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How To Overcome The 5 Top Pain Points Of eCommerce

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Introduction: How to Overcome the 5 Top Pain Points of eCommerce

By 2018, over 47% of global internet users will have purchased something online -- that’s over 1 BilliOn shoppers. and, when the dust settles, eMarketer projects that eCommerce sales worldwide will eclipse $1.5 trillion by the end of 2014. the exponential growth of audience and spending signifies leads to one salient conclusion:

in the last decade, eCommerce has transformed from a convenient, cutting-edge transactional space to a neCeSSarY form of commerce that is a key driver across businesses everywhere.

however, this opportunity breeds challenges. First and foremost is that competition is just one click away; therefore, your business must deliver an engaging eCommerce experience that uniquely connects with customers. But compeition exists in

every channel -- so, what are the true challenges, specific to the eCommerce world, that businesses must understand and conquer in order to thrive?

... We’re glad you asked!

Top Pain points of eCommerce

1. Recognition and Driving Traffic

2. Conversions, Turning Browsing into Sales

3. Fulfillment & Logistics

4. Developing a True, Mobile-Friendly Web Store

5. Finding An End-to-End Solution

$1.058$1.248

$1.500

$1.763

$2.043

$2.345

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B2C ECOMMERCE SALES source: www.eMarketer.com

B2C Ecommerce Sales Worldwide, 2012-2017

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1. Recognition and Driving Traffic

the number one eCommerce challenge for most companies, especially if they do not already have a large brick and mortar presence, is recognition. potential customers have to find you before they can buy. driving more traffic to your site involves a host of strategies, including key initiatives such as optimizing your search engine results and energizing your email marketing.

Search Engine Optimization Consder that, according to a study from online ad network Chitika, the top listing in google’s organic search results on average receives 33% of the traf-fic. take a sip of coffee. good? Ok, now read that fact agiain, and really digest it. One third of all traffic clicks on the listing in the first position. this shows how pivotal your web store’s ranking is to exposure and success and for those of you wondering, the second position takes 18% of the traffic on average.

Suffice to say, SeO is more than just a buzz word – it can provide serious rewards – but only if it’s done right.

Superior SeO involves time, patience, and dilligence. Chasing after the latest SeO trend or deploying “black hat” tactics is a fool’s errand, like a "get rich quick" scheme. not only does it rarely work, it can backfire as companies are increasingly being punished for poor SeO practices. in other cases, the tactics are simply made irrelevant. For instance, after the phenomenon of “key-word stuffing” began to affect search results, google simply changed its search algorithm to downgrade the importance of keywords. the solution? Well SeO begins with an eCommerce plat-form that provides SeO-friendly features. For example, your platform should increase your visibility by generat-ing SeO-friendly Urls for site pages, which, in turn, allows customers to easily find what they need with real language searches. Believe it or not, large numbers of online catalogs are still not SeO-friendly -- listing random numbers rather than product names or descriptions. as one business process consultant notes, “Who the heck searches google using product numbers?”

and don’t forget the images. You can gain real traction by ensuring that you have proper descriptions, alt-tags, and metadata for your product images, increasing their worth in organic search results. again, having a platform that ensures you consistently apply good tactics to your web store will pay off.

Effective Email Marketing

increasingly, the key to successful email marketing is personalization – using the data gathered on your web-site to target emails to individual consumers rather than blanketing them with ‘one size fits all’ communications that veer perilously close to being spam, or at the very least are lost in a blizzard of other commercial mail. aber-deen group reports that personalized emails boast 10% higher conversion rates and 14% higher click-thru rates. all told, according to Jupiter research, relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails.

Studies show that 33% of all traffic clicks

on the listing in the first position

on Google.

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2. Conversions, Turn Browsing into Sales

Once you have shoppers on your site, you still have to close the sale. turning browsers into buyers is a major challenge for both B2C and B2B eCommerce vendors.

Decreasing Abandoned Carts abandoned shopping carts have long been the bane of every web store’s existence. Business insider projects that approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be abandoned in online shopping carts in 2014, but about 63% of that is potentially recoverable by savvy online retailers.

the natural follow up is how? data from Marketing-Sherpa suggets businesses are very good at retarget-ing through email. For instance, 26% of businesses use email to upsell products or services. For whatever rea-son, however, only 11% of companies send automat-ed emails to prospective customers who abandon shopping carts before checking out.

this is nothing short of amazing, especially when you consider the same study from MarketingSherpa found:

■ 21% of Shopping Cart Abandoners that receive the auto-responder, re-engage and buy. That’s huge.

■ And even better news. Sometimes, good things do come to those who wait: Converted abandoners spend 55% more on purchases than non-abandoners

Personalization

and targeting is increasingly more important. Successful eCommerce sites are leveraging personalization based on customer history or site behaviors. For example, that follow-up abandoned cart email will be even more effective if it takes into account where in the process the consumer abandoned the cart. if it was at the shipping stage, perhaps the best offer would be a discount on shipping or an option to expedite delivery. and don’t

stop there. along with opportunities to entice customers through responses or targeted email, use personaliza-tion or segmentation to present dynamic, personalized content to customers while they are actually on the site. along with your website analytics, you can exploit information gained from other channels such as social media and your own CSrs to change your pitch based on consumer behavior.

Ensure Your Customers Can Find What They Want

the organization of many websites is poor, which makes it difficult for consumers to find relevant products. Make sure your navigation is clear and consistent. take advan-tage of faceted navigation and “breadcrumbs” to help customers navigate quickly. don’t forget those friendly Urls. Keep tabs on search terms and user behavior to help you “think like a customer.”

$4 trillion worth of merchandise will be

abandoned in online shopping carts in

2014, but about 63% of that is potentially

recoverable by savvy online

retailers.

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3. Fulfillment & Logistics

One thing that will trip up even the best marketer is a failure to successfully fulfill after making the sale – which often rests entirely on logistics. Whether it’s because of a failure to build a clear and complete logistical support flow or cost - much depends on your ability to manage the far side of the sale. dealing with any failure on the part of anyone else down the logistics line – packing, shipping and tracking of purchased items, and, even more problem-atic, returns – eats away at your margin.

there are real costs associated with poor logistics from a lowering of rOi, loss of customer goodwill and loyalty, and employee time spent trying to fix the problem. and that’s not even taking into account warehousing, storage, shipping and other fulfillment costs.

Logistics play a key role in customer satisfaction.

Customer order fulfillment is one of the biggest challeng-es in eCommerce. Most online vendors are dependent on third-party partners. Failed transactions are costly, and inventory and delivery management can create a lot of headaches. dealing with logistics takes time and resources away from sales efforts, but merchants ignore these vital pieces at their peril – bad logistics will quickly start affecting the bottom line.

Let Customers know the status of their order.

Being able to track delivery was recently rated the num-ber one fulfillment feature for online shoppers. Consumer want retailers to offer tracking options, and more often than not, will abandon shopping carts over delivery fea-tures, especially speed. Keep them happy with trackable options. Set up systems to let them know the status of their order every step of the way – from when the order is received, to when it’s shipped and delivered – a process even more vital if purchases are backordered.

along with providing tracking information, consider using address verification. Verification reduces the chances of

orders going astray in the delivery process and decreas-es the number of fraudulent transactions – a win-win for any vendor. For customers, knowing how and when the order will reach them is an essential part of a seamless checkout process, starting with estimations of shipping costs and delivery timing through payment processing and confirmations. Failed transactions frustrate custom-ers, so paying attention to your logistics helps rOi.

Maximize your logistics ROI.

aberdeen reports only 35% of retailers currently share order management across each of their channels. this is anything, but efficient. Furthermore, it hurts inven-tory management, shipping costs, and hinders accurate financial planning. Marketers know this, which is why, in the same report, 57% of retailers said they plan to estab-lish this capability.

eCommerce software providers are taking notice, and there is a convergence happening between software vendors and logistics companies. When selecting a plat-form to power your web store, ask about partnerships with fulfillment companies. this will go a long way to-wards retaining customers and lowering overhead costs.

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4. Developing A True, Mobile-Friendly Web Store

Understanding Customer Expectations

in the study entitled, “What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites today,” google found 72% of consumers expect brands to have a mobile-friendly website. More-over, google reported that 55% of respondents said a frustrating mobile experience hurts their opinion of a brand. going a step further -- and back to personlization -- eConsultancy studies say 78% of companies say their customers expect their website to provide relevant infor-mation, products or services, regardless of what device they’re on.

Delivering An Optimal Mobile Experience.

how do you deal with this mobile conundrum? gone are the days of having a separate mobile web store. Why? First and foremost, by deploying a separate Url for mobile visitors, your company is splitting the SeO equity. Secondly, the sharebility of your web store’s content is disjointed, meaning that if a mobile user emails the mobile version of a product page to a friend who is using a desk-top, the website will not render appropriately, causing the content to appear fragmented.

thus, the basics of a mobile-friendly website starts and ends with the use of one Url, for a singular responsively designed website that represents an entire organization. responsive design is a methodology that automatically triggers content on your website to adjust to the device based on screen size. it is the best solution that future-proofs your presence against new devices, optimizes the visitor experience, and increases your web store’s visibility on search engines.

There are over 1.5 billion

smartphone users worldwide. Internet Retailer says worldwide

mobile commerce

will reach $84 billion in 2014.

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Partner with a Champion of eCommerce taking a successful eCommerce strategy to fruition takes many moving parts, but the two primary elements include a web platform that drives a customer-friendly conversion process and logistic services to support inventory management, shipping, and to optimize your revenue.

in its 2013 Vendor landscape report, info-tech research group recognized Bridgeline digital’s iappS platform as a “Champion”, describing it as an “excellent product for retailer websites needing integrated eCommerce” and touting its ability to equip retailers with easy-to-use tools that optimize digital assets and capitalize on growing trends in digital engagement.

the eCommerce Fulfilled™ solution offered by Bridgeline digital combines award-winning eCommerce that wins with world-class logistics & fulfillment management from UpS Warehouse Management System (UpS WMS), covering eCommerce and fulfillment needs from click to ship.

this cost-effective solution unites front- and back-end eCommerce requirements helping you to reduce operating costs, alleviate customer service issues and increase customer satisfaction.

Award Winning iAPPS Product Platform

iAPPS Commerce is a part of Bridgeline’s iAPPS® platform, a digital Marketing solution that deeply integrates

Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, Social Media management, and Web analytics to help

marketers deliver online experiences that attract, engage and convert their customers across all digital channels.

Bridgeline provides end-to-end digital engagement solutions and boasts an award-winning team of interactive services

professionals across our 11 offices worldwide.

5. End to End Solution for Omni-Channel Retail

FulfilledeCommerce

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