6 min read

The Internet space is crowded and competitive, and as customer expectations evolve, it is critical that you review your business and implement a solid e-commerce strategy to deliver a successful product and stay current. It is important to think about what your competitive advantage is, what it is about your business that puts you ahead of others. Take a moment to think about this as it will help you develop strategies to grow your business and focus on your strongest attributes.

Here are some points to think about when planning your growth strategy:

• Review Your Technology Infrastructure
  What technology tools do you use to run your business? Be wary of legacy technology, as it can leave you out of date with new tools and compromise the overall performance and security of your site. Carefully select technologies that allow you to grow, evolve, be flexible, and meet your needs.

  
  

• Enhance the customer experience
  Never lose sight of your customers’ needs. The customer is at the center of your planning and should drive your strategies. Gather as much data and feedback as possible to improve and solve problems. A strategy that focuses on the customer and what they want will help you build loyalty, which will allow you to grow.

  
  

• Make money from your ecosystem
  It is important to try different ways to monetize your business and have diverse revenue streams. You can offer products and services that meet the needs of your customers and provide value through your ecosystem. In e-commerce, for example, you can offer subscriptions, depending on your product, you can charge a targeted group of users for premium services, or you can charge contributors instead of customers, as some e-commerce marketplaces do, by charging merchants to sell on their platform. A good example is Amazon, they have expanded far beyond their starting point of selling books online, adding other services and products and leveraging their ecosystem for profit.

  
  

• Automate Manual Tasks and Processes
  It is fine to do processes manually in the beginning when the team is small and the workload is manageable, but as your business grows and the workload becomes larger and more complex, doing manual tasks that can be automated can become highly inefficient and unproductive. This is especially important in e-commerce, where customers expect fast, high-quality service. So if you want to keep up with the pace and be efficient, it’s better to use technology tools that help you automate tasks, but don’t make them too complicated, remembering that a good simplified process can increase speed. It is important that you have all your technology tools well integrated and connected to each other, this can help you to have a better overview of all your systems and business. It will also allow you to collect better data so you can have better analysis to develop more accurate and focused strategies to solve problems in your business.

  
  

• Integrate social media into your e-commerce
  We are seeing more and more how social media apps have become a solid platform for selling products. Users can buy directly from their favorite influencers or brands, making the process easy and simple, all on a single platform. So, if you want to attract new customers or keep your existing ones engaged, it’s important to integrate your ecommerce with the most popular apps. Try to collect data or do some research based on your customer demographics and define which apps they use the most, pick one or two and start there.

  
  

• Take advantage of AI-powered tools
  Through machine learning, AI tools can improve the customer experience and help you create more personalized services. With AI data, you can better analyze and anticipate your customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors. As a result, you can increase customer satisfaction and improve retention by increasing conversions, reducing abandoned carts, and increasing AOV (Average Order Value).
  Focus on your products and customers and see where AI can make a significant difference. Choose tools that provide you with high-value results. For example, if you’re going to use Generative AI to produce content, make sure the investment is worthwhile and the return is high - as we know, it’s still a very expensive technology, so you don’t want to end up footing a big bill without getting any real benefit. If you can help the customer buy a product from you or have a strong engagement with your brand, then the investment is worth it.
  One area where AI is very interesting to apply is in customer service, as it can be turned into personal shopping assistants that provide instant answers, improve response times, and keep customers happy. This is highly beneficial to your business as you turn customers into repeat customers who will naturally recommend your products to their friends.

  
  

• Develop marketing strategies tailored to the needs of your clients
  Customers love personalized service. Keep customers engaged and loyal with personalized emails and product recommendations that make them feel special. Nothing feels worse than emails that don’t relate to their interests. We must avoid the feeling of mass marketing. Mass emails that don’t speak to anyone will be noticed by the customer and their interest will diminish. Remember that if your marketing strategy is impersonal, launched just to try to sell, without taking into account the interests and needs of your customers, you will not see as many sales.

  
  

• Enable agile operations and flexibility
  A great customer experience is a key element of e-commerce success, which is why it’s so important to keep all of your operations running smoothly and efficiently. Every element counts, from your website, to the user’s browsing experience, to the checkout process, to delivery and post-purchase service. That’s why keeping your operations agile is key to customer satisfaction and your brand’s success. Flexibility is also an important factor in the success of your business. Companies need to be agile to adapt to changes that can range from customer behavior to industry or supply chain issues. The more flexible and agile we are in making these changes, the better we can function and thrive.

Keep all of these points in mind as you develop your strategy. Don’t forget to rely on the data you have to make good decisions and plan accordingly.