Despite all our efforts in ensuring that we are on the right track with our business, sometimes things just won’t go our way. We experience setbacks and other challenges that hinder us from navigating our way to achieving our business goals. Some of the things that hinder us from achieving an excellent eCommerce experience include technical difficulties that sometimes we may or may not have the capability to address. Some of the most common ones are cited in this article. We will be teaching you how to troubleshoot the technical issues that you may encounter as you go through each day of using your eCommerce platform for your business.
Know that the items mentioned in this article are general, and some issues of technical glitches may arise as an isolated case; if anything isn’t included in our list, feel free to let us know. You can contact the eCommerce support system of your business and request aid from which you can ask for help. When it comes to Shoppable, you can contact [email protected], and you will be guided thoroughly to obtain a solution to your said issue if what you are looking for is not included in this article.
Table of Contents
Why Operating Online is an Enjoyable Experience
Takeaway
Sales
The most tedious workload for troubleshooting comes alongside sales. In this area, we face concerns with product stocks, courier concerns and issues, order fulfillment, return and refund policies, and the visibility of our products or services for sale. In the area of sales, we encounter the most stressful kind of troubleshooting because this involves a lot of back and forths from different departments in our business. Some of the most common areas of eCommerce that need the most attention for troubleshooting are cited below…
- Inventory
Product stocks are those that are considered to be raw materials or goods that are in the inventory of a business. When the regulation of stocks is not appropriately managed, there becomes a faulty inventory. Occurrences of experiencing inventory issues include those who have products that are malfunctioning or those that are damaged and are later disposed of. This, in turn, creates a gap in the list of product inventory when it is not counted correctly.
What business owners must do to ensure that their business’ inventory is correctly numbered is to use a system that manually counts each product for their inventory, leaving no product behind. Should there be pieces of inventory that are considered to be damaged or malfunctioning, all these items should be counted separately to avoid mismatching the items in a business’ inventory.
- Courier Options
Courier issues arise more commonly for orders that are placed under the bulk category. Sometimes there are also instances where other eCommerce platforms cannot have big-sized items shipped because of the lack of courier options. When these issues arise, customers may be directed to reach out to the eCommerce platform’s help center, to which they may receive a personalized system that will have their orders shipped using a more specified shipping option.
Courier options may have a separate section for review so buyers can provide feedback to the courier companies that the eCommerce platform offers. This is to ensure that even the partner courier companies that the eCommerce platform works with are providing quality service throughout each stage of their delivery process.
- Order Fulfillment
In its self-explanatory terms, order fulfillment is the entire process of having a buyer inquire about a product, receiving its orders, having their orders packaged and shipped, and having the buyer receive the product without flaw or delay. Order fulfillment is characterized by the step-by-step that it takes to create a smooth-sailing order process.
Order fulfillment issues include…
- Having an order misplaced
- Damaging an order
- Experiencing order delays due to internal issues
- Having incomplete orders
- Poor packaging causes item damaged
The common issues mentioned above are just a couple of examples that are experienced under order fulfillment. Some issues may be more unique to other users, which is why it is important to obtain a chain of feedback for each process. This way there will be more responses that explain how a particular process may be improved.
An eCommerce solution and platform partner like Shoppable has a fulfillment system called “Fulfillment by Shoppable,” which solves most of the problems encountered by eCommerce businesses when it comes to product and inventory fulfillment.
- Return and Refund Policies
Return and refund policies may be different per product. For example, gadgets like laptops, these items may have a different return and refund or exchange policy as compared with office chairs. Issues may arise if the fine print for these products isn’t specified by the seller to their customers. It is important to inform the customers about how they can have their items for exchange, refunded, or returned according to the policies that have been set. Otherwise, there will be major confusion among the sellers and buyers should there be any missed out information about the steps that each party needs to take.
Shoppable carefully handles all cancellations, returns, and refund concerns when it comes to its products in the marketplace, providing you hassle-free customer service. If you want to learn more about Shoppable’s cancellation, return, and refund policy, check it out here.
- Product Visibility
With so many products online, some buyers may be confused about the visibility of your products. Some products may appear to be hidden or out of reach for some customers, and this may be because of a couple of settings you have set in your online eCommerce store. See to it that you list your products with visibility that is available for access to everyone.
More so, keep in mind that your product descriptions and images matter too. These make up the entirety of your listings and contribute to how many sales and page views you will be receiving for a certain time period. So, make sure that all these are available to your access and that you change them accordingly. You don’t want your customers to go galavanting elsewhere and be strayed away from the listings you’ve posted.
Through the innovation of eCommerce technology, such as the ‘BuyBox technology’ purposely made by Shoppable, your products, goods, and services are ensured to be seen by the right audience in our marketplace. This means more product visibility, customers checking out, and more volume sales per month!
Brand Profile
Your brand profile generally is everything about your brand, from the color combination of your branding to how you conduct business. It is everything that describes who you are in light of your brand. Sometimes it also covers how you interact, conducts business, creates, and develop your projects. Your brand profile shapes how your business partners and customers interact with you. Your brand profile is the face that you present to all your audiences.
Some of the common issues that are in line with brand profile include customer experience, cyber security, customer attraction, customer service, and analytics and conversions. While there are other issues that may be considered in line with brand profiles, the ones cited here are those that have been most commonly observed to occur. And the solutions that are set for these issues will not fall short of technical adjustments that can be made through the brand’s eCommerce platform. Should there be other concerns buyers may have, they may always contact the support team of the eCommerce platform.
- Customer Experience
Customer experience may be about the overall experience of a customer or one particular aspect that they wish to focus on to raise a point for improvement. Some of the features that customers would like the most improvement on is the accessibility of the platform. This corresponds to how easily one can access each platform feature without experiencing technical difficulties. The more fluid an application or platform is, the more customers will provide positive remarks about how effectively it is made.
Customer experience generally describes your customer’s overall experience as they interact with your brand and your eCommerce platform. Here are some of the factors that they look at…
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Systems
- Continuous Innovation
- Culture and Presentation
- Customer Satisfaction with regards to trends
- Effective Sales and Marketing
In simpler words, Customer Experience is your customer’s journey across all the different categories, channels, and other sub-systems you have over a period of time. Customer experience is the feeling of your customers as they have worked with you or have traveled around your online eCommerce platform page.
Having a good customer experience will inspire other customers, both recurring and new, to visit your page and eCommerce platform. Excellent customer experience will introduce your business to more opportunities that will work for the benefit of your products and services. This will also aid in boosting your brand’s publicity in the marketplace and on different social media platforms.
- Cyber Security
This is a branch of Information Technology in the sciences that deals with creating secure channels that protect systems such as payment channels, websites, social media pages, and eCommerce shops like your business. Cyber security systems also provide protection against internet malware and other viruses that may pose harm to the accounts and devices that are connected to a device.
Customers may be concerned about the safety of their transactions as their accounts are linked to their bank accounts. Some customers, on the other hand, are concerned with the information that they have included in their profiles. All of these are important factors that must be considered when working with clients and receiving their personal information.
You must know that eCommerce platforms like Shoppable have a confidentiality agreement and privacy policy not to disclose any information to any outside party. This is made to protect buyers from any theft or fraudulent activities that may arise. Customers may also be wary about the accounts they have connected to their eCommerce accounts. If you experience this or anything similar, you must know that Shoppable’s payment channels are made with encryption and high security. This means that only you will have access to your transactions and nobody else. Backup security measures are also taken into account, such as the number and email verification process – to guarantee that customers and sellers alike will receive the highest level of security.
- Customer Attraction
From the seller’s perspective, customer attraction may create a couple of difficulties because of the traction that online stores compete over. Since the benefit of operating online is its flexibility, there are also challenges that come along with it. Included in this list of challenges are…
- Difficulty in reaching the customers that are fit for your market because of the similarities there are with competitors
- Hindrances in deciding between options because of overstimulating posters and advertisements
- Difficulty in choosing brands because of lack of information on the description box
- The trouble with checking out goods because of the lack of courier options
Some customers may experience delays in their decision-making process and may also experience setbacks when choosing which goods to order from a lineup of different offers. Some offer free shipping while others do not, but others offer better prices but do not have the same quality as those that do not offer the same discounts. All of these factors contribute to customer attraction.
As a seller, your responsibility lies in acquiring customers organically and naturally. You must be able to know your market well enough that you can inspire them to flock to your business without paying big amounts of money for paid advertisements like search ads and pay-per-click advertising.
While paid advertising may sound like the easy route to success, this process doesn’t automatically guarantee success and the assurance of obtaining quality customers that will purchase from your shop. If you’d like, maybe you can work on attracting customers through reels or content that catch their attention, all these instead of paid advertisements.
- Customer Service
One of the most challenging and critical parts of the operations of an eCommerce business is its customer service. If a company has good customer service, whether or not they receive good or bad reviews from their customers, they will always come up on the top charts. These brands that have the best reputation are the top-notcher of brands in the eCommerce industry.
Customer service has its pros and cons because when you get good reviews from your customers, you are able to boast about this on your brand page. However, when you do not receive that much positive feedback, then that is when you receive an earful of remarks that somewhere somehow brings you down. One of the things that you can do to ace the productivity of your customer service is to assign a point person from your team who will divide the positive and negative feedback you receive. Your assigned point person will be in charge of gathering the feedback and sending them to the rest of your team for reflection and learning.
You should know that it is through the moments that we fail that we learn the most. And sometimes, the best lessons that we will learn in business and in any aspect of life are learned when we face difficulty. While you’re at it, you should also remember that each business is capable of growth, and so are its people.
- Analytics and Conversions
For analytics and conversions, sellers experience the most tedious process of obtaining the results of their hard work and the convection of their sales figures. All of these require knowledge in mathematics that are miles beyond our memory. Some of the lessons that were taught to us in high school have already been surpassed by the information we learned over the web, information that has bypassed the lessons we paid for in school.
Most eCommerce platforms do not offer an internal analytics page or a page that is dedicated to conversions. Luckily enough, the eCommerce platform Shoppable offers both analytics and conversions. You just have to click on the category in your profile where it is, and it will automatically calculate the information that you need to obtain.
For non-math experts, Shoppable just saved you from a detrimental computation struggle. Congratulations to you because you will no longer have to compute your sales figures manually, and you wouldn’t have to manually analyze all the aspects that are associated with your business.
Why Operating Online is an Enjoyable Experience
Owning a business and operating in the eCommerce world comes with perks and joys. Yes, you don’t have a physical store that you can call your own, but you do own one with thousands of followers that generate excellent target audience reach. Also on a side note, when you operate your business online, in whatever industry it is in, then you can easily reach the clientele that you target. You can reach them through the filtration system of the eCommerce platform that you are registered with. Not all eCommerce platforms offer the same excellent services, but thankfully Shoppable does.
When it comes to conducting business operations online, we have taken our time to perform a background check on each one. And throughout the course of establishing a business brand, we have discovered that Shoppable Business is the best and most suitable eCommerce platform for companies like suppliers and legitimate product sellers to use. Shoppable Business has various programs that aid in ensuring that every customer receives the best form of service and order fulfillment.
The most robust characteristics of Shoppable include…
- Brand Registry
- eCommerce Order Fulfillment
- In-house Warehouse
- Multi-channel Payment Options
- KYC Verification Systems
Operating any business has its fair share of pros and cons, things that whether we like it or not, we will always and inevitably go through. The slopes of sales figures and the influx of customers – all these are part of the role we play as entrepreneurs. But the thing about working on something that we like is that no matter how difficult it may turn out to be, we will always find ourselves showing up. The same way goes for any kind of occupation or industry in the business world. If we’re entrepreneurs in the eCommerce industry, then our never-ending search is finding different ways to get customers to buy from us.
Amidst all the difficulties that we face as entrepreneurs, we still find ourselves presented with opportunities that make the load we carry on our backs more light. One of the things that can help entrepreneurs like us, entrepreneurs who are competing against a market that is highly condensed and commercialized – is our resources. Included in these resources is the fresh and high-tech eCommerce platform that helps entrepreneurs like ourselves. As mentioned earlier, the brand is called Shoppable. It is one of the pilot digital procurement companies in the Philippines – shaping the way we lead and live our entrepreneurial dreams.
Here’s why you should join Shoppable…
- It’s FREE – It’s free to start selling on the Shoppable platform. As long as you’re a legally registered business, you’ll be able to list products for free on Shoppable. You only pay a commission if an item sells on the platform, and you get paid.
- Expand your Customer base – Through Shoppable, you’ll reach thousands of new customers for free. Think of Shoppable as your marketing arm that you only pay when you have a sale.
- Get your eCommerce Store – Increase sales by digitalizing your product catalog and reaching customers worldwide. Print catalogs are dying, costly, and not environment friendly – digital is the future. Sellers can get their eCommerce store on Shoppable Business that can be given to any client.
- Procurement Technology – Enable your customers to pay you online through Bank Transfers, Credit Cards, Over-the-Counter Payments, Recurring Payments, and more. Easily track and manage orders, payments, and shipping through the Shoppable platform.
- Shipping Technology – Shoppable has integrated directly with multiple shipping couriers, enabling you to provide same-day to next-day delivery to your customers.
- Compliance – Sales invoices and 2307’s required? Don’t worry. Shoppable has got you covered! The platform keeps sellers fully compliant, never worrying about missing documents.
- 3PL & Fulfilment Services – Need additional manpower? Shoppable can provide you with warehousing and fulfillment solutions so you can expand your brand to different locations enabling you to get products delivered faster to your customers.
- Real Sellers, Real Buyers and Real Products only – We vet and interview sellers that joins the platform so you will be assured that all of the products and transactions are authentic and legitimate.
Takeaway
A business will never be easy, and there will always be competitors that will drive us crazy. Trends will always be an existent factor in the ever-changing world of commerce, and it is here to stay. Despite how much we may not want to keep changing and adjusting, we have to because this is the market that we are in. The market we participate in is one that is filled with commercialized and internationalized products, services, and brands. It is only in recent years that we have been introduced to tech companies that are made by our fellow entrepreneurs in the country – paving the way for a more personalized entrepreneurial experience.
We cannot dictate the flow of the market and how individuals conduct business, but what we can do is be in control of our work. If we own a brand, it is up to us how we can make it known. It is up to us how we can make more and more people know who we are and what we do. The decision is dependent on us entrepreneurs, on how well we can hustle through every day makes of life in the business world. Making wise decisions is one thing, but acting on the decisions that we make is one characteristic that will take us a leap forward in making matters better, and reshaping how business should be.
Now is the perfect time for you to join Shoppable – a pool of Filipino entrepreneurs who are innovating to drive the Filipino economy to its high and making its country known for its grit and industrious work. Join the team of professionals! Reach us at [email protected], and we’re more than happy to welcome you as part of the team!
