E-commerce and social media platforms such as Facebook’s Marketplace, Google AdWords, Pinterest, Etsy, eBay, Twitter, YouTube, Shopify, and Amazon are just some of the platforms at the forefront of e-commerce. Many smaller companies produce artisan products and need to be able to sell these products in other arenas – apart from typical Farmers’ markets and or major, often impenetrable, supermarket chains, or expensive storefronts.

A great example that organisations can use is Shopify, with their mobile-optimized Amazon sales channel that makes it incredibly easy to list a product on the world’s largest marketplace – and get a brand in front of millions of online shoppers. Mobile devices are now the most popular tool to make online purchases, and social media has become an ever more important driver of e-commerce.

Apart from just selling, one of the most important details to manage is the customer shopping experience. Just like high street stores, e-commerce users need to have a good shopping experience if they are to return to your online store. This doesn’t just include the selling of your product, but also how you will ship your products to your customers, the time it takes to get your product to your customer, and also what the returns experience looks like for your customers. If you get these wrong or fail to pay attention to them, then quite likely you are not going to have return customers – and get a bad review in return – limiting further purchases. Faster, low cost or free shipping, and better delivery and return logistics, cannot be ignored.

Utilizing technology such as Amazon’s print a return label on the front end of a product or having the capability to print and email a return label and providing tracking details for customers, to know exactly where their purchases are, will help ensure a better customer experience. The average consumer has become accustomed to free shipping for online purchases, often with one or two-day turnarounds. This has set some high expectations in terms of shipping prices and speed. The most common reason visitors abandon a purchase is the shipping cost.

Building smart, strategic relationships, and using the right technology selling platform can help businesses excel. Employing one-click checkout, customer service chatbots, voice search, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, augmented reality and artificial intelligence are just a few examples that organisations need to be aware of and how they can be utilized as a part of an effective e-commerce strategy.

One-click checkout has the potential to decrease shopping cart abandonment and make repeat transactions easier than ever. Utilizing customer service chatbots can help deliver answers in real-time and at any time, enhancing the overall customer shopping experience. Adoption of smart home appliances such as Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home units has been a major driver of voice search, particularly in the e-commerce space. Artificial intelligence and machine learning help make enhanced product recommendations and improve search functionality. Augmented reality can allow the customer to see how your product looks like before making a purchase and hopefully reducing the return rates of your products.

While the practices of customer satisfaction such as enhanced return experience and free shipping may be easily attainable for large businesses, it can seem insurmountable for small business owners. Yet, by fulfilling these expectations, smaller businesses can create a phenomenal customer experience that converts shoppers into loyal, lifelong customers. It is the customer’s expectations that should be at the center of every shipping decision you make. It is important to remember, even for the smaller business owner, that using a cheap carrier that saves you money in the short term – but totally irritates and alienates your customers with poor service – will eventually cost you customers, and money, in the long term. Customers may simply not purchase from you at all no matter how good your offering is if you leave the point of delivery – an extremely important customer-facing experience – and ultimately your brand engagement – to substandard delivery operators.

At endeavit, we can help you choose and apply the right technology-based e-commerce platform and strategy and introduce technological know-how to help you manage and optimize your customer shopping experience and create your own successful online selling presence. Our approach will help drive sales, increase conversions, revenue, and profit and build a reputable brand and reach customers that may be difficult to reach without e-commerce. We will help you stay current with the latest e-commerce practices and trends so that you will be able to maintain your sales advantage and know what to apply at the right time to your e-commerce strategy.