An eCommerce business refers to selling and buying services, goods, or products using the massive global internet. eCommerce has been gaining popularity over recent years due to the development of technology. Faster and more reliable internet connections and tools are now available, which flourishes the commerce industry with every passing year. Until 2020, eCommerce was responsible for sales of up to $4.1 trillion, and these sales will double until 2025. The same statistics referred that the US eCommerce industry is the world’s largest and fastest-growing one. Today, 70% of the shoppers make their purchases online, and this figure will have a significant boost by 2026. Millennials are now shifting towards “digital thinking,” making it a substantial option for every business. The best part about using the digital approach is boosting your global reach, relationships, sales, and brand awareness.
Although it may seem that eCommerce is a door to heights for any online store, however, don’t rush to reach conclusions too soon. Specific challenges are waiting for you in this field. Now, the business has become so ferocious with lots of competition and underlying issues. Let’s discuss some of the most common challenges in sustaining an e-commerce business.
Inventory Management:
The e-commerce business relies on inventory management to know when to order, where to store, etc. As your business grows, you also need to expand the number of selling channels and warehouses with increased inventory. However, managing all these stocks is not possible without the help of inventory management tools. Moreover, without a proper inventory management system, it will be difficult for you to keep track of your stock left and the processing orders.
Overselling and overstocking are the most common inventory management challenges in online business. Overselling results in poor customer experience, and overstocking costs you many dollars you cannot recover.
Solution:
To avoid all this and have excellent inventory management, incorporate relevant software in your system. With the help of inventory management software, you can keep all the things in line and access even the smallest item of your stock. Save your time and energy and let the technology do this massive crunching for you. Overselling and overstocking is never a good idea. However, during the market’s annual highs and lows, you need to be extra careful about it. Take help from the data generated from your inventory management software and avoid overstocking in the period of low sales. During holidays or high sales periods, you should increase the stock to prevent overselling and disappointing your customers.
The need for online identity verification
The most significant risk about an eCommerce business is knowing whether the person making a move is legit. So, whenever anyone signs up, you need to check his identity to avoid bots and fraudulence. Bogus purchases result in a lot of revenue losses when it comes to Cash-On-Delivery (COD) parcels. There may be an invalid address, phone number, email, or postal code. All this, if not solved duly, may result in the complete failure of the eCommerce website.
Solution:
You need to take proper identity authentication steps to avoid any trouble after delivery. Always watch out for the sign of some suspicious activity. Install relative software that filters such purchases incorporating items of high value all in one order. You may also take help from the technology to identify bogus email addresses and phone numbers. One of the standard ways to track fake addresses is double-checking zip codes with state/city. If you have any doubts, you may proceed to further authentication.
The best security path you can take is ensuring end-to-end encryption while taking orders on social media websites. However, from your own official online store website, do not forget to send verification IDs through email and phone numbers whenever the user signs in. Moreover, with cash on delivery purchases, you may also send an automated call to the customer to validate their delivery address.
Outshining the competition
When you step into the market, you will see hundreds and thousands of sellers selling the same or related products on a small and large scale. So, how are you going to attract customers to your product? Create the difference. It would be best if you came up with some novelty to divert attention towards you. You may see much better and even the same things in the market, but that does not mean that you cannot differentiate yourself in the crowd. Competition becomes the biggest challenge for small business owners. Most shoppers land directly on famous brands’ pages only because they trust their quality and service. So, they are ready even to pay some extra bucks to get supreme quality. So, the biggest challenge in eCommerce is competition offered by brands.
Solution:
The only solution to beat the competition is introducing novelty and specialty in your product. Do a thorough research and look for the trends. Now you can work on cutting out outdated items from your lists. You can then jump to social media platforms to engage your customers. Use blogs to create better awareness of your product and brand. Investment in marketing campaigns always pays off. So, don’t cut your marketing budget. Optimize your website for a better user interface. Remember, it is all about customer experience.
Shopping cart abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most discussed issues on any eCommerce platform. Even the commerce giants cannot avoid this. Usually, the tedious checkout process causes the customers to flee without making a purchase. Shopping cart abandonment is due to the poor user interface of the website. Users may find it not easy to comprehend or don’t trust the sources to maintain their privacy.
Solution:
Work on redesigning your website. Make the checkout process as straightforward as possible. Introduce a two-step purchase process that most big companies use. Avoiding the long-form filling process can be a game-changer. You may also incorporate live chat tools to address your customer’s issues. In this way, you may reach the customers proactively and engage with them during all critical purchasing stages.
Conclusion:
Surviving the fierce eCommerce competition requires brilliant strategies. Develop a customer-centric approach and address all the challenges that can affect your customers. You need to incorporate the best technology and advanced software in your business to manage things easily. Give your customers an experience they remember at the time of making the next purchase.