eCommerce Strategy: The Basics

There are thousands of tactics that you can employ in your eCommerce strategy. But which of them are worth your time? 

Structuring your eCommerce strategy – from the functionality of the website itself to the way you do business – is a building block for any successful brand. Let’s dive into what we think the basics are, and hopefully you can begin to incorporate them: 

1. Make sure your website’s layout is simple and straightforward   

When potential customers visit your website, you want it to be as easy for them to navigate as possible. It should be extremely clear where and how to buy products. 

And we can’t stress this enough – test everything. There are a lot of great testing methods that can help you to tweak language, icon placement, and other elements. An often overlooked aspect of website responsiveness is its level of mobile accessibility. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile use, you’re going to miss out on the huge chunk of the population that surfs the web almost entirely on their smartphones. 

2.   Use social media to your advantage 

Social media not only allows you to connect with your industry and the larger marketplace, but do it in a personalized way. Utilizing the plethora of different social media platforms to build your brand and diversify your offerings is an absolute must for any modern company. The best way to do this is by defining your tone of voice. This tone needs to be consistent across all your communication channels, as does your level of engagement. 

3.   Don’t forget about search engine optimization (SEO) 

In order to meet today’s standards for search engine optimization (SEO), your website will need to be regularly updated with error-free, applicable content that will encourage visitors to stay on your page once they get there. Let’s say you’re a company that specializes in plant-based foods for instance. You’ll not only want to have blurbs detailing the individual products you sell, but a section of blog posts or resources that talk about sustainability, healthy lifestyles, easy recipes, etc. etc. 

Simply filling your webpage with content (and keywords) that are relevant to your end-consumer is one of the simplest, most low-cost marketing strategies you can employ. Don’t discount it. 

4.   Humanize yourself 

Your business needs to stand out – obviously. But beyond that, it needs to win the hearts of customers who are on the fence about buying. The best way to do that is to give them what they want. More and more, that’s a company they feel that they can relate to. 

This is just as important to an eCommerce strategy as it is to your brand strategy as a whole.

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