We’re back from our first in-person event since 2019, and it didn’t disappoint. The InternetRetailing Expo (IRX) at the NEC, Birmingham, brought 100’s of retailers and suppliers together to highlight the latest in eCommerce technologies, trends and much more. 

Our Client Services team were on hand to share their expertise with retailers who are looking to scale their business in 2022 with a trusted eCommerce agency. 

Speaking directly with retailers, it was clear that many face similar barriers to eCommerce growth. In this post, we thought we’d share the top 5 asked questions/queries asked by retailers, and our recommendations to help overcome these challenges. 

How do I know which is the right eCommerce platform for my business? 

It’s not surprising to hear that many retailers we spoke with are using legacy technology. The reasons shared included cost, business impact, and most commonly, not knowing or having the expertise to make informed decisions on platforms in-house.

Regardless of their reason, they’ve identified that their business is not able to scale at a pace to keep up with competitors with their existing platform. Choosing the right eCommerce platform is therefore an essential decision to ensure scalable, long-term growth.

There are many factors that need to be considered when choosing the right technology, including;

• Number of products you sell
• Your forecasted online revenue
• Integrations with other business systems such as payment gateways or ERP 
• Requirement for custom functionality 
• Omnichannel
• Multilingual 
• Target audience 
• Type of customer service 
• SaaS, headless or open-source
• Hosting options
• Budget 
  

The above (and more), all contribute to the decision-making process, with this in mind, it’s easy to see why so many retailers stick with legacy systems. 

Not only was this a common question asked at IRX but it’s one of the main reasons why our clients choose 9xb. We have an in-house technical consultancy team who create detailed project scoping plans to determine the best platform solution for businesses. Our team not only offer the expertise and resources needed to match your business with the right platform but also create a roadmap to achieve ongoing success. 

Online sales are steadily growing but our overall conversion rate is low. 

Measuring traffic to your eCommerce store isn’t necessarily a great success indicator, especially if that traffic isn’t converting. There are a lot of possible reasons why an eCommerce store underperforms, the key is to identify the underlying cause before it affects your bottom line. 

Firstly, if you’re getting the traffic but have a high bounce rate, take a look at why. Is this down to the first impression they receive when entering the site, could your visitors not find the information they needed or was the site slow to load? Whilst having an aesthetically pleasing site is great, addressing usability is even more crucial. Great usability ensures your website visitors can complete their desired action quickly and with ease.  

Review the overall user journeys from beginning to end, is the site easy to navigate, is product information clearly displayed, is your checkout process fast/easy? Also, remember, the journey doesn’t end once your visitor has left the site, if they are yet to convert do you have automated abandoned cart emails or remarketing running to encourage the user to complete their purchase. 

Our eCommerce Success team work with businesses to increase their conversion rate and keep it high. Specialising in conversion rate optimisation, user research/testing, user journey mapping, merchandising, onsite search optimisation and more, we’re able to create ongoing tailored plans to help businesses grow online. 

Should I consider selling on marketplaces? 

Marketplaces across all industry sectors are growing, giving businesses an additional shop window to sell their products. Benefits of integrating with a marketplace include:

• Greater visibility on search engines 
• Bask in the reputation of the marketplace
• Increase audience reach
• Gain instant access to new audiences 
• Relatively low cost 
• The startup is relatively simple and quick
• Internationalisation is built-in
• Take advantage of shipping and storing options  
  

When considering selling on a marketplace, it’s key to have a strategy to complement your existing eCommerce store. Your eCommerce store allows you to control the buying experience, helping you to differentiate from your competitors. Whilst the marketplace will greater your customer acquisition. Each channel needs to work in harmony to be able to successfully scale your business. 

Can Peracto integrate with my internal business systems? 

As well as being Shopify and BigCommerce partners, 9xb are known for their own eCommerce platform Peracto. Peracto is a feature-rich headless eCommerce platform that offers businesses the flexibility, security and reliability needed to accelerate business growth. 
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One of Peracto’s greatest benefits is the ability to seamlessly integrate with in-house business systems. Having the added benefit of a customisable framework with no transaction fees means that it can easily accommodate any business requirements, allowing businesses to be free from constraints. 

The platform is also fully hosted and supported, giving businesses confidence and peace of mind that they are successfully trading 24/7/375.

Should I be enabling personalisation?

Whether your business is B2B or B2C, the answer to this question is, YES! 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a company that offers personalised content. This takes us back to the first question listed regarding which is the best eCommerce platform for your business. Your eCommerce platform should allow for personalisation tools to be integrated so you can tailor the user experience. 

Personalisation will be an important trend in 2022, as more ambitious brands look to attract growing users online. 

Summary 

Our trip to IRX was a huge success - if not only for getting to meet so many businesses in person. For those we had the pleasure of meeting, it was great to discuss the above topics and we hope these conversations are also useful to our readers.