How To Find the Right B2C eCommerce Platform For Your Business

DynamicWeb

Why is finding the right eCommerce platform important to your B2C business?

There are many different eCommerce platforms available on the market today. They all offer distinct feature sets, some with more of a focus on B2C than others. Just as platforms are unique, businesses are too. B2C businesses must find the right eCommerce solution that showcases their commitment to their customers online. After all, online competition is fierce, and customers are savvy. They can sense a lack of effort from miles away. Unfortunately, today, it is too common for businesses to rush into an entry-level eCommerce solution only to find out it is too limited to meet their vision.

Meeting Customer Expectations in B2C eCommerce

Let’s explore many ways to meet customer expectations in B2C eCommerce: 

• Create a compelling and intuitivelayout, design, and brand tone. Ensure your visual and written communications match your target audience and exude your brand’s identity and purpose. 
• Inspire customers to convert; do not just list product features. Any site can easily list product details, but not all sites can ignite a customer’s interest and passion. Appeal to your customers’ broader economic and emotional goals with engaging and dynamic content.
• Provide a minimal, smooth, intuitive checkout process that requires as few steps as needed to complete the transaction and offers multiple payment options so customers can pay how they wish. 
• Adhere to SEO best practices so consumers can easily find your brand in a sea of competitors. Choose a platform with tools to help you optimize pages for SEO to maximize your likelihood of getting found online. 
• Provide personalized marketing and promotions that cater to each customer. After all, today’s customers expect Amazon-like levels of personalization in their eCommerce experiences. Choose a platform that can integrate with your email marketing or CRM system to easily segment customers and send targeted promotions that capture attention and lead to sales.
• Showcase social proof and user-generated content to help customers understand the value of your product or service. Ensure your platform can support customers' reviews and easily integrate into social media. 
• Display trust signals to help customers feel at ease buying your products or services. The B2C space is full of new and small businesses, which makes it challenging to determine trustworthy vendors. Include trust icons whenever possible to show PCI compliance and other security protocols you have in place.
• Provide accessible and responsive customer support. There’s nothing more frustrating than when a company hides its customer support personnel behind endless FAQ pages and phone trees. Make it easy and straightforward to get customer support. Consider including a live chat or chatbot for customers to receive immediate answers. 
• Offer a risk-free return policy to improve customer perceptions of your brand and increase sales. Consider a money-back guarantee policy and promote it strongly across all conversion points to reduce customer perceptions of risk. 
• Create loyalty programs to reward customers for making repeat purchases. Customers have lots of choices today, but building up their equity in your brand through loyalty points can consistently reinforce their choice in your brand. 
• Mobile responsiveness - today’s customers are largely mobile and you need an eCommerce platform that supports them where they are. Luckily, most CMS and eCommerce solutions today have built-in mobile responsiveness, however, that doesn’t mean it looks good to the end user. Be sure to invest time in designing your mobile layouts.

Factors to Consider When Evaluating B2C eCommerce Platforms

When evaluating eCommerce platforms, make sure you choose one that puts your customers at the center. Elements such as compelling branding, unique product experiences, and personalization have become the new differentiators between online sellers. Select a program that offers everything your B2C business needs right now and the agility to easily adapt to future demands and innovations. 

DynamicWeb is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that unifies eCommerce, CMS, PIM, and Marketing for mid/large and enterprise-sized companies. The DynamicWeb eCommerce platform scales your eCommerce and makes it easy to provide personalized, automated customer experiences at scale. With more than 20+ years in business and more than 12,000 websites running on DynamicWeb, we have the experience and the software necessary to create powerful, tailored eCommerce solutions. To learn more about DynamicWeb or see a tailored demo, contact us today.

Learn More

To learn more about meeting customer expectations in B2B eCommerce, watch our free on-demand webinar, eCommerce Strategy: Designing Experiences that Inspire Conversions.