Scaling globally with smart digital marketing for e-commerce

Thanks to international e-commerce, every business has the opportunity to establish a globally recognized brand. However, online success isn’t as simple as setting up an online storefront. Although e-commerce significantly increases your reach among consumers, it also introduces new competition and makes it harder to stand out.

A comprehensive marketing strategy for e-commerce helps your business drive traffic, boost conversions, and scale globally. An adaptable and carefully researched approach will resonate with diverse target markets around the world. 

This guide will explain digital marketing for e-commerce, describing effective marketing channels and promotion strategies. You’ll learn actionable e-commerce marketing tips for achieving global success.

What is e-commerce marketing?

E-commerce marketing encompasses any approach online businesses use to drive awareness, engage target audiences, and turn prospects into customers.

An effective marketing plan for e-commerce taps into various marketing channels—from social media to email campaigns—and leverages digital marketing strategies, like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), and influencer partnerships, to drive traffic and sales. The goal is to increase brand awareness, generate leads, foster customer loyalty, and boost sales revenue. 

Successful marketers seek to improve the customer experience at every stage of the buying journey. Their e-commerce marketing campaigns rely on proven tactics to understand customer behavior, optimize the user experience, and deliver personalized content across platforms. 

7 types of marketing strategies for e-commerce

Surviving and thriving in e-commerce requires businesses to adopt diverse marketing strategies. Here are seven proven e-commerce marketing tactics you can tailor to fit your business and target market: 

1. Search engine optimization

SEO refines the content and structure of your online store to rank higher on search engines like Google. A comprehensive e-commerce SEO strategy uses keywords, on-page optimization, and backlink building to drive organic traffic. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush aid in this process by identifying high-value keywords and tracking performance.

SEO is a cost-effective technique that drives long-term growth, especially when targeting specific product categories or niches. And unlike paid advertising, organic traffic from SEO accumulates over time, providing sustained visibility.

2. Pay-per-click advertising

PPC advertising delivers instant visibility by placing ads in front of your target audience. You only pay when users click on the ad, meaning you can save money with careful targeting and a strong conversion pipeline.

PPC is ideal for short-term promotions or new product launches. Tools like Google Ads help simplify the process and streamline campaign management. 

3. Social media marketing

Brands use social media marketing to connect with customers on popular platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook via organic and paid content. You can directly engage your audience with interactive storytelling to build a community, increase brand awareness, and generate sales—especially among younger demographics.

Many companies use tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer to simplify scheduling and analytics. 

4. Email marketing

Email marketing involves building an email list and delivering targeted, personalized messages to subscribers, such as:

• Welcome emails
• Promotional offers
• Newsletters
• Abandoned cart reminders
• Product updates
• Personalized recommendations

Email marketing is one of the most effective strategies for boosting customer retention and repeat business. Popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, SendGrid, and Constant Contact enable automation and segmentation. 

5. Influencer marketing

Many online brands partner with influencers (people or groups with a significant social media following) to promote products to their followers. Influencer marketing is unique for its trust-based approach, broadcasting authentic endorsements to highly engaged communities in a way that overcomes advertising fatigue. 

Influencer marketing is ideal for reaching niche audiences or introducing new products, especially in consumer goods, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle markets. Tools like Upfluence, Aspire, and CreatorIQ help connect brands with relevant influencers.

6. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to influencer marketing, as it involves partnering with individuals or other businesses within your niche to plug your products to their followers. However, instead of paying them a flat rate for the promotion, you give them a commission on each sale they refer through a unique link.

This performance-based marketing strategy is ideal for smaller companies with low brand awareness that want to scale their marketing efforts without significant upfront investment. Platforms like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and Rakuten Advertising help businesses manage affiliate networks.

7. Content marketing

Content marketing leverages relevant, informative content (e.g., blogs, videos, infographics, and guides) to educate and engage customers. By providing value to customers, this content establishes brand authority and drives organic traffic, especially when combined with SEO and social media marketing. Tools like WordPress, HubSpot, Grammarly, and Canva streamline various elements of content creation and planning. 

8 e-commerce marketing tips and ideas for global businesses

Here are eight actionable tips for expanding your global e-commerce marketing reach, driving traffic, and increasing sales: 

Optimize for mobile commerce

• Key steps: Ensure your website is mobile-responsive, with fast load times and seamless, intuitive navigation. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to identify issues.
• Intended outcome: Improved SEO rankings and higher conversions from mobile users, who account for over half of e-commerce traffic. 
• Important considerations: Avoid cluttered designs or slow-loading images, which can increase bounce rates. Prioritize speed and ease of use to minimize friction.

Promote user-generated content (UGC)

• Key steps: Use fun contests and incentives to encourage customers to share reviews, photos, or videos of your products online. You’ll gain free, authentic content to display on product pages or in marketing materials.
• Intended outcome: Increased trust and social proof, enhanced brand authenticity, a more engaged customer base, and an increased conversion rate.
• Important considerations: Clearly communicate how customers can submit UGC and make sure you obtain the necessary permissions. Monitor and moderate content to align with your brand image.

Recover abandoned carts with email automation

• Key steps: Set up automated email sequences that trigger when a customer adds items to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. Include a compelling call to action and incentives like discounts or free shipping to entice re-engagement.
• Intended outcome: Recovering lost sales from abandoned carts, improving conversion rates, and maximizing revenue from existing traffic by re-engaging hesitant shoppers.
• Important considerations: Avoid overly aggressive follow-ups, which can annoy customers. Craft concise, personalized emails and test various subject lines and offers to find what resonates best. 

Invest in video marketing

• Key steps: Create engaging product videos, how-to guides, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes content to share on social media, YouTube, and your website. 
• Intended outcome: Higher engagement, improved conversion rates, and impactful brand storytelling. 
• Considerations: Keep videos concise to maintain viewer attention—ideally under 60 seconds. Optimize content for different platforms and include clear calls to action. Tools like Canva or Adobe Premiere Rush simplify editing.

Personalize customer experiences

• Key steps: Use data analytics tools like Segment to personalize product recommendations, email communications, and website content based on user behavior.
• Intended outcome: Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty; boosted conversion rates and average user spend. 
• Important considerations: Be transparent about data usage and comply with privacy laws like GDPR.

Use e-commerce localization to drive international sales

• Key steps: Use e-commerce localization to adapt your website content, product descriptions, and marketing materials for international audiences. Localized e-commerce stores should reflect local languages, currencies, payment methods, legal disclaimers, and cultural preferences. Use Smartling’s translation software and services to eliminate slow turnarounds for localized content, lower the cost per acquisition of global leads, and deliver polished, on-brand multilingual campaigns worldwide.
• Intended outcome: Increased international sales, improved customer satisfaction, enhanced brand credibility, and a competitive advantage in global markets. Localized content feels more personal and trustworthy to international buyers.
• Important considerations: Carefully manage your site to ensure each localized version is up to date. Smartling provides integrations with e-commerce platforms like Shopify that can help. These API-driven solutions automate translation tasks, detect changes to products or pages, and resubmit them for translation.

Watch the demo below to learn how to translate Shopify content with Smartling’s Shopify integration, streamlining your global eCommerce marketing strategy. 

Harness data analytics for optimization

• Key steps: Use tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to track user behavior, identify drop-off points, and refine campaigns. Research your target audience’s search behavior and favored keywords in each country to optimize your marketing efforts. 
• Intended outcome: Improved organic search visibility and ROI; greater focus on high-performing channels and strategies, leading to more qualified traffic and higher conversion rates. 
• Important considerations: Regularly review data to stay nimble and adaptive in a fast-changing market.

Implement a referral program

• Key steps: Offer incentives to encourage word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers (e.g., discounts, store credit, or exclusive access to products).
• Intended outcome: Low-cost, organic customer acquisition and increased loyalty. 
• Important considerations: Make the referral process easy to understand and use, and promote it prominently to existing customers.

From strategy to scale: How Smartling supports your global marketing goals

If you want an e-commerce marketing strategy that drives global growth, you need content that connects with local audiences. Even the most beautifully designed marketing campaign will fall flat if it doesn’t resonate culturally and linguistically with consumers in a new market.

Global e-commerce marketing best practices dictate that brands localize content to connect with consumers in their native language. That’s why brands need e-commerce marketing localization to deliver relevant, engaging content across markets. 

Smartling is a leading localization partner that empowers e-commerce businesses to scale content with speed, quality, and consistency. Our translation management software and LanguageAI™ platform streamline the translation process by eliminating manual workflows, reducing costs, and delivering polished, multilingual campaigns that resonate worldwide. In addition, we integrate directly with leading e-commerce to help your brand build scalable translation workflows to drive global sales.

To learn more about how localization fuels marketing success, download our free eBook, “The Ultimate Guide to Translating Your Marketing Materials,” to learn how to efficiently translate your marketing materials to connect with users in every language.