4 Ways E-Commerce Business Profits from Tech-Based Marketing

• Updated on: 2020-05-07
• Read original article here

Customer experience is the new competitive ground for companies.

Customers no longer purchase products based solely on price. They want a good customer experience and have extremely high expectations on how that should happen.

Online purchases are increasing each year, and the number is projected to get to2.14 billion dollars by 2021. These customers want faster and better experiences, and it’s up to the e-commerce industry to get with the program and keep up with this changing behavior.

Consistently providing great experiences breeds customer loyalty. E-commerce businesses need to find ways to deliver across all platforms. The customer’s desire for seamless experiences cuts across all industries and only retailers that prioritize providing this will win.

The e-commerce industry depends on technology to make seamless experiences happen. Technology also enables retailers to deliver orders in time, process payments efficiently, handle returns, and answer customer queries without unnecessary delays.

E-commerce retailers can customize the customer experience by making tech-based solutions an essential feature of their marketing. 

Adopting tech-based marketing solutions is the way leading e-commerce marketers are becoming efficient and effective. Numerous technological advances are now helping many e-commerce companies grow customer loyalty and maximize profit-making.

The consumer today is empowered, and technological advancements have changed how they want to interact with brands. With access to the internet, a consumer will research a particular product, find relevant reviews about the product and company offering it, find the lowest prices available, and at the end, find a good deal.

They will then proceed and purchase the product after thorough research and then most likely share their experience with it on their social media platforms or review sites.

A savvy marketer will recognize this as an opportunity. An opportunity to ensure they are with the customer throughout their purchase journey, from when they decide they have a need for a product.

They will then continue providing awesome experiences even after the customer purchases the product. To do this, however, you need technology. 

Technology will help you identify sales-worthy leads, help you nurture them, help you guide them through purchase, and make them loyal customers. Tech-based solutions help you provide excellent customer experiences that lead to an increased purchase, and ultimately, a jump in profits - which is what you want, right? 

Selling across multiple channels is a new reality e-commerce retailers need to face. The consumer purchase journey no longer depends on one channel.

Harvard Business Review studied the shopping behavior of 46,000 customers and what channels they used. They found that the online-only shoppers were 7 percent, store only shoppers 20 percent, and the rest - 73 percent - were multi-channel shoppers.

Another recent survey found that customers are shopping simultaneously on different platforms including physical stores at 65 percent, online stores at 45 percent, Amazon at 78 percent, eBay at 34 percent, Instagram at 6 percent, Snapchat at 4 percent, and Facebook at 11 percent. The always-connected consumer is using different channels to access the products they want.

So how do e-commerce retailers effectively sell to this hyper-connected consumer? They effectively sell by adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy. Have a strategy that includes excellent shopping experiences on all platforms your customer frequents and watch your profits increase. 

Let your website, social media pages, marketplaces, and all channels your brand is on convey value. Offer detailed content and enable the customer to purchase directly from each of these channels. 

Research byTarget Marketing found that the biggest challenges to omnichannel marketing for retailers include the inability to access data across channels and ineffective handling of customers on different devices.

E-commerce integrations help you access data from all your software and interpret them for insights. The integrations help you sync inventory with all the platforms you use. Your teams can also process orders from one location and handle customers from different channels. E-commerce integrations help you offer seamless services across different channels. 

They allow you to integrate your brick and mortar store with your web store. Your products are made available on different channels leading to increased visibility.

Easy access to products and convenient payment methods on different channels lead to increased purchases. By offering customers exceptional experiences and convenience, you increase retention, which leads to repeat sales, and ultimately, an increase in revenue. With eachadditional channel, your revenue increases.

According to research, the average cart abandonment rate is at75 percent and is mostly due to a complicated checkout procedure. To reduce cart abandonment and to help recover abandoned carts, use technology.

Adapt secure and convenient payment modes that cut across regions your business operates. Offer contactless payment options like Google Wallet and mobile payments so that your customers do not abandon the cart due to insecure payment methods.

Use email marketing to get salesworthy leads, nurture them, guide them through their buying journey, and finally offer a seamless checkout process.

Statistics show that90 percent of consumers find personalization appealing.Ninety-one percent of customers like to shop with retailers that remember their needs and preferences and provide them with relevant recommendations.

With technological solutions, you can personalize a customer’s journey. Email marketing, for example, helps your company get details on customers who shop with you.

With strong CRM (customer relationship management) software tools, you can tell what a customer is interested in, what they bought, items they researched, and so much more. With this information, you can recommend relevant products to them and make their shopping experience seamless. 

These are only a few of the e-commerce marketing tech solutions you can use for your business. The tech solutions will help you innovate and become competitive in an increasingly competitive market and help you provide your customers with a seamless and consistent experience that increases retention. You will be available for them across different channels and throughout their purchase journey. 

Increased retention speaks of brand loyalty from happy customers who are also likely to become brand ambassadors who help increase your sales and profits. 

Want to learn more about related marketing technologies? See how AI is used in marketing to automate processes before checking out what e-commerce software platforms could benefit your company the most!