Everything You Need To Know About Successful Growth For Your Ecommerce Business



It’s never been a better time to be an online retailer, and more successful ecommerce stores are springing up almost on a daily basis. But just because it’s easy to get started doesn’t mean it is a simple task to achieve growth. And, while many small ecommerce companies trundle along quite nicely, if you want to achieve more, you will have to face up to these challenges.

There is a big difference between starting a company that sells goods from the comfort of your home to becoming a major retailer in your industry. Many pitfalls await. It’s vital to understand these issues that will crop up so you can form a better growth plan and get the growth you deserve. There is a lot of hard work to get through, so let’s get started right away.

Understand your brand

When you are a small ecommerce business, branding is a ‘nice to have,' not a necessity. In fact, there is an argument there is far too much focus on branding for small businesses in many cases.

But if you intend to mix it with the major players, the brand is going to be critical. It is vital to understand who you are, what you do, and why you do it. What marks you out from your competitors? What is the central message you are delivering to your audience? Who are your target customers? These - and much more - are all core principles of branding that are essential to check off before you get going.

Rapid growth can be difficult to manage, and it can be easy to lose your way. Ensure you never lose focus of your brand and who you are, and you should avoid many pitfalls.

Appeasing the customer

One of the biggest problems you will find with growth is that it is hard to appease your current clients. And, the more people you start to serve, the greater impact it might have on your service levels.

When people have bought from you up until now, they probably like the way you go about your business. But when you are growing, it is easy to start letting these people down as your customer service starts to creak. You might not have the right stock in to fulfill your orders - more on which in a minute. You might struggle with the volume of new orders. Your employees might start to feel under pressure, and end up being snappier on the phones with your customers.

For a regular, loyal customer, these changes will never be a good thing. And the risk of losing them to the competition are high. So, as you grow, keep customer service as the most important thing about your business. It’s got you where you are now - don’t let it slip.

Scalability

You might think that growing an ecommerce business is easy. It's just about ordering more stuff and sending it out, right? Wrong, according to Red Stag Fulfillment. As they say, the more orders you have coming in, the more of a logistical nightmare it can be.

There is storage to consider, as well as finding the best deals to transport your products. And the chances are, without experience, you will leave a lot of your customers hanging. In fact, logistics is one of the areas that slips up most ecommerce businesses as they try to grow.

Selling something online is one thing. Selling thousands of things is a different proposition altogether. Your ecommerce business needs to be scalable, and that includes getting help from other companies. From delivery drivers to fulfillment specialists, you will need that assistance to achieve success.

Communication

Once you have the backend of your customer service sorted out, keep focussing on the front of house side of things. The way you communicate and talk with your clients is critical - but almost impossible to continue as you are.

The simple fact is that when you grow, you won’t have time to answer every email or pick up every phone call. Customers will be left in the lurch, waiting days for someone to respond. Your best bet is to seek out help - a call center, perhaps. It will allow you to manage your growth without investing in an entirely new customer service team. Each of them earning full-time wages. And, if your attempt at growth should falter, it means you won’t be left with a massive and permanent wage bill.

Of course, the second you start outsourcing anything in your business, the more likely you are to experience problems. So, make sure you have a robust set of metrics in place to determine whether your customer service levels are staying the same. There are several parameters that you can use to work this out. You might set up reports to see how long it takes for a customer to order and receive their product, for example. Or you might look at how many customers are left with unresolved queries over a set period.

Work out what has made your business tick up until now, and define those metrics so you can see where standards are slipping.

Recruitment

When small businesses grow, there s a temptation to go wild with hiring. But, as we mentioned in the section above, it is unwise to go into recruitment with all guns blazing. Instead of hiring new teams, focus on recruiting new leaders.

As your company grows, it will need strong people with the right skills to head up every department. So, you might hire someone to look after your marketing, or decide that you have so many employees it is time to hire an HR professional. The point is, with the right leaders, you can focus on doing what you do best. You might have been able to manage everyone when you ran a small business, but growth will give you a lot more difficulties.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day for you to continue working like this, and delegation will be vital. Once you have your team managers in place, you will be able to work out where the rest of your recruitment should take you.

New markets

One of the amazing things about growing your business is that it gives you the opportunity to find new markets. Not all of them will be suitable, of course - and it can be demanding and time-consuming to enter a new market. But, as long as you analyze the costs vs. the potential revenue, it should give you a good indication of where you could end up.

Let’s say you are an ecommerce business selling baking accessories. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that starting to sell cakes and ingredients as well could work for your business. Of course, there will be restrictions that you need to consider. You’ll need a kitchen area of factory space to create your new products. You’ll also need new licenses as you are, all of a sudden, a food and catering business. If the demand for those products is there, it is likely those extra costs will be worth it. If not? Accurate estimations might help tip the balance, but there could be problems if you go ahead with your plan on a pure whim.

A business advisor with experience in your industry could help you, here. As could an accountant. But the underlying point is, if it will harm your revenue to move into other markets, it’s generally best to avoid it.

Future proof your ecommerce business

The bigger your company gets, the more you will begin to rely on general consumer statistics. And, when it comes to looking at the future, there are a few things to consider. As an ecommerce business owner, you should already know that more people than ever are making purchases on the web. And, that the figure is likely to grow a lot more in the next decade.

It gives you a significant opportunity, but you have to be ready to grasp it. Be prepared to invest in a lot more technology as you try and sift through your customer data. And also keep an eye on trends in web design for ecommerce. The web moves fast, and unless you keep up your site will risk looking outdated and unusable. Another vital statistic to think about is the fact that over half of all consumers browse websites on their smartphones.

So, being mobile friendly and optimized for mobile devices is critical now - and will be even more so in the future. But what about the future of ecommerce in, say, 5-10 years? The truth is, no one really knows. But, if you aim to become a major online retailer, it is essential you know the trends. It's vital to understand just as much about ecommerce developments as you do about the products you sell. Your products have to be market relevant, of course. But so does the platform you are selling them from.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider when growing an ecommerce business. And, ultimately, it may not even be a decision you have to make. Orders could flood in incredibly quickly, meaning you will have to be flexible, move fast, and adapt on your feet. Good luck - and let me know how you get on!


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