9 Smart Strategies For Modern-age Ecommerce Businesses to Catapult Growth

By Dr. Shamael Zaheer Khan. in E-Commerce. Updated on February 13, 2024.

What’s synonymous with the word ‘colossal’ in business parlance? Rampant technological growth? Whopping Internet penetration? The overwhelming smartphone adoption rate? Or, the combined impact of the trio on industries?

A case of an industry that has been drastically changed is ecommerce. The growth of ecommerce businesses has been whopping. To put it across in simple terms, its rise has been huge in the years gone by. It has produced unprecedented results for businesses and consumers alike. But what makes it so lucrative and competitive? The answer to this leaves a lot of food for thought for business thinkers and strategists.

Considering the explosive rise of e-commerce, businesses are looking for ways to thrive. Adopting correct strategies and choosing actionable approaches is a way out. This can help businesses swim over some distressing and tough industry times. Let us get into it.

1. Differentiation

Differentiated businesses are valued for their unique selling propositions. If businesses can create their unique identity for features or services they become recognizable.

Ecommerce businesses, thus, must strive to stand out from their competitors. They can do so by offering unique value propositions. Several businesses have the character of differentiation in them, but they somehow fail to bring them upfront.

Actionable tip: Businesses need to identify the aspects that sets them apart. Moving ahead, they must emphasise those differentiators in their marketing and branding efforts.

2. Customer Fanaticism

There can’t be better and more successful businesses than the ones that are fanatically customer-centric. Businesses that can provide delightful customer experiences are always in the driving seat.This can only be done by caressing them and placing a strong emphasis on understanding their evolving needs & preferences, and the existing pain points.

Actionable tip: Track consumer behaviour on a regular basis. Try to respond to their needs and demands through ways that keep them hooked to your business.

3. Innovation

If there is one thing that is true about successful and futuristic businesses, it is the fact that they have been great innovators. In fact they emphasise the philosophy of “disruption through innovation.”

Ecommerce businesses, thus, must focus on ‘the new & creative element that competitive organisations have’. They should frequently innovate and work on evolving their offerings to stay ahead of the competition.

Actionable tip: Fostering a culture of innovation within the organisation by encouraging new ideas can help. Moreover, investing in research and development is a way out. Additionally, being open to feedback from customers and employees is believed to be a sure shot strategy to upscale.

4. Pricing Strategy

One of the most complex decisions for businesses is how they price their offerings. The most differentiated and well-established businesses can underperform, if their pricing strategies go astray. Pricing is a critical element for ecommerce businesses that have price sensitive buyers to serve.

In this regard, businesses can work on developing a pricing strategy that aligns with their value proposition. They can differentiate themselves through skimming pricing, penetration pricing or capture market share through competitive pricing.

Actionable tip: Assess and adjust your prices based on market dynamics and customer feedback, when need be.

5. Marketing and Branding

Your brand is less about what you market and more about ‘how you do it’. In this light, businesses must strive to develop effective marketing campaigns that communicate their unique value— one which strongly resonates with their target audience. Flexibility in marketing programs makes a lot of room to accommodate brands, as they get bigger by the day.

Actionable tip: To enable this, they should learn ways to use various marketing channels, to increase reach and customer engagement. Some of them include digital advertising, social media, content marketing, and influencer collaborations.

6. Customer Service Excellence

If you ought to succeed, your business needs to be exemplary in extending its services to the customers. I say so because building a reputation for outstanding customer service is both challenging and essential. Businesses need to know their consumers like the back of their hand to provide enriching customer services. But this might need deep research.

Having done that, they must strive to provide prompt and helpful support, actively seek feedback, and resolve issues promptly. It helps prevent customer disenchantment. Positive customer experiences can differentiate their brand and lead to customer loyalty and advocacy.

Actionable tip: Find out the essential touchpoints that consumers usually go through and can either end up satisfied, dissatisfied or may be delighted. Having identified them, go full-fledgedly into creating more delightful service experiences.

7. Continuous Improvement

‘Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit over there.’ This implies businesses must strive to improve without any reservations. This statement is binding for ecommerce retail businesses all the more, as the industry is characterised by red ocean players.

Establishing a culture of continuous improvement within your organisation can prompt organisational members to co-create, outinnovate and outcompete the most challenging businesses.

Actionable tip: Regularly assess your performance, gather customer feedback, analyse market trends, and adapt your strategies accordingly. Embrace change and remain agile to stay ahead of the competition.

8. Talent Acquisition and Development

Mckinsey in one of its articles states that superior talent is up to eight times more productive. So, one area which businesses can focus on is hiring the right individuals. They may be ones who are motivated to regularly perform better, have out of the box thinking and intrapreneurial capabilities. Besides this, they ought to have the energy and rhythm that should ideally go into their designated roles. Attracting and retaining top talent can contribute to an organisation’s growth and competitiveness in unprecedented ways.

Additionally, this also prepares businesses for certain unforeseen circumstances— problems and challenges which talented members can tackle single-handedly.

Actionable tip: Stick to an exhaustive recruitment process and invest in training and development programs. This will enhance skills and capabilities within your workforce.

9. Data-Driven Decision Making

Data driven decision making is the future which is perhaps now. Every mouse click, keyboard button press, swipe or tap can be leveraged to shape business decisions. Since everything is about data these days it is elicited that businesses are a storehouse of information and information is powerful.

Businesses need to familiarise themselves with ways through which such data can be interpreted and utilised for ameliorated decision making.

Actionable tip: Collect and analyse relevant data to gain insights into market trends, customer behaviour, and performance. Use these data driven insights to make informed business choices and optimise your strategies for success.

Conclusion

Present times are indeed challenging. They are at times daunting as well. Modern-age businesses, wishful of flourishing and sustaining themselves over the length of time, ought to practise strategies and tactics with care and prudence. This means striking the right balance between technology and strategic decision making.

Utilising the advancing technology, penetrating internet services and high smartphone adoption rate can work in an organisation’s favour only if they learn to deal with it. Simply stating, there is no way out of technological bounds for businesses. They just need to learn how technology can be coupled with the right sets of strategies, tactics and approaches that can show them a way out of the dark abyss that businesses devoid of that perfect blend of ‘technology and strategy’ hopelessly fall into.