Table of Contents
The Change In Trade
While the year 2020 was strongly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic and stationary trade remained closed for months, e-commerce has become the real winner of the situation. If you wanted to shop, you had to use the internet. Because at the time of Covid-19, the retail trade that was otherwise so popular with Germans was not an available alternative.
The hurdle that had recently existed in relation to the online sector had to be overcome. This situation not only represents enormous growth potential in eCommerce, but also offers a fundamental future opportunity for the online sector. Due to the fact that customers in the digital world are becoming much more transparent, they can also be retained in the long term with the appropriately tailored offers. The cooperation between eCommerce and POS also offers the possibility of increasing customer loyalty and gaining more detailed knowledge of customer needs, which in turn can be used for further optimization.
The Top 4 Challenges For Online Retailers In The E-Commerce Sector
It is becoming clear that eCommerce is currently more important than ever. In addition to its numerous advantages, online business also brings with it a few associated challenges. In this context, iBusiness, in cooperation with the market research institute Civey, carried out an eCommerce study in order to be able to identify the greatest challenges for online retailers. The results of the study clearly show that the enormous price pressure, the topic of law and data protection, SEO and the acquisition of new customers are the elementary topics in online trade that online retailers have to address.
Price Pressure
As mentioned at the beginning, online trading has gained significantly in importance due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Covid-19 is considered the accelerator of digital transformation. Retailers who previously only ran a stationary shop were suddenly forced by the pandemic to also have a digital presence. The result – the e-commerce industry and its offerings are growing and growing, which in turn results in noticeable competitive pressure. The resulting price pressure is a major challenge, especially for smaller companies, according to the iBusiness study. Above all, retailers who are active on marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay and sell their goods there are under a lot of pressure from the intense competition. Approximately every fifth trader who sells on such large marketplaces.
Law & Data Protection
Data protection and data security on the Internet are issues associated with e-commerce. If not before, then at the latest with the announcement of the EU data protection regulation (DSGVO) this topic should be an important concept for every online retailer. The topic is far more complex than it appears, because not only GDPR and data protection declarations have to be observed here. Thus, data protection and data security are among the most important challenges facing an online retailer and are probably one of the most annoying matters. However, if this aspect is only implemented superficially or not at all, there is a risk of warnings and high penalties, which can sometimes even endanger entire livelihoods . According to the study, no retailer is unaffected by this challenge.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) has not only played an important role for online retailers since yesterday. In eCommerce, search engines like Google are a fundamental tool for directing visitors to your own shop page. This situation will not change in the near future, on the contrary, because the competition is increasing every hour. In addition, the search for information and products in times of Covid-19 is taking place online more than ever. Due to these developments, optimizations of online shops or websites, which were previously acceptable, are no longer sufficient. The expectations of Internet users are constantly increasing and the search engines themselves are also getting better and better at distinguishing between good and bad websites.
It is clear – search engine optimization is highly relevant for online retailers and is therefore one of the top topics for the coming months. SEO is a major challenge, especially for small online retailers. This is not unexpected, because SEO is one of the aspects that have been declared to be particularly demanding. Not only continuous monitoring, but also basic technical know-how is required here.
New Customer Acquisition & Customer Retention
As before the pandemic, new customer acquisition and general customer retention remain the greatest challenge in eCommerce. The latter in particular, customer loyalty, is still an elementary challenge, but one that is becoming even more relevant. The reason for this is the number of new customers who have discovered online trading because of Covid-19. These new customers, who are usually much more disloyal and erratic than regular customers, now need to be retained. Technical optimizations are no longer sufficient for this. It means strengthening the customer experience at every touchpoint and thus creating added value.
Also Read: 8 Tips For A Successful Online Shop
