FIVE KEY POINTS TO STAY AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION WITH SMART E-COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY

This may seem logical, but research whether the platform you are investing in can grow with your business. We are not just talking about the number of transactions or the product catalog a platform supports. Other aspects, ranging from security and reliability to logistics, product, and order complexity, should be able to grow at the same pace as your business.

If your business is seasonal, the hosting and other upkeep of your e-commerce platform should be able to scale up or down according to your needs. With a modern cloud-based platform, there is no reason why you should pay for unused resources and storage. Platforms stuck in data centers with fixed costs are often cost-efficient, but they subtly undermine your company's margins while doing nothing to help it.

On the other hand, cloud-based e-commerce platforms continuously evolve to meet the needs of a demanding customer base while aggressively competing to lower prices and deliver higher value. Before making a change in your e-commerce strategy or spending more money on an outdated platform, ask yourself if your platform can truly scale in a way that supports your business needs.

You know what you sell, you also know which combinations are popular, and you make your customers' search results as relevant as possible through search tuning. But the question is: "Does it all work?"

Without a platform that can provide insights into real-time customer behavior, your e-commerce business is operating in the dark. Instead of guessing, learn from the data your customers provide, such as queries they make via your search bar. Customers not only tell you what products they want, but also when in the year, at what time of day, from which part of the world, and other information related to their use of your site.

Often all this data is blocked and ignored. But well-thought-out e-commerce platforms can help you unlock and analyze this data with visualizations, reports, analyses, and other insights. For your business's success, you want real-time dashboards with everything you know about your customer base. The best platforms offer this type of insight 'out-of-the-box.'

The figures in this article are based on Wakefield's research. Download the full research report here.

If your e-commerce platform can handle scaling and provide insights, it is important to see if it is built for search optimization & tuning. Research shows that the conversion rates of customers using site search are nearly twice as high as those who do not. Additionally, research indicates that 30% of customers use a search box when it is available. Since your most valuable customers likely use searches, it is worth refining searches according to relevance (both automatically, using ML and AI, and manually, via your e-commerce backend) so that your customers see the products you want them to see.

Think, for example, of promoting your house brand, unsold inventory, seasonal discounts, bundle offers, or other options to guide your customers' purchases. Search optimization can be as simple as "if a customer searches for product x, also show product y" – but can your e-commerce platform's search engine be configured that way? Search optimization according to relevance is one way e-commerce companies can increase the value of shopping carts and maximize the revenue from each customer.

Additionally, search optimization can be a way to show customers that there is logic behind the search results – less relevant items are pushed down, and in return, more visibility is given to logical combinations of products that your customers are likely to prefer.

When it comes to relevance, nothing is as effective as personalization to convince customers. If your business knows their needs and can serve them, this fosters customer loyalty and increases revenue. Everything from discount codes to customized email campaigns or reminders of abandoned shopping carts are functions of personalization capabilities in e-commerce.

Personalization is an incredibly effective way to get customers to notice your business. According to Wakefield's research, 84% of shoppers say that personalization influences their online purchases. Even if they thought they were only coming for a specific item, a comprehensive personalization strategy can entice your customers to add one more item to their cart. Reminding customers of previous purchases, asking for product reviews, and showing new products they may be interested in are all ways personalization in e-commerce can increase your business's revenue.

In short, personalization is about building relationships with your customer base on a large scale. In a physical store, your employees recognize returning customers, know their tastes and preferences, and make them feel welcome and valued.

After all your efforts around marketing, analytics, tuning, personalizing, and guiding customers through their 'buyer journey,' you need to be able to close the sale. Otherwise, all these efforts have been in vain, and you lose revenue. The better e-commerce platform should offer smooth, seamless transactions that give your customers a sense of security when completing the online transaction.

With the proliferation of online wallets, stored billing and shipping information, split transactions, and the effort being made to make the entire internet a trade-friendly environment, you need to be sure that customers who arrive at your checkout do not click away before the transaction is completed.

Customers need to feel security, smoothness, and speed to trust an e-commerce checkout. They want to know their personal information is safe. They want the order flow to be clear, and they want transactions to go quickly and smoothly. Otherwise, customers do not trust whether they will receive their goods.

The best e-commerce platforms provide all these factors. They also provide clear information about shipping, links to customer support, FAQs, and after-sales service. In a physical store, customers are (generally) not left to their own devices once their purchase is completed – they are thanked kindly and have the opportunity to ask follow-up questions and/or browse the store again before leaving.

A smooth experience when closing the sale ensures customers return, increasing their value and the impact of your marketing spend. Returning customers become loyal customers, and loyal customers eventually become advocates.

It starts with these five key factors so you can treat your customers as they are – the most valuable asset of your business.

(source: https://www.elastic.co/blog/5-ways-ecommerce-technology-can-be-your-competitive-advantage)