how to overcome the biggest challenges facing ecommerce businesses
TRANSCRIPT
How to Overcome the Biggest Challenges Facing Ecommerce BusinessesJanuary 24, 2017
In our increasingly complex digital world, basic payment processing limits online growth.
That’s why the most successful online stores optimize revenue through robust and flexible ecommerce solutions.
In transitioning to a more comprehensive platform, vendors need to be assessed on their ability to: • solve existing pain points, and• easily scale to facilitate and
support future growth efficiently.
Challenges Faced By Ecommerce Companies
PART 1
Challenges Faced By Ecommerce Companies
Lack of expertise
Managingthe customer experience
Adapting to new opportunities
Accessing the
right data
1 2 3 4
Acquisitions and mergers are becoming commonplace.
The larger firms that result are increasingly implementing direct-to-consumer channels that put downward price pressure on smaller companies.
The combination of lower returns and increasing barriers to market highlights the growing challenges faced by smaller ecommerce businesses.
To remain competitive, smaller companies and start-ups need to take full advantage of their flexibility and focus on identifying and removing any and all obstacles to user conversion.
Identifying andRemoving Obstacles
Lack of expertise
Managing the customer experience
Accessing the
right data
1 2 3 4Adapting to new
opportunities
When applied to the world of ecommerce, experience provides:
• Insight into what adds the most value
• Guidance in the prioritization of features
• Realistic expectations around timelines, risks and outcomes
Lack of Expertise: ExperiencedPeople Make A Difference
Early on I didn’t appreciate the positive impact of adding
experienced people on our team.
Hiten Shah, Founder, KISSMetrics and CrazyEgg
Businesses offering subscription services online, for example, need an ecommerce partner witha proven track record managing:
• risk• fraud • chargebacks• churn
Out-of-the-box solutions do not come with ecommerce expertise and, therefore, are not tailored to specific business needs.
Identifying andRemoving Obstacles
Lack of expertise
Managing the customer experience
Accessing the
right data
2 3 4Adapting to new
opportunities
The key to optimizing conversion rates and revenue starts with a thorough understanding of the customers’ behavior on the site, particularly in the checkout process.
Insights from this analysis allow businesses to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time, which results in a better experience, translating into increased loyalty and customer lifetime value.
Managing the Customer Experience:Acting on Insights to Optimize Conversions
Customer Experience Correlates to Loyalty
In order to enhance the customer experience, an ecommerce solution must be able to: • present relevant cross sell
opportunities• decrease cart abandonment
with dynamic pricing, • present a localized cart • A/B spilt test your cart pages
Ensuring that you can customize your cart is key.
It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by
doubling your traffic.
Jeff Eisenberg, Author & CEO, BuyerLegends
The average cart abandonment rate is 69.23%, meaning that only roughly one in every four customers actually finish
the purchase.
Baymard Institute, Jan 2017
There are many ways effective personalization can be used to manage the customer experience to increase revenue and grow lifetime value.
To do this your ecommerce platform must have a robust API that is able to link to the marketing data that provides insights to customer activity.
Ecommerce companies that are able to connect your data sources are uniquely positioned to provide the experience that results in more conversions and higher revenue.
Identifying andRemoving Obstacles
Lack of expertise
Managing the customer experience
Adapting to new
opportunities
Accessing the
right data
3 4
To stay competitive, small to medium sized online businesses need to an ecommerce partner that: • offers a robust yet flexible
platform, and• is able to help improve
conversion rates and revenue growth
Adapting to New OpportunitiesFacilitated by Strategic Partnerships
Alternative payment methods
Localized checkout process
International tax collection and
remittance
To realize new opportunities in foreign markets, the immediate ability to implement and leverage the following ecommerce functionality is essential:
Similarly, alternative ways to reach and interact with customers are emerging every day. In order to employ strategies like chat and mobile commerce or social selling, a mobile optimized checkout experience is necessary.
For online businesses, the decision to pursue new opportunities should be informed by the associated revenue and profit potential, not by the limitations of a platform.
Time is the hard part in international expansion. It could take you months or years
to get all the relationships you need. Finding a way to circumvent the time gets you selling
stuff faster and gets you making more money more quickly. So finding the right partner is the best choice, because going and doing it
from scratch is lengthy and may be impossible.
Andrew Wong, Partner, Kurt Salmon Digital
Identifying andRemoving Obstacles
Lack of expertise
Managing the customer experience
Adapting to new
opportunities
Accessing the right
data
4
For many online businesses, the cart and checkout is created and powered by their chosen ecommerce platform.
The checkout is the last, and arguably the most critical step in the buyers journey. Therefore, a customer’s perception towards a brand can be heavily influenced by the cart page experience.
Access to Data: Data-Driven DecisionsAre Mission Critical to Success
Access to accurate, relevant, real-time customer and revenue data enables leaders to make timely data-driven decisions around dynamic pricing, targeted offers, upselling opportunities and other strategic personalization tactics.
All these efforts help to deliver a more positive customer experience resulting in more revenue and increased brand loyalty.
The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.
Arthur C Nielsen, Market Researcher
Therefore, it is imperative that your ecommerce provider does all of the following — well:
• has a customizable cart• provides a fully optimized cart
experience• enables A/B cart split testing• provides full cart analytics data
Identifying andRemoving Obstacles
Lack of expertise
Managing the customer experience
Adapting to new
opportunities
Accessing the right
data
Determining If An Ecommerce Provider Can Meet The
Challenges
PART 2
Questions to Ask
Do they have the technology to
meet your objectives?
Do they have the ability to
implement the solution?
Are theya cultural fit?
Questions to Ask
Do they have the technology to
meet your objectives?
Do they have the ability to
implement the solution?
Are theya cultural fit?
When considering this question, evaluation of these criteria is essential:
• features• pricing• motivations
Do They Have the Technology to SupportYou Now and Enable Scalable Expansion?
Evaluating features
Plan early to enable seamless scaling and flexing to meet your long-term goals.
Evaluate according to your current needs with an eye to the future based on sophistication and type of provider (see next slide)
DYNAMIC PRICING
INTELLIGENT PAYMENT ROUTING
GLOBAL COMMERCE
INTERNATIONAL TAX COLLECTION AND REMITTANCEINTEGRATED
PERFORMANCE CHANNELS
PRIVATE NETWORK
CAPABILITIES
LICENSE KEY MANAGEMENT
UP, CROSS AND DOWN SELL
OPPORTUNITIES
SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT
CUSTOMIZABLE CART PAGES
EASY TO USE APIS
LOCALIZED CHECKOUT
MULTI-LINGUAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
CUSTOMIZABLE TRANSACTION
COMMUNICATIONS
CUSTOMER SELF-
SERVICEPAYMENT GATEWAY
TRIAL PERIOD MANAGEMENT
COUPONS
CUSTOMIZABLE TRANSACTION
COMMUNICATIONS
RENEWAL OPTIMIZATION
MOBILE OPTIMIZED CART
RESELLER AND PARTNER MANAGEMENT
FRAUD MITIGATION
PCI DSS LEVEL 1
CERTIFICATION
FLEXIBLE PRICING OPTIONS
RUDIMENTARY PAYMENT PROCESSING >>>
END-TO-END ECOMMERCE
REFUND AND CHARGEBACK MANAGEMENT
>>>
SOP
HIST
ICAT
ION
>>>
<<< DEDICATED CLIENT SERVICES TEAM >>>
ADVANCED REAL TIME
REPORTING & DASHBOARDS
Evaluating Pricing
Discover if implementation is free and if all features are included, or if additional investment is required to access advanced functionality.
Some providers offer a 2.9% transaction fee to process payments only.
Some providers include everything in their fee, including all the features in the table on the previous slide.
Evaluating Motivation
Are they invested in your success?
Ecommerce providers that charge a percentage of revenue make money only when a transaction is completed through their client's online store.
Any feature implementation or service offering on the part of the ecommerce provider is intended to make their client more money.
These providers are inherently invested in their clients' success.
Questions to Ask
Do they have the technology to
meet your objectives?
2Do they have the
ability to implement the
solution?
Are theya cultural fit?
More complex ecommerce needs that exceed the capabilities of simple payment processing arise when a business has successfully grown and needs to be able to quickly and “switch on” a more sophisticated feature set.
Do They Have the Ability to Implement?Their Experience and Structure is Critical
to Your Success
All of which need to be implemented without any unanticipated additional charges.
Multiple payment options
Partner payouts
Trial period management
Flexible payment terms
Multiple languages
Cross, up-&-down selling
Dunning management
Multiple currencies
Dynamic pricing
Renewal optimization
More sophisticated functionality can include:
Questions to Ask
Do they have the technology to
meet your objectives?
Do they have the ability to
implement the solution?
Are theya cultural fit?
For online businesses that see ecommerce as more than a transaction, but rather as a way to generate profit, increase LTV, and introduce innovative new revenue streams, it is important to select a provider in a position to understand these needs.
Are They A Cultural Fit?What Are Your Expectations?
Ensure they offer a true end-to-end solution where functionality is developed in house and integrated into the platform, not supplied through disconnected third party apps.
This reduces potential points of failure and removes the friction often associated with trying to connect to independent applications.
Are They A Cultural Fit?What Are Your Expectations?
Look for a platform that is built for the needs of SMBs. Ensure you resemble the companies on their existing client list and check out their testimonials.
Lastly, check to ensure you have full access to a dedicated client services team.
Partner with a firm motivated by growing your business, not charging for apps or functionality.
Are They A Cultural Fit?What To Look For
Questions to Ask
Do they have the technology to
meet your objectives?
Do they have the ability to
implement the solution?
Are theya cultural fit?
The ecommerce landscape is constantly evolving.
Everything from new payment methods, billing models, partnership arrangements and innovative
revenue sharing applications, when managed effectively, can increase the bottom line for
organizations.
To realize these gains, partnering with an experienced ecommerce provider that understands
the challenges and can effectively and efficiently turn them into opportunities can provide
ecommerce businesses with the competitive edge they’re looking for.
Wrapping It Up
