5 ways to help make your Ecommerce business a success

Ecommerce has been thriving for some time now as consumer shopping behaviour has shifted from bricks to clicks. Accelerated by external factors, eCommerce sales rose by 46% from December 2019-2020 according to ONS and online global sales are forecast to grow 57% by 2025. To take advantage of this continued boom, we’ve put together five tips for success: 

1) Diversify your marketplaces 

Sellers have never had more choice when it comes to online marketplaces. Amongst the continued dominance of Amazon and Ebay, challenger brands such as WooCommerce and OnBuy are becoming increasingly established along with the rise in build-your-own online shops like Shopify, Wix and Sellr.  

Having a multichannel presence can give your products a much wider reach to help grow your global customer base. Look out also for marketplaces that integrate with Google Shopping so that your products can be seen at the start of a customer’s journey to purchase.  

Listing your products on just one marketplace can limit your audience, and with multichannel management companies like Linnworks, you can easily manage these channels so you don’t need to worry about the extra workload. Be mindful also that whilst Amazon has over 200 million monthly visitors, trading solely on here has its disadvantages. By monitoring data and sales insights, Amazon tracks best-selling items which has led to independent label products being reproduced by Amazon, who them show their items at the top of the search results at the expense of the independent.  

2) Outsource your fulfilment  

It’s a great sign for your business that orders are flowing in and products are being shipped, but that can take up a lot of your time that could be focused on growing your business. By outsourcing your fulfilment, you can lighten your workload and save on expensive storage fees.  

From the moment a customer clicks to purchase your product, the fulfilment journey starts. Fulfilment companies like Huboo provide storage, picking, packing and posting services so that sellers don’t have to.  Make sure you choose a fulfilment provider who integrates with your online sales channels, so that you can quickly and easily list your items for sale, stay in control of your stock, reduce shipping errors and keep on top of your billing. 

Using a trusted fulfilment partner can be very beneficial for business as 86% of voters said they would pay more for an item based on the customer experience alone and that they would return to that store based on that experience, so choose a fulfilment service who provides a customer service team that handles queries, complaints, returns etc so that your brand’s great reputation is maintained. 

3) Optimise Your Listings  

Optimising your listings and upgrading product entries to improve their search visibility, click through rate, conversion rate and generate more sales. The overall effectiveness of product listing is a huge factor in ensuring your items land in front of the eyes, and mouse, of the most suitable buyer. Online providers such as Optiseller have access to the some free tools and best practices that are necessary to enrich your online store’s data, from titles and descriptions to item specifics and compatibility.  

4) Marketing Strategy  

The key to every successful marketing strategy is to know your audience, and know where to find them, and guiding them towards your products. Online is the natural starting point for many consumers looking to purchase products, so planning and executing a digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce business can really help grow sales and customers.  

Building a great website can help improve your organic search rankings so potential customers can find you when they’re searching for the products that you sell. And as mentioned before, some build-your-own online shops can integrate directly with Google Shopping for instant visibility.  

Google AdWords can also fast-track your business to the first search result pages, as you bid on the search terms that customers will use to find your products. You can set your budget to your desired amount, so you’re not left with a huge, unexpected advertising bill.  

The online marketing method is based on guiding the buyer towards a product and builds on the concept of strolling through a store, browsing shelves without intention to buy, until the perfect product catches their eye. 

Facebook has created its own tool that does just this. The social network claims the tool, powered by data and machine learning, is able to anticipate customer needs and match products to them based on their online behaviour. 

5) Looking to grow internationally? Make sure you comply with VAT regulations 

Any company that makes UK taxable products for people to buy, must pay tax on these items. Choose a VAT partner who helps eCommerce businesses and knows exactly what they’re doing such as SimplyVAT.com. This guarantees your payments, paperwork and reports are correct, freeing you up to concentrate on continuing your ecommerce success. 

This is a guest post by our fulfilment partner Huboo who offer reliable and inexpensive fulfilment services to companies of all sizes.