Ecommerce companies are a great business to get into. It is a stable business that can survive recessions and that can generate a regular income. Since it is based on the internet, your business can continue generating an income while you are asleep.
Ecommerce was once met with disdain from skeptics, in the early days of the internet. Those days are luckily over. Today, eCommerce is the great gold rush we have all been looking for.
But, it is a very competitive field. And the question arises: how do you scale your eCommerce company?
We’ve put together this detailed guide to show you how to scale your eCommerce company to its maximum potential.
The Guide to eCommerce Scaling
If you’ve been running your eCommerce business you may eventually become frustrated with the stagnation. You want to graduate from a steady income to a lucrative income.
Here’s what you have to do:
1. Aggressive Marketing
One of the reasons your eCommerce store is not scaling is because you are not marketing it aggressively. The first thing to look at is your website’s SEO – or Search Engine Optimization. This is accomplished by incorporating the high ranking keywords into your website’s written text. This includes website copy, blog posts, and product descriptions.
Other tactics include social media marketing. It is imperative that your eCommerce store has an active presence on social media. You can use a platform such as Instagram to promote your products.
You can use Facebook to interact with your customers, advertise your brand, and offer discounts. You can even use LinkedIn if you want to target professionals who could use your products.
Finally, you must incorporate email marketing into your business. You should have an option for customers to sign up for an email newsletter. This email newsletter can provide them with new product launch information. This email newsletter can also provide them with exclusive discounts – which is a great way to persuade customers to sign up.
Amongst your marketing efforts, you need to target your customer. You need to know who your customers are and how to speak to them. You need to ensure that your products are made to suit their needs and wants.
2. Customer Service
The online shoe store Zappos is highly regarded for its excellent customer service. This is an excellent form of marketing. Your customer’s appreciation and recommendation of your eCommerce store will come from how they are treated by your customer service department.
If your customer is having issues and speaks to your customer service department, it is likely that they will be irked. You want to train your staff to be able to effectively communicate with an irate customer. You want to assure this customer that you are here to help and that their issue will be promptly resolved.
You should also offer your customers a variety of options for resolving their issues. These should include live chat, phone support, email support, an FAQ page, and a helpdesk.
Even if you have the best products, poor customer service and a lack of options will seriously hurt your business and prevent you from scaling.
3. Automation and/or Delegation
If you have been running your eCommerce business as a solopreneur, then it is time for you to get help elsewhere.
The first step is to see what can be automated. If you regularly make trips to the post office to ship your products, you want to see if there are any other options.
A fulfillment center, such as those that are run by Amazon, will store and ship your products once they are ordered. You may even want to consider switching to a dropshipping method to make things even easier – just as long as the same products are still available.
You may also wish to automate other processes to expedite your selling process. For example, your eCommerce software should be able to automatically warn users if the inventory of a product is low. If the inventory has been depleted, then a “SOLD OUT” disclaimer should automatically show up on the product page.
You should also delegate tasks to others. Just as you should have a collective of customer service agents, you should also hire staff to help you with the other areas of your business. This should include marketing, accounting, product research, etc.
Once your tasks are automated or are delegated to others, you will immediately notice how efficiently your business is being run. A business run efficiently will have an easier time scaling.
4. Website Design
Exactly how aesthetically-pleasing is your website? A lot of what is holding your business back can be traced to your website.
Apart from making your website aesthetically-pleasing, you should also make sure it is mobile-friendly. If you want to attract an international customer base (and you should) you should have options to toggle between different languages. There should also be options to choose a different currency.
If you have different payment options on your website (and you advertise it) you will likely see an increase in customers. Stripe and PayPal are two of the most popular payment authorization services. You may even wish to implement an electronic payment option. If you allow payments via Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, you are also going to bring in more customers.
5. Competition
Finally, you have to always keep an eye on your competition. Look at how your competitors are succeeding. You may wish to compete with them by offering lower prices.
Or perhaps you want to only offer premium products in your niche. You can also offer multiple shipping options. You may even wish to offer a free shipping option. You should also look at your competition’s marketing efforts, to get an idea of how you should market your store.
You can also use a marketing analytics tool to compare your website’s traffic (and other metrics) compared to those of your competition. This way, you can see how they are ahead of you. You can then consult your marketing team to figure out new strategies to make sure you are ahead of your competition.
Open for Business
Now that you know how to scale your eCommerce business to its maximum potential, you are likely to see greater growth than ever before.
We also suggest learning more marketing strategies, such as how to boost your brand.