What’s the best way for ecommerce marketers to connect with consumers galore? Having an irresistible product is a real good beginning. Once this is all sewn up, your next move is to capitalize on the glaring advantages of omni-channel marketing.
For ecommerce pros, omnichannel marketing doesn’t mean splashing your brand on every medium in the known galaxy – blogs, website, social media, YouTube, etc. (Showing up in these places undeniably helps, however). What it really entails is getting maximum exposure on all the popular digital outlets. Achieving this level of notoriety requires stepping beyond the confines of your online store and into the wider world of the web. Essentially, you must show up everywhere customers congregate.
Where should you show up first? Well, if customer density is a primary motivation, you’ll want to plant a flag on the obvious choice – Amazon.com. Recent reports indicate that about 78% of online customers order merchandise from this popular resource. A brand store, by contrast, gets approximately 45% of consumers. Not bad. But still a lightweight performance when going toe to toe with Amazon.
Also profitable is a presence on eBay and Facebook, which pull in 34% and 11% of shoppers, respectively.
Not every channel may be right for your brand, of course. Careful evaluation will be necessary before making your channel commitments. The main point to remember is this – avoid isolationism. The only winning strategy in today’s web world is full exposure on all suitable media.
No matter which channels strike a chord with your brand, however, marketers must bend to changing conditions. Consider the evolution of search methods, which will help identify the channels you inhabit. Text entry was and still is the primary form of search input. Not for long. Projections suggest a rising use of voice search for the purpose of product hunting. One of many factors that will impact the future of omnichannel ecommerce retailing – and force marketers to adapt.
If you have any questions or comments about omnichannel ecommerce marketing or any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way.