In an era of supply chain woes, worker shortages, and demanding customers, running a business has become more challenging than ever. Finding ways to attract buyers and convert casual visitors into long-term brand ambassadors may not be easy, but success in this endeavor can put your online store in front of the pack. If you take full advantage of the tools that your ecommerce platform and payment provider have to offer, you are sure to succeed.
Some preliminary definitions.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts, let’s clarify our terms. An ecommerce platform is a software application designed to help entrepreneurs manage all aspects of their online business, including sales operations, marketing campaigns, and websites. A payment provider, also commonly called a merchant services provider, is a third-party vendor that assists businesses in the acceptance of all types of payments. These include options such as credit and debit cards, online banking, ewallets, cash cards, and cryptocurrency. Both of these entities assist business owners in providing safe, secure, and seamless online transactions. But just how can they help to boost sales?
1. People want to buy from online stores they trust.
Like it or not, consumers often judge a book by its cover or, in this case, a website by how it looks. If your site appears to be slapped together, cluttered, or confusing, many of your would-be shoppers will quickly click away to one of your numerous competitors.
A high-quality ecommerce platform can take the amateurish taint away from your website. Many of the ready-made, cloud-based hosted varieties can be set up within just a few hours through the use of templates, with no coding knowledge or IT team necessary. Even so, they present a glossy, put-together appearance to the customer. Many small to mid-sized business owners find that these benefits far outweigh the monthly or annual payment processing, hosting, SSL costs, and commissions per sale that they are required to pay. Best of all, a good ecommerce platform can engender trust that ultimately leads to sales.
2. People want to use their mobile devices to shop on your website.
Even now, more than 60 percent of searches originate from mobile devices. Given this fact, you cannot afford to miss out on the traffic generated via smartphones, a trend that will only accelerate in the future. If you accept ecommerce payments, your ecommerce platform should be optimized for mobile. Another option is to choose one that either comes with native Android and iOS apps out of the box or, at the very least, lets you incorporate your own application into the system.
When shoppers enter your website via their smartphones, they must contend with viewing it on a very small screen. When your ecommerce platform and payment provider work together to make their browsing and checkout experience easy, secure, and seamless, shoppers are far more likely not only to make a purchase today but also to come back again in the future.
3. Consumers demand security.
Hackers are constantly trolling the web in search of vulnerable websites that can be breached. Keep your precious data and infrastructure safe with an ecommerce platform and payment provider that values data security and you are likely to be rewarded with increased sales. To that end, make sure your platform supports HTTPS, which provides an added layer of encryption during the transmission of data. Furthermore, require that your payment provider complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the framework put forth by the major card companies that is designed to protect consumers’ payment information.
4. People expect to have fast access to the trending products they want now.
When you run your own ecommerce business, you need to have control over every aspect, including the management of product listings and the uploading of new items on your site. In an era when competitors are vying for every customer, you simply cannot afford to wait for a third party to do the tech work for you. Fortunately, your ecommerce platform should be equipped to allow you to conduct bulk uploads from CSV and Excel files and to create different categories you can place relevant items in. It will also allow you to sort products based on color, size, price, and other metrics, as well as create catalog filters.
5. People want products to be delivered on time.
Instant gratification seems to be the order of the day even as we gradually recover from the worst of the pandemic. Consequently, you should do everything within your power to ensure that products arrive during the promised time frames. Keeping your customers in the loop throughout the entire cycle from ordering to delivery promotes transparency and increases your credibility even if supply chain bottlenecks occur. Furthermore, your ecommerce platform will communicate in real-time with your inventory management system to keep track of stock levels, ensuring that on-time reordering can be maintained.
6. People expect hassle-free returns.
No matter how successful your business or how sought-after your products, returns are inevitable. The more seamless and transparent your return process is, the more satisfied your customers will be and the more likely it is that they will make additional purchases in the future. Fortunately, your ecommerce platform and payment provider can prove to be vital partners in this facet of business just as they worked in tandem during the sale. They can do so by:
• Creating return rules (eligible products, return date limits, etc.).
• Creating various return types (full refund, product exchange, partial refund, full order refund, etc.).
• Approving or denying return requests.
• Automatically refunding approved returns.
• Automatically processing approved exchanges.
• Printing return address slips and invoices.
• Updating stock to reflect return status.
7. Shoppers want payment choices.
A big part of offering a frustration-free checkout experience involves providing consumers with a wide array of payment choices. In addition to the standard credit card option, your payment provider will also be equipped for echeck transfers that can withdraw funds directly from the customer’s bank account as well as ewallet transactions via Apple or Google Pay and even cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Additionally, some product lines and business models lend themselves to recurring or subscription payments, an arrangement in which the exact amount, date, and frequency of withdrawal from the customer’s bank account are agreed upon in advance by both the merchant and the buyer. Providing maximum versatility and diversity when it comes to payments is one of the best ways to ensure that your shoppers are happy and that their cash will flow into your account as expected.
Setting your online store up for success means focusing on providing excellent services that gel with your buyers’ needs and priorities. In these trying times, you need to pull out all the stops to propel your estore ahead of your rivals. With the help of a top-tier ecommerce platform and payments partner, you can continue to keep your customers happy while simultaneously boosting your profits.
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