Thinking of Pivoting to E-Commerce? Read This First

Retailers across Victoria have woken up to the first day of Stage Four retailer restrictions. This means that brick-and-mortar stores have shut temporarily for six weeks, and will have to rely on e-commerce sales to stay afloat.

For retailers without a multichannel offering, this is the perfect time to pivot to online during the crisis. But how do you do it in an effective, seamless and cost-effective manner? Let these e-commerce experts lend a helping hand.

Joshua Emblin, Thought Leader and Advisor at commercetools:

“1. Have a complete view of your inventory;
2. Enable contactless Click and Collect;
3. Investigate if you can manage local deliveries yourself/with existing staff;
4. Utilise store staff to manage customer service channels”

 

Steven Perissinotto, Founder and Director at VetShopAustralia: 

“You need to make sure you can deliver customer support (email, phone and if possible chat). You will get waaayyyy more customer questions/ interactions than you anticipate. If you can’t, don’t even bother making your online store live – and no, customers won’t just read your FAQs.”

 

Natalie Khoury, Director of CX at MI Academy:

“Think about your product and company review strategy, people can not touch and feel the products during this time so reading reviews and gaining trust in your brand online is so important.

“Your return policy will also help customers feel comfortable buying online!

“Think about ways you can keep your team engaged and motivated during this time. Team meetings, WIPSs, scrums, training become super important. The four walls of their home will come quite hard to stay motivated and focused so make sure you have clear objectives for them, check in with video and make sure they are getting their hour of exercise each day!”

 

Bronte Cresswell, Director of Dash of Milk Agency:

“The e-commerce space is growing significantly as online traffic sees a heavy increase due to more people being at home and on social media and other platforms. It has a great opportunity for brands as while there is an increase in traffic, there is a decrease in paid competition as brands and businesses pull in expenses, meaning you can target more people for less. It’s a great time to engage with your audience, test some marketing strategies and take advantage of the current digital climate as it won’t last this way.”

 

Do you have advice for retailer pivoting to an online platform? Let us know in the comments below.

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