When designing and creating an e-commerce business, all details matter. From target segmentation and the creation of quality content to selecting the right colour for the purchase button, a factor which could prove crucial to a website’s success. Lessons in business marketing that helped Enrique Ruiz, an Advertising student at UIC Barcelona; Manel Gómez, a Business Administration and Management student at the UPF; and Stefan Korolchuk, a Business Sciences student at this same university, win the 1st National Inbound Marketing Competition.

The aim of the national contest that these three students and friends entered was to create a webpage and use it to capitalise on digital strategies, with a view to climbing the rankings. The contest began in October and lasted three months, during which time Ruiz, Gómez and Korolchuk defined their project, profiled their target market and set to publishing attractive content and building trust among online buyers. 

THE WINNING STRATEGY

The group, called Newbies Marketer, devised a digital strategy that has turned this university project into a minor corporate milestone, with over 1,000 weekly visits and an Instagram community of over 6,000 followers. According to the three students, the first step was to define the objective of their e-commerce endeavour: a leggings sales website. They named it Oblivion Fitness and began promoting it under the phrase: A style for every story. 

The next step was to reach an agreement with Chinese suppliers and direct their initial strategic plan towards the American market, though they have received “orders from all over the world: from the United Kingdom to Russia, Italy, and a few from Spain”, explains Ruiz. 

When it came to defining their target market, the three admit that initial mistakes were made, yet they managed to extract and analyse information through tools such as Google and Facebook ads and by engaging the public on the website and in social media. They therefore carried out their calculations with three sets of advertising material. “From that moment on, things started going pretty well”, Korolchuk points out. Within a month and a half, the team crossed the break-even threshold thanks in part to the Black Friday sales boom. But their sales strategy did not stop there.

QUALITY INFORMATION

The three participants carefully applied their communications strategy to both the descriptions and information published on the website and in social media. They also created a network of ambassadors to promote their products in exchange for discounts or the odd free item and an e-book that debunks myths about losing weight and provides tips for healthy living. 

“That’s our main strategy: To get users to stay as long as possible and give us their e-mail address. That way we can send them information on deals or diet tips”, explains Korolchuk.

FUTURE PLANS

“The initial investment was quite small. We were focused more on marketing, on generating sales and on paying people. By not investing in stock, we didn’t have to make that initial investment in buying and storing stock at home, in going to the post office and sending packages... Though the profit margin is smaller, you save an incredible amount of time”, maintains Gómez.

Now, the three members of Newbies Marketers are in the process of deciding whether to continue with what was originally a university project or embark on a new online business venture. In any case, they now have the €1,000 they won in the competition and their sights set on their upcoming work placement period, which they can spend at an agency or in the marketing department of the company of their choice.