Selling successfully in the ecommerce environment

By BEN JARVIS, product manager at ECI Software Solutions

With the world of commerce moving increasingly online, those vital, over-the-counter, conversations with customers are becoming fewer and further between. While some may argue that this has damaged the loyalty felt towards brands, there’s no reason why a website can’t offer the same level of highly personalised and good quality service. Here’s how.

To succeed online, real world conversations with customers around current requirements and future demand need to be replicated.

Specialist technology lets businesses track important KPIs, enabling them to build a clear picture around their most and least popular products - should you notice a sudden spike in demand, action can be taken to ensure customer requirements can be met.

Similarly, the ability to analyse shopping basket abandonment rates, website traffic and other, more advanced, analytics can enable a business to develop a clear picture of what customers are looking for so that, over time, up and cross-sell opportunities can be promoted accordingly.

With transactions happening faster online, records can quickly become outdated; eventually, these stock management inaccuracies can lead to replacement stock being ordered too soon or, worse, losing out on sales due to items being out of stock.

It’s crucial that all departments are connected via a single business management system; this will ensure that the sales team has access to the latest inventory data, as well as any potential delays that may result in a customer being sold a product that isn’t currently in-stock. This information should also be fed through to the website to ensure that those shopping online receive the same level of great quality service as those shopping in-store.

Of course, every brand is different, and the implementation of ecommerce shouldn’t result in brand identity being lost. The ability to customise a website - and easily amend the products and deals displayed - is key to driving a higher volume of sales and maintaining brand loyalty.

Similarly, when configured correctly, online self-service options can create a far more streamlined shopping experience for a customer. The ability to access quotes, view order history and amend the status of an order can save a busy customer countless hours of time and stress.

Sound good to you? To find out more about how ECI’s software can help your business, visit https://www. ecisolutions.com/ en-gb/products/ horizon/