How to Build a Community Around Your E- commerce Business Once you have identified your audience, you can find the right means to connect with them

Global retail sales of e-commerce is expected to generate about US$ 653 billion in 2018, according to Statista. When you are new in such a big market where giants of e-commerce have a strong presence already, getting noticed is a huge task. Creating an online store, uploading the best visuals of products and adding product videos are all tactics that can create an interest among your users. However, that's not enough. You need to look beyond that to drive people to your e-commerce site and build a community around your business. It helps you gather a following and open various channels of communication with them. Here's how you can build your business' community.

Define Your Business

Before you build a community around the business, you need to know what the business is. What does your business stand for, how is it different from other such businesses in a similar space and most importantly what type of people you want as part of your business' community. After you have identified these aspects, you can move on to the next step.

Find the Best Ways to Connect With Your Community

Once you have identified your audience, you can find the right means to connect with them. You can choose the right platform based on the size of your audience, how they prefer to engage and your budgetary allocation. You can start small and test the various platforms to see how they engage. As the numbers grow, you will be able to choose the best platform that suits your requirements.

Focus on Community-specific Products and Content

Always create an e-commerce strategy keeping your target customers in mind. To get the best results, you need to understand the culture and traditions of your buyers. Include products, services and offers that revolve around these traditions. Consider including country-specific content, language, currency and so forth to make the shopping process easier for cross-border consumers.

Consistent Approach Towards Building Awareness

Focus on creating authentic relationships with your target audience rather than building numbers. Their engagement is what will help you build awareness about your business. For instance, if they find a product interesting, they might like it, share it or comment on it. Also, you should be up-to-date on everything that's happening in your space and what your competitors are up to. If you are aware of what's happening in the market, it will be easier for you to educate your customers and convince them on why your product/service is best-suited for them.

Make Your Online Shopping Social

Social media channels lend a helping hand in building engagement with prospective and present customers. You can use social media to support social interaction, and user contributions to assist online buying and selling. This way your users feel connected with the community and can seek their support for not just buying but other needs as well. In fact, many e-commerce platforms offer the option for social interaction and buying on the same portal so that users do not have to get into the hassle of maintaining too many apps.

Happy Customers, Happy Businesses

One thing you should always keep in mind is that customer satisfaction is what matters the most. If you can create an awesome shopping experience for buyers, they will share their experience with others and this can in turn get more people interested in shopping form your site. You can leverage the power of social media to get your users to share their experiences.

Keep Updating, Monitoring and Upgrading

You need to be aware of the latest developments in the market. Keeping a check on customer engagement, the products in demand and your competition can help you identify what else to do to perform better.

Technology is never constant. Upgrade your site when it is required. People always prefer to go with a fast and hassle-free shopping experience. Add new features to the site when there is a need. The focus should be to make every experience better than the previous one.

Ask for Feedbacks and Reviews

What our customers think, did they like shopping with us and do they want some improvements... knowing this is important. Only honest opinions can help in the long run. This helps in the overall development of the e-commerce platform. Shoppers are your best friends to find out how you are performing and what you need to do to take it to the next level. Feedback and reviews should be added into your marketing strategy.

You cannot deny the fact that if you have a good relationship with your customers and you are able to create a community around your e-commerce business, sooner or later you will succeed. Creating a good bond with customers will develop into loyalty and ultimately help in organic promotion of your e-commerce platform.