Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce published their figures of ecommerce sales in the U.S for 2104: an estimated total of $304.9 billion. This is an increase of 15.4%(±2.3%) from the previous year. (source)
Brick-and-mortar shops who want to launch an online store should absolutely get in the game now. Moving your physical store to online retail is a logical step in scaling your business. For many stores, creating an ecommerce store is the best channel of growth in their overall business strategy.
Let's look at a few tips to get you started in thinking about marketing your new ecommerce store:
1. Deploy An Offense
Once you have your site up and ready to launch, make sure you have implemented some offense into your customer engagement tactics. An easy example is adding a "Free Shipping" or shipping discount to an obvious section of your site. (Read more about why free shipping is your company's best untapped marketing resource here.) Give your customers an offer they can't resist.
Image courtesy Birchbox
If free shipping seems like too much too soon, a more digestible tactic would be to offer a discount to your customer with their first purchase.
2. Follow Through
Image courtesy Receiptful
Perhaps one of the most underused pieces of customer interaction is the receipt. The email that goes out to the person who has just made a purchase on your site. Receiptful, is a receipt application you can integrate with your ecommerce platform, that makes sending receipts to your customers quite easy and allows you an additional marketing channel after the sale.
Imagine making an additional sale from a receipt with adding elements like "Items Similar to Your Purchase" or "Popular Items". Following all the way through with your customer will have a definite return on your investment.
3. Put Your Best UX Foot Forward
You can do all the marketing tactics in the world, but if your website can't support them it is a waste of time and money. The user experience design of your website should absolutely be considered as part of your marketing strategy.
For example, if you are a brand new digital shop, if you don't get mobile UX down from the beginning, you're already decreasing your chances for growth. 57% of users say they won't recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site.
There are small elements of your site design that can make a huge difference in your initial ecommerce launch. Take time to test and review your site before launch. Retail giant, H&M, took more than 13 years to finally launch their online store here in the US!
Good Luck!
There are many available marketing resources online. Before you launch your store, take some time and research. You can learn from others' mistakes and imitate strategies of successful retailers.