Five Proven Tactics to Accelerate Your Ecommerce Growth Strategy
The ecommerce world is racing ahead, with an estimated 24 million ecommerce sites worldwide. With millions of online competitors, businesses must develop a robust ecommerce growth strategy to keep up and stay ahead.
These strategies require ongoing care and attention to outlast intense competition and evolving consumer behaviors. Here are the five proven tactics we recommend to attract new shoppers, engage your current customers, and boost revenue.
Ecommerce Growth Strategy 1: Leverage Personalized Marketing
Today’s consumers expect personalization, with 71% wanting tailored experiences and 76% becoming frustrated when they don’t get them. When businesses meet these demands, the rewards are huge. The fastest-growing companies generate 40% more revenue from personalization compared to their slower competitors, making this one of the most powerful strategies for driving growth.
Why This Works
Personalized marketing efforts speak to shoppers’ actual wants and needs. They can even help shoppers discover new products and services based on their past behaviors, interests, and preferences.
This targeted understanding of shoppers leads to can drive higher conversions. For example, Experian reported that personalized emails can deliver 26% higher conversion rates, while HubSpot reports that calls to action (CTAs) with personalized content perform a whopping 212% better than generic ones.
How This Works
First-party data is the star of the show when it comes to personalized marketing. You can collect it directly from your website, emails, and social media to learn what types of content a user engages with, what products and services they’ve purchased, and what they think of your brand.
Of course, protecting data privacy is critical to gaining consumers’ trust. Brands should capture consent when accessing customer data and use tools like data clean rooms to ensure privacy compliance.
Once you have safely collected and organized the data, you can use it to meet users on their specific journeys. Have fun with this! You know your brand fits into shoppers’ lives in more ways than one. Now, it’s your time to prove it with personalized ads and email campaigns.
Include recommendations for products you know they love, as well as new products that complement their past behaviors. This can help you drive engagement, increase conversions, and scale your brand.
Ecommerce Growth Strategy 2: Optimize with Data Analytics
Data-driven decision-making serves you much better than haphazardly taking a shot in the dark. As we mentioned above, it’s data that makes personalized marketing possible and profitable, and it can accelerate your growth strategy in other ways too.
Why This Works
Data makes your marketing efforts quantifiable, helping you determine whether or not a specific campaign or technique is “working.” How many consumers clicked on that ad? Filled in a form? Completed a purchase?
Without data, we are left guessing, hoping we can intuitively select the most profitable ads and discard the rest. But it doesn’t take an expert to see the flaws in that plan.
We need solid supporting evidence to make the smartest decisions on where to invest our marketing dollars. We need data analytics.
How This Works
There are numerous tools in our belt when it comes to working with data and analytics. A few we recommend as part of an ecommerce growth strategy include:
- Data Analytics Platforms
There are almost more data analytics platforms than we can count: Google Analytics, Heap, Polymer, Glew, Kissmetrics, etc. We recommend finding the one (or more) that works best for you. These platforms help marketing teams track, measure, and analyze marketing and website performance. In today’s digital-first world, they are invaluable.
- A/B Testing
A/B testing comes in many different forms, including testing different headlines, images, and calls to action. Before running any A/B test, make sure you succinctly define your goals, the elements you are testing, and how long you will run the test. Work with a platform or tool that will calculate and analyze results to help you better understand your audience and, in turn, craft better marketing materials.
- AI and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can be used to create efficiencies and enhance personalization efforts. For example, AI algorithms can predict the likelihood of user interactions with specific ads, and use machine learning models to understand user behavior and ensure ads are tailored to specific user preferences.
Learn how Fluent leverages AI to deliver highly personalized ad experiences and stronger ROAS below:
Ecommerce Growth Strategy 3: Embrace Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing is a comprehensive marketing technique that considers all the different channels where your shoppers interact with you. This includes physical stores, websites, search engines, ads, emails, social media, apps, SMS, and any other digital spaces.
Why This Works
Research shows that more than half of shoppers engage with three to five channels before they make a purchase. If different channels provide different, inconsistent information, or don’t support the customer journey, shoppers may get discouraged and look for what they need elsewhere. Omnichannel marketing prevents that from happening.
How This Works
Omnichannel marketing operates under the knowledge that most shoppers are going to move from channel to channel, perhaps multiple times, before completing their journey. Its goal therefore is to make sure that all interactions give the shopper:
- Consistent, identifiable messaging, brand tone, and imaging
- Consistent actions – i.e. the same sales, the same purchasing options
- Personalization (when possible) based on past interactions and interests
Examples of omnichannel marketing include:
- Scanning a QR code from a CTV ad and being redirected to a brand’s app or website to complete a purchase.
- Receiving personalized push notifications that highlight relevant deals or complementary products/services based on your location.
- Using a loyalty program that integrates across platforms and allows you to earn and redeem points whether shopping online, through an app, or in-store.
Ecommerce Growth Strategy 4: Invest in a Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs come in many forms. Done the right way, they tell customers that you are absolutely thrilled they’re around and want to reward them with exclusive perks as a thank-you.
Why This Works
Loyalty programs are essentially VIP clubs – they make shoppers feel like they’re part of something special. This extra attention strengthens the relationship between you and your shoppers, which means they’re more likely to stick around. According to Microsoft, when a company achieves a 7% increase in brand loyalty, the customer lifetime value of each client can rise by 85%.
How This Works
Not all loyalty programs have to look the same, but they should always create a value exchange, offering members points, discounts, or other special perks in exchange for repeat purchases and engagement.
Some ideas to consider:
- Shoppers can gain points every time they purchase through your app, interact on social media, or engage with advertiser offers. Points can then be redeemed for free products or other perks.
- Loyalty members can receive access to presale events, exclusive bundle deals, and special discount codes or free gifts on their birthdays.
Ecommerce Growth Strategy 5: Enhance Your Checkout Process
The checkout process should not be the end of the customer journey, but a continuation. This is made possible with post-purchase or post-transaction ads that live on ecommerce confirmation pages.
Why This Works
Post-transaction ads target customers when they are in a positive buying mindset. Once you have insight into a shopper’s purchase behavior, you can introduce them to relevant, complementary products while you still have their attention.
How This Works
For the best engagement, we recommend implementing post-transaction ads across both your website and mobile app (check out our step-by-step guide on how to get started here).
Promotions should be relevant and add immediate value for shoppers. This may include sharing exclusive discounts for related products, free trials, special membership deals, or limited-time promotions they can’t find elsewhere.
Be sure that the addition of post-transaction ads doesn’t complicate or disrupt the checkout process. Removing any and all friction from this experience not only makes the purchasing experience flawless but also makes customers more likely to engage with post-purchase ads after the checkout.
Want to see it in action? Learn how we helped one DTC brand monetize their post-purchase page for a 40%+ boost in revenue per session and a 16% increase in click-through rates!
Conclusion
There you have it. Use these five tactics to accelerate your ecommerce growth strategy by improving the digital experience, boosting customer engagement, driving conversions, and building brand loyalty.
If you’re serious about boosting growth, don’t wait. Start implementing these strategies today. Choose the tactic that you think will have the most immediate impact on your growth, put it into action, and layer on the next. A tandem approach is key to accelerating success.
If you need guidance, connect with us now to get started.
Check out more resources to get fluent in:
In-App Advertising | Retail Media | Engagement Rate | First-Party Data
Fluent, Inc. is a leader in performance marketing, offering data-driven customer acquisition and partner monetization solutions that exceed client expectations. We connect brands with consumers at the most optimal moment, unlock additional revenue streams for partners, and empower advertisers to acquire their most valuable customers at scale. Connect with us now to level up your business: https://fluentco.com/contact/