According to recent data, there are roughly 1.8 million online retailers in the United States.
If you own an online store, you need to figure out how you will stand out amongst all this competition. If you don't solve this problem, there's a good chance nobody will buy from you, and you may have to close down.
Read on, and you'll discover four tactics that'll help your online store stand out. If you want to beat the competition, these tips will help you become a well-known brand within your industry.
Let's begin on how to stand out as an online retailer!
1. Provide Excellent Customer Service
A great way to stand out as an online retailer is by providing an excellent level of customer service. After all, if other companies sell similar products to you, the only way you can stand out is by providing a better level of customer service.
If you want to provide excellent customer service, you need to focus on listening to your customers. If you can do that, you will be able to identify a few of the ways you can improve your existing approach.
For instance, your customers might suggest that you reduce the amount of time it takes to reply to an email. They might also request that you install a chatbot on your website so they can get quick answers.
If you implement these changes, you will raise the baseline level of customer service that customers experience.
Ideally, you want to ask your customers for suggestions regularly. If you do this, you will identify lots of opportunities for improvement, and over time, this will help you really stand out.
2. Improve Your Social Media Presence
If you know how to build a sizeable social media presence, it will be a lot easier for you to stand out in your industry.
If you want to build a large social media presence, you should focus on building an audience on one platform. In most cases, you should be able to achieve brilliant results by focusing on Instagram, as most audiences can be found on that platform.
If you want to build a presence on Instagram, you need to put out high-quality content.
If you're not sure what kind of content you should post, just start by posting pictures of your product. If you're going to do this, you might want to hire a professional photographer to take some photos of your product.
It's also a good idea to post photos that aren't associated with your product.
If you need some inspiration here, just think about the kinds of things your target audience is interested in. Once you've identified a few interests, you may want to post a few photos related to these interests.
Once you begin to build a social media presence, it's vital that you also engage with your audience. If you do this, you'll build a loyal following, and this will help you grow your account.
One way you can engage with your audience is by replying to comments. If you come across a particularly funny or insightful comment, you might also want to 'like' it.
You might also want to hold a 'live video' event on Instagram, wherein customers can ask you about your product. During these events, you might also want to hold a 'giveaway' as this will increase the number of attendees.
3. Offer a Better Product
If you're not sure how you can do this, ask existing customers about how you can improve your products. If you want to get feedback from your customers, you should think about sending out a survey.
You can encourage the completion of this survey by offering some kind of incentive. For instance, you might tell people that they'll get 10% off their next purchase if they complete the survey. You can also improve upon your product by reading the reviews of competing products.
If you do this, you'll be able to identify some of the things people don't like about these competing products. You can then use these insights to make sure your product doesn't have the same faults.
You should also look for suggestions when you're reading the reviews of a competing product.
That's because some people might say that a particular product would be better if it had a particular feature. Again, if you include this feature within your product, you will be able to sell something that does a better job of meeting the customer's needs.
4. Improve Your Packaging
You can also stand out by using better packaging than anyone else in your industry. An excellent example of a brand that does this is Apple, which is known for its luxury packaging.
If you want to improve your packaging, you can just start by using better materials and finding luxury packaging manufacturers.
So this might mean that your boxes are made from thicker cardboard. Additionally, if you include any printed materials in your boxes, you may want to print these items on high-quality paper.
Another way you can improve your packaging is by using branded packing tape.
That's because branded packaging tape can often look a lot better than 'standard' packing tape. Thus, if you use specialist packaging tape, you will improve the overall appeal of your product.
Do You Know How to Stand Out as an Online Retailer?
Standing out as an online retailer can be difficult, but these tips should help you rise above the competition.
Ideally, you want to implement all these online retail steps, as this will allow you to get the best results. However, if you have a limited budget, there's nothing wrong with implementing one tactic at a time to boost e-commerce performance.
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