If you want to start a sustainable eCommerce business, then you should know that this is now easier than ever to do. The issue that comes with this, is that you will now have more competition than ever. If you want to make sure that you are not losing out or if you want to ensure success for your company, here are a few things that you need to know…
Sustainable eCommerce Business Competition is Tough
Unfortunately, there really is no way to avoid this. However, you should not get disheartened by this, instead you should try and use it to your advantage, when possible. You need to try and further your creativity as well as your entrepreneurial spirit. You want to look to your existing competition as an example of what is possible and adopt their successful strategies. You want to make sure that you are pricing your products well, competitor price monitoring is a great resource for this.
Standing out from the Crowd
Stiff competition ultimately means that you have to stand out from the crowd, you can do this with beautiful branding or a clear tone of voice. You have to be the person who is offering something that consumers are unable to find from someone else. You need to devise a way to further your selling point and you also need to make sure that you are pushing your sales to that next level. If you are plugging your products into an oversaturated market and you have nothing new to offer, then this won’t be working in your favour at all. Think about branding, your photography and tone of voice- these will all help you to stand out from your competition online.
Effective Marketing
When you have some sustainable products that you can be proud of, you then need to try and create a very effective marketing campaign. This is essential if you want to put yourself in front of people who are likely to buy from you. You need to align your marketing plan with your brand purpose and goals. It may seem daunting to begin with, but you can make it easier by simply breaking things down into smaller chunks to communicate your mission clearly. You can then take it step by step. The first place that you need to be starting with would be for you to identify your target market. Think about it, are you trying to market to teenagers or are you hoping to market to the older generation? Are you selling to men, or are you selling to women? If you want to make your campaign successful, then you need to explore things like this so that you can make the most out of your sales process.
“Looking at the world through a sustainability lens not only helps us ‘future proof’ our supply chain, it also fuels innovation and drives brand growth.”
– Paul Polman
Choosing the Right Platform
Part of making your store stand out from the crowd comes from choosing a platform that showcases your products. You’ve worked hard at nailing your ecommerce fulfilment, so you’ll want to flaunt your efforts to the best effect. As well as logistics platforms, you’ll also need to work hard to improve your user experience too. There is some software out there that you can use to make this happen, not to mention that you can also find something that matches your unique business needs too. Schedule your marketing content ahead of time to make sure you never miss a beat, Schedugram, Planoly and other tools will help with this.
Written Content
When you have a good idea of your marketing strategy and when you know the mechanics you want to use, you then need to think about the content. You need to think about the written content and the visual posts you are creating. First things first, if you are dealing with an online world, you need to make sure that your content is word-perfect. If you sell a practical product then you may well think that it speaks for itself. This is not the case though. You still need to market your physical product, digitally. If you don’t, then you may find that you end up struggling overall and this is the last thing that you want.
SEO is Key
Believe it or not, SEO holds the key to making your sustainable ecommerce business a success. You have to make sure that you are maximising your SEO potential and you also need to make sure that you rank well too. If you don’t, then you may find that you end up losing out overall and this is the last thing that you need.
Data suggests that the top results in Google get 33% of the traffic.
Ranking at the number one spot isn’t the be-all and end-all, in fact, if you can make sure that you are ranking highly, even at slot four or five, then this will really help you to get traffic and it will also help you to establish your authority as well, which is always a good thing. Of course, if you need some help then there are plenty of marketing services that can take care of your SEO for you. This will ensure that you don’t make any bad mistakes along the way.
Photography by Klara Vernarcova
