Alibaba Propels New Network Connecting U.S. Businesses With Their Customers

Chinese e-commerce giant  and world’s largest retailer Alibaba Group has recently announced the launch of  the Taobao Global US Merchants Network.  The general purpose of the network is to serve American small and medium-sized businesses and create 1 million jobs according to their Chairman Jack Ma.  The network will help U.S. small businesses easily connect with merchants operating within Alibaba’s network such as Tmall and Taobao.  US small businesses on the network will have access to a centralised platform, “where they can connect with and sell their products to experienced Taobao Global merchants who sell to Chinese consumers”, according to the Alibaba statement.

Alibaba President Michael Evans said the following about the small businesses using Taobao:

“Alibaba created the Taobao Global U.S. Merchants Network to strengthen the connections between U.S. small businesses and Chinese consumers.  The merchants who join this network are experts on Chinese consumers and are continually seeking new, unique American products for the millions of Chinese consumers they reach on Taobao.”

Taobao is akin to a Facebook of sorts in China in that there is significant engagement.  People often share and view content, message their retailers and also live stream many different media. For the fiscal year 2017, the total amount of items sold on Taobao increased 17% year-over-year to $320 billion.  Taobao claims to have over 500 million customers in their platform.

The move comes as Alibaba will shift their sights from courting the biggers brands such as Costcoand move to small brands that works on the periphery of customer awareness.  The Network has an initial launch of over 300 U.S.-based Taobao Global merchant members.  A matchmaking event at last month’s small business conference Gateway ’17  in Detroit connected 60 U.S. small businesses with 45 Taobao Global merchants.

Alibaba will also implement and encourage participation in training seminars on logistics and other ecommerce issues.  This will also the merchants who are in the network understand trends in the Chinese market.

https://falconconsultingandmarketing.com/alibaba-propels-new-network-connecting-u-s-businesses-customers/

Online Marketing Strategies Should be Affected by Consumer Behavior

E-Commerce has changed dramatically over the last 5 years.  Spending in particular has increased significantly during that same period of time.  Everything that you have ever wanted is online now and the convenience of the purchase is one of the reasons that more are flocking towards it.  Companies are now making shipping and delivery a priority which has made the time to receive your purchase drop as well.

The study of the consumer in the digital age will help your business improve your marketing strategies.  By researching why purchasers of goods and services are going online as opposed to going to a store or office, you can tweak your marketing plan according.  It can save you advertising dollars by just spending some time.  There are a several key factors to look for when creating a marketing plan that influences a consumer.

• The understanding of how consumers feel, rationale and selection of  products for their use
• In what way consumers are influenced by their environment, culture, media
• What is the attitude of the consumer while they shop

For the experienced marketing consultant, but for the business it can change the entire scope of their reach if they have never taken these factors into account and have now implemented a strategy on using the factors to their advantage.

Let’s take a look at how these factors can impact your bottom line. Consumers want convenience and the ability to make things easy throughout the entire process of the sale of your product or service. Now if you’re an online shopping site (E-Commerce) that offers the newest herbal cosmetic product, you’re in a position to sell a significant amount of this healthy product online. Consider giving the customer what they want, through tactical marketing. The questions that must be asked is, “What does the consumer want?” They want the herbal hair product, yes, but their online personality also wants a few other things first.  Savvy online shoppers the majority of the time base their decision on how they feel, or the reason they need this product. This is a deal breaker right off the bat if your consumer walks away before they even get to the product specifications. Your marketing catch must include a reason the buyer needs the product, but more importantly, why they need to buy it online, with you of course.

Consumers are influenced by their environment. This environment could be a family member who recently purchased a similar herbal product say at Trader Joe’s, reading rave reviews about the product or watching a television commercial.  There are several thoughts on the behavior of consumers while they shop. Some consumers are said to be information gatherers. Information gatherers are when this type of purchaser gathers all the information they can on the top products in their buying category, and makes a decision based on research, while the other purchasers of products are ready to purchase immediately.

As business owners, we want the impulse purchaser to come immediately to our site, however there is something to be said about the research consumer. This is a point in online marketing where you need to recognize how far into your site the consumer is reaching. If you notice that several of your potential buyers make it to the product details page and then leave, you may have found your next marketing project. Always give the consumer all the information that a researched consumer would use in order to make a determinate on a purchase.  That way you will be covering all your consumers and your reach will double.  You will therefore know what you should be changing and revising on your website to attract the customers that will purchase your product or service from you.  Using this technique will also give you a more vibrant website that is proactive to consumer behavior and needs.

Shopping online is becoming more prevalent and most of us will be doing more of it in the days, months and years ahead.  Sure, it is always important to market to the right consumer but to understand why the purchase is essential in building your brand and implementing your marketing strategy.

If you have any questions, you can contact Falcon Consulting & Marketing.  We are New York City based full service digital marketing agency that assists small businesses one client at a time.

https://falconconsultingandmarketing.com/online-marketing-strategies-affected-consumer-behavior/

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3 Tested Tips to Increase Sales on Your E-Commerce Site

When deciding to open up your own e-commerce site, you have to decide how to generate more traffic in order to justify purchasing the products or material in order to make the items you are selling.  People have to be able to find your site and then be able to convert the visit by purchasing something from it. The main marketing strategies that can help online retailers build a successful Internet business is search engine optimization (SEO).

Search Engine Optimization changes over time and you must understand and implemen SEO techniques that will assist search engines like Google and Bing better crawl and index the content on your site. This means your website and product pages are more likely to show up when users search keywords relevant to your online store. If you are more savvy of how to increase your visibility or not, here are three tested tips to increase your online visibility and increase your sales.

1  Keywords- Keyword research is the first step to a successful SEO strategy. Those successful with SEO understand what people are searching for when discovering their business in a search engine. These are the keywords they use to drive targeted traffic to their products. You should use Google Adwords in order to determine what keywords are valuable and what generates traffic.  Google also has a tool to measure the keywords.   When researching, you will notice that there may be really competitive keywords.  In your strategy you can decide to focus on the lesser competitive keywords while building over time on the pricier competitive keywords.  Eventually and over time with some work you will attain your goal of ranking higher with competitive keywords.

2.  Use Unique Meta Description- These are the probably the most important tags on your website. Make sure that your titles accurately describe the product/page and that Meta Description is a description of what’s on your page.The meta description should employ the keywords intelligently, but also create a compelling description that a searcher will want to click. Try to have your description be between 150-160 characters.  Meta description tags, while not important to search engine rankings, are extremely important in gaining user click-through from SERPs  (Search Engine Result Pages).

3.  Write Great Content using keywords- Content may be the most important aspect in ranking higher in the search engines.  You want to create content using the keywords that your a focusing on, the actual search terms people are using, so you can produce content that effectively would point people toward your product.  Try to use the keywords naturally in your website.  Incorporating your keywords into your content sometimes seems like a no-brainer but it does get taken for granted if the material being written is too technical.  Try to make it simple for the reader.

By using these techniques, you will be able to increase revenue in your e-commerce site.  Hiring a professional to assist with your marketing can be a good idea if you are manufacturing your product and there is a need to invest time in that aspect.  Should that be the case feel free to contact Falcon Consulting & Marketing at sales@falconconsultingandmarketing.com or 855-445-9530.  We are a digital marketing agency located in New York City assisting businesses achieve their goals one client at a time.

https://falconconsultingandmarketing.com/3-tested-tips-to-increase-sales-on-your-e-commerce-site/

Visit us at www.falconconsultingandmarketing.com