As you have probably already found to your cost, there is a lot more to running an
eCommerce business than meets the eye—especially in a place like London. What you once
thought would just involve a simple website and a mail pick-up has expanded way beyond
those simple factors, and quite simply, the cracks are beginning to show.
Getting your business back on track and running smoothly is not the biggest job in the world,
but you need to make sure that you target the right areas. With that in mind, here are some
tips for making your London eCommerce business run more smoothly.
1. Provide flexible working options for your office staff
The joys of an eCommerce business are that you don’t have regular opening hours like a
shop, so you can offer more flexibility to the people who work for you. Customer support
aside, many of the tasks associated with the everyday running of an eCommerce business
can be done at any time, which means that your staff can work around their children and
other dependants.
In turn, offering flexible hours like this gives you the opportunity to employ the best people for the job—especially if you allow them to work remotely as well. This is key, as having the
right people involved is vital to the smooth running of any business.
2. Put your website in the hands of Shopify experts
Unless you are a web design expert yourself, there is a fair chance that your website could
do with a little work. Even if you do have a good grounding in web design, an eCommerce
site is not like a regular website and you need to get the experts involved to revamp or even
recreate your current website.
This might initially involve an audit so you know what needs to be improved, and throughout
the process you might need to contact them to discuss the way forward. To do this it’s no
use engaging a company on the other side of the world and you will be better off using a
Shopify agency London to do the work for you as they are close at hand.
3. Consider FBA to separate distribution facility
While being in London has numerous benefits, it does mean that rental prices for offices and
warehouses can be astronomical, and the traffic will not make collections and deliveries
easy. You’ll probably want to keep your office in London but your distribution warehouse can
be anywhere at all (or outsourced altogether).
For instance, if you also sell on Amazon then Amazon FBA could be an option, as they will
distribute all of your orders for you—whether they came via Amazon or not. Of course, this
service comes at a price that you will need to weigh up against your current distribution
overheads.
To wrap everything up
Smooth-running businesses tend to be more efficient and profitable as well as being less
stressful for those who run them. To achieve this desirable state of affairs you will need to
look at getting the right people involved by offering them flexible hours and looking at
outsourcing your distribution to a third party. Most importantly, though, you need to get
specialist help with your website so that you get the most from every visitor, cut down
abandoned carts, and increase your bottom line.