The goal is to show your customers that you are invested in building real bonds with them every step of the way. At the end of summer 2020, Americans had spent 14 billion hours — that’s 1.6 million years —and $73.2 billion on online shopping in 2020. The time to invest in your eCommerce strategy is now. Let’s take a look at a few of the key ways that your ecommerce business can bring in new customers — and ensure they keep coming back. 1. Maximize your distribution channels Many businesses looking to tap into ecommerce turn to Amazon as their first point of entry. But the retail giant is just that— a giant. With a staggering 1.5million active sellers on the site right now (and with Amazon itself listing low-priced “Amazon’s choice” products at the top of search results), competition is fiercer than ever. While optimizing your presence on Amazon is essential, your business needs to diversify its platforms to maximize product visibility. With so many options out there (Pinterest, Google shopping, Facebook shopping, Etsy, eBay, and Shopify-integrated Walmart Marketplace, to name a few), seamlessly integrating your product listings with several marketplaces is a breeze. There’s no longer a need — or excuse — for pigeonholing your products into one particular vendor. You’ll need to stay on top of your high-volume, off-site channels and make sure your customers see the same quality of service across all platforms. But with the right strategy, you’ll reap some pretty attractive rewards. 2. Optimize for mobile users Mobile shopping is no longer a secondary concern for ecommerce businesses: Smartphones now account for more than half of visits to retailer websites and are on track to make up more than 50% of online spending by September of 2022. Need a few more stats to convince you? Between just March 29 and April 4 of last year — just one week — mobile shopping apps reached 14.4 million downloads in the US, up 20% from January. And as of June, 90% of consumers aged 25–35 said they preferred shopping on their phones. Mobile shopping isn’t just the way of the future — it’s what customers want now. So, give them what they want. Appeal to mobile shoppers by optimizing your mobile site — be that integrated chat support, a streamlined online shopping experience, or simply a mobile-friendly interface. Create a dedicated app to maximize your presence on the App Store and Google Play, and ensure that your stores on third-party vendor sites and apps are just as user-friendly as the desktop versions. 3. Treat customers like people — not metrics According to Salesforce’s most recent State of Marketing study, 84% of customers say that the experience a brand provides is just as important as the products or services it offers. The digital era has made it far too easy to neglect the value of human interaction. Businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to access huge audiences across multiple platforms. Sometimes, we can forget that there is a real person behind each contact, inquiry or sale. But, the need for quality one-on-one interaction has not gone away. Studies have found that 89% of consumers would take their business elsewhere if they received disappointing customer service. Take the time to make a personal connection with your customers. Make them feel heard, understood and — above all — remind them that they’re appreciated. Providing above-and-beyond customer service to potential customers draws them in; continuing to do so after a sale makes them feel valued — and, ultimately, keeps them coming back. So, how do you make these valuable connections? Interact with your customers on your social media channels, responding to any questions or concerns with a genuine interest in helping them. You can even set up chat groups, Zoom calls or live streams on Facebook or Instagram to give your customers the opportunity to ask questions and put a human face to your company's name. The goal is to get engaged and to show your customers that you are invested in building real bonds with them every step of the way. 4. Customers want to learn something — so teach them Having trouble converting website visitors into buying customers? It’s not enough to just offer your products — you need to provide visitors with something of real value. Your platforms should answer several questions: Why should a customer come to you for the product or service you’re offering? What sets you apart from your competition? What unique offerings do you have that customers should — and want to — know about? Let’s say you sell vegan leather boots. You could just invest in marketing that highlights the benefits of vegan leather and the particular types of boots you’re selling. But customers could find that information from plenty of other sources. A more effective approach would be to create a buyers’ guide that teaches your customers something new about your product. Weigh the pros and cons of vegan leather over traditional leather, including durability, look and feel, and tell the story of how your product is made — from sourcing to production and packaging. Customers who learn something from your website are likely to come back. Taking the time to educate them gets them interested and goes the extra mile to engage them with your brand. Always think two steps ahead It’s not enough to continue to rely on your old ecommerce strategies in today’s unpredictable climate. The world is adapting — you’ll need to do the same to draw new customers in and ensure that existing customers keep coming back. Consumers have more options than ever before when it comes to online shopping. So, why should they come to you? Do you provide a seamless, multi-platform shopping experience? Does your customer service engage your audience and make them feel valued? If not, it may be time to rethink your strategy and step up your ecommerce game for the better. Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/
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Deliver these six experiences to delight your customers. With society being so heavily invested in convenience, why do consumers continue to support brick and mortar retailers? One word: experience. Shoppers were itching to get back into retail stores following the initial wave of lockdowns, and 2021 has provided strong sales numbers for many retailers. With delivery options still widely available, consumers clearly valued the experience of getting out of the house and into retail stores. Based on our State of Consumer Behavior 2021 report, the in-store experience is a defining advantage of brick-and-mortar retail. 90% of shoppers are likely to return to your store if their in-store experience is positive — and especially if the experience is one-of-a-kind. As 2022 approaches, the normalcy that in-store retail experiences provide will continue to appeal to shoppers. And yet it’s the retailers who provide in-store experiences that fall outside of the norm who will win the repeat business of their customers. As McKinsey explains, successful retail experiences are not standardized but instead personalized to the greatest possible degree. Retailers must provide a full array of specific experiential offerings to serve every possible segment of their shopping base. Here are the six types of in-store experiences that retailers should offer. 1. Self-service experiences When shoppers choose one retailer over another, they give great weight to the convenience of each respective store. Per our State of Consumer Behavior 2021 report, 25.5% of shoppers see convenience as the most important factor in where they choose to shop. Delivering a convenient shopping experience means giving the consumer options. Self-service offerings, by and large, provide customers another option within your store, and greater choice generally promotes a more convenient shopping experience. When the cashier-led checkout line stacks up, a self-checkout kiosk can relieve the bottleneck. When in-store staff are overstretched, virtual shopping assistants are increasingly filling employees’ shoes in a way that empowers customers by answering product-specific questions to showing competitor pricing and more. Self-service experiences are a relatively low-cost way to improve the convenience of your stores. 2. Click-and-collect experiences The secret is out: Shoppers can save time by purchasing items through retailers’ websites and apps, then picking those items up curbside or in-store. These are generally known as click-and-collect experiences. Deloitte cites click-and-collect experiences as one of the most resilient post-pandemic retail trends. BBC touts click-and-collect as the possible future of shopping. Like self-service experiences, click-and-collect experiences are generally convenience-driven. Shrinking the time between a shopper’s purchase and the product’s availability for pickup is the next frontier in click-and-collect experiences. While you can embrace a massive advantage over e-retailers through your click-and-collect experiences, you must mind the details. Unifying your inventory between your stores and digital platforms is a must. This will protect you from unexpected shortages and dreaded order reversals. 3. Immersive experiences A feature of your store is “immersive” if it draws the shopper closer to your brand, capturing their attention for even a moment. Something as simple as an interactive digital display can speak to the shopper in a way that they find immersive. When we think of immersive retail though, many think of ultra-creative, non-replicable experiences. Nordstrom’s in-store spa services are just one example of a retailer truly going for it in the category of immersion. To be clear, not every immersive experience has to place you in the running for a creative retail award. However, you should give thought to whether specific experiences in your stores are providing talking points, memories and immersion for your customers. 4. Brand-building experiences Brand-building experiences are a form of brand-experience marketing. The goal of this type of marketing is “to establish a deeper emotional connection and higher brand affinity” between your retail organization and your shoppers. Free live events, in-store displays featuring your charitable partners and sponsored televised entertainment may all qualify as brand-building experiences. These experiences have the distinct purpose of spreading awareness and affinity for your retail organization. 5. Revenue-focused experiences A revenue-focused experience is not intended to make your customers feel good. It may not always be especially immersive or reflective of larger brand principles. A revenue-focused experience drives the customer to buy, plain and simple. A vibrantly-displayed “buy one, get one” offer on a digital display screen is a revenue-focused experience. So are “items we think you’d like”-style upsells in your digital storefronts. Revenue-focused experiences allow your customers to buy what they want as quickly as possible. Deployed effectively, your revenue-focused experiences will compel shoppers to buy even more than they thought they needed. 6. Informational experiences We live in a world where shoppers are constantly bombarded with information about the latest products, deals and retail experiences. This flurry of information is useful in some respects, but also puts the onus on your organization to provide usable information to shoppers in a clear, accessible way. Retailers have become clever in the way they deliver information to shoppers. Phones have long been a tool for the in-store shopper to check product reviews before purchase. Retailers who can sync their apps with the in-store shopping experience may provide unparalleled convenience and ultimately reduce staffing costs. Something as simple as a digital display can provide everything a shopper hopes to know about a product, and ultimately convince them to toss that product in their basket. Shoppers want information. The more digestible you can make that information, the more likely you are to secure repeat business. Conclusion The fact is, the “retail experience” is actually a puzzle comprised of many experiences, conjoined together into one seamless experience — if everything goes right, that is. No single customer comes to your store for one single experience. A strong product inventory does little good in light of hour-plus checkout times. Customers may buy items online and pick them up in-store for convenience, but they also expect friendly customer service when they arrive for their items. The six in-store experiences we’ve featured are critical pieces of the retail puzzle. Give these experiences the attention they deserve, and your shoppers will have little reason to cast an eye towards your competitors. Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/
Real talk: Being an entrepreneur is tough. Though some would lead you to believe that it’s an Instagram-worthy life filled with rainbows and unicorns, the truth is that it’s a lot of hard work, and it’s not for everyone. Even those who went to business school received only part of the story of what it takes to be successful. After eight years of running seven- and eight-figure businesses, working with hundreds of entrepreneurs, I’ve honed a simple framework that has helped me find — and maintain — success. Whether you’re a first-time entrepreneur or the CEO of a $100 million company, your ability to grow and scale your business comes down to five P's: power, people, product, process and profit. Let’s walk through each of them and why I advise working on them in this order. 1. Power Power is the base of my framework because it’s the most important. Many entrepreneurs begin with profit, but they’re missing an opportunity to strengthen their very foundation. “Power” translates to those things you need to be an excellent CEO and leader. Your mindset, your ability to execute, how you show up, how you deal with pressure, how you take on challenges and how you navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship are things that will help you excel or be your undoing. The hardest part of your business journey will be working on yourself to strengthen your power, and taking the time first to identify your “why” and vision will help you create a rock-solid core from which to build your business. 2. People Once you’ve mastered power, focus your attention on people. People are the biggest asset of any business, yet I’ve seen too many CEOs not put enough emphasis on this critical component and wonder why their business is struggling. The key is to find the right people and put them in the right roles in the right culture. Don’t forget that as CEO, you need to inspire your people (that’s also why I advocate starting with power). When everyone feels aligned, you’ll have greater teamwork and collaboration, which will lead to better results. My hiring philosophy is 1+1 = 3, meaning that your next hire shouldn’t simply divide existing work; they should add strategic value to help you amplify your business. And the concept of people applies not only to your team but also to those around you, including mentors, investors, vendors, communities and partners. 3. Product After you’ve worked on your power and people, consider product. The greatest sales engine in the world can’t save a terrible product, so make sure your product has the right fit for your target market and is so “sticky” your customers will want and use it. It’s important to note that your product needn’t be perfect; in contrast, you want to constantly iterate to improve it. Be open to customer feedback, and make changes accordingly. 4. Process The next P to embrace — and the one it takes to truly scale — is process. There are tools and processes designed to make you more efficient with your products, people and customers, no matter your business. With the right processes in place, you can 10X your business. Everything is a process that can be automated, delegated (meaning you shouldn’t do it) or deleted (it shouldn’t be done at all). When you think about your business in this way, processes will help you move the needle and scale faster. 5. Profit The final P of the framework is profit. As previously noted, most entrepreneurs rush to start with profit, but in my experience, when you master the other four P's in this order — power, people, product and process — profit naturally follows. Profit is more than being profitable; it’s adding value to the top and bottom lines to be capital efficient. It’s about knowing your numbers and having them work for you instead of the other way around. For example, at my company, even though we’re a VC-funded startup, we’re lean operators, so every dollar invested yields $5. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand your business fully because, without revenue, you don’t have a business. There’s no doubt that entrepreneurship is a challenging journey that not everyone will want to take. But for those who do, focusing on the five P's and following this simple framework can help them grow and scale their businesses. Source: https://www.forbes.com/ Image: GETTY
Every business that's been created was built by the entrepreneur taking some sort of risk. Some risks are obvious, such as taking out a large loan from a family member. Others are more subtle and harder to recognize as they're happening. As an entrepreneur, you may be taking risks right now that you don't even realize. To help you recognize and prepare for those risks, eight members of Young Entrepreneur Council described some of the risks they unknowingly took when they first started their business journeys and how their experiences have shaped where they are today. 1. Partnering With A Friend With my IT startup, the first lesson I learned was the amount of risk involved in launching a business with a partner who was a close friend and who was at a different point in life. As friends, we got along very well, but as business partners, we completely disagreed on the philosophies of running a business and the risk tolerance of investing our startup funds. Fortunately, we both understood the differences in our administration styles and mutually agreed to allow me to be the sole partner and decision-maker in the business. I am a firm believer that if a partner is involved in starting a business, someone should be the majority leader in case a situation arises where there is a disagreement. This will avoid stalemates and the business can move forward. Mistakes are infinitely valuable. - Michael Garrido, E-Valve Technologies 2. Relying On Others One key risk I was not aware of was just how much I would need to rely on other people for make-or-break success! With my first business (an in-person skincare clinic), I was completely in charge of everything and that's why it went so well. My second business, CLEARSTEM Skincare, is e-commerce, which means it's a tech company that requires developers, SEO people, PR people, user experience experts, e-mail wizards, advertising people who know how to segment cohorts, multiple logistics partners and 10 other roles that are all extremely important to the business's success. A founder of any e-commerce brand needs to be aware that they will need a designated team of experts in their roles to make this thing work. The "lone wolf" types need to prepare for a major shift! - Danielle Gronich, CLEARSTEM Skincare 3. Succeeding Too Quickly The risk that you should be aware of is that your business could be successful—maybe even more successful than you envisioned—and it could happen a lot faster than you think. New entrepreneurs don’t always think about the fact that they could succeed. They are living within the day-to-day fear of just hoping to pay their bills. But the risk (uncertainty) that success will soon replace failure as your main challenge can really throw you for a loop when you haven't prepared mentally for it. "Proceed as if success is inevitable" is the best way to counterbalance this risk. - Daniel Lucas, Credo CFOs and CPAs / CVG Advisors 4. Having Less Time For Self-Care When I started Blue Corona, I was 31 years old. Around the same time, my wife had given birth to our first child. Between the baby and the business, sleepless nights were the norm. I frequently arrived at the office before sunrise and didn't leave until long after dark. My time devoted to exercise dropped to zero. My diet went to hell in a handbasket. While I felt bulletproof at the time, it wasn't until many years later that I started to better appreciate the health risks I took. If I had to do it all over again, I would have made exercise and healthy eating nonnegotiable; after all, you can't enjoy your wealth if you don't have your health! - Ben Landers, Blue Corona 5. Managing Your Own Health Insurance As a corporate employee, I never had to worry about how much health insurance could impact cash flow. Paying for insurance as a small business owner is expensive and can be especially challenging if you or someone in your family has ongoing health conditions. Navigating insurance plans, finding doctors and keeping up with the premiums are all things you want to consider and plan for when you're going out on your own so you're not caught by surprise. In my case, we have to set aside $30K per year as a family of three to cover health insurance. - Amber Anderson, Tote and Pears 6. Hiring The Wrong Team A company’s DNA is set by the founders, and you need to choose the people whom you work with carefully. Work with people you love, respect and can’t live without. It is not the work we remember with fondness, but the camaraderie, the group that came together to get things done. Hiring the wrong people can cost you time and waste money that you can't afford to waste. Choose your startup team wisely and invest in people whom you would build multiple startups with, not just those you would work with to achieve your immediate goals. - Ryan Stoner, Dendro 7. Going At It Alone I took the risk of not having enough advisors around me. I thought I would figure out most of it over time. I did this to avoid the cost of hiring advisors, but later on, I realized it was a mistake. I ended up paying more in terms of wrong decisions and time lost. We entrepreneurs all have the attitude of go-getters, but you shouldn’t take the risk of figuring out everything yourself. It is better to bring in external advisors at a price and learn from the advice. You may still fail with paid advisors, but that also would be a good data set for you. - Piyush Jain, Simpalm 8. Letting The Business Take Over Letting your business devour your life is a big risk and a common pitfall for entrepreneurs and owners. I find that all entrepreneurs struggle to find distance, perspective and objectivity when they're plunged into the battle of their business. I made a very conscious decision to delegate, learn to trust my people and step back from my business to grow in my personal life when I was younger. I still carry the valuable lessons that time of life taught me. - Tyler Bray, TK Trailer Parts Source: https://www.forbes.com/
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