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7 Ecommerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs

Tag: tips and tricks

7 Ecommerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

7 Ecommerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs

E-commerce occupies a primary position in today’s economy. Every new business is now required to have online presence to ensure its overall growth and survival. E-commerce landscape is highly dynamic and is continuously evolving. In order to make your business more efficient and productive, here are some tips for a new entrepreneur regarding eCommerce.

  • Deliberate Before Going Live: one of the biggest mistakes committed by new entrepreneurs is to launch half-baked products and services. While online business world follows the practice Minimum Viable Product, it is still advisable for new businesses to endeavor to perfect their products before launching them online. Such precautions should be undertaken with regard to the product as well as with regard to the infrastructure required for online launch. Before making your website live, you should ensure that your domain name, outbound links and SEO are all in the right place.
  • Integrate your Marketing Efforts: as eCommerce is fast evolving, the marketing tools are also changing at a fast pace. In such environment, it is therefore important that the marketing mix is designed in such a way that frequent changes may be incorporated seamlessly. E-commerce generally uses email blasts, newsletters and social media. It is imperative that these promotional media are used in an intertwined fashion. New entrepreneur can use these media to cross target their markets and draw synergies.
  • Use Funnel Approach: in simple words, funnel approach implies that you need to be aware of the path taken by your target customers to eventually buy your product or service. The various facets involved in the process of funnel approach is to retain customers and upselling. Further, entrepreneurs may also use subscription based models and cross selling approaches under this framework. There are various tools available for this purpose such as plugins which may be easily integrated with your website to achieve desired results.
  • Keep Your Systems Flexible: it is important that the infrastructure used for running your eCommerce venture is flexible and is able to accommodate your growing business. The backend system should be designed in such a way that it expands with your endeavor. While selecting various elements such as server capacity, you should keep in mind not only the present requirements but also future potential. In case of eCommerce, later upgrades in the system may prove to be prohibitively expensive and tedious. Therefore, it is advisable to anticipate the future requirements and incorporate them into the infrastructure in the beginning stage, thus minimizing the need for later additions.
  • Go Social, Go Mobile: proper use of social media can work wonders for your online business. With a number of platforms available, it is important to ensure that your social media mix offers you synergies, without causing any duplication of efforts and resources. The use of social media not only allows you to provide latest information to your clients but also to keep track of their changing preferences. Further, one of the most important trends is to use mobile access. More and more people are using eCommerce through their phones and tablets. In order to fully harness the power of mobile eCommerce, it is important that you optimize the mobile rendering of your website. Alternatively, you can opt for designing a dedicated app for mobile devices. In order to future proof your eCommerce venture, it is essential that you pay proper attention to mobile segment.
  • Pay Attention to Analytics: as eCommerce changes at a fast pace, the businesses are required to keep pace with them. This can be done by using various analytical tools which are helpful in gathering data. Such data is then analyzed to find trends and predict future patterns. The important data required for such purpose is the number of visitors to the website, the conversion rate and loading time. Such data is then analyzed and the strategies are designed accordingly. In order to design robust marketing and other plans, the use of analytics cannot be overemphasized.

The above given pointers offer simple and fast way to optimize your eCommerce business. It is essential that an entrepreneur ensures that they are constantly evolving to keep their eCommerce ventures relevant and effective.

7 years ago
The Best 5 TED Talks Every E-Commerce Entrepreneur Needs to Watch
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

The Best 5 TED Talks Every E-Commerce Entrepreneur Needs to Watch

TED Talks are full of insights and are especially useful for entrepreneurs. These talks tend to be informative and inspirational. TED Talks speakers tend to be experts in their areas and can help entrepreneurs in understanding various nuances of the trade. However, there are a large number of TED Talks available, making it a little difficult for people to find the right ones. So, here are our top picks which can help you in taking your venture to the next level.

  • Derek Sivers’ How to Start a Movement

This TED Talk is mainly focused upon bringing about meaningful changes and the leadership styles. The traits required for starting an impactful revolution are the same traits which are helpful in starting and then nurturing a disruptive business. An entrepreneur like a leader should be able to command influence over their peers and target market. Similarly, the techniques such as word of mouth propaganda used by the movements may also be used by budding entrepreneurs for promoting their businesses. Peer recommendation and referrals are especially useful for fledgling businesses when they do not have historical performance to back up their claims. This TED Talk is not only useful for budding entrepreneurs but also for the mature ones.

  • Simon Senek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action

This TED Talk is concerned with leadership and delves deeply to see why certain people are more likely to inspire others. The talk gives examples of influential leaders such as Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs. The crux of this talk is that people are less influenced by the products and services you launched but more by the reasons behind launching these offerings. This connotes that as an entrepreneur you should be fully aware that there are right reasons behind getting into a particular business. Such understanding and awareness is required to be palpable in your business message when you pitch it in front of consumers and investors. With the help of this video, you can not only hone your leadership skills but may also take your business in a new direction.

  • David S. Rose’s Pitching to VCs

David S. Rose is an accomplished serial entrepreneur who now invests in other people’s businesses. He draws from his own experiences to deliver this TED Talk where he talks about the rules you need to follow while pitching your business. According to David, the most important thing to keep in mind when you are making a pitch presentation is to elaborate upon the most compelling characteristics of your offering. The talk is less than 15 minutes long and is jam packed with insightful advice. It also provides a list of things you should refrain from doing or mentioning in your pitch.

  • Gary Vaynerchuk’s Do What You Love – No Excuses

This TED Talk delivered by entrepreneur and bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk is weaved around his personal experiences and life stories. The main focus of the talk is on the importance of passion and persistence while running a venture. According to this lecture, the real ingredient essential for entrepreneurial success is to have true passion for what you do. Gary goes on to explain that many entrepreneurs are instead driven by their desire for money or passion, which ultimately leads to mediocre performance or downright failure. Gary delivers the advice in a highly engaging manner which makes this video highly watchable and easy to understand.

  • Richard St. John’s The 8 Secrets of Success

Richard St. John bases his talk on seven years of research work during which he carried out over 500 interviews. He singles out eight main features which are found common in all successful people. These traits are work, ideas, persistence, serve, support, push, practice and passion. These attributes are not just useful for entrepreneurs but for all people in general. According to Richard St. John, if these features are inculcated in people, they can become better version of themselves and may realize their true potential. The video contains a three-minute slideshow which provides sage advice in bite size portions.

TED Talks are treasure trove of actionable advice. The above listed videos can help you in various segments of your entrepreneurial journey.

7 years ago
How to Improve Customer Retention and What Are the Benefits
Mohab Customer Experience 0

How to Improve Customer Retention and What Are the Benefits

Customer retention is highly important for any business as relying solely on new clientele for growth may prove to be a myopic approach. There are several approaches which may be undertaken to ensure that the firm is able to generate repeat business from its set client base. The main benefit of customer retention is that it takes considerably lower expenditure to generate revenue from established customers than from new clients. Higher Revenue: when a business is able to retain its client, it helps in achieving higher revenue as well. As your clients already trust your business practices and products, you are not required to plan any expensive marketing plan. This feature ensures that your profit margin is more robust than ever. Here are some of the benefits of a loyal customer base.

  • Improved Business Image: apart from offering pecuniary benefits, customer retention also helps a firm in generating goodwill in the market. Having a loyal customer base gives a stamp of approval to your products and services. It sends a message to the market and to the prospective clients that your business is trustworthy.
  • Lower Marketing Costs: acquiring new clients is an expensive affair as you need to spend a lot of money on collecting data about them, designing appropriate policies and executing them. However, in the case of existing clients, these expenses are reduced considerably. Lower costs mean that you are either able to provide your goods and services at cheaper rate to your clients or able to add to your profit margin. Both the situations are conducive to solid business growth.
  • Data Collection: in today’s world, data is king as it is used for making analysis and creating policies. When a business has large customer base, they are able to generate big data sets which are required for proper analysis. It is also a lot easier and less expensive to collect data from existing clients than looking for new people for this purpose. In case of loyal customer base, the frequency of collecting data and analysis may also be kept lower, which further helps in rationalizing the associated costs.

Creating customer following need not be a daunting task. Here are some of the main ways you can ensure that your customers keep coming back for more.

  • Know Your Client Base: it is important that you understand the requirements and features of your clients. It will help you in customizing your offerings, motivating clients to keep coming back. Providing customized products to best meet your clients’ requirements is the key to build a loyal customer base.
  • Take Extra Care: for generating repeat business, it is imperative that you provide robust customer care. This step ensures that as and when there is any grievance, it is properly handled. The speedy resolution of the issues is also important as any delay may lead the customers to look for alternatives, eroding your client base.
  • Offer Incentives: it is always helpful to start loyalty program, where you offer incentives to your clients for making repeat purchases. Such incentives may be in the cash form or non-cash form. The monetary incentives may be introduced through discounts and cash backs while the main examples of non monetary incentives are freebies, early access to new products and free shipping among other features. However, it is ideal to offer a judicious mix of cash and non cash incentives to ensure that the requirements of your client base are adequately met.
  • Remain in Touch: it is important that you maintain constant touch with your clients, even when they are not making purchase. This is especially important in the areas where the demand is seasonal. During the lean season, you can remain acquainted with your clients by sending them newsletters about latest developments in your business. However, you should ensure that such communiqué is appropriately customized and is able to pique customers’ interest.

It needs to be noted that offering high quality goods and services is of paramount importance for creating a loyal customer base. However, you also need to undertake the above given strategies to ensure that you are able to generate repeat business from your clients.

7 years ago
Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live

Cyber security is an extremely important concept in today’s interconnected world. The significance of this phenomenon has been recognized through the fact that organizations now carry out formal educational seminars to make its employees aware of dangers in the cyber world and the ways to tackle them. There are certain ways you can ensure the safety of your business and data from cyber frauds.

  1. Create Awareness: the first step in ensuring the cyber security is to make all the users aware of cyber attacks, their consequences and the ways to avert them. Many times, employees believe that cyber security is the responsibility of IT department. However, this is not true as most of the cyber threats mainly arise due to certain actions taken by employees outside the IT department. It is important to empower your employees to ensure that they carry out best practices. This exercise should be undertaken by businesses of all sizes and sectors. With elevated awareness, your staff can become a major force in averting cyber attacks.
  2. Use Technology: since cyber threats have become more prevalent due to advancement and proliferation of technology, it is only sensible that the same technological tools are used to fight against it. First step in this direction is to institute Two Factor Authentication system which is also known as 2FA, to access enterprise resources. The first factor is generally the password generated by the user while second factor is delivered through electronic means such as text message or email. In certain cases, you may choose to use biometrics as second measures. Such biometrics may take form of finger print or retina scanning.
  3. Healthy Online Habits: in order to ensure that your employees are following the guidelines, it may be important to set up certain filters. These web filtering tools may restrict access to specific websites or URLs. Further, these filters may also help in managing the links opened by the employees. However, the first step in this direction should be to educate the employees about safe practices. They should be counseled to not click on unknown links sent through emails or texts. The employees should be advised to limit their web surfing to safe sites only as many dodgy websites are known to implant virus on computers which may sabotage the entire corporate network.
  4. Make Passwords Stronger: employees should be educated about the importance of stronger passwords. The passwords are required to be not just long but also complex to provide appropriate kind of security. Ideally, it should be a combination of letters, numbers and special symbols. Further, the passwords must also be changed frequently. Employees should be advised not to share their password with anyone within or without the organization. It should also be noted that unique passwords should be created for different services and not repeated.
  5. Install Updates: in cyber world, threats arise on daily basis. In order to provide protection against them, most of the apps and websites push constant updates. It is highly important that all such updates including security patches should be installed on regular basis. Keeping the apps and programs updated ensures that you have reasonable security against various cyber threats. Proper attention should also be paid to updating default privacy settings. All the devices and accounts used in a firm should undergo this exercise.
  6. Make Cyber Security Practices a Habit: while organizations may institute various policies to ensure cyber security, it is equally important to ensure that these policies are followed by the employees in a prompt and regular manner. Employees should be aware that they do not leave sensitive information lying around. Further, this type of information should be shared with only concerned people and not everyone else. Organizations should carry out periodic checks to see that the policies are being implemented. The employees should also be educated about such practices on regular basis.

As most of the businesses now have online presence, it is important to ensure that your business as well as your clients are secure against online threats. By following some simple rules, you can have a blanket of safety against cyber attacks and keep your data safe from such threats.

7 years ago
Subscription Economy: Business Impact of Rapidly Changing Consumer Needs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Subscription Economy: Business Impact of Rapidly Changing Consumer Needs

Technology has changed the way businesses are conducted. This is primarily due to change in consumer needs and perceptions. Technology has brought newer avenues to the customers and has offered them more choices. One of the most disruptive innovations facilitated by technology is the proliferation of subscription economy. This mode has changed the way consumers pay for different products and services. It also means that the businesses are now able to better handle their cash inflows and improve their liquidity.

What is Subscription Economy

In simple words, it may be defined as the practice of businesses to offer subscription to their customers. This implies that instead of charging a lump sum amount to the customers, the goods or services are provided in lieu of periodic payments. Such periodic payments are called subscription and the model is known as subscription services model. Currently, many companies are moving away from traditional model towards subscription economy due to change in consumer taste and needs.

Under this business model, the consumer is willing to use the goods or services on periodical basis instead of making a one-time commitment. While the payments under this model are expected to be made regularly, the plans may be customized to best meet the individual requirements of the consumers. However, it should be noted that the model has proved to be so successful that it has not only been implemented in B2C segment, but also in B2B sector. It is likely that by 2023, 75 percent of the companies dealing in direct selling will adopt subscription model for their clients.

Subscription economy may have different meanings for different businesses as firms may choose to implement their own versions to suit their requirements and resources. The main types of subscription economy models are a) Pay as you Go, b) Curation model c) Replenishment model and d) Access model. Pay as your Go model is simple and hence highly popular. Under this model, the consumer is charged for periodic delivery of goods and services. Since it takes away the worry to remember the need to renew, the model is also known as convenience model.

Curation model is mainly used by the businesses which provide personalized goods or services instead of the mass ones. This model allows the consumers to discover new products by sampling them, instead of committing to them in the first go. Such subscription boxes are especially popular in food and beauty segment. Replenishment model, on the other hand, is more suitable for goods and services related to regular, day to day life. With such subscription model, the customer can automate the delivery of their consumables. Access based model offers need based access to goods and services on payment of periodical fee.

Impact on Business

Subscription economy has impacted the businesses in a prominent manner. Subscription model implies that businesses are now required to remain in constant touch with their clients since one time interaction is now converted into periodic interactions. The businesses are now required to be more savvy with their customers as every interaction with them forms the foundation for the next one. It is also more important now to keep the customers engaged and interested in your products as they may choose to switch their loyalty if there is any slack in the services. While this factor can keep the businesses on their toes, it also provides them the opportunity to innovate and grow.

With subscription model, the firms can make their cash flow more predictable, allowing them to better manage their liquidity and funds. The higher predictability of the cash inflows let the firms undertake better planning for their future endeavors. Subscription economy also helps the firms by reducing their customer acquisition costs. Further, the firms can also personalize or customize their marketing strategies to best suit their client base. The model is helpful for the clients as well since they are not forced to make lump sum payments.

Conclusion

Subscription model is here to stay and for the ultimate success of this model, it is important for businesses to have a robust and reliable payment processing system. Such system should be able to handle frequent payments in an efficient manner. With such payment systems, the firms can boost their sales and client base.

7 years ago
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