As a modern day business owner, you most likely already have an online presence. 2020 has proved that mobile and online retail sales are imperative to staying afloat. After all, with the explosive growth of eCommerce this year, online sales have increased by over 30% in Q3 alone! I don’t think much persuasion is needed to convince store owners to have an online presence these days.
With over 24 million eCommerce sites online, competition is definitely getting more cutthroat. It’s imperative that your site has the necessary functions and bandwidth to support enterprise growth. If you want your store to stand out amongst the millions of competitors out there, your website needs to have the resources and support to expand and grow.
Below are a few ways to get your site enterprise-ready for the coming years. We believe that in order to succeed in the years to come, your site should be able to handle enterprise level customers, and transform into a traffic generating and revenue driven place.
We predict that eCommerce sales will only continue to grow, surpassing in-person sales in the coming years! So let’s get your site ready to grow together!
Complexity
To be enterprise-ready means to be a top shelf product that solves complex problems for consumers and businesses. The key is taking your eCommerce store to the next level with custom IT solutions. Out of the box customizations are increasingly expected for a website to stand out from the crowd.
Basic, cookie cutter websites struggle to convert consumers nowadays, and for good reason. People love to feel like they are a part of something, not just a number in the system. Shoppers want to feel like they have options to personalize the product they are spending their money on. Content rich sites that are easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing and appealing to customer needs will be the ones to succeed.
These enterprise level sites are achievable with custom IT solutions. Taking a basic site and customizing it to achieve its highest potential will ultimately result in customer retention.
Importance of IT:
As businesses scale, their IT solutions change. What once worked may not be the right solution anymore as technology continually evolves. New apps and functionalities are needed as websites grow and expand their customer base, and companies need to keep up with the times.
Finding new apps, understanding their functionalities, and deciding what works best for a website can be overwhelming. But this struggle with technology doesn’t need to be the case for everyone. This very reason is why reliable and ongoing IT solutions are so important for a company to have.
We understand that business owners want to focus on what’s important – their business! Keeping up with the latest online trends, imperative site functionalities and developing liquid code is what IT professionals are experts in. We suggest that every business owner should have a tech team that knows how to get any site enterprise-ready, especially with the use of apps.
With the rise of ecommerce this year, certain applications have exploded in popularity. Here are a few apps we suggest that every single company needs to have in 2021:
- Subscriptions
- Product Customizations (Options)
- Custom Workflows
We have never before seen such profitable growth in such a short time period for one app than in Subscriptions. We even dedicated an article about why customization is essential to business success nowadays, with the use of Bold Subscriptions. Consumers love personalization of product choice, and the ease in having products delivered without having to leave their houses.
Offering personalized subscriptions will get your site on track to becoming enterprise ready and show your customers you’re serious and committed to providing a personalized experience.
For example, one of our clients had a subscription model for cheap and affordable razors that are delivered every month. Our client wanted to customize his subscription service and have a starter pack delivered 7 days after purchasing, and for the monthly subscription to kick in after those 7 days. This subscription personalization allowed for flexibility and a bespoke solution.
Product customization, in other words, Product Options, are downright essential to eCommerce businesses nowadays. We’ve established that consumers love customization, and Product Options provide unlimited options to stores. We have completed hundreds of Product Option customizations for our clients to allow for that extra “oomph!” customers are searching for.
Lastly, Custom Workflows are great for efficiency, streamlining the checkout process and increasing conversion rates. An intuitive workflow that is easy to follow and maximizes on-site real estate helps convert browsers to buyers. In fact, our predictions for UX/UI design include why these workflows are imperative to sites. There are a number of tools that can be implemented to make the buying process feel more natural and intuitive:
Build a Boxes
Allow customers to accumulate products in a basket at the side of the screen like at the supermarket, where they see the pricing update dynamically as they add and remove products in real time
Box Builder Workflow
Allow customers to choose the size of their box, which automatically determines how many products can be added. Then customers can pick and choose from the variety of products that are on offer.
Quizzes
Provide a step by step process for customers to respond to questions, and with that data, provide customers with products and/or subscriptions that better suit their needs
Ecommerce Platform Capabilities
The 3 most popular ecommerce platforms that allow for flexibility, customization and personalization are WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Shopify. Each has great capabilities that focus on taking your business to the next level and getting your site enterprise-ready.
Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce are open-source platforms that provide robust features and highly customizable features. Many people prefer these platforms to Shopify, due to their more affordable prices and personalization offerings.
Shopify is arguably the most popular of the three, with over 1 million stores utilizing the platform. It is the third largest online retailer behind Amazon and eBay, and boasts many great features and apps. Shopify Plus is the “enterprise level plan” for businesses bringing in more than $1 million in revenue each year.
We have developed hundreds of customizations across all 3 platforms. We are eCommerce experts that take our clients site, no matter what platform they use, to the next level!
Westmount Solution’s Ecommerce Expertise
While the back-end and coding is straightforward to developers, to the business owner it’snot necessarily so. That’s why we make it easy for store owners to manage our software on their own.
To us, developing code and developing relationships go hand in hand.
It’s important to us that our clients feel involved in the process from start to finish. We equip every client with their own set of User Guides that explain how to test each project phase and ensure quality on their end. Our Quality Engineers test each step of the project, and your dedicated Project Manager creates the guides which show you how to test it from your end. Your Project Manager is always on-hand to answer any questions or help you through the process!
This is why each client receives:
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- User-friendly solutions
- Scalable solutions (can be used and updated without being dependent on a developer)
- User Guides
IT relies on creativity and trusted people to create the code and back-end solutions your business can thrive on. Enterprise ready websites require the attention of specialized IT technicians who understand how to implement functionality properly.
We specialize in creating custom solutions, bespoke models and getting sites up and running. Hop on a call with us today to discuss leveling up and getting your site enterprise ready!
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