How to Build Trust & Reliability in Ecommerce Store Marketing?

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020
Ecommerce Store Marketing

The offer is huge, as is the selection. It seems that all doors are open on the Internet. But how can online retailers position themselves in such a way that they are successful? There is a lot that could be philosophized about marketing and creating awareness, but two factors are primarily important on the Internet: Trust and Reliability. Every ecommerce owner also decides gut feeling. If user finds complaints about the ecommerce, the user will go to the competition. But how can ecommerce operators and service providers establish a relationship of trust with unknown customers online and appear serious?

How to build trust in ecommerce store?

Everyone who offers a service online or opens a store should write a mnemonic on every wall in capital letters: Bad experiences spread faster and have the greatest reach online.
Trust can only be created from this point of view. No content marketing can eradicate bad experiences. Before getting reviews, content marketing and positioning your own business, the following points should be worked out:

Shipping time

Stores mostly advertise with a certain shipping time. Companies must evaluate these realistically. There is no point in invoking 24-hour delivery if some of the products have to be purchased first.

Quality

If a company manufactures the products offered itself, it can probably fall back on certificates or seals. However, if the goods are to be resold, the quality certification should be requested from the manufacturer.

Security

With all products, it must be ensured that the guidelines are observed. This also includes the markings and other safety features.

Those who can ensure this can begin to build customer trust by ensuring a smooth shopping experience. The path actually leads initially via content marketing, because only through this does the store or the range of services become known:

Advertisement

There is no such thing as one advertisement. Search engine advertising offers the chance to be immediately visible for the right keywords wherever customers are looking. Initially, advertising the store name only makes sense if a well-known company is behind it. As long as nobody knows the offer, nobody will search for the store name – and if they do, the address will be entered directly.

Reviews

They are very important on the internet. Still, they can be a double-edged sword in ecommerce. If the store is quite fresh, a large number of reviews can quickly appear fake. In general, store owners should be careful and at least not buy reviews in large numbers. It makes more sense to be certified via Trusted Stores or other quality platforms and to be included in their inventory. In addition, it is important to shine with influencers and experts.

Target group advertising

Content marketing also includes advertising where the target group is. In the beginning, Facebook should always be part of the package, but the target group of the social network has shifted massively. The advertising channels must therefore fit the target group.

Positioning

Content marketing only works if the store is clearly positioned. Of course, this is difficult sometimes. Not every store offers products from just one area, but everyone should know the target group and address them accordingly.

However, all of these steps are behind one main task: The store or website must be attractively designed with easy navigation, optimized and appear reliable and trustworthy.

What should be avoided?

As store owners or online service providers, most of them want to generate customers, but also to keep them. One of them is pretty simple. Generating a customer is not rocket science, but retaining this customer is. But this is exactly where trustworthy and reputable stores differ from those for whom paying for the first order is important. Walk-in customers are immensely important for every retailer, but it is also the regular customers who ensure survival. But how can you prevent the first ordered from jumping off after the first order?

Service

Everyone in ecommerce probably knows it. There’s no stupid question that isn’t even asked. Nevertheless, the service employees must always remain friendly and helpful. It doesn’t matter if a customer asks how tall the cabinet is if the dimensions are in bold on the product page. The question is answered. If customers feel understood and have the feeling that they have been helped, they will keep the store in good memory.

Honesty

There is no dealer who does not make mistakes. It can always happen that a customer’s order goes down. But if you go there and contact the customer on your own initiative, apologize for the mishap and prioritize the order, you will admit an error without asking, but you will also prove to be trusting. If goods are resold and it is evident that there are delivery difficulties, they should be communicated before the delivery difficulty occurs. This must not be done on Facebook alone, but must always be communicated in the store itself.

Applicable information

Retailers want to promote their products and are convinced of them. They just can’t make promises on the product pages that they can’t keep. Many customers also appreciate it when they are informed about the processing steps. One email confirming the receipt of the order, another one confirming the processing. If the goods are dispatched, another email will follow, if possible, with the tracking number.

Conclusion – See yourself as a customer!

In ecommerce, it sometimes helps not to keep an eye on “the buyer”, but rather on yourself as the customer. What scares you off, what went down well with you? The team should also answer these questions. If you do this, you will quickly see a line. Nevertheless, the company’s service is very important because it is the cornerstone between inquiries, orders and complaints. The latter will always exist, but those who deal with complaints correctly can turn this customer into a real regular customer.

If you are looking for marketing opportunities for your existing ecommerce store or want to create a new ecommerce store or require any type of ecommerce solutions, Please explore our ecommerce solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and more. For more information, Please visit our website maintenance services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

Benefits of Digitization in B2B and B2C Ecommerce Marketing!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: April 14, 2021
b2b b2c ecommerce marketing

Increase your reach in a B2B and B2C growing market!

According to study, brick-and-mortar retail will be able to increase its sales compared to the previous year. New customers can hardly be reached. Elaborate advertising measures fizzle out due to the low reach.

To compensate for this, more and more companies are pushing multichannel strategies and entering new markets with growth potential. There is no end in sight to the strong growth in the next few years. In addition, there is the procurement of information for customers who use the Internet to find out about the product and lower prices. New devices such as wearables are likely to increase this demand.

The future of ecommerce is digital

A dedicated ecommerce platform provides the basis for a secure future today. It is part of ecommerce branding strategies and the starting point for digital brand communication. The customer can establish a personal bond and experience the brand and its products in a personalized way, regardless of pre-structured marketplaces.

New technologies that are already emerging today will also be digitally present. Voice control has already fully arrived in our everyday lives. Soon, the digital sale of products will also be more and more voice-controlled – using a wide variety of devices. Only those who are digitally positioned today can conquer the new markets of tomorrow.

Step by step to the digital brand experience

In order to make one’s own offline store or brand digitally tangible, all information that is already available in the store today is compiled and electronically recorded. Of course, advice also plays a major role here, because it must also be digitized via the Internet.

If the core data is available, more information is gradually recorded and the digital product experience often exceeds the physical experience in the store. Comprehensive data sheets, sample images from different perspectives, 3D virtualizations or product videos are provided and a comprehensive shopping experience is offered.

More precise advice than in the ecommerce store will come with time. Purchase history and visitor behaviour can be used to display personalized product recommendations to the customer. This can also play a big role in sorting the products so that the most relevant products can always be found directly. A/B tests are a tried and tested means of testing banners and ads depending on the target group and increasing the conversion rate.

We make digitization easy in B2B and B2C marketing

We advise customers from the start so that retail can be digitized quickly and in a structured manner. Through targeted questions, we create a rough overview and work out in parallel with the customer which topics have not yet been considered. Our experience in proposed solutions and approaches help customers to make decisions quickly and accurately and to work out a concept with us for a digital experience as a figurehead.

Future-oriented solutions are important to us. Therefore, when it comes to digitization, we make sure that we use the latest technologies and deploy them as flexibly as possible. This means that individual components communicate with each other via an API interface and can therefore be exchanged at any time.

Comprehensive automatic tests ensure that all critical functions are checked and still work even after an exchange or adjustments. So that manual errors do not lead to problems, all deployment steps are automated in a pipeline. Connections to other systems, such as merchandise management or accounting, ensure a smooth process for orders, inventory and customer communication.

Field service and sales cost money for your B2B business

The B2B business depends on personal contact with the customer through sales and field service. Regardless of whether on site or by phone: Closings are usually preceded by intensive preliminary discussions to clarify needs. The subsequent ordering process is complex. Often several offers have to be written and information has to be submitted later – that means high administrative effort with a lot of paperwork.

B2B and B2C Business today is done digitally

It is more effective to digitally map the ordering process. The already existing ecommerce store can only be used to a limited extent. In B2B Ecommerce trade, other criteria often lead to purchase decisions that increase sales than in the end customer business (B2C). The information provided must also be adapted and tailored. But once that is achieved, orders work at the push of a button. Price development, order history – all information is permanently available to the customer. The prices and conditions are stored accordingly for the customer.

Customer loyalty through relevance and simplicity

If the B2B customer can order faster and easier than with the competition, the customer will end up with you sooner or later. The first step is to display the product range. Automatic sorting according to relevance is more productive for the customer. If customer quickly finds the products looking for, then the customer makes purchasing decisions immediately. And if the order is still easy, no longer any reason to buy products elsewhere. The customer doesn’t save on price, but on time.

Impulse purchases are also increasing. The shopping carts get bigger and the average order value increases sustainably. That is why more and more companies are not only digitizing their end customer business (B2C), but also trading with other companies (B2B).

Optimize product data for your ecommerce store

The first step is the product data. These should be stored centrally in a system for managing product information (PIM) and supplemented with as much relevant trade information as possible. Not only are the descriptions adapted to B2B, but packaging units are also maintained.

Digitize manual processes

At the same time, the sales processes in the company are analysed and a concept for digitizing manual processes is developed. Different sales channels can also be digitized differently. The customer focus is important. Because only well-thought-out sales processes lead to usage and thus to an increase in sales. External advice is usually essential here, as otherwise projects will be approached incorrectly in advance. A later correction is expensive and time-consuming.

Integrate price lists and conditions

Price lists and conditions are also very important in commercial trade (B2B). They should be integrated as transparently as possible in the digital sales process. A direct connection to the inventory management system is usually necessary here, as this includes and can provide all customer prices that have been awarded over the years.

A direct communication platform in ecommerce store

Once all customer data, products, orders, processes and information are digitized, the digital platform can serve as a communication centre for business customers and end customers. Sales and field staff can use this to write offers, obtain information and place orders for customers. Directly on site without any subsequent paperwork. Artificial intelligence and machine learning can also be made available to employees for sales promotion and improved service.

External advice is critical to success

As with any larger project, individual planning is essential for success. Operational blindness is the biggest hurdle and can only be prevented with external advice. We will therefore sit down with you to map the current business processes and use our experience to help you quickly and efficiently plan the next steps towards digitization. We check where digitized processes can bring the fastest and long-term cost-benefit success.

First the basis, then the freestyle

The implementation of digital business processes is easy if a well-thought-out concept forms the basis. We proceed according to the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) concept. Only those features are implemented that are really relevant and necessary. The basic features are mapped in permanently short iterations. This allows flexible control by the customer and still leads to quick results. An adjustment to changing circumstances can be made at short notice at any time.

Measure success of your ecommerce store

The iterations are regularly checked and analysed to control the basic strategy. If an adjustment of the strategy is necessary, e.g. due to changes in the market, it is possible to react quickly. If new requirements are visible, these can be planned and also taken into account in the iterations.

Security through a strong partner

So that you can concentrate on your business, you need a partner you can trust. Who not only advises, but also supports with experience and innovative ideas. Who not only sets the goal at the beginning, but drives your project forward with energy and passion. With maximum ambition, Skynet Technologies team lays the foundation for a secure future of your company.

If you are looking for marketing opportunities for your existing ecommerce store or want to create a new ecommerce store or require any type of ecommerce solutions, Please explore our ecommerce solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and more. For more information, Please visit our website maintenance services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

Top 14 Tips for Ecommerce Best Practices to Boost the Sales

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020
Ecommerce Best Practices

In this way you create an ecommerce store that people love to browse and find the right products as if by magic. A guide with tricks for ecommerce store owners who want to sell better.

Tip 1: Having a store for your ecommerce store?

Personal customer relationships are difficult, especially in digital retail. However, customers prefer to buy from ecommerce store that have a face or a story. It makes them more human, more approachable, more personable and more trustworthy. Tell about yourself, why your ecommerce store exists, what is important to you, what drives you. Pictures of your employees, the warehouse or suppliers not only convey closeness, but also create personality.

Tip 2: Tell your visitors about your ecommerce store

Make sure that visitors do not always come to your ecommerce store via the homepage. You can reach your ecommerce store from search engines, blog posts or through social media links. The visitor can only reach the ecommerce store by manually entering the domain if there is a certain level of awareness or if there is offline advertising. Tell your visitors as directly as possible what your ecommerce store is about. Also give you the opportunity to continue browsing from any page without having to use the browser’s back button.

Tip 3: Participation effect

Well-known brand logos in your ecommerce store show what kind of products you are selling – and it adds authenticity and prestige to your brand when partnered with industry leaders. Note: Legal advice should be obtained before using protected trademarks!

Tip 4: Stories and backgrounds

Offer your visitors more than just shelves full of products. Create an atmosphere that spreads knowledge, offers help and reports on experiences. Many visitors do not yet know exactly what they are looking for. You just want to take a look or find out more. The right content not only lets your visitors linger, but creates trust and orientation through profound information.

Pro tip: Good content is not only consumed, but also shared socially and leads to more visibility, brand awareness and new customers!

Browse and find products

The first impression of the ecommerce store, the effect, the emotions. You have never experienced your ecommerce store so consciously. Surely you have already had a lot of ideas on how you can tell your story even better, which pictures are missing or how you can better play with colors. The use of the brands can certainly be expanded. And first the stories and backgrounds. Actually, quite simple and obvious – but there is so much more that can be done.

Tip 5: Intuitive, clear navigation in your ecommerce store

The main menu provides an overview of the product categories offered. It helps the user to quickly find the right area for him. It is important to maintain clarity and to use the terminology that is common in the respective customer group. A too branched categorization should be avoided. The general rule of thumb is that a user should be at the desired location in the ecommerce store with two to three clicks.

Tip 6: Prominent search bar on every page

30% of your customers use the search to find certain products or to narrow down the product type. The probability of purchase is five to six times higher than that of other customers. Good search algorithms find the right article even if the spelling is incorrect and offer filter options to narrow down the results. Suggestions when typing the search help customers and offer ideas for other formulations.

Tip 7: Clear calls to action

Encourage your visitors to explore the ecommerce store. Place banners for special campaigns, offers or news on the home page and on appropriate category and product pages. Provide the banners with a clear call to action such as “Discover our winter collection”. The call to action is to be highlighted by a button in order to visualize the accessibility to the visitor with a mouse click.

Tip 8: Thematic categories in ecommerce store

Create categories in the look and feel of the product range. Use a hero picture and a description to present the products in the right context. This promotes customer loyalty and offers a good opportunity to be found more easily via search engines.

SEO tip: Use useful information such as instructions or buying advice. This is a great way to optimize category pages for different long-tail keywords.

Tip 9: Filter in ecommerce store

Different properties of a product are important to every customer. Filters offer a simple way to quickly narrow down and find suitable articles. Pro tip: Make sure that there are different filters for each product category. Differentiating between shoe size and clothing size is more user-friendly than a combination of all options.

SEO tip: Use sensible filter combinations to create targeted landing pages with a prepared description and images. This not only helps your visitors, but can also be ranked higher on Google through more relevance.

Tip 10: Sorting

In addition to filters, the sorting offers a quick and easy way to display particularly relevant products first. When searching, many customers orientate themselves on the price, the stock status or delivery time or on the sales rank.

Tip 11: bestseller

People like to orientate themselves towards other people. If the exact product is not clear, many orientate themselves on the purchases of other customers. Offer your top articles as a separate list. Make sure that no general goods lists are created, but that a list is offered for each topic. This not only offers several first places, but also reduces the decision between too many (unnecessary) options.

Tip 12: Featured products

Particularly highlight selected products in order to make a pre-selection for the customer. Some visitors are initially overwhelmed by the product selection and are specifically looking for orientation options.

Tip 13: Stock

Fast delivery is crucial for many visitors. Accordingly, you are specifically looking for products with a positive inventory.

Tip 14: Product reviews

Product reviews also provide orientation and decision support. These should already be displayed in the product search and be filterable.

Closing words

Just take the time to experience the day-to-day customer journey from a different perspective. How often do we do this? You sit at the table and can speak for yourself. And yet it is noticeable every now and then that there is so much potential here. Ideas, solutions, background knowledge and customer feedback are in the minds of all ecommerce store operators and their employees. All from different perspectives. The marketing manager sees things from a completely different point of view than the head of IT. The manager has a different point of view than the salespeople in the branches. But one thing unites them. They all have the same goal: to offer the end customer added value for a successful, long-term customer relationship.

If you are looking to revamp your existing online store, new marketing opportunities for your existing ecommerce store, or want to create a new ecommerce store, Please explore our ecommerce solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and more. For more information, Please visit our website maintenance services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!

Top 8 B2B Ecommerce Solution Strategies!

By | Date posted: | Last updated: December 29, 2020
B2B Ecommerce Solution

What trends will drive B2B ecommerce? We have dealt with this question and summarize the top strategy for B2B trade. One thing can be said in advance: B2B ecommerce platforms must increasingly equip for the diverse requirements of the future. Concepts such as punchout and headless commerce, but also B2B marketplaces and customers in the omnichannel will change the industry.

Here are the 8 B2B Ecommerce strategies for your B2B business.

1. B2B ecommerce will service platform

Shopping in B2B ecommerce is shifting to the Internet. Nevertheless, personal contact with the dealer is still an integral part of many customers. This is mainly because the information offered online often does not answer all customers’ questions. 76% of B2B customers want to contact a personal sales representative before buying a new product. 52% seek this advice when a product has new specifications.

The trend in B2B ecommerce is moving away from pure ecommerce and towards platforms. These platforms combine ecommerce with a suitable range of services. Customers therefore not only find information and specifications about the product on the B2B platforms. They also allow you to make appointments for advice or book services that match the product, such as online training.

2. Self-service customer portals for B2B buyers

This development also goes hand in hand with the first B2B trend towards platforms: The B2B ecommerce platforms combine products with a wealth of content. Customers can find everything worth knowing about the product and its application directly in the ecommerce.

The aim is to give the customer the opportunity to find the information they are looking for online at any time in a kind of self-service portal with content and commerce. If you have any questions, the customer is not forced to contact the sales representative and seek personal advice. Knowledge bases with FAQs, guides, video instructions, blog articles and much more are created around the ecommerce. Available at any time and with many useful tips. The knowledge base provides enormous added value for B2B customers and improves the user experience.

3. Omnichannel in B2B: buyers on multi channels

The omnichannel trend has also arrived in B2B. If you don’t want to lose touch, you have to address your target group optimally on all channels. Whether it’s an ecommerce, sales opportunities on social networks, B2B marketplaces or a retail store – wherever your customers are, B2B retailers should position themselves.

According to a study, customers who use more channels spend more money. Another reason to use the relevant channels in the omnichannel and reach these customers everywhere. However, only 26 percent of companies exploit their options with a well-intermixed channel mix. Often there is a platform that optimally supports B2B omnichannel trading.

4. Rising B2B marketplaces

Market places are becoming a permanent fixture in B2B trade. For example, buyers appreciate the ability to use filters to search specifically for specific products. You will also find the comparability of prices and products as well as the transparency of delivery times and costs practical.

Research predicts, half of all B2B orders will be processed through a business marketplace. But there are also difficulties. In addition to low margins due to the price war and dependencies in which B2B retailers move, the interfaces are also a major hurdle.

It remains to be seen whether B2B marketplaces will prevail so far in the coming years or whether retailers will rely on alternatives to the B2B marketplace. According to Research, data-driven processes will be decisive for 86 percent of those surveyed.

5. Quick orders and lightning service also in B2B ecommerce

A number of strategies in the end customer business are also changing shopping habits in B2B trade. As a result, business customers now demand ever faster service. This applies to both the ordering process and the delivery. A quarter of B2B customers, for example, would like a shorter checkout, quick reorders and brisk deliveries.

Modern B2B ecommerce accelerates orders, for example through shopping cart templates. Based on the products ordered so far and the matching items, the store software can predict what the customer needs next and in what quantity. Quick orders are also possible, for example, by importing order lists. This means that B2B buyers can create the article numbers of frequently used parts as a CSV file and drag and drop them into the shopping cart.

Faster deliveries are a trend that customers definitely know from B2C stores. Delivery on the same day (same-day delivery) or even within a 1- or 2-hour time window is already possible. Fast delivery is also an issue in B2B trade. B2B buyers need certain products quickly and expect reliable delivery times.

6. Punchout: ERP interface shortens ordering processes

Ecommerce also achieve faster purchasing processes and customer loyalty with the punchout principle, another B2B ecommerce trend, which must be observed. Punchout means access to external catalogue data from the ERP system. In short: The goal is a much shorter purchasing process.

The ecommerce is integrated into the customer’s ERP system for researching products. The products are thus available as a shopping cart in ERP without operators having to make any additional effort. The actual purchasing process is then carried out by the ERP system.

Incidentally, the basis for this is the Open Catalog Interface. ERP systems and purchasing platforms can exchange ecommerce data records via the open standard interface OCI. The interface was originally developed by SAP, but basically also works with many other ERP systems. More and more ERP providers and purchasing platforms support the standard and make their systems fit for OCI and punchout.

The OCI standard is used to optimize the customer’s purchasing process. A big advantage for the customer: Incoming orders are immediately booked in ERP. In addition, a punchout implementation should also offer the option of accepting orders electronically from the customer’s ERP and sending them to the retailer’s ERP as an order.

7. Progressive Web Apps put on by

Progressive Web Apps (PWA) continue the idea of responsive websites. They also enrich the mobile pages with functions that previously only offered native apps. With a PWA, customers can, for example, determine their location for local services using the smartphone’s GPS sensor. In addition, an ecommerce can offer its mobile visitors a barcode scanner that uses the smartphone’s camera for quick repeat orders.

One of the many advantages of this is that apps no longer have to be developed for every operating system. The starting point is the responsive website, which is only expanded by the desired extras of a progressive web app.

Some analysts are already predicting the end of the app stores. The transformation of the apps has developed more slowly. As a B2B Ecommerce Trend, progressive web apps are still exciting because the Progressive Web Apps (PWA) will come. Especially since the browser manufacturers are implementing more and more PWA functions and the advantages of progressive web apps are obvious.

8. Headless commerce makes companies more flexible

An ecommerce platform is designed to ensure the optimal display and function of the store on the desktop and mobile devices. But what if more channels maybe work quite differently? In addition to the classic and the mobile website, other touchpoints can be added with the customer, for example shopping functions on social media, B2B marketplaces and stores, wearables, voice commerce and the Internet of Things.

The headless approach enables B2B retailers to react to the new requirements in omnichannel commerce. With headless commerce, the frontend and backend are separated. The store system provides functionality in the backend as usual. But the frontends are developed, adapted and filled individually for each touchpoint. These frontends are docked to the backend via an API.

Headless Commerce promises to provide particularly fast and flexible ecommerce applications. Each channel should be served optimally and can therefore deliver the information that is useful in this environment.

If you offer many products in many variants, it is difficult to write high-selling texts for every variation and category. Text robots now also provide easy-to-read and search engine-relevant descriptions. This requires structured data, such as datasheets, attributes and the like. The text robots can use these to create original texts for each product.

Two different approaches have emerged: Natural Language Generation and template-based text generation, in which blanks and sentence patterns are used. In both cases, retailers have to do some preparatory work, namely to teach the robot the basics such as the desired language style and the choice of words or to create templates.

Conclusion:

The trends of recent years such as digitization, automation and customer centricity in B2B trading continue. Likewise, more and more concepts from the B2C area are establishing themselves in B2B ecommerce. For example, the omnichannel affinity of B2B buyers or the boom in B2B marketplaces as a source of supply. Retailers can benefit from headless commerce here to offer the ideal interface and information on every channel.

Accelerating processes is also an important B2B ecommerce trend. In order to survive in the competition, it will be crucial to support business customers with short purchasing processes and quick reorders. This can be achieved by ordering directly from the ERP system via punchout or with convenient progressive web apps that expand a B2B store with completely new ordering functions.

Store systems have to become more flexible to meet the new requirements. On the one hand, ecommerce applications can act as a comprehensive platform for purchasing, content and services, or they can provide comprehensive functionality and punchout or headless commerce, but can be very helpful to customers in how and where they want to use them.

Are you planning to invest in ongoing analysis, marketing and maintenance for your ecommerce website? We are happy to assist you in marketing opportunities for your existing ecommerce store or developing a new ecommerce store or require any type of ecommerce solutions. For more information, visit our ecommerce solutions! We also provide ecommerce website maintenance services, online store maintenance services and more. For more information, Please visit our ecommerce website maintenance services!

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how Skynet Technologies can help your business to reach one step ahead, Reach out us through below form & We'll get back to you soon!