The coronavirus pandemic has made the e-commerce market more prominent as more people turn to online shopping for their daily needs. Over two billion individuals have shopped online since the pandemic began, with e-retail sales surpassing $4.2 trillion in 2020 alone.
Here are some pointers to improve your e-commerce marketing in this changing world.
Planning Well
There’s no better time than now to begin planning on how you’ll approach the rest of the pandemic. You can hire a web development company such as Ocean 5 Strategies.com to align your e-commerce marketing investments with your business objectives, helping you create a structured plan that will drive measurable results. However, it’s best to give your plan room to change if ever the situation changes. After all, the ongoing pandemic has mainly been unpredictable.
To begin your plan, perform an audit of your business and see where you’re losing and gaining sales — and see how the pandemic has impacted your company and industry. For the best results, focus on the following elements.
- Brand response to the pandemic
- Remote worker productivity
- Postponed projects and campaigns
- Disturbed supply chains
- Tax and trading problems
- Emergency funding
- Debt-relief grants
Finally, you need to monitor how your country’s approaching its economy and travel since this can directly affect your business during — and after the pandemic.
Conduct a Customer Needs Evaluation
Think about your target audience, including their current situation, if they’re working at home or are serving on the front lines as essential workers — and see what their specific needs and concerns are right now. After understanding their current needs, can help you assess your readiness to meet them. However, it’s best to consider whether you currently have the inventory or the capacity to support their needs.
Adapt to an At-home Audience
One of the most notable impacts of the pandemic is the significant increase in spending more time at home than usual. Determine how you can shift your strategy to serve customer needs better or delight them during these stressful times. Some e-commerce stores have started stocking new items and featuring collections of some of their products that can be more useful to people’s “normal” day-to-day lives.
Improve Your SEO
As the e-commerce market continues to rise amid the pandemic, you need to ensure your business’s already optimizing for the top search engines to increase your online presence. After all, the pandemic has taught companies the importance of appearing high on search engine rankings. You can’t depend on customers walking past your physical stores during the pandemic, so you’ll need to compensate for the lost foot traffic by increasing your online traffic. The best way to do this is through search engine optimization (SEO).
Most individuals are shopping online during the pandemic, and there are no signs of it slowing down once the crisis is over, so take advantage of this moment and improve your rankings through SEO. Here’s how to optimize your business during the pandemic:
- Update your page and website load speed to rank higher as search engines factor in loading times when ranking websites.
- Target search terms related to the ongoing pandemic if relevant to your business.
- Update your listings and optimize your website for local search.
- Make and update content in your niche, helping your brand remain relevant no matter the current trends.
Adjust Your Overall Marketing Strategy
One of the most crucial things to do for your business during the pandemic is to update your overall marketing strategy and remove any inappropriate or irrelevant marketing message. Ensure to check your scheduled campaigns, email marketing, and social media posts to see what you need to change or remove.
However, beyond content, you need to consider your messages’ tone to help your business stand out in the e-commerce market, and here are a few ways how:
- Implement a sympathetic tone without sounding too overbearing.
- Lighten your messages. After all, people could use a smile during these times.
- Keep your messages accurate and transparent regarding the pandemic.
It’s also worth noting that if you’re running paid ads alongside your e-commerce marketing strategy, make sure to keep them updated regarding your inventory. Your customers will likely be expecting your business’s response to the ongoing pandemic. That’s why you should avoid “using” the pandemic to advertise your products or services. Instead, see how you can offer your assistance to them.
As the pandemic continues to spread globally, it’s challenging to predict when it’ll “end.” But e-commerce continues to rise amid the pandemic, and your business can make changes to prevent losses and continue sales amidst the crisis. The strategies mentioned can help you keep up with customer needs and secure steady profit — helping you stand out in the e-commerce market.