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As customers increasingly rely on the Internet and smartphones to make purchasing decisions, the economy is evolving from brick-and-mortar to “click and order,” with e-commerce and mobile commerce becoming intertwined.
More and more businesses are expanding their online presence—from grocery stores to beer, nearly every product and service can be reached with the click of a button or the swipe of a finger. What’s more, studies show that online customers are extremely loyal, even more so than in-store customers.
As businesses rush into e-commerce, which offers endless opportunities for retailers and brands, companies must make some difficult decisions about website design, mobile and social media strategies, customer service and product pricing as they seek to capitalize on these benefits.
Here are seven tips for entrepreneurs and marketers on e-commerce strategy.
1. Create a customer-oriented experience It’s harder to convince your customers to buy when they can’t see or feel the products you offer online. Pricing your products appropriately and providing a comprehensive, personalized experience are some of the ways to encourage customers to fill their shopping carts.
Nathan Stoll, CEO of Luvocracy, a web platform dedicated to helping shoppers find products by recommending reputable merchants, said one of the reasons for the platform's success is the good experience of providing high-quality recommendations to like-minded users.
“People always want their decisions to help others, and that makes them feel good. Providing a platform where people can capture and share those helpful moments, easily moving from digital to our physical lives, is hugely beneficial.”
"Design with a purpose" website Zady emphasizes aesthetics and user interface to provide customers with the best online shopping experience. "Just like it is important to give our customers a firm handshake when we greet them in person, at Zady.com we have a similar 'handshake' app. Our design is beautiful, easy to use and entertaining, explaining that Zady is a purpose-driven company through portraits and beautiful pictures." Co-founder Maxine Bédat said.
E-commerce customer-facing experiences help drive brand loyalty, which is extremely important to the bottom line. Few online retailers can rely on one-time customers to break even. Personalizing the user experience can also help businesses differentiate their customer segments, which can help them develop targeted advertising campaigns to market more effectively.
Andres Teran, co-founder of Toplist, a social shopping recommendation platform, pointed out: To really reach customers, you must appeal to their emotional side. In addition to age and city, which are the targets you want to understand, it is very important to find people who share feelings and behaviors about something. Once you understand this, you can easily find out what your target customers like, what they use, and where you can reach them.
2. Design a service you would love to use <br /> For online transactions, applications and e-commerce sites, the best test subjects are often friends, family and colleagues of team members. "Have your team test the service like an ideal customer: if you can't happily use it for an hour straight, it's not good enough. If 99% of your servers are not performing well enough, you need to pay attention," said Luvocracy's Stoll.
Chieh Huang, CEO of warehouse-club shopping app Boxed, encourages his team to think from the customer's perspective, noting, "We built Boxed because it's an app that everyone in our company would love to use ourselves."
“When the entire team thinks like the customer, it shows in the final product.”
Alex Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of Chatalo, an online shopping collaboration platform, puts it very bluntly when it comes to business model testing: “It was easy for us to identify our customers and their pain points and then create a product to solve them because the original customer was my wife and co-founder Natalie. Our ultimate customers are shoppers, and while we may have stopped working one day, the litmus test for me is whether Natalie is still using Chatalo every night with her friends and family.”
3. Customer feedback is crucial <br /> Any business knows that customer service is part of the foundation of success, but small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly dependent on their customers' word-of-mouth publicity and brand loyalty.
Teran believes that customer feedback plays a key role in Toplist's development and stresses the importance of listening to customers and adapting accordingly. "Sometimes, we as entrepreneurs think that our ideas and our products will appeal to everyone, but it turns out that you have to go to the market, ask and try to listen to your customers. You are creating a product for them, so they have a good idea of what they need. At first, our product had a lot of features and functions that we thought were very cool, but our customers didn't think so. We noticed that they wanted a simple product that could meet their needs quickly and easily, so we built it to suit their needs," said Teran.
Soraya Darabi, co-founder of Zady, agrees that it’s important to listen to customer feedback through multiple channels when tweaking or introducing a new product: “The community we’re building means everything to us. Customer feedback, whether it comes in an email or a comment on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, is read and shared widely across our team, and we listen to and react quickly to it.”
Customer feedback not only helps companies develop and improve their products or platforms, Stoll believes that listening to customer feedback can also play a huge role when building a company. "Use the true voice of the customer. Your customers are doing their best to help you, as if it were their own business. They are the reason for your success." Stoll pointed out, "Instead of you always trying to impress them to join, it's better to make them feel good about what they do, and then the fact that they have already decided to buy your brand and products."
4. Leverage social media – but don’t rely on it completely <br /> Social media strategies – especially paid advertising and an engaging content strategy, are effective ways to target your audience and increase traffic to your website. Sites and networks such as Pinterest, Etsy, eBay and Instagram are extremely helpful for e-commerce businesses of any size. Social media is also a great way to get word of mouth started, which is probably the most important way to successfully launch a new website or platform.
"Modern brands must embrace two-way communication online, there is no doubt about that," said Darabi. "Always communicating with our customers and understanding their real needs can help us grow." Darabi told Mashable that Zady started selling dog gear after learning about customer needs through Instagram.
“Listening carefully to what your customers want and using the right channels to do it will help you grow your business.”
If you want to leverage social media, it is important to note that relying solely on social media is not enough. There are many factors that contribute to the success of e-commerce, and throwing all your eggs into the social media basket may be a mistake. Social media should be an additional component, but it should not constitute the entire business plan.
5. Invest in mobile shopping <br /> It is becoming increasingly clear that e-commerce companies cannot ignore mobile users. In fact, four out of five smartphone owners use their devices to shop.
"One thing is for sure, it's mobile or it's dead," said Toplist's Teran. "Mobile devices are with you, and users can shop anytime, anywhere on their mobile phones or tablets, so it's very important in the growth of e-commerce."
Teran advises businesses to take advantage of the value of entertainment or the "me-time" of smartphone culture, noting that there is no better place to reach a larger market, especially in emerging markets, than through laptops and mobile devices. In addition, more interactive interfaces provide innovative ways to interact with customers. "We don't see mobile commerce as the future, we see it as part of the 'new normal'," Teran said.
6. Incentivize customers with material rewards <br /> Anyone with an Amazon Prime account will attest to the effectiveness of incentivizing customers with material rewards. Whether it’s a promotion, discount, or loyalty program for VIP customers, offering your customers a little extra will increase word-of-mouth and build positive brand affinity.
Everlane is an online retailer that emphasizes transparency. Founder Michael Preysman says the business grew by rewarding its first customers. “We emailed our friends and family and said, ‘Hey, Everlane is five days old, invite 50 friends and you’ll get free shipping for life.’ Six hundred people invited 50 friends. We had 60,000 customers sign up in five days.”
Chatalog's Gonzalez also emphasizes rewarding customers for providing feedback. "We try to communicate with our customers as much as possible. My wife, Natalie, personally gives Starbucks gift cards to thousands of our customers as a thank you for talking to us."
7. Continuous Improvement <br /> As the online market evolves, businesses must stay one step ahead of the competition. Continuously listening to your customers, following the latest trends, analyzing metrics and conducting vigilant research help businesses stay up to date with the latest technologies and effective strategies. Try new tools and make adjustments as needed to improve your customer experience and your own bottom line.
“There is no e-commerce, there is only commerce,” Stoll said. “Use your internal voice instead of the megaphone to talk to your customers who already love you and tell them why you love them. Or change your product for them.”
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