If you haven’t seen the rise in online shopping, then you’ve been living under a rock. Shopping online is at an all-time high more now than ever before. You have online stores that cater to whatever you can think of. From ordering food and clothes to ordering cars! This rise in retail e-commerce has definitely changed the overall shopping experience for consumers and businesses are now putting their main focus on giving customers a more user-friendly experience.
Now, because there has been such an evident increase in sales, it has made millions of people want a piece of the pie, and for good too. According to the US Census, the rise in retail sales has increased dramatically from 2018 to 2019. Retail sales for the first quarter of 2019 was a whopping $137.7 billion, which was a nice increase from the fourth quarter of 2018 and the numbers are expected to increase even more throughout the year. Luckily, with the expected increase in sales, there’s enough room for you to get your e-commerce business running to have your share in making profits too.
Getting Your Start
So you want a piece of the e-commerce pie too… Well, it’s very possible for that to happen for you. There are just a few things you need to do. First and foremost, you need to get a website, right? Yes. The whole point of online shopping is getting online, so you need to get a website. Shopify.com is a great site to use when searching for premium domain names.
Once you have your domain name, that’s when you can get to the “meat and potatoes” of your website, meaning design your website and fine-tune the layout of how you want everything to look. Now, once you have all of that, the time will then come for getting your business name out there. This is when you want to incorporate some of the latest tech trends into your business strategy to grow your e-commerce business.
*Just remember, the commonality with these e-commerce trends is to give customers a more user-friendly experience because there are no face-to-face interactions. So giving them the best online shopping experience possible is key with all of these trends*
Using Social Media For More Than Just Social Media
You probably know how social media works, at the bare minimum, but a lot of people don’t realize just how big of a powerhouse social media can be. Social media is not just an outlet to post pictures and videos of your cat playing with yarn… social media is such a powerful instrument that it can be used as not only a way to stay relevant with friends and family but it can be used as one of your most efficient and effective marketing tactics as well as one of your best customer service tools to attract new customers and keep loyal customers.
Whether you choose to create business pages on Facebook or Instagram or both, the main thing to keep in mind is that your goal with social media platforms is to have the ability to recognize where your customers spend their screen time and use that outlet as a means to show them content that will make them want to make a purchase from your site.
Letting Videos and Live Video Streaming Do the Talking For You
Posting videos is one of the hottest tech trends out right now in the e-commerce world. You’re probably sitting there thinking that posting and streaming videos aren’t anything new, and it’s honestly not but the thing that’s new is how you’re streaming your videos and the intent of the videos.
Did you know that there are people out there who have created full-time jobs out of streaming live videos? This is actually a great way to engage with your audience, especially through social media. Sharing live videos through your Instagram stories and Snapchat is really where a lot of people spend their screen time so in knowing that, that is an opportunity for you to connect with your customers.
The great thing about utilizing social media to stream and post videos is that whoever your followers are, they will get notifications when you do share a story or go live. For example, on Instagram, if any of your followers share a story, Instagram will send you a notification saying that someone is going live at that moment (so you can tune in) or that they just shared a story so that you can check it out. Just imagine grabbing the attention of your customers through those notifications whenever you go live or share a story…
Turning to Influencers to Market Your Product
Using this marketing strategy would be a great investment for your business. The way it works is, you would want to find a well-known influencer in your industry and essentially sponsor them to promote your product or service on social media. Instagram and Facebook are the best platforms to use but in doing that, you want to give that influencer free samples of that product or service they’re promoting.
You want to do this because most influencers aren’t going to promote a product that they don’t believe in because doing so will tarnish their credibility so by giving them samples of the product first will help them determine whether or not they will promote it. If they actually like your product or service, their followers will too. Whether they make posts, share stories about it, or stream live videos on it, it’s going to earn you substantial business growth.
With influencers, most of the times, it’s not just about the money… their reputation and credibility are way more valuable than a paycheck so be mindful of that when you are presenting your product or service to them. If you believe in your product or service and know that it’s of good quality and will actually be helpful to people, then that influencer will be able to see that too and give it their seal of approval… that’s why this particular tech trend is a great investment to consider.
Robert J. Smith is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including JoyStiq and Android Authority. In regards to academics, Robert earned a degree in business from Fordham University. Robert has passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
