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I too struggled with ranking websites and understanding about SEO initially. But then I discovered an online site where I learnt more about Search engine optimization and it's tactics. Go to this website to find out much more about SEO and online money making methods. Not a self campaign, but they helped me a lot so I wish to give them a reference here. Now, I will explain in more detail about your question.The 8-Step SEO Strategy, Step 1: Define Your Target Audience and Their NeedsThis post was promoted from YouMoz. The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding an unlikely case of hypnosis) and may not reflect the views of Moz.Until recently I headed up technical marketing for Yahoo Media, where our competition was in verticals like news, sports, movies, games, and finance to name a few. In terms of online competitiveness, this is nothing to sneeze at. This is how I learned to base everything I do on strategy.A LESSON LEARNEDLet me tell you a story. Early in my tenure at Yahoo we tried to get into the site dev process in the early stages in order to work SEO into the Product Recommendations Documents (PRD) before wireframing began. But as a fairly new horizontal group not reporting into any of the products, this was often difficult. Nay, damn near impossible. So usually we made friends with the product teams and got in where we could.On one specific project, one of the SEOs on my team was brought in during the wireframe stage. T­he entire product team held SEO-specific meetings every week to go over specific recommendations, taking them very seriously, and leaning on every word our team said. We were thrilled. We were hailing their efforts, promising big wins for the relaunch, and even hyping up the launch and it’s projected SEO results in the company SEO newsletter.Then the site relaunched. Initially we saw a drop. This is expected, especially when you relaunch an entire site of that magnitude. Three weeks passed, and results were flat. Five weeks passed, no upward trend. Three months passed and the product team stopped talking to us. Results never went back up.Like many SEOs, I was hired with one vague responsibility: to set up an SEO program and achieve results. Like many SEOs, we jumped right in and started spewing out SEO audits, rewriting title tags, offering up link suggestions, rewriting URLs and so on. And like many SEOs we promised results. But what we didn’t do, until that fateful launch, was develop a comprehensive strategy. Sure, we did keyword research, we recommended partnerships and widgets and architecture advice, but we didn’t step back and take a good look at our target audiences, what sites were meeting their specific needs in search results, and what we specifically could build into the product that would be far more desirable than what everyone else had (not even thought of yet ideally) to make sure our entire site is superior, resulting in the inevitable stealing of search traffic from our competitors.Instead, in this instance, we started at wireframe stage, plopping in keywords and meta tags. Of course, the site really needed those things, and although it launched technically “optimized”, it wasn’t enough to provide a better product than our top competitor(s). A product that people want to visit, revisit, email to friends, share on social networks, and link to more than our competitors. It wasn’t even enough to move up in the rankings.From that point on, if a property didn’t consult our team during the early concepting stages of a project, we shied away from working on that project at all. And let me tell you, things got a lot better.AN 8-STEP STRATEGY FOR YOU TO USEDoing SEO strategy right takes targeted competitive insight and very specific recommendations, beyond any SEO basics rulebook. And ideally a good relationship with the product (site) manager.Over the next few posts, and starting with this one, I’m going to share with you a detailed 8-step process for creating your own SEO strategy (what I often refer to as an SRD (SEO Research Document)), beginning with defining target audiences and taking it all the way through some fairly comprehensive competitive research, search traffic projections, content strategies, and specific goals and prioritizations. The steps behind this are something you can templatize and use for every project, and your boss/clients will love it, I promise.I’ll be writing this as I go, so I’d be interested in hearing how you do strategy now, and if there are any types of things you’d like to see covered in the posts.Strategy is the type of thing that moves you up to the next level of SEO superstar. Ready?STEP 1: DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND THEIR INTERESTSThe first step in most marketing campaigns, Search Marketing included, is to start by defining your target audience. Your target audience is a defined set of people who you are marketing your product to.Traditionally, defining a target audience involves determining their age, sex, geographic locations, and especially their needs (aka pain points). Check out Home | Usability.gov’s description of personas and how to do task analysis & scenarios for more details, or better yet, read Vanessa Fox’s upcoming book about personas related to search and conversion.What we want to zero in on for our SEO Strategy are those pain points. What do they want? What are their needs that aren’t being met? Knowing these things will help us better define a content strategy and prioritize content to bring to the forefront.There are two reasons we start with audience needs rather than jumping straight into keyword researchContent Strategy: You want to provide content and tools that are as relevant and useful as possible to your target audiences. This goes beyond regular SEO practices and into site strategy, although providing relevant, useful content in itself is linkbait. For example, let’s say I have a health site. I have several types of articles on health, drug information, and information on types of diseases and conditions. My angle on the site is that I’m targeting seniors. If I find out seniors are primarily interested in information on prescription drug plans and cheap Viagra, then I know that I want to provide information specifically on those things. This allows me to hone in on that market’s needs and deprioritize or bypass other content.Targeted Keyword Discovery: Ideally you’ll want to do keyword research based on what the audience wants, not solely on what content the site already has (or plans to have sans audience targeting), which may be limited. I can do keyword research on health conditions and drugs (content I have on my site) and determine what the general population is searching for and optimize my current content, or I can cast my net wide and look at what my target audience wants first, then do my keyword research. You may find there are needs that your site is not meeting. Knowing my senior audience is interested in primarily in prescription drug plans and cheap Viagra, I can first make sure I’m providing that content, and then further determine the top keywords in these areas (in the next article Step 2), and use those terms in relevant and high visibility areas on my site.This screenshot from my own Strategy template below simply suggests adding information on the target audience and what they want. Specifics are as good as the research you do, and will likely be very different with each project. Let your Strategy template give you breathing room.So how do you get target market info? Lets start with these scenarios.Scenario 1: I know who my target audiences are, but I don’t know their pain points:Check out market research studies* online (you can find many free reports, but in-depth ones will usually cost you some money).Conduct surveys of your audience by putting surveys on your site, sending emails, hiring survey professionals, or using survey sites like SurveyMonkeyConduct focus groups – either on your own (if you can gather a group of people that you know are in your targeted demographic) or through a professional market research companyUse social media listening platforms that provide topic buzz volume and sentiment by demographic (Nielsen Buzz Metrics and NetBase are two options, although not cheap)Forrester has a nifty little demographic profiling tool for social behavior online by audienceScenario 2: I know my industry but don’t know whom exactly to target:Check out industry research studies* online (you can find many free reports, but in-depth ones will usually cost you some money).Search for industry statistics online. For example, here I found some great statistics on seniors that would allow me to better understand their current situation and what they need.Hire a research company that specializes on your industryUse social media listening platforms that provide topic buzz volume and sentiment by industry. I haven’t tested any social listening platforms with specific industries in mind to know exactly who provides demographic info based on industry. If you happen to know of tools that do this, please share with us in the comments.Social media tools are especially useful if you’re planning on integrating search and social campaigns, as they are great research tools for both channels. Here’s a screenshot from NetBase that shows a demographics module on the left, as well as demographic results for the Crest Pro-Health brand being searched.Research can get expensive when you really get into it, but you can find data if it exists on your industry/demographic, and you’re an experienced searcher. Be sure to check your sources, and don’t be afraid to email people and ask where they got their information if you need to.Here’s what I found in free online info about my seniors audience in the Healthcare industrySeniors’ specific conditions Data found: Arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory disorders are some of the leading causes of activity limitations among older people. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia alone afflict 4 million Americans, a figure expected to increase 350% by 2050 if no cure is found.What this means to me: These are topics I will provide extra information and tools onMore senior women with disabilities than men Data Found: Older women were more likely than older men to experience disability, 43 percent and 40 percent, respectivelyWhat this means to me: I will put a little more emphasis on targeting senior women on my site, with articles and tools specifically geared to women.Top geographic locations where seniors are Data Found: Florida, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia were the states with the highest proportions 65 and older in 2000: 17.6 percent, 15.6 percent, and 15.3 percent, respectivelyWhat this means to me: I can provide local information like pharmacies, doctors, caregivers, nursing homes, etc with those primary areas highlighted. I can also target PPC ads in those geographic locations.Retirement info for single seniors Data Found: Fewer [seniors] who are married with children from a previous relationship and single females have a clear vision of what they hope to experience in—and what they must do to prepare for—retirement.What this means to me: Provide advice column content on retirement, especially geared towards these seniors.Caregivers are a secondary target Data Found: 34 million adults (16% of population) provide care to adults 50+ years.What this means to me: I might want to consider a section and/or tools/and/or articles targeted at people taking care of seniors as well.Potential advertising partners Data Found: Forty-eight percent of caregivers reported using at least one of seven outside services (e.g., transportation, home-delivered meals, respite, etc.) to supplement their caregiving What this means to me: These outside services are good targets for partnerships and advertising for the site.This was all free information I found online in less than an hour, that gives me some great ideas for content, partnerships and potential tools to build into my site to be relevant and useful to my target audience. Of course this is just some quick loose data, so I'll emphasize again: be careful where your data comes from (try to validate when possible), and think about how to use your data wisely.START CREATING RECOMMENDATIONS IN YOUR STRATEGY DOCUMENTEach of these discoveries is potential content or strategy, and should be written up in your SEO Strategy document. Provide as much data and reasoning as possible for why you recommend this content.See the screenshot below for some of the sections for specific recommendations that you can add which will provide the meat of the document. Keep in mind this is a very flexible document – add recommendations that make sense (for example you may not always have specific design considerations for a project). Remember, it will be different every time you do it.For each piece of content you are recommending, try to provide:Backup Data: Provide information backing up why this content will appeal to your audienceSpecifics: Be as specific as you can with your recommendations. For example if you’re suggesting partnering with meal home delivery sites, find out which ones are going to provide the most relevant info, at what cost if possible, and what the ideal partnership would look like for content and SEO purposes. Even provide contact information if you can.This doesn’t have to be completely formalized right now because we’ll be getting even more insights to layer on top of this from our keyword research and competitive research in later steps. But add as much information as possible for now – you can always add more, change it or even change your mind and get rid of it later. We will finalize recommendations in Step 5.NEXT STEP: KEYWORD RESEARCHIn the next article we’ll take a look at some methods for doing categorized keyword research that allows you to further prioritize content based on the popularity of categories of keywords.

As a consumer, if you have tried to order anything off of Amazon in the last few weeks, you’ve likely noticed one or more of the following scenarios:The item is not availableThe item’s price has drastically increasedThe shipping times can extend as long as a monthAs a business owner, you may have encountered difficulties fulfilling orders or been unable to sell certain products because of new restrictions that have been put in place by Amazon. Due to the high demand for online shopping during the Coronavirus pandemic essential items are given priority over non-essential items.Essential items are being classified by Amazon as:Baby itemsHealth & Household ItemsBeauty and Personal Care ItemsGrocery productsIndustrial & Scientific ItemsPet SuppliesIf an Amazon seller’s products fall outside of one of these categories they will not be able to send a shipment to a fulfillment center to replenish their inventory once it runs out. As a result, while in the past many sellers relied on Amazon to sell their products, many are being forced to leave simply because they need to be able to continue to sell their products.Where Are Sellers Moving Their Products To?Once the decision has been made to move their products off of Amazon, the question remains for sellers — where should they offer their products now? For many the answer is creating an online store of their own, so they no longer need to rely on Amazon and be subjected to their rules, restrictions, and guidelines for selling.If this is the position you have found yourself in, here are some great options:ShopifyShopify is likely the eCommerce platform sellers are most familiar with. Shopify is ideal for many sellers because it’s easy to use, offers a lot of features, and can often be integrated with other apps you already use for tracking orders or customer service (such as Re:amaze service offerings).Shopify is great for those with less technical experience, as it offers both the necessary software and hosting needed to launch your eCommerce website. The admin panel is extremely intuitive and user-friendly making it possible for someone who is new to managing an eCommerce site to use.Another benefit of using Shopify is that they offer a variety of quality, professional website templates to create a visually pleasing digital storefront — or if you want it to match your existing website, you can have a designer create a custom template.Shopify websites are mobile responsive, have great page load speeds, and allow you to optimize your store for SEO. Your site will also be able to integrate your marketing efforts by enabling you to offer custom gift cards, discount codes, email marketing, and provide you with advanced analytics for your store. Products can be sold on your online store or on social platforms.For payments, store owners can integrate an existing payment gateway, or the platform itself accepts payments via Stripe. They also offer high-quality customer support for store owners.BigCommerceBigCommerce is another very user-friendly interface for eCommerce business owners. Their high-quality customer support is one of the biggest benefits of using BigCommerce. Store owners can sell their products on their custom BigCommerce website or on other social media channels like Facebook.This eCommerce shop platform is very user-friendly and easy to set up, even for those who aren’t as technically advanced and may be worried about setting up a new eCommerce store. The platform offers tools to optimize your store for SEO, which is a very important feature.Plus, in addition to being able to support payment gateways like PayPal or Google Checkout, BigCommerce accepts all major payment gateways. The platform also supports all major shipping providers and can be integrated with existing apps you are already using like Re:amaze.WooCommerceOne of the greatest advantages of WooCommerce is it is a free platform, which may appeal to many store owners, especially those who are looking to keep expenses down. Another benefit of using WooCommerce is that it is actually a WordPress plugin that will integrate into your existing website. This means if you already have a WordPress site, you can easily add this plugin and begin building your eCommerce offering.Since this plugin integrates into your existing website you’ll have immediate access to analytics, which can also be integrated into Google Analytics seamlessly which is important. WooCommerce provides users with a lot of customization options with dozens of themes to choose from to differentiate your store from other WooCommerce stores.This platform allows you to integrate many payment options so you can be more flexible with the types of payments you accept. The plugin allows you to market your store efficiently too with the ability to optimize for SEO options and target long-tail keywords within your content.WixWix is a popular eCommerce platform for a number of reasons. One being that is offered for free to users and is a very user-friendly platform. Users can create professional-looking sites, even if they have little to no technical skills required.Websites are created using a “drag and drop” method which allows users to simply choose what elements they want to add to their site and drag them to the spot on the page they want to place them.Wix offers users a wide range of templates to choose from and a variety of special features, including the ability to allow visitors to subscribe to your site and receive email newsletters created using Wix Email Marketing tool.SquarespaceBusiness owners like Squarespace because it is an all-in-one platform that allows users to build your eCommerce store in one central location, choosing from their many themes (they have over 100 to choose from) and store elements.Squarespace offers great analytics, page load times, and excellent customer service in case you get stuck on any aspect of using their platform. A unique feature of Squarespace is that they also offer a mobile app that allows to you edit almost all aspects of your store right from your phone.MagentoMagento is another eCommerce platform that offers users lots of features, benefits, and integrations into other shipping, inventory management, and customer services apps, like Re:amaze. These features will allow you to scale up your store and grow as demand for your product increases.Magento websites are SEO friendly, allow stores to create SEO-friendly URLs, offer fast page load times, and provide excellent analytics with nearly two dozen different report options. This platform provides users with a high-level of customization to ensure the store looks and feels that way store owners want it to. Users can utilize one of their existing store templates or code their store from scratch for even more customization. Magento also allows for flexible content management which allows store owners to easily customize their product offerings even if they have limited technical know-how.Should eCommerce Retailers Make the Switch?If you are an eCommerce business currently selling on Amazon, that has been affected by stricter regulations and difficulty with meeting customer demands for shipping times and product availability leaving Amazon may be ideal.Many eCommerce retailers opt to build their own online store to sell their products and supplemental offering inventory on Amazon. This frees you up to be in control of your product, inventory levels, and shipping times, even if Amazon decides to extend the current restrictions or add new restrictions on sellers.While selling on Amazon has many benefits to eCommerce businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of how depending solely on Amazon fulfillment for your products can quickly become problematic.Even though retail spending is on a decline overall, there are certain industries that have been seeing an increase in sales right now. Such industries that offer food and grocery items, supplements and vitamins, fitness equipment, pet supplies, tech, and office products, cleaning supplies, toys, loungewear, and baking supplies are just some of the items that are in higher demand right now.If your store sells education toys, for example, you would be considered outside of the products Amazon has deemed essential, which means you could be losing out on a lot of business.Reduce or Pause Your Ad Spend on AmazonSince there is no accurate timeline available for when the COVID-19 crisis will last in the United States, you may want to consider pausing or reducing your ad budget on Amazon. If you are unable to sell on Amazon, it is advisable to pause your ads completely, however, if you are still able to sell your products, reducing your ad spend is more ideal than stopping it completely.Adjust Your Business OperationsThere are a few things to consider here, first switching to a different eCommerce platform as we mentioned above. Another thing to consider is who you are utilizing for your fulfillment center, especially if your inventory in the Amazon fulfillment center is running low or has run out. If you’re able to fulfill and ship products yourself, that will alleviate this issue, however, you may need to seek out alternative options if you’re unable to.Another thing to consider is your supply chain and how you secure your products. If you typically rely on Chinese or other overseas providers you may be having difficulty maintaining your inventory. This is a good time to consider alternative options you have available to you before you find yourself in a position where you are no longer able to get new inventory.If there are problems with your current logistics company with shipping times or an inability to fulfill orders you may also need to consider switching carriers or having alternative shipping methods.Another consideration eCommerce businesses should look at is their pricing structure. It may be necessary to raise your prices slightly during this time, or conversely, if you need to move products and have high inventory levels it may actually make sense to lower your prices on certain products.Reach Out to Your Manufacturers & Shipping CarriersAs you are adapting your business during this time, it’s important that you know what you’re dealing with. Maintaining open lines of communication with your manufacturers regarding where they stand on production and how they anticipate COVID-19 may impact your ability to maintain your inventory is key. You also need to understand how shipping costs and shipping times will be affected so you can plan accordingly.Without this vital information, you can’t make a plan for alternative options or present your customers with an accurate update on your own store offering.Use this as a Time to Build Your BrandEven if you decide to reduce your paid marketing efforts, you should place some focus on building your brand in other areas. This includes ramping up your social media presence, posting blogs more regularly, updating your website and optimizing it for SEO, and utilizing email campaigns. All of these efforts contribute to your marketing goals without requiring you to invest money into ad campaigns. (If you’re able to continue running ads, even at a low daily budget, this is advisable.)Take this time to focus on your brand message and the content you are creating. Streamline your messaging and work on creating really great content so you remain top of mind for existing and potential customers.It’s also important to continually communicate with your customers, providing them with updates on shipping times or delays, inventory levels, and new product availability. Be sure to update product pages often and accurately reflect shipping times so you don’t end up with unhappy customers who are requesting refunds.Get a Better Idea of Your Customer’s NeedsFor businesses who are looking to diversify their product offering a great approach to do this is to simply reach out to your customers directly. You can send an email survey to your existing list, create a poll on your website, and even ask customers to comment and message on social media. This can help you determine whether you should consider shifting your focus to offer products your customers really want and need, which ultimately can help you maintain and even increase sales during this time.Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be shifting your focus and product offerings to an at-home audience.Unless you sell products that are specifically targeted to essential workers (like doctors or nurses), most of your customers are currently under shelter-in-place orders. Bearing this in mind, you may be able to fine-tune your target offering more accurately even if you don’t receive a lot of feedback from customers.The Impact of Coronavirus on eCommerce RetailersThe impact the Coronavirus pandemic has on eCommerce retailers will continue to shift the longer shelter-in-place orders last. Already, many business owners have had to quickly adapt to an online-only business model, laying off employees, difficulty maintaining inventory levels — and as we discussed in the blog — moving their product offering off of Amazon and building a new eCommerce store for their brand.All of these changes require swift action and adaptability on the part of the business owner. Another factor to consider is that even these trends may shift quickly in the days to come. Already business owners are diversifying their product offerings and many new businesses have even popped up selling Coronavirus related products.Maintaining the ability to change direction quickly, will help you leverage your product offering and boost sales, even after the pandemic is behind us.

As a consumer, if you have tried to order anything off of Amazon in the last few weeks, you’ve likely noticed one or more of the following scenarios:The item is not availableThe item’s price has drastically increasedThe shipping times can extend as long as a monthAs a business owner, you may have encountered difficulties fulfilling orders or been unable to sell certain products because of new restrictions that have been put in place by Amazon. Due to the high demand for online shopping during the Coronavirus pandemic essential items are given priority over non-essential items.Essential items are being classified by Amazon as:Baby itemsHealth & Household ItemsBeauty and Personal Care ItemsGrocery productsIndustrial & Scientific ItemsPet SuppliesIf an Amazon seller’s products fall outside of one of these categories they will not be able to send a shipment to a fulfillment center to replenish their inventory once it runs out. As a result, while in the past many sellers relied on Amazon to sell their products, many are being forced to leave simply because they need to be able to continue to sell their products.Where Are Sellers Moving Their Products To?Once the decision has been made to move their products off of Amazon, the question remains for sellers — where should they offer their products now? For many the answer is creating an online store of their own, so they no longer need to rely on Amazon and be subjected to their rules, restrictions, and guidelines for selling.If this is the position you have found yourself in, here are some great options:ShopifyShopify is likely the eCommerce platform sellers are most familiar with. Shopify is ideal for many sellers because it’s easy to use, offers a lot of features, and can often be integrated with other apps you already use for tracking orders or customer service (such as Re:amaze service offerings).Shopify is great for those with less technical experience, as it offers both the necessary software and hosting needed to launch your eCommerce website. The admin panel is extremely intuitive and user-friendly making it possible for someone who is new to managing an eCommerce site to use.Another benefit of using Shopify is that they offer a variety of quality, professional website templates to create a visually pleasing digital storefront — or if you want it to match your existing website, you can have a designer create a custom template.Shopify websites are mobile responsive, have great page load speeds, and allow you to optimize your store for SEO. Your site will also be able to integrate your marketing efforts by enabling you to offer custom gift cards, discount codes, email marketing, and provide you with advanced analytics for your store. Products can be sold on your online store or on social platforms.For payments, store owners can integrate an existing payment gateway, or the platform itself accepts payments via Stripe. They also offer high-quality customer support for store owners.BigCommerceBigCommerce is another very user-friendly interface for eCommerce business owners. Their high-quality customer support is one of the biggest benefits of using BigCommerce. Store owners can sell their products on their custom BigCommerce website or on other social media channels like Facebook.This eCommerce shop platform is very user-friendly and easy to set up, even for those who aren’t as technically advanced and may be worried about setting up a new eCommerce store. The platform offers tools to optimize your store for SEO, which is a very important feature.Plus, in addition to being able to support payment gateways like PayPal or Google Checkout, BigCommerce accepts all major payment gateways. The platform also supports all major shipping providers and can be integrated with existing apps you are already using like Re:amaze.WooCommerceOne of the greatest advantages of WooCommerce is it is a free platform, which may appeal to many store owners, especially those who are looking to keep expenses down. Another benefit of using WooCommerce is that it is actually a WordPress plugin that will integrate into your existing website. This means if you already have a WordPress site, you can easily add this plugin and begin building your eCommerce offering.Since this plugin integrates into your existing website you’ll have immediate access to analytics, which can also be integrated into Google Analytics seamlessly which is important. WooCommerce provides users with a lot of customization options with dozens of themes to choose from to differentiate your store from other WooCommerce stores.This platform allows you to integrate many payment options so you can be more flexible with the types of payments you accept. The plugin allows you to market your store efficiently too with the ability to optimize for SEO options and target long-tail keywords within your content.WixWix is a popular eCommerce platform for a number of reasons. One being that is offered for free to users and is a very user-friendly platform. Users can create professional-looking sites, even if they have little to no technical skills required.Websites are created using a “drag and drop” method which allows users to simply choose what elements they want to add to their site and drag them to the spot on the page they want to place them.Wix offers users a wide range of templates to choose from and a variety of special features, including the ability to allow visitors to subscribe to your site and receive email newsletters created using Wix Email Marketing tool.SquarespaceBusiness owners like Squarespace because it is an all-in-one platform that allows users to build your eCommerce store in one central location, choosing from their many themes (they have over 100 to choose from) and store elements.Squarespace offers great analytics, page load times, and excellent customer service in case you get stuck on any aspect of using their platform. A unique feature of Squarespace is that they also offer a mobile app that allows to you edit almost all aspects of your store right from your phone.MagentoMagento is another eCommerce platform that offers users lots of features, benefits, and integrations into other shipping, inventory management, and customer services apps, like Re:amaze. These features will allow you to scale up your store and grow as demand for your product increases.Magento websites are SEO friendly, allow stores to create SEO-friendly URLs, offer fast page load times, and provide excellent analytics with nearly two dozen different report options. This platform provides users with a high-level of customization to ensure the store looks and feels that way store owners want it to. Users can utilize one of their existing store templates or code their store from scratch for even more customization. Magento also allows for flexible content management which allows store owners to easily customize their product offerings even if they have limited technical know-how.Should eCommerce Retailers Make the Switch?If you are an eCommerce business currently selling on Amazon, that has been affected by stricter regulations and difficulty with meeting customer demands for shipping times and product availability leaving Amazon may be ideal.Many eCommerce retailers opt to build their own online store to sell their products and supplemental offering inventory on Amazon. This frees you up to be in control of your product, inventory levels, and shipping times, even if Amazon decides to extend the current restrictions or add new restrictions on sellers.While selling on Amazon has many benefits to eCommerce businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of how depending solely on Amazon fulfillment for your products can quickly become problematic.Even though retail spending is on a decline overall, there are certain industries that have been seeing an increase in sales right now. Such industries that offer food and grocery items, supplements and vitamins, fitness equipment, pet supplies, tech, and office products, cleaning supplies, toys, loungewear, and baking supplies are just some of the items that are in higher demand right now.If your store sells education toys, for example, you would be considered outside of the products Amazon has deemed essential, which means you could be losing out on a lot of business.Reduce or Pause Your Ad Spend on AmazonSince there is no accurate timeline available for when the COVID-19 crisis will last in the United States, you may want to consider pausing or reducing your ad budget on Amazon. If you are unable to sell on Amazon, it is advisable to pause your ads completely, however, if you are still able to sell your products, reducing your ad spend is more ideal than stopping it completely.Adjust Your Business OperationsThere are a few things to consider here, first switching to a different eCommerce platform as we mentioned above. Another thing to consider is who you are utilizing for your fulfillment center, especially if your inventory in the Amazon fulfillment center is running low or has run out. If you’re able to fulfill and ship products yourself, that will alleviate this issue, however, you may need to seek out alternative options if you’re unable to.Another thing to consider is your supply chain and how you secure your products. If you typically rely on Chinese or other overseas providers you may be having difficulty maintaining your inventory. This is a good time to consider alternative options you have available to you before you find yourself in a position where you are no longer able to get new inventory.If there are problems with your current logistics company with shipping times or an inability to fulfill orders you may also need to consider switching carriers or having alternative shipping methods.Another consideration eCommerce businesses should look at is their pricing structure. It may be necessary to raise your prices slightly during this time, or conversely, if you need to move products and have high inventory levels it may actually make sense to lower your prices on certain products.Reach Out to Your Manufacturers & Shipping CarriersAs you are adapting your business during this time, it’s important that you know what you’re dealing with. Maintaining open lines of communication with your manufacturers regarding where they stand on production and how they anticipate COVID-19 may impact your ability to maintain your inventory is key. You also need to understand how shipping costs and shipping times will be affected so you can plan accordingly.Without this vital information, you can’t make a plan for alternative options or present your customers with an accurate update on your own store offering.Use this as a Time to Build Your BrandEven if you decide to reduce your paid marketing efforts, you should place some focus on building your brand in other areas. This includes ramping up your social media presence, posting blogs more regularly, updating your website and optimizing it for SEO, and utilizing email campaigns. All of these efforts contribute to your marketing goals without requiring you to invest money into ad campaigns. (If you’re able to continue running ads, even at a low daily budget, this is advisable.)Take this time to focus on your brand message and the content you are creating. Streamline your messaging and work on creating really great content so you remain top of mind for existing and potential customers.It’s also important to continually communicate with your customers, providing them with updates on shipping times or delays, inventory levels, and new product availability. Be sure to update product pages often and accurately reflect shipping times so you don’t end up with unhappy customers who are requesting refunds.Get a Better Idea of Your Customer’s NeedsFor businesses who are looking to diversify their product offering a great approach to do this is to simply reach out to your customers directly. You can send an email survey to your existing list, create a poll on your website, and even ask customers to comment and message on social media. This can help you determine whether you should consider shifting your focus to offer products your customers really want and need, which ultimately can help you maintain and even increase sales during this time.Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be shifting your focus and product offerings to an at-home audience.Unless you sell products that are specifically targeted to essential workers (like doctors or nurses), most of your customers are currently under shelter-in-place orders. Bearing this in mind, you may be able to fine-tune your target offering more accurately even if you don’t receive a lot of feedback from customers.The Impact of Coronavirus on eCommerce RetailersThe impact the Coronavirus pandemic has on eCommerce retailers will continue to shift the longer shelter-in-place orders last. Already, many business owners have had to quickly adapt to an online-only business model, laying off employees, difficulty maintaining inventory levels — and as we discussed in the blog — moving their product offering off of Amazon and building a new eCommerce store for their brand.All of these changes require swift action and adaptability on the part of the business owner. Another factor to consider is that even these trends may shift quickly in the days to come. Already business owners are diversifying their product offerings and many new businesses have even popped up selling Coronavirus related products.Maintaining the ability to change direction quickly, will help you leverage your product offering and boost sales, even after the pandemic is behind us.About Re:amazeRe:amaze is a modern helpdesk and customer messaging platform designed to help eCommerce businesses boost customer happiness and revenue. Re:amaze allows all customer-oriented teams to work together in a shared inbox through email, social, SMS, voice, and live chat. Re:amaze also comes packaged with automated messaging and chatbots so eCommerce brands can succeed at the front lines of conversational commerce.