Understand the main points that deserve special attention in your online store and management tips for ecommerce that can boost your sales.
The internet is an important resource for business. If the number of online sales was growing year after year, they skyrocketed with the pandemic.
Online shopping is becoming a habit. Even those who were not yet adept at the practice, ended up seeing themselves “forced” to migrate to the digital environment during the social isolation period. According to the G1 news site, from April to June 2019, Brazilians made 39 million purchases with ecommerce. During the same period in 2020, more than 82 million online orders were registered. This represents a 112% growth in online sales. With this boost in ecommerce, properly managing online businesses has become a necessity, now more than ever.
What’s concerning is that some ecommerce managers still find it very difficult to manage their online stores, since it requires specific actions and cautions. According to a survey carried out by Sebrae, through the National Online Retail Survey, the main difficulties are taxation, logistics, marketing, cash flow, and inventory control.
With this in mind, we have created 5 management tips for ecommerce that you should start applying now for your business’s success. Check it out!
1. Plan ahead
Although managing an ecommerce business might seem easy, the truth is that it also involves a lot of analysis and decision making that can be responsible for the success or failure of the business. So, when creating an online store, don’t forget to prepare a business plan. This should include information about your target audience, competitors, costs, the necessary investment, and strategies that differentiate you from others. These elements help you to assess the viability of ecommerce and define the next steps.
A common mistake is to leave this planning aside and not give attention to ecommerce management. However, this lack of planning is one of the main factors responsible for the non-development of the business. If your online store is linked to a physical store, attention to planning should be doubled.
2. Work with an excellent ecommerce platform
Online consumers are becoming increasingly demanding. There is no room for failures, loading errors, or unattractive layouts. One of the main management tips for online stores is to invest in a good ecommerce platform, where your store will be developed.
To further improve your work as an ecommerce manager, as well as customer satisfaction, be sure to integrate with an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. This guarantees access to more sophisticated tools and more efficient inventory, cash flow, sales, and deliveries, among others.
3. Control your stock efficiently
Stock management directly impacts a company’s finances, whether it is digital or not. Even products in excess can increase the costs for your company, leaving your money paralyzed. On the other hand, the lack of products can harm your sales.
Management errors also impact ecommerce businesses, especially if you sell the same products on other channels. If this is the case, the tip is to integrate your inventory. This way, you don’t run the risk of selling the same product at the same time in different channels, enabling a false ‘available’ status on the online selling platform.
4. Work with a management system
An ERP is a software that gathers data and tasks in one place. Thus, it facilitates the control and organization of all processes that are involved in a business. A management system is essential for any company, and for ecommerce businesses, it is no different.
Instead of manually controlling and taking notes on paper and spreadsheets, ERP software automates many processes, making inventory control and cash flow management more efficient. In addition, it allows the transmission of notas fiscais with tax calculations according to the norms, and remote access to data, as many solutions work in the cloud.
No matter the size of your store, ecommerce management tools increase productivity, security, and reliability.
5. Invest in marketing
Advertising is essential to make your business reach more people and attract more customers interested in what you have to offer. Today, any physical store must also be on the internet promoting their products. The same works for ecommerce.
As much as these are already in the virtual environment, they should be noticeable, since the competition is huge. Therefore, marketing investment should be part of the management plan for ecommerce. Work with ads, SEO-optimized content, social networks, etc.
Ecommerce management involves much more than simply creating an online store. As with any company, planning and controlling processes are essential. With a management system, it is much easier to put all these tips into practice, in addition to analyzing reports for decision making for the next steps.
About the author
Isabella Soares has a degree in Advertising from PUC Minas and is a Marketing Analyst at GestãoClick, a business management software that helps thousands of small and medium-sidez businesses organize and increase sales.