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Multichannel Selling: The Right Move Forward or Too Many Things at the Same Time?(Part 1)

Tag: online business

Multichannel Selling: The Right Move Forward or Too Many Things at the Same Time?(Part 1)
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Multichannel Selling: The Right Move Forward or Too Many Things at the Same Time?(Part 1)

The more places your company and products exist online, the easier it is for someone to find you and buy from you. That sounds amazing, but it camouflages the sheer amount of work it takes to keep your channels running and profitable.

There’s a whole lot to discover for e-commerce and multichannel retail, and we want to look at where it can all go right or terribly wrong. So, we’ll review the triforce of multichannel efforts, some core concerns, and a few specific areas you must get right to understand if it’s all worth it for your specific company.

What Is E-commerce Multichannel Retail?

Multichannel sales have changed significantly since the term was first brought into the popular domain. It now covers more than just making products available to customers generally online and in-store. That early focus was often for brick-and-mortar stores expanding into the growing world of digital, which came with its own set of unique challenges as stores turned from large-scale shipping to locations to fulfillment direct to the consumer when a product is sold online.

The E-commerce space introduces further complexity — which, thankfully, software can now manage for most brands — of understanding demand and orders across a variety of online locations. Now, your multichannel efforts tend to consist of providing products on your website, through marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, on social channels such as Facebook and Twitter, and whatever comes next.

That next is often a result of search, such as how you can now order some products through virtual assistants. While they’re locked in closed gardens (buying only from Amazon, iTunes or the soon-to-be TV App, etc.), every such digital revolution we’ve seen has eventually opened up to include a variety of third-party sources.

So, your new multichannel e-commerce selling efforts are designed to distribute your products across as many apps, marketplaces, shopping and search engines, social, and other digital channels focused on letting customers browse and buy how they prefer.

Good news: Software can do much of this heavy lifting thanks to data standards, APIs, and integrations, so you’re not coding things yourself or having to update product availability for each channel manually. Payment is one area where you’ve got some genuinely savvy options.

Bad news: New channels are always emerging, and consumer trends often flow to new channels, so you’re always going to have a mix of staples and an ever-changing roster of newbies that require effort and thought to do well. For instance, Facebook’s own study shows young people are paying less attention to it now, especially when it comes to videos and video ads.

Tough news: The challenge is never going to go away, and channels will likely continue to grow. So, to capture your audience and then build loyalty, you’re going to need to be visible and buyable on the channels they use.

About the author

Jake Rheude is the Director of Marketing for Red Stag Fulfillment, an ecommerce fulfillment warehouse that was born out of ecommerce. He has years of experience in ecommerce and business development. In his free time, Jake enjoys reading about business and sharing his own experience with others.

5 years ago
4 Secret Ingredients of a Successful Online Business
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

4 Secret Ingredients of a Successful Online Business

An online business today definitely has a clear edge over the pure brick and mortar models of yesterday. These benefits are evident by its wider customer reach, savings in overhead costs, 24*7 customer availability and efficient inventory management. Now there are certain measures that can help an online business become successful. Experts list out the following ones:

  1. Website: This is given in today’s digital age. A website symbolizes an online, professional presence of the business. Lack of a virtual presence translates into a huge revenue loss. An online platform helps customers connect better with the product brand and make an informed purchase decision. Further, it also reinforces customers’ trust in the brand because as the proverb goes ‘Seeing is believing’. An updated website with detailed information about the product categories, pricing and promotional offers would help achieve higher return sales. The customer would be able to compare with other online portals and zero in on the best deal.Some important components of a website are:
  • Separate pages: A well-categorized website with a landing page or home page, headings like contact us, about us, features and benefits, customer testimonials, etc. would be more appealing
  • Design: Attractive images, logos and tickers would help increase web traffic
  • Security aspects: The webpage should be enabled with highest security frameworks and encryption standards
  1. Knowledge centre or blog: This section has undergone a dramatic transformation in today’s information age. A blog should not be mistaken as trivia. The blog contains educational and informative pointers to help educate the reader about the latest trends in product categories, the unique selling proposition of the product offering, details of product launches, interviews by subject matter experts and any other topic of interest to a potential or existing customer to make an informed choice. Blogs are a very effective way to communicate with the customers and showcase the online business in a positive light. It also contributes towards enhanced website search-ability and piques the interest of readers on search engines. A very powerful tool in this regard is search engine optimization (SEO) which helps push websites with relevant content to the top as per the search request.
  1. Social media: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter help bring together a community of people with similar interests. It serves as a useful marketing channel. Thus, one can attract potential customers by uploading informative posts, videos, polls and other relevant material to engage readers and attract their attention to the business’s products and services. Besides providing good networking opportunities, this medium can be leveraged for business promotion. Some common details comprise:
  • Company logo, description, navigation to the address via maps
  • Description of products
  • Link to website
  • Hashtags and tags
  • Eye-catching content, images, videos, and gifs
  1. Link to the payment gateway: This is an obvious inclusion as the business is mainly interested in the sales conversion ratio. Integration of a payment gateway process to enhance the buyers’ experience will go a long way in higher sales realisation. A customer can conveniently pay for the products anywhere and anytime. This reduces chances of cart abandonment or rethinking a potential purchase. However, the most critical aspect of this feature is the security aspect. The payment gateway should be a widely accepted, secure mode of payment and should have varied options like credit cards, debit cards, internet banking, and wallets. Further, in case of a failed transaction, debit of money from the customer account without acknowledgement, or network error, there must be provision for immediate customer support. Some customers also prefer to save their card details on secure websites to enable recurring transactions with the same vendor.

A frog in the well approach would not work in today’s highly interconnected, digital age. Business enterprises would do well to adopt the above digital marketing tools to effectively and efficiently grow their online business.

5 years ago
#Payshout Campaign: An opportunity to extend your reach to your target audience
Mohab Special Offers 0

#Payshout Campaign: An opportunity to extend your reach to your target audience

There is plenty of great content available on the web. But the most visible content is the one that has been promoted intensively on the right platforms at the right time. In today’s world, you must focus on promotions, branding, and marketing to deliver your content to the target audience. This ensures extended reach and higher conversions.

#Payshout is PayTabs’s promotion strategy that facilitates collaboration, focuses on relevant content, ensures maximum outreach, and increases the chances of conversions. Read on to know about the #Payshout campaign.

What is #Payshout?

#Payshout is a marketing campaign initiated by PayTabs, a payment solutions company. The idea is to collaborate with the merchants for a promotional campaign. This is an excellent way to showcase a website, a business, a brand, a product, service, or some particular information to the audience on social media platforms.

The #Payshout campaign is a win-win situation for both PayTabs and the merchants. The collaboration ensures that the social media post reaches to a wider spectrum of audience. The merchant can curate content, upload logo, and add additional information while applying for the #Payshout campaign.

How can you benefit from the #Payshout Campaign?

The generic ways of promoting content, business, and ideas still work but you need to put in extra efforts to grab the attention of the onlookers. As social media usage is on an exponential rise, this is the perfect opportunity to reach your audience. Participating in the #Payshout campaign has following benefits:

Collaboration: You have a certain number of followers on social media platforms. When you post content, your content is delivered to your followers and other social media users (based on your targeting approach). Now when you collaborate with PayTabs by participating in the #Payshout campaign, you can extend your reach to their audience as well. Similarly, PayTabs also gets an opportunity to promote their business.

Enhanced Reach: Using the right set of hashtags, keywords, and visuals, you can showcase customized content to a targeted audience, thereby increasing the chances of capturing potential leads. And since there are various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others, participating in the campaign can be immensely beneficial for both the parties.

Opportunity to Connect: The #Payshout campaign is not just about connecting to customers. The promotional and branding strategy can be applied to capture the attention of other businesses as well. It is possible that these businesses are looking to collaborate with the brands – like yours – offering similar products and services.

How to Use the #Payshout opportunity?

If you are willing to collaborate with the PayTabs payment gateway provider, you can submit content along with some essential information. Follow the given instructions:

  • Create suitable content for the #Payshout campaign. The content can either be a promotional message, an informational message, a greeting, or any other information deemed fit for the social media audience. Along with the content, you can specify hashtags and social media profiles that you want to link.
  • You have to submit a visual depicting the nature of your business. It can either be your brand’s logo, product or service image, or any other type of visual related to your business.
  • When content and visuals are ready, you have to upload them on the PayTabs #Payshout page. Along with this, enter your business’s or website’s name and email address.
  • Before you submit the aforementioned information, you have to grant permission to PayTabs to promote your brand on social media platforms. Once you do so, submit the request for further evaluation by the concerned authorities.
  • Once it is approved, it will go live on social media platforms as a part of the #Payshout campaign.

The Bottom Line

Participating in the campaign can be a game-changing decision for your business. It gives you an opportunity to experiment with a unique way of promoting your brand and reach out to your target audience.

5 years ago
Importance of Customer Reviews and How to Generate Them
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Importance of Customer Reviews and How to Generate Them

Word of mouth is the most vital medium for popularizing any business. Positive reviews are not the only kind that may be beneficial to a business, even though they are preferred. And establishing a positive image of your business isn’t the only benefit of online reviews.

Online reviews by the customers can also optimize search engine rankings. Popular review sites such as Yelp and Trip Advisor have been around for a long time and have an extensive database of information about businesses available.

Customer reviews also help by making it easy for buyers to choose what they desire. According to Bright Local’s consumer survey, 86% of the consumers read online reviews for local businesses, with 12% of consumers looking for a local business online every day. Surprisingly, 89% of the global customers read the responses to reviews.

Why Do Customer Reviews Matter?

According to Bright Local’s survey of local consumer reviews, consumers go through an average of seven reviews before trusting a business. These statistics were six in 2016. Also since the spread of the review culture, these businesses have seen the most growth and expansion. Other forms of businesses are also reviewed and referred to by consumers all around the world.

Online reviews not only influence consumers but also affect the visibility of these businesses in search engines. With regard to retail, the most influential factor for Google’s local search ranking is based largely on significance, location, and presence.

Out of these, location and significance are not affected by reviews. However, reviews have a major impact on the online presence of a business. Search engines like Google favor reputable review sites such as Yelp, so it is not uncommon for a small business’s Yelp or even Facebook page to rank higher in search results than its actual website.

Reviews can also be used as customer testimonials for the business website. Highlighting good reviews in social media posts and marketing campaigns may also result in further generation of reviews. Social media influencers can be vitally important while working toward growing your business presence online.

How to Collect Customer Reviews? 

Increasing positive customer reviews means growing consumer base. To get reviews from customers is not an easy task for an ordinary or new business. A great deal of effort has to be put in to generate reviews. Certain practices may be helpful in the generation of reviews. Some of these are:

  • Providing exceptional consumer service

Customers, when provided with good service are satisfied and would readily leave a review when asked for. The services include everything from providing online payment platforms to guiding the consumers in the best possible manner.

  • High-quality product or service

The product or service that a company provides is the main reason behind the customer’s satisfaction.

  • Requesting feedback/advice/suggestions regarding personal interests of the consumers

Attending to the customer and asking for their views on improving the business help to instill a friendly/family-like atmosphere for the customer, making them feel more involved and important.

  • Making it easy to receive feedback

Engaging the customers, even after the product has been sold is essential. This can be achieved by reviewing their purchase history and making recommendations regarding products that they might like.

  • Engaging customers online

Using the information about the customer collected from their purchase and sending emails regarding the product and its feedback, is a good way to make the customer feel engaged.

  • Active and logical responses to reviews

Actively responding to customers in a logical and compassionate way is vital for success in business. There can be positive reviews and negative reviews. Responding to both is equally essential.

Regular interaction with the consumer helps in maintaining a check on the quality of services, whether it’s about the best mode of delivery, online payment gateway, or cancellations & refunds. Regularly tracking reviews by making it a habit to check out various review platforms and social media outlets will help in the growth of the business. In this age of social media, online reviews are just the tool you need to make your business known.

5 years ago
6 ways your billing system can improve customer retention
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

6 ways your billing system can improve customer retention

As a business owner, you need to appreciate the importance of customer retention. A solid customer retention strategy helps save money on marketing, boosts repeat sales, accords your business free word of mouth advertising, reduces customer churn rate, builds a loyal customer base and helps collect invaluable feedback from your customers.  A study by Reichheld of Bain & Company published on the Harvard Business Review says acquiring one customer is 5-25% more expensive than retaining an existing one. The same study shows a 5% increase in customer retention rates boosts profits by 25% to 95%. There’s no overemphasizing the importance of customer retention in today’s overly competitive business landscape.

One of the most effective strategies for online businesses to build loyalty among the existing customers is to take payments online. If you have been wondering how you can improve your online business fortunes, this article highlights the importance of a billing system in customer retention. Read on.

  1. Personalize the customer’s experience

One of the most conspicuous changes in business marketing is increasing focus on personalization. The modern day consumer has become accustomed to customized experiences everywhere they go to including Facebook, online shopping sites and utility service providers.

If you have a billing system, make sure you offer a tailored experience to retain your customers. Provide a single customer account interface and provide real-time processing. The customer needs to own the billing process and you must ensure this by using a payment gateway which you can customize.

  1. Reduce involuntary churn

The modern shopper has an infamous short attention span and they want instant gratification. While most consumers make conscious decisions to leave an online store, others walk away due to weak technology. This is involuntary churn and you must avoid it in your billing system. Make sure your billing system offers automatic retry, account updater services and multiple payment options in case the primary one fails. The rule of thumb is never to allow a problematic payment get in the way of customer relationship.

  1. Use a self-Service portal to provide a better user experience

The best billing system comes with a one-stop-shop portal where customers can complete all transactions. Most of your customers today have a lot of tech know-how and they want to stay in control. A self-service portal reduces waiting times and poor satisfaction levels caused by your delayed customer resolution to issues.

  1. Provide flexible payment options

The modern shopper wants a variety of choices in everything and when it comes to online payments, your billing system must offer convenience. It is no wonder then that a recent YouGov survey published on the Retail Technology Review says 50% of shoppers cancel a purchase if their preferred payment method is unavailable on a site. Simply put, your billing system must accommodate multiple payments to avoid customer churn.

  1. Improve system efficiency

In the online business ecosystem, you need systems operating like clockwork. If you accept payments online, your billing system should offer a seamless experience. The system should provide crucial information instantly to both the customer and your customer service team. This, in turn, leads to higher customer ratings and reduced customer defections.

  1. Leverage billing data for better service delivery

Data is one of the most crucial assets that any business can invest in today. Now that you have a self-service portal on your billing system, you can collect invaluable data which will help create memorable customer experiences. You can monitor customers’ preferences, offer custom content on email marketing, contact a specific customer to follow up on any changes in their service portal and so much more.

There are many other ways your billing system can improve customer retention levels for your business. It is a seamless platform to build an engaging relationship with your customers, improve the user experience, provide a personalized experience, and offer payment convenience. With an efficient payment system on your online store, you are already on the right path in your customer retention journey.

5 years ago