F or most of the history, the process of buying and selling remained about the same. Customers visited businesses in person to make purchases, and companies kept all of their stock stored locally. However, the advent of the internet drastically changed retail for both consumers and business owners. Moreover, the way consumers’ve bought products changed completely. Now, consumers search for products online and visit their favorite online shop to order products. There are many factors to consider before starting an Ecommerce business, we can focus on what we know, and share tips on what you should look for.
For small businesses, shipping and logistics are very important before you can sell your products online. With Ecommerce, your business should create an online presence, with the help of digital marketing communications. There are few digital marketing techniques you could use such as social media, Google Ads and Email marketing.
When customers use online research to find nearby locations and product availability, small businesses may lose out to larger companies if they don’t have a solid online presence and SEO.
Ecommerce for small business can be challenging at first glance, but think about creating a global presence.
Ecommerce tips for small businesses
Before you can ship your products, decide on your pricing strategy. Advise with your financial experts in the company, and look for the cost-effective strategy. Consider the possibility of free shipping or charge a flat rate. We listed a few carrier service providers that you can look up for shipping options.
If you are based in Ireland or the UK, you can look for the shipping calculator for the following carriers.
Always keep an eye at your profit margins and prepare a shipping and pricing strategy. As the world changes quickly, so do the customer expectations who buy online. Mostly, buyers pay for their shipping rates. Free shipping is a great strategy to have on higher purchasing margins.
High-quality images
If you are a small business, we know that any big investment is not really an option. However, getting professional photography of your products will add value to your e-commerce website.
There are many Ecommerce small businesses that are operating from a website that is outdated and that itself, makes difficult for a user to find products or valuable information about them.
Value-added features like high-quality images, videos and product suggestions help you engage and upsell while you are building a long term relationship with your customers.
Popular Product recommendation
Based on your sales data, you should know what your best selling products are. If you don’t have data on your individual customers, you can still recommend the products that are most popular among the rest of your customer base.
Although this is something you can simply include in your monthly newsletter, a better way would be to add it to your Ecommerce website.
Best practices example we would use is the one from a clothes webshop ASOS. Based on the selected item, ASOS recommends items that are similar to the one the customer is looking at.
Also, there are generic product suggestions you could use. Those are the recommendations that do not depend on the selected item.
Instead, your e-commerce website could show new and trending products to all of your visitors.
Each recommendation type would work best at specific stages in the customer’s conversion cycle, so putting the right widgets (WordPress case) on the right pages is critical to drawing positive results. Those are the things that your professional web designer or web developer can help you with. User experience and customer experience all come into play once the right design is set up for your customer’s shopping experience.
Tell your story
You might also be asking if the content plays a role in the overall journey of Ecommerce for small business. Adding value to your product or services comes from the high-quality images, website design, good marketing strategy but also storytelling. If you know why your product differentiates from the competitors in your industry, you are on the right track.
Make sure there are no language barriers that could make it difficult for your customers to find what they are looking for on your e-commerce website. That said, take a professional advice and look for the content creators in your industry. If you already know how to tell a compelling story about your products or services, then go for it. There is no better person who knows your product better than you. Remember, you are only a few steps away from running a successful Ecommerce business.
Takeaways
Last but not least, with the right Ecommerce website and properly set marketing and pricing plan, you can extend your market reach.
Ecommerce for small business is a cost-effective way of reaching customers globally. Pinning up an Eommerce site doesn’t need to be a multi-year initiative. You can do it in days or weeks as long as you are willing to start small and build on it.
Most importantly, an Ecommerce website can help you to increase your sales dramatically!