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Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018

Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018

The world of business is a constantly evolving one, more so when it comes to the eCommerce businesses that have gained immense popularity over the last few years. The increasing number of online consumers and the advancements in technology has worked together in making eCommerce businesses one of the most thriving ones today. Consequently, eCommerce entrepreneurs also realize the fact that the competition is more fierce than it was ever before, which is why, they need to keep evolving and focus on long-term objectives.

Every entrepreneur starts a new year with renewed zeal to achieve maximum success for their business. For doing that in 2018, here are the top 5 things you should be ready for now if you are selling online.

eCommerce Automation –

To let your business enjoy a competitive advantage, you must welcome the eCommerce automation that is expected to make operations easier. Automation will also save time and streamline the tasks. For instance, you can automate your eCommerce platform to detect the medium risk orders and forward them automatically to the finance department for review. For high risk orders, the same can be automated to be cancelled. This is just one aspect where eCommerce automation prevents chances of fraud. There can be several other ways to improve the overall shopping experience of your customers by leveraging automated techniques.

Mobile Payments and Wallet Apps –

Payment gateway is an integral part of eCommerce business and the smoother the checkout process, the better is the experience. In 2018, you should be prepared to embrace mobile payments and wallet apps, which does not require your customers to provide all of their personal information at checkout. This concept can work wonders in preventing customers from dropping off at the last moment, due to lengthy checkout processes.

Social Media –

Social media has been there since a long time now but as an entrepreneur, if you have not yet utilized it properly for your business, 2018 is the time to make the most of it. Social media channels are predicted to be huge drivers of eCommerce so much so that Facebook, Instagram etc. might let customers shop directly from these platforms.

More Subscription Box Models –

Although subscriptions have always been a part of an eCommerce business and eCommerce shopping experience, you should be ready for an increased emphasis on the subscription box models. A subscription mentality with at least a part of your product inventory will be crucial for surviving in the eCommerce industry. More the subscription box models you adapt, the higher will be your chance of a competitive advantage with regards to subscription offerings.

Professional Content Development –

Most entrepreneurs have already realized the importance of content that is developed with the interests of the target customers in mind. Content marketing is going to have a lot of impact in the ecommerce business scenarios. So, in 2018, you should focus more on personalized, engaging and premium content being developed by experts in the field. Whether it is a video about your product and service or targeted ads on the social media apps or perhaps, blogs and articles on emerging trends and so on, content will continue to create an indelible mark.

While these are some of the most important trends and strategies that entrepreneurs should be ready for in the coming year, there will definitely be many more to join them. The best way is to understand your business and its unique requirements to be able to make the most of the advancements in technology and the way internet works. Also, it is advisable to seek the guidance of expert professionals to enable your eCommerce business to move in the right direction.

8 years ago
5 biggest hurdles in eCommerce and their solutions
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

5 biggest hurdles in eCommerce and their solutionsAccording to eMarketer, global B2C eCommerce is set to hit 2.3 trillion by 2018. It has made it easier for sellers anywhere in the world to sell their wares and get a fair chance to compete with the biggies in the business. It is fairly easy to set up an eCommerce website with little or no coding knowledge. Some even set up their website before they procure products to sell.

While selling within the city, state or country is common for eCommerce platforms, the true game of harnessing its power lies in catering to an international audience. In reality, your website can be accessed by anyone anywhere around the world. Shouldn’t you be able to sell to them too? From language barriers to tech issues, to fulfillment, there are quite a few things that are acting as hindrances preventing businesses from going global.

Here is a look at the top 5 reasons plaguing the eCommerce industry and solutions you can use to overcome these for your own business.

1. Speaking your customer’s language

Did you know that 60% of global consumers spend time on sites of their own native language than they do on English sites? If the site isn’t available in the local version, they might just boycott the site altogether. Language has a big implication for eCommerce websites. Not only do you need to provide an option for customers to view your site in local language, you need to run a site wide check to see none of your products or services have an offensive meaning in the local language.

Solution: Translation softwares are easily available in the market. Get your developer to embed that into your website so that the content can get easily viewed in the preferred regional language. What’s more important is that you hire a local language expert to run a content audit on the website to ensure things mean what they should and there isn’t any important message lost in translation. Nothing, however, beats humans doing the translation.

2. Tech infrastructure:

Does going international mean that you’ll need local hosting to speed things up? Having local servers for load balancing can tip the costs quite high and isn’t sometimes possible due to infrastructure limitations. Some markets require that you use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and geo-based load balancing servers to improve domestic site speed and reliability. So what’s the right solution?

Solution: The best solution will come from hiring a reliable turn-key vendor who provides dedicated IT resources and geo-load balancing as per what the situation demands. A client request from a particular geography can be directed either to a service node that is geographically closest to the client or to a node that has the most capacity. This allows us to optimize performance proactively.

3. Logistics and Fulfillment:

You may be all ready to ship your order overseas and even have potential clients waiting on you. In fact, according to a provider of international dispatch services, companies that ship overseas can increase their revenue by an average of 17% Fulfillment agencies are available too, more easily than before. Then what’s stopping companies from shipping internationally? A lot of times local government regulations are a problem. While some items are prohibited others need to abide by local expert laws. It is difficult for a company to keep track of each item for each country.

Solution: First, you’ll have to do the difficult task of picking out risky items and keep them out of being available in all countries. Second, you’ll have to choose the right fulfillment partner who is aware of local regulations and can even guide you to ensure you don’t violate any terms.

4. Local customer support:

So you have built a website in the local language for more sales. But is that enough? What happens when your customer reaches out to you via email or the ‘Contact us’ form on your website with a query or concern or help? Most of the time, websites are not equipped to handle this even though they have taken the effort to translate the content of the website into the local language. Most of the times, customers get back an auto-generated response, which of course does not make them happy. The risk here: Lose a hot lead or a loyal customer.

Solution: Start by having a vetted FAQ page in local language which is as detailed as possible to handle customer questions. Next, you’ll need to provide a local phone number where customers can reach you with local voice support. You’ll also need a real person replying to emails in real time.  These are people who are paying you money. So it’s best you don’t lose out because you fail to understand them clearly.

5. Preferred payment methods:

When eCommerce first launched in India, many people were apprehensive about shopping online because they didn’t think of credit cards as a secure way to transact online. Besides, digital penetration was low and not everyone had a credit card.

Solution: Though Cash on Delivery option was present earlier, it was popularized by Flipkart and soon other major eCommerce players followed suit tipping the entire eCommerce game in India. Five years after Flipkart launched this payment option, it contributed to 80% of its sales. It is important for eCommerce companies to understand nuances of the local market and provide payment options preferable to locals.

 Take away

International expansion is bound to bring whole new opportunities to eCommerce players by tapping new grounds for their products. With the right local partners who have understanding of local culture, politics, and customer expectations, it’ll be a sure shot way to build a global brand.

8 years ago
The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader
Mohab Ecommerce 0

The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader

Running a small business is not an easy thing. For starters, you are always wearing multiple hats and switching roles from a sales director, to a marketing guru, to an HR person to a visionary leader. That is because running a successful business and driving it towards growth requires more than a good idea. Great and effective leadership can make or break a small business. While some of us are born natural leaders who take to running a small business like fish takes to water, there are others who learn on the go. Whichever category you fall in, it’s necessary to understand real leadership skills since that is what is going to help you respond to changes, adapt to new requirements, pull the pack together and rise to new heights of success.

So here you go – in no particular order, here is a list of 5 skills that will see a small business owner through all challenges and will come in handy in growing their businesses.

Communicating well– Ensure that whatever you communicate is clear, precise and consistent. It is not enough to have a great vision unless you clearly communicate it. A true leader should be able to communicate the business’s vision to employees, investors and customers alike. Employees and investors should also be aware of goals and objectives of the business. A series of miscommunicated objectives can be detrimental to your business. It is also important to let your employees know about what is going on and what is expected from them. And to achieve this clear communication is paramount.

Being a good listener- Most of what we know and learn comes from listening. Being a good listener is one of the most important skills you can possess as a small business leader. Listening to your employees will let you stay in touch with what is happening at the operational level. And will also contribute to employee satisfaction. Listening to your customers will let you know the pulse of the market and how they feel about your business. Developing this skill will also encourage you to ask for opinions, feedback and ideas. Enabling you and your business with different perspectives and newer ideas. Needless to say keeping both internal and external customers is important for a small business.

Not fearing failure and bouncing back – This is probably the biggest armour you will need. There is no great business leader who has not experienced the lows of failure. The faster you can accept and get out of the trough of depression, anxiety, disappointment and frustration, the better. Be ready to handle failure – as and when it comes. Mistakes are bound to happen. But running a business without making mistakes is impossible. So why fear them? A good leader will not fear making mistakes; he/she will, in fact, turn them into a valuable lesson. How you bounce back from them matters most. Accept your defeat with humility, learn from them and move on. Take ownership of the mistakes and let employees own the successes.

Sales –As a small business owner, this is probably the single most important skill that you need to learn as a business owner. After all, its sales that drives a business. Essentially, sales skills are nothing but excellent communication skills. It’s about understanding your buyer, it’s about listening more than talking, it’s about skillful persuasion and getting others to agree to what you are saying, it’s about learning the art of negotiation and building self-confidence. Understanding the whole sales process and honing the skills needed to crack a deal should help you for as long you are in business.

Accountability – A small business has fewer people taking care of a varied set of functions. This may make setting expectations tougher and sometimes ambiguous. As a small business leader learning to set clear expectations and communicating what is expected out of each contributor is essential. This will help set accountability in place. And being accountable as a leader for the business will help you lead from the front. Leading from the front or by example is something you are always told is expected out of leaders. This is true for small business also, be accountable and an inspirational leader.

Your skills as business leader is important since finally its you who can make a huge difference in how your business is being built and where it goes from there. What you make of yourself as a leader and your business is all up to you.

8 years ago
The psychology of eCommerce Checkouts: how to get your customers to reach the Thank You page
Mohab Customer Experience 0

The psychology of eCommerce Checkouts: how to get your customers to reach the Thank You page

It’s a long journey that your customer takes from discovery to purchase while moving through your sales funnel. During this process there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Sometimes high potential customers fall through the cracks and leave eCommerce companies wondering where they’ve gone wrong.

You can either make an educated guess on understanding your customers psychology. Or you could analyze patterns in behavioural data to understand and view things from your user’s perspective. In either case, we’ve seen companies keep a close eye on every step of the funnel, scrutinizing their customer’s every move. Here are some tips on the psychology of online checkout that’ll help your customer reach the ‘Thank you’ page successfully.

Discovery

In the online world, being found is equivalent of ‘existing’. If your customers can’t find you, then you don’t exist for them. The sales life cycle starts at this early stage where you take a series of steps to optimize your entire website and especially product pages to ensure customers can find you online.

Category Page design

The category page is an important step for your customer who is deep in the decision-making process on whether or not to make a purchase from you. This is the page that presents them with an array of choices and should be easy to navigate and understand at a glance. It is a page that will either push them to choose a product and keep moving in the direction you want them to… or it will make them bounce right off. The category page must display the most essential information about the product which is the way it looks (image), the name and the price along with discounts if any.
Along with this, there should be easy filters for price, colours, brands and features on the left that allows users to sort and select.

The Product Page

Here’s where the devil lies because here’s where the details truly matter. Most customers will make a purchase decision within 90s of seeing a product. That is a whole one and a half minutes that you have to impress and floor them. In internet time that quite a lot, so you need to make it count.

a) Offer different product views:
People would love to get a ‘feel’ of the product as much as possible before they buy. Is that scarf red or deep orange? What would it feel like to carry that leather purse? Most people try to find answers to these questions by zooming in and trying to get as close to the product as possible from different angles. Some eCommerce websites have seen a 58% increase in sales by simply adding different views of the product.

b) Add as much details as possible in the description:
The very fact that someone has clicked into a product is that they want to know more. Here’s where flowery creative language can be used to convince that there is truly no product like the one they are holding. From colours to sizes, manufacturer details to delivery time, history to usage, provide detailed description on how the product works and how it is a must have.

c) Add a video:
Video is one of the most powerful tools to include in your product detail page. It can be a how-to video, an ad or just a fun video around the product. Any of these are likely to increase engagement from the user. Surveys show that 50% consumers are more confident about their purchase decision after watching a video and they are more likely to return to the website too.

Checkout page design

Checkout pages are notorious for having the highest drop out rates in the sales funnel. These are pages where customers tend to discover hidden charges, feel bored to give out detailed information or may even suddenly face trust issues if they feel the process isn’t as secure as they want. Here’s what you can do

a) No hidden charges
Ensure that your product detail page has all the price info including taxes, shipping and any additional charges (like gift wrapping, express delivery) etc. This will leave no unpleasant surprises during checkout

b) Clearly mention delivery locations
If your product has delivery location restrictions, allow customers to check this in the product detail page before they proceed to checkout.

c) Keep the process simple
Checkout isn’t the place for you to collect your customer’s biodata. Keep the info simple, leading and quick so that people can move through the process quickly.

d) Offer fully secure payment options: Check out the best payment options that your customers want. If many prefer Cash on Delivery (CoD) over cards, you’ll probably have to go the extra mile to ensure they get to pay you the way they want.

e) A great thank you page
Once your customer has brought a product, make the Thank you page engaging with the right information on the product, billing, expected date of delivery and what else they can buy from your site.

Post purchase communication

As a part of procedure, ensure that you send a Thank you email with the purchase details, a communication number if they have any questions.

This purchase is just the beginning. Be prepared to start the serenading process all over again.

8 years ago