Stand out from the crowd

#CustomerSuccess is a series of interviews with the owners or managers of the largest and fastest growing eStores. The interviews are devoid of marketing noise so that the readers can learn first-hand how people working in eCommerce built their position and achieved success. In the interviews they reveal i.a. what they put emphasis on in customer service and how they acquire new customers, and, above all, how they activate regular or previous users of the store platforms. They talk about the greatest sins of eCommerce Managers and the challenges facing the industry.

Stand out from the crowd

The eCommerce industry is developing vigorously. It is a vast market that is still rising. In the CEE region eCommerce accounts for only several percent of the whole Retail market, while in the UK eCommerce already accounts for more than 20% of the total consumer sales! With the currently available technological solutions companies that are just entering the eCommerce market can successfully compete with experienced players. The first step they should take is it to examine the market on which they want to operate. To determine the groups of potential customers and the territorial reach of their activity. Another step is the selection of appropriate tools that will allow them to operate professionally. Sales support tools are an essential element of a thriving company, in which there are no instances of lost data, and therefore no lost sales opportunities.

In order to serve your customers well, you have to LEARN more about them

If you don’t know your customers, then you don’t even know whether you are offering your product to the right people. If you don’t know whether you are offering your product to the right people, then you cannot meet their needs. Having one’s needs met is the basic factor that determines whether a user who enters your eShop will make a purchase. Additionally, that user could become your regular customer, but for that to happen, you need to learn more about them. On the market there are now tools available that enable collecting information about the people who are in the network. One such tool is the edrone CRM system.

Regardless of your industry, after you learn more about your customers, you should focus on providing them with a comprehensive service. All aspects of this matter are important.

„Taking into account the expectations of customers, we are especially focusing on the speed of shipping and the usability of our store website. Other important elements include the legibility of the shipping costs, as well as mailings with news, promotions, discount programs – all of that influences customer satisfaction.„

– reveals Lukas Czajka from Winodomowe. Purchases should be as simplified as possible for the users.

„Above all, you need to be effective and immediately respond to questions, comments, or requests from the customers.”

– emphasizes Marius Mac from Aloha From Deer, a brand popular with celebrities such as Anja Rubik, 50 Cent and Snoop Dog, who proudly wear and promote its clothes.  Using influencers for the promotion of products is possible thanks to the edrone social CRM functionality, which allows for matching all the public information about users available on the Internet with the email messages. This way we can find out which customers are among those most influential. Then we can establish special cooperation with them, which will support our sales.

Be close to the customers and ENGAGE them, or how to convert visitors into buyers

In order for users to become your customers, it is important to maintain continuous contact with them. An important role in this regard is played by marketing automation, which allows for the personalization of content and sending messages at the most appropriate time.

„We focus on determining why customers abandon the shopping cart or leave the store without buying anything. We are currently using marketing automation, where we have the ability to check the statistics”.

– says Paul Szymoniak from Muve.

It is worth to take a look at various solutions, to check their real conversion rates using marketing tools, to carry out A/B tests and to use personalized and tailored messages.

„In reality it is much cheaper to reach old customers, among other things, with the help of marketing automation, than to invest in the search for new ones.”

– says Michael Blak, the CEO of edrone.

People deciding on the implementation of dedicated CRM systems in their eStores are open about the reasons for such a decision.

„We needed a CRM system that will start operating and collecting data from the moment the codes are introduced, without setting up scorings and funnels for the segmentation of bases. As a company, we need functioning tools that will enable us to quickly learn about our customers and to reach them even faster with the appropriate message.”

– says Kamil Karasinski  from  City Sport.

What matters is the ease of implementation of the system, its fast and intuitive operation as well as effectiveness. Thanks to edrone, which allows for the analytics and segmentation of users, owners and managers of eStores are able to verify the target customer groups, create new ones, and most importantly, reach them from the level of a single panel.

Seven capital sins of eCommerce Managers

The managers of the biggest and fastest growing eStores, told us about the sins which they commit most frequently. The core of a business should be the creation of a plan. The lack of a plan prevents you from tracking the progress in the undertaken activities and setting priorities. A mind closed to new solutions, the lack of a broader view on the sales funnel, forgetting about the average customer value over time and skipping the older customers, are other sins of persons working in the eCommerce industry. We should also mention the failure to measure the effects of the carried out activities. Even if eStores are monitoring their activities on the Web, they pay too little attention to the analysis of the collected statistics.                                    

„Failing to take into account the usability aspect of the e-store, allowing for the appearance of errors during shopping. In terms of customer service the biggest sin would be the reluctance to engage in a dialog with the customers and not responding to their questions and concerns.“

– says Marius Mac from Aloha From Deer.

What is the challenge faced by eCommerce Managers?

To keep up with the expectations of customers, it is necessary to follow the activities of global leaders and European giants. Today, companies of virtually any size can take advantage of the technological solutions from the field of marketing automation and CRM for eCommerce. One of them is the edrone CRM system dedicated to the eCommerce industry. You should use these solutions if you want your e-store to also become a major player in the market. Marketing automation offers many possibilities, and therefore the biggest challenge for the eCommerce industry is to keep up with the possibilities that appear on the market and to select the ones that are the most effective.

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Author: Pauline Wiesiolek – PR Manager of edrone and click community. She graduated in management and marketing, and in finance and accounting at the University of Warsaw. She is responsible for the consistent image, branding and communications of edrone and entities belonging to the Click Community group in traditional media, on the Internet and during industry events. She is interested in journalism as well as the trends and changes taking place in the media. She loves running, and in her spare time she enjoys reading the biographies of entrepreneurs and athletes.