Ecommerce is a business that comes with its own major issues. It’s difficult enough to keep your website working seamlessly when you have to manage all the logistics and developing that come with having an online store. Plus, you have to constantly worry about the industry giants – how can you compete with behemoths like Amazon or eBay?

The first thing you should know is that ecommerce is constantly changing. You have to keep up with customers’ demands and what they actually care about. You have to know what drives them to your online store in the first place and make sure they purchase. On top of that, these are the five top challenges ecommerce managers see as threats to their business.

Competition through prices

If your product is well-known by its quality, you can’t just start making cheaper products on an attempt to compete with larger online stores. It’s been a pain point of many ecommerce managers for ages: many people still think that just because they’re buying online, they should get a cheaper price for it.

However, ecommerce managers have fixed costs that come with maintaining not only their website, but also the logistics of selling products and delivery through mail. These costs make it difficult for small online stores to be lucrative in the short term, which is an issue we’ll get to further along this article.

So, how do ecommerce managers solve this issue? By maintaining product quality and delivering an excellent customer experience. Ecommerce managers need to keep their shops relevant and useful so that customers will return and buy again.

What about offline stores?

When it comes to the offline presence of ecommerce retailers, things can get a little bit tricky. What ecommerce managers agree on is that it is important for brands to offer a seamless experience across all its channels – whether they are online or offline. In some countries, people will browse products online and then shop offline. In some other places, it might be the opposite: people will peruse stuff at brick and mortar stores, and then buy online.

What’s important to keep in mind is that ecommerce and offline stores should work in unison, and not compete against each other. Both are useful at this time and age; this means that physical stores and ecommerce should be constantly in touch with each other to be aware of any campaigns that might be of use for both. Offline and online stores should be aware of which products are the most popular on the other one so they can run offers across both channels.

Machine learning

The advent of Artificial Intelligence has brought a lot of chances for ecommerce to improve its services. Mainly, a lot of online stores have started using chatbots with machine learning to enhance interactions with the store. From providing product questions to abandoned carts, chatbots are the future of ecommerce. Some ecommerce managers even trust people could use a chatbot to get all the product information from the vendor without even needing to Google it.

However, people still believe it’s too early to trust a chatbot with that task. If you’re in need to hire professionals to help you with your online store, try ecommerce recruitment in Europe through WunderTalent. There are plenty of ecommerce specialists available to develop your ecommerce website with machine learning features. Chatbots can also be useful for brand awareness, customer questions, payments and engagement with the brand.

Getting investment from the main business

For many companies, ecommerce is still not profitable enough to justify more investment. However, many brick and mortar chains are investing more and more in their ecommerce efforts to counter ecommerce giants like Amazon. It’s important to note that while retail chains are investing in ecommerce at the moment it’s not likely that effort will give them a huge ROI right now.

Many ecommerce managers warn their directors to that effect: ecommerce is a long term investment that does not give you an immediate return. Sometimes, it takes years for an online store to become profitable. Nevertheless, this is an investment you will not regret in the long run. If you don’t do it now, you’ll have to do it eventually. It’s better to reap in the benefits from ecommerce sooner than later.

If you have a store or a small chain, it’s essential to offer ecommerce to reach out for customers who aren’t close to your store. It might seem like a futile effort in the beginning, but that’s just part of the future for all stores. You need to have ecommerce – whether you do it sooner or later might determine the success of your other endeavours.

Increasing revenue

Ultimately, it all boils down to one thing: making money. Some ecommerce managers have reported that they were able to boost their revenues by simply increasing ad spend, whereas others say it’s not so simple. You have to make your ad investment count by making sure you’re using the right copy and image, that you’re targeting the right users…

You need digital recruitment specialists to help you with getting the right people working on that. Remember, investment has to be done carefully and purposefully to reach its goals. One way to increase your revenue is to use attribution modelling so you can spend more intelligently in every channel you need for your brand.

These are the main ecommerce managers’ concerns at the moment when it comes to keeping their business afloat. However, what most ecommerce managers agree on is that a long-term plan for generating revenue is better than a short term one. What’s important is to ensure ROI for the next years adapting to the market as it grows and matures; don’t just think about what you’re going to need for next week, plan in advance – this is what ecommerce managers suggest.