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Transition From Brick and Mortar Store To Click and Mortar Store (And Tips to Promote it)

With the brick and mortar model hitting a snag last year, multiple businesses jumped on the e-retail bandwagon. Some even transitioned to online-only stores. An e-commerce store offers certain advantages that a physical store does not, like, the ability to sell 24/7 and a wider audience to market to. However, this ease of accessibility has resulted in an influx of online merchants, dramatically increasing the competition and marketing noise across the internet. The question arises, how do you offer customers value in this highly competitive market?

Here, your experience in running an offline store will come in handy. A brick-and-mortar store is the physical representation of the brand and you’ve already invested a good amount of time and resources into establishing its identity. Therefore, one part of the equation is complete. In this article, we have curated a list of 5 essentials for setting up a successful online store.

“Leverage your offline brand identity to drive your e-commerce business to the top.”

Consider These 5 Factors While Setting Up Your Brandstore

1. Choose a platform according to your business model

The most important step while transitioning from offline to an online store is setting up a website. In the past few years, multiple web hosting and site-building platforms have sprung up. Finding the one that works for you is not easy. It is as important as finding the right location for your next offline store. Therefore, conduct thorough research before making any platform decision.

One rule holds for both online and offline business: Moving is time-consuming. Transferring all the product details from the physical store to an online storefront can be quite tedious and expensive. Choose a scalable platform by identifying your current needs and forecasting your future requirements. Invest in accurate growth projections before making any decisions to avoid outgrowing the platform.

Quick Tip: If you want a customizable and integration-ready platform that can be scaled easily, then Kartify is your best bet. Request your free DEMO now!

2. Select integrations based on your brandstore requirements

After finding a platform to suit your business model, it’s time to explore integrations for payment, design, and shipping that are compatible with it.

Extensions or plugins are software additions designed to fulfill certain tasks that the platform cannot. They are either produced by the parent company or third-party vendors. A few of them are free, others require a one-time payment, and other work on a monthly subscription model. Accurately defining your needs will assist you in cost projection.

For instance, you can not run a successful online store if the customers can’t pay for the products or services they want. Make sure your store accepts all major methods of payment.

Quick tip: If you want to add third-party integrations without third-party sandbox apps, you must prefer Kartify. It provides you basic key integrations, making it easier for you to operate. With more than 60 integrations, all the features in Kartify are regularly updated with new versions. Request your free DEMO now!

3. Choose the right products

While it can be quite tempting to hit the ground right out the gate, we advise you to start slow and test the waters when moving to an online store. Instead of adding all the products to the site, start by offering only your best-sellers. It will facilitate gauging the popularity of the store and determining the best course of action.

4. Consider changes in product prices

Multiple factors determine the pricing for online products. While moving from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce, the product prices will not stay the same. The two main components are –

Determine the sales tax ahead of time. In the beginning, figure out sales tax in your own country, as you start shipping worldwide, research the tax structure of other countries.
The next online-specific pricing factor is the shipping cost. Figure out whether or not the product price should increase to offer a flat rate or free shipping option to shoppers. A common practice for new click and mortars that operate on a small budget is to offer free shipping over a certain amount.

5. Choose your shipping partner wisely

One of the biggest challenges of the click-and-mortar model is shipping goods to customers. The shipping fee may be detrimental to your business and can put an end to your digital venture before it even starts. While selecting a dedicated shipping service, consider these three things:

Cost

Will the shoppers pay the cost of shipping or is it too expensive? If you decide on free shipping, can you handle the overhead without making the customers pay for it?

Speed

How long does it take for the shipping service to deliver the products? Does it offer express delivery? Is it safe?

Inventory

After adding e-commerce to your services, you need to maintain a large inventory to keep up with the increased demand. Do you have the extra space necessary to store your goods? If the answer is no, search for shipping companies that offer inventory space for a fee.

Want to know the complete process of order fulfillment? Read on!

Quick Tip: To make sure you focus time and resources on product development, ANS Commerce India’s #1 full-stack e-commerce service provider manages warehouses and supply chains across channels, including multi-category storage support and return management with JIT flexibility. Request your free DEMO now!

Now that you have launched your brandstore, it’s time to promote it. Below, we have mentioned 4 ways to get the word out about your digital venture.

4 Proven Ways To Promote Your Online Store For Boosting Website Traffic

1. Share on social media

Social media is an excellent way to keep your existing and potential customers up to date on business operations, product and service offerings, sales, and more. Stories on Facebook or Instagram offer an off-the-cuff opportunity to connect with followers. Leverage it to provide regular offerings, behind-the-scenes, or create a unique experience for your audience.

2. Spread the word with email marketing

An email marketing campaign represents an important touchpoint with existing and potential customers. These are the people who have shown an active interest in your business offerings. It means they are just a few steps away from becoming your paying customers. Now, it is your turn to convert them by offering value in one of two forms: either promotional value or engaging and useful content.

For instance, if you sell international cosmetic and skincare products, offering makeup hygiene tips or Black Friday discount coupons is a great way to serve your customers and subtly encourage them to make a purchase.

How to escalate your business with Email Marketing? Read on!

Quick Tip: As a physical store owner, you already have a strong customer base. Collect their email addresses to grow your biggest digital marketing asset.

3. Curate valuable content

Content marketing is relatively new to the digital marketing domain. It has gained popularity due to the increased competition in the online marketplace. To deal with the influx of new businesses, Google has made it a priority to show the most relevant result for every search query.

Suppose you manage a fashion and clothing brandstore. The competition in this niche is fierce. To appear in that desired featured snippet, you need to stand out; the content should be more relevant and valuable than your competitor’s. To accomplish that, you need to have a strategic long-term content plan.

To implement content marketing successfully, identify and curate the type of content your target audience will prefer.

Want to improve your content marketing strategy? Explore our complete guide to persona-driven content marketing for your e-commerce brandstore!

Quick tip: We advise creating a content marketing calendar and following it religiously. It makes sure that you’re regularly posting new content that is valuable and relevant to your audience.

“Creating compelling content requires periodic analysis of user behavior and content performance.”

4. Boost website traffic with pay per click (PPC) marketing

In layman’s terms, PPC marketing involves designing ads via an ad platform such as Google Adwords. Once created, you then bid on the amount you’re willing to pay to get it displayed when searchers use relevant keywords.

PPC offers certain direct and indirect benefits. When a user clicks on your ad it leads to an increase in website traffic. Now, you have the opportunity to make a sale, gain a new subscriber, or provide valuable information to the visitor.

Even if a user doesn’t click on the Google ad, he/she now knows your name. It’s called an ad impression. It could lead to a later visit or sale.

How Can ANS Commerce Assist You?

If you are worried about your transition from brick and mortar store to e-commerce, we are here to assist. We provide full-stack e-commerce solutions for businesses to scale brandstore and leverage marketplaces. Our in-house tech, Kartify, delivers an exceptional e-commerce experience and is fully customizable. Request your free DEMO now!

What can you expect from ANS Commerce?

Account Hygiene: We regularly check the brand logo and guidelines for creatives. Our dedicated team creates and presents periodic account progress reports
Tech & Product: We conduct website load time optimization to reduce site abandonment and provide one-page checkout to facilitate faster transactions
Operational Execution: We assist in onboarding, listing products, price management, inventory, and promotions to drive topline and bottom-line

Success in the e-commerce domain is not instant, but it’s still quite formulaic. Leverage your brick and mortar assets wisely, pay attention to detail, understand your target audience, plan diligently, and execute timely. Most importantly, remember that long-term success requires a consistent investment of time and resources.

Prominent Tips to remember while choosing an E-commerce Warehouse

Are you forgetting something important in the hassle and excitement of setting up an e-commerce store? We just wish you are not forgetting the most important aspect i.e. Warehousing, which is the heart of any e-commerce company and can make a huge difference to your bottom line. A good warehouse and inventory management system can let you save a huge sum of money while meeting your customer demands at the same time. Well, we all know that a good warehouse has infinite benefits to your e-commerce business, but the question is ‘How can we select a good e-commerce store’. Well, we are here with the ultimate solution.

“An e-commerce warehouse is a lot more than a place for just storing your goods. It is a place that keeps your goods safe and secured, helping you track their movement.”

Factors every e-commerce merchant must keep in mind while selecting a Warehouse!

1. Location proximity

There is no benefit of having a warehouse that is distant from your consumers as it will take huge travel costs and time, which will eventually dissatisfy your customers. But on the other end choosing a warehouse close to your customers can reduce your travel costs and time. This way you can make your customers happy. Your first step before selecting a warehouse must be determining your consumer base by pinpointing the regions you are thinking to serve.

Quick Tip: In the process of choosing a warehouse, you must ensure that it has substantial prerequisites for your goods

2. Number of SKUs

Warehouses not only store goods but also serve us with functions like tracking inventory items, estimating adequate storage, and calculating storage charges. Well, these functions are completed by Stock Keeping Units. This is the ultimate solution for companies who deal in a diverse and variety of products as they are able to determine stock levels easily. They don’t have to pay much and are able to turn over their inventory quickly and efficiently. Large companies have plenty of SKUs in their warehouses and that is the main reason for their smooth operations. That’s why you must see the number of SKUs before selecting any warehouse.

Quick tip: If you have large SKUs and slow turnover rates, standalone warehousing will be a cost-effective solution for you.

3. Integration of Advanced technology

With the development of technology, warehouse operations are drastically evolving day by day. It provides a number of benefits such as faster production times, diminished risk of processing errors, better management of inventory, and many more. Well, this makes one thing clear that a warehouse must be integrated with the best and advanced technology to get smoother operations. Enhanced services driven by advanced technology such as pick by vision, drones electronic data interchange, etc. are a must in warehouses these days.

Quick tip: Softwares are less expensive and offer you a better rate of investment than automated solutions.

4. Availability of Workforce

The physical space of your warehouse is not just a location as it has many more factors inclined to it. One of the prominent factors is the availability of the workforce. Well, the workforce is not just people willing to work but people with proficient skills willing to work at the right price. It’s better to determine your workforce needs beforehand. You can do that by researching the demographics of the area by gathering knowledge on their education level and average incomes. Your work doesn’t end by hiring the right set of the workforce as you need to even understand them well as this will affect your turnover rates, employee retention, and productivity.

Want to know the complete process of order fulfilment? Read on

5. Flexibility and longevity

It is integral to think long-term and understand the potential of your warehouse. For that, you must analyze the growth of your company in the future. For instance, if you think there is room for expansion in the coming years then your warehouse must be flexible enough to adapt to the change and accommodate the growth.

6. Return Management

If you are running an e-commerce business you already know that returns are a vital part of this business. It’s very important to manage the returns successfully as it is normal for people to return items that do not meet up their expectations afterward. To execute return management efficiently, your warehouse must have all the functions to handle the return process efficiently once the goods arrive back at the warehouse. The warehouse must refurbish the returned stock properly for a quick turnaround in inwarding, resulting in less blocked inventory. Also, it saves time and cost.

Quick tip: Don’t know how to manage order returns? Leave everything to ANS Commerce as we assist businesses with an efficient return management system that too with JIT Flexibility as per business requirement for fresh and returns inward management. Request your free DEMO now!

How can we assist you?

If you are worried about how to manage your inventory, then we are here to assist. With end-to-end fulfillment and logistics- from the product in warding to delivery, ANS Commerce is specialized to cater to all your e-commerce needs. We manage the warehouse and supply chain across all channels, including multi-category storage support and return management with JIT flexibility. Request your free DEMO now!

What can you expect from ANS Commerce?

Order processing: We handle the complete ‘pick-patch-dispatch’ process and the manifestation of your B2C orders, including B2B marketplace delivery with integrated logistics
Return Management: We receive, re-label, and pack products with better QC standards; report cancellations, and returns
Third-party coordination: We ensure timely delivery with an optimized cost for both domestic and international inventories. Also, we enable marketplace shipment with trusted partners – Delhivery, Bluedart, FedEx, India Post, etc.

Choosing a warehouse is not an easy task as it requires a lot of planning and researching. But we assure you that keeping in mind these factors you will be able to choose the best warehouse for your e-business that will make the best of its potential.

E-commerce Blogging Tips: 7 Brilliant Suggestions to Boost your Brandstore Sales!

E-commerce businesses put constant efforts into marketing and branding strategies. Be it their brandstore, or social media channels, you will find aesthetically pleasing visuals with short-crisp content.

Now, visit your favorite brand’s website and check their blog segment. You will hardly find any blog. This is one of the biggest mistakes businesses commit. What they don’t understand is, to communicate their offerings with the users, social media and brandstore are not enough, especially if you are a B2C business.

Blogging not only helps your customers understand your brand better but also increases your inbound traffic.

“While your blog must add value to the reader’s knowledge, it must harness the power of persuading them a step further.”

7 Incredible Blogging Tips to Rev Up your E-Commerce website!

1. Focus on value-added content

Marketers focus on quantity than quality when it comes to writing blogs. The trick might stand true for social media, but for blogs, create content to entertain, educate and empower your audience. If your write-up is not adding value to your reader’s lifestyle, it’s of no use. To make it winsome, study the needs of your audience first, then make the content accordingly.

Quick tip: Data and stats add a context and support your statement. Try to use numbers as often as possible. For example, you are a business dealing in alcohol-free fragrances. To sell your offerings, tell people about the disadvantages of alcoholic perfumes in numbers, supporting your statement. Additionally, you can also mention the benefits of using alcohol-free fragrances while featuring your product portfolio.

2. Don’t lose the consistency

Focusing on quality doesn’t mean you will be inconsistent and post once every six months. Consistency is a must to attain traffic. Post at least twice every week to notify your customers. Keeping your posting schedule consistent makes it easier for the readers to expect new content from you. If you can’t manage, you can even hire people on a freelance basis. Seeking help from a professional would only strengthen your content marketing strategy. Be consistent, you will see the results automatically.

3. Tie your blogs to the product pages

For all SEO professionals, this is one of the best techniques to increase your website’s ranking organically. Curate content for the blog while linking your offerings. For example, you are writing a blog on “10 bootcut jeans you can’t afford to ignore in 2021.” Here, you can add your brand’s products to the blog with a ‘BUY NOW’ button. Also, remember not to add too many links as this can create clutter in the minds of the users.

Quick tip: Can’t boost your website’s traffic organically? Well, invest in our performance marketing solution, made with a special focus on lead generation and ROAS. To know more, request your free DEMO now!

4. Put your emphasis on meta descriptions

Adding a meta description in your blog is similar to adding ad copy in your google ads. Without a meta description, it’s impossible for the blog to rank. Moreover, it’s one of the first things people read when your blog comes in the search results. Many e-commerce websites, either don’t use meta description or use the same content for all the blogs. If you want people to read your blogs, you need to create fresh meta descriptions for each blog.

5. Don’t forget to optimize your images

Images act as proof of your written content. If they are pixelated and don’t resonate with your text, they are of no use. To optimize your images for the blogs, it’s important to use high-quality images. But, don’t forget to compress so that they don’t take time to load. Secondly, use the ALT tag in your image code. It helps your images to appear in the google image search.

Want to design your e-commerce website from scratch, but don’t know how to? Read on!

6. Talk less about your products and more about people

Times have changed and so have people. There’s no room for fancy content with persuasive promotions. People read blogs to either gain knowledge or get entertained. They don’t want to read your sales pitch in the shape of a blog. Understand your audiences’ needs first and then make your content accordingly. In short, don’t surround your blog with the offerings, rather give people the solutions for their problems. Once they start trusting you, they’ll definitely buy from you.

7. Simplify your URLs

Your blog’s ranking is directly dependent on its URL. If you use complicated URLs with too many conjunctions and articles, your sites’ ranking will immediately dip as it’s hard for search engines to read. Try to use simple plain English. Also, don’t forget to include the primary and secondary keywords in the URL.

How can we help you?

Are you still confused as to how you can market your offerings and fuel your e-commerce business? Consult us for all your e-commerce needs and we will help you scale your business. From performance marketing to warehousing & order fulfillment to marketplace management to brandstore tech, leave everything e-commerce to ANS Commerce. To know more about us and our offerings, request your free DEMO now!

Quick tip: Still couldn’t understand how can you make the most out of blogging? Below are the links to the blog segments of some of our partner brands’ websites. Check it out and ace the knack of blogging!
https://www.mystereparis.com/blog
https://www.kayayouth.com/blog
https://blog.ruosh.com/
https://blog.khadims.com/
https://blog.rossobrunello.com/

Many brands don’t understand the importance of blogging, but we hope you will follow the above-mentioned tips to get increased visibility and brand awareness. Also, don’t forget to share your blogs on social media channels as they help you create backlinks, increasing the engagement of your content.

6 Important Things to do Before the Financial Year Ends

The end of the financial year is approaching while reminding us of all the important fillings we need to wind up. From bank statements to managing physical inventory to claiming additional depreciation, there are various things an entrepreneur must do before the financial year ends. It is also integral for investors to collate the income earned from different sources of investment such as capital gains or dividends so that they could calculate the tax liability.

If you are confused as to what important things you will need to complete before the financial year ends, we are here for you. We have curated 6 things you should do before the financial year ends. So let’s dive in.

Checklist of 6 important things to do before the Financial Year ends

1. Try to verify your Loan accounts

Loans and debts are common in the world of business. To scale your business, it’s important to expand capital that can only be generated by loans. But you need to check and verify the loan accounts before the financial year ends. If you have taken any loan, try to pay it on or before 31st March 2021. This will help you improve the balance sheet position of the Debt Equity Ratio.

Quick Tip: While adjusting your bank statements if you discover any errors, you can compare it to cash a/c in the general ledger of the bank statement to spot the errors.

2. File the TDS Returns

Business entities are required to file TDS returns timely to avoid late filing charges along with interest on late payments.

3. Calculate the GST turnover while reconciling GST ledgers

If your business is not under the GST registration limit of ₹40 lakh, you should keep the track of your turnover. The total turnover up to 31st March should be calculated for the purpose of determining the important aspects such as the GST registration, eligibility of opting composition scheme, and applicability of filing of specific returns.

Moreover, GST payments are done either via tax credit or challan payments. You should reconcile the Cash Ledger, Credit Ledger, and Liability Ledger on the GSTN portal along with your books of accounts. Make sure all the entries in the books are done before the year-end. Also, don’t forget to reconcile debit notes, credit notes, rate difference, discount, etc.

4. Conduct a physical inspection of inventory

Take a physical inventory of Raw Materials, Work In Progress, Finished Good, Stores & Spares, Loose Tools, Consumables, etc. as on 31st March 2021. Also, compile the information of its market value as on 31st March 2021 which would be essential at the time of valuation to be adopted in the Balance Sheet as on 31st March 2021.

5. Purchase Of Fixed Assets to claim depreciation

If you have purchased any tangible or intangible fixed asset during the previous financial year and made it put to use for the period of 180 days or more, depreciation will be allowed at the percentage prescribed for that kind of asset.

If you have purchased an asset for a period of fewer than 180 days, the depreciation will be restricted to 50% of the amount calculated at the prescribed percentage.

So, if you are planning to purchase any fixed asset, purchase it and put it to use for business purposes on or before 31st March 2021 so as to avail deduction of depreciation at least at the rate of 50% of the normal rate of depreciation.

6. Calculate Payable Advance Tax

Income tax follows the principle of “Pay As You Earn”. Therefore, during the financial year – 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021 – for the advance Income tax which was payable on or before 15th June 2020, 15th September 2020, 15th December 2020 & 15th March 2021, if you have not paid at least 90% of his tax payable by way of the advance tax, your interest will start from 1st April 2021 till the month of the payment.

A good accounting system prepares you for the best for the coming financial year. It’s substantial to keep your worksheet updated especially during the Financial year-end to avoid last-minute hassle and stress.

Brilliant Ideas to Pump Up your Business with Visual Marketing!

Did you know, the human mind perceives images way faster than text? Well, enough of our textbook definition, let’s talk realistically about it!

People these days have become more conscious about the products they see online. No sooner have they come across a product visual than they made the purchase. This is the magic of Virtual Marketing. Well, It’s high time you make use of Visual marketing to its full potential. Let’s get started!

“From complementing the boring text to narrating a story, Visual Marketing is all you need to boost your sales.”

Here are some tips to use Visual marketing efficiently, leveraging great results, and making the best use of your content in innovative ways!

1. Employ GIFs and other creative visuals into the branded content

To create fun and humor into your content, GIFs are considered to be one of the best options. Every marketer has a goal to be one step ahead of the competitors and GIFs are making that happen as they catch the attention of people quickly. Be it blogs, emails, or landing pages, social media channels, they work like magic to grab your customer’s attention.

2. Take on User Generated Content

These days authenticity and engagement are the priority for every brand. To meet these objectives, brands should indulge in User Generated Content. UGC, as the name suggests, is the content curated by the customers, employees, etc. via photos, videos, audios on online and social media platforms. For instance, if your customer is happy with your brand, they won’t mind advocating your business on their social media channels with pictures, videos, telling people how good your offerings are.

Also, for a direct-to-consumer brand – that deals directly with the customers without the intermediary distribution channels – UGC turns out to be the best strategy. Include both the branded and user-generated content in the ratio of 8:2 respectively and experience the results yourself.

3. Go live frequently on social media channels

If you have an e-commerce business, this is one of the best social media features you can employ in your brand strategy. From showcasing collections, to live demonstrations, you can make the most out of Live features. And the best part is, it is less populated and an incredibly low effort way to interact with your customers!

4. Use a visual call to action

“A call to action button acts as a virtual handshake, inviting people to your website.“

A visual call to action is gaining more significance these days. Generally, marketers use CTA in content where they insert the link of the product page. But you can use a graphic/ creative/ image to draw attention immediately.

For instance, a customer sees a complete video on your website, giving you an impression that they liked the video. Now it’s your responsibility to make a call-to-action and ask them further with a visual, inserting the link of the website you want them to visit.

5. Incorporate Memes into your strategy

What is the latest trend of a meme going on these days? There would be hardly anyone who could not answer this question. Memes have become a part of our daily lives! Well, we can even use them in marketing. The amalgamation of laughter and entertainment builds an emotional connection between the brand and its customers. If your audience can’t relate to your meme, it’s of no use! Choosing memes for attracting customers could be an incredible decision for your brand if done right.

Quick tip: You can also incorporate topical advertising in your strategy as customer engagement is at the peak when they are entertained. Topical memes are based on trending issues, letting your customers connect with you better.

6. Build a connection with your customers using visuals

To maintain your customer base, it is very important to get personal with them especially for brands where there is no physical interaction. Images or pictures have the highest audience engagement than any other type of media content. If your social media strategy has a lot of pictures related to brand promotion, chances are that even by those efforts customers do not feel a connection with you. Well, to create that sense of connectivity you can upload candid pictures or videos of your staff, warehouse, office, etc.

How can we help you?

Using visual content marketing is easy. But it’s a hard task to create visuals. Well, no worries we are here for you. From customizing ad content with our performance marketing solution to helping you create a brandstore with Kartify – our brand store tech, we have everything to help you with. Request your free DEMO now!

Visual marketing can pump up your communication level while boosting web traffic. These were some of the brilliant ideas of Visual marketing that will help to grow your online brand. So what are you waiting for? Start incorporating visual marketing strategy today and see the results yourself.

5 Reasons Why Online Businesses Must Use Omni-channel Strategy!

Have you ever noticed that the product you were looking for in an online store appears right in front of your eyes when you start browsing your news feeds? Well, that’s not magic or a coincidence. The strategy behind this marketing technique is Omni-channel. We are sure you have heard about this word. You might be thinking Omni-channel is just “another buzzword”! Well, that’s not true. It’s a business model that will actually transform the future of your online business in an optimistic way.

What is Omni-channel?

Be it a social media platform – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. or a marketplace – Myntra, Flipkart, Amazon, etc, or a traditional brick & mortar store, people are present everywhere.

“Omni-channel approach integrates all channels with each other to create a seamless shopping experience for customers.”

Omni-channel is all about engaging the people who are already interacting with your brand while creating a consistent and improved customer experience regardless of what channel they are using. With omni-channel, users can switch various channels effortlessly.

Omni-channel VS Multi-channel

It has always been believed that these above two terms can be interchangeably used. Do you also think that? Well, you are wrong here. Let’s find out why!

Multi-channel means when a brand uses multiple sales channels to communicate with the customers. But are these channels integrated with each other? Here’s when you observe the differences between Omni-channel and Multi-channel. While the latter focuses on building multiple sales channels, the former integrates all of them together to give a seamless experience.

Another big difference is, Omni-channel is a customer-focused approach whereas Multi-channel is channel-centric. It focuses on removing the friction of touchpoints between various channels and making the customer’s journey easier, while the multi-channel focuses on increasing and maximizing the channels available to customers.

5 Reasons Why Online Businesses should use Omni-Channel Strategy!

1. Offering seamless online and offline channels of sales

With the rapid expansion of digital technology, retailers have divided themselves into two teams: Online and Offline. Well, this is not about debating which one is better but bridging the gap between the two and meeting customers’ expectations. Imagine this; You visit an offline store to purchase a pair of white shoes. After reaching the location, you realize that your size is not available. To fulfil your wants even in these situations, brands have developed an in-built store on the website, giving clarity to the customers whether their desired products are available at their nearest stores or not. Ordering online and pick-up from the nearest outlet is yet another example of how omni-channel has integrated both online and offline channels of shopping.

2. Improving customer support services

“Success is impossible without treating your customers well, as the future of your brand revolves around them!”

Omni-channel improves the quality of customer support service. Suppose, you want to buy a pair of shoes from an online brand, but unfortunately, the transaction gets failed. Now you are trying to reach out to customer care, but no one is helping you with the issue. Obviously, as a customer, you were expecting better service.

Let’s grab omni-channel into the picture. Not only had you gotten an SMS after the transaction got failed – given the fact everything is integrated – but also a reassurance that you will get your money back. Moreover, you could have reached out to customer support via chat/phone or social media.

Do you want your customers to develop full trust in your brand? But the question is how? Well, the only answer is Conversational Commerce!

Quick tip: These days customers want instant solutions as they prefer to engage with brands on social media platforms. So maybe you can start reducing your social media response time and start interacting quickly with potential customers!

3. Gathering insights to target the right set of audiences

Checking your customers’ desires and wants can be challenging while running a business. Well, omni-channel keeps track of everything from the kind of products customers like, to their actual purchasing power. Be it tracking the buying journey of customers, or scrutinizing the number of people who have abandoned the cart, omni-channel helps you gather customers’ insights, giving you a better understanding of your target market. You can also keep an eye on who buys what & when. For instance, you have an online store dealing in personal & beauty care. According to data, your sales last year in the fragrance category increased amid the Diwali season and majorly from tier 1 cities. After analyzing the numbers, you will strategize more on the fragrance category with aggressive marketing collaterals, specifically targeting the people residing in metropolitan cities.

4. Increasing brand visibility

Omni-channel involves interacting with your customers across all channels including SMS, phone, social media, interactive live chats, etc. This way, it places your marketing campaign on more than one channel, increasing brand visibility. For example, you are expanding your product portfolio. To communicate the message, Omni-channel will help you spread the word across all the platforms including traditional out-of-home (OOH) advertising media such as banners, travel transit, etc.

Quick tip: Using trigger marketing messages effectively can help your brand increase customer engagement, building sustainable brand value.

5. Getting feedback easily

Feedbacks are valuable information that can be used to transform your business into something better. While the positive feedback motivates you, the negative ones help you to overcome your weaknesses. But the question arises of how to get this valuable feedback. Well, omni-channel has made it very easy as it connects with the customer from different channels, making it easier for customers to provide feedback in no time.

Quick tip: Do you want to create a social proof but don’t know how to? Associate with ANS Commerce, India’s #1 full-stack e-commerce enablers helping you scale your business online. Our brandstore tech solutions are specifically made to boost your online business while creating an incredible online presence. Request your free DEMO now!

How can we help you?

Do you want to give a seamless experience to your buyers without increasing the cost? Here’s why we are here for you. Our brandstore tech – Kartify – helps you give an omni-friendly experience to your customers by:

Enabling order fulfilment from offline shops for online orders
Integrating with leading partners such as Fynd, Arvind, Unicommerce etc.
Conducting offline surveys, cash return

Waste no time and request your free DEMO now!

A proactive omni-channel strategy is imperative to exercise. So, if you want to build and sustain a meaningful yet long-term relationship with your customers, go Omni-friendly today!

Social Justice Day 2021 | 6 Corporate Social Responsibility Activities Every Online Business Must Indulge In!

Social Justice is not just a responsibility but a path every individual should walk on. Moreover, it’s the duty of each organization to follow norms along with indulging in social activities while helping society as a whole. To communicate the importance of Social Justice, February 20th every year is celebrated as Social Justice Day.

During the last decade, there has been a constant expansion in digital technology, resulting in an increase in the digital and online businesses. Especially after the pandemic, the dependence in this fast-paced industry has increased. But this has also worsened the growing digital divide in terms of the access of the internet, affordability, and availability of skills.

“To address this issue of digital divide, the United Nations (UN) has come up with the 2021 Theme: A Call for Social Justice in the Digital Economy.”

The theme outlines the efforts by the international community to look for solutions to bring about sustainable development, the promotion of full employment and good working conditions, universal social protection, gender equality and justice for all!

The advent of the internet has brought great vitality to the development of e-commerce. Many small and established e-commerce brands are taking social initiatives to build a sense of honesty in their work culture.

“Integrating social responsibility to your organization not only helps the society but also fuels your business as it gives better brand recognition, ensures growth, and increases sales!”

To celebrate and embrace Social Justice Day 2021, we have come up with the 6 best CSR activities you should swear by.

6 CSR activities every e-commerce business should swear by!

“Corporate social responsibility is the concept of management, focusing on social and environmental concerns of companies in their business operations.”

1. Protecting the environment against pollution

The environment is the most important part of our lives. All our core life functions depend on the environment. After the inception of e-commerce, we have experienced both the positive and negative impacts of technology on the environment. On one hand, it has initiated the idea of paperless billing but on the other hand, the packaging of products for home delivery demands more paper and plastic usage.

If you are willing to do something for nature, you must start doing a few changes in your operations. Instead of using plastic in the packaging, go for biodegradable packaging. It will cost you higher, but you can compensate for the cost by manufacturing products with reusable and recycled raw materials. It will cost you less and will be more feasible to carry out your business operations.

Quick Tip: To communicate the same, you can start with social media campaigns, reflecting on the need to save the environment and how you are selling products with reusable raw materials. Nowadays, consumers are looking for more sustainable and eco-friendly products.

2. Joining hands with an NGO

Corporate Social Responsibility is all about companies playing their part in society and giving back, making an effort to associate for a good cause. To support a communal cause, you can also tie up with an NGO/NPO. Consumers love to engage with brands that support a social cause. By launching corporate social responsibility campaigns, you can grab the attention of your users. Cause marketing events make your organization look more credible and reliable. Check your brand’s mission statement and find what you as an organization genuinely care about. Share it with your community. It creates a sense of trust in the minds of the user, persuading them to swear by your products.

Our take: To support the communal cause, ANS Commerce is associated with an NGO called The Earth Saviors Foundation, donating clothes and sponsoring meals to old-age and intellectually disabled people. This initiative not only gives us a sense of satisfaction but also brings a smile to our faces when we see those people getting cared for.

3. Giving jobs to marginal workers and artisans

Unemployment is one of the major social issues, making people do unethical things such as burglary. As an organization, you can definitely bring a change by giving jobs to small artisans and marginalized labourers. For instance, if you are a fashion and clothing brand dealing especially with ethnic wear, you can hire small artisans for handicrafts. This will give a sense of authenticity to your products both in terms of the quality and the cause behind them. With this amazing idea, you can put a smile on both – marginalized workers’ and consumers’ faces.

4. Engaging employees in CSR

If you want to practice social responsibility in your organization, you should first pass on the practice to your internal stakeholders. To engage your employees so they feel an emotional attachment towards their work, it’s important to organize fun office activities while promoting a work-life balance. You can also start with buddy programs to welcome new employees to the organization. Furthermore, you can also plan employee recognition programs wherein you can award the best employee of the month basis their overall performance.

Our take: To prioritize the mental health of employees, ANS Commerce introduced one monthly mandatory leave policy to promote work-life balance!

5. Protecting Customers’ Privacy

With the rapid expansion of e-commerce, privacy has become a major concern of customers as it is almost impossible to complete a transaction without giving your personal information. So it is imperative that your e-commerce platform is secure and provides customers reassurance regarding their data, especially during transactions. Also, after the pandemic, people are preferring cashless transactions over COD. This has raised the need for data privacy even more!

“Protecting customer privacy is not just a law but a moral and social obligation to treat our customers’ private information safely and fairly.”

Quick Tip: Kartify puts forward multiple layers of security for all the brandstores it hosts. Having come with cloud armour, Kartify enables security audits with regular backup and version control. Request your free DEMO now!

6. Focusing on Educational Programmes for underprivileged students

Education is not just a necessity but a mandatory thing to improve the quality of life. We see many underprivileged students who are eager to study but are unable to because of their family’s financial instability. To bring a little change, you can support the children by providing educational programs while motivating them to give the best of their potential. Additionally, you can also start with donation campaigns on your brandstore. To communicate the idea, add an option for the donation during the checkout time, making it easier for customers to support the cause.

Quick tip: You can give free textbooks to the children. You can also hold online webinars and workshops covering social concepts helping them to get an idea of society and its values.

There are many ways to make your business socially responsible. Be sincere and transparent about the information you share. The CSR concept should be natural for every e-commerce company and should focus on CSR activities.

Now that you know all about CSR, when are you integrating it into your organizational structure?

Conversational Commerce: How the Trend Has Shaped E-commerce?

Today, it has become essential for every industry to stay ahead of the most recent trends to survive, grow and fight upcoming contingencies. The e-commerce industry has revolutionized the way people shop today. But the point of focus is ‘How can we surpass the customer experience?’

Customers are the most important assets of any business, and it sometimes becomes difficult to interact with them, leading to unsatisfied customers.

Do you want your customers to develop full trust in your brand? But the question is how? Well, the only answer is Conversational Commerce!

“Conversational Commerce serves as a liaison between businesses and their customers!”

Not only does Conversation Commerce help you customize your customer’s experience, but also makes it easier for you to interact with them, creating a great impact on every touchpoint in your customer’s journey. With modern conversational commerce systems, customers & brands can interact and transact together across a variety of channels. This intuitive interface makes buying more convenient for customers, giving them a seamless and personalized experience.

Let’s dig deeper into the real definition of conversational commerce and check the two main systems brands have been using to serve their customers!

Conversational Commerce Systems

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are excellent solutions to support real-time customer service. It makes the sale process user-friendly, decreasing the gap between online and traditional shopping experiences. They provide you assistance at any time with integrated live chats and detailed FAQs.

2. Voice Assistants

We all know to what extent, Alexa and Siri have made our life easier. Not only are they used by urban households, but also help brands formulate their business plan. Not to mention, collecting reviews has never been this easy for businesses.

6 Reasons why you should use Conversational Commerce?

Conversational commerce generates profound benefits for many brands. You can make the most of conversational commerce by adding a conversational approach to the way you market and sell your offerings. To know more about this strategy, let’s read on to find the benefits of Conversational Commerce!

**1. To provide 24*7 support**

Retailers can collect information through a support system while a chatbot solves the queries of the customers. A chatbot needs to be maintained once it is set up. But once businesses integrate a chatbot, they give their brand the opportunity to connect with each and every customer 24/7 without hiring a large number of customer representatives. Though a human touch to the support is necessary, you can use the bots to cater to the initial level complaints.

2. To send order tracking deets

Integrating your brandstore with messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Hike, etc is a great way to send order updates to your customers. Additionally, you can also send new offers, discounts, etc via instant messaging. You can consider this as one of the advantages of conversational commerce. When people come across exciting offers, they often circulate them among their friends, making your promotional strategy viral.

Quick tip: Want to satisfy your customers by sending order tracking updates but don’t know how to? Kartify brandstores are integrated with WhatApp, enabling alert-based messaging and WhatsApp chatbots! To know more about it, request your free DEMO now!

3. To give accurate solutions to customers’ queries

If a customer walks into a store, they can get help from the in-store staff, asking about the quality of the product, warranty, etc. Imitating this type of experience online hasn’t been as easy and efficient. But with conversational commerce, you can make sure you solve all the queries of your customers. In addition to sending recommendations based on what is trending, stores can answer customers’ questions enabling them to make the right, convenient and suitable choice.

4. To increase customers satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction is the heart of any brand. A satisfied consumer is more likely to come back and promote your brand to others. Conversational Commerce makes the customer feel at ease when they are in your e-store. With customer care being automated, it not only saves the waiting time of the user as the bot answers their queries but also ensures they are satisfied with the quick help.

5. To reduce the Cart abandonment rate

The only downside to online shopping is customers’ scepticism towards the product quality. They generally fill their carts but don’t end up making the purchase, leading to a high cart abandonment rate. In such cases, bots come into play. A chatbot helps you solve customer queries with the best alternatives. For instance, you want to buy a pair of shoes, but you are sceptical about the material used in it. A bot can solve the query in such a case, making you purchase the product.

Is cart abandonment crippling your online business? Read more to know how to reduce the cart abandonment rate!

“Eventually, if the customer is happy the growth of the business is guaranteed!”

6. To remove manual and repetitive work

Whether it is an online retail store or a traditional store, you can’t escape from customers’ dilemma. But in the case of an online store, it becomes hectic and monotonous for the support team to clear each and every query. Here comes Chatbots in the picture with automated responses to manage hundreds of conversations simultaneously so customers don’t have to wait in line for a response.

Conversational commerce presents a huge opportunity for brands and retailers to enhance the customer experience and maximize sales across channels. It has become more important than ever because of its conversational style of interaction as it can enhance personalization and warmth in the online shopping experience.

Now that you know everything you need to know about conversational commerce, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and request a free DEMO, integrating your online store with chatbots through Kartify!

7 Constructive Tips To Design A Persuasive E-commerce Newsletter!

With the rise in online shopping, the influence of email marketing has also emerged. Gone are the times when the exchange of emails was used for mere transactional purposes. Today, almost all brands are employing content marketers to strategize and curate persuasive email copies.

When a new offer rolls out, or a new collection comes in, retailers pop their users with emails. But it isn’t enough just to send those emails. They need to be inspiring and motivating so the users actually end up making the purchase. Otherwise, your offers will be sent to spam or avoided completely. Let’s study what actually influences the effectiveness of email marketing.

Here’s How to Create a Persuasive Newsletter to Drive Customer’s Attention!

1. Keep the design elements minimal

Making your design too flashy would only result in an unsubscription. By minimal, we don’t mean boring colours and monotonous themes. Keep a balance between text and images. It’s essential to leave some negative space (white space) here and there, for the design to settle in the mind of the readers. Without that, you’ll end up creating clutter and confusion. Harmony and balance of the design elements is the key to a successful newsletter.

2. Draft short-crisp copy

Email newsletters are generally sent at the time when people are waiting to board a metro, or traveling in a cab. Optimize the content of your newsletter so that it’s easy to consume in a short time. People don’t respond to the text the way they do to the visuals and graphics. But if you keep your text rather crisp with quirky words and informal expressions, you have a chance to win attention.

3. Insert product unboxing video play button

Videos are best to engage the users, especially if they talk about the pros and cons of a product. To attach a video to your newsletter, add an image with a video play button, redirecting your user to the YouTube video. Since these videos are more about product feedback, they enhance your brand reputation and create social proof.

Quick tip: User testimonial videos should be original. To create such videos, you can request your customers to send in their video opening the product with complete details.

4. Write process tutorials with step-by-step images

Another way to entice customers is by curating tutorial content of your offerings. For example: If your business is all about leather bags, sending a tutorial on “How to clean your leather bag?” will grab attention easily. You can add CTA to the images, by linking the leather bag page of your website. Also, highlight the features of your product wisely while writing the tutorial to convert the readers.

5. Add animated GIF Images

To drop your customers in the sales funnel, it’s important to formulate a narrative. Animate promotional messages have an advantage over mundane text messages as they can tell a tale, fascinating the reader to hit the button. Now the question comes; ‘how to create them?’ There are plenty of GIFs generators, to help you create a GIF. Also, don’t use more than one GIF image to avoid any clutter. To convert the readers and generate leads, make sure the image is clickable and redirects to the page.

Quick tip: Keep your GIF size to 1 MB as a heavy newsletter can get cropped, damaging its aesthetics.

6. Include countdowns in your newsletter

To add a sense of urgency and convert your customer quickly, include a clock with countdowns of your most exciting offers. Limited offers have one advantage over the normal offers, it stimulates user interest in a jiffy. They work best at the times of spring and autumn season sales.

7. Announce contests and giveaways

Community outreach ideas such as running contests and competitions work best on social media. But newsletters are also an incredible platform to convey the message. You need to be more creative and unique to run contests over email. Scratch cards or win wheels are some of the elaborative ideas to make the most out of email marketing.

Quick tip: You can also include a simple creative, asking readers to tag your brand on social media with their videos and follow your page to win exciting prizes. This way your engagement on other social media platforms increases.

If your e-commerce store is not gaining brand visibility, then fret not and invest in our performance marketing solutions. From checking your brand logo to creating account progress reports to optimizing the load time of the website, ANS Commerce provides you with performance marketing solutions across various channels with a special focus on sales and ROAS. Request your free DEMO now!

A well-curated emailer can help you drop your customers in the sales funnel. Don’t forget to add CTA to your content with optimized HTML URLs. Also, keep the tone of your content the same for all the newsletters as it’s the voice of your brand. Follow these tips and promote your brand efficiently.

7 Customer Retention Strategies to Boost your Sales More Than Ever!

Customers are one of the biggest assets of any business. In a nutshell, any entrepreneur’s strategic planning starts and ends with building long-term relationships with customers.

There are two facets to bonding with your customers – lead generation and customer retention. While the former welcomes new customers, the latter takes care of the existing ones. Now the question is, would you rather welcome only new customers and avoid the older ones, or would like to keep a balance between the two?

“Marketers around the world put so much emphasis on nurturing new leads, they sometimes fail to entice the existing users.”

It’s important to invite new faces, but at what cost? Also, it has always been easier to hold on to the existing customers because they are aware of your services and offerings. Approaching them takes less time than it takes to attract new ones. But how can you keep your existing users engaged?

To help you maintain your loyal assets, we have come up with 7 customer retention strategies So let’s start, shall we?

7 Proven Customer Retention Strategies

1. Surprise your customers with great service

People love it when you take a step forward and value them. You can get creative in your customer support services and offer them valuable services without their knowledge, pulling off their attention. You can add thoughtful quotes with personalized messages, thanking them to buy from you. Additionally, you can give them special offers and discounts occasionally, conveying they are important for your business.

Quick tip: You can come up with creative discount codes specially made for an existing customer base, grabbing their attention. For example, coupon codes such as JUST4YOU, and WELCOME_BACK, can grab their attention immediately.

2. Get your customer’s feedback

The market forces are no more driven by your products, but they rather revolve around customers’ needs and preferences. In simpler words, it’s not about your products and their features. It’s about the people you cater to. Their likes and dislikes play a major role especially when you roll out a new product in the market. And it’s impossible to satisfy every customer without knowing their taste. With customer feedback, not only do you get to know your strengths and weaknesses but you also make them feel noticeable and valuable.

Quick tip: There are many ways to gather customer feedback. One such way is to do customer surveys. Come up with short, simple, and open-ended questions.

3. Send regular updates via email automation

Newsletters are the best way to engage your customers in your brand. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to retain customers. You can start with drip campaigns to nurture your customers with occasional updates. From time-sensitive offers to the new collection, to seasonal sales, cover each and every occasion to hit mail! To make it persuasive and attractive, use quirky content marketing strategies, grabbing the attention.

4. Start with cause marketing programs

Consumers love to engage with those brands that support a social cause. By launching corporate social responsibility campaigns, you can grab the attention of your users. It’s the best way to retain your customers as cause marketing makes your organization look more credible and reliable. Check your brand’s mission statement and find what you as an organization genuinely care about. Share it with your community. It creates a sense of trust in the minds of the user, persuading them to swear by your products.

5. Use the strategy of gamification

Focused on the mechanism of gaming, this strategy is not your regular game. It’s more of a marketing tool to pull off the customer’s attention. Rewarding your customers when they refer your app to their friends, is one of the examples of gamification. You can even create customer-oriented campaigns using gamification. For example, create a contest asking your users to refer your business to ten friends. If five of their friends purchase using their code, they will get a free product.

Quick tip: With more than 50+ third-party integrations, Kartify – our tech brandstore is pre-integrated with various loyalty programs. Get your hands on it and explore what’s best for your customer. Request your free DEMO now!

6. Organize live educational webinars to motivate your customers

Webinars are a great way to educate your customers. You can organize a webinar, revolving around an area of your business. This way you can educate your customers and ask them to purchase from you. For example: If you are an e-commerce fashion brand. You can organize a webinar, highlighting fashion branding tips. This way you can introduce your new offers and products while giving them a glimpse of how you market your brand.

Want To Drive Traffic to your e-commerce website? Click here to read 10 concrete ways to boost your website’s traffic!

7. Prepare a communication calendar

By creating a communication calendar, you get an idea of how often you interact with your customers. Even when you don’t get the answer to the feedback form, it’s your responsibility to reach out to them time and again. A communication calendar is similar to your editorial calendar. The only difference is, it tells the last time you communicated with your customers.

Quick tip: By using a communication calendar, you can check if a customer’s subscription is about to get expired. You can reach out to them before it gets expired. This helps in retaining the existing customers.

How to do it all?

From maintaining your brandstore with our in-house tech “Kartify” to assisting you with our performance marketing services, ANS Commerce is a full-stack e-commerce enabler. We strive at strategies that help you tackle all the obstacles including e-commerce marketing and brandstore hygiene. You can reduce your cart abandonment rate with our exclusive services. Request a demo for our e-commerce solutions now! Request your free DEMO now!

Customer retaining campaigns cost 10X less than lead generation campaigns. These strategies are indeed very important to be included in your marketing efforts. Start with the above 7 strategies to enjoy long-lasting benefits.