There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that E-commerce is one the rise. It even seems like the whole COVID-19 lockdown is actually good for E-commerce stores, because the majority of brick-and-mortar stores are closed, for the time being, but it’s not exactly as simple as that. More brands and businesses which used to make most of their money thanks to their physical locations will be looking to establish a stronger online presence, as well as E-commerce stores. This means more competition, which will require E-commerce owners to get more creative in 2020. These tips to launch your e-commerce brand will help you stay on top of your game, and make the launching of your brand easier.
Regardless of that, E-commerce is growing, and is projected to facilitate as much as 95% of all purchases by 2040. In fact, it might even reach those percentages earlier. By comparison, E-commerce used to make up only 13% of all US retail sales in 2017. In other words, if you are thinking about launching your own E-commerce brand, you should start as soon as possible. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five essential tips to launch your e-commerce brand you should stick to.
1. Establish a Strong Visual Presence
You should never be cheap when it comes to your brand’s logo and its visual identity online. Your logo is the first thing that will catch your customers’ eyes, so you better make sure that it’s memorable. Once you have established that, your website, blog, and social media profiles should follow suit, adopting the same visual cues your brand will be associated with. On top of strong visuals, you should also aim to establish a clear and distinctive voice for your brand. One of the best examples of that is the Dollar Shave Club, which has been killing it in the E-commerce game ever since they have uploaded their first video featuring the company’s founder Michael Dubin.
Plus, their visuals, starting with their website, videos, social media, and ending with their content and emails, are just top-notch, with plenty of humor thrown in for good measure. On top of that, they offer high-quality products at an affordable price, and they will send them to their customers every month.
2. Start a Blog
You have probably noticed that even the most successful E-commerce businesses don’t have a really high conversion rate, and that’s fine, because conversion is a number game. The key, of course, is to drive more traffic your way, which makes for a higher chance of converting your visitors into customers. Blogging works in several ways, too. First of all, it’s one of the best ways to spread word about your brand, especially if you are just starting out. According to twiftnews, blogging enables you to beef up your SEO through regular posts that contain relevant keywords, high-quality content, and even backlinks, which are the of three most important SEO signals search engines look at when ranking your website.
Plus, you can use your posts to promote your products and services, and place links to your landing pages inside the content. Shopify has one of the best blogs out there when it comes to E-commerce. Not only is it a true vault of useful information and how-to articles, but it’s also one of the reasons why Shopify is the platform of choice for so many E-commerce businesses out there.
3. Create an Easy and Pleasant Shopping Experience
Although customers may be more patient with their online shopping with lots of physical stores closing down, they will still opt for brands and businesses which provide them with a streamlined and pleasant shopping experience, without requiring them to jump through hoops or complete too many steps. Making your buying process as simple as possible will do wonders for your online store. What makes for a simple buying process? Well, there are plenty of factors that come into play here, but offering multiple payment options is one of them. That includes credit cash, Paypal, and some alternative options, like Payoneer or even Bitcoin.
Also, things like real-time inventory, customer testimonials, shipment tracking, and express checkout are also worth considering. But, you can also take it one step further and make it interesting and memorable, much like Sephora did with its Virtual Artist store. It allows you to take and upload an image of yourself and then try on all of their different beauty products, and get pretty much the same experience as you would in one of their physical stores. Furthermore, they also make it incredibly easy to buy each product right there inside the editor.
4. Focus on Social Media
Pretty much everyone nowadays is on social media, which means your potential customers are there as well. This also means that pretty much every E-commerce brand out there has a strong social media presence, not just for the purpose of spreading awareness about its products or services, but also because they need to build a relationship with their followers and customers. When it comes to your choice of social media platforms, it all depends on what kind of business you are running, but since we are focusing on E-commerce, it’s a safe bet to say that you should focus on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and if you have the resources, YouTube as well.
It also helps your customers get in touch with your brand more easily and directly. In addition to that, social media can also help you remedy some of the situations related to customer complaints and poor reviews.
5. Offer a Discount
When your E-commerce brand is just hitting the market, it doesn’t really have much in terms of reputation, which means it will have a tough time winning over people who are loyal to other, most established brands. One of the ways in which you can attract new people is by offering a discount on your products or services. You can either opt for a limited time offer, first purchase discount, or a discount code. In all cases, it will be hard for new customers to resist getting a great deal, so they will flock to your online store. In other words, instead of making your prices higher and earning a profit that way, slash them early and make revenue by getting more people to buy your stuff.
Conclusion
Getting an E-commerce brand off the ground is not easy, because there is so much competition out there. However, with these tips to launch e-commerce brand, you can avoid some of the most common pitfalls of E-commerce, and get ahead of your competitors in no time. Good luck!
Ready To Upgrade Your Logistic Solution?
Speak to Floship ecommerce logistic consultant about improving your global support chain today
