Galvanise your online marketing strategy with these lesser-known ecommerce trends

So you’ve registered your business, formulated a financial plan and gone through all the other key steps to starting a business . What now? Yes, selling your products or services is the obvious answer, but how do you manage to do this in a way that breaks through the noise and clutter of the marketplace you operate in? By formulating an online marketing strategy, of course! To create a strategy that’s one step ahead of your competitors, you need to be au fait with the latest ecommerce trends. Ecommerce trends are so important that we haven’t been able to stop blogging about themhere and here.

In this blog we’ll take a look at four other ecommerce trends that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy to make you absolutely irresistible to your customers.

It’s all about a well-designed, professional looking website

How many times have you logged onto a business’ website – be that of a restaurant, bar, guesthouse or local shop – and been put off within seconds because the website is poorly designed, impossible to navigate or you can’t seem to find the information you’re looking for? It’s amazing how something that isn’t even tangible and sits somewhere out in the ether can make the difference between whether someone chooses to buy from you or not. Professional website design is crucial for encouraging potential leads to stick around on your website long enough to want to buy from you. It’s also true though, that if your product isn’t what your customer is after, no amount of professional website design is going to persuade them, but it is an integral starting point. Make sure you invest in a well-designed website, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend loads of money on a web designer. These days it’s possible to do it all yourself, via a decent and user-friendly online tool.

Offer your customers something they can’t get anywhere else

One of the reasons why staying on top of ecommerce trends is so important, is being able to differentiate your products and services from everyone else’s.YuppieChef, is an excellent example of a South African business doing ecommerce right. They send out a personalised thank you card after you’ve purchased something through their online shop and they also deliver for free. If you’re having trouble deciding which store to buy from, a feature like free delivery is bound to sway you. The same applies to visitors on your site. Once you’ve figured out how you can make your service offering even more special, don’t forget to advertise this clearly on your home page.

Local is lekker – especially when it comes to customers

The internet may have made the world smaller and its people more global, but the “local is lekker” notion is still an important part of online marketing. In the previous paragraph we discussed the importance of adding value to your products and services. If you design your marketing strategy with your local market in mind – give your customers in Joburg what they want, not what you think customers in the States want – then you’re sure to win the hearts of the people who are going to buy your products. The layout of your website and the style of your online store is also a big part of giving your local customers what they want. If you’re not entirely sure what that is, then ask them. Twitter and Facebook are perfect platforms to do this.

It’s all about integrating your website with your accounting software

Integrating your website and ecommerce store into your accounting software is one of the least talked about ecommerce trends. Accounting is a headache at the best of times – especially if you’re simultaneously trying to grapple with managing your online presence. What if there was a way to streamline both activities so you’d no longer have to manually update your books every time you made a sale through your online store?

With convenience, rapidity and usability some of the most important attributes of any online space, it’s not long before this ecommerce trend becomes more widespread among businesses wanting more sales, but less admin.