5 Vital Tips New eCommerce Entrepreneurs Need to Know Today

Do you know how many ecommerce websites are there globally?

Take a guess. Pick any number. Now double that.

Guess what, there are approximately 110,000 ecommerce websites creating meaningful returns for their owners. This figure comes in light when we discard the ones that are generating subpar revenue.

So what are these factors that make an ecommerce website earn in millions in sales while the majority of them die a tragic death.

While noting down all the factors is possible, we will only be discussing the ones that can be implemented immediately and the effect can be seen almost instantly.

And if you are an ambitious entrepreneur who has opened the virtual doors recently, it is of utmost importance that you get to know what they are.

Let's get started.

Abandoned cart email

Sometimes it so happens that a customer abandons a cart either during checkout or while shopping. No wonder your inventory is still sitting in the shelves, and the money still in the pockets of the potential customer.

"67.45% of online shopping carts are abandoned before the customer completes a sale" says shopify.

Abandoned cart emails are sent to the customers who have added products to their cart but didn't go through successful payment process.

Sending these emails may not quadruple your sales but it does ensure that the customers are reminded of the cart, and if your efforts are persuasive enough, you end up with a sale that wasn't completed before.

Upsell offers during checkout

Upselling is when you offer additional products or services to your customer that goes parallel with their original purchase.

Think about your last trip to McDonalds for a second. When you were placing the order for a burger, the guy asked you if you'd like fries with the burger. You ended up buying the fries too because that seemed to be a good accompaniment.

Now do you realise all the revenue that are currently missing on when you don't offer your customer any upsell at the time of checkout.

Customer loyalty program

Loyalty programs are of two types. Those at the time of customer acquisition, and at the time of retention.

At the time of customer acquisition, there are multiple programs and offers that can be run. But they are short term in nature. Say for instance, signup discounts or bonuses.

However retention loyalty programs are more long term in nature and focuses on emotional value.

As per kissmetrics, "The best loyalty programs reward customers for their purchases over the long term."

What benefit does your current customer derive by shopping with you again? This is primarily the question that retention loyalty programs tend to answer.

One of the standard loyalty program is to offer points on every purchase. Points that can either be redeemed as discounts on future purchases, or can be converted as cash back.

Another successful program to be run is setting up a tier system. A customer with a certain level of purchase falls in a tier and as the purchases by that customer grows, they get promoted to higher levels of tiers. Every higher tier has an additional advantage in terms of better offers, discounted upsells, quicker delivery or a mix of all.

Hubspot explains a myriad of loyalty programs in detail, check them out.

Delegation

An entrepreneur dipping its toes in the ocean of e commerce ocean has to internalise one thing as soon as possible. If not, it can be fatal not only for the sales, but for the life itself of the online business. All the redundant jobs must be delegated with immediate effect. One of such jobs is ecommerce data entry. Your inventory needs to be frequently updated. More products and their exhaustive details need to be entered accurately. One mistake may lead to a lost customer or worse, an expensive lawsuit.

My honest advice would be to delegate such commerce product data entry tasks to an outsourcing company.

Why?

Simply because an in-house employee would burn a hole in your pocket and doing product data entry by yourself would strip you off of your valuable time.

Just delegate such tasks to an outsourcing company offering product data entry services. One, they will take the work off your shoulders at a fraction of cost. Two, the reliable and skilled ones can do the work with such finesse, you'll be amazed.

How to find a reliable and skilled company? Well, I have answered that in a post 11 Ultimate Tips on Outsourcing eCommerce Data Entry.

  

Not branching out arbitrarily

The main reason that propelled you to open an e store is that you found an unexploited niche in the market, did the math, and found it profitable to venture in. However, as time progresses, widening the product spectrum seems just right.

That's a blunder right there, as explained by Shabbir Nooruddin in his post on shopify.

Once a niche is chosen, the domain name to branding efforts and SEO are done keeping that niche's angle in mind. So when you start to broaden your inventory arbitrarily, you are hurting not only your SEO efforts but also the whole brand image, resulting in dwindling sales.

The most feasible tactic is to add products and services parallely, in a gradual manner. SImultaneously, the branding and SEO strategy should be molded to accommodate expansion as well.

I hope this quick read proves to be valuable to you. And as a fresh ecommerce entrepreneur, you apply not just one, but all of the above tips for a healthily sprouting online store that churns out nothing but money and loyal customers for you. Let us know what your sticking points are in the comments section.