Ecommerce Excellence

You got into business for yourself to gain freedom and enjoy life. But then you get busy… and it never ends. It is possible to travel or do whatever else brings you joy, while still running a profitable ecommerce business, says Bas Urlings. In today’s connected world it’s easier than ever.

Sometimes, life takes you on a journey and you end up where you need to be. This is exactly what happened with today’s guest, David Hoffman— who started off in retail, selling consumer electronics and is now the current CEO of Global Regency, an international trade powerhouse.

Sometimes a business is more than just a business… even more than simply something you’re passionate about. Leon Lewis, eCommerce and digital marketing lead, and the other folks at REBBL which creates herb-infused beverages, consider themselves to be on a cause to bring awareness about human trafficking and uplift at-risk communities around the world.

Marketing on Facebook can be a gamechanger for eCommerce companies. But, says eCommerce consultant and blogger Linda Bustos, it can also be a waste of time and money if not done correctly. We talk about how you can leverage all the capabilities Facebook offers to laser target your ideal customers, and why you do have to spend a bit to actually see results.

Ian Hammersley, of consultancy Smartebusiness, has never met you but if your eCommerce business has plateaued or is not scaling up as you expected… he already has some ideas on why. He and his colleagues have come up with a formula, using a group of key numbers from your business, that can pinpoint where to make changes to take your venture to the next level.

When you’re starting to sell products online, you might wonder whether you should you sell on your own ecommerce or stick with more established “brand name” retail platforms that have a wide reach. Ecommerce veteran Luke Peters says the big marketplaces are the way to go for several reasons. But he often recommends that his clients avoid the biggest one – Amazon – and goes into detail why it’s not a great fit for many startups.

There are pure ecommerce companies, and then there are traditional retailers that moved online while still maintaining an offline presence. To be successful, these two groups should approach the business with very different strategies, says Tom De Bondt, director of IT and digital at Overstock Home and X2O in Belgium.

Adam Lean helps small businesses, especially eCommerce companies, sort out their financials, i.e. “their books,” to figure out what changes they can make to maximize their profits. Turns out a lot of entrepreneurs are leaving plenty of money on the table without realizing it. Or, they’re wondering where all the money goes at the end of each month, even though their sales are great.

Jason Goldberg has quite a resume: a member of the National Retail Federation’s digital advisory board, Guest lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, chief eCommerce strategy officer at Publicis Group, a marketing agency holding company with hundreds of agencies, and much more.

Matthias Laqueur, business strategist with BossData, says many retailers who sell offline and online make a huge mistake when measuring the success of their digital efforts. This is one of the most impactful ways this digital marketing agency is able to help clients get a better handle on key business indicators to figure out which levers to pull to get better results, using technology to find the right tools for the job.

As an eCommerce company selling products across multiple online channels (for example, Amazon, your own site, eBay, etc.) with a single SKU there are several challenges, says Michael Anderson, CEO of Etail Solutions. You have to track inventory, account for different methods of fulfillment, maintain an effective supply chain, control the price, and have the correct content when each eCommerce platform has different rules and requirements.

As Editor-in-Chief at SaleCycle, Graham Charlton is part of the team that uses customer behavior and data on customers to help ecommerce sites to convert, retain or increase conversion rates. Graham says there is one part of the sales process in particular that poses the biggest challenge – and the biggest opportunity to increase conversion rates for their clients. Some of what he recommends is quite outside the box.

Rachel Johnson Greer, the founder of Cascadia Seller Solutions, is the perfect guide. She has helped more than 700 Amazon sellers boost their visibility and get more income. She is an Amazon seller herself – she even worked at Amazon for 12 years. She talks about strategies you must adopt to draw people to your product lists… and make the sale. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, says Rachel, that are sabotaging businesses – and the owners have no idea.

When you do business online, your most valuable commodity is… data. But all the data in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to analyze and use it to boost your profits. And, of course, you need to know what data is important in the first place – and how to collect it.

Too many companies are focused on the “latest and greatest” Google Ad strategies… while forgetting about the basic tactics that will have a much bigger impact on their ROI. By doing so, Alex Fredheim, founder of Ascendancy Digital, was able to double the revenue one client got from their Google Ads campaign during their peak selling season. It’s not surprising. Ecommerce business owners might be good at what they do… but they’re not experts in niche techniques like Google Ads, so they are unsure how to gauge their agency’s performance.

In the ecommerce world, email marketing remains one of the most powerful revenue drivers. But many online retailers are losing out because their email strategy isn’t as powerful as it should be in some of the most important elements of generating profits. By focusing on email marketing strategy, Will Evans and his team at SellerFlows help clients increase lifetime value and average order value. When you get the same customers to buy again and again, you reduce your marketing costs and increase profits.

Many ecommerce entrepreneurs fall into a trap, says Bill D’Alessandro, CEO of Elements Brands. They think a high Google ranking is a good gauge for the health of the business. And that if a majority of their sales come through Amazon… that’s a good thing – a sale is a sale, right?

Ciaran Vipond’s ecommerce shop sells a very specific type of item, within the already specific niche of jewelry. We already know that purchases like this are a need… not a want. So, the product – and all the marketing – must appeal to emotions. For Ciaran’s product it’s nostalgia, pride, and a sense of belonging.

In our Digital Age, it’s tempting to digitize your ecommerce business’ customer service department as well. Award-winning speaker and author Shep Hyken contends that, when you take away the “human touch,” you’ll find you’ve lost a key element that keeps prospects from turning into customers and customers from becoming repeat customers… not to mention turning into raving fans that tell the world about you and bring in more business.

Too many entrepreneurs want all the bells and whistles for their ecommerce site… and the hottest digital marketing strategies to bring in traffic. But, says Arnout Hellemans, they often don’t get the results they expect… because they forgot to perfect the basic foundation of their site and marketing first.