Many companies have realized the importance of e-commerce through Social Media as a part of the overall sales strategy. So, Social Commerce is a great opportunity to align your companies social media efforts with your sales targets.
B2C (Business to consumer) companies are the most involved in this practice in their commercial strategy especially industries like hospitality, tourism or services.
And why?
Because thanks to social media they can guarantee an accurate segmentation.
Networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram allow companies to know personal characteristics that allow you to know and target users of a specific interest, preference and purchasing decision…the dream of any marketer, and people who have Instagram can now Buy followers on Instagram as well, which help them better their social marketing!
Once we know who these people are, and what gets them excited we adapt our products or services to their needs through a good digital platform, and…voilá!
E-commerce is still a relatively new concept and nearly every major high street retailer is now open for business online. The perception has always been that the ability to shop from the comfort of your own sofa 24 hours a day and have an extensive catalogue or range of products is a great thing. Stuff like facebook retargeting for SEO is also a growing trend right now.
But… is the customer really satisfied with their online shopping experience?
Customers expectations for shopping online has risen, and according to latest studies, the perception of customers using E-commerce has decreased in a generalized way.
Mainly customer expectations are too high in comparison with their real life store experience. The perception of online buyers is that companies want to sell more products rather than sell a good product or service.
To improve this, companies should focus on:
– Making a really good website, easy and intuitive for the users.
– A website that not only satisfies but exceeds customer expectations. Ensuring client loyalty by creating a good customer service and a guarantee, giving the customer the trust they would expect from a traditional purchase in store.
– Strategies like creating seobrisbane.com.au and ensuring contact and refund information is as easily accessible and visible as the “basket and payment” buttons, adds trust and confidence for the online buyer in what is essentially a transaction with a computer screen.
All this will achieve good engagement, which is the objective of any company looking to grow a loyal and trusted customer base.
Even based on the low satisfaction rates, a big percentage of the population claim that they still use E-commerce at least once a month. That’s why small and medium sized businesses will plan on reinforcing their online presence in 2014.
Nowadays an unhappy customer finds it very easy to make the world know about their annoyance in social media, and many do!
In fact, it is known that people are more inclined to publish negative content than positive in social media or forums.
Another way to improve our online service is:
– Create satisfaction surveys that can help deliver a high quality service based on exactly the customer expectations.
– Provide transparent “Terms and Conditions” concisely and in an accessible and understandable way to any customer.
– Make the service more humane, offering phone assistance and other channels like social media and instant/live chat.
In order to carry out our recommendations and exceed customer expectations you’ll have to invest in economic and HR outsourcing to improve or construct a highly accessible sales channel. If delivered to users properly it will be full of possibilities and ensure your business has a great competitive advantage.
