So now that we’ve highlighted how offline retailers can also win in the online world, what about offline retailers who are also eCommerce players?
For retailers who are also eCommerce players, it’s only natural to leverage on digital marketing tools and social media platforms to promote their online catalogue.
So just why is eCommerce so much more competitive compared to offline retail?
1. Competition on a Global Level
The availability of many online stores catering to the same product has not only made standing out a priority but also, among the biggest challenge for many growing online stores.
With more online stores shipping globally, bridging the gap between geographical boundaries and market diversification has become all the more relevant. Globalization has started knocking on the doors of niche retailers, despite customer preferences remaining fragmented across countries and customer groups.
In 2019, it’s safe to say that the eCommerce scene has evolved into a rat race. With websites such as Wix and Shopify, and marketplaces such as Amazon, Carousell and Facebook Marketplace, setting up an eCommerce channel for one’s business is now accessible to just about anyone.
2. Lack Of Natural Traffic
Brick-and-mortar stores have always reaped the benefit of having natural traffic. However, for online stores, driving traffic will require more effort. Lacking in physical visibility, online stores will need to leverage on digital marketing to promote both their brand and products online.
Some of the strategies that will need to be utilised by online stores include social media marketing and advertising, optimization of product listing ads, and search engine optimization. As necessary as they are, these digital marketing tools can be daunting to someone who is unfamiliar with platforms such as Google Adwords and Facebook Business Manager.
Unlike physical stores, that often only advertise and promote during seasonal sales, online stores need to advertise and market themselves from time to time, in order to create and maintain an active presence. Not only is this time consuming, it also demands increasing levels of tech proficiency.
3. A higher benchmark for tech
Running an eCommerce shop will also require the retailer to have the financial capabilities and resources to leverage on tech and infrastructure.
Some of the leading households eCommerce brands in the Asia, such as Lazada, Zalora, Taobao and Amazon, are well equipped financially and are hence, able to use advanced technology such as implementing data layers, pixels and conversion tracking tools to maximise sales.
The solidification of these brands’ financial resources, stems from the stable inflow of funds, which largely comes from their pool of investors. This has resulted in the outcome of technology infrastructure and optimisation reaching a higher benchmark. Therefore, making it more difficult for newly established businesses making their debut into the digital world.
The look and feel of online stores, ease of navigation and purchase and the criteria of being mobile friendly as well as apps to further improve the digital purchase experience, all require a large amount of investment and can be difficult to maintain for many new online retailers.
So with all the odds going against eCommerce retailers today, is it possible for retailers to seamlessly merge their marketing channels and leverage on O2O to drive both sales and traffic, at a fracture of the cost? How can you as a retailer reap the most benefit from all your sales channels, while competing with today’s eCommerce giants?
Skale’s PushAds plugin is free but houses a full range of capabilities that gives your eCommerce business an extra edge. With zero coding required, our plugin saves eCommerce companies weeks and thousands of dollars with no need for development resources.
Summary
- Competition is rampant in eCommerce, and online retailers are faced with the difficulty of standing out.
- eCommerce players need to leverage on Digital Marketing channels to drive traffic to their online store.
- To compete on a level playing field with eCommerce giants such as Lazada, Zalora, Amazon and more, retailers will require both funding and tech proficiency to build the sufficient infrastructure for their eCommerce shops.
- Implementation and equipping an eCommerce to be robust can be costly and time consuming for retailers – who are highly focused on the day-to-day aspects of their business.
- You can use Skale’s PushAds plugin to sync your product with Facebook and Google Merchant Center, deploy Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixels and a whole lot more, all within 1 minute.