To understand how the online shopping experience works, we need to start with a marketing theory – the funnel strategy. In the past, the strategy used by companies to reach their desired audience was to “shoot in the dark”, without worrying about whether a person might actually be interested in the brand. Today, thanks also to modern communication techniques, we think more in terms of different steps: understanding who the target audience is, filtering them and elaborating an ad hoc message. Funnel Marketing – or funnel strategy, in fact – is a process that draws the audience towards an increasingly specific path to transform an unknown person into a loyal customer, so that they become a conscious brand ambassador, an enthusiastic customer happy to choose a product or a service of a brand. Let’s see now how an eShop can win the challenge against Amazon by applying the funnel strategy.

Personalisation: unique products and loyalty programmes

The golden rule is to create a truly personalised shopping experience. Amazon, as we know, is a real ecommerce bigwig, but that’s not necessarily enough. A good counter-offensive for the retailer who wants to rise to the challenge of cross-border online commerce is to offer the customer who arrives at their eShop unique opportunities. One of these could be to have access to products that can be previewed on your own site or even to think about items that are only available on your own store and not on Amazon or other marketplaces. Similarly, the creation of special loyalty programmes that reward loyal customers with discounts on shipping costs or items, or with free products, are an excellent strategy to strengthen the bond with the user and encourage purchases from your online store.