Online stores have been booming during the last year. Here we share some myths, facts and recommendations related to e-commerce that you should consider before launching your online store.
Miths
Setting up an online store does not require investment, because everything is digital.
Facts
An online store does require investment. The first thing is to invest in is in a good digital commerce platform that will assist you in the end-to-end integration considering the entire e-commerce process, not only the payment itself.
Establish an intuitive purchase process for the user. Investing in designing a good user experience is important.
Invest in advertising. Having a good marketing strategy that brings traffic to your online store and informs the customer on what makes your product or service relevant to them is important.
In addition to the fact that investment is required, the profits are not reflected immediately when the online store is in production, since other details need to be considered to deliver the goods to the end consumer like delivery times (this requires a good logistics partner), will you include free shipping, among others.
As in any business, you have to work hard to optimize the entire process and delivery chain so that the profits can begin to be realized.
Recommendations
We recommend that you invest in technology that can manage your business needs. Also having partners from the beginning with whom you can make sure that you will provide a quality service experience that will guarantee your customer is satisfied will be reflected in repeat purchases and a word-of-mouth recommendations.
The main investments should be:
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Ecommerce setup
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Fixed costs of hosting and security
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Plugin updates
Also, do not forget that the effort and time you must dedicate to setting up our business is an investment that you must consider.
Miths
In ecommerce, products sell themselves because they are available to everyone. It is not necessary to have a strategy that communicates your product or service offering.
Facts
As in any store in the brick-and-mortar world, communications efforts need to be defined so that your customers know you, visit you and decide to buy from you.
Likewise, in ecommerce, it is important to structure digital marketing strategies that start with a correct segmentation of the audience you want to reach, understand the interests of that target audience, develop strategies that promote your products and services and tell your target audience the benefits of your product /service, what differentiates you from the competition and why should they buy from you and remain loyal to your brand.
Today digital marketing allows you to develop massive, personalized strategies, based on the content that each of your target customers consume. Optimizing descriptions, meta titles and using search engine optimization (SEO) or organic positioning techniques which are essential to improve your presence in search results.
Likewise, mixing digital and traditional marketing strategies allows you to be present at the different points of contact with your customers.
Recommendations
Define, from the onset of your ecommerce strategy, the level of support you are going to give to your online store through digital marketing campaigns, this will allow you to position your products and services within your target audience and achieve early awareness and successes.
Not only is the quality of the product and service you offer important but also it is essential that the description of our products and services be excellent so as to be able to optimize the sites’ URL presence, using SEO techniques to position your online store within the first search results.
Miths
The best way to increase sales in ecommerce is by lowering prices and offering special online promotions that cannot be accessed in the physical store
Facts
Price is not the only factor that customers look at when making a purchase. The shopping experience (delivery service, attention, shipping costs, etc.), in many cases, outweigh the price factor.
Providing a user-centered design, in which the usability of your online store is very intuitive and simple for the user to navigate and complete the purchase process, is highly valued by e-commerce customers. In the digital world, the simpler, the better.
It is important to define loyalty strategies that not only make your customers buy from you repeatedly, but also recommend you to others and improve your online reputation.
Recommendations
To increase sales in your online channel you need to provide your customer with memorable experiences, for example, give a gift that complements their purchase. Let them know that you know them, and they are important to you by offering them personalized recommendations.
Another possibility is to initially launch online-only products or services and thus entice your customers to visit and experience your online store which, in turn, will help you increase online sales.
Miths
The greater the number of payments options offered, the greater the profitability of your online store.
Facts
Not necessarily having more payments options, will make the ecommerce offer more profitable.
To implement the correct payments methods it is necessary to know your target audience, because if you understand your audience’s needs and online purchase behavior patterns you can use this information as a guide to establish the necessary payment options.
The most used payment methods are PSE (service that allows you to make purchases or payments, debiting the savings or checking account of the person who buys) and credit cards, but if your product is aimed at the unbanked population, you may need to include cash-on-delivery as a viable payment option, or others that address your target audience’s needs.
That is why it is so important to have a payment gateway that supports all payment methods, so you can choose the payment methods that best suit your customer.
Recommendations
We recommend offering the payment methods that adapt to your audience’s culture and needs by having a payment gateway that can provide different options to cover all market demands.
Miths
The more fraud prevention tools implemented, the lower the transaction approval rate and therefore, the less income you will have from your online store.
Facts
If you have tighter controls on security, the approval rate is not necessarily lower.
There are mechanisms that help prevent fraud, authenticate users, and implement security enhancements, and that, additionally, help increase the approval rate. For example, Machine Learning systems are a very good option, because they follow and learn from user behavior and allow for greater accuracy when rejecting or approving a transaction.
Likewise, services such as 3DS, which is a user authentication protocol, not only allows you to validate the identity of your customers but also shifts the fraud responsibility away from the merchant. With this service, it is not the merchant who assumes the fraud but rather the user since the user is authenticated before carrying out the transaction.
Recommendations
Having greater security mechanisms could intervene in the user’s payment experience, but at the same time, it can represent greater profitability for the business, by reducing the fraud exposure of your online store.