Ecommerce LinkedIn Collaborative Articles

Contributions in response to questions by LinkedIn. Each limited to 750 characters.

What are the best strategies for developing a solid understanding of E-Commerce?

In ecommerce,?nobody?can win alone. As sellers, we depend on:

• Marketplaces/platforms.
• Shopping stacks/third-party app developers.
• Payment providers/gateways.
• Fulfilment/logistics partners.
• Suppliers/vendors.
• Digital advertising/social media/influencer channels.
• Other sellers.

We need to understand the?value?of each ecosystem member and strategise how to?leverage?them for our long-term success.

For instance:

• Which?marketplaces?should we list our products on?
• Which?payment modes?do our buyers prefer/trust?
• Which?couriers?have the best track record of reliability and customer satisfaction?
• Which?social media?are most relevant to our buyer profile?
• Which?ad channels?will give us the best ROI?
• Should we even go for?influencers?

How do you tailor your e-commerce site or app to customer preferences?

Personalizing ecommerce site content starts with segmenting visitors by their ‘buying journey’ stage.

Many visitors do not initiate a live chat or email enquiry. The website must enable them to serve themselves.

• Awareness (Top-of-funnel): Blog ('resources') section articles should educate visitors on available solutions/technologies via how-to videos, buyer guides, checklists and infographics.
• Consideration (Mid-funnel): The blog section and category pages should contain comparison tables, case studies, tips & tricks and trial offers.
• Decision (Bottom-of-funnel): Category pages and product pages should feature user reviews, online selector tools, free consultation offers, unboxing videos, data sheets, setup manuals and discount coupons.

What are the best ways to build trust and credibility with your e-commerce customers?

Apart from the mandatory privacy policy, refund policy and returns policy, it is important, especially for international ecommerce customers, to incorporate:

• A real-time online?currency converter: for the buyer to gauge how much he/she will end up paying in home currency.
• Estimated?lead time: so that the buyer knows upfront how long to wait for doorstep delivery.
• On-the-fly?shipping and tax calculator: so that the buyer knows his/her complete landed cost and is not unpleasantly surprised by destination duties.
• Warranty terms/procedure: specifically who bears the cost of return shipping and replacement shipping.
• Promo period?and?quantity discount?terms: so that the buyer is not stuck with an invalid coupon or code during checkout.

What are the most effective ways to build trust and credibility with users during their journey?

One practice I've found effective is to request a buyer review?8-10 days?after they've received our delivery.?Not?earlier.

• Overseas buyers physically receive their orders several days after we ship. Due to time taken in international shipping, customs clearance and last mile delivery. Even local buyers who're travelling or who opt to pick their order up from a nearby collection point may only do so a few days after we ship. We need to ensure the buyer has actually had a chance to unbox, instal, configure and start using our product.?Before?we seek feedback.
• For consumer tech products, the standard timeline for dead-on-arrival or change-of-mind returns is?7 days. So seasoned buyers typically delay rating the product anyway until then.

What design elements create trust on your e-commerce landing page?

Accomplishments/milestones we can highlight to earn our online customer's trust and confidence include:

• No of years in existence. Eg "Serving customers since 2011"
• No of customers/products sold. Eg "Hundredth printer sold in 2022."
• No of countries we have shipped our products to. Eg "Happy customers in 31 countries."
• Industry/category awards/recognitions won. Eg "User's Choice Award 2022, Best Customer Support 2021" etc.
• Excerpts from media articles that have featured/mentioned our company, our products/ brands or our executives.
• Marketplaces where we sell: Eg "Also sold on Amazon & Lazada."
• Vendor accreditations/certifications earned. Especially important to reassure B2B customers that we are authorised and trained.

What are the most effective calls-to-action for your E-Commerce CMS design?

In digital advertising, we need to align CTAs with our Campaign objectives. For instance:

• Awareness/Reach: "Call now", "Contact Us", "Learn More" etc.
• Consideration/Engagement: "Get Quote", "Schedule Demo", "Sign Up" etc.
• Conversion/Sales: "Buy Now", "Order Now", "Subscribe Now" etc.

The menu of choices and wordings available differ from one platform to another, of course. From Google Ads to Meta Ads to LinkedIn Ads and so on.

How to use Google Analytics for e-commerce optimization?

Having implemented Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for each of our nine ecommerce stores, I use the following basic data it provides. In graphs and tables. For any period.

Trends over time:

• Total purchasers vs first-time purchasers.
• Average purchase revenue per user.
• New users vs returning users.

Item-wise breakdown of:

• Quantity viewed.
• Quantity added to cart.
• Quantity purchased.
• Purchase revenue.

User count at each step of the funnel:

• Started session.
• Added to cart.
• Began checkout.
• Added shipping info.
• Added payment info.
• Completed purchase.

Audience-segment-wise breakdown of:

• Views per session.
• Average session duration.

Landing-page-wise breakdown of:

• Sessions.
• Average session duration.
• Conversion events.

How can you identify drop-off points in your marketing funnel using data visualization?

This is a built-in (yet customisable) feature in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

"Funnel Exploration", in the "Explore" tab, depicts, as a bar chart and as a table, each of the steps our users take sequentially. From the time they enter our funnel to the time they drop off.

Default Steps:

• Step 1: First open/visit.

• Step 2: Session start.

• Step 3: Screen page/view.

• Step 4: Purchase.

We can add our own steps, of course. As many as we find relevant.

For each step, GA4 shows us the absolute number as well as percentage of users who have completed that step or abandoned it. For any date range we choose.

We can analyse this by various dimensions, segments and metrics. By dragging and dropping.

Note that "Funnel Exploration" assumes a linear path.

How do you include customer reviews in your e-commerce design?

• Visitors browse different pages of our site. Don't miss any. Place reviews storewide.
• - One review just above 'Add to Cart' button on respective Product Page.
• - Max 3 reviews at bottom of respective Product Page.
• - Max 5 at bottom of respective Category Page (to which the product belongs). Many products may not have individual reviews.
• - Max 3 on Checkout Page (if our platform lets us edit its code).
• - Max 5 at bottom of Home Page. Which usually attracts highest traffic.
• - Max 3 at bottom of About Us Page. Reviews are a trust factor.
• - Max 20 on a dedicated Reviews Page.
• Preferably as a slider.
• Not on left/right sidebar (not easily readable on mobile).
• Best of recent reviews. No old reviews.
• Different reviews per placement. No duplication.

What are the most important factors to consider when responding to customer complaints on social media?

One practice I've found helpful is to compile proactively whatever background info we already have. Instead of troubling the customer for it.

For instance, when a customer initiates an online chat with a complaint, just from his/her name itself, we should readily be able to pull up from our system:

• Customer details: Telephone no, email address, shipping address etc.
• Order details: Order no, purchase date, delivery date, whether under promotion, whether under instalments, whether partially/fully delivered, whether partially/fully paid etc.
• Item details: Item purchased, whether covered under free 7-day return policy or even whether still eligible for warranty, whether discontinued by manufacturer, replacement model name etc.

How can you effectively use search ads to expand your E-Commerce business globally?

• Utilise?demographic targetting parameters?available for your target country. For instance, household income, education level and zip-code-level location targetting are available for certain geographies but not for others.
• Preferably do not enable Google's "automatically created assets". Since you may not be running all promotions (or even selling all your listed products) in all target markets.
• If you upload a "customer match list" for remarketing campaigns, ensure it contains only customers from that specific target country.
• Avoid using "free shipping" as a headline or "appliance store near me" as a search keyword since these will not apply to overseas markets.
• Schedule your ads to suit the?local time zone?of your target country.

How do you ensure your product photos look consistent and professional?

• Most marketplaces insist on a?white?background. Without clutter. I've always followed this universally. Since it helps focus the buyer's attention on the product itself.
• Social media and advertising platforms vary in their recommended?dimensions. And resize images automatically in their responsive designs. I've found it safest to upload pictures with 1024 X 1024 pixel resolution.
• Use multiple photos from?different angles?(including close-ups) to highlight various important features of your product. Like the connectivity ports at the side of your laptop. Or at the back of your monitor. In ecommerce, this is one way to overcome the inherent disadvantage of not being able to offer your buyer the physical reassurance of 'look and feel'.

What are the best practices for creating an effective product filter system?

The best filters meet the following criteria:

• They are usually 'dropdown' or 'buttons'.?Not?'sliders' which are difficult to operate with thick fingers on a mobile device.
• At each step, the filtering options are?few?enough for the user to scroll through comfortably within the viewing pane.
• After each step, the filtered results are clearly?visible?even on small screens.
• After each step, the filtering section within the sidebar remains in one position (does?not?jump).
• After the user applies two or three meaningful 'and' filters sequentially, he/she does not end up with?zero?results unexpectedly.
• After the user finishes applying all relevant filters, the final results are a?manageable?(and not overwhelming) number.

How can optimizing last-mile delivery improve your e-commerce business?

As those of us who have been running ecommerce stores know, there is a multitude of features that enhance the customer's last-mile delivery experience:

• Option to choose a courier based on cumulative?ratings?by other customers.
• Option to choose specific delivery?time slots.
• Option to choose?after-work?and/or?weekend?deliveries.
• Self-pickup?option from nearest collection point.
• Option to choose affordable shipping?insurance.
• Updated online parcel?tracking. End to end.
• Automated email/SMS/WhatsApp?notifications.
• Seamless?re-delivery?attempt (in case of delivery failure).
• Prompt and specific replies via online?chat.
• Option to submit customer's own?rating?after the complete delivery experience.

How can you use market research to improve your shipping options?

International freight options differ in lead time, cost (incl/excl insurance/duties/taxes/fuel surcharge/residential fee), ease of online tracking, flexible timeslots, automated notifications etc.

The best shipping software I had used (for nearly six years) was?Easyship. Which we had integrated with our?Shopify?Ecommerce Store.

Easyship would ask the?shipper?as well as the recipient to rate every pickup and delivery experience. It made this aggregated data available to us online.

For instance, as a seller, whenever I logged into the Easyship App to choose a courier, it would list the service options available for that destination along with their cumulative user experience ratings.

It saved our having to do this research on our own.

Whats your secret to motivating e-commerce customer service staff?

Conventional post-sales 'customer service' has given way to a holistic 'customer experience' spanning all touch points.

Customers have questions before, during and after purchase. Whether via hotline, live web chat, Messenger/WhatsApp/Telegram or email. The 'customer experience' team must include:

• Product specialists (does this work with Windows 11?).
• Web specialists (my credit card has been charged; why have I not received your email acknowledgment yet?).
• Logistics specialists (can you deliver after working hours?).
• Tech support specialists (my device has slowed down; should I restore factory settings?).

Measuring the entire team on an overall Net Promoter Score encourages exceptional collaboration. 'One for all; all for one'. :)

How can you showcase your E-Commerce trend knowledge in your SMO portfolio?

Specifically for our personal brand on LinkedIn, I find the?Social Selling Index?a relevant and useful metric to track to gauge one's influence and thought leadership. We can all access our own at https://www.dhirubhai.net/sales/ssi .

The tool displays the following four components of our score and benchmarks each of them with people in our industry and people in our network.

• Establish your personal brand.
• Find the right people.
• Engage with insights.
• Build relationships.

#Ecommerce