According to eMarketer, the global online sales will reach $6.17 trillion by 2023.
As your business expands, so does the number of tasks to maintain seamless operation. With more orders, you’ll need better inventory control, additional warehouse workers, extensive payment service or plan, and you’ll need to make sure your website can handle the increased demand.
So, how does a growing e-commerce company develop its customer base while keeping its existing consumers satisfied? The answer is automation.
Some technologies that can support the growth of your business and streamline your business operations include:
Artificial Intelligence
According to a global CX study by Oracle, roughly 59% of buyers believe that a tailored user experience influences their purchasing behavior favorably. A good user experience, as per 74% of firms, is crucial for boosting sales and conversions.
You can learn about the preferences, likes, and dislikes of your customers, thanks to artificial intelligence. As a result, by offering a customized customer experience, you win their trust. The predictive analysis of consumer behavior patterns is what we call artificial intelligence. It is true that developing a relationship with your clients through a positive shopping experience helps you stay informed of their preferences.
However, you can’t end there! You can get new customers by word of mouth or by assuring them of the quality and promptness of your post-sale services. Moreover, to increase this clientele, you must run persistently aggressive marketing operations, which is where artificial intelligence might be useful. You can investigate purchasing habits in-depth with the use of artificial intelligence.
The likelihood of boosting sales, conversions, and retention increases with your level of market knowledge. And this is what propels an effective marketing effort.
Chatbots
Waiting to talk with a customer service representative can be highly frustrating for a customer. They require prompt responses to their inquiries, which is where chatbots might be useful. A quick technique to contact clients is to put up a message asking, “How may I help you?”. A machine learning algorithm-designed automated chatbot serves as a 24-hour customer service system.
The benefits of using chatbots include providing clients with tracking information, responding to problems more quickly, and receiving immediate feedback on the quality of pre- and post-sale services.
Increased Conversions with the Omnichannel Approach
The ability to simultaneously be present on multiple platforms is known as omnichannel selling. For instance, a visitor to your website may also look at your social media pages, where you may be promoting a promotional code as part of your marketing plan.
Now that is a win-win situation for both the potential buyer and you, as they will convert from being merely trafficked into an actual buyer because the offer will lure them into purchasing at discounted prices.
Inventory, order, and warehouse management that is simple and easy
To cut down on errors, employ technology to support the management of warehouses, orders, and inventories. This is due to the fact that omnichannel retailing is susceptible to challenges such as sluggish delivery, overstocking, out-of-stock circumstances, etc. Unless automated systems, such as order, inventory, and warehouse administration, are streamlined. A few advantages of automation are as follows:
- Integration of different selling channels
- Single dashboard to access real-time information related to stock
- Seamless flow of information across the organization
- Easy yet restricted access to crucial information
- Effortless tracking of inventory
- Effortless tracking of orders
- Detailed reports and forecasts
- Error-free dispatch and timely delivery of an order
- Significantly lower rates of failed deliveries
- A quick solution to customer queries
- Excellent customer service
- Quick returns and refunds
- Finally, reduced costs and increased profits
Accounts Management
Due to the close relationship between bookkeeping and sales management, it has never been simple. To avoid any miscalculations or delays in maintaining accurate records, sales should be promptly recorded in the books as soon as they are made. Automating your accounting management system is crucial for achieving this goal.
Automated account management quickly combines bank accounts, inventory control, and payment systems, making accurate and straightforward tracking of revenue and expenses possible. Additionally, the appropriate team may quickly and readily retrieve invoices for sales and expenses while using this system.
Customer Support
Every seller can concur with the adage “the customer is king.” Therefore, as consumers are the main driver of steady revenue growth, ensuring their satisfaction should be a top priority for all sellers.
As a seller, you don’t want your buyer to lose interest by postponing the order. Your clients will not buy from you again if this happens again. If you have omnichannel solutions, which connect multiple sales channels to a single platform, you can rapidly address this. It eventually becomes simple to find the item and the closest retailer for prompt delivery.
Give customers the option to return products both online and offline to make returns simple. This implies that it makes it simple for your consumers to access the store so that they do not have to wait longer for a replacement in the event of returns.
Make sure the information you provide is consistent. For instance, the product features that buyers see in your online store should be identical to those offered on other digital platforms and in brick-and-mortar locations.
Furthermore, the FAQ area is a notable technique to give clients the information they anticipate being easily accessible. This approach to client satisfaction is commended since it is a common and crucial element of an e-commerce business.
Then you should have representatives who answer their questions both before and after they make a purchase.
Additionally, having chatbots on your website may be very beneficial because your customers get quick responses when they ask a question or report a problem. Your main goal when focusing on customer happiness is to quickly solve their concerns, and tools like chatbots can be quite helpful in this regard.
Social Media
Social media is just as crucial to a company’s expansion as technology is. Therefore, leveraging social media strategies can help your e-commerce firm turn around, paving the path from the early stages and gradually taking it to much-desired success.
Many firms use social media platforms for advertising. Utilizing the accessibility, ease, and reach that comes with social media, aids consumers in making a purchase.
Facebook Marketplace, launched in 2018, Instagram Product Tags, introduced in 2016, and Pinterest Adding Buyable Pins in 2015, are examples of social media approaches that helped several e-commerce businesses become successful.
Conclusion
In conclusion, operating in eCommerce comes with its own challenges as the business grows. The technology at our disposal now has the ability to speed up procedures that require greater attention to detail while automating repetitive tasks. To increase your business’s general efficiency and operational performance, you can start utilizing some of it right now, such as launching an omnichannel approach, using warehouse management tools, IMS, or a chatbot to begin with.
(The author is Mr. Punit Sindhwani, CEO, Paxcom and the views expressed in this article are his own)
