eCommerce Consulting: What have you learned from 2023? Here’s my list

Last year took a physical, emotional, and mental toll on many of us. We saw a messy start to the new Supreme Court Justice, Kim Jong Un release his grip on nuclearization, a royal wedding, and the seemingly endless California Wild Fires.

But the three things that concerned me the most was the changes to net neutrality, Apple becoming a trillion-dollar company, and Facebook getting heat from every direction. This brings me to the first thing I learned from 2018.

1. Don’t consult in a vacuum. Read up on current events and learn how they affect you
A lot of people take pride in not knowing current affairs. However, my consulting is often tied directly to the economy and my customers thank me for it. With Facebook scrutinized for their role in influencing the election and the concern over user privacy, it’s easy for me to look at what Facebook might learn from this and predict what changes to their platform might be coming down the pike.And with the eminent loss of net neutrality, I’m extra careful to make sure that the ecommerce websites I built don’t place a heavy burden on servers. Lightweight websites with key functionality ensure we don’t get on the website “naughty list” which will surely come once ISPs decide to throttle and “penalize” websites for hogging bandwidth.The best ecommerce solutions pay attention to the current events happening around them, no matter how small an effect.
2. Open all communication channels for my clients
A decade ago, which is scary to think was 2008, professionals kept in contact with their clients primarily through email and phone calls (with physical meetings in between). Today, I make myself available for 24/7 consulting because ecommerce never sleeps. In addition to email, phone, and in-person meetings, I find that I’m texting, Facetiming/Skyping, messaging through LinkedIn and Facebook, joining company chatrooms like Slack, and even Tweeting.
I share the same lesson with my ecommerce consulting clientele. We recommend that companies improve their trustworthiness by being available everywhere and listening. The new social media management platforms allow you to digitally “put your ear to the ground” by alerting you every time someone mentions your company’s name. And you can respond to them!
3. Sometimes it’s best to be a steadfast “rock” in a constantly flowing stream
Despite all the new things and trends that happen year to year, there will always be tried and true constants. Two plus two will always equal four and your ecommerce clients will always need an easy-to-find “Add to Cart” button. While adopting new best practices is important, it’s equally important to remember the basics like A/B Testing and mobile-first websites.
Most of the core, guiding principles of ecommerce SEO will remain the same forever. Speak plain English, make your content easily scannable by humans (and subsequently bots), and make your websites lightweight. A solid ecommerce SEO strategy should stand the test of time. Not to mention that your customers will appreciate a reliable ecommerce website architecture that doesn’t “move their cheese” around every time they load up your website.
4. Embrace changes; especially ones you don’t completely understand
A lot of my clients express discomfort with new platform features. One that comes to mind is offering your customers the ability to shop natively. Several social platforms are offering the ability to purchase directly through their applications. I don’t know if this will catch on, but the process of “readying” your feeds for export into these applications is an exercise we go through anyway, why not include Facebook and Pinterest to your list of outlets.
While it’s unlikely that any single platform offering this will make up a sizable portion of your overall sales (or beat your top ecommerce platforms), why not start getting your data collected early?
5. Integrate checkouts with as many platforms as possible
We don’t want to overwhelm customers with too many options, but when it comes to transactions, it’s different. We want customers to most comfortable during checkout. Offering a wide array of payment options not only boost trustworthiness but also increase your closing or transaction rate from that checkout page.
We like to offer our own eCommerce consulting clients with the option to run a PO, make lump payments all at once, pay as you go, check, credit, debit, and more. After all, you did to get them to your door, why make paying you the hard part?