Overcoming eCommerce marketplace operational challenges
Starting an eCommerce portal is not an easy thing to do as sooner or later you will start realizing the challenges with it. In the initial phase, you may find things simple and smooth sailing as you see the cash rolling in with your established e-commerce website.
However, the issue of logistics of an e-commerce portal is far more complex than you can expect. You will soon have a tough time ahead but with little preparation and right strategies, you can fight back and emerge as the eCommerce Champion.
Now, let’s take a look at the challenges you face while you run any eCommerce marketplace and ways to overcome them:
Starting with Low Sales
You get your eCommerce site designed choosing some of the best eCommerce platforms. You have now completed the task of designing your online store and have added a couple of outlets as well. It’s high time for you to see your first 10 or 50 or maybe 500 orders. The only issue you face is that the sales will start coming slow and very slow for any brand new shopping portal. Unless you embark on the virtual world with big ads and huge promotions. Now, how to deal with this challenge? To begin with, start focusing on the perfection and marketing of your portal.
Invest some time in finding out certain ways to showcase your core competencies vivid on your portal and test each element to do the homework when sales gradually start picking up. At the same time, you are supposed to carry out the task of marketing especially when your sales are low. Optimize all your social media pages in order to boost up the sales via social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Start hitting the grind and make calls to put an impact on the makers in the market. Share a couple of free products and give your target audience a chance to fall in love with your products.
Losing Sales Owing to Carriers, Returns, and Frauds
One of the unexpected challenges you face in an eCommerce venture is when you find the sale being crushed by some unfortunate elements. This can happen when you find the carrier losing a package, a consumer returning the products or any fraudulent purchase is done to take undue advantage of your ecommerce company. This is a rare phenomenon but at times even the branded carriers can lose a package. The solution comes in the way of biting the bullet and testing to see as to which one is the best in this regard.
For returns, your customer service guys should take a right follow up with the consumers. They can be sent out emails to find out why they disliked your products and they can be even given better discounts for their next orders, etc. Fraud is one of the biggest challenges one faces while carrying out the eCommerce business. The best way to avoid this issue is to consider the right eCommerce platform along with shipping the products especially the bigger order through the most reliable carriers. In other words, with good research, you can find a trustworthy carrier to ship the orders.
Inventory Management
The other challenge you face in any eCommerce business is the overall inventory management. You cannot help it in situations like holidays coming in your way and you have limited stock of the best selling items. Similarly, you may not be able to cater any consumer who orders twice as much you can meet.
The solution to effective inventory management is to stay organized. Keep updated with the number of products you have and its various types, brands, and designs. You should be going through the reports on a daily basis to understand your daily inventory. The other important element is to choose a system, which easily tags and manages all the products you have in your online store. You would require a platform, which allows you to quickly change a page into Out of Stock and a proper item ID system to get the real-time view of all your shelves.
Conclusion
There are many other challenges that come along while you manage the eCommerce venture. Staying organized and professional is the key to handle these issues. Take time to research to chalk out the best strategies to deal with these challenges and emerge out as a hero in your eCommerce venture.