We have had an amazing week here at Omniconvert with our new product launch for Reveal. Yesterday did not make an exception as we had an amazing guest speaker for our weekly show, The eCommerce Growth Show – Linda Bustos.
Who is Linda Bustos?
Before we go into the weekend mode, let’s see some key takeaways from this awesome episode.
Linda is an eCommerce consultant and blogger, formerly of the Get Elastic Ecommerce blog and Ecommerce Illustrated, and has worked with some of the world’s most exciting brands on digital experience and conversion optimization. She’s currently the Director of Digital Commerce Strategy with Elastic Path.
Key Takeaways from this episode
The eCommerce industry in the current landscape and the buying habits of new online buyers
From an e-commerce point of view if you’re a global business with a global customer it’s hard to know what is going through your customer’s mind and what they’re actually dealing with.
I don’t think we’re done seeing the shift customers are making from offline to online yet. I think there was a big bang in the beginning when all this happenend and there was a big panic shift. Obviously, if stores are closed where else do you go if you need something?
You need to go online.
But I don’t think we’re done with the way things are going to shake out and settle out because a lot of e-commerce businesses and brick and mortar businesses are going to have to make some tough decisions coming up.
So, I think that e-commerce is still strong however it’s very different depending on where you are and where your customer is from and that is what makes it challenging.
Product Assortment and Stocks during pandemics, does the supply always meet the demand?
You have to strike a balance between over buying and under buying in that stock. There are other ways to mitigate that. You might have a core catalog of products that you put in your supply orders and all of that kind of stuff and you actually supplement the rest with some dropshipping so you don’t have the risk of holding that inventory but you’re able to offer it and you’re able to test whether people want it at very very low risk. So that’s a business model and something that folks can explore.
You also might want to think about what kind of mix of products you have in your store and not so the ability to use your stores as fulfillment centers helps.
Because if you’re not moving it in the store then you can still move it online and ship it from your physical stores etc.. And now it gets a lot easier to get those kinds of things integrated than maybe it was in the past because with a lot of the more modern e-commerce platforms there’s there’s you know inventory modules that you can add or things that you can get set up pretty quickly.
Advice for eCommerce owners that are struggling with growing their stores
When you are a Founder your business is your baby.
And that makes you as a founder be very focused on growing your business.
The bigger the brand, the more successful the brand, right?
Scaling and volume and growing bigger isn’t always better. And you as an entrepreneur might say ”you know what? I’m comfortable with this lifestyle and maybe I’ve hit my peak. Now maybe I want to start a second business if I want to actually grow; So that if this one the trends or something disrupts this industry, I will have my eggs in a few different baskets.”
I think the biggest mentality thing to get out of the mindset that you have to grow at all costs and that growth is the only way to succeed.
Next week we are meeting with Aidan Corbett, Co-Founder & CEO @Wayflyer to discuss eCommerce Smart Financing. Make sure you tune in on June 18th at 3 PM GMT / 11 AM EST.
