Every year, apparel retail peaks during the second half of the year. This is a substantial peak, because of the many holidays that are in the second half of the year such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Apart from these holidays, there are other major days for retail such as black Friday and Cyber Monday and every one of them has wonderful promotions that you must catch.
As a custom clothing factory, we do know a thing or two about tapping into the moment and getting the utmost out of a shopping situation, hence in this post, we will share a few e-commerce tricks with you.
What is e-commerce marketing?
Ecommerce marketing is any promotional activities you take to increase traffic to your online store in an effort to generate more sales. That includes both first-time clients as well as returning buyers.
Although your customers will most likely shop from your online store, e-commerce marketing can happen both online and offline. Without marketing, online retailers cannot grow a brand into a successful e-commerce business.
15 e-commerce marketing tips
To make sure your e-commerce marketing campaign is successful, follow the below-mentioned tips:
1. Increase trust with flexible return policies
Always have easy return policies in place for your customers, especially during the holidays and huge retail days. According to UPS, 66% of customers who purchase online, will only make a purchase when they see a return policy on your website. With a return policy, prospective buyers feel more comfortable purchasing from you and often make more than one purchase. So, set their mind at ease with an easy-to-find return policy on your website.
2. Offer free or expedited shipping
Since Amazon introduced super-fast delivery, consumers are expecting to get their products really fast. In fact, if you don’t offer fast shipping, customers will probably pass you over and shop at a retailer that does offer free and fast shipping. Offering free shipping, or expedited shipping on orders of a certain value attracts more buyers to your store. When customers are deliberating if they should purchase from you instead of a competitor, offering free or fast shipping can pull help them choose you.
3. Implement discount sales
Discount pricing is a customer magnet and luckily you can offer discounts in various ways in your e-commerce store. Brands often choose to offer seasonal sales, but you can also offer discounts by volume, such as promotional discounts like 50% off everything or buy one get one free offering.
Whichever methods you employ, create a sense of urgency. Use the psychological tactic of scarcity. A good method of this psychological tactic is to use a countdown clock that shows the limited time left in a sale. Also, boldly display the discounts you are offering. By doing so, customers will instantly know about the deals they are getting.
Offering discount sales are also a great way to boost sales, however, the other side of this is that it will have a negative effect on average order value, so before implementing this strategy, analyze if it is best for your business.
4. Add live chat
With live chats, customers can communicate directly with chat operators in real-time. Customers can ask questions before making a purchase. During these interactions, chat operators can share information to help customers make the best decision. Live chat can also be used to upsell a product. But overall, live chats are best used to provide information and clear out uncertainties in order to improve your customer’s shopping experience.
E-commerce shops can also use live chats strategically to target website visitors on certain pages, for a certain amount of time e.g. product pages. This helps boost customer engagement.
5. Promote sales a few days early
It is always a good idea to start promoting sales some days before the big sales day as this will build anticipation and excitement for the big day. By doing so, your customers will be ready to take advantage as soon as the actual big sales day hits.
In the days leading up to the big sales day, make sure to constantly communicate your products and deals. You can do this by syncing your messages across your social media, emails, and paid to advertise (i.e. AdWords, Facebook Ads).
To make this more effective, use the rule of seven (a marketing adage that says that potential clients will take action only after they’ve seen your message roughly seven times). Spreading your message across social media and the entire internet will ensure that your message is seen. It is also said that companies that invest in all forms of online marketing experience saw 30% higher sales on average. In addition, make sure your content looks the same on all platforms, that way it becomes easily recognizable to all potential clients.
7. Offer curated gift guides
Offer your customers gift guides filled with gifts intended for the people they are shopping for. You can do this by curating gifts for people with specific interests. By doing this you will make your customer’s shopping experience so much easier and enjoyable.
8. Promote customer reviews to build trust
Customer reviews offer a different type of advantage to your business. Most people will trust what another customer says, before trusting what the brand says. Customer reviews are a gold mine for your business as most customers these days can turn to customer reviews to get a better idea of a product they want to buy and what to expect. Therefore, customer reviews are a powerful psychological persuasion tool.
When potential customers read positive reviews from happy customers, they trust your product more and become more willing to purchase from you. Negative reviews on the other hand should not be looked at as a bad thing, but more as a means that provides important information on issues to address within your business. Customer reviews are very influential, so encourage customers to share their shopping experience with you through reviews on your website and social media.
9. Use a countdown clock
Use a countdown clock to the start of the sale. By doing this, customers can track the time to the opening of the sale. This method is a really good way to get them to make a purchase. Adding a countdown clock also creates a sense of urgency. You can also share on your website that you are offering holiday deals for a limited time only.
10. Be charitable
Donating a percentage of your profit or simply donating your time to a charitable cause is a great way to relay the message that you know what the holiday is all about. Being charitable is great for your company culture, and image as it shows that the brand has a caring side.
A great example of this is the Adventure brand United by Blue. This company is choosing to lead a nationwide cleanup movement ahead of its Black Friday sales. This brand has a reputation for responsibility, and sustainably produced goods, therefore this initiative truly reflects their brand and it resonates with their customers. This initiative is open to everyone so it is highly likely that this will boost their social media exposure.
11. Reward loyal customers
Repeat customers are what keep your brand afloat. These are the customers you want to keep around and one of the best ways to do so is to offer loyalty programs as an incentive.
It is up to you as a brand to choose how and why you reward your customers. You can offer them discount coupons, free shipping, reward points for free products etc. You can also offer customers the ability to personalize their rewards so they only receive rewards that they deem relevant.
Offering rewards is a two-way street as your business will also get rewarded. According to white house office of consumer affairs reports:
·the average loyal customer is worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.
·The probability of selling to new customers is 5-20 percent compared to 60-70 per cent for existing customers.
·The cost of getting new customers is higher than the cost of keeping existing ones.
12. Utilize Upselling and cross-selling
Upselling and cross-selling are great tactics to boost revenue. Oftentimes, customers are not aware that a better version of a product is in stock. Sometimes customers need to get better informed to understand why a premium product better fits their needs.
Similarly, you may have other products available that complement the product that they are buying but they weren’t aware of that. Amazon is a great example of a company that understands this kind of personalized product recommendation. The company uses the ‘If you liked that then you’ll love this” method. However, when upselling, make sure you display relevant suggestions to the original product of the customer.
13. Leverage real-time personalization
Today, customers demand a shopping experience that fulfills their wants and needs. Hence it is best to only promote offers that are relevant to their needs and wants. By doing so, you increase the chances of them making a purchase.
To make sure you provide offers that suit your customers’ needs, use their information such as their browsing history, interests, and preferences to send them personalized marketing messages.
14. Reduce shopping cart abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is a common frustration for e-commerce businesses. In 2020, the average shopping cart abandonment was 88 per cent, which is a lot of revenue gone. However, there are numerous reasons why website visitors abandon their carts, some may do so due to hidden chargers or difficult checkout processes. To combat this problem, e-commerce stores can utilize shopping cart optimization.
The best method to stop shopping cart abandonment is to stop customers from leaving in the first place. Here’s how you can do that:
- Have an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly interface with a simple checkout process.
- Display a valid SSL certificate and trust symbols to build trust.
- Offer guest checkout
- Don’t give up when you are having cart abandonment. You can launch an email recovery campaign to tackle this problem. With an email recovery campaign, you send emails to the customer to persuade them to complete the purchase. According to Moosend customers open more than 40% of these types of emails.
15. Make your website mobile-friendly
In recent years more people are browsing the web from their mobile phone instead of their desktop. This is a global phenomenon. In order to accommodate these mobile users, your website has to be mobile-friendly. This means that you must make sure that your website is responsive and mobile-optimized. In fact, websites that offer a high-quality mobile experience often see higher conversion rates.
To provide a mobile-friendly experience, you can:
- Improve your site search and optimize it for mobile.
- Allow simple checkout
- Have a responsive website
- Ensure that your site loads quickly.
- Use large buttons on your site.
Some last words
Getting a piece of the pie in the highly competitive apparel industry is not an easy job. Understanding the latest trends in the market and learning more about the latest and hottest marketing methods is a compulsory course for every brand owner.
However, please remember that any good marketing plan must be based on a good product. Your product must have its own characteristics and with perfect quality.
Over the past 18 years, as a clothing factory, we have helped thousands of businesses succeed. Want to be more stand out among others? Why not contact us today!