Planning to set-up your online store? Make sure the onboarding process is as simple as this.
Shopping has become synonymous with online shopping across various categories: apparel, cosmetics, grocery, electronics, and many more. Now is the best time to start your D2C eCommerce business. The market is ripe, the consumer is ready, and the technology has made it incredibly easy to set up an online store. On second thoughts, how easy is it actually to set up an eCommerce store online? Let us find out.
In the continuously evolving eCommerce space, one gets to pick and choose from a wide selection of eCommerce shopping platforms. Weighing the various options and closing on one is not an easy task. You need to precisely assess based on parameters like the list of features, loading speed, compatibility across payment gateways and your business structure, SEO-friendly features, and more. These are some high-involvement and long-term decisions you need to make.
One such critical factor in this list is: the simplicity of the onboarding process. It is the first step towards the giant leap of setting up your online store.
Onboarding involves setting up the store, populating the products list with all the required details, providing shipping details, content for the blog, currencies accepted, stock availability, images, catalogues, and a whole list of things. It is quite a tedious process, as the right kind of content needs to be collated by the client (eCommerce business owner, in this case) in the correct format. Many D2C eCommerce platforms ask their clients to save the data on a shared drive, send via email or Whatsapp or share through Google Forms.
This currently prevalent approach lacks transparency, clarity about responsibility, the capability to track the data received, and a process to check the accuracy of the data.
Some existing DIY onboarding processes seem simple but do not provide any guidance to get an optimized conversion eCommerce ready for their business.
They seldom provide the support of a team consisting of creative designers, content writers, eCommerce domain and operations experts available in-house.
Gathering store data in this fashion leads to chaos and makes it a never-ending job. To keep pace with the technological progress and to delight their customers, eCommerce platforms such as Shoptimize have streamlined this complex process by creating a highly sophisticated, self-serving Onboarding Portal that requires close-to-zero manual intervention.
After the initial details are entered into the system, the portal link with login credentials is sent to the customer to initiate the process. The system seamlessly collects the required information, while also checking accuracy as well.
Typically, this automated and straightforward process follows the steps mentioned below:
1. The eCommerce business owner receives the portal link with login credentials
2. The client logs in to enter the essential details about his brand, products, legal information etc.
3. Additional data is gathered through a step by step process through a simple questionnaire and UI.
4. Once the data collection is complete; the design theme is finalized.
5. The UI and technology teams work on configuring the online store based on the received data and finalized UI themes, and a progress report is always available for everyone to see.
6. A UAT(User Acceptance Testing) environment is shared with the client to give their feedback, and the suggestions are incorporated.
7. The eCommerce store is delivered as per the deadline projected. And the online store is ready for the launch.
In its constant effort to enhance its customers' experience, Shoptimize has launched a cutting-edge Onboarding Portal, which is elaborate and complex at the back end. It aims to simplify the entire onboarding process and makes it a hassle-free exercise for all the teams involved.
Furthermore, a support team advises the eCommerce business about the right configuration suitable for their business, based on the vertical of their operation, brand positioning, etc.
The Shoptimize Onboarding Portal is the first real interaction between the client and the platform towards setting up the online store. This well-thought through portal makes the first step very gratifying and sets the tone for the journey ahead
Let us capture the most notable benefits of using Shoptimize Onboarding portal:
1. Simplified
The tedious task is simplified with a step-by-step approach, so brands are not overwhelmed with the quantum of details and data. Shoptimize’s Onboarding Portal gives clients a point to start and lets them make seamless progress throughout the process.
e.g. If a beauty brand is creating an online store, they enter the number of products they have under a category. The portal tells them that first, they need to enter the product details like name, description, price, usage instructions, and shelf life, followed by payment terms, delivery process, etc.
The simplicity of the process makes the onboarding process easy for new entrants with limited resources and people.
2. One-point
The portal gives you the ease of doing it yourself through a single-window. Anything and everything pertaining to the online store of a D2C online business takes place in one place. e.g., a client setting up a home appliances store online has to visit just the Onboarding Portal to enter company details, product details, store features, store design, shipping partners, payment partners, latest offers, et al.
3. Real-time validation
Accuracy of data is essential to an online store. Validation at each step eliminates errors and ensures each task is completed before one progresses to the next step. e.g. If the brand’s logo is not uploaded in the required format to meet the design specifications of the online store, it will look distorted or not show up at all. An oversight such as this can be detrimental to the image of the brand.
4. Always on track
When a process is set, it becomes easy to spot where we are in terms of the development stage, how far we are from accomplishing the individual tasks and whether we are on track to meet the deadline. Each bottleneck can be instantly identified and tracked to eliminate delays. In case the need for support arises, a team is always available to fill in all gaps, if at all.
5. Transparent
When the tasks are pre-planned, and the responsibilities are allocated to each team member, the need to follow-up becomes redundant. The interaction becomes transparent, and it helps avoid friction and helps create a positive working environment.
All the benefits mentioned above help Shoptimize offer an unparalleled customer experience. Transforming an otherwise mundane task into something so efficient and pleasant has been the primary objective behind creating the Onboarding Portal.
This sophisticated Onboarding Portal elevates the entire experience for the brands creating an online store. Here are some key insights we observed with the implementation of the onboarding portal:
25% reduction in time efforts | Communication and messaging consistent with all brands | Clients appreciate the state-of-the-art customer experience and service
So, for all with the desire to set up a profitable eCommerce business, we have a piece of advice: trust in an eCommerce platform that makes your dream project easy, right from the first step of onboarding for your online store.
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