Partner Article

E-business success - top tips: part 3

In the final part of the series, Neil Graham, CEO of Accountancy firm CashFlows, gives his advice on e-business success.

It is important to plan and research before you set up your e-commerce business, and to help guide you through the starting process we have created some top tips:

Plan; you need to make sure you create a detailed e-commerce strategy to outline what your clear objectives are, measurements of success and how you will go about it. Make sure you build into this sufficient time to research the companies and solutions you will use to support your e-commerce service, to make sure you choose ones that are the most suitable and cost effective for your business.

Look after your customers; when you aren’t face to face with your customers, the customer experience is even more crucial. Internet businesses really need to communicate with their customers and be realistic about delivery time-scales and you can do so through e-mail, social media or blogs. If your site is a true reflection of your business and products and services, this will greatly improve your customer retention.

Ensure your website is seen; lots of new online businesses don’t think about how potential customers are going to locate their website. You need to make sure you are up to date with the latest Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rules, ways of raising your online presence and ways of building links to your site as a starting point. Also before writing your copy create a list of the keywords for your business and keep these to hand when you are writing the copy to ensure you use them in a natural way throughout. This will help to improve your Google rankings.

Website usability and content; it is important that potential customers can find what they are looking for as if they can’t they won’t stay on your site or re-visit. You must make sure that navigation and layout are well thought through and user tested to ensure they are easy and appealing for potential customers. Keeping your content fresh and accurate will also encourage customers to return.

Tackle fraud; if cardholders have their card details used fraudulently on your website you may be responsible for refunding them. Therefore, your merchant account and website provider can help you reduce fraud through inclusion of extra security measures on your website. You should also consider strict fraud and delivery policies, such as not posting to PO Boxes, using a third party to verify a customer’s address and close monitoring of the transactions and orders placed on your site.

Common pitfalls

Here are some common pitfalls to look out for when setting up and running an e-commerce business:

Poor marketing; internet and mail order start-up costs can be low compared to conventional retail, but you must ensure you market your business effectively or you will not make a profit. There are many ways you can do without having a large budget including content driven marketing which includes creating impartial useful content aimed at your target customers in the form of whitepapers, infographics and top tip guides. Social media is also a great way of interacting with your customers, but make sure you don’t fall into the trap of spreading yourself too thin, identify which sites are most applicable for your business and concentrate on them.

Poor stock management and fulfillment; a customer places a lot of trust in your business when ordering online that they will receive it in the timeframe and condition you state. Ideally your website should be linked to a back office stock control system so when a product runs out, you will know and can make it clear on your website. Equally important, you should avoid overstocking, buying equal amounts of similar products regardless of their sales potential.

Failure to meet customer service requirements; unless you deliver on time and have good practices and procedures for handling returns and customer complaints, you won’t win repeat business and could cause unnecessary and time-consuming disputes. Ensure youare always honest and clear with your customers on your website so that they enjoy a positive and memorable customer experience.

Lack of a ‘unique selling point’; e-commerce is a competitive arena and you’ll need to differentiate yourself from the competition. Your USP is the specific reason people visit you rather than a competitor may be lower prices, customer service, a strong brand, or unique products. This should be conveyed through your website so a customer can see instantly what you’re all about and they can make a decision on whether to buy from you!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CashFlows .