Ecommerce is an exploding business where retailers can build a strong business with the right model. Given the ease of entry into the market, any e-tailer is going to face stiff competition. Here are some ways to help you cut costs and increase your margins.
1. Plan for the long haul when starting out – this means outfitting your sight with the speed and power to grow as your traffic grows. Don’t just pick the cheapest hosting service because in the long run this will cost you business when your page doesn’t load and a potential customer moves on to their next option. Come up with a marketing plan, build a robust site and spend a little more now to get back a lot more later.
2. Free Shipping – if you want to hang with the big dogs in the online retail market you have to figure out your shipping. As we all know, a lot of customers have come to expect free shipping so it’s important to find a logistics solution that works for you because free shipping is not really free; someone has to pay for it. Find a shipping company that has a prepackaged plan for the items you are shipping and try to bake some of the cost into the product without increasing the price so much that you send customers elsewhere.
3. Streamline your checkout system – A customer abandoning their purchase at the point of checkout because of unexpected fees or slow server time is literally like lighting revenue on fire. Make sure you have your fees and costs calculated upfront and again, don’t go cheap on your solution and make the user experience lag that leads them to abandon the purchase. Also, fully understand the costs of whatever payment methods you are accepting and try to steer customers to the method that works best for you.
An online retailer has a lot of competition out there and the lack of barriers to entry make the playing field level for all… Make sure you cut your costs as much as you can so you are in the game for the long haul.
About Payplant
Payplant provides growth financing for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Its Pay Me NowTM digital invoice-financing service provides cash to businesses when their customers pay too slowly. Payplant helps businesses with PO and Invoice Financing, Asset Based Lending, Term Loans and Customer Financing products. Payplant works with companies that don’t currently qualify for traditional bank financing, have grown too quickly for their current lender or are at the point in their evolution where an influx of working capital can elevate their business to achieve rapid growth. Payplant delivers fast and reliable funding, at very attractive rates and is completely on demand. For more information, visit www.payplant.com.
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