Data is a wonderful thing. Businesses can leverage the power of data to make informed decisions that improve their processes, allow them to reduce costs and increase profitability. As a business scales up, it may find it difficult to sift through the mountains of data that would have been collected by then.
That’s why the industry relies on CRM tools to make sense of it all. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about maximizing the value that can be gained from the data that a business has on its customers and clients.
Dozens of data points can be tracked and analyzed on current, potential, and former customers. The end goal of integrating a CRM tool into the operations is to get better results from all interactions with customers.
How does CRM work in eCommerce?
There has been an explosive growth in the eCommerce industry over the past decade. Entire industries that previously relied on a massive retail footprint have now gone completely online. As mobile technology has advanced and network connectivity has improved, more and more people now prefer buying things online.
The great thing about the very nature of eCommerce is that it provides businesses with a great opportunity to collect a lot of valuable information about every single visitor to their store in addition to their customers.
So even if someone lands on their store with no intent to purchase, the business will get valuable data which they can then use to target their strategies to win sales from customers who may have abandoned a purchase.
CRM is highly beneficial for eCommerce industries as it allows for precise segmentation of data. One of the ways to win customers in this business is to utilize highly targeted ads. A CRM tool will efficiently sort the data based on which the entire online advertising strategy can be created to get the most return on investment.
For example, if you want to sell a product to a particular age group, simply use the CRM to find out exactly how many people in that demographic have visited your store, what they were looking for, what platform they came to your store from, etc. Take all of that to the advertising team and they will be able to create an effective strategy around it.
It's easy to get bogged down with information but with a CRM tool, you can only access the information that you need at that time to make a specific decision. Do you want to know how many people added a product to cart before they left? Or how many availed the new promo code? You can filter all of that information easily with the CRM.
Why should your eCommerce store use a CRM?
The time efficiency that a CRM can provide for eCommerce businesses is unmatched. Even in conventional businesses, salespeople spend only a fraction of their time on active selling. The rest of their time is spent on legwork which can include paperwork, needless meetings, and other administrative problems.
Similarly, there are many repetitive tasks that need to be done when running an eCommerce business. Using a CRM will streamline these workflows and automate many of the repetitive tasks so that your team isn't caught up on things that don't require 100% of their effort.
Most eCommerce business owners make a major mistake of not analyzing their payment data. There's so much that they can obtain about their customers' buying habits just by combing through this data.
This is especially useful for stores that offer multiple payment channels, which the vast majority of them do. Is one payment channel performing better than the other? What's the average cart value of a new customer? At what price point are the customers more likely to abandon cart?
By asking yourself these questions and looking at the relevant payment data in the CRM, you can make meaningful decisions that can help grow your eCommerce business. With one click of a button, you'll be able to analyze payment trends, see who your highest value customers are, and what prices need adjusting in order to get inventory moving.
Types of CRMs
Operational, Analytical, and Collaborative. These are the three main types of CRMs that are widely used in the eCommerce industry. Operational CRMs are vital for business growth. They are used to streamline the sales, marketing, and customer service processes. Order management, inventory tracking, customer queries, and more can be managed using this tool.
Analytical CRMs are meant for improving customer experience based on the data collection. For example, this can include their navigation patterns around the store, which can be tracked and improved to make customer flow seamless.
Lastly, Collaborative CRMs are meant to speed up information sharing within the organization. Larger eCommerce businesses have separate teams that all rely on data to get their job done. Sales would require marketing data and vice versa.
Technical and support teams will need to be in sync as well to ensure that customers' concerns are addressed in a timely manner. Cohesion within the organization can improve greatly once there’s a centralized location where all of the relevant data is stored and is made available to the teams instantly.
What CRM works best for eCommerce companies?
Many eCommerce giants started their journey as a one person operation in a garage. Off the shelf CRM tools can be good enough when just starting out but they aren’t not really meant to support the growth of the business in the long run. That’s why major eCommerce companies opt for fully customized CRM solutions.
It’s understandable why this is a preference for established eCommerce businesses. Nothing can beat a tailor-made solution. All businesses have their own unique needs. Some may require more granular control over the information being collected on their customers, others may not require certain types of data.
Ready-made tools don’t account for the differences that your business processes have compared to your competitor. As such, it can’t really lend a helping hand if you’re trying to actively improve your position in the market.
So it’s quite possible that you end up paying for a CRM tool that offers a lot of features but most of them remain unused because they’re not relevant to your business.
To be sure that the CRM tool being used is the absolute best option for your business, it would be better to opt for a custom solution. Having one developed for you from the ground up is going to be a revelation.
You will be able to provide the developer with your input regarding the features and functionality that you need. This will also ensure that you get the best possible bang for your buck.
Finding the best CRM for your eCommerce business
Finding the best CRM solution for your eCommerce business does require a fair bit of research. You need to know where to even start first. Most business owners who are just starting out and looking for a CRM tend to go with freelancers who overpromise and underdeliver.
This leads to costly delays, because if the tool isn’t ready, the store probably can’t be launched, and that means time and potential sales lost.
It’s important to work with trusted CRM consultancy providers who will take the time to understand the needs of your business and then guide you accordingly.
They’ll be able to call upon their vast knowledge, gained from working in the industry, and help improve upon your vision for a custom CRM tool that’s perfect for your business.
This is where we at Zibtek come in. Zibtek is one of the world’s leading software development companies. We have worked with Fortune 500 conglomerates and startups alike.
Our company is based in the United States with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah. We also have a global network of talented developers who are all managed from within the United States.
We have a deep understanding of how customers play a deciding role in the success of a business. Our CRM development team is staffed by the best of our skilled professionals who follow result-oriented development strategies to deliver a quality product.
The custom CRM solutions that we can develop will help you to track important data points, enhance mobility, increase cohesion between different departments, simplify and automate many internal processes, and allow you to increase your margins to maximize your business revenue.
Even with a legacy business framework, our custom CRM tools will integrate to ensure that there's no disruption to data management, product configurations, and customization.
Deploying a new tool shouldn't mean that you lose all of the work that has previously been done. Starting an eCommerce store from scratch is difficult for most people, and not at all affordable for established companies. Reach out to us if you have any questions about how a CRM solution can help your eCommerce business. We’ll be happy to sit with you and talk about the various options in order to get you the best CRM solution for your business.