Six Ways to Grow E-Commerce in 2012

2011 blasted existing records for online commerce out of the water, with sales for the entire internet marketplace approaching $370 billion USD. Given this pronounced expansion, the 2012 fiscal year represents an opportunity for engagement with the growing e-commerce market sector. So what are the best ways to break into new areas of e-commerce while growing your existing presence there? We’ll examine a few key techniques in this article.

1. Broaden Product Selection

Maintaining and expanding a branded presence is an elementary part of any marketing strategy, essential to success in the online arena of internet commerce. In a fertile market like today’s online financial sector, a varied and considered approach to branding can help to secure market visibility and increase revenue. Keeping a finger on the market’s pulse is also advisable, as is conducting an analysis of market trending for previous fiscal years. Getting an idea of how the market has acted in the past, while not a foolproof tactic, can help to predict how it might behave in certain future situations.

2. Overseas & Foreign Market Expansion

Reaching out to foreign markets is a natural expansion made much easier by doing business online. If you’re limiting your business to consumers living in the U.S., you’re missing an opportunity to engage with a much wider market. Localization for respective market isn’t difficult with the translation services available online, and international shipping services are comparatively easy to coordinate.

Understanding and utilizing the potential of international marketing via the internet is an essential component of building a serious business model. Consider the options available for localization services, map target audiences in unexplored sectors, and join the 21st century!

3. Subscription Ordering: An Overview of Advantages

Subscription ordering is a proven strategy used by internet retailers all over the world. Online marketplaces like Amazon’s are great for moving media like books, CDs and downloadable software content in large volumes, but unorthodox items like cosmetics and jewelry have always fared poorly on such sites. Subscription ordering presents a viable alternate for selling products like these as well as clothing, costuming, etc.

Assessing whether or not your products are well-suited to subscription ordering should involve a realistic assessment of your client base’s reliability. Manufacturing and sourcing costs are another critical factor, and if they’re not more or less static you should consider carefully before moving forward with implementing this model. Don’t get yourself in over your head.

4. How to Tailor Your Customers’ Experiences

Be mindful of how your customers experience the process of purchasing goods or services from you. Quantifying the results of customer satisfaction may seem nebulous, but market research suggests that customers who interact with a convenient interface are more likely to make purchases. Little alterations focused on your customers’ convenience and ease of use can do a lot for your brand’s profitability.

Making sure the purchasing process is simple and well-realized is a good starting point for designing your site for maximum user accessibility. Remember that repeat business is much more likely if consumers have a positive shopping experience, and focusing on making the initial experience a convenient one is much more important than providing support for unnecessary problems. Test any interface thoroughly before implementing it, and always design with the client’s needs in mind.

5. Launch New Sales Channels

One reason for the brisk growth of online commerce is the introduction of multiple ways to sell products. If your site does not support a checkout using a mobile device, then enabling that will almost certainly result in an increase in revenue. Enabling mobile checkout or a requires a little investment, but given the pace at which mobile commerce is growing, you should receive a return on that investment quickly.

Expanding your market model into new monetized venues will increase your business’s viability. Remember that any brand is more secure when it caters to multiple audiences and, while sourced from the same vendor, is available from multiple integrated sources.

6. The Perks of Site-to-Site Collaboration

Your site can generate additional revenue by collaborating with another retailer, to cross-sell each other’s products. For example, if you sell fish-tank peripherals, then collaborate with a fish food producer by offering that product, too. It will lead to increased sales for the producer and earn you increased profits via a commission from those sales. Moreover, the fish food retailer can offer your tank peripherals on its site.

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