Modern marketing success is dependent on attracting online customers. In other words, it is dependent on e-commerce.

5 tips to getting more Millennial e-commerce customers

As a huge portion of the e-commerce market, ‘millennials’ are often the primary target of marketing specialists; however, it can be difficult to establish an online customer base.

Luckily, there’s lots of research that has been done on marketing to millennials, as they are the generation that tends to be online the most.

Here are five expert tips for obtaining more millennial e-commerce:

1. Build a photography studio

It might sound like a lot of work, but a ‘photography studio’ can be as simple as some basement space in your home set up with the proper lighting and equipment.

Millennials are focused on visuals thanks to the sea of images on the internet; if they can’t see a product from multiple angles, or if the product photos aren’t details, they’ll be unlikely to make purchases.

Hiring professional photographers is an option, but if your business will be taking regular product photos, it’s best to invest in professional photography equipment and set up a space to take high-quality photos.

2. Use videos or gifs

Because they incorporate audio as well as visuals, and provide more information, videos are a great way to help sell your product online.

Millennials are also sharing videos they like constantly, so videos that explain your product in-depth or demonstrate its use can be a huge boost to your sales.

Another great choice is to make use of gifs.

Although they are primarily used for memes and other humor-centered content, gifs are widely viewed and, more importantly, easily shareable.

There are plenty of websites that allow you to create gifs from scratch.

So if you are, for example, marketing shingles cream, you might create a gif showing the positive results of using the cream.

3. Let your customers sell your products

While many businesses will encourage their customers to tell friends about their products, even better is to get them to show off products they like.

This can be accomplished largely through social media: thanks to the massive user bases of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, people are constantly posting images of products they love.

To sell to millennials, encourage your customers to share photos of themselves using or wearing their products, and then ask them to tag your business in the picture.

It’s important not to flood your pages with offers; this will turn away internet-savvy customers.

Instead, share photos from satisfied customers and have your customers do the selling.

4. Incentivize loyalty

Like all customers, millennials like to be rewarded for brand loyalty.

A survey conducted online by Harris Poll showed that 95% of people between ages 18 and 34 said they would like to be rewarded for sharing products via social media or email.

How do you reward your customers?

There are various ways to reward them, such as offering store credit, early access or free gifts, but get creative if you can–originality stands out online.

5. Makes use of user-generated content

It is well-documented that millennials like to have their opinions be heard online.

By incorporating user-created content such as product reviews or photo collages, you can appeal to customers who will appreciate having their voices heard.

Seeing reviews from satisfied customers will help sell your items more than product descriptions, and the sharing user-generated content online can help expand your brand’s reach.

Along with incentivizing loyalty and making use of user photos, user-generated content will help personalize your brand, which is key for online sales.

What do you think? Have you tried these tips yourself before? I would love to hear your success stories in the comments below.

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