{"id":15037,"date":"2022-01-06T15:38:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T10:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stechguide.com\/?p=15037"},"modified":"2022-01-06T15:38:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T10:08:33","slug":"stumbling-blocks-all-ecommerce-businesses-face-and-how-to-overcome-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stechguide.com\/stumbling-blocks-all-ecommerce-businesses-face-and-how-to-overcome-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Stumbling Blocks All eCommerce Businesses Face (And How To Overcome Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Building an ecommerce business is easy. Making it successful is not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As we go into 2022, companies in this arena face profound challenges, but none that they can\u2019t overcome. What\u2019s more, the world is currently working in their favor. Total online sales are rising due to the pandemic, and consumers are changing their habits every day, shopping online instead of going to the store.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In this post, we take a look at some of the stumbling blocks that all ecommerce businesses face right now (and how to overcome them). Check them out below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ecommerce businesses are discovering the hard way that consumers aren\u2019t always happy with the products that they receive. According to data, more than 60 percent of shoppers consider returning items they buy online every year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For this reason, <\/span>your store\u2019s refund policies<\/span><\/a> and product returns matter. You need to put procedures in place that can reassure nervous customers that they will be able to send items back to you if they don\u2019t work as intended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Remember, as a retailer, customer satisfaction is your biggest priority. If there are other stores in your niche offering superior returns, that will give them a competitive edge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The solution here is to do the following:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Getting pricing and shipping right is currently a major challenge in the ecommerce sector. It\u2019s such a major hurdle that many players in the industry dedicate large chunks of their research and development budgets to solving it. For instance, Amazon invested millions of dollars into developing one-click purchases and its Prime membership offer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Most consumers <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span><\/i> want to pay extra for shipping. Asking for more money on top of the regular sale price feels like a bit of a steal. Yes, the nominal price of the goods might be lower than your competitors, but when you add shipping to the mix, the overall cost is higher. That\u2019s not what customers want.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no way to totally eliminate shipping costs as a business expense. You still need to pay for warehousing, couriers and so on. However, there are ways to combine it with the price that you charge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, you might consider offering a subscription service. This fee could cover all orders within a given period, say a month. You could also include the price of shipping in all your prices across the board and then offer discounts for customers who order $50 or more worth of goods. This way, you\u2019re not charging extra for shipping, just offering better value when customers buy more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s no easy solution to this problem. Most ecommerce companies are simply offering free shipping or following the market leader in this area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Somebody sitting in their bedroom now has the ability to set up an ecommerce store. All they do is log onto one of the major platforms, play around with the tools for a while, create a website and list their products. They can then connect with dropshippers who will deliver them for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a marketplace like this, it can be challenging to stand out. There are just so many people out there looking for a quick buck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The trick here is to <\/span>thoroughly analyse your competitors<\/span><\/a> \u2013 the successful ones. See what they\u2019re doing and figure out whether you can emulate it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Try using analysis tools to see where they are getting their leads, how they\u2019re generating backlinks, and the number of visitors they\u2019re getting to their site. See where and how they\u2019re advertising and try to work out whether it is working for them or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If that sounds too technical, get a professional marketing agency to do it for you. By conducting analysis on your behalf, they can often provide insights that you wouldn\u2019t be able to generate yourself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many people might be arriving at your site, perhaps attracted by the prospect of low prices, but if they\u2019re not buying, they might as well not be there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ecommerce sites that get a lot of traffic but relatively few purchases are more common than you might think. Web users like their sites, but when it comes to actually making a purchase, they\u2019re wary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are several things that you can do about this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These days, the term \u201ccustomer loyalty\u201d seems a little old-fashioned. Sure, it was a thing in the past: every grocery store had \u201cclients.\u201d But these days, everyone is looking for the lowest price and the best deals. It\u2019s just so hard to get people to stick around.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Customer loyalty is critical<\/span><\/a>, though. It turns out that it is far easier to sell to a customer that you\u2019ve already acquired than it is to a new one. For instance, you might successfully sell to 20 percent of new customers, but 70 percent of existing ones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So what\u2019s the solution here? The first place to look is your customer service. Make sure that you stay in regular contact with the people who buy from you. This will create a sense of community that many other ecommerce sites don\u2019t offer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Avoid spamming their inboxes with the latest deals and products on your website. Instead, try to communicate personally with them via interesting and informative emails. Think about the type of information that your audience would find interesting and then give it to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ecommerce relies on a lot of technology. When it works, it\u2019s fantastic because it allows you to <\/span>automate a stream of income<\/span><\/a>. However, when it doesn\u2019t, it blows. Resolving technical problems is a massive challenge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To succeed in this area, you\u2019ll need to work with professionals to integrate your entire stack. All the technology you use should be complementary and work as a cohesive whole. If it doesn\u2019t, then you\u2019ll add to your administration and support expenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Start with <\/span>eCommerce ERP integration<\/span><\/a>. Connecting your enterprise resource planning to the rest of your system provides immense advantages, including the ability to tell consumers how much stock you have left in real time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to blend your data with logistics solutions as well. This way, you can give your partners a heads-up on your volumes without having to do any pesky manual reporting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, this process is complicated, so you\u2019ll need to partner with agencies that understand how to implement it in your business context.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRefund Policies And Product Returns<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Problematic Pricing And Shipping Policies<\/b><\/h3>\n
Difficulty Standing Out<\/b><\/h3>\n
Conversion Issues<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Lack Of Customer Loyalty<\/b><\/h3>\n
Difficulty Integrating New Software To Existing Technology<\/b><\/h3>\n
Enhancing The Customer Experience<\/b><\/h3>\n