Go Against The Grain: How to Make Your eCommerce Store Stand Out

It's 2020, and the retail apocalypse has descended on Australia.

Big department stores and chains are closing, replaced by online shopping. Online shopping has made many people's lives much easier. Every niche is now swamped with eCommerce stores fighting to be seen.

Great for consumers, but for the e-retailer, how do you make your store stand out from the crowd and keep people coming back.

There are lots of different ways businesses can make their mark in the eCommerce market. To get you started, here are 9 points to hit if you want to be an e-retailer boss.

1. Understand eCommerce

All eCommerce business models share two key features: knowing what you are selling (how products work) and who you are selling to (the ideal consumer). Only after you understand these two concepts, then can you rally your efforts to stand out from your competition and drive more traffic to your website.

2. Every brand is unique - tell your story

In the sea of retail, where products, packaging, and branding are all very similar, one of the best ways to stand out from your competitors is to put your brand story on blast. A brand story is your secret weapon in the fight for customer trust. This concept feeds into knowing who you are selling to. Developing a sense of motivation for your customers helps you understand what makes them tick, and how you can solve their pain points for them.

But what do we mean by your brand story?

When we talk about brand experience, we're talking about the integration of all touch points that consumers have with your brand. This means how we design, write, print and communicate to our customers should start with your brand story. When you think of great brand stories, the brands that probably pop up in your mind are: Nike, GoPro, Under Armour.

3. Sell niche products, find a niche audience

Niche products are born from larger markets to solve very specific problems or wants from the customer. This could be specialty nappies for babies with extra sensitive skin, or organic dog food for the gluten intolerant celiac, vegetarian dogs out there. They belong to the wider baby or pet care categories, but solve specific problems within those larger markets.

By offering your customers a unique twist on your products, you can gain a foothold within the larger, more saturated market and build a loyal customer base before diversifying into other products. Create a brand and messaging that appeals to that audience, and devote a large portion of your marketing to first capturing this market.

Not every product can be new and better than your competitors but that doesn't mean you can't outstrip them in other ways. Use quality images, great product descriptions and lists to win new customers to your brand.

4. Create bundles or subscription boxes

Bundles and subscription boxes have long been an effective method of standing out in business. Subscription boxes are a great way for customers to try new products or have their favourite ones delivered regularly without the hassle of reordering. Creating bundles of products that save your customers time searching in the shops can solve problems for them and improve business for you.

For customers that buy products on a regular basis, signing up for subscription box services or bundles can provide an easy means of accessing them without paying for multiple shipping fees.

If you're interested in starting a service like this when learning how to make your business stand out, these are some of the best eCommerce platforms for subscription box services:

• Squarespace: with their Advanced plan users can set up recurring billing cycles, edit subscription products, and manage all customer payments with you in one, easy to use area.
• WooCommerce: with their Subscriptions Plugin sellers can fully customise their subscription plan(s), manage recurring payments, and even set up product-of-the-month boxes
• BigCommerce: with their convenient subscription component, users can manage subscribers, billing, and fulfillment, and even set up a finance model (buy now, pay later)

5. Get your people talking

Often these days brands set their roots in social media platforms, building a solid customer base there and drawing these to an external website. A business social media account can project your brand into the homes of millions, allowing you to connect with your followers, run competitions and build a tangible brand persona!

To stand out on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter try to:

• Post consistently: content is the currency of social media for business, so posting consistently is essential
• Share your account: ask friends and family to share your account to spread the word about your businesses social media
• Keep an eye on trends: you don't have to go viral to be popular, but it helps! Stay up to date with memes, viral content and such to stay in the know
• Link up with similar businesses: lots of small businesses on social media are more than willing to collab, so go ahead and ask similar brands to link up!

Eventually you'll be able to convert these followers to customers and draw in revenue from social media. 'Conversions' are when brands have successfully converted (or turned) a casual follower into a paying customer. Meaning your social media account has directed people to your website and they have made a purchase from you.

To stand out in a saturated market, having a great social media presence is something all brands should be building towards. Some businesses simply keep plugging away, posting regularly and others invest in paid social media ads, either way, paying any amount of attention to your social presence is good enough!

6. Review your prices

Pricing has always and will always be important. Pricing shows the value of your products, draws customers in, and keeps them coming back for more. When figuring out how to make your online store stand out, think of your pricing like a beacon on a foggy night, drawing customers in.

When settling on how to price a product it's important to take into account factors like season, economic climate, and competition. Take some time to figure out:

• Who your customers are
• How much are others charging for similar products
• How much your products take to produce overall
• What your delivery strategy will cost

Once you've done the rough calculations, you can start to build a general price plan for your products. But keep them flexible, customers will be drawn to your brand if they notice your pricing is always in flux, constantly shifting to accommodate customer demand.

Pricing is an excellent way to stand out in business so get them right!

7. Leverage consumer psychology

Wouldn't running a business be so much easier if you could read the mind of your customers and offer them exactly what they're looking for? Well, we can't read minds but we can try to understand consumer psychology. When studying how to stand out in a saturated market, being aware of consumer behaviour can be a guide to do this well.

Our brains are primed to respond well to certain images, colours, and language, so by using this information to shape your eCommerce store you can have psychology on your side. Try:

• Using faces in product pictures - humans seek out faces and they capture their attention
• Using urgent language to imply a limited supply and a greater demand
• Using specific colours to evoke a particular emotion e.g. orange = call to action

Principles of consumer psychology have also stressed how well consumers respond to rewards as incentives to buy. This could be a 10% discount for new customers or free shipping on their next order. 66% of consumers stated that just by being offered these rewards their spending behaviour changed (in that business' favour!)

8. Offer great customer service

It's an unfortunate tale when a business offers excellent products and stylish branding but doesn't respond to emails, or phone calls and their shipping services leave much to be desired. No one likes being left on 'read', and to really stand out in business you'll need to give your customers the attention they deserve!

Making customer service a priority encompasses a few things. From start to finish your service should be seamless, from browsing to checkout to packaging to shipping, and if it's not, customers should be able to ask questions and have them answered ASAP!

• For browsing to checkout consider trying eCommerce website builders that can help you set up this flawless customer experience, like Shopify!
• For packaging, it's always best to be unique. Try PackHelp; for personalised boxes, creating that extra special unboxing experience your customers will love
• For customer communication, always try to have one channel available for shoppers to contact your business. Why not try a live chat feature? They enable you and your customers to converse effciently and answer customer questions quickly!

9. Use a great parcel delivery solution

Another fantastic way to stand out from the eCommerce crowd is by offering a cheap, fast and reliable shipping services! For shipping, small businesses always stick with us! At Interparcel we want brands of all sizes to have the tools to succeed, so we listened to what our customer's needed and created our Shipping Manager to make business delivery easy.

Countless businesses have used our services to offer the cheapest shipping rates to their customers. As we all know and love affordable shipping to access our favourite products online, having low-cost delivery on your side is a sure way to stand out from the eCommerce crowd.

Our services integrate with all of the biggest eCommerce players, be it BigCommerce or WooCommerce plus plenty more! When you integrate with our Shipping Manager you benefit from order collation from multiple platforms, in-built address collection/correction, branded tracking services, and speedy dispatch.

Plus, our customer services are our pride and joy! So if you ever have a question or query about how we can help your business stand out, give us a call, live chat message or email - we're open 8am - 5pm Monday to Friday.