Ecommerce Growth Strategy: Where Your Brand Should Focus

In recent years, online retail has surged, becoming the dominant shopping method for consumers around the globe. This shift is set to continue, as technological advancements make it increasingly easier for people to shop for everything from groceries to furniture, all from the comfort of their homes. Most consumers now begin their shopping journey online, researching products and comparing options before even considering stepping into a physical store. This growing trend underscores the importance for brands to enhance their online presence and adapt to the changing habits of today’s shoppers.

• About 75% of U.S. consumers now research and shop both in-store and online, highlighting the growing trend toward omnichannel shopping.
• Around 45% of consumers report that social media influences their purchasing decisions, with younger generations showing even stronger engagement in social commerce.
• In 2023, total U.S. online sales reached $1.24 trillion, reflecting an 11.3% growth from 2022.
• From 2019 to 2020, U.S. ecommerce spending surged by 34.2%, reflecting a rapid acceleration of the shift to online shopping during the pandemic.

As consumers continue to embrace online shopping, they expect fast, reliable, and seamless access to your products, making it essential for brands to meet these expectations. Whether running a direct-to-consumer site, leveraging marketplaces, or employing a hybrid model, it’s crucial to adapt to the evolving landscape. To ensure sustained growth and expansion, your strategy should focus on providing an exceptional digital experience, maintaining product availability, optimizing delivery options, and personalizing the customer journey. Meeting consumers where they are is no longer optional—it’s a necessity for thriving in a competitive ecommerce environment.

Stable and Efficient Fulfillment

As the demand for faster delivery continues to rise, many online sellers and fulfillment providers are struggling to keep up. A recent study from OnTrac reveals that most online shoppers expect their orders to be delivered within two days or less, with a substantial 74% preferring next-day delivery and 67% opting for same-day delivery. This growing expectation puts immense pressure on fulfillment processes, leading to increased costs and a higher risk of errors.

With major carriers handling an average of 16.5 million packages daily, maintaining an efficient and error-free fulfillment process is no easy feat. As demand escalates, it becomes essential for retailers to reassess their strategies. Ensuring your fulfillment solution can handle larger order volumes, meet tighter delivery timelines, and maintain accurate pick-and-pack operations is critical for staying competitive and meeting customer expectations.

• Leverage Technology: Implement advanced warehouse management systems (WMS) that can track inventory in real-time, making it easier to manage stock levels, predict demand, and avoid stock-outs. Integrating these systems with your order management and shipping platforms can streamline operations, reduce errors, and ensure faster delivery. Many successful brands use tech to improve transparency and response times, keeping customers happy.
• Automate Processes: Automation can significantly enhance the efficiency of your fulfillment process. For instance, using automated picking and packing systems can reduce manual labor, improve accuracy, and speed up order processing. Robotics in warehouses have been shown to decrease pick times and reduce operational costs. Brands like Amazon have successfully scaled their operations with these innovations.
• Diversify Fulfillment Partners: Relying on a single fulfillment partner can leave your business vulnerable to delays or disruptions. By diversifying your partners or employing multi-location fulfillment centers, you ensure faster delivery times and greater flexibility. This approach also helps minimize shipping costs by getting orders closer to customers, which is crucial as consumer expectations around delivery speed grow.
• Inventory Management: Proper inventory management is the backbone of an efficient fulfillment process. Implementing strategies like Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory or drop shipping can help reduce the storage burden and avoid overstocking or under-stocking. Regularly assessing your inventory levels and using forecasting tools can ensure you have the right products at the right time without overcommitting to unnecessary stock.
• Improve Packaging: Simplifying packaging and streamlining shipping processes are key to reducing fulfillment costs. By using standardized packaging that fits most product sizes, you can reduce shipping costs, improve warehouse space utilization, and speed up the packing process. Additionally, partnering with reliable shipping carriers and offering multiple shipping options (standard, expedited, etc.) can help meet different customer needs while controlling costs.

Preventing Out-of-Stock

Preventing out-of-stock has become increasingly important, and sometimes challenging.

• Out-of-stock issues contributed approximately $1.2 trillion in losses for retailers worldwide in 2023. Inventory issues, including both overstock and out-of-stock instances, cost retailers $1.77 trillion overall.
• When items are unavailable, about 41% of customers will abandon their purchase altogether and seek alternatives, leading to potential long-term brand switching and revenue loss.
• 91% of consumers would leave a retailer after just two to three out-of-stock experiences, highlighting the critical need for inventory management to maintain customer loyalty.

To tackle this, brands should develop a proactive strategy that enables rapid inventory adjustments and a readiness to pivot as needed. Partnering closely with fulfillment providers or retailers to ensure seamless coordination, visibility, and tracking throughout the supply chain is key, but preventative measures shouldn’t stop there. By fostering strong collaboration and monitoring both inputs and outputs, brands can help stabilize inventory and reliably meet customer demand.

• Inventory Forecasting: Utilize demand forecasting software or AI-driven analytics to analyze historical sales data, seasonal trends, and current demand signals. Accurate forecasting can predict when specific products will be in high demand, helping to maintain stock levels and reduce the risk of under-ordering.
• Safety Stock Levels: Set a safety stock threshold for each product to account for unexpected spikes in demand or supply chain delays. This "buffer" stock can act as a backup, ensuring you don’t go out of stock during high-demand periods or while waiting on delayed shipments.
• Use Multiple Suppliers: Diversify your supplier base to reduce dependency on any lone source. By sourcing from multiple suppliers or locations, you can mitigate risks of disruptions or shortages and better manage lead times, especially if one supplier faces production issues.
• Automate Inventory Tracking: Invest in an automated inventory management system to track stock levels in real time. Automated systems can help flag low inventory levels, automatically reorder products, and reduce human error, ensuring that you always have enough stock available to meet customer needs.
• Plan for Demand: Anticipate and prepare for seasonal spikes or major promotions by increasing stock levels ahead of time. Coordinating with your marketing team to plan inventory needs for upcoming campaigns can help avoid stock-outs and optimize inventory levels during high-demand periods.

Marketplace Availability

As the online consumer base continues to expand, the need for a comprehensive multi-marketplace merchandising strategy is more critical than ever. With most consumers browsing at least 2-3 different platforms before making a purchase, it’s essential to ensure your inventory is readily available across relevant marketplaces. By then establishing a consistent omnichannel brand experience, you’ll not only gain visibility but also drive conversions, maximizing your reach and impact.

• Identify High-Impact Marketplaces: Start by analyzing where your target audience shops most frequently, then prioritize marketplaces that align with their habits. In addition to giants like Amazon and Walmart, consider niche platforms or international marketplaces (e.g., Rakuten, Alibaba) that may resonate with specific segments of your customer base.
• Optimize Product Listings: Tailor product titles, descriptions, images, and keywords to meet the unique algorithms and requirements of each marketplace. Different platforms have distinct rules and consumer expectations, so customizing your listings improves visibility and relevance, which can significantly enhance search rankings and conversion rates.
• Inventory Synchronization: Out-of-stock products can frustrate customers and reduce marketplace rankings. Use inventory management software to synchronize inventory across channels, ensuring accurate stock levels and reducing the risk of overselling or stock-outs. This also enables faster response times to marketplace-specific demand shifts.
• Marketplace Advertising: To stand out in crowded marketplaces, utilize platform-specific advertising options, such as Amazon Sponsored Ads, Walmart’s Search Brand Amplifier, or Etsy’s Promoted Listings. Strategic ad placement can boost your visibility on each platform, driving traffic to your listings and improving sales velocity.
• Data and Analytics: Use a centralized dashboard or analytics tool to track performance metrics across all marketplaces. Monitoring metrics like sales volume, customer demographics, and conversion rates from one place can help you identify trends, understand customer behavior, and make data-driven adjustments to your multi-marketplace strategy.

Think of online marketplaces as you would traditional retail locations: it’s beneficial to have your products on multiple relevant platforms, but each one should enhance your brand’s competitive edge, not undermine it. Ideally, select a few reliable online retail partners per marketplace who will work with you to grow your brand’s presence and profitability, rather than compete against each other for the same sales.

For even more streamlined success, partnering with one key ecommerce distributor who can manage all major marketplaces can help simplify operations, maintain consistent branding, and drive sales without unnecessary competition.

Invest in Customer Retention

Marketplaces like Target and Wayfair are securing customer loyalty through reward programs, and it seems to be working.

• Approximately 81% of consumers are part of at least one loyalty program.
• Research shows that loyalty program members can generate 12-18% more revenue than non-members.
• Loyalty program members are 14% more likely to buy frequently and 12% more likely to recommend the brand.
• About 64% of loyalty program members are willing to spend more to maximize point earning.

Participating in loyalty programs across major marketplaces is just the first step in building a robust customer retention strategy. While these programs foster repeat purchases, adding incentives like discounts, rewards, and exclusive offers can significantly increase customer lifetime value and strengthen long-term relationships. To take it further, implement retargeting strategies to re-engage visitors who didn’t complete a purchase to keep your brand top-of-mind. By strategically reaching out to these customers, you can turn one-time buyers into repeat loyal customers, driving consistent growth for your business.

• Enhance Personalization: Personalized experiences make customers feel valued and understood, which significantly enhances loyalty. By using data such as browsing history, past purchases, and customer preferences, you can tailor product recommendations, content, and email campaigns. This type of individualized engagement ensures customers see more of what they’re interested in, increasing the likelihood they will return for additional purchases.
• Post-Purchase Engagement: Engagement doesn’t stop once the customer has made a purchase. Follow-up communication is a powerful tool for reinforcing the relationship. You can send personalized thank-you notes, helpful usage tips for the products purchased, or recommendations for related items. Additionally, nurturing post-purchase relationships can help identify opportunities for feedback or future offers, ensuring the customer feels appreciated and cared for even after their transaction is completed.
• Customer Service: Providing exceptional customer service can transform a one-time buyer into a loyal customer. Whether through fast and efficient responses via live chat, resolving issues swiftly through social media, or simplifying the return process, showing that you prioritize your customers’ satisfaction helps build trust. Listening to your customers and acting on their concerns can create an emotional bond that encourages repeat business.

Regardless of where your brand is in its ecommerce growth journey, these strategies remain essential. Neglecting just one key area—whether it's fulfillment processes, inventory management, marketplace presence, or customer experience—can have a significant negative impact, not only stalling future growth but also damaging what reputation you’ve built so far. Stay focused on these strategies to ensure sustained success. And, if you’re seeking a partner to help get you back on track to success look no further than the experts at Spreetail – the leading omnichannel ecommerce accelerator.