What are the Factors to Focus on to get Better Results in eCommerce?

We live in a digital world, and this is incorporated into how we do business. Ecommerce has become very important and represents a shift in the way we do business in recent years. The easy part of eCommerce is bringing up an idea for a business and creating a website. However, many people in different parts of the world do this same thing every day. So the competition in the eCommerce space is very stiff, and ordinarily, this makes it difficult for many businesses to see any form of daylight. This explains why it takes more than just having a good business idea to have a successful e-commerce business and get excellent results.

 

Many things can cause the failure of eCommerce businesses, and it isn’t easy to point them out one at a time. This is why eCommerce entrepreneurs mostly try out numerous tactics to help push their businesses to success, but many still fail.

 

The fact remains that building an eCommerce business that’s successful and gets results is difficult, especially given the amount of competition that you have to face. There are also many things that business owners would need to or have to do but won’t have the time and money to do. However, all of these remain pivotal to the success of your online business. A significant ingredient here is finding the right balance between what you need to do to be successful and what you end up doing, given the many limitations you face.

 

Thankfully, there are many factors that you can focus on to give you the result that you need. If you’re able to put these factors in place and put things right, then you’ll be on your way to success. Some of these factors are discussed further in this article.

 

 

1. Data Analytics

We’re in a world of big data, and data analytics now plays a pivotal role in the success of both big and small businesses. Data has been hyped consistently for many years as the game-changer, and it’s easy to see why. It’s vital for eCommerce because e-commerce has more data flying around than you would with traditional retail businesses. The use of data for businesses gives them a lot of competitive advantage, especially if the competition hasn’t bought into the use of data. One thing the data does for eCommerce businesses is to discover changes that affect their business, such as changes in the pattern of customer behaviors and changes in competition actions and reactions.

 

For instance, if you have a budget from the beginning of the year for the amount to be spent on PPC per month for the whole year 2020, you would have assumed the number of new customers that you could make and the revenue that you would generate per month mostly based on your growth from the previous year. However, the events of 2020, which led to physical retail stores closing for months, people panic buying, varying financial power of the customers, lack of demand, all will affect your PPC plans from the start of the year.

 

Ordinarily, retailers use events, patterns, and plans from the past to guide their decisions and actions. However, the change can be so rapid and massive that it’s impossible to make predictions from events of the past weeks. So, it’s essential to focus on data instead of seeing the trends as they change so you can adjust your marketing, buying, trading, and customer experience strategies to ensure your continued success regardless. Also, if your competition quantifies the customers’ behavior using data, they’ll react to the changes. If you fail to do the same, you’ll give them an excellent opportunity to go ahead of you in the market.

 

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another popularly heralded technology that changes the game for eCommerce businesses as well. Although we often talk about this technology a lot, we have focused so much on talking about it that we fail to see how it has already engulfed us. For instance:

 

• Most of the display ads that we see on the internet are placed precisely at your face with the aid of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.
• Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter use machine learning algorithms to decide the content that their user sees or not. Social media doesn’t have free will; we see what the machine learning algorithm shows us.
• Google ads engine also uses AI tools to fuel the revenue of companies.

 

For many businesses, machine learning is used for relatively simple tasks, such as:

• Showing particular products to the customers that are likely to buy them and not just showing any random item from the store.
• Maximizing gross margin return by ranking category pages.
• Make work easier for the customer support team by categorizing customer support.
• Estimate the propensity of customers to buy to create CRM campaigns that are informed.

 

3. Product price regulation

As the competition in the eCommerce space is thick, customers have different options to choose from. The natural reaction from them is to compare the prices that different brands and businesses offer for the same product. This is why entrepreneurs also have to take upon themselves the task of regulating the cost of their product. To do this, they must first be aware of the price their competitors in the market charge for the same product.

 

The good thing is that there are several tools available for entrepreneurs to check and compare the prices of products against those of eCommerce websites that they’re competing against. Examples of these tools are Import.io and DataCrops.

 

Numerous pricing strategies can be used to find out the most attractive price spot to make more sales. But this also depends on the type of product that is being priced and the market. For instance, keystone pricing is a very common pricing strategy, and it involves doubling the wholesale price.

 

This works very well, but there are additional factors that you must consider so that you’re spot on with the price such that it’s not too low, neither is it too high. Other pricing strategies include competitive pricing, psychological pricing, value-based pricing, discount pricing, etc.

 

4. Payments And Finances

It’s important to take into account all financial matters, including any outstanding payments from suppliers and affiliates. All eCommerce entrepreneurs should have a background in finance management or at least hire someone who can handle the accounting and finance tasks.

 

You don’t want to end up in bankruptcy just because of missing paying your affiliates and suppliers. Late fees, interest rates, and other charges can pile up quickly. So, it’s important to keep track of all your bills. In addition, you risk losing the trust of your stakeholders if you lose balance of your finances.

 

Because of bankruptcy, GearBest’s website goes offline. GearBest was focused on gadgets and technology. Customers with device issues were assisted by their technical support, along with a 45-day guaranteed money back.

 

However, the company had issues with staff, affiliates, and suppliers due to outstanding payments. Also, the company had a history of not delivering client orders. Hence, the company was blacklisted.

 

Don’t allow your eCommerce business to be ruined by lack of accounting skills or not hiring an expert to do the job. Invest in finance management tutorials and hire a qualified and experienced accountant. You can outsource an accountant or an accounting firm to handle the work for you.

 

5. Online store accessibility

One of the most critical parts of an eCommerce business is the website. It’s vital to the success of the business. When you’re designing your eCommerce website, you must make sure that your website can accommodate every type of customer that comes on it. Remember that your online store is the most critical tool to communicate and transact with your customers and prospects. Therefore, it has to relay the information that they need very quickly and concisely. This will help you to evoke a good level of trustworthiness for your online business.

 

For an online business, accessibility to the online store is essential because it ensures that the business is within reach of its customers. This means that they’re open to different types of people, ranging from people of different backgrounds and cultures to people with disabilities, etc. It would be beneficial for you to set your online store such that it is accessible in other languages. This will help increase your business’s reach and help you gain customers from far and wide, and make them key members of your audience. Also, you could make it more accessible for people with vision problems such as impaired vision, color blindness, etc., by using large font sizes and a high-contrast visual theme.

 

Also, there are many other things that you can do so that your online store works better on mobile devices. This is very important as many people browse the web and shop for products using their mobile devices. This could mean optimizing images and also using responsive designs to make the website load faster. If you’re able to do enough to make your website accessible to all types of customers, then you’ll be able to attract more people and make more sales.

 

6. Convenient payment method

Many factors are essential for the success of an eCommerce business that we can’t mention in this article. However, it’ll be a great injustice, not to mention payment methods. Every eCommerce business has a payment method. It would be best to use a technique that’s simple and very convenient for your customers. The process must be as stress-free as possible. When customers want to pay for products in their carts and encounter difficulty in their payment, they’re likely to exit the process without finalizing their purchase. It’s the business that runs at a loss as the customers can move to other competitors. That’s why it’s ideal for eCommerce stores to have multiple methods so that customers choose the best one for them.

 

Conclusion

The success of eCommerce businesses rests in the ability to make certain things happen. When these factors are put in place, then they will likely get good results and be successful. Some of these factors that guarantee excellent results for online businesses are already discussed in this article.