With the evolution of technology and the rapid adoption of smartphones, building an online business is no longer an impossible undertaking. With all the resources available, you might have built an extraordinary online store to sell amazing products. But, Statistics reveal that about 90% of the eCommerce businesses fail in the first 120 days. The preceding sentence strongly proves that if you are not prepared enough, your business might die within 4 months. Is your business sustainable for the long term? Did you prepare for managing your online store apart from selling your products? Successfully running an online business is another new challenge that hits you hard after a few days of launching your store. You might have come across hundreds of articles talking about how to start an online business. But hardly any of them have mentioned the challenges in running an online store. Follows these steps to build a resilient eCommerce store that can outperform any competition:
- Secure all your web assets
- Listen to what the data is saying
- Safeguard your Customer’s data
- Use dropshipping to outsource order fulfillment
- Live chat functionality for customer support
- Consistency is the key
- Protect your brand reputation
- Keep an eye on your competitors
- Try to obtain the pulse of the audience
- Know when to quit your online business
Web assets are the elements in the current operational website or online store that are responsible for web traffic and your site ranking on search engines. All your web content, conversion tools, keywords, web optimization tools, inbound links, customer testimonials, etc. fall under your web assets. By any chance, if you lose any of these web assets, your hard-earned web traffic and web presence is lost on the spot. Secure and organize your web assets to fall into a single integrated marketing plan.
Data and analytics are extremely important for small as well as large businesses. It helps you find what’s working for your online business and what’s not, who your audience is, what are their interests, what products are in demand, what products are a failure, where do your customer's shop, etc. utilize the analytics to know the current market trends, consumer behavior, how they are interacting with your site, etc. they help you make adjustments to your current marketing campaign and make informed decisions according to the results in the future.
As a business owner, it is your duty to safeguard your customer’s data online. You are legally obligated to secure your customer’s data obtained on the internet. Store the data on multiple devices and have several secured backups to avoid losing the data. Regularly update your systems and controls to avoid any security breaches. Only allow access to these records to only specific trustworthy employees. Also, procure a system that permanently deletes the credit card information of the customers when no longer required.
Once you start operating your online store, the customers keep coming in to buy your products. You can't waste time buying and storing inventory, packaging, and handing over it to the courier service for final product delivery. Instead, collaborate with the dropshipping merchant and outsource the inventory stock up, packaging, and delivery works to the dropshipping merchant. Use the saved time to improvise your products and market them better. As soon as the customer places an order on your website, you will pass on the information to the drop shipper and let him handle the rest of the work. This way, you get time to provide better customer experiences and also deliver the products smoothly and quickly.
Customers are busy with their lives. When a problem arises, they expect you to resolve it immediately. The live chat function lets the customers reveal their queries, doubts, or issues. The common queries can be resolved by integrating a chatbot into your online store. Make sure that your support staff immediately responds to the customer's specific queries that are unattended by the chatbot. Thanks to the constant evolution of technology, there are umpteen tools and apps available which can be integrated into your store for improved customer support and enhanced conversions. A well-served customer feels valued and satisfied with your service, revisits your store, and also spreads the word about your brand to their friends and acquaintances. Thus, by providing excellent customer support, you keep getting leads for a long time.
Do you know, usually a start-up business takes 3-5 years to enter into profits? For a business to be successful there are multiple factors involved. Some of them are out of control too. Some businesses might experience overnight success while others might take a little longer than usual. What matters is consistency. By regularly promoting your products and by engaging with your target audience on multiple social media platforms, the audience learns about your brand over time and if they find you help in solving their problems, they will visit your store for sure. By consistently providing better customer experiences, your online business takes off on a high note over time.
When you have an online store, your business solely ruins the brand identity and reputation. One minor mistake can tarnish your brand reputation and haunts your online business forever. Learn to deal with negative reviews and complaints from customers. The better you respond, the higher will be your brand reputation. Adhere to strict social media and branding guidelines to avoid the people posting on your behalf to misuse the information. Set the Google Alerts function to let Google immediately notify you when there is any mention of your brand.
When a good product is launched, in a very short time, similar products are made available in the market at competitive prices. To stay ahead in your business, you should know who your competitors are, what social media channels and other platforms they are using to promote their brand, inspect the keywords they are using with the help of keyword analytics tools, etc. with the aggressive growth of online stores, observing your competitors is a necessary trait to stay ahead of your business.
The market trends are not constant. Consumer behavior and deads are always changing. What is trendy now may not be relevant 10 years later. If your website is outdated or fails to fulfill the demands of the customers, your business will be soon out of the competition. To constantly match up to the ever-changing requirements of your target audience, you should know the pulse of the audience and stay updated with the shopping trends, market behavior, etc. Social media is an excellent platform to promote your products without missing the trends.
Knowing when to stop is as important as getting started. Some ideas may not work in the business world. The biggest challenge for business owners is to recognize when their ideas fail. The wild-goose chase is the worst thing you can do as a business owner wasting your time and energy. Know how much is too much, and when to stop if your ideas are continuously failing. If your strategies don’t work, change the approach and try again to see the improvements.
Conclusion
Apart from the rewards, running an online store comes with a set of challenges and risks. Learning from your mistakes and evolving is the best way to endure all the risks and come out with the benefiting rewards. Do you run an online business or Are you thinking to start one? Let us provide the best strategies to turn your store into a money machine.