The surprising benefits of ecommerce contestsIf you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll agree that going above and beyond to find sales strategies is a standard operating procedure. Pouring your heart and soul (and dollars) into marketing should naturally include gratuities, which – if done right – can be an impressively effective tool for customer acquisition and retention. Straight, uncomplicated advertising is the mainstay of gaining recognition for an online store competing with millions of others. Though it’s a necessary expense, it may fall flat in results. Smart merchants sweeten the pot with giveaways aimed at both existing and potential buyers, and most are discovering the increasingly positive net gain they bring.
A strong marketing campaign consists of multiple parts, not the least of which is a social media presence. More and more merchants solicit contact information via email addresses, but when only a nominal product discount is offered, weary consumers may shy away. The trick is to boost up your efforts with a legitimately free product. Few enticements are more intriguing than a no-cost way to try something they’re already interested in. Engage with just the right approach, and you may wonder why you hadn’t thought of this in the first place. How does it work? Giveaway campaigns take many forms, some less of a sacrifice for you, the merchant. If your sales are strong and your brand is familiar, a straight giveaway without the contest angle is your best shot. Pitched correctly, your existing fans will be thrilled – thrilled enough to share the good news, hooking new customers and establishing a reputation of being an out-of-the-box vendor. If straight gifting is a bridge too far, the random drawing strategy is also a winner. Whether requiring a purchase to enter or merely setting up a campaign, the model looks something like this: Your web site, your social media posts, and your outreach emails make a big splash with an obvious notification advertising the freebie contest. When consumers know they have an opportunity to win a prize without making a purchase, they become interested. Experts advise you collect their contact e-mail with a promise to not make future contacts there, or (especially) not to sell or trade the address. Here is how a beauty products seller waged a wildly successful giveaway campaign. Melted Soapery jumped onto Instagram to wave free full-sized products as a tempting contest prize. Intrigued customers faced non-committal requirements including following the company on social media; sharing the post on their own accounts; tagging a friend (a trusted endorsement is often successful), or multiple friends, since each tag counts as one contest entry. Within a few days, one winner is announced. Should you choose this model over an occasional bonus gift with a purchase by regular customers, be sure to embrace the industry-standard requirements of high-quality graphics of the exact product(s) with well-written content about the gifts and the offer itself. Visual impact and captivating text are key when it comes to an online campaign, and whether an individual decides to enter your contest, you have passively gained informed future customers. Want ideas on the various way online sellers have hit a home run with giveaways? RafflePress is happy to share.
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Exploring consumer demand for quick delivery Instant gratification is not exactly a new phenomenon. Impulse shopping is a mainstay among consumers, and it accounts for a decent percentage of all buying in brick-and-mortar stores. The challenge for retailers is to never minimize its impact, whether you sell from a physical location accessible to customers, or operate exclusively online, joining hundreds of thousands of e-commerce merchants. Supply chain issues reared their ugly heads following the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic, but they did not resolve themselves quickly. In fact. Four years after the initial business and personal trauma related to shutdowns and global disruptions, there are still elements needing ironing out. Brick-and-mortar stores are not receiving timely deliveries, due in part to inventory shortages and to backlogs and glitches at international ports. For e-commerce sellers, this is a double whammy. Acquiring inventory takes longer, even if your delivery to consumers is handled by a third party or shipped direct from distributors. And if you manage your own shipping duties, you’ve noticed the dramatic increase in costs spread among all entities (USPS, UPS, FedEx, and more). At the same time, shipping services continue to stretch out delivery dates. It’s a genuine problem. Your business model is based on the rapid turnaround time consumers expect. So what do you do? Analysts have a few pieces of advice, though no quick fixes. Consider these options:
Finally, the emergence of AS (Anticipatory Shipping) has been a lifesaver for mid- to higher-volume merchants taking advantage of tools that evaluate and project consumer purchases. These will streamline choices of delivery agents. techDetector explains this masterfully. Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
To browse seamlessly, with all the info they need to make an informed purchase decision at their fingertips. From product description and specifications to price and shipping terms, everything should be easy to find and understand. And it needs to look nice – professional, seamless – we keep going back to that word for a reason – and both easy to navigate and trustworthy. So what are some solutions you can implement now? There are a number that will depend on your business and good direct and indirect research is necessary on that front. (Think post-sale surveys, social media engagement, and consultation with your customer service team.) Beyond that, here are a few places you can make immediate improvements to customer experience:
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It’s not just the FTC, through. Attorneys General from 17 states have joined in the civil action, bringing cases that allege Amazon’s formidable presence represents an anti-competitive entity that is harmful to both competitors and consumers. Though Amazon strongly denies the charges, you’ll want to understand what’s behind this development. Amazon.com is light years from its humble roots as an online bookseller. Founded nearly 30 years ago by Seattle’s Jeff Bezos, it garnered negative press along with disapproval from fans of brick-and-mortar book stores alike. In what turned out to be a fait accompli, Amazon essentially led the charge of a burgeoning presence of ecommerce vendors weaving their way into the new normal for shopping in the 21st century. Only Amazon went much farther. Discovering the power of Internet commerce, the company grew in unfathomable scope and began selling a wide variety of products. Fast forward to 2023, when there are few items consumers can’t locate on Amazon, thanks to a complex strategy that has increasingly involved third-party sellers. Bezos goes Prime Time Billionaire Jeff Bezos is mostly mum on the government’s lawsuit. After success with the Amazon platform, he’s branched out (bought the Washington Post newspaper) and is a mere figurehead of the Seattle ecommerce entity. Once the iconic Amazon Prime program launched, a star was born, and the ability for sellers to get goods faster (even same-day delivery in some markets) and to take advantage of other benefits (digital content, streaming, music, and discounts at the other Amazon-owned ingenue, Whole Foods). Prime has spurred its own headaches, but that’s another story. A lucrative contract with the US Postal Service and UPS haven’t kept up with demand, and now Amazon uses contracted delivery drivers to pick up the slack. The result is mixed; delivery reliability is suffering in many cases, and some customers cite a reduction in product quality and difficult return policies from third-party sellers. In what the FTC and states are characterizing as a “self-reinforcing cycle of dominance and harm,” the business model of Amazon does raise eyebrows. It’s no secret that the big players tend to apply pressure to stay on top, Amazon is accused of luring both sellers and buyers to its kingdom with underhanded and monopolistic techniques. Once sellers hop aboard the Amazon train to tap into a vast universe of eager buyers, the governments allege, it locks in contractual stipulations that set and raise fees, even punishing sellers who offer their inventory in other venues for a lower price. The Pushback Again, Amazon vehemently defends itself against these claims. It believes it serves both consumers and merchants by allowing them to tap into a massive marketplace where nearly limitless goods are available for mostly free shipping and quick delivery, and ecommerce sellers enjoy an audience reach it could only dream of in the past. As Amazon suggests that regulators seem to misunderstand the nature of retailing, plaintiffs stand strong, citing negative impacts on other giants such as Walmart, Target, and the iconic Internet star, eBay. Yet to be determined is whether the FTC and states envision a breakup of Amazon, separating its currently bundled functions to relieve the monopolistic impact they believe is continuing to the detriment of practically everyone. The lawsuit sits in a Seattle Federal courthouse, awaiting the arduous trail of motions and responses – or perhaps a settlement. Stay tuned.
What may be a surprise to most is that content generation is only a fraction of AI functionality. It can be controversial if not managed properly. But the more technical aspects of Artificial Intelligence will peak your interest. Do you want to increase sales? Are you aiming toward better understanding your customer base? Of course you are. So take some time to explore the possibilities afforded by Artificial Intelligence. For online merchants, AI is particular useful in the following ways:
As time goes on, the full range of possibilities AI presents will avail themselves to those who are interested. Choosing to transact business online proves you’re already amenable to all of the options digital innovation has to offer. Harnessing those that best fit your business is as easy as a web search and a bit of time to better understand how AI will fit your commerce model. For more information on AI and its reach into ecommerce, hit up this tutorial from Hostinger. Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
Here are some great ways to kick off the holiday shopping season:
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Ecommerce Giant Amazon Launches New Social Media Tool
And taking the pulse of the younger generation of buyers has inspired Inspire – an Amazon quasi-social media app designed to mimic the popular TikTok. Not surprisingly, it’s an early hit.
Amazon Inspire began a rollout phase in early 2023, offering a downloadable app that in fact resembles the TikTok platform. TikTok is a video-centered app popular across a range of demographics, though it is mostly used by those under 40. That’s where the dollars are, say experts in ecommerce. And that’s where the Amazon future is headed. This intriguing and nuanced app offers so much more than just a small photo on their main website. Amazon shoppers can log in to Inspire directly through their phone-based Amazon app by launching a light bulb icon. It promises personalized content (made possible by a collection of prior shopping choices and probably a bit of data collection from social media use). Users may choose from more than 20 areas of interest such as gaming, beauty products, clothing, pet care, recreational pursuits, and beyond. Browsing the returns that pop up after you’ve chosen a sector, shoppers scroll through buttons to further customize a collection they may find interesting. The experience is similar to TikTok feeds, with engagement buttons and swiping actions that lead to promoted or favored items. This customization feature is perhaps the key selling point of both selling and buying on Inspire. It doesn’t require typing text into a search window. Product categories appear in launchable buttons, and they are diverse. Amazon hopes they will lead you to what you’re shopping for. What Amazon has not disclosed is how the app generates recommendations, except to say that it requires at least two recommendations before it appears as a promoted product. Content creators may enroll in the program to upload media, including video and photos connecting to thumbnail photos of Amazon listings they fancy. These contributors may earn commissions, depending on volume. Customer reviews, always a key element in online sales, are welcomed. Amazon Inspire is now available for use by all US consumers, and the jury is out on how this new, creative approach to a hybrid influencer/advertising function will play out. For now, it appears to be an ingenious method of following the lead in cultural and consumer trends as they develop on the internet. Interested in buying or selling on Inspire? Get more info here. The Who, What, Where’s, and Why’s of Business SmartS
That softens the blow of what we’re about to discuss. As long as you’re dealing with digits, start examining the core of your business by figuring out who buys what, and how often. In the trade, it’s referred to as “customer segmentation,” and it is a critical way to make your store thrive.
Customer segmentation works best when you pin down stats and demographic data from the top 20 percent of sales. Not of customers, of sales. If you have repeat customers, that’s great, but if their volume of purchases is not especially high, it’s not a helpful measure for future performance and growing a consumer base. We all know about customer conversion, or turning lookers into buyers. The conversion rate among all ecommerce sectors in 2022 was 3.65 percent. Studying the shared attributes of those buying across your site will guide you toward marketing more prospective customers. And unlike other strategies for growth, it can happen quickly. Targeted marketing in the 2020 decade is about as easy as it gets. Social media platforms are practically designed for this. Facebook (Meta), for example, provides an easy breakdown of the basics – age, location, ideology – but increasingly it allows businesses to gather data about their interests based on company sites and pages they have visited. With this knowledge in hand, your task is to match your product mix with those most likely to be intrigued. Facebook Ad Analytics Guide is one tool to help you dive into the art and science of zeroing in on potential customers. Its data reach is admirable: available are customer-reported statistics such as income, buying habits, buying likelihood, and other measures useful in figuring out who may be receptive to outreach. Kick off your segmentation efforts with these basics:
How to Assess Sales Tax Obligations in Ecommerce
The first reality to absorb is this: if you sell merchandise over the Internet and you have a physical presence in a “nexus,” or state, you are required to follow that jurisdiction’s sales tax laws – but only from customers who are subject to sales tax because of their residence in that state. Sounds pretty simple until you understand that there are 50 states to keep track of. Add to that the wonky official rule that if customers do not remit sales tax payments to sellers, they are technically required to pay them directly to their state. Don’t ask how that enforcement mechanism would work; truly, it’s anyone’s guess. Mostly only very high-end purchases would come to the attention of each state’s tax collector.
We’ll make it easy for you. Only five U.S. states do not impose a sales tax. They are Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, and New Hampshire. Now you know. But what is your obligation in terms of making sure your customers pay up? That’s more confusing. If you’re committed to avoiding future problems and doing the right thing at the outset, here are steps to take that will keep you in the clear:
One reason newbies might let items sit in your virtual cart? Reluctance to sign up for an account. We all know building an identified account roster is a win-win for both sellers and consumers, with easy options for a quick checkout, and the ability to target promotions. But not everyone is eager to divulge tracked info including email address, phone number, or even a name, to a vendor that they don’t know well. The answer is to provide a seamless guest checkout system. Offer clear opt-in choices to be “remembered” by your site even in the absence of a formal sign-up. A subtle trick like that can work wonders for skeptical buyers.
Here are other ways to turn abandoned shopping carts into sales:
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