For a brief period of time, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, was anointed the richest person on the planet. While a large chunk of Amazon’s fortunes come from businesses outside eCommerce, the company remains the most powerful eCommerce entity on the planet. On Prime Day last year, Amazon sold as many as 636 items every single second.
Given how large and popular Amazon is, taking them on in the eCommerce game might seem like a foolish endeavor. There is reason to be cautious - industry insiders predict that anywhere between 80 to 97 percent of eCommerce stores fail. So how does a newcomer to the industry survive? Here are a few pointers on how to promote your eCommerce store.
Pick a niche industry
When it comes to eCommerce, ‘go big or go home’ is not usually the best approach. As an entrepreneur, you may be tempted to launch a horizontal store that sells everything under the sun. After all, the more choices you provide your customers, the more likely it is that they will buy - right? Not necessarily. All popular eCommerce stores, including the likes of Amazon and Zappos, started catering to a niche audience before they expanded to become horizontal stores.
Picking a niche industry to sell your products is helpful in two ways. Firstly, it helps your business establish authority and credibility among your audience. In addition to this, setting up business in a niche industry allows you to offer a wider variety of products and categorize them at a much granular level than you could possibly offer as a horizontal store.
Establishing authority
Once you pick a niche to go after, the next step is to establish authority in the industry. For this to happen, your business must go beyond eCommerce and establish a content portal that caters to all the needs and demands from the industry. Content marketing is one of the most tried and tested ways to bring in a niche audience to your portal. Making your website sticky among your target group helps your business build a captive audience who could then become repeat buyers from your eCommerce portal.
SEO vs. Social media marketing
Amazon enjoys terrific popularity on Google search. This makes it extremely difficult for a smaller competitor to outrank this behemoth on product searches. However, it is possible to rank on long-tail searches. This is another reason why your business must focus on content marketing to build an audience. While Amazon’s size may help the company on Google, this does not necessarily hold true on social media. If you are in an industry where visual medium works well (apparel, art, fashion, etc.), invest heavily in social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. Social media channels are also viral and investing in SMM helps your business expand to a large audience pool quickly and efficiently.
Skip the entry barrier
Although these strategies mentioned above have been successfully deployed by hundreds of eCommerce businesses, the truth is that operating an eCommerce business is hard work and has a significant barrier to entry. You can avoid this by buying an established site over a service like Shopify Exchange. Doing so helps your business jump over the hoops that a startup entrepreneur faces while setting up their service.
The first year of operation is absolutely crucial for any eCommerce business. Following the pointers provided in this article will help entrepreneurs craft a strategy to survive and prosper in their online venture.