e-commerce

Interactive Content Ideas for Your E-Commerce Website to Keep Customers Engaged

The secret to a successful e-commerce platform, in the grand picture of digital commerce, is creating a space where users can interact and engage.

Customers increasingly want active interaction rather than just passive consumption in the digital age. High-quality products are important for an e-commerce company, but so is an immersive and interesting online shopping experience. An effective tool for keeping clients interested in and invested in the brand is interactive content on an e-commerce website. It adapts to the changing wants and tastes of tech-savvy clients and injects dynamic energy into an otherwise static buying transaction. The secret to a successful e-commerce platform, in the grand picture of digital commerce, is creating a space where users can interact, express themselves, and engage.

Product customization tools

Tools for product customization are the first interactive content concept to consider. By enabling customers to customize their purchases to meet their interests and needs, this technology provides an immersive experience for users. Allowing people to personalize products will keep them interested for longer, whether it’s apparel, jewelry, or home décor. They can alter the product’s colors, styles, sizes, and other details to make it specifically their own. Customers feel more invested in a product they have individually designed, which not only increases user pleasure but also amplifies the possibility of conversion. Customers may make informed judgments about their purchases by being given a real-time view of their customized product, which adds a level of interaction and pleasure to their shopping experience.

Virtual try-ons

The use of augmented reality (AR) for virtual try-ons is the second interactive content concept. Customers may virtually try on goods like apparel, shoes, glasses, or even makeup from the convenience of their homes thanks to this technology. Users’ online shopping behavior is changed through virtual try-ons, which make the process more participatory and tangible. Customers can now see how a product will look on them thanks to technology and VR marketing, which also enables them to make wiser purchasing decisions. Virtual try-ons eliminate the trouble of returns and exchanges because of ill-fitting items by bridging the gap between the physical and digital shopping experiences, saving both the company and the client time and money.

3D technology

Technologies such as 3D modeling have completely changed the landscape of e-commerce. Customers can closely inspect things just like they would in a physical store with this function, but from the convenience of their homes. Customers can view your product from every angle, spin, flip, and zoom in on particular characteristics using an innovative 3D model viewer. They are able to perceive the product’s size, texture, quality, and general feel with greater clarity as a result. Beyond still pictures and word descriptions, 3D models provide a precise representation of your items, removing any uncertainty or ambiguity and enhancing customer confidence in their buying decisions. Additionally, customers’ attention may be piqued by the novelty and sophistication of this technology, leading to increased time spent using your products and the development of stronger bonds with your company.

Interactive quizzes

Then, think about including interactive tests on your e-commerce website. A fun method to make the shopping experience more unique for customers is through quizzes. Customers are directed to a selection of products that are specially crafted for them after answering a series of questions about their tastes, needs, and preferences. This can help clients browse the diversity without feeling overwhelmed and is particularly helpful for companies with wide product choices. This interactive aspect not only makes browsing a little more enjoyable, but it also enhances the whole consumer experience by making individualized, pertinent product recommendations, hence lowering decision paralysis and increasing conversion rates.

User-generated content

Finally, utilizing user-generated content (UGC) can significantly increase customer engagement and brand confidence. UGC entails encouraging clients to offer their unique images, testimonials, and experiences with your goods. You can hold competitions where customers show off their inventive ways to use your products or ask users to post their product images online with a particular hashtag. By emphasizing this content on product pages, you confirm customers’ purchases and offer social proof, both of which can positively affect new customers. Additionally, by encouraging a feeling of community around your company and making customers feel like they are a part of its history, this program eventually encourages brand loyalty and repeat business.

E-commerce is evolving from a purely transactional environment to one that serves as a platform for experiences and interactions. The paradigm of online purchasing is evolving away from scrolling and clicking and toward interesting and thrilling interactive trips. Interactive content that has been cleverly produced not only keeps clients interested but also helps them understand your company and products better. Staying on the cutting edge of these developments can increase the customer attractiveness and competitiveness of your e-commerce website as the digital world continues to develop. After all, you build a devoted client base that values not just your products but also your business as a whole when you transform customer encounters into customer experiences.

10 Reasons That You Need an Ecommerce Website Today

With more and more people shopping online, can you really afford to miss out on all those customers? In this article, we are going to break the 10 most important reasons you need an e-commerce website now!

Did you know that in 2020 alone, 2 billion people worldwide purchased a good or service online? This incredible e-commerce buying frenzy totaled over $4 trillion! In this article, we are going to show you why every business, including yours, needs an e-commerce website.

Tap Into Global Markets

Before the invention of the internet, most businesses were constrained to selling their products to locals who could physically visit their shops. However, by creating a website, you can give people around the world the ability to find your business, view your products and order them all through the click of a button. This ability has allowed a range of businesses to grow rapidly, such as online retail stores, free spins no deposit casinos, and consulting firms. If you want to grow your business and quickly expand your customer base, then setting up an e-commerce website is a no-brainer!

Never Have to Close Your Business

Back in the day, businesses would be open at particular hours, and if a customer happened to turn up when the store was shut, they would have to go home empty-handed or head to a competitor. One of the best e-commerce website features is that it allows your business to operate 24/7. For example, if someone wants to browse your stock and make an order at 2 am, they can simply open up your website and make a purchase while you are happily asleep!

Enhance Your Brand

Developing your brand is easy, thanks to e-commerce website content! Thanks to the internet and e-commerce websites, businesses now have so many different ways to connect with customers and deeply convey their messaging. For example, on your e-commerce website, you can produce a blog that lets customers understand more about your business. You can produce an e-book that gives customers valuable industry information that they can leverage. With e-commerce website content, the opportunities to develop your brand and stand out from the competition are endless!

Speed up Business Operations With E-commerce

With an e-commerce website, you can deliver the service that your customers truly deserve! An e-commerce website allows you to take orders more quickly as you can automate the process, and all orders are recorded on your e-commerce platform. Also, with an e-commerce website, you can engage with your customers more effectively through e-mail support and live chat. Your customers will appreciate being able to easily contact you and not having to spend hours on hold after calling a support line.

Great Form of Advertising

e-Commerce website advertising is extremely powerful and can lead to a tremendous increase in sales. Suppose you optimize your e-commerce website and create a powerful blog. In that case, you can start appearing first in Google’s search rankings for a range of different searches relating to your products, for example, “best running shoes”, “best UK casino“, “cheap surfboards”. As the first Google results receive as much as 30% of the traffic, you will quickly enjoy a huge increase in customers! The best way to start ranking on Google is to publish a blog multiple times a week, ensure that each blog post is relevant to your niche, and includes specific keywords and search terms. By following this simple blogging strategy, you will start to dominate the Google rankings and leverage the best form of advertising.

Boost Your Conversion Rate

By having an e-commerce website, you can take advantage of impulse buyers by giving them a platform where they can quickly browse through all of your products and place an order instantly, all from the comfort of their own home!

Reduce Operating Costs

You can save huge costs by transitioning your business online. Your e-commerce website can replace your physical shop, saving you thousands of dollars every month in rent and instantly boosting the profitability of your business.

Enhanced Convenience

More and more customers prefer to shop online, and if you don’t have an e-commerce website, these customers will simply opt to shop anywhere else. Currently, 54% of US consumers prefer to shop online as they say it allows them to shop whenever they please, they don’t feel pressured by staff, and they can quickly browse thousands of items in just minutes. If you want to take care of your customers, start your e-commerce website creation journey today!

Easy to Upsell

e-Commerce websites make upselling incredibly easy. There are lots of effective e-commerce website examples of upselling such as recommending similar products to customers who have an item in their online basket, creating popups with discounts on complimentary products, and letting customers know what other people have been buying. With these little tricks, you can get customers entering your online store believing they were only going to buy one item but leaving for 3 or 4!

Effectively Track Your Customers

Thanks to e-commerce website analysis, you can find out a wealth of information about your customers, including age, buying habits, interests, location, and more! With your e-commerce website, you can store this information and then use it in your marketing to target your ideal customers and enhance your products to better meet your customers’ needs.

If you want to increase your customer base, develop your brand and provide exceptional customer service, you need to create an e-commerce website. Especially with an e-commerce website cost being so low, you have no excuses not to set one up right now!

Conclusion

Now that you know all the reasons why you need to create an e-commerce website, it is time to start acting. We would love to hear your opinions on e-commerce websites and how they boosted your profits. Please comment below on some e-commerce website advantages and disadvantages you have experienced.

What to know before you sell your products online

With more and more options turning up, most businesses set up an online presence to make the best use of the internet.

If you wanted to sell any product or start a business before the emergence of the internet and e-commerce, you would have to limit yourself to one location, one supplier, and so on. You would have to wait a long time and work extra hard to expand your business.

But now, with the evolution of the e-commerce industry, you have a wide variety of options from shopify to eBay that allow you to begin selling your products without much thought.

There are a wide array of websites, apps, online marketplaces that allow you to sell your products at very low investment rates. With more and more options turning up, most businesses set up an online presence to make the best use of the internet. Now there are reseller tools like Seller Aider alternative, that are giving excellent results to users.

Every online platform works with a different format and understanding your needs will allow you to best choose a platform. In this article, it is elaborated on how you can optimally use a few of the best selling platforms in India.

What Kind Of Products Can Be Sold Online?

No matter what industry you are a part of, there are essentially two products you can sell: commoditized products and niche products.

Commoditized products are those which have high demand, are essential, or are very popular. These can be either digital or physical products and services, those which nearly everybody needs and uses. These products make up a majority of all online sales.

Niche products are goods and services that serve a specific, targeted audience and product category. These are unique products like hand-made goods, customized goods, and so on. They are often made in small batches or made only on demand.

Many store owners tend to sell a combination of these two products to increase their profit margin and make their shops available to all customers.

By offering both, they can serve customers better and also stand a chance against bigger competition. Premium brands might only sell niche products for high prices and make a lot of profit as well.

Choose How You Want To Sell Online

Understanding how to sell online might seem overwhelming, given the sheer number of choices. But working this out is the second step to starting your online store. Here are the most popular ways to sell online:

E-commerce store builders like Shopify for which there are Best Shopify Developer Auckland available to help.
WordPress with the WooCommerce Extension.
Marketplaces like Shopify to eBay.
Social media sites like Instagram.

You don’t particularly have to choose only one platform and can sell your product across different channels. eCommerce store builders generally provide apps that allow you to integrate your online selling with these different channels. Linking your online store to social media sites can be done easily as well.

Where to Start selling:

1. Your brand’s website: Selling your products on your own website puts all your products, content, and reviews in one place. When you sell your products online through your own website, you have complete authority over the design of your site, over how you run it, and how you interact with your customers. You can put out your own discount codes, sales, and more.

You also won’t have to pay the platform any selling fees, though these fees are usually very cost-effective. However, selling on your own website might not give you the most reach, especially if you’re starting out.

You would also have to invest in setting up the website. But if you have the funds, you can broaden your reach with digital marketing.

2. eBay: eBay is a very popular marketplace that allows the sale of both commodities and niche products. It is a platform that can help you reach a big market from the start.

You can easily sell to customers from anywhere in the world and you can practically sell anything in eBay’s open market. Though it is a super competitive platform, with the right marketing and product placement strategy, you can set up a flourishing business.

3. Facebook: Facebook marketplace allows you to harness the platform’s global reach, making it a very shiny platform for sellers. The platform is effective for start-ups and big companies. It also allows you to choose between selling to your local communities and expanding your reach.

It also doesn’t charge for listing and allows members of the local communities to see the product first. However, the platform doesn’t offer great protection for buyers or sellers and most of the work falls on your lap. It is more of a venue for selling rather than a platform that allows you to define your brand.

If you’re considering starting your online store, consider what stage your business is at, and assess your needs. Finding a healthy mix of using different channels to sell your products online will leave room for maximum stability and profits. You can pick any of the popular selling platforms in India to start with and plan for optimum results by using the platform.

Zomato and Swiggy face competition as Amazon enters Indian Food delivery market

Zomato and Swiggy occupy a majority share of the food delivery market in India and Amazon’s entry in this space could be a massive challenge for them.

The most popular e-commerce site, Amazon India, has decided to launch its food delivery operations in selected parts of Bengaluru. Amazon will be a tough competitor to the already existing food delivery Swiggy and Zomato.

This announcement by Amazon India has come out when Zomato and Swiggy announced to cut out over 1600 employees amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Although, the service is in testing period for few months now.

Spokesperson of Amazon India said “Customers have been telling us for some time that they would like to order prepared meals on Amazon in addition to shopping for all other essentials. This is particularly relevant in present times as they stay home safe, we also recognise that local businesses need all help they can get.” The company hasn’t talked about its expansion plans in the Indian market.

“Amazon food will be launched in selected Bengaluru pincode allowing customers to order from handpicked local restaurants and cloud kitchens that pass our high hygiene certification bar. We are adhering to the highest standards of safety to ensure are customers remain safe while having a delightful experience.” the spokesperson added.

In initial stages, this service will be available in four places of Bengaluru namely Mahadevpura, Marathahalli, Whitefield and Bellandur covering over 100 restaurants. Some of the outlets that are included are Box8, Chai point, Chaayos, Faasos, Mad over Donuts and some restaurants from hotel chains like Radisson and Marriott. Shao, Melange and M Cafe among others.

Customers can place the orders through the Amazon app, but this option will currently be visible and available to customers in the live pin codes only.From the past six months, the food delivery service in India is being tested by Amazon among its employees.

Zomato and Swiggy occupy a majority share of the food delivery market in India and Amazon’s entry in this space could be a massive challenge for them. Zomato has already acquired the Indian business of Uber Eats, earlier this year so that it could build its position in the Indian market.

The nationwide lockdown, which started on March 25 has a bad impact on the business of restaurants which has forced Zomato and Swiggy to re-organize their business.

The CEO and Founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal posted a blog last week stating that “many aspects of the company’s business has changed to dramatically over the last couple of months and many of these changes are expected to be permanent. While we continue to build a more focus Zomato, we do not foresee having enough work for employees. We owe all our colleagues a challenging work environment, but we won’t be able to offer that around 13% of our workforce going forward.”

“The covid-19 pandemic has “severely impacted” the core food delivery business and this will continue to be the case over the short term. Swiggy will scale down its cloud kitchen operations as well.” Swiggy said.

Moreover, Swiggy on Thursday announced that, “We have started home delivery of alcohol in Ranchi and are in talks with various state government to provide support with online processing and home delivery of alcohol in their states.”

लोकल को वोकल: जल्द ही लॉन्च होगा पतंजलि का यह एप, सामान डिलीवरी के अलावा यह सुविधाएं भी रहेगी फ्री

योग गुरु बाबा रामदेव की अगुवाई वाली कंपनी पतंजलि आयुर्वेद, स्वदेशी वस्तुओं को बेचने के लिए अपना ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म ‘Order Me’ लॉन्च करने के लिए तैयार है। पतंजलि के इस एप के लॉन्च होने के बाद माना जा रहा है कि, फ्लिपकार्ट और अमेज़न जैसी अन्य ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म को झटका लग सकता है। उम्मीद है कि, अगले 15 दिनों के भीतर पतंजलि अपने ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म ‘Order Me’ को लॉन्च कर देगी।

योग गुरु बाबा रामदेव की अगुवाई वाली कंपनी पतंजलि आयुर्वेद, स्वदेशी वस्तुओं को बेचने के लिए अपना ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म ‘Order Me’ लॉन्च करने के लिए तैयार है। कहा जा रहा है कि अगले 15 दिनों के भीतर पतंजलि अपने ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म ‘Order Me’ को लॉन्च कर देगी।

मीडिया में आ रही रही रिपोर्ट्स के मुताबिक़, यह ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म 800 से अधिक पतंजलि उत्पादों की बिक्री करेगा और उपभोक्ता को भारतीय उत्पादों को बेचने वाले पड़ोस के स्टोरों से जोड़ेगा।

यही नहीं, रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, इन सभी उत्पादों की डिलीवरी फ्री रहेगी और इस कुछ घंटों के भीतर ही डिलीवर किया जाएगा। इस ऑनलाइन प्लेटफॉर्म के जरिए कस्टमर्स पतंजलि और योग ट्यूटोरियल के लगभग 1,500 डॉक्टरों से 24X7 मुफ्त चिकित्सा सलाह भी ले पाएंगे।

पतंजलि द्वारा लिया गया यह फैसला, मोदी जी के आत्मनिर्भर वाली बात कहे जाने के बाद ही लिया गया है। आपको याद होगा कि, 12 मई को देश के नाम संबोधन में पीएम मोदी द्वारा देश में स्थानीय उत्पादों को खरीदने और समर्थन करने का आग्रह करने के लिए कहा गया था। उन्होंने राष्ट्र से ‘लोकल को वोकल’ करने की भी अपील की थी। साथ ही मोदी ने कहा था कि, देश में बन रहे (जैसे खादी) उत्पादों को ही खरीदें।

पतंजलि के ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफॉर्म ऐप को नई दिल्ली स्थित पतंजलि की ही सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी कंपनी भरुवा सॉल्यूशंस में डेवलप किया गया है और इसे एंड्रॉइड और आईओएस दोनों प्लेटफार्मों पर उपलब्ध कराया जाएगा।

पतंजलि आयुर्वेद के मैनेजिंग डायरेक्टर और चीफ एग्जीक्यूटिव आचार्य बालकृष्ण के हवाले से कहा गया है कि, घरेलू उत्पादों की आपूर्ति करने वाले सूक्ष्म, लघु और मध्यम उद्यमों को भी इस प्लेटफॉर्म से जुड़ने और इससे लाभान्वित होने के लिए प्रोत्साहित किया जाएगा।

आपको बता दें कि, दो साल पहले पतंजलि ने ‘स्वदेशी’ कपड़ों के साथ ब्रांडेड परिधान स्थान में प्रवेश किया था। उस समय, कंपनी ने अपने उत्पादों को ऑनलाइन बेचने के लिए पेटीएम, फ्लिपकार्ट, अमेज़ॅन और 1mg सहित कई ई-कॉमर्स प्लेटफार्मों के साथ भागीदारी की थी। मालुम हो कि, इस समय कंपनी 45 प्रकार के कॉस्मेटिक उत्पादों और 30 प्रकार के खाद्य उत्पादों सहित 2,500 से अधिक उत्पादों का मैन्युफैक्चरिंग करती है।

E-commerce marketing and sales strategies your business should be using

our goal should be to sell more and capitalize on customer acquisition as well as customer retention.

In the world of e-commerce, sales and marketing should be the most important departments that you should constantly strive to improve and take to that next level – next to running an efficient and effective customer service department as well. Your goal should be to sell more and capitalize on customer acquisition as well as customer retention, but in order to generate quality leads that you’re going to convert into paying customers, you have to invest time and money in your digital marketing efforts as well.

With that in mind, today we are taking a look at some of the sales and marketing strategies that you should be using in order to build a more successful e-commerce business. Here’s what you should do.

Build an amazing e-commerce brand

Before you can start optimizing your marketing and sales strategies, you have to create a solid foundation for all of your campaigns – your brand. E-commerce is a highly-saturated industry, filled to the brim with uniform brands that all look alike, sound alike, and sell similar or even identical products – and so none of them truly stand out, and none of them are able to retain their customers over the long term.

Keep in mind that your customers won’t have a single problem replacing you for another online store with a better discount, so you have to make them stay by selling your brand first. Be sure to build a unique brand identity and to weave your core business values into your website. Next, create a distinct brand style and a website design that will set you apart from the competition, and make sure that all of your content uses a unique tone of voice that will truly resonate with your target demographic. This will enhance loyalty and will help you generate leads.

Optimize the entire checkout process

One of the best sales tactics that you can implement is to simply optimize your checkout process, and tidy up your entire website structure while you’re at it. The key here is to make shopping a fun and rewarding experience, to enhance UX across the board and make your store easy and intuitive to navigate – this will inspire shoppers to put something in their carts and actually complete the purchase.

Be sure to stick to a simple website structure with main and sub-categories, add functional tools like quick filters and a search bar, and then optimize the checkout process by eliminating unnecessary steps. Don’t make your visitors fill out sign-in forms but ask for their essential info instead. Provide all relevant purchase information on a single page, and don’t make them click more than three times to complete their purchase.

Focus more on local SEO

Too many business leaders in the e-commerce industry focus predominantly on paid advertising when they should be putting effort into search engine optimization. After all, your goal should be to build a recognizable and trustworthy brand, and one of the best ways to do that is to rank higher on Google and all other relevant search engines. Most importantly, though, you shouldn’t forget to optimize your site for the local search results. This is especially important if you operate in a highly-competitive region such as Hong Kong that’s bursting with potential but is also saturated with other stores

This is why growth-oriented e-commerce stores will work with a reliable SEO company in Hong Kong that can help them rank higher in the local market, in order to capitalize on the gargantuan e-commerce industry in the region. After that, you can easily start optimizing for the general search result, and refocus your strategy on building a global presence.

Optimize your site for Mcommerce

Of course, you have to stay on top of the latest developments in the industry and capitalize on them as soon as possible before your competitors do. For example, Mcommerce is currently on the rise, as more and more companies are optimizing their online stores for seamless online shopping and browsing on mobile devices. Be sure to use accelerated mobile pages to optimize your website for the mobile audience, and help it rank even higher in the search results.

Don’t forget about paid ads

Lastly, SEO and paid ads work great individually, but combined they can truly take your business to the next level. There are numerous marketing tactics you should employ in order to generate quality leads and boost your sales, and paid advertising should definitely be one of them because they allow you to improve your brand’s visibility, and to bring quality traffic to your site quickly.

Wrapping up

Sales and marketing are the most important department in any growing e-commerce business. Be sure to use these strategies to take these departments forward and set the stage for another successful year in the e-commerce industry.

6 tips to make your e-commerce company the most popular one in business

With a rise in the number of start-ups and internet plans, it is only natural that number of e-commerce start-ups in the country is increasing by the minute.

With a rise in the number of start-ups and internet plans, it is only natural that the number of e-commerce start-ups in the country is increasing by the minute. However, running an e-commerce business isn’t easy; it takes a lot to run an e-commerce website successfully. A normal e-commerce business takes about three years to break even and because of a variety of factors, most e-commerce companies in the country are currently running in losses.

Here are a few tips to make your e-commerce company one of the most successful ones in business:

1. Market research is crucial

It is important to do market research before introducing a new website in the list of already available e-commerce sites. You need to figure out what problem you’re trying to solve through your product and what the USP of your e-commerce site is. Also, you need to decide upon your target group and use marketing techniques based on your target audience.

For instance, if you’re catering to Tier-III cities, you need to break a lot of stereotypes and mindsets to actually make your website acceptable to the people because people aren’t very open to the idea of buying stuff online.

2. The website needs to be dynamic

Because the only point of contact between your customers and the products is your website; you need to make sure that your website is dynamic and packed with information for the customers to refer to. To make your website more productive, you could display some feedback and USP of your product/service so that the decision-making process for the customer is simplified.

3. Design and performance of the website go hand in hand

You cannot have a boring, standard design and expect customers to be hooked to your website. Similarly, you cannot have brilliant designs and a low-performing website that has bugs and a bad display. Impressions can turn into conversions only when the website design appeals to the audience and performs well as the website is their only mode of communication.

If you have to choose between the two, give a higher preference to the performance of the website.

4. The customers won’t find your website on their own

You can’t build a fantastic website and hope for the customers to find the website on their own. Try and promote it on the various social media platforms available for greater visibility. Also, to create more awareness tap different forms of mass communication like e-mails, SMS-es, tie-ups etc.

Because your website is new and has competition, you need to make sure there is enough marketing done to create awareness about it.

5. Apps are the way to go

In India, almost 30% of the e-commerce sales are via the app downloaded on your customer’s phone. You need to keep the growth of mobile data and tablets in mind while working on the algorithms of your website without which your whole e-commerce business could go for a toss. While developing an app for the phone, make sure it is user-friendly, doesn’t consume too much data and is available across all platforms- iOS, Android and Windows for a greater market share. Setting up your shop on app like Xiaohongshu is also a good idea.

6. Strong customer service

An e-commerce business might be unreliable on various fronts- delayed delivery, misplacement of product, refunds, returns, etc which is why it is very essential to have a strong customer service department that caters to the needs of your customers 24×7. Only if your customers are satisfied will they come back for repeat purchases.

How your startup can break into the e-commerce market

Here are a few pieces of advice to provide your business with the necessary kickstart into the world of e-commerce.

It takes a lot of courage to follow your dreams, leave your full-time job, and start something on your own. It would be wonderful to believe that everything will be a smooth sail from that point on but as many new entrepreneurs know, this is rarely the case. However, this isn’t a call for you to get demoralized but to take control of your e-commerce business even before the launch to ensure the best possible start.

Having a solid foundation will help you build and adapt your business along the way instead of having to make major changes quickly which could leave serious consequences on your financial state. So, here are a few pieces of advice to provide your business with the necessary kickstart into the world of e-commerce.

Look into the competition

This piece of advice doesn’t have copying as an aim but instead, learning about your competition can show you useful pieces of information about bad practices and not just good. You also need to know what you are up against so as to focus your resources and capacities on the right cause. If a particular market is oversaturated and analyses show that it will remain so in the foreseeable future, perhaps you can opt for a niche product whose market offers more convenient conditions.

You can learn about their marketing strategies and use that knowledge to invest in paid ads or work on organic marketing more. By researching their website, you will be able to see about their return policies, shipping fees, and the level of transparency which are all vital data in terms of creating a competitive advantage for your small e-commerce business from the start.

Research the customers

Your prospective customers will be the consumers and judges of your products and services so you need to make sure their interests are satisfied. Even the most specialized niche products, such as a slick drill collar can find their customers online because instead of purchasing at their local poorly supplied dealerships at high prices, they will find exactly what they need in your online store and have it delivered safely to their business address.
To understand what moves your customers, you need to look into the age, gender, occupation, educational level, location and make assessments when it comes to creating the most efficient marketing strategy that will target just the right audience. With this way of thinking, you will minimize the bounce rate because people will not wander into your website but visit it purposefully. ’The bigger, the better’ is not always the best policy and in your case, it can even be discouraging to see a high bounce rate, so targeting the right audience is your best bet.

Tend to your website

The website and the e-commerce platform is where the magic happens. It is where those leads convert into sales and to make that happen, you need to ensure that many of the website aspects are up to par. For instance, if the website isn’t loading fast enough, you will have people leaving by the bunch without even taking a look at your offer. Also, if you are slow to answer their inquiries, you will see many abandoned carts.

The purchase page design has to be pristine because any glitch with the currency, price or irregular display of certain data can lead to customers becoming suspicious and leaving your website to find another offer that is more transparent. Even after you kickstart your e-commerce business, you need to always be on the lookout for the things that could be improved or replaced because don’t forget that success in the e-commerce business is not a spring but a marathon.

Leverage on social media

If you decided that your website will be the only place of purchase for your products, that doesn’t mean that it needs to be your brand’s only form or online presence. Social media platforms have a major influence on businesses nowadays because they allow for more direct collaboration with your customers and real-time contact, should you choose so. Different social media platforms host different audiences and offer different benefits so you need to research which would suit your customers and products best.

What’s important is that your customers can maneuver with ease to your website so it is necessary for the posts to have a link to your website. Also, it is useful to have the links to your social media profiles on your website because somebody who came straight to your online store might want to praise your product and services across different media and even become your brand ambassador. All in all, knowing what a powerful media social networks are, it would be a waste not to harness that power for your brand’s benefit.

Wrapping up

If you have an idea, some capital, and lots of enthusiasm, it is vital you prepare well before going into the world of e-commerce because no matter how specific your products might be, chances are that there is already someone with similar products on the market. Looking into your competition and your customers will teach you how to best market your products. Social media are another useful tool in this regard and they can be skillfully intertwined with your website to achieve maximum results.

5 reasons why your e-commerce start-up isn’t making profits

50% of the e-commerce companies which are being set up are headed towards failure.

The most popular kind of start-up in today’s day is e-commerce as people in India are gradually shifting from in-store shopping to e-commerce shopping. However, 50% of the e-commerce companies which are being set up are headed towards failure because of various reasons.

Listed below are a few probable reasons why your e-commerce start-up isn’t making any profits:

i. Poor quality images

When the customers shop online, they tend to focus more on the visual aspects of the products. If the images of the product seem damaged or unappealing to the viewer, s/he might choose to not buy the product. For more outreach, display the products with a multiple-angle view of the product.

ii. Bad product descriptions

For products which are uncommon, a product description needs to be unique and crisp in order to interest the customer. If you are solely depending on technical descriptions of the products, you won’t really be able to sell your product as the viewer wants more meaty stuff like ratings and more quirky descriptions which help him understand the product better.

iii. Undisclosed shipping rates

You should make the customer aware of the shipping rates for a product before s/he puts it in the cart. Hidden shipping charges make the customer feel like s/he has been deceived and they tend to abandon their cart midway. This results in loss of a sale. You can add features like a pin code zipper which helps the customer calculate the shipping rates.

iv. Poor promotion

Since it is an e-commerce website, you should be promoting it more on social media and via digital marketing. If there isn’t enough hype about your page, you will not garner enough traffic for your site to make sales. Inorganic and organic forms of social media marketing can help you promote your page and products better.

v. Pricing

Since the Indian market is heavily price-sensitive, you need to focus on pricing. If the products are priced too low, then the customers will think that your products are of inferior quality. Hence, you need to strike a balance in terms of pricing to interest more people in your website.

Journey of Flintstop – an E-commerce website selling ‘Something for Everyone’

Flintstop is an e-commerce venture that provides quirky, innovative and unique products. A one stop shop for all the 21st-century products and has something for everyone.

The motto of Flintstop is “You’ve got a problem? We have a solution!” It caters in problem-solving products that can make life struggle free.

No maid at home? – Use our Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Entangled earphones? – Try our Zipper Earphones

Difficulty in getting yourself out of bed? – We have the Running Alarm Clock.

It is an e-commerce venture that provides quirky, innovative and unique products. A one stop shop for all the 21st-century products and has something for everyone; from kids to teens from working women to old men. They have it all.

Follow your dreams

Tejas Jhaveri, the founder has always been fascinated with technology and toys. In his younger days, he would brainstorm on the functionality of television sets and radios by dismantling them. Till date, he finds his candy land in every electronic store he visits.

‘Pursue what you love’ his parents told him. That’s when he resigned his job and booked his tickets for Hong Kong to attend an exhibition which was a complete eye opener for him. The products sold by the exhibitors enchanted him and he was prepared to cling on to that place forever. That’s when he was confident of what he wanted to do in life.

Why the quirky range?

The reason Tejas got enticed to the quirky space is that on searching the web for quirky products, he did not find exactly what he was looking for. Hence the idea of innovating products got into him.

Demand for such products in India was not being met with any supply. Why not bridge the gap with an e-commerce?

What encouraged and motivated them, was receiving the first order on launching the website. It made them realise that there is a need for their quirk!

From 2 to 12

Flintstop comprised of two people back then; Tejas and one office boy. All tasks were handled by the two of them – from listing online, to packaging, marketing and even deliveries. Today, Team Flintstop comprises of 12 full-timers and 3 part time employees who are extremely hard working and passionate. When you do something you love, you always succeed in it. All you need is the right motivation.

Wide Spread

Flintstop was started off in October 2014 with only 8 products, and today it has 280 products in multiple categories like; Home & Kitchen, Electronics, Personal & Healthcare, Stationery, Augmented Reality, 3D Printing, etc. It does online sales through their own website and also sells on 34 different marketplaces. Offline, they are available at mega retail stores and various exhibitions. A usual day at Flintstop is flourished with 100 – 150 orders a day and they have sales between 8-10 lakhs/month, which is growing rapidly.

Corporate Gifting is a significant category at Flintstop. It has succeeded in fulfilling multiple corporate orders for conglomerates like Etihad Airways, Roshan Publications, Godrej, Sun Pharma, Siemens, Aditya Birla Group and many more.

Eventual Goal

It does not just end at selling products.

Their vision is to be an inventor, look out for problems and come up with products that can solve those problems.
Flintstop is working on building an Innovation Centre for people who have the product ideas but lack the skills to build those products. Here, they can turn their dreams into reality. Flintstop will also help them through mass manufacturing as well as Crowd funding.

Their goal is to be known in history as life changing inventors.

Visit the website: https://www.flintstop.com/

Impact of demonetization of notes on e-commerce and startups

PM Narendra Modi’s bold move to demonetize 500 and 1,000 currency notes as been a welcome step but may have a short term adverse impact on e-commerce companies and startups.

PM Narendra Modi’s bold move to demonetize 500 and 1,000 currency notes as been a welcome step considering the fact that it will help in curbing black money, fake notes, hawala and many such issues affecting our country.

However, this may have a short term adverse impact on e-commerce companies and startups.

As the announcement received mixed reactions by citizens, the e-commerce industry had to maneuver their strategy by terminating the Cash on Delivery (COD) payment mode as it was the most preferred mode of payment by the buyers thereby encouraging customers to choose the online payment system. COD still being one of the highest mode of payments in our country, e-commerce may see a temporary decline in the business. Though, we hope this move will lead to higher electronic payments.

Another effect could be on angel funding. Many High Networth Individuals (HNIs) who also have been angel-funding are adversely impacted by this currency demonetization and will be reeling under sense of insecurity and lower sentiments. Thus, some projects, which they otherwise would have funded, may lose out. Though we do not see any major changes in their working strategy but surely there could be some adverse effect on angel funding from HNIs, for a short term.

This article was originally published in EdVantez

5 ways Amazon is nailing the e-commerce business in India

Here are a few things Amazon India has done to gain a competitive edge.

Amazon which aims at improving customer service globally has been cutting competitors out of the e-commerce race by providing killer service. There are certain things all other companies can learn from Amazon and aim at improving.

Here are a few things Amazon India has done to gain a competitive edge:

Lower prices

Unlike other e-commerce websites in the country, Amazon.in has done its ground research beautifully which helped them gain a competitive edge over other websites. They realised the importance of pricing and offer believable discounts on the website which has lead their sales treble in the festive season.

Amazon Prime

The company has come up with a loyalty programme which aims at improving customer experience. For INR 499, subscribers in 100 cities can avail single day delivery and have to pay no extra charges. The members of this programme also get to view the lightning deals about 30 minutes before everyone else.

Brilliant return and refund services

For returns and refunds, Amazon offers brilliant customer service. All you need to do is shoot a mail or call up their toll free number which is answered by trained Amazon officials who try and solve your problems in the most polite and courteous way possible. Unlike other websites, availing these services is really convenient for the customers.

Perfect delivery of orders

While other websites have often been reported to mess up orders and deliver bricks instead of the real product, Amazon has stressed on their delivery and nailed it each time. They also deliver orders on time and are rarely late. In this way, Amazon has been able to build a brand value which they have managed to sustain upon very successfully.

User-friendly app

Amazon mobile app was the first e-commerce app to be launched which allowed them to use a first mover advantage. The app is also very user friendly which attributes to 40% of the e-commerce giant’s sale.

For Indian e-commerce, the choice is between discount and bleed or profit and die

According to a 2015 report by Goldman Sachs, 30% of an Indian e-commerce company’s expenses are towards discounts.

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Related Post: Outlook of Indian eCommerce in 2016

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Top 5 pitfalls Indian e-commerce sellers should look out for

Here are 5 most common pitfalls that you, as an e-commerce seller, should look out for.

It goes without saying that the online retail and e-commerce market is continuously evolving and heading in new directions. This has led to tremendous competition between online sellers, and those retailers who do not adapt and keep up the pace tend to disappear very quickly.

Keeping this in mind, here are 5 most common pitfalls that you, as an e-commerce seller, should look out for:

1. Steep competition on pricing

Usually hundreds of online sellers and merchants list identical products on marketplaces and quite often the only differentiator is the price-point. It’s this sort of price competition that especially hurts retailers who do not have the purchasing power to compete with large online sellers.

One of the ways to compete on price is to procure larger quantities in a single order and get bulk discounts; this comes with its own problem, namely working capital finance to pay for such orders.

2. Managing returns

Marketplace policies are highly favourable for buyers. The usual 30 days return policy provides a lot of time and often buyers return used products to the seller within that time frame. The seller would have to pay commission to the marketplace even if the product is returned in a damaged state.

Also, generally it’s the seller who pays for the return charges. The biggest challenge is to resell the product, once the label or the packaging are significantly damaged. To solve this problem, e-commerce sellers can connect with various refurbished goods sellers, who are more than willing to buy such products, although at discounted prices.

3. Lack of working capital finance

The recent trends in the Indian e-commerce industry has seen mostly established, large, offline retail outlets doing well online due easy access to capital from traditional banks & NBFCs; since they have physical assets to use as collaterals, large turnovers & multiple years of vintage. A new entrant to the vibrant e-commerce space does not generally have easy access to any of these.

Here again a financer can help them out. Their loans are completely collateral free and do not require extensive financial documentation. All that is needed is proven e-commerce marketplace sales of 6 months, and the seller is given a multiplier of his sales as a loan. These loans can go upto big amount.

4. Competition with OEMs

Many small online stores buy products at wholesale prices from distributors or manufacturers to sell at retail prices. This is the classic business model for retail stores.

Unfortunately, e-commerce’s low barrier to entry has encouraged numerous manufacturers to start selling directly to customers. This means that the same company that sells your products may also be your competitor. As more manufacturers start selling online this problem will likely become worse.

5. Customer loyalty

Simply put, it’s easier and much more profitable to sell to loyal customers than it is to constantly search for new ones. Smaller e-commerce sellers rarely have resources to drive loyalty for their products or store. Also, the loyalty built is generally towards the marketplace, and not the actual e-commerce seller.

The best way to tackle this is to create a delivery experience which is memorable for all customers and drives them to give high ratings on the marketplaces. Positive reviews can also be sought by connecting with the customer post-delivery via SMS/emails.