since you will pay for legitimate views on your video, the advertisements are set to come up various times in between the clip. This way, you will get more visitors, and your ads will work exactly like other paid ads. Facebook Advertisements: Sure you might not be interested in Facebook applications, you cannot deny the fact that this platform can drive more sales. It’s the largest platform to bring your brand to the outer world. In this, you can easily target specific users and can reach to potential buyers. You don’t have to reach to the mass of Facebook audience, just target those who have liked your niche. You can look for a target audience on the basis of age, their likes and dislikes, cities, and more. Since there millions of people on Facebook, Facebook advertising agencies use this platform to do miracles on businesses. Emails Are Still There, So Use Them! If you fear that your domain-based emails will be moot into your marketing scene because many social media users already have an email address, fret not! There will be millions of old-school users who still use emails to connect with friends. Some stats also indicate that the email marketing has an impressive ROI of around 12.2%, which is 4 times higher than other marketing channels. Further, this marketing strategy is a cult favorite of startups. And bonus, it doesn’t need tons of money to run a campaign. Retargeting: Convincing people to pay attention to your website and to believe in your business idea is difficult. However, retargeting ads can help. Retargeting is more like nudging in which people show relevant ads to only those people who have previously visited your website. When the customer comes to your website, the browser gets cooked. When the same client visits other sites, the retargeting platform will get notified by the cookie, and the users will see the same as they have liked on your page or site. LinkedIn Advertisement: Linkdln is quite a professional place to showcase anything, and serious marketers appreciate its value. They use the platform to showcase advertisements to those who are willing to see them. Although marketing to these platforms is bit costly, you will get to show your ads on millions of other networks. Viral Marketing: Creating a strong buzz for your brand on the Internet is very important to drive sales. So, work on creating content that easily goes viral. You can use any of the said platforms to viral your business to make it an overnight success. You can use hilarious content, genuine piece of information to bring traffic to your platform. This not only helps your brand to shout to the outer world but will also help in converting traffic to the buyers. Having a successful brand is an uphill battle of fierce competition. So, pick your marketing strategy effectively and skyrocket your business. Read also: 7 Proven Marketing Tactics To Increase Your ROI In 2018 Social Media Marketing: Six Trends To Keep Your Eyes On

What Is Not A Benefit Of Google Analytics Remarketing?

“What is not a benefit of Google Analytics Remarketing?” When you are looking for the answer to these questions, you need to have a basic knowledge and understanding of Google Analytics remarketing. Here, in this article, I will give you an insight into that, along with giving you the answer. First, I will give you the answer, and then we will talk a little more about Google Analytics Remarketing. So, let’s get started now. What Is Not A Benefit Of Google Analytics Remarketing? Now it is time to answer the question and the answer is; Allowing customers to reorder the item quickly that they have bought previously. Google Analytics Remarketing: What Does It Mean? There are some people who are engaged with your website already, and that is already consolidated with Google analytics. That means Google analytics has already collected much data on the user’s behaviors. Here, the possibility of transforming those potential customers who have already visited your website’s product page or your website will automatically increase. Now, suppose you are using the data pieces of Google Analytics in order to retarget those users who have already engaged with your website. This is termed Google analytics remarketing. For Google Analytics remarketing, it is a must to connect a Google Analytics account along with your Google ads account. Link Google Ads With Google Analytics From the above discussion, we get to know that you need to link your Google Analytics with Google ads. Now, I will geode you with that. You first need to open your Google ads account and then select the “Tools and Settings” option. There, find the option “Linked Accounts” and select that. A list of several Google products, along with some third-party products, will open. In Google Analytics (UA) option, select “Details.” a popup will open, and with just some clicks, you will be able to link your google Analytics with Google ad. Now, you will be able to cross-verify Google Analytics and Google ads linking by checking Google Analytics. Here Is a guide for that also. Just open Google analytics and then go for the option “admin” at the bottom left corner. There, you will find the “Google ads linking option.” Read More: Content Marketing Campaign Strategy For Small Business Advantages Of Google Analytics Remarketing Till now, Google Analytics remarketing, linking Google ads with Google analytics, everything sounds just fine. But you must know the advantages that you can utilize. Suppose a customer visits your site with the intention of buying a product. The individual will add products to the shopping cart, and then for any random reason, the individual fails to finish the final checkout in order to complete the process. Statistics say that the rate of cart abandonment is 88.05%. That means, across the globe, a percentage of people abandon shopping carts. These people don’t convert. But, those customers who have abandoned shopping carts are actually potential customers, and they can be transformed in the remarketing campaign. If you can retarget those customers, your conversion rate will be high. Basically, you can re-engage with all those customers who have expressed genuine keenness in your services and products in a remarketing campaign. Let’s understand this concept with an example. Natasha saw a party dress and visited your website. She is highly interested in buying a party dress for her bachelorette. Now, she selected a dress and added them to the shopping cart. She found out that she doesn’t have her credit card with her. Now, she is closing the site and thinking about buying it next time. Here, we can say that Natasha is indeed a potential customer. Now, imagine what if you show her the same product that she had added to the shopping cart. What do you think? Will Natahs buy that or not? Absolutely yes, Natasha will buy that dress because she is a hungry customer and also has an event soon, which means her buying intent is very strong. Just like this, there are several other customers who do the same thing. They left or abandoned the shopping cart for some reason, and then you will have a very filtered audience list to target. Now, here, what’s the role of Google? Google will display the ads on the partnered websites, which your potential targeted customers are likely to visit for entertaining or gaining knowledge purposes. When they see similar products that they saw a few days back, then their desire to purchase that product will increase. And this desire compels them to purchase the products. Google Analytics Remarketing: Why? Everything till now is fine, but as you are looking for the answer, I think you are thinking about opting for Google analytics remarketing. And In case you are not, here are some major reasons why you should try it. Over time the conversion rates increase in remarketing campaigns. Although the click-through rate may get lesser a little, the conversion rate will surely be high. In case the customer has already interacted with your products or services but didn’t buy them due to some reasons, the remarketing campaign works best. All those individuals who have seen your ads several times during that time would not be able to make the buying decision, and they convert immediately. Now, come to the major point, when they get free time, they forget your brand or company name once they visit any website and see the product they desire to purchase. Then they purchase it quickly. To be honest, the Google display network provides one of the greatest reaches. GDN reaches around 90% of internet users. For running remarketing ads, GDN is actually really efficient. Final Talks So along with getting the answer to the question, “what is not a benefit of google analytics remarketing?” Basically, it lets users reorder the products that have already been purchased by the individual. I believe after going through this article; you get the required knowledge. In case you have any questions or queries, feel free to reach me through the comment section. I will get back with the collusion as soon as possible. Read Also: Software Development Company Can Help Mitigate Technology Risks In Business Google Analytics Cannot Collect Data From Which Systems By Default? Online Marketing : Selling Your Product And Services

Exploring The Different Types Of Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing is the process of marketing services and produces using digital technology with the primary aim of reaching out to the target audience. Although you might know this already, digital marketing isn’t restricted to the internet, hence can be done on any other digital medium including display advertising and mobile phones. Some of the most popularly used digital marketing methods include search engine marketing, search engine optimization, pay per click, social media marketing, and SMS marketing among others. This article explores the various types of digital marketing methods in use today. 1. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is the process of marketing/promoting services and products through social media. With billions of people logging into various social networking platforms in a day, social media has become a marketing haven for marketers. Popular networking platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have made it possible for marketers to target specific audiences. This has led to increased output and conversion of target audiences into potential and even loyal customers. LinkedIn, for example, is specially designed for B2B marketing while Instagram plays perfectly for the 'visual' business. There are different approaches in which one can use to target audiences on social media. Facebook, for example, provides users with both free and paid advertising options, all of which can be profitable when appropriately implemented. Some understanding of social media marketing is however needed to make the most out of this strategy. 2. Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the most efficient and oldest types of digital marketing strategies in use to date. The best thing with email marketing is the fact that marketers get to communicate directly with their target audiences and customers, which again increases conversion rates. Email marketing is also known to build trust and customer loyalty, one of the reasons it has remained relevant to this date. There is however more to email marketing than merely sending a couple of promotional emails and newsletters to an emailing list. A successful Email Marketing campaign begins by finding ids that are active and operational. One of the best ways to connect with your target audiences is on the professional social media handle. LinkedIn. Most brands and agencies understand that working with a credible Linkedin email finder can help them reach out to potential or prospective sales leads. This is something that software development agencies usually do a lot of. They can browse through designations on LinkedIn and ensure that their pitch is directly addressed to professionals that have decision-making abilities. While you need to be really good at creating eye-catching and captivating emails, you still need to build a credible emailing list. This is among the toughest things an email marketer has to do to make the marketing campaign a success. Nonetheless, collecting email addresses through user subscriptions and having audiences sign up for newsletters, coupon codes, etc. are some of the credible ways to collect email addresses. 3. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing: Commonly known as SEO, search engine optimization is one of the popular digital marketing strategies today. SEO involves optimizing websites and pages for both search engines and organic visitors. Some of the key areas that marketers and website owners have to focus on when optimizing their sites include keyword research and analysis, link building, and the creation of unique and relevant content. Done correctly, an SEO campaign can see a page gaining higher ranks on Google, Bing, and other search engines, with the reward being increased exposure to the target audience. A properly executed SEO plan can see your page/business show up on the top pages of a search result. Search engine marketing, SEM, involves taking on campaigns and strategies to increase traffic to a web page or site. It covers both SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) like this, whereby the web page received increased traffic through both unpaid and paid means. 4. Content Marketing: Content marketing works very differently from other marketing strategies. It employs a strategic approach that mainly focuses on creating relevant, valuable, consistent, and informative content that is distributed to help attract, inform, and retain target audiences. Thanks to content marketing, the target audience can make an informative decision on a product/service, hence one of the best ways to drive profitable customer action. The content can be either in the form of text and articles published both on the site and blogs, video, and image content. It is also an ongoing process that involves creating fresh and unique content each time. Although a marketing strategy, experts recommend creating content to promote the brand or product without necessarily asking the target audience to make a purchase. The content simply needs to be engaging and enriching to help viewers make the right decision on the product. 5. Influencer Marketing: This is slowly becoming a popular marketing strategy today. As the name suggests, influencer marketing involves using industry experts or social media influencers to help market a product or brand. This could be a celebrity or another well-known person with thousands of followers on their social sites. All the individual needs to do is vouch for your brand, or simply promote your product on their social media pages. Most companies use these influencers to help give away discount codes, coupons, and prize draws. Influencer marketers mostly prefer using their Facebook profiles, YouTube Channels, and Instagram to promote the said product. Although a short-term marketing strategy, influencer marketing can help drive more traffic to your site, a factor that can help increase conversions and sales. 6. Mobile Advertising: With almost everyone owning a phone or at least a smartphone, mobile marketing is slowly taking shape. SMS marketing with SMS broadcast services and in-app advertising have become popular ways to promote products. Although you do not need a mailing list for in-app advertising, you certainly need one for SMS marketing. Many companies today use SMS marketing to send coupon codes, special offers, and even newsletters to their target audiences. These are just but some of the popular digital marketing strategies in use today. Done correctly, some of these strategies can help your business grow while building a huge following. While you might be able to implement all these by yourself, it would be advisable to have an experienced professional handle all optimizations and marketing strategies. This way, you will be guaranteed better results and even have enough time on your hands to handle more serious business matters. Finding an expert in all these can however be an intimidating task. Thanks to the internet, you should be able to find a reputable and results-oriented company to help take care of all these. You can even invest in paid digital advertising strategies such as influencer marketing and pay-per-click to get a head start with increased traffic and visibility online. Read Also: How To Integrate Email Marketing With SEO 4 Points To Consider When Creating A Great Content Marketing Strategy Today

Oh, Crop! Killer E-commerce Mistakes You Need to Conquer

Mistake #1: Forgetting Your Market

Mistake #2: Lack of Social Media Presence

Mistake #3: Neglecting Mobile Optimization

Mistake #4: Faulty Shipping Flexibility

Mistake #5: Failing to Measure Performance

Takeaway

How to Get What You Want at Work By Strategic Negotiation

Transacting Safely In Craiglist

Tags

Lucia Patterson

Lucia Patterson is the woman behind TheLegalGuides, a blog solely focused on legal guides, tips, and advice. Lucia loves essay writing and blogs at EssayWritingGuides from her college days.

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Don’t Stick To Age-Old Methods Of Marketing: These 7 Are The Best To Date!

What Is Not A Benefit Of Google Analytics Remarketing?

Exploring The Different Types Of Digital Marketing Strategies

Oh, Crop! Killer E-commerce Mistakes You Need to Conquer

Mistake #1: Forgetting Your Market

Mistake #2: Lack of Social Media Presence

Mistake #3: Neglecting Mobile Optimization

Mistake #4: Faulty Shipping Flexibility

Mistake #5: Failing to Measure Performance

Takeaway

Share this Article

How to Get What You Want at Work By Strategic Negotiation

Transacting Safely In Craiglist

Tags

Lucia Patterson is the woman behind TheLegalGuides, a blog solely focused on legal guides, tips, and advice. Lucia loves essay writing and blogs at EssayWritingGuides from her college days.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Popular

Follow Us

Recent

Related