Approximately 29% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 admit their primary motivation for using social media is to seek inspiration for things to do or buy.

The phenomenon known as social commerce is already revolutionizing the shopping experience. Only a few years ago, social networks were primarily used for personal connections: meeting new people, engaging with friends, and sharing glimpses of one’s private life.

However, today, nearly 53% of people who use social channels globally have access to a more comprehensive experience. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok now allow users to make purchases through them without being redirected to a brand’s website or physical store.

The social commerce boom is reshaping the customer journey as innovative customer experiences emerge, delighting connected consumers.

But, what does the landscape of social commerce entail? What are the benefits for brands? And which social platforms should you focus on for developing connected commerce? We answer these and other questions in the following article.

What is social commerce?

Social commerce involves selling products and services directly through social media platforms. The entire shopping experience occurs within the social media ecosystem, from discovering and researching products to completing the checkout process. With more than half of Gen Z using social as their search engines, it’s vital for brands to be able to attract, engage, and close sales all within social. Currently, social apps that feature integrated native social commerce capabilities include Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.

Imagine coming across a pair of must-have summer slides on your Instagram feed. With social commerce, you can simply tap “shop now,” add the item to your cart, and complete the purchase within the app.

Similarly, while scrolling through TikTok, you might spot an affordable crewneck and click the “Buy” button. Once your purchase is finalized, you can effortlessly return to your regular TikTok viewing, enjoying duet videos of your favorite artist without interruption.

These shopping opportunities are readily available on the digital platforms your target audience frequents. It’s essential to capitalize on these avenues to enhance your business prospects.

Interested in learning more about social commerce? Check out The psychology behind social commerce (and why it works).

Types of social commerce

• Shoppable posts are social media posts with embedded “Buy” buttons or shopping tags, which allow customers to purchase products directly from the post without leaving the platform. This type of social commerce is prevalent on Instagram and Facebook.
• With social storefronts, you can set up a fully functioning store within a social media platform, such as Facebook Shops. This allows customers to browse and purchase products without leaving the social media site, creating a seamless shopping experience.
• Influencer marketing involves partnering with influential individuals who have a significant social media following to promote your products. This type of social commerce is effective because it leverages the trust and authority of influencers to build your brand and drive sales.
• Peer-to-peer selling entails individuals selling products directly to other consumers via social media platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Instagram’s direct messaging feature. This option is popular among small businesses and individual sellers.

Social commerce vs. eCommerce vs. mCommerce

For businesses, social commerce entails selling products or services via social networks. In marketing vernacular, the term “sCommerce” is also used (not to be confused with “eCommerce” or “mCommerce”).

eCommerce, or electronic commerce, encompasses all remote transactions conducted through computers, smartphones, or tablets. In recent years — particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic — eCommerce has experienced tremendous growth.

Meanwhile, mCommerce, or mobile commerce, refers to sales and purchases made using mobile phones. mCommerce offers unparalleled flexibility so shoppers can make purchases while on the move.

While eCommerce, mCommerce, and sCommerce each have distinct characteristics, their ultimate goal is the same: to create more immediate, streamlined customer journeys while delivering exceptional digital experiences.

Benefits of integrating social commerce

Still unsure if investing in a platform that integrates with social commerce is a wise decision? Here are five compelling reasons to give it a try.

1. Greater reach and visibility

By incorporating social commerce into your broader eCommerce strategy, you can tap into the vast user base of various social media platforms and significantly expand your brand’s reach. This multi-platform approach boosts your visibility and attracts potential customers who otherwise might not have discovered your products or services.

As more users engage with your brand through likes, shares, and comments on social media, these interactions grow your online presence, which leads to increased brand awareness and, consequently, higher sales potential.

2. Increased engagement

Social commerce fosters a more interactive environment for customers to connect with your brand.

By enabling buyers to comment on, rate, and share products with their friends, you create a two-way communication channel that deepens customer relationships and encourages brand loyalty. This rich engagement enhances the overall consumer experience and provides valuable insights into their preferences and opinions.

3. Deeper customer insights and brand loyalty

Tangential to the above point, incorporating social commerce into your eCommerce platform offers a wealth of data on customer behavior, trends, and preferences.

Each time buyers interact with your brand on social media, they generate information you can accumulate and analyze to better understand their needs and desires. That, then, enables you to produce more targeted marketing campaigns, develop products or services that resonate with their preferences, and personalize offers to maximize their appeal.

Plus, the real-time nature of social media allows you to monitor and respond to emerging trends and customer feedback promptly, ensuring your brand remains agile and adaptive in a rapidly changing market landscape.

By leveraging these insights, you continuously improve the customer experience, build stronger relationships with your audience, and drive sustained growth for your business.

When customers are invested in your company, they’re more likely to become brand advocates, share their positive experiences with their social networks, leave glowing reviews, and recommend your products or services to others.

This word-of-mouth marketing strengthens your brand’s credibility and attracts new customers, both of which serve to drive organic growth and amplify the impact of your marketing efforts.

4. Higher conversion rates

By streamlining the shopping process and reducing friction, such as through the navigation between websites or apps, you craft a seamless and user-friendly experience that encourages customers to make a purchase.

The ease of use combined with the power of social proof through user-generated content, reviews, and recommendations, yields higher conversion rates and boosts revenue for your business.

5. More sales and revenue

Social commerce can significantly contribute to your business’s growth by expanding your customer base and fostering repeat purchases.

When you tap into the vast audience of social media, you draw in new customers who failed to discover your brand through traditional channels. Plus, engaging and nurturing relationships with existing buyers encourages loyalty, which leads to repeat purchases and greater lifetime value.

Best platforms for integrating social commerce

As social commerce continues to gain traction in online retail, numerous platforms have begun to facilitate seamless shopping experiences for consumers. With so many options available, we’ve listed some of the best platforms for integrating social commerce into your eCommerce strategy:

• Instagram: Instagram has become a powerhouse for social commerce thanks to features like Instagram Shopping and Shoppable Posts, which allow users to explore, learn about, and purchase products without leaving the app. With its visually driven interface and extensive user base, Instagram is an ideal platform for businesses looking to showcase their products and attract new customers.
• Facebook: Being the world’s largest social network, Facebook offers a range of social commerce tools, including Facebook Shops and the Marketplace, that enable businesses to sell products directly on the platform. The extensive targeting options available through Facebook Ads also make it an excellent choice for companies that want to reach specific audiences and drive sales.
• Pinterest: Pinterest is a visually oriented platform that drives product discovery and inspiration. With features like Buyable Pins and the Shop tab, users can easily browse and purchase items on the platform. Pinterest is especially suitable for businesses in fashion, home decor, and DIY industries, where visual appeal plays a crucial role in generating sales.
• TikTok: TikTok has rapidly become a popular avenue for social commerce, with its short-form video format providing a unique and engaging way to showcase goods. Features like TikTok Shopping and shoppable live streams offer users the ability to buy directly through the app. It’s an attractive option for businesses looking to tap into the platform’s younger demographic and viral potential.
• Snapchat: Primarily used among younger audiences, Snapchat hosts social commerce features like shoppable ads and the Snap Store, where businesses can create and manage their product catalogs. The platform’s unique, ephemeral content and AR capabilities provide opportunities for creative and immersive shopping experiences that drive engagement and sales.

The right platform for your social commerce strategy depends on your target audience, industry, and overall business objectives. Select one that best aligns with your brand and audience to leverage the power of social commerce to grow your business and drive sales.

Wrapping up — Drive more sales with social commerce

Integrating social commerce into your eCommerce platform offers a wealth of benefits for your business. From increased brand exposure and customer engagement to streamlined purchasing processes and more, social commerce is an essential strategy for online retailers to stay competitive.

By embracing this innovative approach to online shopping, you can build a more interactive, personalized, and successful eCommerce experience for your customers.

Social selling has become essential to a thriving eCommerce business. With the rise of social media, online sellers leverage these platforms to reach their target audiences and increase conversions. As a result, 73% of consumers have made a purchase because of something they saw on social media. Social selling involves more than simply promoting products and services; it focuses on creating a connection with your audience, fostering trust, and providing value.

What is social selling?

Social selling is the practice of using social media platforms to build relationships, engage with potential customers, and, ultimately, drive sales. It goes beyond traditional sales tactics by focusing on providing value to your audience, strengthening trust, and establishing your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Social selling provides an opportunity to connect with current and potential customers directly, which is a crucial capability for eCommerce businesses. The increasing prevalence of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter lets merchants reach larger audiences and nurture relationships with customers they might otherwise have missed. To succeed with this approach, there are certain best practices you should follow and other actions to avoid.

In this article, we’ll explore the dos and don’ts of social selling for eCommerce sellers. We’ll provide tips and recommendations for building relationships, crafting engaging content, and optimizing your social media profiles. You’ll also learn the common mistakes to avoid and see real-world examples to gain inspiration for your social selling strategy. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to improve your efforts, you’ll uncover valuable insights to help you succeed.

The dos of social selling

To realize the awesome benefits of social selling for your business, you need to be strategic about its implementation. Here are some of the most important dos of social selling.

Build relationships

One of the main goals of social selling is to build relationships with your target audience. You can foster strong connections in many ways, including:

• Engage with your audience: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly. This shows you value your audience and are interested in what they have to say.
• Address customer queries and feedback: Similarly, addressing customer questions and feedback quickly displays your care for your customers and your willingness to go the extra mile to ensure their satisfaction.
• Offer personalized recommendations: Use data and analytics to provide personalized recommendations for your audience. This proves you understand their needs and are capable of offering tailored solutions.

Create engaging content

Crafting engaging content is imperative for social selling success. To produce rich content:

• Use high-quality visuals: Images and videos are more engaging than text-only content. Incorporate high-quality visuals that are relevant to your brand and messaging to grab hold of your audience’s attention.
• Employ storytelling to convey your message: Storytelling conveys your message in a more compelling way. In turn, this helps your audience relate to your brand and cultivate an emotional connection.
• Let loose with humor and wit: Introducing humor and wit into your content helps you stand out and reach your audience on a more personal level.

Optimize your social media profiles

Optimized social media profiles are a subtle but important component of social selling. We recommend you:

• Incorporate relevant keywords into your profile descriptions: Use relevant keywords that your audience is searching for in your profile descriptions. This helps you appear in search results and increases your visibility.
• Include links to your website and product pages: Make it easy for your audience to reach your website and product pages by including links in your social media profiles.
• Feature high-quality profile pictures and cover photos: Use high-quality profile pictures and cover photos that are relevant to your brand and message. These make a strong first impression and boost your credibility.

The don’ts of social selling

Along with these best practices, there are also some common mistakes to avoid in social selling. You need to take a careful approach to ensure you don’t annoy or turn off your audience.

Don’t be too pushy

Being overly pushy with your social selling tactics can backfire and drive away your audience. Here are some common missteps and what we recommend you try instead:

• Avoid hard selling tactics: Focus on giving your audience value through helpful content, educational materials, and personalized recommendations. Displaying your expertise and providing this value establishes trust with your audience and ups the likelihood of a sale.
• Don’t spam your audience with promotional messages: Sending too many promotional messages can make your audience feel overwhelmed and cause them to unfollow or unsubscribe from your accounts. Instead, be strategic about when and how often you promote your products or services. Focus on messaging that resonates with your targeted segment.
• Provide value first before asking for a sale: Cultivate trust and establish your brand as a thought leader before asking prospects to buy. You can achieve this through educational content, personalized recommendations, and engaging with your audience in a genuine manner. By providing value up front, you foster a loyal following that’ll be more likely to convert when the time is right.

Don’t ignore negative feedback

Overlooking negative feedback can damage your brand reputation and push potential customers to your competitors. Although it can be difficult to receive, it’s important to handle this type of feedback by:

• Addressing customers promptly and professionally: Respond to negative feedback in a timely and professional manner. Acknowledge the customer’s concerns and work towards finding a solution to show you care and are willing to invest time to fix their issues.
• Seizing the opportunity to improve: Negative feedback can be a learning opportunity to refine your products, services, and customer experience. Use it to identify areas of improvement and take steps to address them.
• Keeping negative comments or reviews: Deleting negative comments or reviews can make your brand appear dishonest and untrustworthy. Instead, respond to them publicly and highlight your efforts to find a solution. This transparency conveys your willingness to take responsibility for mistakes and issues, turning a negative experience into a positive one that could win back a dissatisfied customer.

Don’t overdo automation

While automation can be helpful for managing your social media accounts, overdoing it can lead to a lack of personalization and engagement. For best results with automation:

• Don’t rely solely on automated responses: Automated responses are great when managing large volumes of messages, but relying on them entirely can make your audience feel like they’re talking to a robot. Automation should supplement your social selling strategy, so be sure to respond to messages personally when appropriate.
• Personalize your messages and interactions: Personalization is key to making your audience feel valued and heard. Use the information you have on your audience to tailor your messages and interactions to their interests and needs. This builds stronger relationships and increases your chances of driving sales.
• Don’t underestimate the human connection: While automation can streamline routine tasks, it can’t replace the influential impact of human interaction. Be sure to engage with your audience personally whenever possible, such as responding to messages, commenting on posts, or hosting live events. By striking a balance between automation and personalization, you’ll construct a social selling strategy that’s both efficient and effective.

Social selling in the real world

Thanks to the rapid rise of social media and influencer marketing, there’s no shortage of social selling examples to show you how it’s done. Here are a few for inspiration as you consider how you can leverage social media in your sales strategy.

Warby Parker

This eyewear company uses social media to showcase their unique designs, as well as offers a virtual try-on feature on their website. The brand shot to internet fame thanks to its innovative approach to marketing using social media!

Warby Parker’s business model for selling prescription eyeglasses has been largely successful as a result of social media, which made it easy to reach huge audiences. The brand focused on transactional communication as opposed to traditional, linear advertising, which established trust early. In addition, word-of-mouth marketing via platforms like Instagram and Facebook meant influencers and everyday users delivered social proof on behalf of the brand.

Glossier

This beauty brand capitalizes on social media to display their products and engage with customers. They employ user-generated content to create a sense of community around their brand, which has increased their brand awareness and consumer loyalty.

Glossier is now considered a “blueprint for social media community driven marketing” due to Forbes naming it the “Beauty Brand for the Generation Instagram.” The company also boasts more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram alone. They’ve excelled at branding and playing into meme culture, leveraging user-generated content, and keeping their content both authentic and approachable. They know exactly who they’re targeting and maintain a simple but effective approach.

Zulily

eCommerce retailer Zulily offers flash sales and personalized recommendations to their customers on social media. By leveraging social media to promote its products and offer exclusive deals to its followers, Zulily has grown its customer base and increased its sales. But that’s not all.

Zulily’s Affiliates & Influencers program allows the brand to spend less time and money on linear advertising methods by capitalizing on the audiences of influencers on social media, who also deliver social proof and brand trust by sharing their perspectives, experiences, and posts. In 2017, Zulily used social media to find new campaign stars, tapping their fanbase and encouraging users to send in photos of their children for the Zulily Cuties campaign.

Creating a social selling strategy

Now that you know what to do and not do in social selling, it’s time to build your strategy and put it to work. To create an effective social selling strategy, follow a structured approach that aligns with your overall eCommerce goals. Here are some foundational steps to take:

1. Define your target audience: Before you begin selling on social media, you need to identify your target audience. This entails understanding their demographics, interests, and pain points.
2. Hone in on your social media channels: Determine which social media channels your target audience is most active on and establish a presence there. Popular platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others.
3. Develop a content strategy: Your content strategy should focus on crafting engaging, informative, and relevant content that resonates with your target audience. Consider formats such as blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts, and more.
4. Leverage influencers: Partner with influencers in your industry to promote your products and reach a larger audience. Be sure to choose influencers whose audiences align with your target market.
5. Measure and monitor your results: Run analytics tools to monitor the performance of your social selling strategy and adjust it as needed. Track metrics such as engagement, traffic, leads, and sales to evaluate the success of your efforts.

Wrapping up — Extend your reach with smart social selling best practices

Social selling is a powerful tactic for eCommerce brands to engage with their target audience and attract new buyers. By leveraging social media channels to showcase your products and provide personalized recommendations, you can build strong relationships with your customers and boost sales.

However, you must follow best practices and circumvent common mistakes to find success through this approach. These include being authentic with and nurturing trust in your audience, providing value before asking for a sale, and avoiding pushy or spammy behavior.

A well-structured social selling strategy must align with your eCommerce goals so you can reach your target audience effectively on all the platforms where they’re most active. Remember to track your progress and adjust your strategy as needed to optimize your results. With a smart approach, you’ll increase your brand awareness, grow your customer base, and drive sales.

Growth is crucial for your eCommerce business to thrive, especially on a competitive marketplace like Amazon. Whether you’re a new seller looking to establish your brand or an experienced merchant seeking to expand your product offerings, you can achieve your goals by adopting a combination of powerful tactics.

This article will explore some of the top strategies for growing your Amazon business. From improving your product listings to taking advantage of the platform’s advertising and fulfillment programs, we’ll show you how to strengthen your business’s presence on Amazon.

Improve your product listings

One of the most important steps in expanding your Amazon business is ensuring your product listings are clear, informative, and optimized for search. Here are some strategies you can use to refine and hone your product listings:

• Clear product titles and descriptions: Your titles and descriptions should accurately reflect your products and their features. Be sure to include all relevant information, such as size, color, and material.
• Optimized keywords: Insert relevant keywords throughout your product listings to improve your search rankings. Use tools such as Amazon’s Keyword Tool to research popular keywords.
• Include high-quality images and videos: High-quality images and videos can significantly help attract customers to your products. Feature clear, well-lit images and videos that showcase your items from different angles.

By improving your product listings, you’ll make your products more appealing to customers and increase your search rankings, which leads to greater sales and business growth.

Expand your product line

Add more choices to your offering to hit more of your consumers’ pain points and appeal to a wider audience. To maximize your product line’s potential, you can:

• Identify product opportunities: Research popular products and pinpoint gaps in the market to uncover new opportunities. You can combine Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank with your sales data to determine which products are in high demand.
• Evaluate profitability and demand: Once you’ve identified potential products to add, estimate their profitability and demand. Look at factors such as production costs, shipping fees, and forecasted profit margins to determine if a product is worth pursuing.
• Research the competition: Before launching a new product, study your competition to see how they position their products and what pricing strategies they use. This will show you how best to differentiate your offering and stand out in the market.

Expanding your product line can help you reach new customers and increase your sales. Just be sure to do your research and evaluate potential products carefully before launching them on Amazon.

Capitalize on Amazon Ads

Amazon offers their own sponsored advertising options to help sellers make their products more easy to find. Here’s how to take advantage of Amazon Ads:

• Choose the right option: Amazon offers a range of advertising options, including sponsored products, brands, and display ads. Each one has different benefits and costs, so it’s important to understand which type of ad will work best for your business.
• Set an ad budget: Determine how much you’re willing to spend on advertising and set daily or weekly budgets accordingly. Monitor your advertising spend and adjust your budget as needed to maximize your return on investment.
• Analyze your ad performance: Amazon provides advertising analytics tools to track the performance of your ads so you can adjust your strategies as needed. Look at metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per click to determine which ads are most effective.

By effectively employing Amazon Ads, you can strengthen your visibility on the marketplace and attract more customers to your products, ultimately leading to business growth.

Join Amazon’s FBA program

Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) can be a game changer for your business. Amazon stores and ships your products directly to customers, as well as takes care of customer service and returns. This saves you time and allows you to focus on other business aspects. Other ways FBA can benefit you include:

• Prime shipping and Buy Box wins: FBA gives you access to Amazon’s Prime shipping program, which increases your visibility and attracts more customers with guaranteed fast, free fulfillment. Additionally, FBA can help you win the Amazon Buy Box, the coveted top position on product pages.
• Efficient inventory management: With FBA, it’s easy to monitor your inventory levels so you know when to reorder, which avoids stockouts. Additionally, Amazon offers inventory management tools to optimize your inventory and reduce storage fees.

Need help navigating FBA? We can help!

FBA can streamline your fulfillment process by letting you take advantage of Amazon’s powerful fulfillment and shipping infrastructure. As a result, shoppers are more likely to buy from you, leading to more sales and business growth.

Build your brand

Building a strong brand presence on Amazon helps differentiate you from the competition and attracts loyal customers. Here are some strategies for nurturing your brand presence:

• Use consistent branding: Feature your brand name and logo on all of your product listings and marketing materials to make your business instantly recognizable to consumers.
• Get in front of your audience: Consider creating a dedicated storefront on Amazon where customers can browse your product catalog and learn more about your brand. Additionally, use social media and email marketing to connect with your customers and build brand loyalty.
• Incentivize buyers: Offer loyalty programs or incentives for repeat customers to encourage them to keep coming back. Tangentially, respond to customer inquiries and address any issues to improve their satisfaction; knowing they can expect a great customer experience with you can persuade them to return for future purchases.

Collect customer feedback

Customer feedback is a valuable source of information to help you improve your product offerings and increase customer loyalty. You can effectively gather and implement customer feedback by:

• Leveraging the “Request a Review” button: When someone makes a purchase on your Amazon store, you can manually request a review by clicking “Request a Review” in Amazon Seller Central. This sends a templated email to the buyer asking for them to submit their feedback. Although you can’t edit the request, Amazon does translate the text into the buyer’s chosen language automatically.
• Providing social proof: Positive customer feedback can help you attract more potential buyers and build trust with them. These types of reviews highlight your product’s strengths, showcase them being applied in the real world, and help remove doubts that may be preventing someone from purchasing.
• Incorporating negative feedback: Although unpleasant to read, negative reviews are an opportunity to transform a detriment into an advantage. Hone in on customer complaints to identify areas for improvement, such as with your products or customer service.

No matter the type of feedback you receive, be sure to respond to all reviews promptly and courteously. Thank your consumers for taking the time to rate your product or service. This brings dual benefits by making your existing customers feel heard and showing potential buyers you’re committed to caring for your audience and remedying any issues.

Embrace Amazon’s tools and analytics

Amazon provides a range of powerful analytics tools to help sellers grow their businesses. Some of the marketplace’s most helpful features are:

• Seller Central: Seller Central is Amazon’s hub for sellers. It provides tools for managing inventory, analyzing sales data, and communicating with customers.
• Amazon’s suite of analytics tools: Tools like the Sales Dashboard and the Business Reports tool help you track your sales and identify trends. Use these tools to make data-driven decisions about your business.

Analyze the sales data from these tools to identify opportunities for growth, such as expanding your product line or targeting new customer segments. That information can also help you optimize your pricing and advertising strategies.

Wrapping up — Many roads lead to business growth (and success) on Amazon

Expanding your Amazon business requires a combination of effective strategies and hard work. By following the tactics covered in this article, like improving your product listings, leveraging Amazon’s advertising and fulfillment programs, and using the platform’s tools and analytics, you can take your business to the next level.

As you take action, monitor your progress consistently, analyze your data, and adjust your strategies based on that information to maximize your results. With dedication and effort, you can achieve your business goals and experience significant growth on Amazon.

As an eCommerce professional, it’s essential to understand the importance of accessibility in the industry. It refers to how well individuals with disabilities can reach and use your website. Making your eCommerce website accessible means everyone, regardless of their abilities, can navigate, understand, and interact with your site easily.

In a brick-and-mortar store, you might think of accessibility elements like a wheelchair-accessible entrance or offering services to meet the needs of your diverse customers. Accessibility is not only a legal requirement but also a moral obligation to ensure everyone has equal access to your products and services.

Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on website accessibility. Various countries have passed laws and policies to ensure websites are accessible to all users. In the United States, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to provide equal access to their services and products for people with disabilities. Then, in 2010, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a rule stating that websites must be accessible to people with disabilities, including those who are blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, or have physical disabilities.

In addition to meeting legal requirements, making your website accessible brings many benefits to your business: Your site becomes easier to navigate, provides a better user experience, and can grow your customer base. Additionally, an accessible website can increase website traffic and even enhances search engine optimization (SEO).

Whether you run a small business or a large corporation, you must ensure your company’s website is accessible to all visitors. To help you meet the legal definition, we’ve broken down eight vital accessibility features for your website. We’ll explore how these features can benefit your customers and your business and provide step-by-step instructions on how to implement them.

Textual accessibility features

One of the most important aspects of website accessibility is ensuring your website’s text is easy to read and understand. That involves making the text size and color contrast suitable for all users, including those with visual impairments. This is an important detail because:

• By allowing users to adjust the text size, visitors with visual impairments can increase it to a level that’s comfortable for them to read.
• A high contrast between text and background colors makes it easier for users with visual impairments to read your website.

Another important textual accessibility feature is text-to-speech software, which reads website content aloud to visitors. To implement this feature, you can add a plugin to your website that gives users the option to hear the content. Text-to-speech software is beneficial both for users with visual impairments and those who prefer to listen to content instead of reading it.

It’s also critical that the language on your website is clear and easy to understand. Avoid using technical jargon or complicated verbiage that may be difficult for some users to comprehend. You should also provide simple instructions on how to use your website’s features so people can navigate the site easily.

Screen readers: What are they and why implement them?

Screen reader compatibility is another way to increase site accessibility for the visually impaired. Similar to text-to-speech, screen readers are software programs that read website content out loud.

To make your website screen reader-friendly:

• Include alt text in all images: Alt text is a brief description of the picture that screen readers can read aloud. This helps users with visual impairments understand what the image depicts.
• Organize your website’s layout and structure: Clearly structure your site with headings, subheadings, and lists to make it easier for screen readers to move through the content and provide a more pleasant user experience.
• Ensure all forms and interactive elements are easy to use: Use labels and descriptive text to explain each field or button’s purpose in your forms and interactive elements.

Navigational accessibility features

Navigation is a core characteristic of any website. As such, yours must be clear and easy to use in general but particularly for users with disabilities.

In addition to screen reader compatibility, you can improve site navigation accessibility by:

• Making your website keyboard-friendly: Users with physical disabilities often use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through a website. This means all website features, including menus and buttons, should be accessible using only a keyboard. You can achieve this using standard HTML tags and attributes that enable keyboard accessibility, such as “tabindex” and “aria-label.”
• Creating simple menus: This includes using clear and descriptive labels for menu items, avoiding drop-downs, and maintaining a consistent menu structure across all site pages. Providing a site map or search functionality can also be helpful for users who have difficulty finding specific content on your website.

Visual accessibility features

We discussed the importance of alt text in images for users who are blind or visually impaired. However, there are other visual accessibility features you can incorporate to achieve a more inclusive site experience:

• Closed captions for videos: Closed captions are text descriptions of a video’s audio content that appear on screen. This feature allows users who are deaf or hard of hearing to understand what’s said in the video. You can add closed captions easily using various tools or plugins available on most video hosting platforms.
• Suitable color scheme and design: Include high-contrast colors on your site, avoid relying on color alone to convey information, and use easily readable fonts. You should also ensure the layout of your website is consistent and easy to follow.
• Legible text and interactive elements: Adopt a responsive website design that adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions. Also, offer options for users to adjust the size of the text or the zoom level on the page.

Cognitive accessibility features

This category of features is essential for users with cognitive disabilities, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, or autism. These users may have difficulty with reading comprehension, memory, or processing information, which can make it challenging to navigate and use a website. To lower these barriers, you can:

• Include simple language and clear instructions: Avoid complex sentences or technical jargon that can be difficult to understand. Instead, use plain language and concise sentences to convey your message.
• Employ a consistent design and layout: Featuring consistent design elements, such as color schemes, fonts, and page layouts, makes it easier for users with cognitive disabilities to comprehend your website. Additionally, maintain a clear and uncluttered website layout, with a logical hierarchy of content.
• Provide support: This can include providing audio recordings of your content or using text-to-speech software. Additionally, you can provide a glossary or list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to help users understand your website content.
• Offer clear feedback to users: Display confirmation messages when users complete an action, such as submitting a form or making a purchase. Be sure your error messages are clear and concise as well, with suggestions for how to correct the error.

The subtle benefits for you

By making your website accessible to all users, you can increase your consumer base and improve your brand reputation. Not to mention, it’s simply the right thing to do.

In terms of technical aspects, accessibility significantly improves SEO. Search engines like Google prioritize websites that are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. As such, implementing accessibility features such as alt text for images and closed captions for videos boosts your website’s search engine rankings, which can ultimately lead to more traffic and conversions for your website.

An accessible website is also necessary to comply with legal requirements and prevent potential lawsuits. Failure to abide by accessibility laws can result in legal action against your business, costly lawsuits, and negative publicity. By prioritizing accessibility in your website design, you can mitigate these risks and ensure that your business is complying with legal requirements.

Finally, it enriches the overall user experience for every visitor, not just those with disabilities. Features like clear navigation and easy-to-read text create a more user-friendly website that’s simpler to use. This can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, resulting in higher conversions and revenue for your business.

Wrapping up — Open access to your eCommerce website to all visitors

Ensuring your eCommerce website is accessible to all users is both a legal requirement and a moral obligation. You can transform your website into an inclusive experience using textual, navigational, visual, and cognitive accessibility features.

Incorporating these elements provides a smoother experience for all visitors, which serves to expand your customer base and strengthen your site’s SEO. Additionally, you’ll prevent potential lawsuits by complying with legal requirements.

Accessibility is an ongoing process, and you should regularly evaluate your website’s to make sure it meets the needs of all users. By prioritizing accessibility in your website design, you’ll create a more inclusive online environment and set a positive example for others in your industry — while reaping the rewards of greater consumer loyalty.

This is a guest post from Hammad Nafees of Zonguru. A marketer by trade, a writer at heart, and an Amazon evangelist around the clock, Hammad lives and breathes the world of the smiling A. You can often find him discussing the ins and outs of the eCommerce marketplace across the web. In the very rare instances when he’s not busy educating audiences, he likes to sit down and enjoy some me time watching football.

With millions of Amazon sellers competing against each other on a daily basis, optimizing Amazon listings is essential to improve your store’s visibility, attract potential customers, and increase your in-store sales on the eCommerce marketplace.

However, optimizing listings can be daunting, especially when you have dozens of ASINs to list and manage.

This is where AI assistance can be a major boon.

AI listing tools are designed to churn out well-honed listings in bulk in a matter of seconds. Some also perform keyword research, image analysis, and pricing optimization to help you create a high-quality product listing and draw more eyes to your Amazon store.

In this article, we’ll explain why AI is a powerful asset for optimizing product listings at scale. We’ll discuss the typical challenges sellers face when refining their listings, how AI in its various forms can help overcome those obstacles, and where it may fall short. We’ll also show you some examples of AI tools in action.

But first thing’s first…

Why is it important to optimize Amazon product listings?

Amazon is an eCommerce smorgasbord where customers can shop for practically anything and everything. Even within a specific niche, there are hundreds of products that compete for daily impressions and clicks. However, those ranked in the top spots in Amazon’s search results have the best chances of grabbing shoppers’ attention and generating sales.

Product listing optimization is the only surefire way (outside of paid ads) to secure that enviable top position in the search results. It’s a worthwhile investment for any Amazon seller who wants to increase product visibility and drive sales.

Here are three ways Amazon product listing optimization can pay off:

1. Improve product visibility: More than 80% of clicks on Amazon go to products that rank on the first page of search results. Listing optimization increases your chances of appearing on page one, thus boosting your visibility and discoverability on the marketplace.
2. Drive more sales: Optimized listings tend to have a higher conversion rate — sometimes twice as much — than non-optimized listings. Polish your Amazon product detail pages, and you’re more likely to convert potential customers into actual buyers.
3. Enhance the customer experience: About 88% of Amazon shoppers say product descriptions are extremely important when deciding what to purchase on the marketplace. Ensure your listing provides an accurate and complete description of your product and resonates with the audience to build their confidence and encourage them to complete checkout.

Although there are clear benefits to listing optimization, many sellers fail to capitalize on it due to its difficult process.

What makes Amazon listing optimization so challenging?

Even when all the data and keywords required to create high-quality listings are available to sellers, optimizing listings can be an arduous task, with the most common reason being the difficulty of inserting keywords naturally into an Amazon listing.

The eCommerce giant has strict guidelines and character limits for product titles, bullet points, and descriptions. Complying with these requirements while ensuring the listing flows well and includes all critical keywords is challenging.

Moreover, not all Amazon sellers are fluent in English and struggle with the writing portion of a listing. The final copy may sound clunky as a result, which can cause potential customers to hesitate.

Lastly, listing optimization takes a lot of time for sellers with dozens of ASINs and SKUs to manage. These merchants may have to hire multiple Amazon VAs to get the job done, which means spending a significant amount of money. Even then, it can be hard to maintain listing quality across the board.

AI offers a solution to all these challenges and can save you a ton of time and effort while improving your copy and overall listing quality score.

How AI writing assistants and chatbots can help create high-quality Amazon listings

Whether you struggle to come up with a catchy title or want to create a unique description for a range of similar products, there are many AI writing assistants and chatbots available to generate quality content for your listings.

ChatGPT is usually the first one that comes to mind due to its astronomical rise in popularity over a short period. Its abilities range from answering basic and advanced questions to writing lines of code to produce Amazon listings quickly.

Other noteworthy options are Jasper, Copy.ai, WriteSonic, and AnyWord.

All these tools require prompts to craft content for an Amazon product detail page. Below are some real examples of AI writing assistants and chatbots in action:

Example 1:

This ChatGPT-enabled listing optimization used the prompt, “Create an Amazon listing for Bluetooth speakers. It should contain the keywords bluetooth speakers, portable speakers, compact speakers. Target audience is college students.”

Example 2:

This AnyWord-enabled listing optimization shows three variations of the requested prompt.

After running these simulations, we found:

• ChatGPT returned the most impressive results out of all the tested tools, displaying the title, key features, and product description in a clear format.
• The quality of listings can vary greatly according to the quality of the prompt you feed the AI writing assistant/chatbot.
• None of the above AI tools, including ChatGPT, are especially Amazon seller-friendly. For instance, they don’t offer insight into Amazon keyword research, which is integral to building optimized listings. In fact, AnyWord doesn’t even allow you to specify keywords you want to include in your copy.

Alternatively, Amazon sellers can use AI-powered Amazon seller tools to modify their listings.

Just like AI writing assistants, this category also boasts many choices. Some of the top tools in the industry are ZonGuru’s Listing Optimizer, Jungle Scout’s Listing Builder, and CopyMonkey’s Product Description Generator.

What do specialized AI-powered Amazon listing optimization tools bring to the table?

AI tools like ChatGPT essentially serve as writing assistants. They generate whatever you ask them to without contextualizing the settings in which an Amazon listing is meant to be used. For example, as pointed out earlier, none of them provide insight into the discoverability of listings or the potential search volume of the keywords to include. Instead, you have to conduct a separate keyword analysis and manually select the words to add to your prompts.

With a specialized AI listing optimization tool however, you enjoy features that help you construct robust product listings for your store. These tools combine AI and consumer data to produce listings that rank and convert well.

Below is a walkthrough of ZonGuru’s Listing Optimizer to demonstrate how this class of AI tool works and incorporates built-in keyword research and listing analysis.

Step 1: Identify keywords to add to the listing

Provide the ASINs of at least five of your competing products. The tool relies on these to generate an extensive list of keywords you can add to your listing. It also specifies their total search volume and expected sales revenue.

Step 2: Generate listing content based on keywords

Select high-performing keywords relevant to your product and import them to generate an Amazon-compliant listing title, bullet points, and product description in less than 30 seconds.

Step 3: Analyze and compare your listing

Finally, analyze your listing’s performance using metrics like optimization score, search volume, and combined revenue. You should also compare it to other listings in your niche to understand where you rank among the competition.

Here’s a quick comparison of the features you get in a general AI tool versus one specifically designed for Amazon listing optimization:

Wrapping up — Polish your Amazon listings using AI

Optimizing your Amazon product listings is crucial for increasing your visibility, improving sales, and helping you stay competitive on the Amazon marketplace. While it’s a lengthy and involved process, AI can remove the bulk of the headache for you.It creates professional listings that effectively engage shoppers and drive sales for your store, saving you time and money.

However, it’s not without its limitations: A general AI tool like ChatGPT can produce good copy, but it may not be the best solution for crafting a listing from scratch. Meanwhile, AI-powered Amazon seller tools designed explicitly for listing optimization can provide everything you need but may be pricey.

Consider the constraints of each AI tool you look at before adopting one. Although no solution is perfect, your burden will become significantly lighter. By embracing AI, you’ll receive quality Amazon listings that attract buyers — without the hassle.

About ZonGuru

ZonGuru is an all-in-one Amazon toolkit that assists private label sellers with product research, niche evaluation, competition analysis, listing optimization, inventory tracking, customer review acquisition, and running the day-to-day operations of their Amazon business. Our tools bring you the most accurate data from across 10 Amazon marketplaces in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Australia, Germany, and India. We make selling on Amazon easier.

Customer trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. ​​After a single negative experience, 76% of consumers will stop doing business with a company.

In eCommerce, providing exceptional customer support is crucial to set your business apart from competitors and maintain consumer loyalty. However, offering 24/7 support can be challenging, especially if you have limited resources.

Luckily, automated customer support solutions can help. Using technology like chatbots and AI, you can offer fast, efficient, and personalized customer support with zero human intervention.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the benefits of implementing automated customer service solutions for your eCommerce business and offer tips to help you get started.

What is customer service automation?

Automated customer support refers to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, and other technology to automate various aspects of customer support. Popular tasks to streamline include answering FAQs, providing real-time assistance, and guiding customers through the purchasing process.

Implementing this option brings many advantages, such as round-the-clock availability, support consistency, cost savings, and more. Automated solutions come in many forms though, and which will work best for your business depends on your channels, your budget, and your available resources.

Types of customer service automation

As an eCommerce business owner, you have several options to improve your customer service. We’ve listed the most common solutions below.

Automated chatbot

Chatbots are AI-powered software programs that can engage in automated conversations with customers through chat windows on your website or messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Some can even interact with buyers through voice commands, providing quick answers to commonly asked questions.

Automated email

Email automation tools allow you to send personalized emails to customers automatically based on their behavior, such as abandoned cart reminders or follow-up emails after a purchase.

Automated phone

With automated phone solutions, customers can receive support even outside of business hours — allowing you to provide 24/7 support and thus improve the overall customer experience.

This reduces the workload of your support team, which saves on staffing costs while still providing high-quality customer service.

Automated social media

Social media automation tools help you manage your social media accounts. Automatically respond to customer inquiries, comments, and messages for top-notch service.

Implementing automated customer support

Introducing automated customer support solutions can streamline your customer service processes and improve the overall customer experience. However, the task can be complex if you jump in without preparing ahead.

To ease the transition, here are some helpful tips to implement automated customer support smoothly in your business.

Choose a robust solution

Consider these key factors when selecting the right solution for your business:

• Customer needs: Consider your customers’ specific needs, including the type of support they require and their preferred communication channels.
• Scalability: Your chosen solution must be able to grow with your business and handle an increasing volume of customer inquiries and interactions.
• Integration: Ensure the software can integrate with your existing systems, such as your eCommerce platform and CRM.
• Ease of use: Search for a solution that’s easy to set up and use, with an intuitive interface your team can learn quickly.
• Cost: Look into the total cost of the solution, including any ongoing fees, and ensure it provides sufficient value for your business to justify its expense.
• Analytics and reporting: Look for tools that provide data on customer interactions, enabling you to delve into and optimize your support processes.

Integrate your solution into existing systems

When choosing an automated customer support tool, look for one with robust integration capabilities like APIs, plugins, and third-party integrations.

Assess your existing systems, including your eCommerce platform, CRM, and other tools, to determine which integration points are necessary for smooth integration. Then, test the integration between your customer service automation solution and your existing systems to ensure everything works as expected.

Even after you join these two elements, you should continuously monitor the integration and make necessary adjustments to optimize performance.

Train your staff

Provide your team with comprehensive training on your adopted automated customer support system, including its features, functionality, and how to use it most effectively.

Throughout the process, encourage your team to provide feedback on the new software, such as any issues or areas for improvement. This will help you refine the system before it launches and ensure it meets the needs of both your team and customers.

Then, develop a knowledge base or training materials your team can refer to when using the automated system. Access to this knowledge base will help them troubleshoot problems quickly and provide efficient support to customers.

Launch and promote

Test the solution with a small group of customers to identify any additional issues or areas for improvement and make necessary changes.

Once you’re confident the system works effectively, launch it and promote it to your customer base through your website, social media, and email marketing.

How customer service automation benefits your eCommerce business

eCommerce customer support software is designed to improve customers’ experience by providing them with fast, efficient, and personalized service around the clock—without requiring human intervention.

Here are a few ways in which automated customer support solutions can benefit your business:

24/7 Availability

With automated support systems, you can provide your customers support anytime, day or night.

This 24/7 availability can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as customers will appreciate being able to receive assistance whenever they need it.

Reduced workload for support teams

Automating common support tasks can free up your support teams to focus on more complex issues. This improves both their productivity and job satisfaction, as they can spend more time on challenging and fulfilling tasks.

Increased efficiency and speed

Automated support systems respond to customer inquiries instantly, providing fast and efficient service that delights shoppers and minimizes their frustration.

Consistency in support

With automated support systems, you can achieve consistent and accurate responses to customer inquiries. This ensures everyone receives the same high level of support, regardless of the time of day or the representative they interact with.

Cost savings

By automating common support tasks, you reduce reliance on your support team. In turn, that cuts down on staffing and training costs without sacrificing the quality of customer support.

Improved data analytics

Automated solutions collect data on your customers’ inquiries and behaviors, revealing valuable insights into their needs and preferences. You can then use that information to improve your products and services, as well as personalize your marketing and customer support strategies.

Leverage this data trove to better understand your customers and provide a more tailored and fruitful customer experience.

Challenges of customer service automation

It’s important to be aware of the challenges of implementing automated customer support solutions before you rush into adding it to your eCommerce business:

• Lack of personalization: Many solutions lack the personal touch of human support, causing customers to feel dissatisfied or frustrated.
• Language barriers: Automated support systems may struggle to understand non-native speakers or customers with unique dialects or accents, which can result in miscommunications or misunderstandings.

• Technical issues: No piece of tech is perfect, but with automated support systems, you risk technical issues such as bugs or system failures, leading to downtime or inaccurate responses to customer inquiries — all of which can significantly hurt your business.

• Difficulty handling complex issues: Some solutions may struggle to accommodate complicated customer inquiries, requiring escalation to a human support team and thus delaying a resolution.
• High implementation costs: It can be costly to incorporate an automated customer support solution, as they entail significant technological and training investments.
• Maintenance and updates: These systems require ongoing maintenance and updates to remain effective, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

Understanding the challenges of automated customer support solutions is the first step in addressing them properly.

By facing these obstacles head-on, you’ll ensure your system meets the needs of your customers and business goals. This may involve investing in additional training for your support team, upgrading your technology infrastructure, or implementing new processes to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your automated customer support system.

Wrapping up — Satisfy your customers with automated service

Automated customer support solutions are invaluable for eCommerce businesses seeking to improve their customer service processes and drive growth. They provide 24/7 support, faster response times, and personalized service while reducing costs and freeing up resources for more complex business issues.

However, implementing customer service automation is not without its challenges, such as language barriers and technical issues. Consider these obstacles carefully when selecting a solution to encourage a smoother integration.

Look for an eCommerce customer service software that meets your business needs and establish procedures for any issues that may arise. By leveraging automated customer support, you’ll provide exceptional customer experiences that build loyalty and drive sales.

Eighty percent of customers consider their experience with a company to be as important as their products and services. This underscores how vital it is to deliver a personalized and seamless experience to compete in the eCommerce industry.

As online shopping continues to gain popularity, businesses must adapt to increasingly complex customer expectations. To remain competitive, many have turned to artificial intelligence (AI), which has proven invaluable for creating tailored consumer experiences.

Keep reading as we explore how you can leverage AI in your eCommerce business to improve your customer experience and increase satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

Personalized customer experiences

AI improves the customer experience by delivering personalized content and product recommendations. With 91% of customers more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and suggestions, AI is a powerful tool to make your company stand out. Listed below are the specific advantages AI brings to businesses.

Tailored product recommendations

AI algorithms analyze customer data such as browsing and purchase history and preferences to generate tailored product recommendations. These suggestions increase the likelihood of customers finding relevant products — whether they were searching for them or not — which, in turn, boosts sales.

Collaborative and content-based filtering are popular techniques used in AI-powered recommendation engines. Collaborative filtering relies on users’ past behaviors and preferences, while content-based filtering considers item features and descriptions.

Targeted marketing campaigns

AI can help businesses segment customers based on behavior, preferences, and demographics to create targeted marketing campaigns. These campaigns have higher open and click-through rates and yield greater conversions.

Natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis enable AI to understand customer emotions and feedback so businesses can tailor their marketing messages accordingly.

Intelligent site search

AI-powered site search engines understand natural language queries and provide accurate, relevant search results. This makes it easier for customers to find the products they’re looking for, producing a smoother shopping experience.

To achieve this, AI relies on machine learning (ML) algorithms, which learn from customer search behavior to improve search results and provide better recommendations continuously.

Personalized website content

AI can also analyze customer data to identify patterns and preferences, enabling businesses to personalize website content such as layout, product display, and promotions.

By delivering a tailored user experience, you can improve customer engagement, increase conversion rates, and boost customer loyalty.

Automated returns processing

AI software can automate the return process by generating return labels, processing returns, and issuing refunds. Removing the manual aspect from these tasks reduces the time and effort required to manage returns so customers enjoy a more satisfactory experience with fewer headaches.

Want to improve your returns process? Discover how MyFBAPrep can help you refine your reverse logistics.

AI-powered customer support

You can leverage AI in your customer support across a variety of communication channels, such as:

• Email: AI email assistants can respond to customer inquiries and provide personalized recommendations based on the consumer’s purchase history and behavior.
• Chatbots: Chatbots and live chat software offer real-time support and answer queries 24/7. AI-powered chatbots can learn from customer interactions and become more efficient and effective. You can also integrate them with your CRM system to access customer data, ensuring personalized support.
• Social media: AI-backed monitoring tools help companies track consumer feedback on social media platforms and address their concerns in real time.
• Virtual assistants: AI voice assistants and IVR systems provide customers with automated support or route them to the appropriate agent or department that can solve their more complex problems. Virtual assistants can also offer personalized product recommendations and promotions based on customers’ preferences.
• Self-service portals: AI self-service portals give customers access to relevant information and resources such as FAQs, tutorials, and troubleshooting guides.

By applying AI to your various communication channels, you’ll provide customers with seamless and consistent support, regardless of the portal they use to ask for help. All of this leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction, reduced response times, and ultimately, increased loyalty and sales for the business.

Visual search and augmented reality

AI-powered visual search enables customers to find products using images instead of keywords, simplifying the search process and enriching the customer experience.

Image recognition

AI algorithms can analyze and recognize images to match them to products in an eCommerce store’s inventory. This allows customers to upload photos of items they’re interested in and receive relevant product suggestions.

Visual search can also help businesses identify trends and patterns so they can stock up on popular items and improve their product offerings.

Augmented reality (AR)

Combine AI and AR to create immersive shopping experiences. The two enable customers to visualize themselves using your products in their environment before purchasing, which reduces the likelihood of returns and boosts satisfaction. You can also use AR for virtual fitting rooms so shoppers can try on clothing and accessories virtually.

In 2019, online fashion retailer ASOS launched an AR feature in their app that allows customers to view 3D images of clothes on different body types. It superimposes virtual clothes onto the user’s body to give a more realistic idea of how they’ll look and fit.

Optimize pricing and inventory management

AI can optimize pricing and inventory management to ensure businesses remain competitive and meet consumer demands.

Dynamic pricing

AI algorithms can analyze various factors like competitor prices, shopper behavior, and market trends to determine the optimal price for products. This dynamic pricing strategy helps brands stay competitive and maximize profits.

ML models can continuously learn from that data and help businesses adjust prices based on changing market conditions in real time.

Inventory management

AI can help businesses predict customer demand and send automated notifications when stock is running low, allowing them to optimize their inventory levels and prevent stockouts and overstocking.

ML algorithms analyze historical sales data, seasonality, and trends to forecast demand accurately. Businesses can then leverage this data to make decisions about their inventory, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs.

Streamline order processing

AI-powered tools and robotic process automation (RPA) can automate repetitive tasks in order processing, such as order entry, data validation, and updating order status. This reduces manual intervention (which minimizes the risk of human errors) and speeds up processing.

AI can also optimize warehouse operations by automating picking, packing, and shipping procedures. These tools can determine the most efficient routes for order picking, cutting the time to fulfill orders and lowering the risk of errors.

Are you struggling with a disjointed fulfillment process? Get organized and streamline your operations with MyFBAPrep.

Fraud detection

AI can help you spot scams through anomaly detection. By analyzing large volumes of customer data, AI-powered fraud detection systems can identify unusual patterns or behaviors that may indicate fraudulent activity.

For example, suppose a customer has a history of making consistent and relatively small purchases but suddenly makes a large purchase and returns it soon after. The system may flag this as an anomaly to be investigated for potential fraud. Similarly, if a customer frequently returns items without a clear reason, this could also be tagged for further review.

With AI-powered fraud detection, you reduce your risk of losses due to fraud and maintain the trust and satisfaction of your customers.

Improve product quality

AI can significantly improve product quality in eCommerce by optimizing various aspects of the product life cycle, from design and development to manufacturing and customer feedback.

Predictive maintenance

AI-powered predictive maintenance tools can analyze sensor data from manufacturing equipment to detect potential failures and schedule maintenance before issues arise.

Predictive maintenance helps maintain consistent product quality and reduces downtime in the production process.

Quality control automation

You can also enjoy automated quality control processes like visual inspection and defect detection with AI. Applying computer vision and ML algorithms, AI can identify defects and deviations from quality standards more accurately and consistently than human inspectors, ensuring higher-quality products.

Automation can extend to testing processes — such as software or product testing — as well to increase accuracy and efficiency while slashing the potential for human error.

Sentiment analysis

Returning to consumer sentiment, AI can use NLP to analyze customer reviews and feedback to identify patterns and trends in product quality. This information helps you address product issues, make improvements, and better accommodate customer preferences.

Wrapping Up — Harness the power of AI for more eCommerce conversions

AI has the potential to improve your eCommerce customer experience significantly by delivering personalized content, enhancing customer support, streamlining operations, and ensuring a secure shopping environment.

To maximize the benefits of AI in your eCommerce business, invest in the right tools, integrate automation into your existing processes, and evaluate and refine your strategies continuously based on data-driven insights. By leveraging AI technology, you’ll stay ahead of the competition, keep up with evolving customer expectations, and drive growth.

Social commerce is the integration of social media and eCommerce and has been on the rise in recent years. It allows businesses to sell their products directly through social media platforms, making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase items they see on their feeds. As social media continues to gain prominence in our daily lives, the popularity of social commerce is expected to grow with it.

However, the success of social commerce is about more than convenience or the novelty of purchasing products through social media; there’s a deeper psychological aspect at play that businesses need to understand to leverage the power of this type of commerce effectively. The psychology behind social commerce is ultimately what drives customers to make purchasing decisions, and businesses that tap into these factors can accomplish greater results in this increasingly competitive space.

In this article, we’ll explore the psychology behind social commerce and why it works. We’ll examine the influence of social proof, the power of community, the role of emotions, particularly trust and credibility, and the importance of personalization in social commerce. By understanding these key factors, you can create more effective social commerce strategies and build stronger connections with your customers.

What are social commerce, social influence, and social proof?

Social commerce refers to the use of social media platforms or networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, to facilitate the buying and selling of products or services. It allows businesses to integrate their eCommerce activities with social media to create a seamless shopping experience for customers. Social commerce often involves the use of social media influencers, customer reviews and recommendations, and community building to promote products and drive sales.

Social influence is a powerful factor that impacts our decision-making processes. When we see others doing something, we’re more likely to try it ourselves, especially when we perceive others as similar to us or as authority figures. This influence is particularly strong when it comes to purchasing decisions, as we often look to others to help us decide what products to buy.

Social proof is a phenomenon that leverages social influence to persuade customers to make a purchase. It serves as evidence that other people have already purchased and enjoyed a particular product and can take many forms, including customer reviews, ratings, and recommendations from friends or influencers.

Social proof is used extensively in social commerce, with businesses capitalizing on customer reviews and social media influencers to help convince potential buyers to make a purchase. For example, a clothing brand may showcase photos of customers wearing their clothes on social media, accompanied by glowing reviews and comments from other customers. This creates a sense of community and social proof around the brand, which makes shoppers feel more comfortable about buying.

You can also display customer ratings and reviews on platforms like Amazon. These demonstrate that a product is high quality and worth buying, which is why customers often use them to decide where or not to purchase.

By understanding the psychological power of social influence and social proof, you can wield them strategically to drive more sales and build stronger relationships with your customers.

The power of community

Social commerce and community are a highly fruitful combination. Creating a sense of community around a brand or product fosters customer loyalty, drives sales, and generates positive word-of-mouth advertising. Two powerful ways to achieve this are:

1. Social media groups and communities: These groups bring together people with shared interests and can be used to promote products, answer questions, and provide customer support. By creating a space where customers can interact with each other and the brand, you nurture a sense of belonging and develop a loyal customer base.
2. Social media influencers: Internet celebrities have large followings on social media, and their product endorsements can have a significant impact on sales. Influencers cultivate a sense of community around their brand, using their platform to share their experiences with their followers and strengthen their audience relationship.

Brands like Glossier and Outdoor Voices provide successful examples of community-based social commerce in action. These companies have cultivated strong communities around their brands by using social media to engage with customers and build a sense of shared values and interests. As a resu;t, they generated significant buzz around their products and built a loyal customer base that returns again and again.

Community and social commerce naturally go hand in hand. By fostering a sense of community around your brand, your business can augment its loyal customer base and increase sales through positive word-of-mouth advertising.

The role of emotions and FOMO

Emotions play a significant role in shoppers’ purchasing decisions. They influence their perceptions of a product’s value and can motivate people to buy based on how the product makes them feel.

Social commerce leverages emotions in a number of ways to drive sales. For example, implementing imagery and language that elicit positive emotions like happiness or excitement makes your products more appealing to customers. This can be particularly effective on social media, where visual content and emotional appeals are crucial to standing out in crowded feeds.

A frequently employed emotional tactic in social commerce is FOMO (fear of missing out). FOMO is a feeling of anxiety or unease that arises when we believe others are enjoying experiences or opportunities that we aren’t. Social commerce leverages this phenomenon by inducing a sense of urgency around products so customers feel they need to act quickly to avoid missing out on something special.

Run limited-time promotions, flash sales, or generate scarcity around products to create urgency and FOMO. For instance, you could produce a limited edition product that’s only available for a short time or use language that suggests a product is selling out quickly.

Brands like Apple and Nike successfully capitalize on emotional appeals through the use of powerful imagery and storytelling to establish emotional connections with their customers. By tapping into emotions like inspiration, excitement, or even nostalgia, these companies foster strong bonds with their shoppers and drive more sales.

The importance of personalization in social commerce

Businesses rely on personalization to tailor their marketing messages and product offerings to individual customers. In social commerce, personalization can enhance the consumer experience and increase conversions through several means:

• Targeted advertising: This strategy relies on data from customers’ browsing and purchase history to help businesses create targeted ads that are more likely to resonate with individuals. This gives the impression that the products being offered are tailored specifically to each customer’s interests and needs.
• Personalized product recommendations: By using algorithms to analyze a customer’s past purchases and browsing behavior, you can provide personalized recommendations for products that are likely to interest the customer. This contributes to a more personalized shopping experience and encourages sales.
• Tailored customer service and product customization: These options produce a more engaging and memorable experience for customers, which in turn, increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.

You can see personalization in action through the efforts of Spotify and Netflix, which use personalized recommendations to suggest music and viewing entertainment to individual customers based on their past search behavior. That personalized experience keeps customers engaged and coming back for more.

How trust and credibility grow through social commerce

Trust and credibility are crucial to the success of social commerce. Customers need to feel confident that the products they’re purchasing are of high quality and that the businesses selling them are trustworthy. You can effectively build trust and credibility using tactics such as:

• Customer reviews and ratings: When customers share their experiences with a product, they provide social proof that the items are of high quality and worth purchasing. Shoppers are more likely to believe feedback from other buyers than from brands, so this type of user-generated content (UGC) is highly beneficial for conversions.
• Emphasizing transparency and openness in your business: With ethical considerations becoming more influential among buyers, being honest about your processes, such as your sourcing or manufacturing practices, strengthens trust. Shoppers prefer to support businesses that are responsive and communicative with their customers, so foster a culture of transparency within your own to foster buying confidence in your consumers.
• Leveraging social commerce platforms that prioritize trust and credibility: The marketplace Etsy, for example, focuses on handmade and unique products, while clothing site Poshmark emphasizes community and peer-to-peer selling; as a result, both platforms have developed a strong reputation for trustworthiness and credibility among their user bases.

Wrapping up — Social commerce is a mind game

Social commerce is a rapidly expanding industry that leverages social media to facilitate the buying and selling of products. Its success greatly hinges on the psychology behind consumers’ decision-making, including factors such as social proof, emotions, community, personalization, trust, and credibility.

Understanding that psychological influence and leveraging it correctly is crucial for businesses to profit from social commerce. By incorporating these factors, you can create more effective marketing strategies and build stronger connections with your customers.

As social media continues to gain prominence in our daily lives, businesses that are able to capitalize on social commerce will enjoy a significant advantage in the marketplace.

Over the last three years, millions of online businesses have displayed resilience in the face of the unexpected.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption and innovation of digital commerce, with online shopping increasing by 77% year over year in a matter of months.

By the end of 2023, eCommerce sales will make up one-fifth of all retail sales globally.

However, after years of lockdowns and restrictions, people crave meaningful connections across all aspects of their lives, including commerce. Physical spaces foster online and offline relationships between merchants and customers.

Now, brands must be flexible and responsive to challenges, adding flexibility to their products, strategies, and policies. To help you stay ahead of the curve, MyFBAPrep conducted a seller survey that sought to include eCommerce business owners across all channels and industries.

Our findings shed light on eCommerce merchants’ current priorities and challenges and highlight their priorities as they drive their businesses forward in 2023.

Join us as we explore the new eCommerce landscape and discover where it’s headed this year.

Where are retailers selling?

eCommerce merchants are selling their products and services in a variety of online marketplaces, including established marketplaces such as Amazon (47%), eBay (50%), Walmart (27%), and Etsy (33%).

Other merchants sell through their custom websites (14%) or on platforms such as Shopify (37%) and BigCommerce (12%).

According to our respondents, the top three sales channels are eBay, Amazon Marketplace, and Shopify. This clearly indicates that marketplaces are still thriving, but direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales are also gaining significant popularity.

Statistics reveal 43% of Amazon sellers generate between 25% and 50% of their revenue through Amazon sales, while 35% of DTC sellers generate a similar percentage. These numbers suggest that most merchants have transitioned to a multi-channel approach, leveraging a combination of marketplaces and DTC sales to drive revenue.

Where do retailers want to sell next?

As eCommerce continues to evolve, merchants are constantly searching for new sales channels to expand their reach and grow their businesses.

According to our survey, many sellers (39%) have their sights set on Amazon Marketplace as their next step forward.

For those already selling on Amazon though, the picture takes on a darker hue: Almost 30% are concerned about Amazon’s white labeling and potential competition with their products. It’s a valid worry that closely aligns with the second-most popular concern, which is a decrease in listing visibility or unfavorable algorithm treatment.

While Amazon is a powerful sales channel, these worries highlight the importance of diversifying sales channels, rather than relying solely on one platform.

Embracing a multi-channel approach

Amazon isn’t the only platform capturing the attention of growth-focused merchants; 31% of merchants also want to expand to Shopify. This shows an interesting exchange wherein retail and DTC sellers are interested in exploring Amazon, while retail and Amazon sellers are keen to pursue DTC sales.

These trends display how eCommerce is increasingly moving towards a multi-channel approach, with retailers utilizing a mix of sales channels to reach their customers. As a result, merchants can mitigate risk and take advantage of each channel’s unique strengths to further their business.

What is their average order value?

The data shows most merchants have an average order value (AOV) of $10–$50, with the second-most common AOV falling between $50 and $100.

If your cart sizes are smaller than this, consider employing AOV-boosting tactics to increase the value of each sale. These could include upselling and cross-selling, offering volume discounts, or creating product bundles. By focusing on boosting AOV, merchants can maximize revenue and improve profitability.

Which seller tools are merchants using?

Today’s eCommerce merchants use a multitude of seller tools to streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and enhance the customer experience. Some of the most popular tools include:

• AMZScout (15%): AMZScout is a suite of tools designed for Amazon sellers to research and analyze data related to item sales, competition, and profitability. It provides a range of features and functionalities to help Amazon sellers make informed decisions about their products and business.
• CedCommerce (15.6%): This multi-channel solutions provider offers various tools and services to help merchants sell their products online. CredCommerce boasts integration solutions for eCommerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, as well as marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
• Channel Advisor (15.6%): A cloud-based platform, ChannelAdvisor can integrate with popular eCommerce marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Alibaba, as well as social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
• Ecomdash (11.2%): Ecomdash is a cloud-based inventory management software designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It helps merchants streamline inventory management, order fulfillment, and shipping processes across multiple sales channels.
• GeekSeller (16.2%): This comprehensive eCommerce management platform provides a range of customization options that enable merchants to tailor it to their specific needs. They can customize their workflows and automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time to focus on other aspects of their business.
• GoDataFeed (9.8%): Another cloud-based platform, GoDataFeed enables merchants to manage and optimize their product feeds for multiple sales channels. It automates the creation and updating of product feeds for marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, as well as shopping carts like Shopify and Magento.
• Custom-built software (28.8%): One of the most noteworthy statistics to come out of our survey is the number of merchants using custom-built software. Custom software can give merchants a competitive advantage by providing unique and innovative features and functionalities unavailable in off-the-shelf solutions.

Which newsletters and podcasts do merchants subscribe to?

Staying current with the latest trends is essential in the evolving eCommerce industry. With so many resources available, like top marketing blogs and intriguing podcasts, there’s no shortage of in-depth topics and trends to explore.

Below are our results on the most popular podcasts and newsletters merchants are following:

• Shopify Retail Radar: With nearly 1.7 million merchants selling their products through Shopify, it’s no wonder the platform’s newsletter is full of valuable resources and inspiring success stories. Subscribe to the free Shopify Retail Radar newsletter and receive monthly news about eCommerce updates, thought-leader interviews, and advice from industry experts. Whether you already run an online store on Shopify or are considering launching one, this newsletter is a must-read for anyone looking to stay ahead of the game.
• Digital Commerce 360: Digital Commerce 360 is a leading research and media organization that provides objective B2B news, eCommerce analyses, and in-depth market research. When you sign up for their newsletter, you can choose to receive either retail or B2B news (or both) according to your interests. Both options will give you daily news and insights (Monday to Wednesday) about eCommerce trends and strategies from top experts in the field.
• Ecommerce Playbook: Hosted by Andrew Faris, former CEO of an eCommerce aggregator and current VP of growth for an eCommerce growth agency, the Ecommerce Playbook podcast is packed with valuable insights and firsthand experiences. Andrew shares his personal journey, including both recent successes and past failures, with listeners. He also invites fellow entrepreneurs to join the conversation and recount their own eCommerce stories.

MyFBAPrep curates the best news in shipping and operations every other week. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of the market and join over 3,000 fulfillment experts who enjoy the industry’s most relevant news.

What are the top acquisition channels?

The top acquisition channels for eCommerce vary depending on the specific business and industry. Here are our respondents’ top acquisition channels:

1. Social media (62.2%)
2. Amazon ads (36.6%)
3. Referrals/Affiliates (30.4%)
4. Videos (25.4%)
5. Email outreach (27.4%)
6. Paid social ads (28.2%)
7. Influencer marketing (21.8%)
8. Paid search ads (21.2%)
9. Brand partnerships (16.2%)
10. Content marketing/SEO (14.8%)

Looking toward social commerce

With social media coming in at number one, today’s merchants are obviously focusing more on social commerce.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest have introduced features to support social commerce, including shoppable posts and tags, buy buttons, and in-app checkout. These features allow users to browse and purchase products directly from their social media feeds without having to navigate to a separate website.

Social commerce sales in the U.S. are projected to grow by 34.4% this year, reaching $53.1 billion. Retailers who are able to overcome the trust gap will reap the rewards, attracting a wave of new shoppers and inspiring existing customers to spend more.

Capitalizing on Amazon ads and referral marketing

Amazon ads and referrals take second and third place, respectively. This underscores the large number of merchants utilizing Amazon as a key sales and acquisition channel, as well as the effectiveness of referral marketing.

Amazon ads are a powerful avenue for showcasing your products to potential customers. You can ensure your ads reach the right audience by using a range of targeting options like keywords, interests, and demographics.

Referral marketing is another highly effective acquisition channel for eCommerce businesses. By incentivizing current customers to refer their friends and family to your brand, you can tap into a network of new leads who are already interested in what you offer.

Implementing a loyalty rewards program is a savvy strategy for boosting customer lifetime value (CLV). Learn how to launch a successful referral program.

How are online retailers fulfilling orders in 2023?

The following are the most popular fulfillment methods for today’s merchants:

1. In-house (60%)
2. Amazon FBA (33.2%)
3. Amazon multi-channel (27.4%)
4. Third-party logistics (3PL) provider (21.4%)
5. Dropship (17%)

Identifying logistics concerns

After years of digital transformation, unprecedented growth in eCommerce, and supply chain challenges, the industry experienced a significant shift in 2022. Rising costs and concerns about a potential recession contributed to a slowing of its upward trajectory.

This year, merchants are focusing on anticipating the changes that’ll shape the sector and identifying new opportunities. Their most pressing concerns include:

1. Shipping mistakes (42%)
2. Expensive shipping (37.2%)
3. Lack of services (23.2%)
4. Inventory loss, theft, or breakage (27.2%)
5. Poor communication (28.2%)
6. Inaccurate receiving (20%)
7. Unreliable manufacturers (18.8%)
8. Unreported damages (17.8%)
9. Long prep turnaround time (15.2%)
10. Limited visibility or no inventory reports (14.8%)
11. Geographic constraints/Limited warehouse locations (13.2%)
12. Backlogs and no SLAs (12.6%)
13. Unfamiliarity with FBA standards (11.2%)
14. Containers sitting idle (10%)
15. No reverse logistics processes (7.2%)

Overall, merchants need to pay close attention to logistical concerns to ensure their operations are efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable while also meeting their customers expectations.

Top 3PL providers

For those merchants using 3PLs, their most commonly used partners are:

1. FedEx (58.9%)
2. UPS (43.9%)
3. Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (35.5%)
4. USPS (28.9%)
5. eFulfillment Service (23.4%)

An overwhelming majority of our respondents found their 3PL through social media (39%), with friends or family (15%) coming in second.

When choosing a 3PL, these online retailers consider price (56%) and delivery speed (46%) to be the most influential factors, with reliability (45%), ease of use (40%), and customer service (33%) closely following.

What are merchants prioritizing in 2023?

In 2023, eCommerce merchants are prioritizing a range of strategies to remain competitive and meet evolving consumer demands.

Increasing customer retention (32%), growing teams (32%), and content marketing (29%) are top points of focus for retailers this year. These goals are in line with experts’ predictions for the coming year.

The emphasis on retaining existing customers is based on the statistical probability of selling to an existing customer versus a new prospect: While the likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60%–70%, the chances lower to just 5%–20% for new prospects. This underscores the importance of building strong customer relationships and providing exceptional experiences that keep customers coming back.

Wondering how to optimize your post-purchase experience to boost customer retention? Our blog explains how to deliver a memorable experience for your customers.

Other priorities for merchants in 2023 include building brand awareness (26%), optimizing fulfillment (25%), and catalog expansion (21%).

Wrapping up — The only constant in eCommerce is change

Our Seller Insights survey highlights the significant shifts and challenges that the eCommerce industry has experienced in recent years. From changing consumer expectations to supply chain disruptions, merchants have had to adapt quickly to remain competitive.

Looking ahead, sellers are prioritizing strategies like customer retention, multi-channel selling, brand awareness, and data-driven decision-making to optimize their operations and meet evolving consumer demands.

By staying informed and agile in the face of these ongoing fluctuations, eCommerce merchants can weather the storm and continue to drive growth and success in their businesses for years to come.

I​n eCommerce, having a solid marketing mix helps your brand stand out from the competition and remain at the forefront of your current and prospective customers’ minds. One of the most impactful marketing channels eCommerce businesses can leverage is also one of the most traditional: email. Email subscribers are already invested in your business because they’ve opted in to your communications. They’ve probably purchased from your company as well and so can be reengaged for future sales.

A​ successful email marketing strategy can expand your reach, grow your revenue, and develop your brand image. In this article, we’ll explore what email marketing is, how email can support your other marketing channels, and effective ways to leverage this method of communication.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing provides a direct line of communication between businesses and their customers. It’s a cost-effective way to reach a large audience and is valuable for building customer relationships, promoting products and services, and generating sales.

An effective email marketing strategy begins with a well-defined target audience. This allows businesses to tailor their messages to the interests and needs of their consumers. Then, companies can craft a series of targeted and personalized emails that deliver value to the recipient.

Your communications can take various forms, from simple, text-based letters to more sophisticated designs with images and graphics. Email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor make it easy for businesses to craft and send emails, as well as manage their mailing lists.

Diversify your sales channels and add new revenue streams by embracing email marketing. It’s an effective strategy that allows you to reach your audience on a personal level through customized messages.

What to push with email marketing

An appealing advantage of email marketing is the ability to include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) with links that send your audience to a specific place. That decision depends on what you want to highlight and the desired action you want your recipients to take. We’ve listed some top places and events to push via email marketing to maximize your campaigns’ return on investment (ROI).

New sales channels

If you’re scaling your business and adding new sales channels, a targeted email blast is a great way to announce it to your existing customer base. Expanding to a marketplace like Amazon or Walmart makes for especially enticing email copy, as customers will be excited to shop diverse products and sellers in the same place.

T​o maximize this type of email communication, it’s critical to include a clear CTA that brings email recipients directly to the new channel and communicates what action they should take (e.g., “log in” or “sign up”). Additionally, highlight any perks such as coupons or savings upon their first purchases through this channel to sweeten the deal.

Your store

A​ common strategy in eCommerce email marketing is to transport recipients to your business’s website, Amazon shop, or another online store. Doing so increases traffic to your website and, with the right promotions and timing, even sales.

Event registrations, demo sign-ups, and related surveys

Email marketing paves the way for savvy businesses to deliver an incredible customer experience and build relationships, so you shouldn’t limit its reach to typical pages.

From live shopping on social media to webinars or in-person, invite-only events, leverage emails to encourage your audience to register for events and sign up for demos. Further, you can send surveys to capture feedback on their experience and understand what kinds of products, services, and events they’d like to see from you.

Product landing pages

P​ushing your email audience to a product page reduces the number of clicks it takes for customers to reach the final purchase stage of their journey. CTAs that direct to a particular product page are also a great way to promote a new product or highlight special promotions.

Newsletter sign-up

Launch a separate newsletter with tips and tricks or other valuable information. Newsletters can effectively build brand loyalty and provide greater value to your customers without running the risk of sales spam. Invite your customers to sign up for it in your next product marketing email.

How email marketing supports your overall strategy

Businesses both eCommerce and not must constantly vye for customers’ attention. As such, email marketing provides a targeted and cost-effective opportunity to reach potential customers and retain existing ones. It offers several benefits that prove it’s an essential addition to your marketing mix.

Direct, personalized communication

Email marketing brings a level of personalization that’s difficult to achieve through other marketing channels. With the help of customer data, you can create targeted campaigns that speak to recipients, providing them with relevant information, offers, and promotions that encourage them to buy. This helps build strong relationships with your customers, increase brand loyalty, and, ultimately, drive sales.

High ROI

Another advantage is the ability to reach a large audience with minimal costs. Unlike other marketing channels that can be expensive, email marketing allows you to communicate with thousands of customers at a fraction of the price. For small businesses especially, it’s a cost-effective way to compete with larger companies.

Email marketing also makes it easy to track and measure your campaigns. This data provides valuable insights into their effectiveness and can inform decisions about future marketing strategies. Track metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversions to fine-tune your campaigns, achieve better results, and increase your ROI.

Even more appealing, you can automate email marketing campaigns to send personalized messages to customers at the right time — no manual intervention necessary. Set up automated communications such as welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, and birthday greetings with triggers based on specific actions or events. This saves time and resources and ensures consistent and engaging communication with customers.

Supports multi-channel marketing efforts

Based on the longstanding Rule of Seven, an eCommerce customer needs to hear (or see) a brand’s messaging an average of seven times before they make a decision to buy. With this in mind, you can use email marketing to support your multi-channel marketing efforts.

I​t might start with a pay-per-click ad on Google, then a Meta ad delivered on Facebook or Instagram. Then TikTok. Back to Meta. An email. A trip to your website. Retargeting, and so on. The digital shopping journey can be lengthy, but email helps you target your customers at each stage with relevant messaging and products.

Drives customers to your physical locations

In part due to Covid-19 restrictions being lifted around the world, in-person shopping experiences are on the rise, with customers seeking unique experiential opportunities to engage with their favorite brands. Promote these physical sales channels through emails for fruitful results, highlighting aspects like location, hours, special promotions, and other perks for:

• In-store shopping at brick-and-mortar stores
• Pop-ups at other locations like gyms or markets
• Experiential shopping opportunities, such as Sip and Shop or Try Before You Buy events

Different ways to use email marketing

We’ve explored ways to drive your audience to other sales channels, but you can leverage email marketing in other ways to grow your brand, which we discuss below.

Launch a newsletter (that doesn’t focus on sales messaging)

One of the most effective email marketing tactics to grow your brand is to launch a newsletter. This regularly scheduled email should include a variety of content, such as company updates, industry news, and educational articles.

The key to a successful newsletter is to avoid focusing on sales messaging. Instead, feature valuable content your subscribers will find useful and interesting. This builds trust with your audience and positions yourself as an expert in your industry.

Also, include a clear CTA that encourages subscribers to engage with your brand. For example, you could ask them to follow you on social media, leave a review of your product, or share your newsletter with their friends.

Send informative emails

Another approach that yields lucrative results is to send informative emails that focus on how customers can get the most out of your product. These communications should provide tips, tricks, and best practices for using your product and be tailored to your audience’s needs.

By offering helpful information that enables your customers to thrive, you’ll increase their satisfaction with your product and strengthen their loyalty to your brand. You’ll also position yourself as a company that cares about its customers and is committed to their success.

When crafting these emails, employ a friendly, conversational tone that resonates with your audience. You should also include plenty of visuals, such as screenshots and videos, to illustrate your points and make your content more engaging.

Highlight your customers, suppliers, or your team

Email marketing offers a prime opportunity to highlight your customers, suppliers, or team. Showcasing the people who make your company successful creates a more personal connection with your audience.

You could send an email that features a customer success story, highlighting how your product helped them achieve their goals. Or, you could spotlight a supplier who provides high-quality materials for your product. You could even feature a member of your team and detail their expertise or experience.

By placing these people front and center, you’ll show your audience that your brand is more than just a product — it’s a community of people who are passionate about what they do.

Offer an email course

A less common but equally effective use of email marketing is to offer an email course. This is a series of emails sent over a period of time that are designed to teach your audience a specific skill or concept.

An email course is great for positioning yourself as an expert in your industry and providing a valuable education to your audience. This increases trust and credibility among them and can help drive sales by showcasing the advantages of your product.

When creating an email course, make sure to choose a topic that’s relevant to your audience’s needs and interests. You should also break your content into bite-sized pieces and make it easy to consume. By doing this, you’ll increase engagement and make it more likely that your audience will complete the course.

Tactics to try

B​eyond the applications we’ve covered in this article, you can employ other tactics to gain the most out of your email marketing efforts. Give the following strategies a try to help your brand stand out from the competition.

Alert your subscribers to social “live” sales

Send alerts to make your subscribers aware of social “live” sales and achieve maximum exposure. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram now offer live sales that allow businesses to showcase their products in real time and interact with customers in a more personal way.

By sending an email to your subscribers before a live sale, you’ll increase the likelihood of people tuning in and making a purchase. Include all relevant details, such as the date and time of the sale, the products you’ll feature, and any special discounts or promotions.

W​ant to really sweeten the deal? Offer a special email-only discount code!

Include “tell your friends” buttons for easy sharing

Make it simple for subscribers to share your emails by incorporating share buttons in your correspondences. This is a small but powerful way to increase your reach and attract new customers.

Include clear and compelling CTAs that encourage subscribers to share your content with friends, family, and their social network. You could even offer a reward, such as a discount or free shipping, for every new customer they refer to your business.

Leverage CTAs strategically

CTAs are the backbone of your emails. These buttons (or links) nudge subscribers to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter.

To craft successful CTAs, make sure they’re clear, compelling, and relevant to the content of your email. For example, if you’re showcasing a new product in your communication, you should feature a CTA that encourages subscribers to learn more or buy.

Experiment with different types as well, such as offering limited-time promotions or free shipping. Make sure to track the results of your CTAs and adjust your strategy based on what works best on your audience.

Wrapping up — Capitalize on digital communications for greater conversions

Email marketing is a powerful and cost-effective avenue for eCommerce businesses to reach their target audience, build strong relationships, and increase sales. By crafting targeted and personalized emails that deliver value to your subscribers, you can expand your reach and grow your revenue.

At MyFBAPrep, we understand the impact of a successful email marketing strategy and we’re here to help you make the most of this channel. Enjoy streamlined operations, reduced costs, and greater business growth with our suite of services. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive eCommerce solutions and how we can help you achieve your goals.