Many new and upcoming eCommerce stores are making their mark. Here’s how to make your online store stand out.
Creating an online store and standing out from the crowd can be challenging, especially with the presence of big players such as Amazon. Yet, you see so many new and upcoming eCommerce stores making their mark and standing out amongst the ocean of others.
If you keenly observe these competent eCommerce businesses, you’ll notice that they have taken special efforts to captivate their audience and make a lasting impression on them. In this guide, let’s discuss some effective ways in which you too can make our online store stand out in 2021.
Today, most of the eCommerce niches are overcrowded, and we see businesses coming up with good quality products every day. So, what can you bring to the table? This is where the value proposition comes to play.
In order to stand out, it is imperative that you focus on a powerful value proposition — a hook that will attract the audience towards your products and brand.
Your value proposition can be anything that is unique and solves your audience’s pain point.
For example, Birchbox, a beauty subscription service, talks about the “beauty casual movement.” In a world full of elaborate and over-the-top makeup promotions, this brand comes as a breather and feels relatable to lots of “real” people.
Yes, marketing, social media promotions, customer service, website design — everything is super-important. But, you should remember the most important aspect that will make your online store stand out — your products.
Simply ignoring customer reviews and focusing on ad spends will not get you far.
So, take a step back and analyze the product reviews. Gather feedback from your customers and see if your products have any room for improvement. If yes, then you must work on improving your products first.
After the quality of your products, customers want to have a good experience with our brand. A brand with good products but a bad customer experience won’t stand out. So, look for ways to delight your customers by offering a good customer experience.
Offer a user-friendly website and hassle-free checkout experience. Ensure that you go above and beyond to optimize the eCommerce fulfillment process, such as product delivery, returns, and exchanges. Leave no room for complaints and try offering quick deliveries. Have stringent quality control to ensure that only good quality products are delivered.
Apart from acquiring new customers, you must also work towards improving your customer retention rate. If you want to trigger more repeat purchases from your customers, nurturing them is very important.
Studies have shown that loyal customers spend 67% more than new customers.
You can nurture your customers through various channels such as email marketing, in-app messaging, social media marketing, etc.
Keep adding value to your customers, and you’ll definitely watch them coming back to you.
User-generated content is when users create content for your brand. Many top eCommerce brands leverage user-generated content and have gotten some very good results out of it.
You can start by creating a hashtag for the user-generated content campaign. The hashtag can be anything that resonates with your brand. Next, you can urge your followers to create content using this hashtag by offering them an incentive. You can feature them on your website homepage or your social media handle.
Another great way to make your online store stand out is to make your brand about your customers. Many eCommerce brands do the opposite, where they keep focusing on their brand and products. While that is ok, you shouldn’t make it all about your brand.
You can throw the spotlight on your customers by reaching out to them and learning about their stories.
You can feature them on your website homepage or social media platforms and talk about how they first began associating with your brand and why they like your brand.
You can also put up genuine customer testimonials, social media comments, and anything about your customers on your website (for example, see what our customers have to say here). This acts as a form of social capital and attracts new customers to your brand. User-generated content is also another way of throwing the spotlight on your customers.
Do you know what makes customers happier than buying products? The answer is — buying products while contributing to a good cause!
People, though not always consciously, want to do good. And, if you offer a way of doing so, then you’ll definitely get more traction.
There can be various ways for doing good — contribute a percentage of your products to a social cause that you believe in, create sustainable products, work with nonprofits, etc. Make sure that you genuinely believe in doing so and do not just commit to something for the sake of growing your eCommerce business.
Biolite, an online store that sells energy products for camping and outdoor activities, claims to have brought energy to the homes of 1.4 million Asian and African individuals. This step definitely makes them stand out from other online stores selling energy products.
Influencers are social media personalities who have created a loyal follower base by consistently added value. Working with influencers will get you visibility amongst massive audiences and improve your brand awareness.
Top eCommerce businesses splurge extensively on influencers and celebrities because of the kind of impact it has on their sales. Hence, influencer marketing is definitely something that you must consider for making your online store stand out.
Even if you do not have the budget to spend on top influencers or celebrities with millions of followers, you can start with micro-influencers whose followers might be interested in your audience. Make sure that the influencers you pick genuinely vibe with your brand and values in order to get the most out of these campaigns.
Everyone loves free stuff, and you can use this to your advantage by hosting contests and giveaways. Many eCommerce businesses frequently hold creative contests and free giveaways to keep their audience engaged and increase their visibility.
You, too, can analyze your audience and start hosting contests on special occasions. Ensure that you offer something special and valuable as a reward and make the contests as creative as possible. You can also occasionally hold giveaways and use them as a way to improve your brand’s reach.
People connect with people rather than brands. That’s why talking about your story, or your brand’s story can be a great way to stand out.
You can connect with people, inspire them, and improve the relatability quotient by talking about your story.
You can talk about how you came up with the idea of the online store, created the products, set things up, and grew your store. You can also talk about your failures and all the hurdles that you faced in the way. Ensure that the story is genuine, and people will definitely form a great connection with you this way.
A great example of this would be Ruggable, an online store for washable rugs. On the home page, you can see the founder talk about how she came up with the idea for washable rugs. This scores great on relatability and establishes a connection with the website visitors.
There you have it! Some highly effective hacks that you can adopt to make your online store stand out in 2021. Implementing even two or three of these will help you increase visibility and boost your sales in the upcoming years.
Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.
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