Over the previous few decades, online shops have significantly impacted the worldwide retail industry. Because it’s simple to launch an eCommerce store, many small and medium-sized businesses have entered the online market.
The rise of companies like Amazon and others has opened up a whole new universe of potential. Today, all you need to sell online is a solid, uninterrupted internet connection and a portable device like a laptop.
Given the speed at which the eCommerce sector is expanding, it won’t be long before traditional retail submits to it. However, this also means that the competition is tougher than ever.
Here are a few tools that might be useful in helping you stand out and grow in the world of eCommerce.
Self-service Tools
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Self-service customer portals are quickly taking over and becoming the number one response line customers come to when they have a problem. These resource centers, which handle 80% of the repetitive service-based problems, are either standalone websites, subdomains, or physical locations.
You should consider building a self service portal for your store too. If agents and people handling these concerns receive fewer calls and support requests, they can devote more time to each customer who doesn’t use the self-service portal. With more time dedicated to each client, the goal is to handle each phone call or email with greater care.
Furthermore, a portal of this kind also increases website traffic due to its customized knowledge base. Additionally, it establishes a company as a reliable source of knowledge and an authority in its industry. As a result, present or potential customers start to have faith in the business, which raises its credibility and brand recognition.
ERP software
This one is of huge importance if you have a clothing store. You won’t be able to grow unless you use reliable apparel inventory software. If you want to stay on top of the game in the fiercely competitive environment, think about employing clothes inventory software that’s integrated with a clothing inventory management app.
You can automate a lot of operations and minimize any inventory problems by installing a powerful inventory management tool.
Additionally, you’ll get access to in-depth analytics and reports that let you monitor your inventory and overall performance. The ideal solution lets you program alerts for when it’s time to restock your shelves or place extra orders for in-demand goods.
Moreover, it keeps track of orders as they are completed by the staff and notifies you of any missing products, mistakes in production-related documents, and manufacturing faults. If something is off, you’ll be able to see it right away and fix it before it has a chance to become a major problem.
CRM
As an eCommerce business, you should continuously strive to improve your client communication. Better word-of-mouth marketing results from better consumer communication.
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool can be useful in this situation. On your eCommerce website, a CRM is a tool that centralizes all communications and relationships with your consumers.
In addition to centralization, a CRM system enables your customer service agents to better communicate with the customers.
An eCommerce store makes more sales if it maintains superior client communication channels. As a result, it is highly recommended to integrate a CRM solution into your eCommerce business.
A reliable CRM tool will help you:
- Gather all important details and information in one place.
- Boost sales and sales agents’ performance.
- Improve inventory planning.
- Focus on customer service.
Analytics
If you don’t know what is working well on your website, you can’t expand your online store. Analytics is the engine that drives growth. So, speculate, test, measure, and, if successful, scale your hypothesis.
Google Analytics is one of the most widely used analytics tools. Make an effort to set it up on your eCommerce website to keep tabs on how visitors are interacting with your pages and products.
With Google Analytics, you can monitor sessions, users, pageviews, conversion events, dwell time, bounce rates, and more. Additionally, you can build reports that will allow you to instantly see issues or opportunities. Keep in mind that you’ll always need a tool of this kind to see what is working and what needs to be fixed.
Payment gateways
When a customer has finished adding products to their cart and is prepared to check out, payment gateways enter the scene.
Customers proceed to the payment stage when they’re ready to complete the order. There, they must enter their card information as well as other important data. The gateway receives the information and sends it into the processing stage after the customer completes the purchase and presses the pay button.
Obviously, this is an important part of every single eCommerce store. That is why it makes sense to select a good tool that is reliable but also offers more than one payment option to your customers.
Choose a payment gateway that is convenient to both local and foreign users. Never make the checkout process complex and difficult for your customers. Since different gateways have different pricing models, make sure to check fees as well.
Final thoughts
eCommerce businesses are steadily posing a serious threat to traditional retailers. Still, it’s getting more and more difficult to boost sales in the eCommerce world due to the increasing competition. Therefore, you should rely on and regularly use effective eCommerce tools.
Learn more about Digital Marketing at Digital Business Grow.
