Ecommerce Businesses Should not ignore These 7 Inbound Marketing Aspects in 2018
10 Mar 2018
Ecommerce Businesses Should not ignore These 7 Inbound Marketing Aspects in 2018
Ecommerce business has taken off for a long flight. With an annual compounded growth rate of more than 25% across the global economy, it looks like finally ecommerce has announced its bid to stay in time. These are still early days in the year 2018 and one can expect big things to happen to the ecommerce vertical, especially the manner in which inbound marketing is leveraged shall be a key differentiator. Dynamic Experts Solution, the leading digital services consulting company in India offers an insight into these top seven inbound marketing best practices that shall enable the ecommerce vertical to leverage digitization to take the big leap after having crossed the threshold level of growth in sales and gross merchandise value.
Put a Premium on Shortened Lead Times and Charge More from the User
One day delivery or same day delivery is going to be the next big thing for ecommerce enterprises. Walking into 2018, there is ample evidence to suggest that the end user is more than willing to pay a higher price for same day delivery of merchandise at his door step. Two things matter. First, the creation of a fully digitized supply chain network to facilitate fast innovate to market, time to order and order to cash. Second, the leveraging of smooth logistics infrastructure and assets to ensure last mile delivery of merchandise shall hold promise for the end user to pay more.
Review Marketing for Greater Transparency and Incentivising Customer Reviews
Great customer loyalty is earned. At times when discounts and offers are used as traffic building measures by ecommerce portals, there is a smarter way. Customer review marketing can be leveraged by ecommerce portals on search engines to drive traffic by lending credibility to their brand value. The ecommerce sponsor brand lavishing praise on itself in advertisements and customers going gaga on it are completely different ball games. Again honest customer reviews with the usual and believable hint of negative reviews that are bound to come from a minor fraction of customers are bound to gain more traction than sponsored reviews that can be easily made out to be false. Customers can be incentivised for leaving great reviews with personalized discounts and offers that motivate review marketing.
User Generated Content Marketing on Social Media Platforms
User generated content marketing is expected to pull ecommerce enterprises in a big way on social media platforms in a big way in 2018. This implies that ecommerce brands must resort to and will be seen leveraging new inbound marketing strategies like user generated content on social media platforms to motivate user engagement, pick insights on trends and market demands, curate product development and delivery and interact with customers to make them feel empowered. Ecommerce brands can be expected to focus more efforts on social media optimization and user generated content that is 20% more effective in gaining traction in the market.
Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies to Redefine Customer Experience
Small things matter in a big way. The use of augmented and virtual reality technologies to reinforce and strengthen customer experience shall be one of the greatest levers of change and growth in the ecommerce vertical in the year 2018. Augmented and virtual reality technologies can reinvent the way people try products especially wearable durables like clothes, smart watches and wrist gear, spectacles and others. To be able to experience the look and feel of such wearable products without having to put a toe out in the sunshine is going to be a big brand differentiator for ecommerce enterprises.
Triggered Emails Shall Be More Effective in Driving Sales than Legacy Email Marketing
Imagine the plight of a user that awakens from a state of deep sleep to a flurry of emails that have no context, purpose and value. On top of that, to receive such emails at odd hours is even more frustrating and is likely to draw the wrath not the loyalty of the user. Triggered emails that are precision controlled for offers, discounts, content distribution and well-timed shall be far more effective in driving sales. Keeping space between two consecutive emails sent to the customer is important. Timing the triggered emails to perfection using automated mailing software products shall also create more value as opposed to legacy email marketing practices.
Digital Wallet Payments for Less Cash Revenue Models
Digital wallet payments are likely to drive less cash revenue models in the ecommerce vertical in the year 2018. A study on digital payment trends suggest that 23% payments are made on smart phones, 19% on tablets and another 16% on desktop devices. Digital payments can enable ecommerce enterprises save big time on the shoe leather costs of having to deal in cash, cash logistics, and cash security systems and cash management.
Chat Bots are Likely to Redefine Customer Relationship Management
Chat bots are going to be in use big time in the ecommerce vertical in the year 2018. Imagine the plight of a customer that awakens to a rude shock in the evening after returning from work to open the pack and find a demerit in the product that mandates an exchange or a quick remedy. The store is closed and the customer services team may have winded up for the day leaving the customer no other option but to share his angst on social media platforms. This can and will change with the use of chat bots that can be used to send automated replies to customers when they send their grievances. It goes a long way in retaining the customer with credible evidence of care and assurance that the necessary shall be done sooner than later.
Influencer Marketing to Gain Traction in the Market
On the eve of New Year, a reputed global ecommerce brand ran an influencer marketing campaign involving an actress that was shown opening a surprise gift box sent to her on her birthday. The box was personalized and the influencer opened it to explore the inside stuff. The video of the influencer sharing the happiness of being gifted by an ecommerce brand went viral and caught traction in the market. Influencer marketing on social media channels is likely to be one of the big inbound marketing innovations in 2018.
