What They Do Not Say About E-Commerce Marketing

Thinking about starting an e-commerce store? You’re not alone. Many professionals across different fields are opening online retail stores. The success of online stores like Amazon and Flipkart has opened the eyes of many people to the many possibilities in e-commerce. 

Beginners in e-commerce marketing enter the field with a lot of expectations. Naturally, the success of major online retailers spurs them on to dream big and make generous assumptions. 

This is when reality hits hard. 

Those who have found success in e-commerce will attest to the struggle that goes on to shore up sales and profits by increasing traffic. People may like a product being sold, but if they don’t trust the seller, they will not buy anything. Trust is a commodity that takes a long time to build. Online retailers cannot just swish their wands and become a trusted e-commerce seller. 

Lessons like these are hard to learn because blogs and forums do not talk about them. Success in e-commerce can come only if those starting out can draw important lessons from the success and failures of predecessors.

In this article, we will discuss some things no one discusses on e-commerce marketing. These things are important for marketers to know who are entering or have just started an online retail store. 

The First 500 Orders are the Biggest Challenge

A new online store with no celebrity name endorsing it or influencer backing it will struggle at first. This much is a given. Despite incessant ad campaigns on social media and SEO-optimal product pages, making people actually buy products will be very difficult. 

There are many reasons for this. Competition in e-commerce has always been a core problem as too many players exist in popular niches. Capturing the attention of the audience is a big task in itself. Unlike written blogs that can bring in traffic from high SERPs, e-commerce websites depend on capturing key customer moments to sell products. 

Getting the first 100, 500, and 1000 orders thus becomes a big challenge. And this is where 99% online retail stores die. 

The challenge is big, but not impossible. At this point in running an e-commerce website, marketers must be patient and persistent. A constant focus on improving marketing efforts and optimizing user experience has to be established. 

Getting Influencers Organically

Influencer endorsements are like jetpacks for an independent online store. They help bring immediate traffic and sales to an e-commerce website. 

Many marketers running a small-time retail store do not even try getting influencers for their business. This is primarily because they feel they cannot afford one. 

The best part about the social media experience is that there are many kinds of influencers in every field. While some influencers only do paid promotions, there are many others that can be convinced by the quality of the product alone. 

Thus, e-commerce marketers must think of getting influencers organically like making cold sales calls. Even if the possibility is low, marketers must try everything to get some onboard as even a few can mean an exponential increase in sales and awareness. 

In Conclusion

In conclusion, this article covers two key lessons in e-commerce marketing many beginners are not aware of. 

About the Author – Deepali Saxena is a digital marketing expert and content marketing strategist with eight years of experience in the field. She currently writes weekly guest posts for Delhi Courses, an institute best-known for its digital marketing course in Delhi.