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A recession is likely (though not yet certain) in the coming months. During these uncertain times, it’s difficult to count on things like stable earnings and predictable growth. Instead, the leader is looking for a way to break through the hatch.
It’s tempting to swing the ax at mundane “expense boogeymen” like marketing and layoff considerations. But these are dramatic activities that can drag the company down when the turmoil subsides and business gets back to normal again.
Knowing where your company is losing money is especially important during economic uncertainty. … [+]
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Instead, start by cleaning things up. Here are some ways to plug in leaks and optimize your activities to increase your ecommerce earnings.
1. Leverage your data
Every company has access to vast amounts of data. Most software solutions inherently incorporate it as both primary and secondary functionality.
On the one hand, with apps like Google Analytics, there is a whole platform for getting data on various e-commerce platforms. From there, it siphons the data into a single place where it can be analyzed.
Data tracking, on the other hand, is often included as an additional feature. For example, if your company uses Shopify, the website builder has extensive analytics dashboards that track things like website traffic, order quantity and size, and other key customer metrics.
Regardless of primary or secondary status, businesses should leverage this data as a way to improve their e-commerce revenue streams.Digital Marketing Guru of word stream Point out how you can use this information to improve your company’s online sales in a number of ways, including:
- Analyze traffic and buyer behavior to inform site-wide sales strategies and customer journeys.
- Improve the results and reputation generated by social media in relation to your brand, including examining which posts drive traffic and which do not.
- Increase customer engagement by looking for landing pages with high dwell times and show greater value to your customers.
There are many ways data can improve your ecommerce site. Don’t leave it unorganized.
2. Follow up on abandoned carts
WordStream also analyzes customers’ carts to offer suggestions to better target promotions and drive more conversions (that is, close more sales). This proposal is so important that it deserves its own section.
Consider the physical interaction between a salesperson and a customer in a brick-and-mortar store. In such situations, employees have a chance to win customers by actively asking questions, clarifying features, and connecting benefits to pain points.
This is not the case in e-commerce settings. On the contrary, potential customers can click through to the site, read for themselves, add products to their cart…and at the last moment click away, disappearing into the ether of the internet, never again. You will never be seen.
This can occur for various reasons. They may think they can find a better price elsewhere. In some cases, they may simply have run out of time and stopped clicking, neglecting to come back to complete the purchase.
Many of these abandoned cart situations present a potential form of revenue if the business can follow up. Luckily, there is a way to encourage customers to complete their purchases by sending abandoned cart emails.
Some SaaS platforms, such as those with member accounts or programs, offer this capability to customers who log in when attempting a purchase. However, customers are often anonymous visitors.In such cases, e-commerce brands ID resolution software Like Retention.com, collect important first-party customer data like name and email to follow up with personalized messages to increase engagement and drive sales.
It doesn’t matter how the company plugs this leak. The key is to invest resources to combat abandoned cart revenue, rather than purely focusing on tracking new customers at the beginning of their journey.
3. Customer service cleanup
The term “revenue” evokes images of sales, marketing, and other active activities at the forefront of the customer journey. But the process of closing revenue leaks should extend beyond the POS.
One of the key areas to focus on when improving your bottom line is customer service. The ability to provide fast, effective and above all satisfactory customer service is essential. It keeps your existing customers satisfied and loyal. You can even reach out to potential customers with your questions.It can even improve word-of-mouth marketing and brand reputation.
Despite its importance, customer service is often an afterthought that gets little attention, especially in smaller businesses with limited resources. Luckily, there are many convenient and easy ways to improve your business’ customer service (and thus its bottom line) without breaking the bank or opening a new call center. For example, according to members of the Forbes Communication Council, you can:
- use live chat: Instant gratification is real. Luckily, there are many chat software solutions that can help you set up a quick and easy-to-reach communication channel (both for staff and customers) to address questions and concerns.
- listen to your customers: This helps improve sales and marketing. It’s also a great way to permanently monitor the quality of your e-commerce service and the associated revenue stream.
- Look for bottlenecks: Customer service can feel bogged down in many areas, including response time. Identify and clean up these problem areas to improve the customer experience.
- Promotional contract follow-up: This is especially relevant when discussing revenue leaks. Once you’ve solved a customer ticket, use this opportunity to offer a little extra value through targeted deals such as coupon codes.
Customer service should never be an afterthought. Make sure you support and enhance your company’s key revenue channels.
Prepare your revenue stream for a recession
It’s hard to know what ups and downs we’ll see in the coming months. There may be a gradual market pullback triggered by the final stages of the battle to contain inflation. Then there could be a full-blown recession lasting a year or more.
Whatever the future holds, wise leaders must be proactive in managing potential damage. Plugging in ecommerce revenue leaks is a great way to clean up your current operations so that you can survive (and perhaps even thrive) in the year ahead.