BigCommerce Fulfillment Best Practices
For a new BigCommerce store owner, it can be frightening to understand the fulfillment world. Right from when a customer makes an order and when the order is processed, everything is important. You might not have considered how an online order ends at a buyer’s doorstep. It is never a one-way process as it involves different processes. The fulfillment process won’t be complete without this process, from the routing to the inventory management to choosing the right package for the lowest dimension weight. The components of the Bigcommerce fulfillment process include receiving the product, inventory, and order processing, shipping, and return processes. Best practices of BigCommerce Fulfilment Convenient warehouse location It doesn’t matter if you are not operating a brick-and-mortar store; you still need a convenient warehouse location for your store, besides the size of your storage space. You fulfill these orders in very important as it will contribute to the speed and costs of delivery. Since both fast shipping and affordable options are important for customers, optimizing your fulfillment based on the location of your customers would cost-effectively go a long way. For instance, shipping orders to Canadian customers from overseas can take a long time unless the customer is willing to pay for express delivery. Choose the right fulfillment model Choosing to determine how to fill orders depends on several factors, including products, order volume, and how you manage the orders. However, there are three methods to choose the right fulfillment mode for your eCommerce store. You can decide to do the in-house order, third-party fulfillment, or dropshipping. In the in-house order, the merchants complete every order without any third-party logistics provider or drop shipper. The third-party model outsources the packing and shipping to a company because they have run out of space. However, in a dropshipping model, the business owner never holds the item they sell on their website. The manufacture produces, stores, and ship the items once a customer places an order. Use technology Another best practice for your BigCommerce fulfillment is technology integration to your store. Software that allows you to integrate with eCommerce platforms and online marketplaces seamlessly can help manger orders through various sales channels without needing manual uploads or entering duplicated data. An automation app can assist you in sorting orders with different characteristics and notified the staff responsible for taking care of them. With technology, you can send tracking detail to the marketplace or platform and share them with customers. eCommerce businesses must take advantage of technology integration to connect to manufacturing and purchasing activities to provide accurate decisions. Plan for peak seasons Every eCommerce business loves peak seasons because it means more sales and revenue. However, for that to happen, you have to plan ahead of these seasons and stock products. At times, new store owners find it hard to determine the number of products they need during peak seasons. Here, you can use previous peak seasons to determine the number of items to stock. For instance, during the last Black Friday, how many people ordered a particular product? Where did most orders come from? Information like these can help you plan for future peak seasons.
A quick guide to eCommerce workflow management
Are you contemplating how to organize your orders better and establish the best productive workflow your business needs? Do you want to implement new strategies that would help grow your eCommerce store and improve your sales? If you need answers to these questions, then you are at the right place. It doesn’t matter if you opened your eCommerce store a few seconds ago or looking for strategies to promote your product. From this blog post, you will learn an effective eCommerce workflow management system to increase your sales. eCommerce workflow Management With the internet becoming more sophisticated, it has done business to evolve. There are endless commercial opportunities available for online retailers to leverage for their business. The latest innovation in the eCommerce industry is giving rise to a new era. It is an era where business owners can expand their business and increase sales performance. Furthermore, this era provides the opportunity to reach a broader audience, build stronger customer relationships and accumulate more profits for your online business. Nowadays, having a well-developed website and strong brand isn’t enough to win the online battle for customers. The bigger your catalog, the bigger the strategy you implement. However, there is no perfect solution when it has to do with management in your business. You personalize the best strategy that will help improve your workflow. Therefore, your customized strategy should enable you to increase customer satisfaction and convert new visitors into lifetime buyers. Order Management Every online business or eCommerce store has almost the same workflow, which includes: Receive orders Process order, and Ship the orders Knowing this, how can you improve your workflow’s efficiency while managing to remain competitive on the market? Importantly, you need to identify every task related to order management and find out those that can be automated. Automating your orders is essential to your business growth and customer satisfaction. For instance, you can gather data your employees manually process and automate the process. Collecting data manually makes it prone to errors; it is also time-consuming and can affect the efficiency and productivity of your business. Therefore, to improve your workflow for your eCommerce business, you need to start automating the entire process – ordering to shipping. To make it easier, you can establish a communication bridge that automatically lets you print a shipping label. Another option is to create custom notifications from your system to customers whenever they make a purchase. Automating your eCommerce business can help you avoid errors while improving your productivity. Marketing Management Another effective eCommerce workflow you can use to increase your sale is to market your product or store. For new store owners, promoting, generating traffic, and transforming visitors to loyal customers is a daunting task. However, with eCommerce marketing management, you can employ online tactics and optimize campaigns to improve your sales. Nowadays, there are several options available to achieve your business marketing objectives. You have the option of using affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, Pay-Per-click services, search engine marketing, and email marketing. All of these can contribute to your sales and customer conversion.
Top eCommerce trends to watch out for in 2021
The eCommerce trends in 2021 are proliferating with the advent of commerce. Every day, retailers are increasing towards online selling, and entrepreneurs are also starting eCommerce ventures. It is expected by the next year 2022; the revenues of e-retail will grow twice of 2019 that had $3.53 trillion. At the present time, eCommerce is an ever-changing industry and the new trends help business outdo your competitors. Top eCommerce trends in 2021 you need to know Green Consumerism Popularity No longer is sustainability reserved for few brands. It changes in the cultural, economic, and social landscape worldwide with the focus shifting towards the environment of the products. Bigger brands realize sustainability is truly important and there are many eCommerce brands taking measures in reducing waste. With this in mind, they are preserving for future generations. Green consumerism is about purchasing power. Another key point is 65% of buyers wish to buy from brands aiming for sustainability, so it has become a trend in current years. How to benefit from this: Analyzing and determining if the products are made using sustainable materials or processes. Considering the changes and adapting to sustainable processes helps in reducing the packaging waste amount. You may show ways to recycling products to your customers. AI gets less artificial Many artificial intelligence benefits are expected to change in 2021. The concepts of chatbots and machine learning will be the mainstream. Thus leveraging AI for brands becomes inevitable to see real impact in the business. How to benefit from this: BUY AI and use the AI tools to help to streamline your marketing. Particularly, it helps to analyze historical data, perform critical tasks and improve customer experience. Retailers turning to AI can improve inventory management and operations, thereby create loyal customers. Online buying for all products In 2020, disruption was a buzzword and businesses accelerated amid global changes their digital transformation. With no alternatives, eCommerce was the only way to get everything for their daily lives. Fashion, food, and gadgets were on the list for online purchase, and now furniture, groceries, and also vehicle parts are on the list. How to benefit from this: A B2B, a manufacturer, or something else, everyone has started with online selling, whether it was earlier D2C or D2B. Make it easier to buy. As eCommerce trends 2021, creating a catalog for all the products and ensure a user-friendly experience for buying. Keep relevant content. Personalization Wins Customers prefer tailored choices meeting their needs. The engagement with personalization is a win-win situation. Personalization can be in email marketing, technology capabilities, and customer expectations. How to benefit from this: Personalization creates a nice bond with customers. For instance, recording customer information helps in purchasing items as they are mostly what you buy and want. Moreover, brands storing information in a CRM database create a personalized experience, whether you interact through phone, email, or some other channel. With today’s technology outlook, personalization is no longer a hassle with the help of CRM systems and automation workflows. Most systems have templates and common best practices that will give you more conversions. Omnichannel selling Omnichannel selling is an emerging trend in all industries. There are public cloud platforms using tools to pinpoint and personalize. It may be disruptive, but with omnichannel selling, the capabilities will be more accessible and cheaper. How to benefit from this: Customers today appreciate a cohesive buying experience. Therefore, brands facilitating multiple channels should focus on the channels that your customers frequently visit and sell them there. The brands should ultimately deliver products and content to any device or screen using the APIs.
A quick Shopify tutorial for beginners
What is Shopify? Shopify is a platform allowing beginners to build, scale, and grow their online eCommerce business. Shopify allows developers and designers to build eCommerce solutions. The Shopify Web Design and Development features are perfect as a Shopify tutorial for beginners. It showcases working with advanced techniques that anyone can start building amazing things with Shopify. This platform is an excellent solution for professionals and ambitious beginners. It ensures easy selling and provides tools to promote your sales. Shopify is successful due to its ease of use, offering a steep learning curve to initiate an eCommerce store. Steps to set up a Shopify store Shopify is a versatile tool useful to build an online store. The following Shopify tutorial for beginners helps to create a stunning eCommerce store. Users using Shopify can create their site in a short amount of time, and let’s do that: Signup Visit Shopify.com and click on the button “Start a free trial” appearing on the far-right side of the page. After completing the registration process by filling required information, you will have 14 days to give Shopify a try (no credit card required). Setup basic information Now, Shopify will ask for your basic information about yourself and your business. You may fill the field respectively and click on Next. However, you can always change any details later before your store goes live. On the Shopify Online Store, add-details include the business details such as the business name, address, and click on the button ‘Enter my Store’. On adding the business information, you are inside the admin panel of Shopify. You made it, Congratulations! Choose a theme Shopify themes help to get a distinctive look and a wow factor to your store. You can access the Theme setting on your Home page, or under Sales channels/Online store. The platform provides you with a few free themes and a store with numerous themes that you can choose according to your need. On clicking to Add button, the theme will add to your store. You can keep minimal themes or anything of your choice. All the themes receive Shopify support. If you have many options, consider customizing the theme by clicking under Themes the Customize button. You will have access to a comprehensive theme editor, with options to customize all areas you need on an eCommerce site. A visual builder makes it easier for you to tweak designs, but it will still take you quite some time without professional help. Add products Creating products on your Shopify store is relatively simple, even for beginners. Go to Products → All Products → Add Products. Give information about your product, upload product images, and fill in the details. In order to optimize your product pages, make sure your product images are appealing and descriptions are clear. SEO is a must, click Edit website SEO and give a descriptive title to display in the search engine result as a link. Add keywords in the description, modify and set up URL. You can add to each product 250 tags, using commas. Setup payment Enabling payment methods is important before your store is open to customers. Shopify Payments allows choosing payment including PayPal. While choosing a payment gateway, look for these: Transaction fees, compare other payment gateways and choose that suits your business and budget. Make sure the payment gateway accepts all the common card types from your customers and also the latest digital wallets. After the payment gateway configuration, go to Settings and Checkout, customize the process, and complete by clicking on Save. Missing features? Pay the AppStore a visit If you face any difficulty during the trial, there is always the Help Center and a huge merchant community to seek support from. In case Shopify’s standard features package doesn’t meet your need, you most probably will find a solution in the app marketplace. The platform has more than five thousand apps to support numerous activities for an online business. Apps that support design, conversion, security, or store management can be extremely valuable for your business. It also has become a trend to create fully automated Shopify stores with workflow automation app. Test and go live After configuring everything, pick a Shopify plan and get it live. The trial period is going on and so if something does not fit, you can cancel before the end of the trial period. 14 days is enough to test basic features and store configuration process to see if Shopify is right for your business. However, you might need a longer period to complete setting up before launching your stores. Since you will need to finalize all contents, fix navigation, creating pages and policies. Be sure to continuously test your site even after going live. Moreover, you can utilize the app store to convert more customers.
Inventory Management Process: What and How
Working in procurement means handling responsibilities that cover both different and related tasks. A complicated aspect of these tasks is the supply chain, where you have the inventory management process. Notably, the approach you take in recording, tracking, and managing your inventory can have a significant impact on your critical business processes. Every aspect can either deplete or enhance your business, depending on how you manage it. Therefore, an effective inventory management process is very important for the success of your business. Luckily, working to create a detailed understanding of your inventory management process and applying the right techniques can optimize your inventory processes for productivity, efficiency, and profitability. Steps of an inventory management process Receive delivery These goods can include raw materials for manufacturers, finished goods for resale, and indirect materials to provide support for the daily operation of a business. Review, sort, store goods In the review process, goods are checked, sorted, and stored on shelves. For small businesses, they might not have a separate receiving department compared to big companies. However, you can use the warehouse as a place to sort and store goods. Furthermore, it is essential to assign goods with unique stock-keeping unit codes and tag with barcodes to track them easily. Monitor and update inventory level Under this process, inventory levels are consistently monitored, with physical counts conducted occasionally. Furthermore, an automated inventory system can aid the updating. The monitoring and updating allow you to ensure you know the available inventory and help reduce deadstock, stock out duplicated orders, or fraud. Purchase goods when inventory level is low Customer places orders, so it is natural for your inventory level to become low. You can use automation solutions to create low stocks level alerts when inventory falls to a certain number. Supplier relationship management is crucial for effective stock purchase. In times of supply shortage, you can allow backorders if the restocking status is clear. Inventory management process best practices Despite the risk of having short inventory, most business owners haven’t find the best way to grow their revenue and improve customer experience. If you still have a challenge with your inventory management process, you can follow inventory management process best practices to streamline your business to the next level. Analyze, plan, optimize The heart of every good inventory management process is knowing what you have and managing it properly. When you implement the right inventory best practices, you can optimize your level to boost efficiency and meet customers’ demands. Customers won’t hesitate to drop their negative experience if you dint meet their expectations. However, analyzing, planning, and optimizing your inventory can help improve your business and customer satisfaction. If your inventory is not being effectively managed, you might need to look for a way to reduce inventory holding cost. Use a suitable system and solution One of the best business solutions you can implement is using an inventory management system. Today, we have a cloud-based inventory management system that allows you to work seamlessly. You have to pay a subscription to enjoy the full benefits of inventory software that suits your business. Importantly, cloud-based inventory works in the background, running everything smoothly. However, the software needs trained staff to operate it. During training, you can ask any question as you understand how the software works. Using an automated inventory management process saves your business cost, manpower, and resource as you improve on customer satisfaction
How To Get Started on BigCommerce: Tutorial for Beginners
Bigcommerce is a SaaS product that charges a monthly fee for its eCommerce hosting software. It comes with customizable website templates, a robust design tool, and easy-to-understand inventory management, allowing you to sell digital or physical goods. Anyone can set up a BigCommerce site, but not everyone can do it effectively and know how to optimize their website for conversions. Here’s our easy-to-understand breakdown of what you need to do to get started on BigCommerce: Tutorial for Complete eCommerce Beginners! Beginner’s Steps to Set up A BigCommerce Store Signup Visit BigCommerce.com and create an account by clicking “Start your free trial.” As of April 2023, BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial and an optional demo session for new users of the platform. Choose your free trial first, then enter the details required (you can use anonymous names and personas to test the site), click “Create your store,” and wait for the system to create your first BigCommerce store! Important to note, BigCommerce doesn’t ask for your credit card in the beginning. So, if you encounter any credit card forms requiring you to fill them out, avoid them! Beginners are most likely to fall for fishing scams, so take notice of the domain you are signing up on and verify that it is the official BigCommerce site. Choose a theme BigCommerce offers an official theme marketplace, with both paid and free themes. All feature comprehensive modifications. Premium themes are slicker in design and have more modification options. You can opt for any theme, ensuring a great-looking site. Further reading: Best Themes For BigCommerce Stores. For beginners, the best BigCommerce theme to choose is Default. This theme allows you, the freshman to eCommerce, to use BigCommerce’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Furthermore, this theme is frequently updated and supported by BigCommerce, so you won’t have to worry about transitioning to another page anytime soon. Understanding Layout and Navigation Welcome to BigCommerce’s store owner interface. BigCommerce has a history of changing its interface in drastic ways. But their information layout remains the same: A left-hand menu for quick navigation to Orders, Inventory, Apps, and Settings; and a left-hand navigation screen. You will find basic settings in the “Store setup” sections, such as contact information, shipping, payment, currency, tax, and accounting. Creating Pages Beginners will want to create these pages first to increase eCommerce trust. You can find pages under Storefront/Web pages on the sidebar. Adding Products You can’t make money if you don’t have anything to sell. Go to the Products tab on the left-hand side menu. Here, you’ll find 5 actions you can do with Products on BigCommerce: View, Add, Search, Import, and Export. Click “Add Product” and add any relevant information on your product. Ensure the product has an attractive image and clear description. Beginners should read up on our Bigcommerce Tutorial to SEO and research their competitors’ products at this stage. Include details to inform customers of your items. Setup payment & shipment The payment gateway allows taking payments from the website. Choose the payment gateway suitable to you. Calculate the payment and shipment rates and define them on the page. Ensure you do not lose sales. Pay the app marketplace a visit Our BigCommerce Tutorial for Beginners only covers the standard features. Luckily, if you can’t find a BigCommerce feature readily available in this blog or on your test store, there is a high chance you can find a suitable app in the marketplace. The platform provides various apps, such as order management, inventory management, backorder, marketing, sales, or even automation. Most of them have a free trial or free plan, so you can test to your heart’s content during the first 2 weeks of BigCommerce. One of the essential integrated apps if you’re looking to enhance your business productivity: Atom8 and BackOrder. You can discover them here: Atom8 helps you automate repetitive tasks to save hours of working. With BackOrder, zero inventory is no longer be a problem. Test and go live When your trial ends or you are ready to go live, you will need to choose a plan. Research costs associated with a BigCommerce store carefully to choose the right package for your business.
5 reasons to choose Shopify in 2021
Planning to open an online store? An eCommerce platform is a software solution managing your website, offering the options of managing operations, marketing, and sales. Get clear about what you want your site to look like, function, and what your customers expect to function. Most will test the water for two weeks and encourage you to get to know the features and usability of the platform. Shopify is offering a 14-day free trial, which is the right amount of time you need to test all basic operations. The platform is being used by businesses in over 175 countries. Let’s go deeper into the reasons you should choose Shopify for your eCommerce business. Ease of Use Shopify allows creating an online store with ease. There are no hosting services or software installations required and no coding headache. It provides an array of themes for the end-user and can be customized easily in line with maintaining brand identity. The themes are crucial in building a site, to provide a stellar experience to customers, feel and look fantastic, and build trust with customers. Hence, the usability of Shopify ensures understanding own store, generating a brilliant brand reputation, and ensuring the customer journey is seamless. Payment Gateway Compatibility Why Shopify? Shopify is much ahead in offering payment gateway compatibility. The list of Shopify for payments is more than 100 gateways, such as Stripe, PayPal, and PayMill. There are no issues for the customers to pay using the payment gateway. With the increase in mobile device shopping, the eCommerce of Shopify works smoothly on a Smartphone. The loading of the page is fast and so the website performance is satisfactory. It is mobile responsive and you can buy it from the phone. You can operate from your phone and also pay conveniently from anywhere. Ensure the internet speed is fast. All Round Adaptation The coronavirus impact in the past year was nothing but unrecognizable and unbelievable. It will continue with the retail industry until merchants roll with punches or adapt to changing landscape rapidly. With Shopify, the cost is relatively low and there is transparent pricing. The all-around solution answers why Shopify. Since it is very useful for retailers, allowing them to hold the competitive edge and also to adapt, staying flexible to survive. No tech worries There is no need to worry if you do not have technical expertise; Shopify provides you all hosting and software. It makes the process easier to run, and the hosting of Shopify will be more secure and faster. It also accommodates traffic spikes. Shopify takes care of the updates on software. You can focus on selling without the worry of technical expertise or issues. There are thousands of integrations, ease of use, and allows selling across multiple channels. You can find a wide range of Shopify apps such as sales, marketing, inventory management, customer support, etc. Not to mention it is even possible to create a fully automated store with workflow automation apps. Secure & reliable Shopify allows dealing with sensitive information including impatient customers and credit card details. It means the site must be secure, online, and fast. The advantage is the reliability of this hosted solution. Shopify takes care of the server upgrades and maintenance to keep the shopping cart and the store available always, and the page loading is faster. It has SSL certificates to enable your eCommerce store to have data encrypt and to enjoy a secure connection. Shopify takes care of you by offering PCI Compliance that dealing with credit cards is easy.
Late Delivery Compensation: Keeping Your Ecommerce Customers Happy
Timely delivery is a critical factor in eCommerce, directly impacting customer satisfaction and loyalty. When deliveries are delayed, it can lead to dissatisfaction, negative reviews, and lost sales. This blog will explore strategies to compensate for late delivery and maintain customer happiness, ensuring your eCommerce business thrives despite occasional setbacks. Understanding the Causes of Late Delivery To effectively manage and reduce late delivery, it’s essential to understand their root causes. These can range from supply chain disruptions to issues with shipping carriers, inventory management problems, and unexpected demand surges. Supply chain disruptions can occur due to natural disasters, political instability, or global pandemics, affecting manufacturing, transportation, and the overall movement of goods. Shipping carriers can face logistical errors, vehicle breakdowns, or labor strikes, all of which can delay deliveries. Ensuring reliable carrier partnerships is crucial for minimizing these risks. Effective inventory management is critical to preventing late delivery. Inaccurate inventory data, slow replenishment, and poor forecasting can lead to stockouts and delays in processing orders. Additionally, sudden increases in demand, especially during holiday seasons, promotional events, or due to viral trends, can overwhelm supply chains and cause delays. The Impact of Late Delivery on Customer Satisfaction Understanding the impact of late delivery on customer satisfaction is crucial for any eCommerce business. Delayed deliveries can harm customer trust, lead to negative reviews, and have financial implications. Proactive communication can help mitigate these effects. How late delivery affects customer trust and loyalty Customer trust is the cornerstone of any successful business. late delivery can significantly undermine this trust, leading to a decline in customer loyalty. When customers place an order, they have an expectation of timely delivery. Failing to meet this expectation can make them question the reliability of your business. Potential negative reviews and social media backlash The digital age has empowered consumers to share their experiences widely and instantly. late delivery often results in negative reviews and social media backlash, which can damage your brand’s reputation. Financial implications of late delivery (e.g., refunds, lost sales) Late delivery can have direct and indirect financial consequences for your eCommerce business. These implications extend beyond immediate losses and can affect long-term profitability. Strategies for Compensating late delivery Inventory management Prevention is always better than dealing with the consequences. One of the best ways to prevent late deliveries is through better inventory management. By ensuring your inventory is well-stocked and accurately tracked, you can minimize the risk of delays. Implementing systems with BackOrder can keep customers informed when items are out of stock, helping to manage expectations upfront. Transparent communication about inventory levels can prevent disappointment and build trust with your customers. Apologizing and taking responsibility A sincere apology goes a long way in maintaining customer trust. When a delivery is late, promptly apologize and take responsibility for the delay. This shows customers that you value their experience and are committed to making things right. Personalizing the apology and acknowledging the inconvenience caused can help diffuse frustration and demonstrate your commitment to customer service. Providing Freebies or Extra Services Another effective strategy is to offer freebies or extra services as compensation. This could include free shipping on the next order, complimentary products, or access to premium services. Providing something extra can turn a negative experience into a positive one, demonstrating that you go above and beyond to make up for the delay. Boost Your eCommerce Success with BackOrder BigCommerce BackOrder, a product offered by Grit Global, enhances eCommerce success by proactively addressing inventory challenges. It helps eCommerce businesses maintain sales momentum and customer satisfaction by ensuring products remain available even when they are temporarily out of stock. Feature of BackOrder: Wrap up In conclusion, timely delivery is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty in eCommerce. Integrating solutions like BackOrder by Grit Global can further enhance your ability to manage inventory and ensure product availability. Contact us for more information on how to optimize your eCommerce operations and keep your customers happy.
Why should you choose BigCommerce in 2021
BigCommerce is an e-commerce leading software platform providing established and startup companies with everything to start their online store. Why BigCommerce? Because it is a robust platform that offers advanced built-in and easy-to-use features. Moreover, the shipping capabilities are powerful and have great store management that you can be on the top. BigCommerce has a cloud solution and is an all-in-one software platform, a great fit to expand the online store. Reasons why BigCommerce is right for your business Payment Processing With BigCommerce as the checkout app of your online store will offer you the liberty of choice with a payment option. BigCommerce eCommerce software has integration with 38 payment gateways. Particularly, online shoppers visiting the store can pay using the trusted payment processors, such as Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Express Checkout, and Authorize.net Google Checkout. Easy to use Taking care of orders, managing the stores, adding products, looking at the analytics, and so on, means doing to ensure your everyday work is easy. Setting up the store to tweaking design, and keeping everything intuitive and clear is a one-time task. On the positive side, you can do it with the assistance of the support team if you are not tech-savvy. There are plenty of no-coding apps in the marketplace for various purposes. For example, marketing, upsell and cross-sell, inventory management, order management, or even eCommerce automation. So, you can try these apps and customize almost everything that BigCommerce’s standard features don’t include. Coders have options A skilled web designer or a professional hiring someone to build your online store is daunting. BigCommerce eliminates the need for coders. It offers a full HTML editor. It gives full access to the CSS raw files, allowing having in-depth edits of custom layout. An editor shows how the text will appear including the color, font type, and size. Saves your website from fraud It saves your website from fraudulent orders. During peak sales, your website is under severe threat. Online merchants do not know about the advanced tools to safeguard their site. They do not install fraud detection technology or software. A BigCommerce feature hosting security and it gives all the required protection for their customers. Your security structure is intact with BigCommerce. SEO Features The key factor for businesses wishing to do outstanding business is Search Engine Optimization. SEO decides the rank and position of your page on search engines. It dictates how easy one can find you. There are plenty of options with BigCommerce that allows entering text affecting the website SEO ranking. It includes tweaking URL structure, keywords, product description, and metadata. Engage customers offering live chat support A marketing tool with BigCommerce is the live chat support. It means the shoppers can contact your team during online shopping. The feature of live chat with BigCommerce enables one to see how to receive high ratings and reveals many eCommerce solutions. There is no doubt that BigCommerce is always ahead in the competition. BigCommerce is popular apparent in the way it provides support and help. It offers phone, email, and live chat support to help users in learning more about the BigCommerce platform. You can find plenty of information about the software on the social media pages, company’s community forum, online resource center, YouTube channel, and more.
6 ways to reduce inventory for small business
Small businesses not involved in selling perishable goods can be tempting to order and have surplus stocks to meet market demands. In certain situations, it can be a good thing to have excess stock. Nevertheless, having more items than you can sell can pose many problems, leading to poor cash flow and high carrying costs. To avoid these, you need to implement relevant measures that would help minimize your inventory Benefits of reducing inventory When you decide to reduce your inventory for your small business, it comes with many benefits that can increase your sales and productivity. Here are a few benefits of reducing inventory. You minimize your cost It enables you to reduce your workforce, which can improve your efficiency Improve the quality of your service to customers There are several ways to reduce your inventory for your business. However, most of these methods aren’t as effective as the ones we mentioned below. How to reduce inventory for your business Reduce demand variability About 20% of their stock produces 80% of their revenues for most small businesses. These statistics will differ to a certain degree. According to the ABC inventory analysis, you can classify your stock into three categories based on their value to your business. The A category represents stocks that are essential to your business; C are items with the least value, and B offers better value compared to C. therefore, you prioritize the stocks in the A categories. Over time, you can review these products and move them to another category to improve lead time. Make Smaller orders Reducing your order cycles can help reduce your inventory as a small business. Furthermore, it will help in improving your inventory turnover. Small but frequent ordering gives you the flexibility to meet customers’ demands while preventing excess stock and carrying costs. Nevertheless, if you decide to implement this strategy, you need to use a reliable inventory forecast model that utilizes seasonality and trends. Start Dropshipping Another option available at your disposal to reduce inventory for your small business is to use dropshipping. Dropshipping allows you to buy the product only when a customer has placed an order and make payment. It means you don’t need a warehouse to store your products, which helps to save your costs. Furthermore, you can even create a fully automated dropshipping store Reduce supplier lead time Your supplier lead time can affect the amount of stock you have in your inventory. For instance, if you have a continually fluctuating lead time, you will have to carry out more safety stock to ensure you cover the risk of running out of stock while waiting for delivery. The recent COVID-19 pandemic affected many businesses in the United States due to increased lead time. However, it gives you flexibility with faster and reliable lead time when you want to order for inventory while reducing your stock levels and other costs. Today, you can utilize the software for your supplier order management to automatically track your lead time and adjust safety stock when necessary. Start allowing backorders Backorders can help you cope with customer demands while holding less stock. Be sure to follow backorder best practices and create a clear backorder policy to build an enjoyable experience for your customers. You might need to invest more in supplier relationship management in order to secure expected delivery dates of backorders. Eliminate outdated inventory Outdated inventory products are products your customer doesn’t demand again. Most times, you would have outdated inventory if the new model supersedes the previous one. Another reason for obsolete inventory is fashion or technological change in society. For instance, there was a time when Nokia button phones were the order of the day. However, with technological advancement, we saw the rise of android phones, which have ripped out the Nokia button phones out of the market. Therefore, to avoid any outdated inventory, you need to understand the lifecycle of products in your store. It can sometimes be hard to monitor these, but you look at for launching sales and promotions to make adjustments when newer products are about to hit the market.
How To Stay Ahead of eCommerce Seasonality Trends
Today, eCommerce platforms are gaining more power. The recent pandemic and lockdown have even contributed to its widespread popularity. Customers, in trying to avoid any form of infection, are making purchases from home. Shopping from home is convenient and stress-free for many. You don’t have to push your way through the crowd to get out of your favorite physical store. Most businesses are now focused on online sales because of the increasing demand and growth. They implement various strategies, including online advertising and customer satisfaction, to ensure customers’ continuous flow. However, in certain situations, the inflow of customers depends on the season. How do you stay ahead of eCommerce seasonality trends and improve your sales? What is eCommerce Seasonality? Seasonality is all about a seasonal demand for a particular product or service. Basically, it involves a business focusing on a particular period for customers to buy more or less. When we talk about the season, it cut across winter, summer, spring, and autumn. It also encompasses special events and holidays. To understand better, people buy warm clothes when the weather is cold. However, in late spring and summer, they spend more on sandals and shorts. Holidays could represent everything, such as Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas. While these seasons and holidays might not change yearly, businesses can track the situation regularly to re-strategize their marketing plans. Here are a few things you can do to help improve your sales to stay ahead of eCommerce seasonality trends. Strategy to lead eCommerce seasonality trends Think ahead for seasonal sales and deals Planning ahead of time is the first step to increasing your sales in a seasonal period. You need to develop a strategy you will use. The strategy will depend on your location and events. The particular objective might include winning new customers, selling off old stock, retaining your existing customers, increasing brand awareness, and managing your community. Once you have enlisted your goals and objective, you can create an action plan. Your action plan will enable you to determine what steps to take and the risks involved. In doing this, you can leverage statistics from previous seasons to make an executable plan and choose a suitable type of eCommerce promotion. Create a plan for online communication channels Once you create your objectives and goals, you need to devise an online communication channel to use. If your goal is to attract new customers, you need to determine if email marketing, social media campaigns, or content creation will be the best option. Furthermore, you need to automate order and schedule newsletters and publications on social media platforms. Whatever the objectives might be, an effective communication channel is crucial to your success. Therefore, leverage every online communication channel at your disposal to improve your brand awareness and sales. Prepare inventory Another essential step is to plan and prepare inventory to cope with demand fluctuation during peak seasons. For instance, reorganize space for fulfillment convenience, conduct stock counting, implement demand forecasting, or configuring backorder options. Further reading: Top inventory management techniques to implement in 2021. Optimize website and train staffs After all the marketing, your customers will order products through your store. Therefore, you have to optimize your website to generate more sales. You need to ensure you have a fast-loading website with all links working perfectly. In all, optimize your website to make the journey for your customer seamless. Furthermore, train your team because they are vital to the success of your campaign. You will receive more orders, and that means more packages to ship. Ensure your customer services are top-notch and available all through the clock to meet customers’ challenges. You can use email, telephone, and instant messages to receive feedback and complaints from customers. Remember, the goal is to respond quickly to each customer.
eCommerce automation checklist for your business
Managing every department of your digital store requires optimization, experimentation, and creativity. Beginning from the site design, themes to the layouts, the customer experience will affect your traffic, conversion, and sales results. Today, eCommerce automation allows you to spend time on other productive things. It frees your brand from time-consuming processes and the user experience you desire. What is eCommerce Automation? Automation is not a new concept. Moreover, with the advancement of technology, we have seen automation of various systems. eCommerce automation allows online store owners to automate their stores with inventory management, supply chain, and marketing systems to improve sales and revenue. At the present time, there are several eCommerce automation tools at your disposal to help grow your business. You can automate the process for your store following these three simple workflow steps. Trigger: Here, you choose a trigger that will begin the workflow process Condition: Certain conditions or parameters must be might for the workflow to run Action: What action (s) to take place when the condition is meant. For instance, once a customer creates an order and spends $5000, tag that customer as a VIP. Best eCommerce automation Checklist for your Business You can distinguish your brand from the crowd through a memorable customer experience. Additionally, you can address negative experiences, forecast future demand, and personalize your online store based on data collected. A store worth shopping at Utilize customer data to personalize your online store to buyers and drive growth. Email customer segments using an incentive to create an account Segment and tag customers based on browsing history, gender, and purchase history When tagged customers visit, display relevant and personalized products Are you experiencing low stocks? There is a solution Stimulate product demand through custom alerts when going low on a product. Check inventory whenever a stock gets low and place an order to the vendor Allow customers to sign up for back-in-stock alerts and automatically notify them when stock level changed Do you receive bad reviews? Receive automated alerts when customers leave negative reviews or feedback. Define a negative review When reviews meet particular criteria, create a ticket using the customer support tool Assign tickets to the customer support team to address before the next purchase How to turn shoppers to brand ambassadors You can turn shoppers to brand loyalists when you allow wish lists, improve store merchandising, and reward repeated purchases. Another option is to use referral programs and let your customers spread the word. Further reading: How to turn shoppers into loyal customers. Sell in real-time You can improve your customer experience through real-time merchandising. Show products on your store once your order is back in stock Make sold-out product hidden to avoid unhappy customers Set a threshold to notify you once you have a low inventory Rewards and wishes Allow your customers to create their wish lists and provide incentives when possible. Allow customers to create wish lists Send follow up emails marketing campaigns Reward customers using a rewarding system Keep your customers coming back Increase loyal customers using gift cards and personalized discounts. Send discount code to customers through email or text messages Segment customers based on purchase history Send an email, Facebook Messenger, push notifications with a gift card More ideas Need more room for improvement? Don’t worry, we’ve compiled a 40 eCommerce automation ideas checklist (and it’s interactive!) for your convenience. Register below to download the checklist. A little sneak peek: We hope this checklist can give your store a performance boost, since we’ve helped teams with not so many people (7, or even only 1) to manage their store effectively.
