How small businesses can navigate their way through the eCommerce labyrinth

The eCommerce maze for Australian small business may seem daunting and often overwhelming to navigate through. Aspiring the ideal balance with your product, service, website, shipping, and not to mention the technology, communications and social media can be the difficult to juggle and manage.

So, I’d recommend SMEs to join forces with a reliable business consultant to help navigate them through the eCommerce labyrinth, ensuring that they come out the other end with clarity, consistent growth and plenty of happy and loyal customers!

The three P’s

From the outset, the three P’s of business success – people, product and processes – form the foundation in what you want to achieve.

The clarity and integration of the three P’s will set the scene for adaptability, motivation and accountability in the business. As a business consultant, I want to know how innovative the product is, how motivated the people in the business are to succeed and understand the current mechanics of the business’s processes. From there, we can start fine tuning all the other elements to create an eCommerce presence that is destined to succeed.

Remove any obstacles for customers to purchase

There is nothing more frustrating than for a customer to be confronted with a confusing and complicated site, which makes it difficult to purchase a product with ease and simplicity.

Patience and time runs thin at this stage of the buying process, so it is imperative that the back end of your eCommerce site has the technology which allows your customers to click and buy in the time frame they find acceptable. Anything less, equates to disaster and believe me, it is rare for them to return, regardless of if your product is that captivating.

Driving qualified traffic to the website

There is a suite of tactics that you can drive qualified traffic to your website with the intention to purchase. From running Google ad campaigns, social media ads and engaging conversation on social media, the key is to create a mix of marketing strategies that will attract a larger sphere of potential customers. Don’t assume your customers will find you somehow. You must use clever ways for customers to be energised in buying from you.

Invest in recapturing missed opportunities

Through clever and slick retargeting, via ads and emails, a business can reconnect and revisit missed opportunities. It is that intimate and authentic approach in customer service and communication which will make you outshine you from the competition. Sometimes, potential customers needs a reminder or a prod that your product is worth purchasing. Be convincing, captivating, without being annoying!

Rich promotional calendar

With eCommerce, you cannot use a short-sighted lens to maximise your opportunities for success.

As a business consultant, I drive my clients in creating a myriad of sales generating activities. It is so important that we are continually working on educating the business on product and service delivery. Customer satisfaction is the top priority so we continually need to pool our resources and expertise and funnelling into that.

eCommerce is here to stay and its presence will continue to grow in an astronomical rate. Australian businesses not only have to keep up, but they also need to be ahead of the pack to not only outshine competition, but also engage in their customers in a way that makes them come back for more!

Olivia Jenkins, Business Consultant