Proven e-commerce marketing strategies to increase your revenue

Know your market potential

A clear understanding of your industry and market potential can amplify your e-commerce marketing strategy in the early stages of global expansion.

Research your industry

As an e-commerce player, choosing the right products for each country is important. This is because each industry will differ in abandonment rates, conversion rates, average order value, and even returns and repeat purchases. Before you continue to build your business, it is crucial to break down the industry data such as:

• Your industry’s e-commerce sales for benchmarking
• E-commerce sales, penetration and CAGR for each country 
• E-commerce revenue forecast by each country   
• Digital adoption in each country
• Preferred payment methods in each country  
• Preferred products for online shopping in each country

It may be a good idea to leverage digital intelligence tools such as Similarweb for insights about your industry, competitors and market potential. The goods or services you sell might only be relevant in a few regions. To sell the right product, you may create region-wise growth profiles to assess expansion opportunities for your e-commerce brand.

Understand your customers

According to the Future of Commerce 2021 report by Shopify, 66% of online shoppers expect free shipping for their orders. 

The key to going global successfully boils down to earning the trust of your customers in your target countries, which starts with a detailed understanding of their behaviour and what they want. Many websites provide intelligence about the country’s economy, people, communication, and environment. With this, country comparison tools help you learn about the country’s culture, demographics, and other aspects to create a winning marketing and communication strategy. 

Localise experiences for your customers

According to the McKinsey 2021 Consumer Trends report, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised experiences. Deep dive into historical data using Google Analytics for traffic, session and visitors by each country. This data will open new perspectives and insights about your audiences’ preferences to craft customised experiences. 

Ask yourself and your team the following questions to understand your user expectations:

• Are my customers bouncing on a particular page on my site, such as checkout, returns, etc.? 
• Are my customers visiting my ecommerce site but need to complete their purchases?
• Which visitors by region are least likely to complete their transaction?

Here are a few ways to personalise experiences for your target audience.

Adjust your strategy for each market

Each market is different, so it is good to consider the mode of entry for each market. Are you going to build new products and sell on marketplaces, collaborate with a business or acquire an established marketplace in that market? Also, you will need to research your competitors’ pricing offering similar products. Think about how you want to position your product and explore the pros and cons of different approaches. 

Localise your webshop

As per Statista, 49% of online shoppers worldwide prefer digital/online wallets to checkout. If you have traffic on your website from a particular country but want to boost your conversions, you may create a localised e-commerce store. This means tailoring the user journey — using the local language, offering checkout in local currency, preferred payment methods and shipping options in a particular country, and many more. 

Invest in local talent or liaise with an agency you can trust to ensure the translations are appropriate and local nuances are captured. Also, consider using multilingual plugins to let shoppers browse your website in their language. 

Enable customers to pay in their local currency

As per Shopify, 92% of customers prefer to purchase on sites that price in their local currency. According to PayPal Cross-Border Consumer Research 2018, 76% of online shoppers prefer to have the option of paying in their local currency.

When selling on marketplaces across the globe, your international customers expect to pay you in their local currency to avoid the hassle and charges associated with currency conversion.. Empowering customers to pay in their local currency using local payment methods will reduce trade friction and drive revenue. For example, with Ebury, you access local collection accounts in 11+ currencies to get paid like a local. 

Create an omnichannel experience

Over the last few years, there has been an increased focus on convenience across all touchpoints such as emails, social media, mobile, etc. An integrated and seamless omnichannel strategy from start to finish can elevate your business strategy and improve interactions with your brand. 

Before creating your marketing plan, reflect on your target audience, how to reach them, customer journey across different touchpoints, etc.

Embrace sustainability

Today’s consumers weigh more power on sustainability whilst making purchasing decisions. As per the Global Sustainability Study 2021 by Simon-Kucher & Partners, approx. 85% of people worldwide have swerved their purchase behaviour towards sustainability in the past five years. Whilst this is a broad conversation in itself, here are a few ways you can build a sustainable e-commerce business to build trust and meet user expectations:

• Use sustainable and recyclable materials for the packaging
• Opt for climate-neutral or other environmentally friendly shipping options 
• Be waste-cautious by restricting packaging waste
• Liaise with local communities to support good causes
• Source from suppliers that are sustainable and ethical

Conduct competition benchmarking

Keep yourself updated with the trends and the global competition to fine-tune your business strategy. Once you understand your industry, target customers and their preferences, you can estimate your offering’s penetration rate, sales trends, market size and estimated ROI. 

Collect your audience feedback

Understand and harness the power of popup exit-intent surveys to learn your audiences’ behaviour to make wise decisions. An exit intent popup is a survey form appearing on your users’ screens when they are about to exit your website. With the help of this, you can gather your audiences’ thoughts and pivot accordingly. For example, customers may feel shipping time is longer, or you need to offer more payment methods. 

Analyse your data

Use e-commerce analytics tools and evaluate these insights to inform your decision-making, monitor your strategy periodically and optimise it based on defined metrics. 

Boost your website traffic through SEO

SEO and content marketing have become more pivotal than before. According to research by Salesforce, 87% of shoppers initiate their product searches online. As per Statista, Google has 85% of the search engine market share worldwide, so it’s a good idea to step up your SEO efforts there. 

Focus on keyword research, optimising page titles and meta descriptions, and creating high-quality content to improve your SEO.

Focus on retargeting

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is an online advertising technique that involves targeting users who have interacted with your online site or e-commerce brand but did not make a purchase. You can increase the likelihood of conversion by showing relevant and specific ads to users who have already expressed an interest. When retargeting for your ecommerce store, it’s important to display the information the user is looking for when they click on the ad. 

Start crafting smart marketing strategies for your online store

The right marketing strategy can help reach more customers, boost brand awareness, increase average order value, design better customer experiences and increase sales. This will help you differentiate your e-commerce store from the rest and help you stay ahead of the game. 

Want to take your online business to new places and succeed in the year ahead?

To help you stand out in this competitive landscape, we have created an ultimate guide covering the latest trends to keep an eye on, easy tips to succeed and common mistakes to avoid.

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The information provided herein is general in nature and should not be construed as financial or investment advice. The information provided here is not legally binding. The information, data or views expressed here is for the exclusive use of the recipient and is subject to changes without any notice. You may ask the support team or your dedicated relationship manager to provide additional information regarding Ebury products.