Achieving success with your webshop
There's no shortage of advice out there on how to succeed with e-commerce, from choosing the right hosting provider to choosing easy-to-pack, high-margin products. But we know that consumers do most of their shopping online today, and we want to share with you tips that can really make a difference - no matter which e-commerce platform you choose and which products you choose to sell via e-commerce. Here we list six practical steps that can really make a difference to the success of your e-commerce business.
1. Focus on the user and continuously improve your e-commerce
Should you just sell what the customer wants, or should you identify market needs and solve them in new and innovative ways? The truth, of course, lies somewhere in the middle. Henry Ford is reputed to have said "Ask them what they want and they'll tell you a faster horse" when asked if there was a market for the T-Ford. Meanwhile, the store that brought in fidget spinners quickly in 2017 probably got many thousands sold before the market was saturated and interest cooled. So seeing the bigger picture with the challenges that need to be solved and having your ear to the ground to spot trends is important as an e-tailer.
By focusing on the user and constantly improving your e-commerce according to their experience, you create an e-commerce that customers want to return to. For all e-commerce in general, it should be easy to find the goods you are looking for, easy to get answers to any questions, easy to make a purchase and easy to get the goods delivered. But exactly what "easy" means is a little different from person to person, so our advice is to find a model that works for you and then constantly work to make small improvements over time.
2. Choose reliable partners with long experience
As an e-merchant, you don't have the luxury of controlling the entire buying experience yourself. Your storefront is a search engine or a social media platform, and the product is delivered by a third party. That's why it's particularly important as an e-tailer to work with a shipping provider with proven experience and who themselves care about customer experience and quality. At PostNord, we dare to say that deliveries are in our DNA - after all, we deliver over 100,000,000 items a month.
As an e-retailer, you need to think not only about how the delivery gets from your warehouse to the shipping provider, but also what delivery options that provider offers out to the customer - whether your customer is in Sweden or abroad. When you book shipping with Skicka Direkt Business, you can choose from a variety of delivery methods for your customer.
3. Minimise manual processes and save time
As a new e-merchant, you often have to do everything yourself and there is not always the financial possibility to get outside help in the first years. So you need to find solutions that save you time and partners who understand the challenges you face.
At Postnord, we are committed to helping e-retailers grow because if it's good for you, it's good for us! That's why Postnord Portal Business is completely free to use, you only pay for the items you send. The portal allows you to create templates for your most common parcels and you can save your customers' address details in the address book so you can easily send goods to them multiple times.
You can integrate our shipping services into your e-commerce and you don't even need to book the deliveries - it happens automatically when the customer goes through their checkout process. What's more, we'll be happy to collect your consignments, whether you have a warehouse in your garage or have already secured premises for your business.
4. Optimera processen för returer i din e-handel
As an e-merchant, you will find that your time is needed for all sorts of things, not least buying or producing your goods and identifying and marketing yourself to new customers. So it's no wonder that purchases that have gone slightly wrong and need to be returned sometimes end up low on the priority list. However, we know that it's at times like these that you can create truly loyal customers who choose to speak highly of you - so we make sure to facilitate that process as much as possible.
In PostNord Portal Business, you quickly create the return shipment in the tool and send the customer a QR code by email or text message so that they can easily return the item. All they have to do is show the QR code to the retailer, who can then print the return slip for the parcel. You can also choose to send a return slip directly in the parcel - something we recommend if you have an item that needs to be returned frequently, for example due to size uncertainty. If you send larger items to your customers, you can use the Return Pickup service and your customer can easily book a return pickup at their convenience.
5. Test, measure and calculate the ROI of your marketing
Perhaps you feel, as many other entrepreneurs do, that everyone would benefit from the products you offer? Yes, we think so too! But we also know that not everyone is a good target group for marketing. That's why we suggest that you test different ways of marketing and see what gives the best ROI (Return-On-Investment).
In the search engine, you can advertise on words that you think your target audience will search for when they need what you offer. At PostNord, we can help you reach people in specific postcode areas with addressed or unaddressed advertising directly to their mailbox.
With Skapa Utskick you can, in addition to using your own addresses, reach:
Company based on:
- County, Municipality or Postcode
- Branch
- Annual turnover
- Number of employee
- Aimed at a specific department
Individuals based on:
- County, Municipality or Postcode
- Age (Minimum 16 years)
- Gender (All, Men only, Women only)
- Type of housing (Villa, Tenancy, Apartment, Other)
- Purchasing power (Low to High)
- Household type (e.g. single household, family with young children, etc.)
You can tell which marketing channel is best for your e-commerce by the number of shipments you send with us over time and the time after you run a campaign. In PostNord Portal Business, you can easily go back and look at the statistics of sent parcels if you don't want to count them in the meantime.
6. Repeat customers are worth their weight in gold
Marketing is a necessity to let customers know you exist, but once they've made a purchase, the experience of that purchase will determine whether they want to come back - and whether they want to tell their friends about your e-commerce business.
By offering good customer service, your customers will keep coming back time and time again, and the investment you made in marketing to reach them in the first place will pay for itself many times over. And good customer service doesn't have to be difficult; with clear communication about the delivery of purchased goods and prompt handling of returns, you're already well on your way.
With PostNord Portal Business, you can easily set up notifications to the customer about the parcels they are waiting for, and if they wish to make a return, you know exactly how to handle it in the best way, because you read about that above.
The e-commerce customer who is treated well before, during and after the purchase will not hesitate to return in the future and for any business, repeat customers are worth their weight in gold.
We hope this article has given you some ideas on practical things to start acting on in your e-commerce today! If you are not already a contract customer with us, you can become one in minutes by creating an account on Postnord Portal Business. We look forward to helping you succeed with your e-commerce!
