8 inspiring quotes about e-commerce and lots of good ideas

We reviewed a large number of inspirational quotes from celebrities and e-commerce experts, including some that we have been posting on our social media accounts, and we selected the eight that we consider the most contingent in these days of instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where e-commerce has become the savior of many businesses globally.

In addition to being inspiring phrases, they leave lessons applicable from today in your company to make it grow and be able to compete in the current scenario. We also put our contribution to you so that you can take many tips that will make your e-commerce and your brand a different proposition.

1. “When you say it, it's marketing. When your customer says so, it's social proof. "

Andy Crestodina.

Digital platforms have empowered customers, who express themselves freely and with a global reach through their testimonials and evaluations about the products they consume and the brands with which they relate. What they say about your business can be more powerful than your most expensive marketing campaign to try to attract them. Getting customers to talk about your brand is what we call "social proof", the evidence that your products or services are used by them and that they are satisfied with what you offer them. Get content generated by The clients themselves, with their testimonials, photographs or videos, should be one of the objectives of your digital marketing strategy.

Andy Crestodina is the strategic director and co-founder of the digital agency Orbit Media Studios, Inc., as well as a speaker and content creator on digital strategy for companies.

2. "Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer."

Jonathan Midenhall.

Today it is not conceivable that an e-commerce business does not carry out studies and research with users. You can start with actions as simple as using your social media accounts to read what your customers are saying, find out what other brands are referring to, find out what content they consume, etc. The next step is to go out into the field to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and understand what their experience with your brand is like. In short, all the information you collect will be essential for you to develop products and experiences focused on the needs of your users.

Jonathan Mildenhall was Airbnb's Chief Marketing Officer until 2017, when he founded TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, where he serves as CEO.

3. "Customer service shouldn't be just one department, it should be the entire company"

Tony Hsieh.

It is no longer fashion or the latest trend in business; it is reality and a necessity. Any company, to be successful, must be customer-centric, from the day the first ideas are launched and throughout the development of each new product and service. There is no worse waste of resources than launching a solution on the market without having conceived it based on what customers need to satisfy and without the proper tests with users. In short, your business model, your value proposition, your products and services, the pre- and post-sale; your entire business must respond to what your customers need.

Tony Hsieh is a digital entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and former CEO of online footwear and apparel company Zappos.

4. "You can't just open a website and wait for people to flood it. If you really want to be successful, you have to generate traffic."

Joel Anderson

Getting to the middle of our list of inspirational quotes about e-commerce, we address a mistake that is very common. It is not enough to just publish 100 products on your own site or in a marketplace store and let them sell automatically. Part of the business is generating attractive content that adds value, to describe your products and services, as well as to talk about your company. In addition, you must develop a good SEO strategy that allows you to position your pages in search results. These are two basic actions to attract people who are consulting Google for solutions that meet their needs and thus make your solution known to potential customers.

Joel Anderson was President and CEO of Walmart.com from 2011 to 2014.

5. “You can't wait for customers to come to you. You have to find out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store. "

Paul Graham

Today there are many tools to go out and find clients, without leaving your office. We use a lot Ubersuggest and there are other platforms like Ahrefs, Moz or Google Ads. These will help you identify the keywords that users are using to find solutions that meet their needs and how they pose their search intentions. The next step will be to use the appropriate keywords in your different content so that potential customers reach your products when they search on Google.

Paul Graham is a Lisp programmer, co-founder of Viaweb and Y Combinator, venture capitalist, and writer.

6. "A good experiment leads to many failures, but a lot of learning."

Jeffrey Phillips

Experimenting is part of the entrepreneurial habit and in e-commerce nothing replaces experience. See what your competition and benchmarks in other industries are doing well, and try similar solutions in your business. If you hit the target you will achieve more sales and if you fail you will get important evidence and lessons to prepare the next step. Cultivating a culture of experimentation will allow you to get to know your customers and your own business very well. Likewise, experimentation allows you to be flexible and constantly seek to reinvent yourself.

Jeffrey Phillips is a leading strategy and innovation consultant at RTI Innovation Advisors and previously at OVO Innovation.⁠

7. "Your dissatisfied customers are your best source of learning."

Bill Gates

Never stop "listening" to your customers. Today you have direct means of communication where they express themselves for good and also to complain when something does not work with your business and with the industry in which you operate. There are your social media accounts, Facebook groups, the contact form on your site, the various spaces where they leave comments and ratings of the products they have purchased, etc. All of these are good sources of feedback to look for patterns that allow you to understand what they are like, what they value most, what they need and, above all, to detect if there is a problem. Analyze and react fast.

Bill Gates is known for being co-founder of the multinational software company Microsoft. A computer scientist by profession, today stands out for his works of philanthropy in health and education.

8. “If you want customers to connect with your company, don't make them think… make them feel”.

Mohanbir Sawhney

Don't just limit yourself to selling your products or services, today marketing is about telling good stories and even better when there are digital platforms that allow you to give them a global reach. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to boost the growth of your e-commerce through content that connects and makes you feel. Surely your brand has stories to tell about the experience of using their products, the qualities of the materials, how the idea of ​​creating them came about and who is behind them, the values ​​they embody, the causes they defend and the essence of the business. Your customers not only buy what you sell, they also identify with the purposes of your company.

Mohanbir Sawhney is an e-commerce strategy and management consultant, writer, and academic.

We hope that these inspiring phrases about e-commerce are very useful and you can apply them today in your company so that you can start taking the steps that take your business to the next level.