Upgrading your e-commerce strategy 

In a growing e-commerce environment, how can your business upgrade to stand out from the crowd?

Read the full article below or read on page 30 in our January magazine

Following the COVID-19 pandemic e-commerce has grown substantially, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. According to Statista, in October 2022 the percentage of total retail sales in Great Britain increased to 26%  from 25.5% in September and 24.6% in August. 

Mark Allen, general manager at Don Ruffles, believes the pandemic provided the online market with a challenge. “Many people think that the pandemic played into the hands of the online businesses, but it was much the opposite,” he says. “The online market has become more saturated with more competition all with different business models – it’s more competitive if you’re hoping to be found online.”

To stand out you need a strong e-commerce sales strategy, and to actively engage in e-commerce if you are going to sell successfully. You need to take action in the following areas.

Make sure customers are heard 

You must provide the best quality customer service possible to encourage sales and customer retention. 

According to the Super Office’s annual customer service study, only 62% of business reply to customer enquiries – and the ones that do have an average response time of 12 hours. Businesses need to make sure they are answering customer enquiries quickly and accurately to create a positive sales experience. This could include:

• Enquiry emails: if a customer sends you an enquiry email you must make sure this is sent to an inbox which is monitored by experts who can answer quickly, and with the correct information. If you have already have an enquiry email on your website, double-check that it’s working and that the enquiries are being received by the relevant people. 
• Chat bots: including a chat bot on your website provides immediate support for customers as bots can run for 24 hours a day. They can be programmed with product knowledge to advise customers on which product is best for them and help to provide a seamless shopping experience. 

Provide the relevant information

To minimise the need for customer enquiries you should include product descriptions, delivery details, shipping costs and information regarding returns on your business’s website. You must make sure this information is regularly updated, so implement a strategy to maintain accuracy, and schedule regular checks on online products descriptions. 

Follow-up on customer enquiries 

Keeping customers informed is key to keeping them happy – but, according to Super Office, 90% of companies do not acknowledge or inform the customer that an email has been received, and 97% do not send a follow-up email to customers to see if they are satisfied with the response. Skipping these steps will increase the likelihood of the customer walking away. 

Following up on all customer enquiries – not just purchases, returns and delivery progress – means the customer is always updated and confident in your business’s ability to deliver.

Sales channels 

Upgrading your sales channels by implementing an omnichannel sales strategy will expand your sales opportunities. An omnichannel approach to selling enables customers to buy from multiple channels – for example, online from a desktop or mobile device, via social media or in store – as there is integration between distribution, promotion and communication. 

Businesses can utilise social media in their omnichannel sales strategies by using shopping tabs, which take the customer to a page where they can view products and then follow a link to the business website to make their purchase. This is available on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.

Data

Making full use of data is a must when you’re looking to upgrade your e-commerce strategy. There are three main types of data and you need to work out which is the most beneficial for you.

• Sales data – can monitor sales and forecast trends to help your business predict demand and manage stock across all of your selling channels. In an omnichannel sales approach, data from different channels can identify the platforms where most of your businesses sales come from. Once this has been established, you can maximise engagement on these channels and reduce spending on the channels that don’t deliver results.  

• Customer data – is key to understanding customer behaviour. It measures information about your customers and what they are buying to improve the customer experience, increase the possibility of a sale and shape future marketing campaigns based on customer interest. Don Ruffles’ trading sites “have gathered years of valuable customer data”, according to Mark, and they are currently developing a strategy “to utilise it and be cleverer about it”. 

This includes “categorising our previous customers, analysing which business categories are buying which products, which marketing works with those accounts and marketing to those in a different way while continuing to make sure we are the experts in those fields offline with our highly experienced staff.”

• Product data – contains information about the different products offered by your business for online purchase – it includes the product category, pricing, product reviews and other relevant information. It can be used to identify which products customers search, view, purchase and combine with other purchases. Product data can be used to improve how businesses price their products, retain customers and market their products. 

However, whilst data is a great way to upgrade an e-commerce strategy, it is also one of its biggest threats. Over the last few years e-commerce data breaches have been worryingly common and have highlighted the actions to take to protect your data in the case of a security breach: 

• Never hold more data than you need to conduct your business. 
• Establish a plan specific to your business on how much to hold that will balance customer experience, business needs and security. 
• Install firewalls, and conduct regular audits, to make sure your security measures are working as they should. 

As e-commerce continues to grow upgrades must be made across your business, from customer experience to sales channels and data, if you’re going to stand out from a growing crowd. 

For Don Ruffles, there are two things at the heart of their e-commerce strategy for 2023. “Content has always been king when being found online, which we will be improving as part of our sales strategy,” Mark says, “but utilising our own data has to be high up there for us in 2023 and beyond”.