Doing more with less – 5 tips to optimize e-commerce and maximize results!

By Carlos Henrique Grando – Project and E-commerce Manager, Linx

Wrapped in a scenario of economic recession bringing projected inflation nearer to maximum target and busting citizens’ income, consumer confidence index in constant decline, foreign unfair competition and unstable political context, how Brazilian online retailers can compensate for the lack of investment in marketing and advertising to retain revenue and business sustainability? Brazilian creativity allied with good partners and the dynamism inherent in the nature of the activity (retail) can be one of the main ingredients in this recipe for success, a good antidote to local e-commerce.

Faced with adverse situations retailers learned they need to reinvent. Change strategies, consider other possibilities, break paradigms, think “out of the box” – maybe these are some of the lessons that the e-commerce has inherited from traditional retail (why not?) and, sometimes, as if carelessly refuses to consider them. It’s well known, for instance, that the cost of acquiring customers is undeniably high, so does it make sense to continue investing in simply increasing the traffic to maximize results? In fact, traffic is important, critical, but which other variables that make up the conversion equation can be mostly used and the best ones with little or no costs to implement? The following are some recent data.

Faced with adverse situations retailers learned they need to reinvent.

Responsiveness now! Shopping through mobile devices is here to stay and the numbers won’t let us lie. When compared to first half of 2013 and 2014, for instance, there was an increase of 102% in the transactions turnover done by these devices (Webshoppers, 2014), and 2015 certainly was not different. Feel encouraged to develop a mobile strategy with the attention your client deserves always considering application usability – in some operations, accesses experienced a significant growth after installing a responsive Website version, which represents today the equivalent to 27% of total accesses and generating revenue increase of 53% in transactions made through mobile and tablet. In addition, Google’s relevance algorithm that favors sites possessing adaptive version was recently disclosed. Such was the impact of these changes that the event was dubbed “mobilegeddon” (Armageddon Mobile) throughout SEO community.

Smart reprocessing with different payment processors – Have you wondered what would happen to a transaction denied by operator “A” if it were reprocessed via operator “B”? Yes, there is a chance of being approved. This means that some of the transactions that are denied today can be recovered and positively affect your conversion rate. Most gateways and payment processors in the market (Cielo, Rede, Stone, Adyen among many others) are familiar with the usage, and in some cases we could notice a recovery from 8% to 10% of transactions that were denied on the first try. So, talk to your gateway.

Usability – Since the path between visit and checkout completion should be smooth, fast, secure, with no mishaps or doubts and as pleasant as possible. Being aware of user experience when navigating through Website is vital for increasing the probability of conversion. Usability is not expenditure, but investment. Any access makes a difference and working to improve usage should be part of the routine of every e-commerce operation administrator. Small changes like disposition or background color of a call to action, or even hide the display of information that your user is not searching for, for instance, makes all the difference in the conversion funnel. Ask, try, check. The best model is what converts more.

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Understanding what consumers want and deliver what they expect

Customer service and Relationship – Fast, effective, professional and courteous. From doubt about some product feature to order delivery status, a good relationship experience with the company can transform claim into compliments, distrust into conviction, and doubt into conversion. I have recently participated in a project whose proposal was to audit customer shopping experience as well as providing a channel on which we could receive questions and answer them promptly – the results were amazing. After implementation we could measure that those timely answered to customers’ questions matching their expectations impacted conversions positively, that is, calls became revenue! Active post-sale polls in turn created insights that improved consumer shopping experience, also affecting conversion results.

Customization: 1×1 communication – displays arranged on the basis of users’ history behavior and predictive analysis, perfect cross-selling and/or up-selling suggestions based on each consume profile. This is what users expect nothing less than something like “tailor-made”. From window to product details, from search result to email coming to your Inbox, customized communication promotes differentiated shopping experience and partners an expectation to direct mailing, thus resulting, in many cases, in increase above 10% of overall Website revenue. Understand what consumers want and deliver what they expect.

As consumers become savvier, they also become more demanding and sensitive to issues such as availability, accessibility, shopping experience, effective support service and commitment. As important as getting new customers, which generally occurs through direct investment, is to join your efforts to improve the path users travel to reach their target, always bearing in mind the conversion rate. This action sometimes does not require high investments and often the solution is already available, just use it or set it. A good conversion rate is not the reference rate of the market but the best you can have. Don’t be hostage of paradigms, always be a nonconformist and revolutionize your operations.

Sources:

• Consumer confidence index grows for the first time this year – Value: http://ow.ly/Nomzg

• Inflation summing up to 82% in 2015 and surpasses target, says Government – G1: http://ow.ly/NomR5

• Google Algorithm change – Moz: http://ow.ly/NomWs

This article has been originally published by E-commerce Brasil magazine August 2015/ Edition 28