With the emergence of the internet of things, online retailers have a brilliant opportunity of using modern technological advancements to boost their business. The blinding pace at which e-commerce businesses are affected by the digital landscape poses some challenges to online retailers.
The owners need to understand how their target customers shop, how they interact with technology, and how they buy.
The introduction of innovative technologies and data analytics tools has enabled the e-commerce industry to meet customer needs and improve order delivery. A report released by Statista shows that the e-commerce industry will hit $4.8 trillion in sales by 2021.
Below are the five key strategic steps to steer growth for your e-commerce business.
#1 Chatbots
Online shopping is all about improving the customer experience. Interactive marketing such as Chatbots allows customers to communicate with your AI ‘sales team’ instantly to resolve issues and answer product questions. Chatbots give customers a customized experience by intelligently guiding them with the intent to influence their purchase decision.
Also, chatbots inform customers of the availability of the products they are looking for, thus enabling you to manage your inventory.
#2 Interactive Product Visualisation
Long gone are the days when customers relied on guesswork when shopping online due to the intangible nature of the shopping.
Today, customers are willing to buy products that can be visualized before a purchase. Different techniques like product zooming and the inclusion of extra 3D images from different dimensions can be used in product visualization.
The fact that customers can scrutinize the product and zoom in closer to study every detail enables them to make an informed decision before purchasing. This ensures you do not receive complaints and negative reviews after customer purchase.
A market report by Invodo indicates that 52% of consumers gain the confidence to purchase a product online by watching product videos and 3D product images.
#3 Artificial Intelligent
Myths of AI being an alien concept have lost ground with many e-commerce businesses harnessing the power of AI to perform practical tasks.
The AI has embedded itself into the e-commerce industry where evaluation processes and decision-making rely on more data-driven and measurable metrics. AI helps capture and transform raw data such as website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, and engagement rate into useful information for decision making.
Also, AI helps online marketers analyze data in real-time by tracking how customers interact with their brands online.
#4 Advanced Product Filtering
Consumers want to save every second of their time when shopping online. They know what they came for.
Therefore, enabling your online customers to filter products during a search is very important, especially when they have to choose from a wide variety of products. Customers are most likely to bounce from your site if they can’t find what they are looking for within a minute.
Enable filter with color, style, price, material, sizes, and so on to improve the customer experience for additional sales.
#5 Include More Delivery Options
Delivery for e-commerce businesses has to be fast, efficient, convenient, and timely. The competency of your delivery options and how you interact with the customers during the delivery process determines how far ahead you will stay in the competition.
Using reliable delivery parcel options allows you to meet the urgent delivery demands of your online shoppers. In the near future, the efficiency and delivery speed options will hallmark the online shopping industry. There’s no better time to optimize your delivery options than now.
What are you doing to grow your eCommerce business?
