John Cradden outlines advanced e-commerce strategies for growing SMEs.
Your business may be among the fast-growing number of small enterprises who have made the commitment to trading online and maybe have already seen a boost to sales and revenues as a result, but how can you keep the momentum going as you scale up your ecommerce efforts?
A recent report by PayPal reveals that 96% of SMEs here that sell online have experienced a growth in sales in the 12 months to July 2024.
“The opportunities for cross-border e-commerce have been well flagged, but Europe in particular offers rich pickings”
But the same report also highlights a number of factors that may be strangling the growth potential of their businesses online, including poor purchasing processes (23%) and a lack of skills or resources to take full advantage of online platforms (22%).
However, if your business is relatively new to e-commerce or you started your online operations slowly but surely, a good growth strategy can help you keep pace with the fast-evolving ecommerce landscape. Here are some popular examples of areas you could put under the microscope today.
User experience
User experience (or customer experience as some people are now call it), has become something of a watchword in an ecommerce context. Simply put, if someone does not have a good experience in the process of interacting with your online store, whether it’s struggling to navigate the website or app, find the right product, slow page loading, broken links, glitchy or overly complex payment processes or any other issue, this will limit your ability to convert those users into customers.
Some issues may be obvious already, but it may be worth talking to a user experience designer with a view to seeing how the overall customer ‘journey’ could be improved and thereby improve the rate of conversion at the checkout. This could include using tools that could help you personalise or tailor your site interaction depending on the user.
Data and analytics
To achieve things like personalisation as well as a better user experience, the key starting point is finding out more about your users. There are a whole host of data analytics tools that can integrate with your ecommerce back end to help you track how your users are interacting with your website or app, what pages they are visiting, how long they spend on each page, where they click to afterwards, or even how they found your website in the first place. Google Analytics is probably the best-known example.
There are also many tools for tracking key performance targets in real time, allowing you to tweak or adapt your strategies quickly and make informed business decisions.
It’s also worth surveying your users in some way to learn more about them and what they’re looking for when they visit your site, or even why they are interested in your brand and their likes and dislikes.
Supply and logistics
If you’ve had an ecommerce operation for even a short while, there is likely to be a lot of room for improvement in terms of your supply chain management, but also the need to keep in step with ESG (environment, social and governance) regulations and to build resilience in the face of possible future global disruptions to supply.
Among the strategies you can implement are efficient inventory management, including categorising your stock based on value, ensuring a good level of stock for high-value items and better inventory management software. Having reliable logistics providers is also important, but equally important is good communication with them to ensure traceability and compliance with environmental regulations. And having good relationships with logistics partners will naturally help with building robust returns and refund policies.
Move into new markets
The opportunities for cross-border e-commerce have been well flagged, but Europe in particular offers rich pickings, as it is projected to experience a growth rate in its e-commerce market of 14% in 2025 compared to the global average of nearly 10%, according to figures from Statista.
It’s a big step to move into a new country or region, but market research – primary and secondary – will help reduce risks and costly mistakes and also allow you to adapt your marketing strategy depending on which region you are targeting. See our guide to market research for exporters for more on this. Thought also needs to be given to the minefield that is international shipping, including customs and duty regulations.
Innovative digital marketing
If your business is active on social media, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find social media influencers willing to give your brand valuable exposure. There are even tools you can use to search them out, such as BuzzSumo, Sprout Social, Semrush or Hypeauditor, which can find those who would best fit your brand and engage an audience that matches your own customers.
If your business is more in the B2B space, you could look at affiliate marketing, which is where you get other businesses to advertise your products on their websites or platforms, and they will be paid for every click on your brand via their links.
When it comes to paid online advertising, Google and Facebook are the two main shows in town. While the content of your adverts may be the same, the way they are delivered are very different, so a lot will depend on who you are targeting. In many cases, a blend of the two may be the answer.
Then there’s content marketing and storytelling, whereby you use content to engage your audience. The great thing about social media platforms is that they allow you to tell your story without having to reach out to traditional media (usually via expensive PR firms). Whatever content you create, the aim will be to link it back to your brand in some way, whether it’s about a local event you’re involved in, a topic you want to blog about, competitions, discounts or giveaways. Always keep in mind good images or short videos you can make to give users options for how they follow your story, and encourage them to spread the word about your brand in a fun, interactive and engaging way.
It should be clear by now that establishing and sustaining your ecommerce operation is something that requires consistent attention and a regular supply of fresh ideas and innovation.
To this end, consider courses you or your staff can undertake to build more knowledge and skills in ecommerce, which you can find in various third-level institutions, firms like Shopify, Hubspot and various local online training companies.
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