5 Habits of Successful E-Commerce Managers
The role of the E-Commerce Manager varies from organisation to organisation. In this post, we will try to take a look at 5 habits which can help you to be a better E-Commerce Manager, enabling you to grow your online revenue.
1). Test, Measure & Learn
As an E-Commerce Manager, you should never make decisions based on anecdotal conclusions. Don’t presume to know what your users are looking for.
Luckily, E-Commerce makes testing simple. Watch your analytics carefully, especially after any change is made. Don’t rely on simple metrics from Google Analytics. There is a limited insight to be gained from looking at Page Views, Sessions and Bounce Rate in isolation. Using event tracking and conversion funnels can help you to truly understand the behaviour of your visitors and make contextually sound decisions based on the data. Google Tag Manager can make setting up events for Google Analytics a cinch.
Watch how users interact with your website in real-time. One such tool is Hotjar which will record videos of real users interacting with your web pages. You can also generate heat maps to show which sections of your web pages are being interacted with most.
Over the shoulder, user testing has the same effect but can be more time consuming to conduct. You will probably learn more from watching your users than you ever could from trying to decipher the data from Google Analytics.
Where possible, any changes to your web page should be A/B tested. This will allow you to accurately validate the impact of any changes that you have made.
2). Aim to add value, not features
It can be tempting to add every feature you see on the Magento Marketplace. There are tonnes of them out there offering cool features like One Step Checkout, Loyalty Programs, Cart Recovery tools, Live Chat, Customer Reviews and more.
More features, equals a better website right? Not always.
Make sure that you have identified features which add the most value to your business and your customers. Adding new features can create a busy and cluttered platform which could have a negative impact on your customer experience and in turn, your sales.
As mentioned before, do not make decisions based on anecdotal evidence. Conduct thorough research. Survey your customers.
If you have thoroughly researched an additional feature, you should be able to forecast the return on investment. If you cannot, it will be difficult to determine the success or failure of any feature you have added.
3). Actively seek feedback from your customers
Read the comments on your social media profiles. Don’t leave it to your social team or customer service department to come to you if there is an issue. Your social channels can provide you with invaluable feedback on your online store.
Set up a weekly meeting with your customer service team or customer service manager so that you are aware of the most common enquiries that the customer service team are receiving.
Use online listening tools such as Google Alerts to make sure you are notified any time your company is mentioned online.
4). Be wherever your customers are
Make it your business to identify the online habits of your customers. Is there a forum or social network where they regularly post or hang out? Are your customers all subscribed to the latest Instagram celebrity? Do they watch hours of product review videos?
Remember, your customers (or potential customers) may not seek you out. You will likely need to come to them. You may feel that particular social networks are not “on brand” for your company. If your customers are there, you should be too.
Snapchat has been a recent example of this. Several companies that we have spoken to feel that it is not a place they want to position their brand. In Ireland, 35% of 25-35-year-olds have a Snapchat account and 68% of those are using it daily.
*Source: Ipsos MRBI Omnipoll
5). Let your customers be heard
The most powerful ambassadors for your brand are your customers. Remarks from your customers will carry far more credibility than it would if it came directly from you or your organisation.
Encourage your customers to provide feedback. You could achieve this by encouraging them to tweet their feedback from the order confirmation page or from an order dispatch email.
Testimonials can be a very powerful way of generating Social Proof.
Below is an example from Grammarly. They provide great spell-checking tools. The service is free but, has a premium subscription. The tweets embedded on their website show remarks from customers who have subscribed to the premium service.
