The Ecommerce industry seems to be on a never-ending upward trajectory, and so aspiring business leaders are racing to snag their piece of the market and capitalize on the increasing value of the industry. Whether you’re launching an Ecommerce business from scratch or if you’re trying to grow an existing online store, it’s important that you create a comprehensive growth strategy and focus on innovating your processes in order to elevate your brand’s standing in the niche and surpass the competition.
Some of the Ecommerce development best practices we will go over today will include expanding your sales channels and integrating business-wide software solutions, as well as store optimization and even how to capitalize on the growing Ecommerce market. With that in mind, here are the five important steps you need to take in order to boost success and facilitate the growth of your online store.
Prioritize customer support
Nowadays, online shoppers want and need to have the option to communicate with Ecommerce brands in real time, on their own terms and via the platforms that best suit their needs. In other words, you need to prioritize customer service and brand-consumer communication across all relevant channels in the online realm in order to stay relevant in the hearts and minds of your target demographic, and in order to build brand loyalty and trust.
After all, if you’re not answering their calls, responding to their messages, answering reviews, or engaging with your audience in the comment sections, know that your competitors will.
That said, managing such large traffic volumes over several online (and offline if you count SMS and phone calls) platforms can be a labor-intensive and financially-stressing challenge, so you need to improve. Be sure to integrate a chatbot function in order to automate menial and repetitive tasks, and have your support agents focus on complex queries and customer pain-points through live chat, email, social media, and more.
Create an omni-channel sales structure
The modern customer hangs out in a lot of places scattered throughout the digital realm. From Facebook to Instagram and other social media, to browsing Ecommerce sites and checking out relevant forums, all the way to YouTube and other platforms offering engaging content, the digital consumer is everywhere. If you want to take your Ecommerce store forward as a whole, then you need to implement an omni-channel sales mindset and a mobile friendly structure that will allow your customers to purchase from your wherever they are in the online world.
But that’s not all. While it is important that you facilitate quick and easy sales through video calls, real-time chat, email, and social media DMs, it’s also important to keep your offline audience in mind, and allow customers to even order items via phone and SMS. Add shoppable images to your social media galleries and your site, and you will have created a strong omni-channel sales structure that will allow them to buy from you anytime, anywhere.
Integrate comprehensive business software
A company that sells products online can only keep up with the ever-changing Ecommerce trends if it integrates the right type of business software. Take the overly-complex manufacturing industry as a prime example. This is an industry that is increasingly venturing into the Ecommerce realm, but in order for companies to manage all of these sales channels and all inventory and supply chain requirements, they have to implement comprehensive manufacturing software that allows them to manage their entire operation from a centralized platform – one that facilitate easy Ecommerce integrations as well.
This is the bare minimum you need to do in order to take your Ecommerce store into the 21st century no matter the industry you operate in, because you can’t hope to scale effectively if you’re still doing everything manually. Instead, choose software that allows you to monitor inventory and manage your supply chain with ease.
Capitalize on mobile commerce
Ecommerce might be on the rise, but it’s important to always know the direction that industry is taking. In recent years, and with the rapid modernization of smartphone technology, Ecommerce has been experiencing a shift in its customer base, and nowadays more and more people are shopping online via mobile. This means that you need to boost your mobile commerce performance in order to capitalize on a rising demographic. Be sure to optimize your entire site for seamless mobile browsing, and consider launching an app if the figures support it.
Simplify the shopping journey
Finally, your store might be growing but that doesn’t mean that you can let it become cluttered and clunky due to the surge in traffic and conversions. Your goal should be to preserve a clean and clutter-free online store that has a simple website structure that the customers can navigate with ease.
In fact, you should always aim to simplify their shopping journey as much as possible. Keep your site structure simple, and add navigation tools like sidebars, quick filters, and search functions. Don’t force your customers to sign in to make a purchase, but instead save their basic info for next time. It shouldn’t take them more than three-to-five total clicks to finish their purchase.
Wrapping up
In the increasingly-competitive Ecommerce market, it’s important that growth-oriented stores continue to implement new solutions in order to stay ahead. Take these steps yourself, and you will have created a strong growth strategy for your online store.