Zen Blog
3 Key Integrations for Your Ecommerce Site
Ecommerce has exploded over the last decade, and particularly now in the era of working from home and lockdowns. However, now more than two years since restrictions started to boost online sales, the marketplace has become highly competitive with almost every consumer brand offering direct sales to customers via an online store. With this in mind we run down some of the top integrations your Ecommerce store should have to boost sales, customer experience and increase your business efficiency.
A Solid & Reliable CMS
This one might be somewhat self-explanatory as most businesses will already be running one of a handful of well established ecommerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento (Now Adobe Commerce etc.). However unless you have massive turnover (and a developer budget to match) then you really shouldn’t be using custom ecommerce solutions. Platforms such as Shopify will give you easy access to edit products and site content (Shopify can even be integrated with Umbraco, like WooCommerce is with WordPress to give you more SEO and content management options). Also most support some kind of app or plugin system which is the easiest way to get the integrations we’re about to discuss.
A Timesaving & Customer Service Focused Shipping API
An essential integration for anyone who ships physical products in decent volume to customers. It will obviously depend on the platform you use, your location (and customer locations) and ultimately if you use a dedicated courier for all shipments. But various shipping companies have API connections which integrate perfectly with your ecommerce system. These connections can, from the point of purchase, automate internal processes, such as shipping information and billing, speeding up the process at your end whilst also automatically supplying tracking details and updates to the customer. In all these integrations save you time and money and improve customer experience, which in turn improves returning customer rates i.e. more money and reduces customer service queries, again saving you time.
Email Flows For Boosting Conversions
There are lots of tips and tricks across the internet about how to optimise your ecommerce site to improve conversion rates. However mileage will vary on many depending on any number of variables from product category to target audience and most will be dependent upon other factors as well. For example increasing the prevalence of your add to cart buttons, won't help much if your users are having issues with navigation. One of the most consistent improvements across all ecommerce is integration of email marketing funnels. Integrations, such as Klayvio, allow you to send users through different email funnels depending on their interactions with your site. Abandoned cart is an obvious place to start, reminding people of purchases they intended to make is a good way to recover lost revenue. Customer support flows that check back with the user after purchase can improve customer experience and increase repeat customers and word of mouth recommendations. Advanced upselling flows can identify other products on your site people might be willing to purchase because of their previous purchase history or their viewing history. There’s a ton of potential options that can see your conversion rates jump significantly. It just takes a bit of time and understanding of your customers to get them working efficiently, but in the long run, it’s well worth it.
Extra Payment Gateways To Complete More Purchases
It’s all fine and dandy having a standard “please enter your card details” payment method on your site, it’ll work, but there’s much more to consider here than just basic functionality. On average around 70-80% of carts are abandoned; this means that for every 10 customers on your site who like a product(s) enough to add it to their cart, ultimately only 2-3 will actually purchase. Adding extra payment options at the final stage of purchase can seriously improve your sales figure. This is because of three primary factors.
The first is simply convenience. It’s much easier for a user to click, pay with PayPal, Apple or Google pay than it is to find their credit card and fill out the details. Many shoppers already have accounts with these companies so the purchase process becomes as quick and simple as a couple of button clicks.
Secondly there is buy now pay later options. Expensive and unessential consumer purchases are sometimes difficult to get across the line, especially as inflation reduces consumer confidence. Payment gateways with Klarna & PayPal credit on them will allow the customer to pay over multiple instalments, meaning their bank account takes less of an instant hit and increases the chance of purchase.
Last but not least is the confidence that users can get in using established payment providers such as Google, Apple and PayPal. If you’re a small and growing ecommerce business then there's a good chance that people are unfamiliar with your business and unsure of just how much they can trust you. Giving them payment providers they use regularly and are familiar with will give them more reason to trust your business and complete the purchase.
There's a lot to consider when building and developing your ecommerce business. The Zen Agency has decades of experience in all areas of digital that affect ecommerce. Why not ask us how we can help improve your performance.
