Category: Ecommerce

E-Commerce is the buzzword in the world of the internet, and if we truly look at its pace of growth, it looks the sky is the limit for modern-day e-commerce business. At present, it is all about online shopping and people are embracing the trend more progressively. And, this trend is equally dominating all the industries, all across the world. The power of the internet and mobile phone technology made it possible for companies to reach their customers anytime, anywhere in the world. But, using mobile phones as the targeted device has tripled the revenues of business companies, since it allowed businesses to stay at the fingertips of their customers, while constantly persuading them to purchase through notifications and communicating with them through social media handle and chat options, etc. 

It is no secret that enormous usage of smartphones has given a great push to mobile eCommerce because our lives are dominantly ruled over by mobile phones and applications in it. According to a recent study, more than 96% of adults in the U.S use a mobile phone and have uninterruptable access to the internet connection. And to the recent statistics, around 81% of the global population owns a mobile phone. If you look around, you will find almost everybody having these devices, and their hands glued to them. 

Being a business owner, you need to determine the opportunities around you and exploit them aptly. But, if you are still not convinced, then let us tell you a simple answer i.e. if you want to propagate your business then your e-shop has to be on the mobile app, even if it is already present on a website. Because, with a website alone, your business can never reach its full potential. And, if you review the latest e-commerce trends, then you will quickly come to know that everyone is heading directly to mobile commerce. 

Some people may also wonder if having mobile commerce is a must these days? The answer is YES! 100%. Too often, we consult business owners who show complete content with their sales, growth rate, and revenues generating from their e-commerce websites; and that is why they never feel the need to need an e-commerce mobile application. 

The reason we always give them to inspire is that they don’t feel the need yet, because they are unaware of the potential of a mobile application. But, this is only one reason; there are plenty more that can help your business being relevant and successful in the year coming ahead. To guide you at our best, we have listed 10 important reasons that why your business needs a mobile e-commerce application in modern times. 

#1. Mobile E-Commerce Is Trending Up

Sales generating from mobile eCommerce are completely taking over the market. If we look at the sales metrics about what devices are customers using to shop, the smartphone and tablets appear at the top of the list. About 67% of total eCommerce sales across the globe come from generating from mobile devices, and this number is expected to cross 75% by the end of 2025. Mobile eCommerce is trending because people find it more convenient to shop anytime, anywhere while simply using their mobile phones. As the mobile eCommerce trend is coming up every year, and mobile sales are dominating the market, the best way for your business is to get a share in the pie too, by getting your business a functional mobile eCommerce app. 

#2. Customer Are Preferring Using Mobile E-Commerce Apps

If you don’t have a mobile app for your business, but still generating eCommerce sales from mobile devices, thinking that people are reaching your site using tablets and smartphones. And the sales data generating from it making you satisfied, then trust us, you are barely scratching the surface. Don’t get us wrong, but this the truth. Having a mobile-friendly website is a must, whether you have a mobile app or not. Because more than 85% of the users mentioned in a survey that mobile websites should look and work better than their desktop versions. Furthermore, about 88% of users are less likely to return to the site if it delivers a bad experience. All these problems can be overcome by making good, highly-functional mobile applications once and for all. 78% of mobile eCommerce shoppers agreed to the fact that they prefer using a mobile application over a mobile website. With better speed and convenience, mobile apps are undoubtedly delivering a better shopping experience. Hence, having a mobile app has become inevitable because no matter how responsive your mobile website is, a mobile application always delivers a more efficient and responsive user experience. 

#3. It Provided Higher Conversion Rates

Getting to the numbers once again, KPIs is what every business wants to boost, at the end of the day. Tracking down your conversion rate is the best thing to do, to realize the difference that mobile app and mobile app conversions bring in. If you realize your conversion rate for some time, you will surely get to know that the mobile app is the winner. A study by GitHub has also revealed that users view 286% more products and add them to their shopping carts, and at an 85% higher rate when they are using the mobile app than browsers. So the bottom line is simple. Better conversion rates translate into better revenues and certainly, mobile apps drive higher conversion rates. 

#4. It Helps You Gaining A Competitive Advantage

According to market experts, your mobile website is disadvantaged if you do not have a mobile app. As mentioned in point # 2, customers would rather prefer shopping from the mobile application, so it is only a matter of time that they are buying from your mobile site. But the fact is that if you are still getting any sales from mobile devices, then you are fortunate enough, but it cannot last very long. Conversely, if you are becoming the first mover to build a mobile eCommerce app, then it will give you a competitive advantage over other market players. It is simple if a customer is pulled between yours and your competitor’s site, then having a mobile app will give them an extra reason to lean towards it and hence buying from your mobile app.

#5. It Helps Improving Your Marketing Communication 

Sales metrics often get you excited when you are thinking of any big decision about your business. And mobile app eCommerce shops will certainly not disappoint you when you will look at the projected sales that can be generated from the platform. Apart from this, a mobile application is a dream for marketers, and by improving your marketing campaigns, you will finally be able to generate more profits from your prospective and existing customers. Features like push notifications play a crucial role in user engagement. According to a study, more than 60% of mobile app users open push notifications. Hence as compared to traditional email marketing or social media marketing, using push notifications features on mobile apps your brand message can appear directly on the screen of your mobile user and can direct users straight to the app appealing to them to buy. 

#6. Mobile E-Commerce Apps Boost Average Order Value (AOV)

As already discussed above, mobile apps improve conversion rates and user experience, but it also improves average order value (AOV) since, people view more products while using mobile apps, which provides a better opportunity for the companies to present their offerings. Mobile apps have higher AOV as compared to mobile browsers and desktops. 

#7. Delivers Personalized Shopping Experience

Personalization is a very crucial element for the success of eCommerce. And, mobile eCommerce apps take personalization to the next level. With a mobile commerce app, you can easily track the purchase and browsing history of your customers and hence make product recommendations accordingly. This as a result creates a personalized shopping experience for your customers. 

#8. Helps Increasing Customer Loyalty 

To make your customer spend more and more, all you need is a customer loyalty program. Ecommerce mobile apps increase the chance to make your customer participate in this program by regularly using the app and spending more and more money to reach the targets. There are plenty of loyalty program tactics that brands are frequently using to generate and boost their sales. 

#9. Reduce Rate of Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment is a serious problem for eCommerce businesses. And it is one of the most significant KPI that you should always be tracking. Cart abandonment can be frustrating because usually, the customer walks away just before a couple of clicks to finalizing the purchase. Apart from the top reasons defined by the technological, market, and psychological experts, the biggest reason is the poor user experience. And this is what mobile apps need to eliminate. By reducing any kind of friction and number of steps through the checkout process, the cart abandonment rate can be significantly reduced. 

#10. Provide Enhanced Customer Services

Research has shown that people tend to willingly pay more for exceptional customer service. About 73% of buyers are found to be spending more and shop for a longer time due to good customer services and user experience. So, this is one of the factors that a business must address while designing a mobile eCommerce app. 

In sum, we can say that every business nowadays needs a mobile application development because it is simply what your customers and your market are demanding. 

This article is contributed by Sam Khan – is a Professional Digital Marketer at Code Creators Inc. Which is providing mobile application development, SharePoint, website development, and IT services. 

Do visitors leave after viewing only a single page on your website? Or do your visitors navigate to another site after viewing only a single page on your website? High bounce rates among e-commerce stores are common.

As per HubSpot, the bounce rate among e-commerce websites is 20-45%.

Though a visitor may click on a website accidentally, there are several other causes of bounce rates. 

• Your website may be having only a few relevant pages.
• Your site may be hard to navigate. 
• Web design and graphics may not be appealing.
• The site’s content may be unappealing.
• Your site may be slow to load. 
• Intrusive popups and ads might be affecting the user experience.
• Your site may be lacking an e-commerce call to action.

Though you can’t reduce your e-commerce bounce rate to zero, here are x ways to decrease it:

• Focus on optimizing your product pages

Your product page is one of the most important parts of your ecommerce site. It will determine whether your web visitors will remain just visitors or actually turn into customers. 

In order to lower your bounce rate, focus on keeping your product page clean, add reviews, include a clear CTA, and write a persuasive copy.

Your potential clients almost always browse through your reviews and specifications before they buy your products. 

If you take a look at the product page from Pura Vida Bracelets, they put their review section at the front and center.

You will also find that the add to cart button is bright red to make it stand out. The use of icons and short descriptions also highlight the product’s quality and consistency.

• Increase site speed

In the age of high-speed internet and quick access to pretty much everything else, most people aren’t going to wait for your site to load. 

They’ll quickly close your webpage and move on to another site. Thus, naturally, a website that is slow to load will have a high bounce rate. 

As per statistics, e-commerce websites that are slow to load have a 72% higher bounce rate as compared to fast loaders and a 38% higher bounce rate compared to medium loaders. 

A site that loads fast also ranks higher on search engines. 

Make sure to follow these tips to increase your e-commerce site speed: 

• You can reduce the page size. 
• Don’t embed big objects or images on a page.
• When you build your pages, keep load times in mind. 
• You can also use compression software like Gzip to reduce the data size sent to a browser.

Additionally, make sure to use a content delivery network if you have customers around the world. It will cache the content on servers located wherever your customers are and reduce load times. 

Apart from that, if you use a hosted or licensed e-commerce platform, regulate the configurations to increase page load speed. 

You can also reduce redirects on your website if you have to increase load times and opt for fast hosting servers.

• Implement smart formatting to make your content more accessible 

If your web page is full of text, your visitors will find it intimidating when they click through it. No matter how valuable or unique your content is, it will be worthless if your readers leave your site without reading it.

Try to format your pages so that it looks welcoming and accessible to reduce your bounce rate. The more comfortable your content is to read, the more likely your visitors will stay on your page. 

Avoid lengthy paragraphs and make use of white space so that your content is more reader-friendly. Using headers appropriately, subheadings, suitable images, and bulleted lists are smart ways to make your content reader-friendly.

When you use these formatting options, your content will be more accessible, and your reader can scan or skim your content quickly to spot relevant points that they need.

• Add a single, clear Call-to-Action

Considering what content the user wants is essential, but you should also think about the exact action you want your users to take after they’ve consumed the content. 

When you know what action you want them to take, you can prompt your visitors to implement it by including a single, clear call to action.

However, make sure that you don’t overdo it! 

If there are many CTAs on a single page, it might end up confusing and overwhelming your visitors. Your visitors should effortlessly find whatever they are looking for and complete the action quickly.

Here’s is an excellent example of a clear and actionable CTA:

You should take user intent into consideration and how your pages can help visitors achieve their task. Only then include a clear and relevant call to action.

• Use relevant keywords 

Unless you attract relevant, high-quality traffic to your site, it will result in a high bounce rate. Implementing the right keywords will play a vital role in content marketing and lead generation. So ensure that you’re targeting the right keywords.

If statistics are anything to go by, Google generates more than 95% of its revenue from advertising. This clearly implies that a more significant share of their revenue is generated from targeting expensive keywords.

Placing high-value keywords in your website content will boost your traffic, conversion, and engagement rate. What’s more, they also help you increase your business reputation and authority.

You can use tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs to recognize and evaluate the potential keywords to bring high-value traffic to your e-commerce site. Or simply hire SEO consultants from a reputed SEO agency.

• Write attractive meta descriptions. 

A meta description is the 155 characters summarization of your entire web page. To put it simply, the purpose of meta descriptions is to summarize your web page’s content effectively. 

Your meta description will also help you decrease your bounce rate and get more traction on your site. All search engines, including Google, index, and rank your meta description based on factors like keyword placement. Thus, optimizing your meta description should be your top concern.

Here are some tips you can implement while creating an attractive meta description: 

• It should be at 155 characters. 
• It should be actionable. Write it in an active voice. 
• Add a call-to-action.
• Add the right keywords.
• It should match the content.
• It should be unique.

• Use videos and podcasts to engage your visitors.

The bounce rate usually increases when people don’t find your content interesting and exit your web page quickly without showing much interest. 

The key is to entice them and make them stay on your web page long enough to turn them into prospective customers. 

And the best way to do it is by adding videos and podcasts to your page!

By using video, you will be able to reduce your bounce rate and boost conversions. As per Google, nearly half of the online browsers search for product-related videos prior to visiting an online store.

Apart from that, video adds a dynamic element to brand storytelling. It can emotionally impact consumers and make them loyal buyers for years to come. 

Aside from embedding videos, you might also want to leverage audio as well. Powerful podcasts and audio clips can also increase visitors’ off-screen engagement with your brand.

• Resolve technical issues

Resolving site usability issues are a sure-fire way to improve your e-commerce bounce rate. If it is difficult for your visitors to navigate the site or click on items, it will result in a high bounce rate.

Some of the most common usability issues include:

• Sites not responding well on specific browsers or mobile.
• Technical issues like error 404.
• Broken links.
• Faulty drop-down menus.

You can conduct usability testing to detect these issues by using eye-tracking equipment, or you can also watch session recordings of how people interact with your app or site.

For instance, you can view session recordings of how users navigate your site. While at that, you can evaluate your pages with a high bounce rate and jot down the problems your visitors will most likely face. Then, you can focus on fixing the issues quickly.

Another way is to manually test the pages to check loading issues, wrong links, or errors on the desktop or mobile. Errors usually occur when you make changes on your site. Thus, it is crucial to test your pages every time you upload new products and content.

Resolve the issues by getting rid of broken links manually and swap them with correct ones. Optimize and update your plugins to see that they match well with your website themes. If you are unable to resolve the issues, you can take the help of your site developer.

• Engage abandoning visitors

No matter what you do to decrease your e-commerce bounce rate, there are going to be users who will abandon your site after clicking only one page. 

You can use tools like the Poptin tool that can track users when they are about to abandon your site and turn them into subscribers.

The tool has a feature that allows you to display a popup message as and when users abandon their shopping carts.

You can send customized offers that will boost both conversions and bounce rates. It also allows you to display subscription messages when visitors visit your site or are about to leave. 

Wrapping-Up

A high bounce rate is a common issue among e-commerce stores. However, by implementing the right strategies, you will be able to improve the bounce rate. 

Start by optimizing your product pages, increasing your site speed, implementing smart formatting to make your content more accessible, adding a single, clear Call to Action, using relevant keywords, etc. And once through with these tips, follow with writing attractive meta descriptions, using videos and podcasts, and resolving technical issues, and engage abandoning visitors. 

Lastly, but most importantly, focus on building trust with your visitors. Unless your customers trust you, they won’t buy from you. 

Remember, the more honest you are with potential clients, the more they’ll buy from you because they will like you.

If you use the internet on a regular basis, there are high chances that you are already familiar with the concept of chatbots. Those who still don’t know what chatbots are are small computer programs that are developed to stimulate the method of human conversation and interact with real people automatically to assist them with their issues and finish their tasks.

69% of consumers prefer to use chatbots for the speed at which they can communicate with a brand. In fact, 58% of B2B and 42% of B2C companies use a chatbot on their websites. While the chatbots are making a difference in various industries with their effectiveness, the eCommerce industry is benefitting the most from the use of chatbots.

Here are 7 effective ways chatbot technology is revolutionising eCommerce:

• Improving user experience:

Adding conversational bots into your eCommerce system has the potential of simplifying the user experience of the website. An example will help you understand how chatbots can improve the customer experience. Sephora, one of the top beauty product brands, has recently released its personal assistance bot integrated with messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Kik.

This assistant bot of Sephora allows users to try new looks and beauty products from the brand. The user only needs to provide his/her images, and the bots give the person a clear idea of how a shade of a new lipstick would look on them. This saves the user from the trouble of visiting a physical store. Needless to say, this takes the user experience to a whole new level.

• Better customer service:

Providing useful customer support should be the number one priority for every business.  A business is nothing without its customers. So, a brand needs to put everything they got to achieve cent per cent client satisfaction rate. You will be surprised to know that chatbots do a great job at assisting customers with their doubts and queries and boosting client satisfaction rate.

A significant number of companies have started to include bots in their business strategy to improve their customer service. Since it is challenging for brands to offer customer support 24×7, including chatbots into the mix can solve that problem. In fact, the customers can get support at late hours as well as on weekends. This certainly helps the brand gain the trust of the customers.

• More accurate product recommendations:

With the emergence of IoT devices, especially the voice search-enabled smart devices, the way people shop online is changing. However, one of the biggest highlights in this area has been the incorporation of chatbots into the home devices and appliances.

LG’s SmartThinq Home Automation hub while being integrated with Amazon Alexa lets you have great control over your home appliances. For example, the bots will automatically estimate the detergent amount needed for your laundry and reorder it automatically when required. As you can guess, plagiarism checker this amalgamation of technologies has limitless possibilities. Same goes for conversational bots and online shopping.

• Automating the lead generation process:

Ecommerce businesses often have a medium to a large inventory, which can be difficult for the customers to navigate through while searching for an item. Chatbots can help lead customers to what they need and make things simpler for everyone. Since the chatbots are highly scalable, it enables you to initiate a conversation with website users and isolate the interested users.

Things may escalate to another level when natural language processing and AI are added to a bot’s workflow. In such scenarios, the bots actually perform better at lead generation than regular human agents. We may get to see more chatbots in the area of sales enablement. They generally gather and store customer data over time and automate data transmission to sales teams for closing the deals.

• Helping mine customer data:

Customers share a lot of data with a brand without realising whether they are having a conversation with a human or bot at the other end. These chatbots store a great amount of consumer data, including the past purchase record and buying habits over a period of time. So, the next time the same customer visits the website or store, the data helps provide a smooth user experience and makes the conversion easier.

Rich consumer data also allows the brands to produce more accurate ways to advertise their products/services to the customers. Knowing the customer’s habits and purchase history allows the brand to estimate the person’s future moves. Presenting the right advertisements to the customers at the right time will improve the chances of conversion and sales.

• Rewarding customer loyalty:

Most businesses spend a lot of money on customer loyalty programs, rewarding their loyal customers and converting them into brand advocates. While there is nothing wrong with this strategy, the chatbots are taking the matter of rewarding customer loyalty to a new level. Popular brands like Burberry and Audemars Piguet are already doing that.

The bots at the Burberry’s website allow the users to check “Behind the Scenes” looks from fashion shows, and also buy the apparels directly from the app. Customers can also engage in live chat with a company agent. The bots used by Audemars Piguet let the users browse through the best watch collections, asses all the features of the individual watches, and find the nearest store to try those items in real life. In other words, the bots can make loyal customers feel valued.

• Closing a sale:

In today’s date, most businesses still prefer to assign a live agent or representative to complete the sale. However, the scenario is changing gradually. Chatbots now have the potential to sell directly and place the orders for users without the need of any human assistance. Even though people used to criticise bots earlier for their inability to close sales, things have changed drastically in the last few years.

In fact, more and more people are choosing chatbots to complete sales. There is a specific type of bots called sales chatbots which are being implemented by companies to improve their sales funnel. They also offer the feature to follow up with clients who could not have been converted in the first attempt.

In conclusion,

Adopting chatbots for your business is a lot more cost-effective than you think. Unlike human agents, chatbots are easy to manage. So, if you have not considered using chatbots for your business, it is the perfect time to incorporate this technology into your business strategy. This will help you take advantage of the changes chatbots are bringing to the world of eCommerce.

A plethora of B2B eCommerce are thriving in the marketplace. It has become a solid catalyst in economic development.

However, sometimes B2B eCommerce feels an unsolved mystery. Many B2B companies are still stuck in the stone age as they use traditional marketing channels to do business.

But on the other end of the spectrum, B2B eCommerce sales have hit $6.6 trillion globally in this year, 2020.

When pandemic broke out in the beginning of 2020, many business industries especially business-to-business took advantage of it and upscale their business by launching it on an eCommerce platform.

There are still many who’re skeptical and confused about B2B eCommerce. If you’re one of them, don’t worry.

In this article, we’ll walk through the details and every aspect of B2B eCommerce.

What is Business-to-Business eCommerce?

Business-to-Business (B2B) eCommerce is defined as the sales of services and goods between two companies via online business channels. Insteading of taking orders in an old-school way like via email or telephone, the transactions are made online.

Some people often confuse B2B with B2C. But let us clear this misconception that these two business types are entirely different from each other.

B2C is the process of selling products directly to customers. Whereas, in B2B the deal is made between two organizations or industries.

Big brands like Amazon are now expanding their business through B2B eCommerce and it’s predicted it will grow much faster.

Adding more to it, B2B buyers are not similar to B2C ones. Some business strategies are effective on B2C customers but if applied on B2B, they won’t be that efficacious.

It doesn’t mean that business owners should build new eCommerce websites to facilitate their B2B eCommerce customers. All you need to adjust your business  plans and strategies that will work for your B2B customers.

Now we know what B2B eCommerce and B2B eCommerce buyers are, now let’s look at some B2B eCommerce statistics of this year that illustrates the current status of the B2B eCommerce industry.

B2B eCommerce statistics of 2020

It’s hard to believe the global B2B eCommerce market is twice larger than B2C. Frost and Sullivan predicted last year that in 2020 B2B eCommerce sales will hit $6.6 trillion by 2020 which it did.

Currently U.S is leading the B2B eCommerce market as it is predicted by 2023, the B2B eCommerce sales in the US alone will hit $1.8 trillions.

The traditional sales channels are going extinct as more millennials are stepping into the B2B eCommerce world.

The commonly used marketing channel used by B2B eCommerce industries is LinkedIn. It’s a significant marketing tool as it’s 277% more effective in generating B2B leads compared to social media platforms.

After looking at the current situation of B2B eCommerce industry. Now let’s check out the ins and outs of B2B eCommerce.

Some business-to-business organizations are still skeptical about switching from traditional marketing channels to digital sales channels.

So it’s important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of B2B eCommerce.

Advantages and disadvantages B2B eCommerce

B2B eCommerce is an excellent opportunity for those brands who want to expand their existing business by using a powerful sales channel.

There are plenty of advantages of using a B2B eCommerce platform.

So without any further ado, let’s check them out.

Easier to reach new customer

With a B2B eCommerce website it is easier to reach new customers and expand your consumer base. Users can take advantage of the digital marketing strategies to increase your consumer reach.

Buyers these days not only look for a stable shopping platform but demand for it. Those B2B eCommerce brands who are not available online cannot take advantage of new marketing technologies. Thus, they miss on a lot of customers.

Shoppers also now prefer to make purchases online because it’s easier and convenient. They don’t have to leave the comfort of their house and get stuck in traffic jams. All they have to do is visit your B2B eCommerce store and buy what they want.

Better customer and suppliers management

The B2B eCommerce platform makes it trouble-free to manage customers and suppliers easily. Taking your business on a digital platform gives you the opportunity to manage your business through a management software.

Using management software helps in keeping the records of customers like how much they have shop etc. You can utilize this information to personalize their shopping experience. This automated management concept is a win-win for both the parties.

Up-scale your B2B business by selling more to existing customers

With B2B eCommerce you cannot only just expand your consumer base but you can sell more to your existing customers by implementing an automated up-sell and cross-sell recommendation program.

This is more like providing your existing customers a highly personalized shopping experience. With this recommendation program you can offer them those products which they’re actually looking for.

In this way you’ll be able to assist them in-person without even talking to them.

A cut above data analytics

Using a B2B eCommerce platform is a perfect platform to launch any comprehensive analytics campaign. With Data Analytics, B2B organizations are able to make better decisions for their business.

Through this feature you can easily generate reports only on a daily basis to get insight of how well your business is doing in the market.

You’ll be able to identify with analytics which marketing strategy or business idea is working for you and which is not. You can also find what your customers are looking for in terms of customer experience as well.

All in all, using this new feature can facilitate running a successful business in this techno-centric world.

Now let’s look at some disadvantages of using a B2B eCommerce platform

A completely different shopping experience

If you’re switching from B2C to B2B even if the platform is eCommerce still remember it will be a whole new experience for you and the shoppers as well. To create a B2B eCommerce platform you have created a completely new eCommerce platform using all the B2B features to run your business.

Compared to B2C, B2B customers look for a fast-pace shopping experience. Initially, it’s quite intimidating to manage your business on this new platform.

Limited number of customers

Well, if you’re old in this business then it’s easier to shift your B2B business on an eCommerce platform. However, if you’re new in this business then it will be really difficult and frustrating for you to find B2B shoppers and start a business relationship with them.

Understanding the B2B equation

If you’re keen on succeeding in the B2B eCommerce world then you need to have this in your mind that B2B buyers are always looking for products or services that are created with incredible talent and skill. They never compromise on the quality of the product or services.

They also look for some tremendous flexibility so they can efficiently scale-up their business venture. If you want to crack a deal then you need to offer them outclass service.

This can be pretty challenging for any business as there are a lot of competitors so standing out in the market is difficult.

Complex Market to Setup

Starting a B2B eCommerce business isn’t as simple as it looks. Every B2B customer is always in search of something unique. You’ll have to keep chasing them in order to sustain your consumer base. You’ll have to make modifications according to their business needs.

When you own a huge consumer base this task becomes really intimidating because it is somewhat impossible to fulfill each and every customers’ unique needs.

Therefore, a B2B eCommerce business is just like a cat and mouse chase, never ending one.

By showing you the other side of this industry we don’t mean to discourage you but to give a complete picture of this business.

If you’re confused whether you should digitize your B2B brick-and-mortar business, don’t worry.

Below we’ve listed some of the most popular B2B eCommerce Businesses. All of these business organizations took the risk and invested in this new industry and today they’re making trillions.

Let’s check them out. Shall we?

Successful B2B Examples

Flexfire LEDs

A popular B2B eCommerce brand that is generating 80% of its revenue from its B2B eCommerce store. They focused on educating their customers thoroughly and providing a quality customer experience. They receive a good number of organic traffic on their store and they convert that into sales.

Berlin Packaging

Another successful example of B2B eCommerce who uses chats to make sales. They target the new visitors and communicate with them so they don’t leave the store without purchasing anything. They make full use of digital channels to generate leads and later on turn them into sales.

BulkBookStore

Similar to Berlin Packaging, BulkBookStore offers immediate assistance to visitors as they have enabled a pop-up chat widget on their eCommerce store. It allows customers to easily inquire about the product they’re looking for, they don’t have to spend time searching the product on the store.

Essential Takeaways

Well, this was just a short guide on B2B eCommerce.

B2B eCommerce is a huge digital platform, it will take you several months to ex[plore the dynamics of this industry.

Since, the society is becoming more techno-centric by each passing day, it has become a necessity to digitize your business in order to reach the pinnacles of success.

As the holiday season is drawing near, more and more people are starting to look for Christmas presents.

Usually, the most massive shopping weekend of the year starts when everyone will be ready to spend money on gifts, friends, loved ones, or themselves.

For example, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’d see a tremendous increase in website visitors, and so is their eagerness to buy.

This upward surge of sales won’t likely disappear after Christmas. However, this sudden spike in traffic may also cause stress to site owners and digital marketers.

To save yourself from the stress and still take advantage of the boost of prospective customers, here are points that you ought to consider to prepare your online store and make it a profitable holiday season:

Revamp your website

We don’t suggest redoing your website design completely. You can customize your site for the Holiday Season by adding a couple of changes.

For instance, placing a countdown timer in your site’s header, for instance, is an excellent strategy to enhance the sense of urgency.

Switching up your banners into headers that promote Christmas or Black Friday sales is also an excellent practice and relatively easy to implement.

You can even dress up your site for the holiday theme if you have the budget.

Switching up elements in your site that reflect, ‘It’s the Holidays!’ will increase your visitors’ willingness to shop on your site and maintain the holiday spirit.

Just don’t be too taken away with holiday themes, though. Ideally, you still want your customers to recognize your brand and have a user-friendly shopping experience from your store.

Spruce up your landing pages

Your holiday landing pages should promote your sales and showcase your customers’ deals and savings without needing your customers to scroll through and search your site.

You might also want to consider adding a sense of urgency, like “Deals Ends at Midnight,” or “One Day Sale Only.”

You may also consider placing a countdown graphic that shows the days or hours left for the sale to end.

Your landing pages allow customers to browse and then click on the referral link on your site, offering a clear path to conversions. Meaning, placing CTAs like “Buy Now,” or “Check Out” buttons can convert your customers in just a few clicks.

As product reviews have become increasingly important in the buyer’s decision-making process, consider positive reviews as an integral part of the landing page’s content.

Test your website performance

Your site’s performance should be one of your main priorities. Ideally, your e-commerce store should be ready for scalability and stability to handle your customers’ increased demands.

By improving your site’s speed in milliseconds, you can avoid site bounces and shopping cart abandonment.

You can start by having your team check the page-load of every element in your site- from how long it takes for the page to render to how quick the actual check-out process is.

Adopt a mobile-first mindset

Many people are now going mobile, your site must work perfectly well on mobile devices. Just ensure that users won’t have any problems with it when they’re shopping.

That’s why testing your mobile site is obligatory. Just ensure that you don’t make any massive changes. Did a user find a perfect gift for their loved ones last October, and they came back in December to purchase it?

Then, you should quickly locate the item and not waste their time looking for it.

Create gift guides

It’s quite tempting to throw in a list on your site with holiday ideas. But taking your time to come up with product descriptions and make it look great will help take it up by a notch.

You can place links, images, and short descriptions of the items in your gift guides. Or if someone has recommended your item or a service, then it helps that you include a reason for it.

Let’s say you want to include salt and pepper in your gift guide. At first, many people might be quite skeptical about it. But what if you tell them that it’s one of the unique salt and pepper shakers they could probably have?That it doesn’t dispense the salt too fast, or too slow, and that the pepper tastes fresh, then they could be adding it to their cart any moment now.

Remember that your holiday gift guide’s content is as vital as the content and ideas you’ll be including.

Furthermore, a holiday gift guide that’s visually appealing, easy to read, and use will allow you to get more views and shares with just one picture.

Optimize your check-out process

Cart abandonment is often higher during check-out. Customers are backing out at the last minute because of unexpected costs, technical glitches, too many form fields, or even a lack of trust in the payment portal.

To help reduce the check-out process’s complexity, you should aim to provide your customers with a relatively easy, straightforward check-out process.

Here are some helpful tips:

• Always ensure that you’re showing the shopping cart as well as the total.
• Be transparent with the shipping costs, especially with the taxes and additional fees.
• Provide a quick guest check-out.
• Keep check-outs on a single page. The lesser the clicks, the better.
• Display your return policies, mostly if your sale items are excluded from it.
• Make sure that you highlight your security badges, as well as payment compliances.

You might also consider adding digital wallets to your payment process, adding methods like Android Pay, GoogleWallet, Apple Pay, PayPal, Visa Checkout, and the likes.

Adjust your return and exchange policy

Your holiday return and exchange policy should be adjusted accordingly to your company or brand’s rules and guidelines.

More so, most customers expect that their gifts can be exchanged or returned, which is the main reason why many retailers are now providing free and convenient return options.

To compete, small and mid-sized stores should also consider doing the same. During the holiday season, your return and exchange policy should be lax.

It’s also quite wise if you provide free returns and exchange policy to your customers. While doing so might cause your extra, this will likely significantly boost your sales.

While you think that your holiday return policy is quite simple to understand, that notion is entirely subjective. Ensure that you test it out, and see that there will be no complications or misunderstandings.

Build up your customer service

Because it’s the holidays, people are more likely going to reach out to you often. They may want to know whether a specific product will arrive on time or want to know more about a particular product.

That’s precisely why you should make customer service your highlight and make sure that you’re always available for any customer inquiries.

You may also want to integrate live chat as well. According to the survey from Software Advice, more and more people, especially millennials, prefer to use live chat. That’s why you must consider integrating live chat on your site.

Automate wherever needed

For most e-commerce stores, the most demanding time of the year is the holiday season. Even small duties like printing shopping labels, sending in emails, or sending trivial stuff can quickly add up.

That’s why retailers need to use automation tools whenever they can to help lighten up the load.

By using MailChimp to streamline your email communications, including abandoned cart emails, and using AI chatbots assists you in cutting down customer service queries, send users with promotional messages, and boost sales this holiday season.

Get Organized

Before you put up all your items for sale, make sure that all your products are well-stocked and organized in a seamless inventory system.

Being an e-commerce company or brand, you must prepare for any spikes in holiday sales. You don’t want customer demand to catch you out.

Make sure that you have a streamlined inventory system that will reflect what you have available online.

Dig Your Competitors

The holidays are a great time to check what your competitors are currently doing.

You may look up all the marketing tactics that they did that lead up to every holiday. Also how they communicated with customers during, and after the holiday season.

The goal here is not to replicate your competitors. However, you can use their approaches as an inspiration for ideas to help you enhance and build on your holiday promotions.

Over to You

Although you can never have everything perfect and under wraps for the holiday season, you can make your ecommerce store ready for the holiday season with enough planning.

Planning ahead of time helps you eliminate last-minute scrambles, leading to poorly defined strategies or poor customer experiences. You can throw in a survey, through a handy survey maker tool to know what your audience wants from the get go.

So, make this holiday season the best yet for your e-commerce store by optimizing your site just in time for the seasonal rush. Good luck!

This article is contributed by Andi Croft – a freelance writer whose main interests are topics related to blogging, business, technology, and travel.