With a drastic increase in online shopping, a growing number of entrepreneurs are starting an ecommerce store with hopes of hitting it big (think Amazon).
While it’s easy to get your ecommerce store up and running, there is no guarantee of success. This is why you need to implement a comprehensive business and marketing plan that will help you move to the top of your industry, overcome the competition and reach all of your goals.
With any ecommerce business, there is a fine line between success and failure. This is why you need to make all the right moves at the right time.
Here are 4 tactics that will make your ecommerce store rock from day one:
Devote Yourself to Customer Service
Did you know that 78% of shoppers have stepped away from a purchase because of poor customer service? That’s a number that’s too big to ignore.
Make it your goal to provide the highest quality customer service experience from day one. This means many things:
- Answer all questions in a timely manner
- Implement a live chat feature so consumers can ask questions when they’re fresh on their mind
- Follow up with customers to ensure they’re satisfied (and willing to visit your store again in the future)
- Make it a priority to provide fast shipping
You want your customers to feel like a million bucks at all times, even if they’re only spending a few dollars.
Drop Shipping Can Eliminate Common Problems
When creating a new ecommerce store, you can move in one of two directions:
- Keep physical inventory on site and ship items as orders come in
- Use a drop shipping model in which you never physically touch the items you’re selling
Drop shipping continues to grow in popularity for many reasons, including the ability to save money on both warehouse and shipping costs.
Also, there is an ever-growing list of potential drop shipping partners. For example, the practice of Amazon drop shipping is more popular than ever before, as the online retail giant works with ecommerce businesses across the globe. Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) basically allows you to store goods in Amazon’s fulfillment center, and when a sale is made, they pack and ship the product to the customer. Easy breezy.
Take Advantage of Tools
There is a tool for almost every aspect of your business and ecommerce store. From sales to marketing to traffic analytics, you don’t have to look far to find what you need.
For example, if you need help tracking visitors to your site and understanding how people engage with your store, you can turn to Google Analytics or CrazyEgg.
If you’re going with drop shipping and your ecommerce store is built on Shopify, a Chrome extension called Oberlo allows you to import thousands of drop-shipped products to your store in seconds and automate many parts of it.
Some of these tools are free, while others will set you back a few dollars each month. Even if you have to pay for a tool, what you get in return is well worth the money.
Test and Track Everything
The difference between success and failure with an ecommerce business can be something as simple as your store layout, color scheme or checkout process. This is why you need to test and track everything.
Does your online store have a high shopping cart abandonment rate? Rather than continue to lose money, experiment with a streamlined checkout process and the availability of live support
Do you have reason to believe your site design is too cluttered, thus chasing consumers away? This should lead you to test different layouts and simplify your design.
Remember this: it’s one thing to make changes to your online store but another thing entirely to track what happens as a result. When you know what’s working and what isn’t, you can make more informed decisions in the future.
There are tools that allow you to test every aspect of your website, such as Optimizely or Monetate. This takes all the guesswork out of the process.
Starting an ecommerce store can be an exciting venture that brings something new to your life every day of the week. If you want to achieve great success, it’s time to implement these four tactics. Each and every one will push you closer to reaching your goals!
What do you think about these tactics? Have you used one or more in the past? Share your personal experience in the comment section below.
Rotem Gal is the Vice President of Marketing for InboundJunction