If you’re involved in the running of an enterprise business, you will already know the importance of implementing business solutions that are purpose-built for large organizations. The needs of enterprise businesses are unique and require a specialized approach.
But what size business exactly is considered an enterprise business?
Enterprise businesses are defined as large organizations that employ hundreds or thousands of employees and so process a high volume of business transactions, whether that’s sales of products or services. Often, these companies are huge multinationals with several office locations around the world.
Because of their size and impact, enterprise businesses are different from small or medium-sized companies in their scope, scale, and needs.
Hence, the tools and services that enterprise businesses use to run their day-to-day operations are those that have been designed with this business type in mind.
Typically, an enterprise business requires solutions that are powerful and can be implemented on a large scale.
A New Year: A New Opportunity to Assess Your Current Ecommerce Solution
Many companies naturally use the fourth quarter to reflect on the year and look towards making strategic changes ahead of the new calendar or financial year.
One such area of scrutiny if you are an enterprise business is likely to be your ecommerce solution.
In particular, you’ll want to consider whether your current ecommerce solution has the power to manage all the complex tasks involved in your business at once, such as:
- The ability to manage multiple product categories across numerous locations
- Integration with accounting and customer relationship management (CRM) systems
- Whether it offers customer recommendations based on powerful AI technology
- The potential to scale as customer traffic increases
When evaluating the future needs of your business, it’s essential to pay particular attention to accelerating trends and one such recent trend is the vast increase in online transactions, B2B and B2C.
Forecasts indicate a continual increase in online shopping well into 2021. If you sell to consumers, you may already be seeing an increase in the number of daily transactions you process.
Similarly, if you sell a product or service to other businesses, you may also see a growth in online sales in our increasingly digital economy.
Therefore, many enterprise businesses require an ecommerce solution that is purpose-built with these growing ecommerce needs in mind.
With ecommerce becoming an increasingly important consideration for all types of enterprise businesses, you may find that it’s the right time for your own business to upgrade to an enterprise ecommerce platform.
Choosing the right enterprise ecommerce platform is essential in ensuring the smooth running of your company’s online sales, including crucial touchpoints such as product fulfilment and customer service.
Why Your Enterprise Needs a Purpose-Built Ecommerce Software
If your company has recently grown, it may be time to upgrade your ecommerce solution. What once worked for your business when it was smaller may no longer fit the bill as your company grows.
Or perhaps you just haven’t yet found an ecommerce solution that’s the right fit for your needs.
Whichever the case, it’s important to understand the different types of ecommerce software solutions, what each one offers, and how it can help your business.
Using ecommerce software that is built especially for the enterprise space means that the way in which the software has been designed is underpinned with an understanding of how enterprise businesses operate and what it takes to power a global company’s needs.
Therefore, ecommerce software explicitly designed for the enterprise can provide some substantial benefits, including:
- Improved sales engagement
- Multi-site capabilities
- Better brand awareness
- Streamlining and efficiency
Understanding the Different Types of Ecommerce Software
There are many different brands on the market offering ecommerce solutions, but the platforms all differ slightly from one another. So, it’s useful to understand the different types so that you find the solution to suit your specific needs.
On-site. With an on-site ecommerce solution, it means that your software is stored to your company’s local server. Because the data is stored locally, it can often offer superior speed, security and scalability compared to that of a web application.
Cloud-based/SaaS. Cloud-based software means that the software is web-hosted and “sold as a service” (SaaS). This means that your company won’t be hosting the software on your own servers, but instead will access the software via a cloud-hosted solution online.
The benefit of this is that you won’t need to invest in physical servers (hardware) on which to host the software because the entire solution, including storage, database, and networking capabilities, can be accessed via a cloud-based subscription model.
Open-Source. Open-source software is a type of software that has a fully transparent source code that can be developed by you. This is a very collaborative software type that will be useful if you want to build your own enterprise ecommerce solution but want a “base” from which to start.
Open-source solutions mean you’ll be able to customize your ecommerce platform, but you will need skilled developers to do this; it’s not a typical a “plug and play” type solution.
It’s also worth noting that some of these types overlap. So, for example, a cloud-based SaaS service could also be open-source. There are benefits to each type, so understanding the different types and how they will work specifically for your business needs will help you find the type that is right for you and your business.
Choosing the Right Ecommerce Platform for Your Enterprise Type
We’ve already discussed why it’s crucial to choose the platform that’s right for your business. To drill down even further to find that perfect fit solution, consider your business type to choose the most suitable software.
Clarifying and understanding your audience allows you to pinpoint precisely what you’ll need from an enterprise ecommerce platform.
For example, are you a business-to-business (B2B) company? Or are you a B2C (business-to-consumer) company? Or perhaps your business is best described as DTC (direct-to-consumer)? Being absolutely clear about who you are selling to will dictate which type of software will be best suited for your needs.
If you are a B2B business, a cloud-based solution may be best as it is most agile and offers a large amount of data storage. If your company has a team of programming experts on board, however, you may wish for the software to be open-source, so that you can improve upon it and create more bespoke solutions.
On the other hand, if you are a B2C business that holds lots of sensitive individual customer data, you may choose an on-site solution. All data will then be stored locally on a physical server and won’t pass through a cloud-based server. This means that data can be stored more securely, in accordance with regulatory requirements.
Identifying your business type and the needs of your customers will help you have the right conversation with software providers when vetting the right ecommerce platform to choose.
So, what are your options?
The 7 Best Enterprise Ecommerce Platforms for 2021
As the New Year approaches, it’s an excellent opportunity for you to upgrade to a new enterprise ecommerce platform.
When it comes to looking at specific enterprise ecommerce platforms available on the market, we’ve rounded up a list of the contenders, including the pros and cons of each one.
1. Magento Enterprise
Owned by Adobe, a well-known and trusted software company, Magento is a self-hosted, open-source enterprise ecommerce platform. Because it is open-source, it gives your company the flexibility and power to come up with a precise ecommerce solution that’s right for your business.
While Magento doesn’t offer a customer support team, it does, however, boast a large ecommerce developer community, which can help you with any questions and issues.
The drawbacks of using Magento are that you must purchase your own hosting, security certificates, and domain name, something that is often included with other enterprise ecommerce platforms. Furthermore, every few years Magento updates its software, and coping with these updates can be costly and time-consuming.
2. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
If you own more than five online stores, Salesforce Commerce Cloud may be the right solution, as it considers those with five or more online stores as enterprise users and caters to them with its enterprise-level platform.
In addition to powering ecommerce transactions, Salesforce also offers a mobile-first point of sale (POS) within its platform. By doing this, it’s also able to provide top-notch omnichannel selling support. This includes providing data-led customer insights to help you better personalize your shopping recommendations.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is also a useful solution for enterprise businesses that sell internationally, as it can manage multiple storefronts within one backend solution that processes numerous currencies and supports numerous languages. It offers 24/7 customer support and seamlessly integrates into other Salesforce products, including its well-known and widely adopted CRM.
The drawbacks of Salesforce Commerce Cloud include the need for technical knowledge. This is not a “plug and play” product for those lacking technical expertise. Because pricing is based on sales percentage, Salesforce can also be a more expensive solution.
3. BigCommerce Enterprise
While BigCommerce doesn’t specifically provide enterprise pricing packages, it offers useful support to enterprise users. This includes custom filtering, staging development, integration with multiple payment gateways, and support of cross-channel commerce.
It can handle major traffic spikes (useful during key holiday shopping periods), supports both B2C and B2B businesses with tailored solutions, and has a massive array of integrations with various CRM and ERP systems.
Its pricing model is based on sales volume, however, which is a drawback to companies looking to scale because the price will increase as transactions increase.
4. Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is a robust solution for both smaller and enterprise businesses. It is fully hosted, meaning that technical issues such as code, security, and bandwidth are all taken care of out of the box. It’s a cost-effective solution with 24/7 customer service, and you’ll get a dedicated account manager.
Shopify Plus can handle an impressive 10,000+ transactions per minute, ensuring that even your holiday sales season will run smoothly. It also offers over 1,500 plug-ins that can integrate with your website to solve problems from marketing to customer service.
The cost of plug-ins can add up, however. The more premium features you add-on, the higher the price point becomes. This is in contrast to competitors which offer additional features under one pricing umbrella. Shopify’s code also does not lend itself to customization. So, if you’re after a custom design, you may not be able to implement it.
Related: Learn more about eDesk’s Shopify integration
5. OpenCart
OpenCart is an open-source enterprise ecommerce platform that has an intuitive interface and is pretty easy to use. It supports enterprise businesses really well by offering unlimited products, supporting multiple currencies and shipping methods, and over 20 payment gateways.
Because it is user-friendly, this makes OpenCart an excellent option for beginners. However, this also means that OpenCart is not particularly adaptable to customization, so if you choose to customize, your business may incur additional costs of bringing on board a dedicated PHP developer.
In terms of fees, OpenCart is free, but charges additional fees for hosting, domain, and web extensions or plug-ins, all of which also add up.
6. Oracle CX Commerce
Oracle CX Commerce, previously known as Oracle Commerce Cloud, is a heavyweight player in the enterprise space. When it comes to enterprise ecommerce platforms, Oracle CX Commerce offers a powerful suite of products and services.
Starting at $150,000, it comes with a high price-tag, but in return, you’ll get full end-to-end support for everything to do with your ecommerce needs, including accounting, shipping, multi-store management, order processing and much more. It has put a lot of effort into its mobile experience, so it’ll work hard to optimize your store for mobile shoppers. It also lends itself well to scalability, growing with your business.
While it’s certainly powerful, the cons of using Oracle CX Commerce include the fact that it does not support one-click checkout and does not integrate with online marketplaces such as Walmart Marketplace, Amazon, or eBay. That said, it does integrate with products outside its own product suite, making it a versatile choice for enterprise businesses looking to scale quickly.
7. Adobe Commerce Cloud
Adobe Commerce Cloud integrates fully with all of Adobe’s other enterprise tools which is helpful if you already use Adobe products in other areas of your business. Noteworthy features include the ability to deploy hybrid B2B and B2C ecommerce models, run multiple sites and brands, and build web applications.
Adobe Commerce Cloud has also integrated Magento into its enterprise ecommerce platform, making it compatible with Magento extensions and so is highly customizable.
Furthermore, it offers proprietary data collection capability that helps your business drive customer loyalty and increase sales.
It can, however, be challenging to use for new users who aren’t already familiar with Adobe products. There can also be a steep learning curve if you are unfamiliar with customizing ecommerce platforms. Because it charges by the number of seats (similar to Adobe’s other products), this means that Adobe Commerce Cloud can be expensive for enterprise businesses with numerous team members working within the store.
Final Thoughts
Make 2021 your best year for solving enterprise ecommerce problems
All of the above enterprise ecommerce platforms offer good solutions if you are an enterprise business looking to upgrade your ecommerce platform in 2021 and beyond.
While the decision to purchase and implement a new ecommerce platform should not be taken lightly, fortunately, it’s clear that enterprise companies are spoiled for choice when it comes to finding the right software vendor.
By taking adequate time to understand your ecommerce platform requirements and mapping them against the various offerings of these top enterprise ecommerce platforms, you’ll be well on your way to making the right decision for your business in the coming year.
eDesk is purpose built for entreprise ecommerce businesses. Request a demo to learn more about how eDesk can improve your customer service in 2021.
Did you know that over 60% of US online retail purchases were made through Amazon last year? Amazon’s hold over eCommerce is well established, with 9.1 million active Amazon sellers worldwide and an average of 66 thousand orders per day. Newer sellers may be wondering how they can get more sales on Amazon in such a competitive environment.
The truth is, they absolutely can because with Amazon’s booming market share come many opportunities. We’ve assembled this digestible list of 14 quick wins and strategic moves, to help you up your game and sell more on Amazon.
1. Do keyword research
Having the right keywords can be one of the most important tactics in reaching your target audiences. Using the keywords that are common to searches for your products is the objective, but search engine optimisation (SEO) is a constantly evolving game. That means that keywords used successfully in the past may not be as effective with updated search engine algorithms today.
The terms used by customers to find products change daily and are affected by seasonal, cultural, and economic factors. Hence, it’s important to stay on top of the latest SEO trends and make sure you cast a wide net when implementing keywords for each product listing.
Each product should be optimized with as many relevant keywords as possible – into the hundreds! This gives you the best possible chance of getting your products found by customers, helping you sell more on Amazon.
Amazon keyword research tools like Helium 10, SellerApp, Jungle Scout, and AMZ One can help by generating a list of related keywords with search volume, competition level, and other useful metrics, making it easier for you to choose the best keywords for your product listing
2. Use a repricing tool to get more sales on Amazon
When it comes to sealing the deal and making a sale, price is a main deciding factor for many customers. As an Amazon seller, you always want to make sure you’re pricing your products competitively, but equally, you don’t want to lose your margin!
This is something that using repricing software can help with. Repricing software automates the pricing process in real-time, ensuring your prices stay in line with those of competitors, and with market fluctuations, while you get more sales on Amazon.
Repricing software also has many customisable features that allow you to set prices at optimal levels to help drive sales, without compromising profit. It’s worth taking a trial to see how it can help lift your sales.
3. Get more Amazon reviews
Online reviews are important to spread confidence through word of month and for building credibility for your brand. It’s also a fact that 72% of shoppers won’t buy until they’ve read reviews of a product from people like themselves – people they trust.
Even a strong product with great marketing behind it still has to overcome the fear of the unknown if there’s no social proof. Plus, positive reviews are a significant factor in deciding which products win the Amazon Buy Box.
Get more Amazon reviews by encouraging feedback from your customers. The best way to do this is by utilizing feedback software to automate the process.
4. Provide great customer service
Customer service is absolutely essential in eCommerce. Offering top-quality customer service not only adds value, but helps retain customers. A big part of making a sale is assuring the customer that they can trust you to deliver, and that trust is hard earned but easily lost. Providing good eCommerce customer service is critical, and committing to providing great customer service is all the more so!
As an Amazon seller, you need to be on top of your customer service. Responsiveness, a friendly manner and quick and easy resolution processes are all ingredients that make for a winning approach to great customer service.
But it can be confusing trying to streamline it all. Thankfully, there are all sorts of tools available to make this job easier, like helpdesk software to keep all your customer interactions in one place. This helps you to respond quickly and accurately to customer inquiries when they come in, so that your customers always know you’ve got their back.
5. Leverage Amazon seller tools
The best part about being an Amazon seller is that you don’t have to go it alone. There are numerous tools available to help you maximize your business and get the most out of selling on Amazon, whether third-party or FBA.
From repricing tools, to help desk software, to review software and even shipping assistance, many tools exist on the market today that specifically help Amazon sellers optimize their listings, prices, feedback, shipping, customer service and even their taxes.
There are many different seller tools available, so it’s worth reading about options and making an informed decision about the right ones to choose for your business. With the right tools, you can grow your business more than you ever thought possible.
6. Get more sales on Amazon with ads
Running ads is almost guaranteed to help you get more sales on Amazon, but it’s easy to just throw money at them and hope for the best. You can do better! Pay attention to your advertising cost of sales (ACOS) metric, the figure for how much ad spend you need in order to make a sale.
By advertising more efficiently, you lower your ACOS and ensure you get more bang for your buck. Over time, you’ll learn what works and you can employ a strategy with regards to how you run your ads. Taking an insight-driven approach to Amazon ads results in a more profitable Amazon business!
7. Optimise your product pages
The old saying goes that 80% of readers never make it past the headline of any piece of content. That means once you’ve written your product title, you’ve effectively spent 80 cents of your dollar.
When writing product titles, stick to the formula of:
- Brand name
- Product name
- Features (size, colour, gender etc).
This lets you include the right keywords in the right order to immediately tell shoppers that this is the product for them.
Moreover, making sure to visually design your product pages so that they’re clean, simple and easy to read will also help win over shoppers. No one wants to read through a cluttered page. The more straightforward (yet informative) and the cleaner you make your design, the more likely you’ll be to win over those elusive eyeballs!
8. Win the Amazon Buy Box
The quickest way to get more sales on Amazon is by ensuring that your products show up consistently in the Amazon Buy Box (the area in the top right of a product page, where shoppers can ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’). This is because over 82% of sales happen through this highly sought after space.
Although the exact formula to win the Buy Box is unknown, there are a few things that we know are essential. These are mainly metrics that prove the seller is providing a good customer experience. Customer reviews play a big role here. The more positive reviews a seller can amass, the likelihood of winning the Buy Box increases.
In addition to reviews, something else that’s obviously very important to Amazon shoppers is price! By using repricing software, you can automatically set your prices at the optimal level to win the Buy Box and maximize profit, even if you’ve got an enormous inventory.
9. Amazon account health rating
The Amazon account health rating (AHR) is a new feature that helps you monitor your account health based on its adherence to Amazon seller policies.
It considers both negative factors (such as the number of unresolved policy violations on your account) as well as positive factors (how your account positively impacts the customer experience through its selling activities).
Each account will be given a rating, which is regularly reviewed as Amazon monitors the performance of its sellers. If your account is off-target, you will be notified so that you can improve your performance. Conversely, a good AHR rating will work in your favor, helping assure customers that they’re doing business with a compliant seller.
10. Maintain your Amazon SLA
A big part of being a seller is cultivating trust with your customers. That means showing them that you operate in an above-board manner and that you’ll make good on your promise of fulfillment to them. One way of doing that is by making sure your Amazon store has a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is a promise to your customers that they’ll receive their orders on time. When it comes to fulfillment, the SLA is based on the capacity to fulfill open orders and on-time shipping and delivery.
SLAs help manage customer expectations by defining standards and outlining circumstances under which you as the seller won’t be liable for unfulfilled promises (e.g., natural disasters preventing shipping, etc).
eDesk’s customer service solution is designed to alert you when your SLA is expiring, so your business is never caught without one. Having a current SLA helps you maintain transparency with customers, thereby building trust which helps ensure customer loyalty.
11. Focus on products that already sell
Most ambitious business owners want to try new streams of revenue, but it’s important not to lose sight of the things that are making you money now.
By doubling down on the products that already provide your Amazon store with a reliable revenue stream, you not only deliver to market demand but ensure that you have the financial runway required to take risks on innovative new products, if need be.
Review your financial statements every quarter and look at the items that are performing best in your store. Think about how you can continue to market these with ads, SEO keywords and upgraded images to maximize their selling potential in your online store.
12. Sync your inventory
Inventory can be a delicate balancing act. Hold too much inventory for too long and you need to pay over the odds to store it. But hold too little inventory and you lose out on vital sales, or even customers, due to an inability to fulfill. Amazon can also penalize you if your inventory performance isn’t up to standard.
Stock control is something every seller needs to understand and have the capability to manage for optimal results. Smart inventory management is an under-appreciated way to increase your Amazon sales and profit margin. Fortunately, there are tools that can help. Investing in the right tools and software can help sellers take the stress out of balancing supply and demand.
13. Expand into new Amazon marketplaces
Amazon currently has 20 marketplaces around the world, which include the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Australia and more.
You can scale your brand by moving into some of these marketplaces. This can involve doing market research to find out which products are popular in each market and then uplevelling your shipping operations in order to be able to ship globally.
But expanding into new markets also means you’ll need to take language into consideration and localize your listings so that they feature each marketplace’s local language and SEO keywords in the appropriate language. Multilingual customer service is also needed in order to be able to service customers across various marketplaces in their local language.
Sounds complicated? It doesn’t have to be. eDesk’s help desk solution is designed to support customer service and workflow in multiple languages, so you can expand your business without investing in the overhead of hiring a global team.
14. Spy on your competitors
Ok, maybe “spy” is a bit of an exaggeration, but profitable sellers are always on the lookout for what their competitors are doing. You want to make sure you’re offering the right inventory for your market at the right prices. Repricing software will monitor this for you, taking the guesswork out of pricing at the right levels.
Using data gleaned from helpdesk reporting can also help you gather valuable insights and feedback from your customers, which will help you to better understand what customers want and need. Acting on analytics-driven insights from easy-to-read reports means you’re always one step ahead of the competition.
Final thoughts
The quest to increase your store’s Amazon sales doesn’t need to be an uphill struggle. There are many resources available to Amazon sellers today to help them optimize their store and develop a healthy sales pipeline.
By staying in touch with how the Amazon platform grows and using the right tech tools to drive your business, you can continue to do what you do best: building a great brand, winning customers, retaining existing customers and improving your bottom line.
