Last updated on 07/13/2022
The behind-the-scenes of e-commerce brands will be discussed in this article. Marketing strategy and branding are rather enjoyable exercises. But regrettably, that isn’t the end of the business functions. Operations, customer service, finance, and human resources management are less glamorous subjects, but they require equal attention.
To scale your business, you must deliver and ensure that everything operates smoothly on the back end once the sales machine is turned on.
Logistics and Operations
Managing your product inventory well.
Companies lose $634 billion a year owing to out-of-stock items, and $472 billion due to overstocking. Poor inventory management costs the economy $1.1 trillion each year.
Your marketing efforts will be squandered if you don’t keep track of your product inventory.
It’s challenging to control inventory at first and forecast campaign results when items are frequently out of stock or overstocked.
How to improve:
- Use a 3PL that uses unique barcodes for each of your SKUs to know your inventory
- Study your previous campaigns and make forecasts.
- Don’t think too big
- Don’t think too small
- Make sure your manufacturer has stock to produce
- Have a minimum inventory level (MSL Minimum Stock Levels)
- Know exactly how long it will take you to fill your inventory again
Inventory Management tools:
https://dynamics.microsoft.com/ Enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications
https://www.sellbrite.com/inventory-management-software/ Automate listing, syncing, and shipping across all your online sales channels
https://www.sage.com/en-za/inventory-management/ Track service levels and stock holding, reduce excess inventory, minimize stock-outs and place orders quicker
If you are using a 3PL or Agent, you want to use their own ERP to make the integration easier.
Fulfillment strategy
Order processing times can easily become a headache, especially as your business grows.
If you’re still choosing and shipping orders yourself or shipping from Asia, you should reconsider your plan to reduce lead times, such as:
Using a 3PL to expedite delivery.
Make sure your 3PL partner has warehouses in multiple parts of the world to be able to select and deliver in less than 5 days if you want to scale globally.
Also, if you’re creating a brand, make sure people can pick orders using custom or differentiating packaging.
Key questions to ask yourself for a fulfillment strategy that fits your business:
- Will you or a fulfillment center perform this task?
If it’s you:
- Where will you pack the orders?
- Have you prepared the necessary materials for shipping to your customer (boxes, envelopes, tape, fill, foam wrap, print shipping labels)?
- Do you send orders every day or in batches a few times a week?
If it is the fulfillment center:
- Do they have a unique barcode per SKU for your products, so you know exactly what you have left?
- Do they offer custom packaging?
- Are there additional storage fees and delays?
- Do they have warehouses around the world?
Fulfillment center and 3PL warehouse
https://www.shipwire.com/ Order fulfillment services, shipping software, and cloud-based logistics for businesses
https://www.shipbob.com/ Global logistics platform that fulfills eCommerce orders for direct-to-consumer brands
https://www.fulfillrite.com/ Full-service order fulfillment services. Integrated with the main CMS platforms, worldwide shipping, real-time order, and inventory data
http://www.fedex.com/no_english/shipping-services/industry-solutions/supplychain/fulfilment.html Integrated supply chain product that utilizes an easy-to-use platform and FedEx’s renowned transportation networks
Customer support
The key action that has the most impact on your brand is customer relations and services.
You will gain admirers and followers if your presentation is well-executed. You’ll have issues if it’s done incorrectly. In order to succeed in eCommerce, you must provide excellent customer service.
Customers are the most precious resource you have when it comes to expanding your e-commerce brand. It’s no surprise that Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce company, has so many.
For a long time, brands did not provide online live chat customer care. Only firms with actual stores, such as Nike and Apple, could directly handle client concerns.
Customer service administration was formerly delegated to distributors when the product was purchased.
With the development of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands in the last few years, brands wanted to get closer to their customers, controlling the customer experience from A to Z. This has resulted in customer service that is very accessible.
Wow your customers
Take their input, ask for their opinion on your items, and thank them when you contact a customer by chat, email, or even over the phone.
The difference today is that the customer has power; their opinion matters on social media and on online review websites. If they had a horrible experience, it will be obvious, and it will have a negative impact on your brand’s image.
You can send personalized messages with your orders, make packaging that provides a unique unwrapping experience, or send presents and candy to create pleasant moments.
An unsatisfied consumer who receives a Facebook message as a post-purchase survey, for example, may rate your Facebook page poorly, lowering its score and increasing advertising expenditures (CPM).
Improve your interactions with customers
Set up this strategy and measure the loyalty afterward to see if it works.
You can use a friendly tone, especially on social media and during live chat.
Personalize your message.
Personalized customer service interactions are a game-changer for your relationship with them.
Sign your email with the rep’s name, not the generic brand name.
Avoid templates.
Respond quickly.
Try to answer your customers in less than 4 hours on social media, less than 24 hours to an email, and less than 1 min in live chat.
Follow up.
End the conversation when the problem is resolved.
Customer Service Management tools
https://www.zendesk.com/ Customer Service Software & Sales CRM
https://freshdesk.com/ Omnichannel customer service software
Human resources
Hiring the right people with the right skills and the right mindset.
Share vision and values during the interview the onboarding and repeat it constantly.
You’re not seeking traditional business developers or non-digital marketers in e-commerce. In the digital business, which is still relatively young, you’ll require new skills.
It seems pointless to look for professionals with 7 to 10 years of expertise because the terrain and quick expansion of e-commerce alter dramatically every year.
Instead, look for someone who has been able to swiftly adjust to changes as a result of his or her diverse personal and professional experiences, as well as someone who is willing to learn new things.
Experts Marketing
VP Growth
A growth marketer, often known as a “growth marketer,” is in charge of expanding your business. It’s a marketing Swiss army knife with a wide range of skills. Content development, sourcing, conversions, and A/B testing scaling the ad budget are all things they do.
Content management
They produce content that builds relationships with your community and brings credibility to your brand. They are creative people with an appetite for marketing, performance, and traffic acquisition.
Social Media managers
They are the guardians of the brand’s image on social media, creating and growing the online community and launching social media campaigns. They also manage the social media online community.
Conversion rate optimizers
Performance technicians that boost the ROI of each lead/customer who visits the online store. They perform A/B tests continuously to optimize the conversion rate, they also handle the email marketing, CRM for the retention.
UX specialist
They ensure the user or customer experience from the homepage through order confirmation to engage them in the purchasing process and avoid friction points or obstructions.
These are the foundations of your eCommerce administration.
You may decide to include designers, video editors, and photographers in the production of advertising content and images for websites, depending on your approach.
When the company grows rapidly, particularly in new markets, the VP of growth might bolster the marketing team by hiring digital marketing experts for certain acquisition channels or delegating to a digital marketing agency.
- Copywriter
- Traffic manager
- Influence Marketing specialist
- Public Relation specialist
- Social Ads Media buyer
- Head of SEO
Supply Chain and Operation specialist
The back end of the firm will be controlled by order pickers and supply chain managers.
Their expertise and skills will significantly lower costs and boost your brand’s profit margin.
Customer success
They are the people who ensure customer service; they work closely with operations and should also work closely with marketing and product to provide customer feedback.
Product Team
Product development
Specific business abilities are required for the production and maintenance of your product, depending on the industry.
Consider the following scenario:
If your technological product has a software or hardware component, it is the developers, or engineers and computer scientists.
They are chemists or partners who work in laboratories to manufacture beauty items, food, and cosmetics.
They are the people that create the sketches and material requirements needed for the textile industry’s production.
Product designer
You can choose to outsource this process or integrate it; the product designer designs the product for production and creates its appearance.
Web Developers and IT
They build your eCommerce website and make sure it is well linked to all the technological solutions you use. The Architect can also build a system for multiple websites and more complex system integration.
Support Functions
When the e-commerce brand needs to structure itself and recruit a lot, it will also need human resources managers to manage these recruitments; people in charge of administration and finance to structure and support the business in its scaling phase.
Cash flow
Poor cash flow management causes more than 80% of ecommerce brands to fail.
The financial side of the business is the war’s sinew, and it’s why so many businesses fail to scale.
Examining your figures, making strategic decisions, measuring, and taking risks are all routine and necessary activities for an e-commerce business.
Even if you have a novel marketing approach, excellent customer service, and a fantastic product, your firm will struggle to take off if you have inadequate cash flow management. Its absence eliminates the ability of the other functions to function.
Because you won’t be able to test that innovative strategy, A/B test your ideas properly, set up your automated order processing system, launch your new product line. Without cash in your hands to execute these ideas, they remain distant dreams.
Solutions to improve your profitability:
A good customer retention strategy to increase their LTV
- Cross-selling and upselling
- email marketing segmentation and email campaigns
- Bundle of similar products
- Special discounts and rewards for high-value customers
Analyze your acquisition strategy to focus on what works:
- How many people are converting from this channel of acquisition?
- How much cash is needed to reach this amount of people based on your analytics?
- How many people will convert, and how much can get in revenue. (reverse engineer and plan)
- How to reduce CPA, CPL, and key metrics to acquire new customers
Manage product returns efficiently
For e-commerce owners, it’s the number one source of profit loss.
If the customer experience is poorly handled, it can be disastrous. You’ll lose them for good, and they’ll offer you negative feedback, which you want to prevent.
As a result, having a simple and obvious product return policy is critical.
The life of an entrepreneur running an e-commerce business is not easy.
There are numerous obstacles to overcome and concerns to address, not to mention competitors that may give you troubles by snatching your hard-earned consumers.
The key is to surround oneself with like-minded individuals who will support you in your endeavors.
Keep in mind that being flawless and pleasing everyone is difficult, if not impossible.
Keep moving forward; the stable mindset is more important than the technique, which changes quickly.
GO for it!
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