 Welcome to the journey today. We're going to talk about how to stand out in a growing e-commerce market So customer spending has definitely been transitioning for over the past decade from less in-person shopping and more e-commerce The top 10 US retail giants like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy now hold roughly 60% of the market share and they're not slowing down and while there's still plenty of spending to go around for stores outside of that top 10 New stores are launching all the time. So this isn't the time to just passly sit back and expect the e-commerce wave We'll just shower you in cash as much as we all want that So if you currently don't have an online presence Now's the time to do it and if you do have an e-commerce site make sure that it's optimized Depending on where your business now this may mean that it's time to invest in some of the essentials for your e-commerce business Just to make sure that you're able to stand out now Emma What are some of those essentials that you need to grow your e-commerce business? Great question Nealey newsletter and email management I know newsletters are a great way to update your customers or reach potential new customers and Emails another great way to just get promotions out there. That's definitely how I've spent more money in the past year Through an email promotion that grabbed my attention and not only that But there's enough research that really shows that email newsletters kind of outperform and are more effective than that social media So Emma what makes email marketing so effective? It'll help you create a new leads It also is going to position you as the expert that you are in addition to that newsletters are great for highlighting new products That's how I always stay in the loop on things that are trending and you can tailor them to individual customers to help bolster Conversions and hey, I'm pretty sure we did a video on that here So another essential to growing your e-commerce business The data the analytics the tools you got to dig into the data to better understand the consumer behavior As well as providing just that increased personalized approach to marketing these businesses are using this data to Respond to changing needs measure their marketing efforts manage inventory and predict future trends Increased conversions to determine product strategy Analyze marketing efforts minimize fraud risk and improve customer service once you have access to all this detailed information You can make better informed decisions about your direction reduce costs and really maximize your overall earnings While some online stores they attempt to compete with price This is not always the best decision financially So I'd advise you to take the route of personalization Survey after survey highlights the importance of personalization in e-commerce In fact, one study shows that increased conversion rates by nearly 8% and most shoppers about 75% say that they appreciate the personalized approach of an Advertisement or an offering that feels catered to them and if that's not enough to convince you Let's look at some of the other benefits of personalization Starting off with an obvious one reduced bounce rates Increase customer loyalty as well as conversions enhanced customer communications. The list goes on now think of any large Ecommerce store that you buy from the chances that they've used personalization to make you buy again is pretty high And this this means that they're gonna send you content about products that you're either interested in You're most likely to respond to or are newly released and relevant to your previous purchases I know me personally. I just bought a Nintendo switch from Best Buy and then a week or two later I got an email from them about some fancy accessories that will just enhance the gaming experience That are made or may not have purchased right away So it works having that personalized approach of making sure that the content that you give out to your audience It fits their needs at the right time So let's talk about social media one of the obvious things of social media is it of course Helps you to engage with your customers, but also can do a lot of things to help boost your e-commerce sales You can do things such as send out promotional offers You can also see what other customers are buying because they can go online and share that purchase Which just helps spread word of mouth. You can even do targeted campaigns Which I really like because then you can hone in on Your ideal customer and in addition to that you can host contests Which are super fun and it's a really efficient way to get some user-generated content Which is very effective because then it's your customers talking about you and spreading word of mouth about you essentially It's a testimonial. However, not every e-commerce owner has the time nor the resource to take on social media it's full-time job and This is where some essential tools will come into play and be totally invaluable Let's not forget about dedication to customer service and there's really no getting away from it Good customer relations are essential to your growth Most consumers say that poor customer service influences their buying behavior So if you give bad customer support, they're likely going to shop somewhere else The survey also revealed that most shoppers about 67% expect customer service to be efficient So engaging your customers online helps them feel heard and be especially responsive when it comes to reviews and recommendations So two out of three people expect a response from a company via social media within the same day So you want to practice excellent customer service? Here's what you should do monitor your Facebook Twitter Instagram Etc and be sure to respond to all feedback whether it's positive or negative And I'll really help to boost your online customer service and so by responding as quickly as possible and Responding to your customers whether negative or positive feedback is given to you It can really show your customers that you care that you're listening and it's impressive But look we get it most small and medium-sized businesses don't have the time or resource so consider maybe Doing some automated responses or reaching out for help from another company Yeah, I mean really for instance with looking at your analytics tool It's really improve your response times or you can use specific CRM software such as HubSpot or Zoho CRM Which has many automated responses and even social media aspects you can set up automated responses if someone reaches out through Instagram DM or even Facebook DM and give them a list of options to either get information about your business answer in general questions or Just hey, I'm gonna be around from 8 to 5 and I'll get your response then so a couple easy ways to have that Automation aspect so you don't feel like you're always working so the shift to e-commerce is not going to slow down and the global events have pushed us even more to shopping online, so Consumer behavior, it's changed and the old ways of shopping the old buying habits are gone And hey, if you haven't made the move to e-commerce yet Or if your store is really lacking the tools to make it a success now might be a good time to optimize your online offerings All right, that's a wrap you just learned how to stand out in a growing e-commerce market Be sure to like this video also leave us a comment below. We want to hear from you While you're there subscribe to that channel and ring that Bell's to get these episodes first This is the journey. We'll see you next time