eCommerce is a very popular business model today, and there are a lot of small businesses that are looking to mimic the success of giants such as eBay, Alibaba, and Amazon. However, smaller ecommerce businesses don’t have the resources like these big names to pursue growth and advance to the next level.
Still, there are solutions that can help smaller players expand with rather small investments and the proper approach. eCommerce organizations that invest in knowledge management are able to exploit its benefits to improve their overall profits and reach more customers. eCommerce is not just about selling products and you need to learn constantly in order to grow, luckily there are valuable sources such as Prisync where you can get updated on a regular basis.
Knowledge management in ecommerce can help improve various business processes internally. On the other hand, knowledge management can also improve a business externally, providing better content to customers, making them become loyal, while at the same time attracting new customers by giving them quick information on demand.
Here are some useful knowledge management tools you can implement in your ecommerce business and how they can benefit your organization.
Knowledge base systems
Knowledge base systems are unique knowledge management platforms, simply because they have an amazing ability to be used both externally and internally. A knowledge base is basically a comprehensive platform where a business organization can store valuable information, access it, and use it whenever needed.
This is an information hub which can be used by the customers of an ecommerce business, or by the people within its organization. When using it externally, the knowledge base is set up on the ecommerce website so that customers can see it and access it to find the information they need. Most knowledge base systems have a search engine that allows customers to find the information they need quickly.
A business can include product information, buying methods, discounts, business information, Q&A sections and much more. This is a valuable resource where customers can quickly get information that helps them make a buying decision. When used internally, employees can rely on it to get the information they pass on to clients or use it to collaborate or speed up business processes within the organization.
Live chat software solutions
Customer support is one of the most important things for ecommerce organizations. Providing adequate customer support online can be very difficult, as it involves hearing people’s problems, questions, likes and dislikes. Especially when you consider how many visitors a solid ecommerce website has per day.
A live chat software is a simple but effective tool that pops out in the corner of a visitor’s screen when they enter your store. Potential customers can directly address live chat agents that represent your business and ask them any questions they might have.
Live chat agents can instantly give them answers and help them find what they want. Additionally, a single live chat agent can communicate with up to 10 customers at a time. With quality customer support, an organization can create a better relationship with its customers, provide valuable help and develop a loyal customer base, given the fact that it can learn what troubles the customers the most and get valuable feedback.
Customer relationship management tools
Customer interaction in modern ecommerce business can happen through various different channels, including social media, live chat, emails, knowledge base, phone calls etc. For an online business organization, it’s quite difficult to measure and track all customer activity, which can give quite valuable insights and answers on how a business can improve.
For example, you can integrate a CRM tool with a live chat software and always have an insight into what customers ask the most and what they don’t like about your business. When you centralize all customer-related information in one place, you can also easily create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that will bring better results.
All of the customer support and sales personnel with access to such valuable information, including payment history, order history, and product lists, can make better decisions. If a customer support department has information about the product browsing history or order history, they will be able to offer the appropriate products, regardless of whether we are talking about upselling or cross-selling.
Simply put, all customer-related issues will be resolved more quickly and with higher quality, and the business will be able to predict what customers need and how to curate their services.
Supply chain management tools
An ecommerce business that wants to grow needs to be as efficient as possible with all of its operational capabilities. Supply chain management tools are the backbone of efficiency when it comes to ecommerce. SCM includes coordination, control and scheduling of production, and inventory, while also controlling product delivery to respected customers.
A business organization that implements a SCM tool properly will be able to deliver the right product where it’s needed, and at the right time. It gives you the power to reduce costs and more effectively utilize your company’s funds. An ecommerce business will also be able to raise its output and serve more customers, which is a key issue for growth.
With this tool, an organization can also improve its cooperation with suppliers and ensure that there are no delays in all business processes. It all comes down to these three pillars of efficiency: products, information and finances will flow better and more transparently.
Help desk software solutions
Help desk software solutions are customer support tools that can allow an ecommerce business to scale better. Similarly to CRM tools, help desk solutions also help an ecommerce business monitor all customer channels across the web, while tracking customer queries only. Standard help desk tools allow a business to solve customer queries using various email clients.
As an ecommerce business starts to grow, it will become more and more difficult to handle its customer support through its email channel and that organization will not be able to scale properly. Soon, questions will not be answered, customers will wait for a long time to get a response and that business will miss the opportunity to make sales.
A help desk software specialized for ecommerce will allow a business to manage all customer queries coming from all channels, while streamlining all of them in one place. Employees will also be able to see all order information and align both delivery and queries to provide amazing customer experience.
If you want your ecommerce business to be able to grow and scale properly, these tools will allow you to do this. If you combine multiple solutions the results will be even better. However, it’s important to implement them properly and learn to use them as a whole organization.
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