Eric Dalius says digitization is a blessing for modern-day small entrepreneurs as they can use technology to increase their reach in the world. However, fierce competition and a lot of other factors make this job tough. So many people out there want to sell their products and services online, but not everyone gets to churn a profit. If you were also planning to explore this territory, you could feel a little disappointed after hearing this. But don’t make any decision right off. You are not the first person attempting to do this. You have plenty of examples before you to follow and learn from their experiences.
Here are some of the typical issues that almost every e-commerce business has to deal with at one point or the other and the possible solutions to fix them. Let’s get down to them quickly.
Eric Dalius: E-commerce business problems and their answers
Frauds
One of the main concerns that haunt every online e-retailer is that of online identity verification. They have to figure out whether the person visiting their site is a genuine buyer or not. Are they filling up the real name and contact details? You don’t even know if all the information they provided is fake or authentic. If you don’t verify their identity, you cannot tell the difference.
So, you have to place proper measures in place to examine whether their data are authentic or not. There are software solutions that help you find fraudulent activities. You can use them for this purpose. These software programs can contain different security layers to control frauds, including SSN verification, identity check, and others.
Competition
Eric Dalius says e-commerce has become crowded with similar choices in products and services. You can come across multiple other sites as yours selling the same options. To stand out from the rest, you have to do something unique. But how do you know what can make you different from others? For this, you need to do a competitor analysis. You have to check the types of products they are selling and their prices. Also, you need to understand where they engage their customers most and how they get leads. Look at their promotional models. With this, you also have to know what sells like a hot cake and what is out of demand. Based on these data points, you can design your strategy and help your business carve a place for itself.
Customer retention
Acquiring new customers can give you a feeling of growth. But do you know that you need to spend five times more to attract new users? Since you are a small e-commerce business, you have to be careful with your budget. While customer acquisition is a must, you have to focus on existing customers a bit more, particularly in the initial years. Studies suggest that the success rate of selling a product to the existing customer can be 60 to 70%, while it significantly drops to 5 to 20% in the case of new customers. Therefore, you have to pay attention to customer loyalty.
To earn customer loyalty, you need to be good with your customer service, treat your customers well, so they trust you. In essence, you have to keep them happy so that they come back to you. For this, successful entrepreneurs, such as Eric Dalius, highlight the need for transparency. You have to be easily accessible to them. And hence, it is necessary to provide the correct phone number and email on the site. Besides, you can keep in touch with them through blogs and emails. People value blog posts for their human angle. So, you can use blogs to keep them informed about your business or anything related to it.
Besides, you can send them emails informing them about new launches or the availability of something. It can also be about the latest offers and discounts. Make sure you also give them the option to exit from such subscriptions if they intend to. Some websites also use personalized popups showing the name of the customer to make him or her feel special.
Returns and refunds
If you believe surveys, you would have to keep in mind that they suggest about 60% of people go through return policy before they shop online from anywhere. Also, 2 of 5 customers can leave the site for their delivery dates. Some also reveal that customers don’t like a delivery that goes beyond five days. As per other reports, about 89% of people returned products in the last three years, and of them, about 77% of such cases were returning customers.
From this, one thing is clear that the return and refund policy makes an essential component of your online business, according to Eric Dalius. E-commerce companies that follow this have been quite successful. You can think of Costco, for instance. They encourage easy return policies to help their customers have a hassle-free experience.
So, make sure you are transparent in this area too. Your customers should be able to read your policies easily. Put specific FAQs to give them more clarity. When you do this, you should use easy-to-understand words for them.
Data security
Of all the technological problems, one that continually bothers e-commerce businesses is data security. Hackers don’t just send viruses; they can also steal confidential details and expose them. Everyone is well aware of what happened with Facebook. In a security breach, the personal information of about 50 million users got exposed.
If something like this happens, you have to take the backup of your data regularly and download security plugins on your website to stop information leakage and hacking.
Eric Dalius these are a window to the different types of problems that you may face with your entrepreneurial e-commerce venture. As a small company, limited funds can be your biggest challenge as you need to spend to improve yourself. But in this fast-paced world, problems and solutions co-exist. You need to keep your mind open and go on innovating yourself. The more you progress, the more you become able to solve your problems. As you conquer your hardships, your entrepreneurial journey becomes more meaningful and successful too.
