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Tag: ecommerce

What you need to know about E-Commerce Marketing

The digital world is now officially a huge part of our daily lives with the new normal that we are promptly facing. The pandemic has made everyone realize that we all have to adapt to living online. We are now living at a time wherein e-commerce is beneficial to every business and consumer.

A lot of changes have happened in the past few months, a lot of lives have changed, some businesses have closed, while different people and communities have been struggling financially. This crisis has tested us but one good thing that has come out from it is how we have adapted to living our lives online.

Let’s begin by first defining what is e-commerce marketing. E-commerce marketing is about driving brand awareness and call-to-action for consumers to buy your products and avail of your services. You have to successfully cater to your buyer’s preferences and work your way around it effectively to reach your target market and to effectively make sales conversions through online platforms whether it be through your website or through social media.

Here are some ways to make the most out of e-commerce marketing:

  1. Build a strong bond and loyalty.

One of the most essential tasks that you should focus on is the strong bond and loyalty towards the consumers. The benefits of customer relationship strategies should be well taken care of and be established. Nowadays, consumers develop a relational approach that relates to customer loyalty.

There is a lot to take into account for an effective service type to build on customer bond and loyalty. For your brand to succeed it must have a sustainable competitive advantage that increases customer retention and attraction to your brand. For as loyalty increases, the volume of purchases and customer referrals also increase.

Once you’ve developed a strong bond with your consumers, a lot of marketing benefits will follow such as, the good ole’ word-of-mouth marketing, good reviews, testimonials, and even case studies. Once successfully done, your e-commerce store will be filled with people that are engaged to your products and services, thereby increasing the level of brand awareness and driving more sales.

  1. Customize and personalize your e-commerce site.

Consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they can remember. The best brands are usually remembered through different promotions and unique offerings. Every consumer is always satisfied when they have a personalized experience thus it makes them feel special, helping improve their shipping experience.

In a traditional retail store, we would always visit stores that make us feel known and special through its store employees. Brick and mortar stores are designed to attract customers while products are laid out to grab attention. The same goes for e-commerce stores, where buyers should be made to feel welcome and should have a positive user experience from the homepage to the inner pages.

Customized and personalized e-commerce sites make the users’ experience and purchases faster and easier. It is all about treating every person who visits your site as an exclusive customer. Tailor fit your site to reflect the unique needs of every buyer in a way that they will feel like they are part of the brand’s journey.

  1. Establish and capitalize on user-generated content (UGC).

To make it big online, you have to cut out and push through ahead of your competitors. Brands should always keep on trying something new and staying in trend to remain and be known as number one. One way to stay influential is through user-generated content. User-generated content allows marketers to let their consumers do the talking for them. It is about allowing people to advertise your product for you based on their own experiences and feedback.

  1. Provide an Add-to-Cart option.

An e-commerce site is not without a shopping cart. It’s almost similar to the traditional shopping cart, but this time around, everything just works with a click Having a well visible shopping cart allows buyers to control what they want to buy and allowing them an easier access to proceed to check-out to purchase the items on their cart.

Most importantly, a visible add-to-cart option on your website lets users know that they can get what they need with no fuss. It is also important that upon checking-out, users are aware of your company’s return policy, delivery procedures and options and that when needed, a customer support representative is available to answer any concerns.

  1. Create a responsive and effective web design.

Having a responsive and modern web design is an important aspect of an e-commerce website. The design should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on the adjustment to the screen size, platform, and orientation.

Follow the rule that “less is more” but also don’t be afraid to use a different mix of artworks, designs, and images. All of your e-commerce strategies will only work well when your website has a responsive design, is easily viewable, and can be accessed with the use of any gadgets. Finally, always make it a point to organize your content, keep the words simple and make sure that your website can be easily navigated regardless of age or gender.

Not sure where to begin with your e-commerce marketing? Having the right agency partner can help you establish your business goals and thrive in the “new normal”. iManila can develop the best, user-friendly, modern and easy-to-use e-commerce website for your business. Let’s talk or check out our website at www.imanila.ph to learn more.

How Forever 21 Was Crushed by eCommerce

Nearly a decade ago, even before #InstagramInfluencers existed, Forever 21 helped young girls embody teenage dreams and suit up fashion havens. Girls, young and young-at-heart, had the chance to dress up like celebrities but for an affordable price! Through the years, Forever 21 grew aggressively, but like what business analysts warned them about, if the time ever came for F21’s “coolness factor” to fade, the company will struggle to get back up. And that’s exactly what happened – now, gone are the days of Forever 21’s sunshine and la la la’s.

On the morning of September 30, an announcement struck headlines. It was F21 filing for bankruptcy, deciding to cease the store operations of over 350 branches across 40 countries worldwide. According to the company’s Executive Vice President, Linda Chang, 

“This was an important and necessary step to secure the future of the company, which will enable us to recognize our business and reposition Forever 21.” 

Amid speculations, theories, and gossip-mongering, what could be the possible reason as to why the once-called retail giant suddenly became bankrupt?

According to the New York Times, Forever 21 is said to be losing young shoppers. The fashion company was originally themed to be a youth-driven fashion haven which helped popularize youthful fashion in the 2000s by hawking trendy and affordable clothes before they even made it to the runway. But throughout the years, the company struggled to be in tune of what is in or out, trendy or cool and eventually the company just couldn’t figure out how to reach their young shoppers.  

Unlike other affordable but highly fashionable clothing brands like Zara, Penshoppe and Uniqlo, Forever 21 lost track of the millennials and Generation Z when 90% of their population combined shifted their expenses to Internet fashion retailers and e-commerce powerhouses such as Lazada, Shopee, and Zalora. This sudden shift is what these generations call the “Retail Apocalypse”, a threatening term used to describe how the Internet has changed consumers’ shopping habits, which have, in turn, affected retail brick and mortar stores.

To stop you from wondering further, here’s a breakdown of two other reasons that might have led to F21’s downfall.

Online Shopping is Killing Traditional Retailing Because of Young Shoppers

The strong growth of e-commerce and the slow sales in physical stores threaten a doom to traditional retailing.

According to Marketingdive.com, 75% of Gen Z and Millennials combined populations enjoy online shopping more than moving around stores. In the past few years, as many retailers have moved shop online, Forever 21 continued to build more brick and mortar stores and continued to expand their footprint offline. In this regard, they have forgotten who their target market really is — the millennials and Generation Z – the generation who immediately adapted to online shopping!

E-commerce websites such as Lazada, Shopee, Zalora experience more than a hundred million monthly website traffic in the Philippines alone. This one data is a testimony that e-commerce is the only way to capture a mass market, especially the Gen Z, which are considered to be a consumer powerhouse and valued to be the biggest retail market cohort sharing $44-billion in the market yearly.

As e-commerce continues to boom, traditional retailers like Forever 21 continue to struggle to adapt to changing consumer behaviors.

Bad Publicity and Ineffective Marketing Strategy

Whether created by huge designers or small indie brands, Forever 21 has made a signature version of customer purchase. However, in recent years, F21 has been accused of a series of copyright infringement lawsuits from more exclusive and expensive clothing lines and famous celebrities. Their stained reputation is on the edge.

The clothing chain has faced more than 50 copyright lawsuits for stealing the works of designers like Gwen Stefani, Anna Sui, and Trovata and violated some publicity laws.

The world-famous singer and record-breaking artist, Arianna Grande sued F21 both under state law and federal law, claiming that Forever 21 is guilty of false endorsement, copyright, and trademark infringement. Forever 21 was set to feature Grande in one of their campaigns, however, in the end, they were unwilling to pay Grande for she was worth too much. F21 then retracted the contract but still went ahead and launched the campaign, merely substituting another model that looks like Grande, but continuing to use the posts and themes heavily related to Grande on Forever 21’s Twitter and Instagram pages.  

Another lawsuit filed against F21 was by the International fashion house, Gucci. For more than half a century, the clothing line has been known for its iconic stripes in blue-red-blue and green-red-green. But earlier on, familiar designs with similar stripes were seen on F21 stores. Now Gucci is suing the fast-fashion retailer for trademark infringement, reports CBS News’ Dana Jacobson.

F21 is not alone. There are many other fast-fashion giants whose stock prices continue to plunge amid drops in revenue as young shoppers continue to shop more online. Take this case study from the once retail giant, Forever 21. Don’t disregard the shopping habits and patterns of the millennials and gen Z consumers. Don’t let your business get left behind. 

Want to launch your own eCommerce website? We can help! Drop us an email at [email protected] or call us today at (+632) 3490 0000. 

Philippine Retail Industry in the Digital Era

In this day and age of technology and automation, the Philippine retail industry has a big task to move towards a new chapter. The 26th National Retail Conference and Stores Asia Expo 2019 held last August 15-16 in the SMX Convention Center centered on the theme Retail: Reimagined, focusing on the topic of digitalization and modern marketing as the future of the industry.

The conference hosted talks from several local and international experts in the retail industry, who spoke openly not just about the newest trends in the market, but how to survive amid the newest consumers, the Generation Z buyers in the next five to ten years.

While many retailers are still focused on trying to capture the attention of its millennial buyers, the 26th NRCE brought to light the importance to prepare for an even bigger generation – the Gen Z consumers, who will eventually consist of more than 30% of consumers in a matter of five years. These consumers are expected to have an even shorter attention span than the millennials and will demand more active engagement thru visually appealing content that will catch their eyes.

With this in mind, is your business ready for the future consumers?

Designing experience and building trust among your target market are just two of the things that should be remembered in this digital era. With the Internet and social media well within reach, businesses can easily take advantage of reaching out to their target market right at this very moment – allowing your products the visibility it needs to stay at the top of mind of your consumers.

According to a featured article of Ms. Tiffany Lung, a Retail Analyst and one of the guest speakers during the 26th NRCE, “Staying current and relevant in a fast-paced industry like retail is by no means an easy task. Retailers have to be agile, proactive, and quick on their feet in order to retain their market position amongst the competitive field, and at the same time adapt to an omnichannel consumer”.

And what’s the best way to adapt to the omnichannel consumer?

Simple.

Go digital.

The millennial generation and future Gen Z consumers are two of the most active generations online. Going digital will not just allow your brand visibility to these markets, but starting your online campaigns now will allow more time to build online engagement and relationships with your future consumers. At the same time, starting now will buy you time to create brand recall to your future buyers.

Going digital is easy. Start by creating a website then expand your online presence by being active on social media and starting digital paid advertising. Don’t be afraid to try new things for your business. Digital has worked wonders for old and new businesses alike. Why not give it a try?

Looking to take the digital leap? Let iManila help! Contact us at (02) 490 0000 or drop us an email at [email protected]!

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imanila team nrce 2019

The iManila team during the 26th National Retail Conference and Stores Asia Expo 2019.

The National Retail Conference and Expo is an annual two-day event managed by the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) and dubbed as the BIGGEST and MOST IMPORTANT Retail Industry Event in the Philippines. Among the big brands who participated in this event are PLDT, Globe, Bench, Wilcon Depot, The SM Store, and Megaworld Lifestyle Malls. iManila is grateful to be an exhibitor and the Official Social Media Partner for this momentous event where the country’s top retailers converge.