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Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018

Category: Ecommerce

Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Five Things Every eCommerce Entrepreneur Should Be Ready For in 2018

The world of business is a constantly evolving one, more so when it comes to the eCommerce businesses that have gained immense popularity over the last few years. The increasing number of online consumers and the advancements in technology has worked together in making eCommerce businesses one of the most thriving ones today. Consequently, eCommerce entrepreneurs also realize the fact that the competition is more fierce than it was ever before, which is why, they need to keep evolving and focus on long-term objectives.

Every entrepreneur starts a new year with renewed zeal to achieve maximum success for their business. For doing that in 2018, here are the top 5 things you should be ready for now if you are selling online.

eCommerce Automation –

To let your business enjoy a competitive advantage, you must welcome the eCommerce automation that is expected to make operations easier. Automation will also save time and streamline the tasks. For instance, you can automate your eCommerce platform to detect the medium risk orders and forward them automatically to the finance department for review. For high risk orders, the same can be automated to be cancelled. This is just one aspect where eCommerce automation prevents chances of fraud. There can be several other ways to improve the overall shopping experience of your customers by leveraging automated techniques.

Mobile Payments and Wallet Apps –

Payment gateway is an integral part of eCommerce business and the smoother the checkout process, the better is the experience. In 2018, you should be prepared to embrace mobile payments and wallet apps, which does not require your customers to provide all of their personal information at checkout. This concept can work wonders in preventing customers from dropping off at the last moment, due to lengthy checkout processes.

Social Media –

Social media has been there since a long time now but as an entrepreneur, if you have not yet utilized it properly for your business, 2018 is the time to make the most of it. Social media channels are predicted to be huge drivers of eCommerce so much so that Facebook, Instagram etc. might let customers shop directly from these platforms.

More Subscription Box Models –

Although subscriptions have always been a part of an eCommerce business and eCommerce shopping experience, you should be ready for an increased emphasis on the subscription box models. A subscription mentality with at least a part of your product inventory will be crucial for surviving in the eCommerce industry. More the subscription box models you adapt, the higher will be your chance of a competitive advantage with regards to subscription offerings.

Professional Content Development –

Most entrepreneurs have already realized the importance of content that is developed with the interests of the target customers in mind. Content marketing is going to have a lot of impact in the ecommerce business scenarios. So, in 2018, you should focus more on personalized, engaging and premium content being developed by experts in the field. Whether it is a video about your product and service or targeted ads on the social media apps or perhaps, blogs and articles on emerging trends and so on, content will continue to create an indelible mark.

While these are some of the most important trends and strategies that entrepreneurs should be ready for in the coming year, there will definitely be many more to join them. The best way is to understand your business and its unique requirements to be able to make the most of the advancements in technology and the way internet works. Also, it is advisable to seek the guidance of expert professionals to enable your eCommerce business to move in the right direction.

7 years ago
The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader
Mohab Ecommerce 0

The top 5 business skills that you must hone as a small business leader

Running a small business is not an easy thing. For starters, you are always wearing multiple hats and switching roles from a sales director, to a marketing guru, to an HR person to a visionary leader. That is because running a successful business and driving it towards growth requires more than a good idea. Great and effective leadership can make or break a small business. While some of us are born natural leaders who take to running a small business like fish takes to water, there are others who learn on the go. Whichever category you fall in, it’s necessary to understand real leadership skills since that is what is going to help you respond to changes, adapt to new requirements, pull the pack together and rise to new heights of success.

So here you go – in no particular order, here is a list of 5 skills that will see a small business owner through all challenges and will come in handy in growing their businesses.

Communicating well– Ensure that whatever you communicate is clear, precise and consistent. It is not enough to have a great vision unless you clearly communicate it. A true leader should be able to communicate the business’s vision to employees, investors and customers alike. Employees and investors should also be aware of goals and objectives of the business. A series of miscommunicated objectives can be detrimental to your business. It is also important to let your employees know about what is going on and what is expected from them. And to achieve this clear communication is paramount.

Being a good listener- Most of what we know and learn comes from listening. Being a good listener is one of the most important skills you can possess as a small business leader. Listening to your employees will let you stay in touch with what is happening at the operational level. And will also contribute to employee satisfaction. Listening to your customers will let you know the pulse of the market and how they feel about your business. Developing this skill will also encourage you to ask for opinions, feedback and ideas. Enabling you and your business with different perspectives and newer ideas. Needless to say keeping both internal and external customers is important for a small business.

Not fearing failure and bouncing back – This is probably the biggest armour you will need. There is no great business leader who has not experienced the lows of failure. The faster you can accept and get out of the trough of depression, anxiety, disappointment and frustration, the better. Be ready to handle failure – as and when it comes. Mistakes are bound to happen. But running a business without making mistakes is impossible. So why fear them? A good leader will not fear making mistakes; he/she will, in fact, turn them into a valuable lesson. How you bounce back from them matters most. Accept your defeat with humility, learn from them and move on. Take ownership of the mistakes and let employees own the successes.

Sales –As a small business owner, this is probably the single most important skill that you need to learn as a business owner. After all, its sales that drives a business. Essentially, sales skills are nothing but excellent communication skills. It’s about understanding your buyer, it’s about listening more than talking, it’s about skillful persuasion and getting others to agree to what you are saying, it’s about learning the art of negotiation and building self-confidence. Understanding the whole sales process and honing the skills needed to crack a deal should help you for as long you are in business.

Accountability – A small business has fewer people taking care of a varied set of functions. This may make setting expectations tougher and sometimes ambiguous. As a small business leader learning to set clear expectations and communicating what is expected out of each contributor is essential. This will help set accountability in place. And being accountable as a leader for the business will help you lead from the front. Leading from the front or by example is something you are always told is expected out of leaders. This is true for small business also, be accountable and an inspirational leader.

Your skills as business leader is important since finally its you who can make a huge difference in how your business is being built and where it goes from there. What you make of yourself as a leader and your business is all up to you.

7 years ago
Digital Marketing: Key for an e-Commerce Startup
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Digital Marketing: Key for an e-Commerce Startup

You have a great idea; you have registered your name and your business; you have complied with the tax regulations, you have chosen a brand name, you have signed up for your domain, you are developed your website, you have selected a shopping cart plugin for your site or developed your own shopping cart, you have selected your payment gateway you have stocked your inventory.

Now you are all set! Your maiden e-commerce venture is about to begin! But, how do you get the word out that you are a new e-commerce venture and how do you attract customers to buy from your website, whether it is a marketplace or a single store. The answer lies in Marketing. Considering all forms of marketing available nowadays, the most effective form is to market through the digital form, especially social media.

The following factors are the reasons why you should concentrate on digital marketing:

  1. Variety of Content:

    As a business, you would have multiple forms of content that you can leverage to educate the consumer about differentiating factors of your e-commerce platform, be it blogs, infographics, images, etc…. From a content creation standpoint, focus on the USP of your platform and the experience that your platform provides.

  2. Pervasiveness of Search Engines:

    Most consumers search online looking for products to buy. Hence it is an imperative for your e-commerce platform to be SEO friendly. You should have optimized all the pages of your site/platform to be picked up by Google/Bing/Yahoo. Well, the most popular search engine is Google, therefore optimization of product pages on your site is a necessity. Most importantly, ensure your site has a search bar for any consumer to search for a specific product they are looking for. Search engine crawlers tend to rank sites higher with a product search option. This also enables your site’s product page to be featured for product searches done on the search engine.

  3. Analytics and Targeting:

    The role of analytics in the digital marketing space has grown over the years and it proves to be a great barometer of consumer assessment. You can often target a consumer who spends more time on your site by pushing out relevant ads of the product pages he has browsed, through remarketing (either google remarketing or facebook remarketing).

  4. Growth of Social Media:

    It is a no brainer that social media platforms such as facebook or twitter have grown to become hubs for consumer conversations. It adds value to have a strong social media presence and market yourself effectively on social media to create awareness about your new e-commerce venture.

  5. Social Listening:

    Using advanced social media listening tools to gain insights about your consumer, as in picking up clues from his conversations, actions, etc… Social listening tools enable you to keep a tab on your competitor and their navigation of the digital space. It is a must for analysing consumer behaviour and analysing competition.

  6. Video Marketing:

    Videos in the digital world are known to capture the consumer’s attention in a very short span of time. Video content can be used for paid/non-paid digital advertising leading the consumer to go to the site and browse through or purchase. It pays to invest in video marketing, as the ROI over a period is going to be highly profitable for you.

As you can gauge by now, digital marketing is an intrinsic lever to grow your e-commerce business. What are you waiting for? Start now! Subscribe to our blog to gain more insights on e-commerce. You can also sign up for a demo of our Payments Solution to understand the value that we can bring to your e-commerce venture.

7 years ago
How a Payment Gateway Works
Mohab Ecommerce 0

If you have ever wondered how a payment gateway functions on the backend. Well, look no further! We have a lowdown on how a payment gateway facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal (such as a website, mobile phone) and the Front End Processor or acquiring bank. Here is a step by step guide detailing how Payment Gateways work:

How a Payment Gateway Works

To understand the value of PayTabs as a comprehensive Payment processor, sign up for a free demo here. If you have some questions or insights, feel free to comment below.

7 years ago
Starting Your E-Commerce Business: Key Points
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Starting Your E-Commerce Business: Key Points

Worldwide e-commerce sales is projected to grow to $4.5 trillion* by 2021. That’s almost double the current value. While at the face of it, the value seems mind boggling but it doesn’t come as a surprise because globally, e-commerce has been witnessing staggering growth, propelled by the sprouting of various e-commerce startups across the world.

Considering the growth of the industry, it is a lucrative proposition to start an e-commerce enterprise. Hence, if you have an idea and are willing to navigate through the challenges of building and running your own e-commerce enterprise, here are the key points you need to keep in mind:

  • Name & Registration: Choose a name for your business that separates you from the competition. Do a corporate name search to ensure that the name you have chosen is not in use. You would need to register the name and select a business structure for your startup, it can be a sole proprietorship/partnership/LLC/Corporation.
  • Domain name & Website: Ideally, your business name should be the domain of your e-commerce site. If the domain is not available, chose a domain name, that’s easy to spell and pronounce.
  • Banking Regulations & Identification number: Make sure you have your company’s identification number, as per the respective country’s law and ensure that you open up your company’s bank account. These are generally for tax & corporate records purposes.
  • Business Licenses and Permits: Check the operating licenses that you require to run an e-commerce business in your country and ensure you have all the licenses in place before starting business operations.
  • Find the right vendor: If you are going to running a marketplace, then you wouldn’t need a vendor for products that you would sell. But if it’s a standalone e-commerce platform, you would need a long term commitment from a vendor for supplies/raw materials or products.
  • Inventory: Make sure you have stocked your inventory. It would help tremendously, when your orders come through. You should be able to provision for x number of order and ship on time.
  • Logistics and Delivery: It is imperative for any e-commerce to have the logistics and delivery sorted. It is not only delivery for your customer orders but the delivery of your supplies that need to be streamlined as well.
  • Technology & Software: Having the right shopping cart plugin or building your own shopping cart is a must for any e-commerce site, the experience of your customer while shopping on your site, depends on your cart. Additionally, you need to ensure that you gradually invest in productivity software such as email marketing, CRM, etc…
  • Marketing: To start off with, use all digital marketing mediums, especially social media to spread the word about your business and drive sales. Prepare blog posts and social media properties well in advance.
  • Compliance: Your business will grow at the speed of light, but you must be mindful of the fact that you follow the regulations as per compliance, i.e. reporting annual results or quarterly results to regulators. Even the annual fees for your business permits and licenses. Do not ignore any aspect of being a compliant and legal e-commerce site.

Last but not the least, for transactions to occur on your e-commerce site, you would need a payment gateway to be integrated with your website. Sign up for a free demo to unlock the value that we can provide for your e-commerce venture, as a comprehensive payments solution provider.

*Data Source: Statista

7 years ago