3 bonus e-commerce strategy tips

This is the part 2 about e-commerce strategy tips.

In part 1, we discussed the following topics:

1. Clear goals from management

2. Clear goals in digital

3. Learn to pivot

4. A seamless brand experience across all touchpoints

5. Performance & beauty

In part 2, we will discuss the following topics:

1. Tracking Results

2. Data driven decisions

3. Test & learn

Without further ado, here are 10 e-commerce strategy tips (part 2) you need to know for 2024 (and beyond):

1. Tracking Results

Setting up campaigns that look beautiful or logical to you without following up on results is perhaps not the most optimal approach.

First of all, make sure you have all your platforms (CMS, GA4, social media) well linked and that data flows well - I also discuss it in this article in point 6: get the data.

This allows you to set up proper KPIs tracking and learning from the insights. Often when working long on a product, service or campaign, I feel people get hung up on their vision or their level of detail. As much as it’s important to cater to the needs of your most loyal customers and offer them something new, don’t forget to keep in mind those who have a first ineraction with your brand.

If your campaign isn’t performing a certain way, why? What was done in a way that could have been done better? My tip: go where it’s uncomfortable, asking the uncomfortable questions, that’s where, in my humble opinion, the most valuable insights are.

For example, if you invested long hours and large budgets on a campaign that ended up not performing as you had expected, ask yourself:

• In what ways did the campaign not perform as expected?

• What expectations or goals were not met?

• What happened instead?

• Find multiple reasons why this happened

• From those reasons, find the lessons you learned and practices to improve, avoir or add to your next campaigns.

2. Data driven decisions

As said in part 1, finding the balance between setting up a strategy, long term vision and pivoting when needed is key. It can sometimes happen that campaigns brands thought would work best don’t, while campaigns that were “left on the backburner” ended up overperforming them all. However, if this happens constantly, it’s probably time to review your strategy.

It’s often years later, when looking back with context, perspective, and a few scholarly insights, that people get to clearly explain why x campaign worked and y didn’t. While it’s happening, it’s often a “one day at the time” situation.

While following your KPIs and results, don’t forget to look at them from a bird’s eye view, aligning digital, in-store and other campaigns with seasonal factors and events that impact your activity.

3. Test & learn

At the end of the day, done is better than perfect. I believe you should take time to optimize a campaign and have it proof-read or verified by a fresh pair of eyes before launch. That being said, go for the following steps:

• take action: launch the product/ campaign after a testing phase of course, (more on that in a separate post)

• analyse results: depending on how long your campaign and what the followed KPIs were, dive into the data across various platforms 

• optimize: improve functions, campaign assets and other measurable details for the next launch according the analysed results

• take action: start the cycle again ;)

What was or were your favourite subject(s) from this article?

Do you agree with these strategy keypoints?

Share your ideas in the comments below.