The New Year is a great time to review your eCommerce marketing strategy. It’s the time when many retailers look ahead to see what’s needed to meet next year’s sales forecasts.

In this blog post, we take a look at twelve eCommerce marketing strategies you can implement now. We’ll cover top tips and tactics to acquire new customers, increase the value of orders, and improve your customer experience in 2018.

1) Free shipping threshold

Always incentivise a customer to spend a certain amount in order to get free delivery.

Set the amount needed at just above the average order value to pump up your sales. Then, introduce on-site messages reminding customers how much more they need to spend to enjoy free shipping.

2) Personalised webpages

Marketers know the benefits of personalisation when it comes to email but many fail to deliver a fully personalised eCommerce experience.

Many don’t know that you can use the same technology to personalise website content as you use to personalise emails.

This allows you personalise the products and offers users are shown on your website according to their behaviour.

3) Browse and abandonment

Every retailer worth their salt has an automated cart abandonment campaign set up. But some still aren’t taking advantage of browse abandonment campaigns.

These automated emails don’t wait for people to place items in their cart but retarget visitors and encourage them to look again at products they were browsing.

eCommerce marketing strategies browse abandonment

4) Video content

There’s nothing as eye-catching as video to engage your visitors and email recipients.

Try integrating video-based product demonstrations into your eCommerce marketing. And introduce animation into email to show how your product works and what it looks like.

This not only helps to educate your audience and move them along from consideration to decision to by, but it also helps to bring a campaign to life visually.

5) Refer-a-friend schemes

Nothing’s quite as powerful as a personal recommendation. A trusted friend telling us we should consider or use something new is persuasive.

Make sure you fully leverage this opportunity by launching your own refer-a-friend campaign in 2018. This can reward both the new and old customer for successful recommendations.

Not only does this act as a great way of attracting new customers, but it helps to build loyalty and a sense of community among your existing ones.

eCommerce marketing strategies refer a friend

6) Countdowns

A little sense of urgency goes a long way when it comes to your eCommerce marketing strategy.

A countdown timer is a great way to create urgency. Try using one to tell a customer how long until an offer expires, how many people are currently looking at the same item, or exactly how many products are available.

Playing on their fear of missing out should get browsers to snap into action and encourage them to buy now.

7) Ratings and reviews

Always display customers’ ratings and reviews online next to your products.

These impartial opinions are a great way of supplying extra product detail alongside a more credible view on the purchase. This will have more influence than any marketing copy.

2018 eCommerce trends customer reviews

8) Instant payment options

Convenience is king in the world of eCommerce marketing. So, make sure your checkout process is as easy and fast as possible.

Introduce one-click ordering or easy payment options such as Paypal to ensure people don’t have to think too hard before clicking ‘Buy’.

9) Subscription services

Retain more customers by offering them a convenient, monthly subscription service.

Models like Amazon Prime are proving this is a great way of offering exclusive customer benefits, like fast shipping, for a small additional cost.

These subscription services also guarantee ongoing custom with very little effort on the marketer’s part.

2018 eCommerce trends subscriptions service

10) Build email through social

Make sure you encourage social followers to subscribe to your email marketing by promoting the benefits on Facebook.

It’s easy to encourage users to sign-up with a simple tab on your Facebook page which immediately integrates them into your email programme.

This is a tactic that gives you control and lets you keep in touch, rather than relying on followers to notice you on social media.

11) Automating action

Email marketing shouldn’t just be used for newsletters. It’s tool that can be used throughout your eCommerce strategy.

If an item’s out of stock then ask the customer to sign up to an alert when it’s replenished. Or if they’ve created a wishlist, remind them what’s on there with timely automations featuring what they’ve saved.

eCommerce marketing strategies back in stock

12) Be omnichannel

Join up your customer experience wherever the customer interacts with your brand.

Offer a fully integrated level of service, offering the same choice and seamless journey wherever they shop—whether it’s in store, online or through their mobile.

Takeaway

These are just twelve strategies to pump up your eCommerce performance in 2018. Things you can action now, to increase your brand exposure, conversion rates, and customer loyalty.

Together they’ll form the basis of strong customer acquisition and retention strategies that will underpin your sales in the forthcoming year.

And they’re not complicated to introduce to your business either. The technology is already here and easy to integrate into your eCommerce toolkit using our eCommerce solution.

Personalise your customer experience