Building an e-commerce business? Here’s how to generate 3900% ROI.

Starting a store is easy. You head over to Shopify, sign up, and get a ready made store with a simplified theme (that you will want to change very soon). You then add your products, add pricing, photos, and see the live view. Happy. You will then add a logo, a few pages like privacy policy, terms of use, return policy, and add a few pages about your vision, who you are, and how to contact you. Your store is live. You’re ready to make sales.

Since you are new, there is no way you will be getting any traffic organically. You’ll need to advertise your products on Google or/and Facebook (or Instagram).

You will make a choice. Potential customers will start looking at your ads, clicking on them, visiting your product pages, and either they will make a purchase or they’ll move on to find if anyone else is selling the similar product at a cheaper price. Many customers will want to purchase later. Some other will simply change their mind right on your product page. But by then, you’ll already have paid for the clicks.

Paid marketing isn’t enough

You are burning a hole in your pocket when a customer simply clicks on your ad but doesn’t make a purchasing decision.

At this moment in time, you can either let the visitor leave, or you can offer them a reason to leave their name and email address with you, just in case you have something for them in the future, or you can let them leave, and never see them again in the future.

Most e-commerce store owners overlook this simple process of collecting email. According to the email marketing statistics for eCommerce, over 20 million e-commerce websites are currently operational on the internet, and almost every one of them is pushing the customer to make an impulsive purchase.

But customers like to research. They like to keep track of the prices. They almost always know that a better option, with better price, is be available. An average customer is quite happy to spend some more time to make an informed decision about their purchase.

While most brands focus on social media and search ads to generate traffic, you need to recover the amount you are spending on those clicks that didn’t convert right then. You need to be able to get in touch with the customers who didn’t make a purchasing decision but they’re inclined to stay updated about the product and prices. Some customers would rather wait for the right offer.

And when you have the right motivation to offer to your customer to make the purchase, you should be able to get in touch with them with the offer.

That’s where email marketing comes in. The benefits of email marketing are still relevant in 2023, and will be relevant for years to come. With email marketing, you can generate a list of highly targeted potential customers who have intentionally subscribed to your newsletter and want to engage with your content.

You can deliver a very personalised offer to your customers, right after they sign up, giving them a few more cents of motivation to make a purchase.

Additionally, email marketing is very simple and efficient. Simply collect emails from your visitors and send them targeted deals and offers. Imagine having a list of 50,000 or 10000 email address who have signed up to your newsletter.

Your subscribers are not just your customers but also your agents. They will spread your offers with their family and friends, through word of mouth, and help you reach your business goals faster.

Now, if I’ve been able to convince you about why you need a great email marketing strategy right now, here are some statistics to prove my point further.

Email marketing statistics for e-commerce

1. Over 50% of the world’s population uses email. There are over 3 billion email users around the world. Moreover over 72% of the consumers say that email is the main source of their business communications. They check their emails often.
2. A welcome email can skyrocket your user engagement by over 500%. Welcome email have over 4 time more open rates compared to regular marketing messages. Introducing your brand, your products, and sending them a welcome discount are some of the many strategies to help your customers make a purchase.
3. Over 50% of the users open emails based on the subject like you use. If you keep the subject short and straightforward, your message clear and precise, use number, question, and something that evokes curiosity, you are good to go.
4. A personalised email is more likely to get opened. Studies have shown that personalised emails are opened about 18.8% of the times, which is about 6% higher than non-personalised emails.
5. Abandoned cart emails have a whooping 40% open rate. Imagine a customer opening your email and realising that you’re offering them a 10% extra discount on product they left on the cart. Give them an urgency to make the purchase or deal expires. They would be very likely to make a decision.
6. Last but important, email marketing ROI is 3900%. For ever $1 you spend on email marketing, expect a return of $39. Even the most basic e-commerce businesses, for example the ones selling groceries, use email marketing to get customers to make a purchase after they’ve left the website.

Making your brand unforgettable using email

Once a customer visits your store, you can use email marketing to make yourself unforgettable. Send them regular emails, be it memes or deals, be it a quick quiz or a free gift, you have a foot in the door, and rest can be handled if your customer is at least listening to what you have to say.

If you’re are running an e-commerce store, or you’re simply planning to start one, consider email marketing as the pillar on which you will build your business in the long run.