E-commerce is changing rapidly and if you want to position your Ecommerce business to be ready for the changes that are coming you can use the tips and tricks from these E-commerce experts to finetune your processes and streamline your website to make sure that you are ready to take advantage of coming trends in E-commerce.

10 Tips From Ecommerce Experts in 2018

Successful e-commerce businesses know how to identify trends before they break so that they aren’t playing catch up once trends happen. In the highly competitive world of e-commerce if you’re not constantly adjusting to the newest technology and buying trends you won’t be able to set your business apart. Use these tips from 10 e-commerce experts to give your online business an advantage:

1. Social Media For Customer Service

E-commerce moves fast. Customers want to be able to instant help if they need it and they expect your customer service staff to be available quickly. Emails are becoming outdated as e-commerce businesses embrace social media for customer service. Facebook Messenger chatbots and Twitter customer service accounts are something e-commerce businesses are going to need.

2. Artificial Intelligence For Customer Interaction And Engagement

Artificial intelligence integration is key for businesses. More and more people are using AI devices like the Amazon Echo in their homes and they expect businesses to integrate with AI to customize and personalize their shopping experience.

3. Influencer Marketing

As consumers become more invested in the digital world they will turn even more to the advice and recommendations of the people that they follow on social media. Social media influencers have a huge direct reach and are the fastest way to reach your target market. Influencers are often highly trusted and recommendations from them are something that their followers rely on. Using the reach that influencers have resulted in an almost immediate growth in sales for most e-commerce businesses.

4. Improve Your Checkout

More customers than ever before are shopping on their smartphones and tablets, so make sure that your checkout process is mobile friendly and as quick as possible. Integrate as many payment systems as possible so that shopping can be one-click or close to it.

5. Overhaul Your Website

It’s not just checkouts that need to be sleek, fast, and mobile-friendly. Your entire site, especially your product photos, needs to be optimized for mobile phones and tablets. It’s how people are shopping and your website needs to be able to keep up.

6. Go Back To Basics

When was the last time you overhauled your site’s basic forms and information? It’s time to do it now. Make sure there are no unnecessary fields on the checkout page. Eliminate options that don’t get used. Make sure that all the processes are the site are seamless and not clunky.

7. Personalize The Shopping Experience

People expect a completely personalized shopping now, so do your best to give them that. Make sure that customer service is easy to reach on chat or on social media. Really think about the customer experience and add in ways to personalize the experience for customers so that they will want to shop on your site often.

8. Use Multiple Media Forms

These days everyone has a phone or computer that is able to handle multimedia. That hasn’t always been the case, but it is today. So use that capability to showcase your products and connect with the consumer. Use videos to show the product and how to use the product. Include reviews and testimonials from other customers. Embrace the functionality of multimedia.

9. Use Facebook

Facebook has had some PR problems lately but it is now the best way to reach customers. Facebook ads have now even outpaced email marketing. People want that instant connection and they are on Facebook constantly. So if you haven’t been using Facebook ads now is the time to start. Facebook is quickly becoming the way that e-commerce experts reach their market.

10. Let User Generated Content Market For You

Consumers trust what other consumers say. So use that. Have customers submit videos, tutorials, suggestions, photos, and other multimedia showing how to use the product, how to put it together, or new and innovative ways that they use the product. When you have real life customers recommending the product other consumers will pay attention and they are more likely to buy the product. And most customers are happy to share their videos, commentary, and other reviews when they are happy with a product. Encourage them to do that.

E-commerce Tips And Tricks

When it comes to embracing e-commerce trends these experts have more e-commerce advice for businesses that want to achieve real growth: talk to your customers. That might not sound like groundbreaking e-commerce advice but in today’s online climate all of the popular e-commerce trends really boil down to that one piece of e-commerce advice. Be available to talk to customers. Have online chat, social media accounts, customer service phone availability, and any other way that you can think of to be available for customers. Follow up with them by text or SMS instead of slow email.

It’s that instant availability that keeps customers coming back. When customers know that they can reach a real human being at a moment’s notice they feel more comfortable shopping on that site. And knowing that if they do have a problem there is someone to help them just a click away makes them feel more confident about spending money.

Businesses that make sure customers can reach customer service personnel on social media outlets, on-site chats, and even via text will be able to inspire customer loyalty and confidence. Having well-trained customer service people who are free to chat with customers, make suggestions, tell them how to use a product, and help them with issues is absolutely essential to successful e-commerce Toronto in 2018 and will remain important in the years to come as well.