Talk to many small businesses and they will suggest, if not outright say, that they want an e-commerce store that is just like Amazon. A few years ago one might scoff at such wishful thinking or unachievable ambition, but not any longer.
Jim Wehmann, senior vice president of global marketing at Digital River
Today, small businesses have access to solutions that provide much of the same great customer Web experience, global reach, order fulfilment and marketing channels as the largest global online brands. And, if current trends continue, it’s only going to get better.
Web Experience
Small businesses can choose from many e-commerce platforms that come with sophisticated merchandising, marketing, content management and promotional features and functionality. Many of the best and easiest solutions to implement are cloud-based commerce services.
These solutions allow small businesses to avoid start-up infrastructure costs and acquiring the knowledge and resources needed to host and deliver an online store experience. Most often, features which are not available through the e-commerce solution directly can be added through simple integration of third-party tools, of which many are cloud based.
For example, if the e-commerce platform lacks good analytics and reporting, Google Analytics, can be implemented at no cost.
Ratings and reviews, recommendations engines, collaborative filtering engines, optimisation technologies and dozens of other Amazon-like solutions can also be found through generally easy-to-implement and easy-to-use cloud-based solutions.
Global Reach
Many successful United Kingdom-based small businesses naturally think about selling to markets outside the UK. Some of the cloud-based commerce platforms make expanding online throughout the European Union, and even to Asia, North America and beyond, relatively easy.
The best e-business solutions solve the complexity of selling internationally through a hosted reseller model, whereby the partner takes responsibility for managing several key components, including local payment types, fraud, VAT and sales taxes, customer service, export controls, and other regulatory compliance.
These are issues that most small businesses wouldn’t even consider when thinking about international expansion, but that have tripped up many global expansion initiatives.
Order Fulfilment
Prior to a few years ago, the challenge of shipping physical products to individual buyers, especially those outside of home markets, was an insurmountable barrier to international expansion or, in some cases, to establishing an online store. Today, sophisticated distribution partners have largely solved the storage and “pick, pack and ship” issues and can easily send products directly to individual consumers or individual businesses.
Local businesses, as well as large global companies, such as UPS, Ingram Micro, Tech Data and others, have created complex, integrated warehousing and fulfilment centers around the world. It’s now easier than ever to ship your products directly to the end customer.
Some of the best cloud-based e-commerce platforms come pre-integrated to these local and global fulfilment partners. If not, an integration would be required to ensure a seamless process of capturing and fulfilling orders placed through the e-store.
Marketing Channels
One barrier to a successful online store is garnering traffic and closing that traffic once it reaches the site. E-commerce partners can often be helpful when growing brands online, and small businesses can further complement this partnership with third-party providers, where needed. For example, some cloud commerce providers offer traffic drivers through proprietary affiliate marketing networks or other marketplace ecosystems.
Also, due to the continued prominence of search engines in driving e-commerce, small businesses should look for a platform that is search engine optimised and has search engine friendly URL’s.
Some of the best cloud-based providers also have marketing programs, including search engine marketing, email, display advertising and optimisation services, that small businesses can retain to help get started in these important channels and programs for driving and closing Web traffic. Beyond these activities, small businesses should also be sure to leverage their existing customer relationships and channels to help launch and expand the online store.
For example, a multi-channel strategy that leverages in-store and in-field customer contacts through point-of-sale inserts promoting the online store or point-of-sale email name capture can significantly improve the growth trajectory of the online business.
As such, there has never been a better time for small businesses to adopt similar techniques and technologies that make shopping online at the largest global brands such a pleasant experience. Businesses thinking of going global will find a large, direct-to-customer market waiting for their products or solutions.
