For ecommerce retailers, improving their financial margins is one of the main priorities in this growing and ever-changing market. It’s essential for business survival, while investors and public companies demand this growth.
Global ecommerce continues to accelerate. In 2017 it reached $2.3 trillion and is expected to achieve $4.5 trillion in sales in 2021.
Now is the time to dominate the market, with new opportunities ready to be seized. Effective businesses are investing in technology, international expansion, and multichannel initiatives. One of the most important investments to be made today, however, is in the customer experience. This is the best way for a business to differentiate itself in this growing and crowded marketplace.
But how can you grow your business? Here, we explore nine ways to make your mark in the world of ecommerce and take your share of this lucrative pie.
Website performance
The performance of your website is linked to your success. In this day and age, if you make your customers wait, they won’t stick around; you’ll lose them.
One Google study suggests that two seconds is the limit that businesses should expect customers to wait on mobile sites before they abandon the page. You need to make sure it can load fast.
Experiences should be personalized
Personalization is a two-way street, and consumers know it. In order for personalization to work, customers need to voluntarily give data, and you should only use it in the ways they specify.
Even in this day of data privacy, 63 percent of consumers are interested in personalized recommendations from the ecommerce stores they shop at, according to Accenture. Even better, we know what they want and expect from sharing their data:
- 64 percent want coupons and loyalty points
- 60 percent want exclusive deals
- 56 percent want to gain points and rewards
- 53 percent want special offers for items that interest them personally
Expand beyond your borders
Did you know that 24 percent of shoppers will buy from an overseas retailer for premium goods? That was in 2019, and it was already five percent up from 2016. There’s a clear trajectory of growth. So why should you restrict business growth to only your own country?
There are a number of factors you have to deal with when expanding your business abroad; it can be difficult. Some things you’ll need to consider include:
- Currency
- Language
- Buying habits
- Difference fraud threats
- Tax, trade agreements, and logistical challenges such as distribution
Fortunately, service providers such as Signifyd can help you to step up to the plate of international operations. Getting on the global stage doesn’t have to be so difficult.
Brick and mortar
You might think that physical stores are being left in the dust, but in reality, they’re having a rebirth. Boring retail has been left behind, and in its place, a new form of exciting brick and mortar stores are opening up. Think of innovative brands such as Apple and Sephora. They are stores that people want to visit, not just to shop in.
If your physical store provides the right customer experience, consumers will give you trust and loyalty. In turn, this will help boost your online market as well.
An ethical business
There are new opportunities for ecommerce retailers by addressing consumer sensitivity to sustainability and diversity. A range of studies have found that consumers will pay more for:
- Ethical business practices
- Authenticity
- Branding that mirrors their diversity
Across the board, consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainability, according to Nielsen. While 66 percent of all global consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable goods, 73 percent of millennials would do the same. Young people are proving they have green pockets when they spend.
Convenience and gratification
Ecommerce was founded on convenience, and it’s still a key decision factor for consumers to decide whether to spend online or in-store. It can also determine how much they pay.
Digitally native retailers use convenience as their selling point. By offering friction-free ordering interfaces, liberal return policies, and try-and-buy programs, retailers are drawing in a crowd of consumers.
Treat customers right
While fraudsters continually attempt to hurt your business, remember that not all customers are out to do you harm. The fear of fraud can often make a negative customer experience, where merchants may decline sales or create barriers to checkout.
According to Business Insider, false decline or withholding legitimate payments in fear of fraud costs businesses more than they spend trying to prevent fraud.
Signifyd’s survey of 2,000 consumers found that 65.5 percent of people would not shop with an online retailer again if their order had been declined for no apparent reason. This is typical of a false-decline situation.
Proactive retailers have turned towards a new model of fraud management called guaranteed fraud protection. By utilizing big data, machine learning, and shifting financial liability to the fraud-protection provider, merchants are creating new revenue and protecting their business and customers. While a 100 percent fraud protection guarantee is already a positive, thanks to innovative technology, machine decisions can be made in a fraction of a second, further boosting the customer experience.
No more barriers
While the fear of fraud is already creating barriers for consumers to complete their purchases, merchants can fall blindly into erecting even more. By asking customers to create an account or log in to social media, the checkout process is extended and can lead to cart abandonment. In fact, Signifyd’s consumer survey found that 37.6 percent of people found needing to create an account or log in annoying or very annoying.
How can merchants remove this frustration? The solution is simple: remove the barriers. Guest checkouts can be used and are just as secure when using a guaranteed fraud prevention platform. You should also try to accept a wide variety of payment options, meaning that people can pay the way they want to.
Mobile methods
Over 60 percent of smartphone users have used their mobile devices to shop online in the last six months alone. While major retailers have long used dedicated apps to drive sales, now, smaller merchants are able to drive a mobile strategy.
One mobile app platform, Poq, showed that conversion rates among storefront apps were about 40 percent higher than mobile sites. People are spending longer on mobile apps than they do on mobile sites, meaning that there’s more time to secure that sale.
There are so many ways that you can grow your business. Employing any one of these techniques is bound to make a profound impact on your business and increase revenue. Through fraud prevention strategies, promoting sustainability, and improving online performance, you can help your business dominate the ecommerce market space.
