What is e-Commerce Integration for a Website?

The simplest definition of e-Commerce integration for a website means that the e-Commerce portal is developed on the business website, instead a separate sub-section. For example, the if the business website is www.business.com then the sub-website for e-Commerce would be store.business.com or online.business.com instead of doing this, the main domain name is used for the e-Commerce, and the business information is hosted on the sub-pages of the website such as About, Contact, Mission/Vision, etc. and any other detail. The e-Commerce integration also means to automate the data flow between various business tools, such as accounting tool, inventory management system, shipment and CRM tools, etc. The data flow is achieved by automatically synchronizing the data between all the systems or via a central hub which is also called centralized information center. The biggest benefit of the integration is that a business can avail all the benefits of online store with more freedom and control and it can significantly reduce the workload by automation which maximizes the efficiency.

The improvement in the work efficiency is not the only benefit. The small and medium sized businesses who are selling through other marketplaces are also well aware of the limitation and drawbacks of selling through those channels. One of the biggest drawback is the tough competition, the price is heavily driven by the competitiveness, and the marketplace also have very strict policies, on top of that each marketplace have their commission in each sale. This limits the profit margin for the small businesses. That doesn’t mean a small business don’t need to utilize a marketplace, in fact the marketplaces are great to drive huge sales, as they are taking care of the marketing and promotions, they are maintaining the user experience and they are already established as a trust worthy brand, so driving sales through a marketplace is relatively easier. However, integrating e-Commerce to a small business website is also equally important. In the modern era of internet and digital, anything can go viral, an e-Commerce website can be a game changer for small and medium sized businesses and it provides them reach and access to the unexplored markets and areas where they can’t reach otherwise.

Here is why e-Commerce integration is so important and how small businesses can use it to boost their sales and revenues.

The Future is e-Commerce

With every passing day we are becoming more connected and more dependent on the internet. The rise of social media platforms, the technological revolution in the smartphone sectors and the high internet penetration in our society is impacting each and every aspect of our daily lives. The technology and general behavior of consumers have completely transformed the retail framework all around the world. The UAE with almost 99% of internet penetration has a huge potential for small and medium sized businesses. According to the data gathered by the Statista in 2020 alone the global e-Commerce purchases have surpassed 2 Billion with net worth of staggering 4.2 Trillion USD. The multiple projections are suggesting that the e-Commerce will reached to 5.4 Trillion USD by the end of year 2022. Similarly in UAE the e-Commerce sales have been growing on a whopping 23 percent per year rate with the projection of reaching to 27 Billion USD by the end of 2022. For small and medium size businesses this could be a great opportunity to grow without putting too much pressure on their resources.

Establish Brand Identity and Build Reputation

For any business small or large a well reputed brand identity is crucial for success. If a business have a good brand image it can easily gain customer’s trust which drives customer loyalty and help improving the customer retention rate. For a small business the customer loyalty and customer retention is crucial for growth. The studies have shown that it is almost nine to twelve time more expensive to acquire a new customer than selling to an existing customer. For a small or medium sized business the marketing budget and resources are always limited, they can’t invest huge amount in the marketing, so remarketing or retargeting is a best bet for them. An e-Commerce integration with small business website allow the business to collect customer data as well as to manage customer experience to gain more customer loyalty. Moreover the e-Commerce integration also enables them to collect customer data which can be used for re-marketing and re-targeting. Small businesses can improve customer experience as they have full control over their website and it’s UI (user interface). This help them to increase customer retention and customer loyalty.

A marketplace doesn’t allow such freedom, it have certain limitation such as limited space for the description and content that can be published, they usually don’t allow showing your logo, the user interface can’t be controlled and there are too many distraction which can take a user from your store to another and a lot more is there which you can’t control. For any marketplace the first priority is to promote their brand so their branding will always remain in forefront. Most of the time customers don’t even know from which store they are purchasing and doesn’t even bother to come back to look up for that particular store. However, with the e-Commerce integration a small business can have full control over all these aspects and it can freely promote its brand. In case if a customer likes a product they will return back directly to the e-Commerce website, there is no restriction and obviously there is no distraction, which makes customer journey more concentrated and yield better sales results.

Once a brand is established, the customer will start coming back to the e-Commerce website and the business can get repeated business. A small business in Dubai or anywhere in UAE can effectively expand their territory to the entire country and even they can also target other GCC countries as well as globally. Like they say sky is the limit, the e-Commerce provide small business a chance to reach unexplored territories and regions where they can’t reach otherwise. This not only help them to acquire more leads and sales but it also help them to promote their brand and let them establish a brand identity.

Gain Full Control over User Experience and Customer Journey

Integrating your own e-Commerce portal with your small business website provide you full control over user experience and customer journey. With a marketplace you can’t alter any of these. However, your own e-Commerce website will allow you to customize the layout, design, color schemes, navigations, and it also allow you to modernize the user experience by adding innovative features. Moreover your own e-Commerce website allow you to communicate your brand message and highlight value proposition more effectively by adding supportive content, photos, videos, taglines, customer reviews, and much more. The customer experience heavily rely on the UI for e-Commerce portals. The primary aim for any e-Commerce website visitor is to make a purchase for that they first look for the product features and specs, then they look up for the checkout process which started from a CTA or call to action button. The CTA plays a crucial role in any e-Commerce success. It can hugely impact your sales. With freedom to customize it the businesses can do different experiments and alter it to achieve the highest results.

The checkout and purchase steps can also be minimized to improve customer journey and customer experience. Furthermore businesses can implement their marketing strategy to promote products and to increase upsell. On top of that a business don’t have to worry about competitor’s products and pricing distracting their prospects. The product details can be customized to facilitate visitors and support can be provided with live chat or dedicated customer portals. Business can directly handle their complaints and return without the fear of getting lower in the search on the bases of ranking factors in the marketplace. There is no restriction or pressure from competitors to set price and offer free shipments. Businesses can start their own reward programs, blogs, community forums, etc. to increase customer engagements. Customized design allow the businesses to customize all standard e-Commerce features and designs to further simplify the user experience and customer journey which help increasing sales.

Gather Business Intelligence and Improve Conversion Rate

Business intelligence is a very important part of any online or offline business strategy. Businesses gather business intelligence data to evaluate and improve their policies, strategies and business processes. For an e-Commerce business the website can collect user data and user interaction details from each and every touch point of the user journey. Businesses can accurately trace the user path from which source the traffic is coming to the website, how user reached to the website and how many of them converted into a sale. Even the e-Commerce can also capture details of the customer churn, it means the prospects or visitors who have left the website before making a purchase. The businesses can accurately understand the demographic and geographic data of their website traffic. For any e-Commerce website the sales are heavily dependent on the website traffic. If a website have more traffic it will have more sales, if it have less traffic the sales will be less.

This understanding of customer persona and traffic channel enable businesses to invest more in high-profit channels and let them optimize their marketing funnel. Businesses can also prioritize the traffic sources which produced more sales. This also provide them a chance to evaluate various customer journey steps and touch points, where the customers are leaving, hence business can improve those areas as well to ensure they will get maximum sales.

Plan and Execute Effective Digital Marketing Campaigns

Integrating an e-Commerce to a small business website doesn’t mean from the day one you will start getting hundreds of orders. In fact for any business, just creating a website is not enough to start generating online sales and conversion. For any website including e-Commerce the sales and conversion are dependent on the website traffic. In case of a marketplace the marketplace generate traffic and bring people to their portal and people search for the products they need. For a small business the same has to be done. The marketplace doesn’t provide you facility to divert its traffic directly to your online store, however, with an e-Commerce website, a small business will get as much traffic as much efforts they will made. There will be no chance of any distraction from your competitors or anything else. But that traffic must be generated. For that digital marketing tactics and strategies are used. These digital marketing tactics involve two sets of channels, one group is organic which is absolutely free, and the other is paid which is paid online advertisements which includes, Google search ads, Facebook & Instagram Ads, YouTube Ads, Display Ads, PPC, and a lot more.

An e-Commerce website allow small businesses to customize their marketing tactics and channels as per their targeted audience and their purchasing habits. Businesses can easily make their e-Commerce website SEO (search engine optimization) Friendly. If a website is SEO friendly the search engine will rank it higher in the search engine results and it will help generating a huge amount of traffic. Such traffic is called organic, it means it is absolutely free. For a small business it is extremely crucial to get website traffic from organic channels and Google is one of the most traffic generating channel. Moreover business can also utilize Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, LinkedIn and other social media platforms to generate more traffic. Small businesses can also plan paid marketing campaigns, as well. Several studies have shown that for e-Commerce discount coupons and award programs can do very well. This all is only possible if you have your own e-Commerce website.

Improve Operational Efficiency and Minimize Cost

One of the biggest advantage of integrating an e-Commerce with the small business website is related to the operational efficiency. Businesses often think that creating and managing an e-Commerce website will require them to allocate more resources and will add up to their operational cost. However, it is quite the opposite, the e-Commerce integration not only help businesses to improve their operational efficiency but it also reduce several expenses. The e-Commerce can be integrated with the ERP, Accounting tools, Inventory Management Systems, and any other business tool. This automates various processes and make automatic data synchronization possible. Which facilitate various business processes and improve the efficiency of the staff and managers. It also prevent multiple data entry and manual management of the sales, shipments, return orders and synching of the inventory. The accounts also get automatic real-times update so does all other systems. Which makes it super easy for the managers to login through a single dashboard to monitor and manage all activities and aid them with their daily tasks. The e-Commerce integration minimizes the need of resources hence it not only improve the efficiency but it also reduce the cost and increase overall profitability.

Conclusion

In the past few years due to the technological advancements and general consumer behavior the e-Commerce have showed remarkable growth all around the world and in UAE alone the growth rate of e-Commerce is around 23 percent. For small and medium sized businesses this could be a great opportunity to grow and prosper. For small businesses in Dubai or anywhere in UAE the biggest challenge is limited resources and limited manpower. The e-Commerce integration is a solution to both. It doesn’t require huge investment, it help improving operational efficiency by automating several business processes and aiding staff and management in their daily tasks which also reduce operational expenses. The e-Commerce provide business a chance to establish their own brand identity and build reputation to grow in the long term. It also help small businesses to reach out to the markets and audiences which they can never do with traditional tactics. The e-Commerce integration also help increasing profitability and aid with the digital marketing channels. Which is great for small business and help them gradually build their brand. RSI Concepts is a leading website designing and development company specialized in e-Commerce and customer satisfaction solutions. If you want to learn more about the subject or want help with your e-Commerce project, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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