Digital Marketing and eCommerce Strategies

In 2020, there was a major shift in eCommerce. The industry accelerated a decade in just a few months, changing the way businesses run and grow, as well as consumer purchasing behaviors. We are entering a new era of commerce and growth that we have never seen before. This has driven businesses to revamp their digital marketing strategies.

If you have an eCommerce store, it is critical for your site to be optimized and to grow in an increasingly crowded landscape of online shopping. To succeed, you will need to create a thoughtful, multi-funnel, and omnichannel marketing strategy. Now is the time to make sure you are implementing the best eCommerce strategies and, luckily for you, we have laid out 11 of our favorites below:

ChatBots are a Must

Chatbots are oftentimes the first point of contact a customer has with your business and the experience can make or break customers’ larger experience with your brand, products or services.

Chatbots allow you to be instantly available to answer questions one-on-one with potential customers. This in turn makes their purchasing decision so much easier.

You can also instantly resolve issues that have disrupted a customer’s purchasing journey. You can address questions or issues that may be holding consumers back, giving them the information (and confidence) to continue with buying your product.

At Epic Notion, we use ManyChat. These bots make it easy to converse with customers in a very human manner and, in turn, offer a personalized experience that can significantly influence purchases.

Chatbots not only improve your customer service but also integrate with Shopify or your eCommerce store to drive sales. They can provide up-sell promotions, discounts, abandonment protection, giveaways, and a lot more — the possibilities are endless!

Utilize Video

Although not all products require video content, videos are a great way to showcase your brand, build consumer confidence, and increase conversions.

We recommend implementing video to your site or product pages so the customer understands “how it works” and (just as importantly) why they’re missing out by not having your products or services in their life.

There are several Shopify apps that make it easy to utilize video, as well as built-in tools to turn your products into 3D visuals.

Flexible Delivery

For online shoppers, one of the biggest abandonment drivers is shipping. More than 69% of the time, users will abandon their cart because shipping costs too much.

Consumers are likely to abandon their cart if shipping is too expensive, the shipping details are unclear, or there aren’t enough shipping options to meet their needs.

A great way to decrease cart abandonment is to offer a variety of delivery options.

People want to pay and know their product will arrive quickly. For better or worse, Amazon has set the standard on what consumers expect with online delivery.

Having an express shipping option can be expensive. Following a page in Amazon’s book, you can offer a discounted or free shipping option if the package is shipped for a later delivery date.

Offering options for your customers to choose a shipping option that works for them will help reduce the number of people leaving during checkout.

Reduce Cart Abandonment

Shipping isn’t the only factor driving cart abandonment. Other factors include

Overly complicated checkout processes
Complex account setup requirements
Poor website performance, like slow load times or site crashes
Disrupted shopping experience

One of the most effective ways to recoup these sales is to introduce an email recovery strategy alongside your paid social or search remarketing efforts. When someone abandons a cart, you can send a series of emails encouraging customers to complete their transactions. Typically these emails have an offer or discount to get the customer to complete the purchase.

Shopify has several abandonment apps that instantly provide value for your business and is a critical piece of your multi-funnel marketing strategy.

Encourage User-Generated Content

Nothing sells a product better than a happy customer who has left a glowing review on your site. User-generated content (UGC) like this provides customers hands-on insight on your products from other satisfied customers. You can increase your UGC by creating hashtags as well as implementing images and videos in your reviews.

Verified customer testimonials and feedback will have a significant pull in a new customer’s purchasing decision and the more you have, the more comfortable they will be in considering your product.

Mobile Friendly

It is crucial for your website to be mobile-friendly. With the rapid growth of eCommerce, more and more people are using their mobile devices to shop. Making sure your site is optimized for mobile should come before desktop optimization. There are several best practices you can implement to create a mobile-optimized shopping experience, including:

A shopping cart that scrolls with the customer, so they can view their care while shopping
Add-to-cart buttons that are easy to find so customers can instantly add items
Cross-platform carts that allow users to add to or view their cart at any time from any mobile or desktop device
Compressed images for faster mobile loading

According to Adweek, Google found 73% of consumers will leave an unfriendly mobile site to use a site designed for mobile use. Within Shopify and eCommerce platforms, you can view your mobile optimization as well as recommendations to increase performance.

Retargeting

There are typically three main steps in the sales funnel: 1) Awareness 2) Consideration and 3) Conversion/Purchase. One way to help push users through the three phases is with remarketing.

Remarking allows you to target users with digital ads who have engaged with your site or products but who haven’t made a purchase yet.

By offering different messages and promotions at each stage of the funnel, you help lead the customer on a journey, learning more about your products and considering purchasing. Your most enticing offer or discount is typically offered at the very end of the funnel and by this point, when the customer is aware of your product and familiar with your store, the offer convinces them to give you a try.

Improve Checkout

Complex checkouts slow down purchases and lead to frustration. Think about how easy Amazon makes their shopping experience with one-click purchases. By making your checkout simple, you will reduce cart abandonment by making transactions easy for your customers and limiting the number of steps or pages to complete purchases.

Having a highly visible progress bar will help let your customers know where they are in the checkout process. Using multiple payment methods like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and Paypal can pre-populate information for quicker checkout. Performing routine audits of your checkout process will make sure that customers aren’t having issues or abandoning due to a poor user experience.

Add Products to Google Shopping Feed

Google Shopping campaigns are very popular for eCommerce companies and are great for reaching an audience that is actively searching for your product. With a Shopping campaign, you can advertise your products at the top of the Google search results at the exact moment people are looking to buy the kinds of products you sell through their search inquiries. Shopping ads can include product images, pricing information, reviews, special offers, and the ability for users to quickly shop your products.

Shopify offers several apps that tie to Google Merchant Center which makes the setup fast and easy and is a great marketing campaign to include in your multi-channel marketing strategy.

Build Consumer Trust with Reviews

One of the most critical pieces of information that a customer looks for when discovering a new product or service are customer reviews. Buyers are more conscious of their spending and a website with no reviews or ratings can be a red flag. Having several reviews on your site will reassure your customers that others have tried your product and are happy with the result.

Having a review strategy where you are following up with buyers for reviews to display on your site is a time-tested, straightforward way to turn more site visitors into customers. These review emails can also be used to offer customers discounts for leaving the review, growing your lifetime customer value. You can also cross sell or send important messages or promos in these post-purchase emails that keep your customers engaged.

Upsell and Drive Sales with Pop-ups

Another way to improve your eCommerce strategy and increase your conversion rate is with pop-ups. You can use pop-ups to attract a potential consumer with a discount. Pop-ups can be set up seamlessly with a variety of Shopify apps, like Privy. You can also use pop-ups to cross-sell and offer product recommendations, similar to how Amazon showcases other relative and purchased products on their platform.

We know that oftentimes, pop-ups have a bad reputation—but there’s a reason why everyone uses them. It’s because they work. You can get creative on what promotions or discounts you offer with these pop-ups but they are a great way to build your customer list and drive sales.

In Summary

Today, online shoppers have more options than ever. The only way to capture more sales in such a competitive landscape is to make sure your eCommerce offers a positive, helpful, and seamless experience to users. The 11 steps outlined above are a great place to start. If you’re interested in more eCommerce optimizations, contact us to discuss how we can help grow your online sales.

11 Top Digital Marketing and eCommerce Strategies for 2023