Times have changed. During the pandemic, wholesale or retail brands have been forced to move their brands and businesses online in order to survive.
Consumers have changed their shopping habits and people spend more time and money online than ever before. The worldwide revenue for the e-commerce fashion industry is expected to grow to $713 billion in 2022.
For DTC, online native brand this means big business, but for wholesale or retail brands that don’t have a strategy and the know-how to enter and operate successfully online – it’s missed opportunities. Having an e-comm store is NOT an extension of the wholesale or retail business. It’s something completely different and should be treated and implemented accordingly.
Also for brands that have had an online presence but not been agile and improved their digital strategy and systems, they’ve been falling behind. Customers are picky, hate waiting for slow pages, lose interest when they can’t quickly find what they are looking for, and get annoyed when there is a lack of information regarding the products they are interested in.
Here are some of the biggest mistakes we see are being made by brands that enter the online world and by brands that have gotten a bit too comfortable with their e-commerce.
Lack of uniqueness and strategic direction
As a brand, you have to give customers a reason to come to the store, beyond only buying products from you. If people want goods they go to Amazon, but they visit brand-specific websites because they want more, they want specific products that they can’t get anywhere else and because they want to shop from that particular brand. When you look around, many websites look too much the same. It could be a great chance for brands to stand out, to give the visitors and customers an experience. Yes, you want them to shop, but most of all you want them to feel something while they shop.
If your website looks like all other brands’ websites, it’ll be hard for the visitors to feel that magic.
Put it on the website and wait
Just because your products have sold out in a retail store, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna fly from your e-comm site as well. In a retail store, you have people physically walking the store, trying on clothes, feeling the material, comparing colors – but on a screen, customers can’t do that. You as a brand have to present the products, give the information, showcase the items in an enticing exciting way. And today even that might not be enough. That’s why content is extremely important. Storytelling that connects with your customer on a deeper level, that speaks to the sale values and beliefs, and aspirations.
Poor and boring product descriptions
This one is one of the most missed opportunities amongst brands. It takes product knowledge, customer understanding, and strong copy/storytelling skills to write great product content descriptions. It’s easy to think that a picture says more than a thousand words but in the online world, that’s not entirely true. The content is more than just content, it also helps with your SEO.
Plus, most online shoppers know that pictures most often are photoshopped and the products and models are styled, altered, products pinched, adjusted to look its best in the pictures to sell the garment. That exact garment might look very different when it arrives in the box a couple of days later, even more different than the picture when you try the garment on.
That’s why the copy matters more than the pictures!
Poor or too few product pictures
Yes, poor pictures are a shopping killer. One picture where you show the front side of the product is not enough. Also, pictures, where it’s hard to see the product, are going to make the conversions harder. As customers, we want to be able to see exactly what we are buying, cause we hate the hassle of returning things. So do give your customers many pictures to look at where they can see exactly what the products are about. the front, the back, the inside, the details, the material… to help them make a purchasing decision on that product.
Wrong SEO
The algorithms on all search engines change several times per day. Your SEO is what gives juice to the searches and helps you rank and show up in searches when people are looking for things online. Your SEO game needs to stay up to date with the keywords and phrases that are relevant and important for your business. Yes, you can always pay for more visibility, but the right keywords can give you visibility without it costing a thing.
Poor customer service
How annoyed are you when you buy something online and there’s something wrong with your order, or you want to exchange the products and you can barely find the contact info on the website? How annoyed are you when you can’t talk to a real human being about your problem so they can easily help you out? You know what we’re talking about here so don’t be that brand!
No after-sales pampering
It’s 5 times more expensive to find new customers than to have returning happy customers. We see many brands just “ignore” their customers after they place an order. The post-shopping cycle is more important than many brands think. This is your chance to make your mark, to really stand out in the sea of brands. This is the time to really make sure your customer is happy, that they are well informed about the purchase and deliveries, that they know what to do if they want to return or exchange products and where they can contact you if they have any questions and need support. Do send them follow-up emails with news & updates about the brand, coming products, tips, educational content, and inspirational information about their lifestyle. Remember, your brand is more than just your products, it’s everything you do and say, and how you show up to serve and support your customers.
To sum this article up – if you as a brand want to attract customers to your website, have them spending their dollars, or euros, you need a digital strategy and an implementation plan. The online world is moving at an incredible speed, and you need to keep up and stay on top to have sustainable brand growth, attract new customers, and keep serving your recurring customers.
If you recognize that your brand is making some of the above mistakes, you understand by now that it means the money and the clients are going elsewhere.
Book a discovery call and let’s discuss how we can help you with your E-Commerce brand strategy and marketing plan.
You can also schedule a half-day workshop with us where we can help your team create high converting content and copy for your products to be used in your workbooks and your e-com site. The content and copy can be used as an extra tool for your sales team to help them close more orders plus of course your e-commerce site.
