Running a successful e-commerce site demands business processes that are optimized to ensure the accurate, reliable and timely delivery that today’s online buyers expect — regardless of what you sell, or the size of your business. Here are a few ways you can implement streamlined systems that ensure you exceed customer expectations, and ideally, realize internal efficiencies that boost productivity and longer-term profit margins.
Simplify your merchandising. The sales you make in your e-commerce business are only valuable if the transaction results in a satisfied customer. When the customer’s order arrives differently than expected, whether due to a mismatch in customer expectation of a products shape, size, quality or functionality, your business doesn’t just lose the sale; you’ve lost the time and energy invested into processing, picking, packing and shipping the order. Reduce the potential for customer returns with clear product images that accurately represents what a product does — and doesn’t do. Today’s smartphone cameras are capable of taking sharp images regardless of lighting in your facility, or reflective materials or packaging that once made photography challenging. However, you can boost product image quality further with cost-effective apps comparable to professional image editing software to ensure customer expectations are aligned with product reality. For less than $10, the Adobe Photoshop Touch app offers the same functionality as the desktop Photoshop version, including the ability to crop and resize images, and apply filters — all from a mobile device.
Supported by the mobile tools that help you take high-quality images from anywhere, staff can easily snap and edit product images, and save them to any cloud-based or desktop server. Such systems can eliminate the time-consuming, expensive process of shooting new products in a photography studio, and empower you to update images as needed, should you notice a high volume of returns or inquiries for a specific product.
Don’t reinvent the product description process. Successful e-commerce businesses must provide customers with detailed product information, including dimensions, price, and specific use instructions; in addition to writing succinct keyword-rich marketing product copy that ensures customers can find your site when searching for the types of products you sell online, and can search your site with ease. Unfortunately, the process of collecting, writing and inputting all of this information into an e-commerce site can be laborious, and expensive — particularly if you sell a wide variety of merchandise, and don’t have a dedicated resource on staff trained to write relevant persuasive copy, in addition to managing the data collection process with merchants and vendors. Leverage the opportunity to streamline such processes by scanning the Universal Product Code with your mobile device, when available to retrieve whatever universally applicable information (like product measurements) may be stored in a database for simple upload to your site. Though you’ll still benefit from crafting relevant product copy that supports your brand, scanning the Universal Product Code will simplify the process so you can add products to your site with greater efficiency.
Stay current on your inventory levels. Inventory management software can equip your e-commerce site to accurately reflect inventory that’s on hand as customers place items in online shopping carts and your fulfillment staff picks items from stock. However, you can streamline the physical processes associated with inventory management by incorporating visual tools that eliminate process redundancy. For example, using custom-printed integrated labels that contain identifying logos, product and inventory information, can simplify the picking process for employees so they have access to the information they need to fulfill orders, and proficiently receive and process items back into stock for quick replenishment.