E-commerce Archives | FML Marketing

Start selling online: The advantages of e-commerce websites

Michelle — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 12:02:12 +0000

E-commerce, the abbreviation of ‘electronic commerce’, is simply trading over the Internet. Many people still believe that setting up a webshop or creating an online store is a daunting, time-consuming affair… but e-commerce offers too many advantages to ignore in 2020. In this article, we highlight some of the most important reasons to start selling online. + We give some valuable tips to start building your online store from scratch.

The advantages of setting up an e-commerce website

Easy to use

Nowadays, ease of use is playing an increasingly important role among consumers. Of course, it is much easier to order products from behind your computer than visiting different shops to find the right product. With the internet, it is possible to order products without leaving the house and the internet has a huge assortment. Because of the large number of webshops on offer, the chance of success for consumers is many times greater. If, in addition to a webshop for desktop, a website for mobile or tablet is also created, the convenience for the customer is increased even further. This, in turn, has a positive effect on the traffic that is drawn to the site.

E-commerce in Europe: 60% buys online

Online shopping had already become more popular throughout the European Union over the years. Partly due to increased use of the Internet and improved security standards. But driven by the measures taken to contain the coronavirus, eCommerce has recently taken quite a breakthrough. Eurostat does not yet show these figures, so we have to do with the 2019 stats. It shows that six out of ten people in the European Union, aged between 16 and 74, shopped online last year. By way of comparison: a year earlier, that percentage was 4 percentage points lower, at 56 percent. And compared to ten years ago, the share has even almost doubled, from 32 per cent in 2009.

Opportunity for unknown brands

Where the big brands are mainly about brand awareness, this is not the case with e-commerce. It is much more important to attract visitors to the website than to generate brand awareness. In addition, many large webshops now also offer a partner program. As a small supplier of, for example, clothing or electronics products, you can pre-purchase on the site of the large webshop. In Holland, leading webshop such as Bol.com and internationally Zalando.nl and Amazon already work according to this principle to expand the range of products. Also Google Shopping can play a huge part in the success of your online business. In April 2020, Google changed its policy, allowing all online stores to advertise on the platform for free.

Google is making a significant change to its Google Shopping platform by letting any business owner that sells products online list their inventory for free. Usually, an e-commerce operation would need to pay for ad placement on Google Shopping. But the company says it will now let anyone who operates a website or manages a store on a marketplace platform list without paying. Google still plans to charge companies for top placement as promoted listings.

For more information, please visit the Google Merchant Center website.

In addition, literally and figuratively a world opens up once a webshop has been set up. Where a physical store has a relatively small reach, in a webshop the world is at your feet. Worldwide, almost everyone is a potential consumer.

Your 24/7 sales office

Because there are no opening hours, you can sell your products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Customers sell your products

By using a webshop and allowing reviews on the website, many more potential consumers are reached than when only using a physical store. In physical stores, positive feedback will only reach people who are close to the consumer, such as family and friends. Reviews on the internet, on the other hand, reach almost all consumers who click on the product in question. These people are often interested in the product, but also how others think about the product. However, this can also have negative consequences. The same applies to negative feedback.

Low costs

Setting up an online store can be done for a fraction of the costs if compared to a physical store. There is no rent to be paid, there is less staff and the physical stock needed is smaller. The fact that marketing costs are lower can also save a lot of money. By setting up the webshop in the right way, consumer confidence is also gained. When the website looks good, the customer is more inclined to buy products and the owner of the webshop can respond much better to the wishes of the customer. It is possible to look at the number of clicks per product, the number of purchases per product or the turnover per product. This allows a webshop owner to adapt his assortment to the wishes of the customer faster. By using Search Engine Optimization, the traffic to the website can be further increased.

Security and Data of the consumer

However, it is important to protect the data of the consumer. Consumers are forced to provide a delivery address, personal information and payment details when purchasing a product. It is therefore important that this personal information is properly protected.

Starting your E-commerce website the smart way

In order to run a webshop successfully, you have to take into account many things, such as marketing, logistics and the ability to pay online. But first, you need to select your CMS (Content Management System) and E-commerce platform.

To learn more about this aspect, please read the following content thoroughly:

Ecommerce: Online Marketing is the cornerstone for your online store

In order to sell online, you need website traffic. The RIGHT website traffic that is. In order to open the gates and provide a solid stream of visitors, you need to get started with marketing. Basically, this means you need to get out of the obscurity. Sales-mogul Grant Cardone puts it brilliantly in the following video. Long story short: People do not know you! And you need to make sure they do. You need to make sure people are convinced about your product. Time to step out of the shadow and to start with online marketing.

Content marketing

Content marketing is an important part of your overall marketing strategy. A slogan like this used to be very effective. Maybe you remember it: “We from WC duck, recommend WC duck”. Nowadays this no longer works and you have to do your best to build trust with your target group. Visitors and potential customers want more, they want proof that they have really come to the right place. Content marketing helps with this.

By placing and distributing content, you create value for visitors. They are looking for certain information and you give it to them. If you do this right, you not only create engagement with your visitors, but you will soon be seen as an expert in your field. Moreover, content marketing strengthens the position of your webshop in search engines.

Of course, there are many forms of content. Below are a number of forms you can use for your webshop.

Get started with content marketing today with our FREE WINNING content strategy of 2020. Click here: The winning SEO Content Strategy of 2020

Blogs and articles

Blogging is an excellent method to share your knowledge, to inform your target group about news and to bring your web shop to the attention of your customers. Every webshop should have a blog. Share not only news about your webshop, but also background information about products, new collections and useful tips.

Videos

Not everyone likes to read (long) articles and blogs. Therefore use video as a marketing tool. For example, make videos with product reviews, show how products can be used and answer questions in videos.

Reviews

Telling yourself that you are the best no longer works (see also the video of WC duck above). Visitors are more likely to assume from your current customers that your products are good. Give customers the opportunity to share their experiences and post these reviews on your website.

Infographics

An infographic is a nice variation on your content. An infographic is an illustration that displays information in an orderly manner. It is often a combination of text and image. You can use it, for example, to explain the production process.

E-books

E-books are ideal tools to share your knowledge and expertise. Write an e-book about a subject that your target group is interested in and that matches the products you sell. You can also use this to collect more subscriptions to your newsletter.

Email marketing, indispensable in your marketing strategy

It is often thought that e-mail marketing, sending newsletters and mailings to your target group, is outdated. But nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, it is true that consumers receive an awful lot of e-mails and newsletters these days, but that does not mean that it is better not to send them.

E-mail marketing is a great way to reach your target group and customers and keep them informed about new products, promotions and other news. Moreover, if you send a regular newsletter, the reader is constantly reminded of your webshop. The moment the consumer needs something, you are top of mind.

Collecting email addresses

By placing a registration form on your website and giving visitors a reason to register, you can collect e-mail addresses, even from people who are not customers at that time. By subscribing to your newsletter they can indicate that they are interested in your products. Then use the newsletter to introduce these potential customers to your webshop and gain their trust, so that they can still make a purchase.

Offer value in your newsletter

Do not turn your newsletter into a digital advertising brochure. Take a different approach than your competitors, so that you stand out in those overflowing mailboxes. Provide tips, background information and sneak previews in your newsletter. Make something valuable out of it, that works much better than simply saying ‘these are the new products and these are this week’s offers’. Of course, you have to mention them as well, but always offer a little added value, so people will keep opening your newsletters and even look forward to them in the long run.

Social media for your webshop

The proper use of social media for your webshop can bring you enormous brand awareness, online visibility, fans and customers. But don’t underestimate it. Setting up and implementing a good social media strategy takes time and perseverance.

You don’t have to be present everywhere. Choose the channels where your target group is present and post messages that suit both the channel and your target group. On Instagram and Pinterest, for example, it’s all about the photos and you can use Facebook to share links to blogs you’ve written.

Search engine marketing

Worldwide, Google processes nearly 4 million searches per minute. Many online shoppers start their search for a particular product or for inspiration in a search engine. If you make sure that your shop scores well in search engines, that’s a great way to attract more free visitors to your shop.

There are several things that are important when you optimize your website for search engines. One of those things, which I’ve had a lot of success with last year, is adding a knowledge base to the website. Here you can share a lot of basic information. Information that is interesting for new visitors, but that doesn’t really belong on your blog. In addition, blogging ensures a better position in the search results, especially if you include relevant search terms in your articles.

Discover more about our Search Engine Marketing Sevice: Ranking within 90 days! – FML SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Google Ads

If you are not yet found well in the search engine on certain search terms, you can place advertisements in the Google advertising program: Google Ads. By advertising in Google or other search engines (SEA – Search Engine Advertising) you can attract many extra visitors to your webshop.

In the search results of Google, for example, standard places are reserved for the advertisements. In the image below you can see that the first four search results contain the abbreviation ‘Adv.’, which indicates that these are advertisements. On the right side of the screen you will also see the Google Shopping results. These are also advertisements.

Logistics

Logistics is one of the most important parts when it comes to optimising your business, especially if it’s an online shop. Sometimes we assume that everything goes well, but if you take a closer look at the figures and possibilities, you will see that you can probably perform even better. So always look for new opportunities to optimise. We explain here how you can do this best for your logistics.

Payment

As you can read, a webshop offers numerous advantages. Besides the lower costs, there is a larger market that can be tapped into, products can be sold 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and positive feedback reaches more consumers. The use of e-commerce is therefore highly recommended for companies, so increase the chances and put on that webshop!

But in order to be successful, you must ensure flexible payment options!

The post Start selling online: The advantages of e-commerce websites appeared first on FML Marketing.

10 e-commerce trends to watch in 2020 (Q3/4 Update)

Ken — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:47:19 +0000

Put the customer first! That has been for a long time the mantra in e-commerce. It is so obvious and widely (ab)used in e-commerce trend reports.

But even though we know this, in the hunt for higher margins and more market share, the wishes of the customer are still regularly relegated to the background. Nevertheless, in 2020 it will be more important than ever to have a clear understanding of the customer’s needs. If your customer experience does not live up to expectations, a better alternative will be available within a few mouse clicks.

10 e-commerce trends to watch in 2020

It should, therefore, come as no surprise that consumers are currently dictating the changes in online shopping. The continuous growth of the search term “customer experience” over the past five years according to Google Trends illustrates this nicely.

The value of the customer experience is constantly increasing. Partly due to the importance of repeat purchases and good customer reviews. The trends we describe in this article therefore all relate to the customer’s buying experience and the technology behind it.

But what does customer experience mean? And how do you deal with that in practice? In this article, we try to answer these questions by looking at the growing popularity and increasing importance of unified commerce, the offline experience and consistent brand values.

Unified Commerce
Offline experience
Delivery
Consistent brand values
It’s all about the customer experience

Unified Commerce

Recent research by Deloitte clearly shows that consumers are channel-agnostic (pdf). They hop from one point of interaction to another. Whether it is an Instagram advertisement, a pop-up store or a voice wizard search. To make things even more difficult, the number of touchpoints is rapidly increasing, both in terms of availability and adoption by the general public.

Trends like chatbots and technologies like augmented and virtual reality are interesting ways to stand out and reach the customer. But at the same time, they add even more complexity to the web of touchpoints. Despite the increased complexity, customers still demand a seamless experience when they decide to switch from one channel to another.

A seamless shopping experience is no longer nice-to-have but essential. Still, it’s not always easy to break away from the traditional approach, even if you focus on new ways of customer interaction. For example, marketing budgets are often reserved for tried and tested channels. 2020 is the year to shift your marketing spending. From traditional channels to an approach that meets the digitally flexible customer.

Trend 1: Attention to the whole ecosystem

Do you really want to be able to focus on the customer experience? Then you will have to say goodbye to a channel-specific, offline versus online, marketing strategy. Instead, look at the bigger picture. Focus on the end result. Then zoom in on how you can optimize each individual channel. And how to offer a better, more holistic customer experience. As more and more companies choose this approach, there is currently a shift in the technologies that make e-commerce possible.

Many companies have started building modular platforms with a focus on the customer experience. This instead of relying on a single, monolithic e-commerce solution. A modular platform allows them to adapt their technology to the customer. Instead of having their approach dictated or limited by their software.

But a consistent buying experience is not the only wish the consumer has. He also expects the seller to know him completely. If this turns out not to be the case, he switches to another supplier with the greatest of ease. As many as 77% of consumers expect products and offers that are tailored to him or her personally.

Trend 2: A smooth, personalized customer journey

To show the right product to the right person at the right time, technology and data are indispensable. Think of targeted online ads. But also, for example, dynamic, relevant website content or useful information that is presented via a personalised app. Personalized, relevant communication has a clear focus for most brands. 92% even see personalisation as a top priority.

The next question, of course, is how to do this – accurately and scalably at the same time.

First of all, you need a clean dataset to improve the accuracy of the relevant content.
Secondly, the right technology to reach a large number of consumers.

The network of touchpoints encompasses every interaction a customer has with a brand – both online and offline.

Offline experience

The awareness that it’s not just about the online experience has sparked a comeback of physical stores. But with a rethink on the purpose of it. Instead of thinking that a physical store is simply a necessity for every business, you need to look at the unique qualities of both online and offline channels. Based on that, you can start optimizing both.

For example, many former online-only players have recently opened physical stores. But these stores are usually not focused on convenience and a wide range of products, but on providing an experience that is not possible online. Physical stores should be judged just like any other marketing tool: which segment of the audience does the store target? At what stage of the customer journey do you expect people to visit the store? The ultimate goal will not only determine the concept of the store but also how its success will be measured.

Trend 3: The physical store as an experiment

A physical store can be used to market a new product or new technology or service. Pop-up stores are a good example of this. For example, they allow online players to interact face-to-face with potential customers and collect direct feedback. And at the same time, they contribute to building the brand.

The most exposed example is Amazon Go. By opening this store concept Amazon can experiment with unmanned stores. This allows them to test the effectiveness of scanning with smartphones, automation and in-store robots, while at the same time generating a large amount of press attention.

Trend 4: The physical store as a human interaction point

The human element is one of the unique characteristics of offline shopping. Deloitte even claims that human interaction and engagement are the core factors of the overall shopping experience and customer satisfaction. The benefits of human contact can be combined with technology. For example, by equipping store employees with tools that make them central players in the field of brand experience.

For example, using a smartphone or tablet, a clean data set and a modern CMS, store employees can consult a customer’s previous purchases and see what content that person has read on the company’s website. Based on this information, the CMS can make automatic recommendations for products. And employees can show the customer exactly what he or she was looking for. Also, the employee can quickly look up whether a certain product is in stock or what colour options are available.

Trend 5: The physical store to experience products

Before we make a purchase, we all have a deep inner need to see and touch a product in real life. Only a physical store offers the unique opportunity to experience the product physically. Certainly desirable for products in a higher price segment. Also, a physical store gives companies that are only active online the opportunity to fully immerse consumers in their brand experience.

Brands that started online have discovered pop-up stores as a possibility to be physically present. Without the need for a larger, permanent store. Traditional retailers such as Calvin Klein and Macy’s have also embraced the pop-up phenomenon. This allows them to experiment with creative concept stores in the short term. Retailers like to use these kinds of options to emphasize their focus on customer experience. Something that strengthens the reputation of their e-commerce activities once again.

Delivery

An essential element of the offline experience is the delivery. This may not appeal to the imagination as much as a brand new store concept. But the delivery of a product is an essential part of the process. Customers quickly notice shortcomings and appreciate it when companies take an extra step.

According to a recent publication by the World Economic Forum on the transformation of e-commerce logistics, companies are focusing on the following tactics to make their delivery services above average: fast delivery, cross-border delivery, exploring new sectors and easy returns.

Trend 6: Fast delivery

I’m sure you’ve noticed that company delivery times are getting shorter and shorter. Delivery on the same day or even within two hours after the purchase is sometimes already possible. As a result, consumers are expecting more and more from companies in this area. Not only in terms of delivery speed but also when it comes to flexible delivery options. This has turned the sector quite upside down and ensured that logistics and operational processes are directly linked to customer satisfaction.

Trend 7: Cross-border supply

Cross-border e-commerce is growing rapidly due to the lack of physical boundaries on the internet. This development mainly concerns China. The size of the Chinese e-commerce sector is already huge. Western consumers are increasingly finding Chinese webshops. The growing Chinese middle class and their hunger for foreign products will further increase the size of the sector.

Trend 8: Exploring new sectors

The range of home delivery is rapidly expanding and now goes far beyond clothing and electronics. Consumers are increasingly beginning to see the benefits of ordering items such as cosmetics, pet supplies and food online. Just think of the online success of supermarkets.

Trend 9: Easy Returns

To give customers the aforementioned physical experience they desire, many e-commerce players make it easy to return products. In addition to simply offering this service (free of charge), they make it extra easy utilizing pre-printed labels, an automated refund of the purchase amount and the choice to return in the shop or by post. All this, of course, brings new challenges, such as high return costs and extra transport movements.

Consistent brand values

As you will have noticed, the central factor in all the aforementioned trends and developments is the brand experience. Your brand is what distinguishes you from the competition and what makes you recognizable for your customers. A consistent brand experience, regardless of the channel or choices you make, should therefore always be the starting point of your strategy.

Trend 10: A unique brand story

Consumers are increasingly attracted to brands that have a story to tell. They are looking for authentic brands that fit their personal lifestyle. A distinctive brand story helps consumers to identify with your brand in a way that extends beyond the product alone.

Retailers, therefore, do well to think about the values that can create a connection between their product and their customer. These brand values should be reflected in every aspect of the company, from the products to the corporate culture.

TIP: integrate your brand’s story seamlessly in your website experience. Click on the green link for more information about our E-commerce website services.

It’s all about the customer experience

Having a strong brand story, a consistent customer journey, meeting customer expectations in terms of delivery and returns, repositioning the physical store… It all boils down to one single factor that will determine the success of your business: creating a great, distinctive customer experience.

Companies that are now doing everything they can to create a great customer experience are sure to be ahead of new trends and developments in the years to come.