The rise of online marketplaces and third party selling options have opened new channels for retailers who are looking to expand their presence online. It also opens up the opportunity for retailers to increase revenue through different sales avenues and reach a wider customer base. But what does it take to build your presence online and more importantly, how do you gain success in e-commerce?
Here are some key factors that we believe will help entrepreneurs and business owners maximize success in their e-commerce business:
Logistics & Shipping
When selling on highly competitive platforms such as Amazon or on your own online retail website, it is important to have your fulfillment and logistics set up to best meet the requirements of the marketplace you are selling on and your end-consumer especially if you are focused on cross-border e-commerce. The challenge lies in delivering your products within a fast time frame and in a cost-effective manner to ensure that your customers are satisfied and that your inventory is not out of stock.
Logistics can cover a full range of services including preparation and packaging of products, barcode labeling, warehousing, inventory management, and freight forwarding. It is highly recommended that online retailers outsource warehousing, fulfillment, and logistics to an experienced local e-commerce fulfillment partner. Taking advantage of the service solutions provided by these third-party providers allows you to concentrate on your core business and scale your online business.
Using partners with cost-effective freight rates will allow you to maximize your profit margins and be more competitive with your retail price.
Mobile Friendly
The majority of online shopping is now done through mobile phones and tablets, therefore, it is important to optimize your platforms to be as mobile-friendly as possible. Whether you are selling on your own standalone website or on various marketplaces, it is essential to cater to the shopping experience to mobile shoppers. Ensure that your website is created to be an interactive and responsive platform that is functional and suitable for all mobile devices.
A key factor is having the checkout and payment process to be as seamless as possible for mobile users to avoid them leaving your website. If you are selling on marketplaces, it is also vital to take into consideration the order in which the content fields are visible to mobile users.
It is important to understand how your listings appear on desktop versus on the mobile phones in order to implement strategies to optimize the listings accordingly. If customers aren’t provided with seamless and easy user experience, they will go search for the products elsewhere and are unlikely to return back.
Having a mobile-friendly website and mobile-friendly content structure is critical to customer retention, converting sales, and generating revenue.
Photography
First impressions count when you’re selling your products online. Customers gravitate towards images that they find most attractive since they do not have the in-store experience and interaction to touch and feel the products while shopping online. Images play a key role in improving the overall experience for customers to find, evaluate, and purchase your products, giving you a competitive edge in an over-saturated market.
Product images and visual infographics serve as a communication tool between the seller and buyer, providing the consumers with information and details about a product that they might need in order to make their purchase decision. High quality, professional images is a key driver to enhance customer interaction and experience while shopping digitally.
As part of your e-commerce strategy, retailers should prioritize the importance of having high-resolution product photography, lifestyle images, and infographics as a key differentiation point between their products and their competitors’ products. This will attract customers online leading to higher click-through rates, conversion, and revenue generated.
Digital Marketing
There are many opportunities available through third-party marketplaces and standalone retail website platforms to implement digital marketing strategies that will ensure maximum visibility and exposure to consumers. Digital marketing provides businesses the scope to reach out to more target market customers within the budget that you set which will lead to greater brand awareness and higher sales revenue. Each platform offers its own type of digital marketing service, for instance, Amazon offers Sponsored Ads which is its own pay per click platform (PPC).
Most marketplaces are increasing the amount of pay per click advertising impressions in the search engine results page and using this program is a great way to gain fast traffic to a new product listing. For your own e-commerce website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website in order to rank higher in the search results on search engines such as Google.
Some of the most effective SEO strategies include keyword research, onsite, offsite, technical SEO, link building, PPC advertising (Google Ads), and content marketing. Digital marketing is a critical aspect of maximizing the success of your online business. With the right strategies implemented, digital marketing will help with more customer acquisition and an increase in brand value and revenue.
Launching your e-commerce business or expanding your business online is an exciting process, but it is important to understand the key factors above to have in place in order to be successful and sustainable in the long term in this rapidly growing field. These important factors will not only assist in your online success, but it will also help your consumers build confidence and trust in your brand which will lead to customer loyalty, brand credibility and ultimately, maximized revenue. It can also be important to build relationships with a specialist eCommerce marketing agency that will enable your business to grow in the online marketplace.
Content is a major factor for being successful in your e-commerce. Unless you have right content, the other factors cannot add value to your business.
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About The Author: Alex has been working in the eCommerce world for quite some time. Having built up a vast array of knowledge, he decided to help others. Ever since Alex has been working with all sized online companies to help them grow and achieve their ambitions in the online world.
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