Tag Archives: eCommerce

Pros and Cons of Dropshipping: Here’s What You Need to Know

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Do you want to start an ecommerce business with low overhead and no warehouse and still make a profit?

Then dropshipping is the business model you’re looking for.

But starting a dropshipping business isn’t the right choice for every entrepreneur. There are significant tradeoffs between dropshipping and traditional wholesaling.

We’ll look at the pros and cons of dropshipping and help you make the right choice for your business today.

What Is Dropshipping and How Does It Work?

Dropshipping is a business model that allows you to sell and ship products you don’t own and don’t stock.

Your suppliers – wholesalers or manufacturers – produce the goods, warehouse them, and ship them to your customers for you.

The process is simple:

– You receive an order

– You forward the order to your supplier

– Your supplier fulfills the order

While dropshipping has many benefits, it also has many drawbacks. We’ll explore both in the sections below.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Dropshipping

Many people start a dropshipping business because they think it’ll be easy to run.

“No inventory, no problem!” they say.

The truth is, it’s not “easy.” It comes with its own set of problems.

With that said, dropshipping also solves many problems for retailers and wholesalers.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of dropshipping to see if it will solve your business problems or if it will add to them.

Pros of Dropshipping

1. Low Startup Costs

It requires a lot of capital to stock a warehouse. You can eliminate the risk of going into debt to start your business by using dropshipping.

Instead of purchasing an extensive inventory and hoping that it sells, you can start a dropshipping business with zero inventory and immediately start making money.

2. Low Cost of inventory

The cost of inventory is one of the highest costs you’ll have if you own and warehouse stock.

You may end up with obsolete inventory – forcing you to find ways to reduce your stock – or you’ll end up with too little inventory – leading to stockouts and lost revenue.

Dropshipping allows you to avoid these issues and focus on growing your customer base and building your brand.

3. Low Order Fulfillment Costs

Order fulfillment usually requires you to warehouse, organize, track, label, pick and pack, and ship your stock.

Dropshipping lets a 3rd party take care of all of that.

Your only job in this arrangement is to make sure they get your customer orders. Everything else will be handled by them.

4. Sell and Test More Products with Less Risk

Without the constraints of a physical inventory and the costs associated with it, dropshipping allows you to update your inventory quickly, easily, and cheaply.

If you know a product is doing well for another retailer or reseller, you can immediately offer it to your customers without waiting for it to arrive in your warehouse.

Dropshipping allows you to test new items without the risk of carrying obsolete inventory. You only pay for what you sell.

Cons of Dropshipping

1. Less Control Over Order Fulfillment and Lead Times

Even though you don’t carry the cost of warehousing stock, you will pay for dissatisfied customers.

The manufacturers and wholesalers you do business with are responsible for managing and shipping your stock. If they screw up, the customer complains to you or buys from your competitor.

If you start a dropshipping business, make sure you work with high-quality partners.

2. Reliance on Other People’s Stock

Being able to offer new products immediately or stop selling slow-moving products is a major benefit of dropshipping.

The drawback to this perk is that you don’t control your supplier’s inventory. If they run out of stock, YOU run out of stock.

This will result in longer lead times and lost customers.

3. Less Profit

The hidden “cost” of dropshipping is the lack of bulk pricing.

You will likely pay more for each item you sell as compared to paying less for a large inventory of items – leading to less profit.

If you want to earn a lot of money using dropshipping, then you’ll have to sell more products than you otherwise would have if you owned and warehoused them yourself.

4. Poorer Customer Service

If your supplier delivers products late, damages them, delivers the wrong items, or otherwise screws up your customer’s order, the customer will take it out on you.

We already mentioned this problem when it comes to order fulfillment and lead times. But it extends farther than that.

You won’t be able to maintain the personal touch that retailers who manage their own inventory can provide customers. You won’t be able to quickly solve customer issues without overseeing the inventory yourself – you’ll have to deal with your suppliers to solve problems for your customers.

This “man-in-the-middle” way of helping your customers can lead to issues with your suppliers who may take a long time to do what you ask them to do, and with your customers – who will quickly get tired of waiting a long time for their problems to be solved.

Here’s What You Need to Make Dropshipping Easier

Now that you know the pros and cons of dropshipping, it’s important for you to know about a tool that you can use to make dropshipping work better for you.

We mentioned that one of the cons of dropshipping is not being in control of the inventory you’re selling – leading to potential stockouts.

But, you can use a cloud-based inventory management software that integrates with your supplier’s software so that both of you know how much inventory is in stock at any time.

This helps you as a dropshipper synchronize your marketing and sales campaigns with your supplier’s stock.

So, when any of your supplier’s customers make a sale (including you), it will update the amount of inventory in your supplier’s warehouse automatically.

If you want to minimize some of the issues with dropshipping and make it more worthwhile, then you need an inventory management system that tracks your stock levels in real-time.

Where will you find such a system?

Right here at DEAR.

Start your free 14-day trial today

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24 Benefits of CRM software for more sales and better salespeople

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The benefits of CRM are seemingly endless - here are 24 reasons to implement one today.

The benefits of CRM are seemingly endless – here are 24 reasons to implement one today.

In 2011, Nucleus Research discovered that CRM systems delivered an average return of $5.60 for every dollar spent.

They continued to research the returns from CRM software and found that in 2014, the average return jumped to $8.71 for every dollar spent.

If this is any indication of a trend, it means the benefits of CRM software are only going to increase year after year.

If you don’t have a CRM system yet, It’s time you implement one.

We’ve already shared how software solutions for cloud-based inventory and supply chain management are crucial to running a successful business.

Today, we’ll share with you 24 benefits of CRM software for growing your sales and boosting your employees’ productivity.

But first, let’s define CRM.

What is a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software consists of any strategies, processes, or technologies that help a company manage their customer interactions – maximizing their customers’ satisfaction and increasing sales.

There are hundreds of CRM systems to choose from.

Some serve specific industries like construction or medical, while others offer customizable solutions for companies of all shapes and sizes.

Despite their variations, all CRM systems have one goal in common:

To help you manage your most important resource – your customers.

24 Benefits of CRM Software

CRM software offers many exciting features:

  • Fancy reporting dashboards
  • Automated sales follow-ups
  • Easy Call recording
  • And so much more

But you’re probably more interested in results, not features.

Below is our big list of results you can expect to get from CRM software.

By the end of this list, you’ll have a clear understanding of what a CRM system can provide your business and why – according to Forbes – the market for CRM software keeps growing.

Read on to discover the many benefits of a CRM platform.

1) Automate Follow-Ups

Stop missing out on sales because no one followed up.

CRM systems can automatically trigger a sales rep to follow-up with a lead generated through the website.

Also, filtering your existing database allows you to find those leads who have not been contacted in a while.

2) Anticipate Customer Needs

CRM software helps you anticipate customer needs – like product reorders – by allowing you to set recurring reminders.  Your customers will thank you for making their lives easier as you rejoice in making the sale.

3) Encourage Referrals

A CRM platform gives your sales and customer support team the tools they need to take great care of your customers every step along the customer lifecycle – providing the kind of experience they’ll tell others about.

4) Close the Sale

83{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of online shoppers need support to complete a sale.

Many CRMs offer online support and chat features that help prevent shopping cart abandonment by ensuring someone is always there to assist your customers.

5) Contact the Right People with the Right Message

CRM software allows you to easily filter your contacts to get a targeted list of customers who would be most interested in an upcoming promotion or new product.  According to Marketo, by segmenting your email campaigns, you increase engagement and ROI.

6) Make Sales While You’re on Vacation

By setting up marketing automation through a CRM system, you can send personalized emails to clients even when you’re relaxing on the beach.

So, once your customer performs a certain action, or a specified amount of time has passed, your messages will automatically be sent to them.

7) Maintain Loyal Customers

In the US, 40{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of revenue comes from returning or repeat purchasers, who represent only 8{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of all visitors.

Plus, the top 1{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of customers spend 30x as much as the average customer.

By carefully planning the customer journey through your CRM platform, you can foster long-lasting and profitable relationships with your loyal customers.

8) Understand Your Customers

An underrated benefit of CRM systems is that they allow you to personalize each interaction you have with your customers.

You can track preferences, needs, concerns, etc. that builds rapport and keeps them coming back.

9) Stay Connected

CRM software helps you keep in touch with customers even when you have nothing to sell.

You can:

  • Set up campaigns and triggers to stay in contact with your customers.
  • Get to know them beyond your business interactions.
  • And follow them on social media or monitor their name in the news so you can be the first to congratulate them on their latest successes.

10) Improve Service After the Sale

Sales teams have a lot of pressure to make the sale and move on to the next.  CRM software can automate the selling process to ensure that once the sale is complete, customers are not forgotten.

11) Remember to Ask for Feedback

Your sales team has a lot on their plate and asking for feedback – while important – is easily forgotten.

By automating this process or setting reminders in a CRM system, you make sure you are getting the valuable insight you need to continue to improve your business.

12) Understand What Works

CRM software gives you the power to track lead sources and the revenue they generate – helping you make better spending decisions by understanding what marketing investments bring you a positive ROI.

Following these lead source best practices will give you a crystal clear picture of where you should spend your money.

Other KPIs like Lifetime Value of a customer, sales cycle length, or close ratio can also be calculated.

13) Spend Less on New Customers

According to econsultancy, 70{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of companies say it’s cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one and 49{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} say that “pound for pound, we achieve better ROI by investing in relationship marketing over acquisition marketing.”

A CRM solution will help you keep customer acquisition costs down by retaining your existing customers through excellent customer service.

14) Reduce Payroll

By integrating with business apps or building processes directly into your CRM system, you can eliminate unnecessary tasks – thereby reducing payroll hours.

15) Implement Without Technical Skills

CRM software typically doesn’t require any IT skills. Most of them are easy to operate, so you don’t need to know how to code to make complex processes work.

16) Foster a Happier, More Productive Sales Team

Not only is a happy sales team a benefit to using a CRM system, it’s also crucial to its success.  One of the top reasons CRM implementations fail is because of lack of team adoption.

By getting your whole team involved, you’ll reap the full benefits of CRM software.

17) Streamline Processes

Win over your sales team by automating mundane and labor-intensive tasks.

Even a task as simple as setting a meeting can take up precious minutes in the day.

Avoid the back and forth emails and phone calls by using a CRM system that allows your clients and vendors to simply click a link to see your current availability.

The way it works is simple:

Once they select a time, an invite is automatically generated for everyone’s calendars.

18) Strengthen Communication

“What happens if your most important customer unexpectedly calls with an urgent matter on the same day their sales rep is on vacation?”

Well, with a CRM system in place, everyone on the team can get up to speed in a matter of minutes thanks to a single record containing order history, past conversations, and preferences.

Instead of your team feeling frustrated and helpless – they can step up and be the hero.

19) Store Information In The Right Place

With the right CRM platform, complete customer histories are available anytime anywhere.

Not only is the information easy to find, but thanks to mobile apps offered by the leading providers, your sales team can access everything they need to know about your customers and vendors even when they are traveling.

20) Generate Consistent Commissions

One of the big benefits of CRM software for your sales team is that it helps them understand which clients are at what stage of their sales pipeline.

By knowing this information, they can prioritize who they contact and when to avoid missing their monthly quotas.

21) Increase Fun on the Job

With the addition of gamification features, some CRM systems can turn work into an interactive game – giving you the creative freedom to develop a friendly competition between your salespeople using real-time data.

This will make work more fun for your sales team and will encourage your salespeople to work harder to pursue prospects and close deals.

22) Help Struggling Employees

CRM software helps you understand who your top performers are and what they are doing to succeed.  Use this information as a teaching tool for those who need a little more help.

23) Reduce Information Overload

CRM systems allow you to add tags and other key information for easy retrieval later.

Can’t remember which client did what?  Use the powerful search functions to reveal exactly what you are looking for.

24) Enhance Employee Training

A solid CRM platform gives you the ability to quickly onboard new sales team members and equips them with templated emails, sales processes, customer data and other tools they will need to be successful.

Even the best salesperson can’t sell if they are left wondering what’s going on.

How to Increase the Benefits of CRM Software

The benefits of a CRM system begin with your salespeople and end with a closed deal.

So, what comes next?

Delivering the products to your new or existing customers and managing your inventory to stay on top of all these purchase orders.

Wouldn’t it be nice to upgrade your sales process with CRM software while seamlessly managing your inventory within the same centralized hub?

Well, now you can.

Experience the Benefits of CRM Software Combined with Cloud-Based Inventory Management

DEAR Inventory seamlessly integrates with Capsule and Salpo CRM platforms – giving you the benefits of real-time inventory tracking and real-time customer tracking simultaneously. Easily add customers and suppliers to DEAR as they progress from initial inquiry through to a sale while automating purchase orders and streamlining your stocktake.

Start your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

Try DEAR for Free

No Credit Card Required

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6 Ecommerce KPIs You Need to Start Measuring Today

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These Ecommerce KPIs are crucial to understanding and managing your business.

These Ecommerce KPIs are crucial to understanding and managing your business.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

We don’t know who said it first, but we do know this quote rings true in the world of ecommerce.

If you don’t have specific objectives or clear goals, how do you know if you’ve reached a desirable outcome or milestone?

You don’t.

A lack of clear targets is especially harmful in your ecommerce business where tactics and strategies change fast, and if you’re not keeping up with trends or data, you’ll quickly lose to your competition.

That’s where ecommerce KPIs come in.

They help you make sense of the data you’re (hopefully) collecting, and give you insights into changes you need to make, strategies you need to implement, or tools you need to use.

But ecommerce KPIs are not created equally.

There are a few essential KPIs you absolutely should measure, and there’s a whole lot of KPIs that would be a waste of your time to measure.

We’ll give you a thorough list of the ecommerce KPIs every business should consider measuring, what to do before you start measuring KPIs, and how to make the most out of the data.

But first, let’s define ecommerce KPIs and metrics.

What are Ecommerce KPIs and Metrics?

A metric is any data you want to measure.

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that measures data relative to a goal.

You can measure whatever you want, but if it isn’t tied to a goal, and if it doesn’t move you closer to that goal, it’s not a KPI.

Which means ecommerce KPIs are metrics that visibly influence your conversions, sales, and growth online.

With that in mind, there’s one question you’re probably asking yourself:

How Should You Construct and Measure Your Ecommerce KPIs?

You create ecommerce KPIs by first creating ecommerce business goals.

Here’s an example of clear ecommerce goals paired with specific KPIs from Shopify:

  • GOAL 1 — Boost sales 10{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} in the next quarter. KPIs include daily sales, conversion rate, and site traffic.
  • GOAL 2 — Increase conversion rate 2{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} in the next year. KPIs include conversion rate, shopping cart abandonment rate, associated shipping rate trends, and competitive price trends.
  • GOAL 3 — Grow site traffic 20 percent in the next year. KPIs include site traffic, traffic sources, promotional click-through rates, social shares, and bounce rates.
  • GOAL 4 — Reduce customer service calls by half in the next 6 months. KPIs include service call classification, identify which pages were visited immediately before the call, and identify what event lead to the call.

Once you have clear goals in mind, you can begin measuring the appropriate KPIs.

Since the KPIs you’ll measure will be specific to your business goals, we’ll give you a few ecommerce KPIs that every business should measure to get you started on the right foot.

Essential Ecommerce KPIs to Measure

If you’re just starting out, consider measuring only 4-10 KPIs to avoid overwhelm and to be as efficient as possible.

Here’s a list of 7 high-value ecommerce KPIs that will give you plenty of meaningful data you can use to reach your desired outcomes.

Brand Name Search

If your goal is to increase your brand awareness, your audience engagement, or your site traffic, then tracking how often people search for your brand name is essential.

If people are increasingly aware of your brand name, they’re more likely to seek out and discover the products and services you offer and are more likely to buy from you.

When your prospect considers buying a solution to their problem, they’ll immediately search their own minds in an attempt to recall a seller that they know of who can provide the solution they’re looking for.

If you’ve successfully implanted your brand name into their mind, they’re likely to go to your website and revisit your offer before looking at your competition.

Here are a few tools for monitoring your brand online.

Bounce Rate

If you want to increase your conversion rate, then you should focus on decreasing your bounce rate – the percentage of people who visit and immediately leave your site.

According to the Wolfgang 2017 E-commerce KPI Benchmarks Study, by increasing time spent on a site by 16{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}, conversion rates went up by a full 10{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.

In the world of online conversions, 10{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} is a huge increase.

So, how do you decrease bounce rate and keep people on your website?

Here are a few suggestions:

Applying these tips will help you quickly achieve your ecommerce KPI of a low bounce rate.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is one of the most important ecommerce KPIs to measure across every part of your site.

A conversion rate is simply the rate at which visitors to your site perform the action you want them to (opt-in to your email list, share your post, buy your product, etc.).

Here’s the basic calculation:

(Number of conversions) / (number of site visitors) = conversion rate

If 1,000 people visit your ecommerce store, but only 50 people buy, your conversion rate is 50 divided by 1,000 which equals a 5{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} conversion rate.

You can increase your conversion rate by:

By testing the methods above, you’ll be able to measure incremental improvements in this particular ecommerce KPI, and over time, you’ll reach a higher and higher conversion rate.

Cart Abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is unfortunately widespread.

Baymard Institute studied buyer behavior on ecommerce sites and found that 69{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of all ecommerce visitors abandon their carts.

There could be several reasons why online shoppers abandon their carts:

  • Shipping fees were too high
  • The site asked them to create an account in order to checkout
  • Too many form fields to fill out to complete the checkout process
  • Website errors
  • Not enough payment methods
  • Etc.

It’s frustrating knowing there are so many factors that contribute to such a high rate of shopping cart abandonment.

Where should you begin if you want to influence your customers to complete their checkout?

You can start with these 5 proven tips to stop shopping cart abandonment:

  1. Include images of the shopping cart items throughout the checkout process
  2. Use trust badges on your checkout page
  3. Reduce checkout form elements
  4. Ask users to register for an account AFTER the sale, not before
  5. Reduce or eliminate shipping costs

If you implement these 5 tips, you’ll see a measurable reduction in your shopping cart abandonment KPI.

Average Order Value

Your average order value (AOV) is a fundamental ecommerce KPI metric to track if you’re struggling to make a profit.

AOV is simply the average amount that people buy in your store.

The higher, the better.

To increase your AOV, try these tactics:

  • Product bundling
  • Free shipping for customers who spend a lot of money (over $100, for example)
  • Limited time offers and coupons
  • Upsells to higher-priced items than the ones in their cart
  • Cross-sells to items related to the ones they already have in their cart (like a laptop bag to accompany their new laptop)
  • Points for purchases that customers can use to buy other items from you in the future

Customer Retention

Repeat customers are the holy grail of good business, online or offline.

It’s also an essential ecommerce KPI if you value long-term business growth.

A 5{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} increase in customer retention rate will result in a 25{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} to 95{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} increase in profits according to Bain & Company.

Here are 3 metrics you should focus on:

  1. Rate of repeat purchases
  2. Frequency of purchases
  3. Order gap analysis

So, how can you increase customer retention? By following these tips:

  • Deliver products in customer packages that make your customers say “wow”
  • Offer fast delivery options
  • Under-promise and over-deliver (e.g., your policy says you ship within 5 business days, but you usually ship overnight)
  • Make it easy to repeat purchases
  • Make it fast and easy to create an account
  • Offer free and easy returns

How to Make the Most out of Ecommerce KPIs

We have to stress the importance of the old idiom “less is more.”

The first thing you’ll be doing when first measuring ecommerce KPIs is establishing a baseline for all of your KPIs and then testing strategies to improve those KPIs.

This is a long process, so be patient and never stop testing new strategies and tactics.

In that same vein, you should always be testing new technologies that make it easier for you to track, measure, and understand specific ecommerce KPIs.

One such technology is a cloud-based inventory management system that allows you to track all of your sales, offline and online, in one central hub.

This system would give you the advantage of knowing exactly how much inventory you have in stock in real-time, without needing to take a physical inventory.

You can also update all of your ecommerce stores when you start carrying new seasonal items or when you stop selling unprofitable items.

You’ll even be able to automate reorders and backorders so you’ll never have to run out of stock.

This system will help you reach many of your ecommerce KPIs such as your average order rate, shopping cart abandonment rate, and customer retention rate, among many others.

Where can you get this system?

Right here.

Achieve Your Ecommerce KPIs With A Cloud-Based Inventory Management System

From integration with your ecommerce stores and apps to seamless inventory tracking through your POS, DEAR Inventory will track, measure, and generate reports that make it possible for you to grow your business using sound, accurate data.

Start your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

Try DEAR for Free

No Credit Card Required

 

How to Profit from the Benefits of Mobile Marketing

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The benefits of mobile marketing offer huge opportunities to your bottom line

The benefits of mobile marketing offer huge opportunities to your bottom line

The benefits of mobile marketing are huge.

From a closer connection to your customers to creative marketing campaigns, you can do so much more through a personal device than a desktop.

Before we get into the benefits, take a look at these mobile marketing statistics to understand the big money in m-commerce:

Statista, one of the leading statistics companies on the internet, released a report titled “Mobile retail e-commerce sales in the United States from 2013 to 2020” stating that, in 2018, U.S. mobile retail revenues are expected to amount to 206.53 billion U.S. dollars, up from 80.94 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

That’s over a 150{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} increase in revenue in only 3 years.

But it get’s better…

A report from Business Insider titled “The Mobile Checkout Report” states that In 2014, mobile comprised 11.6{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of the US’ $303 billion in ecommerce sales. By 2020, mobile will account for 45{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of the $632 billion in total e-commerce sales.

That means almost half of all ecommerce sales will be conducted from your customer’s phone.

If you want a piece of this growing pie and reap the benefits of mobile marketing, we’ll give you a few general strategies and go over some specific ways you can execute a better mobile marketing campaign today.

But first, let’s define mobile marketing.

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is the use of mobile devices to market your business.

The goal is to make your business as appealing, user-friendly, and helpful as possible to drive the most engagement and sales possible.

It can provide your customers personalized, location-specific, time-specific information and advertising that gives them what they need and want when they need or want it, wherever they are.

Benefits of Mobile Marketing

You and your customers will benefit from mobile marketing in a variety of ways.

But you might be confused about the specific benefits mobile marketing offers, and may not want to invest any more of your budget into marketing campaigns you don’t understand.

To help you see this opportunity clearly, here’s why mobile marketing could be so profitable for your business:

Constant Contact With Your Prospects

According to “The Mobile Fact Sheet” from Pew Research, 95{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of Americans own a cellphone of one kind or another, while 77{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of Americans own a smartphone.

Additionally, this report revealed that broadband services are diminishing and “smartphone-only” internet users are increasing. 1 in 10 Americans do not have broadband service and only use their smartphones to access the internet.

So not only do most people have a cellphone they carry with them wherever they go, some of them use it exclusively for all of their computing needs.

Increased Social Media Engagement

A report from Statista titled “Mobile internet usage in the United States” states that In 2015, the number of smartphone social network users in the United States was 149.5 million. By 2020, this number is set to reach 186.3 million monthly smartphone social users.

Online consumers who access social media through their mobile device are more likely to read, comment, like, or share content posted by a company than those who accessed social media from their PC, according to a study from Forrester.

For example, 46{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of smartphone users liked something a company posted weekly, while only 37{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of PC users liked something a company posted weekly.

This type of engagement could lead to a massive increase in your social media sales.

Opportunity for SMS Mobile Marketing

Since almost all of your customers have a mobile device on them wherever they go – whether it’s a smartphone or not – you have the opportunity to send them a text message about a special deal, a coupon, a sale, or any other promotion.

Your text messages could be about an impromptu deal, or it could get them ready for a big sale in the future.

You could even send out questionnaires, surveys, or polls to gain valuable insight into your customers thinking.

Advanced Location-Based Mobile Marketing

Since over 3 quarters of mobile device owners have smartphones, you have the ability to cash in on location-based marketing.

You could develop a Geofence that “pushes” a notification to their device, alerting them they’re in the perimeter of your location.

Similarly, you could use an iBeacon to push notifications, send a daily deal, or inform your customer that they’re nearby your store.

More Payment Options Through Mobile Wallet Marketing

By 2018, Forrester Research Inc. predicts mobile wallets will reach critical mass with consumers and become a high-value new marketing channel, according to their report “The Future Of Mobile Wallets Lies Beyond Payments.”

That same report identified the 2 features most customers want from their mobile wallets:

  • 57{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of customers want loyalty programs
  • 56{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of customers want coupons/offers

By 2019, Forrester predicts U.S. mobile payments to grow to $142 billion, according to their report, “US Mobile Payments Forecast, 2014 To 2019.”

From Apple Pay to Android Pay to Samsung Pay, your ability to deliver deals, inspire loyalty, and give your customers more payment flexibility has never been easier or more exciting.

Of course, the benefits of mobile marketing mean nothing if you can’t put them into action.

To help you grow your business through mobile marketing, we put together some proven strategies you can implement today.

Mobile Marketing Strategies for Increased Sales in Mobile Commerce

This is where the rubber meets the road (or, the marketing meets the phone to be exact).

You know you can increase your sales through mobile marketing, but you may not know the specific, data-driven strategies that make this possible.

Below are 5 proven mobile marketing strategies that will increase engagement, optimize conversions, and boost your bottom line.

Design a Mobile-Friendly Website

The purpose of your website is to provide easy navigation for your customers, especially if they’re visiting your site on their mobile device.

Cluttered icons, confusing menus, and distorted images will cause your customers to quickly close your website and visit someone else’s.

Here are a few surefire guidelines for creating a mobile-friendly website:

  • Use simplified drop-down menus instead of a full menu bar
  • Use high-quality images for everything from your About page to your product pages
  • Write detailed, in-depth product descriptions
  • Make your website mobile-responsive so that it automatically adjusts for a mobile user

For additional tips, check out this guide from Moz on optimizing your site for mobile devices.

Optimize Checkout

Once potential customers have filled up their carts and are on the checkout page, it’s critical to do everything you can to prevent shopping cart abandonment.

For instance, don’t force customers to create an account just to buy your products.

A case study from User Interface Engineering found that by removing the “register” button from their client’s checkout page (a major ecommerce retailer), they increased conversions by 45{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}, resulting in a $300 million boost in the retailer’s sales.

You could also display the shopping cart at all times. This ensures quick access to the checkout page.

Try to auto-detect their city and state immediately after they input their ZIP code to make it easier and faster for them to enter their information.

Offer free shipping if you can, or, at the very least, calculate shipping immediately after your customer selects a product so that the costs are transparent.

58{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of online shoppers abandoned their cart because the cost of shipping was higher than expected according to Business Insider.

Create and Optimize a Mobile App for Your Business

A mobile app is a must-have if you want to take advantage of all the benefits of mobile marketing.

Here are a few phenomenal reasons why mobile apps are one of the best tools for mobile marketing courtesy of Criteo’s “State of Mobile Commerce 2016”:

  • Apps convert 3.5x more consumers than mobile web-browsing
  • Apps deliver up to 54{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of all mobile transactions
  • Advanced capabilities like home screen presence, instant loading, offline content, push notifications, personalization, and access to native functionality could create a 15{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} increase in transactions year-over-year
  • Apps convert 3x more product viewers than mobile web
  • App users continue to browse more products and purchase more than on the mobile web and desktop at every stage in the funnel
  • Apps deliver 2x the new user retention power
  • New app users are twice as likely to return within 30 days vs. mobile web users

Apps also allow you to take advantage of iBeacons and Geofences since you’ll need an app to push a notification to your customer when they’re in range of your store.

Use Video Marketing

According to “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2016–2021,” global IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021, up from 73 percent in 2016.

So, over 3 quarters of internet browsers will be mostly watching videos on the internet in just 4 years.

Plus, it turns out that 4x as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. This comes from a study conducted by Animoto. Here are 3 more stats from the same study:

  • 1 in 4 consumers lose interest in a company if it doesn’t have video
  • Customers are nearly 50{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} more likely to read email newsletters that include links to video
  • 4 in 5 consumers say a video showing how a product or service works is important

Create an SMS Mobile Marketing Campaign

SMS mobile marketing offers an exciting opportunity to smart businesses ready to profit from this low-tech strategy.

To give you an idea of the benefits of SMS mobile marketing, check out these stats from the 2nd edition of the “Mobile Intelligence Review”:

  • 90{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of text messages are read within 3 seconds
  • 29{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of those targeted with an SMS advertising campaign responded to the message
  • 47{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of those who responded to the message went on to make a purchase

Follow these tips for a successful SMS mobile marketing campaign:

  • Always get consent from your customers to send them text messages, otherwise, they will be angry, and you may lose a customer for life.
  • Start the text ad with a compelling offer such as “Buy 4 pots get 1 FREE vase!”
  • Make the deal seem exclusive by telling the customer they belong to a seemingly elite group named “Platinum Text Club Members” or something similar.
  • Make the text time-specific and give it a deadline to add urgency to your message by telling them “this offer expires on October 15th at midnight,” for example.
  • Tell them the location of your store where they can redeem the offer.
  • Give them a call-to-action they can execute immediately, like “Stop in today and show this text at checkout to redeem this exclusive deal!”
  • Don’t send deals more often than once or twice a month to avoid being spammy and annoying.
  • Always include an unsubscribe option so that your customers can opt-out anytime.

Time to Reap the Benefits of Mobile Marketing

You know what mobile marketing can offer your business.

You know the strategies you can use to create a killer mobile marketing campaign.

Now, you just to need to go out and apply this information.

Just remember, mobile marketing should be one part of your entire omnichannel ecommerce strategy.

Test everything, use what works, discard what doesn’t.

By using what you’ve learned today, you’ll be well on your way to profiting from the benefits of mobile marketing.

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Omnichannel Ecommerce Is the Future…Will You Benefit from It?

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Omnichannel ecommerce may seem like a hassle, but its benefits are undeniable

Omnichannel ecommerce may seem like a hassle, but its benefits are undeniable

Omnichannel retail, also known as omnichannel ecommerce, is not only the future of business – it’s the cutting-edge of online retail today.

If you’re not implementing it, you’re going to lose out to your competitors who are.

According to the report “U.S. Cross-Channel Retail Forecast, 2015 to 2020,” Forrester Research Inc. predicts that online sales in the United States will reach $523 billion by 2020, up 56{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} from $335 billion in 2015.

If you want a piece of this market share, you’ve got to know what omnichannel ecommerce means, why it’s important, and how to execute it correctly.

That’s exactly what we cover in today’s post.

Let’s dive in.

What is Omnichannel Ecommerce?

A completely online and offline integrated shopping experience.

This isn’t just multi-channel ecommerce, where you sell on your site and a 3rd-party ecommerce website.

This is a cross-channel ecommerce strategy, where you have a physical store, plus a shopping cart on your website, plus shopping carts on many other 3rd-party websites.

Today’s consumers are not loyal to any particular shopping channel.

They jump from one to the next fluidly – and they expect their favorite brands to be sold by all their favorite ecommerce platforms.

The goal of omnichannel ecommerce is to deliver a consistent, seamless experience across all channels.

This may sound daunting, but the benefits are undeniable…

Why is Omnichannel Retail so Valuable?

According to a study from the Harvard Business Review (HBR), 7{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of participants were online-only shoppers while 20{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} were store-only shoppers.

The majority of participants, 73{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}, used multiple channels during their shopping journey. These are omnichannel customers, and they’re the most valuable customers you can have.

Here’s why:

  • They spent on average 4{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} more on every shopping occasion in the store
  • They spent on average 10{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} more online than single-channel customers

But the most surprising part of the study is this:

Customers who used 4+ shopping channels spent 9{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} more in the store, on average, than those who only used one channel.

There’s a common worry amongst retailers that the lack of loyalty to a specific brand or ecommerce site can hurt their sales in the long-term.

But HBR’s study reveals that the opposite is true:

When participants conducted research on the retailer’s website or the website of other retailers, they spent 13{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} more in-store than other omnichannel shoppers.

In fact, within 6 months of an omnichannel shopping experience, these customers had a 23{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} higher rate of repeat shopping at their favorite retailer’s store and were more likely to recommend that brand to their family and friends.

Are you starting to see the power of omnichannel ecommerce?

By delivering this experience correctly, you’ll have customers who spend more, who become more loyal, and who spread your brand through word-of-mouth more often.

Now, you just need to know how to create an omnichannel experience.

How do You Implement an Effective Omnichannel Ecommerce Strategy?

Omnichannel ecommerce is still very young. The suggestions we lay out below are simply ways to begin designing your strategy around some proven principles.

To create the best omnichannel strategy, you have to observe what works for you, what works for your customers, and what’s not working at all and needs to change.

Focus on measuring and testing, not setting and forgetting.

To do that, here are a few ways to begin:

Sell on Every Platform

You don’t have an omnichannel ecommerce strategy unless you’re selling everywhere, all the time, on every device and every platform.

OK, you probably can’t sell on every platform, but you can probably sell on more platforms than you are currently.

Just selling on your website and Amazon are not going to cut it.

Ideally, you want to be on all platforms that measurably increase your social media sales, online sales, and in-store sales.

Here’s a 4-step process to make this easier for you:

  1. Start with only a few social media platforms at first, and get those right: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, for example.
  2. Improve your shopping cart using our tips later in this post.
  3. Branch off into 3rd-party ecommerce sites like Amazon, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
  4. Keep doing what works and try something else for the strategies that don’t work.

Optimize Mobile Commerce

According to Gartner, Inc., mobile engagement behavior will drive mobile commerce revenue to 50{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of U.S. digital commerce revenue.

Here are a few tips on optimizing for mobile commerce:

Optimize Your Product Sourcing

According to Frost and Sullivan, online B2B revenue will reach $6.7 billion by 2020.

If you want to sell B2C, then consider using B2B marketplaces to source your products cost-effectively.

By tapping into this market, you can increase your margins and have more control over your inventory, while A/B testing products to find the winners in your market.

Optimize Your Shopping Cart

You should do everything in your power to fight shopping cart abandonment.

According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented rate of shopping cart abandonment is 69{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.

If there’s anything worse than no customers, it’s having potential customers get all the way to the checkout page only to click away.

Here are some suggestions on optimizing your online checkout:

Track Your Inventory Across all Sales Channels

Omnichannel ecommerce relies on omnichannel inventory management.

In addition to all the things you can do on your website and 3rd-party sites to improve the shopping experience, you need to make sure you can track your inventory across all your sales channels.

What you need is a centralized, cloud-based inventory management system that tracks sales, shipments, deliveries, etc. on every platform.

Without this critical tool, you could quickly lose track of how much inventory you have in stock, leading to stockouts, which would result in a loss of revenue and customers.

With this tool, you’ll always know how much stock you have and how much you need, automating your stocktaking process, streamlining your supply chain, and improving your ability scale your business online.

If you want to reap the benefits of omnichannel ecommerce, Then we suggest using a proven inventory management tool.

Succeed in Omnichannel Ecommerce with Cloud-Based Inventory Management

From sending a purchase order to receiving your shipment, you can manage the whole process in the cloud, from anywhere in the world. You can manage all transactions across all sales channels in real-time, generating up-to-the-minute sales reports. And, you can update your product information in all your ecommerce platforms simultaneously. Our cloud-based inventory management software is the tool you need to optimize your omnichannel strategy.

Start your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

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5 Ways to Increase Engagement and Boost Social Media Sales

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Social media sales are possible if you know how to engage your audience!

Social media sales are possible if you know how to engage your audience!

Social media is like the cocktail party of ecommerce: ultimately, your job is to be the most entertaining and interesting host possible.

Your friends and fans will enjoy hanging out and engaging in conversation with you if you’re fun to talk to.

They’ll share your stuff with their friends if you offer interesting and relevant new ideas for them to consider.

They may even buy your products if you build a positive and long-lasting relationship with them, too.

In fact, they’re actually more likely to buy from you if the other people at party (social media), are saying great things about you.

In 2016, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a poll of nearly 23,000 online shoppers from around the world.

45{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of those polled said that reading comments, reviews, and feedback on social media influenced their digital behavior (including online purchases). The study went on to show how 78{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of respondents said that social media generally influenced them in some way.

So, how do you run your social media (party) to show people a good time, make them want to say good things about you, and ultimately, buy what you offer?

By following the 5 steps we’ve laid out here for increasing engagement and winning more customers!

Read on to discover how to increase sales by enhancing your social media presence and social selling strategies.

1. Listen to What Your Followers Say About You (and Your Competition)

Social media is a goldmine for insights about how your potential customers think about your business, brand, customer service, products, etc.

It’s also a way to see what customers say about your competition:

  •  If they’re complaining about them, you can the opportunity to turn those complaints into new product solutions or even let them know “hey, our product already solves this.”
  • If customers are praising your competition, you can use those comments to generate ideas for improving your own product.

If you want a window into how your target market thinks, pay attention to the language your potential customers use to describe their problems and your products so you can craft advertising and brand messaging that speaks directly to them, in their own words.

This will also help you better define your target audience, which will help you craft content and offers they actually want – boosting your brand’s reputation and social media sales.

2. Create Compelling Promotions

While you can’t always afford to offer deals year-round, you can boost your social media sales with one-off promotions that ignite short-term engagement.

A one-day flash sale, a 25{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} off coupon, or a “buy one get one free” deal are all forms of compelling promotions that get potential customers excited about and ready to buy from your business on social media.

But, if you want to make a sale while enhancing your social media presence, you should create promotions that require your prospect to do something small but meaningful in order to get the deal.

For example, instead of giving a prospect a coupon for a quick sale, you could require them to like your Facebook page first in order to get the coupon.

Or, say you want to run a contest: you could set rules like “each contestant has to take a picture of themselves doing the silliest thing they can think of with our product, and whichever gets the most votes in our twitter poll wins.” The prize can be whatever you want.

Now, each contestant is going to invite their friends to your page because they want more votes to win the prize. Those new friends may like your page and may even join your contest.

Plus, since fans are referring their friends to your page, you instantly have more credibility because of the power of word of mouth.

Asking for likes, emails, posts, etc. in exchange for your promotion will go a long way in both making more social media sales and making your brand more visible to potential customers.

3. Encourage Engagement

Engaging your customers isn’t about making a sale right away, it’s actually about creating a stronger relationship with them – which, eventually, can drive more sales on social media and beyond.

Take, for example, 5 chewing gum’s newest marketing campaign: #5truthordare.

On every gum wrapper is a dare you can perform or a truth you can tell.

Customers then post pictures or video of themselves telling the truth or performing the dare on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

This is a brilliant campaign because it creates a personal relationship with the people who participate; the participants are doing things a friend would ask of them, making the 5 brand feel like a friend.

They now have a personal memory that wouldn’t have happened without 5, forging a deeper bond with the brand.

Because participation means buying 5 gum, and people are curious to know what dares or truths they might get, this campaign drives sales while increasing engagement – a double win.

Those who don’t buy 5 gum, or did buy it but didn’t participate, now see other people on social media doing interesting things and they’ll feel left out. Even if they don’t participate in the challenge in the future, they will at least think more highly of 5 gum because they can see that so many others are engaging positively with them.

This is a prime example of how creating a hashtag and a challenge or invitation to engage with your product and post evidence of it online can increase your social media sales by virtue of making your brand more interesting and fun.

4. Promote Success Stories

A success story is any case where someone buys your product and uses it to solve their problem(s).

You can feature these success stories on social media and beyond by interviewing them in some way and asking permission to share their story.

If they agree, you can have them send you some pictures of themselves with/using your product and along with answers to a few pre-selected questions and/or a short story of how your product positively changed their lives.

Then, you can post these to your social media channels with a call to action inviting others to submit their own success stories to be featured.

Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful ways to increase trust in your company in general, but they’re especially great for boosting social media sales since so many people make decisions based on what others are saying about you online.

5. Be Personal

People want to buy from other people, not faceless businesses.

Regardless of the size of your social media audience, join and start conversations with them.

If you post an advertisement for a new product and people are commenting on it, respond to them.

Of course, be careful about who and how you respond – confrontations need to be dealt with carefully – but try to be helpful and honest when someone asks real questions, or express gratitude when someone says something good about your product.

At the very least, liking someone’s post will make that person feel like you care, you’re attentive, and you’re not too busy to engage with regular people.

Social Media is About People

Just like SEO, social media – like all good business – is ultimately about relationships.

By carving out the extra time to make simple but meaningful interactions with your customers and potential customers alike, you set yourself apart from your competitors and make it easier for people to buy from you.

Remember, social media sales are dependent on the social part above all else. By implementing these steps, you’ll create a social media experience that makes people like you, share your brand, and ultimately buy from you.

 

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Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central: How to Choose

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Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central : Which way should you go?

Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central: Which way should you go?

While the ecommerce landscape ebbs and flows there remains one constant we can’t escape (for now):

Amazon is the single most important platform you can be selling through if you want to stay competitive and profitable.

A 2016 study conducted by Bloomreach Inc., an internet marketing firm, revealed that 55{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of consumers use Amazon to search for products as their initial step on the buyer’s journey.

Those figures are up from 44{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} the previous year and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Most wholesalers and retailers begin with Amazon’s Seller Central since it’s the most accessible platform when starting out, but at some point, you’re probably going to consider becoming an Amazon Vendor.

We want to help you make the best decision between the two, so we’ll share with you exactly what these platforms offer, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and how they can help or hinder your ecommerce business.

But first, let’s start by defining their differences.

What’s the Difference Between Amazon Seller Central vs Vendor Central?

The 2 primary ways to make money on Amazon: as a 3rd party seller (Seller Central) or a 1st party seller (Vendor Central).

Let’s take a look at exactly how these interfaces work and what they offer to you.

Seller Central

Seller Central is the interface that allows wholesalers and retailers to list their products for direct purchase from consumers. Amazon considers you a “marketplace” or “3rd party” seller and gives you nearly full control over your brand messaging and marketing.

If you’re selling 40 items or less, you can sign up for an Individual plan without a subscription fee, and you’ll simply be charged $0.99 per item sold plus other selling fees, which vary by category.

If you’re a fairly high volume seller, then you can sign up for the Professional plan which costs $39.99 monthly plus per-item selling fees, which vary by category.

Vendor Central

Vendor Central is the interface used by manufacturers and distributors to sell directly to Amazon. Instead of setting up a consumer facing list of your products, Amazon buys your stock in bulk and sells it for you.

You negotiate a price for your products with Amazon, then Amazon will send you purchase orders which you can fulfill by shipping your stock to Amazon directly. They handle the marketing and you pay a set co-op fee.

Vendor Central is currently invite-only, and Amazon usually reserves their invites for popular brands or big companies who have strong sales and a strong reputation in the market.

However, you can sign up for Vendor Express to begin selling wholesale to Amazon right away and you’ll get most of the same benefits. If you’re selling enough on either Vendor Express or Seller Central, Amazon may ask you to participate in Vendor Central.

Even though Vendor Central and Vendor Express are similar, there are some key differences that we’ll touch on a little later in this article.

For now, let’s look at the benefits of being a Seller vs. being a Vendor if you’re offered that choice.

What Are the Benefits of Seller Central vs Vendor Central?

When choosing which interface to use, or when trying to switch from one interface to the other, it’s critical to know exactly what you’re getting out of the deal.

Let’s take a look at some of the main benefits of Seller Central and Vendor Central, then afterward, we’ll take a look at the drawbacks of both.

Benefits of Seller Central

Price Control

You set your own prices and have full control on when and why you raise or lower them – allowing you to maximize your profits.

Customer Analytics

Seller Central provides a clean and robust analytics dashboard to help you forecast demand and understand your customer’s interactions with your products on Amazon.

Creative Marketing Control

Since you’ll have full control over your listing, you’ll have full creative control over marketing aspects such as what keywords are used, what videos are added, what pictures are displayed, and what strategies are implemented through Amazon’s premium advertising features.

Quick Payouts

Seller Central offers payments every 2 weeks which can be critical to your business if you suffer from lack of cash flow or your profit margins are very slim starting out.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

If you sell high volume and become a “pro merchant,” Amazon will give you access to their Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program whereby they handle your shipping, customer service, and returns.

Benefits of Vendor Central

Amazon Vine Program

Amazon’s Vine program is mainly used for pre-released or new products and allows the top reviewers on Amazon to (hopefully) write great things about your products and give your listings a huge boost in credibility.

More Sales Right Away

Since Amazon buys your products in bulk, you’ll see a larger volume of sales faster than when you sell them one at a time as an Amazon Seller.

A+ Content

A+ Content is essentially an enhanced product listing that expands the basic description field and product images, displays a detailed video explaining your product’s features, provides a comparison chart and generally enhances the look and feel of your product for increased conversions.

Additional Marketing Tools

A+ Content isn’t the only marketing perk offered by Vendor Central, you also get access to Amazon Marketing Services, Amazon Display Advertising, and Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program that consumers use to receive your items on a monthly basis.

“Sold by Amazon” Seal of Approval

Established brands that sell on Amazon as a 3rd party retailer already have high credibility in the eyes of their consumers. But, if you’re relatively unknown, having Amazon put their stamp of approval on your products by displaying them as being “Sold by Amazon” will boost consumer confidence and make it more likely they will buy your product.

What Are the Drawbacks of Seller Central vs Vendor Central?

As many benefits as Seller Central and Vendor Central offer, they each have their own set of drawbacks that you should be aware of.

By contrasting the positives with some of these negatives, you’ll have a more balanced view on which interface best fits your business needs.

Seller Central Drawbacks

High Overhead

With complete control over your product listings comes complete responsibility for your stock maintenance, customer support, shipping, etc. While you can enroll in the FBA program if you’re not selling enough, you may be paying way more in overhead than the service is worth to handle everything until sales pick up.

Basic Product Pages

Unfortunately, if you’re not a Vendor you can only create basic product pages with basic descriptions and you miss out on longer, narrative descriptions, detailed product videos, and comparison charts.

Fierce Competition

Amazon sells well over 300 million products on their platform which creates a fiercely competitive environment for a new seller as much as an established one. You might even start competing with Amazon directly – if they observe a high-performing retailer, they’ll go directly to their manufacturer or distributor and buy wholesale and sell it themselves through Vendor Central if they can.

Vendor Central Drawbacks

Long Wait Times for Payments

Vendor Central pays its sellers after at least 60 days, but they could hold payment all the way up to 90 days, which can obviously hurt if you’re suffering from low cash flow.

Violations of MAP Pricing

Amazon has made it very clear that they don’t adhere to Minimum Advertised Prices and allow retailers, including themselves, to sell products below the manufacturer’s MAP requirements, which can cut into your profit margins if they decide to sell lower than yours.

Poor Seller Support

While 3rd party sellers have access to quick and easy support—since they’re required to manage their own listings—a 1st party seller has very little oversight or input into their product listings. Everything needs to be approved by your account manager, and if you’re not paying for Vendor Central’s extra services, you probably won’t receive preferential support treatment.

What’s The Difference Between Vendor Central vs Vendor Express?

Amazon’s Vendor Express program allows anyone to become a Vendor without being asked to join Vendor Central. It’s very similar to Vendor Central with a few key differences.

Since you may or may not be invited to Vendor Central, but still want to benefit from selling wholesale to Amazon, here are a few key benefits and drawbacks you should know about Vendor Express.

Benefits of Vendor Express

  • Pay nothing for your products to be warehoused by Amazon.
  • No wait to get started since it’s open to all sellers.
  • High turnover rates – so if you have a hot-selling product it could sell even faster through Vendor Express.

Drawbacks to Vendor Express

  • Net 90 payment terms.
  • You can only sell 85 items, while Vendor Central offers unlimited product listings.
  • Amazon is in complete control of how much they sell your products for.

So… How Do You Choose Between Seller Central vs Vendor Central?

If you’re a smaller brand that needs absolute control over your pricing and shipping to maximize growth, then Seller Central is right for you.

If you’re a bigger/quickly growing brand that wants to move a lot of product while letting Amazon manage just about everything for you – go with Vendor Central.

Regardless of which interface you choose, though, you’re going to need an effective system for managing your stock and inventory levels in order to be successful….

 

Ready to Optimize Your Amazon Business?

With seamless integration of your product listings with Amazon’s marketplace, automatic tracking of your sales, stock levels, and revenue, the right cloud-based inventory management software is an essential tool for the retailer or wholesaler who wants to have complete control over maximizing ROI and growth on Amazon.

Start your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

Try DEAR for Free

No Credit Card Required

 

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5 Proven Ways to Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment

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Another casualty of shopping cart abandonment...

Another casualty of shopping cart abandonment…

Did you know 69{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of online shoppers completely abandon their shopping carts before making a purchase?

That’s what the research says according to usability firm Baymard Institute.

Think about it like this:

Say 10 people walk into a grocery store, shop around for things on their list (and maybe a few things that aren’t – the bakery section is always calling!).

When all’s said and done in their shopping experience, 3 of them take their full carts to the checkout, smile as the cashier rings up their items, and pay the bill before heading home.

But for 7 of them, something happens between entering the grocery, starting to fill their carts, and the actual purchase.

Four of them were just taking a look around, they had some time to kill and thought they might like a snack; maybe they grabbed a couple things to think about them a bit, but ultimately they decided they weren’t that hungry and they needed to get a move on.

One of them put one or two items in their cart before checking Facebook, seeing their friends are meeting for drinks nearby right now, and deciding they don’t really need their items now – so they’ll come back later.

Another got all the way to the checkout line, but after waiting for 10 minutes in the crowded store with only 3 items to buy, they decide they’d rather just leave and come back later too.

And the last got all the way to checking out, but because the cashier gave them an unsavory look, they decided they didn’t quite trust handing over their money to them and just walked out.

Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

In their study,  Baymard makes it clear that 58.6{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of US online shoppers abandoned their carts within the last 3 months because they were “just browsing” or “not ready to buy”.

But these aren’t the shoppers you should be worried about – “browsing” is a millennia old part of the process, rooted all the way back in the hunter/gatherer days.

What you really need to know is why people who were ready to buy suddenly changed their minds.

Once you account for the “just browsing” segment, that last 10.4{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of abandoned carts is where you can actually make a difference in your sales.

And with research from BI Intelligence revealing approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise is abandoned on a yearly basis – there’s a huge opportunity, as they also found that smart companies could recover 63{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of that lost revenue by streamlining their checkout process.

 

Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment or How to Grow Your Profits!

Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment or How to Grow Your Profits!

Based on testing of checkout processes from leading e-commerce sites – such as Walmart, Amazon, and Wayfair – Baymard found that 35{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of site owners can fight shopping cart abandonment by simply redesigning their checkout page.

Though you might not realize it, there are certain things you’re doing that might be scaring off potential buyers, and certain things you’re NOT doing that are psychologically proven to make buyers feel more comfortable with and confident about their purchases.

So, if you want to make more sales and keep more customers, then read on to discover our top 5 ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment in order of least to most effective!

5. Include Images of Products Throughout Checkout Process

This is a powerful way to keep the value of your products front and center in your customer’s mind (so powerful we added it to our list even though it wasn’t covered in Baymard’s research – free bonus!).

Think about the process of buying physical goods from a bricks and mortar store.

Throughout the entire shopping process, you’re subconsciously reassuring yourself every item in your physical shopping cart is a worthwhile by literally looking at it throughout your entire shopping journey.

Even if you don’t do it consciously (or that juicy pack of steaks is buried under all the other stuff you’re going to buy), you’re carrying each and every item with you the entire time, a subtle reminder that you’ve already committed to buying it.

And when you finally get to the checkout counter, you have to physically take all of your items out of your cart and watch them get scanned.

So how do you apply the psychology of these subtle commitments and reminders online?

The moment a customer clicks “add to cart,” you should reassure them it was successfully added in one of a few ways:

  • By displaying a number of total items in their cart (+ however many they just added)
  • By taking them to a “successfully added” page (like Amazon).
  • Or maybe even a small popup that confirms their item has been added and what else is already in their cart (like Amazon would do if changing its website didn’t cost billions of dollars).

Then, once they get to the checkout page, you should display a thumbnail version of the product picture.

Even if you have multiple checkout pages, keep the thumbnails of all their in-cart items listed on one side of the screen to act as a visual reminder of what they’ll get when they complete their purchase – so they’ll be less likely to allow a distraction keep them from getting the products they want from you!

4. Use Trust Badges on Your Checkout Page

18{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of shopping cart abandonment occurs because users don’t trust the website their shopping on with their credit card information.

Baymard found that many people believed certain pages were more or less secure than other pages; even if this isn’t technically true – for example, if your entire site is secured with HTTPS – most people don’t have the technical insight to understand exactly how your website security works.

So especially when it comes time to enter their credit card info, people will look for any signs that your checkout page is tightly secured with a recognizable trust badge.

As we just mentioned, a common way to signal a secure checkout is with HTTPs, an SSL certificate, and some sort of badge that signals your website is secured this way.

But while it’s most common, HTTPS/SSL isn’t the only way to tell your visitors you care about their security and privacy.

You can also install other security software such as Symantec, Comodo, or TRUSTe.

These go a long way in protecting your customer’s data and making your business look (and actually become) more legitimate.

While security should be a top concern for ecommerce companies, there are other forms of trust badge.

Visual Website Optimizer ran a test for one of their clients and found that by adding a simple trust badge that read “100{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} money back guarantee” they increased their conversion by 32.57{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}.

While not website security related, money back guarantees still offer the peace of mind that comes with knowing if for any reason they don’t like the products they’ve bought, they can return them at little to no cost.

Ultimately buyers need their fears dispelled in order to feel comfortable enough to make buying decisions. So help them realize they’re making a good choice by using trust badges on your checkout page!

3. Reduce Checkout Form Elements

Baymard also found that 27{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of shopping cart abandonment occurs for a relatively simple reason:

The Checkout process is “too long/complicated.”

Their usability tests showed that the ideal checkout flow should be restricted to 12-14 form elements, yet the average amount of form elements used by US ecommerce sites was 23.

That means that by cutting their form elements in half, most site owners can see significant reductions shopping cart abandonment.

And, if you can, stop using multi-page checkouts; just like too many form elements can be overwhelming, so too is trudging through page after page just to get to the “order now” button.

Instead, try to condense your entire checkout process to just one or two pages, and if you must have multiple pages for checkout, use a progress bar that displays how far along your shopper is in their checkout journey.

Recent research from Statistic Brain suggests that humans now have lower attention spans than a goldfish – so each and every task you ask someone to complete is another second they’re losing interest and becoming more distracted.

Fewer fields to complete and “you’re almost there” progress bars can help keep them engaged while gently guiding them closer to the sale. And remember: by making your checkout process shorter, you’re making 27{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of online shoppers more likely to actually buy from you.

2. Ask Users to Register for an Account After the Sale, Not Before

35{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of shopping cart abandonment occurs because ecommerce sites make customers create an account in order to make a purchase.

Requiring a customer to create an account on your site before being able to make a purchase is sort of like a tax on their time – you’re making it more difficult for them to make a purchase without really adding value to their order (sure, next time it might be easier to purchase by logging in, but there won’t be a next time if there’s not a this time!).

Why lawmakers raise taxes on tobacco products (besides revenue)? To deter people from buying them.

Do you really want to deter potential customers from buying through from you?

We’d guess not.

So instead, offer a “guest account” option that streamlines the checkout process and makes it easy for the customer to buy first. Then, on the “thank you” screen, offer to create an account for them in order to make checkout even faster next time.

This is a win-win for 2 reasons:

  1. You’ve made it easy to purchase from you at all.
  2. You’re offering to make the checkout process even easier to purchase from you next time.

In a time and attention strapped world, easy sells.

And as an added bonus, by creating accounts and capturing emails from actual customers, you’ll be able to build an email list that you can turn into a valuable resource going forward.

1. Reduce Your Shipping Cost (aka Make It Free)

Well, you’ve finally made it to the last thing any business wants to do, even if they know it will increase customer conversion – lower their prices.

It’s a hard fact to swallow, but the biggest reason for cart abandonment is high hidden costs like shipping fees and taxes. 61{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of potential buyers will abandon their cart if you try to slyly tack on additional costs at checkout.

But as a smart,web-savvy business, you’re not going to do that (at least, not anymore).

The most important step to take here is to be completely honest about extra costs.

The moment your customer adds something to their cart, you should calculate tax and display it with their total. Being transparent beats being sneaky in the long run because you build trust before the sale – which makes that sale more likely – instead of breaking what trust you’ve built up right before someone is ready to buy, which results in losing both the sale and a customer.

The second step is to try and offer free shipping (even if it costs you).

The big ecommerce retailers have been doing it for so long it’s no wonder most consumers expect everyone, including small businesses, to follow suit; a 2011 Comscore study suggested that 61{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of consumers are likely to cancel their entire purchase if free shipping is not offered.

If you absolutely can’t afford free shipping for each and every one of your items, then create different bundles of products or have “free shipping on orders over $x” to make enough money to cover shipping on all products while still making a profit.

At the very least, offer free shipping for special holidays.

Either a 1-day or 1-week free shipping offer can easily spike sales during peak buying months.

Now as an added bonus, we have 1 more step you can take to reduce shopping cart abandonment:

Always have enough stock to meet customer demand.

Make Sure Shoppers can Fill Their Carts… Even if They’re Going to Abandon Them

One of the quickest ways to damage your reputation and bottom line is greeting would-be customers with the dreaded “out of stock” sign.

Are you able to easily and automatically track your products from raw good to sale in order to always have just the right amount of stock?

If not, you need a better way to manage your inventory: one that offers better metrics on your customer’s buying decisions while helping you keep a close eye on your inventory levels across your warehouses and sales channels.

Automate tracking, integrate product info with major ecommerce platforms, and keep track of your sales throughout the year with cloud-based inventory management software.

 

Ready To Take Back Control of Your Inventory?

Experience the automation and real-time reporting benefits modern cloud-based inventory management software offers by starting your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!

Try DEAR for Free

No Credit Card Required

 

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Use Product Bundling to Grow Your Profits

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Grow your customer base and increase average order size with product bundling!

Grow your customer base and increase average order size with product bundling!

Growing a business means growing sales, which can be done a few ways.  A couple of go-to strategies include finding more customers and increasing your average order size.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do both at the same time, all while making your offerings more attractive than the competition’s?

Luckily, there’s 1 simple strategy that does exactly this:

It’s called product bundling.

Product bundling is the process of offering several products for sale as one combined product.

But is it actually an effective way to grow a business?

To test this, researchers in the Netherlands conducted a study to understand the effects of bundles on purchasing decisions.

Their study revealed that product bundling does, in fact, create an incentive for consumers to not only choose to buy from a particular brand (hard enough in and of itself), but even go so far as to switch from one brand to another (even harder).

So if the shop across the street offers a single slice of pizza, but you offer a slice paired with chips and a soda, customers are more likely to choose you over them.

But it’s not as easy as just throwing 2 or 3 products together and putting them on your digital or physical shelves… there a few things you need to know to make product bundling successful.

Read on to check out our 5 tips to start profiting from the power of product bundling quickly and easily.

1. Offer “Mixed Bundling” not “Pure Bundling”

When it comes to marketing, there are two types of bundles:

  • “Pure bundling” is when you ONLY offer a bundle, without offering those same products as standalone items.
  • “Mixed bundling” is when you offer standalone products AND a bundle of those products. It’s also the best type of bundle if you want more cash and customers.

2 researchers, Vineet Kumar and Timothy Derdenger, studied the sales of Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP consoles, along with the games for both devices, between 2001 and 2005.

Essentially, they found that even though consumers may perceive the value a bundle (the Game Boy + a game) less than the individual components, they still bought MORE units of the bundle than of the individual products.

A driving factor behind this, though, was that consumers had a choice – they could either buy the bundle or buy the game and system separately; a “mixed bundle.”

When Nintendo offered a “pure bundle,” revenues decreased by 20{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3}, meaning hardware sales fell by millions, and software sales fell by over 10. Ouch!

If you want to maximize your ROI from product bundling, make sure you clearly present both standalone and bundle options to your customers.

2. Offer Bundles That Make Sense

The key to great bundles is pairing related items together.

For example, a Christmas tree cookie cutter + box of cookie mix + frosting is a festive baking bundle. These products logically belong together and complement each other.

Some producers accidentally find themselves offering a “multi-pack” instead of a bundle.

In this example, a multi-pack would be a star cookie cutter + a tree cookie cutter + an ornament cookie cutter sold together. Since they’re variations on the same product, this isn’t the kind of “bundle” we’re talking about.

You also want to be careful not to offer totally unrelated items, like a 6-plate set + a mop.

Sure, they’re both “household items,” and you might use both in the kitchen, but they don’t match the “buyer’s intent.” When someone is thinking of buying plates, they’re thinking about how they’ll look when they serve dinner guests and if they’ll match their silverware, not how they’re going to clean their floors after everyone’s left.

If you want a quick way to find bundle ideas, search for products related to yours on Amazon, then look at the “frequently purchased together” section under a particular product’s listing.

With all the data Amazon has at its disposal, it’s a safe bet that they’re offering the items that are most likely to sell together, signaling to you which products you’ll be able to successfully sell in a bundle.

Learn more about crafting unique bundles to sell on Amazon here.

3. Create a “Bundle Brand”

An often overlooked value of product bundling is that it allows you to create a totally unique product, with a unique SKU, that your competition will find much harder to replicate.

Think about it this way:

There could be 20 sellers of selling plates that look like some you’re offering.

But fewer sellers could offer a bundle pack of plates and silverware that both look similar to those you could offer.

And if you create a special brand, a trademarked “collection” of dinnerware, copying you will be near impossible.

The more products you have in a category, the more possibilities you have to mix and match to create totally unique listings.

And the more likely your bundles will help you stand out from the crowd.

4. Sell on Bundle-Friendly Platforms

Recognizing the value of product bundling, the major internet retailers are very friendly toward product bundling and will gladly help you set up new bundles. But any well-established marketplace is great for testing different bundles to find a winning package.

So if you’re business’s ecommerce site is already generating a good amount of sales, the right plugins will help you test out new ideas quickly.

Here’s a bit more information on bundling using top ecommerce platforms:

Amazon

Amazon has a straightforward list of rules and recommendations for product bundling. Learn more about their policies and recommendations here.

Shopify

The Shopify app store includes an app that makes it easy to offer bundles just like Amazon’s “frequently purchased together” section, as well as discounts when customers buy them. Check out the app here.

Woocommerce

The Woocommerce Extension Store also features product bundling app similar to the one offered for Shopify, check it out here.

5. Track Bundle Sales and Adjust Accordingly

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to read your customers’ minds and create product bundles you know they’ll buy?

Then be sure to collect data on their buying patterns!

To create effective bundles, you’ll want to collect customer data around:

  • What they buy separately
  • What they buy together
  • How often they’re buying
  • How much they’re willing to spend

Once you know all this, you can create bundles tailored specifically for your existing customers to grow your repeat business, as well as grow your average order size for new and existing business.

And don’t stop collecting that data!

Continue to track the success and failures of your product bundles and adjust them accordingly.

But how do you effectively track your sales and customer data?

With inventory management software that centralizes all your stock management and tracking under one hub, seamlessly integrates with multiple ecommerce platforms (including the ones we listed above), and gives you up-to-the-minute reports about your customers’ buying habits.

 

Ready To Profit from Product Bundling?

Experience the stress-free automation and integration that cloud-based inventory management software can provide your ecommerce business.
Start your free 14-day trial of DEAR Inventory today!!

Try Dear for Free

No Credit Card Required

 

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B2B SEO: Grow Your Traffic with These 10 Tips for Ecommerce Sites

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B2B SEO Tips Ecommerce Sites

Drive More Traffic To Your B2B Ecommerce Site with Better SEO

Are you a driven business owner looking to take over your market through an automated sales funnel?

If so, Search Engine Optimization is critical.

Like SEO in general, B2B SEO is essentially it’s a combination of best practices, good habits, and compound growth.

And while search engine marketing has long been a go-to tool for smart B2B ecommerce businesses, it’s no longer the cherry on top many owners once thought it was.

But how do you optimize your B2B ecommerce website to climb in the search engine rankings, drive more traffic, and grow your sales?

At the highest level, SEO essentially consists of 3 parts:

  • Keyword research and selection,
  • On-site or technical SEO,
  • And link building.

Keep reading for a few tips on each.

B2B Keyword Research

The first step in optimizing your ecommerce site for search engines is to do keyword research – the process of finding words and phrases people are typing into search engines like Google and Bing to find products like yours.

While it might be easier to come up with product names, descriptions, and other website content without thinking about using certain words and phrases, choosing the right keywords and using them in the right places is key (pun intended) to having any chance of appearing in the top results when people search the web.

That being said, our tips for B2B keyword research are:

Create an Intentional Keyword Strategy

It’s not enough to use generic words and phrases that might relate to your business like “bulk t-shirts” or “soy protein powder.”

These are good starts, but they’ll also be highly competitive and crowded with companies spending a fortune on maintaining top rankings.

Finding the right keywords takes a little bit of digging but pays off in the long run – check out Shopify’s Beginner’s Guide To Keyword Research For Ecommerce to learn more!

Use Tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to Find Great Keywords

To get started with your research, use free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Google Trends to get new ideas.

You’ll start by thinking of a few words and phrases that are relevant to your business (“bulk t-shirts”) and plug them into the Keyword Planner (side note: you’ll need to create an Adwords account using your existing Google account – but you don’t need to buy ads to use the tool).

From there, Google will offer hundreds of suggestions and tell you how much traffic, competition, and what the suggested bid is for each.

The rule of thumb is the more traffic the better and you want at least some competition (which proves it’s a valuable keyword).

From there you can compare suggested bids and use Google Trends to identify which keywords are most popular when it’s a close call.

Focus on 1 Keyword Per Page to Start

Moz has an excellent piece on How Many Terms/Phrases you should target on a single page, but as you’re getting started just focus on targeting one word per page to keep things simple.

On-Site SEO for B2B Ecommerce

On-site or technical SEO gets into all sorts of (technical) details, tricks, and hacks that you can spend hours learning about and implementing.

However, with the right website software and a little bit of work on your part, you can cover the essentials without spending a ton of time.

Use Your Keywords in All the Right Places

The SEO experts at Moz have created an excellent Beginner’s Guide to SEO that covers the theory and basic practices of getting your ecommerce website search engine optimized.

One of the critical parts of this when it comes to on-site SEO is placing your keywords in locations where search engines look to figure out what your page is about.

Definitely check out that guide if you have the time, but when it comes to keyword placement you’ll want to use your target words and phrases:

1. In the title tag at least once; try to keep them as close to the beginning as possible.

2. Once in a prominent location near the top of your page.

3. At least two or three times, including variations, in the main copy on your page, maybe more if you have a lot of content.

4. At least once in the alt tag of an image on your page – which helps with both web and image searches.

5. Once in the URL.  Also, as a general rule be sure your URLs are readable by humans rather than something generic generated by your content management system, and use a consistent URL structure across your pages.

6. At least once in the meta description tag, which doesn’t help with ranking in search engines but draws attention to your page when people are scanning their search results.

Based on this info, can you tell what keyword we’re targeting in this article?!

Include High-Quality, Long-Form Copy on Every Product Page

While it can be tempting to try to target lots of keywords by creating lots of pages, it’s a lot of work both to create those pages and to increase your rankings for each and every one.

Also, a key factor in search engine rankings is the time visitors stay on your website – so the more valuable content they find, the longer they’ll stay and contribute to your rankings.

For more check out this post on Search Engine Land about the SEO and user science behind long-form content.

Make Sure Search Engines can Understand Your Website

It’s important to note that search engines don’t see web pages the same way we do – all they can “see” is text, and if that text isn’t structured in a way they understand, they won’t be able to accurately rank your pages.

To prevent this, it’s essential that your website has a few key documents – including an XML Sitemap and robots.txt file.

While it’s a technical thing to implement manually, with the right content management system these will be automatically created and formatted without you having to do any extra work.

If your website runs on WordPress (which we highly recommend), check out the Genesis Framework by Studiopress – it has all sorts of security, performance, and SEO improvements baked in to make things easy.

Ecommerce Link Building

Once you’ve discovered a great list of keywords and made sure your website is optimized, the last essential element of B2B SEO for your ecommerce website is link building.

For Google and the like, ranking is all about connecting users looking to find a piece of information or solve a problem with high-quality content and products that meet their needs.

And since high-quality content and products usually attract links from social media and other websites, the number of links pointing to your website is key to boosting your rankings.

Once again this is a complex topic and there are marketing agencies entirely dedicated to ecommerce SEO (including link building), but here are a couple actionable tips you to get you started:

Get Active on Social Media

Just like not having a website in 2002 meant your business didn’t exist, today that’s true of social media.

And not only is a social media presence great for helping potential customers find you, it can contribute to your search engine rankings!

So be sure to actively share and create content for at least one social media platform (for instance, making video product descriptions and adding them to Youtube can be good for this and selling customers who visit your website).

And include “follow” and “share” buttons on your website to make it easy for people interested in your products to stay in touch and spread the word about your company.

To get a better idea of social media’s possibilities, check out this Practical Ecommerce article covering 9 B2B business that do it well.

Be Sure to Blog

Another must-have when it comes to B2B SEO is fresh content.

Like social media this provides multiple benefits: it not only improves your website’s rankings as a whole but also allows you to target more keywords and helps you build trust and likeability with potential customers by helping them solve problems and better understand your business.

For more on why blogging is so important, and get a few ideas to start, check out Shopify’s post on ecommerce blogging.

Sell Your Products through Online Marketplaces

Keeping with the theme of this link building section, selling your products through online marketplaces is not only a great way to grow additional revenue streams (obviously) and get discovered by new customers, but it can also be a great way to drive more traffic to your website and improve your SEO with more links.

But you’re probably thinking – can I really sell my B2B products on websites like Etsy and Amazon?

Well, it might be a stretch – but don’t forget about eBay wholesale and Alibaba, both of which are great places to sell wholesale products on top of the hundreds of other wholesale specialty marketplaces (ever heard of Joor?).

The Final Tip: SEO is About People, Not Algorithms

While it’s perhaps less actionable than the others, this last tip is the most important to keep in mind when working on your B2B SEO.

While it’s important to find the right keywords, put them in all the right places, and get more links to your website, ultimately ranking highly in search engines is about finding and helping people.

Remember, search engines want to show people results that meet their needs – whether that’s information in the form of a high-quality blog post or the perfect merchandise for their retail business.

And you want to find customers who actually want to buy from you – which means targeting keywords that make sense for your business as well as providing high-quality content and products that satisfy and keep them coming back for more.

That’s what we’ve aimed to do with this article and all our products and services here at Dear.

So get out there and start optimizing your B2B ecommerce website’s SEO today – and if you found this article helpful, be sure to share it on social media using one of the buttons below to help us with ours!

 

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