If you think starting and running a successful business is an easy feat, you may be wrong. There are a lot of things that you must consider. In fact, building an e-commerce business is often just as challenging as creating any traditional business. You need to hire employees, develop a solid business plan, manage sales and marketing efforts, address customers’ concerns, manage orders, and do much more.
The only difference is that you need to divert a lot of your efforts to online work. While technology plays a critical role in any industry, an e-commerce business solely relies on that to ensure smooth operations. Thus, whether you wish to get your existing business online or it’s your first business venture, make sure you use the best technology right from the get-go.
To help you with that, this article explores five technologies that you may need to build and run a successful e-commerce business. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Amazon Web Services
AWS, or Amazon Web Services, is one of the latest technologies offering a complete suite of AI services. Services like Amazon Forecast, Amazon Kendra, and Amazon Lex are helping the e-commerce industry in many ways. These services use machine learning and AI to improve customer experiences, optimize operations and drive business growth.
For instance, Amazon Kendra is an AI-based search service. It helps improve the process of searching for things on e-commerce websites. The technology works by understanding natural language intent and providing the most accurate and relevant results. This helps customers find their desired products easily.
Not only this, but many e-commerce businesses are now using these Amazon AWS AI services to detect and prevent fraudulent activities, including account takeovers and payment fraud. Likewise, these services are being used to optimize various supply chain operations. When integrated with your e-commerce platform, the technology can help forecast demand, streamline logistics, and manage inventory, leading to cost savings and improved efficiency.
2. Web Analytics
If you run an online store, you certainly want it to grow. Thus, you must actively monitor what works for your website and what doesn’t. One way to keep track of it is through web analytics. When you integrate web analytics into your website, these tools collect data from your website. You can then use this data to analyze and understand the online behavior of your visitors.
The data helps e-commerce businesses make informed and data-driven decisions. For instance, you can monitor how many visitors are coming to your website. The external source that brought them to your page, let alone the product pages that get the most attention. Today, a lot of powerful web analytics solutions offering advanced features like Google Analytics are easily available that help uncover hidden insights. In fact, you can use the video playback option to see how a visitor engages with your page or analyze what they click on, how far they scroll, and where they spend the most time on your page.
3. Intelligent Virtual Assistants and Chatbots
Intelligent virtual assistants or IVAs and chatbots are among the most effective tools to engage with customers and reduce manual work and cost. As we know, e-commerce platforms allow customers to make purchases at any time and from any location in the world. Initially, the platform faced the issue of a lack of communication or assistance. However, with the introduction of chatbots and AVIs, it is no more a problem to assist customers in real-time.
It is similar to a physical store where a customer can make the purchase and the timely assistance or advice from the salespeople related to the products’ benefits, complementary items, or even display alternatives. Today, IVAs and sales chatbots carry out the same functions on websites, messaging services like WhatsApp or mobile applications.
4. Recommendation System and Price Monitoring Tools
Since today’s consumers are constantly flooded with different suggestions, they now prefer to receive personalized recommendations. Thus, many e-commerce businesses are now integrating recommendation systems into their platform and enjoying boosted sales and higher rates of engagement.
For instance, according to McKinsey, Amazon’s recommendation engine is responsible for generating one-third of its sales revenue. These systems can also be integrated with pop-ups to alert users about unchecked-out carts or discounts, reducing cart abandonment and site leakages.
Similarly, with the use of pricing tools, e-commerce businesses can instantly evaluate their prices by comparing them with rivals. In today’s highly competitive market, timely adjustmentsof prices to match your competitors can impact conversion rates and help you pounce on small margins. Moreover, with this knowledge, it becomes easier to manually adjust sales figures, helping your e-commerce store to remain competitive.
5. E-Wallets
An e-wallet is the latest technology that is helping e-commerce businesses integrate advanced payment options. It is a type ofelectronic card connected to the bank account of the consumer. Online shoppers use e-wallets to make purchases on their smartphones or computers. Two of the primary components of e-wallet include data and software. It can store user information such as shipping addresses, names, required payment amounts, preferred payment options, debit and credit card information, etc.
Whereas the software component encrypts and secures personal information. Commonly, e-wallets offer three main benefits, i.e., increased security, ease of payment, reduced cart abandonment,and ease of refund. Also, you can access real-time data to gain valuable insights into your customers’ shopping habits, offer alternative payment options, and improve customer experience by streamlining the checkout process.
Final Thoughts
The e-commerce industry has changed the way people buy and sell online. Thus, if you wish to build and run a successful e-commerce business, integrate the latest technologies discussed above. This will not only help you boost sales but grow your business in a short time. Remember, building a successful e-commerce business is about adapting to technological changes that provide stability and functionality while improving customer experience.
