Many start-ups online businesses fail to take flight initially due to improper scaling and unstructured development strategies.
How competition is treated by the new business is vital in deciding its future in the current market. Launching your products/services on a lackluster website or online marketplace can add to the bane of inappropriate marketing. Identifying the needs of the business in its rudimentary level and channeling marketing efforts in the right direction will definitely play an important role in leveraging business growth and reaching the right consumers. E-commerce support services are important to make or break the deal with potential customers. Not the most expensive ones, but the most functional services will play superheroes in materializing your business proliferation plans. The top six support services that influence business expansion are given below.
1. Abandoned Cart Recovery Services
Many businesses face the brunt of unsatisfied customers through cart abandonment on the E-marketplace where their products are listed. The reasons may vary from high prices to delay in delivery. The best way to address this problem is to send a reminder email to the customer asking him/her for the reason of abandonment and taking corrective measures like providing discounts, freebies for the purchase, free shipping, expedited delivery, or even an alternative purchase option so that the customer completes the purchase. Creating demand for a product by highlighting the fact that the product is in limited stock through reminder emails can also work in getting the customer to buy from you.
2. Quality Customer Support
Functional E-commerce websites like TrueGether are always on their toes to address the requirements of their potential customers. Customer experience is key in turning site visits to purchases. A quick chat application to answer the questions that customers may have about your product(s) and its features instantly is an old but effective mode of communication. Any delays in response could make customers lose interest in your products.
A helpline number, preferably with 24/7 service is always an added advantage where a customer can instantly connect to a business representative. Raising a grievance ticket online and being able to track the status of the solution is another way of informing customers that they are important to you. Thus, a good ticket management system should be in place.
3. Product Review Page
Genuine and unbiased reviews are always welcome by customers investing in your business. A review request follow-up mail to customers who recently bought products from you is imperative to help you understand if the customer is satisfied or not. Providing incentives and discounts for a good review is another way of making customers rate and review your products while also prompting them to make another purchase.
Reviews play an important role in letting other customers know about your business and the products that you sell. Social media can also be used to share customer reviews of your products with a wider range of potential buyers. You could also highlight the good reviews of your products in emails and on online portals to boost the image of your business and initiate customer interest in your products.
4. Customer Satisfaction Survey
Many online services are available to formulate business-specific surveys for you. They could either target a certain group of customers or be relayed to a generic group. Questions about the quality of the products and services from your business, delivery service experience, pricing, offers, demands, product preferences, etc. can be focused on while getting the surveys designed. Both positive and negative responses are important for your business. Surveys that are short but ideal for you to gauge your business performance are influencers in business decision-making. A multi-choice survey or a simple Yes/No design can provide insight about how your business is perceived.
5. Easy Search on E-marketplaces
The Search functionality on various online portals lets the customer know if a product that they are looking for exists in the E-marketplace listing or if similar products are available. If customers find products relating to their search quickly and accurately, or if product suggestions are automatically made while the customers are searching, it enhances the user experience multi-fold.
The search tab needs to be visible and uniformly available on all web pages when the customer navigates the website. Various filters can also be provided to customers to specify the exact attributes of the product that they are searching for like category, color, size, price range, customer rating, etc. Customers should also be able to choose how many products they want listed on a page and in what sorted order.
6. Frequently Asked Questions Page
The most common issues faced by customers relating to the products and services that you offer on a platform can be pointed out through questions and the related answers on an FAQ page. The basic idea is to let customers be well-informed about what they are signing up for and how they could make their user experiences better by seeking answers to the most important purchase-related questions.
A good FAQ page covers most aspects of buying a business’ products online plus the return/exchange policies, terms and conditions, availability information, etc. When the questions of customers are answered beforehand, they become confident about the seller and get enthused to buy products from them.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned E-commerce support tools can be integrated easily into your business strategy. The plan based on which of these is more actionable and useful depends on the type of products that you sell and the target buyers. The most important thing is to keep improvising on the quality of these services so that the customer retention rate increases for your seller account. Sending follow-up emails or even making a call to give personalized attention to customers can do no harm. You may never be able to judge if the products that you sell are liked by customers if there is no good customer support on the platform that you choose.
