13 Ecommerce Marketing Strategies for a Successful Business

Ecommerce has revolutionized the shopping landscape. Global retail ecommerce sales are projected to exceed $4.1 trillion in 2024.

The remarkable growth is beneficial for online sellers, yet it also highlights the increasing competitiveness of the ecommerce landscape.

The question is, which ecommerce marketing strategies can your brand use to attract potential customers, convince them to purchase, and turn them into ambassadors?

This post examines 13 essential ecommerce marketing strategies you can use to set your products apart from competitors and boost ecommerce sales.

Check them out!

Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.

Ecommerce Marketing Strategies to Fuel a Successful Ecommerce Store

While most brands struggle to get to the first pages of search results, drive traffic, and increase conversions, you can do it with the following ecommerce marketing strategies. Use them to make your products stand out, get more sales, and grow your business.

1. Boost ROI with Marketing Automation

Automation is one of those ecommerce marketing strategies that save your team time and help you increase sales.

Best of all?

You can apply it to different areas of your business, from customer service, sales, fulfillment, to marketing. And since most of these functions tend to be repetitive, automation can ensure they run smoothly while also boosting your service quality.

But how exactly can you use automation to market ecommerce sites?

There are several use cases, including:

Recover Abandoned Carts

Cart abandonment is one of the major concerns for ecommerce marketers, leading to revenue loss. Statista reports that cart abandonment rates exceed 70% in 2024. To recapture these customers, you invest in abandoned cart recovery emails.

Image via Statista

Abandoned cart automated emails let you automatically reach visitors who abandoned their cart and remind them to complete their purchase.

So, how do you ensure this email marketing strategy works in your favor?

• Create a series of two to three emails reminding visitors to complete their purchase.
• Optimize for mobile.
• Use your messaging to trigger FOMO (fear of missing out) or offer discounts.
• Craft great subject lines.
• Include product photos that remind them what they left in their cart.
• Use a call-to-action that directs them to the next step.
• Include social proof.

Win-Back Campaign Ecommerce Marketing Strategy

Win-back campaigns are one of those ecommerce marketing strategies that help you stay top of mind with current customers.

But how?

This ecommerce email marketing strategy tries to win back people who've stayed for long without interacting with your content or purchasing emails.

When you automate win-back campaigns, you can keep track of when customers last bought or clicked your emails. You can also trigger win-back automated emails when a customer hits a certain duration without engagement.

Image via ActiveCampaign

Reward Loyal Customers

As one of the most used ecommerce marketing strategies, automation can make it easy to know your customers, see which ones engage you most, and reward them.

And guess what?

If you segment customers by repeat purchases or average order value, you can build a loyalty program and use it to share offers.

Nurture Leads and Gain Loyalty

With ecommerce automation, you can create high converting emails, measure engagement, and develop personalized lead nurture campaigns.

As one of the top ecommerce marketing strategies, automation helps you track contact progress so that you can send the right messages to your leads.

Best of all?

This ecommerce email marketing strategy can enable you to send messages relevant to individual leads interests, pain points, and their stage in the purchase journey.

For example, check out how Clinique used this email marketing strategy to ask the customer to replenish their supplies while including multiple cross-sells.

Image via SmartMail

Pro Tip: Automate customer support so that those who begin their searches with “help” or “how” can get directed to the FAQ page. It may not always lead to a sale, but it can make it easier for them to find answers that may lead to a sale.

2. Increase Conversion Rate Retargeting

Retargeting is one of those ecommerce marketing strategies that can help you increase conversion rate by showing ads to visitors on your website.

And why is it one of the essential ecommerce marketing strategies?

It gives off an always there feeling and can make your products memorable. It can also increase your click-through rates since people already know about the products you advertise.

But where can you use remarketing?

Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

When you use Google Ads, people will see your ads on blogs, YouTube videos, websites, and third-party mobile apps when they leave your site.

With Facebook retargeting ads, your ads will show on users' timelines and Instagram.

But what techniques can you use to increase sales with this strategy?

• Showcase deals and offers.
• Encourage those who abandoned carts to purchase with discounts.
• Offer related or complementary products to those who purchased.
• Resell periodical products people use like pet food or shaving gel.
• Offer free or discounted shipping to people who get to the shipping or return policy page but don't purchase.
• Use characteristics of current buyers to target similar potential customers.
• Target those who only purchase when you offer discounts.

Pro Tip: Aggressively retarget people who visit your ecommerce platform for the first time but don't add anything to their cart. Give them compelling reasons to buy, like a 50% off their first purchase.

3. Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Getting new customers to your ecommerce business can get tricky, especially if search engines do not find your site.

But it's not impossible to get and retain audience attention, especially if you use the right ecommerce marketing strategies.

And one of the most-used ecommerce marketing strategies?

SEO

Using ecommerce SEO can make it easy for potential customers to find your products through organic search.

But how?

Keyword Research: Create a list of intent-based target keywords that help you in your ecommerce SEO.

On-Page SEO: Implement the keywords you find on your product pages, meta descriptions, titles, URLs, H1 tags, product and category descriptions, etc.

Product Pages: Ensure they have unique descriptions, highlight technical specs, include social media share buttons, clear images, and helpful product videos.

Technical SEO: Fix duplicate content, orphaned pages, keyword cannibalization issues, broken links, duplicate URLs, missing descriptions and alt text, etc. Additionally, build your backlink profile and increase page speed.

Local SEO: Leverage local SEO marketing tactics, such as claiming your Google My Business profile, getting local links, and building backlinks from local sites.

Other marketing tactics you can use to ensure users have great experiences while on your website:

• Improve site architecture by ensuring your ecommerce website visitor does not take more than three clicks to find a product.
• Add structured data to help search engines crawl and index your site with ease.
• Optimize for voice search.
• Apply augmented technology.
• Allow users to scan products with QR codes and try them on or see how they would look in their homes.

Pro Tip: While adding keywords on each product and category page may take a long time, you can start by updating the most important pages. Go to Google Analytics if you've set up ecommerce tracking, and sort your pages by revenue or traffic sessions to find the most popular.

4. Have a Robust Content Marketing Strategy

While related to SEO, content marketing is one of the ecommerce marketing strategies that can help your products rank while helping you build backlinks.

But what’s the procedure for succeeding with ecommerce content marketing?

First, create blog posts by finding purchase intent keywords you can use to create informative content related to your products.

For example, you can use keyword research tools or Google to find phrases people use when they need more information about products.

Image via Google

Alternatively, use topic research tools, brainstorm with your team, monitor audience interest online, etc.

Then, once you create your content, publish and promote it on other marketing channels, including email, social media platforms, forums, question & answer sites, guest blogs, etc.

Pro Tip: As content marketing is one of those ecommerce marketing strategies that help ecommerce websites guide buyers across their journey, create content for every stage. Create educational content for the awareness, point them towards your products during consideration, and show them why your products are the best during the decision stage.

5. Leverage the Power of Reviews

What positions reviews as one of the most critical ecommerce marketing strategies?

Almost everyone reads online reviews in today's online world. They also depend on them when making purchase decisions.

Reviews act as social proof, and you can showcase them in the form of ratings, product reviews, social posts, and unboxing videos.

Furthermore, knowing others had a great experience with your products sends a powerful signal that your target audience can trust your brand and that you have legitimate products.

But how do ecommerce brands use reviews to drive sales?

• Strategically place them in marketing messages and throughout your ecommerce store to give potential customers the reassurance they need to buy.
• Make leaving reviews on your ecommerce site, social media pages, and other review sites easy.
• Respond to reviews. Responding fast to the negative ones can help you turn negative sentiments into positive ones.
• Once you collect reviews, use them strategically in your social media posts, emails, website, and advertising messages.

Image via Really Good Emails

Pro Tip: Identify terminologies and vocabulary customers use when reviewing your products. Then, use them to inspire your product descriptions, ads, packaging, and overall ecommerce marketing strategies.

6. Invest in Social Media Marketing

The total ad spending on social media is estimated to reach $220 billion in 2024. Businesses today are ready to spend this whopping amount on social media paid advertising because people now use social media platforms to research brands, products, and services they want to purchase.

Image via Statista

All the leading social media platforms allow you to create impressive ads to market your products and draft traffic to your website.

So, what's your excuse for not including social media campaigns in your ecommerce marketing strategies?

Not sure how to do it right?

Social media ecommerce marketing involves a set of tactics that can help you market an ecommerce business. For example:

Build brand awareness: Use images, blog post links, video marketing, etc., to build brand awareness on current products or create a buzz for a new product launch.

Advertise: Leverage advanced targeting features on most social media platforms to advertise your products. These can help you drive traffic to your online store or increase conversions.

Customer service: Use these platforms to reply to customer questions, engage their comments, and collect feedback.

Social Listening: Monitor mentions and conversations around your ecommerce brand online. Use the information to understand what people love about your products, the problems they encounter, and overall sentiments.

But what best practices govern social media for ecommerce?

• Use influencer marketing.
• Work with affiliate marketers to increase your reach and sales. You can find affiliate partners who sell complementary products and leverage them to drive sales for you.
• Use short videos on Stories, Reels, TikTok, Live streams, etc.
• Run promotions, including contests, free shipping offers, limited-time offers, etc.
• Encourage sharing of experiences on social media using videos and images. Then, share this user-generated content on your accounts for social proof.
• Post regularly.
• Leverage social media management tools that make it easy to schedule, post at the right time, manage messages across platforms, and analyze performance.

Pro Tip:Leverage link retargeting on Facebook to target anyone who clicks on your curated content. These include media coverage, industry news, reviews, or content taking people to third-party websites. Doing this enables you to offer value while expanding your retargeting reach.

7. Explore Google Shopping Ads

As one of the most popular ecommerce marketing strategies, Google Shopping shows users products related to what they search for at the top of the search engine results page. And when they click on an item from your ecommerce website, they get directed to it.

But how do you get your products eligible?

Submit a catalog of your products to Google Merchant Center. Google then uses your data, including titles, descriptions, images, etc., to show your products on search results when potential buyers run a search.

But what makes it one of the best ecommerce marketing strategies?

Broader Reach: Most consumers start their research on Google search, allowing you to place your products in front of many potential buyers.

Better Qualified Leads: Traffic from Shopping ads is mostly intent-based or from shoppers who know exactly what they want now.

Increase Returns on Investment: Proper management of Shopping ads can increase your profits, especially if you leverage Surfaces across Google. This way, you can attract buyers without paying when they click on your listings.

Hyper-targeted Marketing: Combining this with Google Ads can provide you with a targeted way to reach more potential customers. It can also enable you to reach shoppers on home devices and Google Assistant on smartphones.

Pro Tip: To make your pricing competitive, see whether you can lower your shipping cost since Google showcases the total purchase cost.

8. Harness the Power of Influencer Marketing

In recent years, influencer marketing has become a powerful ecommerce marketing strategy that yields great results. According to a survey, brands worldwide spent over $34 billion on influencer marketing in 2023.

Image via Statista 

Influencers and ecommerce brands are a match made in heaven. Brands want to expand their reach and build a positive brand image, and influencers can help them create original and genuine content.

Consider this campaign by Daniel Wellington, where the luxury watch and jewelry brand partnered with influencer Ginn to promote their zodiac jewelry collection.

Image via Instagram 

The brand can reach out to the genZ and millennials who follow this influencer through lively and unique content.

Here’s what you can gain by investing in an influencer marketing campaign:

• Enhanced brand visibility
• Boost followers on social media
• Penetrate new markets
• Gain credibility and trust
• Generate refreshing content
• Educate buyers

When collaborating with influencers, it's essential to be vigilant for potential red flags. Leverage the expertise of a reputable influencer agency to search, vet, and partner with genuine content creators.

Sit with them to communicate your expectations and brand guidelines. For the best results, give the influencers enough liberty to create posts and videos in their own style. You can use coupon codes or unique links to learn leads directly to the product page and make a purchase.

9. Sell More with Social Commerce

One of the new-age ecommerce marketing strategies you must consider is social commerce. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have evolved into platforms where you can directly sell your products.

When asked, marketers said that social media shopping tools and SEO were the two channels that yielded the highest ROI in 2023.

Image via HubSpot 

Social media shopping can be overwhelming for first-time users. Focusing on these basics will set you on the path to success.

• Optimize Your Content: Unengaging social posts are a thing of the past. Create shoppable reels and posts that take the users to the product page in one click.

• Create Facebook and Instagram Shops: Both platforms allow you to create an online storefront to list your products, run ads, and sell goods directly from your social media page.

• Engage via Messaging Apps: One of the top ecommerce marketing strategies that small businesses embrace is selling through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and so on. Reaching out to customers in their inbox can also lead to successful purchases.

10. Invest in SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is one of the most effective ecommerce marketing strategies to reach out to your customers directly.

You might wonder how a simple channel like SMS can drive results compared to technologically advanced means. Surprisingly, 58% of brands ran more SMS campaigns in 2023 than in previous years.

SMS is still effective because it is direct and delivered on their most frequently used device, their smartphones. More often than not, customers open a branded SMS to see the message.

SMS marketing has some limitations. You have to convey your message concisely without a character limit. You also can’t share images or videos like you do in an email; you can only share links to desired landing pages.

However, you can adopt smart tactics to optimize SMS campaigns to drive specific results for your business. Use SMS to update your customers about order confirmation, recent purchases, and tracking details.

You can share specific links to provide early access to a sale. Sending alerts about low stock, back-in-stock, or flash sales can create a sense of urgency. SMS can drive more clicks in such situations compared to emails and social media posts.

11. Induce Product Pages with Rich Media

We can’t stress enough the need to optimize your product pages if you want to build a sustainable ecommerce store.

All online stores have high-quality product images and decent product descriptions. What else can you do to make these pages more impressive?

Bring in augmented reality. AR opens a new frontier when it comes to delivering enhanced customer experience. This technology helps you bring your products to life and allows your customers to understand how they would look in real life.

Take a look at the images below. Artlabs creates virtual 3D product images for its clients. It also uses AR to offer virtual try-ons, where buyers can see how a pair of shoes or clothing would look on them.

Image via Artlabs 

Many businesses, including cosmetics, apparel, accessories, home decor, and others, use such technology to deliver immersive shopping experiences to their customers.

The possibilities of using AR as one of the innovative ecommerce marketing strategies are endless. Explore how you can include AR on your website and stay ahead of the competition to win more customers.

12. Generate Revenue with Cross-Selling and Upselling

Your customers are always ready to spend more if you give them the right reason. That's where cross-selling and upselling emerge as strong ecommerce marketing strategies.

When a customer buys a product, you can recommend related products that complement the initial purchase. On the other hand, upselling is about encouraging the buyers to opt for a bigger deal to avail of greater discounts or free goodies.

In the following cross-selling email, Frontman sends a personlaized email recommending similar products to the customer who just purchased a product used to treat acne.

Image via Really Good Email 

When buyers receive such personalized recommendations, they are more likely to try them. This ensures repeat purchases and a steady stream of revenue.

13. Incorporate AI

There is no denying that we are in the age of AI. When it comes to ecommerce marketing strategies, AI is disrupting the landscape like never before. Businesses that adopt this new technology are ahead of the curve.

As AI continues to evolve rapidly, here are strategic ways to integrate AI into your ecommerce workflow for a competitive edge:

• AI-powered Chatbots: Integrating an AI-powered chatbot into your ecommerce site can enhance your customer support many folds. This approach is both effective and cost-efficient in responding to customer queries 24/7. It allows you to drive sales effortlessly, even during off-hours.

• Predictive Analysis: AI can analyze customer data and predict trends fairly accurately. It can predict the products that will be in demand, the styles that will trend, shopping patterns, and so on. This predictive analysis shows you can be well prepared for a busy season.

• Sentiment Analysis: Employ AI to analyze your customers' feelings about your brand. AI-powered social monitoring tools can skim through vast data from various platforms to analyze sentiments. When the tool detects negative sentiments, you can quickly act and mitigate the issue to maintain a positive brand image.

FAQ

Q1. What are ecommerce marketing strategies?

A. Ecommerce marketing strategies are tactics you use to drive traffic to your ecommerce business, convert visitors to paying customers, and retain those who purchase.

Q2. How do you create a digital marketing strategy for ecommerce?

A. Use the following tactics to create a successful strategy for your online store.

• Automation
• Retargeting
• SEO
• Content marketing
• Reviews

Get an in-depth look at these and more ecommerce marketing strategies above.

Q3. How do you advertise ecommerce?

A. Ecommerce advertising is one of the ecommerce marketing strategies where you use paid messaging to promote your products online. You pay for clicks, placements, impressions, etc., on platforms like Google, Facebook, YouTube, news sites, etc.

Q4. How do you develop an ecommerce marketing plan?

A. Use these steps to develop a working plan:

• Outline ecommerce goals
• Identify your target customers and marketing channels they prefer
• Research competitors
• Position your brand
• Leverage tools
• Use different marketing strategies to promote products
• Test, rinse, repeat.

Q5. How is Ecommerce useful in marketing?

A. The following are reasons ecommerce is useful in marketing.

• Helps you increase visibility and attract new customers
• No geographical limitations
• Enables 24/7 product accessibility
• Helps you collect customer data that you can use to refine your marketing strategies
• Has lower operational costs

Q6. What are the 3 types of ecommerce?

A. They are:

• Consumer to business (C2B)
• Business to business(B2B) (This also includes Business to government (B2G)
• Consumer to consumer(C2C)

Q7. Will the ecommerce market survive for long?

A. Yes, it will.

With lockdowns, travel bans, and retail store closures, most people have started shopping online. Additionally, most of them say they will continue shopping online even after the pandemic.

Q8. What are the best ways to increase ecommerce sales?

A. Use these ecommerce marketing strategies to increase online sales:

• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Optimize product pages
• Give visitors easy choices\run promotions

Check out other tactics to increase ecommerce sales and boost revenue.

Q9. How do ecommerce get sales?

A. Ecommerce marketers get sales from selling their products and services online. They use various ecommerce marketing strategies to promote their products, then give consumers who visit their site a range of options to pay for the goods or services.

Q10. What are the ecommerce marketing metrics?

A. Some important ecommerce metrics to track include:

• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Email click-through-rate
• Abandonment
• Sales conversion rates
• Reach
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Impressions
• Average order value (AOV)

Check out other crucial ecommerce metrics you should measure.

Winning Big with Money-Making Ecommerce Marketing Tactics!

Implement all of these ecommerce marketing strategies if you want to build brand awareness, drive traffic, and increase online sales.

Most importantly, don't forget to track and improve those that work better with your type of audience.

What ecommerce marketing strategies mentioned above will you try out first? Is there any you need more details about? Comment below, and we can offer more guidelines to help you succeed.

Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.