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Talking Shop – What Your Ecommerce Site Can’t Do Without

If you’re reading this then you know that the future of shopping is well-and-truly online. But not every shop is created equal. The ecommerce businesses that keep the tips below in mind are going to see much more success with their customers.

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Focus on the user experience first and foremost

This should be a given for any site but in the world of ecommerce, it’s actually easier to lose customers. Beyond categorization for products that makes sense and smart advanced search options, take an in-depth look through the whole process of buying items on your store. Think about where you can trim the fat, where another page or another click might not necessarily be needed. Putting customers through too long a process puts you at real risk of shopping cart abandonment. Another way of fighting it is by using breadcrumb navigation that shows customers at what stage they’re at through every part of the process. User friendliness must be your first and last concern.

Work to your product

No two ecommerce systems should work alike. In fact, if they have different products and different target markets, they should be wildly different. Beyond good navigation, you need a focus on the value proposition of the site and the individual products. For instance, the front page should be loud and clear with the deals on some of the most popular product types on the site. A front page that says nothing about the products is going to result in a lot of confused visitors. But attention to detail should go deeper than that. For instance, writing great product descriptions depends wildly from product to product. Lifestyle and fashion products, for instance, rely more on greater visual detail. Meanwhile, tech like computers and TVs need the technical details up-front. We’re talking resolutions, gigabytes, and compatibilities. You can’t sell two different kinds of products on the same selling points.

Have a site that works with you

Even worse than a site that’s confusing to customers is one that’s confusing to you. Not just in terms of design but management. Nowadays, there a lot of ecommerce hosting options that make it a lot easier for site owners to choose a platform built specifically for hosting ecommerce pages, with all the various sub-pages that go with it. Continuous, never-ending testing of the site is essential, too. Not just to make sure all pages are working. Methods like A/B testing also help you better understand how to make the site much easier to use for the customer.

Watch and learn

One of the best things about running a shop online as opposed to in the physical world is how much easier it is to store data on not just your customer base, but individual customers, too. Measuring the whole gives you a finger on the pulse of the market, seeing the trends from the customer’s’ point of view that can help you decide on which new stock might work best for the business. Building individual customer profiles, however, lets you go even further. You can specialize offers and create a bespoke browsing experience for each user that makes them a lot more likely to see something they’re tempted to buy.

Why your business needs to do Ecommerce this Covid19 Season

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Ecommerce|Why your business needs to do Ecommerce this Covid19 SeasonNo one expected a pandemic to happen this year. 2020 was immensely hyped as the year of growth – and yet almost everything came to a halt. Our mobility was reduced due to a majority of establishments closing down. Our day-to-day movements were also restricted due to strict safety protocols.

During this time, there was an increase in online consumer activity. People were relying on deliveries and shopping apps for their necessities along with other items. This has become a new habit that we have adopted. Especially now, this trend is continuing to rise upwards without any doubts that it will fade away anytime soon. A lot of businesses have already taken the chance to promote their brand on the digital platforms – where the audience is now at.

Using eCommerce websites, some businesses were able to survive when the pandemic hit our country. Physical stores had to close which heavily affected the flow of income. Until now, there are still health risks people consider before going outside, which means lesser foot traffic and profit.

If you’re still not convinced you need to have an eCommerce website, here are the reasons why:

1.The audience is already digital

Many countries in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, are growing very quickly in their e-commerce market size. This shows that people have quickly adapted to the digital marketplace.

Besides the essentials, office and home-related products saw an increase in sales, as people had to make their space conducive for work, studying, and even entertainment (since social gatherings are still discouraged). Office staff began to buy items to work from home; students bought items such as desk lamps due to the restrictions in public libraries; others have bought gaming consoles and accessories as a way to pass the time and connect online with friends.

With these opportunities that have risen despite the restrictions, it can be said that the customers are not gone, but have simply migrated to another platform where your business should also be present.

2. A website is more sustainable than leasing a space

Since people are more active on the internet, and considering the ongoing pandemic, there is a lesser need to expand your store’s physical space. In fact, having a physical store nowadays could cost you more compared to the pre-pandemic period due to the mandated safety measurements.

Therefore, you should take this time to make your online presence more prominent. Here, we would recommend investing in a website, because you can use it in the long run. Even when the pandemic is finally over, you can run your eCommerce business there, and experts also predict that the eCommerce trend will be here to stay. Also, if in the future your business is able to expand to other countries, you have an already well-designed website to work with.

Also, a website is available for your customers 24/7 compared to a physical store that has a limited time to stay open. Your potential customer can send their inquiries or make purchases wherever they are, whenever they like.

If you are looking for a web developer, check out FirstCom Solutions here: https://www.firstcom.com.sg/

3. Have an analysis like never before

Once you have your own eCommerce website, there is an array of website analytics and services you can utilize to see how your customers are using your site. Using these tools, you will have a better understanding of your customers’ behaviors. You can also view your competitors’ performances, and create counter-strategies from those.

There are numerous ways to use your website’s data to your advantage. From discounts to special promos, you can target the market you want to penetrate more accurately with website analysis. You could see what products people are most likely to view but not purchase, and act on that data. You can also conduct affinity analysis more efficiently if you have an eCommerce website, which could help in creating cross-selling and up-selling strategies for your business.

This is a great way for you to be proactive in managing your business. Having data you can access whenever and wherever you please will help you improve your business.

Conclusion

It’s a no brainer that a business should always be open to changes and adapt. Even before COVID-19 happened, online shopping had already built its popularity. Now, it has become essential for businesses to have an eCommerce website of their own to survive and grow.

If you are a business owner who still doesn’t have an eCommerce website, there is still time for you to catch up. From the comfort of your own home, be secured in having income and proceed with business as usual.

Keep up with the new consumer mindset and move forward by having your own eCommerce website. Embrace the opportunities waiting for you in the digital platform.

Tips and Tricks to Improve Sales With Cloud Apps

Every business strives to close as many deals as it possibly can within a given period. However, not many business owners are willing to invest in upgrading their sales processes to match or even surpass their better-performing competitors.

Are you struggling with managing your customers and looking for tips and tricks to improve your sales? It’s time to embrace automation and move most of your process to the cloud technology. Doing this will help to free up time for your sales team so that it can concentrate on actually making sales.

Below are key areas where you need to focus your automation efforts when looking to optimize your sales process.

Outreach and prospecting

Let’s admit it, outreaching is arguably the most time-consuming activity for any salesperson or team. In most cases, you have to get into a lengthy back and forth exchange with prospects via email, calling, or even visiting in person before you can close a deal. This often leaves you with very little time and energy to do anything else.

However, it doesn’t always have to be this way.

All you need to enhance customer communication is to invest in a proven system that manages everything for you. A reliable customer relationship management (CRM) system like SalesLoft or ActiveCampaign enables you to manage your phone calls and emails directly in the system. In the end, you’re able to gather all the information you need in one place including records of all communications with your customers.

Lead management

Your business is booming and now you boast quite a significant amount of contacts to take care of every day of your work week. Manual management is definitely bound to get hectic at some point which calls for automation of this repetitive process.

Look for a service like Zoho CRM which helps in various lead management tasks including sorting and scoring leads. This ensures you do not miss out on any essential step when qualifying your prospects as well as prioritizing those that are closest to converting.

With such a system, you’re able to get a clear picture of your prospects based on their history with your business and all their past communication. Learn about their preferred approach and language and use these details to find the most effective way to connect with them.

Some CRM systems are also able to assign leads automatically to different sales representatives in your company based on factors like their existing workload, language, and geographical distribution. This allows your or your sales manager to focus on other more critical tasks such as coaching the reps and closing deals.

Sales reporting

For a long time, Microsoft Excel and Outlook were the most sophisticated data storage and reporting tools companies knew. Indeed, everyone that handled data in a company including accountants and managers had to prove that they had enough skills working with these tools to get promoted at their workplaces.

Microsoft Excel and related programs are still being used and considered important for certain tasks. However, we now have to accept that there are more effective tools that take much lesser time to capture, organize, and generate data reports than these two.

Are you spending too much time than you should on your data management and therefore failing to put enough effort into making sales? It’s time to re-organize your priorities.

With a tool like Agile CRM or SalesForce, you can optimize your reporting process and improve your productivity and collaboration with other members of your sales team.

Payment

You’ve probably done all the hard work of convincing your prospects that your company is the right one for the job – so, what next? Well, it’s time to sign contracts and request the agreed payments.

To make this process seamless and also prevent common payment issues arising in the future, consider using automated invoicing methods such as Zoho Invoice and Paypal. You might also want to look at other tools like Dotloop or Docusign to capture your customers’ signatures; you’ll possibly need when dealing with checks and some invoices.

Conclusion

At this point, you’re possibly wondering, ‘you’ve already recommended quite a handful of tools and systems – how do I manage them properly so they don’t end up burdening me?’

Our advice is simple – acquire a cloud-based CRM service that integrates and automatically syncs data between all your business apps and systems. Take a look at this PieSync vs. Zapier comparison which features two of the industry’s best data syncing solutions.

Automate your sales process today and watch as your business profitability grows exponentially.

Freelancers, Here’s How To Put Your Website To The Test

Being a freelancer means relying on your website to bring in customers – it’s your main source of income. For any business, big or small, a website is a vital marketing tool. However, for freelancers it’s more than that – as a freelancer, your website is the heart of your business, which is why it’s so vital to ensure that it’s as effective as possible. The question is, of course, how can you do that – how can you determine how successful your business website is? Use our guide below to determine if your website is as effective and as successful as you think it is…

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Utilize objective feedback

A simple way to determine whether your website is as effective as it could be is to utilize objective feedback. There are many options for getting this feedback, with one of the best ones being AB testing – this is where an objective group of people are shown multiple versions of a website or page and choose the one that they like the best. There are several benefits of AB testing, including being able to get a better idea of what you could consider changing and what you should ensure stays the same. The fact is that when it comes to ensuring that your website is as well-designed as possible, objective feedback is key.

Monitor your site’s traffic

The number of visitors that your website gets is a good indication of how effective your website is as a marketing resource. Think of your website like a shop window for your products and services – for your business to be a success, your website needs to be as appealing as possible and get plenty of traffic. Monitor your overall traffic using Google Analytics or another similar tool and take note of when there are dips and spikes in your page views and cross reference them to days, times, and anything else that may be relevant.

Track new vs. returning users

Using monitoring software like Google Analytics, you can track your new vs. returning visitors. Usually, websites tend to have more new visitors than returning ones, which is perfectly fine. However, if your site has predominantly more new users than returning ones, this could indicate that your site isn’t quite right and needs some changes making to it.

Note down conversion rates

A vital part of working as a freelancer is determining the conversion rate of your website. If you allow for your services to be ordered online, you can track how many users made purchases and how many abandoned their shopping carts mid-purchase. This kind of data demonstrates how user-friendly your site is, and whether you need to focus on improving usability. If your site isn’t easy to use and navigate, the fact is that your customers will go elsewhere – it’s as simple as that.

Determining how successful your website is, is no easy task, as there are lots of factors to take into account. Hopefully, however, the advice above will help to make the process of measuring your website’s effectiveness a little easier for you.

Take Your Business Online

A strong presence in the world of the Internet is a necessity for the businesses of today. As a business owner, you probably already know that. You’ve probably created your business a website, and all the social media handles to match. You’ve probably liked a few photos, ran a few competitions and uploaded a few videos. But there’s so much more your business can do online. In fact, there’s a world wide web of opportunities out there. Below are just some of the things you should consider when it comes to taking your business online.

As a business owner you want to make profit from the goods you sell, right? Well then, there’s no better place to start than with e-commerce. Setting up a stall in the Internet marketplace is an online option that all manner of business owners are taking to in this day and age. And it’s no wonder they are when you consider how easy it is. All you need to do is find a service that will cater to your e-commerce needs and help you create your own marketplace and you’re up and running. An example of such a service is Shopify. They can help when it comes to building your site, ensuring that is is mobile friendly and making it as easy to customise as possible. And once you’ve set up your marketplace it’s time to decide upon the most important aspect: what you are selling. When it comes to this you should most certainly have a snoop at your competition. To find your competition simply search for the keywords linked to your marketplace on a search engine and, voila! They’ll appear. Once you find them take a look at what they’re selling, how much they are selling and how much they are selling it all for. And you should also take notes on a host of other things on your competitor’s site too. This includes taking notes on the overall theme of the site in order to figure out how to make your store as user-friendly as possible. Scribbling down information on how they are linking back to their parent website. And jotting down anything that you think contributes to their USP (unique selling point). You need to come up with a USP of your own, but there’s nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from the USPs of others.

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Photo courtesy of Max Pixel

And if you haven’t dipped your business’s toe into the pool of blogging yet, then you should most certainly do so. Blogs have turned into big business in recent times. So big in fact that some businesses have taken to hiring somebody that is known as a webmaster in order to keep their blog active. Blogs allow consumers to access and interact with like minded people. They allow consumers to see the development of a business in real-time. They allow them to feel close to the business. If you want to induce a healthy and incredibly modern relationship with your customers, then starting a blog should be at the forefront of your plans.

So, if you want to increase your business’s ROI and it’s relationship with it’s customers, make sure to take heed of the advice above! The Internet offers a plethora of opportunities for a business to thrive upon it, you just have to be brave enough to embrace the digital age to take them.