Today’s guest post is from our friend, Erin! She’s one wonderful woman entrepreneur that ventured into yoga and activewear business. Now she’s sharing with us some tips on how she and her colleagues run successful online stores!
If you have embarked into the eCommerce industry, you’ll understand that having an online business is not an easy task and while raising kids make it a lot tougher. But is it possible to do both successfully? If you’re asking this question, you are not alone. There are a lot of eCommerce moms out there who are wondering about the same thing.
Here are some helpful tips and hacks on how to run an online store while still being able to stay a responsible mother.
- Cherry-pick an easy to use shopping cart software.
The first thing to do is to make it easier both on yourself and your potential customers by choosing a user-friendly shopping cart software for your online business.
Shopping cart is definitely of the most significant component of an eCommerce store. The more time you spend making a complicated shopping cart, the less time you have left on doing things that are more important like spending precious time with your family and kids. So if you are still on the early stages of establishing your eCommerce business, use a shopping cart platform that is easy-to-use and user-friendly. If you are already running you’re shop and you are having a hard time on your shopping cart, it is never too late to make changes.
Shopify is a great example of an application which can help you start quickly, offer searchable FAQs, and easy-to-understand video tutorials so you can start an online clothing store.
2. Make a simpler marketing strategy.
Many eCommerce moms put in a lot of work and time working on their marketing strategies. And that’s really a contrary to the reason why you established your online business which is to earn without compromising your quality time with your kids. So the solution is really simple: Do not complicate your marketing strategy, the simpler the better.
A great way to do this is to systematize your social media marketing and start an e-mail advertising campaign that’s completely automated. With this method, you can plan out the rest of the month’s social media campaign schedule with just a little time. You simply have to write or hire out the month’s worth of content ahead of time and schedule them as you’d like them to be released. This will help you have more time for movie nights, birthday parties, play dates, or dinner-out for your family while earning. Also, keep your eCommerce website updated with the latest offers and issues. Have interactive images of products with their details. These interactive experiences can also help in improving the website’s SEO performance.
3. Hire someone to be in-charged in doing some of your store’s customer service needs.
Acknowledging that you need help is essential to the success of your business. As an old adage goes, two is better than one. Similarly, you may need help in running your shop, especially when you have little energetic kids to look for. As your business grows, some details may need additional attention. Hiring outside aid can help you relieve some of the stresses and workloads – especially when you’re already starting to grow. You’ll come to a point where you realize that without any help, the entire day is not enough.
Another department where you might need help is customer service. A virtual assistant can take care of it, whether pre-sale or post-sale. Of course, you still need to invest a short amount of time to guide your assistant – this is important for forming a reliable and consistent responses. After the training, he will already be able to answer customer questions and complaints. This will let you work for more important details of your eCommerce business like marketing, managing inventory, processing sales, and of course… being a rockstar parent to your kids.
You will need to save as much time as you can while running a business and likewise for your employees. It’s typical for a startup to have a big workload so learning how to be efficient is vital, especially when it comes to managing contracts and keeping an eye on your vendors. Using a Cloud Contract Management system By GatekeeperHQ you can optimise the workflow of your employee when dealing with customers. With a Vendor performance management system you can manage the reliability and the quality of the goods and services your vendors are providing. Thus saving you time on making an analysis of the situation and focus on more important tasks at hand. The more you make your system at work more efficient the more happy customers you will have. More happy customers there are, the quicker the good word gets out and ultimately you will have more customers and profit more.
The Upshot
There are countless moms across the world who can run a successful online business while being an awesome parent to their children. But this requires a great deal of planning, discipline, time management, modern technology and advance software applications that can give support to those who plan to start their eCommerce business endeavor.
Hopefully, these tips can help you simplify the way you manage your business so you can be a successful online mompreneur while still being a remarkable mom to your kids.
