Last Updated on August 31, 2023 by David
Our interview with BigCommerce on the future of eCommerce + other Top Tips for success.
BigCommerce recently compiled an extensive case study on the future of eCommerce via Instagram Shopping and shared many valuable tips for businesses looking to expand their omni-channel shopping experience for customers. Reamaze co-founder David Feng shares some of his thoughts during an interview. You can find the article here:
Q: Many businesses already use Instagram Ads for their eCommerce experience. What are some things they can do to increase ROI there?
D: The key to generating more ROI from Instagram ads is to make sure your relevance is backed up by a well curated collection of content that’s in line with what you’re promoting. Your ads are designed to summon engagement from a particular group of targeted users so it behooves you to make sure their follow-up actions lead to more engagement either on your Instagram profile, website or maybe even your page feed. Focus your attention not on the ad itself but also the entire lifecycle of the ad.
Q: Do you think Instagram Shopping’s features will be beneficial for eCommerce businesses in the coming years?
D: Yes (but with a caveat). Instagram Shopping is another reimagining of how retail is evolving and how merchants must adapt their resources to access customers. Instagram Shopping will likely become very successful for established brands with large followings. For smaller and less established brands, the process of acquiring followers, adapting the actual store to handle checkout workflows, order abandonments, adjusting the customer lifecycle funnels, and creating enough content to make Instagram Shopping successful still needs proof of concept. For the majority of stores in the marketplace today, Instagram Shopping should hold as a very interesting feature for now and should be considered and tested at the very least.
Q: What is your #1 top tip for eCommerce businesses when it comes to addressing security issues with their customers?
D: eCommerce brands need to be transparent when it comes to security. But most importantly, eCommerce brands should invest adequate time and resource to make sure their own security measures are in place to prevent hacking and fraud. A secure eCommerce platform like BigCommerce is step one. Use a strong platform for authentication so your web and data layers are well protected. Have a good process for storing sensitive customer information. Leverage good address and payment verification processes. Encourage customers to create accounts with strong passwords. Provide security training to your customer service teams. Etc. Once your eCommerce brand is well protected, simply providing this information to customers will be a breeze.
Q: How can eCommerce businesses further optimize their conversion funnels to maximize their marketing and sales efforts?
D: Customer engagement and good customer service is often overlooked by a lot of eCommerce brands and consultants when it comes to conversion optimization. Making it easy for customers to reach you, providing them with a well designed FAQ, allowing your customer service agents to fluidly access customer order data and histories, tracking customer behavior and addressing problems before they become problems are all great customer service protocols but also happen to work wonders for conversion optimization.
We’re a customer communications platform that happens to work with lots of eCommerce brands and the advice most commonly appreciated is how establishing a sound communications flow from customer to agent, from agent to various departments, and back to the customer can really help conversions. The same applies when new channels such as Instagram Shopping. Businesses need to make sure and thing ahead in advance how the entire experience can be augmented by superb communications. Instagram already provides a great community and communications experiences, businesses just need to leverage that better.
Q: What’s one tip you can give eCommerce businesses to improve their brand recognition?
D: eCommerce businesses looking to establish their brand needs to stay laser focused on a consistent presentation of their “primary” product. Everything from product copy, images, logos, personalized shopping experiences, and even competitor products need to convey a singular message that what they’re selling is valuable and best bought “here”.
Q: What about for eCommerce businesses looking to sell internationally?
D: Locate and establish core brand, logistics, and channel distribution partners. Expanding internationally is always a tough one. No way around that. The lack of geographical experience is what kills it for most brands looking to expand beyond borders.
Q: What’s one trend that’s developing in eCommerce that you’re excited about?
D: Our perspective is obviously a bit skewed since we focus on the communications aspect of eCommerce, but one very hot topic for the first half of 2017 is bot/ai-assisted customer communications. This is worth looking into as an eCommerce seller as it can significantly improve a customer’s shopping and post-shopping experience. There are many solutions out there on the market to have bots drive the customer service and engagement process. While it’s not entirely possible to replace human interaction, we feel there’s value in leveraging bots/ai/machine learning to help internal teams help customers better.
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You can also find our multi-brand, multi-channel customer service platform at https://www.reamaze.com. Follow @reamaze.