when is ecommerce right? digital marketing course

Supplement: When is eCommerce Right?

Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marke;ng | 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

Zen Fires Digital Marke;ng | [email protected] Zen Fires Digital Marke;ng | [email protected]

When is eCommerce Right? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

•  We oNen think about digital marke;ng as the means to promote tradi;onal products and services for tradi;onal points-‐of-‐sale (brick-‐and-‐mortar).

•  However digital marke;ng can even define and drive the product for eCommerce.

•  How? People search online for what product they want to purchase.

•  Every year people grow more comfortable with online purchasing, but if consumers can find exactly what they’re looking for online, and don’t find it physically available nearby, they will purchase online.

•  So what do the people want? Keyword research tells us (search volume, compe;;veness, etc.).



•  And all of this makes “niche” product models (what search marketers call “long tail”) work best (especially when star;ng an eCommerce business or site).

•  For example I had a client with an eCommerce furniture site.

•  Furniture is an industry, like fashion for example, which is less commodi;zed and less brand dominant. Sure there are major brands and even common stores, but there are is a huge market for the less commodi;zed, less u;litarian products.

•  The client site was based on ‘rus;c cabin furniture’ -‐ something people searched for, but not largely enough to be a common product ‘category.’

•  Therefore when consumers searched for this term previously there was not heavy compe;;on (nor heavy search marke;ng implementa;on for other sites).

•  Fashion would be similar (take for example alterna;ve fashion movements such as Steampunk).

•  Which is why we see successful eCommerce sites for these industries, despite the misconcep;on that people ‘won’t buy furniture or clothes that they can’t see or feel.’



•  Of course eCommerce models work well for more rare products also; I have had eCommerce clients selling unique products direct-‐to-‐consumers such as CPAPs (medical and snoring oxygen face masks), and CNC (builder/maker machines).

•  Alterna;vely, just as with tradi;onal marke;ng, it’s going to be hard to sell commodi;zed or even brand-‐specific/brand-‐loyal products which already have heavily established customer purchase opportuni;es.

•  For example, it’s going to be hard to sell non-‐Macintosh computers to Mac customers (a very loyal customer base; and there are already many opportuni;es for Mac purchasing).

•  And it’s going to be difficult to break into the market selling red T-‐shirts online (due to commodi;za;on).

•  So again, just as with tradi;onal marke;ng, it comes down to demand, differen;ated posi;oning, USP (unique sales proposi;on), etc.



•  The difference is that the eCommerce model offers minimal cost; you can work out arrangements to re-‐sell vendor products without upfront purchasing.

•  In other words, you can pay the manufacturer once an end-‐customer buys on your website.

•  And at that point route info to the manufacturer to do the product direct shipping.

•  And without paying for brick-‐and-‐mortar facili;es, loca;on or warehousing space, the amount of your profit growth comes down to the effec;veness of your promo;on for increased purchasing.

•  What’s more, you can also obtain revenue from ads on your eCommerce site; such as special banner ads for specific manufacturers (if they wish to heavily promote or give you a discount on your cost for their products) or even Google ads shown on your site (I have an eCommerce client who allows Google ads to appear on his site).



•  In tradi;onal marke;ng we talk about “The 4 Ps” being the founda;on for marke;ng planning: Product (or service), Place (distribu;on), Promo;on and Price.

•  But in digital marke;ng we talk about a fiNh P; “Par;cipa;on.” Meaning the par;cipa;on element of social media; the poten;al for mul;-‐way informa;on and communica;ons between consumers and the marketer.

•  Social media not only gives us addi;onal ways to promote, but also ways to iden;fy consumer demand (and ever-‐important reviews, complaints, word-‐of-‐mouth, etc.).

•  So how many consumers are talking about ‘rus;c cabin furniture’ that they can’t find in stores? How many in social media groups are talking about ‘Steampunk fashion’ they can’t find a wide enough selec;on of? All of this is iden;fiable via online research.

•  What used to require years of industry experience and awareness of customer buying palerns and compe;tors can now be iden;fied more quickly via online consumer research.

Thank You!

Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marke;ng | GSU Social Media Marke;ng Instructor 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

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when is ecommerce right? digital marketing course

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