The 3 pillars of a successful e-commerce

Today, without hesitation, e-commerce can be described as the main place where companies interact with their customers.

Online shops are a kind of tool which opens the way for sellers to reach new customers and information about them. It is a relatively simple method that does not require as much money (as in the case of stationary shops) and is most often used by companies.

However, an online presence is not everything. Internet sales alone will not guarantee your success. It is certainly not as easy as it may seem. It is not enough that you upload a product to a website, someone buys it, and you just get the money. Only hard work will guarantee your e-commerce success. Luckily, there are ways and tools to make it all a little easier for you. We’ve picked out 3 things for you that we think can help you succeed in e-commerce.

Whether you’re an internet shark or just starting out online, the tips we’ve put together for you can help. If you’ve been online for a while – don’t let anything slip and check that everything is working as it should. If you are thinking about getting into e-commerce – read our tips and do it professionally.

Forget for a moment that you are selling products. Focus on the relationship with your customer, because this is what will serve as a foundation for further development of your brand.

1. Customers

The most important pillar of your e-commerce success is your customers! Without them, there would be no you. They are your priority and the area you definitely need to focus on first and take care of throughout your business. You’re probably already aware that online customers are very different from offline customers. They can’t touch, smell and try products online, so they need your special support and care. At this stage, you should take care of the customer service you offer. Don’t forget the two important tabs: About the company and Contact, let your customers trust you from the start. But let’s start at the beginning.

When a customer first comes to you, they leave behind important information that you can then use effectively. You already know what they were looking for, which categories they visited, which products they added to their favorites and what they left in their basket. You are able to find out his/her gender, perhaps estimated age and interests and preferences. This is a lot! It’s good to have the information collected from each visitor neatly organised in one place. You can create a so-called Customer Profile, where all the data will clearly and transparently show you who you are actually dealing with.

On subsequent visits, you’ll simply pull an ace out of your sleeve and know what the customer needs and how they want you to take care of them. You’ll be able to personalise your message and recommend the right products to them, making it more likely that they’ll finalise their order. Understanding your customers’ needs is quite complex. However, it is the key to your success. By gathering information about your visitors you are able to create relevant product recommendations for them. You can use the automated recommendation scenario from edrone for this.

Everyone likes to feel special, so approach your visitors individually, show that only they matter to you at any given time. Not as a group, but as separate individuals. They will certainly notice this too. To make them feel even more comfortable, you can take care of the quality of service on your website. A simple contact form may not be enough, especially due to the long time it takes to get a response. You can use the Chat Widget to allow your customers to contact you easily and get an answer immediately! They’ll be pleased and you may be able to help them make a purchase decision by dispelling their doubts.

Last, but not least – in order to eliminate any obstacles that may discourage customers from buying from you, streamline the purchasing process and minimise the number of steps from entering the website to finalising the order. This small detail can significantly influence your customers’ decisions. Think about whether you can put a few things in one step instead of splitting it into three, do you really need those address details that are redundant? Think about it and analyse your needs. You can also add a progress bar to let an impatient customer know how much remains in the process. Adapt the messages that appear so that they are easy for your visitors to understand. Make your return, complaint and exchange policy clear to them so they’re not afraid to take a chance on a purchase. Just do everything you can to make them as comfortable as possible.

2. Blog section  

Another important element that can bring you closer to e-commerce success is your content. Of course, we still remain on the topic of customers and building relationships with them. Online businesses are increasingly choosing to add a blog subpage to their website. Probably because they have already noticed that sales alone are not everything. As we mentioned earlier – pushiness does not pay. In today’s online world we are required to do something more and let our customers get to know us better. Or rather, from as close as we can afford.

Look, customers are coming to your website for the first time, completely unfamiliar with you. How do they know that you are trustworthy? How can they learn about your products? How do you convince them to stay? A blog can be an invaluable aid in this case in building your relationship with your visitors. By going there, they will look at you from a different perspective. They will begin to associate you with a particular type of product, with a characteristic you have. They will also definitely notice what makes you different from others – don’t forget to emphasise this in your content. Standing out from thousands of other companies in your industry is already a milestone.

The blog articles you will provide to your visitors will show that you are open to meeting them, that you want to provide them with interesting information from a good source – after all, you are a specialist in your field. You will thus confirm your competence in the industry in which you operate. You will certainly become an expert in their eyes, which will allow them to trust you even more.

Today’s sales are no longer just about harvesting and counting profits. It’s not just being profit-driven and expecting to get everything with almost zero commitment. Now it’s you who has to give, give and give… Clarify your goals and an action strategy that will lead you to the point where all your involvement starts to pay off. Blogs are becoming an almost obligatory part of online businesses. Consumers are bored with the product descriptions and offers they receive in their email inbox (unless they are personalized Newsletters). They expect you to answer all the questions they have and clear up any doubts.

Blog articles are a great place to do this because you can include almost anything, get their imagination going and even think about what you, as a consumer, would like to ask and weave the answer in somewhere. Perhaps you’ll spark their interest in your brand or a particular product, which can help you establish long-term relationships. And you already know that these are the ones that will translate into your success in the future.

3. Regular communication

The third pillar that will certainly bring you closer to success is Communication, with a capital K! As you can see, we are still on the subject of clients and your relationship with each other. Do you know why? Because without them nothing will work. By closing yourself off to your clients, you are also closing yourself off to your own success. So if your customers have already reached out to you, got to know you better, trusted you even a little and confirmed your competence and the quality of your products through your blog articles, then don’t let them go. You should take care of them all the time. Constant communication will increase the likelihood that they will come back to you. However, it must be personalised in detail. You already know your customers’ profiles, what they need and what they are looking for. Take advantage of this!

To further tailor your message to your visitors, you can divide them into groups and adapt your communication to each group. With a large number of customers – which you probably already have after the tips above 😉 – it can be a bit complicated to send individual messages. So-called segmentation comes to the rescue. You can easily segment your recipients based on a variety of factors: gender, age, location, subscription status, behaviour and more.

This way, you can tailor your message for each customer in a way that makes them feel special. Maybe it’s time to stop sending mass messages? Definitely yes! If you want to succeed, you need to stop taking the easy way out and do something more. For this purpose, you can use personalised Newsletters, including SMS Newsletters, which we also have at edrone. Surely every customer will be satisfied thanks to such individual treatment.

Don’t forget about social media activities as well. This is where your customers or potential customers look for information about you. This is where they wait for the latest offers, promotions and blog articles. It is in social media that they spend most of their time, so by linking there you can lead them to your website. If you don’t do this regularly, you could end up making them stop following you, which means they’re likely to leave. Keep them up to date with what you’re doing, news on your blog, upcoming product launches, partnerships (if you can), what’s coming up next… Build up the suspense! Prepare surprises and encourage them. Let them have something to look forward to.

When communicating with your clients, try to use the language of benefits. Pushy, sales-oriented texts can only discourage them. It is much better to use non-intrusive methods, which will pay off and help you to keep your visitors for longer.

We could write about 10 pillars of e-commerce success in this article, but as you can see it all boils down to CUSTOMERS. So, take care of them, make it easy for them to navigate your website, minimise the number of steps and unnecessary nerves, make them feel comfortable. Above all, collect relevant data, and on its basis create a personalized message that will allow you to approach your visitors individually.

If they decide to stay with you for a long time, take care of them and communicate with them regularly so they don’t forget about you. Surprise them, create creative actions, competitions, make interesting announcements, offer discount coupons. All this will make them stay with you, and your competitors will not stand a chance. Long-term actions that you have read about today will lead your e-commerce to success, if only you are meticulous about it and engage to the maximum! This will soon pay off, trust me. 🙂