ECommerce

6 Tips for Selling Online to Millennial Shoppers

If you’re going to successfully sell goods to a group of people you must consider their preferences. Marketing strategies of the past simply won’t work with Millennials. Now, Millennials want things, just like everyone else. They just happen to have different preferences.

Here are six tips for selling online to Millennial shoppers.

Make Sure Your Ecommerce Site Is Mobile Compatible

People just entering the ecommerce world have probably heard a lot about the importance of mobile compatibility. But are that many people really buying things on their smartphones? The short answer is: Yes! And this trend is only gaining more traction.

A study by Forrester found phones will play a role—from comparison to purchase—in over $1 trillion of U.S. ecommerce sales in 2018. Without an effective mobile presence, you’re going to miss out on a lot of business—especially among the Gen-Y demographic.

Don’t Just Have Social Media—Use It Effectively

Everyone says you need to be on social media to engage Millennial consumers. While these platforms can be hugely beneficial, they’ll only help if you’re using them the correct way. Don’t just send out promotional posts at all hours of the day. Nobody wants to engage with that. Deliver unique content that will engage your audience. Consumers will be more interested in your promotional content when you have something worthwhile to show them.

Consider Your Aesthetic Choices

Millennials care about the functionality of the things they buy. But they don’t want to engage with brands or websites that put no effort into aesthetics. Don’t clutter your ecommerce store so that it’s overwhelming to shoppers. A clean and user-friendly design is how to best set up an ecommerce site, according to Shopify and other ecommerce experts.

You should also consider the photos you use—both on your main pages and in your product descriptions. Millennials are more enticed to buy when merchandise looks appealing. There’s really no reason for you to ignore the implications of design if you’re trying to market toward 20- to 30-something shoppers.

Is Your Brand Ethical?

Businesses of the past didn’t need to worry so much about the environmental and social impacts of their products or services. This is massively important to a lot of consumers in today’s world—especially younger ones.

Millennials place a lot of value on the ethics of purchasing one things versus another. Is your company giving back to the community? Is it sourcing materials in a sustainable way? If you’re answering “No” to both of these questions, you’ll have a tough time gaining loyalty from most Millennial shoppers.

Partner with Influencers

Influencer marketing is one of the biggest trends in ecommerce. There’s a good reason for this. Partnering with influencers is a highly effective way to get your product in front of people in a way that will actually inspire conversions.

What is influencer marketing? It’s a partnership between individuals with a strong online niche following and brands. Essentially, an organization can pay influencers to promote their products to their fan bases. This can work extremely well for a few reasons. First, you can target exactly the kind of people who will be interested in buying your goods. And second, Generation-Y consumers are much more trusting of individuals than companies. They’ll be more likely to purchase something when someone they follow suggests it—versus a business.

Build Communities with User-Submitted Content

Just as Millennials trust the word of influencers over corporations, they respond well to peer-to-peer communities. These provide value in a variety of ways. It’s possible to have online groups dedicated to helping people get the most out of your products. These can include tutorials and other helpful pieces of information. But user communities don’t need to be purely practical. Getting people engaged with how much they love your brand is going to pay off big for you.

It doesn’t make sense for brands to treat Millennials the same way they treat older generations. They simply hold different values and want different things. This is why it’s important to modify your selling approach to their specific ideals.

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