In the e-commerce world it pays to be creative and distinctive. As a brand, but also in the tactics you use to grow your shop. That’s why in this article I’ll highlight 8 underutilized ecommerce tactics so all you have to do is implement them.
Many e-commerce entrepreneurs have been unable to maintain the upward trend that started during COVID-19. On the one hand, this is logical, because at the time there were external factors that ensured overall growth in the market, on the other hand, as an entrepreneur or marketer, you will also have to continue to look at yourself. Despite the luxurious times, have you always been creative in your approach, or do you rely too much on Google, Meta and bol and do you now see that the volume is decreasing and the CPC is increasing?
You can do this
1. Unboxing experience
It cannot be justified that the first experience with your product is neutral or even negative. The peak-end rule prescribes that the end of the customer journey, actually receiving and trying the product, should be the wow moment.
Did you think Apple boxes just open so slowly? Make sure it’s an experience that makes people smile and that people want to share. Test with extras and calculate the business case based on total customer values, repeat rates, from order 1 to order 2 and newly acquired positive reviews.
2. Founder led growth of social selling
René van der Zel van XXL Nutrition, Mark de Boer from Upfront and Thom Siersema from PLNKTN are textbook examples of how, as a (semi) e-commerce brand, you can achieve enormous reach and brand preference among a relatively affluent target group via LinkedIn. Include people in your journey as an entrepreneur. Share highs and lows. It provides a bit of personality for your brand and gives you… founder the chance to ‘narrative‘ about your brand before anyone else does.
Simple examples are posts from, for example:
- Mark de Boer on Upfront’s weaknesses, because they are natural ‘upfront‘ about their products, including their company.
- René van der Zel with a post about the worst applicant ever who ended up being a good one hire it turns out. The result of the last post? >7,000 likes and probably >100,000 views. It can be that simple.
3. Offline mailing
Reactivate dormant partners? How many more newsletters are you going to send them? If you want people to order from you (again), then really do your best to surprise people positively. Of course, this works extra well if you give the people besides the ticket a reason to buy again. Think of a discount, product plus or something new.
Just like with your online mailing, keep thinking in segments to keep relevance as high as possible. Nowadays, for example, Print.one simply integrates with your CRM, so you can still arrange it all from one system.
4. Whatsapp
How relaxing when you receive an update via WhatsApp about the status of your order, or a quick text to check if everything is okay with your expensive new product. You can make this optional in the check-out, so that you only do it if people actually appreciate it.
This also provides an extra layer of confidence and may therefore contribute positively to your conversion rate at the check-out. WhatsApp can also be used to reactivate loyal customers. Here too, of course, segmentation, and therefore relevance, are extremely important.
5. (Short) video
Our online time/attention has grown significantly towards video consumption, partly due to TikTok. Give your creative employee, who accidentally ended up in the factory, a camera and see what happens. Nowadays it doesn’t have to be slick anymore. Harness the power of imperfection and ensure authenticity. You can also use videos to boost your SEO content, enrich your CRM flows and of course also have a good laugh at yourself internally every now and then.
A simple example is an email about snow chains for winter sports, to which you immediately include a 30-second video of how to put them on the tires. This way you remove any possible reluctance to purchase in the same email where you offer the product. Child can put on the… snow chains!
6. Make a positive impact
Making a positive impact is seen by a growing number of consumers as a reason to choose or not choose a brand/product. This includes offering alternative delivery options, working with reusable packaging or building in a mechanism that ensures a positive effect per transaction in addition to the negative impact on the world of emissions, for example. You also want a positive one legacy leave your company behind? Or do you just want to take?
7. After-sales
In B2B this is the most normal thing in the world, after sales. Yet many online shops act as if the customer journey ends when the product is in hand, while it actually only begins. How do you help your customer get optimal value from your product? Do you check in again to see if they are really happy and if not what you can do to help them? This can be perfectly combined with offline mailing or with WhatsApp as mentioned earlier.
8. Community led growth
This includes parties such as BrewDog and LABFRESH that raise money through their existing database. This not only allows them to accelerate their growth financially, but they also immediately build a strong bond with a group of customers who will then become ambassadors of your brand.
An important aspect here is to have a beautiful ‘reward structureto set up. BrewDog investors get ‘free’ beer, discounts, special memberships, branded merchandise and a personalized experience. Tip from LABFRESH founder Kasper Brandi Petersen:
Make sure you audience is crowdfunding-proof. For them, this is ‘mature men’ (25+) and this fits in perfectly with this tactic.
Don’t keep struggling
So no reason to keep struggling with Google and Meta. You will also see that these channels will perform much better if you create a flywheel using one or more of the above tactics.
Source: www.frankwatching.com
