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6 Tools for Running a Successful eCommerce Business

July 25, 2014 by Rosemary

By Teddy Hunt

Running a successful business of any kind, whether it’s a brick and mortar store or an e-commerce website, requires the right tools. Before you launch your online company, make sure you have these programs and systems in place. Opening your digital doors without them is a risk your company should not take.

A User Friendly Purchasing Experience

Shopify

Unless your customers can buy your products easily, your e-commerce business will stumble out of the gate. A simple checkout experience powered by the right shopping cart platform can solve the problem before it starts. If you’ve never run an online retail store before, go with Shopify.

This software allows you to get your store up and running without needing to muck around with servers and complex coding systems. Adding products and changing prices is simple using their intuitive system. You can also process credit card payments the second you open it.

In order to keep your prices as attractive as possible, do a little comparison shopping of your own to keep business expenses low. Since utilities are among your company’s primary bills, you should compare rates through a website like powerexperts.co.uk.

Reliable Business Communication Systems

Establishing real world connections with your vendors and supply chain requires traditional forms of communication. Many business people won’t deal with you if they can’t reach you over the phone. They want to know you are a real person, which makes a business line an essential tool for running a successful e-commerce business.

Mitel Systems offers multiple enterprise solutions for shoring up your lines of communication, including cloud-based providers. Choose from a variety of devices, including digital phones and conference calling systems. “Softphones” allow remote workers to call in right from their desktop without the need for a separate device.

Social Media Account Management

Your online store is more than a website; it’s a brand. Customers expect your company’s brand to exist on social media, and not on just one or two platforms.

Promoting your store’s identity across the web requires multiple social media accounts and delivery systems, including Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Posting to each individually can take up valuable time and hurt your company’s productivity.

To manage all your social accounts form a single dashboard, try Hootsuite. Their platform allows you to schedule posts to your social accounts ahead of time and gauge user interaction to your content. You can also set permissions that allow you as the owner to approve all out-going posts.

That way your brand message stays consistent.

Analytics Tools

Google Analytics

Image via Flickr from Panayotis Vryonis

Knowing how visitors behave when they visit your online store can serve as an invaluable asset for improving your product pages and increasing conversion. Google Analytics gives you this information, including user flows through social media, total web traffic, time spent on site and conversion goal tools, free.

Installing the program is a single-string code that you can copy and paste into the header of your e-commerce site. Adding code for Google Webmaster Tools (also free) helps you find errors, including pages that don’t load properly, before they turn into larger issues.

Customer Feedback Channels

Don’t ignore the people who buy your products. Providing them with an email address, blog comments section or social outlet where they can communicate with you is vital for your site’s success. Make sure you respond courteously and in a timely manner to build strong relationships with your customers.

When your customers believe they have a voice, they morph from people simply buying a product into cheerleaders for your brand. Cheerleaders do more than spend money; they leave positive reviews and encourage others to give your store a try. That type of advocacy is worth more to your business than any one transaction.

A Stable Website

Your e-commerce business succeeds or fails on your website’s reliability.

You want a site that uses streamlined coding for fast load times, runs strong security software to protect customer information, and that won’t crash during heavy traffic periods.

If you’re new to the e-commerce world, using templates generated by design platforms like Shopify and Magento can give you a solid basis to launch your store. Once you get comfortable with their system, you can customize features to suit your needs going forward.

Launching an online store is not a quick process. Skipping steps or rushing can leave you without the necessary tools needed for success. Build your e-commerce business the right way, and you’ll reap the benefits for years.

Author’s Bio: Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida.

Filed Under: Successful Blog, Web Design Tagged With: bc, customer experience, Shopping, website

How Amazon Became the “Default”

May 22, 2014 by Rosemary

When I need to buy something, whether it’s a set of s’mores skewers or the latest bestseller, I click on over to Amazon.com first.

It’s taken me a while to recognize this behavior, because I was doing it very unconsciously.

Amazon.com logo

How did this happen?

Amazon.com is my “default” place to buy things. They have simply removed every trace of friction from the shopping experience. To the point that other factors like price and diversity of selection take a back seat.

You may not have the resources of Amazon, but you should aspire to be the “default” provider of whatever service or product you offer.

Remove Purchase Friction:

Answer Questions

Amazon has to sell you things that you can’t feel or touch, so it has to provide you with every single bit of information you might want before buying. Consider the lessons of Marcus Sheridan, “The Sales Lion,” who saved his pool company (and built an empire) by answering every single question right on his website.

Establish Trust

As an entrepreneur, you may not have a recognized name. But Amazon started somewhere too. They incorporated a ratings system for their shopkeeper program so that you can clearly see reputation as a buyer. Look for ways to build trust with your prospects and customers– whether it’s social proof, testimonials, or being maniacal about follow-through.

Remember Your Customers

One reason why Amazon is the default is that they store my credit card information, and they remember everything I’ve bought since the site went live. I hate having to go find my purse, pull out my credit card, and type in those numbers. Have you thought about ways you can streamline invoicing for your customers? Do you offer different options for billing, discounts for annual payments? When your customer contacts you, can you pull up a record of their purchase history?

Offer White Glove Delivery

Recent news items about drones, food lockers, and other innovations coming from Amazon make it obvious that they are very focused on delivering as fast as possible. How magical is it that you can, with one click, have a book delivered to your device in seconds? What parts of your product or service can you deliver for instant gratification? Perhaps you can make sure that the customer receives some component of the service immediately, even if the whole transaction can’t be instantaneous.

Be Proactive

Amazon will sometimes offer me recommendations, remind me of family birthdays, and provide other proactive information as I need it. When you see an opportunity to add value to your customers, do it! If you see an article that is directly relevant to your prospect’s challenges, go ahead and send it. Be proactive and be useful.

Reaching default status is the Holy Grail of sales. Think about it…when was the last time you switched toothpaste brands? Do you get all confused when your favorite product changes its packaging?

All of the key points above relate to one thing–considering the customer’s thought process and experience first.

Focus on removing any trace of friction from the customer’s buying process, and you might earn a spot as the “go-to” provider.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, marketing, purchasing, Shopping, strategy

High Times Shopping In The Sky Mall

February 22, 2007 by Chris Cree

Sometimes I Don’t Get Marketing

Now I’ll be the first to admit that there are some things I just don’t get.

One Way to CC It logo

For example I don’t get most things that have to do with home decorating. When Christmas rolls around my wife will take some classy looking ornaments and, say, arrange them on a side table over a snazzy table cloth with some glass bead strings snaked around the table.

It looks great! But I never would have thought to do that on my own. To my way of thinking ornaments belonged on a tree. Arranging them festively on a table would never have occurred to me.

This sort of thing has become a running joke in our marriage. We’ll see something along those lines and she will turn to me. Do you get that? You don’t get that do you?

Nope.

It looks great and all. But that someone would have taken the time and effort? Don’t get it.

I’m really OK with not getting some things.

I get most things about business. But there are some things about the whole marketing thing that I just make me shake my head. Nope. Don’t get that either. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Successful Blog Tagged With: advertising, Airlines, bc, Chris-Cree, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, One Way to CC It, Shopping

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