E-commerce business scalability - what you need to know? Monogo E-commerce News #64
Scaling up does not happen on one level, nor is there one good way to scale up this business. It is always a series of factors that will subtly add to the end result.
Scaling up domestically
Before we can even look beyond our own country, it's good to gain some familiarity when it comes to the local market. There are a number of processes around e-commerce that need to be fine-tuned before we can even go any further with our deliberations.
Content
Looking at our client portfolio, the best results in scaling are those companies that have a sustainable policy. They grow year on year, in a kind of planned way. They don't just invest in acquiring customers with paid campaigns, but also build strength through SEO. They know the value that organic traffic builds.
In this area, it is a good idea to look around for a good CMS system and to organise, at the level of the organisation's strategy, the creation and publication of content. These two elements always go hand in hand and complement each other perfectly. Literally one without the other gives nothing.
In short, you want to scale your online business, bet on content. Bet fundamentally, that is, at the level of your organisation's strategy.
Customer Experience/User Experience
Another element is serving that customer who has already come to your shop in one way or another. A great customer experience (CX) will make the customer stay on the site and buy. Even if the price is not the lowest. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that they don't have the time to spend wrestling with shops that, although they have a good price, strenuously try to make it impossible to place an order.
It is worth mentioning that CX is not universal. Something that works well in Poland may not necessarily appeal to customers in Germany, the DACH region or the Nordic countries. Here I refer to Hofstede's research, which shows how cultural affiliation affects behaviour and character traits. It is possible to quibble, but the fact is that we are different, now adapting interfaces to customer expectations will certainly help to convince people to buy.
In short, make sure you have the best possible Customer Experience in your shop, allow research to be done, analyse how things change, after each design change. Or in other words, how the changes affect conversions. These experiences will be invaluable when scaling your business, especially with entering cross-border commerce.
Customer support
The customer found your shop, went in and bought. Now the critical part. After-sales support and resolving any customer issues that may arise. If everything goes well at this stage then this customer will come back in the future and make another purchase.
This means you won't have to spend so much money on acquisition. And this customer can recommend your shop. And what's more, over time the base of such returning customers will grow. That is, business scales with time and a clever strategy. A sustainable strategy.
Going international - cross-border trade
Logistics
Well, logistics is a prerequisite for e-commerce to exist. E-commerce makes no sense without proper logistics. What is more, customers have specific expectations in terms of how long they can wait for their goods. In this situation, local retailers have a certain advantage, as we assume that their warehouses are located in the country, then the delivery time of the products to the customer's doorstep should match expectations.
Now, your goods have to travel a much longer route. The logistics operator, therefore, has to be chosen in such a way that customers want to order from you. I wrote about this in a previous Monogo e-commerce news item that customers from Slovakia will calmly wait 2 - 3 days for the goods. If there are more, the conversion will already start to drop noticeably. This is just an example. Each country will have its own specific rules. It is worthwhile to find out before launching an offer abroad.
In Europe, a number of operators have emerged and merged in recent years who have e-commerce in their strategy. This means that they will be good delivery partners. The advantage of signing a contract with such an operator is that they serve most if not all European countries. This means that if you decide to expand into more countries, you won't need to enter into further agreements.
Information given properly
Visuals, translations of content and products, appropriate payment and delivery methods. These are things that are important to address before launching sales abroad. They require some time and research into the market and the competition.
Therefore, not only a good product, but also the way it is presented and served is important. Attention and attention to this detail will bring you closer to discovering the mindset of the customer you are trying to reach.
Technological limitations
Constraint is a very interesting word because in dealing with constraints we can fall into the opposite word. That is, in other words, the goal is to get to a situation where we have the ability to scale the online business faster.
But to the point. E-commerce is a complex organism where technology and logistics are close to the centre. The right online shop engine will ensure that we do not quickly encounter limitations. Or indeed, we will be able to build a competitive advantage on this foundation.
Just as it is good to have something fast and rather simple at the beginning, this simplicity can be detrimental when the business starts to grow dynamically. It can harm us by preventing us from making significant changes or by imposing limits on the number of customers or orders. I am talking in particular about services which, for the price of a small subscription, give us a ready-made sales platform,
However, in order to maintain this price, they also have to impose restrictions. These are usually restrictions on the number of products in the e-commerce catalogue, the number of customers or orders per day or per month. At first, such restrictions seem completely insignificant. In order to remedy this, we use a business trick that makes the wolf both wolf and sheep.
We have prepared a web shop template with the most popular integrations (payment gateways and logistics providers). Such a template will allow you to launch an e-commerce platform for your business within days. The advantage of this solution is the speed of launch to market (time to market) and the absence of the limitations I mentioned above. But this is not the end of the technological limitations.
We base everything on the Adobe Commerce system. This is the world leader in digital commerce.
Small integration possibilities
There is now no e-commerce implementation project that is not highly integrated with in-house and external systems (such as marketing tools, analytics, CMS, ERP, WMS, PIM, etc.). If the chosen engine does not provide adequate integration possibilities or flexibility in the implementation of changes, it is to be expected that sooner or later this will have a negative impact on the potential for scaling sales.
Then, let us assume a situation in which you are about to enter other markets with your offer. There are still details to be worked out, such as integrating a logistics operator to deliver goods to your customers in another country and implementing a few changes due to legal requirements. If you are using a closed platform, this can be very difficult or even impossible.
Now, if the engine you are using has a plug-in for that operator, an architecture and a licence that allows you to make changes then the time it takes to achieve readiness can be reduced to a minimum. This can be your competitive advantage if the commodity you are trading is unique.
This is how good strategic decisions pay off the debt incurred at the outset. Then they make life easier. Significantly.
Where to look for help?
There comes a point when we know it would be useful to consult someone who has been through a similar journey. To ask them to share their experiences.
And I respect when the maturity is at such a level that one is willing to listen to others. In that case, business clubs and suppliers with experience are an invaluable resource. Having worked with clients from all over Europe, and those who have conquered foreign markets with varying degrees of success, I can say that a good workshop can save weeks or months. That time would have been spent discovering the characteristics of scaling in e-commerce, and it can be simpler. Just ask, just call.