Today’s customers look for their products and services primarily via search engines such as Google. Today’s trading takes place to a large extent via the digital markets.
It is therefore particularly interesting for small companies and start-ups to switch to e-commerce. Many new customers can be reached via an online shop. Online business works even for smaller stores because they can reach a much larger audience digitally. And with a multi-channel approach, the right marketing and the right content, the right customers can be addressed.
But beware: If you think starting e-commerce with your company is easy, then you are wrong. Because there are some hurdles that you have to overcome first before you can achieve success. Before you start your online trading project, you should think carefully about how you can overcome the following hurdles.
But if you are well prepared and have the right support at your side, these mistakes will not happen to you.
1. Choose the right payment method for your e-commerce
Today, your customers expect to be paid by credit card or prepayment when they visit your online shop.
But this is just the beginning. Many customers assume that there are many more payment methods in your shop. Because they are used to being able to use different payment methods from platforms like Amazon and e-bay.
Therefore, the right choice for the payment options in your online shop is an important factor. And can become your advantage over your competition. If you notice that your shop has a high abandonment rate during the checkout process, this can be an indicator that you need to adapt your payment models to the needs of your customers.
And this is where another difficulty comes up. Because integrating all payment service providers (PSP for short) is often a complicated and expensive process. It’s up to you to weigh up which PSPs are worthwhile for your business and which ones cause too much bureaucracy.
2. Don’t sink into mountains of bills and paperwork
This resolution should apply to your customers, but also to you. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to lose track of all the invoices that arise in online business.
You always have to know who is lagging behind with the installment payment, who you have to send a reminder to. And not only that, in addition to the outstanding receivables, you must also have all other documents ready at all times. Keeping track and not getting stressed out by the chaos of notes is one of the biggest difficulties.
It gets even more complicated if some of your customers want to receive their invoices digitally and others want them printed out.
With the system of our nexnet.cloud and the know-how of our company, we can support you in overcoming exactly this hurdle.
3. Shipping abroad
Your company is doing really well and you are considering shipping abroad? For many companies, doing business in other countries is a milestone.
Especially the customers who come to the shop online can come from anywhere in the world. The internet and Google make it possible.
But if you decide to sell to another country unprepared, your profit margin can quickly shrink. Reasons for this are, for example, higher shipping costs or other taxes in the recipient country. Because remember, the VAT is paid in the recipient country. Before you take the step abroad, be aware that a VAT registration is required for every country you want to sell to.
And when you’ve fought your way through the tax maze, you’re still faced with the challenge of exchange rates for the various currencies. The best thing to do is adapt your shop system to these problems.
The step onto the international stage is a big one and should be carefully considered. But with the right partner at your side, you can also overcome this hurdle.
4. Accounting, annoying but very important
The next hurdle to overcome in your business is accounting. In this area in particular, you always have to keep an eye on everything.
With different invoices, tax rates and payment methods, different margins follow. The overview can quickly be lost.
There is also the problem that the more customers buy online in your store or take out a subscription, the more invoices and payment flows you have to manage. The stress is inevitable. Unless you have a good management system like our nexnet.cloud subscription management .
The big advantage of such a system is that it gives you a lot of insight into payment transactions and you can identify particularly popular and profitable means of payment. This helps you, for example, to optimize your marketing strategies.
5. Customers need contacts, also in e-commerce
If you want to be successful with your e-commerce, then you need very good customer service.
The majority of customers who have had a bad experience with their provider would quickly switch to another provider. A quick typing in the Google search engine and all your competitors can be seen next to you. That’s why it’s so important to have good contacts online, especially online.
You have to be aware that your customers will have many questions about your products and services online, too. Then these questions have to be answered, preferably in a timely manner. If there are no answers, then the will to buy is gone and the customer is lost.
For example, you can allow your customers to be reached via email, but that’s a very slow way. It would be better if your online shop can be reached by phone or if customers can contact you via chat. But projects like this eat up a lot of resources.
And if you have customers from abroad, you have to enable contact in different languages. Ideally, you can outsource customer support to an external provider. But this step also needs careful consideration. be.
nexnet has great know-how in the customer service area and can support you very well.
Conclusion
- Choose the right payment method
- Keep track of invoices and receipts
- Prepare the sale abroad well
- Choosing the right accounting system
- Good customer service is important
