Four keys to ensure your e-commerce success
Online commerce is taking an increasingly important place in the marketplace. Although it may seem easy to open an e-commerce site and sell your products there, there is a lot of background work that is not always easy. In fact, logistics, distribution, site setup, and customer service are all areas that need to be developed in order to be successful in making a profit.
Logistics
Logistics is one of the most difficult things to tackle. Indeed, we must find an efficient process that does not waste time to keep stocks up to date without surpluses or shortages. That is why, first of all, you have to think about the shelving in the warehouse. You will probably have to use industrial shelving to store your items. Consider creating an effective arrangement and classifying your merchandise.
What is going to be important is managing your inventory in real-time. Inventory management is critical to have a high conversion rate on your e-commerce site. Therefore, you must know the availability of your products at all times. Do not hesitate to display the number of copies in stock (like Amazon) to sell better. Also, note that out-of-stock products should not appear on your home page.
To optimize your storage methods, dedicated software allows you to automate tasks. Remember that storage is expensive, therefore the manner employed is critical in product management. Grouping storage media allows you to save money.
If you’re thinking to work and sell products to large organizations in bulk or as wholesale products, you may want to consider eProcurement and Punchout. eProcurement is like an intranet eCommerce functionality on your website you connect to your buyers via a Punchout catalog.
That makes your catalog available to them in their own portal and that way they can submit POs with the click of a button without having to exchange lots of emails, phone calls, etc. This is ideal because these large purchasing businesses have hundreds of other vendors they also need to purchase from and they’re likely doing it via their eProcurement system to save time and money.
So if you’re looking to sell to companies that purchase large amounts of products from multiple vendors like you, consider Punchout
The distribution strategy
When it comes to e-commerce, there are multiple distribution strategies. First of all, you can choose between intensive, selective, or exclusive distribution:
– Intensive distribution: aims to present the product in as many media as possible. The price of the product is generally low, and the customer does not need the advice of a salesperson.
– Selective distribution: we select to offer the product less frequently and promote it more frequently (brand image). The product must stand out from the competitors, and the pricing is fairly expensive.
– Exclusive distribution: only e-commerce that already has a solid reputation can afford to apply this strategy. It consists of offering only one product or the company’s brand.
When you have an online store, consider determining the preferred channels of your targets and engage with them. The omnichannel strategy allows you to optimize the relationship with your customers and be more visible.
An intuitive site
It cannot be said enough, but it is essential to consider several factors on your site. First of all, think SEO. Create a blog area and give solutions to your viewers and potential buyers. Remember, content is important for SEO. These days you cannot write it yourself, but refer to various paper writing services. For example, if you sell shampoo to keep hair blonde, you can write an article about solutions and tips to keep a blonde beauty. It fills a need and offers a solution (your shampoo). This is called content marketing. At the same time, this strategy will boost your natural referencing with quality content.
Then, the customer experience must be exceptional to differentiate you from the competition. UX design is now also taken into account for site reference. Therefore, take care that the site’s loading time is more than correct. In addition, put yourself in the shoes of Internet users to check if it is easy to find what they are looking for in your store, if your site is intuitive enough, etc. Finally, you will need to create a mobile version because most purchases are now made from smartphones and no longer from computers.
Customer service
According to a survey of 1,000 consumers, 65% of them cut ties with a brand because of a poor customer service experience. Therefore, this factor is critical to establishing a good reputation and building customer loyalty. Typically, companies that participate in “multichannel” platforms achieve positive results. The objective is: to deal with complaints, returns, complaints, queries, etc. Today, Internet users and companies are increasingly using social networks in terms of customer service (tweets, Facebook posts or comments, etc.).
To optimize the customer experience, offer a simple purchase journey while being available everywhere and at all times. However, the worry remains the same: there are numerous inquiries on every channel (networks, emails, Google My Business, etc.). As a result, you must create a team that is in direct contact with customers to better process complaints. Your reputation, and hence your turnover, will suffer if you do not have it.
If you want to create an e-commerce site, it is recommended that you entrust your project to an e-commerce agency. This type of agency has extensive experience in creating an e-commerce site that will guarantee the success of your platform.
