E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of goods or services through online platforms. This channel has revolutionized the way of doing business, making it possible for companies to reach a global audience, regardless of their physical or geographic size.
Today, e-commerce is no longer an optional choice but a fundamental component for the growth of medium-sized companies, allowing them to compete in an increasingly digital and global market.
Offering customers an online store means being present where most commercial interactions now take place.
But it’s not just about sales: e-commerce allows you to build direct relationships with consumers, monitor purchasing habits and respond to their needs quickly and efficiently.
In this article we will refer to the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) typologies, to provide you with a quick guide to this constantly changing sector
eCommerce and Multichannel: a borderless experience
In the modern world, customers expect to be able to interact with companies through different channels: online, via mobile, and in-store. This concept of multichannel refers to the ability to offer a uniform shopping experience across multiple platforms, both digital and physical. For medium-sized businesses, multichannel not only improves customer satisfaction, but can also increase sales.
What customers expect
Modern consumers want a seamless and integrated experience. For example, they want to be able to see a product online and buy it directly in the store or vice versa.
Multichannel allows them to start an interaction on one channel (for example, the website) and conclude it on another (such as a physical store), seamlessly. In this context, in-store interactive totems can make the difference.
Offering the possibility of consulting the online catalog, checking product availability or placing an order directly in the store, totems represent a key tool for an effective omnichannel experience.
Challenges, objectives and forecasts: eCommerce in evolution
Medium-sized companies that are entering the world of eCommerce must face a series of challenges, but with these difficulties also emerge great opportunities for growth.
According to data from the Multichannel Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, 88,000 Italian companies will have their own eCommerce site in 2024 and 33.7 million digital consumers.
The penetration rate of online product sales on total retail purchases stands at 11%.
Main challenges
Growing competition: With the increase in online players, standing out becomes increasingly difficult.
Logistics Management: Coordinating inventory and shipments, especially during peak demand, can be challenging.
Customer Experience: Customers expect easy navigation and prompt customer service, which are key to maintaining high loyalty.
Objectives
The primary objective is to provide an excellent shopping experience, balancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. This requires investments in order management platforms, CRM integrations for targeted follow-up, and a well-defined digital marketing strategy.
Future Forecasts
According to market forecasts, the eCommerce industry will continue to grow at a rapid pace. It is estimated that by 2025, global eCommerce will exceed $7.4 trillion. Midsize businesses will need to quickly adapt to new technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and social commerce to remain competitive.
eCommerce and Seasonality: The Boom During Sales Peaks
Ecommerce is particularly subject to seasonal fluctuations. Periods such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the holiday season and seasonal sales see a significant increase in online transactions.
For medium-sized businesses, taking advantage of these peak windows is essential to maximize sales.
Plan promotions
Strategic promotions and discounts during these periods can make the difference. During Black Friday, for example, many businesses record 30-50% of their annual sales in just a few days.
This requires careful preparation in terms of logistics, warehouse management and the ability to respond to orders in real time. It is important to plan marketing campaigns in advance, optimize the user experience on the site and manage inventory effectively.
SEO for eCommerce: optimization and visibility
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the set of techniques and strategies that allow a website to rank high in the results of search engines like Google.
In the case of an eCommerce, SEO is even more crucial because online visibility can directly determine the volume of traffic and, consequently, the success of sales.
A well-optimized eCommerce site increases the probability of being found by customers when they search for specific products. However, it is not just about attracting visitors: the goal is also to improve the browsing experience and increase conversions, that is, turning visitors into actual customers.
Let’s see what the key elements of SEO for eCommerce are and how they can help improve the visibility and performance of your online store.
Essential elements for eCommerce SEO
-
- Strategic keywords
Keywords are the basis of every SEO strategy. For an eCommerce, it is essential to do an accurate research of the most relevant keywords based on the products you sell.
For example, if you sell athletic shoes, you might want to target specific search terms like “lightweight running shoes” or “athletic shoes for marathons” instead of generic words like “shoes.” Each product should have an optimized description, including keywords in the title, descriptions, URLs, and meta tags, to help search engines understand what your page is about and show it to the right people.
Pro tip: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to identify the most searched keywords in your industry and include them on your product pages. - Optimized images
Images are an essential part of an eCommerce site, but it’s crucial that they are optimized for both quality and size.
High-quality images help present your products in an attractive way, but they should be compressed to reduce site loading times. A slow site not only penalizes the user experience, but it also scores poorly in search engines. - Alt text
Be sure to add text descriptions for each image (alt text), using relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand the content of the image and helps your ranking in image search results. - Site speed
The speed of a site’s loading is a key ranking factor for Google and, at the same time, a critical factor in user satisfaction.
If your eCommerce site takes too long to load, you risk losing not only organic traffic, but also potential customers.
Today’s users expect fast loading times, and every extra second can translate into a decrease in conversions.
Pro Tip: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to monitor your site speed and optimize it by reducing image sizes, using fast hosting, and compressing code. - Mobile-Friendly
With a growing percentage of online purchases being made via mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly site is crucial. Google considers mobile experience as a key ranking factor, and smooth navigation on a smartphone or tablet can significantly increase sales.
Make sure your design is responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts to the size of the screen, and that all interactive elements, such as purchase buttons, are easily accessible.
Pro Tip: Regularly test the mobile version of your site to make sure there are no usability issues. Google also offers a free tool called Mobile-Friendly Test to evaluate your site’s mobile-friendliness. - Site Structure and Navigation
Site structure is key to great SEO. Search engines need to be able to easily crawl your pages and understand the hierarchy of content. An eCommerce site should have clear and logical navigation that allows both users and search engines to quickly find what they are looking for.
Practical Tip: Organize your products into well-defined categories and subcategories. Use a silo structure, with simple and clean URLs, to help Google index your site correctly. - Customer Reviews
Product reviews not only improve the credibility of your eCommerce, but can also help your search engine rankings.
Reviews enrich the content of your product pages with unique, relevant text, helping to improve the relevance of your pages for related searches. - Internal Links and Backlinks
Internal link building is important for creating a coherent navigation structure that helps search engines discover all the pages on your site. Including links between related products, categories, and blogs helps distribute link juice evenly across your site.
Backlinks, or links from other sites, are also crucial for SEO: getting links from authoritative sources improves your ranking and visibility.
- Strategic keywords
eCommerce and CRM: a necessity for business growth
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is essential to effectively manage customer relationships in an eCommerce context.
With CRM, medium-sized businesses can collect and organize valuable customer data, monitor their interactions, and build stronger and more personalized relationships.
Integrating eCommerce with a CRM allows you to personalize the purchasing experience, automate marketing and sales activities, and optimize the overall management of the customer lifecycle.
The role of HubSpot for eCommerce
HubSpot, one of the most powerful and widespread CRMs on the market, is an all-in-one platform that offers all the necessary features to accompany eCommerce companies in managing customer relationships and marketing strategies.
In particular, HubSpot stands out for its ability to capture and convert leads through an inbound marketing approach, which has become essential to acquire and retain customers over time.
Lead capture and data management
Thanks to the marketing tools offered by HubSpot, you can monitor every interaction with site visitors, whether they are page views, content downloads, or interactions via chat or social media.
All of these activities are tracked within the CRM, allowing you to collect valuable data on potential customers. The platform also offers intelligent forms and dynamic calls-to-action, which allow you to collect lead information in a non-invasive way, improving conversion rates.
Segmentation and personalization
One of the main advantages of a CRM like HubSpot is the ability to segment the audience based on specific behaviors, demographics, purchasing preferences and past interactions.
This segmentation allows medium-sized businesses to send personalized offers and targeted campaigns, thus increasing the probability of conversion.
For example, customers who abandon a cart can automatically receive recovery emails with recommendations or discounts on the products they left behind.
Marketing Automation and Nurturing
HubSpot excels at automating marketing campaigns. Once you have collected customer data, you can automate the sending of personalized emails and create workflows to “nurture” leads along their path to purchase.
For example, a visitor who views multiple pages related to the same product can receive emails with educational content, targeted promotions, or reviews from other customers. This nurturing strategy helps keep the prospect engaged and increases the likelihood of purchasing.
Inbound Marketing
Attracting and Converting Customers Inbound marketing, one of the pillars of HubSpot, is an approach that aims to attract customers through relevant content and personalized interactions, rather than interrupting them with intrusive advertising. This method is especially effective for medium-sized businesses that are aiming for long-term relationships with their customers.
Creating valuable content, such as blogs, guides, videos and webinars, allows you to respond to the needs of potential customers when they are looking for solutions.
Through inbound marketing, customers are naturally attracted to the brand, improving the quality of leads and the conversion rate.
Improvement of the overall purchasing experience
Integrating eCommerce with HubSpot improves the entire customer experience. The data collected can be used to personalize the purchasing process, offering product suggestions based on previous searches or purchase history.
Furthermore, thanks to the integration with the main eCommerce systems (such as Shopify), HubSpot allows you to monitor orders in real time, optimizing post-sales management and facilitating customer support.
Kiosk and HubSpot: Partners for Success
Kiosk, as an official HubSpot partner, helps medium-sized businesses integrate into this world with tailor-made solutions for eCommerce.
Thanks to the combination of HubSpot’s advanced features and Kiosk’s expertise, companies can centrally manage all activities related to lead capture, customer relationship management and marketing optimization.
This structured approach guarantees not only greater efficiency, but also sustainable growth over time, maximizing the value of each interaction with customers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Optimize eCommerce Strategies
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the eCommerce landscape, offering midsize businesses advanced tools to optimize operations, improve user experience, and personalize customer interactions.
The integration of AI into eCommerce platforms, such as those supported by HubSpot and Shopify, allows for the automation of crucial processes of creating images, descriptions, gathering valuable information through predictive analysis, in addition to intelligent tools such as chatbots that can provide relevant and personalized answers to customer questions.
Conclusion
eCommerce is an essential resource for midsize businesses, which offers great opportunities for growth and competitiveness. Investing in the right technologies and strategies, such as CRM and SEO, and facing the challenges of the future with a clear vision, can transform online commerce into a success engine for companies.
With the support of partners like Kiosk, companies can embark on this journey with confidence, optimizing every aspect of the shopping experience.
 |
Talk to one of our specialistsDo you want to optimize your online store and improve the management of your customers? |
|
Talk to one of our specialistsDo you want to optimize your online store and improve the management of your customers? |
