According to Australia Post’s recent Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, Aussies spent $63.8 billion on online goods in 2022, accounting for 18.1% of the total retail spend.
This growing figure is yet another reason why businesses should invest in an online store, and an ecommerce consultant would be just the person to help make it happen.
Ecommerce consultants and ecommerce consulting agencies work closely with clients to boost productivity and identify opportunities. They are experts in a wide range of areas, from website design and digital marketing, to logistics and legal, and it’s their job to ensure all avenues have been explored to maximise a business's chance of success – saving the business owner time and money.
Read on to find out exactly what ecommerce consulting can do to boost your business!
Improve Conversion Rates
One of the first things an ecommerce consultant will do when getting to know your business is to analyse your conversion rate. The formula for calculating this is ‘clicks’ divided by ‘actions’, and the higher your conversion, the more fruitful your online business is.
So, if your conversion rates are low (under 2–5%) some attention is needed.
An ecommerce consultant will explore and test the functionality of your online store. With years of experience under their belt working on various transactional platforms like Shopify and Amazon, eBay and Etsy, they will no doubt already have ideas in mind about what changes should be made – big or small.
The suggestion posed the most is improving and streamlining the site’s overall user experience (UX). To successfully optimise conversion rates, friction points that crop up anywhere from the product pages to the checkout need to be addressed. These are things that were set–up during the app development stage, but they can be continually adjusted.
For example, a busy interface with too much text or too many buttons and pop–ups will put off a potential customer. Or if there’s an error during the payment process, that will explain why customers keep abandoning their carts.
Create Digital Marketing Campaigns
Marketing can be a bit of a minefield for new or evolving businesses. With so many types of marketing out there, from print, pay–per–click and email, to search engine optimisation (SEO), social media, influencer and acquisition, it’s almost impossible to know what will benefit a business the most.
For an ecommerce consultant, this is their bread and butter.
The reasoning is simple: the only way people will find your site and services/products, is if your site shows up early in a Google search engine result (SERPs). Visibility means viability, and a consultant will work with you to develop strategies for both organic and paid plans.
A marketing agency’s ecommerce consulting services will include conducting thorough research before making any significant changes or launching any new campaigns. They will look at the latest industry data to identify trends, and look at competitors to compare engagement and appeal. They will take a deep dive into the businesses trajectory and key performance indicators (KPIs) to see where they used to sit, where they are now and where they want to be.
Ideas for improving lead generation could be updating the content on your site to be more SEO friendly, running targeted advertising on your social media channels or hosting a competition to bring in more traffic.
Make Products & Processes Profitable
No matter what industry you’re in – fashion, furniture, health and beauty, or homewares and decor, jewellery and novelty gifts – if you sell stock, this part of an ecommerce business consultant’s job is for you.
Your products are what makes you unique and they are what makes you money, so making sure they are being presented and promoted in the best light possible is critical.
An external consultant comes to your company with fresh eyes, a new perspective and a lot of knowledge, so their opinion of what’s working and what isn’t is worth listening to. They can help you optimise your existing catalogue and/or you expand your range, as well assess your current price points.
Often, the item price or shipping price alone can be the reason why no–one is buying your product. In the long term, it all comes down to nailing that balance between profitability and affordability.
Ecommerce consultants can make an online business more efficient too, which is another way to boost profit margins. They can introduce new software that automates basic, everyday tasks to save time, and even negotiate contracts with suppliers or partners to get better deals.
Monitor Reviews & Results
The point of ecommerce business consulting isn’t just to implement changes and hope for the best. Outcomes and learning curves are paramount, so the collaboration between consultant and client is often ongoing.
Customer feedback and testimonials are important, as they can set the tone for how well your brand is received, recommended and interpreted on the internet. Too many negative comments will definitely turn customers away!
Keeping on top off new reviews and requests is time consuming though, so outsourcing to an ecommerce consultant makes sense. They can make you aware of any particularly good or bad reviews and observations, and advise you how best to respond, as well as make suggestions for how to use this kind of engagement to your advantage.
And finally, the most important follow–up phase is to monitor and evaluate the results of everything tried to date – i.e., whatever was done to improve conversion rates, whatever digital strategy and marketing techniques were launched, and whatever product and partnership changes were made to improve overall profits.
Your consultant will do an audit of all the recent updates and run comparisons. The ideal outcome, of course, is that all your combined efforts have paid off and business is going well. This can be determined by an increase in website traffic and sales, and more interest across multiple channels. However, if things don’t look like they’re improving or they’re getting worse, they can show you why they think that is and change tack to get better results.
TR Consulting offers a range of business and ecommerce consulting services. Get in contact with us today to find out how we could help your business grow online!
