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What is Omnichannel Marketing?

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Omnichannel marketing is about ensuring that ecommerce & retail marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to purchase on any channel. Often there is some confusion about omnichannel versus multichannel marketing. It is my opinion that multichannel marketing is more specific to the tactical efforts of a campaign while omnichannel marketing is based on an organization’s strategic approach.

Omnichannel Marketing - Digital Marketing for Ecommerce Websites

Why is Omnichannel Marketing Important for Retail & Ecommerce?

The US Census Bureau reported an increase of 14.7% in e-commerce sales with the latest year-over-year increase compared to the first quarter of 2016.  The level of competition will continue to grow while US retail sales drop 0.3% versus 0.1% increase that was expected in May. I don’t think that shoppers are so interested in shopping locally and a look for value with a seamless experience.  It is important for retailers to understand the latest omnichannel trends and how integrated marketing can turn shoppers into loyal customers.

Omnichannel Marketing - Digital Marketing for Ecommerce Websites

 5 Ways to Turn Shoppers into Customers

Omnichannel marketing is a strategic approach that will require a clear strategy, integrations, execution, and measurement.  Below are 5 ways to start turning your shoppers into profitable customers:

    1. Have a digital marketing strategy that addresses abandoned shopping carts. Consider including a progress indicator on the checkout pages and offer multiple payment options.
    2. Improve the mobile & mobile apps users experience to help shoppers compare, interact, and offer customers enhanced features to increase your mobile sales.
    3. Shopping search engines allow you to search specifically for products for sale from online merchants. Enhance your product feed by automating and optimizing your product listing for shopping engines, mobile shopping apps, and social networks to increase product visibility and sales.
    4. Use remarketing to engage with previous customers and retargeting to stay top of mind throughout the shoppers’ journey to purchase. Retargeting is often referred to online placement or display ads that target users who have visited your website in a specific way. Remarketing is often used as an email campaign to reconnect with customers.
    5. Ask for online reviews from your customers to build trust and customer recommendations to shop at your location.
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Measure Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

By no means is the list of ways to turn shoppers into customers limited to 5!  I would recommend that your company solidifies a realistic strategy and set goals with targets to measure the effective and overall impact your strategy has on increased revenue. What works for your competition may not be realistic for your brand or customers so maintain your uniqueness and measure strategies and tactics that work for your company!
For more information on E-Commerce and retail, download our free 5-Step Guide to Ecommerce and start to increase your sales.
References:
  1. https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/brick-and-mortar-mobile-app-experiences-most-important-for-converting-omnichannel-consumers/
  2. https://www.shopify.com/blog/15359677-why-online-store-owners-should-embrace-online-reviews
  3. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/whats-difference-remarketing-retargeting/186455/
  4. http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/03/17/shopping-cart-abandonment

Mobile Design Tips For Your Ecommerce Business

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What’s the first thing that pops into your head when developing your company’s Ecommerce website? Are you concerned about the design aesthetically? Or, is it the content on the pages? While these are certainly important, your primary focus should be creating a mobile-friendly site with a quick and easy purchase process.

The Rise of Mobile Shopping

Since last year, shopping related searches on mobile have grown more than 120%. At the click of a button, you can find and buy anything from your mobile device. This is changing the Ecommerce industry as we know it. According to Think with Google, 30% of all online shopping purchases happen on a mobile device. Knowing this, websites must be designed to be both mobile and desktop friendly.

The Customer’s Purchase Journey

An effective mobile design guides a user through the purchase process quickly and efficiently. The path to a potential sale should require the least amount of clicks as possible with fast load speeds. To accomplish this, you must put yourself in the customer’s shoes to think about what may impact them on making a purchase.

First Thing’s First: Load Speed

When a user first connects to your mobile site, the initial concern is load speed. If your site isn’t fully optimized, people will leave before it even finishes loading. Last year, 54% of all holiday shoppers said they plan on shopping in their spare time during the day, like when they are commuting (but, don’t shop and drive). This gives your a smaller window of time The clock’s ticking! get your customers to check out as quickly as possible.

Mobile Design Tips for Ecommerce - Mobile Marketin

Give Them Personal Space

Once someone visits a site, a commonly used tactic is collect personal information…STOP! Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Often when asked to register immediately, a user will close the window and look for another option. You haven’t given them time to check out your site yet, pump the breaks. If you insist, try giving them third-party options like Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

Product Search and Filter Functionality

Make your products easy to find and give your customers a positive shopping experience with search bars and product filters. These enable users to find specific items they’re looking for. Most users expect this to be as easy as Google makes it, so try not to disappoint!

When it comes to online shopping, most users are hesitant to pull the trigger. Allow for an easy decision by providing customers with the ability to extensively view the product. Give them the freedom of pinch zooming in and out to know for sure it’s what they want. Also, be sure to include all the product details, any discounts, in-store availability, shipping, and user reviews. A great way to help further assure them is to use Youtube videos for reviews and product overview. 50% of smartphone video viewers say they use videos to help them make product decisions in-store or on a company’s website.

Mobile design tips for online shopping sites - Mobile marketing

All this information gives the user peace-of-mind in knowing they made the right purchase. For good measure, sneak a few related items in the bottom of the page to encourage more sales!

A User-Friendly Shopping Cart

The user now has the products he or she wants and is ready to check out. Include easy options to add and remove items from the shopping cart without leaving the checkout page.

Once everything is set, the user will press forward to fill out shipping and billing information. Simplify the process by allowing them to continue as a guest and by offering third-party payment options such as Paypal, Apple Pay, or Android Pay. This helps speed things up. For added reassurance, drop a note under the payment information affirming this is a secure checkout process. Now is a great time to offer special promotions and coupons! Once they submit the order, follow-up with a confirmation page and email with a full-detailed summary of their purchase.

Wrapping It Up

The user experience needs to be the forefront of our thought process when designing mobile sites. It needs to be a friendly, smooth-sailing, information-packed adventure that step-by-step leads them to that conversion. Think with Google says 82% of mobile users turn to their mobile device about a product while in the store. Having a well-designed mobile site can make all the difference between “I’m just looking.” to “I’m ready to checkout.”

Using the information provided here will give you valuable insight and great tips on what to include when setting up your mobile ecommerce website.

As a user, what do you look for on a mobile Ecommerce website? Tell us in the comments below!