Creating an ecommerce business is relatively easy, and can be the basis of a very successful company. But not every ecommerce business start-up can succeed in the digital world. Having a good product is not enough. There are some important factors to take into account that can make our day, or make our nightmare.
Ecommerce business is not just about publishing your products online and expecting them to be sold. Some strategies must be put into practice so you can succeed and earn money.
There are a lot of competitors in this market. The Internet represents an optimal opportunity to carry out business. Similar to the offline world, it is essential to have the necessary skills so that our work is effectively useful to customers and allow our online activity to succeed. In order to develop a successful ecommerce business you to spend resources, energy and a lot of time, and implement good strategies to achieve goals. Every business is different,
Ecommerce business grows at an annual rate of 13%, according to studies, but it is also true that 80-90% of ecommerce companies fail. And perhaps this ecommerce website failure is related to bad practices and neglecting the importance of some key factors for an ecommerce store.
Not having clear objectives, not adapting the ecommerce website to trends such as mobile devices or disregarding the customer’s opinion can be fatal errors that have as result the failure of many ecommerce sites.
This post contains the some points that we consider the key factors to succeed in this extremely competitive market.
What Are The Key Factors Of Success In eCommerce Business? Discover Them!
Many factors that can affect the success, but based on examples of some profitable Ecommerce companies, there are a number of “Success Factors” that we consider as fundamental:
- Knowledge of your ecommerce business market and target customer
- Keywords
- High quality edited images: a “must” in ecommerce business
- Optimizing you ecommerce website for mobile devices
- Build a solid service-based reputation
- Generate loyalty
- Guarantee the highest security level to your clients
- Always install the latest version of an ecommerce platform
- Organized logistics and stock management
Knowledge Of Your Ecommerce Business Market And Target Customer
The first fundamental step while creating the best ecommerce site is to have a deep knowledge of the market in which we want to launch. It is very important to know if the product or service we offer is in demand online. There are several tools to collect this data that allow you to search for the keywords that interest us for our marketing and evaluate which words to use and which to avoid.
The market analysis must also take into account the competitors of our sector, which are essential reference points to compare and determine the prices of our core business. You cannot think of launching products whose prices are far from the average values of the sector, without apparent motivation on doing so.
At least once a year it becomes necessary to carry out a market study, which allows you to update your knowledge about the sector in which you work, your competition, customers and new market niches that can be exploited. It is beyond doubt that hiring professionals is also a guarantee, if you want to obtain good results.
What is a market study?
A market study is a detailed analysis of various factors that influence the commercial sector in which you have your business or where you want to make your way.
These factors can be:
- Knowledge of new products or services.
- Analysis of your competitor’s actions.
- Study of the characteristics of the population that are your potential customers.
- Knowledge of the market situation, with the aim of launching a new marketing plan.
In other words, it is the set of actions that are used to know the response of the market and disclose the possible trends, since it allows to look to the future with a clear business orientation.
Before starting the study, you should put “on the table” everything you intend to sell and know who the main partners in your sector are.
But what is a market study for?
A market study improves the flexibility of your company and its capacity for transformation, allowing us to adapt faster to changes, shield the business structure ensuring market share, improve the ability to react to competitive actions and detect new business opportunities.
Keywords For Your eCommerce Business
We look for the keyword for everything! The keyword defines who you are, what you want or what you do in a direct, clear and concise way.
The same goes for online businesses. It is very important to have a solid and coherent strategy: we must be clear about what we want to attack, why and how to work. And all that can be defined by a simple word.
It is important to know how our competition is positioned and by what terms our audience is looking for us. Once we have this data, we filter and analyze it in a Keyword Study from which we will draw conclusions that will allow us to create our strategy. We therefore use the keyword tools to know where the traffic is coming from and with what keywords. This will tell us if the conversion rates are good or bad. Through our keywords, we can know the volume of traffic that these have.
The keywords that you need to look for are the ones that convert the most. There are many posts about keyword search, but our feeling is that they focus on the use of tools and leave aside the most important thing: how to find keywords that sell.
We can work concisely to achieve that precious number one position in Google, and in reality it will only be position 5, because we will “strain” 4 websites that are advertised with Adwords.
Use Adwords Keyword Planner For Finding Suitable Kewords
We can use the Adwords Keyword Planner to facilitate our work. There, under the Competition column, you will see if it is “Low”, “Medium” or “High”. But this still does not tell us the full story. If we download the list of keywords and open it for example with Excel, now, in the Competition column a numerical value will appear. As ecommerce begins to be quite mature, nowadays it is very difficult to find niches whose main keywords are not very competitive.
But they exist, believe us! The trick is to segment, differentiate yourself. For example, the niche of “feed for dogs” is clearly saturated. Both the keyword “feed for dogs” and all its derivatives. But there is a new segment, dedicated to “organic feed” or “natural dog food”. That can be your business. That can be your unique word or sentence!
Be creative!
High Quality Edited Images: Product Photo Editing Is A “MUST” In eCommerce Business
Do you buy something without seeing the product? In a shop, you watch, you touch. Touching to check the quality of course is not an option in an ecommerce store. The best substitute for that are high quality edited images. Every ecommerce business owner that knows how to sell uploads edited images in their sites.
“This photo sucks! I’m not buying it!” – This sentence that you probably have heard from friend highlights the importance of high quality edited photos in any ecommerce business.
Good, high quality edited images are the greatest contributors in the first impression of any potential customer. Nobody likes raw, naked images. Any image that is too small, too blurry, that shows the imperfections, or with bad Photoshop, can make you lose lots of potential sales. We simply cannot afford having bad product images on ecommerce business.
Product photo editing is extremely important to make the sale. Just a consistent background is a perfect first step to give your eCommerce store a clean, consistent look. Professional product photo editing service provider can do that for you.
Optimize Your Business For Mobile Traffic
Everybody has a mobile device nowadays. Mobile web traffic is very important. During the last years there has been a significant increase of this type of visitors in all ecommerce websites.
Users must be able to navigate perfectly from any device (mobile, tablet, computer, etc.). All tabs or sections must be accessible, payment options must be easy to click and touch, descriptions and images must be displayed correctly, etc. The ecommerce website must be optimized for mobile.
Your company’s ecommerce website should be easy to navigate and facilitate shopping, Products must be organized in a very specific way so that customers can buy easily (for example, men’s shirts, women’s shirts, children’s shirts). The website needs a good search function to be able to find products that do not conform to the standard classification. And yes, it happens many times that when the website is opened in a mobile phone, suddenly all this, what we have been carefully working for, suddenly turns into a total mess. That cannot be the case.
Build A Solid Service-Based Reputation For Your Ecommerce Business
When a customer opts for a shopping platform or a reference website, what they value most is that the service that meet expectations. We must bet on the quality of the products / services offered. We should always ensure the client that the service provided is the best that can be offered. Working this way, in addition to getting customers to talk positively about us,, they will also help us build a solid reputation in the market.
Undoubtedly, quality has a cost, but it will guarantee us long-term results: a satisfied customer with more probabilities will make purchases again in our ecommerce portal and if he is satisfied with his purchase again, he will continue to rely on us and our online store. Therefore, it is not only about making sales, but also about developing a solid loyalty.
Generate Loyal Customer For Your Business
To keep our customers happy and coming over again and again, it is very important to have a competent assistance service that the client can easily contact by phone, mail or chat.
The user makes their purchases autonomously through certain ordering processes. During this operation they might need help.
Because of its nature as a virtual media, the online store lacks visual and personal contact between seller and customer, and therefore it is necessary to offer an adequate support service, a contact that allows the customer know that there are real people behind the screen to which they can address their questions. This way we will be able to create confidence and reliability.
Another technique to increase our credibility is to predispose a space where customers can leave their opinions and comments on the service offered, so they will feel valued. Indeed, reading the reviews of other customers before making the purchase can help convince undecided users.
Feedback also plays an important role for those who manage the online store, when obtaining immediate feedback on customer satisfaction, and in case of dissatisfaction they can remedy as soon as possible (for example by adding products or services, improving some functions etc.). There are many tools that allow you to collect reviews in an impartial and real way, guaranteeing an honest customer service.
Guarantee Maximum Security To Your Buyers
Providing the best possible service and building a good reputation on the Internet are very important. But one of the critical factors of success in ecommerce, even on top of the previous, is the security that is offered to buyers. Customers do not want to see their personal or financial data compromised. That means that offering maximum guarantees in this regard is extremely important.
Perhaps what most interests e-commerce clients, and of course us as business owners, is that the browser does not launch a message of distrust when visiting our site.
To avoid this, the best solution is to hire and install an SSL certificate, a certificate that guarantees the encryption of the data collected during the entire purchase process: personal data and bank data.
Always Install The Latest Version Of The eCommerce Platform
Online commerce is always in constant development and with continuous improvements. Always choose to have a brand new and updated platform.
In addition to having the latest version of the platform, you can also offer improvements in the purchase services to customers: new forms of payment; better integration with mobile versions or new interesting features that bring quality to your ecommerce.
Organized Logistics And Stock Management
Warehousing and transport can be one of the main costs associated with internet sales. There are several models, and we should not underestimate their importance to avoid the failure of our business.
In the management of the stock, we can distinguish between three models: the traditional management (physical warehouse), the “just in-time” management (the supplier serves us in 24 hours after the request), or “drop shipping” (shipping direct to the customer without products going through our hands). Each of them have advantages and disadvantages that should be considered prior to making a decision, in order to ensure profitability and quality in our sales, since they totally influence the price of our goods.
Isn’t It Simple?
You see? You just have to follow a few simple steps and implement them rigorously. Know what you have (your product) and know where you are heading to (your goal). Find your niche, and find your beloved customer. Build trust in that customer by providing a secure website; create a good online reputation by providing the best possible service, as well as offer a quality products.
During years of dealing with customers, offline and online, the final conclusion is that the most appreciated feature for a client is to have a reliable supplier. That partner who you can trust, who delivers on time, and who does not make to wait too much or lose your time with unnecessary problems. Sometimes that is even worth a little extra cost. Take this into account. If you offer something really good, the prefect customer experience, it might be that this person is willing even to pay a bit more for your offering.
And definitely that person will talk.
People know other people, and when you eagerly wait for something that you just purchased, you spread the word. Maybe you saved money during a long time, and just that product, and no other, is exactly what you have been longing for.
Once your desired object arrives, you feel the happiness, and everything turns out to be perfect. The ecommerce promised 7 days delivery, and it arrived just in 3! The courier guy who delivered called you first to check that you are available and showed his best smile when you opened the door.
And this was the result of just a few easy clicks on a website, where you paid on a fast manner through your safe PayPal account. The package is on your table, perfectly wrapped, no damages. Just unwrap and enjoy.
As simple as that! Isn’t it worth your effort?
