The day you stop marketing will directly hamper the bottom line of your business. Therefore, marketing has always been and will always be the backbone of any selling business. Gone are the days when marketing was limited to print ads, today, with the advancement of the technology Internet sellers have multiple options to promote their products and services. Multi-channel marketing can be defined as offering consumers ability to reach your product and brand information via include traditional methods like flyers, brochures, or even, digital methods like website banners, PR, blogs, and social media marketing. “With the increasing competition in the selling world, the more you make your products information available to consumers the better sales opportunities you can expect with time.” Tweet this Multi-channel selling is already there; however, allowing consumers to connect with your brand via their favorite touch points, and platforms is helping sellers with new opportunities by offering Omnichannel shopping experience to consumers. Omnichannel marketing- What sellers need to know? Considering the brand Apple, consumers who shop online can expect the same customer experience when shopping from an offline Apple store. Therefore, offering consumers with information and innovative experiences across multiple touch points that can include your selling website, social media channels, offline store, and mobile devices will automatically help you attract potential consumers who are active on such platforms on a regular basis. Benefits of Omnichannel marketing According to a 2016 report by eMarketer, the average US adults will consume approximately 6 hours of their usage over digital platforms like desktops, laptops and mobile devices that include smartphones, tablets, etc. Being present on constantly-changing consumer’s choice of touchpoints sellers can: - Meet consumers where they are With multiple options available in the market, consumers are no longer stuck to one platform for making their purchase decisions, and being able to access your brand information across their multiple touch points can ensure you offer them a flexibility to connect with your brand in the way they want. The more places your brand is visible, the better chances of it becoming visible to consumers from their preferred purchase preference. - Identify potential consumer’s preferences Sellers who have not adopted Omnichannel strategy may overlook the benefits of making their brand reachable to consumers via their preferred touchpoints. However, understanding on the usage of consumer touchpoints can help you be in line with consumer’s choice of connecting and dealing with a brand. - Target consumers confidently Being in touch with consumer’s preferences with a brand will need constant tracking, however, analyzing omnichannel tactics offered by popular brands will make it easy for you to come up with innovative ideas and reach out consumers in a way they would like. Omnichannel strategy examples from popular retail brands I- Considering online retail business Nordstrom is one such fashion brand that allows consumers with an omnichannel returns experience, which means the brand allows consumers ability to return their online purchases at the nearest store in The United States. This brand has 334 stores operating in 39 states and Canada. How does it benefit consumers? Allowing consumers an ability to deal with your brand in multiple ways, whether related purchase or even returns, can automatically earn trust and encourage more and more consumers to stick with your brand for long. Tip: Of course, you may not have a chain of stores like Nordstrom does, or may only be selling online. Therefore, affiliating with an offline store or entertaining consumers returns request via your online selling website in case of an offline purchase, can offer consumers a unique advantage of selecting your brand over competitors. II- Considering brick-and-mortar retail business Oasis is another innovative retail brand that allows in-store iPad service. This means consumers instead of standing in those long queues can immediately pay for their purchase from the trial rooms using the iPad, while receipt and the garment will be delivered to consumers within 90 minutes of ordering. How does it benefit consumers? Offering a next-level high street store shopping experience, Oasis is making it easy for consumers to get an idea about the size, color, and style of available products from anywhere on the shopping floor and changing rooms too. Tip: Instead of making consumers dependent on store executive, taking advantage of the latest technology and allowing them with self-assisted product information and purchase abilities can enhance their offline store shopping experience. Also, allowing consumers to process returns directly from your selling website can eliminate them take the pain of especially having to visit the store to make a claim. III- Considering mobile retail experience Starbucks another popular retail brand is allowing one of the most engaging omnichannel shopping experiences via its Reward app. This app allows Starbucks consumers to pay via the app, collect stars, earn rewards, as well as, find the nearest store in town. How does it help consumers?
Considering a recent report of Statista the number of smartphone users in the United States is estimated to reach 207.2 million by end of this year, while forecast to exceed 2 billion users worldwide. This means allowing consumers to engage with your products and services via their mobile devices can make it easy for them to connect with your brand anytime, anywhere. Tip: Helping consumers to use your promotional and loyalty discount codes via your mobile selling website/app, and even alerting them for the same can encourage them to take actions on-the-go. Also, allowing paperless purchase transactions can encourage them to make purchases without the need of having to remove their wallet. Closing advice With the upcoming holiday season 2016 offering Omnichannel shopping experience will surely allow a competitive advantage over sellers who have yet not adopted this strategy; however, being innovative with your tactics and measuring performance for each will determine the success of your Omnichannel tactics with time.
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Allowing consumers to shop for their favourite products and brands at their own convenience is surely increasing the demand for eCommerce business. Below is a list of global markets with highest online penetration rate as of fourth quarter of 2015. Source: Statista With the increasing demand of shopping online, more and more sellers are seen to be expanding their presence online; hence, many may still finding it difficult to withstand the ever-growing competition. In this article, we discuss on those important factors that can help sellers build a reliable eCommerce brand When consumers think of purchasing a product online there are many areas that influence their decisions, however, with multiple options available across the web, it is important on how you win their trust and retain them for your eCommerce brand. Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars behind those promotional tactics may help you divert traffic to your store; however, to bring them back to your brand will depend on the customer experience you offer. Considering Usability: 1- Convenience to reach brand With competition increasing in the online world on a daily basis, sellers need to realize the importance of getting their brand visible to online consumers. Why? With hundreds and thousands of sellers selling identical products online, may not make your brand visible in the crowd. What you can do? Focusing on improved SEO tactics and experimenting with valuable keywords in your content strategy for your eCommerce store can help you enhance your brand ranking in Google and other search engines too. For instance: If you are running a fashion business online, looking up for keywords close to your brand name in search engines can help you utilize the ones that are already trending. 2- Access to information on-the-go Once consumers land at your eCommerce store, they would look up for information and products they wish to purchase. Why? Unable to access information for making strong purchase decisions, consumers will immediately jump to one of your competitors who allow them. What you can do? Allowing consumers to easily spot information they are looking for, can increase engagement level and encourage many to take action on-the-go. For instance: Whether your consumers visit your online store via mobile, the web, or even through social media channels, ensuring accurate information is upfront available for consumers, can eliminate them from giving a second thought on purchasing their favourite products online. 3- Flexible delivery Gone are the days when cash on delivery was a compulsion to withstand competition! Today, with sellers having their brand presence across the globe, consumers prefer to transact with the ones that allow them with flexible payment options. Why? Instead of having to depend on a certain day or date to receive products, many consumers may find it time-saving and effortless if they are allowed to receive delivery of their products as per their requirements. What you can do? With Amazon lately announcing its first cargo service, sellers can expect to offer consumers with the same day delivery. Therefore, considering your target audience and offering innovative delivery options may make them depend on your brand for their future purchase and receive their favourite products in the most convenient ways. For instance: Considering you have more of local customer’s, or, you are using Amazon’s fulfilment centers to stock your products across their multiple warehouses, offering in-store, as well as, a fixed-hour delivery slot will automatically not make your consumers wait longer over a cheap or free delivery service. 4- Access to reviews Direct voice from people is a physiological trigger that helps consumers save time and enhance their purchase making decisions when shopping online. Why? With hundreds of sellers selling the same products online, it becomes difficult to create trust in consumer’s mind. However, having an access to opinions by consumers who have already used your products can eliminate them to jump to one of your competitors even if they are popular. What you can do? Encouraging customer’s reviews are surely helping online sellers enhance awareness for their brand, however, focusing on the relevant keywords and tags in your reviews will automatically make other consumer’s inquisitive to know more about your brand. For instance: You receive an online review and it offers the exact purpose and information that is required to capture consumer’s attention, however, requesting the online reviewers to tag your brand and share them in their social networking can help create trust among potential consumers in their networks too. 5- Fulfilment and returns policy Consumers may not come back if offered a bad shopping experience. Therefore, the time duration you deal with your consumer’s purchase and return orders, will determine the retention rate for your eCommerce business. Why? Offering on-the-spot delivery service like that of a brick-and-mortar store is not possible for any online seller, however, consumers would surely not like to wait longer than what was promised. What you can do? Adopting multi-channel fulfilment software, which allows you to connect your Amazon fulfilment stores as well as other selling channel’s order details at one place, can help process multiple sales order in one go. Return orders can also be tracked in real-time to ensure consumers can get their purchase orders as soon as possible. For instance: Selling across multiple channels you may receive hundreds of orders for your stores, however, being able to auto-sync details at one place can enhance fulfilment processes. Considering Safety: 6- Payment method Having consumer’s pay for their purchases online depends on the transaction safety offered. Unable to offer the most preferred payment method will automatically make consumers hesitant to pay upfront and increase the number of COD orders for your eCommerce business. Why? Consumers who transact online easily trust popular payment options, and not being able to make payment via their regular payment methods can encourage them to discontinue their purchases. What you can do? Authorize.Net, Stripe, PayPal are some of the popular payment options offered by many eCommerce brands to consumers. Therefore, allowing methods that are already being used by online shoppers help you eliminate shopping cart abandonment rates for your online brand. For instance: You brand may allow access to some of the popular payment options, however, unable to spot them on-the-go, will automatically encourage consumers to opt for cash on delivery. 7- Updates to the latest trends You may deal with some of the best-selling categories; however, educating consumers with additional information about using your products can automatically increase engagement and sale opportunities, both. Why? Being able to shop for the latest fashion is one factor that is surely influencing online shoppers, however, an ability to gain innovative ideas about using the products can help them make informed purchases, always. What you can do? Apart from keeping consumers updated with the latest products, increasing their knowledge about your product offering can make them feel you care for their purchases. For instance: Infusing a blog page, or, even video tutorials relevant to your product offerings, can make potential consumers visit your online brand on a regular basis. 8- Multi-language tool Increasing your online brand presence across the globe can be a profit-making idea, however, if consumers are not familiar with the language you offer may exit your site even if your brand had the products and information they were looking for. Why? English considered to be a universal language spoken across the globe, is offered by many online sellers to consumers for promoting their brand and products. However, with many expats settled across the globe can hamper potential opportunities, just because they were unable to understand content that you brand offers. What you can do? Integrating translator tool in your online selling website will help consumers an ability to gain access to machine-translation service to know about your products and brand in the language they are comfortable. For instance: You may be selling your products across the globe, however, not all consumers may be familiar with the same language, therefore, having an access to a translating tool can eliminate Non-English speaking consumers access your brand in the language they want. 9- Shipping charges/Benefits Shipping details is another crucial factor that online shoppers will look-up when making purchase decisions. Why? Consumers who shop online would not like to spend more, especially additional shipping charges, as many online consumers still think it’s a liability to sellers. What you can do? Charging consumers for shipping is an obvious thing as per the delivery location and its requirements; however, not offering clear shipping details can make consumers feel they are being charged extra, who in turn, may discontinue their purchases. For instance: If you are offering free shipping on certain products and mentioning about it on the product detail or checkout page can make consumers feel the benefit and ensure they won’t be charged extra on delivery. 10- Instant communication ability Many consumers who land on your site may not get what they are looking for. And, unable to gain access to information on-the-go will automatically encourage many to leave your site, who in turn, may not return in future. Why? Consumers who shop online try and seek as much as information they can, for the products they wish to purchase. What you can do? Allowing an immediate chat/call support or, even a self-assisted knowledge base can help those lost consumers gain access to information that can allow them to complete their online purchases. For instance: A consumer who has added one of your product to their shopping cart, may be further interested in additional purchases. Unable to find a right match or relevant products, such consumers may drop out the plan of purchasing from your site. This is where instant communication software can be of great help for them and you, both!! Wrapping up Since you are into an online selling business that does not allow consumers to feel or touch the product while making purchases from your brand, offering a unique trust and an excellent shopping experience will not make them feel insecure shopping from your brand in years to come. Godspeed! Running an eCommerce business, you’ll have to deal with hundreds or even thousands of customers who will visit your stores and make purchases. “Single customer view”- buzzword for e-commerce 2015 Not having real-insights of your customer’s information, especially when selling online, means you are losing opportunities and profit, both, for your eCommerce business. “Single customer view,” means maintaining each customer’s details into one centralized system, allowing an easy access to any of those information, whenever needed. Modern customers prefer brands that allow them an overall personalized shopping experience. Instead of doing those guesswork of what will work and what won’t, why not have a single point of access for all your customer’s information? Doing so, will automatically make it easy to track their ever-changing demands, over time.
Now, if you are one of them who is still using multiple sources for collecting and storing your customer’s details, may experience delays in accessing those information- especially whenever needed the most. This is the reason, why a “single customer view” management is proving to be an ideal for many e-commerce enterprises. Key advantages of a single customer view for your e-commerce business 1. Run effect promotional tactics The results of your promotional campaigns will depend on the ways your target your customers. Blindly offering content same for all, may not bring in great conversion rates. However, targeting your customers with content as per their liking, will help you make the most out of your marketing strategies. Practicing a single customer view, you’ll ensure all your customer’s records are stored and secured at one place, making it easy and quick to gain access to any of your customer’s history in real-time. And, having an ability to track your customer’s information when planning a promotional campaign will help you make the most out of it. 2. Cross-selling and Up-selling opportunities Another great opportunity of maintaining a single customer view, is it will allow you to frequently target your customers with products they like, or promote the ones relevant to their previous purchases. Having an ability to target customers with products they would like, can encourage positive purchase-decisions on-the-go. 3. High level customer service If you want to make customer’s stick with your brand, you need to ensure an excellent customer support, especially when required the most. And, not having easy access to your customer’s information, can lead to miscommunication, which directly affects the overall brand value. Single customer view is an ideal choice to live up to customer’s expectation, always. With all your customer’s transaction history at one place, you can take instant actions and boost customer service, day-by-day. 4. Build long-term relationship To earn loyal customers for your e-commerce company, you need to take measures to enhance relationship with them. Having all your customer’s details and purchase history, you can easily know your regular visitors and offer them content and discounts to make them feel special. This way, you get better chances of building relationship with your customers, who in turn, will become loyal with your brand. To sum up Automated customer data entry will ensure information is accurate and duplicate records are merged. A centralized customer management system will help eCommerce companies achieve a single customer view, as well as, enhance a variety of business process. If you are running an online store or any business that is into buying and selling of product/services - I'm sure you are under a lot of pressure to perform back-end tasks efficiently and cut costs while increase revenue. Unlike traditional retailing, ecommerce industry have many obstacles and multiple potential points of failure. Right from the moment an order is placed online to when it is sent for process, packed and dispatched - every step must be handled efficiently, most important, cost-effectively. To fulfill those requirements many retailers end up purchasing costly complex software, and installing these can be time-consuming. And, if you spend more time and resources on administering processes and technology that are not user-friendly, then are not focusing on innovation and strategy. Orderhive an effective solution for back-end operations
Automation can help you reduce time-consuming administration and easy back-end tasks. Orderhive - a multi-channel ecommerce system solution will offer you tools, technologies and interface to manage complex business processes that will automatically boost competitive advantage as well as improve a retailer's ecommerce presence as their business grows. Why use Orderhive? 1- Cloud-based solution Orderhive - a cloud-based ecommerce software solution allow retailers to access their store and make changes from anywhere, anytime. Instead of being tied to a local software or server, any desktop or android device can be granted access to the software, allowing changes to be made on the fly. Orderhive offers retailers an unlimited storage capacity that eliminates the need of purchasing a new hardware. 2- Multi-channel management capabilities Most ecommerce companies today are adopting multi-channel strategy that allows them a chance to expand their offering in the national market as well as across the globe without the need of having a physical store. But, many of them fail to truly engage their customers just because they do not have the correct ecommerce solution that allow multi-channel management capabilities. Implementing Orderhive you can sync multiple store's data (that includes customers, orders, inventory, suppliers) into a single easy-to-use dashboard. This way you eliminate the need of logging into different sales channel individually and risk of errors that directly hits the bottom line of the business. 3- Leading integration synchronization Your online store will require solutions to manage backend operations as and when your business grows. This can include a customer relationship management, shipping, payment, or any other system integration that will help you make a valuable use of your resources. However, integrating such solution requires hardcoding and is time-taking which may require a need to hire technical experts. Orderhive is well-connected to leading solutions and integrating your stores with Orderhive, you automatically enjoy those solutions eliminating the need of being technical know-how. Their solutions include shipping, CRM, shopping carts, as well as marketplaces. 4- Additional integrations at extra cost There are many ecommerce solutions out in the market that offer integration with leading solutions, but limit users for the same. So, when you business grows and you realize that you need a tool to manage shipping cost (just giving an example), and just because your solution provider does not allow you to do so - you'll have purchase that tool. This way you increase the administration cost as well as effort to manage it separately. But, this is not the case when using Orderhive. Playing nice with major ecommerce solutions Orderhive allow users a standalone system, however for any additional integration user can opt for Orderhive's customization service which we would cover in the last point of this article. 5- Inventory and order management system Managing products across multiple suppliers and sales channels is a challenge with no proper multi-channel ecommerce solution in place. Orderhive's intuitive inventory management tools help retailers to easily synchronize and optimize their inventory assortment to every online store and marketplace from one centralized system. Also, it's order management system offer tools that allow retailers to manage every aspect of the ecommerce order management process. You can create, edit and manage orders in real-time across every online store, marketplace, shopping carts, and other sources, ensuring good customer experience and satisfaction. 6- Request customization as per your business needs Ecommerce solution providers that limit retailers from integrating with required solution as an when business grows is of no use. Every retailer would like to grow when opportunity knocks their door, however just because their solution provider does not offer them an integration as per the requirement - they feel helpless. Orderhive offers customization services that allow retailers to work with skillful ecommerce developers who will be glad to listen and understand their business needs, analyze and suggest the best cost-effective solutions to fix those needs, at an additional cost. This also includes rich features like third party integration, dedicated technical resources, Amazon servers, knowledgeable software training sessions and much more. To know more about Orderhive's customization service please call on +1-888-878-5538 or email at [email protected] In Closing Whether you are new to the ecommerce industry or looking for a better option, don't worry! Orderhive's support team will help you end your search, sharing some useful tips to manage your back-end operation and sell stress-free using Orderhive. Technology has made people's life much easier and quicker that more and more people are accessing the internet over their smart phones to gain information of their interests. Internet has allowed anyone to become a writer to portray their expertise which in turn helps start ups, small and medium industry – who either is looking to expand their knowledge or looking for a solution to help them grow. Ecommerce blog are trending in the world of online selling that allow merchants get better insights about the industry and ways on how to reach out, attract, as well as retain customers. If you are one of those who has an eCommerce business and haven't received any valuable insights through social networking site, then subscribing for an eCommerce blog is worth. They will roll out publication and you can bookmark them which you can refer when you up and running. Top 5 eCommerce blog to gain better insights 1 – Kissmetrics Overview Kissmetrics (www.kissmetrics.com) is the most preferred site that allow merchants a robust web analytics solution to benefit increased customer acquisition and retention rate, offer best customer experience, and make smart decisions to improve the bottom line. Kissmetrics effective solution has been mentioned in Techcrunch, Forbes, Mashable, The Wall street journal, and continues to be famous for its blogpost which keeps it one of the top analytic solution till date. Contributors Kissmetrics was founded by Neil Patel and Hiten Shah in the year 2008 with an aim to offer a customer analytic platform for small and medium industry. Today, the company has signed on more than 1,900 paying customers and has tracked more than 4.5 billion people and their 36 billion interactions. This figure explains why Kissmetrics's blogs are well-worth the time you'll spend in reading them. 2 – Practical eCommerce Overview Practical Ecommerce (http://www.practicalecommerce.com/) will bring in daily news covering all important aspects of the eCommerce world. Their articles cover branding, conversions, shipping, shopping cart, designing, social media and many other eCommerce solution to grow successfully. Their main aim is offer the content in the most simplest language to help eCommerce businesses. Accommodating leading eCommerce practitioners, consultants and journalists – you are in a safe hand. Contributors Founded in the year 2005 by Kerry and Joy Murdock, they have proved to be an effective source for many merchants who are successfully running a store online. With a rating of 4.7/5, tells why it proves to be one of the top eCommerce blog site that you should follow. Earlier their content was primarily delivered through magazines, but now includes the website, email newsletters, webinars, audio podcasts. 3 – EcommercePulse Overview EcommercePulse (http://ecommercepulse.com/) has helped a dozens of eCommerce business owners launch a successful online store as well as helped them gain immense knowledge in the process that will benefit you. Whether you are a beginner taking the first move in building your online store, or an experienced business owner looking to boost marketing, ecommercePulse will eliminate assumptions and portray concepts as clear as possible. Contributors Created by Leighton Taylor in the year 2013, today Layton provide an insider's look to various eCommerce aspects like customer retention, marketing tactics, and every other thing that is required to build and grow as well as improve your existing business. Leighton also contributes as a Shopify Expert, and has helped numerous small businesses to build successful online stores. His experience with newbie's and his own entrepreneurial ventures provides valuable insight that he shares in ecommerPulse. 4 – GetElastic Overview GetElastic (http://www.getelastic.com/) is powered by Elastic Path Software, that provide in-depth analysis and tips to manage digital relationships. This eCommerce blog site will help merchants with their eCommerce strategies. The name (GetElastic) itself depicts, "you’ll get a bit more elastic every time you meet them. It's solutions includes digital commerce, mobile, multi-channel, social media, search marketing, web designing, conversion optimization and merchandising. Contributors Founded in the year 2000 by Harry Chemko, Mark Williams, Jason Billingsley, Elastic path has a client-base of more than 200 customers across the globe and more than 150 employees. Linda Bustos and David Chiu are their major contributors for providing eCommerce solution. GetElastic was ranked #1 worldwide eCommerce blog site by PostRank and voted one of the most influential entreprenual blog worth reading by the Wall Street Journal. Their clientele includes Google, Symantec, Time Inc., plus more. 5 – Bootstraping eCommerce Overview
Bootstrapping eCommerce (http://bootstrappingecommerce.com/) is an eCommerce blog site that not only provides insights, but also offers tips and tricks to implement those insights. This blog site will help eCommerce merchants to gain utmost marketing tips that includes the SEO, PPC, social media and many other aspects – all at a nominal budget. Get the most practical, cost-effective tips and strategies for building and running an eCommerce store on subscribing for Bootstrapping eCommerce. Contributors Selling online since the age of 10, Shabbir Nooruddin is the founder of Bootstrapping eCommerce. Infused with immense knowledge of the eCommerce happenings, he is a life-saver to many entities for running and marketing a full-scale eCommerce business in a petty amount of money. In summary The above mentioned are most preferred eCommerce blog sites that every merchant should follow, however we at Orderhive – primarily focused on reducing the number of clicks to ease eCommerce back-end operation, also offer valuable insights to merchants on major aspects of an eCommerce business covering both – front-end and back-end tasks. We try and provide solutions that are unique and will help you enhance your eCommerce site’s usability, functionality and customer experience to the core. To know more, please visit our blog @ http://www.orderhive.com/blog.html |
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