Salla, the Future of E-commerce: An Easy Platform to Start Your Business

Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, we have become more aware that monthly retail sales volume is one of many things likely to be affected by challenges around it, dragging it down.  While most retail sectors have taken a major hit following this massive challenge, one of the most interesting changes is the shift to digital. With more crucial people at home, Google searches have doubled, and they have started to rely on e-commerce to buy products they would previously have bought from physical retail stores.

As it is estimated that by 2040, 95% of- purchases will be made online; it is time for retailers to face e-commerce challenges and find the most appropriate solutions for them. 

How Do You Deal with Modern E-commerce Challenges?

In Microsoft's quarterly earnings report to Wall Street, Satya Nadella - CEO of Microsoft - explains via her statement on digital transformation in e-commerce challenges, that it is already fueling the argument that the e-commerce sector will boom in the "new normal" saying:

"We’ve seen two years' worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security... we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of everything remote."

Salla has previously answered the question "How do you handle daily online store challenges like a pro?" And because e-commerce challenges are ongoing with consumers' growing reliance on online shopping, e-commerce opens doors of opportunity for many entrepreneurs. Salla is always keen to offer new things to its clients and merchants; therefore, today it presents you with the most important solutions you might face in modern e-commerce challenges:

1- Digital Identity Verification

When a shopper visits an e-commerce site, how does the retailer know if this person is who they say they are? Is the shopper entering accurate information? Is the shopper truly interested in the e-commerce products?

If you don't have accurate details or information, how do you track all of that to overcome the most important e-commerce challenges? The solution lies in your investment in online identity verification.

How?

There are various ways to integrate digital brand identity verification, some examples include:

• Biometrics.

• Artificial Intelligence.

• Single Sign-On (SSO).

• One-Time Password (OTP).

• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).

2- Cybersecurity and Electronic Data

When it comes to online commerce, one of the biggest e-commerce challenges you can face is security breaches. A lot of information or data is involved while dealing with e-commerce, and a technical issue with this data can cause severe damage to a retailer's daily operations as well as brand image.

What is the solution?

Be vigilant and always back up your data. Then, you can install security plugins on your website to prevent it from being hacked. There are also many plugins you can choose from, to find what works best for your e-commerce sites.

3- Attracting the Ideal Customer

Shoppers have countless options to choose from these days, making this one of the e-commerce challenges. If they are, for example, looking to buy a handbag, they perform some thorough research before finalized purchasing that handbag. If customers have multiple options, how do you make sure they will inevitably choose you?  How do you search for the ideal customer who wants your product, at the price that suits you? And how do you search for places you can ship to?

Here is the solution:

You can partner with companies that help you target your customers. Visual marketing is also preferred over traditional marketing; due to its ability to target your ideal customer.

While this might not happen overnight, with careful fine-tuning and analytical testing, your products can appear to potential customers on different social media platforms.

4- User Experience

User experience is the key to the success of an e-commerce website. Shoppers expect an experience similar to what they would get in physical stores without any misunderstanding or issue occurring. Therefore, and to avoid any possible barriers between the customer and the merchant, segmenting the website and customizing products based on shopper preferences is essential.

Salla suggests the following to you:

There are several ways to improve the user experience. The most important is to have a clean, organized, and simple website so that shoppers can navigate easily. The next point would be to have more clear (Call To Action) CTAs to prompt them to make a purchasing decision, so the shopper knows exactly what to do.

• 3D, Augmented Reality, and Video.

Video is a way to engage shoppers in the e-commerce experience as well as the brand. An engaging video creates an opportunity to evoke emotion and sharing, giving shoppers something to interact with.

• Omnichannel Experience

Don't stop at the boundaries of your digital storefront. Instead, the brand experience must tell a consistent narrative across channels, devices, and contexts – including your online store.

-One great example of a retail company used FaceTime calls to enable customers to ask many questions about the product and what they want.

5- Customer Loyalty

Here are two facts that illustrate the importance of customer loyalty: 

• Acquiring a new customer can cost up to 5 times more than retaining an existing one.

• The success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while it drops to only 5-20% when selling to a new customer.

The facts mentioned above are a testament to how crucial customer retention or loyalty is in e-commerce challenges. Once a customer makes a purchase or uses a service from a retailer, they must ensure they retain that customer for life. 

But how is this possible?

These are some different methods offered by Salla that can be used to retain customers:

• Get excellent customer service: A customer is happy to buy a great product, but they are absolutely thrilled when customer service is outstanding. 

• Stay in touch with customers through their preferred method: whether it's an email, SMS, or blog posts. You must also make sure to know what is best for your customer. The point of this is to inform them about new products, promotional offers for sales, and special coupon codes for being loyal customers.

6- From the Shopping Stage to the Buying Step

One of the biggest e-commerce challenges is converting visitors into paying customers. An e-commerce site might have high traffic, lots of clicks and impressions, but they aren't generating the sales they expected. 

What can they do to get more sales?

First and foremost, you must understand why shoppers are not converting: are you targeting new customers? Does your mobile website run smoothly? Do your online platforms face technical challenges all the time? Does your customer base trust you? Do you personalize your website for your customers? Always think from the shopper's perspective and see if you are doing everything possible to move them from the shopping stage to became a buying customer.

7- Competitor Analysis

Have you heard of the Jam Experiment? It is quite a controversial result, which is the fewer choices you offer to customers, the more likely they are to actually buy something! Many people these days feel overwhelmed by the universe of options available, making this a major challenge in e-commerce. A simple search (personalized search) for something like headphones will give you thousands of options.

 How Does a Shopper Make a Choice?

From a retailer's perspective, how do they stand out from the crowd? How do they bring shoppers to their website, instead of buying a similar product from their competitors?

Salla solves this in 3 steps:

• Always conduct a thorough analysis of your competitors: Find out what products they sell, how they generate leads, and how they communicate with their customers.

•  The next step will be to make sure you stand out: whether it's the colors you use, the excellent functionality of your website, or an amazing user experience.

•  Finally, offer unique and relevant services or products to your customer base.

[Excellence] Professional Product Packaging: From Your Store to the Consumer's Door

8- Pricing and Shipping

We've all heard of customers who prefer to buy products from places where free shipping is available, as e-commerce giants like Amazon offer attractive shipping deals so customers rarely want to look elsewhere. 

How can a merchant reduce shipping costs?

While not all e-commerce sites can completely eliminate shipping costs, always look for options that suit your customer base. Does a subscription reduce shipping costs? Will a certain time of the month offer them lower shipping costs? Or is there a reliable carrier that offers a cheaper rate? Make sure you do your research and find the best possible solution for your shoppers.

9- Product Return and Refund Policies

According to ComScore, over 60% of online shoppers view a retailer's return policy before making a purchase. When an e-commerce site states "no returns or refunds," it makes shoppers nervous and less likely to trust the retailer. When shopping online, customers want the flexibility to make a mistake that doesn't cost them much.

Suggested Solution:

Customer satisfaction is the most important factor for any retailer. Therefore, having a flexible return and refund policy not only helps keep customers satisfied with you and your commercial store, but it also helps them make purchases without feeling stressed.

And regarding online payment gateways, Salla platform offers various payment solutions to suit all preferences, whether for you as an e-merchant, or according to the customer's preferred payment method. You will find that it offers the possibility of paying via PayPal - the most famous, trusted, and secure global payment platform on the internet. 

This, of course, is in addition to traditional payment solutions represented by credit cards, whether Visa or MasterCard, while providing the highest security standards.

As for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Salla platform offers the Mada payment method provided by Payfort - an Amazon company - with payment fees significantly lower than those imposed by PayPal or local banks.

We also discussed this in detail in the article "3 Steps to Start Your E-commerce with Salla," explaining how to activate your preferred payment method for your online store.

10- Marketing Budgets

With digital marketing being the standard for most e-commerce businesses, more companies are flocking to spend on digital and social media advertisements. As the demand for clicks and virtual ad space increases, so does the price. This can become extremely expensive for small and medium retailers. In fact, this is one of the biggest e-commerce challenges they face.

Salla's solution is quite simple:

Create specific customer personas that will help your business target your social media and digital advertisements, significantly improving the return on investment (ROI) on your spending.

11- Analytical Technologies and Using Them to Face Your E-Commerce Challenges

Choosing the right technology or the perfect partner will make or break your business. A retailer's growth might be stunted because their technology limits and hinders them, or because they hired the wrong agency to help manage their projects.

There are many aspects that must be ready for retail success, but a solid technological foundation is crucial.

Be a partner with Vue.ai, a unified visual AI platform that redesigns the future of retail to fix all the e-commerce challenges you face. Using image recognition and data science, Vue helps retailers generate information about product pricing and customers, integrating it with market insights to drive growth.

Nothing has pushed e-commerce forward like the circumstances of 2023. While there have been many exciting and positive changes, there are still online businesses struggling with the continuous challenges e-commerce brings. 

The solutions mentioned above are fixes that can help any e-commerce business get closer to their ideal customers and target sales.