How Ecommerce Companies Can Rapidly Boost Revenue

At Patchworks, we’re always trying to set our sights beyond just integrations. By understanding ecommerce as a whole, it better positions us to understand our clients’ needs and provide a better service.

That’s why we’ve taken the time to think about some of the most effective ways ecommerce companies can boost their revenue and growth.

But we’re not just interested in the how - we also want to share why good data integration can feed into those methods and help you achieve your goals.

Here’s five ways ecommerce companies can rapidly boost their revenue - and how the Patchworks platform can help.

Enhance customer experience

Turning a profit starts with your customers, and convincing them to part with their hard-earned money.

The importance of driving traffic to your website is often talked about, but you won’t get anywhere if there’s nothing on your store to push those visitors into becoming customers. That’s why you need to prioritise customer journey and experience; from making sure links are functioning properly to having an effective tech stack.

That could be something like personalisation software, or systems such as buy now, pay later (BNPL) which provide visitors with more options.

Personalisation software, in fact, has been shown to increase sales by 20%.

But to reap the benefits, those systems need to be seamlessly integrated. Poorly integrated personalisation software, for example, is messy; if your customer data isn’t going to the right place, your tech could end up showing the wrong thing to the wrong people.

Patchworks has a range of partners who specialise in marketing solutions, such as Emarsys and Nosto, and with our low code/no code platform these systems are a click away from implementation.

Identify and retain your most profitable customers

Increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95% - so it goes without saying that building loyalty with your customers should be top of your list for boosting your revenue.

That starts with identifying who your most profitable customers are. Which segment of your audience brings in the most revenue? Who do you already cater to the most? By focusing your efforts, you can rapidly multiply your profits.

Using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform can help you identify those targets. Companies such as Salesforce help you collect and aggregate customer data so you can narrow down your objectives and construct an effective sales pipeline.

The next step is to put in place a strategy for retention. It could be as simple as implementing a loyalty system so returning customers are rewarded and given incentives to shop again - or perhaps, through your CRM, you notice a certain customer profile would find a specific solution such as BNPL appealing.

Whatever strategy you decide to take, it’s important to get your integrations up to scratch. To effectively use customer data, it needs to be correct and flowing to the right place; poor implementation can spell disaster.

Reduce and streamline returns

Around a quarter of items purchased online are ultimately returned, compared to just 8% in store. That’s a staggering figure which, if you’re not proactively trying to combat, is likely causing you thousands in lost revenue.

An item being returned doesn’t just set you back by the flat cost being sent back to the customer, after all. You also need to consider the cost of labour in processing a return, the cost of potentially replacing the item if it’s been damaged, and possibly even the cost of issuing compensation such as discounts to avoid losing that customer forever.

Of course, it’s impossible to completely eliminate returns. It won’t always be your fault; a customer might order the wrong size, or just decide they don’t like the product. But you can make moves to reduce returns, and simplify the process to make it cheaper and more efficient.

For example, partnering with a company such as ReBOUND which specialises in reverse logistics will provide your customers with more options for how they send orders back, and what they receive in return.

And with a properly integrated returns solution, you’ll see the most benefits from taking that route. By ensuring your data flows between systems, you can reduce refund times to become instantaneous - so your customers will get their money back as soon as possible.

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