The competition in the ecommerce industry is stiff. There are between 12M to 24M online stores in the world. One of the biggest challenges for online retailers is how to stand out from competitors and attract customers.
Value proposition and USP come to save the day for marketing! Testing and optimizing these elements can significantly improve your ecommerce conversion rate and average order value. Testing value propositions can lead to exceptional results (even +23%).
For the most, you need to identify your ecommerce advantages and unique features to plan an effective marketing campaign.
Read more to find out details on how to use value proposition and USP in your strategy.
What is a value proposition?
A value proposition is a statement that expresses benefits for customers who buy your products or services. Your value proposition should be the first thing you want your potential customers to know about your online store. It should be an answer to the customer’s question “Why should I choose your offer instead of competitors?”.
A value proposition can refer to specific benefits like free delivery, but also emotional values. You need it to highlight key advantages and show how you solve customers’ problems.
What is USP?
Unique selling proposition defines a specific advantage of your online store that makes it outstanding compared to competitors. It can be included in your value propositions.
While creating a unique selling proposition you can focus on a different aspect of ecommerce, like product, price or support. It should depend on your customers characteristic. To choose the best unique selling proposition creating a buyer’s persona might help. That way you can identify customers needs and preferences.
How to create a value proposition?
First of all, clarify what kind of value propositions you need to create and where you’re going to use them. You do not need to limit yourself and come up with only one value proposition. You can create a few value propositions and use them in many different placements, for example:
- in the header – as a slogan or features,
- on the homepage,
- on the product pages,
- on the checkout page,
- in an email campaign,
- in social media posts and ads,
- in web push notification campaigns.
You can (and should!) use it in any form of communication with potential customers to attract them to your offer.
Identify your market’s issues
Value propositions may differ depending on the market, because of its specifics. If you solve a problem which another retailer does not solve, that is your bargaining chip. You can also highlight delights, such as charity donation.
Acknowledge underserved markets
Take advantage of so-called “easy wins” by preparing a special offer for underserved markets. An example can be discounts for students. That way you can attract a whole group of customers because of benefits dedicated for them.
Use a unique selling proposition
It can be your biggest advantage, as it is your unique feature. Make sure it is something desired by clients, something that refers to customers’ pain point. Otherwise, it will not be effective.
Come up with a value proposition statement
Create a few sentences that express value propositions of your online store. You can also feature benefits in bullets and short slogans. Depending on the placement, you can use a different form of value propositions.
Conclusions
There is no bad value propositions or USP. The clue is to know what yours are and to use them in your marketing campaigns and ecommerce website. Do not forget about any other contact with a client. You can use packaging for sharing your value proposition.
To make the most of value proposition you should test many different versions, track performance and optimize it. By running A/B tests you can compare the effectiveness of both (or more) versions. The key is to change only a value proposition and keep other factors the same. A great idea can be to organize a focus group with which you can discuss your propositions.
