Digital businesses are doing reasonably well at a time when the High Street is feeling the literal squeeze of the struggling economy. In the current climate, however, it’s important for an e-commerce website to constantly reassess and readdress its model in order to improve its operations and strengthen its offering to customers.

Here are some key things to check off to ensure that your e-commerce site is operating at its peak in January.

Social support and customer service

January can be a hectic time for ecommerce websites, particularly around the beginning of the month. The January sales cause an influx of traffic with consumers eager to find the latest hot deals after Christmas. This is a time when your social media campaign can support your ecommerce and digital marketing efforts in the best possible way. Use this time to engage with your customers and talk to them on social media. You’ll find that more customers use Facebook pages and Twitter around this time as they try to communicate any issues or difficulties they are having with their online shopping experience. If they don’t get a reply straight away, a simple post can escalate into a much bigger issue.

The key to social media is awareness. People are always watching you on social media and it’s important that you NEVER remove a post that criticises your website or your brand. Removing posts like this is bad customer service and bad PR; it can turn a relatively simple issue into one with much bigger stakes. If someone is unhappy and venting on your Facebook page or Twitter feed, speak to them directly to ascertain what the problem is and deal with it as quickly as possible. If customers can see you dealing with your customers and interacting with them proactively, they will have greater confidence in your brand’s ability to deal with customers in a positive way. This will be particularly encouraging for any new customers debating whether or not to order with you for the first time.

Social media is a great support to your e-commerce campaign in January and its customer service value is not to be underestimated.

Stock levels

The January sale is a guarantee that your stock levels will run low on certain items, both sale items and regular stock. It’s important that the messages are clear and immediate if stock runs out on a certain item. Set a graphic that displays when stock runs down and out. This is a clear indication to your customers that the item is unavailable and stops them from getting frustrated when their order won’t go through. Keeping the item live and disabled is much better for search engine marketing because it keeps the content and URL live for the search engines to find.

Sales newsletters

Although a heavily saturated market around this time of year, the newsletter is still a good way to target your customers. More consumers are opening their emails on mobile devices and a targeted, segmented email notification of an appropriate offer might sway them to purchase immediately via their mobile.

E-commerce sites stand to start the year on a strong note if they check off these key points on the e-commerce checklist. Be smart about your targeting and you’ll be off to a good start for 2012.

Happy 2012 from Little Big Voice.

 

Paul