With more and more eCommerce players coming into the market, it's easy to get lost in the crowd if you don't invest in brand promotion. 

The number of eCommerce sites in the US alone increased by 47.2% in 2023. There are close to 14 million eCommerce sites in the US (and this number is only growing). 

The question is, how do you keep your brand relevant? Let us go over five effective ways to promote your eCommerce online store.

1. SMS Marketing

SMS messages have an average open rate of 98%, which is significantly higher than email open rates (17%). You can promote your products or services through SMS. These messages can be promotions, exclusive offers, shipping notifications, and cart abandonment reminders. 

For instance, you can integrate an omnichannel marketing automation platform like Plivo CX into your Shopify store and automate the entire SMS workflow based on order status/customer action.

Why choose SMS marketing to promote ecommerce stores?

The benefit of using SMS as a promotional medium is its easy accessibility. People check their smartphones 144 times daily and are open to quick SMS. In fact, SMS is the second most preferred communication channel for consumers after email. 

Dominos: An SMS Marketing Case Study

Domino's initially focused more on TV and Facebook ads during its expansion. They ran 30- or 60-second video ads, but the ROI of this marketing strategy was poor. 

The brand switched to SMS, thinking that it would garner more attention. And they were right. They quickly saw an increase of 125 orders per ad. The fast nature of SMS helped the brand reach more consumers. 

2. Email Marketing

You can create email campaigns to engage with consumers. Common types of campaigns include:  

• Welcome email
• Newsletters
• Promotional emails
• Holiday offers
• Abandoned cart series
• Shipping notifications
• Upselling or cross-selling emails
• Birthday or anniversary emails
• Win-back campaigns

Why choose email marketing to promote ecommerce stores?

Email remains the most preferred channel by consumers. Emails reach a minimum of 84.8% of the people you send them to, which is an excellent deliverability rate. 

You can also easily personalize campaigns and draw insights based on consumer details/activity. 

Slyk Shades: An email marketing case study

Slyk Shades, a Massachusetts-based shades brand, started implementing email marketing to nurture its audience. They built seven automation workflows for different scenarios, and soon, 30% of monthly revenue was coming from email campaigns. Their Black Friday offer was such a big hit that it generated over $72,000 from a single campaign. 

3. WhatsApp Marketing

WhatsApp is another great medium for promoting your brands. You can send onboarding emails, promotions, shipping notifications, personalized campaigns, and customer support messages on WhatsApp. The platform supports rich media such as images, videos, and documents, making it easier to run diverse campaigns. 

Why choose WhatsApp marketing to promote ecommerce stores?

WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app worldwide, with 2.79 billion unique users. And the platform also boasts of a 99% open rate. Its broad reach helps you reach out to your consumers on the platform where they are active. 

Benefit Cosmetics: A WhatsApp marketing case study

Benefits Cosmetics, a leading provider of brow/waxing services and a high-end cosmetics brand, uses WhatsApp to engage customers. It helps them provide fast service, making it easy for customers to change appointments and get appointment information. 

The brand also sends special messages and promotions directly to customers' message boxes. Using WhatsApp helped the brand provide fast service, and they observed a 200% growth in year-over-year sales, partly attributable to WhatsApp.

4. Influencer marketing

You can collaborate with social media creators with good reach to promote your brand. With the right strategy, you can identify the influencers who cater to your target audience and promote your brand through brand-embedded content.

Why choose influencer marketing to promote ecommerce stores?

64% of consumers claim that they will make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation or opinion at least some of the time. And 20% say they frequently or nearly always always buy convenience items, shopping goods, or specialty goods from an influencer’s recommendation. The reach influencers provide is massive. They can demonstrate products through their content and promote offers to the right audience. It increases brand awareness and credibility. 

H&M: An influencer marketing case study

H&M collaborated with four celebrity influencers to promote its holiday line. They gave the influencers full freedom to create content that matched their personalities and what their audience would love. With just four videos, the brand reached 12 million consumers. 

5. User-generated Content

User-generated content is content about your products/services created by users. It could be photos, videos, or product reviews. This type of content creates more social proof and builds brand awareness. 

While such content is often created voluntarily by users, you can also reward users for promoting your product.

Why choose user-generated content to promote ecommerce stores?

90% of consumers want to see brand content from real users. It assures them that the review is authentic and not sponsored. The strategy also brings long-term trust. 83% said they are more inclined to purchase from brands sharing real customer content. 

Parachute: A user-generated content case study

Parachute, a home decor and essentials brand, added user-generated content to its marketing mix. Instead of using branded content, they start running ads with user-generated content to show how their products look in actual users' homes. It got more attention. 

With the new ads, they saw a 35% higher click-through rate and a 60% lower cost-per-click.

6. Brand Collaborations

You can strategically collaborate with other brands to reach a wider audience. This works well with brands catering to similar target audiences. You can co-create campaigns, events, or even products. 

Why choose brand collaborations to promote ecommerce stores?

71% of consumers feel positive about co-branding partnerships, making partnership opportunities an excellent investment. Customers love variety, and brand collaboration gives you a chance to surprise them (in a good way). 

Marc Jacob X Uber: A brand collaboration case study

Marc Jacobs, a US fashion label, did an out-of-box campaign for its Daisy Daze perfume launch. It collaborated with Uber, a ride-hailing service, and decorated the cabs with daisies for a day. Users could book a decorated car using the Uber app by applying a promo code “MJDAISY.” They were then welcomed in a beautifully decorated cab and got a free bottle of Daisy Marc Jacobs fragrance. 

Uber saw 5,459 ride requests as part of the promotion, and the fashion label gained over 61 million social media impressions.

Boost Your eCommerce Business With Plivo CX 

You don't need any complicated tech setup to start promoting your eCommerce store. You can easily integrate Plivo CX with your Shopify store and run SMS, email (upcoming), and WhatsApp (upcoming) campaigns.

With Plivo CX, you can:

✅ Import your existing contacts

✅ Create forms to opt-in new users

✅ Run SMS, email (upcoming) and WhatsApp campaigns (upcoming)

✅ Segments users to personalize and accelerate campaigns

✅ Use AI to draft messages in a click

✅ Build reports to optimize campaigns

Book a demo to discover how Plivo CX can increase your brand visibility.