Hello Magento Folks,
The recent changes affecting the market are fueling another E-commerce boom. More businesses are switching to online commerce and making their online storefronts accessible to more users. There are more digital marketing campaigns and low touch selling happening on the market than ever before. The landscape is looking more and more attractive.
If you are starting an online business or an E-commerce site, however, you have to understand from the beginning that you are entering a competitive market. This is no longer just about reaching customers; E-commerce today is about using the resources you have at your disposal to deliver positive customer experience at every turn. To do that, there are a few things you need to simplify from the beginning.
1. Simplify Your Site
Gone are the days of E-commerce sites with complex layouts, multiple popup windows, and cluttered navigation. Even when you have a lot of items in your catalog, the best way to present them is through a simple design and layout.
Magento remains one of the most robust when it comes to E-commerce platforms. The CMS solution can be customized to a certain degree. Even big brands like Xiaomi and Dell use Magento to power their online storefronts.
A self-hosted E-commerce store, however, is not your only option. You can also benefit from the simplicity of the available E-commerce platforms on the market today. Shopify in particular caters to a wide range of industries, including the CBD industry and sellers wanting to enter this market.
By keeping your site simple, you are letting the most important elements of your online business shine; the products and services you offer. That brings us to our next point…
2. Simplify Your Value Proposition
In order to differentiate yourself from competitors, you need to offer value to the audience or your customers. The value you offer will determine the long-term growth and success of your E-commerce business. Fortunately, simplicity is also the way to go in this department.
You want your value proposition to be as simple and straightforward as possible. If you are cutting your margin to offer the lowest prices for products that you sell, then you have to make that low price offer the centerpiece of your marketing activities.
The same is true when you want to offer personal touches, higher quality, or unique products to the customers. Pick one value proposition that you want to highlight the most, add two or three additional points to please customers, and you are all set.
Communicating your value proposition is just as important as having one, so make sure you also think about how to best convey your messages. The audience will only understand what you convey to them in the correct way. This means doing marketing and branding for a specific audience segment.
3. Simplify Your Marketing
The next thing you want to simplify is how you market your E-commerce business. Marketing for E-commerce companies will most likely be digital-heavy, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Low-touch selling through effective digital marketing campaigns is the most efficient way to go.
There are more digital marketing instruments to utilize these days. You can use remarketing and retaliating to immediately boost sales. You can run performance marketing campaigns to gain users. You can also be more active on social media and other platforms to gain exposure.
To keep things simple, integrate multiple instruments and try to automate as many activities as possible. Automation is the way forward, since it allows you to do more without expanding your team or allocating more resources.
Automation is made easier now that other business tools and solutions support it. Orders from your CMS platform can be fed to a business management suite, a CRM solution, or even a spreadsheet document depending on how you want to operate.
Understanding the distinctions between CRM vs CMS can help tailor your automation processes more effectively.
4. Simplify Customer Care
Keep in mind that the point of purchase isn’t the end of your customers’ journey. In fact, it is far from it. You cannot succeed in today’s E-commerce market without putting customer care as a priority. Customers expect a pleasant experience even beyond making a purchase.
Customer care starts with making sure that customers can get the support they need when they run into issues with their products. You want to be more proactive in ensuring satisfying resolution to every customer complaint before moving forward to other aspects.
Continuing your value delivery is also highly recommended. Rather than trying to sell more products, send valuable information that genuinely helps customers make the most out of the products they already have. That’s how you retain the majority of your customers.
Lastly, make sure customers can reach you easily. Tools like Hootsuite makes integrating multiple channels for providing customer support easy. You no longer have to jump from platform to platform just to answer all of your customers’ questions.
5. Simplify Relationship Building
The last component to simplify is relationship building, specifically the process of building and maintaining strong relationships with the customers. The process starts early with you posting on social media and users interacting with your E-commerce site for the first time.
That first touchpoint needs to provide a lasting impression. When you are unique on social media or you offer a pleasant shopping experience from the start, customers are more likely to remember you when thinking about buying products and services. That’s how important UX is right now.
Just like the other components, building relationships is a continuous process. Keeping track of your customers’ purchases and tailoring their UX accordingly are some of the things you can do to keep customers happy. They will feel special when your recommendations and content are personalized.
You also want to remove friction and distractions. Simplify your checkout process to just one or two steps. Make sure customers can find the products they need quickly. Provide better, more comprehensive product information. These little things count.
Combined, simplifying these 5 aspects of your E-commerce business is how you can secure success from the start. No matter how competitive the market is right now, you can always edge ahead and connect with more customers.
Over to You.
Hence, this was it for today. I hope everyone enjoyed learning the 5 Things to Simplify Before Starting an E-commerce site. Hire a Magento Developer now and start with your site today and let us help you for more productivity of your E-commerce business. For any difficulties do visit our Support Team for further guidance. If you like the article then share it with your business friends and also write your valuable reviews in the comment section below.
Happy Reading? and Be Safe?