As a business owner, your main focus is on the customer and how you can meet their needs. Whether it’s providing an easy checkout process or adding a variety of products for them to choose from, the whole point is to get customers to shop with you and to ideally become repeat customers.
In order to meet the needs of customers, you have to get to the root of what customers want from their shopping experience… they want to know that they’ve received a quality product. According to the E-Commerce Foundation, consumers want to make smarter buying decisions and because of that, they will research various products before even considering spending a penny on a particular product.
As a business owner, it’s so important that you’re able to tap into the needs and wants of customers to give them the shopping experience they deserve. Now, from the business side of things, it’s quite obvious the main things you need to do to attract and keep customers. You, of course, will first need to build your website and create a beautiful storefront but in addition to that, there are other aspects of starting an online business that is just as important but is oftentimes overlooked.
If you were to look up important aspects for a successful online business, the majority of what you would find information on is with marketing. Yes, marketing is a very important aspect of a successful e-commerce business but it’s not the only aspect… Just think about it; how may successful stores do you know of that were solely built on marketing and pure luck? There’s none!
If you look at some of today’s most successful businesses you’ll see that they achieved success based on selling quality products, offering reasonable prices, and making sure their customers feel confident in knowing they’ve made a smart shopping decision by shopping with them… for a business to achieve that type of success, it would not only require all of that but it would also require work in business areas that most business owners don’t really put too much thought into and that customers never even think about.
Business Areas That are Typically Overlooked
Shipping Services
In the world of e-commerce, your products are, of course, displayed online but while your products look shiny and brand new from a computer screen, there is also the part where your online product has to get packed and shipped to reach the realms of the real world. In order for your online product to reach the real world, you need to have a good shipping service in place.
You may not realize it but the shipping service you choose plays a major role in customer satisfaction as well. As you probably already know, customers have very high expectations when it comes to their shopping experience. For one, they want what they want when they want it. So what that means is that customers want what they order online immediately.
They definitely want that instant gratification but they also know that they will have to wait for it to be delivered… Now, just because they know they have to wait for it to be delivered, doesn’t mean that they’re okay with waiting for weeks before they get it.
As an e-commerce business owner, the best thing you can do to ensure your customers get the products they ordered in a timely fashion is to employ a shipping provider and streamline your packaging and delivery.
Finding the Right Supplier
To be a successful e-commerce business owner, you have to find the right supplier. Why? Because the products you sell are a direct reflection of your business. If you have an e-commerce business selling clothes, you want to make sure your clothes are of good quality. You want to make sure they are well-made, won’t fall apart in the wash, and can withstand different temperatures, etc. The last thing you want, from a business perspective, is to be known as the business that sells cheap products… that’s the quickest way to entrepreneurial suicide.
As mentioned earlier, your customers are your main focus and the way you treat them is what’s going to determine whether they come back or not. If you want them to come back, you need to invest in CRM software, especially if you have a startup business. The thing to understand about CRM is that yes it is software but it’s also the process in how you handle certain situations and interactions with customers.
Product Storage: Warehouse Operations
Lots of e-commerce owners use their homes as their warehouse. In the beginning stages of running your business, it may work because your house is just big enough to house all the products your selling but as your business grows, you’re going to need a much bigger space to house all those products. Just think about it… a growing e-commerce store can have an inventory of thousands of products and you don’t want your living room, kitchen, and bedrooms to be taken over with products to a point where you can even relax in your own home because you’re having to step over products.
As an e-commerce business owner, one of the best decisions you will make is to outsource your fulfilment operations to a warehouse. This will be very helpful around the holiday season when most people do all their shopping. According to Forbes, Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and Cyber Monday is also a busy day for online stores.
Overlooked but Not Forgotten
As you can see, these four components of online stores are very important. They’re definitely not forgotten but oftentimes overlooked, especially in the beginning stages of starting an online business. In the beginning stages, a business owner is putting the majority of their focus and attention on marketing their business, setting competitive prices, and making sure their website is appealing to customers…
All of that is definitely important but it’s the things on the back end like finding the right suppliers, warehouse operations, and CRM software that are equally important but are often not even thought about in the beginning. If you are in the market to start your own online business, you definitely want to put your focus on the major things like an effective marketing strategy and a well-designed site but you also don’t want to neglect those back-end components as well… keep a watchful eye on all components of your business.
