Sell online effectively with these best-in-class eCommerce learnings

In recent years, eCommerce training has experienced exponential growth. While we can’t all be Amazon, many opportunities are available to level up your eCommerce offering and deliver the best customer experience.

To help you develop your eCommerce strategies, we’ve collated the best-in-class eCommerce learnings so you can create a customer-centric, omnichannel, profitable experience.

• eCommerce today
• Recognizing blockers in the user journey
• What does best-in-class eCommerce look like?
• Tips for building your own best-in-class eCommerce experience
• Where do I start?

eCommerce today

What do Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, Aliexpress, Walmart and Etsy have in common? They're among the top 10 websites for eCommerce and shopping worldwide. 

Most of these eCommerce giants have been built entirely from clicks, not bricks. They laid the foundations for the eCommerce experience consumers have come to know, love and expect.

With the right know-how and learning, every brand can tap into this $5.7 trillion market opportunity. Predicted to reach an $8.1 trillion market worth and a 27% share of total retail sales by 2026, it shows no signs of slowing down.

But that doesn’t mean the journey will be plain sailing. Succeeding in this crowded eCommerce landscape will take clear goals, effective strategizing and the awareness of blockers for growth.

Recognizing blockers: The user journey

Competition in the online shopping space is fierce. Just one tiny blip in the journey and a customer can be gone forever — or worse still, straight to your competitors.

Here are some key challenges of user journeys you should mitigate as an online retailer:

• Increasing competition.
• Meeting ever-changing customer needs and expectations.
• Delivering seamless shipping and returns.
• Enhancing brand loyalty.

But how do you overcome these challenges?

• Have a clear growth strategy in place.
• Replace legacy systems with up-to-date eCommerce platforms and digital technologies.
• Invest in planning and predicting consumer behavior to meet changing needs.
• Keep up with the latest technologies and changes through effective learning and training.
  

Users want a seamless shopping experience from the moment of inspiration to the point of purchase. This requires a holistic experience that integrates customer data to provide personalized interactions for a continuous, connected journey.

What does best-in-class eCommerce look like?

Get a feel of what successful eCommerce looks like by taking inspiration from these best-in-class eCommerce brands.

Sephora: A seamless, personalized customer experience

<Credit: Sephora UK>

A traditional brick-and-mortar retailer, Sephora is a stand-out example of a brand that takes a clever omnichannel approach.

It does this by blending in-store experiences with digital platforms, linking the offline and online customer journey into a holistic shopping experience. 

Sephora also goes one step further by merging its digital and physical retail teams and adopting data-driven strategies to turn customer insights into growth.

In The Style: Digital first through a differentiated collaboration model

<Credit: In The Style>

Born as an eCommerce fashion brand, In The Style (ITS) was always going to have a headstart over more traditional brands and retailers.

Through its differentiated influencer collaboration model, ITS adopts a digital and social-first approach to driving traffic and customer engagement.

Its eCommerce and digital marketing platform is designed to scale rapidly and efficiently to process considerable load variances caused by the hype surrounding collaboration launches. Plus, its proprietary systems improve customer retention and consistently optimize based on purchase frequency, resulting in higher conversion rates and revenue growth.

Tips for building your own best-in-class eCommerce experience

Looking ahead, retailers’ top priorities are catering to the customer lifecycle, delivering omnichannel experiences, leveraging automation and enhancing loyalty — all critical ingredients to eCommerce success. 

By 2040, it’s estimated that 95% of all purchases will be made through eCommerce. So, now’s the time to improve your learning and create the right strategy for your business.

To help you, here are some top tips for eCommerce success.

• Always put the customer first: Identify their pain points, address them and create a customer journey tailored to their wants and needs.
• Think outside the box: Drive alternative customer acquisition strategies and look beyond the norm to discover opportunities with social media and content. Beauty Pie and Our Place are great examples of this, using social media and paid ads to their advantage.
• Make every touchpoint count: Use data and automation to make relevant connections with your customers.
• Mitigate any potential blockers in the path to purchase: Start with a solid understanding of how to recognize issues and adapt accordingly.
• Create a customer-centric, omnichannel experience: It’s important to differentiate your offering across channels but ensure it seamlessly connects.
• Keep an eye on your competitors: Watch what they’re doing, adopt new techniques and provide a point of difference, particularly as the cost of living increases and competition intensifies.

In the world of eCommerce, success doesn’t happen overnight. While it may seem that some brands burst onto the scene overnight, in reality, it takes learning, planning and strategizing to reach the heights of success.

Where do I start?

Keeping up with the ever-changing eCommerce market doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. With the right training and development, you can stay ahead.

That’s where we come in. At Circus Street, we offer a wide range of tailored lessons dedicated to the world of eCommerce.