What is E-Commerce Marketing? All You Need to Know

If you want to buy something, there’s a good chance you’ll do it online these days. You’re not alone. More than 2 billion people around the world shop at e-commerce stores.

And the numbers are growing fast. The global e-commerce market is expected to reach more than $6 trillion by 2029, up from $4 billion in 2024.

Why is it so popular? The main reason is it’s easy to find the best deals online. Many people start their research online, even if they eventually buy the product in store.

This has led to an e-commerce boom, with lots of stores competing to win new customers. Therefore, if you want to stand out, you need to nail your marketing.

Brands with the best e-commerce marketing strategy attract the most customers.

The problem is that many e-commerce store owners, who start out with brick-and-mortar stores, try to apply traditional retail strategies online. Often, they focus too heavily on one area, like SEO blogging. A more rounded approach to e-commerce marketing works best. 

In this guide, we’ll cover a variety of strategies, along with actionable ideas and steps to outpace your competitors.

What is E-Commerce Marketing?

E-commerce marketing is like setting up a bunch of signposts across the internet that point to your shop.

Ads, Google search, content, social media, emails – all these things attract the attention of your ideal customers, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A multi-channel approach works much better, which means casting a wide net to begin with. 

Use ads and content to catch people’s attention wherever they might be, including social media and the open web of publisher sites. Drive traffic to your site through SEO, Google Ads, and native advertising. Then, once you have people’s attention, use targeted emails and promos to keep them engaged. 

The final stage involves getting people to buy from you, then encouraging them to buy again. This demands a smooth shopping experience. Ensure your website design makes the whole process as easy as possible. Use A/B testing to optimize conversions, for instance you could try changing the color of your “Buy” button or using different copy on your landing page.

After converting customers into buyers, the journey isn’t over. For the best results, keep your customers engaged. Use follow-up emails, loyalty programs, and offers based on purchase history. 

Types of E-Commerce Marketing

It’s a good idea to have several e-commerce marketing techniques and tactics in your toolbox. Let’s take a look at each and how well they work in different scenarios.

Email marketing

• What it is: Email marketing enables you to reach out to people who’ve shown interest in your brand and given you their email address. Marketing emails can be newsletters, special promos, or nurture sequences designed to nudge people towards buying.
• Advantages: It’s cost-effective. You can also personalize emails with targeted messaging based on customer data, such as past purchases or browsing behavior.
• Impact: Keeps your brand top-of-mind and can drive more sales through engagement and special offers.
• Example: Imagine you recently launched a new line of eco-friendly water bottles. You kick off with an email to past customers that talks about the importance of staying hydrated. Email two is filled with stats about plastic pollution and how much of a difference eco-friendly reusable bottles make. You finish with an email that talks about your product, the benefits and any unusual features, before ending with a call to action to buy the bottle with a special discount offer.

Social media marketing

• What it is: An opportunity to interact with customers in a relaxed, friendly way. You can show a more playful and creative side on social media. It’s about showing your brand personality openly, and posting content that people want to share.
• Advantages: Boosts brand awareness, builds a community, and offers instant feedback from customers. You can also provide customer service through your social channels.
• Impact: Boost brand reach through shares and likes. If you’re lucky, a campaign could go viral, especially entertaining or emotionally moving ones. You can also run targeted social ads to get in front of your ideal customers.
• Example: Your brand wants to attract younger people, so you launch a hashtag challenge on TikTok or Instagram. If you sell sneakers, you might ask your followers to post videos showing off their best dance moves while wearing them, e.g. #DanceInOurShoes. To make it even more engaging, you might offer a prize, like a brand new pair of premium sneakers.

Affiliate marketing

• What it is: Affiliate marketing allows you to partner with affiliates who promote your e-commerce products on their platforms and earn a commission based on sales generated through their referrals.
• Advantages: You only pay for actual sales. It expands your reach by tapping into the affiliate’s credibility.
• Impact: Affiliates are trusted by their audience, which directly drives up sales. You can also tap into niche markets that might be hard to reach through other channels.
• Example: Imagine selling high-end photography equipment. You partner with popular photography bloggers and vloggers. They use your equipment in their tutorials and link to your store with a unique tracking code. When a customer buys your photography product via the affiliate link, the affiliate partner earns a commission.

Influencer marketing

• What it is: Influential individuals with engaged online followings promote your products on their channels, without necessarily being celebrities.
• Advantages: Quickly build trust and gain access to a large audience.
• Impact: Often results in a rapid visibility boost and more sales.
• Example: You sell workout clothing. You partner with fitness influencers who wear your gear on their YouTube and social media channels. In the descriptions, they offer their followers a discount code and link to your store.

Native advertising

• What it is: Native ads are online ads that blend with the content around them. They seem less like ads and more like natural content on a website.
• Advantages: Subtly promotes products without interrupting people’s online activity. These kinds of ads often get more engagement.
• Impact: People, especially younger people, are turned off by obvious ads. Many of them have “banner blindness”, which means they’re blinkered to online ads. Native ads help overcome this as they don’t disrupt people’s online behavior, so the viewer is more partial to engaging with them.
• Example: You sell home decor items, so you run a blog on your website about home styling topics. As an Outbrain advertiser, you can run ad campaigns on publisher sites across the internet, targeting relevant audiences who are interested in reading about home styling topics and related topics. The ad links back to your blog, where viewers can get to know your website and brand.

Content marketing

• What it is: Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable and helpful content to attract a clearly defined audience.
• Advantages: Helps build brand authority and trust. It also enhances SEO efforts, driving up traffic through engaging content that answers users’ questions.
• Impact: Content marketing improves brand recall and customer loyalty by increasing engagement. It helps establish your brand as a thought leader.
• Example: Imagine you own a company selling kitchen appliances. You could create a series of blog posts, videos, and infographics on topics such as “The Best Healthy Recipes for Slow Cookers” or “Tips for Maintaining Your Kitchen Appliances.” You might also develop an e-book titled “The Essential Guide to Choosing the Right Kitchen Appliances,” offering it as a free download in exchange for email sign-ups. This positions your brand as helpful, increasing the chances of a sale when these customers decide to buy.

E-Commerce Marketing Strategies

Here’s a step-by-step approach to plan and implement an e-commerce marketing strategy across multiple channels.

1. Define your objectives

First, clearly define what you want to achieve with your e-commerce marketing strategy. Common goals include:

• Increasing overall sales
• Improving customer retention
• Breaking into new market segments

Set clear SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals, as you’re more likely to reach them and it makes it easier to monitor progress. Here’s an example of a SMART goal for e-commerce marketing: 

“Increase my online store’s quarterly sales by at least 10% within the next six months through targeted native advertising and email marketing campaigns.”

2. Understand your audience

Knowing who your customers are is the most important part of marketing. Do some market research to get data about your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviors. The best way to do this is through surveys, polls, social media analytics, and customer interviews. Build out buyer personas to help you solidify your different audiences.

3. Check out your competition

Identify your main competitors and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Understand:

• What they offer
• Who they offer it to
• Their positioning
• The marketing tactics they use
• How they handle customer service
• Their pricing strategies

This will help you identify market gaps and opportunities to differentiate your brand.

4. Choose the right platforms

Based on your audience and competitor research, select the best channels for reaching your customers. This might include multiple channels such as your e-commerce website, social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.), email marketing, native ad networks, and possibly even offline channels if they complement your online strategy – print ads, out of home ads (e.g. bus shelters and billboards), radio ads, etc.

5. Develop your marketing mix

Plan a mix of marketing activities tailored to your goals and audience. Use any or all of the techniques listed in the section above – content marketing, emails, native advertising, SEO, etc.

6. Optimize your e-commerce site

Make sure your online store gives the best possible experience. This means fast loading times, clear navigation, and strong calls to action (CTAs). Run A/B split testing to optimize images, colors, product descriptions, and checkout processes.

7. Implement and monitor

Launch your marketing campaigns on a planned schedule. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, to monitor the performance of your campaigns in real time. Monitor metrics like traffic, conversion rates, sales, and customer engagement. Get feedback from your customers whenever possible.

8. Adjust based on analytics

Analyze the data collected to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Make necessary adjustments to your campaigns and strategies to improve performance. This could involve tweaking your ads, refining your target audience, or revising your content strategy. 

9. Scale and innovate

As your e-commerce business grows, stay on the lookout for ways to scale up your marketing efforts. Consider expanding into new markets, using new platforms, or adopting emerging technologies, such as AI, to enhance the shopping experience.

Tips on E-Commerce Marketing

Here are some tips and tricks to implement in your e-commerce marketing to boost your strategy for success.

SEO best practices

Use SEO to drive traffic to your e-commerce store. Identify keywords that relate to your products. You can use keyword research tools to do this, but it’s also a good idea to brainstorm your own ideas of what people might type into the search box, then check them against search volume.

For example, if you sell organic skincare products, you might realize that people will search for “high-quality paraben-free face cream” or “natural products that are good for skin”. 

Then, add these keywords to your website’s product descriptions, blog posts, and meta descriptions of your web pages. You could create a blog post titled “10 Benefits of Using Organic Paraben-Free Facial Creams” and naturally sprinkle in keywords like “best paraben-free facial cream”,  “eco-friendly skincare”, etc.

Segmented emails

Don’t just push out generic emails. Try to segment your email list based on preferences and behavior. Send special offers for products to customers who bought similar items. You can also target people based on location, engagement level, age, or personality traits.

When you segment your audience, you can write more relevant emails to catch their attention. If you run an e-commerce store selling pet products for example, you could send an email to dog owners that gives them ideas for different games to play with their pups. Include a special offer or new product announcement to draw them to your e-commerce store and drive sales.

Social media engagement

Most e-commerce companies use social media to post product promotions and… that’s about it. Then they wonder why they’re not getting good engagement levels. If you want to engage people, you need to connect on an emotional level. 

Genuine, authentic interaction is the name of the game and you can do this by commenting and sharing other people’s posts. You can also share brand stories and user-generated content (UGC). 

Most social media platforms allow you to boost posts or turn them into ads. Look for posts that perform well organically, with lots of likes, comments, or shares. When you boost your post, you often get the option to choose from a range of targeting options such as age, location, interests, and more.

You can also ask your followers for feedback and reviews on your products, then share them or feature them on your product pages.

Optimize for mobile

Make sure your online store is optimized for mobile. A big chunk of online shopping is done via smartphones, so your site needs to load fast and display properly on small screens. You should also make it easy for people to checkout and pay on mobile devices, with options like Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Make sure your customer service is nothing less than excellent

Customer service must be a key part of your marketing strategy. Offer multiple ways for customers to reach you, such as chat, email, and phone support. Respond quickly, as a positive customer service experience can turn a one-time buyer into a repeat customer.

Top E-Commerce Marketing Platforms

Shopify 

Shopify is one of the go-to platforms for online sellers. It handles everything from online store fronts, product pages, blog, and social media sales. You can also integrate in-person sales and customer support.

BigCommerce 

BigCommerce has grown to be a heavy hitter in recent years. It’s ideal for larger e-commerce businesses or medium-sized ones looking to scale up. It has deep analytics tools and makes it easy to manage multi-channel marketing within the platform.

Wix 

Wix is perfect if you’re looking for an easy setup. It’s user-friendly with a drag-and-drop interface that lets you build a good looking store without needing to code or even design skills. You can simply use a template and add your own content.  It’s more basic in terms of e-commerce functions compared to others, and doesn’t give you much in terms of marketing automation or tools, but it’s great for starters.

Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) 

Adobe Commerce is a powerful platform, perfect for specific needs or those who want full control over their e-commerce environment. But it’s complex, so you’ll probably need a developer to get the most out of it.

WooCommerce 

It’s perfect for e-commerce companies already using a WordPress site, turning it into a fully-functional e-commerce store. It’s open-source, so you can customize it to your heart’s content. Just bear in mind that managing all the plugins might get a bit tricky and techy.

E-Commerce Marketing Success Story: Outbrain Native Ads

Brooklinen, the popular Brooklyn-based D2C bed linen company, knocks it out of the park with their e-commerce marketing. The brand sells comfy, good quality sheets that don’t break the bank, and has seen incredible success and growth in recent years.

Brooklinen used the Outbrain platform to re-engage visitors who checked out their products online, but didn’t buy. They also targeted untapped audiences with the Lookalikes feature, which helped identify users who have similar characteristics to Brooklinen’s existing audiences, but who have not yet been exposed to the brand.

Brooklinen used their best-performing headlines and images to grab attention and presented positive reviews of their products to help seal the deal. This strategy got them more customers, cost much less than similar social media ads, and converted users faster. Lookalike audiences on desktops doubled their usual conversion rates and halved the cost per acquisition compared to other campaigns. 

Brooklinen’s e-commerce success story really shows the power of getting the right message in front of the right people, at the right time. 

E-Commerce Marketing Trends

There is no discussion about e-commerce marketing trends without mentioning AI. In e-commerce, AI has the potential to offer people personalized shopping experiences like never before. AI can tap into data on past behavior and purchases to show customers the most relevant and interesting products when they visit your online store. It can also tailor ads and content in the same way.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are also handy for e-commerce sellers. People can use this tech to virtually try on a pair of glasses or jeans without leaving the house. Some e-commerce sellers are using it to offer a more immersive shopping experience that mimics walking through a physical store. It means you can virtually “pick up” products and see them in 3D.

Social commerce is another trend to watch, enabling people to shop directly on social media platforms. This links nicely with influencer marketing, as influencers can recommend a product on social media, and include a “Buy” button directly on their social page or post.

Get Started with E-Commerce Marketing Today

Whether you’re a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, using a variety of e-commerce marketing strategies will give you a competitive edge.

The most important part of any marketing strategy is to first know your audience. Then you can create ads and content that appeals to them, using tools like Outbrain to promote the content to the right people, and turn your e-commerce store into a profit center.

Join Outbrain today to launch your first campaign and boost your e-commerce marketing efforts.