The value of technology is not lost on e-commerce business owners. After all, tech makes up the very backbone of your company! But are you making use of all the technology that’s available to you? There are methodologies you can adopt that open up all kinds of incredible opportunities to cut costs, save time, and encourage scalable growth with the help of digital technology.
Not particularly tech-savvy? LiveWebMedia offers a variety of digital services to help you grow your brand, from web design strategy to SEO optimization. With that in mind, here are a few key areas to focus your tech upgrades to take your e-commerce business to the next level.
Use Analytics to Optimize Business Processes
Data is your most valuable asset. If you’re not looking at your analytics and making business decisions based on what you see, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to grow your brand. BigCommerce recommends checking your e-commerce analytics on a weekly basis to assess the health of your business. Look at metrics like your website traffic, social media engagement, ad impressions, shopping cart abandonment rates, average order value, and organic click-through rates to determine areas where you need to focus your efforts.
Data analysis is a great way to optimize your business processes. Process data mining will help you discover, validate, and improve workflows across every area of your business. This is known as process mapping. Beyond boosting the efficiency of your business processes, process mining can boost your sales and uncover hidden growth opportunities by leveraging data that your business tools have already gathered for you. Get started by listing your business goals and identifying potential data sources (e.g., event logs) that could indicate your performance in relation to these goals, as well as develop action items and determine the key personnel to handle them.
Offer Remote Work Opportunities to Employees
E-commerce businesses are well-suited for remote work. While you may need a few in-house employees to handle order fulfillment, shipping, and processing returns, there’s a good chance that most of your business tasks can be handled remotely. Let the data speak for itself, then take advantage of digital tools that will enable your employees to work from home. For example, project management tools and team communication apps make it easy for remote teams to stay on the same page. Offering remote work opportunities is a great way to keep your team happy and boost productivity at the same time. It’s a win-win!
Automate Customer Service
Once your e-commerce business grows to a certain point, it will be impossible to manage without a sophisticated customer support system. Thankfully, you can use a variety of digital tools to automate customer support! HelpCrunch explains that an automated customer support system starts with a self-serve knowledge base where customers can find answers to their questions on their own. Integrating your knowledge base with a chat-bot widget will enable customers to find the right support articles without reaching out to one of your support agents. Finally, build automated support ticketing and canned email responses into your system to streamline requests and ensure customer inquiries are dealt with promptly.
Automate Order Fulfillment and Shipping
Order fulfillment poses many challenges to e-commerce businesses. Between planning for changes in seasonal demand to managing storage of your inventory, order fulfillment tasks can demand a lot of your time. Look for ways to automate the fulfillment process! Third-party logistics companies offer order fulfillment services that include inventory storage, packing, shipping, and more. You can also use digital services to dropship your products to customers directly from your manufacturers or suppliers. Even if you want to maintain full control over storage and shipping, you can automate parts of the order fulfillment process through inventory management software and order fulfillment apps.
Digital tools and process analytics can offer all kinds of valuable solutions to your e-commerce challenges. Whether you’re struggling with employee productivity, logistical issues limiting your growth, or customer service backlogs, the right digital tools and methodology will help you take your e-commerce business to the next level!
Are you ready to grow your business? LiveWebMedia provides impactful digital solutions to common business problems. Whether you need help with SEO, content strategy, branding, product design, social media management, or another tech issue, contact us today so we can help! Call 818-332-9729.