It is true that online business has outperformed traditional businesses in many ways. The benefit of E-commerce has resulted in efficiency, intelligence and availability. The information available in the internet across the global network has wooed online consumers to buy products/services from different online channels like search engines, comparison shopping engines, email, etc...
Today internet has become the most preferred and leading sales channel for many businesses. Be it any business, there involves operations cost. The simple business formula to increase profit is to “cut down the cost”. From an online merchant’s business perspective, running and managing an E-commerce site has become increasingly tough. Although internet has given much scope to increase the business, there might be some internal operational work which would entail cost and eat up the profit. Online consumers’ preferences are increasing very often but the online merchandisers fail to match up.
Online Merchants/e-commerce retail businesses still struggle with low conversion rates, understanding customer preferences, website usability, increasing site traffic, etc... For powerful website merchandising, an online merchant has to possess key solutions to address each of these issues.
Some challenges specific to eCommerce retail business model:
Website/Content Operations, selling the right product mix to the targeted audiences, facilitating efficient customer buying decision, effective site checkout with lesser turnaround time, selecting the right online marketing channel, generating quality traffic with high sales conversion, providing effective customer care support etc…
Operational Work related to these challenges:
Today most of the online retailers use automated process to increase the work efficiency and effectiveness with an aim to enhance their overall ROI. But technology starts losing its impact after entering into an area where more human intervention is required.. The best example is automated data feed preparation and optimization, search engine optimization (using CMS to automate), and so on. These solutions are good in terms of cutting down cost but the final result will not be of 100% quality. The automation process can be effective when technology and human judgment go hand-in-hand.
Strategic Decisions:
Identifying the right product mix, merchandise (Apparel & Non-Apparel) specification/features research, inventory management, competitive prices offering etc…
Building site for Organic & paid search channels:
Identifying and verifying new as well as critical keywords, recruiting affiliates, on-page optimization, content optimization, off-page optimization - generating genuine inbound links (20 cheap ways to build link to your product page), etc…
Customer Care support:
Handling a frustrated customer is a formidable task for any online retailer. A customer may not be willing to buy from a retailer's site unless he gets a good customer support.
If you are an online retailer or a blogger interested in E-commerce retailing, express your opinion about these challenges.
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