marketing

When you’re an e-commerce business owner, you know that you must set goals to achieve success. Many e-commerce brands, no matter their size, miss out on growth because they do not take the time to set goals moving forward.

If you expect to see your business thrive in 2022, here is an overview of how to build SMART goals. And, hopefully, this guide will give you more insight into how SMART goals can benefit you in your business venture.

Why You Need SMART Goals for Your E-commerce Business

As with all things in your business, marketing needs a strategy to obtain success, and it starts with establishing SMART goals. “SMART” is an acronym to help you clearly define your purpose.

SMART goals are crucial in your business. Studies show participants achieving a 33% higher success rate when writing down goals and making a plan of action. Essentially, SMART goals become a roadmap you need to drive toward your definition of success.

This acronym can be a powerful tool in e-commerce. But to create a definitive marketing plan, you must use your SMART goals as a framework to achieve the results you’re looking for in your online business.

What Is SMART?

SMART is defined as “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.” Here’s what that actually means in practice.

Specific

Think of what the goals are that you want to attain in your business. These goals should be specific enough to help guide you in the following steps you need to take to achieve them. But you should avoid setting unrealistic goals to ensure you obtain a positive ROI (return on investment) with your online store. Answer specific questions such as:

• What do I want to achieve?
• Why is this important?
• Who is going to accomplish this?

Measurable

To remain successful as an e-commerce business owner, establish goals that are measurable and achievable. These indicators suggest how much time you’ll need to meet your deadlines. And it helps you stay on track while acknowledging where you are during the entire process of achieving your goals. With this goal, you should be able to answer questions including:

• How many?
• How much?
• When can I achieve this accomplishment?

Attainable

When it comes to business prosperity, you need to establish reasonably attainable goals. Setting a goal should keep you from stretching yourself too thin but should allow enough room for growth during the process. Ask yourself the following questions to set an achievable goal:

• How can I achieve this goal?
• Is this goal realistic enough for me to accomplish?

Relevant

Relevant goals exist to reassure you they align with your other business goals. This step is to help you remain in control so you can look forward to having your team help achieve them. Questions you can answer to ensure you’re taking the proper steps include:

• Is this worth my time?
• Does it seem like the right moment to take action?
• Does this goal align with my needs?

Timely

Target your goals with a set deadline. This method creates a sense of urgency and helps you to focus on working towards those goals. A time goal prevents daily operational tasks from becoming a higher priority and allows you to seek your long-term goals. When setting a time to reach your goal, ask yourself:

• When can I achieve this?
• What actions can I start taking today?
• How can I accomplish this goal six months from now?

E-commerce Goal Examples

Here are a few marketing objectives you can look at as an example to assist you with establishing your SMART goals:

• My business needs to attain 5,000 website visitors to increase our revenue to $100,000 through content marketing within the next six months.
• We have to increase our brand awareness by the last quarter of 2022 by partnering with an additional eight to 10 influencers.
• We need to increase our store’s conversion rate by 6% in the third quarter of 2022 by offering a limited-time discount on our best-selling products.

Steps for Setting Your SMART Goals in E-commerce

The first step to working through this acronym is simply setting a goal you would like to achieve in your business. For instance, your business can meet higher product demands by outsourcing packaging needs. By establishing this type of goal, you can start breaking it down by determining the steps you would take to achieve these results.

Before you establish these steps, you should understand why you need to reach these goals. Setting your “why” helps you know what your mission is all about when you move forward with the next steps.

After you establish your goal and understand your reasoning behind it, it’s time to commit. This step involves brainstorming how you are going to attain this goal. It’s best to create a plan for when your commitments fail to produce results.

Ask yourself how far you’re willing to execute your plan and when you should stop committing your resources. Once you hit a roadblock, this strategy will guide your team in knowing when to put a stop to reaching the goal.

After you establish a SMART goal, consider making a plan for how you are going to achieve results. You and your employees can accomplish better work performance results when creating a plan of action. Here are a few excellent questions you can ask yourself to create a system:

• What costs are involved, and what resources will be required to fund these efforts?
• What steps can I take to increase my profit margins?
• Which adjustments should I make with my supplier to expand my margins?
• What products can I develop to reach my goal?

Taking Action

SMART provides you with the ability to achieve your overall success. Use the SMART goal framework to build your focus and improve your strategies for growth. Only you can start taking action today by using this strategy to improve your e-commerce operations. What goals will you define in your business for 2022?

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.