As your business looks to grow and thrive online, one key factor to consider is geography. Most companies know which states or countries their customers reside in; however, this may not yet be considered in marketing campaigns.
Your company has this information even if you don’t realize it. You’ll find it in the “ship to” section of the e-commerce purchasing process, or you can gather this information from Google Analytics if you enable “enhanced e-commerce”. It’s worth looking into the number of sales in a certain region to determine where your customers are purchasing your product from. The end goal here may be to know, for example, if a customer in California is more likely to buy your product than a customer in Ohio.
Understanding the regional success of your products by tracking e-commerce conversions allows you to make better decisions within your marketing campaign. You may not always understand why one area may perform better for you than another, but recognizing that there are differences is the first step to improving your number of sales through targeted marketing.
How Does Location Impact Conversions?
Where your customers are located can impact conversions as location plays a role in the decision-making process. Here are several variables that can play a role in the success of your sales based on geography. When creating your e-commerce marketing strategy, look at the following data.
Your Costs
One big difference is marketing costs. The amount you pay for targeting a specific group of customers will play a big role in any campaign launch. For example, in your Google Ads campaign, you will pay more to target a customer in Los Angeles than you would in Nebraska. Results such as one location creating more transactions, and one producing more profit overall can vary significantly from one area to the next – and that’s not always easy to anticipate. When you consider this information, you should hone your marketing efforts in on the most effective area and evaluate which advertisements were worth the investment.
Climate Matters
It is true that the seasons in one area, can play a role in your overall results. Climate will always affect what sells in any area, and it’s obvious that cold-weather items will not sell well in warm climates. However, targeting marketing campaigns based on weather conditions in any area – including current conditions – can increase conversions in any e-commerce marketing campaign. Understanding and aligning products with real-time weather can play a big role in conversions.
Being able to adjust your marketing to changing weather conditions quickly – whether there is a hurricane in Florida or a blizzard in Maine – is an effective way of increasing the value of any marketing campaign. At the same time, though, you have to be able to react quickly, but automating this process can help you accomplish this goal.
Product Type and Specialization
Another way location impacts conversions is just because of regional product preference. Some products will always appeal more to certain areas than others do, and this could be for somewhat obvious reasons. For example, people along the coasts need and water coastal-related products such as those for outdoor water activities, but other times, the reason for preference is less obvious.
It’s not uncommon, for example, for some areas just to have a different preference in style. The material, color, or style can play a role in buying preferences when it comes to clothes. If we think globally, what is sold successfully in Italy isn’t going to be equally as successful in Australia. Culture and beliefs can play a role in people’s purchasing decisions, too.
Spending Power
Another area that you may not have thought about is spending power or household income. How much a customer is likely to spend depends on their financial ability to spend, as household disposable income ranges widely. Take a closer look at the average household income in the states of your most common buyers and consider the necessity of the product you sell.
Are your products a necessity? If so, they are likely to have the same appeal across the country. If your items are not a necessity, then you may find that only people who live in communities where a higher expendable income is present will make purchases. Depending on what type of item you are selling, the income of the region you are marketing to can play a role in how successful your e-commerce marketing ventures are.
Bigger Consumer Access
States with a larger population are likely to generate more sales than smaller states, making it easier to notice where your marketing is successful. The fact is that there are simply more customers that can access your product, so states like New York, California, Texas, and Florida are large targets for many e-commerce merchants.
To determine where your target should be, calculate the relative popularity of your products with the people in that state thus far (if you have already marketed there). To do this, simply divide the number of customers in the state that you have by the total population. This will show you the percentage of the population that you have making purchases from you.
Demographics
When examining the number of sales for a particular region, consider the average age of the location’s citizens, the people’s ethnicity or cultural influences, unemployment rates, household side, and crime rates. All of this demographic information can play a role in who buys from you and who does not. The key to successful e-commerce marketing is understanding this, applying that data to your marketing campaigns, and ensuring your ROI is always aligned with your goals. If the demographic of the area is not responding well based on your ROI, then it might be best to focus on marketing somewhere else.
As you take that information and apply it to your e-commerce marketing, you’ll see interesting shifts in your ROI. Align your marketing investment with areas with high conversion rates to boost your campaign’s success. At Nuanced Media, we can help you to manage every facet of this process. Contact us to learn more.
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