As marketplace like Amazon, ebay and Aliexpress getting increasingly crowded, online sellers start to consider migrant from large marketplace to an independent webstore.

Recently, independent webstore is fast growing among small to middle-sized ecommerce dealers. On the first half of 2017, Chinese cross-border ecommerce sales RMB 2.75 trillion, with an almost 60% year on year growth rate. In all revenue made, independent webstore contributed almost half of it, and became the most promising component of cross-border ecommerce market.

Since the beginning of 2018, the entire mobile marketing industry witnessed exponential growth. Social media marketing, with its deep reach on users, ignited the explosion of ecommerce brands. Facebook contributed the largest share on helping users spot a brand and make purchase, while Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Snapchat lagged not far behind.

Rockshake senior business developer Evan Yang believes, when winning a user is of higher and higher cost, the pressure amounts on ecommerce dealers. At this point, they should pay more attention on user experience. Marketplaces tend to group similar goods and make individual brand hard to stand out, while branding seems to be an ever challenging job. On the contrary, independent webstore could avoid fierce competition against similar products but focus on small and exquisite stores that would entertain certain groups of customers, build up individual brand, and be in total control.

So how could independent webstore thrive?

1. Page view

In order to increase views on your page, store owner could first work on marketing channels, products and market.

In selecting marketing channels, one should bear in mind that a good marketing channel works best with specific targeting group, and at the same time with matching content. External link, search engine, social media and so on are all good ways to bring direct traffic. Marketing personnel should select the right one that suits product.

Good product with slightly lower than expected price, or discount information will attract customers, draw them to the site. Then the site could start to work on how to persuade them to buy more than that.

Continuous outreaching into new market will also bring along large traffic flow. Just remember to balance between large costs of entering new market with benefits. Keep it small and exquisite may be the best option for small to middle-scaled dealers.

Among the six types of traffic, direct traffic, redirect traffic from other sites, traffic from search engine results, mail, social media platform, and click on ad, direct traffic holds the highest value. Webstore should work on increasing direct traffic and ROI in paid traffic. In new user acquisition, though, marketing budget could lean more on search engine paid ad. That is to say, webstore should first let user click in to proceed with sale and retention. Rockshake has helped a lot of clients acquire users through search engine paid traffic. Rockshake is one of the strategic partners Google AdWords, Yandex has in China, and the sole strategic partner of VK in China area. In-house intelligent campaign launching system like Clientgear, RockTargeter, etc. could also help client solve user reaching problems and maximize ROI.

2. Conversion

After successfully attracting target customers, independent webstore should interact with customers to cultivate their trust and value in your site, build up favor and ensure conversion. Interacting through Snapchat, Pinterest, Facebook and other social media account could be a solution. People will feel attached with the brand after subscribing to company updates. Also, distributing coupons or repeated sales discount stimulates purchase. Discount information may also urge potential customers to buy.

3. User experience

Individual webstore grants more control on owners’ hands. Comparing to large marketplace, webstore are readily to improve website design, after sale service and distribution process to make purchasing from the site a pleasant experience. Meanwhile, using data to predict user behavior on or offsite, and launch customized marketing campaign towards individuals to enlarge impact.

4. New marketing channels

With rich experience on marketing for ecommerce dealers, Evan also want to suggest webstore marketing embraces emerging channesls, like Instagram stories, Snapchat stories, Google ecommerce App etc. Good creative and flexible marketing plan will work well on those platforms. Pay close attention to clients’ feedbacks, post marketing content, and branding material will act in large favor for independent webstores.

If you have more questions on marketing of independent webstore, Rockshake ecommerce team could answer your specific inquires, email yaya.yang@rock-shake.com.