Latest E-Commerce Features to Get Your (Virtual) Case Register Ringing
Learn how online storefronts put marketing, managing, and social media tools right at your fingertips.
Just like it’s never too late to get in the social media game, if you’re an integrated marketer dragging your feet on e-commerce, now is the time! The technology has gone so far beyond just online storefronts, putting a variety of marketing, managing, and social media tools right at your fingertips. These are just a few advantages:
Integrated SEO
By far, SEO has the highest ROI of any marketing tactic for retailers – 93% of all traffic starts with a search! You need to be on the first page when a customer searches for “furry red widget” (or whatever). Almost all of the popular platforms have SEO optimization built in, giving you the tools to push your listings higher in the rankings.
Seamless payment systems
Most online storefronts can process a variety of different payments, seamlessly and securely. Even beyond the traditional Mastercard, Visa, and AmEx, you can take PayPal, bitcoin, Affirm, and more.
Built-in cart recovery
One of the most exciting features to come to this generation of online retail is built-in cart recovery – or the ability to market to people who’ve loaded up their cart but bailed before completing checkout. By targeting those gun-shy shoppers with the right message at the right time, you’ll see 34 times the sales (compared to a bulk or mass email).
Automatic responsiveness
You know how we were just talking about cart abandonment? For desktop, the figure is about 73% but on mobile, it shoots up to 85%: the smaller the screen the more likely a shopper is NOT to hit the purchase button. A responsive site can help combat this, by loading faster, looking prettier, and appearing like a trustworthy, legitimate website.
Social media integration
Many e-commerce platforms put social sharing plugins right on product pages, so users can share the wares across their own networks – retailers like Nordstrom, Target and Home Depot use this feature to enhance their social media marketing and reach new customers. You can also showcase trending products, which provides social proof to new buyers.
Remarketing tools
Thanks to built-in remarketing functions, you can serve up relevant banner and paid search ads to looky-loo customers, based on what products they looked at, and how far down the funnel they got. Remarketing even allows you to market to those who’ve completed the purchase, to increase loyalty, awareness…and sales!