As the world becomes virtually connected, the popularity of eCommerce has seen rapid growth.
Internet speeds continue to improve while more and more people purchase new computers and smartphones every day.
This means a larger target audience for your online business, but it also means more competition.
Without planning for long-term success, your eCommerce business will struggle to reach its goals.
The key to longevity in the business world is building your company on a strong foundation right from the beginning.
Once you have that, you will be prepared to create an eCommerce company that lasts.
Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan
One thing the most successful businesses all have in common is a set of core values that drive their decision making.
This is set down in writing in the form of a business plan, and it is perhaps the single most important document for your company’s long-term success.
When attracting investors, designing new products, or creating marketing campaigns, your business plan will serve as a roadmap of your key goals and values.
Your business plan has two core purposes: to outline the long-term goals for your business and to breakdown how you will reach those goals.
Many free online resources and courses can walk you through creating a business plan in detail.
In addition to your business plan, you’ll want a marketing plan that outlines how you’ll promote your eCommerce site and its products.
Focus on your long-term business objectives, then break those down into short-term marketing goals.
Online ads, social media pages, or a blog are all cheap ways you can market your business to gain traffic and exposure.
Be Reliable
Whether you have one customer or one million, reliability and quality are two cornerstones of a long-lasting company.
Three areas companies should focus on from the beginning to ensure reliable service include supply chain management, customer service, and website optimization.
Supply Chain Management
Your supply chain illustrates the flow of your goods from the initial raw materials through processing, selling, and shipping to the customer.
With an online store, there are several important points in the supply chain you control:
Purchasing Goods
Unless you manufacture your own product, you’ll need to buy the items you sell. You’ll likely have several suppliers to choose from and may have the option to buy wholesale.
If you manufacturer your own items, you still work with suppliers when purchasing the equipment and raw materials to make your goods.
Selling Goods
Numerous platforms are available for selling your items.
You could set up your own website and hire a developer to code your eCommerce store from scratch.
You could use an eCommerce platform like Shopify, 3dcart, or Squarespace. You could also use a pre-existing eCommerce site like Amazon.
source: pixabay.com
Building your platform from scratch will likely bankrupt you unless you’re already a major corporation.
Selling through sites like Amazon is simple and convenient, but it can be hard to drive traffic to your site due to the number of competitors.
Research the different eCommerce sites and platforms available to you and choose the one that best fits your budget, sales volume, and advertising needs.
Shipping and Delivery
Some platforms, such as Amazon, offer the option to store and deliver products for you for a fee.
Typically, however, you’ll want to keep costs as low as possible by delivering through the post office, FedEx, or UPS.
You can charge shipping to the customers, but many eCommerce stores see the highest sales when they offer free shipping.
Each point in the supply chain is an opportunity to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Find a balance that delivers affordable, quality products within a reasonable time frame.
Good inventory management practices should be established from the beginning to avoid catastrophic failures down the road. By working out any hiccups from the get-go, you’ll have it mastered by the time business is really soaring.
Inventory management involves tracking the product you have and knowing when to order more. It sounds simple in concept, but it can be quite complicated to order just the right amount of product and keep your store updated in real-time.
Poor inventory management can result in selling items you don’t actually have in stock or overstocking an item that isn’t selling well.
Ensure that your current suppliers can scale their services up or down based on your demands.
Your eCommerce business could hit a growth spurt without warning. You want suppliers that can meet the increased demand for a product as well as delivery channels that can get purchases to the customers on time.
Customer Service
Excellent customer service at all points of contact should be a priority if you want positive reviews.
Whether you have a handful of on-site employees or a larger remote workforce, employee training should be consistent for everyone.
Make brand guidelines and customer etiquette policies universal across all documents. Post these documents in a shared location online where everyone can easily read and review them.
As your customer base grows, invest in tools to manage customer support and customer relationship management. Services such as Zendesk and Salesforce help track customer information and past correspondence so your team can quickly view the relationship.
Relying solely on email to track customer communication can lead to delayed response times and forgotten customers. This can cost you sales and lead to lost profits.
Website Optimization
You should also optimize your website for the best performance.
There are several ways to do this, including:
Improving Product Pages
Be sure every product page has an interesting, detailed, and relevant information about your product.
Check for spelling and grammar errors, and always use high-quality photos of your products.
Frequently check for broken links, out of date sales ads, and images that no longer work. All of these can leave a negative impression on customers.
Gathering Email Addresses
Be sure you have a prominent email signup box on your site!
source: pixabay.com
Avoid spamming customers with too many emails. About 78% of email subscribers cancel their subscriptions when they receive promotional offers frequently. Consider having customers…
Using Consistent SEO Techniques
Use good SEO techniques on every page of your website. This includes keywords in titles, headings, and content as well as keeping your site up-to-date and posting quality content.
A blog is a good way to share information and boost SEO.
Simplifying the Checkout Process
Don’t add unnecessary steps to checkout. Guests want to give out as little personal information as required to complete their purchase.
Offering the option to checkout as a guest instead of requiring an account can dramatically reduce cart abandonment rates.
It may take time and money to make these changes to your eCommerce site, but by establishing good habits from the beginning you can easily scale your business as the company grows.
In Sum
Ecommerce changes constantly, meaning you need good preparation for what’s to come.
An optimized site, good supply chain, and inventory management, as well as customer service that cares about customers, will help you tackle any challenge you will face while your business grows.
These systems are crucial to help you scale easily without losing sight and overview of your operations and goals.
You will have an advantage in the long-term over companies who rushed in without preparation.
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
-Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.
