Ecommerce companies too often focus on the number of visitors to their site or the sheer volume of sales. They rarely look at the return on the investment for their effort or the profit margin per product. This gets in the way of business productivity that is key to improving your profit margin and being able to handle spikes in sales. Here are 4 productivity boosters for ecommerce companies.
Prioritize
Don’t waste time sending marketing material to unlikely prospects when you have people who aren’t finishing their purchase of items in their shopping cart. Don’t work on new products without understanding why sales of the old one are flagging. The solution may be adjusting user instructions, providing how-to videos or altering your marketing – not a new product in the lineup.
Don’t waste time on tasks that you can delegate to others, when there is work that only you as the business owner or subject matter expert can do. Don’t waste time in status meetings if you can do the same through business dashboards.
What should you prioritize? Invest time into training people so they don’t need as much supervision or assistance. Do take the time to vet and hire good people so you don’t have to do so much yourself. Limit the time you spend online for social media marketing to posting content and responding to the best praise and worst complaints. Let marketing do the deep listening necessary to get a good picture of what the public thinks of the brand.
Pay Attention to Your Product Descriptions
Too many ecommerce sites use sparse, repetitive product descriptions. Take the time to add details that customers find valuable, whether it is color, size, weight, or age range. Include descriptions such as whether or not it is organic, ethically sourced or doesn’t contain materials people are afraid of. Provide information that helps them make comparisons such as the features this one has versus the other models by the same manufacturer.
Refer to both the brand name and the manufacturer’s name, since people may search for the product using either piece of information. This reduces the number of times potential customers ask customer service about the right item to buy.
Partner with a Managed Mail Service
It may seem counterintuitive at first. If you’re an ecommerce company, you’re processing a large number of mailed orders. Why would you want to work with a managed mail service like The Delivery Group?
First, it allows you to reduce the amount of space dedicated to a mail room for incoming mail. The sorted incoming mail goes directly to the department that should receive it, and you could receive data and segregated billing for it, as well. Now you know how much money it costs to process returned materials or junk mail.
Second, it can help you save money. You could be responsible for shipping curated orders for clients but let the managed mail service handle the marketing mail, invoices and free samples you send you.
Automate Customer Engagement
Send emails to customers with the tracking information for their order and thanking them for their business automatically. Automatically create helpdesk tickets or customer service orders when someone responds with a complaint.
Create online funnels to collect their contact information and automatically send them coupon codes or bonus content as a reward for signing up. Automatically send customized marketing content based on their purchase history and demographics. This helps maintain engagement with the customer at relatively little cost.
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Interesting related article: “What is Online Shopping?“