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New Year’s resolutions for online retailers: e-Spirit’s tips for good content marketing in 2014

Less chocolate and more exercise are typical New Year’s resolutions for most of us. In the world of e-commerce, Web Content Management (WCM) provider e-Spirit advises online retailers to prepare for their 2014 resolutions now. Beyond promoting goods and services and displaying them prominently on their websites, companies should offer consumers added value and benefits through good, inspiring content. For 2014, innovative sites will increasingly trend toward blending purchasing experiences with entertainment and information. It’s now all about appealing to the customer using original and entertaining websites and encouraging repeat visits.

These should be the New Year’s resolutions of forward-looking online stores in 2014:

Creating virtual shopping and information oases Trying on shoes, comparing clothing items, asking a customer service rep for advice: These are some of the advantages of a brick-and-mortar store. Online retailers score points with rapid and convenient purchases with a single click. To be successful and viable in the future, e-retailers have to better leverage these advantages along with delivering more detailed information to customers who want ever more comprehensive information. Where once products and services were described in just a few words, innovative online stores offer videos, ratings, other buyers’ recommendations, and price or product comparison tools. Playful features add to the purchasing experience; for example, several fashion sites now sell clothing by offering consumers the chance to try clothing on virtually using photos of themselves.

Entertaining and detailed information Infotainment and edutainment: In 2014, e-commerce is going to be shaped by technological and social trends more than ever before as consumers continue to become savvier with new mobile devices, their features and applications. It is therefore critical for online retailers to look ahead from a technological perspective and build a strong content marketing strategy in which they provide better and more targeted information to their customers – the more entertaining, exciting, unusual or funny the websites the better.

E-commerce meets magazine Growing consumer demand, new mobile devices, innovative applications and a multitude of new display options have led more online retailers—such as the fashion, cosmetic and food industries—to design their websites like a magazine. In addition to displaying and describing their products, fashion and cosmetic companies provide tips on fashion and make-up, background reports on the origin or manufacture of products, recipe recommendations or assembly instructions, buyers’ recommendations and ratings. A range of websites from internationally known retail chains offer not only clothing, but also matching accessories, styling tips, trend reports, gift ideas and much more information that encourages visitors to linger and browse—it’s customer loyalty Web 3.0. Moreover, the layout of these online stores often resembles a fashion magazine layout, but with photos doing much more than displaying products. The whole package is about inspiring the customer to think above and beyond the product. The increasing dovetailing between online store and magazine also works in reverse. Some magazines, such as Vogue, are also taking the plunge into the e-commerce arena.

Integrating journalistic content and user values into the online store design Additional information and other content will increasingly shape and change e-commerce. Online retailers have to ramp up the content of their products and services to better feed and target their information-hungry and technologically sophisticated customers. At the same time, they need to increase their virtual identity and profile which help keeps customers loyal to their brand and their websites. Omnichannel and multiplatform functionalities will blur the boundaries between online store and online magazine even more.

Retailers that want to stay one step ahead of the competition in the coming year while also drawing customers to their products and brand with a more targeted approach should not just look at the technological tools, but also focus more on the content and offer consumers a satisfying experience that combines purchasing and information.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Oliver Jaeger .