EcommercePlatforms.io

Author: Rodney Laws

  • 7 Visual Trust Indicators That Enhance Ecommerce UX Design

    7 Visual Trust Indicators That Enhance Ecommerce UX Design

    How many online businesses do you trust? There’s an enormous difference between carefully and occasionally choosing to buy from a particular site and purchasing from one on impulse. The former is easy for a merchant to achieve (it’s mainly down to having the right price at the right time), but the latter is challenging — as well as incredibly valuable.

    Think about how many sales Amazon picks up every day purely because people know they can trust it to deliver quickly and conveniently. It doesn’t always have the best price, or the largest selection options, or the most generous guarantee, but it’s carved out a niche as the default option. You don’t need to second-guess an Amazon order.

    In the case of Amazon, this is largely down to name recognition, something that small brands can’t dictate (and thus can’t count on). But they can dictate the quality of their websites, improving them until they provide exceptional user experiences. Key to this is taking every opportunity to show trustworthiness — and that calls for great visual elements.

    This is because visuals catch attention far more quickly and consistently than text can. Trust indicators in text can be missed by those who gloss over the content, so imagery is the best bet for getting a message across. So how can you best deploy visuals to encourage your website’s visitors to place their trust in your brand? Let’s look at 7 visual trust indicators you can (and should) add to your site to enhance your UX and win more conversions:

    An aggregate review rating

    There’s a basic impact to a strong out-of-5-stars rating that can’t be denied. Assuming you’ve done a good of catering to customer demand and encouraging happy customers to leave reviews, you should at the very least be able to boast a rating above 4 out of 5. If so, including your aggregate review rating in a prominent position above the fold (along with a caption clarifying the number of ratings involved) — and ensuring it’ll show up in the SERPs — will go a long way to assert the value of your brand.

    Be mindful when you do this that your aggregate review must be fully believable. If it’s a flat 5 out of 5, it will seem shady: too few ratings will sap the significance, and a healthy number of ratings will make the perfect rating seem implausible (you’ll never satisfy every customer). Don’t waste any time trying to curate your reviews. Leaving in the negative reviews will show that you’re not afraid to admit that you’re not perfect, after all.

    Trust badges

    By trust badges, I’m talking about any kind of badge intended to make the site visitor feel more confident about proceeding. A trust badge could relate to a brand accreditation, adherence to a particular standard, or an award (or similar incident of recognition). Common examples include the PayPal verification badge, the VISA verification badge, and an SSL certification badge (this will vary depending on the SSL provider being used).

    The reason that trust badges matter so much is that they neatly communicate elements that are utterly vital to the online buying experience. Much ado has been made about securing personal data, with customer data leaks getting a lot of public attention, so it’s understandable that shoppers would be wary about providing their details (financial and otherwise). Having trust badges for payment gateway services will reassure visitors that their information will be safe.

    And if your business operates in a more specific industry niche (or if you want to make a broader commitment to some kind of social cause, perhaps through supporting a specific charity or environmental standard), there will presumably be various schemes and partnerships you can join to attest to your expertise, quality, and responsibility. If you’ve gone to the trouble of joining a particular scheme, you might as well make mention of it on your site.

    Social sharing buttons

    Social media dominates the internet these days, and shoppers often take cues on where to buy (and what to make of particular brands) from what they see on social media channels. More significant for brands, though, is the potential of social media coverage to destroy reputations.

    Look at it this way: back before social media hit it big, a customer who had a negative experience could complain about it to their friends, but it wouldn’t affect the business much. Now, though, that negative experience can be shared on social media within minutes — and though it’s more likely than not to be overlooked, there’s a solid possibility that it’ll get some attention and spark a trend specifically around how bad your brand is.

    Fearing the power of social media, plenty of brands that aren’t overly confident in their ability to impress will choose to avoid it entirely, not creating social media accounts and not pushing people to post about them. Consequently, if you scatter social sharing buttons throughout your site (ShareThis will give you the code you need), encouraging people to talk openly about your brand on social media, it will suggest that you have nothing to hide and are willing to be placed under public scrutiny.

    High-quality product images

    When you’re selling physical products online, you face a difficult situation relative to traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. The higher the asking price, the more important material quality and specific dimensions tend to become, and the more eager a prospective customer will be to physically inspect the item they’re considering — something that can’t be done over the internet (the closest you can come is with a try-before-you-commit system).

    You can tell them that your product is made with premium ingredients, but they might not believe you, and for good reason. Plenty of sketchy retailers make inaccurate claims about their products to tempt unwary shoppers, particularly through marketplaces like eBay, and returning a mis-sold item isn’t straightforward even when the financial side is covered.

    Because of this, you should make every effort to provide high-quality product images. They should be high-resolution, well-lit, and spanning all relevant angles — if possible, you should throw in 360-degree views that can be manually rotated (services like WebRotate360 can make this relatively simple). It’ll never replicate the in-store experience, but it’ll show that you care about helping the shopper make an informed decision.

    What if you offer an electronic product? In that situation, what you should try to offer is a visual essentially consisting of a vertical slice of regular use: a composite screenshot that neatly displays all the relevant elements in limited space.

    Lastly, there’s the possibility that you don’t sell any products at all. Perhaps you offer a service, for instance. If so, you want to focus on images of your team, your office, and — to whatever extent possible — your business in action. Show what you do, because it will hit home far harder than simply describing it ever would.

    User-provided media

    Supposing you do sell products, showing a photo of a member of your staff holding a product and beaming with happiness isn’t going to prove very convincing. You have a vested interest in encouraging people to buy whatever you’re selling, regardless of its actual quality, and shoppers are going to be keenly aware of that bias.

    User-provided media, however, is much more compelling. If someone purchases your product, takes a photo of the product in use, and sends that photo to you, you can add it to the product page to significantly increase the perceived quality of the product. As with the aggregate review rating we began with, it’s all about the power of social proof.

    And if you can encourage people to submit video, that’ll be even better. You can see this with Amazon (it can only skate on brand recognition because it set the benchmark for service), which routinely fleshes out its review sections with customer-submitted photos and videos. The most helpful reviews are generally those with videos that either review the items or provide instructions to help new buyers use them. Do what you can to drive feedback, and it will greatly benefit you in the long term.

    A location map

    Getting a physical location for an online business is very reassuring for a lot of shoppers, because they don’t trust enigmatic online entities. What happens if you place an order, the payment is taken, and the website goes down? Whom do you contact to pursue an explanation? If there’s just an email address, you’ll have no way to escalate the matter if it goes wrong.

    When you know that a business has physical premises, it feels infinitely more stable. You can feel confident that it won’t simply disappear overnight, and isn’t some contrived throwaway brand created to exploit trusting shoppers for short-term profit. Since a visual map is extremely easy to provide through Google Maps (there’s even a site that will give you the HTML embed code for your chosen location), there’s really no reason not to offer this.

    A live chat icon

    When I arrive at a store site from which I’m considering buying something large, expensive, or both, a live chat icon is one of the first things I look for. Why? Because I have to anticipate the worst-case scenario of placing an order, which is that I need to get in touch with the store to deal with some kind of problem, whether involving the payment, the delivery, or a potential return. And if that happens, the last thing I want to do is deal with a sluggish ticketing system, or need to find a good time during the day to make a phone call and be left on hold for hours.

    Live chat systems aren’t ideal, of course — you can still have to wait for someone to be available, it can be challenging to get certain things across in text alone, and you can’t be sure when you’ll get a person or a chatbot. In general, though, it’s great to know that a site has a live chat system, because it means there’s a commitment to maintaining a certain level of service.

    Ideally, a live chat icon should be visible in some form at all times (on all types of device) without being overly intrusive, and should fit with the broad aesthetic of the site. If you don’t already have a live chat system, or you do but it’s only accessible through a dedicated support page, it would definitely be worth your time to make a change.

    Used well, each of these 7 visual trust indicators can make a significant difference, helping the site visitor to have a better experience and consequently view your site and your brand as trustworthy. If you don’t feel that your brand is performing as it should, perhaps you’re coming across as untrustworthy. If so, it’s time to fix that.

    For more information on starting your own ecommerce business, don’t forget to check out my guides or blog for the latest news, tips and advice.

  • 5 Multichannel Mistakes That Rookie Retailers Make

    5 Multichannel Mistakes That Rookie Retailers Make

    Today’s internet user flits about here and there, rapidly moving between websites and devices. Not only do their smartphones give them stable high-speed internet access on a 24/7 basis, but they also have an indulgent level of retail choice: countless stores and merchants seeking their custom, with almost any product available from numerous sources.

    This makes it incredibly difficult to thrive in ecommerce. You’re just one store of many, and relying on shoppers visiting your store might not be enough. That’s where multichannel retail comes in: making your products available through various channels, with each one giving you fresh chances to pick up some purchases.

    But it isn’t as easy as it might sound. Plenty of businesses have tried to adopt multichannel tactics but encountered some major issues in the process. If you’re determined to make the most of your online store, you need to avoid these 5 rookie multichannel retail mistakes:

    Not prioritizing a few channels

    There’s a reason why we’re talking about multichannel retail instead of omnichannel. You can’t realistically be everywhere, and if you tried to get your products in every possible channel, you’d face an almighty struggle trying to handle the situation. What’s more, some channels are never going to return the kind of profit you’d need to justify them.

    Most worrying, though, is the prospect of damaging the perceived value of your brand. You should aspire to being perceived as a quality brand, and not every marketplace is suitable for that — you could even make an argument that offering your products through the Amazon marketplace could undermine the value of your own ecommerce site.

    Think carefully about every channel you could use, and disregard every option that doesn’t offer clear long-term ROI with little to no damage to your brand.

    Not using the channels together

    Maximizing the potential of an ecommerce business is all about analytics: gauging performance, altering the strategy, making changes, then testing again. Lather, rinse, repeat. And given that (as noted) different channels invariably target different parts of the sales funnel, it’s impossible to form a cohesive impression of how things are going if there are any holes in your analytics.

    Not only do you need to ensure that every channel is fully configured for tracking goals (most likely in Google Analytics), but you also need to connect them whenever useful to push people through the sales funnel. You’re not typically going to earn a sale through the first impression.

    For instance, someone just learning about your brand on Instagram might not be ready to buy, but they might be interested in learning more about your style — so include links in your Instagram posts, helping people find you on Twitter (or wherever) and keeping them in your sales funnel for as long as possible.

    Not varying your message

    How do you write sales content? Some brands use the same materials for everything they do, simply cutting them down or expanding them as needed to meet changing format requirements. This is a huge error, because every channel requires a unique approach. Take the content that you have on your ecommerce site’s product pages — would it fit on Pinterest?

    Social media in particular not only asks for specific image sizes and content lengths, but also reaches people at different points in the sales funnel. Anyone who’s visited your site likely has some idea of what you’re selling, but someone who sees your post on Facebook might find your brand totally unfamiliar, needing the content to slowly nudge them towards converting instead of cutting right to the chase.

    So cater your text, tone and imagery to each individual channel, bearing in mind whatever limitations are placed on it. That should optimize your overall return.

    Not using offline selling to your advantage

    Selling online is fantastically valuable, but it isn’t the only way to bring in revenue. Consider the importance of going against the grain. Now that almost everything is sold online, traditional retail can feel special again — and when you’re competing in an online market with slim profit margins and big brands with the infrastructure to stay ahead, it can help you keep up.

    This isn’t to say that you should maintain a full-time brick-and-mortar store, because that’s an expense that you likely can’t (and shouldn’t) sustain.

    Instead, look for more ephemeral ways to pick up more offline sales: for instance, hype up and host a pop-up shop, strike a deal with an existing store to have some of your items stocked year-round, and/or make your products available at relevant industry events. It’s easier than ever before to digitally preview products, so it isn’t too much of an issue if you have far too large a range to take everything with you.

    Not using great software tools

    Multichannel retail is complicated. It takes the essential challenge of online retail and ramps it up, requiring you to keep track of orders across distinct systems and ensure that everything continues to run smoothly. Key to the whole thing, then, is having the right systems in place to keep everything in line.

    Armed with the right software, you’ll find it much easier to navigate the awkward path of moving into multichannel retail. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do things manually — make the necessary early investment to keep costs down in the long term.

    Multichannel retail is a necessity if you want your business to stay competitive, but you need to take it seriously and be keenly aware of the mistakes we’ve looked at here. Work to avoid these pitfalls, and you’ll have a much greater chance of succeeding.

    For more information on starting your own ecommerce business, don’t forget to check out my guides or blog for the latest news, tips and advice.

  • Don’t Wing It: Why Your Ecommerce Store Needs A Marketing Plan

    Don’t Wing It: Why Your Ecommerce Store Needs A Marketing Plan

    So you came up with a great idea. You’re going to sell t-shirts that you design online. You signed up for Shopify and built a website. You found a supplier and printer. You created a few designs. You even bought an LLC to make it official. You’re in business, right? Not really.

    A bunch of other people just had the same idea. Of the 12-24 million ecommerce stores worldwide, only 650,000 make more than $1,000 per year. What sets them apart? Good marketing. Just because you have a website, a Facebook and an Instagram account, doesn’t mean you’ll bring in business.

    Here are five reasons why you need a marketing plan:

    It Zeroes In On Your Target Market

    Knowing your target is the first, most important step in creating a marketing plan. You can have the best messaging in the world, but if it isn’t reaching the right audience, it doesn’t matter.

    Learning who to target not only helps you select the right demographics when running ads, it allows you to determine the best ways to communicate and where to do it — platform, content, frequency, etc.

    Taking the time to research who’s interested in your product also keeps you focused on the big picture of your business — where you are now and where you want to go.

    When you understand your customer and what they’re looking for, it’s easier to identify market opportunities, trends, and challenges in the marketplace. You’re able to make better decisions based on facts, rather than a hope and a prayer.

    It Creates Tangible Goals

    Instead of “I want to sell t-shirts,” a marketing plan provides a vision for your business and outline key areas for growth. Though sales goals are always important, a marketing plan looks at other objectives to work towards.

    Short-term goals may include increasing website traffic, conversions, social engagements and number of followers. Long-term goals to consider are brand awareness, reputation, and search rankings.

    Marketing goals should be determined by what’s important to you and your business. It could be to drive sales, get more leads, expand market share, secure more funding, or re-position your product line.

    Other initiatives might be to get more media attention, bring on affiliate partners, or align with influencers to grow your brand. Marketing goals should be determined by what you want to accomplish. Tactics are developed to meet those needs.

    It Helps You Get Down To Business

    Entrepreneurs are busy. You’re the CEO, customer service, the marketing department, HR, accounting, and often responsible for packing and shipping.

    A marketing plan creates a clear roadmap with distinct action items to attain your goals. This means you can get things done quickly. You know what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how long it will take you to complete.

    If you know that you need to make three Facebook posts for the week, write a blog, and create graphics for an upcoming promotion, you have a plan and can follow it.

    Your editorial calendar and social content folder make this step simple. A marketing plan creates an environment where you won’t feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do and will feel empowered to move forward, one item at a time.

    It Creates Money Flow

    The goal is to make money and to live a life you love. By creating a targeted marketing plan to hit your goals and following a comprehensive action plan, you’ll be on track to increase revenue, visibility, and credibility.

    Whether you do it yourself or have a marketing specialist create a strategic marketing plan for you, you’ll be positioned to grow your business and lessen the stress in your life, making you happier.

    An added benefit of having a marketing plan is that it can help you raise money, if you’re looking for financing. A marketing plan is an important element of a business plan, which investors and lenders will ask for to assess their risk and to determine the feasibility of your business.

    In this case, marketing plans can work two ways: to help you earn money and attract outside funding.

    It Puts The Reigns Back In Your Hands

    Most importantly, a marketing plan puts you in control of your business. At times, there may be so much going on that you feel like you’re caught in a whirlwind, not sure of what to do. A strategic plan can give you point-by-point guidelines on how to allocate your time, energy, and resources.

    A marketing plan can also act as a great motivator. Knowing what you’re working towards with a set plan on how to get there, gives you the confidence you need to launch your business forward.

    And that confidence and positive energy can be felt – with employees, customers, vendors, and partners – as well as through your brand image online and offline.

    With a marketing plan in hand, your goals are set and you know how to attain them. You understand your audience and what they want. You’re focused and in charge of your business. Putting in the time and effort to create a marketing plan and follow through on a strategic action plan is sure to pay off to grow your business.

    Robin Samora is a marketing / PR expert and speaker from Boston, MA. She teaches small business owners how to rev up their brand online and offline to attract new clients, connect with customers, get media exposure, and increase sales. Have a question on how to build your business and brand? Get the latest marketing insights by signing up for Robin’s weekly articles at RobinSamora.com or contact her here to schedule a complimentary call.

  • What Is The Number One Thing Holding Your Ecommerce Inbound Strategy Back?

    What Is The Number One Thing Holding Your Ecommerce Inbound Strategy Back?

    Inbound marketing has been growing in importance for a number of years now. Ecommerce companies are using it more and more to direct targeted traffic to their stores and convert that traffic into customers.

    But something is going wrong with your campaign. It’s not working out as you expected, but you don’t know why?

    Let’s take a look at the different areas of your inbound strategy so you can pinpoint what is stopping yours from taking off.

    Lay the Foundations

    Before we look at the key stages of inbound marketing, first you need to lay your foundations. Get these in order because it could well be that you have not sorted out the basics, and this could be holding you back.

    And before we even look at these, there’s one thing you must do: Define your goals.

    You should have a clear idea about what you want to achieve and who you are targeting. That means creating buyer personas, deciding on what your product offering is and your unique value proposition.

    What are you offering that is different? What does your store do that other stores do not? What are your revenue goals?

    The 3 Key Stages of Inbound Marketing

    Once you’ve got your foundations in place, there are three general stages that make up your ecommerce inbound marketing strategy. One or more of these could be holding back your inbound strategy. Let’s dive in.

    1. Traffic

    Arguably the most important part of the whole inbound strategy is to generate traffic. Without traffic, you don’t make sales. Simple. So you need to drive a regular stream of traffic to your store.

    For many ecommerce stores, this is the biggest challenge of all and where they place most of their focus. But how do you do it?

    There are many ways to drive traffic, but organic search is one of the most important. By implementing an SEO strategy, you can drive targeted traffic to your site from all around the country and beyond whether you’re based in Los Angeles, New York, or anywhere else in the world.

    This involves (among other things) creating product pages optimized for the right keywords, generating links to your site (often through publishing valuable content), and getting higher up in the SERPs. 

    You must take all of these factors into consideration when you are setting up your website because it can be a very time-consuming exercise to optimize after the act. If you’re building your website with WordPress then I recommend adding the Yoast plugin to your ecommerce store. It’s not just a time-saver, it’s a business maker.   

    But SEO is a long slog. It can take months to start generating real traffic. If you are putting all your efforts into your SEO, this could well be why you are failing to generate the traffic you need.

    Enter paid traffic.

    Inbound marketing can accommodate paid traffic, even though it is more often focused on free traffic. You want to get in front of your customers at the moment they are looking for the products you provide, and this is where AdWords can be a fantastic generator of targeted traffic. The problem with this is that it can be expensive.

    AdWords also provides you with crucial data for your SEO. You can find out the keywords that drive sales, the landing pages that convert, the advertising messages that get results. You can test and improve, you can even launch a retargeting campaign.

    Paid social is another option. Using ads, you can target the specific people you want to reach on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, reaching out to the people who are most likely to buy from you.

    There is also organic social to consider. By sharing content, getting involved in conversations, and engaging with your customers, you may be able to generate more social traffic to your site. All these together are where you will start to get targeted traffic.

    2. Conversions and sales

    If you are focusing just on traffic, it could be that your inbound campaign is failing because your pages have not been set up properly for conversions and sales. 

    This involves converting visitors into email subscribers and making direct sales in your store.

    This is a huge topic, but it involves:

    • setting up landing pages for your ads
    • converting not just into sales but into email leads so you can continue to target people
    • optimizing your checkout process
    • using a site search function to make it easier to find specific products
    • experimenting and testing to find out what is working, then improving on it
    • making it easier to find your bestsellers
    • converting visitors from your blog posts, perhaps by using content upgrades

    It will also involve factors like optimizing the overall experience including a good mobile experience, a fast-loading site, and clear and intuitive navigation.

    This is a very real concern if you’ve hurdled the web design part of your ecommerce business, opting instead to buy one of many ready-made ecommerce sites that are for sale.

    While it saves you time by you not having to build your own online store, you might lose out on that essential optimization process. 

    If you’ve chosen this business model for your company, you’ll need to carry out a CRO audit – something which is also useful for you to do periodically even if you’ve built your website from scratch. Some of the things you need to cover in your audit are: 

    • Layout and design 
    • UX
    • Analytics 
    • Content 

    A few quick wins that will enhance your conversions and sales are:

    • Posting video tutorials on your website 
    • Simplifying your checkout process
    • Using multiple images of your products 
    • Adding a live chat function to your website
    • Making sure you have multiple payment options
    • Incorporating user reviews

    Services like Unbounce and Qualaroo can help you scale your CRO efforts.

    3. Repeat Customers

    If you are generating traffic and conversions, you are well on track. But there is one final area to consider: Turning your customers into loyal brand advocates and repeat customers.

    We all know that repeat customers are far more valuable. You’ve done the hard work of turning them into customers, now take advantage of that. You need to delight them, and you can do that by:

    • Providing incredible support
    • Asking them about their experiences
    • Offering to help if something has gone wrong
    • Sending them valuable content direct to their email
    • Providing personalized suggestions
    • Giving them special offers unique to them

    Show them that you care and you want their experience to be positive. Do this, and you’ll soon have customers who will be singing your praises—and doing their bit to bring in new customers. Referrals are gold. Make use of them.

    If one of the areas detailed above is lacking, the whole inbound strategy will be ineffective. If you’re not driving traffic, or not driving the right type of traffic, your strategy will fail. If you’re not converting visitors, your strategy will fail. If the customers you convert don’t become repeat customers, your strategy will fail.

    There’s a good chance that one of these three areas is holding you back. So take some time to go over your entire strategy. Study your analytics to work out what is working and what is not working. Pinpoint where your inbound marketing strategy is not working, then fix it.

    Then you too can take full advantage of one of the most effective marketing strategies available today.

    For even more guidance on starting, building and running an ecommerce business, take a look at my dedicated guides page and blog for the latest tips and how-tos.

  • 4 Easy Seasonal Online Content Ideas For Your Business

    4 Easy Seasonal Online Content Ideas For Your Business

    Writing a blog for your business can be difficult at the best of times — particularly if you’re not a natural writer.  What to write about to keep your site fresh and interesting is something that keeps entrepreneurs on their toes when it comes to content marketing.

    By using seasonal themes as inspiration for your content ideas, you can come up with plenty of posts that are fun and engaging for your customers, and will help you to push your products.

    Below we’ve come up with four seasonal content ideas for your website to get you started. Read on to find out more. 

    Compelling Christmas content

    With Christmas rapidly approaching, jumping on the bandwagon/Santa’s sleigh is crucial with your content.

    You want to be light-hearted and amusing with your content, but also subtly emphasize how great your products are and what fantastic gifts they would make for friends and family. 

    There are a range of different ideas you can write about when it comes to Christmas content:

    • Promotional posts: Christmas presents for everyone (basically how your products are the perfect presents for the whole family).
    • A value-adding blog post: how to treat yourself after the stress of planning the perfect Christmas.
    • Ecommerce video guide: how to nail Christmas shopping online (scouting out the best deals) or perhaps a video that viewers can watch to learn more about your product.
    • Storytelling around Christmas: stories about your team, their present-shopping for families or what they plan to do for the festive season.
    • A charity post: what you’re going to do to help those in need around Christmas time.

    Whatever the post or format, the aim of Christmas content is to tap into your customer’s emotions. You don’t want to be too aggressive and salesy; your seasonal content must be helpful, cheerful and interesting.

    Ideally — i.e. to convert those leads to sales — you also want to be personalizing your content. This means tailoring ads, emails or messages to suit your customer’s wants and needs. You can do this by segmenting email campaigns, or providing personal product recommendations to users based on their previous purchases. 

    Inspirational New Year’s advice

    January 1st: by the time it’s come around, we’re sick of all the mulled wine and beer we’ve drunk, the candies and chips we’ve gobbled down, and we’re another turkey down. Everyone’s put on half a stone and we’re all feeling slightly disappointed in ourselves…

    Time for some healthy eating, exercise regimes, and feeling fresh! January is the perfect opportunity to start anew — make resolutions and stick to them, strive to be successful, start new hobbies, and break old, bad habits.

    As an ecommerce store, you can create content that will help your customers achieve some of these goals. After all, the product that you’re providing benefits them, or improves their lives in some way; why not take the plunge and help out a little bit more?

    For example, if you’re a health and fitness website, you can post how-to guides or video tutorials for the best beginner workouts or how to get abs for the summer. If you’re a food store, you can write fun and healthy recipes for budding cooks to experiment with.

    Or why not give people some insight into what it’s like to run a business? You could explain how you started yours, detail the challenges and pitfalls, and give some advice regarding how to get started in the retail world. Think about offering some shortcuts to help people who feel daunted get inspired, particularly in light of the many options of the digital world.

    Plenty of people don’t know how hard it actually is to run a business — they assume it’s much trickier than it is, and never bother trying (it’s complicated, but far from impossible). Let people know that they can do things their way.

    Alternatively, if you’re a B2B company, why not detail how your software or service could help to manage your client’s business better in the new year— either by fixing their finances, saving them time or boosting their brand with marketing?

    Halloween fun

    Halloween is a fun chance to get your ecommerce store dressed up and in the spirit of things. If you’ve built your ecommerce store using a builder like WooCommerce, it’s easy enough to pick and apply a temporary Halloween-theme (or another seasonally-appropriate theme). By making changes to your store, you’re giving it a fresh new look and giving your brand a feeling of fun.

    Once your online store has its terrifying trick-or-treating costume on, you can create some Halloween-inspired creepy content and get people talking. 

    Halloween is a good time to get visual with your content, so take some photos of your team dressed up (brownie points if you have an office dog who doesn’t mind donning a costume), shoot your own inhouse horror film, or create some spooktacular infographics and images to adorn your blog posts and site. Don’t forget to post on social media to show off your spellbinding efforts. 

    Including a mention or feature of your products or service is a bonus but not the main focus of a Halloween content campaign. The aim of the game is to interest your followers, gain some new ones, and prove that you’re a fun brand that’s worth watching.

    Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday

    Are you even a real business if you don’t make the most of the Thanksgiving weekend to offer your customers amazing deals on your products?

    Black Friday is now notorious in online retail; brick-and-mortar shops close, and ecommerce stores tout their wares and reel consumers in with mega sales. The Thanksgiving weekend is a huge sales period; last year, US consumers spent an incredible $3.7 billion online, nearly 28% up on the $2.9 billion that was spent online a year ago.

    One thing to consider is the prospect of temporarily branching out from whatever your business already does with a secondary ecommerce store. The purpose of this is to avoid needing to make alterations to your usual stock lineup by using something like dropshipping (a shipping model that allows you to sell items without needing to get involved with the fulfillment) — you can then create content that concerns that additional set of products.

    For instance, you can buy an existing store that’s already configured for dropshipping, fill it up with BFCM-viable products (such as phone cases, cheap consumer electronics, or items of clothing), promote them heavily with optimized content (focussing on FOMO and hype) to make some quick sales, then sell the store on when the period ends.

    Something to be mindful of, however, is where you plan on selling. BFCM is a national event, and an ecommerce store can get buys from anywhere in the country, but ecommerce sales tax (in light of 2018’s major change to how it’s handled) can be awkward. If you’re only planning to sell in your state, then choose accordingly.

    Whether you run sales on your existing products, expand your range with a second store, or do both, remember that offers and sales normally last for the whole four-day stretched-out weekend — our advice is to stick to this to avoid disappointing your customers. You’ll also be able to draw in even more customers during this time period.

    The trick with your seasonal content in this instance is to ensure that your customers are keeping an eye on your store for a sneak-peak of what’s going to be available on Black Friday.  Build hype with your content — you want a combination of fun Thanksgiving posts, but also allude towards something happening afterwards that all of your readers need to get excited about. You can drop hints with fun email marketing campaigns; keep them short and sweet with a strong call-to-action.

    Seasonal content is something you should definitely utilize as a business owner. It doesn’t matter which niche you fall under, whether you’re B2B or B2C, or how big or small your business is — seasonal content will boost your engagement and sales. 

    Plan your seasonal content early — with some room for ad-libbing — using a content calendar and automated scheduling tools. For minimal effort, you can provide your ecommerce store with fresh, engaging content that will wow your customers holiday after holiday.

    Take a look at my guides and ecommerce blog for even more guidance, tips and advice on how to run a successful online business.

  • At What Point Does Upselling Hurt Your Business’ Profitability?

    At What Point Does Upselling Hurt Your Business’ Profitability?

    Suppose you sell two products that do the same thing, except one is cheap and practical, and the other is expensive and luxurious. Along comes a prospective customer with an eye to buying the first one. Do you simply make that sale, or do you make an effort to push them towards the upmarket alternative? It’s the latter, surely — the price is higher, the profit margin is greater, and you stand to gain more from that exchange.

    This is the popular art of upselling, and when it’s done well, it benefits everyone. You get to make more money, and the customer gets the indulgent experience of going away with something better than they anticipated getting. But you can take upselling too far, making it not just ineffective but actually counterproductive.

    When does upselling start to make you less money instead of more? Let’s consider it:

    How upselling can backfire

    There’s a fundamental back-and-forth to the sales process. It’s easy to forget that when you’re dealing with ecommerce because it feels so disconnected from any traditional model of negotiation, but it still manifests in the wavering interest of the shopper. They want to feel that they’re getting a good deal, and every time their options change, their opinion does too.

    With that in mind, here are some of the ways in which upselling can cause a shopper to be less interested in placing an order:

    • It can give them too many options. There’s such a thing as analysis paralysis where you have too many choices and you can’t ultimately decide. If someone has resolved to buy item A, but you start telling them about items B, C, and D, they might end up leaving without picking one of them.
    • It can confuse them. When you introduce someone to a higher-cost version of a product or service, they might not understand what the difference is — and if you bring up something like a type of warranty or support service as an add-on, it can easily lead someone to wonder why they need it.
    • It can feel heavy-handed. Depending on the execution, an upselling attempt can feel obviously self-serving on the part of the seller. If you conveniently offer a good alternative, it can be useful for the buyer — if you push it too hard (as a series of page-spanning pop-ups, for instance), it will become annoying, which will make the shopper dislike you and want to shop elsewhere.
    • It can ignore intent. There are times and places for upselling, and plenty of circumstances in which it just doesn’t fit. Take budget items, for instance. If someone is pointedly shopping for the cheapest version of something, they’re not going to be interested in being upsold, and seeing your eagerness to drive up their spending will make it clear to them that you don’t understand their needs.

    It’s all about understanding context and making sensible decisions about what the shopper will accept before it stops being useful and starts being grating.

    How to know when you’re going too far

    Most of these factors are subjective and thus hard to gauge, so how do you know when upselling is starting to impede your efforts? The first and simplest method is to focus on the analytics. This calls for a lot of A/B testing: whenever you’re thinking about introducing an element of upselling to your sales funnel, add it as a variant and run it against the existing version of the page.

    If you do this carefully as you roll out updates, you’ll notice when it starts to turn against you, because the metrics will reflect it. You’ll see more site visitors leaving after your upselling attempts — they’ll likely leave their original selections in their carts as they go. Naturally, you’ll see a decrease in the average order value: the very thing upselling is supposed to help with.

    The reason analytics matter so much is that they move past your fallible impressions of what’s working and cut to the fundamental data: if they show that your upselling results in 2% more conversions, then it’s clearly working, no matter what you think of it.

    The value of detailed feedback

    In addition to watching your analytics, you should get into the habit of consulting customers to get their feedback about your operation. Ask them how useful your upselling attempts are: do they like being given opportunities to change their orders, or would they prefer to be given space to complete their orders?

    This is important for the following reason: customer opinion is often a great predictor of future metrics. For instance, suppose that your analytics show your upselling to be successful, but your customers say that they’re starting to find it a little too much — it may be that making another update will hit the tipping point that turns it counterproductive. If sentiment is turning against your sales approach, you can change course before going too far.

    In conclusion, upselling can go wrong in various ways, and starts hurting your profitability when you overdo it without realizing. To avoid this, track your performance carefully, and be ready to adjust your approach when the metrics demand it.

    To learn more about building a successful ecommerce business, check out my blog and how-to guides for easy-to-follow advice.

  • How To Develop A Pricing Strategy That Is Perfect For Your Products

    How To Develop A Pricing Strategy That Is Perfect For Your Products

    Pricing your products is a tricky thing. What might seem simple at first — simply identify the wholesale product cost, and then up the price to get a profit — is actually quite complex.

    There are several different ways you can develop a pricing strategy. To help you navigate this tricky area, I’ve identified some common pricing strategies that you can use for your own products. Read on to discover how to develop a pricing strategy that suits your products perfectly.

    How to price your product

    There are many different pricing strategies that you can use as a retailer, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. I’ll dig into a few later, but first, let’s go through the basics of pricing your product.

    Calculate your variable costs

    The first thing to consider when you’re pricing your product are the costs of goods sold. These involve all the necessary expenses that go into producing, marketing, and shipping your product. These won’t stay the same — they will vary according to the product you’re pricing.

    Depending on the product you’re selling, these costs might involve:

    • Manufacturing time: how much time is spent making these products, and how much per hour do they cost you in labor?
    • Shipping: labor time, courier fees, and so on
    • Packaging: more delicate products might require more expensive packaging materials.
    • Raw materials: if you produce your products yourself, how much are the raw materials that go in them?
    • Marketing materials: whether it’s leaflets or paid ads, consider how much these cost per product.

    Once you’ve identified all these variable costs, you can accurately work out the final cost of goods sold per product.

    Calculate your profit markup

    Now you’ve got your cost per goods sold, it’s time to add a profit markup. This includes your profit into the final price of your product at sale.

    When you’re calculating your profit margin, bear in mind that you’re only calculating it based on the variable costs per product. This won’t include the fixed costs that your business incurs, such as hosting costs or business utilities.

    You should also consider what prices you’re up against in terms of your competitors. If your profit margin far exceeds that of your business rivals, then your customers won’t be impressed.

    With that in mind, take your variable costs and divide them by 1 less your required profit markup as a decimal.

    So, let’s say your variable cost per product is $15, and your profit margin is 30%. In this scenario, it would be expressed as:

    $15 / (1 – 0.3)

    This leaves us with a product price of $21.43.

    Once you’ve got this final price, conduct a break-even analysis to calculate how many units you need to sell to cover your fixed costs (or find a useful break-even template here). This will help you make accurate forecasts for the year ahead, and you can determine how to set a product price that works for you.

    What pricing strategies are open to you?

    There are several different pricing strategies open to retailers. Here are just a few common strategies you should consider.

    Keystone pricing

    This is the most common strategy used by retailers when pricing their products. In short, it involves doubling the original wholesale price of a product to identify what it should be sold at to the customer.

    But it’s not as simple as that. There are several factors that can affect keystone pricing.

    For example, if your sales are irregular or require significant handling costs, then your final retail price might not account for the extra work involved. Conversely, if your products are popular or readily sold elsewhere, you might need to reduce the retail cost to increase sales.

    While keystone pricing is simple and easy to follow, it can easily get complicated. Depending on your business and the products you sell, you might need to iterate with your prices to find the right one for you.

    Manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP)

    Manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) refers to the recommended price of a product as stipulated by the original manufacturer. This strategy helps keep product prices the same when sold by different retailers.

    Products covered by MSRP are usually those which have to conform to accepted industry standards, for example, home appliances such as ovens or refrigerators. MSRP means that big-ticket items aren’t priced at wildly varying amounts.

    MSRP makes it simple for retailers — simply save time and follow the recommended pricing plan. However, this does prevent you from getting competitive with your prices. Your competition likely sells the same product for the same price, so getting ahead can be tricky.

    Discount pricing

    Discounting is a solid pricing strategy that virtually every business uses, and with great success.

    While you might get less money in return for your product, the other gains are considerable: higher traffic to your store, an opportunity to upsell other products (and get rid of unsold stock), and the chance to reach a whole new consumer base who might not usually visit your store.

    But be wary: too much discounting can negatively impact your business, especially with big-ticket items. As Jennifer Diepstraten says in Marketing Speak podcast, “if somebody is willing to discount and low ball just to get the business, they just destroyed their perception of value.” Be cautious with your discounts — apply them where necessary, but don’t go overboard just to drive traffic to your store.

    Bundle pricing

    As the name suggests, bundle pricing refers to the bundling of several items for a single price. This is most commonly seen with products like groceries or clothing, but other industries also employ it too.

    Bundling products can actually increase sales. Customers feel as though they’re getting more bang for their buck when the saving they’re actually making is generally less than they perceive. However, this also means that selling those same products individually is trickier. Customers feel as though they’re missing out, and may be less likely to buy them alone.

    Pricing your product can be tricky. But with the tips above, it’s easy to find the right pricing structure for your products. Don’t be afraid to update your prices as you go — iteration is key to a successful pricing strategy. Use the knowledge here to find the perfect pricing strategy for your products today.

  • How To Start A Side Hustle Business On A Shoestring Budget

    How To Start A Side Hustle Business On A Shoestring Budget

    Running a business on a shoestring budget isn’t easy, but it can be done. In this post, we look at what goes into forming a shoestring business budget, and offer some tips for starting a business that doesn’t need a lot of money to succeed.

    Money may be the root of all evil, but it also makes the world go round, and there are some things that are particularly tough to accomplish without a hefty budget on your side. Case in point: starting a business. It’s easy to start listing all the tasks ahead of you and see the ever-escalating costs loom ominously in your mind’s eye.

    But while it’s definitely tough to start a business without significant funding, it’s far from impossible — particularly if you’re viewing it as a side hustle. If you’re not giving up your regular working routine, then you’ll still have money coming in, and you won’t need to commit enough resources to shape it into your primary source of income.

    So if you have great aspirations for an engaging and profitable side business, but you don’t have the funding to just throw money at the project, then you’ll need to get creative. Let’s get into some tips for running a small business with an even smaller budget.

    Chase your inspirations for advice

    Some say that knowledge is power, and if that’s the case, then the internet is the closest humanity has come to achieving nuclear fusion. Social media has only added to this: having become accepted by the mainstream, it’s amazingly become perfectly normal for influential entrepreneurs, academics and experts to spend significant amounts of time on social media.

    Here’s what this means for you: there’s a huge chance that you can not only learn from the teachings of your business inspirations but also speak to them. Getting that type of correspondence for free is something that would have seemed ludicrous even a decade ago, but has now become commonplace in the online world.

    You don’t even have to put a lot of time or even effort into it — it might be as simple as finding someone’s Twitter account and sending them a message, or just emailing them. If you’re polite, respectful, and inquisitive, there’s every chance that they’ll get back to you with some invaluable tips, and possibly even relevant connections.

    Use all the free resources you can find

    As well as connecting you to experts, the internet supplies a near-inexhaustible variety of free (or cheap) tools and resources, and you can make good use of them to keep your costs down. Just about any task you can think of will have some suitable type of utility or mobile app. To handle your finances, for example, you can use free software such as ZipBooks.

    And as you make your way through the numerous parts that go into starting a business, such as choosing a product or service to focus on, figuring out legal requirements, choosing a company name, and launching your first website, you’ll benefit massively from looking around for relevant guides (and free services).

    Most of the time, you only need to type “free guide to [your topic]” and you’ll find a good selection of useful guides. Marketing, creating digital media, pricing services… If it’s a common part of the business process, you’ll have plenty of pieces to choose from. You can even check social media for links to the most popular recommendations.

    Additionally, don’t overlook the value of forms and sites like Reddit for getting some community assistance. Got an idea for your business and want a wide range of comments? Why not post about it on the r/smallbusiness subreddit? Say that you want to start a business but could use some advice. Take each reply with a grain of salt, by all means, but remember how much free consultation assistance you’re getting.

    Spend your money very wisely

    Having a shoestring budget is entirely different from having no budget at all, and you will need to spend it to get your business going. What will make all the difference is how you spend it. To be maximally successful, you must think very carefully about where your money will make the most difference (something that can be tricky to determine).

    Here’s why it’s harder than you might realize to distribute your shoestring budget: while there are plenty of tasks that you can handle manually (ostensibly at no cost), running a business takes up a lot of time (and that’s after starting a business, which is also a big time-sink).

    Furthermore, you’re actually building a side business, so you have plenty of obligations already on your plate. What’s the use in working on something for 10 hours to save $20 when 10 hours of your limited time is worth far more than that?

    Consider a classic example from the ecommerce world: setting up a website for doing some part-time sales work. You want your website to feel yours, so you work on the setup for hours, days, even weeks until it feels good enough to go live. It’s satisfying to put that much work into something — but could that time be more valuable spent elsewhere?

    Probably, yes. Diversifying merchants often sell their online businesses, and might not even charge that much. If you’re done with a website, keeping it doesn’t help you, so offloading it for even a small sum is worthwhile. There are vast online marketplaces of ecommerce stores that are largely ready to use, and it’s much easier than you’d expect to find one cheap enough to support a business on a shoestring budget.

    Which is more cost-effective? Creating your own site, or finding something from an existing site market? Again, we return to the cost of your time. Even if you judge an hour of your attention to be worth $30 (you should be valuing it at a much higher rate, but let’s start low), does that compare favorably to spending $50 on a site that already works perfectly?

    Spend an 8-hour day designing a website from scratch, and that’s a $240 cost by your estimation. Sometimes, spending money is the only way to save money. Use your expertise to build your business, but don’t get stuck on trying to do everything yourself.

    Convince someone to partner with you

    If you just can’t see a way to make things work on your shoestring budget, then perhaps the answer is to bring two modest budgets together to make something viable. Pooling resources for a side hustle can work extremely well if you choose the partner sensibly and you’re extremely clear about the terms of the agreement.

    Maybe you work with someone who might be interested, or you have a friend with budding entrepreneurial inclinations. Most people can see the appeal of running a small business, so there’s an excellent chance that you’ll know someone who’d give it a shot.

    You might even find that your boss is open to pursuing a joint venture — an option that could make it a lot easier to balance your regular workload with your side hustle (but could also make the office a more complicated place, so tread carefully).

    If you have long-term goals for your side hustle that require it to be a solo operation, you can agree on some type of bowing-out point for your partner: once you reach a point at which the returns have given you a sufficiently solid footing to work alone, your partner can take a decent payout and leave everything to you. It could be the solution you need.

    Making the best of a business on a shoestring budget is extremely challenging, but you mustn’t let this hold you back from pursuing your ambitions. Follow some or all of these tips as you start a business, and you’ll have a greater shot at success.

  • Local SEO Success: Unpicking The Relationship Between Reviews And Rankings

    Local SEO Success: Unpicking The Relationship Between Reviews And Rankings

    90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. And 87% won’t consider using businesses with a low star rating.

    Whichever way you slice it, reviews are a massive part of the online buying journey. They help shoppers perform research, choose between different products and services, and they act like old-fashioned word of mouth recommendations in today’s digital-first world.

    Although Google fiercely guards its ranking algorithms, it’s an open secret that reviews factor in a big way when it comes to how high local businesses feature. To help set you up for success, this post looks at the clues, analyzes the SERPs, and unpicks the relationship between reviews and local SEO rankings.

    Google trusts the opinion of other customers

    Every business is going to claim they are the best at what they do — it’s the name of the game. Understanding this, most people don’t believe that companies have their best interest at heart, and need reassurance that their buying decisions are the right ones.

    Step forth, social proof. A psychological and social phenomenon, social proof is the idea that the influence and attitude of others has a profound effect on our own behavior; the belief that if other people are doing or saying something, then it must be correct.

    How does this factor into reviews and local SEO?

    Cast your mind back to the last time you looked for a restaurant in a new town. We’re guessing you opted for the one with the highest star rating across the largest range of reviews. You’re not the only one.

    According to research, 80% of customers don’t trust businesses with a star rating of less than four. This is true whether you run a small cafe, plumbing service or hairdressers. Google wants to give users the best possible answers in a fraction of a second; associating trust with ratings and reviews helps them to achieve this.

    Regular reviews supply Google with fresh content

    Google’s bots reindex websites based on a number of key algorithmic factors. These include new links coming into the site, the number and volume of keywords, and whether the site has been updated with fresh content.

    If you incorporate reviews into your website’s product or business pages, then they count as fresh content. Acting as a great way to increase the overall visibility of your site, as little as 800 words can represent as much as 70% of the fresh content for that page.

    At the same time, a report by ReviewTrackers shows that nearly seven in every 10 customers believe that reviews older than three months are no longer relevant. So, there is even more incentive to encourage customers to leave new reviews.

    Reviews encourage click-throughs

    There has been a huge debate whether organic click-through rates impact SEO rankings. Some people think it’s a myth, others swear that it’s vitally important. Because Google doesn’t reveal much information about their search algorithm, it’s hard to know for sure. However, Moz believe they have found evidence that improving your organic CTR by 3% will move your business up one spot in search engine rankings.

    If you accept that click-through rates are a crucial part of SEO rankings, the importance of good reviews becomes clear. The better the reviews and ratings you have displayed in SERPs, the less likely it is that potential customers will scroll past your business.

    In fact, research suggests that going from a three-star rating to a five-star rating can earn a local business up to 25% more clicks. As a result, if your website is languishing behind its competitors in the SERPS, improving your reviews will increase the chances of getting more clicks and potentially climbing up the rankings.

    The content and platform of reviews matter

    When deciding where to get your reviews from, some platforms carry more weight than others Integrated within Google My Business, unsurprisingly, Google Reviews are probably the most important in relation to boosting search rankings.

    According to Moz’s most recent Local SEO Ranking Factors study, the third biggest factor for businesses appearing in the ‘Local Pack’ is reviews. A fundamental part of local SEO, the Local Pack is the mini box (pictured below) that sits at the top of local searches in Google, displaying a map, address, and, of course, reviews.

    A quick glance at the screenshot above shows the results of a local search for the term ‘flower shops’. In addition to the star ratings taking prominence, you can see little snippets taken from reviews, saying things like “love this place” “a wonderful shop”, and “I suggest everyone to shop there”. This provides evidence that one of the biggest factors Google uses to decide which shops to feature in the Local Pack is reviews.

    Google reviews are important, but to make the most of any local SEO strategy, they need to be backed up by reviews from trusted third-party review platforms.

    Taking another example of a local search for ‘bakeries near me’ the Local Park once again takes prominence in the SERPS.

    Searching for the top result of Laurel Street Bakery specifically, you can see from the screenshot below that the bakery also generates excellent reviews via both Yelp and Facebook.

    Reviews on these third-party platforms show Google that their reviews are accurate and the search results they provide are relevant. Combined, this provides a clear signal that Google and third-party reviews work together to propel businesses up the local SERPs.

     

    How to get more reviews

    Taking control of your Google My Business listing is the easiest way to provide customers with a way to review your business quickly and easily. But you can do more to boost your rankings by actively encouraging customers to leave positive reviews. Here are some of the most effective methods:

    Identify customers likely to leave reviews

    Targeting the most likely customers to leave a glowing review is not as tricky as it might sound. Repeat customers and those reordering the same product over and over are all indicators of a loyal and happy customer who would be inclined to leave a positive review. Great customer experiences are priceless and should be leveraged to boost your brand reputation and validate your product or service where possible.

    Incentivize reviews (indirectly)

    New customers who have had a positive experience with a business are more likely to leave a review. Incentives such as a welcome discount, money off their next purchase or gift cards make it more likely that you will leave a positive first impression. Just be wary of directly incentivizing reviews as it’s a practice that could come back to bite you.

    Use email

    Asking at the right stage of the buying journey will help you maximize the volume and the quality of the reviews you receive. Research by Power Reviews reveals that up to 80% of reviews come from follow-up emails encouraging shoppers to provide feedback. If first-time customers opt-in to email, then take the chance to send a follow-up message using the right methods and templates.

    Direct your customers to review pages

    Nearly seven out of 10 customers are happy to leave a review according to research by BrightLocal. For this reason, it’s a great idea to optimize all your web pages — blog posts, landing pages, homepage — with buttons and badges that clearly and quickly redirect users to your Facebook, Yelp, Yotpo, and Google Review pages.

    Based on the growing evidence, it’s hard to refute that there is a link between good reviews and a business’s search engine ranking. People have learned to trust the recommendations of Google, and reviews are a great way for the company to use social proof and the opinion of its users to strengthen those recommendations.

    For this reason, reviews are likely to continue to form a significant part of the algorithms that determine local search engine rankings for the foreseeable future. Make sure you’re ahead of the game by doing everything in your power to get as many customer reviews as possible.

  • The Link Between Ecommerce Customer Relationships and Data Analytics

    The Link Between Ecommerce Customer Relationships and Data Analytics

    Customer relationships are as important in ecommerce as they’ve ever been in traditional retail — perhaps more so, because online merchants are competing in a global battlefield, meaning that providing good store experiences really matters to companies operating in this space. 

    Having a brick-and-mortar store in the right location with the right aesthetic can be enough to pick up some easy sales, but the closest online equivalent to having a good location is ranking well for prime keywords, and that’s much harder to achieve.

    Data analytics, meanwhile, fuel the engine for large-scale growth. The accessibility of rich data on every trackable element of online activity (and that’s a large pool) is what allows businesses to comprehensively optimize their operations. Using it to full effect, today’s big brands are persistently finding new and smarter ways to improve efficiency.

    So what’s the connection between these two mainstays of the modern merchant? They seem disparate — one emotive, nuanced, seemingly analog, and the other objective, exact, firmly digital — but they inform and contextualize each other. Follow along as I provide a more in-depth look at what I mean by this:

    The analog/digital divide is illusory

    When machine learning first started getting some traction in mainstream business, it met with some resistance from old-fashioned types who didn’t see its value for complex processes like customer relationship management. After all, they reasoned, people are difficult enough for other people to understand — they’re capricious, awkward, often ignorant, and unpredictable.

    On the other end of the spectrum, those who were firmly on the digital bandwagon might have considered the investigation of specific customer cases to be unnecessary. When you have pulped and parsed data from hundreds or even thousands of customers, what’s the point in getting hung up on specific events? That’s how you miss the wood for the trees.

    What smart retailers eventually realized, though, is that the inferred distinction is false. It isn’t a matter of analog versus digital — it’s a matter of micro versus macro, and if you want to make the most of your online sales opportunities, you need to consider both. Here’s why:

    Performance data must be contextualized

    Let’s say (as is entirely plausible) that you either run or work for an ecommerce business. Your system is configured to gather information through Google Analytics or whichever analytics platform you prefer, so your database continues to grow. You thus have access to countless metrics of varying significance: everything from dwell time to average conversion value.

    You can spend hours poring over that data, but that time won’t necessarily produce any notable conclusions. The problem? A lack of context. When you look at performance metrics, you see only fragmented reflections of complicated situations. You see how many pages the average visitor looks at, but you don’t know why, so you can’t know what (if anything) it means.

    The value of an involved customer relationship management process, then, is in giving you the framing you need to make sense of your data. The more feedback you gather from your customers, the more you can read into your metrics — whether you’re able to understand why a certain page is performing so well, or left with a curious disparity between what your customers say and what your data says (this can be remarkably illuminating, because people are often mistaken when trying to detail their own behavior).

    You can’t usefully pursue CRM without analytics

    On the other side of the coin, of course, you have the prospect of dedicated customer relationship managers trying to succeed using little more than direct interaction, buyer personas, and nebulous concepts such as gut feeling. It’s extremely valuable to know how to interact with people, yes, but it simply isn’t enough if you’re trying to achieve optimal results.

    As noted, we’re not that great at explaining (or even remembering) our own actions. Think about your favorite websites, ecommerce or otherwise: why do you like them so much? Are you absolutely confident that the reasons you can cite fully explain your attachment? Do you recall precisely why you clicked on the link to this piece? However certain you are, I’m inclined to suggest a sliver of doubt. Our subconscious minds heavily shape our decisions.

    But the issues with self-assessment don’t stop there. Consider that the human race is excellent at self-deceptions, be they harmful or innocuous, and a great example is that of musical taste. In principle, we should all just accept that we like whatever music we like, and feel no shame or guilt about it — but that’s not how culture works.

    Here’s an specific scenario: let’s say that you regularly browse and buy from a music store (whether involving physical media or digital downloads), and one day someone from the store reaches out to you for some feedback about your store experiences. Because you’re embarrassed about your musical taste and you feel confronted, you offer a warped account of the features you like and dislike, resulting in feedback that won’t be too useful.

    Our retail habits can be deeply personal and emotional, so our recollections are invariably sullied by ambiguity, redaction, and creative reimagining. But analytics data doesn’t degrade, and while it can be unclear, it can’t be mistaken. Only by using it to underpin your CRM can you establish the foundation you need to achieve consistent results.

    The future is driven by integration

    In some ways, you can draw a parallel between this link and the one that binds all marketing channels together in modern multi-channel marketing. Retailers that would once maintain distinct departments for distinct tactics — a social media team, an email marketing team, a paid advertising team — now understand that they’re better understood as parts of much broader customer journeys.

    Similarly, it isn’t ideal to have a team concentrating on CRM and another handling data analytics. Data analytics should be the connecting tissue between all departments as opposed to a pursuit in itself, because context-free data holds little value, but contextual data is key to turning a small online store into an international retail powerhouse.

    Aiming to get more from your ecommerce store, then? Start concentrating more strongly on weaving analytics through everything you do. It’s become highly accessible in recent years, particularly for those using high-end solutions such as Magento’s Commerce Cloud edition or Shopify’s multi-channel centric Shopify Plus — especially since each one (along with various other retail platforms) has straightforward API connectivity with Adverity DataTap. So what are you waiting for? Stop treating data as a gimmick, and start getting results.

    Overall, then, the link between ecommerce customer relationships and data analytics is simple: it’s codependency. You can’t have valuable ecommerce data without understanding the customers that produce it, and you can’t manage customer relationships effectively with no way to reliably track the consequences.