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With the e-commerce industry in India rising at a booming rate, more so with the invasion of highly-sophisticated gadgets and faster-than-light internet. However, still, the e-commerce industry in India lags far behind compared to western countries. There are several challenges faced by the e-commerce industry in India that come in the way of Indian online stores and merchants. Among factors that bother India online shoppers, the safety and security of online money while transacting is the biggest concern. Apart from them are the quality of products as the online shoppers can't really touch and feel the products they want to buy. Although the majority of e-commerce platforms in India have been hit by the challenges let us discuss how some E-comm giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Yatra, and more have overcome these challenges and appear fairly victorious.
Online Identity Verification
When someone visits your website, how do you know if that person is genuinely interested? Are they entering their real names and contact information? For all you know, all of the information they enter could be fake. If you don’t use online identity verification, it’s difficult to tell the difference.
Solution: Take steps to verify customer information and ensure the information isn’t false. You can use software solutions fraudulent attempts. Overcome these eCommerce business challenges by staying a step ahead of the hackers.
Competitor Analysis
In the super-competitive eCommerce business world, there are many competitors offering similar products and services. So, how do you set yourself apart? E-commerce business challenges using competitor analysis With so many shops offering similar products, you’ll need to figure out how to stand out from the competition.
Solution: Conduct thorough competitor analysis to find out what products your competitors are offering, and how much they’re selling it for. What platforms are they using to connect with customers? How are they generating leads? Do they have any promotions going on? Figure out what products are high in demand and remove or deprioritize the ones that aren’t. Offer exceptional customer service to set your business apart.
Customer Loyalty
Did you know that it can cost up to 5 times more to acquire a new customer than retaining an existing one? Or that the success rate of selling to a current customer is 60-70% compared to only a 5-20% success rate of selling to a new customer? And that’s why maintaining customer loyalty is so important.
Solution: To maintain customer loyalty, you MUST provide excellent customer service. Create positive experiences for your customers so they trust you. After all, if your customers are happy, it’s likely they’ll purchase from you again. customer loyalty Here are a few tips to maintain customer loyalty: Be transparent. Display address, phone numbers, and contact information on your website. Make sure it’s easy for customers to find.
Product Return and Refund Policies
According to ComScore, more than 60% of online shoppers say that they look at a retailer’s return policy before making a purchase. And, 2 in 5 customers said they abandoned shopping carts because of delivery dates. That’s not all. ComScore also found that about half of online shoppers weren’t willing to wait more than 5 days for delivery.
Solution: Never hide or try to trick customers about your return policy. Be transparent and make sure customers can easily find details about the return process. Make sure the policy is easily accessible on your website, and include FAQs to make things easier for your customer to understand. And finally, avoid words that are difficult to understand.
Price and Shipping
Remember our 2019 calendar example earlier from Etsy? Although our search came up with 31,208 results, many of the calendars were priced differently. Compete on Price and Shipping And that’s the price BEFORE the cost of shipping. Giant online retailers like Amazon can offers products for a similar price, but offer free shipping because they have the resources to do so. They have shipping warehouses located around the world, and ship orders from the nearest facility. As a smaller online business, how can you overcome these eCommerce business challenges?
Solution: Get creative and look beyond big-name carriers. Look into using a local delivery or courier company that will deliver the product quickly to your customers at a competitive rate. Apps like Roadie provide door-to-door delivery for just about anything at more competitive prices than major couriers. A crowd-sourcing service, it provides an innovative delivery option at a low cost.
Retailers and Manufacturers
Many online businesses buy their products from retailers and manufacturers. Unfortunately, many times these retailers and manufacturers also sell the same products directly to customers.
Solution: Include a statement in your contract that restricts the manufacturer from selling directly to customers. Another solution is to give priority to those who are less likely to sell directly to customers. That way, your manufacturer won’t also be your competitor.
Data Security & Data Breach
Of all the E-commerce business challenges today, technical issues in E-commerce can be one of the most difficult to overcome. And if those technical issues are related to data security, it can be a nightmare. Attackers can not only infect your website with viruses, but they can also expose confidential data. Remember that massive Facebook security breach? The attack exposed the personal information of approximately 50 million users. Hackers tried to obtain private user information like name and hometown.
Solution: First, regularly back up your data in case it gets stolen. Next, install security plugins when possible to prevent your website from getting hacked.
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