The rundown: Ecom World recap

Wondering what a virtual ecommerce conference looks like in 2022? You’ve come to the right place. After running you through some of the top virtual ecommerce events of 2022, we wanted to join in on the fun and attend a few of these conferences ourselves! One of the most popular events this spring? Ecom World. So, of course the Saltbox team was [virtually] there.

About Ecom World

Running the weekend of May 4-6, this virtual conference included over 30,000 attendees, including 7,000 brands and 80 speakers. One of the largest of its kind, this conference offered an abundance of industry knowledge on a wide variety of topics. But we’ll get to that later! Ecom World gathered industry leaders and innovative founders, trailblazing direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands and Amazon sellers to bring about a legendary three days of relevant master classes and superb digital networking.

If there’s one thing we know about innovation, it’s that growth and improvement only occurs through knowledge and learned skills. Taking part in Ecom World gave us the chance to network with business owners and learn some breaking information on a variety of topics, including but not limited to best ecommerce practices, marketing and customer experience. Here are our key takeaways from sessions we attended at the event:

Ecommerce best practices

Lessons from big-box retailers

‍Juan Camilo Suarez, CEO, Isobar - Colombia

‍Developing that perfect ecommerce experience is trickier than ever. We loved learning from big-box retailers on their experience when it comes to developing the best DTC lessons they’ve learned in the sphere. Discussing the Total Brand Experience Framework, this talk explained the ideal structure for ecommerce branding.

In the framework, creativity takes priority, with an emphasis on big ideas that make a huge difference for your business. Customer experience is also core to developing a business, with a relevant and omni-channel approach that offers a variety of opportunity to reach a loyal client base through varying strategies and outlets. Companies should also be using AdTech, technologies that mix with data to attract the right customer. Leveraging new data technology to benefit your business is key to developing a thriving ecommerce plan in the long term. Media should be integrated with insights and customer data, improving the online experience for consumers. Finally, data and analytics will be beneficial to any business through insights about consumer behavior when interacting with your business.

Leveraging the Total Brand Experience Framework can guarantee your business is using and adapting each part of its ecommerce experience effectively and offering the best customer service experience for all.

Conversion best practices

‍Nolan Heyer, Founder, HEY-C

Ecommerce is not about the amount of people interacting with your site, it’s all about gaining those conversions and closing the sale. This is why it is key to understand those conversion best practices that can benefit a business now and in the future.

• Keep all text sizes legible site-wide
• Use colors or weight variations to differentiate texts
• Make buttons look enticingly clickable
• Tell your brand’s story
• Showcase your brand’s identity and personality, with a clear voice
• Reduce friction with labels, upsells, and illustrations

Ecommerce marketing

Make your brand famous without spending a dime

‍Josh Howard, Founder & CEO, Single Use Ain’t Sexy

‍It’s all about leveraging your relationships! Increasing your brand awareness is all about using shared and earned media to your advantage through strong relationships and great content. Your relationships with consumers are key to developing your brand. Your relationships with journalists and news networks function the same way. Form strong relationships with relevant members of the news media so that they want to write about your business time and time again.

Creativity defines the average ecommerce brands from the truly awesome ones. The best ideas always win. Consumers notice when your brand is doing something different than the rest, something that defines your business above the others. Consistent creativity and branding offer the greatest opportunity to develop your business into something more. Everything should be newsworthy, with an always-on approach to changes and adaptations your company may require.

Go the extra mile, always. Standing out among the crowd shows your brand has something to offer that others can’t. Plus, you never know what might end up going viral when you fine tune your social tactics. Get yourself out there! Having someone speak on the company’s abilities, including what you do and why, is great exposure. Speak at universities, events, charities. Don’t forget to always end with an ask or call to action (CTA) for the consumer! Bring them back to your business by prompting a response.

Supercharge your brand’s growth with influencers, Amazon live streaming and TikTok

‍Gracey Ryback, Brand Owner & Founder, DealCheats

Perfecting social media marketing as a business is critical to success. This shouldn’t be a surprise, and yet so many businesses are not leveraging this incredible form of marketing for their business.

This informative masterclass walked the audience through an “All You Need To Know” speed run on influencers, live-streaming and TikTok. Influencers are similar to online celebrities. These influencers are considered to be more authentic and connect with their audiences to a greater degree, offering greater conversions along with strong brand support.

Learn about individual influencers and what they bring to the table. There are many things to contemplate when choosing the best influencer for your brand. Consider the following:

• Quality of content
• Audience base and watchers
• Engagement, click, and conversion rate
• Budget
• Brand messaging - how the influencer presents themselves and how this correlates with your business
• Authenticity
• Price range per promotion

But influencers aren’t the end all be all of social media growth. Live-streaming is set to become a $25 billion market by next year. Along with these massive numbers, video is bigger than ever; brands that deploy video marketing have converted 85% of sales.

This is why Amazon live streaming is such an incredible development when it comes to marketing online. Easy for shoppers to search, with lots of pop-ups and ways to one-click purchase, Amazon Live offers an abundance of insight into leveraging all facets of digital marketing, including influencers, social media, shopping, AND live streaming.

It doesn’t take much to learn about and take advantage of the impeccable changes occurring in the online ecommerce space for your business’ benefit. Use socials, video content, and short form media to connect with your audience in an easy and authentic way. If you’re aiming to go that extra mile and work with influencers, make sure they’re genuine and already have a strong audience base that trusts them.

Supercharge your shoppable social channels

Kate James, Digital Commerce Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company

‍It’s all about the marketing fundamentals that will get your business seen and keep those conversions rolling in. General rule of thumb? Always listen to the customer and what they are looking for out of your brand. It’s a well-known fact that consumers are more comfortable buying products from a brand that can be found on social. Use it!

Other good ideas?

• Digital shelf: Include best-in-class brand content across all channels to drive conversions
• Search + display: Invest strategically across brands to drive discoverability and conversions
• Partnerships: Leverage joint-programs with retailer and delivery networks, or influencers, sports and entertainment to amplify scale
• 70/20/10 Rule: Spend budgets efficiently for maximum ROI, but reserve funds for test + learn pilots to continue growth

The digital landscape is constantly developing. Now is your time to improve and evolve your marketing to leverage all sorts of media in a variety of unique ways. Don’t let the fear of NFTs and the Metaverse stop you from growing into a new and growing space.

Ecommerce customer experience

Site optimization with design in mind

‍Nolan Heyer, Founder, HEY-C
Every successful ecommerce business has a website filled to the brim with product, company information, and more. It only makes sense that optimizing this online experience can guarantee greater sales and a better customer experience. Your website should have a consistent branded experience, offering a constant flow your customers can connect your business to.

The goal will always be to minimize friction for your consumer. There are a variety of key ways to do this:

• Make search easy, offering drop down designs and predictive search
• Make the shopping cart layout easy
• Include brand identity, upsell options, visual accessibility and more!
• Minimize choices customers have to make while shopping
• Offer optimized filtering, clear hierarchy, and plain language
• Mobile is key with over 70% of online shoppers
• Include intuitive navigation, sticky bar with easy access, and branded icons
• Aim to delight your customers and foster an attachment to your site
• Offer customized content, branded elements and branded buttons

Elevate your customer experience with these surefire techniques

‍Kristina Muntean, Strategic Partner Manager, Gorgias

‍Your brand is defined by your customer experience. To maintain and improve customer retention, you need to constantly be connecting and communicating with your consumers through every step of the buying journey. Build a brand that people resonate with and focus on the community building aspect that defines the good brands from the great.

Searching for more ways to improve your customer experience this year? Look no further than our blog post outlining the top 8 tips and tricks to improve your customer ecommerce experience.

We loved growing our knowledge and expanding our network at Ecom World 2022. Did you miss the event? Don’t worry! Ecom World is offering Replays from the event on their site now, at a discounted rate.

We said it once and we’ll say it again: Knowledge is power when it comes to ecommerce. No matter the events you attend, online conferences offer endless opportunities that will help grow your business to incredible heights.

About Saltbox

Saltbox offers a cozy and practical spot for small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses looking for a mix of warehouse and co-working space. Think of our spaces as a blend of a functional warehouse and a trendy co-working area, complete with all the essentials like conference rooms, comfy lounges, and content studios—perfect for both storing goods and getting work done. 

We take the hassle out of logistics with accessible loading docks and our helpful staff who can manage your shipments and inventory for you. Plus, our flexible logistics services are designed to adapt to your business needs, whether you need help by the hour or prefer a dedicated team to handle your orders. Through our Parsel app, you gain access to discounted shipping rates, efficient pick-and-pack workflows, and carrier options typically reserved for large brands. Saltbox is here to make your business operations smoother and help you focus on growth.

Book a tour at one of our 12 locations across nine major cities in the U.S., including Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Seattle.