While many businesses and industries struggle to stay afloat during this recent economic recession, e-commerce entities on the whole have continued to perform reasonably well. Online shopping numbers are still relatively strong, indicating that consumers are relying on the internet more and more to save money without sacrificing their normal shopping habits too much.
That being said, there is no business that is entirely immune from the negative effects of a lagging economy. If you’re a smaller or mid-sized online retailer especially, a recession means you must be more diligent with your day-to-day business activities and often forces you to make some difficult choices with regards to how to spend your money.
We spoke with several e-commerce industry leaders to get their take on how to not only survive, but thrive, during the recession. Here are some of their tips with regards to marketing, advertising and general business practices:
Plan Long Term: think years ahead, not months. Remember that business success is more of a marathon than a sprint, and planning ahead means never getting caught by surprise as a result of outside influences.
Market Wisely…and Diversify: if a particular marketing tool is not yielding results, ditch it! Focus on those marketing strategies that most effectively target the people you’re trying to reach and keep you under budget. And keep looking around for new marketing opportunities, such as those on social networking sites that are often free to use, like the Facebook Merchant Store application.
Don’t Stop Advertising: a very well known fast food chain (hint: it starts with an ‘M’) nearly tripled their advertising budget during the last recession while their competitors collectively cut back. The lesson? A difficult economic climate separates the weak from the strong, opening the door for you to flourish with smart, effective advertising and marketing campaigns.
Expand Your Product Line: more products mean more potential customers for you to target. Seek diverse new items to add to your product line that don’t negatively affect your own bottom line. Along those lines, it’s also wise to consider reducing inventories to cut down on overhead. It’s a slight risk, but if you can effectively project the turnaround time to replenish your inventory once the economy improves, it will help you save in the short term.
Automate: analyze your entire day-to-day operations and ask yourself which tasks could be carried out by a computer system, thus reducing the workload on you and your staff and saving you money.
Get Involved and Get Creative: take an even more active involvement in your operations, on everything from marketing to sales to shipping. Put a greater emphasis on customer service to make sure your customers keep coming back. Negotiate better deals with your wholesalers and offer specials, such as 10% off or free/reduced shipping. Only by getting involved and constantly seeking ways to improve can you ensure the future viability of your operations.
Got a tip of your own? Leave it below in the comments section!
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