Introduction – StockX

StockX is an online resale marketplace platform for sneakers founded by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, Greg Schwartz, & Chris Kaufman and launched in 2016. Also termed “the stock market of things” this real-time trading marketplace primarily resells authentic and unworn limited-release sneakers online. It is a breeding ground for young resellers like Joe Hebert turning Yeezys and Jordan sneakers into a bonafide asset.

The business earned $3.8 billion in revenue in 2022 and has received a total funding of $690 million in 10 rounds. The daily active users on the platform are more than 1,140,000. While the platform resells premium designer clothes, gaming consoles, smartphones, and other products as well, sneakers accounted for the majority of sales, capping at around 7.5 million trades last year.

With an immediate focus on power sellers* and recording the highest amount of unique visitors per month according to SimilarWeb’s market insights – StockX is edging out its competitors like GOAT and Stadium Goods and drawing inspiration to entrepreneurs to build resale marketplace platforms like it.

Table of Content

• StockX Success In Numbers

• How to Build an Online Marketplace Like StockX: Things to Learn
  • StockX’s Business Model
  • Revenue Model: How is StockX earning money?
  • Features of StockX Marketplace
  • StockX: Marketing Strategies
  • Cost of Development

• Conclusion

• FAQs

StockX Success In Numbers

• StockX achieved the distinction of becoming the first sneaker resale platform to reach a unicorn status (valuation of $1 billion).
• StockX is one of the world’s largest sneaker resale marketplaces, boasting over 500 brands and a vast selection of over 125,000 product listings.
• StockX has attracted investment from several prominent investors, including GV (previously known as Google Ventures) and Salesforce founder and CEO, Marc Benioff.

How to Build An Online Marketplace Like StockX: Things To Learn

1. StockX’s Business Model

StockX’s Business Model StockX is based upon a real-time trading market similar to an equity or stock market. Here, the seller lists in-demand items (in excellent condition) on sale and the buyer determines the appropriate price for trading. The marketplace enables buyers to bid and purchase coveted items at real-time prices, denoting the current demand.

This is an excellent business model for aspiring business owners to build resale marketplace platform. StockX offers access to highly sought-after products like the hottest sneakers, the coolest electronics, or the coveted accessories online. Unlike Amazon, eBay, and other e-commerce giants, expert authenticators verify each item sold on StockX through a multi-step verification process.

Once the package arrives at StockX, the team recommends a minimum of three business days to pass the verification process. To sell on StockX, sellers place an ask for their coveted items, determining the price at which the seller is willing to trade their items. 

• The Ask is set to an expiry date of anywhere between 1 to 60 days. 
• The seller can update or cancel the Ask anytime before it finds a matching bid. 
• In case, the seller does not wish to wait, he/she may opt to sell immediately to the highest bid by selecting “Sell Now” on the product page.  

Buyers, on the other hand, can place their bid – making a financial offer for the item on StockX.

• Like Ask, bids also have an expiry date and can be easily updated or canceled by the buyer before it finds a matching Ask.  
• A buyer may purchase the item at the current lowest Ask without any waiting time by selecting “Buy Now” on the product page.

A successful transaction occurs on the marketplace when the seller and buyer find a matching price, i.e. buyer places the highest bid, and the seller agrees with the price. In case, the seller has the lowest Ask – then the item is automatically sold to the buyer with the matching bid.

View Complete Business Model

All the Asks, Bids, and Sales related to the particular item can be viewed on the product page – ensuring truly transparent pricing. Also, the marketplace is more inclined towards Power Sellers*, offering them benefits like bulk shipping, bonus discounts, early payouts, VIP account management, and access to more advanced tools.

2. Revenue Model: How is StockX earning money?

StockX charges a flat 3% payment processing fee as well as a transaction fee ranging between 8% – 10% on every successful sale on the platform. The transaction charges are based on seller levels, i.e. better the seller level, the lower the transaction fee. These seller levels are determined by the number of sales completed, as shown in the figure below.

Click To Enlarge

Its seller program rewards sellers with great performance in a calendar quarter, hence encouraging more sales in the marketplace. Business owners looking to build resale website like StockX will benefit from its sustainable revenue model.

3. Features of StockX Marketplace

The unique resale marketplace platform, StockX boasts several essential marketplace e-commerce features – adding convenience to the buying and selling experience. Some of the most notable features include:

• Filtering – With over 25,000 sneakers and a healthy collection of streetwear, Electronics, collectibles, handbags, and watches from popular brands – StockX gains a lot of traction. The marketplace has a robust filtering system to streamline the buying and selling process where users can sort each category by popular brands, most popular items, new lowest ask, and the new highest bid. Also, general filters for size, price range, gender, and season are available as well.
• Payment method – While the individual buyers are requested to fill out the payment information when placing a bid, they are charged only when the bid has been accepted. This prevents any pointless offers or transactions. StockX accepts all major credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Alipay, and more.

• Mobile App – Intuitive mobile apps have been a huge selling point and an incremental feature in the platform’s instrumental rise. The mobile apps have garnered an overall rating of 4.6 (from 215.3K reviews) on the App Store and 4.5 (from 52.3k reviews) on Google Play Store. 
• Real-time order tracking – From product shipping by the seller, and authentication in-process to product delivery – the marketplace enables buyers to track their product arrival with real-time updates. It requires sellers to ship their products within two business days once the Bid meets your Ask.
• Historical Price Data – The marketplace provides complete product details, price history, and a 12-month historical price chart for every listing to help buyers/sellers check the competitiveness of their pricing.

4. StockX: Marketing Strategies 

In 2020, the majority of sales on the popular secondhand marketplace – StockX came from outside the US – particularly in Europe and Japan, according to StockX CMO Deena Bahri. These international sales grew by nearly 200%, accounting for over 30% of all StockX gross merchandise volume (GMV), thanks to their marketing strategies. The marketing team at StockX comprises a core US team and local marketing teams.

StockX Marketing Approach: Step-By-Step

StockX’s team typically kickstarts their marketing campaign with SEO and paid advertisement – since most first-time consumers discover the brand online. These are the two mainstream digital channels to increase the brand’s reach and target the right audience. Next, the StockX marketing team focuses on creating a cultural marketing campaign to generate interest among its target audience.

For instance, in the fall of 2020, StockX partnered with Jackson WANG – a Hong Kong rapper with a global fan base – to create a Team WANG IPO campaign. The campaign was a huge success, with over 40% of all bids originating from outside the US – the highest share of international bidders for any StockX IPO. 

Similarly, in 2016, to kick off one of its elite partnerships with Detroit native Marshall Mathers (a.k.a., Eminem), StockX started a unique contest to give away three coveted prize packages, including Air Jordan 4 Retro Eminem Carhartt – sneakers that once sold for almost $30K on eBay.

The influencer campaign was a huge success resulting in – a 100% week-over-week increase in sales, 1,614 new customers from referrals, and generated $441,488 in revenue in less than 3 weeks, according to getambassador.com. Lastly, the marketing team retargets using paid digital ads to convert one-time customers into recurring customers.

Alongside cultural marketing, paid search and Instagram ads will always remain a primary focus of the marketing team. Recently, they started streaming TV ads in the US – a fruitful experiment that Deena says her team will continue to explore even in the future.

Focus on New StockX Categories

Deena Bahri reflects on how the addition of new categories such as electronics and collectibles has significantly impacted the current marketing tactics. For instance, the newly launched Sony Playstation 5 – sold within seconds on all other platforms after its launch – was available for purchase at StockX albeit at a higher price.

The increasing interest due to in-demand or limited-edition products available in various categories means that the focus is not just on sneakers. There are products in multiple niches alongside sneakers for the StockX marketing team to focus upon.

For now, the main focus is on international expansion and growth in 2021. Outside Detroit, StockX has a physical presence in England, China, the Netherlands, and Canada. Also, it ships products to nearly 200 countries – with international shipping and payment processing fees applicable.

5. Cost of Development 

Developing a StockX-like marketplace from scratch requires a team of expert designers/developers, hundreds of thousands of development hours, and anywhere between USD $100K to millions of dollars in capital investment. Plus, there’s a maintenance fee, hosting fee, additional customizations, marketing cost, and a lot more. 

Instead, it is recommended to choose a turnkey multi-vendor marketplace solution like Yo!Kart, whose pricing starts at $999 – a one-time license fee. Yo!Kart’s base package includes all standard essential e-commerce features and integrations necessary to build resale marketplace platform like StockX successfully. 

It is a fully customizable multi-vendor e-commerce platform for aspiring business owners, startups, as well as enterprises to integrate new features/modules as per their business requirements and gain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

With a current valuation of nearly $4 billion USD, a trusted product authentication system, thousands of high-ticket products, and many loyal users (customers and sellers) in just 5 years – StockX has swiftly emerged as the leader in the sneakers and clothing resale market. 

Amid this disruption, the secondhand products industry is also growing at a tremendous pace, tipped to reach a staggering $77 billion by 2025, according to Statista. To capture the growing market segment, aspiring business owners need a readymade marketplace builder to build resale marketplace platform like StockX.

FAQs

Q1. What is a resale marketplace or reseller platform?

Ans: A resale marketplace is one where sellers resell coveted items/accessories online. Also termed as secondhand products marketplace, here products with greater demand in the market can be sold albeit at a higher price than the face value. StockX, for instance, is a prime example of a reseller platform/marketplace.

Q2. What is the best platform to resell on?

Ans: From reselling limited-edition sneakers to clothing and electronics, StockX has emerged as one of the best platforms to resell your coveted items. The marketplace offers excellent returns to sellers with its unique business model. Aspiring business owners who wish to build resale website like StockX can choose Yo!Kart -multi-vendor platform.

Q3. What does resale market price mean?

Ans: The price at which an item is resold by the retailer or business in the market is termed as resale market price. Many sellers usually purchase in-demand items at face value and resell them afterward on marketplaces like StockX at a greater price. 

Q4. How big is the resale market?

Ans: From Etsy’s acquisition of Depop (a P2P social sharing marketplace) to Levi’s Secondhand marketplace, the resale market is growing rapidly. For instance, the secondhand apparel market globally is projected to reach $77 billion in 2025, up from $27 billion in 2020, according to Statista. 

Q5. Can you resell items on the Marketplace?

Ans: Marketplaces like StockX, Poshmark, Depop, and others enable vendors to resell coveted items/accessories online. Such marketplaces have become a breeding ground for resellers to build resale marketplace platforms that are sustainable.

Q6. Which resale app is best?

Ans: Poshmark and StockX are the two best unique resale marketplace apps worldwide. Both marketplace applications are available on the iOS and Android platforms with their intuitive UI design and a larger audience base. 

Q7. What’s the best platform to sell used clothes?

Ans: ThredUp is the leading fashion resale marketplace followed by Depop, Poshmark, and eBay. You can easily register to either buy or sell used clothes online at a competitive price. 

Q8. How can I build a marketplace like StockX?

Ans: To build a marketplace like StockX, you need a reliable marketplace builder like Yo!Kart that offers all essential e-commerce features and integrations. The platform is highly customizable and can be personalized to cater to your business requirements. 

Q9. Is StockX a marketplace?

Ans: Yes, StockX is an online resale marketplace where users (sellers and buyers) register to either buy or resell authentic items/accessories such as sneakers, clothing, electronics, and more. The entire marketplace operation is streamlined by the StockX team. 

Q10. Who are StockX competitors?

Ans: GOAT and Stadium Goods are among the leading competitors of StockX. Yet, the marketplace has managed to edge them out with its strong focus on power sellers and a record number of unique visitors per month.

Q11. How do I build a marketplace like GOAT or Stadium Goods?

Ans: Popular eCommerce platforms like Goat, Stadium Goods or StockX are competitors in the eCommerce domain, so they are constantly vying for user attention. For this reason, most eCommerce platforms are similar in a number of ways. This can be said for most eCommerce platforms as well. For instance, if a feature is introduced by one of these platforms, others follow suit. 

This is why eCommerce marketplace software like Yo!Kart, with a comprehensive feature list, and convenient customization options – offers universal applicability. To build a marketplaces like GOAT & Stadium Goods, you can use the versatility of Yo!Kart, and customize, if needed, as per your specific business goals. Also, since, Yo!Kart is self-hosted, you get the flexibility to add a feature in the long run as well.

The post How To Build An Online Resale Marketplace Like StockX appeared first on YoKart Blog.

Ecommerce operational efficiency is a reliable medium to evaluate marketplace success. While brands like Amazon have the resources and expertise to address issues that may affect operational efficiency, many small medium-sized enterprises and startups aren’t that fortunate. They lack funding, sound business planning, and access to key technology solutions for marketplace success. This is the reason why so many SMBs fail to register revenues similar to Amazon. Addressing the pain points is a fundamental step towards ensuring success for your online eCommerce marketplace.

Yo!Kart is an industry-leading multivendor marketplace solution with consumer-centric design, distinctive eCommerce features, and dedicated technical support. The multi-vendor platform is fully customizable and highly scalable currently empowering 1000s of marketplaces worldwide. Our team follows an agile development process where each element is meticulously crafted and carefully integrated to deliver ready-to-launch eCommerce marketplaces accelerating the growth of a business. 

With this approach, Yo!Kart is addressing critical pain points that affect growth and business efficiency of a multi-vendor marketplace. Below we’ve highlighted key issues and how Yo!Kart marketplace software addresses them effortlessly. 

Pain Point #1: Vendor On-boarding

Vendors are the backbone of an eCommerce marketplace – emerging or established. Consider this, Amazon has over 2.5 million registered sellers out of which 25k sellers have nearly $1 million in sales according to Marketplace Pulse research. This success of Amazon is largely attributed to its seamless vendor onboarding process. 

To build a successful business venture, the marketplace owner needs to ensure a seamless onboarding process is in place to attract maximum vendors that are equally excited to partner with them. For instance, offering a simplified seller registration form, the freedom and flexibility to create a vendor subscription plan (paid and free), and allowing vendors to easily customize individual storefronts. Unfortunately, many existing marketplace software restricts business owners from attracting new vendors to register and sell on a new marketplace. 

Yo!Kart with its customizable individual storefronts, manageable vendor subscription plans, and omnichannel inventory management solutions (by partnering with EasyEcom) is ensuring a hassle-free vendor onboarding process. 

Pain Point #2: Inconsistent product information

Poorly constructed or inconsistent product information in an eCommerce marketplace is a huge setback to its operational efficiency. Each product listing must always be structured in a consistent format to ensure an impeccable consumer experience. Maintaining consistency on all retail channels is the key to retaining your consumers, especially in an omnichannel retail world. 

Yo!Kart with its efficient product catalog management provides a consistent and well-structured approach to keep a check on products data quality. The platform ensures:

1. All product tags are well-defined and can be easily managed 
2. Products can have niche-specific attributes and are not limited to the same set of attributes
3. Cross-selling or up-selling of related products to increase AOV (average order value) and more

Pain Point #3: Multilinguistic functionality

English is a global language with over 1.1 billion native and second-language users. Still, the majority of the population prefers to interact and communicate in their native/regional language. According to a survey by Common Sense Advisory on 3000 global consumers, 75% of online shoppers preferred to purchase products in their regional language. Also, 60% claimed they rarely or never bought products from online stores with English as the only supported language. This is a major concern for business owners. 

Consider this, many existing marketplace software either allow limited customization or no integration to include multilinguistic functionality. This means that the admin needs to manually translate information in the native language (catering to the local audience) each time a new product is added to the marketplace. Also, to cater to the global audience, this process cannot be followed.  

For an eCommerce marketplace to develop a diverse user base, offer impeccable user experience, and expand business globally; multilinguistic functionality is paramount. Yo!Kart comes pre-integrated with MSN Language Translation API providing support for more than 70 languages. Besides, Yo!Kart also provides right-to-left multilingual support essentially for Arab countries. Our platform ensures automatic language translation targeting global regions.

Pain Point #4: Integrating customer’s payment preferences

In 2019, digital/mobile wallets accounted for almost 42% of all eCommerce transactions worldwide according to Statista. Still, there are many regions where COD or bank transfer is the only mode for online payment. Understanding the consumer’s payment preferences and offering local payment solutions is an optimal way to increase sales and drive international success. But, this isn’t possible with Multi-vendor ecommerce software that does not support new integrations or is limited to a few basic customizations.

Yo!Kart provides support for multiple payment options including debit/credit cards, COD, bank transfer, and 15 payment gateways pre-integrated. Moreover, you can always customize and integrate your preferred payment solution. This improves operational efficiency and reduces the chances of cart abandonment.

Paint Point #5: Seller Payout

All successful eCommerce marketplaces facilitate hundreds of thousands of online transactions each day. Take a look at Amazon where millions of transactions take place every day. This wouldn’t have been possible without the availability of multiple payment transfer options and not just bank transfers. An efficient fund transfer mechanism for timely payments to sellers is integral for smooth business operations. Unfortunately, several marketplace solutions are limited to minimal customization or scalability which restricts their growth and affects marketplace efficiency. 

Consider this, an online marketplace of 50 registered sellers has Paypal payout as the only payment gateway for vendors. Now, assume 10 out of 50 sellers demand they need their payments through bank transfer but the system doesn’t support this method. Therefore, to ensure seamless business operations, the marketplace eCommerce solution must support both automated and manual payout options like Yo!Kart does.

Yo!Kart is pre-integrated with both manual and split payment options such as Stripe Connect, Paypal Payouts, & bank transfer to seamlessly transfer funds to thousands of sellers in a marketplace. 

Pain Point #6: Tax Management & Accounting

45 US states collect statewide sales taxes while 38 states collect local sales taxes on the majority of transactions. And, this is just in the US. Product taxes differ around the world and to accommodate these taxes a proper tax management & accounting system is required. This is why a marketplace platform must allow integrations with tax management APIs for automated accounting solutions.

Setting up product taxes in a streamlined manner is critical for an effortless business operation and eCommerce marketplace success. Yo!Kart’s in-built tax management and accounting system allow easy set up of product taxes depending upon the product category. Just enter the tax category information and the cost is adjusted accordingly. For advanced or automated tax management solutions, Intuit’s QuickBooks, TaxJar & Avalara Tax APIs are pre-integrated into Yo!Kart.

Pain Point #7: Shipping management 

Managing shipments, creating shipping labels, or retrieving shipping rates – eCommerce shipping hassles are plenty. To ensure timely delivery and increase profit margins strategic shipping solutions are required. Take a look at Amazon with its free two-hour or same-day delivery. 

Deploying a similar strategy is a hassle for many eCommerce marketplaces due to poor inventory visibility, inadequate returns management, and many other shipping management challenges. Yo!Kart offers a reliable shipping management system to streamline the delivery process. The platform comes pre-integrated with Shipstation API that automates tasks like creating shipping labels, retrieving shipping rates or even order tracking in real-time. Moreover, you can easily integrate your preferred shipping API to minimize cart abandonment.

Pain Point #8: Abandoned carts

When a potential customer begins the checkout process on an eCommerce store but doesn’t complete the transaction or drops out from the process, the cart is considered to be abandoned by the vendor/admin. In 2019, the global digital shopping cart abandonment rate was around 70% according to Statista. Cart abandonment leads to leakage in purchase funnels – a grave concern for the majority of sellers on eCommerce marketplaces.

Every seller or the marketplace owner wants to minimize the cart abandonment rate and improve conversions. But in order to achieve this feat, a reliable abandoned cart recovery feature is mandate. Yo!Kart provides an in-built abandoned cart recovery solution to help follow-up cart abandoners and send reminders (including special offers) enticing them to complete the purchase. 

Go to the “Abandoned cart” feature under Orders in the admin dashboard to view all abandoned or deleted orders. Easily generate discount coupons and send them to users as reminders to complete the purchase.

Pain Point #9: Online visibility

SEO-Friendly site structure is crucial for an eCommerce marketplace success. Multivendor platforms that are natively designed to be SEO-Friendly offer seamless navigation to users, direct users to relevant information and help improve organic rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs). Plus, they allow individual sellers the freedom to rewrite their product URLs and even add meta titles/descriptions to optimize product pages. This saves admin from the hassle of optimizing each product URL when there are hundreds of thousands of product pages.

Unfortunately, several marketplace software do not completely allow businesses to leverage the benefits of an SEO-optimized structure. Yo!Kart is a comprehensively designed marketplace software that delivers SEO-optimized eCommerce marketplaces. From basic SEO settings to advanced optimization tools, the platform is integrated with all essential SEO-friendly features.

Pain Point #10: Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

Nearly 73% of global retail eCommerce sales will be generated through m-commerce in 2021 up from 53% in 2017, according to Statista. Accumulating a larger global share, m-commerce is an increasingly important aspect of an eCommerce marketplace. While most traffic comes from handheld devices, not every marketplace is optimized enough to handle this traffic and as a result, loses a chunk of its revenue.

Yo!kart powered marketplaces are fully optimized and PWA compliant for a compelling mobile shopping experience. We also offer intuitively designed native mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms to cater to the majority of users.

Addressing the pain points that limit sale conversions, restrict marketplace growth, and affect operational efficiency is crucial for an online marketplace success. These concerns are a real headache for business owners. Choose Yo!Kart – the most advanced multi-vendor platform with robust marketplace features and functionalities to lead the changing retail landscape.

The post Yo!Kart: Addressing Pain Points That Affect eCommerce Marketplace Efficiency appeared first on YoKart Blog.

• It has affected people on the global level, while writing this post the figures are 367,457 number of people affected and 16,508 number of deaths due the coronavirus (COVID-19). These numbers are likely to rise significantly higher in the coming days. 

• The increased level of uncertainty and insufficient action plan has resulted in financial market volatility which was last seen during the global financial crisis in 2008.  The virus has regrettably borne out analysts’ downside scenarios, with investors comprehending the implications of disrupted supply chains, official containment measures, and spillovers from the real economy to financial markets.

While Media channels and others are discussing wildly according to the health impact. Let us step into the mind of budding entrepreneurs and address their concern about the Virus and its impact. 

How has COVID-19 impacted the world economy

The extent of the impact will depend on three things

• How long will it take to contain the virus
• Economic support government is ready to deploy
• Steps authorities take to contain the pandemic
  

We can only take the example from China who was once the epicentre of the pandemic and has successfully curbed the impact of coronavirus as of now. The impact on Chinese economy was much more than they had expected. 

The Virus has now spread to Europe, South Korea, USA, Iran, and globally; where authorities are increasingly taking protective measures to contain the virus. Europe and Japan are likely already in recession territory given their weak fourth-quarter performance and high reliance on trade. 

Estimates of the global impact vary: early last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicted that COVID-19 will lower global GDP growth by one-half a percentage point for 2020 (from 2.9 to 2.4 percent); Bloomberg Economics warns that full-year GDP growth could fall to zero in a worst-case pandemic scenario.

Which Sectors Will be Affected?

It is a scenario where one sector loses profit highly but some other are gaining immense popularity.

The travel and tourism industry will be the hardest hit as social distancing has become mandatory and people are preferring to be indoor. Among others will be the entertainment sector, food and beverage, sporting and agriculture.

There are some sectors which have faced double the amount of revenue when coronavirus has not affected the world. These sectors are: telecom, healthcare and the most promising one is the eCommerce marketplace sector.

Why the e-commerce marketplace is the most promising is because it adheres to every norm that the government has announced and still empowering other local businesses which have lost its prominence due to the lockdown period.

Let’s explain further the benefits of eCommerce sector posses in today’s scenario:

• Most countries are under lockdown or people are still not preferring to step outside their houses. Which is why, the eCommerce marketplace delivering essentials and other items to doorsteps is important.
• Most local and small businesses have shut down, a marketplace owner can provide opportunities to sell off their inventory.
• Making it a win-win situation for both customers and vendors as customers will get essential items and vendors will be able to earn money even during coronavirus. 
• People who are in quarantine are sitting and spending most of their time on the internet. According to stats, internet usage has increased by 50%, entrepreneurs do not have to worry too much about their viewership. 

Ecommerce Industry will bring impactful change during the Quarantine

According to research, More than eight in 10 (85.6%) respondents ages 60 and older said they were likely to avoid shopping centres and malls. That’s not surprising given that COVID-19 has hit older people the hardest, but it may have an unintended consequence on their shopping habits. Even after the virus has been contained people will still avoid going to the shopping centre to buy essential products. People are still preferring to shop online for their essential products.

Luckily for some entrepreneurs, eCommerce activity related to health and grocery is still seeing a boom. Entrepreneurs are just rethinking ways to capture the demand of consumers. According to data from eCommerce ad tech provider Pacvue, there have been surges in Amazon searches for products like hand sanitizer and antibacterial soap. Digital shoppers are also willing to convert on products that they need with longer delivery windows in order to avoid going to stores, where inventory may be limited anyway.

This scenario is providing a benefit to e-retailers like Amazon to leverage but there will be an issue in managing the supply chain which is why entrepreneurs are trying to reduce the spending on marketing.

Like Amazon, other eCommerce marketplaces are gaining prominence as vendor’s on-boarding has become easy. Many offline vendors are desperately looking to sell their products online. Leverage this industry to capture the market as the demand is high and pricing is low. 

Entrepreneurs now have to focus on finding innovative approaches to their business, though there are numerous but the market is still unpredictable.

Some countries will be able to control the impact of the Virus but as a preventive measure the government will still impose Social distancing for the next 4-5 months. 

How Entrepreneurs can use lockdown time for business growth?

While the whole country is on lockdown, people are finding it hard to be productive. Business owners can use this time productively for the branding and marketing of their business. Few business owners might be scared about their survival after this pandemic but taking up this time to enhance the quality of experience you provide to your customers.

Some businesses are still flourishing at double the rate, expand and widen your horizon. Move to the sector which is performing. Here are some tips on how to utilize your time during the lockdown.

• Select the niche which has shown increase during the pandemic like delivery groceries and medical supplies.

• Set Up a business which will focus on delivering commodities rather than self-pick .
• Spend time on choosing the right platform who has all the features to launch your eCommerce business.
• Do intensive market research and understand what your competitors are offering during the pandemic time. 
• Enhance the user experience to keep the checkout simple for people. 
• Change seller policies to make it easy for sellers to sell their commodities on your marketplace.
• Leverage the power of mobile and mobile notifications as your target audience would want to easily connect with your brand. 
  

Yo!Kart is with You Against Covid-19

We at global level are facing uncertain times due to the outbreak of COVID-19. We pray for the good health and prosperity of everyone around the globe especially those who have been directly impacted by the virus. The whole world together is dealing with the health crisis and will together rise after all this is over. We the Yo!Kart understands our commitment and responsibility towards the growth of the community, which is why we are working tirelessly to cater to your demand.

Let us prepare together to deal with this pandemic. The Yo!Kart team after studying the market thoroughly would suggest aspiring entrepreneurs to invest in the future. We understand the market has become unpredictable which is why we suggest you invest money on something which will give you benefits later too.

Considering the on-going demand for eCommerce, the online survival tactic is to launch your eCommerce marketplace. Our team is working to fulfill the growing demand by giving one to one client demo and handling clients and their queries diligently.

We are trying to aid eCommerce entrepreneurs in this crisis time, we are accelerating businesses during the outbreak by offering:

1) Our Yo!Kart for startups is available at $500. In this package, we offer free one year hosting with 2GB server space, all the essential features needed for the marketplace, tech support for Yo!Kart experts. All the functionalities that a startup would need to launch their online marketplace is available on the platform. The entrepreneur can also anytime upgrade to GoQuick or GoCustom Lite or GoCustom package during or after expiry of the startup package.

This will be beneficial for anyone who wants to launch their marketplace as they can test the market during this pandemic and also shift to customizable packages when all this is over and they have gathered enough customers.

2) Yo!Kart Consultants have understood the volatility and unpredictability of the marketplace. We will assist our clients to decide which is the best niche which will give you fruitful results during and after the pandemic. They are also highly experienced to share knowledge on the profitability, business model, revenue model that a business should choose during the outbreak. 

Yo!Kart Team Wishes You Health, Peace, and Safety.

The post Coronavirus (Covid-19) Impact on the eCommerce Industry & Yo!Kart Offers Help appeared first on YoKart Blog.

According to a survey conducted by Forbes, 90 percent of startups fail. Yes, this is a hard and bleak truth. But, when it comes to reasons behind failure, different experts shared different anecdotes.

Below are not so common reasons behind startup failure that you can use to evaluate your own startup strategy.

Business Model Failure (CAC and LTV Rule)

A sustainable business model is a blueprint for success. Many startups fail to clearly demonstrate the following:

• How they will create value?
• What problem are they solving and for whom?
• How the business will stay competitive and of course resilience to change

With a vague business model, startups are unable to understand the ecosystem they are operating in and how technology will impact their business.

Example

A Boston-based startup, Riot Vine, was founded in 2009 by Kabir Hemrajani. Unfortunately, the company dissolved in 2010 and the reason is absence of a business model.

Kabir, himself gave an interview to a local publication in which he said, “We spent three months head down developing Riot Vine without a business model. I think I didn’t realize what we were building at the beginning. Riot Vine is closing. I genuinely want to thank everyone who signed up, posted an event, or used Riot Vine to discover what was happening around town.”

The Right Approach

In the above example, we have seen that a startup was trying to establish itself without a business model. On the other hand, there is a market mantra around which a business model should be developed – Cost of acquiring the customer (CAC) must be less than the lifetime value of that customer (LTV).

Acquiring customers takes money, resource and time. The best tricks to gain your customers for a lifetime are:

• Know your ideal customers
• Invest in customer retention
• Reduce customer attenuation

An American multinational computer software company, Adobe, saved its business through subscription revenue which significantly improves LTV.

The company offered Photoshop for $9.99 USD per month. This amount is 100X less than the cost of the perpetual license but Adobe now has two benefits:

• More number of customers

As price is less, more people will go for Photoshop.

• Lifetime customers

With $9.99 USD per month, customers stay with the company for a lifetime.

Wrong MVP

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) allows an entrepreneur to test his idea by exhibiting an early release of the product to target audience. The next step is to collect customer’s feedback and make necessary changes.

MVP is more like a risk reduction tool as it gathers feedback about the product and avoids the possibility of wasting time and money. Many startups fail because they focus on building the product while minimizing their contact with target audience. In simple words, they don’t implement the MVP concept.

Example

A startup named, Devver, failed because “they made a mistake of focusing on engineering first and customer development second.”

Ben, founder of Devver, said, “We should have asked, is there an even simpler version of this product that we can deliver sooner to learn more about pricing, market size, and technical challenges? We should have focused more on customer development and finding a MVP.”

The Right Approach

While creating a MVP, one should find out the right balance between maximum value and minimum design. Few but most important functions are added during the MVP phase. MVP gives the required data that confirms the interest of users in a product. Steps that should be kept in mind during the development of MVP:

• Keep the product quality high with only few important features
• Track user behavior
• Don’t think about the overall sustainability of a product
• Study the competition deeply

Here’s an example of a company that started as MVP:

In 2004, MySpace was the most popular social network. But then, Mark Zuckerberg entered Harvard University with the basic model of his product, Facebook. The MVP had only those features that would ensure its success.

After its incredible triumph, the students at University of Columbia, Yale, and Stanford started using it. Students, who used MVP, gave Mark the essential feedback that he later used to improve the product.

Problem with MMP

Minimum Marketable Product (MMP) – The most basic product that dwells on user experience. MMP addresses requirements of a user, with the correct level of UI that can be sold and marketed successfully. Many companies failed as they targeted the wrong market segment and envisioned the wrong product or features.

Example

In 1957, the American multinational automaker, Ford, manufactured Edsel which was considered as an automobile marque. The company invested heavily in this car but Americans wanted smaller and more economic vehicles at that time.

Thus, Edsel never gained popularity.

On November 19, 1959, Ford announced the end of the Edsel program and the company lost $350 million or the equivalent of $2.3 billion in 2016.

According to the Associated Content – “Pundits have blamed its failure on Ford Motors execs, who never really defined the model’s niche in the car market. The pricing and market aim, of most Edsel models, were somewhere between the high-end Ford and the lowest-end Mercury.”

Ford had absolutely no idea that the failure was going to happen until after the vehicles had been designed and built.

The Right Approach

Under MMP, it’s all about creating a product for minimum number of people with the minimum number of features.

Many startups try to develop over-engineered products with lots of features that provide little or almost no value to users. The concept of MMP helps to focus on what really matters.

Take an example of original iPhone that was launched in 2007. Apple selected a narrow set of customers for its product. iPhone had less number of features than its competitors. But these limitations did not hinder its success. The public reaction to the launch of the iPhone resulted in media calling it as “Jesus phone”.

Experts believe that the staggering success of iPhone is because the company focused on those features that made difference to users and developed a product for specific target audience.

Founders’ Ego and Power Struggle

Founders fail because they can’t admit that they are wrong. They want to be seen as the smartest person in the company. They get stuck in their egos. Ego can actually be fatal for a startup. Ego is self-admiration and it prevents a founder from seizing innovative and beneficial opportunities.

Example

GovWorks was founded in 1998 by two childhood friends. It was built to help government clients keep track of their contracts and citizens can apply for jobs and book tickets.

The company experienced an initial success but due to a power struggle between founders, personal ego and disagreements within management, it was sold in 2001.

An award winning documentary was made on GovWorks’ demise i.e. “Statup.com.” The bottom line was, “when working with friends: egos need not apply.”

The Right Approach

Founders usually stick with their original idea even if it doesn’t work. They should learn to pivot whenever needed. However, pivoting should only be considered when absolutely necessary. There are many companies that pivoted and experienced massive success.

How to pivot?

• Pick up new goals
• Listen to your customers (what they want)
• Align goals with your vision
• Adopt features or changes whenever needed

A brand that pivoted successfully is YouTube, an American video sharing website. It started as a video-based dating service where people introduced themselves and recorded what they were looking for.

This concept didn’t work and the founders decided to open it up for any video. It pivoted slowly and grew into a video empire.

Other reasons such as lack of passion, pricing of products, intra-team conflict, poor marketing strategies, and no or bad after sales service lead to startup failure.

In this vibrant ecosystem, it’s important to understand and appreciate the reason behind failure of startups. Don’t get demotivated by seeing what happened with others, instead follow your heart and write your own story of success.

The post Why Startups Fail? Addressing the Top 5 Reasons appeared first on YoKart Blog.

One such requirement is of convenience. Be it baby boomers, generation x, xennials, millennials, or generation z, convenience is the first and foremost requirement across different age groups. The subscription ecommerce model brings value and convenience in following ways:

• Once a buyer subscribes, there is no need to place an order again.
• Online food subscription box enables the subscriber avoid food they are allergic to.
• The element of surprise is a welcome move as the subscriber may not know the content of the box.

To show you how entrepreneurs are using the subscription ecommerce model to satisfy the market demand, we have compiled a list of brands that teaches us important business lessons. In the list, we have mentioned different subscription ecommerce businesses that are operating in different industries such as cosmetics, fashion, personal care, dietary supplements, etc.

Industry – Cosmetic

Birchbox

(Source – Birchbox)

Birchbox’s $10 per month subscription consists 5 beauty products. For a superior personalized experience, products are chosen after collecting information using a form. Each box that subscribers review fetches them points that they can eventually use to buy full sized products from Birchbox shop.

Key Highlights:

• Nominal subscription cost and free shipping
• Subscribers can earn points

Ipsy

(Source – Ipsy)

Founded in 2011, MyGlam was soon renamed to Ipsy. Ipsy brings you a box full of 5 beauty product samples for a subscription of $10 per month.

Key Highlights:

• Nominal subscription cost and free shipping

Industry – Fashion

TechStyle Fashion Group

(Source – TechStyle Fashion Group)

What started as JustFab in 2010 turned into TechStyle Fashion Group, a subscription based online fashion store for women.

Key Highlights:

• New handbag and a pair of shoes every month

Bombfell

(Source – Bombfell)

Bombfell is a fashion subscription service directed towards men. The subscription box contents are selected by a personal stylist, who curate and handpick each item based on the profile of the subscriber.

Key Highlights:

• Personal stylist takes care of the subscription box
• Carefully curated and handpicked apparels are sent

Industry – Personal Care

The Honest Company

(Source – The Honest Company)

Co-founded by famous hollywood celebrity, Jessica Alba, The Honest Company sells non-toxic products for personal care. From diapers to baby wipes to home cleaning, healthcare and wellness products, The Honest Company clearly lets parents take care of their kids and their home in a safe and affordable manner.

Key Highlights:

• Eco-friendly and nontoxic family products

Monthly Gift

A subscription service focused towards making things easier for women during their periods.

Key Highlights:

• Automated system monitors ovulation and menstrual cycle
• Subscriber gets tampons, pads and liners before periods start
• They also send chocolates

Industry – Dietary Supplements

HVMN

(Source – HVMN)

Previously known as Nootrobox, HVMN (pronounced human) is a subscription based wellness firm that focuses on improving human cognitive abilities. It is done by creating well-researched nootropics that can help customers focus better and be more attentive during work.

Key Highlights:

• Chewable coffee cubes
• Ketone Ester Superfuel
• Helps mental focus and boost in energy

Multiply Labs

(Source – Multiply Labs)

To help consumers take care of themselves in a better way, Multiply Labs creates customized supplements in pills as per the subscription.

Key Highlights:

• High-quality ingredients
• Capsules are made through cutting-edge technology
• Trial pack costs one dollar

Industry – Pet Care

BarkBox

(Source – BarkBox)

When it comes to taking care of your pampered pooches, BarkBox ensured tight schedules shouldn’t bother you and your dog. Every subscription box consists of at least 2 toys, 2 bags of all-natural treats and a chew.

Key Highlights:

• BarkBox follows a theme every month
• All the toys, treats and chews are different every month

The Farmer’s Dog

(Source – The Farmer’s Dog)

No more generic dog feeds that are far from their claimed nutritional value. The Farmer’s Dog brings healthy pet food right at their customer’s doorstep.

Key Highlights:

• Customized food for dogs depending on their breed, age and many other health factors
• The meals are home cooked and offer high-quality ingredients

The post 10 Startups Based On Ecommerce Subscription Model appeared first on YoKart Blog.

(For this was on St. Valentine’s Day when every bird cometh there to choose his mate)

If you have recently visited any local market, then you have a clear idea as to which annual holiday is coming up. You are guessing it right! The one that makes the market change its color to red, the one that involves chocolates, flowers and teddy bear, Valentine’s Day.

Most businesses think that the holiday where they can shoot up the sales is around the time of Christmas and New Year. But Valentine’s Day is a huge opportunity for businesses too! It is not just a lucrative event for flower delivery and stuffed toys businesses, but an opportunity for all e-commerce businesses if they strategize correct. It’s just another prospect to optimize your returns on festive investment.

Let’s dig into the following pay per click strategies that businesses can use on Valentine’s Day and maximize their advertising effort.

Should you advertise on Valentine’s Day?

Unlike the common belief, Valentine’s Day is not just about buying flowers, chocolates and cute cards. There are people who want to spend the day out, shop something new, spending a day at the spa, grabbing drinks with friends.

If Google trends and keyword planner are optimally used, you will realize there is a vast market for Valentine promotion, so businesses should pay special attention to their advertising.

Take a look at the floral industry; it dominates AdWords on Valentine’s Day. Try using Floral Delivery on your Google search and you will notice that the first fold does not have any organic search results.

There are plenty of opportunities to capitalize for e-commerce as well as local restaurants, promote your business beyond the typical search terms.

Capitalizing Unusual Terms

We would probably associate flowers chocolates with Valentine’s Day but has anyone of us thought of men’s elephant pants as a Valentine Day Gift? I am sure the answer is going to be NO.

Elephant pants sell like hot cakes during Valentine’s Day, and so do the hot cakes. These are great examples of capitalizing on unusual terms.

There are tons of seasonal keywords that are missed because the search volume numbers in Google keyword planner are averaged out over a 1 year period. Businesses who want to advertise during festive seasons have to keep an eye on monthly search volumes and plan their ads accordingly.

There is a special benefit for e-commerce websites that sell handmade craft as there is high search volume of DIY Valentine’s Day Cards; precisely 15.6 million searches.

Also Read: Brand Marketing V/S Direct Marketing: The Early Stage Ecommerce Startup Dilemma

Plan your date

Once you have analyzed the trending keywords during Valentine’s Day and identified the products and services that you can promote, you need to start evaluating your marketing approach.

It is very important to strategize before you invest time and money in advertisements. If you are selling Valentine’s items for men, your target audience would be women with a higher bid in January than February, and similar will be the case with women’s gift.

Once you find the search volume trend, set your AdWords rules and schedule your bid adjustments ahead of time.

Gather the right data

While publishers work on AdWords, one of the most overlooked strategies is gathering the right data. Though it takes up only a few dollars per day, running a consistent campaign for the brand and key terms give you a warehouse of data with unlimited applications.

One of the best ways to leverage keywords for Valentine’s Day is by using historical data inside your search terms report.

In AdWords, navigate your search term to dates around 14th February, adjust your date range 3 weeks before the Valentine’s. The search term shows all searches your ad is displayed on, so you should make a note and analyze valentine-related searches that can be helpful.

It’s possible that you may find it hard to isolate your seasonal campaign performance and these yearly holidays are important for the sale of your product/service. In such scenario, consider a separate campaign for Valentine’s Day and other seasonal festivals.

This technique will make it super easy to control the budget, analyze historical data and improve your campaign’s performance year after year.

Target the right audience

If you are a business that has been dealing in displays ads on Gmail and YouTube, you would know that you can target your ad based on demographics, interest and whether the person is in-market for a certain product. There are additional options to consider.

• Demographic
• Affinity audience
• In-Market audience
• Life events

If the campaign goes according to the desired results, you can analyze your placement report. Look for a correlation between targeting segments who convert and the website where they see your ads.

Also Read: Various Channels to Catapult eCommerce Marketing

Schedule site links & promotional extensions

Sitelinks and promotional extensions will help your campaign stand out, which is really helpful for your business.

If you do not want to create an entire campaign, you can schedule AdWords sitelinks to pop up every holiday season. This will help during Valentine’s Day as you can add any information you want, including business working hours or direct link to a specified product.

The promotional extension can be helpful as they can be specifically designed for holiday sale and take the customer directly to the special offer page. The advertiser should promote their campaign from January 15 to February 28 (for late shoppers).

Some of the ways to attract are discount on the first purchase, discount on the total shopping, certain discount if shopping is done within a specific time window, etc. Promotional extensions grab searchers’ attention as they also have a set of expectation when they land on your shop after the click.

Add a countdown clock

Adding a countdown clock to your advertisement or your product page is a very effective for sales as it encourages the users to click and convert.

In your search ad, you can input an end-date to your campaign which Google AdWords will use to change the copy of your ad depending on the length of the deal.

For example, if 1 day is left for your deal to end, your ad will show “This deal ends in 1 day”. This drives a FOMO (Fear of missing out) effect in the user and drives them to your website.

Source: Searchengineland.com

Conclusion

We hope all the e-commerce businesses have used these techniques to advertise their brand on Valentine’s Day. Every holiday has to be planned perfectly and beforehand to get maximum ROI from their marketing and promotion attempts. Every holiday season finds people looking for easy ways to get gifts for their loved ones. If you think your business offers what the Valentine’s market is looking for, plan your PPC campaign accordingly. Good Luck to all e-commerce marketers.

The post Attract Valentine Lovers To Your Store With These AdWords Strategies appeared first on YoKart Blog.

By automating certain part of the ecommerce, using machine learning, the overall consumer experience can certainly be enhanced. One aspect of this AI shift is Chatbots, which have been paramount in minimizing the gap between online business and consumers.

Chatbots are basically automated programs that can perform a pre-programmed task based upon inputs from the consumers in the form of text or voice. Basically, consumers can talk to these chatbots on messaging platform or as a website module.

The ultimate goal of Chatbots is to offer a better shopping experience and foster a wider gamut of interactions. It will not be farfetched to state that chatbots are the future of whole ecommerce sector.

The best part of AI-driven chatbots is that it is always on the learning curve and with more and more information integrating into its backend, its services get more refined. The bottom line is that it learns from the interactions it has with the consumers, making it better with each communication. Let us now take a closer look at top chatbots that can be integrated with an ecommerce website.

1.IBM Watson

One of the pioneers in the Artificial Intelligence community, IBM Watson is often touted as the most popular chatbot building platform across the globe. It is built on a neural network and uses machine learning to offer a state of the art conservation service.

2. Microsoft Bot Framework

It is another popular chatbot builder, offering its own SDK for businesses to create a unique chatbot. It also offers an API, which can be used to host a bot either on a mobile application or a website. The best part is that it is open source and also allows integration of other services like LUIS for natural language understanding, Cortana for voice and Bing API for search.

Also Read: Expanding Your Ecommerce Business to a New Market? Learn How to Overcome These Common Challenges

3. Botcommerce 

It is an on-demand customer service bot, which can be integrated with any website. This bot comes in handy for offering order status updates, tracking number requests or any form of FAQs.

4. Letsclap 

It is an innovative chatbot platform allowing a personalized experience for consumers by adding images, audio, video and location information to the chat. This not only results in rich conversation but also adds authenticity to the conversation.

5. Yellow messenger

This chatbot platform can offer service for a gamut of categories from airline tickets to mobile recharges. Due to its wide array of purchasing interactions, it requires some advanced knowledge of coding for implementation.

6. Operator

It is an exclusive bot that revolves around helping global consumers shop online with ease. It is one of the true ecommerce bots that simplifies ecommerce enabling users to browse curated products, make purchases, and initiate chats with experts in navigating customs and importing processes.

Also Read: Future-proof Your Ecommerce Marketplace: Applications of Machine Learning

7. Wit.ai

This bot incorporates natural language processing that helps in simplifying complex queries into entities, intents, contexts, and actions. Along with mobile apps, this bot can also be incorporated into any ecommerce website using javascript.

8. Dialogflow

Earlier known as api.ai, this is another conversational platform where the bot matches the query to the most suitable intent based on information contained in the intent. This bot platform transforms the query text into actionable data and returns output as a response object.

9. Semantic Machines

The core features of this bot platform includes a conversation engine, speech synthesis, deep learning, reinforcement learning, speech recognition, semantic intent extraction, and language generation (NLG) technology. This allows the ecommerce bot to better understand conversations and offer corresponding solutions.

10. Digital Genius

This chatbot platform uses CRM to extract data about the consumers and train the neural network to build a historic customer service transcript. This results in faster and accurate customer replies.

11. Pypestream

This bot platform includes a smart messaging platform that offers natural language processing and keyword parsing. As it works on an API it allows for better integration with custom third party plugins.

12. Pandora Bots

It is a bot platform that works using an API to integrate with other mobile applications as well as websites. It uses AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) and includes A.L.I.C.E. (The Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity)  —  a natural language processing chatbot.

13. Aivo

This bot platform uses customer information to deliver customized solutions which are paramount for the success of ecommerce websites. The best part about Aivo is that it can integrate with any given application and website because of the use of API.

14. Msg.ai

This chatbot integrates with customer service offering and works around deep learning to enhance the services. This means that it takes into account each and every interaction between the customer service representative as well as consumers and creates intents which are helpful in the future services.

15. Engati

This chatbot platform is useful for ecommerce store that wants to expand and deepen their customer touchpoints. Chatbots built using this platform can work across a wide array of services like catalog search, product ordering, payments, order tracking and fulfillment.

Conclusion 

The fact of the matter is that conversation commerce is becoming a norm in the current marketing dynamics and chatbot will be playing a key role in that phenomenon. It is all about providing a wholesome shopping experience to the customers. Additionally chatbots also fulfill the need of consumers for instant gratification which not only builds trusts but also increases eCommerce conversion rates. The only thing you need to worry about is making sure your ecommerce marketplace is compatible with chatbots. If not then YoKart is an award winning multivendor ecommerce marketplace builder that offers services like chatbots to be integrated into its core architecture. Learn about the ecommerce features of YoKart.

The post Top Chatbots to integrate with your ecommerce store for improved conversion rate appeared first on YoKart Blog.

Although launching an ecommerce website has become easy, how to keep the traffic on the website is the real big challenge. Social media is one such powerful tool that can not only be used by ecommerce marketplaces to increase the traffic on website but also allow customers to directly buy from it.

After the emergence of social commerce, social media has been a great help for ecommerce websites. Social media platforms have released various features and tools that have contributed a great deal in how e-commerce business will market their product.

Like everything in the world, there is rule book to be followed while creating posts on social media. Here are some strategies to keep in mind when designing a social media post for ecommerce websites.

User-generated content

User-generated content and social media marketing always go hand in hand. When you create a profile on social media you are getting easy access to audiences. It is very important to remember that you will not be able to market your brand single-handedly. Users will contribute their opinion on what you are doing, their complaints and how much they like the products that you sell.

When you share user-generated content on your social media channel it makes your business more credible, as other people are vouching for your brand. It is better that your existing customers give thumbs up to potential customers rather than you singing your own praise.

Using user-generated content usually leaves an impact that your existing customer value what your business offers. Anyway, sharing content is far less challenging than writing social media post, both being important to engage the audience on social media.

Snackible, an e-commerce website that sells healthy snacks have optimally leveraged user-generated content on their twitter handle.

Visual Content

When an ecommerce marketplace wants their social media posts to have maximum effect on the audience they need to plan it accordingly. Visual content has become an important aspect of a marketer’s social media strategy. The interest of consumers is growing for visual content as evidenced by popular social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

Just clicking a picture of your product and posting it on social media will not entice the audience to visit the website. Instead, craft your image/video in a way that it sparks a conversation with the viewer.

There are different ways a product can be displayed on social media: – Image/video of product creation, creative pictures of the product, graphical planning of the product etc.

Note: – It is important to keep in mind the allowed dimensions of visual content by social media platform as you do not want the image/video’s frame to be trimmed or distorted.

Also read: – How should ecommerce business market on Instagram to gain maximum benefits

Recent event

Social media has become a major source to gather latest news and people often rely on few platforms for any news updates. People also use social media platforms to interact with business. Try combining the two, you will be able to grow the followers and engage with more audience.

Using recent events for effective social media marketing can be best used on Twitter as brands can leverage the trending hashtag. Keep a track on the trending news and hashtags, see which suitable hashtag can fit in your niche and take the opportunity and use it in your social media posts.

Linking your products with latest events will expose you to a bigger audience on the social media platform other than your own audience.

Facebook trending and Google trends can also be used similarly to expose your social media post to a larger audience. To brainstorm content that is either related to a current event or will get more buzz on social media, Google trends can be leveraged.

For example – A social media post of an e-commerce website that sells beauty products can be effectively planned during a ManiPediDay.

Contest

The main motive of creating a social media profile for an ecommerce marketplace is to engage the customer and drive them to the website. Launching a social media contest can help in meeting the end motives.

There are few basic tips which a brand needs to remember before they launch a contest.

• Know the end goal beforehand
• Be creative and entice customers to participate in the contest
• If you are conducting the contest on one social media make sure you announce it on others too.
• Do not let the contest run for too long and have a fixed time limit
• After the contest is over it is important to measure how the contest affected your marketing.

There are tons of contest running on social media, what makes your contest different from them is innovative thinking. Promote your contest in a way that more and more audience would want to participate in it. To lure the audience to participate make sure to keep the prize something which everybody would want. The contest should create a sense of urgency among the followers of the business page by stating that the offer is valid till specific date/time.

Also Read: – Various Channels to Catapult ecommerce marketing

Use influencers

Leveraging influencers has been a marketing technique for a long time especially since social media has taken the front seat in marketing. To market your brand successfully you need to build close relations with influencers as they can promote your business and make you the talk of the town.

Step one is to find apt influencer for your business. It is important to search for influencer according to your business’s niche. Once you find an influencer make sure you check how many people follow them and how much is their reach. Before you market your product through them make sure you market your product to them.

Find innovative ways to reach your audience with the influencer marketing. Do not make it obvious that an influencer is just promoting your product, find innovative ways to do it.

Conclusion

Social media is changing for the better every day, which is opening opportunities for businesses to market their brand easily. Social media allows brands to directly interact with potential customers and vice versa. For brands to gain more and more followers and to engage the existing ones, brands have to make sure that they think innovatively. The above-mentioned tips will help you keep yourself in the social media momentum.

The post How to Effectively Design Social Media Post for eCommerce Marketplace appeared first on YoKart Blog.

By 2027, it is expected that one out of every 4 products will be sold via online channels, making eCommerce a US $ 7.9 T economy. Considering that established legacy retailers with years of experience and brand equity are also included in this stat, this is a phenomenal projection ― especially for newer businesses trying to enter the market. 

Walmart is a case in point. With half a century of retail experience, the brand decided to go all in with a robust eCommerce strategy. The result: from risking a slide in fortunes, it is now the US’ second most popular eCommerce marketplace platform. Given the proliferation of the internet and technology, these developments have been on expected lines. Also with the same drivers in place, the future will only be better for online retailers. 

While it does not mean that offline retail is entering a final phase, it means that consumer buying behaviors are necessitating a fundamental shift in retailers’ sales strategy. Given the distinct advantages of eCommerce over traditional retail, retailers can no longer afford to ignore or delay their progression into online sales channels So eCommerce vs brick and mortar retail: which is right for you? For new businesses, it is an impeccable money-making strategy. And for brick-and-mortar businesses, it is future-proofing sales. Read our blog to find out more about this

Why Traditional Commerce Retailers should Embrace Ecommerce?

According to Statista, e-commerce website sales have been rising steadily every year. With a whopping 6.4 T USD in 2021, retail e-commerce sales are expected to reach 7.9 T USD by 2027. 

With accelerated digital transformation across retail verticals, an increasing number of consumers spread across demographics now look to source all their needs via online channels. Retailers in the modern digital era, can’t let go of this opportunity―as they look for viable online sales channels. 

However, starting with their eCommerce store can come with its own responsibilities, which many businesses may find difficult to accommodate. Hence the role of multi vendor marketplace platforms. On such platforms, the business is responsible for operations, so the sellers can concentrate on just sales.

Likewise, the businesses that own these online marketplaces have the opportunity to operate in the eCommerce industry without actually maintaining any inventory of their own.

What are the Advantages of E-commerce over Traditional Commerce or Retail?

By enabling the customer to make a particular purchase in just a few clicks, an e-commerce website or app is an effective and affordable option that empowers you to augment your business. Let’s dive deeper into the 10 advantages of e-commerce website over traditional commerce.

1) No geographical limitation

When it comes to traditional commerce, you can only do business where you have set up your physical store. This is not the case with e-commerce websites. For them, the whole world is their playground if planned strategically. eCommerce businesses like Alibaba have successfully facilitated commerce across international borders, making eCommerce a global transaction facilitator.

2) Gain a number of customers with effective SEO strategy

Traditional retail shops depend mostly on branding and relations to drive more customers to their shop but on the other hand, e-commerce websites are not restricted to a physical site. They have the opportunity to drive traffic from the internet. Over 30% of e-commerce traffic comes from organic searches on search engines. This is just the traffic from organic searches and then we have advertisements, social media traffic, and more.

3) Lower investment requirements

When you compare eCommerce vs Brick and Mortar, a top reason to start an eCommerce business over a physical store is lower investment requirements. Also, the manpower and property required to get the business up and running is much less as compared to a physical store.

4) Opportunities to Optimize investments 

 When you are about to open a physical store, the location will play a key role. The location of your shop will impact the fortunes of the business. Things are different in eCommerce. There are multiple ways you can build an eCommerce marketplace platform without impacting the platform quality So there are further ways to optimize investment costs in starting with an eCommerce business. 

5) Round the Clock Sales 

When you compare eCommerce vs Brick and Mortar stores, another key factor is the timing. To run the physical store round the clock you will need manpower for all shift plus excess security requirements for the night shifts. However, eCommerce marketplaces naturally run 24X7. 

6) More ease of access for consumers 

Despite efforts of organizing a physical store, customers have to go through the multiple aisles to get to the desired products, adding time and inconvenience to the shopping experience. However, in a well-built eCommerce marketplace, consumers simply have to search for the desired products or navigate through the website, which is a much simpler process. 

7) Saves travel time for customers 

One of the bigger leverage levers for eCommerce marketplaces is doorstep delivery. An eCommerce marketplace can deliver products to the customers right to the comfort of their homes, bypassing the need to travel to the brick and mortar stores. 

8) Capability to offer higher value to the customer 

The pivotal success mantra of the eCommerce marketplace has been the ability to higher value to consumers. By digitizing the middleman, eCommerce has been able to redefine supply chains, cutting costs, and offering customers better product prices. This value is hard to match by physical stores that function on legacy supply chains. 

9) Allow buyers to make informed buying decisions 

When you go to a shopping store, the only information you see is that written on the product and the price of the product. In an eCommerce marketplace with good features for Admin/sellers, detailed additional information can be added for the products. This helps in allowing the buyers to make informed purchase decisions, leading to overall consumer satisfaction. 

10) In eCommerce you can offer convenient payment options 

Think like a consumer, if you end up at your favorite physical store without taking your cards with you, or in a scenario you realize that your card has maxed out. The whole shopping endevor fails. In the eCommerce marketplace, you have the option of offering multiple payment options to the consumers. So consumers are not in the scenario where they have made the decision to buy the products but lack the payment option to complete the purchase. 

11) eCommerce platforms facilitate customer interactions 

A physical marketplace gives few opportunities for customers to interact with each other. However, the eCommerce marketplace allows customers to add reviews for their purchases. These have become pivotal to generating consumer trust and encouraging user interactions. 

12) Social media interactions 

Social media platforms have become an inseparable part of the lives of people. eCommerce, being a digital platform, can give buyers opportunities to share their purchases, etc. on social media platforms, driving user engagement. 

13) Efficient Shopping experiences 

There is very little a physical store can do to fasten the shopping experience. However, eCommerce marketplaces can be tailored to offer frictionless efficient buying experience. Moreover, features like adding products to wishlists, saving carts, buying products again, etc, offer quick and efficient shopping experiences to buyers that physical stores simply cannot match.  

14) The opportunity to create specialized eCommerce marketplaces for niche products 

Another important consideration when you are comparing eCommerce vs Brick and Mortar: while opening a physical marketplace, to maximize revenue, you may need help to narrow down to specific categories of products. However, eCommerce marketplaces can scale, so starting with a niche business idea is all the more viable and lucrative.

15) Creates targeted communication opportunities 

To create a targeted communication, the only thing you require is the email address and personal information/ habits of the potential customer. To gather this information, creating a registration page and enabling cookies on your website is important. Once you get a hold of the habits of the customers, you can send relevant messages. This information also helps in recommending products on the e-commerce website.
By leveraging the smart recommendations in the Yo!Kart, you can easily recommend products to your users based on the system weightage and send them personalized emails too.

16) Better opportunities to scale 

If you have noticed how quickly popular eCommerce brands have become global phenomena, then you must be aware of the opportunities that multi vendor eCommerce presents. eCommerce marketplaces that establish traction with consumers, scale expeditiously. Moreover, scalability can be easily managed leveraging capabilities of right eCommerce platform solutions. 

17) Better communication between various participants of the business 

Another top reason why eCommerce is better than a traditional store is the benefit that a digital space brings. One such benefit is better communication. On an eCommerce marketplace platform, you can offer chat interactions easily, and also facilitate interactions between the Admin and the sellers and vice versa. Similarly communication between the buyers and the Admin and vice versa. 

18) Faster business operations 

A physical marketplace is let down by analog and traditional processes, as a major part of the work happens via traditional processes. However, a digital marketplace takes everything online. Modern eCommerce marketplace acts like a centralized hub, integrated with multiple business solutions that simplify and automate complex business functions like taxation, accounting, marketing, and more. 

19)Leverage data-driven buying decisions 

A pivotal way that digital sales have transformed retail is the availability of user data. When this data is organized, it provides deep insights into consumers, products, and shops on your eCommerce marketplace. These insights empower businesses to take data driven decisions, thus gaining a significant advantage over offline retail businesses. 

20) Better Branding opportunities 

Think of an eCommerce business like Amazon, it has a presence all over the world. Even in countries where the marketplace does not operate, the brand has a presence. Can you think of any leading US physical retail store that has a similar brand equity. This is simply the power of the digital space. 

21) Execute unique business ideas 

With eCommerce you have more freedom to execute unique business ideas. For instance, while Amazon is a regular B2B2C marketplace, platforms like Etsy and Depop are P2P eCommerce marketplace platforms that allow consumers to trade products amongst each other. Such business ideas are easier to execute with online marketplaces since risk is lower, and its easier to gain traction with the internet audience for such businesses. 

What is the best way to launch an eCommerce marketplace platform? 

With an aim to stay competitive and achieve unparalleled growth in the current retail scenario, many businesses are migrating to the world of e-commerce from their conventional methods of selling. While online retail is growing at a massive rate nowadays, moving to digital commerce is a great idea irrespective of your business sector. To offer exceptional convenience to the customers and empower your brand, here is a checklist to consider when moving to e-commerce.

• Market Research
  The first step includes creating an effective strategic plan for your business. Based on the processes, competencies, and the area of services of your business, you can build an efficient strategy tailored to match your business requirements. Secondly, prioritizing your customer base can help you focus on a targeted market.
• Analyzing Customer Behavior
  Another crucial step is understanding the user behavior and their requirements from your business. By getting insights into the shopping patterns of the customers, you can easily position your products and services accordingly. This enables you to provide a personalized experience to your customers which further helps to empower your business. 
• Finalize the business model and revenue model 

In this step, you would get down to understanding the date from the market research.There are different types of business models in eCommerce. Understand what sort of a business model works best for your business. Likewise, chalk out a revenue generation strategy. 

• Setting Up the eCommerce marketplace platform
  Once you finalize the strategic goals, select a niche product idea, analyze the target audience, and develop an in-depth understanding of the customer expectations, you are ready to set up an online marketplace for your business. If you are looking to build an online marketplace, choose a turnkey solution as it is cost effective and much faster than building your website from ground up. So, if you are looking to build a website like Amazon or Alibaba, where multiple sellers are selling their products under one-platform, you can choose the readymade eCommerce marketplace builder Yo!Kart.
• Marketing the eCommerce marketplace platfrom
  After the eCommerce marketplace is set up, an effective marketing strategy can help you drive traffic to your e-commerce website. To ensure a successful roadmap for marketing efforts you can leverage various forms of digital marketing like SEO, email marketing, PPC, affiliate marketing, and more. 

How can Yo!Kart help in launching an eCommerce marketplace? 

Planning to launch an e-commerce marketplace website for your business to cope with the growing market? Need help to migrate your traditional commerce store to a digital platform? Well, Yo!Kart, the multi vendor eCommerce platform can help you build an exceptional e-commerce marketplace website that guarantees more leads, better traffic, and high conversions. Be it a startup or a billion-dollar entity, its best-in-class e-commerce features can seamlessly deliver a smooth shopping experience to the customers while giving you robust tools to manage the eCommerce operations. So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to put your best foot forward in the ecommerce market with a unique e-commerce solution like Yo!Kart. Here’s what makes Yo!Kart special: 

• Self-hosted eCommerce marketplace platform. 
• Conversion-driven UI/UX
• Class-leading eCommerce features 
• Customizable and scalable
• Secure, meets GDPR compliance
• Detailed reporting and analytics 
• SEO and marketing features including an Affiliate module. 
• Pre-integrated business APIs for and payment gateways 
• Free up to 1 year of tech support 
• One-time payment lifetime license acquisition price packages are available. 
• 5500+ global eCommerce marketplace platforms powered by Yo!Kart. 
• In-house teams for after-sales and any customization requirements. 

The post 21 Advantages of E-commerce Over Traditional Commerce appeared first on YoKart Blog.

It is likely that if they don’t get proper assistance from you, they will just scoot away. But if you properly guide them and lead them towards making an informed decision, you will most definitely strike the deal and also earn loyalty from that customer as a reward.

The same is applicable for ecommerce stores, but on a rather larger scale, especially because of the ease of visiting an online store. It is inevitable that you will receive a multitude of clueless customers on a regular basis, who either are not accustomed to shop on your online store or simply lack the knowledge about the product.

You do not want them to be lost in the product catalogues, or in the search for information on products they want to buy. This will most certainly result in lost sales, as well as lost customers.

Remember! It is always easy to rope in uninformed shoppers

There is a misconception among marketplace owners that shoppers usually have nearly as much information about products as much as sellers do. Consequently, many ecommerce marketplace owners assume that customers already know exactly what they want to buy and don’t make the effort to provide much information about the product they list on their website. Such ecommerce business owners tend to forget what learning curve a first-time shopper or a clueless shopper will have.

To get some perspective, consider this: At your local supermarket, you must have seen numerous attendants at different aisles assisting customers in their shopping. But when it comes to online shopping, the owners forget that the customers might also get lost in the maze of the catalog and would require assistance in their shopping. Online stores that ignore this fact, evidently, face the loss of tons of sales.

Suggested Read: Turn your customers into your salespersons

So, how to tap into these clueless shoppers?

Unlike local superstores, where you can just put attendants across different aisles, in an online store the process is a bit tricky. You need to ensure that your online store in itself scores high on customer satisfaction and simplifies the shopping experience for consumers. For that you need to act upon the following:

• First you need to make sure that your store is built upon a user-friendly ecommerce platform that offers intuitive navigation & options to make it easy for even novice online shoppers to shop & get accustomed with your ecommerce store.
• Also, make sure that the product catalog navigation is simple with each and every category and subsection easily defined. You would not want your consumers just jumping in between categories.
• There is no point of having thousands of products in your catalog, if the consumers are unable to find the one they are looking for. This concern can be addressed with a feature-rich search feature on your store.
• Always ensure that the product page is minimalistic, but has all the key product page elements that enable customers to analyze the product in a better way.
• Also, make sure that you use high quality product images, making it easy for the consumers to ascertain what they are buying, thus, allowing them to make an informed decision.
• A smart recommendation system will not only proactively help customers to find products they might want to buy, but will also help you increase the average order value of the shopping cart.
• Have a chat feature for your ecommerce store that appears on each and every page. This is a really useful tool which customers can use whenever they feel stuck during their purchase.
• Make the checkout process as easy and seamless as possible. As a matter of fact, most of the abandoned carts happen because the checkout process is tedious.

These are just some of the pointers which can ensure that you do not lose business from clueless customers. With the competition among ecommerce businesses increasing, it has become crucial to fix any leakages in your sale funnel in the form of clueless shoppers. So the next time any novice or a first-time shopper lands up on your ecommerce marketplace, the above-mentioned tips will ensure that the conversion goes through. 

The post Want Sky-high Conversion Rate for Your Ecommerce Store? Don’t Ignore Clueless Shoppers appeared first on YoKart Blog.