What to do as a business, struggling with e-commerce?

 

 

18-01-2016
By: Denise Berkeveld
Source: www.entrepreneur.com

 

 

This article is based on the article I found: “5 Areas Where Ecommerce Businesses Often Struggle and What You Can Do”  that was posted on the website www.Entrepeneur.com on the 7th of January 2016. Thomas Smale, contributor and co-founder of FE International talked about this topic and I will share my opinion as well.

 

Smale mentioned that actually everybody can put up a website and sell things online this is not the hard part about e-commerce. Smale says: “In fact, there is so much more to ecommerce than just selling products online. You have to build trust with your customers, streamline your order fulfillment process, secure your website, create and follow a content marketing and SEO strategy and much more”. I think that as well, during the lectures I got at school we learned as well that e-commerce is really huge and it’s not only selling thing online! We also got a guest lecture about content marketing and this lecture was pretty interesting. Robert-Jan told us about this topic and he explained many tips and tricks (if you want to read more about this guestlecture, see guestlectures, Content marketing.

 

Smale mentioned five areas where ecommerce businesses often struggle, and how they can improve their own experience with each of them. The five areas are mentioned below:

- Building trust and loyalty with the customer : this will often be a struggle, because people like to buy their products at companies they know, like and trust. This can take time for a business. Smale says: “…so you have to identify your competitive advantage to nurture customers over the long haul”. But there are some simple ways to start building loyalty:  A company can display their address and phone number, pictures of  their staff, customer testimonials and credibility badges. Moreover, a blog of loyalty programs (such as customers can earn points when they buy something) can also help to build trust.

- Website security: an e-commerce business should really take care of the security of their website, because people are buying their products via this distribution channel. If some customers' sensitive information is leaked, a business is going to have a hard time earning back their trust.

- Order fulfillment: the order fulfillment should be excellent in these days. Customers expecting a fast order fulfillment it’s nowadays a part of excellent customer service. There are three factors companies should take care of: the staff, software and hardware. The order fulfilment just should be as fast as possible I think!

- Returns, exchanges and refunds: Smale says: “.. if you don't have a system for handling returns, exchanges and refunds, you might be caught off guard”. The returns, exchanges and refunds are also part of an excellent customer service and that’s why this process should be really fast as well. I agree with this as well, I don’t like it when I have to wait a long time when I’m returning something.

- Mobile commerce: using the mobile internet is a major trend. Many customers are making use of a smartphone and tablet device nowadays. Companies should not only make their website mobile friendly, they also need to optimise their checkout process. I agree with this point, I think it’s so annoying when a webpage is not opening on my phone. If a company wants to make sure they deliver the perfect shopping experience on a mobile device, they can also choose to create a app (application).  

 

 

Click on the logo from www.entrepreneur.com to read the article: "5 Areas Where Ecommerce Businesses Often Struggle and What You Can Do".