eCommerce (electronic commerce) is when one party sells or purchases something on the internet.
For instance, if you were to sell used furniture on Facebook, you’d be taking part in an eCommerce transaction.
eCommerce marketing, on the other hand, is an umbrella term for a number of marketing strategies designed to generate sales.
Its goals include boosting website traffic, converting website visitors, improving the customer experience and post-purchase experience, etc.
Through eCommerce marketing, you can generate sales and get people to buy your products again and again.
1. It allows you to market to millions
What sets digital marketing apart from “regular” marketing strategies?
Gone are the days when you had to knock on doors one by one to get people to buy your products. The former allows you to market your products to millions of people at a time.
As long as you’ve got a social platform to promote it on (e.g., Facebook, Google My Business, etc.), you can get the word out about your business to the whole world.
And since there are more than 5 billion internet users globally, there’s a good chance that your eCommerce business will be seen by your target customers. (Source – https://datareportal.com/global-digital-overview)
2. It influences a customer’s purchasing choices
Posting your product on your Shopify page won’t get people to purchase it. Instead, you need to convince people that your products are worth it.
To do this, you’ve got to tap into their purchasing criteria. Among the many things that influence that is what customers find out about a business.
Remember that, thanks to the internet, 21st-century customers have more ways than one to look up a business – and that about 81 percent of buyers research a brand online before they buy. (Source – https://www.invoca.com/blog/retail-marketing-statistics)
So if your customers can’t find anything about you, the chances of them buying your products will be low.
If they can find information about your business, not only will it convince them to buy, but it can also improve customer experience.
3. It boosts brand awareness
A common misconception is that the goal of eCommerce marketing is to get people to click “add to cart.” Although this is a goal, it’s not the only one.
Through the eCommerce marketing examples you’ll find in this B2C and B2B eCommerce guide, you’ll be able to expand your customer base and boost brand awareness.
Generally, the more branded content people see, the more engaged they will become.
They can see that your brand is credible, and as a result, they will continue to be loyal to your business.
In other words, if you claim that your products are the best of the best, you’ll be able to “walk the talk” through eCommerce marketing.
In the long term, you’ll also be able to build a good brand reputation.
4. It’s (usually) free, so why not?
On average, businesses spend 7 to 12 percent of their revenue on marketing. (Source – https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/cost-of-marketing-what-is-the-average-budget)
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to market your product for free (or if it’s not for free, the costs are very trivial).
Using digital marketing strategies, you can reach your target audience for a fraction of what you’d spend on, say, a traditional ad campaign.
You’ll also be able to benefit from ad targeting and retargeting, which is where you get to choose who can see your ads based on demographics, geographics, and more.
5. It’s what your competitors are doing
Business can be cut-throat, which is why you’ve got to stand out against your competition.
To do that, you need to say yes to eCommerce marketing strategies, such as content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and more.
Not convinced that the market is competitive? 77.6 percent of small businesses use Facebook to promote their business. (Source – https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital-72656)
Plus, 90 percent of businesses use content marketing as an eCommerce marketing strategy. (Source – https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-content-marketing-infographic)
Your competitors have signed up for eCommerce marketing – don’t you think you should, too?
Top 5 B2B eCommerce Marketing Strategies
There are several ways to market your online store’s products. Here are they.
Social Media Marketing
If you haven’t tapped into social media marketing yet, you’re making a great mistake – social media is a powerful tool that can connect you with a wide audience from around the world.
There are billions of people on social media – in fact, Facebook alone has about 2.93 billion daily active users (DAU). (Source – https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/)
While, TikTok has about one billion. (Source – https://www.statista.com/statistics/1267892/tiktok-global-mau/)
Plus, people spend around 95 minutes on social media per day. (Source – https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-social-media-usage-2021)
And, 54 percent of people say they use social media to research products. (Source – https://blog.gwi.com/chart-of-the-day/social-browsers-brand/)
What this tells you is that your customers are online, so it would make the most sense to connect with them online, too.
Use social media to promote your products, boost brand awareness, drive visitors toward your website, and so on.
You can also create shoppable content that enables customers to buy straight from your social media posts.
An eCommerce marketing example is Instagram, a photo-sharing platform that lets you “tag” photos with your products so people can purchase straight from the app.
This provides convenience, and in turn, improves the customer experience as they no longer need to visit your site to purchase your products.
And, if those figures aren’t enough to convince you to get into social media marketing, get this – in 2024, global sales on social media platforms reached $992 billion. (Source – https://www.statista.com/statistics/1251145/social-commerce-sales-worldwide/)
Content Marketing
Content is key when you want to market your eCommerce store.
By publishing content on your business website, you’ll be able to provide your audience with information that’s relevant to them.
For instance, if you’re selling shoes, your content could be about shoe care, finding the right shoe, and so on.
Not only can content grab customers’ attention and engage them, but it also improves the customer experience and establishes your business as one that “walks the talk.”
Content can be in the form of how-to articles, informative articles, videos, and more.
However, for a surefire way to connect with your customers, stick to video content.
People prefer video. In fact, 54 percent of people want more video content from brands they do business with.
To help you out, we’ve put together a couple of the best practices for creating content:
- Create content that converts. For content to convert, it has to be relevant. If you sell fitness gear, for instance, you could write content on “what to wear to the gym” to attract your target customers. This will grab their attention, keep them engaged, and drive them toward your desired action (e.g., to purchase a product).
- Write guest posts. By writing guest posts, you’ll be able to “tell” search engines, such as Google, that your website is reliable. Guest posts have “backlinks” that direct readers to your website. The more backlinks you have, the better you’ll rank on search engines and the greater the chance that customers will buy from your business.
- Create a FAQ section. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section should be keyword-driven and answer the questions that customers commonly ask. This will allow you to build brand authority and boost website traffic.
Email Marketing
Is email marketing dead?
Eighty-one percent of businesses don’t think it is as it’s what they use to connect with customers. (Source – https://www.emarsys.com/app/uploads/2018/01/eTail-Emarsys-WBR-SMB-Report.pdf)
Email marketing is one of the key strategies to getting your eCommerce store off the ground.
Not only is it often free, but compared to other eCommerce marketing examples, it’s not controlled by a big company like Facebook.
All you need are your customers’ email addresses and an email that’s ready to send.
Through email marketing, you can build a relationship that gets customers to buy multiple times for a long time.
For example, if you find that your customer still has a product in their cart, you can send them an email as a “gentle nudge” to get them to complete the purchase.
In the same way, you can use email to cross-sell and upsell products related to past purchases.
If you partner with an email marketing agency, you can generate an average return of investment (ROI) of around $36 for every $1 spent. (Source – https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics/)
That’s a greater ROI than any other kind of digital marketing.
Paid Search Advertising
Today’s customers won’t buy on a whim – they will likely look up your business on search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.
If they can’t find your product on any of these sites, they won’t be able to know more about it, and in turn, they’ll be less likely to buy.
That’s why your eCommerce marketing strategy should always involve paid search advertising, such as:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
- Google My Business
- Google Shopping
- …and many more
PPC campaigns, for instance, enable you to put your website at the top of search engines for a specific keyword, such as “running shoes” or ” gym gear”.
In this way, people will be more likely to discover your website (and your business), as 75 percent of people don’t go past the first page of the search results. (Source – https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/14416/100-Awesome-Marketing-Stats-Charts-Graphs-Data.aspx)
Similarly, Google My Business displays key information about your business, like your opening time, closing time, menu (if you’re running a restaurant), and more.
This, however, can be beneficial only if you’re running an eCommerce store that’s alongside a physical store.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is when a business partner with an influencer (a person who has a following on social media sites such as Instagram) to promote their products.
The main benefit of influencer marketing is that the influencer does the work for you – all you have to do is pay for a sponsored post, and they’ll share it on their platform, where thousands of people can see it.
It’s essential to partner with influencers who align with your brand and whose following consists of people who would be genuinely interested in your products.
You wouldn’t partner with a vegan food blogger if your products were made of eggs and dairy, would you?
Wrapping Up
Without marketing, you won’t be able to get the word out about your business, boost your brand’s reputation, build credibility, etc.
Even, if you have the best product, you still won’t be able to generate the ROI you want if your marketing strategies are lacking.
By 2026, global eCommerce sales will reach about 8.1 trillion dollars. (Source – https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/)
If you want to be part of that growth, be sure to apply the eCommerce marketing strategies in this guide to your business.
