Social media can easily be one of the most effective ecommerce sales tools your business uses if you have a smart strategy at work. The best way to ensure you’re working smarter as opposed to just harder is to make the most out of online trends. Part of that is understand when and how people are buying so that you can plan purchasing, inventory management and marketing most effectively.
When Do People Buy?
The first trend you can use to enhance your e-commerce strategy is learning when people are more likely to be making online purchases. This goes beyond seasonal trends such as the Back to School rush or Cyber Monday. When comparing one time and repeat customers, Mondays are by far the best day to promote products. Many people spend lunchbreaks and after work hours on Monday hitting stores online and checking out new products. The weekends, however, see a decline in online shopping as people take advantage of time off to spend time offline with friends and family.
How Do People Buy?
The second trend you can use to your advantage is understanding how people make their purchases. At first, this may seem like a silly question since we’re talking about online purchases. Surely that means people are at their computers, right? Not so fast. More and more shoppers are using mobile apps to shop online, especially when they already know which retailer they want to buy from.
It’s also worth comparing which sales channels are used most by your own customers. If you sell through third party retail sites such as eBay, Amazon or Etsy along with your own standalone shop, use sales analysis software to measure which channels are worth the effort and which may be worth scaling back.
Tracking and understanding these ecommerce trends can help you plan your marketing more effectively and help you reach more customers. It can also ensure that your hard work is being funneled in the right direction. All in all, tracking trends means boosting profits.
