ecommerce

How to Retain Customers in E-commerce

Online retailers are always looking at increasing their revenues; one of the best ways of doing it is to get repeat customers. Several studies say it costs between 4 and 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. As an E-commerce owner, are you aware that repeat customers are responsible for generating 40% of a store’s revenue? It might sound hard but is actually easy to accomplish. It is a tried and tested way to improve your sales, even if you are new to this business or are a seasoned ecommerce player anyone can take heed to these actionable tips, which are on offer in this article. Exclusive discounts for loyal customers Everyone likes to be treated special, in line with this thought, offer your customers exclusive access to the site for special discounts. You can give this exclusive access, 1 or 2 days before the discounts become available to the general public. This will truly mean a genuine advantage for being a loyal customer. You can also do this discount special by making available a special promo code for a limited time that will give special 20-30% discounts. This kind of exclusive discounts is one of the most popular loyalty perks for customers. Send emails reminding of abandoned cart Convey through emails to customers about items left behind in carts by customers. You can send visually appealing email (showing the product) to the customer, to show them exactly what they considered purchasing while browsing through the site last time around. A recent survey showed that email marketing helped 29% abandoned carts to be recovered. Suggest Products One of the most powerful ways of making a customer do a repurchase is to nudge them to buy a product. You could also remind them about something additional they need to purchase in going with their previous purchase. For example, if a customer has bought a pencil, remind them to buy a pencil sharpener. Offer Personalized products If you have demographic data about the customer, you can make a personalized offer to the customer based on his/her likeness. Suppose if you are targeting a customer who is 21 years old, you can send him back-to-college offer for clothing, backpacks, school supplies etc. A recent study suggested that personalized offers help increase click-through rates by an average of 14% and improves conversion rates by an average of 10%. “We miss you” emails One of the ways of re-targeting, follow-up email can be at the bargain hunter. There is no better way to stay on top of the mind than with a coupon. Knowing this, you can send an email stating that we have noticed you have not been coming to the website anymore, with the addition of a coupon. Starbucks is famous for sending such ‘we miss you’ emails to its customers. Show Social Proof People respond positively to social proof. In the sense, if you show people a pair of shoes, bought over by a 10,000 people they are likely to react positively. This is a fact and there are real psychological factors at play here. You can do this by tracking purchase data (or Facebook likes) for specific products or soliciting actual customers’ reviews and displaying it on the website and in the emails to many of your customers. This is one of the ways of finding repeat customers. Launch a Loyalty Program There needs to be financial incentive for the customer for having made the first purchase. In addition, there needs to be avenues for saving money on subsequent purchases. According to a study, 54% buy more from companies when they are rewarded for purchases. In another survey, it was found that loyalty programs help increase market share by 20%. Nordstrom is one such company that has benefitted tremendously from its loyalty program. They encourage customers to sign-up to receive special benefits, which include reward points that can be redeemed for products as well as early access to sales. Direct Mail still helps This kind of approach helps in earning repeat customers. If you have the physical address of the customer, you can send exclusive sales, discounts and special offers by snail mail. It is to be noted that a direct mail is a way of saying ‘thank you’ to the customer for their loyalty, so there should not be an overemphasis on pushing sales. The trick is to keep the sales part subtle. Overall it is always a good idea to target the existing customers. It is the proverbial ‘low hanging fruit’ that a company must exploit in order to succeed in increasing sales. Also, if your e-commerce firm is finding it cumbersome to handle all the tasks to run the company in a smooth manner. You can assign your errands to GetFriday. At GetFriday we take care of major tasks associated with e-commerce domain such as inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support.  

How to Retain Customers in E-commerce Read More »

Online retailers are always looking at increasing their revenues; one of the best ways of doing it is to get repeat customers. Several studies say it costs between 4 and 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. As an E-commerce owner, are you aware that repeat customers are responsible for generating 40% of a store’s revenue? It might sound hard but is actually easy to accomplish. It is a tried and tested way to improve your sales, even if you are new to this business or are a seasoned ecommerce player anyone can take heed to these actionable tips, which are on offer in this article. Exclusive discounts for loyal customers Everyone likes to be treated special, in line with this thought, offer your customers exclusive access to the site for special discounts. You can give this exclusive access, 1 or 2 days before the discounts become available to the general public. This will truly mean a genuine advantage for being a loyal customer. You can also do this discount special by making available a special promo code for a limited time that will give special 20-30% discounts. This kind of exclusive discounts is one of the most popular loyalty perks for customers. Send emails reminding of abandoned cart Convey through emails to customers about items left behind in carts by customers. You can send visually appealing email (showing the product) to the customer, to show them exactly what they considered purchasing while browsing through the site last time around. A recent survey showed that email marketing helped 29% abandoned carts to be recovered. Suggest Products One of the most powerful ways of making a customer do a repurchase is to nudge them to buy a product. You could also remind them about something additional they need to purchase in going with their previous purchase. For example, if a customer has bought a pencil, remind them to buy a pencil sharpener. Offer Personalized products If you have demographic data about the customer, you can make a personalized offer to the customer based on his/her likeness. Suppose if you are targeting a customer who is 21 years old, you can send him back-to-college offer for clothing, backpacks, school supplies etc. A recent study suggested that personalized offers help increase click-through rates by an average of 14% and improves conversion rates by an average of 10%. “We miss you” emails One of the ways of re-targeting, follow-up email can be at the bargain hunter. There is no better way to stay on top of the mind than with a coupon. Knowing this, you can send an email stating that we have noticed you have not been coming to the website anymore, with the addition of a coupon. Starbucks is famous for sending such ‘we miss you’ emails to its customers. Show Social Proof People respond positively to social proof. In the sense, if you show people a pair of shoes, bought over by a 10,000 people they are likely to react positively. This is a fact and there are real psychological factors at play here. You can do this by tracking purchase data (or Facebook likes) for specific products or soliciting actual customers’ reviews and displaying it on the website and in the emails to many of your customers. This is one of the ways of finding repeat customers. Launch a Loyalty Program There needs to be financial incentive for the customer for having made the first purchase. In addition, there needs to be avenues for saving money on subsequent purchases. According to a study, 54% buy more from companies when they are rewarded for purchases. In another survey, it was found that loyalty programs help increase market share by 20%. Nordstrom is one such company that has benefitted tremendously from its loyalty program. They encourage customers to sign-up to receive special benefits, which include reward points that can be redeemed for products as well as early access to sales. Direct Mail still helps This kind of approach helps in earning repeat customers. If you have the physical address of the customer, you can send exclusive sales, discounts and special offers by snail mail. It is to be noted that a direct mail is a way of saying ‘thank you’ to the customer for their loyalty, so there should not be an overemphasis on pushing sales. The trick is to keep the sales part subtle. Overall it is always a good idea to target the existing customers. It is the proverbial ‘low hanging fruit’ that a company must exploit in order to succeed in increasing sales. Also, if your e-commerce firm is finding it cumbersome to handle all the tasks to run the company in a smooth manner. You can assign your errands to GetFriday. At GetFriday we take care of major tasks associated with e-commerce domain such as inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support.  

Seven E-commerce Trends for 2017

E-commerce is here to stay, even with limited customer service, no instant gratification and no access to a physical store where you can touch and feel the product. The online platform provides 24x 7 services and the amount of selection one gets to see on online cannot be matched in a physical store. With such advantages, e-commerce has changed the way we shop. Presently, it consists of only 8% of the total retail sales in the US, but the situation is here to change with increasing usage and a growing preference for purchasing online. This article seeks to look at trends which suggest how the e-commerce domain is changing as we go through 2017. Some of the trends are: Shopping on the Mobile We have seen in recent years that there is a shift in consumer behavior towards mobile. And as we move forward, there will be more movement towards this medium. The number of searches emanating from a mobile exceed that of a desktop and more websites are making themselves mobile ready. It must have come to everyone’s notice that Google is slowly removing sites that do not cater to a mobile experience. It is becoming increasingly clear that the way forward is mobile. Having said that, it is known that mobile still lags behind desktop when it comes to conversions. People like to search for their online goods on mobile, but prefer make the purchase on the desktop. This means there aren’t separate consumers for mobile and desktop. This only means at times, it is the same consumer, who searches on the mobile and later purchases through a desktop. This is seen as a habitual fact and will take time to see any improvement. But as we see more smartphone penetration and new technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistants getting included to smartphone devices, the future definitely looks brighter for mobile. Mobile Payments or E-wallets Gone are the days when going cashless meant using the credit or debt card, today, people are turning towards contactless mobile payments. There is an array of companies offering services catering towards mobile payments. It is estimated that mobile payments by 2021 are going to reach $3 trillion dollars. While, it is a lot of money getting transacted on small screens, mobile payments will only equate to 11 percent of all transactions made, a jump from the modest 5% in 2016. As we see more e-commerce companies adopt mobile payments as the preferred mode of payment, there is a world of possibilities that are emerging such as digital loyalty and reward programs. With the increased spread of smartphone and more user-friendly apps, it will further cement the prospect of convenient payment through mobiles. In the US, where the mobile based e-commerce is going to grow the largest, the mobile payment’s ratio of e-commerce is expected to increase from 20% in 2015 to 46% in 2020. Personalization and customization Already users are seeing customization from Netflix and Amazon, these channels with large amount of data from users are able to target customers in a personalized way. Till now customization was exclusively a domain of the big e-commerce retailers, but 2017 will see the small retailers also venturing in with highly targeted ads and embrace personalization. They will start with collecting behavioral data from each website user and send highly targeted campaigns based on customer segments and previous online experiences. This would mean each user who comes to the website will have unique experience from the brand, if he/she is a repeat customer. Same Day Delivery 2017 will see more e-commerce companies taking the step towards same day delivery instead of the normal 3-5 business days. While the trend was started by Amazon prime, the flexibility of delivery options would become a key differentiator in e-commerce domain. According to one study, 29% of the users were keen to pay extra for same day delivery. In today’s world of online commerce, logistics will play a key role in defining the future of e-commerce players. Every online retailer, who is there for the long run is working towards building a strong logistics network and up the game by making delivery of goods as fast as possible for its valued customers. Social Selling We are seeing a lot of noise on social network about including “buy“ buttons on these networks. These social networks have a vested interest in making this work, because they have people who visit their sites regularly. By leveraging their traffic for selling is the new strategy on social networking sites, since people like to include their friends in the purchase decisions. Social media users can now buy items without ever having to switch to a different more traditional e-commerce site. The ability to offer your products and services directly through social media platform represents the essence of social selling phenomenon, which is gaining traction as we go through 2017. Sales can increase and sales costs will drop by applying social media to the online sales process effectively. This also concerns with using the true power of social media to acquire more leads and with that more turnover. Exceptional Content or Inbound Marketing Brands which are ahead are putting out exceptional content in the digital space. Good e-commerce marketers know they have to consistently stand out by producing exceptional content to attract and convert prospects into customers. In 2017, we are going to see more content marketing strategies and as the brand looks for conversion with content, great pieces of content will be created and this content will reproduced in various forms such as blog-posts, e-books, pod casts, info-graphics, data visualizations and videos etc. After which, focus should be on measuring the response of each content and focusing only on promoting the content on the successful 3-5 channels. Chatbots This is one of the unique feature to look-out for in 2017. We will see the rise of chatbots led conversation on most of the e-commerce sites. Chatbot is a robotic agent that will help

Seven E-commerce Trends for 2017 Read More »

E-commerce is here to stay, even with limited customer service, no instant gratification and no access to a physical store where you can touch and feel the product. The online platform provides 24x 7 services and the amount of selection one gets to see on online cannot be matched in a physical store. With such advantages, e-commerce has changed the way we shop. Presently, it consists of only 8% of the total retail sales in the US, but the situation is here to change with increasing usage and a growing preference for purchasing online. This article seeks to look at trends which suggest how the e-commerce domain is changing as we go through 2017. Some of the trends are: Shopping on the Mobile We have seen in recent years that there is a shift in consumer behavior towards mobile. And as we move forward, there will be more movement towards this medium. The number of searches emanating from a mobile exceed that of a desktop and more websites are making themselves mobile ready. It must have come to everyone’s notice that Google is slowly removing sites that do not cater to a mobile experience. It is becoming increasingly clear that the way forward is mobile. Having said that, it is known that mobile still lags behind desktop when it comes to conversions. People like to search for their online goods on mobile, but prefer make the purchase on the desktop. This means there aren’t separate consumers for mobile and desktop. This only means at times, it is the same consumer, who searches on the mobile and later purchases through a desktop. This is seen as a habitual fact and will take time to see any improvement. But as we see more smartphone penetration and new technologies like AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistants getting included to smartphone devices, the future definitely looks brighter for mobile. Mobile Payments or E-wallets Gone are the days when going cashless meant using the credit or debt card, today, people are turning towards contactless mobile payments. There is an array of companies offering services catering towards mobile payments. It is estimated that mobile payments by 2021 are going to reach $3 trillion dollars. While, it is a lot of money getting transacted on small screens, mobile payments will only equate to 11 percent of all transactions made, a jump from the modest 5% in 2016. As we see more e-commerce companies adopt mobile payments as the preferred mode of payment, there is a world of possibilities that are emerging such as digital loyalty and reward programs. With the increased spread of smartphone and more user-friendly apps, it will further cement the prospect of convenient payment through mobiles. In the US, where the mobile based e-commerce is going to grow the largest, the mobile payment’s ratio of e-commerce is expected to increase from 20% in 2015 to 46% in 2020. Personalization and customization Already users are seeing customization from Netflix and Amazon, these channels with large amount of data from users are able to target customers in a personalized way. Till now customization was exclusively a domain of the big e-commerce retailers, but 2017 will see the small retailers also venturing in with highly targeted ads and embrace personalization. They will start with collecting behavioral data from each website user and send highly targeted campaigns based on customer segments and previous online experiences. This would mean each user who comes to the website will have unique experience from the brand, if he/she is a repeat customer. Same Day Delivery 2017 will see more e-commerce companies taking the step towards same day delivery instead of the normal 3-5 business days. While the trend was started by Amazon prime, the flexibility of delivery options would become a key differentiator in e-commerce domain. According to one study, 29% of the users were keen to pay extra for same day delivery. In today’s world of online commerce, logistics will play a key role in defining the future of e-commerce players. Every online retailer, who is there for the long run is working towards building a strong logistics network and up the game by making delivery of goods as fast as possible for its valued customers. Social Selling We are seeing a lot of noise on social network about including “buy“ buttons on these networks. These social networks have a vested interest in making this work, because they have people who visit their sites regularly. By leveraging their traffic for selling is the new strategy on social networking sites, since people like to include their friends in the purchase decisions. Social media users can now buy items without ever having to switch to a different more traditional e-commerce site. The ability to offer your products and services directly through social media platform represents the essence of social selling phenomenon, which is gaining traction as we go through 2017. Sales can increase and sales costs will drop by applying social media to the online sales process effectively. This also concerns with using the true power of social media to acquire more leads and with that more turnover. Exceptional Content or Inbound Marketing Brands which are ahead are putting out exceptional content in the digital space. Good e-commerce marketers know they have to consistently stand out by producing exceptional content to attract and convert prospects into customers. In 2017, we are going to see more content marketing strategies and as the brand looks for conversion with content, great pieces of content will be created and this content will reproduced in various forms such as blog-posts, e-books, pod casts, info-graphics, data visualizations and videos etc. After which, focus should be on measuring the response of each content and focusing only on promoting the content on the successful 3-5 channels. Chatbots This is one of the unique feature to look-out for in 2017. We will see the rise of chatbots led conversation on most of the e-commerce sites. Chatbot is a robotic agent that will help

E-Commerce Advantage with GetFriday

If you are over-whelmed by your e-commerce business by the number of activities, GetFriday is here to help you with your business. We have skilled and experienced executives to help you with your e-commerce business needs. The key tasks which GetFriday undertakes on behalf of e-commerce business are inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support. Inventory Management The GetFriday executive logs into the client’s CRM and downloads the daily inventory files. The executive then checks and updates the client on the daily status of the products such as in stock, out of stock and approaching safety stock, to track for the availability of each product. Order Processing When an order is placed on the website by a customer, the GetFriday executive then co-ordinates with the vendor and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. The executive also cross verifies the shipping address and the quantity officially placed with the supplier to fulfill orders. Order tracking Once the product has been shipped, the GetFriday executive co-ordinates with the logistical partner to get the tracking code. The executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and updates the customer to help them track the order. Customer Support GetFriday executives are well trained to attend to all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails with multiple back ups so that regular work is not interrupted. If you are overcome by increased orders, GetFriday will be able to handle all tasks with multiple back-up assistance meeting all quality standards and deadlines. We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions high domain expertise and timeliness are other qualities of our executives. What are you waiting for? To get started, visit our website @ www.getfriday.com or write to us at support@getfriday.com or get an understanding of all the e-commerce process which GetFriday supports with the video Managing Major Tasks for eCommerce Businesses 0:00 Hello There! Do you run an E-commerce business? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tasks? 0:06 Do not worry!! GetFriday is here to help you with your business tasks. 0:11 First let me introduce myself. I am Kumar,Project manager for e-commerce businesses in GetFriday. 0:18 I will walk you through the processes we support for e-commerce businesses. 0:22 We have experienced and skilled executives to take care of your e-commerce business needs. 0:27 The key tasks we undertake on behalf of e-commerce businesses are Inventory management, Order processing, Order tracking, and Customer support. I am really excited to walk you through each task. 0:39 Let us start with Inventory management. 0:42 Your GetFriday executive will log into your CRM and download the inventory files daily at the start of the day. 0:47 Your executive will then check and update you about the daily status of the products i.e. In-stock, Out-stock, and approaching safety stock to keep track of each product’s availability in the stock. 1:01 Second key task is ‘Order processing’. 1:04 When an order is placed on your website by a customer, your GetFriday executive coordinates with the vendors and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. 1:14 Your assistant will also cross verify the details such as shipping address and the quantity ordered for efficiently placing the order with the suppliers. 1:20 Now we come to the Third major task which is ‘Order Tracking’. 1:22 Once the product is shipped, your executive will coordinate with your logistics partner to get the tracking code. Your executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and update the customers to help them track the order. 1:36 The other task undertaken for e-commerce businesses is ‘Customer support service”. Your GetFriday executive is well trained in handling all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails. 1:48 Your assistant will take care of your daily customer care support activities such as emails, calls, etc. with multiple back-ups so that the regular work continues uninterrupted. 2:00 And if you find yourself with increased orders, do not worry!! GetFriday will be able to handle all the tasks with multiple back-up assistants meeting all the quality standards and deadlines. 2:11 We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions. High domain expertise and timeliness are other major qualities of GetFriday’s executives. 2:22 Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 2:32 Visit our website www.getfriday.com to know more about the services. Or write an email to support@getfriday.com with your requirements.

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If you are over-whelmed by your e-commerce business by the number of activities, GetFriday is here to help you with your business. We have skilled and experienced executives to help you with your e-commerce business needs. The key tasks which GetFriday undertakes on behalf of e-commerce business are inventory management, order processing, order tracking and customer support. Inventory Management The GetFriday executive logs into the client’s CRM and downloads the daily inventory files. The executive then checks and updates the client on the daily status of the products such as in stock, out of stock and approaching safety stock, to track for the availability of each product. Order Processing When an order is placed on the website by a customer, the GetFriday executive then co-ordinates with the vendor and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. The executive also cross verifies the shipping address and the quantity officially placed with the supplier to fulfill orders. Order tracking Once the product has been shipped, the GetFriday executive co-ordinates with the logistical partner to get the tracking code. The executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and updates the customer to help them track the order. Customer Support GetFriday executives are well trained to attend to all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails with multiple back ups so that regular work is not interrupted. If you are overcome by increased orders, GetFriday will be able to handle all tasks with multiple back-up assistance meeting all quality standards and deadlines. We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions high domain expertise and timeliness are other qualities of our executives. What are you waiting for? To get started, visit our website @ www.getfriday.com or write to us at support@getfriday.com or get an understanding of all the e-commerce process which GetFriday supports with the video Managing Major Tasks for eCommerce Businesses 0:00 Hello There! Do you run an E-commerce business? Are you overwhelmed by the number of tasks? 0:06 Do not worry!! GetFriday is here to help you with your business tasks. 0:11 First let me introduce myself. I am Kumar,Project manager for e-commerce businesses in GetFriday. 0:18 I will walk you through the processes we support for e-commerce businesses. 0:22 We have experienced and skilled executives to take care of your e-commerce business needs. 0:27 The key tasks we undertake on behalf of e-commerce businesses are Inventory management, Order processing, Order tracking, and Customer support. I am really excited to walk you through each task. 0:39 Let us start with Inventory management. 0:42 Your GetFriday executive will log into your CRM and download the inventory files daily at the start of the day. 0:47 Your executive will then check and update you about the daily status of the products i.e. In-stock, Out-stock, and approaching safety stock to keep track of each product’s availability in the stock. 1:01 Second key task is ‘Order processing’. 1:04 When an order is placed on your website by a customer, your GetFriday executive coordinates with the vendors and places the order with them to be delivered to the customer. 1:14 Your assistant will also cross verify the details such as shipping address and the quantity ordered for efficiently placing the order with the suppliers. 1:20 Now we come to the Third major task which is ‘Order Tracking’. 1:22 Once the product is shipped, your executive will coordinate with your logistics partner to get the tracking code. Your executive will then proceed to verify the tracking code and update the customers to help them track the order. 1:36 The other task undertaken for e-commerce businesses is ‘Customer support service”. Your GetFriday executive is well trained in handling all sorts of customer queries through calls and emails. 1:48 Your assistant will take care of your daily customer care support activities such as emails, calls, etc. with multiple back-ups so that the regular work continues uninterrupted. 2:00 And if you find yourself with increased orders, do not worry!! GetFriday will be able to handle all the tasks with multiple back-up assistants meeting all the quality standards and deadlines. 2:11 We provide 24/7 assistance with cost effective solutions. High domain expertise and timeliness are other major qualities of GetFriday’s executives. 2:22 Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 2:32 Visit our website www.getfriday.com to know more about the services. Or write an email to support@getfriday.com with your requirements.

Save 60 Minutes A Day

Save 60 Minutes A Day With GetFriday

As the saying goes, even a second is precious for a busy person and saving a whole 60 minutes is equivalent to striking a pot of gold. To have 60 whole minutes of your life back, could mean spending more time with your family, catching that movie you wanted to watch at the theater, jogging with your pet, Bruno at the beach, relaxing at the spa or just unwinding on the couch. To assist you all your business, personal and administrative requirements, GetFriday’s Virtual Assistants can help offload your work while you catch that much needed break for yourself. GetFriday has now come up with a series of ‘Save 60 Minutes A Day’ videos for you, capturing the very essence of how our virtual assistance services could help a client offload tasks and make a difference in his/her life in the process. The first of these videos, titled ‘Meet Jane’, is about a working mother of two, who is also an entrepreneur of a successful e-commerce store. Not being able to strike a balance in her work and personal life, Jane gets really flustered, but manages to change her life for the better by hiring a GetFriday Virtual Assistant! Her virtual assistant helps her by saving 60 minutes of her day everyday, by handling all her e-commerce back-end work for her, while she finally gets to spend some quality time with her kids! We are going to have a lot more videos in the ‘Save 60 Minutes A Day Series’, so, stay tuned for more updates!

Save 60 Minutes A Day With GetFriday Read More »

As the saying goes, even a second is precious for a busy person and saving a whole 60 minutes is equivalent to striking a pot of gold. To have 60 whole minutes of your life back, could mean spending more time with your family, catching that movie you wanted to watch at the theater, jogging with your pet, Bruno at the beach, relaxing at the spa or just unwinding on the couch. To assist you all your business, personal and administrative requirements, GetFriday’s Virtual Assistants can help offload your work while you catch that much needed break for yourself. GetFriday has now come up with a series of ‘Save 60 Minutes A Day’ videos for you, capturing the very essence of how our virtual assistance services could help a client offload tasks and make a difference in his/her life in the process. The first of these videos, titled ‘Meet Jane’, is about a working mother of two, who is also an entrepreneur of a successful e-commerce store. Not being able to strike a balance in her work and personal life, Jane gets really flustered, but manages to change her life for the better by hiring a GetFriday Virtual Assistant! Her virtual assistant helps her by saving 60 minutes of her day everyday, by handling all her e-commerce back-end work for her, while she finally gets to spend some quality time with her kids! We are going to have a lot more videos in the ‘Save 60 Minutes A Day Series’, so, stay tuned for more updates!

E-Commerce Store – Holiday Season Check List For Increasing Sales

Holiday season is near and this is the time online stores see a surge in sales. But like all things in life you need to be prepared. GetFriday has been around for 10 years now and we have come to understand and learn from our ecommerce clients, the essentials that are required to increase sales during the holiday season. Click on the picture below to see this blog in a slideshare format. Here is a checklist for your quick consumption:   1. This is the best time to launch new products This is the time of the year GetFriday associates get busy with remodeling e-commerce stores, resizing and editing the product images, proof reading the content, uploading products on amazon and rearranging the website display. Most e-commerce firms would consider this as the best time to launch a new product. The chances of succeeding now are far higher than any time later. The known factor about customers is that they are willing to spend more during this season. US retail sales for December 2014 was $442.9 billion – this was an increase of 3.2% over December 2013.   2. Start early with promotions and campaigns A recent study conducted by Oracle Marketing Cloud and Edison Research shows that consumers are doing their holiday shopping early, spending as much as $900 more in the month of October than in December. Start early with planning holiday promotions and campaigns. Our data shows that e-commerce stores start preparing for the holiday season as early as September – October and are ready to launch their campaigns. This give enough time for e-commerce stores to conduct experimental marketing and figure out ways to succeed with customers. With consumers, too willing to take advantage of early shopping discounts and promotions, the timing of promotions and campaigns has gained relevance in recent times. Remember you are competing for the customer wallet. If you are not ready for launching promotions for all your visitors in October, it is advisable to start campaigns with your existing database of clients. Give them the opportunity to take advantage of promotions before your new visitors. It is a known fact that cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than retaining an existing customer. 3. Increase your advertisement budget Let us simplify advertising for you – As you reach more customers with relevant offers, chances of sales increases proportionally. Holiday season is the best time to increase your spending on marketing, as you know for sure customers are looking for your products. If not yours they will land on a competitor’s website. Research shows that social media has a major impact on purchasing choices made by holiday shoppers. “More than half of users (52 percent) say they learned about a product they later purchased because of Twitter, and it’s so convenient to find gift ideas on Twitter that 39 percent say Twitter serves as their new holiday shopping list,” a 2014 Twitter study found. 4. Is your operations ready for holiday season? Make sure operational capabilities are ready for the holiday season. This is the time new customers would be experiencing your product and service, and chances of making them your loyal customer rests with the experience they will gain. It is a common practice with large retailers to hire employees during holiday season to manage customer operations. Learning from this industry practice, you could hire virtual assistants to help manage operations during the holiday season. 5. Is your website spreading the joy – with analytics? Your website needs to reflect the holiday season spirit and create the festive effect. Happy customers tend to buy more. You probably already know that the website is your store front. Look at data generated from your campaigns to optimize your pages. Let the best sellers be visible to your customers. 6. Be ready for customers purchasing from their phones UPS compass in its recent article How America will shop in 2015 quoted IBM data to reveal that mobiles accounted for 45 percent of all 2014 online holiday traffic and for 22.6 percent of online sales, a 27.2 percent gain over the 2013 total More than 50 percent of online shopping traffic came from mobiles during the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. These numbers drive home the point of need to be prepared with providing customers options of shopping through their mobiles and making their experiences pleasant and user-friendly.

E-Commerce Store – Holiday Season Check List For Increasing Sales Read More »

Holiday season is near and this is the time online stores see a surge in sales. But like all things in life you need to be prepared. GetFriday has been around for 10 years now and we have come to understand and learn from our ecommerce clients, the essentials that are required to increase sales during the holiday season. Click on the picture below to see this blog in a slideshare format. Here is a checklist for your quick consumption:   1. This is the best time to launch new products This is the time of the year GetFriday associates get busy with remodeling e-commerce stores, resizing and editing the product images, proof reading the content, uploading products on amazon and rearranging the website display. Most e-commerce firms would consider this as the best time to launch a new product. The chances of succeeding now are far higher than any time later. The known factor about customers is that they are willing to spend more during this season. US retail sales for December 2014 was $442.9 billion – this was an increase of 3.2% over December 2013.   2. Start early with promotions and campaigns A recent study conducted by Oracle Marketing Cloud and Edison Research shows that consumers are doing their holiday shopping early, spending as much as $900 more in the month of October than in December. Start early with planning holiday promotions and campaigns. Our data shows that e-commerce stores start preparing for the holiday season as early as September – October and are ready to launch their campaigns. This give enough time for e-commerce stores to conduct experimental marketing and figure out ways to succeed with customers. With consumers, too willing to take advantage of early shopping discounts and promotions, the timing of promotions and campaigns has gained relevance in recent times. Remember you are competing for the customer wallet. If you are not ready for launching promotions for all your visitors in October, it is advisable to start campaigns with your existing database of clients. Give them the opportunity to take advantage of promotions before your new visitors. It is a known fact that cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than retaining an existing customer. 3. Increase your advertisement budget Let us simplify advertising for you – As you reach more customers with relevant offers, chances of sales increases proportionally. Holiday season is the best time to increase your spending on marketing, as you know for sure customers are looking for your products. If not yours they will land on a competitor’s website. Research shows that social media has a major impact on purchasing choices made by holiday shoppers. “More than half of users (52 percent) say they learned about a product they later purchased because of Twitter, and it’s so convenient to find gift ideas on Twitter that 39 percent say Twitter serves as their new holiday shopping list,” a 2014 Twitter study found. 4. Is your operations ready for holiday season? Make sure operational capabilities are ready for the holiday season. This is the time new customers would be experiencing your product and service, and chances of making them your loyal customer rests with the experience they will gain. It is a common practice with large retailers to hire employees during holiday season to manage customer operations. Learning from this industry practice, you could hire virtual assistants to help manage operations during the holiday season. 5. Is your website spreading the joy – with analytics? Your website needs to reflect the holiday season spirit and create the festive effect. Happy customers tend to buy more. You probably already know that the website is your store front. Look at data generated from your campaigns to optimize your pages. Let the best sellers be visible to your customers. 6. Be ready for customers purchasing from their phones UPS compass in its recent article How America will shop in 2015 quoted IBM data to reveal that mobiles accounted for 45 percent of all 2014 online holiday traffic and for 22.6 percent of online sales, a 27.2 percent gain over the 2013 total More than 50 percent of online shopping traffic came from mobiles during the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. These numbers drive home the point of need to be prepared with providing customers options of shopping through their mobiles and making their experiences pleasant and user-friendly.

CRM Investments Failure

Five Reasons Why CRM Investments Fail In E-Commerce Space

In 10 years of GetFriday’s existence, we have handled a lot of CRMs! Our insights for this blog are derived from this experience. Our clients have been at times, early adopters of these tools. We also happen to have a huge client base of entrepreneurs and small businesses. This has enabled us to have a 360 degree view of CRM usage or its lack of usage. Without doubt CRMS are useful tools for e-commerce It is true that CRM software can help e-commerce businesses provide excellent customer support by managing and storing all data related to customers and transactions. Though all this can be achieved through other online tools, the beauty of buying CRM software is to be able to utilize it in such a manner that it can take care of your business needs automatically while allowing you to focus on improving your sales conversion rates considerably. Nevertheless, majority of companies fail to benefit from CRMs and end up losing huge amounts of money. We have identified 5 reasons for the failure of CRMs in the e-commerce industry through our longstanding experience of serving e-commerce clients. This blog is also summarized in the form of Slideshare presentation. Please click on the below image for the presentation. 5 Reasons for CRM Investments Failure   1. Not utilizing full capacity of CRMs Imagine you hired an employee for your small e-commerce business, and are unable to use 40% of this person’s skill. A smart business owner should ideally be worried. But somehow, business professionals do not worry about the unused capacities of assets. Our internal data shows many entrepreneurs do not utilize as much as 40 % of CRMs capability. This is not because there is a problem with the CRM software, but because e-commerce businesses often miss out on critically analyzing the requirements of the CRM within the business at the outset. These CRMs generally have limited or no use in the business and are dead resources. This renders the CRM a misfit within the e-commerce business if not employed correctly. 2. Buying a CRM too early Define the CRM requirements first before jumping into which CRM to buy. If you are just starting out as an e-commerce company, your focus ideally be targeted towards expanding your client base, attracting as many customers as possible and achieving breakeven sales with your products online. Managing customer relations and records in an organized database is also, extremely important. But Google drives and other free tools do an equally good job. Therefore, if you are starting out, it would be wise to analyze if using a CRM at this stage can prove to be fruitful. We suggest you to start lean. 3. Not setting objectives, goals and targets for CRM One way to derive maximum from your CRM is to set a clear objective, goal and target. Treat your CRM as an asset that needs to justify its costs. With CRMs being implemented in businesses across industries in today’s world, SMEs and upcoming e-commerce companies may find it necessary to implement CRMs in their own businesses, without understanding how the features can be fully utilized to boost business efficiency. The requirement for a CRM is the result of much deliberation over difficult business truths such as dwindling sales, strained customer relations, service woes or escalating marketing issues. The mistake takes place with the first step when businesses implement CRMs without understanding its features, the metrics it has to offer and how in turn a CRM can help your e-commerce business grow. 4. Owning a CRM only as a social norm Over these years, we have seen entrepreneurs rushing to buy a CRM as a part of their initial start up infrastructure. They utilize it to supplement their daily meetings with prospects and networks and end up buying CRMs only because others in the industry have implemented them and because they assume it is necessary. Though the assumption may not be entirely wrong, we strongly suggest you ask yourself these 4 simple questions before you buy a CRM – Can it solve the problems in my business? Does it suit by budget? Can it integrate seamlessly with my existing software and systems? Is it necessary at this point of my company’s operations? CRMs should not be implemented just for the heck of it and just because every other company in the block is using a Salesforce or a Zoho. It should only be employed if an e-commerce business has the resources for it, has the ability to answer these questions and be able to present solutions for it. 5. Inefficiency in uploading the data in CRM The data you capture from your customers need to be updated in a timely manner into your CRMs. This requires your time and devotion. Typically our study shows, that the lack of time to enter data into CRMs remains the single most problem for entrepreneurs and e-commerce store owners alike. We suggest you hire a virtual assistant to handle this work seamlessly. If you want to avoid the possibility of failures, your first step should be to take care of these 5 reasons. Since investing in a CRM is a big deal, make sure you have your goals defined and its needs/requirements for the business sorted before you take the plunge. After all, CRMs are assets and like any other asset, need to be justified for its costs and employed properly for maximum benefits.

Five Reasons Why CRM Investments Fail In E-Commerce Space Read More »

In 10 years of GetFriday’s existence, we have handled a lot of CRMs! Our insights for this blog are derived from this experience. Our clients have been at times, early adopters of these tools. We also happen to have a huge client base of entrepreneurs and small businesses. This has enabled us to have a 360 degree view of CRM usage or its lack of usage. Without doubt CRMS are useful tools for e-commerce It is true that CRM software can help e-commerce businesses provide excellent customer support by managing and storing all data related to customers and transactions. Though all this can be achieved through other online tools, the beauty of buying CRM software is to be able to utilize it in such a manner that it can take care of your business needs automatically while allowing you to focus on improving your sales conversion rates considerably. Nevertheless, majority of companies fail to benefit from CRMs and end up losing huge amounts of money. We have identified 5 reasons for the failure of CRMs in the e-commerce industry through our longstanding experience of serving e-commerce clients. This blog is also summarized in the form of Slideshare presentation. Please click on the below image for the presentation. 5 Reasons for CRM Investments Failure   1. Not utilizing full capacity of CRMs Imagine you hired an employee for your small e-commerce business, and are unable to use 40% of this person’s skill. A smart business owner should ideally be worried. But somehow, business professionals do not worry about the unused capacities of assets. Our internal data shows many entrepreneurs do not utilize as much as 40 % of CRMs capability. This is not because there is a problem with the CRM software, but because e-commerce businesses often miss out on critically analyzing the requirements of the CRM within the business at the outset. These CRMs generally have limited or no use in the business and are dead resources. This renders the CRM a misfit within the e-commerce business if not employed correctly. 2. Buying a CRM too early Define the CRM requirements first before jumping into which CRM to buy. If you are just starting out as an e-commerce company, your focus ideally be targeted towards expanding your client base, attracting as many customers as possible and achieving breakeven sales with your products online. Managing customer relations and records in an organized database is also, extremely important. But Google drives and other free tools do an equally good job. Therefore, if you are starting out, it would be wise to analyze if using a CRM at this stage can prove to be fruitful. We suggest you to start lean. 3. Not setting objectives, goals and targets for CRM One way to derive maximum from your CRM is to set a clear objective, goal and target. Treat your CRM as an asset that needs to justify its costs. With CRMs being implemented in businesses across industries in today’s world, SMEs and upcoming e-commerce companies may find it necessary to implement CRMs in their own businesses, without understanding how the features can be fully utilized to boost business efficiency. The requirement for a CRM is the result of much deliberation over difficult business truths such as dwindling sales, strained customer relations, service woes or escalating marketing issues. The mistake takes place with the first step when businesses implement CRMs without understanding its features, the metrics it has to offer and how in turn a CRM can help your e-commerce business grow. 4. Owning a CRM only as a social norm Over these years, we have seen entrepreneurs rushing to buy a CRM as a part of their initial start up infrastructure. They utilize it to supplement their daily meetings with prospects and networks and end up buying CRMs only because others in the industry have implemented them and because they assume it is necessary. Though the assumption may not be entirely wrong, we strongly suggest you ask yourself these 4 simple questions before you buy a CRM – Can it solve the problems in my business? Does it suit by budget? Can it integrate seamlessly with my existing software and systems? Is it necessary at this point of my company’s operations? CRMs should not be implemented just for the heck of it and just because every other company in the block is using a Salesforce or a Zoho. It should only be employed if an e-commerce business has the resources for it, has the ability to answer these questions and be able to present solutions for it. 5. Inefficiency in uploading the data in CRM The data you capture from your customers need to be updated in a timely manner into your CRMs. This requires your time and devotion. Typically our study shows, that the lack of time to enter data into CRMs remains the single most problem for entrepreneurs and e-commerce store owners alike. We suggest you hire a virtual assistant to handle this work seamlessly. If you want to avoid the possibility of failures, your first step should be to take care of these 5 reasons. Since investing in a CRM is a big deal, make sure you have your goals defined and its needs/requirements for the business sorted before you take the plunge. After all, CRMs are assets and like any other asset, need to be justified for its costs and employed properly for maximum benefits.

GetFriday Newsletter – E-Commerce Insights

Industry News: E-Commerce Insights GetFriday has begun its monthly endeavors of providing you with information that could be of use to you. We aim to impart important insights to our clients to help them promote and help e-commerce stores grow. At GetFriday, we have had diverse experiences with our clients, most of them largely E-Commerce clients. The year 2015 is packed with a number of changes and prevalent trends in the E-commerce industry. Industry players need to now understand and adopt these changes in order to be able procure revenue and attract traffic. Some of the top trends for the E-Commerce industry for this year are highlighted below and are as follows:- Sales are now being effectively carried out over mobile phones. A recent survey shows that mobile now “account for 50.3% of all E-Commerce Traffic”. Also, the new Google algorithm change that requires websites to be mobile-friendly should be well in place for E-commerce websites by now in order for a better ranking on search engine sites in order to attract traffic. Social media sites are now turning into lucrative platforms for driving sales to e-commerce websites. A lot of consumers are now turning to Pinterest, Polyvore, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to ‘discover’ new, prevalent e-commerce products and to Twitter for specialty/niche industries. Setting up Facebook stores are also becoming a popular trend, helping E-commerce websites directly on the platform through a trusted and secure payment gateway. Social commerce has been viewed as one of the most important e-commerce trends for the year and funnels a large part of website viewership and traffic. But if generating traffic was not enough, Facebook tops the list as the social media site that brings in the highest conversion rate for e-commerce traffic at 1.85%. People shop whenever it is convenient for them during the day or night and don’t necessarily use the desktop or the laptop to surf e-commerce websites. People shop or go through e-commerce websites on the move, during the day, before they go to bed at night and even between the periods 12-2PM at the work place and on Sunday Evenings. This is a proven statistic. E-commerce websites should take a note of this and if you are PPC advertiser, this could work as a model for you to be able to place your ad campaigns effectively. These have been some of the top trends for 2015. There will be more updates and more newsletters on what’s fresh and what’s doing the rounds in the e-commerce industry. Stay tuned for the latest postings, tips, offerings and blogs specific to the e-commerce industry in the next issue and follows us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn as well.

GetFriday Newsletter – E-Commerce Insights Read More »

Industry News: E-Commerce Insights GetFriday has begun its monthly endeavors of providing you with information that could be of use to you. We aim to impart important insights to our clients to help them promote and help e-commerce stores grow. At GetFriday, we have had diverse experiences with our clients, most of them largely E-Commerce clients. The year 2015 is packed with a number of changes and prevalent trends in the E-commerce industry. Industry players need to now understand and adopt these changes in order to be able procure revenue and attract traffic. Some of the top trends for the E-Commerce industry for this year are highlighted below and are as follows:- Sales are now being effectively carried out over mobile phones. A recent survey shows that mobile now “account for 50.3% of all E-Commerce Traffic”. Also, the new Google algorithm change that requires websites to be mobile-friendly should be well in place for E-commerce websites by now in order for a better ranking on search engine sites in order to attract traffic. Social media sites are now turning into lucrative platforms for driving sales to e-commerce websites. A lot of consumers are now turning to Pinterest, Polyvore, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to ‘discover’ new, prevalent e-commerce products and to Twitter for specialty/niche industries. Setting up Facebook stores are also becoming a popular trend, helping E-commerce websites directly on the platform through a trusted and secure payment gateway. Social commerce has been viewed as one of the most important e-commerce trends for the year and funnels a large part of website viewership and traffic. But if generating traffic was not enough, Facebook tops the list as the social media site that brings in the highest conversion rate for e-commerce traffic at 1.85%. People shop whenever it is convenient for them during the day or night and don’t necessarily use the desktop or the laptop to surf e-commerce websites. People shop or go through e-commerce websites on the move, during the day, before they go to bed at night and even between the periods 12-2PM at the work place and on Sunday Evenings. This is a proven statistic. E-commerce websites should take a note of this and if you are PPC advertiser, this could work as a model for you to be able to place your ad campaigns effectively. These have been some of the top trends for 2015. There will be more updates and more newsletters on what’s fresh and what’s doing the rounds in the e-commerce industry. Stay tuned for the latest postings, tips, offerings and blogs specific to the e-commerce industry in the next issue and follows us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn as well.

Simple Guide To E-Commerce Product Taxonomy

What is taxonomy? When you think of ‘Taxonomy’, you immediately associate the term with the classification of organisms into hierarchical groups as per what you studied in your biology class. Quite right, except that in this case, the word is used to describe not the classifications of organisms, but the classification and organization of ‘unstructured information’ on e-commerce websites for the benefit of users and the business. Why taxonomy? Taxonomy is an extremely crucial component because it helps users navigate through e-commerce websites in a more user-friendly manner, enhances their search experience and thus increases the prospects of a higher ROI for the business. Instead of sifting through the haystack in the wild web, the application of taxonomy helps with search navigation and leads to a more manageable experience – one that is less time-consuming, organized and leads to the ‘right’. Here we provide you a guide to understand ‘e-commerce taxonomy’ better, its benefits and how a business can implement it effectively. Content Strategies & Taxonomy There’s a lot more to taxonomy than just mere categorizing. Just as librarians would sift and arrange books according to title, labels, author and call numbers, this would also apply to e-commerce websites, except that the content can be subdivided, using ‘taxonomy structure’. Taxonomy categorizes unorganized information while the metadata describes the category. Metadata will help with better categorization and more recognizable content from the e-commerce website design perspective. Website Design & Taxonomy A website with unstructured content could lead to difficulties when it comes to navigation and searches. Taxonomy directly corresponds with website design in the form of ‘taxonomy view’ and helps create a positive user-navigation experience, with the neatly arranged categories. Here is a screenshot of an Australian e-commerce website and their distinct categories of footwear, clothing, bags and accessories etc., making navigation through the page an easy, comprehensible one. The highlighted boxes in red in above image shows the categorization of the different footwear for women on this website for easy user navigation and quick searches. What Are The Common Problems Of E-Commerce Sites With No Taxonomy? Let us take the simple example of a taxonomy tree and see what problems could arise from not planning out e-commerce websites taxonomy efficiently:- Categories: -Men -Women -Kids Men: -Babywear -Boys -Adults Women: -Babywear -Girls -Adults The next category after men and women is kids. Now under kids, you can either have the combination of:- Kids -Baby-Boys-Girls Or Baby-Boys Baby-Girls   If you go back to the original taxonomy tree, you will notice that babywear, boys and girls are already listed out under men and women separately. So, by creating another sub-category for ‘kids’, there is an ‘overlap’ or a ‘duplication’ of categories. At this stage, as an e-commerce website, you could either continue to work with the same structure or go back and start and remove the category of ‘kids’ from the parent category. By doing so, you will need to rebuild another taxonomy design from scratch. That leads us to the next part of understanding how to go about building an effective taxonomy. How Do You Build An Effective Taxonomy? Now that you know and understand that taxonomy is crucial for an e-commerce website, you need to build one. With the right direction and information, you can go on to build an effective taxonomy for your e-commerce site. Here’s how you can do it:- 1. Detailed Planning With A Team Taxonomy creation cannot be handled by one member at the work place. A special, multidisciplinary team working across a wide-range of domains is required. The team should have in-depth knowledge in the field of taxonomy, content creation/management, website design and development and SEO in order to do full justice to technical, managerial and business angles. 2. What Is The Scope? Once the team has been formed, find out what the scope is for the project and ask/answer these questions jointly as a team. Is it a small one or a large-scale project? What is the purpose of creating the taxonomy? What is the context in which it will be used? What is the ultimate goal we are trying to achieve? What will the design of the e-commerce website look like? What is the content scope? And who is ultimately the end user? 3. Check Inventory, Make A Draft To start with, begin by jotting down the inventory. Build a taxonomy based on only what you can sell. Once you have done that, make a draft of the taxonomy. Have your hierarchies and categories clearly listed out and divided based on utility, price, size, type, color and make etc. and make sure that the content created adheres to and falls within the functions of each category. 4. Implement & Test It Now is the stage for the implementation of the taxonomy that can be achieved through website design. This will initially take the form of skeleton wire-frames, navigation maps and interface. The second step would be to ‘populate’ the taxonomy with content and integrate it with the existing content management process. The final step and the most crucial step to the implementation process is to check if the taxonomy is corresponding with the onsite search results. Once the implementation stage is complete, it would be wise to test it thoroughly to identify any loopholes and flaws in the design. Check for ambiguity of categories, navigation and whether it takes more than ‘3-clicks’ for customers to find what they are looking for. 5. Maintenance The final and the most crucial step is to maintain the taxonomy structure. As the organization grows and the requirements change, the basic taxonomy model can be modified or amended, adding newer concepts, information, context, content and vocabulary. This will not only ensure that the e-commerce website is consistent in its performance but will also draw in more returns for the company. Benefits of E-commerce taxonomy: -Better e-commerce website navigation and design -Effective retrieval of information -Less time wasted in searches -Improves brand image and the reputation of the

Simple Guide To E-Commerce Product Taxonomy Read More »

What is taxonomy? When you think of ‘Taxonomy’, you immediately associate the term with the classification of organisms into hierarchical groups as per what you studied in your biology class. Quite right, except that in this case, the word is used to describe not the classifications of organisms, but the classification and organization of ‘unstructured information’ on e-commerce websites for the benefit of users and the business. Why taxonomy? Taxonomy is an extremely crucial component because it helps users navigate through e-commerce websites in a more user-friendly manner, enhances their search experience and thus increases the prospects of a higher ROI for the business. Instead of sifting through the haystack in the wild web, the application of taxonomy helps with search navigation and leads to a more manageable experience – one that is less time-consuming, organized and leads to the ‘right’. Here we provide you a guide to understand ‘e-commerce taxonomy’ better, its benefits and how a business can implement it effectively. Content Strategies & Taxonomy There’s a lot more to taxonomy than just mere categorizing. Just as librarians would sift and arrange books according to title, labels, author and call numbers, this would also apply to e-commerce websites, except that the content can be subdivided, using ‘taxonomy structure’. Taxonomy categorizes unorganized information while the metadata describes the category. Metadata will help with better categorization and more recognizable content from the e-commerce website design perspective. Website Design & Taxonomy A website with unstructured content could lead to difficulties when it comes to navigation and searches. Taxonomy directly corresponds with website design in the form of ‘taxonomy view’ and helps create a positive user-navigation experience, with the neatly arranged categories. Here is a screenshot of an Australian e-commerce website and their distinct categories of footwear, clothing, bags and accessories etc., making navigation through the page an easy, comprehensible one. The highlighted boxes in red in above image shows the categorization of the different footwear for women on this website for easy user navigation and quick searches. What Are The Common Problems Of E-Commerce Sites With No Taxonomy? Let us take the simple example of a taxonomy tree and see what problems could arise from not planning out e-commerce websites taxonomy efficiently:- Categories: -Men -Women -Kids Men: -Babywear -Boys -Adults Women: -Babywear -Girls -Adults The next category after men and women is kids. Now under kids, you can either have the combination of:- Kids -Baby-Boys-Girls Or Baby-Boys Baby-Girls   If you go back to the original taxonomy tree, you will notice that babywear, boys and girls are already listed out under men and women separately. So, by creating another sub-category for ‘kids’, there is an ‘overlap’ or a ‘duplication’ of categories. At this stage, as an e-commerce website, you could either continue to work with the same structure or go back and start and remove the category of ‘kids’ from the parent category. By doing so, you will need to rebuild another taxonomy design from scratch. That leads us to the next part of understanding how to go about building an effective taxonomy. How Do You Build An Effective Taxonomy? Now that you know and understand that taxonomy is crucial for an e-commerce website, you need to build one. With the right direction and information, you can go on to build an effective taxonomy for your e-commerce site. Here’s how you can do it:- 1. Detailed Planning With A Team Taxonomy creation cannot be handled by one member at the work place. A special, multidisciplinary team working across a wide-range of domains is required. The team should have in-depth knowledge in the field of taxonomy, content creation/management, website design and development and SEO in order to do full justice to technical, managerial and business angles. 2. What Is The Scope? Once the team has been formed, find out what the scope is for the project and ask/answer these questions jointly as a team. Is it a small one or a large-scale project? What is the purpose of creating the taxonomy? What is the context in which it will be used? What is the ultimate goal we are trying to achieve? What will the design of the e-commerce website look like? What is the content scope? And who is ultimately the end user? 3. Check Inventory, Make A Draft To start with, begin by jotting down the inventory. Build a taxonomy based on only what you can sell. Once you have done that, make a draft of the taxonomy. Have your hierarchies and categories clearly listed out and divided based on utility, price, size, type, color and make etc. and make sure that the content created adheres to and falls within the functions of each category. 4. Implement & Test It Now is the stage for the implementation of the taxonomy that can be achieved through website design. This will initially take the form of skeleton wire-frames, navigation maps and interface. The second step would be to ‘populate’ the taxonomy with content and integrate it with the existing content management process. The final step and the most crucial step to the implementation process is to check if the taxonomy is corresponding with the onsite search results. Once the implementation stage is complete, it would be wise to test it thoroughly to identify any loopholes and flaws in the design. Check for ambiguity of categories, navigation and whether it takes more than ‘3-clicks’ for customers to find what they are looking for. 5. Maintenance The final and the most crucial step is to maintain the taxonomy structure. As the organization grows and the requirements change, the basic taxonomy model can be modified or amended, adding newer concepts, information, context, content and vocabulary. This will not only ensure that the e-commerce website is consistent in its performance but will also draw in more returns for the company. Benefits of E-commerce taxonomy: -Better e-commerce website navigation and design -Effective retrieval of information -Less time wasted in searches -Improves brand image and the reputation of the

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