Category: eCommerce Marketing

As the Pandemic engrossed the market, retail giants like J.C. Penney & GMC filed for bankruptcy, while e-Commerce went from $3.3 trillion in 2019 to a $5.5 trillion Industry in these 2 years. Here’s the sorcery behind it.

It’s no secret that when contactless operations were a necessity, e-commerce retailers were having a great time doing what they do the best. This was indeed predicted before the Pandemic even happened. Here are 13 more trends you should know before everyone.

1. Drones and Droids
2. Chatbots
3. Mobile Commerce
4. AI copywriting 
5. Livestream Shopping
6. Social Commerce 
7. AR/VR
8. Digital wallets and BNPL
9. Voice Commerce
10. AI graphic and image generator
11. Headless Commerce
12. Metaverse
13. Blockchain and NFT 

1. Drones and Droids

Drones used for non-military purposes have been around for about 16 years now, and even though the idea of delivering goods with drones has been in the air for long enough now, it’s finally being put to justice. 

Apart from small startups like Manna Aero who started a similar service in Ireland in early 2020, no e-commerce giants were seeming to accomplish this task until Amazon announced its first successful drone delivery by June 2022.

When such behemoths are putting their best foot forward, it’s questionable if they’ll ever be looking back to the classic delivery boy era in the coming decades.

2. Chatbots

While Chatbots might not be the talk of the town, they certainly are blowing out the talks in the town. According to Insider intelligence, the chatbot industry will be worth $142 billion by the year 2024. 

Simply put, almost every other e-commerce sites, banking services, and even startup pages are onto adding its own chatbot to the web. The idea was given the spotlight when a Chinese messenger company introduced its first smart chatbot in 2009. 

Eventually, all businesses are looking forward to solving their consumer queries personally while not requiring a human to make the conversation happen. And apart from connecting more complicated queries to customer support, the uses of this tech scale up to gathering valuable feedback & reviews automatically.

3. Mobile Commerce

E-commerce operating on devices like phones and tablets is simply termed mobile commerce. Insider intelligence says that we could be looking at nearly half (44.5%) of the total e-commerce turn into m-commerce. 

Since regular user spends upwards of 5-6 hours on their mobile devices, it’s understandable why it’s the easiest for them to shop there. Easier payment methods, one-tap buys, and BNPL are propelling more and more sales from the e-commerce sector.

If there’s anything to learn from this then it’s to optimize your site’s presence and outlook keeping in mind a mobile user. Prioritizing payment gateway smoothness and keeping your site speed fast is one of the key takeaways here.

4. AI copywriting 

What if computers could generate poetry by William Shakespeare without William Shakespeare? That’s literally where AI is heading towards, from generating texts for letters, and court writings to generating poems, product descriptions, and scripts, AI doesn’t seem to stop.

The major problem that AI copywriting seems to solve Is cutting down e-Commerce store owners’ need of hiring content writers for writing product descriptions. The need for small-scale businesses to write premium captions for their social media posts will also be aided.

5. Livestream Shopping

With the Livestreaming market reaching $70.59 billion by the end of 2022 and a CAGR of a whopping 21.3%, it’s not a surprise for Livestream shopping to have a $500 billion market share in e-commerce marketing, roughly 10% of the total e-commerce market.

Livestream Shopping is the most operational on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. The live aspect of this field lets the customers manipulate and view the product according to their convenience.

The takeaway here is, that most of the Livestream audience revolves around influencers, so you can think of collaborating with one. There are many more strategies when it comes to e-commerce and you can find the best in the market here.

6. Social Commerce 

Just entailing m-commerce and Livestreaming comes social commerce or social media commerce. While influencers are the connecting link between the three, it’s not the only aspect of social commerce.

Social media after its core values, is a huge marketplace for subscriptions, advertisements, courses, products, services, and whatnot. The opportunities are endless. The monetization feature might roll out soon on the social platform, while full-blown online shops are already a trend well known among merchants and raking in dream numbers.

7. AR/VR

Augmented reality and Virtual reality are not Data scientist things anymore, undergraduate students of computer science are curating projects using virtual reality as the backbone. Limited use of VR in watching 3D movies and playing 3D games is history.

Using VR to create 3D digital art and listing them on the NFT market as virtual products is the new normal. With the AR market to seemingly cross $2.3 billion in the coming year, brands like IKEA are already into the game, providing the in-store experience to its buyers sitting at home.

8. Digital wallets and BNPL

According to JP Morgan, the BNPL methods are being accepted by people as an alternative to conventional online payments as these transactions could be faster and easier to make.

While digital wallets have been around for years, the Buy Now Pay Later technologies are making the market faster than any other payment method before. As with the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies, even digital wallets are going to make it back to the game.

This is a clear indication for you to facilitate these upcoming easier methods of payment on your online store. Bear in mind the fact that the amount of annual transactions through digital wallets alone is expected to cross $10 trillion dollar by 2025.

9. Voice Commerce

Voice assistants aren’t a new thing if you’ve browsed the internet. Google says that currently, over 27% of the world’s total population is using voice assistants the present day, and that’s more than a quarter of the whole of humanity. 

While voice assistants might not be something new to you, voice Commerce might as well be. Studies show that nearly 30% of total internet users from the US, were using voice search to shop for their products or to find info about them.

Even when it’s a bit difficult to add in support for voice search on your site’s search bar, it’s relatively easy to rank on Google’s search results, learn more about SEO here.

10. AI graphic and image generator

Just like AI copywriting, this is a Hot topic among digital artists and even if it’s proving to worry some of them, it might just be a new door open for opportunities and talent to grow. Software like Dall-E and Midjourney have created fuss among digital artists lately.

This software is capable of creating high-definition artwork/images from just input commands describing the scene. Apart from the controversy, these require high filtration to strain out any offensive results.

Though these results aren’t really reliable to create good art every single time, better use it for recreational purposes only and let the professionalism dwell with the real artists.

11. Headless Commerce

The term Headless refers to a software infrastructure without a front end, and the term Headless commerce on the other hand refers to the architecture of an e-commerce platform where the front end and back end are well distinguished.

This gives the freedom of expression to the developers and creates a user experience that is miles apart from the traditional e-commerce stores. Moreover, it enables brands to create exceptional navigation and user interface while having riveting site speeds.

12. Metaverse

A Metaverse is primarily a public platform-based Blockchain that uses a decentralized open-source ecosystem to enable users to create applications and engage in digital commerce. It basically comprises a user-friendly DUI, a decentralized wallet, and a decentralized exchange.

Put in simple language, it’s a virtual copy of our whole world, replicating everything and every action that takes place on earth into a computer world. Recently re-launched Meta (formerly Facebook) is now heading towards creating a whole different world of characters, estate, infrastructure, products, and services.

It’s a crazy Idea fueled by enthusiasm, excitement, and a plethora of knowledge from the developers. Unknown to the certain future, you can still be sure that it’s a world of possibilities and opportunities.

13. Blockchain and NFT 

We saved the best for the last. Blockchain is a server-free network to execute transactions that have open records. These records are accessible to every user of the Blockchain network and no centralized entity governs it.

The currency used for the transactions in a Blockchain system is called Cryptocurrency. The first and the most famous Cryptocurrency is Bitcoin which is widely used for untraceable transactions all across the globe. 

NFT or Non-Fungible Token simply is a virtual product whose ownership records and trade information is stored on Blockchain. This makes NFTs tradable and opens up opportunities for yet another type of E-commerce. 

While everyone has their own stats to show, it’s difficult to state one solid value of the market, but the market is expected to be at $122 billion by the year 2028 showing high volatility.

As fast as light moves or even faster the globe is going round and round with miraculous developments everyday. Yet from miles away to a touch away, the big world has come to our palms. The digital revolution!!!

With the COVID pandemic the world has transformed itself to a more digital space and it has triggered forever changes in online shopping behaviours. People value time and convenience more so online shopping becomes seamless. It has played an important role in creating a network of consumers and sellers where people across the world can purchase products. This has become an efficient way of rejuvenating the economy by creating an increase in demand, expansion in consumption, and promotion of employment.

What is an e-commerce brand?

Before getting deeper into the field what needs to be understood is that there’s a fundamental difference between a brand and branding. 

Many of the aspiring entrepreneurs may not have an understanding of why a brand is important or even what the concept of a brand is. A brand isn’t just your branding. A brand transcends the concept of a mere name, logo or even just a product. A brand only exists in someone’s mind. It is a perception created by experience and association. This can be both factual (for example, the product comes in a red box), or emotional, (for example, it makes me happy).

Why is it important to have a brand?

The market of a brand goes beyond from just selling products. Even if there is no product, the brand sells itself. Think of an e-commerce store. You need products in that store for it to be worth anything. 

Being original is the essence of being a brand. That doesn’t mean you can do otherwise. If you just want a short term benefit, then you could always settle for selling someone else’s products. But that puts you a lot away from being a brand.

But if you are someone who wants to pursue the exciting side of this field and wants to create the brand equity and goodwill that will skyrocket the valuation of your company, then you need to consider building a brand, something for a longer term and more sustainable purpose. It’s to be noted that branding not only generates new customers, but also brings back return customers because of that brand loyalty, customer support 

How to create an e-commerce brand?

A business is not necessarily all about a sophisticated brand strategy. What all businesses do need, is a clear idea of what, why and how they’re doing. A successful business springs from the culmination of unique and creative ideas and strategies.

So, what the startups really need to have is a Brand 101 which is designed short enough to be understood easily, sharp enough to clearly differentiate your business from the market, and flexible enough to incorporate the necessities for your business. 

What elements exactly should be considered in your Brand 101?

Your idea to create a brand should start with the four Vs. The brand Vision, Values, Voice and Visuals. The 4 Vs need to be inculcated into the brand strategy with the aim of bringing the brand closer to the customer’s heart and thought. The dream is to let the audience know that they are indeed the kings of the market.

How to go about determining needs for your brand?

Your brand vision is what your business aspires to achieve beyond your bottom line. One must be able to uphold these principles and aspirations everywhere and exhort it to the outside world. As your brand vision symbolises everything and everyone you stand for. This comes from the inside that you perceive through your product, which is nothing but a solution to a problem that you wish to address. Every product you bring into the market will surely not be the only solution to the problem as that is why the market is known to be competitive. But you lay a signature in the market by making your solution unique with a strong resolve to contemplate and address all the perspectives to tackle the given problem.

The corner stone of a brand values is simply what your brand stands for, the targeted audience and your own ideals as the founder. Your brand values lie at the core of your culture staying on theme with our reusable coffee cup example. These values could revolve around the environment, transparency and the customer. Do research around other brands you love and see what resonates with you most strongly when it comes to establishing your brand’s tone of voice. Every brand has a personality. The soul of a brand lies in how peculiar it’s traits are to the target audience. With the right amount of zest and a well oriented plan, a brand will always stand out in the market.

The right way to brand positioning

Making yourself unique is not as simple as we just stated it to be. You need to enforce a strong message into the minds of the audience in the most creative way possible. One of the very common ways to implement this is to have a unique value proposition or UVP. This can be seen as more of a cogent and vivid message from the brand proving their originality. In this context you aim to understand your problem in-depth and to solve in your own vibrant way. Some areas where you can highlight your point of difference are your products, design,function, price and time that it’s available.

One of the most pivotal elements to branding is the right theme and design with an enhanced user interface. The goal is to make it sleek, cozy and enrapturing for the customer. Various online platforms like canva, 99 designs etc give you a plethora of options to customise your brand in the most modern way possible. So do some research around these tools. Otherwise you can always work one on one with a graphic designer or a branding agency.

Upon changing the functionality of your product you jeed to look out to fund a more genuine and effective resolve to the issues and queries raised by the existing customers on the product. Once you move in to fixing a price range for your product you have two options.One to go foe a lower direct to customer price point which is more inclusive and accessible for the customers or to go for a higher price point ensuring a premium service. 

So consider how your brand is different and how to communicate this with your target audience.

How to increase e-commerce brand value?

1)Marketing = Getting attention

Get people to look at your brand by having amazing creatives and going against the grain. Do something outside of the norm and set a trend. Be the trendsetter by being unique and elagant and don’t be a boring trend follower. 

2)Get people to pay attention

You do this by being omnipresent- meaning marketing your brand or product on every social media platform and have incredibly engaging content. 

3)Get people to pay

Have an offer so good that people can’t resist it. Branding is like fishing. Crafting the perfect offer hooks your audience. Always keep in mind that we live in an attention economy. The only way to scale your business online is to use advertising. 

12 things e-commerce businesses can and should trademark.

1.Brand name

2. Logo 

3. Product name

4. Tagline/slogan

5. Product line name

6. Subscription name

7. Membership name

8. Better customer experience

9. Fast shipping

10. Reward programs

11. Regular sales and discounts

12. New product drops

With these pro-tips and a lot more passion, an e-store becomes a part of the customers everyday life by evolving to a brand and concludes to the perfection of an elegant

Amazon was one of the earliest contenders in the world of e-Commerce which started as an online book store, today the e-Commerce industry is worth more than $5 trillion, contributing to more than a fifth of the world’s total retail sales. Here’s how to get your slice of the cake.

The world of the e-commerce market relies on the way you advertise your product to the right buyer. Even when it sounds intimidating, it’s just a matter of understanding and implementing existent strategies that are known for bringing in the magic results. Here are 14 foolproof strategies to yield years’ worth of traffic in just weeks. 

What is e-Commerce and why is it important to you?

Putting it in simple words, e-commerce is your product listed on the internet and as you already know, the Internet at its core is the Idea of keeping everything connected. In the same way, it keeps buyers connected to the sellers, but in different ways for different sellers. Didn’t understand why?

Well, because the internet is vast and the amount of sellers present is way more than a buyer wants to see in one search result. So the Internet does what it does the best, filtering – Bringing up the most relevant and useful results on the top and discarding the irrelevant ones to the very bottom.

Well now that you know the importance of making it to the top of the list, let’s see what are the best ways to do it Maverick. 

14 elite e-Commerce strategies to skyrocket your sales

1. Content is the King and Consistency is its Queen
2. Understanding SEO and its application
3. Email marketing is many strategies in one
4. Get your users back with Retargeting
5. Usage of Google shopping ads
6. Social media for niche-specific audience
7. Influencer marketing for an established market
8. Personalization earns repeated costumer
9. Create a loyalty program
10. Flash sales make you the talk of the town
11. Upselling and Cross-selling hit right where they should
12. Special discounts and coupons 
13. SMS marketing is a reminder to your users
14. Referral program/affiliate marketing

1. Content is the King and Consistency is its Queen

Let your content be a wildfire, and advertise your content in every format possible. Be it social media posts, music platform ads, or YouTube ads, you should be able to catch the eye of users right in the short span before they skip it. 

An Impactful blog can instantly turn potential leads into customers. While structuring a blog is the most important aspect of an informative piece, statistics and case studies are the factors that keep your readers interested and increase the conversion rate.

2. Understanding SEO & its application

SEO or search engine optimization is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring your store on top of any search engine’s results. This gives you traffic that is organic and expects the best service from the topmost sites. E-commerce SEO focuses more on ranking product pages and transaction-oriented sites.

SEO techniques and their applications can be constantly learned and implemented by business owners themselves or the task can be made easy by hiring a marketing team. At Blustream, you can leave all your worries about technicalities with us and pat yourself on the back for making a smart choice.

3. E-mail marketing is many strategies in one

According to litmus.com, the Return on Investment (ROI) averages at $36 on every $1 spent when it comes to E-mail marketing, keep in mind, that’s just the average, not the highest. E-mail marketing is a wide range of opportunities once you get people to sign up for your newsletter. E-mails with info about sales, discounts, special coupons, and even push e-mails to users who left midway can bring in the traffic you didn’t see coming.

4. Get your users back with Retargeting 

Retargeting can be a cheap and effective tool to bring in leads to your page that have a significantly higher probability to convert into customers. People who have already visited your page have a subconscious memory of it and have a much higher tendency to click on your ad than any other viewer. According to business news daily, advertisers have reported a whopping 128% increase in conversion rates by using Retargeted ads.

5. Usage of Google shopping ads

If you’ve ever made any search on Google, you might know Google has a separate shopping section for results. According to marketingcharts.com, Google contributes to over 48% of all product searches. You know you got to improve your rankings here when half the market revolves around this. 

Charges for the ads are based on the number of clicks your ad gets, but converting that click into a lead depends on the impact your page has on the user itself.

6. Social media for niche-specific audience 

It’s no secret that people spend a big chunk of their time on social media. While social media is turning into a world in itself, it’s important to set your step in it and contribute to the virtual market. 

In a survey conducted in 2022, over 60% of social media users shop when they stumble across a product in their feed, and an equal percentage contributes to people who buy from the brands they follow on social media. In short, building your social media presence is essentially building a recurring consumer chain.

7. Influencer marketing for established market

Not too far from social media, lies Influencer marketing. The same survey mentioned in the previous para deduced that 60% of people buy products recommended by their favorite influencer. Influencers who have specific audiences are a source of quality recommendations to their followers.

Targeting the right celebrity can generate a constantly growing flow of leads and even referrals. Yeezy wouldn’t be a $3 Billion brand if Kanye West hadn’t partnered with Adidas.

8. Personalization earns repeated costumers

Personalization is a tried and tested strategy followed by big brands like Amazon, Flipkart, and Samsung. With every new Samsung phone launch, existing users get personalized offers for exclusive deals and exchange offers for the model they’re using. This strategy drives enormous pre-book sales to their brand and creates a sense of community among their users.

Be it personalized emails, messages, or pop-ups, use personalization to make the user feel special, the sense of being part of a community is one of the biggest driving forces of humanity, and leverage the best out of it.

9. Create a loyalty program 

Just like creating a community, loyalty programs can help your sales get up a notch. From giving personalized offers for special coupons, to giving suggestions based on user interaction data, getting your old customers back to the shop is always 5 times cheaper than getting new customers. 

Conducting short surveys after closed deals can also be an effective practice to collect important data about your user. By tracking their buying habits & regular supplies, you can reward them with loyalty points that can then be redeemed on their next purchase.

10. Flash sales make you the talk of the town

A flash sale is a short-term sale with heavy discounts on products in demand. Getting products at prices much cheaper than their regular selling price is a huge attraction to new as well as existing customers. While creating a new chain of users it also creates the will in the user to shop with you again.

Flash sales can also be occasionally used to get rid of depreciating valued stocks while companies also use them to launch an unreleased product in the market. The correct way of pulling off a successful flash sale is by promoting it well in advance through ads, emails, and messages.

11. Upselling and Cross-selling hit right where they should

When brands like Myntra, Amazon, and Flipkart seem to use the same strategy time and again, you know it’s effective right away. One such passive strategy is Upselling and Cross-selling.

Upselling refers to suggesting a higher rated and higher priced version of the same product type that the user wants and Cross-selling refers to suggesting products that are complementary or frequently bought in pair with the product the user is looking for.

Both of these can be done while the user is still on your site or through emails with suggestions after they’ve made their initial purchase.

12. Special discounts and coupons

As discussed before, once you have the user’s trust and their e-mail, you can approach them with exclusive deals, discount offers, coupon codes, occasional sales, and even flash sales.

An exclusive example of this is Amazon’s annual Prime Day(s) event, which is nothing but a flash sale with exclusive deals and discounts for all customers.

13. SMS marketing is a reminder to your users

SMS still exists and even when it sounds like an outdated strategy, it’s still one of the most fruitful. Text messages are something people just can’t ignore. There are multiple ways you can use SMS to your aid, here are a few:

• Follow up after a purchase 
• Delivering exclusive offers and sales
• A reminder of an unsealed deal
• Follow up for feedback and reviews 

14. Referral program/affiliate marketing

Lastly, allow referrals, let the user become your advertiser, and give them incentives or offers in exchange. Affiliate marketing itself is a $12 Billion industry and is not looking back any day. Promotions with Influencers can also include affiliate links and special discount links to make them more effective. 

Tip: Use a mix of these strategies and implement them in your way, see what works the best for you. And if you can already visualize implementing these elite strategies, take a moment to subscribe to our newsletter, so that you never miss premium content like this.

The world over, people are increasingly selling items directly through social media. A strong tactic for boosting your sales is to offer a focused, seamless user experience that allows visitors to browse, study, and buy without ever leaving social media.

As important platforms improve their shopping and checkout features, the social media sector is bracing for a rapid acceleration in social commerce. According to 2021 Statista statistics, 44% of social media users eventually made an online purchase, compared to 11% who did so right away after learning about a product.

With more people using sites like Instagram and TikTok to conduct research and make purchases, the global Covid-19 pandemic has also increased social commerce. In the US, there were 80 million social commerce buyers in 2020, and according to Emarketer’s “Social Commerce 2021” research, there will be 96 million in 2022.

Additionally, there are plans from websites like Instagram to promote more in-app payments by enabling users to save payment information and implementing check-out pages.

Social Commerce Working

Integrating social commerce to power up into your strategy is crucial if your company sells tangible things. Any obstacles to buying, including sluggish page loads or challenging user interfaces, are removed.

Impulse buying accounts for a significant portion of purchases made on social media, especially when the price is reasonable. The average cost of online orders recommended through social media during the second quarter of 2021 was $81.05, according to Statista.

When a user finds an item they want to buy, such as a pair of sunglasses, they just click “shop now” or “buy now” to finish the transaction. There is no need to even visit the website because the pricing, description, and delivery details will all be available within the social platform. 

Social commerce tools like shoppable tags and links, along with user-generated content produced by consumers and influencers, boost the likelihood that consumers will make impulse buys. Emotion and lifestyle choices are driving this increase. The items’ credibility, quality, and endorsements by people they respect or admire are what users are looking for in social proof.

Social Commerce, Yes. But, Where?

The usefulness of these networks as a sales channel is demonstrated by Statista’s prediction that 8 out of 10 US enterprises will sell on social media within the next three years.

On Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, social commerce is currently possible. The ability to add shoppable tags and links to video content is another feature that YouTube will try in 2022.

If they utilize a professional account, users on social media can open a store. From a personal account, this can be changed through the settings menu.

You can tag products from your shop in your images and videos for social commerce on Facebook and Instagram, for example. Specifically, this refers to content from Instagram’s Stories and Reels.

People can click on the tags you’ve added to your posts to learn more about the products, including the name and price, by viewing the products you’ve tagged in your posts. In order to learn more and make purchases, people will be sent to your shop in the platform when they click on these tags.

Although Meta is now testing in-app purchases in the US, users will currently have the option to buy the goods on your website. Adding tags to products in an existing post or adding tags while making a new post are both options. Up to 30 products can be tagged in a post, but it is advised to use no more than 10 tags per post because more would make the post appear cluttered and difficult to read.

Social Commerce, Who Can Use It?

Events, digital items, and services are not yet eligible for social commerce because it only allows businesses to sell physical goods. Horizon Worlds, a social virtual reality software by Meta, is currently testing in-app purchases.

For any company wishing to sell on social media platforms, each social media network has its own set of merchant policies. The following items are among those you cannot sell on social media: alcohol, a few medicinal items, some subscription services, and digital goods.

You can Google each social media network to find out what the merchant policies are.

Though consumer electronics, cosmetics, home furnishings, and consumer goods are also significant participants, apparel and accessories continue to be the most popular social commerce sector.

Because of a change in policy or a mistake with the way the social media platform’s algorithms identify particular words in product descriptions, an item may occasionally be rejected by the social media platform. The platform will let you know why a product was rejected if it’s not featured in your shop. A chance to challenge the judgment will also be provided.