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A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II

Tag: ecommerce

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II
Mohab Ecommerce, Guest Posts 0

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II

Image credit: Flickr

It doesn’t matter whether you sell services, products, or even just share content with your online audience: any online business is ripe for automation — including yours.

Set out an automation framework to help you scale and manage your automation operations — find out how to do so in part II of our automation series. 

Create an appropriate framework

The main challenge with automation is having the right framework to support your new processes. This means having an all-informed business with robust documentation. Without it, your automation drive will be lost.

You need to embrace:

  • Bots
  • Smart integrated systems
  • Cross-platform and cross-device formats
  • Workflows, processes and tasks — not individual ability
  • Zapier
  • Inventory management automation

Part of successful automation is process management. You can always automate a process.

This is really the crux of the matter when it comes to automation. Do you fancy staying up all night, packing the latest orders of your store? Or manually having to schedule every single blog promo piece for the next 6 months?

I’m guessing the answer is no…

So create a process, automate it, and move on to the more important stuff instead.

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part II

About the author

Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. Big fan of automation when it comes to content marketing. Helping ecommerce brands and startups scale faster and better.

7 years ago
A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I
Mohab Ecommerce 0

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I

Image credit: Flickr

Do you NEVER seem to have enough time to deal with the important stuff in your business? Struggling to keep up with the demands of becoming a brand publisher?

Wouldn’t it be great to have more time to focus on the strategic elements of your business…?

Well, automation can help you achieve that.

Here are some online automation hacks to help inspire your business strategy reboot — read part I in our blog series now.

Fintech innovations

Let’s start with the financials: after all, every business in the world needs money to keep the wheels turning.

From managing supplier payments to keeping up with the demands of bookkeeping — financial tasks and admin can massively eat into your profit margins.

The trouble with financial tasks is that if they are not done correctly, it could spell disaster.

  1. Financial technology has seen some exciting developments these recent years — from blockchain to cloud accounting, there are so many ways to improve and simplify your financial operations.
  2. Even simple choices like what payment gateway you go for will determine your business’s financial ecosystem. Opt for a system that’s smart and integrates with other services and platforms so that you don’t have to rely on expensive workarounds.
  3. Accounting is a big business overhead, especially when it comes to expenses and taxes. Invest in a smart system that allows you to automatically sync paper receipts into your online finance system.

Martech leads the way

Marketing technology is another ally of automation. Nowadays, there are enough tools and platforms to automate pretty much any marketing task under the sun.

Martech scales up and down, and can be leveraged by organizations large and small. From simple things like automated proofreading to automating your content strategy with HubSpot, there are tools out there that can help you create, launch, and share better content.

Key areas where you need to embrace automation:

  1. Remarketing is a great way to target interested parties — whether that’s website visitors who haven’t converted, or people who’ve engaged with your content. The beauty of remarketing automation is that once you put in the work to create a funnel and populate it with ads, you can just click ‘play’ and let the system do the rest!
  2. Email is a big marketing channel, whether you are in B2C or B2B. Create funnels using services like Pardot (a Salesforce tool) and run your lead generation campaigns more cost-efficiently.A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I
  3. Social media can be a massive time sinkhole, so be more efficient about it and embrace automated content creation, mass scheduling, and social listening to help you do more. Social media tools aren’t just about saving time — they will actually bring you better results by optimizing posting times, lengths, and formats.

A Guide On How You Can Bring Automation To Your Online Business Part I

About the author

Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. Big fan of automation when it comes to content marketing. Helping ecommerce brands and startups scale faster and better.

7 years ago
How to Quickly Create an Online Store and Integrate a Payment Gateway
Mohab Ecommerce 0

How to Quickly Create an Online Store and Integrate a Payment Gateway

Your ambitious entrepreneurial journey starts with launching an eStore. Before you do that, you need to contemplate which e-commerce platform to choose.  As far as integration of a payment gateway is concerned, you have many choices. We’ll discuss these aspects of setting up and launching an eStore in this article.

While choosing an eCommerce platform, you have the following three options available:

A. Open source software

B. Dedicated platform

C. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Each one of these platforms has different features and you can choose the one that matches your needs.

A. Open source software

The most cost-effective solution for you is to go for open source software, where you don’t need to pay for any license or subscription fee. However, it requires you to have the knowledge of software development in order to install and manage the platform.

If you are not trained in IT skills, you will have to hire someone for all of your updates and changes required to be made on the website.  But, this can be a costly affair as you would have to pay certain charges for hosting, server and certificates.

The other drawbacks with open source platforms include security concerns involved and lack of customer support.

The popular open-source platforms include Shopify, WooCommerce, OpenCart and Magento. These platforms have different features in terms of user-friendliness, price, security, and integration.

B. Dedicated platform

Another option which is probably not so ideal for startups and small store owners is a dedicated platform. Usually an IT company will provide you a dedicated platform according to your specific requirements and offer tailored solutions for those who are aware of the different functions and features that they would like to have on their website.

It is both expensive and time-consuming and not ideal for startups and businesses on a shoe-string budget. If you have a highly unconventional system of sales and storage, then it’s for you. It’s an ideal solution for big corporations that are keen to offer the best user experience.

C. Software as a service (SaaS)

If you like a platform which you can manage anytime, then SaaS is the right option for you. SaaS has a lower initial setup cost. When you choose this option, you can pay according to the number of transactions.  You can also be charged according to the number of users.
As compared to an open source platform, SaaS offers you the desired freedom. It allows you to conveniently make changes as and when you want.
SaaS is also good for branding and building long term relationship with your customers.

Using an online marketplace to sell your products

If branding and customer service is not on your mind and all you need is to start selling online, then instead of using the platforms and creating your own eStore, use the established marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, or other regional players.

It is extremely convenient and you do not need to invest in marketing, technology and tools. However, there is high competition on these platforms and you need to pay some commission plus the listing fees.

Moreover, you will not be able to provide sufficient customer service, so it’s a bad option for branding.  However, if earning revenue on your online sales is your sole objective, this can be the best option.

Integrating a payment gateway

If you want to integrate a payment gateway into your online store, you can use the plug-ins such as Zen Cart, Magento, OpenCart, osCommerce, Prestashop and WordPress, etc.  When you integrate a payment gateway, it will automate the payment transaction between the merchant and the customers.
It will also enable the customers to use their credit cards and other modes of payment methods so that they have a variety of payment options. Integration should be easy and payment gateway should provide a robust customer support so that the issues are resolved within a specific time frame without affecting your business.

Choose PayTabs as your payment gateway as it comes with great customer support and standard technologies to quickly and conveniently integrate into your eStore.

7 years ago
Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience

Is there a thing like loyalty when it comes to online shopping? In a world driven by discounts, sales, comparison shopping and endless scrolling, it is difficult to grab customer attention. The same sellers present their wares across multiple sites. So people move to check each site to see where the particular product is available at the best discount. In such a scenario, does customer experience really matter?

It matters more than you think. Imagine this – discount can’t be a competing factor because everyone is offering a lot of it. What matters then is customer experience. In fact, customer experience is considered to be a product in its own right.

In order to decipher what type of experience your customers are looking for, it is important to understand their journey and understand what they need at each touch point. Most companies try to concentrate on the customer life cycle which is a complex task, especially with omni-channel marketing. Instead, experts now suggest keeping focus on one customer journey at a time.

Here are the four pillars of a customer experience journey

  1. Make it simple to use

Buying from an eCommerce website should not feel like rocket science. You need to make it intuitive for customers to browse through your product range and get to a sale point. Most eCommerce shops follow a set pattern from discovery to the sales funnel to after sales service.

But a new app on the horizon – Elanic, is doing things differently. It has included an intuitive chat feature that allows buyers and sellers to interact before closing the sale. The chat is pre-programmed with common questions from the buyer like quality, size, condition of the product and more. This strategy is also followed by sites like OLX which sells seconds. In addition to the public comment feature, the site also allows customers to make an offer. The whole process is intuitive and automated which makes it easy to handle. Many sellers vouch that this feature has helped them close sales effectively.

  1. Make it personal

This strategy goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and saying ‘Hey xyz’ in your email. According to Campaign Monitor, 96% visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. But they’ve shown some basic interest in what you have to offer and may probably come back if you communicate properly. Use retargeting to encourage users to pick up from where they left off. And don’t forget to inform them when the products they want are on sale.

  1. Stop them from abandoning cart

In 2016, as much as 69% of carts were abandoned! Can you imagine the billions lost because eCommerce portals did not work hard enough to push the sale? Constantly use A/B experiments to test what makes users stick or leave your website. In case they still abandon cart, make sure you send them a customized email reminder to pull them back

  1. Use the right payment gateway

Other than being secure, the right payment gateway will allow customers to pay in their own currency, using the wallet they prefer without making them work too hard. And of course, it should aid express checkout.

Conclusion: Don’t forget to constantly ask your customers for feedback and also incentivize them for providing it. There is no better way to enhance your customer experience than listening to them carefully – after all they are the heroes and champions for your brand.

7 years ago
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