How To Formulate A Winning E-Commerce Strategy

e-Commerce has changed dramatically in the last several years, which has created some confusion for businesses that want to identify, establish and optimize a winning e-Commerce strategy.

Perhaps the biggest reason for this lingering confusion is that some e-Commerce studies can be incoherent rather than illuminating. For example, a study found that add-to-cart and conversation rates were down on e-Commerce vendor websites (and had been steadily falling for a year), despite the fact that pages-per-session and overall traffic was rising.  

If you’re an e-Commerce vendor, then both the simplest and best way to unravel — or better yet, avoid

— the confusion is by taking a big step back, and realizing (or better stated, remembering) that the “commerce” part of e-Commerce still reigns supreme, which means that strategy must be rooted in buying behavior.

Indeed, once you grasp and map your customer’s journey (keeping in mind that different buyer personas can and typically do have different routes to go from pre-sale to loyal fan), you’ll invariably reveal core principles that can form the basis of your strategy.

While your business and brand are unique, if you follow this advice — i.e. pay attention to how customers behave and act vs. what pundits disagree and debate about — then you’ll likely arrive at the following core conclusions that should be part of your approach:

• Your marketing is probably shifted too far towards top-of-funnel (tofu) activities and investments. While tactics such as product recommendations can create visibility and generate traffic, they don’t necessarily convince prospects to make a purchase. Focus on ways to create on-site stickiness, and use PPC re-targeting to get customers back.
  
  
• Your customers are likely comparison shopping — ironically in part because it’s so simple and easy to do online. To pull them in your direction, anticipate that comparison shopping is part of their game plan by (for example) displaying a grid or graphic that shows how your offerings compare in your marketplace.
  
  
• High shipping fees continue to trigger massive shopping card abandonment. Obviously, the qualifier “high” is subjective — and that is actually the point, because it’s largely a matter of perception. In other words, customers who experience sticker shock at checkout due to shipping fees are much more likely to bounce (in fact, it’s virtually guaranteed). The best, and probably only, way to avoid this is by being more transparent with shipping costs so that customers know what’s going to be added to their bill when the reach the end of the buyer’s journey.
  
  
• Flawed fulfilment is deal-breaker. Today’s savvy customers want to know where their package is at all stages of fulfilment, from preparation to arrival. If you wisely work with an ecommerce fulfillment partner, then leverage this in your marketing so that customers know you’re just as concerned about successful, stress-free fulfilment as they are.

The Bottom Line

Even though e-Commerce has been around for decades and has certainly become firmly embedded on the business landscape (especially among younger shoppers), the fact remains that having a winning e-Commerce strategy isn’t just important: it’s vital to your current success and long-term growth. The above pointers and principles can help you stay in the game, and surge ahead on an increasingly competitive landscape.