E-Commerce Marketing Transformation
E-commerce Marketing is a process of purchasing products online that differs from that of browsing in a store. Consumers don’t go to a single brick-and-mortar store and pick products based on what they find there. More often than not, they begin with an idea of what they want and then look through a variety of options to find the best fit. Research is a larger part of the process, and they have more information available to them—both from brands and from third-party sources.
2 Ways of E-commerce Marketing Transformation
Even before the coronavirus drove all non-essential shopping online made the internet a critical component of any good marketing strategy. As a result, a few significant differences have become the marketing norm.
Websites are now a requirement for all businesses
No matter what type of business you run, you need a website. Creating a website used to be complicated and expensive. But over time as websites became increasingly essential for all businesses, options for building them also became more affordable and accessible.
Now anyone—no matter your skill level—can build a website using an intuitive website builder. And for HostGator customers, with the investment of web hosting (something you’ll have to buy anyways to launch a website), you can get access to a website builder for free.
Getting a website running is now affordable and easy. And the benefits of doing so in the age of e-commerce are undeniable.
E-commerce introduced new marketing channels
Before the internet, most advertising budgets went to channels like TV, print media, the radio, and billboards. Businesses still spend money on those things, but now around half of all advertising budgets go to digital channels. And there are a lot of different digital marketing channels.
Creating an online presence so that it’s easier for potential customers to learn about your brand requires investing in some combination of:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Paid search ads
- Social media marketing
- Social advertising
- Retargeting
- Email marketing