How to Launch a New Product on Social Media

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Launching a new product is exciting. As the creator you may know all it has to offer, but you will need to communicate that and excite consumers. Social media is a valuable platform that allows you to reinforce your brand, share messages, and launch new products. While some of us may only watch TV or listen to the radio an hour or so a day, most of us open our social media platforms several times a day. As a business owner, you will want to understand social media marketing and use it to grow sales. 

Why is launching a new product on social media important?

Any small or midsize business launching a new product should consider how properly utilizing social media can contribute to a widely successful product launch. Launching a new product can be a hectic time that requires many moving parts to come together to form a cohesive front to support the product launch. Some of those moving parts include the eCommerce website itself, the fulfillment team, customer service, marketing,  IT,  and management. All of these moving parts are responsible for their own contributions to a successful product launch. In the confusion and chaos, some businesses may overlook the importance that social media can play in a successful launch. Sometimes social media can be viewed as an afterthought. That is a mistake, and here is why. Here are the top reasons why social media is part of any successful product launch. 

  1. Social media allows you to reach your target audience: When you use social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, for example, you can run targeted promotions to the exact demographic that you have identified as your target market. Leading up to a product launch, it may be extremely beneficial to run target promotions to the gender, age, location, and special interest demographics of the populations who are going to most enthusiastically respond to your new product or service. 
  2. Build hype around your product or service before the launch: Before you even launch your product, you can use social media to start to create hype around a new product by releasing product teasers. If a product teaser is done properly, you can grow an email list of potential customers before the product goes live. There are some key characteristics of an enticing product teaser. First, the teaser should provide a glimpse into the function and/or capabilities of the product without providing a full demonstration. Second, it should excite and make people curious about the product. Third, the teaser should be visually captivating. Last, the teaser should be 100% shareable across multiple social media platforms. 
  3. Social media allows you to interact with potential customers: Unlike radio and television, which is a one-way flow of communication, social media is an interactive form of communication between companies, and both their existing and potential customers. Once a product is launched, customers can create chatter on social media, ask questions, and continue to build hype around a product. A company needs to be proactive and respond to inquiries promptly and be an active and willing participant in the conversation. 

Social media can be extremely helpful to a successful launch of a new product. By building hype, targeting desired demographics, and engaging with existing and potential customers through social media, a company may exponentially increase the chances their product will be a success. 

How can social media help sell a new product?

Social media is a unique medium for advertising for many reasons. First, social media allows a company to match its social strategy and brand image to its intended customer. Through specific targeting tools used by ad platforms like Facebook Ads, for example, a company can target social media users by their gender, age range, location, and special interests. Second, companies can create original and thoughtful content and control how frequently their content is broadcast across the platform. The idea is to find the sweet spot between being loud enough to not get drowned out without posting too frequently the message becomes a nuisance to users. Third, a company can build its own community and network with existing and potential customers alike. 

Which social media platforms are best for launching a new product?

Before a company launches a new product, extensive market research should be conducted to determine who the target market is. This research also can be used to help determine which social media platforms would potentially produce the best results upon launch of the product. For example, for a product or service that is intended for a Gen Z audience, a social media platform like Tik Tok may produce better results than a platform like LinkedIn. Knowing your audience, and which social platforms that particular audience engages with the most, is instrumental to successfully launch a new product on social media.  

Tips to launching a new product on social media

Launching a new product can be an exciting yet overwhelming event for any company. By using social media, a company may be able to reach more people, but at the same time, reach people that are more likely to be interested in its product or service. When a company is ready to launch a new product, social media should be one of the most important tools in its arsenal. Here are some tips for launching a new product on social media. 

  • Identify your goals: Identifying your goals will help you create milestones that you can hold yourself accountable for accomplishing. Your goals should be specific enough that you and your team can develop creative strategies to achieve them. 
  • Set a timeline and dates around the product launch: Do some market research to help determine when the perfect launch time would be based on what kind of product or service you are launching. Once you have a launch date, that is your deadline. Working backward from that deadline, create a day-to-day schedule and hold yourself to that schedule. Allow yourself a little flexibility when creating the schedule to account for minor setbacks. 
  • Choose social media to promote on: Social media is not a one size fits all approach. You will need to do your research to determine which social media platforms would work best for your product or service and then focus your energy and resources on those platforms. 
  • Develop an influencer marketing strategy: Using a social media influencer marketing campaign may be a good way to help your brand reach a wider audience through a social media influencer who is trusted by their followers. They may be trusted by their followers to recommend products because the influencer is seen as an authoritative source in their specific niche. 
  • Develop campaign assets: Campaign assets refer to the media you will use in your social media marketing campaigns. Media like the photos, videos, graphics, and GIF files will need to be commissioned. You will also want to create photos and videos featuring your product. 
  • Launch your campaign: When you launch your campaign and product or service, you should have all your assets ready to be released in a strategic manner. Go ahead and launch your product at the predetermined time.
  • Monitor and track performance: Take note of what resonated well with your target audience and what did not. Also, take note of which social media platforms worked best and which you may be able to avoid in the future. Did you make the goals that you set before the launch of the product? If not, how can you adjust to better meet your goals on the next campaign? 

Grow your business with Kickfurther

Launching a new product can be expensive. Regardless of the cost, you will want to make sure the product is created and launched the right way. Of course, you will want to make sure your anticipated ROI is healthy before investing. Once you have projected sales goals and outlined a budget, you will need to find a way to make it happen. Kickfurther can help your business reach its goals by ensuring that you have the funding you need. Kickfurther was created by an entrepreneur who once struggled to qualify and find affordable inventory financing. After experiencing a real struggle, he created Kickfurther with the mission to provide affordable inventory financing for businesses. Kickfurther is up to 30% cheaper than other options. Business owners can secure the funding they need while taking advantage of flexible repayment plans. 

Grow your business with affordable inventory financing. . . visit Kickfurther today!

What Supply Chain Metrics Should You Be Tracking

Posted on by Amanda Levine

As a business owner, you may be tracking several metrics. Metrics help measure results in a quantifiable manner. Supply chains have several components, thus resulting in several components that can be tracked. When you drill down into the details of your business and supply chain you may be overwhelmed with how many metrics you can choose to track. You may be asking yourself, what supply chain metrics should you be tracking?

What are supply chain metrics?

Supply chain metrics are data sets that are used to quantify and evaluate key elements of a business’s supply chain. The key elements include supply chain performance, customer service, and supply chain leverage. An efficient and fully optimized supply chain is critical to increase profitability and to increase shareholder value by ensuring the business is competitive in the marketplace. Here is a breakdown of the different types of supply chain metrics that are available for each of the key elements mentioned above,

  • Supply chain leverage: Cost of inventory, cost of manufacturing, cost of materials, DSO, DPO, and several other tools. 
  • Supply chain performance: Accuracy of forecast demand, lead time and variability of replenishment, supplier performance. 
  • Customer service: Order fill rates, on-time delivery, and service levels.

The metrics supporting supply chain leverage (inventory, manufacturing, and material costs, DSO, DOP, etc.) help to lower the time it takes for cash-to-cash conversion cycles while adhering to projected customer service levels. The supply chain performance metrics help to improve demand visibility and forecast. These metrics drive continuous process improvement to create leverage further down the supply chain. The customer service metrics help to balance service levels with profitability. They monitor important metrics such as on-time delivery, which can be a large indicator of customer satisfaction. 

When supply chain leverage, supply chain performance, and customer service metrics are collected and analyzed properly, they can be used to measure progress against pre-established goals and to strive for continuous process improvement. 

What are the important supply chain metrics / KPIs?

When you are looking at defining your supply chain KPIs, you have to set the performance parameters that are required for tracking operations that give you insights into how well your supply chain is functioning. You can establish goals and track these operation metrics to reveal how effectively your supply chain is meeting those targets. KPIs can help your company improve order fulfillment, shipping operations, and warehouse management. KPIs can make shortcomings apparent, allowing you to leverage areas you are excelling to improve supply chain performance. If you are thinking about expanding your business, then KPIs will help you make informed decisions to help you scale your business appropriately. 

Top metrics every supply chain should track

Supply chains are comparable to circulatory systems. They must flow seamlessly and uninterrupted in order for production, transportation, customer service, and other operations to be aligned.While it may be a complex task to track supply chain metrics, you will be glad you invested the resources into tracking. Metics can help you identify areas of improvement, thus allowing your business to be more efficient and lower costs. Metics can also help businesses better meet customer demands. The more organized and aligned your organization is, the better customer service you can deliver. Here are some supply chain metrics that you should track.

Cash to cash time

Cash-to-cash (C2C) can also be called cash conversion. It’s a simple metric that measures the time between a company sending cash to a supplier and receiving cash from customers. Typically, three measurements are used to make up this compound metric. Those measurements are days of inventory, days of payables, and days of receivables. While benchmarks can vary from business to business, cash conversion cycles of less than one month are favorable. The cash conversion cycle can vary depending on the industry. A study reported that over 22,000 publicly traded companies had a direct correlation between a shorter C2C cycle and greater profitability in 75% of cases.

Cycle time

Cycle time helps indicate overall efficiency of a supply chain. This metric measures the time it would take to complete a customer’s order, assuming all inventory levels are at zero at the time the order was placed. It’s the sum of the longest possible lead times for every stage within the supply chain cycle. Shorter cycles indicate a more flexible and responsive process. Supply chain cycle time can help uncover existing or potential problems.

Fill rate

Demand satisfaction rate is often called fill rate. This metric is the amount of customer demand met through stock availability. It does not include backorders or lost sales. Tracking fill rates helps identify sales you can recover and or inventory performance. If you have better inventory performance you can provide better customer service. A key part of this metric is understanding access to inventory data. The more accurate and accessible inventory is, the more accurate shipping and orders can be. Maintaining a good relationship with suppliers can help improve fill rates.

Inventory turnover

Inventory turnover is a simple yet critical metric to track. In simplest terms, inventory turnover is the number of times inventory will sell out within a specific time period. Inventory turnover can provide a snapshot of the efficiency of your entire supply chain process. Benchmarks will vary depending on the company and the industry. A low inventory turnover rate usually indicates weak sales. What is considered low can depend on the industry.

Perfect order rate

A perfect order rate or index is a metric that shows the error-free rate of the entire supply chain process. Every stage of the process is evaluated to determine the overall performance indicator. In some cases, this can be a confusing metric. For example, if there are four stages being evaluated and each stage is performing at 99%, when multiplied together you will get a 96% error-free rate. While the metric may be confusing it’s important to drill down to determine issues and where they are coming from. The perfect order rate can help improve overall supply chain performance. 

Supply chain costs

Costs are an extremely important metric to pay attention to and carefully track. For the supply chain, relevant costs might include planning, sourcing, developing, and so forth. Costs can help determine how efficient various parts of your company are. It’s always important to increase profit without increasing costs. However, you want to avoid taking shortcuts or doing things the wrong way in order to cut costs. You also want to make sure you find the value in each cost. Investing in one area may indirectly improve another area of your business. It’s important to think broadly and have an open mind.

Grow your business with Kickfurther

Tracking metrics and growing supply chains requires investment. If you aren’t already tracking some of the metrics explained above, you should start now. As your business grows, you may need to secure financing. Metrics may help you understand that you need more inventory and or when you need more inventory. Maintaining proper inventory level is critical to ensure orders are on time and no sales are missed. As a small business, it may be hard to qualify for inventory financing. Or worse, it may be expensive to use inventory financing. Kickfurther offers businesses a better way to secure the funding they need for inventory. Kickfurther is up to 30% cheaper than other options. If you are trying to grow your business and improve your supply chain, you may be roadblocked by a lack of funds. Kickfurther can help you drift around roadblocks and keep your business growing. 

Discover affordable financing for your business. . . visit Kickfurther today!

The Future of Supply Chains

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Supply chains are a critical part of operating an efficient business. Whether you manufacture products or retail products, you will likely have some sort of supply chain. Identifying the various roles within your supply chain and analyzing how to make them as efficient as possible can save you time and money, thus allowing your business to flourish. With populations growing and technology advancing, supply chains are changing.

What is a supply chain?

The supply chain is essentially a network that facilitates how a product goes from its creation and manufacture, into the hands of the end-user. There are many links along the way, hence the name supply chain. Each link is responsible for its own individual contribution to progressing the product through the chain, however, they ultimately act as one unit. The supply chain consists of retailers,  wholesalers, distribution centers, transportation and shipping companies, vendors, and producers. When a product is created and then manufactured, that product moves its way through the chain until it ends up in the hands of the consumer. As a company, your supply chain is essential to helping you maintain a seamless operation and satisfied customers. The speed at which the product moves through the supply chain varies based on the nature of your business, who your suppliers are, and the shelf-life of the product. Some products have shorter shelf-lives where their progression through the supply chain is constant with extremely time-sensitive turnaround time from when the product is ordered, to when it is created, to when it gets to the customer. Other products have longer shelf lives that allow for the creation of bulk inventory orders that can potentially qualify for steeper discounts. Bulk orders allow companies to stockpile inventory, which can be beneficial, especially if the supplier is overseas. Sure,  it’s great to have an abundance of inventory on hand, however, a company also needs to find a balance to ensure that they do not have too much capital tied up in inventory.  A seamless supply chain can help save costs and ensure customers’ orders are fulfilled in an efficient and timely manner while making sure a company does not have too much stock on hand. Having the perfect amount of inventory in stock can ensure that a company is fulfilling orders while still maximizing the amount of working capital they have at any given time. 

How does a supply chain work?

As we just discussed, a supply chain is an interconnected system of producers, suppliers, vendors, distribution centers, transportation companies, wholesalers, and retailers. Depending on the product, a supply chain can be incredibly complex involving numerous entities across several continents. So, how does a supply chain actually work? Here is a basic breakdown of how a supply chain works in the modern era.

First, let us look at a supply chain in the simplest form. There are five main steps that every supply chain contains.

  1. Sourcing and extraction of raw materials. 
  2. Manufacturing the extracted materials into the fundamental parts of a product.
  3. Assembling those manufactured parts into finished products.
  4. The sale of the finished products to consumers. 
  5. The delivery of the finished products to consumers. 

Under the umbrella of these five steps, many coordinated tasks are happening at the same time to progress the finished products from the manufacturer to the consumer. Tasks such as:

  • The creation of contracts, documentation, and the establishment of expectations between the different parties within the supply chain. 
  • The movement of goods from one place to another, or from one organization to another.
  • The storage of goods while they are progressing through the supply chain.
  • The accurate tracking and managing of stock and inventory.
  • Supply and demand management.
  • The tracking and authentication of goods.
  • The distribution of goods to the consumer.

A supply chain should be constantly monitored, and goods should be tracked through the supply chain to identify trouble areas and to allow for optimization. The individuals responsible for this type of monitoring are called supply chain managers. Supply chain managers also monitor the supply chain daily to identify issues and to work to resolve them to maintain the seamless flow of goods through the supply chain. 

How important is supply chain management?

A well-managed and efficient supply chain increases profits by reducing operating costs and preventing wasteful spending. For example, inefficiencies in the supply chain have a way of rippling through the entire chain which can cause delays and cause profits to decrease. For example, delayed products from the distributor to the wholesaler can cause a retailer to cancel orders rather than fulfill them. Another example, an order that is lost by a transportation company en route from the fulfillment center to the customer can result in the need for a replacement product needing to be shipped. Each of the scenarios can cause overall profits to decrease. 

What does the future hold for the supply chain?

The nature of supply chain solutions as we know it is going through a drastic transformation. How do the forces of automation and artificial intelligence play a role in the future of the supply chain? Digitization? The green movement? Each of these will play a major role in the shaping of how supply chains work in the future. Let us take a close look at a few of these driving forces of change.

  • Automation and AI: Automation and AI will change the way information is shared across the supply chain as well as change how goods are manufactured. The more goods that are manufactured through automation, the more jobs will be lost. 
  • Sustainability focus: How raw materials are sourced is currently under a microscope of scrutiny, maybe for the best. However, there is increasing global pressure from consumers to source materials sustainably and to leave as little an environmental impact as possible. Sustainability also heavily applies to the transportation industry. How can we move goods along the supply chain while decreasing air pollution and environmental degradation? The future of the supply chain is green. 
  • Digitization: The digitization of the supply chain will change how supply chain managers analyze data to make improvements. It also changes everything from how purchase orders are submitted, how orders are tracked, and how money is moved to pay for goods and services in the supply chain, including the use of crypto-currencies and blockchain technologies. 

These are just a few of the many driving forces that are creating drastic changes in the supply chain. The future of the supply chain will be greatly transformed in the next decade, and if you are a small business owner, it is important to evolve alongside the supply chain in order to make sure your business can compete in a changing market and landscape. 

Tips to future-proofing supply chains

If you are a small business owner, you may want to consider taking some important future-proofing steps in order to prepare yourself for the future to better compete in a constantly evolving marketplace. Here are a few small steps you can take to better prepare for the future of the supply chain.

  1. Complete digitization and digital integration of the entire supply chain.
  2. Identify supplier relationships that are sustainable and consistent. Complete digitization will allow businesses to better analyze their supplier relationships to identify inefficiencies. 
  3. Automation in the supply chain. For example, automating procurement may allow an AI to identify low stock items and automatically order them when stock falls below a certain threshold. 
  4. Adopt ethical and responsible practices that are fair trade, fair labor, and sustainable. 

These are just a few of the many small steps that a business can take to make sure that their supply chain is prepared for the future. 

Grow your business with Kickfurther

As a business owner you will need to invest in several areas to help your business grow. As you expand operations, cash flow may get tight. If you need access to cash for inventory, you may need to consider financing options. What detours most business owners from financing is the cost and qualification requirements. At Kickfurther, we can help lower costs and make it easier to qualify. 

Access the funds you need to grow your business. . . visit Kickfurther today!

How to Increase Customer Retention for Your Ecommerce Business

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Finding creative ways to increase customer retention can help grow your eCommerce business. In the eCommerce world, consumers have an unlimited amount of access to products and services. Without human interaction, it can be difficult to retain customers or educate them on why they should do business with you. So how do you increase customer retention while growing revenue in the eCommerce space?

Why is customer retention important for eCommerce businesses?

Customer retention is extremely important for any type of business. Restaurants, clothing stores, and even gas stations do everything they can to make sure that their customers are loyal and that they return time after time. This idea of customer retention is especially important for an eCommerce business. For an eCommerce business, a slight increase of customer retention by 5% could see an increase of profits by anywhere from 25% to 95%. For all business owners, there is a general rule that you may learn in business school or find out through your experience. The general rule is that 20% of your customers will bring in 80% of your total revenue. Repeat customers are not only important for increasing profits and generating revenue, they are also important because they can be your best advocate. Satisfied and loyal customers are more likely to recommend your business to their friends and family and on social media. Essentially, by building a loyal customer base, you are building a small army of advocates that do not directly take money from your marketing budget, who will fiercely defend and recommend your products. 

Another reason why customer retention is so important for an eCommerce business is that acquiring new customers is much more expensive than taking care of your loyal customers. It is estimated that acquiring a new customer who then turns into a loyal customer can cost up to 16 times more than simply nurturing an existing one. Although you will want to strive to add new loyal customers to your customer base, you will want to make sure you take care of your existing loyal customers. A small eCommerce business owner can become too focused on advertising to new customers to acquire growth that they begin to lose some of their existing customers. This is short-sided. The key to long-term and stable profitability for any eCommerce business is to maximize the number of repeat purchases and to retain the highest percentage of existing customers possible. 

It is for these reasons why it is extremely important for an eCommerce business to pay close attention to their customer retention metrics and to make adjustments to ensure positive results. The customer retention metrics that any eCommerce business owner will want to pay close attention to are the repeat customer rate, purchase frequency, and the average order value. The repeat customer rate shows you how many of your customers have returned to your website for at least a second time. The purchase frequency metric shows you how many purchases a customer makes through your website. The average order value is a metric that you will want to improve over time. Once you have repeat customers coming to your website to make frequent purchases, how do you increase the overall value of their orders? By paying attention to these three main customer retention metrics, you can see if your marketing efforts to increase customer retention are effective or not. 

What are the benefits of eCommerce customer retention strategies?

There are many benefits to implementing e-commerce customer retention strategies. The main benefit is building a loyal customer base that will make frequent and repeat purchases which will increase your profitability and help your business generate revenue. It is estimated that an eCommerce business is 40% more likely to sell to an existing customer than they are to convert a new customer. Aside from these types of statistics of how repeat customers potentially generate the most revenue and increase profitability, what other benefits can be seen by implementing e-commerce customer retention strategies? Let us take a deeper look at a few benefits that can come from focusing on retaining customers.

  • Return customers are more profitable: It is estimated that return customers can generate on average 23% more profit than the average customer. However, it is important to know that a satisfied customer only comes back to a business if that business can build brand loyalty. It is not enough to simply give a customer a good first-time experience, they need to be encouraged to return the implementation of customer retention strategies. 
  • Return customers provide more feedback: Loyal customers are much more likely to leave feedback, write product reviews, and/or complete customer satisfaction surveys. The means for an existing customer to leave feedback should be simple, quick, with a focus on quality over quantity. A few good product reviews are much better than 10 vague reviews. That being said, a product that contains at least five quality customer reviews is 270% more likely to sell than a product with no reviews. You may want to encourage existing customers to leave their reviews by incentivizing the process. By offering special promotions or discounts in exchange for leaving feedback, you could potentially increase the number of quality reviews on your website and on social media. 
  • Loyal customers make good advocates: A loyal customer who is always satisfied with their experiences may be more willing to recommend your products to friends and family as well as answer questions from potential new customers on social media. For example, someone in a Facebook group may create a post looking for product suggestions to solve a particular dilemma they have. A loyal customer who has had great experiences with one of your products is much more likely to chime in and recommend your business. 
  • Return customers are cost-effective: It takes far less advertising dollars to encourage a customer to make additional purchases than it does to acquire a new customer. 

These are just a few of the many benefits that having a strong customer retention program can bring to your business. You should still always work on acquiring new customers, but try not to lose focus on your existing loyal customers in the process. 

Effective tips to increasing customer retention

There are many ways to increase customer retention for your ecommerce business. Loyalty programs, special offers, personal correspondence, and encouraging customers to follow your social media profiles, are all effective ways to increase retention. Since customer retention is so important to an online business, here are a few more tips on how to increase your customer retention. 

  • Use social media to nurture your customers: Give incentives to your customers to follow your business’s social media profiles. Create engaging content, promote new products, and offer exclusive discounts and promotions to your social media followers. Create an online presence and community of loyal customers. 
  • Email marketing: Trigger-email marketing is a productive way to advertise to customers who have already made at least one purchase on your website. Sending out targeted emails at the right time can increase open rates and click-through rates. 
  • Customer loyalty programs: Customer loyalty programs can be an effective tool to encourage repeat purchases. Reward your loyal customers and they will reward your business with all the benefits that come with having a loyal customer base. 
  • Coupons/promo offers: By including coupon codes and promo offers in your email marketing campaigns, you can ensure that your repeat customers feel special since they are receiving an incentive that is exclusive. 

Again, these are just a few of the many ways to improve your customer retention. One more simple and effective way to retain customers is to simply listen to them. What do they like about your products? What do they not like? Do they wish your business could also offer something you may not currently offer? Listening to your loyal customers is a way to make them feel appreciated and that you value their input, but it is also a way to grow your business by expanding into new markets and avenues you may not have realized unless you heard it from your customers. 

Conclusion

As an eCommerce business you can achieve impressive customer retention rates. However, just like any business, you will need to work for it. You will need to stay in front of your customers and treat them right. Finding more ways to connect to customers in a valuable way can help improve retention. As your eCommerce business grows, you may need to stock more inventory. If you do not have the right inventory levels, you may miss out on sales. In addition, you may be able to purchase inventory for a cheaper price if you order more volume. Regardless of the situation, eCommerce businesses often need to use inventory financing. Qualifying for inventory financing may be a challenge. Affording inventory financing may also be a challenge. Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Discover affordable inventory financing. . . visit Kickfurther today!

10 Top e-Commerce bloggers You Must Follow

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Any intelligent business owner understands that continual education is vital to maintaining and operating a successful and proven eCommerce business. The world of eCommerce is constantly evolving. It is critical that you and your business evolve as well. The key to this evolution is constantly learning from other seasoned and successful businesses owners and industry leaders. A simple way to keep up with advancements and changes in product sourcing, inventory management, marketing automation, and other eCommerce essentials is to read eCommerce blogs written by trusted industry sources. But, how do you know which eCommerce blogs are the most informative and helpful to small business owners like yourself? Here is our list of the 10 most trusted eCommerce blogs currently online.

Top 10 eCommerce Blogs To Follow

Sumo

Type of blog: General eCommerce blog with eCommerce tool recommendations and reviews.

The Sumo blog is an excellent general eCommerce information blog that started as a site that reviewed and recommended eCommerce web tools. Today, Sumo is a comprehensive eCommerce blog with two main sections, Sumo Stories and Sumo Growth Studies. Sumo Stories is a blog section that shares stories of successful growth case studies and advanced marketing lessons. Sumo Growth Studies offers in-depth analyses of some of the fastest-growing and most successful eCommerce businesses in the world. 

E-Commerce Nation

Type of blog: Community-based international eCommerce blog.

E-Commerce Nation is a community-based blog composed of business owners from around the world. The main focus of this blog is to provide a platform where individuals can share their experiences and expertise with an emphasis on logistics, marketing, conversion, and helping eCommerce businesses leap into internationalization. Something that sets this blog apart from other blogs is the type of content that is offered. E-Commerce Nation works with industry experts to create webinars, live interviews, podcasts, and infographics. 

Oberlo

Type of blog: Specialized blog for drop shippers.

Oberlo caters specifically to small businesses that center around dropshipping. This blog is regularly updated with information about social media advertising, trending products, and how to optimize your conversion rate. Oberlo specifically has sections devoted to what kind of products to sell and how to market your store. 

Beeketing

Type of blog: Digital marketing blog. 

Beeketing is an eCommerce blog that is a respected source for all things digital marketing. From marketing automation to email marketing, from conversion optimization to social marketing, Beeketing covers it all. Also on this site, there are practical guides to many subjects that can give step-by-step instructions using case studies. Beeketing also has a Growth Stories section that analyzes bigger brands and how they became successful. 

Smile.io

Type of blog: A blog focused on customer retention. 

There are few subjects in eCommerce that are as important as customer retention. Smile.io focuses on that very subject. Covering important topics like loyalty programs, referral policies, rewards, and the psychology of average consumers. Customer retention should be a goal of every business owner for several reasons, however, one main reason is that it is much more cost-effective to keep a repeat customer than to acquire a new one. 

Ecommerce Platforms

Type of blog: eCommerce software solutions blog.

If you are looking for a blog that is entirely devoted to the latest developments in eCommerce software solutions, then Ecommerce Platforms is your best option. The blog is managed by famous web designer Catalin Zorzini. Many blog posts are up-to-date lists of the best eCommerce resources and tools on the internet. 

A Better Lemonade Stand

Type of blog: A blog designed for eCommerce beginners. 

If you are a small business owner just starting out on the eCommerce adventure, then A Better Lemonade Stand is the perfect blog to provide decision-making advice through every stage of a business and its operations. Blog entries can cover subjects such as selling on Amazon or eBay, digital marketing, and dropshipping. Part of their catalog includes various video training webinars. 

Nerd Marketing

Type of blog: A blog focused on scalability and growth. 

Nerd Marketing focuses on helping entrepreneurs who are looking to expand their business. Growth is vital for any eCommerce business that is looking to establish its presence in the industry and make its brand a household name. This blog focuses on the steps that need to be taken to foster that type of growth. 

Ecommerce CEO

Type of blog: Comprehensive eCommerce blog covering all the basics. 

Ecommerce CEO is a blog that focuses on making the idea of creating an online business a reality for individuals who may not have gone to business school. This blog has the unique ability to take complex eCommerce concepts and make them easy to understand and digestible by the average person. The main focuses of the blog include reviews of the best eCommerce platforms and tools, marketing strategies, and complete guides for building online stores from scratch. 

Ecommerce Fuel

Type of blog: A blog geared toward writing copy and SEO best practices. 

Ecommerce Fuel is a blog that focuses on how to utilize SEO and how to write compelling copy to run a successful online store. Main subjects include SEO, community building, business optimization, scaling, brand positioning, Facebook advertising, influencer marketing, and logistics. 

How can eCommerce blogs be helpful?

eCommerce blogs are extremely helpful because they do all the research necessary to give helpful advice to business owners who may not have the time to research themselves. Finding eCommerce blogs that are insightful, trusted, and filled with knowledge of various subjects pertaining to managing an online store can be an extremely beneficial tool for any business owner. Looking for advice on what kind of products are trending for dropshippers? Check out Oberlo for their access to blogs about their market research into the most sought after products currently on the market. Need advice on how to write quality copy that is optimized with SEO best practices? Then, maybe some time reviewing the well-written blog content over at Ecommerce Fuel may be exactly what you are looking for. Whatever information you are looking for, the knowledge to help you along the way to developing and maintaining a successful eCommerce website is out there for you to digest. There are even some blog sites, like Ecommerce CEO, that can walk you through every step of the way to create your own site and successfully market it. 

Conclusion

We are not going to lie to you, creating and managing a successful eCommerce website is hard work that requires patience and constant learning. Constant learning is best practice for many things in life, however, when it comes to eCommerce, it is vital. The industry is constantly changing. New tools are constantly being developed. New schools of thought are emerging. It would be overwhelming to expect you to keep up on all the aspects of eCommerce on your own. That is why trusting the research to eCommerce blogs that obtain their information from various leaders in the industry can help you save time and energy by cutting through the noise and giving you access to the most pertinent information. The internet is filled with a plethora of knowledge, however, sometimes people need a little help to know where to look for the information they need. That is why we have created this list of our top 10 favorite eCommerce blog websites. 

Guide to Facebook Ads for Ecommerce Businesses

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Facebook ads for eCommerce businesses can drive sales and expedite growth. However, you will need to formulate an effective Facebook eCommerce strategy to be successful. You will want to know exactly who you are targeting and communicate a clear and concise message. If your target market is too broad, you may end up wasting marketing efforts on Facebook. 

What are Facebook Ads?

Facebook Ads are essentially a way of advertising through the Facebook platform. But not just in the traditional Facebook feed that you may be accustomed to. When you create a Facebook Ad and campaign, your advertisement can be displayed across the Facebook feed, Facebook Messenger, and on other websites simultaneously. When you have a product, brand, or company Facebook page, anyone can come to your page and see what your brand is about or what kind of products your company sells. You can create that page for free and promote it on your own for no charge. However, you then never know how many people are seeing your posts, how many clicks or views you are receiving, and who is looking at your content. When you create a Facebook Ad, you are creating a paid message that then can be promoted. Your message can come in the form of a video, slideshow, image, or simply just text, and you can target the demographics that your brand is looking to reach. With targeting advertising through Facebook Ads, you can create content that represents your brand positioning and reach the audience that is most likely to respond to your messaging. Facebook Ads can be extremely important for any eCommerce business, whether just starting out, or if you are a large business. It is estimated that around 68% of all adults in the US have an active Facebook account. If you are looking to reach an international audience, Facebook has over 2.4-billion users worldwide. Of all the users that Facebook has, the average user spends at least 35-minutes on Facebook each day. This is why many social media marketers think that Facebook offers a higher return on investment than any other social media platform out there. 

How does Facebook Ads Work?

If you are looking for the most basic breakdown of how Facebook Ads work, the first step is to choose your ad format and where you want to direct potential users. For example, do you want to promote your brand’s Facebook page? Or, do you want to promote your own website? You can even promote specific posts on your Facebook post or posts that others created on your page. Basically, where are you going to direct users to? Next, choose your format. Are you creating video content? An image? You can also choose a slideshow or from many other formats. Once you have created your ad, let us say a video ad to direct users to your website, then you can select what demographics you would like to target. You can select your demographic by gender, age range, location, and profile interests. You can choose precise interests like a particular band or movie, or broad categories like music, film, or business/technology. Once you have picked who you want to specifically advertise to, you need to set a budget and then a bid for either each click or per 1,000 impressions your ad receives.

 Why do you need a Facebook Ads eCommerce strategy?

Having a solid Facebook Ad eCommerce strategy is essential for any business, however, not all businesses are made for the Facebook platform. The first step of developing a successful Facebook Ads strategy is to determine if your business is right for the Facebook Ads model. Once you have determined that your business is indeed a match for using the Facebook Ads platform, then it is no different than developing a regular eCommerce marketing strategy. One of the most important things you should know before starting your Facebook Ads campaign is who your target market is and who you would like to sell your products to. Knowing this beforehand is going to be critical to running successful ad campaigns. You may have different target audiences for different products based on the price or nature of the product, but you need to know who is going to respond to your brand and to which products. Having an idea of who your target market is combined with a thorough Facebook Ads eCommerce strategy will set you apart from your competition. It can also help you develop future products or services with the best profit-making potential. You will also be able to see how well your audience responds or not to your advertising techniques, and you will know how to adjust those techniques for future campaigns. Your Facebook Ads eCommerce strategy should also have specific goals, whether monthly or quarterly, and you should hold yourself accountable if you do not meet your goals, and then adjust accordingly. Having a Facebook Ads eCommerce strategy before you even post your first ad is essential. 

Facebook Ads Tips for eCommerce Businesses

Once you learned how to properly create your own Facebook Ads advertisements and you have developed a thorough Facebook Ads eCommerce strategy, then it is time to remember some important tips about what makes a successful ad on the Facebook platform. Here are some tips on how to create a captivating and successful advertisement using Facebook Ads. 

  1. Communicate your brand’s story: Oftentimes people do not respond well to strict product advertisements on Facebook. Communicate your brand’s story, your identity, your brand’s mission statement, and connect with your audience rather than simply trying to sell them something. 
  2. Use captivating and high-quality imagery: When Facebook users are scrolling, the idea is to make them stop scrolling. How can you do that with a poor quality stock photo image that has nothing captivating to pull in the user? 
  3. Make original and creative offers: Everyone does love a 50% off sale, however, it’s not creative or original and some people might simply overlook it. Try contests, giveaways, or other exciting offers that are not like every other advertisement on Facebook. 
  4. Create urgency: Urgency is one of the oldest tricks in advertising. If a person knows they can get the sale or offer at any time, then why would they click on it now? 
  5. Use engagement: People like to be heard and responded to. By creating an ad that encourages users to engage with the brand, you can potentially get more people to interact with one another along with the brand and begin to create a community around the brand. Part of engagement is being responsive. If someone posts a question or concern, be sure to respond promptly. 
  6. Be authentic: There is nothing more that people hate than to have a brand think they are not intelligent consumers. Phony advertisements, big promises, cheesy ad copy, will only deter customers from engaging with the ad. Be authentic about who you are, what you are trying to achieve, and how the user can help you achieve it. Intelligent consumers want nothing more than honesty. They know ultimately that you are trying to sell them something in the end, and how you treat them is everything. 

Creating captivating advertisements using the Facebook Ads platform is not entirely difficult if you remember these tips and use some common sense practices. You are most likely a consumer yourself. So think, what would you like to see in advertisements coming through your news feed? 

Conclusion

Growing an eCommerce business usually requires capital. If you plan on growing sales, you will want to make sure you have plenty of inventory. With more funds allocated toward marketing, you may need to use financing to supplement other parts of your business. At Kickfurther businesses can secure the funds they need to ensure they always have plenty of inventory available. Discover a simple funding process at Kickfurther along with flexible repayment schedules. Kickfurther is up to 30% cheaper than other options. Avoid the obstacles that most eCommerce businesses encounter while obtaining financing. Instead, visit Kickfurther today for affordable funding options.

Grow your business with affordable inventory financing. . . apply at Kickfurther today!