The e-commerce market is crowded and competitive. Companies are constantly looking for new strategies to draw customers to their website and win their loyalty. Unfortunately, most small e-commerce websites find it difficult to compete with the larger retailers who thrive on razor thin margins. Offering ten percent off coupon codes is not enough to differentiate the smaller site from the larger one. Fortunately there are two areas where smaller companies have a sizeable advantage. Customer service and customization are the backbone of any good e-commerce website and they are relatively easy to implement.
1. Empower the Customer
Offer potential buyers the ability to provide a review of the items that they purchase on your website. This shows confidence in the product and is much more effective than offering a 30 day money back guarantee. Having a particularly well-reviewed product is often all it takes for an indecisive customer to take the plunge. Be sure to incorporate the ability to publicly respond to reviews. Respond to negative reviews with offers to resolve the problem and positive reviews with gratitude. Other potential buyers will appreciate this often overlooked human touch.
2. Build Trust By Offering Honest Product Insight
Online shopping is far too often void of helpful and honest product details. If you are selling a tee-shirt that will likely shrink, tell customers to take extra care when washing and drying it. If you make the customer feel like they can trust you, then you have just removed a sizeable obstacle from between you and them.
3. Provide Personalization Options
Give your customers the ability to customize their product through engravings, gift wrapping, and personalized notes. Differentiate yourself even further from larger online shopping sites by offering to handwrite the notes for them.
4. Create an Interesting and Informative Social Presence
Having a twitter feed and a facebook page is only effective if you provide useful and interesting information. Potential customers are bombarded everyday with uninteresting product updates. In order to differentiate your products from the pack you need to offer more. Write posts that aren’t necessarily about your product, but about the types of things people who would buy your product are interested in. If your site sells cookware, then start a recipe exchange. The goal is to cultivate a community feeling. This will keep customers interested in your site and your product.
5. Be Available and Responsive
This may be the most obvious tip, but it’s one that larger companies struggle with. Who hasn’t called a large store trying to talk to a customer representative only to go through a seemingly endless gauntlet of automated choices? Make yourself available. Put the “Contact Us” link on your site in bold. Answer your customers queries promptly before their fleeting urge to buy your product disappears.
In the end, customer trust and loyalty are far more important in creating business than you may think. By implementing these ideas, you can build a loyal, knowlegeble, and engaged customer base that larger companies just don’t have.