Importance of eCommerce for Manufacturers and Distributors

The world of business has seen a dramatic shift in recent years as more manufacturers and distributors recognize the potential of ecommerce. In particular, ecommerce has become an increasingly important channel for manufacturers and distributors to reach customers and increase their profits. Launching an ecommerce channel not only provides direct access to customers but also offers several other benefits.

Let’s have a closer look at the growing importance of ecommerce for manufacturers and distributors, its benefits, and how it can be used to gain a competitive advantage.

Benefits of Ecommerce for Manufacturers and Distributors

• 1. It gives Direct Access to Customers
  One of the most significant benefits of ecommerce for manufacturers and distributors is the direct access to customers it provides. In the past, these businesses relied on distributors to reach their customers. However, with the rise of ecommerce, manufacturers and distributors can now sell their products directly to customers. This direct access to customers allows them to preserve higher profit margins, strengthen customer relationships, and capture data about their needs and preferences.

• 2. Manufacturers can Retain Higher Profit Margins
  Another significant benefit of ecommerce for manufacturers and distributors is the ability to preserve higher profit margins. When businesses sell their products through distributors, they must share their profits with them. However, by selling their products directly to customers, businesses can avoid these extra costs and retain more of the profits for themselves.
• 3. Strengthening Customer Relationships
  By selling products directly to customers, businesses can build relationships with them and gain a better understanding of their needs and preferences. This data can then be used to personalize marketing and offer better products and services.
• 4. Allows Greater Control over Branding
  When businesses sell their products through distributors, they have less control over how their products are marketed and presented to customers. However, with ecommerce, businesses can control how their products are presented and marketed, ensuring that their brand is accurately represented.
• 5. Ensuring Optimal Pricing and Discount Strategies
  Businesses can avoid the price markups that occur when selling products through distributors. This allows them to offer better prices to customers and compete more effectively in the market.
• 6. Collecting Customer Data for Personalization
  Businesses can access data about their needs and preferences, which can be used to personalize marketing and offer better products and services. This personalization can lead to increased customer loyalty and improved sales.
• 7. Increasing Customer Loyalty through Brand Retention Campaigns
  Ecommerce also offers manufacturers and distributors the opportunity to increase repeat purchases through on-brand retention campaigns. By selling products directly to customers, businesses can create a more personal connection with them and offer loyalty programs, discounts, and other incentives that keep customers coming back.
• 8. Opportunities to Innovate
  Ecommerce also provides manufacturers and distributors with opportunities to innovate.
  • a. By knowing how their customers shop and what they value in their suppliers, businesses can develop unique value propositions.
  • b. Customer feedback can provide valuable insights into which add-ons or modifications to prioritize.
  • c. Procurement data can suggest when certain parts are due for replacement so that businesses can pitch an early delivery to the buyer.
  • d. Feedback from sales reps and support agents can suggest how businesses can improve after-sales services, such as introducing better delivery schedules, improving warranties, or expanding the scope of installation and training services.
• 9. Scalability
  Ecommerce greatly increases the scalability of manufacturers and distributors. With ecommerce, businesses can process orders without the need to attract more distributors or hire extra sales reps. This means that they can sell their products to customers around the world without the need for physical locations or sales teams. What’s more, they can seamlessly tap into new markets and attract new customers.
  “Considering that increasing number of B2B buyers prefer to conduct research online rather than speaking with a salesperson, search engines play a huge role in how new customers will find your website. Thus, enhancing your SEO and having a strong online presence is crucial to attracting new customers and establishing a competitive advantage.”
• 10. Improved Efficiencies
  By using an ecommerce platform, businesses can automate time-consuming manual processes, such as checkout, billing, and inventory management. As a result, they can devote time and resources to other core business activities, such as marketing and customer support.
• 11. Sell Your Complete Catalog
  As a manufacturing or distribution company, businesses likely have a large number of products, including personalized products, that vary in price depending on the customer and segment. Plus, they’ll want to offer personalized product suggestions to prospective customers to help increase conversions. With an ecommerce platform, businesses can cover both of these bases, syncing their entire catalog to their website and configuring prices as needed.
• 12. Brand Awareness
  Increasingly B2B industrial manufacturer buyers start their research online with a product, then follow up with a brand. You can SEO-optimize your ecommerce website to receive traffic from search engines for both types of queries — product and brand-name ones — so that more buyers get familiar with your brand and full product range.
• 13. Data Analytics to boost CX & drive Sales
  With full access to customer data, businesses can employ an array of ecommerce analytics solutions to boost CX and increase sales. This includes personalized product recommendations, real-time pricing for different customizations and order volumes, relevant up-sell/cross-sell positions, and best-suited warranty, servicing, or customer service packages.

Seven Best Practices for Manufacturers and Distributors to maximise eCommerce

To implement ecommerce strategies effectively, manufacturers and distributors should follow these best practices:

• 1. Use a user-friendly ecommerce platform that is easy to navigate and optimized for search engines.
• 2. Offer a wide range of products with personalized product suggestions to increase conversions.

• 3. Automate time-consuming manual processes, such as checkout, billing, and inventory management.
• 4. Use ecommerce analytics solutions to boost CX and increase sales.
• 5. Offer loyalty programs, discounts, and other incentives to retain customers and increase customer loyalty.
• 6. Provide excellent customer support and after-sales services, such as warranty, servicing, and installation/training services.
• 7. Continuously monitor and update the ecommerce platform to ensure that it is meeting the needs of customers and providing a competitive advantage.

FAQs on Importance of eCommerce

• 1. What are the benefits of ecommerce to merchants or organizations?
  Answer : Benefits of eCommerce to merchants/organizations:
  • Wider customer reach
  • Lower operational costs
  • Increased sales and revenue
  • Easy market expansion
  • Improved customer data analysis
  • 24/7 availability
  • Simplified inventory management

• 2. Why is e-commerce important in supply chain management?
  Answer : Importance of eCommerce in supply chain management:
  • Real-time inventory tracking
  • Improved efficiency and speed
  • Enhanced supplier and customer relationships
  • Better demand forecasting
  • Reduced costs
  • Streamlined order processing and fulfilment
• 3. Why e-commerce is playing an important role in retail industry?
  Answer : Role of eCommerce in the retail industry:
  • Convenient shopping experience for customers
  • Increased sales channels
  • Expanded customer base
  • Competitive advantage
  • Ability to adapt to market trends quickly
  • Personalized shopping experiences
• 4. What are the benefits of e-commerce for retailers and customers?
  Answer : Benefits of eCommerce for retailers and customers:
  For retailers:
  • Lower overheads
  • Easy scalability
  • Access to customer data and insights
  • Targeted marketing opportunities
  For customers:
  • Convenience and ease of shopping
  • Access to a wide range of products
  • Competitive pricing and discounts
  • Personalized recommendations
  • Quick and easy product comparisons
  • Access to customer reviews

Expert Strategies for Tackling Data Complexity in eCommerce

Overcoming the challenges of complex data in eCommerce:
A comprehensive guide.

Managing complex data in ecommerce stores is crucial for businesses to stay competitive and achieve success in the modern digital marketplace. With the growing volume and variety of data generated by ecommerce operations, including product information, customer data, sales data, and inventory data, businesses must ensure that their data is accurate, consistent, and easily accessible. Effective data management helps businesses gain insights into their operations, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions to drive growth and profitability. Without proper data management, businesses risk inefficiencies, errors, and missed opportunities.

This is especially important for ecommerce businesses with large and complex operations, where the sheer amount of data can be overwhelming. In this blog post, we will explore five strategies for managing complex data in ecommerce stores, empowering businesses to harness the power of their data to drive success.

• 1. Centralize Data Management: By centralizing data management, businesses can improve accuracy, consistency, and efficiency. This involves consolidating data in a specific location and using tools like PIM and MDM software.
• 2. Implement Data Governance Policies: Clear data governance policies can help ensure data accuracy, consistency, and security, as well as compliance with relevant regulations. This includes policies for data quality standards, access and security, and retention and disposal.
• 3. Invest in Data Integration and Automation: Data integration and automation can help businesses manage complex data more efficiently, with benefits such as reduced manual data entry, improved data consistency, and faster processing. Tools like API integrations, data connectors, and workflow automation can help.
• 4. Implement Data Visualization and Analysis Tools: Data visualization and analysis tools can help businesses gain insights into their data, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions. This includes tools like dashboards, reports, and business intelligence software.
• 5. Focus on Data Security and Privacy: Businesses that handle sensitive customer information must prioritize data security and privacy. This involves measures like data encryption, access controls, regular security audits, and compliance with relevant regulations like PCI DSS and GDPR.

By implementing these five strategies, eCommerce businesses can improve their data management and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Strategy #1: Centralize Data Management

In the world of eCommerce, data is critical. It is the lifeblood of any eCommerce business, and managing it effectively is essential for success. One of the best practices for managing complex data in eCommerce is centralizing data management. By centralizing data, businesses can improve accuracy, consistency, and efficiency in their eCommerce operations.

3 Benefits of Centralizing Data Management

Centralizing data management brings numerous benefits to eCommerce businesses. Some of the key benefits are:

• 1. Improved Accuracy: Centralizing data helps ensure that data is consistent and up-to-date across all channels, reducing the likelihood of errors and inconsistencies.
• 2. Better Efficiency: Centralizing data eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and saving time.
• 3.Increased Productivity: Centralizing data enables businesses to automate data management tasks, freeing up time for employees to focus on more value-added tasks.

Types and Examples of Data that can be Centralized

There are several types of data that businesses can centralize to improve their eCommerce operations. Some of the most common types of data that can be centralized are:

• 1. Product Information: Centralizing product information can help ensure that product data is consistent and up-to-date across all channels. This includes product descriptions, images, pricing, and inventory levels.
• 2. Customer Data: Centralizing customer data can help businesses personalize the shopping experience for customers and better understand their needs and preferences. This includes customer contact information, purchase history, and behavioral data.
• 3. Inventory Data: Centralizing inventory data can help businesses manage their inventory levels more effectively, reducing the risk of stockouts and overstocks. This includes SKU data, stock levels, and replenishment data.

Role of eCommerce Platforms in Centralized Data Management

eCommerce platforms play a critical role in enabling centralized data management. Modern eCommerce platforms offer robust integrations with ERP and CRM systems, enabling businesses to centralize data and automate data management tasks. Some of the ways eCommerce platforms can help with centralized data management are:

• Integrations: eCommerce platforms offer integrations with ERP and CRM systems, enabling businesses to centralize data and automate data management tasks.
• API Access: eCommerce platforms offer API access, allowing businesses to develop custom integrations with their existing systems.
• Cloud-Based Data Storage: eCommerce platforms offer cloud-based data storage, ensuring that data is secure, accessible, and backed up.

Tools for Data Centralization

There are various tools that businesses can use to centralize their data effectively. Some of the most popular tools are:

• Product Information Management (PIM) Software: PIM software centralizes product information, enabling businesses to manage product data across all channels.
• Master Data Management (MDM) Software: MDM software centralizes all types of data, including product, customer, and inventory data.
• Data Governance Tools: Data governance tools enable businesses to define data policies and standards, ensuring that data is consistent and up-to-date.

Strategy #2: Implement Data Governance Policies

Implementing data governance policies is essential for managing complex data in eCommerce. Clear data governance policies can help ensure data accuracy, consistency, and security, as well as compliance with relevant regulations. Without proper governance, businesses risk losing valuable data, damaging their reputation, and facing legal penalties.

Importance of Data Governance Policies

Data governance policies define how data is collected, used, managed, and protected in an organization. They help ensure that everyone involved in the data management process understands their responsibilities and follows best practices. Data governance policies can also help prevent errors, reduce data duplication, and improve decision-making by providing a single source of truth for data.

Examples of Data Governance Policies

Here are some examples of data governance policies that eCommerce businesses should consider implementing:

• 1. Data Quality Standards: Establishing data quality standards can help ensure that data is accurate, complete, and consistent. This policy should outline how data is collected, validated, and maintained to ensure its quality.
• 2. Data Access and Security Policies: Defining who has access to data, how data is accessed, and how it is secured is critical for protecting sensitive information. This policy should include protocols for granting access, authentication requirements, and encryption protocols.
• 3. Data Retention and Disposal Policies: This policy outlines how long data should be retained and when it should be disposed of. It is important to have this policy in place to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and prevent the accumulation of unnecessary data.

4 steps to Implementing Data Governance Policies

Implementing data governance policies requires a systematic approach. Here are some steps that eCommerce businesses can take to implement effective data governance policies:

• 1. Define Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities: Assigning roles and responsibilities to individuals or teams is crucial to ensuring accountability and ownership.
• 2. Develop Policies and Procedures: Establish clear policies and procedures that outline how data will be collected, managed, and protected.
• 3. Educate Employees: Educate employees on data governance policies and the importance of adhering to them.
• 4. Monitor and Audit Data: Regularly monitoring and auditing data can help identify issues and ensure compliance with policies and regulations.

Implementing data governance policies is critical for managing complex data in eCommerce. By defining how data is collected, managed, and protected, eCommerce businesses can ensure data accuracy, consistency, and security, as well as compliance with relevant regulations. This can lead to better decision-making, reduced risks, and improved customer trust.

Strategy #3: Invest in Data Integration and Automation

In today’s data-driven eCommerce landscape, managing complex data is crucial for business success. One of the most effective strategies for managing this complexity is investing in data integration and automation. By integrating and automating data processes, eCommerce businesses can improve their data accuracy, consistency, and efficiency while reducing manual labor and saving time.

Data integration involves combining data from various sources and systems to create a unified view of the data. Automation, on the other hand, involves automating manual processes such as data entry, processing, and analysis. By combining these two approaches, eCommerce businesses can create a more streamlined and efficient data management system.

3 key benefits of investing in data integration and automation include:

• 1. Reduced Manual Data Entry: Manual data entry can be time-consuming and prone to errors. By automating data entry, eCommerce businesses can reduce the risk of errors and save time.
• 2. Improved Data Consistency: Integrating data from multiple sources can often result in data inconsistencies. By automating data integration, eCommerce businesses can ensure that data is consistent across all systems.
• 3. Faster Data Processing: Manual data processing can be slow and time-consuming. By automating data processing, eCommerce businesses can speed up their data analysis and decision-making processes.

Examples of data integration and automation tools that eCommerce businesses can use include:

• 1. API Integrations: Application Programming Interface (API) integrations allow eCommerce businesses to connect their systems and exchange data automatically. For example, an eCommerce store could use an API integration to automatically update its inventory levels when a sale is made on another platform.

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• 2. Data Connectors: Data connectors enable eCommerce businesses to transfer data between different systems and applications automatically. For example, a data connector could transfer data from an eCommerce platform to an accounting software without the need for manual data entry.
• 3. Workflow Automation Tools: Workflow automation tools allow eCommerce businesses to automate manual processes such as data entry, processing, and analysis. For example, an eCommerce business could use a workflow automation tool to automatically categorize customer data based on purchase history.

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Strategy #4: Implement Data Visualization and Analysis Tools

In the world of ecommerce, data is king. But with so much data coming in from various sources, it can be overwhelming for ecommerce businesses to manage and make sense of it all. This is where data visualization and analysis tools come in.

Data visualization and analysis tools can help ecommerce businesses gain insights into their data, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions.

Here are top 3 benefits of implementing these tools:

• 1. Simplify Complex Data: Data visualization tools can simplify complex data by presenting it in an easily digestible format. Instead of sifting through endless rows of data, ecommerce businesses can use visualizations such as charts, graphs, and heat maps to quickly identify patterns and trends.
• 2. Make Informed Decisions: Data analysis tools can help ecommerce businesses make informed decisions based on data-driven insights. For example, analyzing customer data can help ecommerce businesses identify customer trends, such as which products are popular and which marketing channels are driving the most traffic.
• 3. Improve Business Performance: By gaining insights into their data, ecommerce businesses can make strategic decisions that improve their overall performance. For example, identifying a high-performing product category can help ecommerce businesses allocate resources towards expanding that category.

Here are some examples of data visualization and analysis tools that ecommerce businesses can use:

• Dashboards: Dashboards provide a high-level overview of key performance metrics in a single place. Ecommerce businesses can use dashboards to track metrics such as sales, traffic, and customer engagement.
• Reports: Reports provide detailed insights into specific aspects of an ecommerce business, such as product performance or customer behavior. Ecommerce businesses can use reports to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.
• Business Intelligence Software: Business intelligence software provides advanced data analysis capabilities, such as predictive analytics and data mining. Ecommerce businesses can use these tools to gain deeper insights into their data and make more informed decisions.

Strategy #5: Focus on Data Security and Privacy

In today’s digital age, data security and privacy have become critical concerns for ecommerce businesses. With the increasing amount of sensitive customer data being collected and stored, it is essential for businesses to implement robust security measures to protect against data breaches and cyberattacks.

Data security and privacy are essential for ecommerce businesses that handle sensitive customer information such as personal details, payment information, and order history. Failing to secure customer data can lead to severe consequences, including financial loss, legal penalties, and reputational damage.

To ensure data security and privacy, ecommerce businesses should implement the following measures:

• 1. Comply with Relevant Regulations: Businesses should comply with relevant data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Compliance with these regulations ensures that businesses meet the required security standards and protect customer data.
• 2. Implement Data Encryption: Encrypting sensitive data such as payment information and personal details is a crucial step in protecting customer data. Encryption scrambles the data, making it unreadable to unauthorized users. Implementing encryption ensures that even if data is compromised, it remains protected.
• 3. Implement Access Controls: Access controls limit who can access data and what actions they can perform on it. Implementing access controls ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data and protects against internal threats such as data theft and misuse.
• 4. Regular Security Audits: Regular security audits help identify vulnerabilities and ensure that security measures are working as intended. Audits should be conducted periodically to identify weaknesses in the security infrastructure and address them before they can be exploited.
• 5. Regular Security Training: Regular training for employees on data security and privacy best practices is crucial. Employees should be aware of the risks associated with handling sensitive data and the steps they need to take to protect it. Training should be provided to all employees who handle customer data, including customer service representatives, data entry personnel, and IT staff.
• 6. Regular Testing and Auditing of Security Measures: Regular testing and auditing of security measures ensure that they are effective and up-to-date. This includes regular vulnerability testing, penetration testing, and compliance audits.

By implementing these measures, ecommerce businesses can ensure that customer data is protected against potential threats and mitigate the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks. Focusing on data security and privacy is not only crucial for protecting customer data but also for building trust with customers and ensuring the long-term success of the business.

In conclusion, managing complex data in ecommerce stores is a crucial aspect of running a successful online business. By implementing the five strategies discussed in this post, ecommerce businesses can improve their data management practices, which can lead to increased accuracy, consistency, efficiency, and security of their data.

Centralizing data management can streamline data organization and improve data quality. By implementing data governance policies, ecommerce businesses can ensure that their data is accurate, consistent, and compliant with regulations. Investing in data integration and automation can help businesses process large amounts of data quickly and accurately, while implementing data visualization and analysis tools can help businesses gain insights from their data to make informed decisions. Finally, focusing on data security and privacy can protect businesses from data breaches and ensure that customer data is secure.

In today’s competitive ecommerce landscape, effectively managing complex data can give businesses a significant advantage. It is important for ecommerce businesses to implement these strategies to improve their data management practices and stay ahead of the competition. By taking a proactive approach to data management, businesses can build trust with their customers, reduce errors and inefficiencies, and ultimately achieve greater success.

A few must have integrations for any online store

An eCommerce store is more than just a website. It is a system consisting of various components that work in harmony to provide various functionalities and enhance the user experience of your online store. On the storefront are all the visual elements and the user interface that the customer directly interacts with. But they do not work on their own. A multitude of complex back-end processes needs to work hand-in-hand with the front-end to provide the smooth user experience that customers expect from the online store.

These may include search filters, shopping carts, payment gateways, order tracking, etc. All these functions are carried out by eCommerce integrations. Some of the integrations are provided by the eCommerce platforms themselves. But for all other enhanced functionality, you need third-party integrations.

What are third-party integrations?

Third-party Integrations are apps that can be directly installed in your eCommerce store as plugins. Once installed, they act as integral parts of the site, working in synergy with the other components of the site to process data entered by the customers and bring results.

How does third-party integration help achieve eCommerce automation?

Many of these third-party integrations are eCommerce automation tools that work without the need for human intervention. They use state-of-the-art technology to work in the back-end to:

• • Reduce human errors
• • Improve speed and efficiency
• • Make work easy for the store managers
• • Cut costs and
• • Provide users with a great user experience

Where can you find these third-party integrations?

You can search, find and install these third-party integrations in your eCommerce platform store itself. You can also hire the services of an agency partner to install these apps and iron out the issues with the help of the experts.

Select your third-party integrations before you unveil your eCommerce store

Without third-party integrations, an eCommerce store is merely a bare-bone storefront. It lacks key functionality and features that give customers a pleasant user experience. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully choose third-party integrations that suit your requirements and integrate them properly before you commence your operations. Following are some of the types of integrations available.

1. Payment Integrations

Payment gateway is probably the most important tool for any eCommerce site. Without a wide variety of digital payment options that ensure secure transactions, you cannot achieve the desired conversion rate. Some of the popular payment gateways include:

• • PayPal
• • Google Checkout
• • Apple Pay
• • Stripe
• • Authorize.net
• • Skrill
• • Wepay

2.Shipping and Order Tracking Integrations

Shipping issues are a major concern in eCommerce business. A study by eMarketer reveals that fast shipping speed and easy delivery accounted for 62% and 54% of the positive customer experience respectively. A shipping integration that is flexible enough to customize different options including shipping rates and speed, and capable of automatically generating shipping labels, tracking details, and notifications, enriches user experience. Some of the popular shipping and tracking integrations include:

• Shippo
• Fedex
• ShippingEasy
• Ordoro
• Endicia

3. Analytics and Reporting Integrations

eCommerce provides you with the opportunity for data-driven growth. Understanding customers’ profiles, preferences, shopping habits, etc., based on the data captured on the site plays a significant role in the growth of your business. In order to capitalize on it, you need to find the right eCommerce automation solutions that enable you to measure various metrics relevant to your business and get detailed insights. With a clear picture of what is happening and what needs to be done, you can move forward with a sense of purpose and achieve consistent growth.

Some of the most successful analytics integrations include:

• Google Analytics
• SharpSpring
• Firebase
• Urban Airstrip

4. Accounting and Financial Integrations

Maintaining the records and documents with regard to sales, purchase, invoicing, budgeting, tax, payroll, etc., requires a dedicated accounting team. It is both expensive, especially for a small business, and is relatively less reliable due to human errors. Installing a versatile and comprehensive eCommerce automation tool, like the following, for maintaining accounting and finance goes a long way in preventing you from incurring unnecessary expenses, and in achieving accuracy, speed and efficiency.

• 1. Braintree
• 2. Gusto
• 3. Basecamp
• 4. WorkflowMax

5. Inventory integrations

As things get sold in an online store, the number of items displayed on the site and the ones in stock must match in real-time. Otherwise, customers may order products that went out of stock without realizing. This causes poor user experience and massive damage to the business. There are eCommerce automation tools in the market that manage all aspects of inventory management – from generating purchase/sales orders and invoices, real-time tracking and availability, all the way to proactive forecasting of product demand based on historical data. Following are some of those tools.

• Netsuite
• Zoho Inventory
• Ecomdash
• Cin7
• Fishbowl

6. Customer support integrations

eCommerce stores demand constant interaction with customers for one thing or another, be it order, payment or delivery issues or procedures with regard to returning an order. Providing prompt support is crucial for customer satisfaction and retaining their trust. Third-party integrations such as live chat, help desk, token-based support tools or eCommerce automation such as chatbots help you provide instant response to customer queries and enhance the user experience. Following are some of the most popular customer support integrations.

• LiveAgent
• Freshdesk
• Hubspot
• Zendesk
• Groove

7. Email and marketing automation integrations

Standing still in the rapidly changing market conditions can be harmful to an eCommerce business. Reaching out to a list of customers with personalized offers and deals at the right time improves conversion rates significantly. It requires understanding customer preferences and things they need, based on data such as their previous purchases and the product segments they show interest in. Powerful eCommerce automation tools, like the ones mentioned below, help you achieve all this by pulling data from the site automatically and executing targeted marketing campaigns with minimal or no human intervention.

• • MailChimp
• • Marketo
• • Sender
• • Eloqua
• • Customer.io
• • Hubspot
• • Pardot

8. CRM integration

When you run an eCommerce business, managing and strengthening customer relationships is indispensable. CRM integrations help you obtain comprehensive data with regard to customer interactions with the site, their problems, and the kind of support they have sought. It captures customer sentiment, provides you with analytics that help you offer more personalized services and improve customer satisfaction. Following are some of the most popular CRM integrations.

• • Hubspot CRM
• • Oracle Netsuite CRM
• • Sage CRM
• • Insightly
• • Pipedrive
• • Quickbase

Other Integrations

In addition to these key third-party integrations, there are many other types of integrations that address specific areas of focus, such as SEO, Product Rating, Site Search, Social media engagement, etc. You can select the integrations that you may need and enrich your site with added functionality and better user experience.

Content marketing for your eCommerce store

The rise of eCommerce has given enormous opportunities for businesses to reach out and serve more customers from different demographies and geographical locations. But an eCommerce store is nothing more than a website with product displays, unless the listed items are marketed and promoted to a target audience.

As the eCommerce space becomes crowded and the customers are spoilt for choice, the need to provide extra information, tips or anything that will help the customers make better decisions becomes an integral part of the marketing strategy. Reaching out to them through digital ads and social media handles is not enough these days and providing random information, images and videos that are irrelevant to the customers do not help in any way to grab their attention. There is a need for careful planning and implementation to make content engaging for the target audience. This is where a successful content marketing strategy for eCommerce comes in.

What is content marketing for eCommerce?

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of useful and relevant content customized for specific target audiences. Content can be textual in the form of articles or visual in nature – images, infographics, videos, etc. The purpose of content marketing for eCommerce may be to:

• 1. Generate leads
• 2. Drive organic traffic to the eCommerce site by means of engagement and by creating interest
• 3. Create and reinforce the customers’ trust in your brand by providing authentic information to them
• 4. Improve brand visibility
• 5. Create value and help customers make informed purchase decisions
• 6. Lead them through the sales funnel and achieve sales conversion

Content marketing for eCommerce involves:

• 1. Understanding the pain points of the customers
• 2. Systematically scrutinizing the search trends
• 3. Predicting what the target audience are specifically looking for, and
• 4. Working to get that information appear on their search results, social media feed, content and video sharing platforms, etc.

When the target audience find the information they need, and they click the link and reach your eCommerce site. This brings organic traffic and improves your prospect of finding new customers and leads and increasing sales.

Questions to ask while formulating an effective content marketing strategy for eCommerce

The process of formulating a successful content marketing strategy for eCommerce involves answering a few questions.

1. Who is your target audience

The foremost step in content marketing for eCommerce is choosing your target audience, identifying their pain points and finding the means to solving their problems. In a digital world, it is possible to pinpoint a specific group of people as target audience from a particular age, gender, demography, geographical location, etc. The pain points of every group of people may be different, and each of those groups is looking for a specific kind of content to solve their own unique problems. Creating an ideal content marketing strategy involves selecting the target audience first and customizing the content accordingly.

2. What are your objectives of the content marketing exercise?

Content marketing for eCommerce can be done for various purposes. For instance, it can be designed to promote a particular product or hype the launch of a new product. In such cases, the content should be focused on a specific product, its use case, benefits and the problems it solves. However, if the objective of the content marketing exercise is to improve brand visibility or search engine ranking, the strategy and the content that needs to be created would be entirely different. So, choosing the right objective of your content marketing exercise is crucial to getting your strategy right.

3. What is the means to reach your target audience?

Different groups of people may look for solutions for their problems in different spaces. For instance, teenagers and younger generation prefer short-duration content on platforms like Snapchat or Tiktok. In contrast, relatively older people may find that information in longer and more elaborate text content on blogs or Facebook or longer duration videos on YouTube. So, depending on who your audience is, it is essential to reach out to them at their preferred online platforms with the kind of content they want.

4. How do you want to schedule your content calendar

Depending on the target audience and the objectives of content marketing for eCommerce, you can choose different categories of content on various topics and areas of focus, and make a schedule as to when you want to post/disseminate them. It is vital to keep posting relevant content from each content category periodically to keep the audience engaged. However, the priority should be on the quality of the content rather than the quantity.

Creating a dedicated calendar helps to stick to the schedule and deliver content to the audience at the right time without fail. Content calendar also helps to identify opportunities to connect with the target audience on holidays and important days with relevant content.

5. What are the kinds of content do you want to publish?

You can choose a variety of mediums to post your content. If your target audience likes to read text heavy content, you can post blog posts and articles to drive traffic to your site. Similarly, an assortment of content can be delivered in coordination through email marketing, social media posts, podcasts, video sharing platforms, customer stories, etc.

6. What kind of background work do you need to carry out before creating the content?

Doing a thorough research with regard to the topics covered in the content is key to creating quality content. Similarly, different kinds of content require different kinds of research. For example, if you are trying to improve your ranking in search results, analysis of keyword gaps, SEO competitiveness, etc., are prerequisite to meet the objective. Similarly, creating videos may require a written script based on a thoroughly researched topic. Content marketing for eCommerce requires you to closely watch and research on what the successful competitors are doing and adapting your content marketing strategy for e-commerce accordingly.

7. How would you track and measure the effectiveness of the content marketing strategy for eCommerce?

Content marketing for eCommerce is a continuous process. Only if you have a proper tracking and measuring mechanisms, you can determine how successful your marketing strategy for eCommerce is and tweak and fine-tune the strategy on an ongoing basis. There are various analytical tools available in order to track the impact of every content you post. These tools give you comprehensive insights on the performance of your content in relation to your objectives.

The measuring and tracking mechanisms and the parameters you need to track vary vastly depending on your content marketing strategy. For example, if your objective is to increase search engine ranking and generate more leads by driving traffic to your site, then you need tools that measure parameters such as number of leads you have generated, increase in traffic, conversion, user engagement, search engine ranking, etc.

The effectiveness of blog posts can be measured by tracking website traffic, time spent by the visitors in that specific page, etc. Email marketing campaigns are deemed successful when their open rate, conversion rate and click-through rates are high. Similarly, success on social media is measured in terms of number of followers, reach, positive comments and reacts, user engagement levels to the posts, etc. Videos and podcasts are considered successful based on the number of subscribers, viewers/listeners, shares, average viewing/listening duration, etc.

By measuring and tracking the performance of your content, you can constantly improve your content and increase user engagement. You can also update the old content to include more recent information and make it more relevant to the target audience.

Buy Now Pay Later in eCommerce

With the advent of e-commerce and shopping on mobile, the buying habits of an average person, especially from the younger generation, has evolved a lot. E-commerce has constantly kept up with expectations of the customers, adding features and functionality that appeal to them and persuade them to make a purchase online. But one of the most important components of e-commerce that did not catch up with the fast-paced developments was the payment. Credit card has remained the most preferred mode of payment for quite a long time; even with the emergence of new digital payment and wallet options, credit card payments have been the most popular mode of payment. But there are certain inconveniences in using credit cards for online purchase, such as:

• Higher interest rates
• Lack of flexibility in repayment
• Greater upfront cost, especially for larger purchases
• Hidden fees and additional costs
• Complicated and confusing terms of service
• Increased debt load
• Mandatory collection of personal information in many cases

Due to these factors, shopping cart abandonment at payment gateway is not so uncommon. So, changing times and the rise in need for a better payment option paved way for BNPL.

What is BNPL?

BNPL stands for Buy Now Pay Later. As the name suggests, BNPL is a financing option that enables the customers to make a high value purchase instantly without having to pay a high upfront cost, by breaking down the payment into multiple installments. It eliminates hidden costs, fees and high rate of interest, as long as the customer meets the payment deadlines. As a result, Buy Now Pay Later is gradually gaining traction as a flexible payment option that does not burden the customers with increased debt load.

How does Buy Now Pay Later work?

The buy now and pay later options offered by service providers who partner with the e-commerce businesses are integrated in the checkout process of the e-commerce sites. While availing this option:

• 1. The customer chooses the Buy Now Pay Later option from a service provider, in the checkout page.
• 2. He/she selects the number of equally spaced installments.
• 3. He/she can also choose to pay in full after a 30 day period
• 4. Depending on the number of installments and the conditions laid out by the service provider, he/she can opt to pay without any additional fees or interest as long as he/she pays the installment amount on time every single time before the deadline.
• 5. If the duration of the payment period/number of installments is high, say for around 24 months, the customer may have to pay a small rate of interest.
• 6. The payment/installment amount is directly taken from the payment card.
• 7. The merchants pay the service provider a commission and a fee for every transaction.

Advantages of selecting Buy Now Pay Later payment option for customers

1. A modern payment solution for today’s needs

The younger generation get a modern payment option that suits their lifestyle and offers great benefits over traditional payment options. Buy Now Pay Later option simplifies payment, streamlines the shopping process and makes purchasing things easier by enabling instant approval and smooth checkout. A soft cheque is enough for the customer to get an instant approval.

2. An easy, convenient and flexible payment option

BNPL allows the customers to conveniently order products in advance during holiday season without having to wait for enough cash to make large purchases. It lets customers to split the payment into equally spaced installments and makes purchasing high-value items easy. The customers can now choose a flexible payment option without having to pay additional costs and hidden fees.

3. Buy Now Pay Later is more cost efficient

By avoiding high rates of interest, additional fees and hidden costs, the overall price paid by the customers comes down. As a result, this payment method is more affordable and cost efficient.

Advantages of Buy Now Pay Later services for e-commerce businesses

1. Buy Now Pay Later increases average order value

Since the customers can pay in installments over a long period of time, they can make purchases of value that day otherwise could not. As a result, the average order value of the business increases, making a positive impact on profitability.

2. Buy Now Pay Later helps increase sales

Buy Now Pay Later offers flexibility and convenience for customers. Since they can pay later in installments, customers do not have to think twice before purchasing expensive products. With less amount to spend upfront on purchases, customers are also comfortable with buying more from the e-commerce business. These factors play an important role in increasing sales.

3. Buy Now Pay Later increases sales conversion

Abandoned carts or a major problem in e-commerce. It mostly occurs due to the customers changing their mind during checkout or being indecisive about making purchases due to the complexities in payment options, such as hidden costs and additional fees. By eliminating all these, Buy Now Pay Later reduces the instances of abandoned carts and improves sales conversion.

4. One more payment option keeps competition at bay

Integrating different payment options is key to business success, as the customers expect e-commerce businesses to offer them multiple choices for payment. Buy now pay later is quite distinct compare to traditional payment options such as credit card, and the number of customers who make a purchase only because an ecoomerce site has BNPL option is increasing significantly. Integrating BNPL gives a compelling reason for customers to buy from your e-commerce site instead of going to your competitors. As a result, you can retain your customers, fight the competition better and maintain your advantage and market position.

5. Buy Now Pay Later brings in new customers

Buy Now Pay Later is a highly preferred payment method of the younger generation. As they actively seek this payment option, if you have BNPL, you have a higher chance of winning over those customers compared to a competitor who does not offer that option.

6. Buy Now Pay Later adds value

By integrating a customer friendly payment option, you can earn the trust of the customers and convert the customer loyalty into repeated purchases.

Buy Now Pay Later: Facts and figures

71% of consumers say that they have been making more online purchases during the pandemic.

30% of all the payments for digital shopping were made with credit cards.

55% of online shoppers abandon cart due to hidden extra costs.

Interest rates on US credit cards rose beyond 17% in 2019.

55.8% of consumers have used BNPL service, up from 37.65% in July of 2020 — an increase of almost 50% in less than one year.

61.16% of customers between the age of 18 and 24 had used Buy Now and Pay Later option by March 2021.

41% say they have used BNPL service during the pandemic to conserve cash in case of an emergency, while 25% say it’s because they lost income.

It is expected that there will be 1.5 billion BNPL users worldwide in 2026.

48% of customers said that BNPL solutions allow them to spend 10% to 20% more than they would by their credit card.

30% of BNPL users would not have made purchases without financing options.

62% of buy now, pay later users think it could replace their credit cards.

BNPL service providers

There are many players in the market who offer Buy Now Pay Later services to e-commerce businesses. Some of the most popular service providers are:

• Klarna
• Clearpay
• Laybuy
• Paypal
• Affirm
• Sezzle
• Afterpay
• Splitit
• Perpay

Dropshipping in eCommerce – The advantages and disadvantages

What constitutes a successful ecommerce business? A good range of products to put on sale, keeping adequate stock of those products, right pricing, a great platform to display and promote the products on, and finally, a successful marketing strategy – all that contribute to the success of a ecommerce business.

But it can be expensive to buy products in great numbers, store them in a warehouse and fulfil orders. If those expenses are exactly the ones stopping you from starting a successful ecommerce business, then dropshipping is for you.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model that eliminates the need for purchasing and keeping stock of the products you want to sell. It does not necessitate you to handle the products at any point of time.

Manufacturers/suppliers take care of managing the inventory, fulfilling the order and shipping the product directly to the customer, while the ecommerce business merely focuses on marketing the products and finding new customers.

How does dropshipping work and how can you start a dropshipping business?

Following are the steps to start and run a successful dropshipping business.

• 1. Start by building a well-designed, user-friendly ecommerce site.
• 2. Choose the products you want to sell, based on the market demand and competitor analysis.
• 3. Sift through manufacturers and suppliers on B2B listings and contact suitable manufacturers/suppliers.
• 4. Sign a contract with the manufacturers/suppliers agreeing on the price, responsibilities and obligations, and other terms and conditions.
• 5. List the products on your ecommerce store with an added margin.
• 6. Market them aggressively using various means such as offers to customers through email marketing.
• 7. Find new customers.
• 8. Let customers place orders on the site.
• 9. Manufacturer/supplier gets the order details.
• 10. The manufacturer/supplier processes the order, packs and ships the products directly to the customer.
• 11. Coordinate with the manufacturer/supplier to get updates and ensure a smooth fulfilment of the order.
• 12. The manufacturer updates inventory and product availability.
• 13. As per the contract, you pay the manufacturer/supplier for the products that the customer ordered on your site, and take your share of profit.
• 14. Analyze the insights to take informed business decisions and achieve data-driven growth.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model that eliminates the need for purchasing and keeping stock of the products you want to sell. It does not necessitate you to handle the products at any point of time.

Manufacturers/suppliers take care of managing the inventory, fulfilling the order and shipping the product directly to the customer, while the ecommerce business merely focuses on marketing the products and finding new customers.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of dropshipping?

As with any business model, there are both advantages and disadvantages in dropshipping.

Advantage

2. It is not capital-intensive

Traditional businesses spend so much resources in establishing and setting up their operations. When the expensive components of the business, namely office space, warehouse, purchasing products, inventory management and shipping, are taken out of the equation, an ecommerce business just needs investment in a good website for online storefront.

3. You can focus on your strengths

Dropshipping frees you from the responsibilities of a typical retail business and lets you focus solely on your marketing efforts and communication with supplier/manufacturer. This helps you achieve more without any distractions.

4. It is easy and inexpensive to manage

Unlike a traditional business, the running costs of a dropshipping business is low, as you do not have to purchase and stock products at any point of time. It is also easy to manage, as the critical operations of inventory management and shipping are outsourced to the manufacturers/suppliers

5. Expand with ease

Scaling in dropshipping merely means finding a new supplier or listing new products in the ecommerce site. It is possible to scale up in dropshipping without additional effort or investment

6. You can sell anything from anywhere, at any time

Dropshipping makes it possible to operate without any physical office, as you can manage the ecommerce store from anywhere, at a convenient time, and sell anything that is allowed.

7. You can afford to try and fail

In dropshipping, you can always afford to test the waters and see whether your target customers like a particular product or not. If customers do not show interest, you can quickly retract a product from sale without suffering losses.

Disadvantages

1. Margins are tight

When you outsource the critical operations of a business to the manufacturer/supplier, the profit margins in each of those operations are steadily chipped away, and you get much less in return. Also, there will be a lot of competition. In order to be successful, it is vital to choose products that have high demand and less competition in the market at the same time.

2. You do not have much say

Since the products are made, stored and shipped by a manufacturer/supplier, you do not have much control over inventory management or shipping. For instance, if you speculate a rise in demand, the manufacturer/supplier may not necessarily stock products based on your estimates.

3. Order management is a challenge

Managing an order with products sourced from different manufacturers/suppliers, coordinating with them and getting them all to ship the products to a customer on time without any issues is challenging. Separate shipping costs can also add up. You can keep a small amount of select products in stock as a buffer to equalize demand and product availability.

4. Resolving issues can be difficult

If there is a problem with the product quality or shipping, or if the customer wants to return the product and get a refund, it is left in the hands of the manufacturer/supplier to manage and resolve issues smoothly. Mismanagement can lead to loss of trust for reasons that are beyond your control. So, it is essential to find a highly reliable supplier/manufacturer.

Platforms that support dropshipping

Dropshipping features can be seamlessly integrated with ecommerce stores through plugins offered by the platforms. These plugins help you directly import product listings created by a manufacturer/supplier in popular B2B classifieds sites. Features related to inventory updates, order tracking, price mark-up, etc., can also be added. Following are some of the Ecommerce platforms that provide good dropshipping support

• BigCommerce
• Shopify
• Magento
• WooCommerce
• OpenCart
• Spocket

Benefits of BigCommerce dropshipping

BigCommerce is a trusted ecommerce platform with more than 150,000 stores built on it. It provides comprehensive set of plugins for integrating dropshipping capabilities.

• 1. BigCommerce is easy to setup, and customize. It helps you design the site to your requirements and attract more customers, which is important for dropshopping.
• 2. BigCommerce provides powerful tools to manage marketing campaigns and push suitable offers to customers.
• 3. BigCommerce is highly capabale when it comes to data analytics. Equipped with the right data, you can reach new customers and serve existing customers with the right products to achieve conversion and growth.
• 4. The SEO tools available in BigCommerce help you make the site findable to new customers on search engines.
• 5. BigCommerce offers safety and security to make business interactions and transactions between the customer, manufacturer and you highly secure.
• 6. BigCommerce offers comprehensive set of dropshipping plugins for product listing, order management, payment, inventory management, order tracking and shipment.

WhatsApp for eCommerce customer engagement & service: A few tips and tricks

In a world where smartphones are indispensable, most of the business communication happens online through mobile devices. Websites have dedicated chat boxes these days for instant interaction with customers. Businesses have even started integrating AI to provide a suitable responses to customer queries without human intervention.

However, interacting with businesses on their respective sites is inconvenient for customers. A customer may interact with a lot of people on any given day. There is a danger of some interactions getting lost, when he/she uses a multitude of chat interfaces to communicate with different businesses and individuals. Every communication lost is a lost opportunity for a business. It can also cost customers in terms of user experience and convenience. So, there is a clear need to have a unified chat interface that can help businesses interact with customers better. Whatsapp for ecommerce suits the purpose well.

Why is WhatsApp for ecommerce good for businesses and customers?

Whatsapp is one of the most popular personal messaging apps available today. With more than a billion users, Whatsapp continues to become more and more significant in our daily lives. So, it makes sense for both users as well as businesses to have all business-related communication inside WhatsApp. Having a proven, feature-rich chat interface improves customer engagement and helps them keep track of conversations. It also enhances the ability of businesses to interact with customers in ways it is otherwise impossible.

How can WhatsApp for ecommerce help businesses serve customers better?

Whatsapp for ecommerce enhances the shopping experience for the customers and enables companies to serve customers better in the following ways.

1. Improved engagement and user experience

Whatsapp for ecommerce brings a unified interface for all interactions. So, customers don’t have to go to a website and type emails or chat with customer care. They can chat from WhatsApp itself. It makes interactions convenient and far more engaging. Whatsapp for ecommerce enhances business communication through ways that were previously limited. For instance, it is possible for customers to send images of the product they have purchased and clarify their doubts with regard to how to use a product feature. The ecommerce business can share a product demonstration video and help customers know the product better. This improves customer relationship and makes the brand endearing to the customer.

2. Easily searchable communication history

Writing to a business and later finding the interaction in the inbox for reference is a challenge that most customers face. Whatsapp chat interface enables customers to find specific chats quickly with ease. The entire history of every interaction with the business can also be viewed hassle-free at any time. It helps customers organize chats better and keep track of all interactions with ease.

3. An effective replacement of complicated mailing lists

Email marketing and mailing lists are indispensable for ecommerce businesses. WhatsApp marketing for ecommerce enables businesses to market products in ways similar to email marketing. Lead generation can be done by adding a click-to-chat link that redirects customers to a WhatsApp chat window to immediately start a conversation; then the contacts can be captured for marketing purposes using a chatbot. With all the contacts, businesses can use groups and broadcast features to constantly push offers, updates and notifications to the list of customers. As customers are more likely to read shorter chat messages than lengthy emails, Whatsapp helps businesses engage with customers much more effectively.

4. Enhanced privacy

Whatsapp for ecommerce has improved privacy features. All the conversations are now end-to-end encrypted. This ensures peace of mind for customers compared to other channels of online communication available for customers, such as the contact form on the website that could be relatively less secure.

5. Comprehensive order management

With integrated digital payment and integration with CRM and Order Management systems, WhatsApp provides new opportunities for businesses beyond just communication with customers. Whatsapp chatbot for ecommerce empowers businesses with deep integration to create a single-window experience. Customers can place orders from the phone as a result and pay for them, receive update notifications regarding the orders and shipment, cancel orders and get a refund or replacement, all using WhatsApp for ecommerce. The delivery experience of products can also be improved when customers can share the precise location and add specific delivery related messages, such as directing the business to deliver the product at a neighbor’s doorsteps in the event of the customer’s absence.

6. Personalized offers and services

Whatsapp for ecommerce enables businesses to stay in touch with customers constantly, answer their queries and understand customer preferences better through surveys and feedback, and improve their products and services accordingly. This promotes customer satisfaction and better engagement with customers.

eCommerce POS Integration

When you own a retail business, you cannot just rely on one channel of sales in these challenging market conditions. In the last two years, the pandemic has changed the way people shop; there has been a marked increase in e-commerce sales. So, having an e-commerce store is a must. At the same time, there is a customer base for brick and mortar stores also. It is impossible to reject one channel completely and go with the other. So, providing an omni-channel shopping experience and retaining every customer is critical for success in retail business.

But this comes with its own challenges.

1. You have the same inventory, but multiple sales channels. When a product is sold through one channel, it should reflect in the inventory immediately. Otherwise, there is a chance of getting an order for the same item from another channel after it is sold. You may have to cancel the order, ultimately earning the dissatisfaction of the customer.

2. E-commerce provides opportunities for offers and discounts in unique ways. So, you may not be able to offer the same kind of discount in the retail store, creating a price difference between the two channels.

3. You have to enter the data manually for each channel to manage product catalog, inventory, purchase orders, etc. This is both time-consuming and expensive.

4. While e-commerce is designed to provide data on customer preferences and buying behavior, brick and mortar stores don’t have that luxury. So you will not have insights on part of the sales; without any insights, there is no scope for understanding customer preferences and personalization, especially in the brick and mortar store.

5. You may not be able to connect loyalty program and reward points collected from one channel to be used through the other.

All these downsides prevent you from giving a seamless shopping experience to the customers. The solution to this problem lies in e-commerce POS integration.

What is e-commerce POS integration?

E-commerce POS integration is the process of bringing together different online and offline sales channels under a single sales terminal. It synchronizes various software and hardw are components in your Point of Sale such as the cash register, digital payment hardware, etc., with a centralized sales management system that can handle online and offline orders and transactions.

3. Enables real-time inventory management

POS integration with e-commerce makes real-time inventory data and tracking possible. This enables retail businesses to proactively and automatically stock everything in right numbers depending on the data-driven forecast, so that items don’t go out of stock when customers look for them. It further reduces the bottlenecks in the flow of products between places, and makes shipping and order fulfillment quicker. More importantly, it prevents customers from ordering an item that is already sold out.

4. Increases speed and efficiency

E-commerce POS integration lets you manage multiple store fronts through a single terminal. It automates purchase orders, eliminates human errors, lets you efficiently track orders and collect sales data without having to break a sweat. When you can get everything in fingertips, the speed and efficiency of your operations increases significantly.

How can you achieve POS integration with e-commerce?

Choosing the right POS system and achieving E-commerce POS integration requires you to carefully analyze various factors and determine what is suitable for your business. Following are the steps involved in e-commerce integration with POS.

1. Check the current state of your POS

If you already have an e-commerce compliant POS system, you can integrate it with your e-commerce platform through the API. But the system needs to fulfill your requirements; so, the advantages and disadvantages of the system needs to be carefully evaluated.

If the software you already have does not offer e-commerce POS integration, then it will be impossible to unite the online and offline store fronts under one terminal. It is advisable to get a cloud-based POS system that directly integrates with your e-commerce platform.

If you do not have a POS system already, then you have to start from the scratch.

2. List out the features and functionality you want in your POS system

A good e-commerce POS integration does not necessarily mean just the compatibility of the system with your e-back end. It also means the system has all the features and functionality that you need. So, when you are choosing a POS system, you need to list out your expectations.

A good POS system usually offers powerful features to manage real-time inventory, customer details, customer support, order management and delivery, returns and exchanges, etc. A good POS system also works well with a large variety of POS hardware such as digital payment systems, cash counters, etc.

You can choose the system that suits your requirements the best.

3. Verify if the system will work well with your existing tools

When you achieve POS integration with e-commerce, it has to work seamlessly with your existing business tools and systems. It should also work well with your e-commerce platform. A good POS integration with e-commerce enables smooth flow of real-time data between online and physical retail stores, be it the product catalog, or inventory updates after sale or payment processing. It should integrate with other business management tools such as the accounting software, email marketing system, ERP system, etc. This will make sales data available across the systems automatically. So, when the management needs to take critical business decisions, it will be available to them without having to ask the concerned teams.

4. Analyze the cost of the system in relation to your budget

The cost of a POS system may vary depending upon the features and functionality you select. Further, some of the e-commerce systems demand extra charges for e-commerce POS integration. So, these factors need to be taken into account while allocating the budget.

5. Setting up the system

The ease of setting up a system and achieving e-commerce POS integration is paramount to getting it operational as quickly as possible. Some system providers offer a good customer support, and setting up the system will be easier with the help of a representative. It is better to choose a POS system provider who offers a good support.

6. Customize and start entering product details

Once you set up the e-commerce POS integration, you can verify if all the features are working properly as expected. You can make changes, customize and optimize the system, and start entering the product details, descriptions and images to build a catalog.

Top 5 POS eCommerce POS integrations

Following are the top 5 e-commerce integrations you can avail in the market today.

• Quickbooks
• Lightspeed
• Vend
• Loyverse
• Shopify Plus

How to use customer reviews in ecommerce to increase sales

Purchase decisions made by customers have always been based on their perception of a business. The trustworthiness of a retail business has played a key role in bringing customers to a shop and achieving sales. Building a reputation and trust in a traditional retail business requires word-of-mouth marketing, where customers recommend your business to the people they know. This method helps businesses build trust over a period of time slowly and steadily.

But the eCommerce scenario is different. eCommerce has a far greater reach and marketing for eCommerce businesses require you to create a strong brand appeal amongst people who are not connected, and are from a much larger demography and geographical location. As a result, word-of-mouth marketing is inadequate and ineffective for eCommerce. Customer reviews in eCommerce is a great substitute for word-of-mouth marketing.

Importance of customer reviews in eCommerce

Finding a good product amongst thousands of similar offerings from different eCommerce businesses is like finding a needle in a haystack. Identifying the right product from a trustworthy business is not easy anymore.

Customers are looking for reassurances from people like them. They need social proof to determine how good a product/business is, before making a purchase decision. So, displaying positive feedback and reviews on your business and products from a vast number of customers is crucial for building trust and achieving success in eCommerce. 72% of consumers will wait until they read reviews before taking action.

Best practices for displaying customer reviews in eCommerce

When you are running a eCommerce business, it is essential to display in different spaces reviews on your business as well as the products. Reviews capture the customers’ attention, create trust on your business and products, and help you achieve sales conversion. Following are some of the best practices in displaying customer reviews in eCommerce.

1. Display customer reviews prominently in product pages and product search

Product search page and product pages are the spaces where customers primarily look for product reviews. This is because, when they find the product they are looking for, they need social proof to confirm and reinforce the faith in the product and business to make a purchase decision. So, displaying customer reviews in these pages is key to achieving sales conversion.

2. Place your product reviews in every platform

In eCommerce, it is essential to be present in every online space frequented by the customers. Customers usually look for product reviews in the search engine, online media, YouTube videos, social media and other online forums. Collecting feedback and displaying reviews in all these platforms using suitable methods and mediums goes a long way in building trust and credibility. These reviews lead new customers into your sales funnel and help you achieve sales.

3. Display testimonials on your website

Websites are authentic sources of information related to your business and your products, and they play an important role in enabling customers to make informed decisions. Displaying testimonials from satisfied customers gives a reassurance to your customers that they are looking at a proven business/product they can rely on.

4. Make your reviews prominent on mobile devices

According to a study by eMarketer, the mobile share of total eCommerce across the world in 2021 was 72.9%. Mcommerce statistics reveal that 67% of customers purchase online using mobile devices. So, it is essential to make ratings and reviews prominent and visible on the smaller displays of the mobile devices to increase sales conversion.

5. Highlight numerical ratings

While detailed reviews can give the customers a better idea about your business and pros and cons of your products, most of the customers primarily look for the overall average ratings in a clearly defined scale. This helps customers judge a product and your business quickly and make a purchase decision. You can also add product ratings when you send abandoned cart emails.

6. Re-purpose reviews that stand out and highlight them everywhere

Constantly look out in every platform for reviews on your business/products that stand out. Share them on all the online spaces where you are present. Highlight the reviews that contain the reviewer’s profile image. This adds credibility to the reviews.

How to get customer reviews in eCommerce

While customer reviews in eCommerce can be useful for customers as well as the businesses, getting reviews from customers can be difficult. Once a customer buys a product, he/she has no obligation to rate your business/products. eCommerce businesses need to actively look for ways to convince them and collect as many reviews as possible. Following are some of the ways in which you can collect customer reviews in eCommerce.

1. You can send a follow-up mail or make a phone call after a customer makes a purchase and ask him/her to review the product.

2. Provide the space for writing a review on your eCommerce website. You can improve the visibility of it by integrating it with your orders history page. You can also add a pop-up page to catch the attention of the customers and collect reviews.

3. Prioritize getting a rating on a scale rather than a qualitative review. It is less time consuming for the customers, and there is a higher chance of customers leaving a star rating compare to a detailed review. Make it optional for them to write a detailed review.

4. Use social media and other platforms to redirect customers as well as other users to leave a review on your business listings on Google and Facebook. Increase in the number of reviews on those platforms improves the SEO and increases the chance of ‘being found’.

5. Respond to the feedback given by your customers and make them feel listened to. It motivates the customers to review your business and products favorably in the long run. Even if they leave negative reviews, write back, follow up with them and resolve their issues. Having a few negative reviews also helps in convincing the customers that the reviews are genuine. 89% of consumers are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews.

6. Collaborate with journalists, influencers and YouTubers to review products and your business on various platforms. Having backlinks from reputed journalists and media houses improves your search listing.

7. Incentivize your customers for leaving reviews by providing them with discount codes and offers.

8. Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews from mobile devices by designing a mobile friendly feedback form.

9. Keep collecting reviews on an ongoing basis, as about 85% of consumers consider any review older than three months to be irrelevant, according to a study by Brightlocal.

Why email marketing works well for online selling

Businesses are always looking for ways to reach out to new audience and expand their customer base. There are numerous ways by which they manage to find new customers, right from introductory offers in their retail outlets to bolstering the brand presence on social media, which facilitates customer engagement. These marketing channels are not made equal. Some methods can be expensive to implement, some can enable you to tap a new group of audience, some can help in brand building and some can help achieve conversion better. So, depending on whom you want to reach out to and what your purpose of communication is, the choice of marketing channels may vary.

The power for personalization and communicating the right things at the right time to the right person is something that very few channels offer. Email Marketing is the most effective tools in this respect.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a means of digital marketing where the you can build a database of the email addresses of potential customers and individuals who have shown interest in your products, and send specific, targeted, and even personalized communication to those individuals. Email marketing can be conducted for various purposes including:

• 1. Announcing and promoting new products
• 2. Providing users with relevant offers
• 3. Disseminating useful information
• 4. Sharing news and announcements
• 5. Sending reminders and more

Depending on your objectives, you can design your email marketing strategy and customize email marketing campaigns accordingly.

How to develop a mailing list for email marketing

No matter what your objective is, the first step in email marketing is building a mailing list consisting of the email addresses of your potential customers. But collecting personal information is not easy. Customers expect businesses to deliver value on a continuous basis when they share their contact details. So, you should give your target audience a compelling reason to share their contact information with you.

To begin with, the quality of your products and services, and the interest you can generate in them amongst your target audience matter more than where and how you collect information to create your mailing list. Once you get those basics right, you can focus on building a mailing list. Following are some of the ways through which you can collect the contact information from potential customers.

1. Website and landing pages

A website is built around the brand identity and it provides complete information about your company, and the products and services that you offer. It also helps to establish the credibility of your brand. Since there is a high level of customer engagement and interaction happening in the website at any given time, it provides numerous opportunities for you to collect contact information from your target audience and build a mailing list.

Landing pages are specialized pages that are purpose-built to provide comprehensive information about the products and services the customers are looking for. Customers usually reach landing pages from online ads or blogs or promotional posts on social media. They pack a lot of information and have a call for action, which can be used to generate leads and collect customers’ contact information.

2. Social media platforms

Social media platforms are powerful tools of customer engagement and valuable source of traffic that provides you with the opportunities to interact with customers in different ways. You can conduct contests, promote products with offers, post human interest stories connected to the brands, broadcast product launches and send teasers. These engagement drives enable you to generate interest and lead potential customers to a landing page or website where they can sign up for newsletters, offers and other communication.

3. Point of Sale (POS)

Offering a customer loyalty program allows you to collect information and reward the customers with points for every purchase, which they can use later during future purchases.

High-impact mailing lists for effective email marketing

The mailing list is constantly expanding as new email addresses are added regularly to the list. However, the number of emails that are read and acted upon by customers, and the number of mails that achieved conversion are more important than the number of email addresses in a mailing list. Similarly, the emails that bounced most likely denote the contacts that are invalid. When the number of invalid email addresses is high, the email marketing can be ineffective. All these parameters can be tracked.

Further, a single mailing list does not fit every purpose. Different customers sign up for different purposes, and the communication sent to them should reflect what they signed up for. Otherwise, they will find the email marketing communication irrelevant and opt out of it. This calls for multiple mailing lists.

Also, the customers prefer personalization. Creating email marketing campaigns with a high degree of personalization delivers a good experience and increases customer engagement. Using these separate mailing lists, you can send emails with different messages to each category of customers and cater to them based on their preferences.

When all these factors are carefully considered and when the email marketing campaigns are fine-tuned accordingly, they will create a good impact in terms of engagement and sales conversion.

Using email marketing to attract, engage and convert customers

The ultimate aim of email marketing is to achieve conversion. But each customer’s preferences are different. Depending on what they signed up for, you can engage with them in different ways and achieve conversion. Following are some of the types of emails you can send.

1. Newsletters

Newsletters have an assortment of information relevant to the customers – from news regarding recent product launches to new product announcements or human interest stories of how the brand and products made an impact on people’s lives. By providing periodic updates on the brand, newsletters help you stay in touch with customers and create a brand experience. Sending newsletters are some of the most common types of email marketing.

2. Promotions

Offers and discounts provide value to the customers and let them buy products at a lower cost. Promotional emails deliver discount codes or coupons to the customers to make the best out of these offers. These emails also help in cross promotions, i.e. if the customer shows interest in one type of product, you can send promotional emails on related products as well. All these increase the chances of achieving conversion.

3. Autoresponders

Autoresponders are triggered as a reaction to certain actions or changes. For instance, if the customer is interested in a product that is not in stock, an autoresponder mail can be designed to be sent automatically when the product becomes available again, or to showcase the best alternatives currently available. These emails help keep the customers informed and alert them to changes that could potentially lead to conversion.

4. Abandoned cart mails

Customers often find themselves unable to purchase a product due to some technical issues. They might not also continue with a purchase due to other reasons such as simply forgetting to check out after adding items to the cart. Abandoned cart mails enable you to remind the customers of the items that are still in the cart. This increases the chance of the customer going back to the site and continuing the purchase from where they left.

5. Surveys

Email marketing can also be conducted to understand what customers expect from you. Collect feedback from the customers. Based on the findings, you can send personalized messages to the customers, cater to their interests and achieve conversion.

Best Practices in Email Marketing

• 1. Send a personalized welcome email using automation features of the email marketing platform, when an individual signs up for your mailing list.
• 2. Include in mailing list the addresses of only those who expressed interest and consented to be communicated.
• 3. Follow the standard guidelines and provide an option for the customers to unsubscribe from the mailing list.
• 4. Identify the right time and occasion for sending emails, create a schedule and harness the power of automation to send mails based on trigger events.
• 5. Identify the right frequency of communication and send only mails relevant to the audience.
• 6. Create a good design that works well on both computers and mobile phones.
• 7. Choose a topic or theme and stick to it. Write a catchy subject line that reflects the theme best.
• 8. Keep the content simple, informative, engaging and visually appealing.
• 9. Including a clear call for action.
• 10. Measure the impact of the email marketing campaigns through various indicators like conversion rate, return of investment, revenue generated through the campaign, etc. Learn from experience and tweak the campaigns to improve effectiveness.

Best Email Marketing Software For eCommerce Companies

There are various email marketing software available in the market to manage your mailing lists, send emails as per a pre-determined schedule and measure the impact with detailed insights. Some of the most popular email marketing platforms are as follows.

1. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an easy-to-use and highly customizable email marketing software that allows you to not only create effective email marketing campaigns but also SMS campaigns.

2. Hubspot

Hubspot is a popular email marketing platform that offers a comprehensive set of features and tool sets to create, automate and track email marketing campaigns effectively. It offers well designed templates and helps you deliver a good user experience.

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an industry leader in email marketing. It offers small and medium businesses a flexible yet powerful email marketing platform that comes with well-designed templates. It also enables tight integration with many of the popular ecommerce platforms.

4. Smartr mail

Smartr mail is a simple but effective email marketing software. It enables you to quickly create appealing emails and automate the deployment. It is also rich in features, providing you with the ability to send Welcome emails, abandoned cart emails and other automated emails based on trigger events. It also comes with comprehensive testing features and analytics tools.