Two things. First, in 2023, internet penetration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stood at 99%. Second, a significant proportion of its population is young, tech-savvy, working age and can be assumed to have money.
The result? A growing Saudi Arabian e-commerce market. In fact, ecommerce sales using the national payment system Mada cards grew 25.82% year-on-year in 2024 to reach SAR 197.42 billion. That does not even include credit card-enabled ecommerce transactions.
What does this mean? Businesses are missing out if they’re not online. There’s no excuse not to be when ecommerce platforms like Salla exist.
Ecommerce Platforms: They Make It Easy
Ecommerce platforms make setting up an ecommerce store online frictionless, even for the non-tech-savvy, generational family business owner. They make everything easy to do: registering for an account, opening an ecommerce store, listing products, keeping track of orders, accepting payments, and shipping out items.
These platforms set up a whole ecosystem of tools and applications that any ecommerce seller could want and need. A seller can quickly design and roll out their storefront and their store’s category, and product pages. They can add to their available payment methods as their needs warrant, make their store available in many languages, and add to their shipping and delivery options as needed.
These tools are native to or pre-integrated into the environment (i.e., the platform). As such, activating an essential or add-on function can be as straightforward as ticking a checkbox on an intuitively designed and laid-out seller dashboard.
Some platforms even offer marketing tools. They empower you to promote your products so their users can find you and your products.
Deciding on an ecommerce platform for your business? The following are some of the marketing tools to look for from an ecommerce platform:
Discount Tools
Induce a sale, especially for value-driven buyers.
- Discount Coupons
Discount coupons are codes customers can use on all or select products in your store that will take a certain percentage off the item price. Use them to welcome new users to your store, reward registered customers for their loyalty, or boost sales during certain seasons. You may even pair a discount code with a slow-moving item to boost turnover or clear inventory.
- Special Offers
Special offers are time-limited or product-specific deals you may activate and track. They are still discounts, but buyers don’t need to enter a discount code to get the discounted rate. They just have to shop on a particular date or time and buy a specific product, too.
Promos like “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” or flash sales can move slow inventory. Use store statistics to refine your offers and continue those that convert best.
- Bank Offer
You can offer discounts to customers paying with a specific bank’s card. Check with banks; they may cut your merchant fees if you offer their clients a discount for using their payment card.
This is a good strategy to maximize sales during payday and seasonal sales offers.
Campaign Tools
Initiate marketing campaigns activated by certain triggers.
- Abandoned Baskets
Your store can automatically send reminders to visitors who left items in their cart. You set the rules and triggers. For instance, you can arrange it so the system sends an email after one hour of cart abandonment. After 24 hours, you can set it so the system sends an SMS offering a special discount coupon or a freebie.
Abandoned cart campaigns can remind distracted buyers to continue shopping. The offered incentive may also convince hesitant buyers to proceed with their purchase. The result? You recover lost sales.
- Centralized Advertising Platform
Your store needs visitors to make sales, and advertising gets you that. It’s particularly crucial when you’re new and your organic marketing channels have yet to kick in and bring visitors to your store.
Conveniently manage your Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads from one place. It’s particularly useful during product launches and seasonal sales because it enables you to run synchronized ad campaigns.
- Text Messages and App Notifications
Send bulk SMS or app notifications to the ecommerce users’ mobile phones. This is a good way to promote flash sales, restocks and exclusive deals. Short messages and notifications with a clear call to action get the best results.
- Affiliate Marketing
Turn customers into brand ambassadors. Affiliates actively promote your products to other people through reels, blog posts, landing pages, and social media posts. Your affiliates get a commission for every sale you make through their affiliate links.
- Events Manager
Track specific events to learn how visitors interact with your store. You can log page views and store sign-ups. You can also record adds to the cart. Use your store’s events data to refine your ads and design conversion paths.
Content Marketing
Create content to draw visitors to your store and enhance your brand.
You can write blog posts on relevant topics, including how to use your products and helpful tips on maximizing your products’ utility. Talk about customer pain points and position your product as a solution to these problems. Address barriers to purchase, too, so you can negate concerns or reframe your value proposition so the perceived barrier becomes irrelevant.
Blogging not only gives customers the answers they’re looking for. It establishes you as an authority in your niche and builds trust in your brand. Blogs are a good place to put links back to your category and product pages (i.e., your money pages), and they are also a convenient repository of highly relevant keywords for which search engines can index your store.
Marketing Tools for Ecommerce Sellers
Ecommerce platforms make selling online easier, especially for non-tech-savvy business owners, because they provide an entire ecosystem of easy-to-use apps and tools. The best ecommerce platform comes with ecommerce marketing tools out of the box.