Online businesses have been booming for quite some time now. And even though new stores pop up every day, the market is still vast, and that’s why so many people are hopping into the eCommerce scene.
Sadly, not everyone joining this industry stands to make a profit. Online business owners face lots of challenges that force many stores to shut down. In fact, a good number of stores close down before they break even.
On the brighter side, there are business owners who are making a killing in the industry. This begs the question, what’s the difference between successful and unsuccessful online businesses?
There are many reasons behind this, but one of the most significant ones is how business owners decide to run their stores. That’s because running an online store is perhaps the most challenging part of online businesses. There are way too many variables in play, and in most cases, business owners find themselves short-staffed and overwhelmed. Worse still, some lack basic skills in running online stores.
To help you avert this disaster, we’ve compiled four essential tips that will help you run your business better.
1. Review Your Data
Data is everything when running an eCommerce store. Not only does it show your progress, but it also gives you critical insights into how different products are performing in your store.
Additionally, the latest eCommerce tools gather key data on customer behaviors when in your store. For instance, they can show where your customers spend most of the time when in your store. They can also show the points of exit where most users abandon your store from.
With all this information at hand, it’s fairly easy to stay on top of your shop’s performance. You’ll always know what’s working and what isn’t.
Therefore, make data your friend. Invest in the necessary tools to gather and analyze crucial data from your shop.
Sadly, most people do not know how to interpret some of the store data. This is a problem for all types of sellers, from Amazon merchants to independent eCommerce business owners.
Luckily, there are plenty of courses to help you with this. An FBA course can help you with setting up and understanding your Amazon store. You can also find similar courses for Shopify and other platforms. Just make sure the course is relevant and useful, lest you end up wasting your money.
2. Don’t Ignore Social Media
You cannot separate online businesses and social media. If you want a shot at success, you must utilize social media platforms.
Having an account on all socials is a tall order, though. There are honestly too many of these platforms to keep track of.
Therefore, what you should do is conduct a little research and find out where your audience is. Then set up your accounts there.
And what exactly should you do on these platforms? Well, you can use social media for marketing your store. You can run ads, partner with influencers, and even pay social media marketing agencies to boost engagements and brand awareness through the sites.
Additionally, you can use platforms like Instagram and Twitter to keep your audience updated on new items, discounts, and other important news. Twitter is also great for providing customer support services.
3. Consider Outsourcing Order Fulfillment
Your ultimate goal is to deliver a seamless customer experience. Part of that experience is ensuring orders are fulfilled as swiftly as possible. While this may be an easy DIY task in the early stages, it’s bound to get very challenging as your store grows and the number of customers increases.
For this reason, we recommend partnering with an order fulfillment company. The organization will take the burden of fulfilling the orders off your shoulders. This gives you sufficient time and space to focus on the nitty-gritty day-to-day operations of the business.
4. Evaluate Your Customer Experience Constantly
Customer experience can make or break your online store. Give your customers a smooth experience, and they’ll keep coming back. In fact, they’ll tell their friends about your store, and this will generate more leads for you.
On the other hand, a terrible customer experience can bury your store. The word of bad experience spreads like wildfire on social media. This will crush your store’s reputation, and your numbers will take a hit.
You must go out of your way to deliver the best customer experience possible.
Look at your store; are the pages loading fast enough? Is the website even mobile-friendly? Are the payment methods, shipping, and return policies good enough, or can you do better?
Go through the comments on your social platforms and see what the audience is saying. And that’s not all.
Place a survey on your website to ask customers for feedback. You can also send the survey through emails.
Use whichever method you find effective to collect data that can help you deliver the absolute best buying experience.
Running an online store properly is, without a doubt, tough. However, you are more than capable of doing it. You just need the right knowledge and necessary tools for the job.
Hopefully, the above guide has given you this knowledge. It’s now time to put it into action.
