E-commerce Live 2023 Takeaways

I attended the e-commerce live 2023 event in Sandton on the 12th of September.  I want to share with you some of the important and some reminder key points to improve your website presence and get more customers. 

The topics covered at the event included Retailers, Entrepreneurs, Funding Platforms, Payments, Logistics, Marketing and Customer Experience, Sales and Marketplaces. I only attended a few talks.

I want to encourage non-e-commerce clients to consider the points raised and implement them into your site.

97% of the SA Market use mobile to access sites so ensuring your site is 100% optimised for mobile is important.  Data-driven businesses grow 30% faster.

PAYMENT GATEWAYS.

It is advantageous to have multiple payment gateways on your website.   Also, a growing trend is of people using BNPL payment options – Buy Now Pay Later.  BNPL is an option for budget-conscious customers and considering the increasing rise of the cost of living, BNPL options could be the preferred option.

It is also important to promote your payment options in your messaging across all platforms to attract new customers and offer smaller discounts.

MARKETING.

For effective marketing, you have to have a unique USP – Unique Selling Point.

There are 6 generations of consumers making use of online shopping.  You need to know who you want to sell your products to.  

Marketing campaigns or strategies should run for a minimum of 3 months before making changes.  Don’t flip-flop between campaigns.  We all want quick results but the most sustainable results come from consistent long-term marketing plans.

All marketing activities should be measurable.  The question we always get is what do marketing activities cost?  It costs as much as you want to get out of it.  The higher the expected return on investment the higher the cost will be.

Don’t over analyse your persona. 

E-COMMERCE SITES.

Tracking e-commerce websites or websites in general is important for growth.  Tracking tools allow you to get a deep and clearer insight into where people come from to land on your website and then to see exactly what they do on each page, down to the button they click.  

Always have a campaign or strategy running.  Allow the learning algorithms to run.  Make tweaks and changes but it must always run.

Education.  Teach and explain to clients the what and the why of your products and services.  

LOYALTY PROGRAMME.

Use cards often.  All the time. Loyalty instead of Discounts. Be consistent with your strategy.  Don’t change your marketing to market demands. Do not do gimmicky things.

Customers love cash-back offers. Offer free delivery for recurring buyers.

An important factor for online business is the Rule of 3.

Own the decision. Own the delivery. Own the data.

VIDEO. 

Marketing is no longer about the product you sell but the story you tell.  A story could be a series of posts and emails or a video. 

SEO CHANGES. 

5 Google changes are coming that will affect SEO.  This is nothing new.  Google has a habit of constantly changing the goalposts.  Core web vitals will be replaced by a new algorithm.  Structured data like FAQ and Q&A must be built into content and not only used as a separate page.

First-hand experience.  Videos.  Own created content like influencers.

One key factor to improve your SEO score and ranking is to ensure you address the  E.E.A.T algorithm.  Experience, Engagement,  Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.  More than be read about EEAT here.

To keep this short, another consideration for website traffic growth is digital marketing AI like chatbots.  You must have a double opt-in on your email signups.  Customers must have the ability to log on to the site and delete their data.