The 3 C’s of E-commerce

Content, community, and commerce (also known as the 3 C’s) are the building blocks of a successful e-commerce site. Content builds a community that establishes credibility to generates sales. Consumers also rely on these three factors when making purchasing decisions.

Over the last few years, the consumers path-to-purchase has drastically evolved beyond the cart. Having a beautiful website and bug-free checkout is no longer enough to keep customers attention and loyalty. The 3 C’s are what successful online businesses are using to distance themselves from their competition and satisfy their customer’s needs.

Content: Selling your product and service with inspirational and valuable content that’s relevant to your target audience.

The content on your website must be interesting enough to get visitors to the site, stay, and come back. The goal is to make your content fit your target audience’s context, rather than making it a one size fits all that ends up being right for no one. One of the most important things to understand is that not all content has to be designed to create commerce.

Community: Creating an online environment and strong following around your products and brand values.

Oftentimes site visitors that are unfamiliar with your business will look for validation and recommendations from your brand advocates. This is what makes interactive communities such as discussion boards or forums, social media, chat rooms, discussion lists, and newsletters a major tool to build your business. If done properly, an interactive community can also add content to your site.

Commerce: Building a better user experience with the actual offers and revenue-generating streams of your website.

In the age of e-commerce personalization, consumers reveal much more about their preferences, shopping history, and so on. But, the challenge is to use that information to drive more relevant user experiences and understand the customer’s context. This means knowing customers location, their interests, and where they are in the purchasing process.

Utilizing the 3 C’s will set an online business up for success. You need to know your audience and be a trusted source of information. Combining content, community, and commerce can change the way you communicate with customers, create a strong brand identity and build a loyal following.