The internet, by its nature is a soulless anonymous place. Dominated by the corporate giants as a customer you can feel like you are just a number. As an online retailer it is up to you to differentiate your offering, make people feel that they belong and that someone cares. The days of the ‘quick fix’ make millions online are long gone, back in early 2000 – 2002 trading online was a bit like the wild west, with dial up connections and no dominant means of searching for information, through to 2016 when we are always connected and ‘to Google’ is an accepted term in the Oxford English Dictionary. So, how can you run a profitable and sustainable online business in 2016 and beyond? I have been trading with Stinkyink.com since 2002, and have gone through many highs and lows, but feel that I can contribute my own take on how to keep going.
There isn’t an easy answer, there are no ‘Silver Bullets’ but here are eight top tips to make sure you are at the top of your game
It’s a Marathon – not a sprint:
14 years and still going strong! competitors come and go, but we are still here, still profitable and still working hard to improve what we do. Never sit still, always look for constant improvement in every area of your business. Here’s a cliché for you ‘Evolution not Revolution’ keep going, keep improving and take the long term view
Branding:
Your website has to reflect the personality of your business. For a small business this is easy, because the tone and layout needs to reflect your personality. For a larger corporate then the ‘corporate identity’ is very well defined and formulated, but for the smaller guy developing an online personality and brand is time consuming and can be expensive. However, it is vital, you have to bite the bullet and go for it, probably call in a marketing agency to define and improve your brand if you don’t have those marketing skills in house.
Website Usability and trust:
E-Commerce functionality is a given these days, you have to provide a seamless and easy path for your customer to complete their order.
Secure and safe ordering process:
You should have a secure site as evidenced by the Green padlock and HTTPS so that your customer knows that their personal details are safe and secure and then provide a quick, easy and safe payment process for them.
Great Looking friendly (and useful) order confirmation emails:
When an order is placed you should confirm the details of the products that have been ordered and also the delivery address and delivery options for selected by your customer. That way they can contact you quickly if there are any problems
Swift trackable despatch of orders:
You’ve placed your order online and then sit back to wait for your delivery. Nothing grates more for a customer than having to wait days and days. Once you have the order ship it! get it out of the door in the most expeditious manner possible. If you can provide tracking information then supply that to the customer in your shipment confirmation email, anything to make that customer smile.
Problem and returns handling:
Hopefully you customer is delighted with the goods and service that they have received so far, but returns are a necessary evil. Your customer has received their order but;
- they don’t fit,
- they are the wrong colour
- they don’t work
It really doesn’t matter what the problem is, any online retailer has to manage and cope with returns and you need a process that is cost efficient and easy for your team to manage. So, when your customer calls or emails or messages you that there is a problem you have to respond in a courteous, interested and caring manner. You should have a process in place so that you can cope with any eventuality, your team have to be trained, disciplined and committed to making the customer smile. We sell printer consumables, at the point our customer has a problem they have stopped printing and are very cross! We need to understand their angst and provide a solution quickly, courteously and with interest. This is no time for crocodile tears, we have to mean everything that we say to that customer, we have to treat them as we would expect to be treated if we had the same or similar problem
Any follow up – Courteous and friendly
Any communication that you initiate with your new customer has to reflect your ethos, your spirit, your personality. Our business is called ‘Stinkyink.Com’ and with a name like Stinkyink we really can’t take ourselves too seriously. We take everything that we do in a business sense very seriously, but we like to have fun and engage with our customers in a relaxed and laid back manner. We try to reflect our caring spirit and involve our customer as if they were part of our family.
I hope this doesn’t come over as corporate marketing speak. Since the day I started trading online I was aware that we needed to be different, we needed to treat our customer as if they were standing in front of us in our shop. Make eye contact, greet you with a smile and escort you to the product you need, reassure you that it is right for you and then take payment in an efficient manner. Translate that into an online transaction and that is what we try to do to every visitor to our website.