Driving Growth: How to Take Advantage of Trends That Boost E-commerce Sales

By April 26, 2016 eCommerce

E-commerce is quite a competitive industry to be no matter what is being sold.

Taking advantage of everything possible is important to stay ahead of the competition whether it is repeat sales or winning over a new market.

Trends can be one of these things to use to the advantage of a company.

Trends can be social media trends, sales trends, packaging trends, and other things.

The following are some ways to take advantage of trends to help boost E-commerce website sales.

Subscription Boxes

A subscription box is something that can be purchased for a flat fee each month with random products in it.

For example, some nutritional supplement companies would send a mix of products from different brands.

This gives the person the ability to try something that they might not have otherwise.

The element of surprise each month is something that a customer can look forward to, and it has made the subscription box a hot commodity in E-commerce.

Most people who subscribe to one of these boxes each month gets added value because some companies dole out much more product at a discounted rate for subscribers.

Using Hashtags for Discounts

If an E-commerce website isn’t utilizing social media to market as well as advertise, then it is selling social media short.

Social media can take advantage of trending topics by hashtagging. A good example of this would be during a big sporting event. A company could make a comment about the game using a hashtag.

They could also offer a coupon code via this tweet or a code that can be used on their site during checkout that will give them a discount.

Not all trending topics should be used to do this as there are some events and trending topics a business should avoid at all costs.

Engaging with potential customers and existing customers is important because it can build brand loyalty.

Mobile is Key

Being an E-commerce website that isn’t optimized for mobile devices can be a huge loss in customer base. The likelihood of a customer returning to a site that froze their device or was hard to navigate on a mobile device decreases exponentially.

More and more people are shopping online from a mobile device whether they are on the go or reclining on the couch with their tablet.

If an E-commerce business is international it is important to optimize for all major brands of phones. Do not let your business lose large amounts of revenue simply because the website hasn’t been updated to be mobile friendly.

Encourage Customer Reviews

Letting customers review certain products can help build trust between an E-commerce website and users.

Encourage these reviews by offering discounts and use it as a reward system. For a certain number of reviews of products that were purchased, they can get a discount off of their next order.

Most customers want to know others’ experiences with a certain product before they invest in it.

If the product the E-commerce site is selling is of high quality, it is important to build out reviews by the customers.

If the product is of low quality, these reviews can give tidbits to help improve a certain product or item.

Make sure to only allow customers to make reviews for things they have bought as fake reviews have become a problem on many websites.

Taking advantage of trends is important in any business as it can be easy marketing.

Taking part in trends can also have customers viewing a company as a group of people rather than a nameless, faceless corporation will lead to a boost in customer loyalty.

Pick the exciting trends very carefully since a competitor could be targeting the same trend.

This could lead to your customers to disregard the social media posts or promotions that are being run.

Choose a trend wisely and use it to the advantage of the company. It could change the way business is done.

 

Source: Business

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