What do you think is holding your small business back from reaching its full potential? Is it your shipping process? Are you looking for ways to help increase your business’s financial support and/or cut costs? Your eCommerce growth relies on creative and practical solutions that work together to grow your business. We’re going to tackle five of the common problems faced by eCommerce businesses and how you can avoid them!
Bad shipping makes for bad shopping
A complicated and/or unappealing shipping strategy could be causing you to lose money and customers. Shipping is something many eCommerce brands neglect, so it’s not a coincidence that big brands like Amazon have become heavily invested in shipping over the past few years. Finding better shipping options and the USPS Commercial rates given to you by ShippingEasy can help you beat the competition and create a better experience for your customers.
Delivery is a key component of the customer experience.
Tips for improving your shipping experience
Shipping options: Customers want to be able to choose the best delivery method for them, whether it’s fast, slow, cheap, or premium.
You can find some of the best and cheapest shipping options for your small business in our blog!
Easy tracking: Think about the last time you ordered something from an eCommerce business. Did you appreciate having the option to track your package at your fingertips? So will your customers. Our Branded Tracking feature even offers customers the option of text notifications on domestic shipments.
Learn more about Branded Tracking in Shipping 301.
Easy delivery: Keep the delivery experience as smooth as possible by double-checking any questionable addresses before sending a package and keeping the line of communication with your customers open. If a package is lost or damaged, start the claims process as soon as possible and offer your customers a replacement and/or refund.
Don’t know where to start in the claims process? Check out How to File an Insurance Claim with USPS, UPS, and FedEx.
Labels & packaging: Don’t be afraid to include your logo on your shipping labels or personalize your packaging slip. These are some of the last points of content you have with your customers, so let them know you care!
You can find more information on shipping to specialty addresses, check in Shipping to PO Boxes.
Build your brand
There’s nothing wrong with investing in your brand. In fact, your brand is one of your most valuable assets. Also, remember your brand is everything you do, not just your logo and brand guidelines! You can make your brand pop by:
- Checking your labels: Secure all the labels on your packaging to give it a nice and neat look.
- Checking your packaging: Check all of the seals of your packaging to prevent any damage and to keep your customer’s package in good shape for arrival.
- Online customer experience: Periodically reread your website, tracking emails, and other content for any outdated information or typos. Don’t be afraid to get a second pair of eyes if you need it!
Tips for creating customer content
Your content needs to connect with your prospective buyers. You want them to leave with your site excited about the new item they purchased, not leaving your site. When you’re thinking about your site and your content, think about:
- Where your audiences are likely to be and which social media platforms are easiest for you to create and navigate. Be brave enough to venture into new avenues every now and then, but don’t give in to a TikTok trend because it’s popular, with no real idea of who’s engaging with your business.
- Measuring the ROI of your content marketing efforts to explore what’s working and what isn’t.
- Creating a buyer persona for your business. Focus on a few core personas, and keep things as customer-centric as possible.
- Keyword-researched content for SEO purposes. Avoid any underhanded practices like keyword stuffing or unnatural language, and use your keyword research to better understand your users, structure your content, and engage.
- Engaging and creative content that sells your products in a subtle way. Pushing out sales messages 24/7 isn’t likely to help with your engagement.
Simplify your customer’s journey
How easy is your product discovery? Are there technical glitches leaving your customers seeing red? In order to pump up your business, invest in the best customer journey possibly by:
- Staying on top of any error messages, 404s, and CMS updates your customers may encounter. Letting technical things slide could negatively impact your customer experience, so technical audits are an eCommerce lifeline.
- Being clever about how you handle customer choices on your online store. If there aren’t enough choices, people won’t know how to navigate, and if there are too many choices, your customers may find themselves in content overload. Find a balance that works for your customers, and take your customer feedback seriously.
- Utilizing product personalization through product recommendations and suggestions. Also, send out clever cart abandonment emails if people don’t complete their purchases to remind them about your store.
- Remembering customers are going to access your site from multiple media sources. What works on your desktop site also needs to work on tablets and mobile. Online shopping is increasingly mobile-centric – With smaller screens, come different design challenges, so you need to prioritize simplicity.
Need for capital
It’s becoming more and more financially difficult to sustain a small business, and sometimes, there’s no easy way out of a tough financial situation. We know it’s challenging to ask for help, but we also want to let you know it’s okay. We’ve included tips below for both asking for financial assistance and cutting costs, depending on your comfort level:
- Carefully manage your stock to avoid having too many of one specific item. This could end up becoming a burden or even being liquidized. Find suppliers with smaller minimum order quantities, and never buy too much stock at one time. Have enough stock levels on hand to meet your customer demand, but a small enough amount so that you aren’t needlessly stockpiling.
- Crowdfunding is a great way to get capital for emerging businesses, especially if you’ve got a new and innovative product. To get returns, you have to offer plenty of value and reasons for investing. Also, if your business is struggling, and you have available resources, don’t be afraid to reach out to your community or applicable nonprofit organizations, even if it’s just for advice on how you can help your business succeed.
- Use a shipping platform like ShippingEasy. We give you unlimited store integrations for the stores we support, automatic label printing, and an award-winning support team to help you streamline your shipping process for our Basic and above users. We also offer a free Branded Tracking feature to help you build up your business’s notification for your customers, so you don’t have to worry about paying an additional fee to another company.
Learn more about the discounted shipping rates we offer our users over on our blog.
Your customer’s journey is much more than a simple interaction with your site. They find your business through the internet, social media, or word of mouth. They need to be able to easily navigate your site. They’re looking for a variety of shipping options to choose from and pick the best one for their situation. We also understand your business may not be able to spend a lot of money on additional services to help your customer in this journey. Start your 30-day free trial with ShippingEasy for free Branded Tracking notifications, discounted shipping rates, and a support team that wants to help you succeed.
Make Shipping Easy with a 30-day free trial today!
Baillee Perkins
