Is the Hype of Online Shopping Wearing off?

Amazon has taken over the online retail space over the last several years. But now they have started opening physical stores. Has the hype of online shopping wearing off?

Many of us go online to find products we are looking to buy, and we often can go to Amazon and get a better price.  How many of us add that ONE item to their cart, and then suddenly, the minimum purchase of $25 has totaled $100. How did that happen, did you really need those extra purchases?

When I am making a purchase, even something small, I go online, shop around, check reviews and ask peers through social media. After completing my research, its time to make my purchase! But when it arrives, and I open the package, it is not what I had in mind. Maybe the color is off, or the size is wrong, or it lacks in quality. Whatever the reason, its not what I was expecting.   Great, now I must complete the whole return process, and wait for it to show up on my credit card. What a pain! Would this have happened if I just went to the store, and physically held the product? Was I relying too much on reviews posted by people and the feedback from my peers?

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I am starting to think I am not the only one who has had this experience, and probably not the only one who is tired of not getting exactly what I wanted. Once again Amazon is ahead of the curve and opening brick and mortar stores to satisfy those who need to physically hold a product to finalize their purchase. Amazon will now have 3 different types of physical stores.

1. Amazon 4-star
2. Amazon Pop Up
3. Amazon Books

These stores over a selection of books, merchandise and items that are trending are rated 4 + stars.

What do you think, are your buying decisions being affected by your peers and social media? Do you feel the need to go to a physical store to make your purchases?

 

 Is the Hype of Online Shopping Wearing off? https://bit.ly/2CxHpWV

Now you can shop in an Amazon Store!  https://bit.ly/2CxHpWV

Are you Listening?

If you have read my other two blogs, “Ahead of the curve” and “ My Business is on Social Media – What Next?”, you will guess that my next blog is on business again!

For businesses that have followed the simple steps I have outlined in my previous blogs, the next logical step is, are you listening? You can put all the effort into your social media strategy, but if you are not listening to what your clients are seeking, you won’t keep up momentum.

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As discussed previously, it’s a good idea to engage your audience with promotions through your platforms. Did you try it? What kind of response did you get? Maybe you didn’t see more revenue, but you saw an increase in followers, or vice versa. Either one is win in my books. You are going in the right direction. Obviously seeing more revenue is always the goal, but gaining awareness and followers is equally as important. But like any business professional, you want to see an increase in both simultaneously! This is when we look for areas for improvement.

When running your promotion, did you listen and engage with your audience? Hopefully you had someone monitoring the promotion, looking for comments from your audience. You want to collect this feedback and use it for future improvements.

Did you see an increase in traffic, but not many conversions? You will want to take a close look at your landing pages, where are your customers going, do they have to navigate to several pages to make the purchase? Its important to make it as easy as possible for a user to either make a purchase or input their details for additional information.  Think how often you end up on a site from an ad, and its difficult to navigate, do you stay on the site and try to find your way, or do you lose patience and try to find another company?

To be successful with your social media strategy, its all about trial and error, you can only improve and see a ROI if you are willing to adapt and change. Above are some ideas of how to get started to see a ROI, but I would suggest taking a look at an article I found on Hootsuite, to really get a handle on things.

I have asked quite a few questions through out this post, lets discuss! How long do you stay on a site trying to make a purchase if its difficult to navigate?

 Your Business is on Social Media, but are you listening?  https://bit.ly/2OpJDyP

 Are you listening to your customers?  https://bit.ly/2OpJDyP

 

 

 

My Business is on Social Media – What Next?

OK, you have done your research, following a schedule, created a quality meaningful posts, and you are starting to see traction. Perfect! Now, don’t change anything, keep everything the same, right? You are seeing traction, why change anything?

Unfortunately, many people think that way. But to remain successful and “Ahead of the Curve”, you must always be a step or two ahead of your target audience. If you read my first post you will remember that I talked about conducting research on your target audience, creating a schedule, and producing quality posts.

But this is just the beginning, you also need to keep your audience interested, and be constantly improving. Some ways to keep your audience interested is through promotions, why not treat your followers to something? While doing a promotion, consider having your followers doing a bit of work themselves, by making them share your post within their network. Suddenly, your list of followers is growing, and more traffic to your site, woo hoo!  This is just ONE idea, there are several others that you can try. For more great ideas head over to this article on sproutsocial.

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Did you choose a platform, and start seeing “some” traction, but would like to see more? Do an audit, if you are inputting more then you are getting, consider changing your strategy or possibly your platforms. There are so many factors should be considered. For example, are you pushing out content at the right time of the day for your target audience? There is no exact formula, but there are some guidelines you can follow until you find a good schedule that works for your target audience. I found a great article on Hubspot, you will also find a detailed infographic.

 

Social Media is constantly changing, don’t always stick to the same or you will be right back at the beginning again!

What do you think, do you find your using certain social media platforms at specific times of the day?

 

 Your Business is on Social Media – Are you Taking the Right Steps? #Marketing  https://bit.ly/2zOAt5W

 Is your Business Taking the Right Steps? https://bit.ly/2zOAt5W

Is your Business Staying Ahead of the Curve?

You have an established business that has been consistently making a profit year after year, but the last couple of years haven’t been as profitable. You don’t understand, you haven’t changed anything… or is that the problem?

Are you staying current and ensuring visibility to your consumers, or are your competitors beating you to it? If you’re not in front of your consumers on a regular basis, they may be giving their business elsewhere, because you are not top of mind.  Today, people go to internet to do their own research on companies, if you’re not visible your company can easily be forgotten. To remain ahead, you need to invest in Social Media Marketing. If you are not sure where to begin here are 3 simple steps to get you started.

Research

Take the time to research who your target audience is. Discover what platforms they are using, and how that fits into your industry. While researching, spend time looking into other brands and your competitors in your industry, what are they doing, what seems to be working? The more you know about your target audience and your competitors the more effective each message will be.

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Create a Schedule, and don’t Stray

If you are new to social media marketing, you will have to learn how to work this in to your daily schedule. By establishing a schedule, you are creating a habit for yourself and consistency for your consumers.

This schedule should not only include your time to push out messages to your clients, but also time to monitor your social media, research competitors and analyze previous weeks and months to find ways to improve.

Quality over Quantity

Take your time creating the message you want to push out to your clients and future clients. Just because you are on a schedule don’t rush pushing a message out. Use all the research you have collected and create a meaningful post, and ensure that you tailor each post to be relative to the platform you are using.

These 3 steps will help get you started, but there are still many other factors to consider. Stay tuned for more tips on my next post!

We can all learn from each other; what steps are you taking to ensure you are top of mind for your consumers?

Sources

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-tips-for-small-business-owners/ 

https://www.coxblue.com/7-tips-for-making-social-media-marketing-work-for-your-business/ 

 3 simple steps to get your business started with social media!  https://bit.ly/2QLpbG2

 Is your company staying ahead of the curve? Here are 3 steps to get you started with Social Media Marketing!  https://bit.ly/2QLpbG2