E-commerce List Building Examples That Work Effectively

If you’re handling an online store, you probably always are on the lookout for generating leads. With a relevant and segmented list of leads, it is easy to capture your audience’s attention at each stage of their buyer’s journey. In fact, research says, 70% of all online American shoppers do ample research before buying any product. And that, as marketers, is your chance to grab their eyes. Now, there are numerous e-commerce lead generation strategies. But, few work better than others. This article, hence, details 9 effective e-commerce list building examples that have worked out effectively for the top e-commerce brands to generate great results.

9 Effective Ecommerce Lead Generation Case Examples

1. All Modern

Strategy – Discount Sign Up through Paid Ads

Why Does Discount Sign-Up Work?

This may come as the most obvious one. But, you can’t ignore the conversion rate it boasts. Now, this can be done even with organic traffic. However, the chances of lead generation are higher when you display discount pop-ups to a customer with purchase intent.

All Modern, a modern lifestyle accessory brand, does this pretty well. As a customer clicks on their paid search ad, they are offered up to 65% off by entering their email address. Now, for somebody already searching for home decor items, it’s tough to pass this great deal, isn’t it?

Look at another example by Christie Cookie that uses content marketing to lure people to sign up for their email newsletters.

Bonus Advice

Grabbing email addresses is not enough. Make sure to place strategic messages while you approach them.

If you offer expensive or complicated products, take the buyer through an in-depth guide or a video emailer educating the readers more about the product. This is an opportunity to know your lead better and transition them smoothly in their buyer’s journey.

However, if you offer affordable or straight-forward products, allure your consumer with a discount code right away. Consider adding validity to the coupon for quick conversions.

2. Sephora

Strategy – Cart Abandonment Email

Why Do Cart Abandonment Emails Work?

In this dynamic world, your audiences have multiple tabs open in their minds. Moreover, with numerous brands throwing themselves at the customers, it’s tough to be the only preference for your audience. With so much, it is natural for a user to abandon their shopping carts.

But, in the process, you can generate a lead for future conversions. You just need to optimize your checkout process to capture the lead at the right step. Look how Sephora taps its customers through a followup email.

Cart abandonment is more frequent than we marketers would want. However, as per a report, users open 45% of cart abandonment emails and 50% of them end up purchasing.

Image Source: Statista

Bonus Advice

Try optimizing your checkout process by testing the placement of the lead generation opt-ins at different stages. This A/B testing will help analyze the right step where your customers are most willing to give their info.

3. Ashford 

Strategy – Exit Intent Pop-up

Why Do Exit Intent Pop-ups Work?

As technologies and trends evolve, marketers need to constantly dig in for newer ways to surprise and retain their customers. Analyzing your users’ behavior on your website can be extremely useful for lead generation.

An awesome way to do this is to grasp their attention as they intend to close your website. As they move their cursor to do so, strategically place a smart popup as Ashford does. As customers, you will be tempted to rotate the wheel to try out your luck. And, this is exactly where you can seek their information.

Bonus Advice

You should deeply analyze the heatmap to understand the areas where your visitors lose interest in your website. Use this data to work on the website design on payment options accordingly.

These visitors can become customers on the first visit if you give them a reason to stay. Moreover, asking visitors to opt-in for push notifications can open ways for you to display your offers to them.

4. Forever 21

Strategy – Social Media Mention

Why Do Social Media Mentions Work?

Social media is a game of word-of-mouth influence. A Neilson study says that 92% of buyers go by the recommendations of their friends and family. And, Forever 21 utilizes this concept very well by asking the users to upload their photos with the F21 outfit and use the hashtag to get featured on their official websites. Now, there are a lot of fashion bloggers and aspirants who would love to do this. This not only generates one but multiple relevant leads in the related community.

Bonus Advice

You can tap influencers to showcase your products via them in their online community. They can then ask them to take part in the contest to get featured. You can even consider getting involved in niche communities’ conversations to generate leads from there.

5. GlassesUSA

Strategy – Virtual Try-on

Why Does Virtual Try-on Work?

Virtual reality is a massive success trend, especially for e-commerce. Imagine trying on a pair of glasses without going to a store or purchasing it. As a shopper, there is no reason you wouldn’t do it. GlassesUSA is a brand that plays with this trend very strategically. There are two smart ways for the lead generation they use here.

At the very start of the try-on, GlassesUSA gives users the option to import their pictures from Facebook. Voila! To fetch the photos, users would log in and you have your lead there.

Secondly, even if the users select otherwise, they would need to sign up to be able to view virtual try-on. Clever, isn’t it?

In fact, 73% of AR users say that they are highly satisfied with the AR experiences and 71% of shoppers prefer stores that offer virtual try-ons.

Bonus Advice

The virtual try-on trend is effective and showing an irresistible deal at that moment can definitely convert the lead or at least take them further ahead in their buyer’s journey. For effective lead generation, ditch the traditional “stay updated” email subscriptions and rather offer monetary incentives, as they work the best.

Have a look at how GlassesUSA smartly captures leads. For them, discount sign-up and exit intent pop-up work really well at the try-on stage.

6. IKEA

Strategy – Facebook Competition/Giveaway

Why Do Giveaways Work?

Giveaways and competitions are meant to be crowd-pleasers on social media platforms. When you host a giveaway, it not only attracts your audience but even gets shared with their friends. This acts as a strong lead magnet as people always feel attracted to getting free things.

Look at this wonderful giveaway that IKEA hosts. It mindfully attracts people who want a makeover for their house, and nobody minds free, right? Moreover, these are highly relevant leads willing to give their information too. The comments section says it all!

Bonus Advice

For improved engagement, try asking the participants to submit user-generated content for the contest. This ensures better brand involvement and moves the buyers down in the marketing funnel.

7. Brooklyn Bicycle Co.

Strategy: Interactive quiz

Why Do Quizzes Work?

Quizzes can be a game-changing move for your lead generation. They give users highly-personalized recommendations based on their responses and preferences.

And, Brooklyn Bicycle Co. does it pretty well. They designed an interactive quiz to help people pick the right-fitting bicycle for themselves by going through just a few fun questions. This made the visitors so engaged that the company saw a 36% growth in their conversion rate.

Now, with lead generation in mind, you should always design a gated quiz. This means the users will be asked to enter their details to access their personalized results. The users usually, at this stage, won’t mind giving you the details to get the results. And here, you will be generating relevant lead data. So this, our fellow marketers, is a win-win for both parties.

Bonus Advice

You should always be careful and ask for information that is relevant for you because irrelevant and long questions can easily annoy the users. Click here to create perfect quizzes.

Another great tip worth trying would be to surprise them with a discount code in the mailbox or after they fill the form. We can already smell some conversions!

8. Ferns N Petals

Strategy – Chatbots

Why Do Chatbots Work?

Engaging users with chatbots is one of the smartest e-commerce list building strategy examples. Research shows that 79% of users prefer chatbots as their queries get resolved at the earliest. Have a look at the easy-to-use interface of the chatbot by Ferns N Petals. It segments the questions for a more natural lead generation process.

Moreover, live chats increase conversions by 51% as it gives the feeling of one-to-one communication to the customers, and they don’t mind giving away some information in the process.

Bonus Advice

Try maintaining a TAT standard for the chatbot response to tap on the customers exactly when they are showing some interest. Online customers can be too sensitive even for a 2-minutes waiting time.

Moreover, you should exercise some caution over the use of this collected information. Don’t reach out to them too often, else you might get blocked.

9. LEGO 

Strategy- Website Contest Sign-up

Why Do Website Contests Work?

We have seen how effective social media giveaways can be. But, what about the audience that isn’t following you on your social media handles? Your website is your key face. And tapping your customers there itself is sensible. Look at this fantastic contest by LEGO. Even if you haven’t made up your mind for the purchase, it is tough to not enter this exciting contest. Moreover, Lego asks users to follow their social media channels too.

In fact, marketing experts at Hubspot say that a new contest campaign has the power to have a 34% increase in audience and leads to ⅓ of the entrants signing up for the email updates.

Bonus Advice

Always make it a point to ask users to follow you on social media. You should even ask them to tag their friends for higher winning chances. This multiplies your lead generation process instantly. Moreover, ensure that your contest structure is mobile-friendly, as this increases the number of entrants multifold.

Are You Ready to Take the Lead?

This is the question we want to leave you with. Of course, we are only scratching the surface with these 9 e-commerce list building strategy examples. These brands have done a fabulous job in their lead generation journey. But, as the digital world gets more competitive, there are a lot of other creative and innovative ideas that you can come up with. The sky’s the limit!

However, you should always do ample research and testing for these lead generation elements to work out the best. Also, remember that it is a value-seeking step from a customer’s perspective. So, ensure that you are giving something valuable to them to entertain, inform, educate, or inspire, and soon you’ll be overwhelmed with too many leads.

You can go one step ahead with making your lead generation elements more interactive with quizzes, polls, and giveaway contests. 

Looking to boost sales for your ecommerce brand? Check out our comprehensive guide on ecommerce marketing linked below!