The 7 Types of Ecommerce Traffic: What Brands Need to Know

Achieving sustainable profitability is crucial to long-term, healthy success for a brand on ecommerce marketplaces. It’s a universal truth, but it’s also a lot easier said than done—it takes so much time, knowledge, and resources to execute a profitable ecommerce strategy.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed but know you need to make a change, we recommend focusing on a simpler way to think about achieving ecommerce profitability: the Ecommerce Equation. If you optimize traffic, conversions, and pricing, you’ll achieve profitability with your online strategy. Pattern works with hundreds of brands to improve their performance through the Ecommerce Equation. Our proprietary technology combines trillions of data points into actionable insights that show exactly what brands need to do to win on global ecommerce marketplaces. And, with expert teams to decipher this information and execute meaningful strategies, brands are winning and growing their profitability with Pattern.

Types of Ecommerce Traffic

Traffic is a key factor of the Ecommerce Equation, so let’s take a closer look at what kind of traffic brands need to be aware of and optimize around for greater profitability. You may choose to focus on some types of traffic more than others, but it’s important to consider all types to create the most optimized traffic possible for improving your profitability.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic is an important element of your overall listing traffic. People visiting your listings through referral traffic found a link to your products from an online source that isn’t associated with you. Common referral sources would be a blog post comparing products and/or social media/influencer marketing.

Paid Traffic

Paid traffic is any traffic you paid to influence traffic toward your products/listings. The most powerful paid traffic sources for most brands are usually Amazon ads and Google ads, but paid traffic can also come from social media and onsite ads.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is made up of people who are intentionally browsing for products or solutions—think searching on Google or Amazon rather than seeing an ad or social post that leads them to your product. Organic traffic can include people with better buying intent than paid traffic.

Branded Traffic

Branded traffic, like non-branded, category, and sub-category traffic, is a smaller but crucial piece of both your paid and organic traffic buckets. When someone searches for your brand name in addition to keywords associated with your product, they have high search intent. Many times, this traffic doesn’t need a lot of help to deliver highly-converting users to your listings.

Non-Branded Traffic

Non-branded traffic usually comes from people who are earlier along in their decision-making process. This is a prime space to work at conquesting keywords and working to get in front of consumers’ eyes before your competitors do.

Category Traffic

Category traffic is a form of non-branded traffic—it’s an area where people can become aware of your products if they have needs or interests in common with them. Again, this is a place where strategic ad spend can help you to gain awareness and conversions.

Sub-Category Traffic

Sub-category traffic is another type to be aware of and include as you strategize around improving your traffic metrics. Sub-category traffic is a little more niche and, when utilized correctly, can help to inform your target audience and get in front of people you might not otherwise.  

Optimize Your Ecommerce Traffic With Pattern

Creating a strategy around optimizing each type of ecommerce traffic for your products can be a bigger lift than your team is ready for. With Pattern’s technology, data insights, and expert teams, we can help you make sure all of your bases are covered. With honed in traffic, high conversions, and stable pricing, your brand can see improved profitability on ecommerce marketplaces. Contact us to learn how we can help you improve your ecommerce traffic.