17 Best E-commerce Marketing Strategies Brands Can Try In 2023 (With Examples)

In the ever-evolving world of E-commerce, it’s essential for organizations to have well-planned marketing strategies in order to succeed. An effective E-commerce marketing plan can help build a larger customer base for your business, thereby driving sales and revenue. 

Now, we understand not every business owner has the luxury of time to craft marketing strategies for their business. Don’t worry! We’ve done the homework for you. 

From our experience in E-commerce marketing, we have compiled a list of 17 best E-commerce marketing strategies that you can implement straightaway in any E-commerce business. Read on to learn more about these strategies.

What Is E-commerce Marketing?

E-commerce Marketing is the use of different tactics and strategies by businesses to promote and sell their products online. There are different goals of E-commerce marketing such as increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving sales, and retaining customers. To achieve these goals and master E-commerce marketing, one needs a good understanding of online consumer behaviour, as well as a solid grasp of the latest marketing trends and strategies. 

Top of the Funnel (ToFu) E-commerce Marketing Strategies

ToFu Marketing Strategies aim to introduce your brand and products to a broader audience, ultimately driving more traffic to your website and improving conversion rates. Here are some of the top marketing strategies you can use under this stage:

1. Optimize Your Website For SEO

Optimizing your website for Search Engine Optimization(SEO) helps your website to appear higher in search engine results pages (SERP). This significantly increases the likelihood of people finding your brand and engaging with it. 

SEO is a useful strategy as it helps you attract new visitors, particularly those who are starting to explore their options but are not ready to purchase yet. You are effectively introducing your brand to them at this point with the goal of building a long-term relationship.

Here are some basic tips to optimize your website for searches:

  • Use marketing tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to identify the keywords that are highly relevant to your business.
  • Ensure that your landing page copies, blog posts, and product descriptions contain the keywords you wish to rank for.
  • Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify issues and optimize your website for faster load times.
  • Build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.
  • Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. 

Brands like BigBasket have mastered the art of SEO. They rank at the top of the SERP for most queries related to grocery and everyday essentials. 

Optimize your website for SEO

2. Focus On Collecting Leads

This strategy involves collecting contact information from visitors who have shown interest in your products but are not ready to make a purchase yet. When you build a list of leads, you can nurture them later with targeted marketing campaigns. This will push them closer to making a purchase.

Offering a discount on a user’s first purchase is a great way to incentivize visitors to give their details. You can use pop-ups, exit-intent overlays, or banners to display the offer while they are browsing your website. By requiring users to provide their basic details to receive the discount, you can collect valuable contact information and build your lead list.

Loom, the online fashion store, uses this strategy effectively to collect information about its visitors. It generates a popup asking for a customer’s email address in return for latest updates on new launches and exclusive offers.   

Collect leads from your E-commerce website

 

You can also add a discount wheel to your website like how Bunaai, the fashion retailer does. The visitors have to spin a wheel to win a discount on their purchase in return for providing basic information about them. Besides receiving instant discounts, it creates a sense of excitement and fun for the users, which will encourage users to input their information.

Offer discounts on website to collect leads

 

3. Convert Empty Shopping Carts

The buyer’s journey is not always linear, and many times customers might click the empty shopping cart and reach the blank basket page. In such cases, displaying products related to the user’s intended purchase or popular among other shoppers on the empty cart page is a smart move. This way, you provide the visitors with additional purchase options on a page they least expected to find products. This pleasant experience increases the chances of conversion. 

For instance, Firstcry, the Online Store for kids and toddlers displays a range of trending items on their empty cart page. They are utilizing the real estate to the fullest potential and not leaving the page with an empty cart message like most businesses do. 

Display trending items on the cart landing page

 

4. Offer Holiday Gifting Guides

The holiday season is a peak time for businesses to drive sales and bring in new customers. The easiest way to do this is by creating a gifting guide.  A gifting guide is a curated compilation of products that are perfect for gifting during a particular holiday season. 

By creating this guide, you are essentially catering to those people who struggle to find the perfect gift for their loved ones from a vast catalog of products. You can also categorize the products based on different budgets so that customers can find their products even more quickly.

IGP, the online gifting store creates collections under different categories for each individual festival season. 

Offer holiday gifting guides

5. Build Subscription Plans

Offering subscription plans for all the relevant products on your website is a great way to generate recurring revenue. In a subscription plan, you enable your customers to opt-in to receive regular shipments of their favourite products at a discounted rate. 

Besides the price factor, you are also providing a convenient and hassle-free shopping experience for them. They can avoid the trouble of repeatedly purchasing the same products and at the same time ensure that they always have a supply on hand.

You, on the other hand, enjoy the fruits of recurring revenue, which is a stable and predictable source of income. This enables you to manage your cash flow in a better way and plan for future growth.

Amazon offers subscription plans for most of its grocery products at discounted rates. This increases the customer lifetime value of their customers by encouraging them to continue purchasing their products over an extended period.

Offer subscription plans

 

6. Leverage Influencer Marketing

One effective way to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website is by collaborating with social media influencers. By teaming up with these individuals, you can leverage their established relationships with their followers on different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. This not only introduces your brand to new markets and audiences but also helps establish credibility by associating your brand with trusted and influential figures who share your values. 

For example, Homecenter, a popular home retail brand, partnered with celebrity chef Ranveer Brar to promote its kitchenware. In addition to this collaboration, Homecenter also features several of Ranveer’s kitchen tips videos on their website to further engage customers.

Leverage influencer marketing to boost sales

 

7. Utilize PPC Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising involves placing ads on search engines and other websites and paying each time a user clicks on the ad and visits your site. Using these ads, you can target specific keywords and audiences and only pay for clicks from users who are interested in your products. This results in increased conversions and sales for your E-commerce store, as well as a higher ROI compared to other advertising methods. 

Interflora, the online florist, extensively uses PPC advertising in the form of Google ads to attract users to their store.

Utilize PPC ads

Middle of the Funnel (MoFu) E-commerce Marketing Strategies

MoFu marketing strategies nurture the leads and guide them further down the sales funnel by providing valuable information, building trust, and offering personalized experiences. Here are the top MoFu strategies you can employ – 

8. Offer Discounts On Wish List Items

The idea behind this marketing strategy is to create a sense of urgency and incentivize customers to make a purchase. The chances of conversion are high as you are offering a lower price for a product they have already expressed interest in. Customers who receive targeted discounts are more likely to feel valued and they will continue to engage with your brand, enhancing their loyalty. 

In the below example, you can see Flipkart offering a discount on a particular type of product that the user has shown interest in by adding it to the cart. 

Offer a discount on wish list items

 

9. Be In Contact With Your Customers

Staying connected with your customers is important for keeping your brand fresh in their minds and enhancing brand awareness. You can use various communication channels like email marketing, social media marketing, WhatsApp messaging, and live chat to address customer queries. You can also create email campaigns targeting specific customer groups. 

For instance, consider Nurserylive, an online plant seller. They regularly share stories with their customers about different plants and their benefits for homes. Even if the customers are not interested in buying the plants for now, this brand will be the first thing on their minds when they consider purchasing a plant in the future. 

Communicate with your customers

10. Recommend Products Based On Past Purchases Or Abandoned Cart Items

When you understand your customer behaviour and recommend suitable products, the likelihood of a purchase drastically increases. This is the core idea behind this E-commerce marketing strategy. By offering smart recommendations based on past purchases or abandoned cart items, you are creating a more relevant online shopping experience.

It’s important to ensure that the product recommendations are displayed in a way that is both helpful and unobtrusive. Also ensure that the recommendations are relevant, timely, and not overwhelming to the customer.

Most marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart have a dedicated section of recommended products based on past purchases, abandoned cart items, and browsing history on their home pages. 

Recommend products based on past purchase

 

11. Recover Lost Sales With Abandoned Cart Emails And WhatsApp Notifications

Creating an abandoned cart email flow or WhatsApp notifications helps in recovering lost sales. When your customers add products to their cart but don’t complete the purchase, you can automatically send a series of follow-up messages to encourage them to return and complete the purchase.

A typical abandoned cart messaging flow consists of a series of three or more messages, each designed to provide value and encourage customers to complete the purchase. The first email usually reminds customers of the items left in their cart and includes a call-to-action to the shopping cart. Subsequent emails may offer additional incentives, such as discounts or free shipping, to encourage customers to complete the purchase.

Looking for inspiration to revamp your abandoned cart campaign, check out 17 best abandoned cart email examples along with free templates to get started. 

Pepperfry, the online furniture store sends a series of abandoned cart emails, each convincing the customer in a unique way to complete the purchase. For instance, the below email from this brand induces FOMO in the minds of people to get the product before it goes out of stock. 

Create abandoned cart email flow to recover sales

Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) E-commerce Marketing Strategies

BOFU marketing focuses on providing potential customers with the information and incentives they need to make a purchase. Here are the top strategies under this category – 

12. Use Customer Testimonials As Social Proof

When you share positive reviews and feedback from satisfied customers, you end up demonstrating the high quality of your products, thereby encouraging potential customers to make a purchase. Sharing testimonials with potential customers also helps in addressing common objections or concerns that potential customers may have.

You can feature customer reviews on your product pages. You can also share customer quotes and feedback on social media. But to succeed in this strategy, you must constantly encourage your existing customers to leave reviews and feedback. You can also incentivize this process by offering discounts or gift coupons. 

Wakefit, the online sleep company, shares customer testimonials in the form of videos on every product’s detail page so that customers can go through the experience of other happy customers and make an informed decision. 

 Use customer testimonials as social proof

13. Convince Warm Prospects

In this, you convert potential customers who have already expressed some level of interest in your products. A warm prospect is someone who has interacted with your store in some way, such as signing up for a newsletter, adding items to their cart, or visiting a product page multiple times. 

One way to convince them is by sending personalized follow-up emails and encouraging them to complete their purchase. But the faster way to convince them is by offering an instant discount while they are browsing through your website.

Ferns n Petals offers discounts during user sessions with the help of pop-ups. This is a great way to convince visitors who are contemplating whether to make a purchase or not. 

Offer discounts

14. Reduce Frustration Of Sold Out Products In The Cart

When products go out of stock, it can be frustrating for customers who have already added them to their cart. One way to reduce this frustration is by providing alternative options. For example, if a customer has added a dress to their cart that is now sold out, you can suggest similar dresses or products that may fit their style or preferences. You can also notify them when the original product is back in stock.

By providing alternative options and being transparent about stock availability, you are showing customers that you value their time and their experience. This can help avoid negative reviews or feedback from these frustrated customers.

Myntra addresses this issue by showcasing products that are quite similar to the out-of-stock product on the cart page. This ensures that the user’s purchase journey doesn’t end abruptly, resulting in a more positive experience for them.

Inform about sold out products

15. Combine The Psychology Of FOMO And Free Shipping

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a psychological phenomenon that has been extensively used in the world of business. It revolves around people getting anxious or stressed about missing out on an opportunity, such as a limited-time offer on a popular product. The easiest way to implement this strategy in your online store is by clubbing it with cashback or free shipping.

For instance, you can make free shipping available for a limited period, such as a 24-hour flash sale. You can also induce FOMO by displaying the cart value left for unlocking free delivery. Netmeds, the online pharmacy displays this value in a prominent real estate on the cart page. This automatically encourages users to add products at that value to enjoy free shipping. This is a great way to improve the average order value for your business.

Invoke fear of missing out

Nyka, the beauty retailer, runs time-based discounts regularly on their website. It induces FOMO in the minds of visitors and encourages them to check out the sale products and make a purchase.

How Nykaa uses FOMO on their website

16. Ask For Referrals

Referrals are recommendations made by satisfied customers to their friends and family members. To encourage referrals for your E-commerce business, you can offer incentives to your customers such as discounts or rewards for each successful referral. You can also make it easy for your customers to refer by providing them with a referral link that they can send to their contacts. 

By leveraging the power of referrals, you can tap into the vast networks of your existing customers, and acquire new customers at a lower cost than through traditional advertising methods. Referrals also act as valuable social proof, as new customers are more likely to trust recommendations from their friends and family members than from other sources. 

Ugaoo, the online nursery store offers the benefit of each successful referral to both the referrer and the referee. This is a great way to promote referrals as the additional benefit will make the existing customer keener on sharing their positive experience with their loved ones. 

Ask for referrals

17. Set Up A Customer Loyalty Program

A customer loyalty program can help retain your existing customers and encourage repeat purchases. As the name suggests, it is a membership program that rewards customers for their long-term association with the brand.

It usually works by assigning points to customers for their purchases or other activities, such as referrals or social media shares. These points can then be redeemed for rewards, such as cashbacks, discounts, free products, or exclusive access to promotions. 

By offering these benefits, you create a sense of exclusivity and appreciation among your customers, which can increase their satisfaction and encourage them to continue shopping with your business.

Adidas, the sportswear brand, has a loyalty program called Adiclub. It provides exclusive benefits and special offers to all its members. Whenever the customer shops or reviews, they earn points that unlock new levels and rewards. 

Set up a customer loyalty program

Partner With ANS Commerce To Boost Your E-commerce Sales 

As the E-commerce space becomes increasingly crowded, it’s more important than ever for brands to stand out and succeed. By utilizing the above E-commerce marketing strategies, you can increase your brand’s visibility, attract new customers, and ultimately drive more sales. 

However, if you wish to take your E-commerce marketing efforts to the next level, the support of E-commerce growth partners like ANS Commerce is invaluable. Our highly experienced team is always updated with the latest E-commerce marketing trends and strategies and can help maximize your online sales and grow your E-commerce brand in no time. 

To know more about us and how we can help, book a demo now. 

How To Plan The Best Strategy For Social Media Marketing?

Social sites today have changed how society functions; the interaction, the connection, even the behavior of people have changed. With the growing popularity of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, businesses realized that these websites can influence customer behavior and took the opportunity to reach out to them with their products and services.

Many companies became successful with it as it allowed them to contact millions of people and spread the word about their product in a breeze. However, not all businesses achieve that success. Do you know why?

Social media is continuously growing! New platforms are emerging with different features, and the old ones are getting updated in order to keep their visitors engaged. So, no fixed strategy works. It needs to vary depending on which social networks your target audience uses. Before we discuss that, let’s understand what it is and what it can do for your business.

What is Social Media Marketing?

The process of building a community on social media platforms with the target audience to generate traffic to your business is known as Social Media Marketing (SMM). It is an overall method to communicate with existing consumers and reach out to new ones on the platforms where they socially interact.

Businesses use social media marketing to promote their brand, culture, mission, and even tone. There are a variety of methods on social media networks that allow marketers to advertise their products/services, connect with their users, and interact for the purchase.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

With social media playing such a crucial part at the top of the funnel, it is important to generate a fantastic marketing opportunity. And if you’re not making use of this lucrative source, you’re missing out on its great benefits.

Some benefits of Social Media Marketing are-

Increases Brand Visibility

Having a social media presence for your brand can undoubtedly increase your company’s visibility as it allows you to reach the same level where your customers are, and create a community where your users can interact. Social networking is the most stress-free and profitable digital marketing tool that can quickly generate a large following for your company and boost your brand recognition within a limited period of time.

Improves Brand Loyalty

Communicating with customers on a regular basis and creating a bond with them increases customer retention and loyalty that every business requires. When you have social media presence your customer can easily locate you and connect with you, moreover, you can also engage with your customers and keep them happy increasing brand loyalty.

Helps Remain Budget-Friendly

Social media marketing is perhaps the most cost-effective technique as almost all social networking sites provide free registration and account creation. However, if you decide to employ paid social media advertising, start modestly to have a sense of what to expect. Being cost-effective is critical since it helps you to maximize your return on investment and dedicate more money to other marketing and business needs.

Enhances Customer Satisfaction

When customers post comments on your page, they like to receive a customized answer rather than a generic statement. A firm that appreciates its clients and takes the time to craft a personalized statement is naturally regarded as positive. With the use of these platforms, you can give your company a voice that will help you build your brand image.

Boosts Web Traffic

Another advantage of social media is that it aids in the growth of your website’s traffic. If you post your content on social media, users will be more inclined to visit your website. The more high-quality content you share on social media, the more inbound traffic you’ll receive and the higher your conversion chances will be.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Social Media Marketing Process includes simple steps:

Define goals

It is important to clearly outline what you want to achieve from social media platforms. Whether you want to increase the followers or enhance sales of your company. Determine the purpose of your company’s social media presence in the first place. Without a clear goal in sight, you won’t be able to choose the best course of action.

Prefer using the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework to create your objectives

Specific- For your goal to be more effective, it is important to be specific. The more specific your goals are, the easier it will be to develop a strategy and set standards. If you want to raise brand recognition or gain followers every month, be explicit about how you’ll accomplish it.

Measurable- Specificity is a good start, but quantifying your objectives makes it easier to follow your progress and determine when you’ve arrived at your destination. You may enhance your results by tweaking your method if you are not able to achieve your goal.

Attainable- This is the moment in the process where you should do a serious self-evaluation. Companies might become too ambitious and establish unreasonable, unreachable objectives. Check to see if your aim is feasible given your resources.

Quick Tip – Reflect on whether your goal is something your team can fairly achieve or is certain to fail. Remember that your goal holds the efforts and the confidence of your whole team. If your goal fails, the confidence of your team also fails.

Relevant- Relevant goals are tightly tied with a company’s aims. This is when you must consider the larger picture. Why are you aiming for this particular goal? What influence will it have on your bottom line?

Time-bound- Set your deadlines! You and your team must discuss the time frame and agree on when a target has been met in order to accurately assess success. Discussing when the team should begin and execute can further make your goal more effective and memorable.

Set different goals for each social media platform you are using and keep a track of your progress to check the difference.

Determine audience

A target audience is a set of individuals who are most likely to be interested in your company. They’d have similar demographics and habits.

Remember, assumptions are bad for marketers! So don’t be afraid while researching your target audience. It will allow you to go deeper into the details and produce more relevant posts. Most of the information you need to shape your social media marketing plan is already available. It’s only a matter of knowing where to look.

With the right technologies, marketers can quickly research their target demographic. There’s no need for professional market research or data science expertise.

Choose Platform

We already discussed the increasing periphery of social media and distinct features that the platforms own. You can’t just incorporate every social media network in your approach because there are hundreds of them. It’s critical to perform some research before deciding on the best platforms for your marketing plan. Approach the ones that are most relevant for your brand and help you reach a large audience.  

You also need to understand that a distinct collection of users interact in distinct ways on different platforms. So, you cannot post the same material across all platforms as your audience won’t like it.

Here are some pointers on how to pick the best social media platform:

Facebook- Facebook has almost 2.7 billion users that love to develop relationships and stay in touch with old friends. As a result, Facebook is an excellent medium for increasing client loyalty but for attracting a new audience it has an enormous user base, and you might need to go for ads to make your posts reach a large number of people.

Consider your company goals when you evaluate Facebook as a possible platform.

Learn Facebook Ad Targeting Tips to Drive Conversions for Your Business.

Twitter- Twitter is a wonderful tool for increasing brand recognition. A hashtag is a tool used by Twitter to arrange conversations around a word or phrase. You may discover what others are talking about by Googling hashtags and tailoring your tweets to join in on the topic.

Many companies mix Twitter with offline interaction, such as events, because Twitter is frequently used to offer real-time information to an audience.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn has the distinction of being the most popular platform among citizens between the ages of 30 and 49. LinkedIn is also distinct in that it has a specific emphasis on educated users. LinkedIn is used to look for employment and network professionally. As a result, the platform is beneficial for generating B2B leads, general networking, and personnel recruitment.

LinkedIn serves as a hub for in-depth, industry-specific material that is more niche than what you’ll find on Facebook or Twitter.

Pinterest- Pinterest is a social media platform for “scrapbooking,” or preserving material by “pinning” photographs or videos to a virtual bulletin board. The Pinterest demographic is dominated by women. Recipes, styling suggestions, breathtaking images, and DIY projects are among the most popular pins. You’ll need good images to captivate consumers on Pinterest because it’s a visual site. Strong retail sales have been connected to successful company usage of Pinterest.

Instagram- Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Instagram, like Pinterest, depends on photographs or videos to generate interaction. As a result, this platform is ideal for enterprises that are visual in nature, such as art, cuisine, retail, and beauty. There is less noise than on Facebook because it is a growing platform. As your reach is broader, the platform is excellent for generating leads.

Create Content

It is no surprise that we are already aware of the importance of content. Content is the core of any social media marketing plan. Based on your goals, audience, and brand identity, you should have a very clear sense of what to post at which stage.

Here are some suggestions and ideas to get you started-

Conduct keyword research- While keyword research and analysis are essential for advertising success, doing keyword research on social media may substantially boost your exposure.

Post in the form of Stories- Stories aren’t going away anytime soon. Story-style content is both participatory and can’t-miss. An appealing story can help your brand’s account “jump the line” and stay in the mind of your followers.

Engage with conversation- Ask questions, give answers! Drop the statements that can initiate conversation. Show more of your human side as people love interacting rather than getting instructions.  

Quick Tip – You can conduct a competitive analysis to check what your competitors are up to.

Advertise Posts

It’s difficult to get your work seen on the internet, especially on social media, where nearly half of all information is shared with no one.

Post your content on the right platform at the right time to reach your target audience. Customers are not available on all platforms at all times. You need to check the density of the visitors on the specific platform and post the content during that same time so that it reaches the maximum viewers.

Moreover, follow the 80/20 rule to get the most out of your social media: “spend 20% of your effort developing content and the balance (80%) advertising it.”

Measure Progress

Your social media marketing plan is crucial to your overall marketing strategy. It’s difficult to get everything properly the first time.

As you begin to implement your plan and track results, you may discover that some of your approaches aren’t as effective as you had hoped. Keep track of your performance and compare it to entail your top-performing material.

Adjust your Approach

By this point, you should have a clear vision of your social media approach. However, you must be able to change your plan as the year progresses. There’s no doubt that a lot of social media is a learning process. Real-time monitoring can help you to make incremental adjustments to your social media marketing plan.

ANS Commerce Enabled Services

We are a team of experts that have years of experience in a variety of industries and brands with varied sizes and complexity. We are well aware of the kind of assistance you require when landing on social media platforms. Whether it is to increase brand visibility, ROAS, or retarget users based on their interests. We take care of every platform from the start to the end and influence customer behaviour to make impulse purchases.

Our services include Performance Marketing, Marketplace Management, Warehouse & Fulfillment, and e-commerce advice to help you get relieved of your marketing stress. We handle everything social media marketing- tools and target. So, get a DEMO and improve your internet presence now!

Impact of Coronavirus Vaccines on the E-commerce Industry in India! (Post-Pandemic Trends for 2021)

In March 2020, the Indian government declared the national lockdown with strict guidelines, exercising social distancing. As the pandemic reshapes our lives, people are finding comfort in online shopping more than ever. The e-commerce sector per se became the largest beneficiary of the coronavirus outbreak. 

However, now that the COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out, will there be a threat to e-commerce? The first question replays in our mind – what is going to happen to the online sector? Are people willing to adopt the new normal trends forever or will they switch over to traditional buying patterns? 

To discover the result of vaccines on e-commerce and online shopping, let’s first have a look at the e-commerce trends amid the pandemic in 2020! 

5 e-commerce trends accelerated by the pandemic | #2020Recap

1. Share of online shopping increased 

The most definite trend of 2020 we can’t ignore is the rapid increase in online sales. From clothing to electronics to groceries, the dependence on online surged during the pandemic. Further, with an increase in the number of mobile users, tier-2 city users seemed to become more confident and aware of online shopping.

2. Brands highlighted health & hygiene in their marketing campaigns 

Hygiene was the biggest concern in unprecedented times. Many brands made the most out of the situation while rolling out aggressive marketing campaigns highlighting their packaging and shipping to be 100% safe. To list out one, let’s not forget how food aggregator brands claimed to check the temperature of their delivery agents before picking up the orders.

3. Upsurge in the contactless payment options

One thing the pandemic has completely changed is people’s reliance on contactless payment options. Even the online businesses supported the option of digital wallets over COD to make the process completely contactless. Online payment options emerged mainly because it ensures complete safety.

4. Rise in the demand of e-gift cards amid festive season

A gift card is another trend the pandemic has given rise to. Be it a gift card for a clothing store, or an online ticket for a nearby salon or dance studio, people were seen giving e-gift cards to their relatives especially around Diwali season. Given the fact that the gift card option is highly versatile, both brands and customers supported the idea.

5. Increase in the trend of mobile commerce

To let people enjoy the perks of quick shopping, brands looked for ways to integrate WhatsApp & social commerce as another online sub-channel. Due to a tremendous increase in online shopping, Instagram also came up with a new option to sell. It expanded its shopping services across IGTV.  

It’s reasonable to expect the long-lasting effects on e-commerce and digitalization – given the fact that people are habitual of the comfort online has to offer.

What will happen to the E-commerce Industry after the Pandemic ends? (Major trends to come up in 2020)

For now, the market drift is clear about the practice of social distancing even though the vaccines have rolled out around the nation. But many online businesses are afraid that their growth might slow down in the next few months. What is exactly going to happen?  

  • If you have an online store or you have just established your own online business, you don’t need to be afraid as e-commerce will eventually boost. Seeing there’s a lot of scope for growth in India, especially after people have become habitual using online channels, your online investment won’t get wasted. 
  • Amid the hard times, people were forced to discover and shop online to avoid the transmission of Coronavirus. Now that they have finally found their comfortability in online shopping, there’s a very small possibility of them switching over to the traditional channels. Not to mention, online shoppers enjoy the convenience – price benefit, selection benefit, payment benefit that e-commerce offers.

Digital marketers will need to buck up and come up with aggressive and unconventional marketing strategies!

Online businesses and marketers will keep practicing a few strategies to boost digitalization. Keeping that in mind, we have curated a list of four trends expected to resurge after the end of the COVID-19! 

1. Upsurge in the Omni-channel Marketing

Consumer data collection and omni-channel marketing tactics are becoming increasingly popular. The more brands are realizing the significance of the data, the easier it has become to retain loyal customers. For instance, a fashion brand has both a brick and mortar store and an online store. Now a person frequents their offline store for office wear clothing. With this knowledge and the collection of customer data, they can send marketing adverts for formal wear to boost online sales. 

2. Emergence of multiple e-commerce platforms 

The only conventional e-commerce platforms we are aware of include; marketplaces and brandstores. But in the coming months, the nature of e-commerce per se will evolve, giving rise to various other unconventional models. The display of offerings on social media channels is one of the examples. Showcasing products and generating orders via live video options on channels such as Instagram and Snapchat could also be considered on a broader scale.

Quick tip: If you are having a problem selling on marketplaces, let us assist you with our robust marketplace management solution. From account management to growth planning, we help you establish your mark while boosting your sales. To know more, request your free DEMO today!  

3. Creating in-store experiences

Augmented reality and virtual reality are definitely going to be the center of attraction in the upcoming months. To compete with offline shopping, concepts such as virtual trial rooms are going to increase. Moreover, the retailers will come up with more creative ideas to fill in the gap between online and offline. 

4. Headless Commerce will become mainstream 

To enrich the customer experience, the idea behind headless commerce will evolve in the next 4-5 months. The unconventional architecture will give more liberty to the brands to build and integrate various channels altogether. Largely, the whole retail will be operated in a more organized way irrespective of what channel is being used. 

5. Intelligent forecasting

As the new and intelligent way of forecasting has developed over time, businesses will continue to keep analyzing the behavior with these unconventional methods. For instance, instead of checking the inventory levels manually, warehouses have deployed software to check the inventory level and forecast the future demand. Same way intelligent forecasting is going to upsurge. 

While businesses are trying to forecast the changes the vaccines will bring in, one thing is for sure the e-commerce industry is not going to end at all. But one thing you must do is to revisit your business plan and buck up with the changing market scenario. Strengthen your e-commerce marketing strategies to persuade and retain customers!

Delight your Customers: 6 Attractive Valentine’s Day Marketing & Branding Tips!

Valentine’s Day is globally recognized as a day of love and affection. While some of us consider it a day to charm our romantic partner, many acknowledge it as a day to strengthen the bonds with family and friends. No matter what your idea behind this day, one thing is sure, you definitely need to revamp your digital attire to entice the people. 

“In the 1300s, Valentine’s Day officially became a holiday associated with love.”

If your business offerings do not revolve around traditional love gifts such as chocolates, jewellery, cards, and flowers, worry not, as your business can still ace the day with a few charming marketing tips. Let’s have a look at the Valentine’s Day Marketing and Branding Tips!

Valentine’s Day Attractive Ideas to Delight Your Customers!

1. Improvise your product packaging

People love the idea of customization, especially during occasions like these. Offer custom packaging to your customers. Instead of using plain plastic packaging, improvise it a bit with heart-shaped transparent plastic sheets. You can also include love quotes inside the box.

Quick tip: You can offer free gift wrapping on Valentine’s Day. Include an option at the checkout time asking customers for the name of the recipient. You can also communicate this idea over emails, or on the homepage of your brandstore. 

2. Market the idea behind E-Gift Cards

Last year, amid the Diwali season, the idea of giving e-gift cards or online tickets to loved ones became a big hit! E-gift cards are an amazing option at times when you are in a complete dilemma and can’t think of a thing to gift. Around the love week, start your promotional campaigns by introducing your digital gift cards.

3. Generate time-sensitive offers to create a sense of urgency

Time plays an important role during special occasions. People don’t want to lose a hold on discounted prices and amazing deals, and you can take advantage of this. Create deals and promotions on your landing page with countdown timers that you can easily customize with ad customizers. After you have started a time-sensitive campaign, go ahead with persuasive marketing copies that say “HURRY only 2 left”. This not only boosts your sales with a sense of urgency but also viral your campaign for a specific point in time.

Quick tip: Tailor your campaign ideas with love-themed coupon codes such as LOVEU20!

4. Send Valentine’s Day themed emails

The whole idea behind email marketing is to remind your customers about the upcoming trend/season, thereby dropping them in the sales funnel. Around this day, make a Valentine’s Day-themed email with a short crisp copy. Here are a bunch of ideas you can formulate your email content around: 

  • Announce upcoming offers and discounts 
  • Curate a ‘gift guide’ blog, including your offerings with images redirecting to the product page
  • Include competitions and contests around love week

5. Support a local cause by showering love

Club with a local charity, organizing Valentine’s Day fundraiser. To communicate the idea, add an option of donation on your website, making it easier for customers to support it. You can also communicate it via different social media channels. Though this won’t boost your sales immediately, it’s an incredible idea to show how you care for society. This will make your business more credible and will give a reason to people to choose you over others. 

“Corporate social responsibility campaigns are a great way to manage your brand’s reputation. Moreover, you get support from social activists and philanthropists.” 

Quick tip: While communicating, don’t forget to highlight the details such as the name of the non-profit organization you will be collaborating with and the cause you are supporting through this action. It gives people a reason to believe your brand. 

6. Put on a romantic dash on your website

Colours play a major role to reflect your corporate identity. Add a hint of romance to your website while playing with colours. You can also tailor the logo of your brand to make it Valentine’s Day ready. A logo is the voice of the brand and playing with it is not an easy thing to do. You can’t change your logo altogether for a temporary festive season. But adding a few festive elements will build a connection with your audience. 

“Keeping harmony between bright hues and minimal design is the key to stealing your customer’s heart.”

How to do it?

Don’t know how to do that? From checking your brand logo to creating account progress reports to optimizing the load time of the website, ANS Commerce provides you with performance marketing solutions across various channels with a special focus on sales and ROAS. Request your free DEMO now!

What can you expect from us?

  1. Account Hygiene: Be it checking your brand’s logo, getting ad copies approved, or creating account progress reports, we keep our eyes open to assist you anytime.
  2. Tech & Product: We help you in everything from building XML feed for fetching product info to auto sorting of products basis CTR.
  3. Business & Analytics: We have in-house tools for driving market automation and insight mining.

7 Constructive Tips To Design A Persuasive E-commerce Newsletter!

With the rise in online shopping, the influence of email marketing has also emerged. Gone are the times when the exchange of emails was used for mere transactional purposes. Today, almost all brands are employing content marketers to strategize and curate persuasive email copies. 

When a new offer rolls out, or a new collection comes in, retailers pop their users with emails. But it isn’t enough just to send those emails. They need to be inspiring and motivating so the users actually end up making the purchase. Otherwise, your offers will be sent to spam or avoided completely. Let’s study what actually influences the effectiveness of email marketing.

Here’s How to Create a Persuasive Newsletter to Drive Customer’s Attention!

1. Keep the design elements minimal

Making your design too flashy would only result in an unsubscription. By minimal, we don’t mean boring colours and monotonous themes. Keep a balance between text and images. It’s essential to leave some negative space (white space) here and there, for the design to settle in the mind of the readers. Without that, you’ll end up creating clutter and confusion. Harmony and balance of the design elements is the key to a successful newsletter. 

2. Draft short-crisp copy

Email newsletters are generally sent at the time when people are waiting to board a metro, or traveling in a cab. Optimize the content of your newsletter so that it’s easy to consume in a short time. People don’t respond to the text the way they do to the visuals and graphics. But if you keep your text rather crisp with quirky words and informal expressions, you have a chance to win attention.

3. Insert product unboxing video play button

Videos are best to engage the users, especially if they talk about the pros and cons of a product. To attach a video to your newsletter, add an image with a video play button, redirecting your user to the YouTube video. Since these videos are more about product feedback, they enhance your brand reputation and create social proof. 

Quick tip: User testimonial videos should be original. To create such videos, you can request your customers to send in their video opening the product with complete details.

4. Write process tutorials with step-by-step images

Another way to entice customers is by curating tutorial content of your offerings. For example: If your business is all about leather bags, sending a tutorial on “How to clean your leather bag?” will grab attention easily. You can add CTA to the images, by linking the leather bag page of your website. Also, highlight the features of your product wisely while writing the tutorial to convert the readers.

5. Add animated GIF Images

To drop your customers in the sales funnel, it’s important to formulate a narrative. Animate promotional messages have an advantage over mundane text messages as they can tell a tale, fascinating the reader to hit the button. Now the question comes; ‘how to create them?’ There are plenty of GIFs generators, to help you create a GIF. Also, don’t use more than one GIF image to avoid any clutter. To convert the readers and generate leads, make sure the image is clickable and redirects to the page. 

Quick tip: Keep your GIF size to 1 MB as a heavy newsletter can get cropped, damaging its aesthetics.

6. Include countdowns in your newsletter

To add a sense of urgency and convert your customer quickly, include a clock with countdowns of your most exciting offers. Limited offers have one advantage over the normal offers, it stimulates user interest in a jiffy. They work best at the times of spring and autumn season sales.

7. Announce contests and giveaways

Community outreach ideas such as running contests and competitions work best on social media. But newsletters are also an incredible platform to convey the message. You need to be more creative and unique to run contests over email. Scratch cards or win wheels are some of the elaborative ideas to make the most out of email marketing. 

Quick tip: You can also include a simple creative, asking readers to tag your brand on social media with their videos and follow your page to win exciting prizes. This way your engagement on other social media platforms increases. 

If your e-commerce store is not gaining brand visibility, then fret not and invest in our performance marketing solutions. From checking your brand logo to creating account progress reports to optimizing the load time of the website, ANS Commerce provides you with performance marketing solutions across various channels with a special focus on sales and ROAS. Request your free DEMO now!

A well-curated emailer can help you drop your customers in the sales funnel. Don’t forget to add CTA to your content with optimized HTML URLs. Also, keep the tone of your content the same for all the newsletters as it’s the voice of your brand. Follow these tips and promote your brand efficiently.

7 Customer Retention Strategies to Boost your Sales More Than Ever!

Customers are one of the biggest assets of any business. In a nutshell, any entrepreneur’s strategic planning starts and ends with building long-term relationships with customers. 

There are two facets to bonding with your customers – lead generation and customer retention. While the former welcomes new customers, the latter takes care of the existing ones. Now the question is, would you rather welcome only new customers and avoid the older ones, or would like to keep a balance between the two? 

“Marketers around the world put so much emphasis on nurturing new leads, they sometimes fail to entice the existing users.” 

It’s important to invite new faces, but at what cost? Also, it has always been easier to hold on to the existing customers because they are aware of your services and offerings. Approaching them takes less time than it takes to attract new ones. But how can you keep your existing users engaged? 

To help you maintain your loyal assets, we have come up with 7 customer retention strategies So let’s start, shall we?

7 Proven Customer Retention Strategies

1. Surprise your customers with great service

People love it when you take a step forward and value them. You can get creative in your customer support services and offer them valuable services without their knowledge, pulling off their attention. You can add thoughtful quotes with personalized messages, thanking them to buy from you. Additionally, you can give them special offers and discounts occasionally, conveying they are important for your business. 

Quick tip: You can come up with creative discount codes specially made for an existing customer base, grabbing their attention. For example, coupon codes such as JUST4YOU, and WELCOME_BACK, can grab their attention immediately. 


2. Get your customer’s feedback 

The market forces are no more driven by your products, but they rather revolve around customers’ needs and preferences. In simpler words, it’s not about your products and their features. It’s about the people you cater to. Their likes and dislikes play a major role especially when you roll out a new product in the market. And it’s impossible to satisfy every customer without knowing their taste. With customer feedback, not only do you get to know your strengths and weaknesses but you also make them feel noticeable and valuable. 

Quick tip: There are many ways to gather customer feedback. One such way is to do customer surveys. Come up with short, simple, and open-ended questions.

3. Send regular updates via email automation 

Newsletters are the best way to engage your customers in your brand. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to retain customers. You can start with drip campaigns to nurture your customers with occasional updates. From time-sensitive offers to the new collection, to seasonal sales, cover each and every occasion to hit mail! To make it persuasive and attractive, use quirky content marketing strategies, grabbing the attention. 

4. Start with cause marketing programs

Consumers love to engage with those brands that support a social cause. By launching corporate social responsibility campaigns, you can grab the attention of your users. It’s the best way to retain your customers as cause marketing makes your organization look more credible and reliable. Check your brand’s mission statement and find what you as an organization genuinely care about. Share it with your community. It creates a sense of trust in the minds of the user, persuading them to swear by your products.

5. Use the strategy of gamification

Focused on the mechanism of gaming, this strategy is not your regular game. It’s more of a marketing tool to pull off the customer’s attention. Rewarding your customers when they refer your app to their friends, is one of the examples of gamification. You can even create customer-oriented campaigns using gamification. For example, create a contest asking your users to refer your business to ten friends. If five of their friends purchase using their code, they will get a free product. 

Quick tip: With more than 50+ third-party integrations, Kartify – our tech brandstore is pre-integrated with various loyalty programs. Get your hands on it and explore what’s best for your customer. Request your free DEMO now! 


6. Organize live educational webinars to motivate your customers

Webinars are a great way to educate your customers. You can organize a webinar, revolving around an area of your business. This way you can educate your customers and ask them to purchase from you. For example: If you are an e-commerce fashion brand. You can organize a webinar, highlighting fashion branding tips. This way you can introduce your new offers and products while giving them a glimpse of how you market your brand.

Want To Drive Traffic to your e-commerce website? Click here to read 10 concrete ways to boost your website’s traffic! 

7. Prepare a communication calendar

By creating a communication calendar, you get an idea of how often you interact with your customers. Even when you don’t get the answer to the feedback form, it’s your responsibility to reach out to them time and again. A communication calendar is similar to your editorial calendar. The only difference is, it tells the last time you communicated with your customers. 

Quick tip: By using a communication calendar, you can check if a customer’s subscription is about to get expired. You can reach out to them before it gets expired. This helps in retaining the existing customers. 

How to do it all?

From maintaining your brandstore with our in-house tech “Kartify” to assisting you with our performance marketing services, ANS Commerce is a full-stack e-commerce enabler. We strive at strategies that help you tackle all the obstacles including e-commerce marketing and brandstore hygiene. You can reduce your cart abandonment rate with our exclusive services. Request a demo for our e-commerce solutions now! Request your free DEMO now! 

Customer retaining campaigns cost 10X less than lead generation campaigns. These strategies are indeed very important to be included in your marketing efforts. Start with the above 7 strategies to enjoy long-lasting benefits.  

E-commerce Marketing: Boost Your Online Sales With 9 Unconventional Tips For This Festive Season!

With the cool breeze starting to ring bells, it’s hard not to feel the festive vibes. Diwali is the time when your sales increase at a 5X speed than at any time of the year. By now, you might have observed that stores have started sneaking Diwali decoration with their offerings in the displays. Fairy lights might be the lead of the season for now, but before you get to know it, combo packs and other gifting options will take their spot to start the annual celebration. To get the most out of the festive season, initiate your marketing strategy before it gets too late.

The festive season brings fierce competition but a plethora of opportunities to seize new customers. To help you have your most successful season, we have curated 9 marketing ideas for you. And absolutely you can’t afford to miss.

9 unconventional marketing tips to boost your online sales for this year’s festive season!

1. Showcase your festive collection with catalogue linked ads

If you are struggling to bring relevant traffic to your website, Facebook catalogue sales campaigns can be your saviour. A catalogue ad contains your product range and holds information on the offerings that you want to advertise. Link your entire catalogue showcasing your product offerings to your prospective audience.

Quick tip: Experiment with different ad formats such as dynamic ads, carousel ads, and collection ads, and choose what suits your brand the best! Not only does it improve CTR (click-through rate) but also helps you in getting a 5-10X return on your ad spend.

2. Choose the correct approach for your product segment

Putting sun-loving plants in the sunshine and keeping the shade-loving plants indoors is the right treatment. Just like that, every segment demands a different strategy. If you deal with shopping goods including apparel and footwear, online catalogues and gift cards have to be your best friend. Similarly, if you’re into FMCG, gift packs with vibrant yet unique packaging work best for you. COMBO packs can be your buddies to reach sales targets!

“Entice potential customers with exciting offers and sales promotions in the form of a catalogue sales campaign.”

3. Generate time-sensitive offers with a sense of urgency

Time plays an important role during the festive season. People don’t want to lose a hold on discounted prices and amazing deals, and you can take advantage of this. Create deals and promotions on your landing page with countdown timers that you can easily customize with ad customizers. After you have started a time-sensitive campaign, go ahead with persuasive marketing copies that say “HURRY only 2 left”. This not only boosts your sales with a sense of urgency but also viral your campaign for a specific point of time. 

Quick tip: If you’re struggling with your brandstore, then you can get your hands on Kartify- handcrafted to deliver an exceptional e-commerce experience. Having come with 60+ integrations, Kartify offers your fully customizable UI/UX. 

4. Pay attention to your creative visuals

Now is the time to pay attention to the aesthetics of your online presence. Colourful creatives showcasing your offerings and offers are a great way to steal that attention. The idea is to lure people with attractive visuals. Use festive related colour tones in your ad creatives to excite the attention of people. You can also hire an additional staff of graphic designers and social media strategists to do the job.

Quick tip: From maintaining your account hygiene to brainstorming ideas with persuasive ad copies and fascinating visuals, ANS Commerce is your one-stop solution. We strive to help you get maximum ROAS with sales focused campaigns. Request your free demo today!

5. Focus on festive-oriented Google smart shopping campaigns 

Imagine, you’re searching for home furniture and you come across an ad showcasing the exact leather lounge chair you want. You would either click on the ad or search for that chair on the marketplace. That’s what Google’s smart shopping campaign is capable of. You can easily bring relevant traffic to your website. Initially, the user might not be aware of the brand’s presence. In that case, your persuasive ad copy and eye-pleasing visuals come in handy.

“Google smart shopping campaign also lets you re-target your potential buyers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.”

6. Indulge in re-marketing to engage with cart-abandoners 

A cart abandonment campaign can let you swing into your potential buyer’s mind. You can track down the people who have products in their carts but haven’t made a purchase. Efficient re-target ads can give them a boost to buy your products by showing them the same time to time.

Quick tip: Email marketing also plays an important role here. You can make the inception of your drip campaign while popping their mailbox with the particular products

7. Use different marketing strategies to persuade different types of customers

Marketing strategies for existing customers don’t go along with strategies made for new customers. Segment your audience into different buckets basis their interaction with your website and catalogue, and then create marketing campaigns for them. Push strategies including SMS marketing, email marketing, and app push notifications help to generate sales while targeting existing customers.

“To blow the minds of your new customers, you can start by strategizing marketing ideas that include exciting festive offers with exclusive gift packs.”

8. Reach your followers with community outreach strategies

Engagement is the key to increased profits. You can only get one if your community is fed daily with unique yet informative content. To master that, you can vouch for festive-oriented contests by arranging your most popular offering as a giveaway. The idea is to create word-of-mouth where your audiences can tag their friends in their stories and posts. Blogging is yet another interesting way to reach your community of followers. You can create engaging content to promote your products. To inform and aware people of your offerings, you can write blogs on your website with CTA (call-to-action) buttons that redirect them to your brandstore. For example, if a person is looking for ethnic wear, then curate a blog about your store’s ethnic collection. Cover all the relevant information including your upcoming offers, the fabric of your ethnic wear, prices, etc.  

“Community engagement ideas wouldn’t just increase your brand’s reach but also strengthen the relationship with your customers, turning them into brand advocates.”

9. Take advantage of Instagram’s new feature

Due to a tremendous increase in online shopping, Instagram has come up with a new option to sell. It has launched a global expansion of its shopping services across IGTV. You can sell and merchandise your products by showcasing your range of products via IGTV. In the future, they might come up with a shopping feature on Instagram’s reels as well. So gear up and try it out before it gets captured by others in the market. 

How to do it?

If you want your customers to get taken by your marketing campaigns with 5X more ROI then you must think of investing in performance marketing. It enables you to measure everything from the reach of your products to the conversion rate. This new age of advertising is completely transparent and lets you pay for successful transactions.

Don’t know how to do that? From checking your brand logo to creating account progress reports to optimizing the load time of the website, ANS Commerce provides you with performance marketing solutions across various channels with a special focus on sales and ROAS. Request your demo for the performance marketing solutions.

What can you expect from us?

  1. Account Hygiene: Be it checking your brand’s logo, getting ad copies approved, or creating account progress reports, we keep our eyes open to assist you anytime.
  2. Tech & Product: We help you in everything from building XML feed for fetching product info to auto sorting of products basis CTR.
  3. Business & Analytics: We have in-house tools for driving market automation and insight mining.

With high traffic on sites and tough competition from other retailers, the festive season is undoubtedly the most crucial yet stressful time of the year. From generating new leads to satisfying existing customers, it might be quite complex but the return you would be enjoying will go beyond this year. If you haven’t already started prepping for the Diwali season, NOW is the time to start. And it goes without saying that time is running out. So grab the opportunity and get a head start on the completion.

How COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted Marketing Efforts

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us face-to-face with unprecedented times, where businesses struggle to keep the damage to the minimum. Since most countries have been under lockdown for the last few months, the impact of the restrictions on daily activities can be seen on almost all businesses and markets.

While the crisis has changed the business landscape, all is not lost. With these disruptions come opportunities for growth and overcoming challenges. With the right mindset and resources, you can navigate your way through these times in order to identify your customers’ needs, wants and expectations.

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Should I continue my marketing efforts?

In times like these, the most impacted business is that of non essentials such as apparels, tech, beauty, etc. The greatest challenge is foreseeing how customer wants, needs, expectations and purchasing decisions will evolve. 

Keeping this in mind, businesses often have the question whether or not they should continue with their marketing methods at all. This question is only obvious since they want to optimize their costs of running the business to sustain during this period. And while making the cuts in the costs, the first thing to be sacrificed is more often than not, the marketing efforts. The thought process behind this is simple – If the buying capacity of the consumer has decreased then why burn money on advertising the goods?

Well, that approach here isn’t right. 

Abruptly stopping all your marketing efforts will cut off your relations and conversations with your customers. The longer the pandemic goes on, the more out of touch you will be with your brand followers. This will lead them to forget about your brand amidst all the engaging content provided by other brands. 

When things finally do get back on track, you will have to start from scratch.

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So How Did The Pandemic Affect Brands?

As soon as the lockdown came into effect, offline stores were shut and deliveries from online stores had also come to a halt. This ultimately led to brands stopping most, if not all, of their marketing efforts since they could not deliver the products. Although this did affect sales, this also meant that the competition had lowered. Certain brands saw this as an opportunity and decided to run some of their marketing messages, just to ensure that they did not lose touch with their customers.

One more key takeaway from this sudden shift was that traffic clicks were cheaper since there wasn’t much competition in the market. Hence, for those who were continuing their advertising campaigns, this time couldn’t have been more fruitful.

Who Was At Advantage?

The lockdown had a huge impact on all traditional methods of sales and marketing but there were also certain businesses that benefited from it.

  • Brands that were delivering even during the lockdown period had an advantage by default since people had the ideology that it’s better to have products of any brand rather than not have any products at all.
  • Due to the social distancing mandate, people preferred buying online rather than going to offline stores, even if they were open for business. Thus the offline rush had found its way online. This played to the advantage of those who had established an online presence.
  • Another observation was that brands which had a prominent offline presence ultimately also had a prominent advantage online. This is due to the fact that customers trust a brand that they had been using, so that even while buying online, they do not have to worry about the product quality.
  • Brands which continued their marketing could leverage the customers of their competitors who weren’t aggressively marketing and promoting their products.

What were the downsides?

Although there were certain advantages, there were also some downsides that were seen by businesses and brands. One of the biggest adverse effects was seen in servicing after purchase since personnel movement was restricted. Not only that but deliveries also took a hit due to the limited movement of vehicles throughout the country which resulted in products being delivered within 2 weeks’ period or so instead of the previous 3-4 days period.

How do I sustain my brand in these times?

An article covered by The Economic Times outlines the concept of revenge shopping, taking the example of a luxury brand and how it recorded the biggest single-day shopping in China. Revenge shopping is the overindulgence in retail therapy by people who missed shopping during the lockdown period.

In India this trend might be witnessed in the upper middle class who have sustained their incomes and standard of living during the lockdown. Another way to recover the lost sales during the lockdown is carrying out promotional activities and sales or discount offers, which will attract customers loyal to your brand and also potential customers since everyone is looking for economical goods these days.

To summarize, the pandemic isn’t over yet. There might be a few more blind turns ahead but brands have already started planning for contingencies. Although this new economic climate has added challenges for brands, it has also opened up new avenues for growth.

If you are looking for performance marketing partner to grow your business in these uncertain times, please drop your query at [email protected]