You may not have giant warehouses or a staff of thousands, but you can still stay in the game and hold your own against even the largest eMarketplaces out there. Logicblock’s 7Cart system can help you. Here are six ways you can make your business competitive with big box e-tailers.
1.Know Your Market and Your Buyer
Your company doesn’t carry as many categories of products as Amazon. At Logicblock, we know this is a good thing. It allows you to be more agile and you can specialize and carve out your niche. To be as competitive as possible, it’s best to choose 5-10 categories and take the time to identify your buyer and their pain points. Then use that information to create marketing materials and provide a purchasing journey that addresses and solves those challenges.
2. Highlight Your Unique Services
What is it that sets your company apart? Product and service differentiation is crucial for promoting your brand and attracting customers. Successful product differentiation can secure you a competitive edge and capture a greater share of the market. To effectively execute a product differentiation strategy, companies must showcase not only comparable features, but also exclusive benefits not found elsewhere. This can be achieved through a combination of factors such as product design, marketing, packaging, and pricing.
How Can You Do That?
Maybe you incorporate new functional features or even simply redesign packaging. In some cases, effective differentiation marketing can be achieved through initiatives such as innovative advertising campaigns or promotional activities. Perhaps you provide same-day delivery or offer exclusive services for a particular customer group. Maybe you have a dedicated account manager or a personalized delivery service. You can even implement a live chat bot through Logicblock’s 7cart.
Identify a few ways you can really set your services apart and make sure you promote these distinct offerings.
3. Use Images and Videos to Showcase Your Products
Having top-of-the-line products is not enough if you fail to present them in an appealing way. That means your product pages should include both excellent product descriptions as well as high-quality photos and videos. Amazon set the bar high by providing customers with front, side, and back images. Follow their lead and showcase your products visually.
How Does That Help?
Consider this: videos have the potential to increase the likelihood of customers purchasing your products by up to 85%. Not only does including video elevate the customer experience significantly, but it also fosters brand loyalty. You can even leverage the existing product videos that manufacturers and wholesalers offer, and request they share those videos with you.
4. Offer Excellent Customer Service
Great customer service can create a customer for life. Bad customer service can damage your company’s reputation and negatively affect sales in a big way.
In an ideal situation, your customer service is set up so that customers can always seek help should they have any questions or concerns. While phone support is a good start, it’s not all that’s available. Social media also serves as a valuable platform for customer service, so train your customer service teams to manage Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, Instagram messages, and other means of communication.
Chatbot Capabilities
Improve customer service by using Logicblock’s integration of a Chatbot or Live Chat Service. This allows users to navigate Frequently Asked Questions 24/7. It can also allow for more streamlined gathering of data before your customer is transferred to the appropriate representative.
5. Keep Shipping Costs Down
If you find yourself grappling with a surplus of deserted shopping carts, it could be due to a common cause: unexpected shipping costs. Believe it or not, those surprise costs account for over one quarter of all customers abandoning their carts.
Here are some ways to be more transparent in your costs:
- Prominently showcase any shipping deals or promotions you may have, whether via a pop-up advertisement or a highly visible icon situated within your website’s header or footer
- If free shipping isn’t feasible, tweak the product’s price to balance out shipping expenses and increase the appeal of the overall purchase
To lower shipping costs overall, try the following:
- Speak to your local shipping carriers and ask if you can negotiate a deal. Some local shipping carriers offer ecommerce payment processing as a package deal
- 2. Purchase in bulk where you can
- 3. Pay for shipping online or choose prepaid shipping
Don’t write off the big shipping companies, however. Companies like UPS and FedEx often offer discounted or even free packaging for small businesses.
6. Create a Loyalty Program
Retailers have recognized the effectiveness of loyalty programs in connecting with consumers. Implementing a loyalty program for your online store can increase customer retention exponentially. It may seem daunting, but with the help of our 7cart eCommerce platform, you can effortlessly and efficiently establish a loyalty program that rewards customers with points per dollar spent. If you need more information on establishing a loyalty program, check out our knowledge base.
Need help with implementation?