Ecommerce Operators in the UK Bear the Brunt of Brexit

It was never in any doubt that Brexit would bring devastating economic consequences for many businesses across the UK. Cross-channel export and import complications are already hitting merchants hard, and experts believe the worst is yet to come.

One of the hardest-hit sectors of all is ecommerce, with a full 94% of online brands in Britain saying that Brexit has cost them customers in the EU. This suggests that since the transition period ended on December 31 last year, at least nine out of 10 UK ecommerce businesses have seen a fall in sales.

 

Ecommerce platform ChannelAdvisor junction with research firm CensusWide reached out to more than 300 UK businesses selling products online. The aim was to assess the extent to which Brexit had disrupted cross-border sales and customer relations, along with potential issues regarding additional tax obligations and shipping delays.

The overwhelming majority (94%) said that they had lost some customers in the EU, while 66% said that EU customer numbers had fallen ‘significantly’ due to Brexit.

An Uptick in Domestic Ecommerce

The UK High Street was devastated by three consecutive lockdowns, resulting in thousands of stores and established chains closing down permanently. Meanwhile, ecommerce operators thrived during the COVID-19 crisis, as the UK public was given little option but to shop predominantly online.

Consequently, 92% of the businesses surveyed said that customer numbers had increased significantly since the Coronavirus pandemic hit. In addition, 82% said that overall sales are currently higher than they were before the pandemic, with 27% reporting a ‘significant’ increase in sales volumes.

Conversely, only 16% of the retailers surveyed said current sales were the same as those early last year.

Reassuringly, 93% of the CMOs polled said that they are more confident in their brand’s future today than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the domestic picture is predominantly reassuring, Brexit has had a dramatic effect on the ability of UK ecommerce brands to do business overseas.

A Significant Drop in International Sales

When quizzed on the effects of Brexit, 68% said that they had experienced a fall in international sales. Meanwhile, a further 22% said that international sales had fallen significantly, as a direct result of Brexit.

Only 15% indicated that international sales volumes had improved since Brexit, with 17% saying there had been no specific change in either direction.

Issues shipping items to shoppers overseas were the most commonly encountered problem among UK ecommerce operators (73%). Around a third also said that complications at the border had significantly extended delivery times and affected their operations.

“UK brands are enjoying a phenomenal period of growth and will no doubt play an integral role in the country’s post-COVID recovery. However, the last few months of Brexit disruption have caused a significant headache for the vast majority of these firms, thanks to delays and complications at UK-EU customs. Brands rarely become e-commerce giants without strong international sales and finding a solution to this border disruption will benefit all sides,” commented Vladi Shlesman on behalf of ChannelAdvisor.

“Leveraging expertise like a third-party logistics provider can overcome fulfilment challenges, or looking to new sources of demand could help plug the gap in demand. In the meantime, it’s inspiring to see that brands are enthused and confident about the coming year. After such a transformative time in the industry, I hope they continue to reap the rewards of e-commerce.”

Some eCommerce Promotion Ideas to Boost Your Online Sales

 For reasons we don’t need to go into, it’s a pretty mixed bag right now for ecommerce businesses worldwide. Online retail in general is booming, but we’re slap-bang in the middle of a period where people are hesitant to spend their money.

Hence, anything you can do to boost and market online sales during this difficult time is something you probably should be doing.

For those willing to do what it takes to weather the storm, here’s a brief rundown of just a few ecommerce promotion ideas that are guaranteed to boost your online sales:

1. Contests and giveaways

We’re all powerless against a freebie - especially in times of financial turbulence. Organising a contest can be a great way of nurturing engagement, boosting interest in your products and attracting new customers. Even if the prize isn’t particularly lucrative, contests and giveaways never fail.

2. Flash sales

This is where you host a strictly time-limited sale with the kinds of major deals and discounts you wouldn’t normally offer. Perhaps for one day or even just a couple of hours, you make limited quantities of certain items available at seriously low prices. Again, a great way of pulling in the punters and attracting new customers to your store.

3. Free samples

If anything you sell is perishable and is at risk of expiring in the near future, it’s far better to give it away than to allow it to go to waste. This can be made an ongoing element of your sales and marketing strategy, offering free samples on a first-come, first-served basis to the customers in your mailing list.

4. Introduce multi-purchase deals

One of the most effective ways of maximising the size and value of every sale is to incentivise heavier spending. More specifically, through the introduction of multi-purchase deals - ideally on a long-term basis. You buy three products, you get a fourth item for free - a tried, tested and trusted approach to boosting sales.

5. Stop charging for shipping

With more online retailers than ever before offering free shipping as standard, you cannot afford to continue charging for shipping in the current climate. Feel free to impose a modest minimum spend to qualify for free shipping, but make sure free delivery is one of your online store’s key selling points.

6. Assemble product packs or bundles

This is more or less the same as a multi-purchase deal, only in this instance you decide what goes in the package. You group a bunch of similar or relevant items together, you package them in an attractive bundle and you sell them at a lower price than the combined individual product costs.

7. Improve your loyalty scheme

More importantly, think about introducing a loyalty scheme if you don’t already have one up and running. And don’t make the mistake of offering lame or low-value incentives in return for loyalty - make sure repeat business is rewarded fairly and generously.

8. Leverage user-generated-content (UGC)

Last up, now could also be the perfect time to begin leveraging the value and appeal of user-generated-content. Along with being more impactful, influential and memorable than any brand-created content, it’s also 100% free of charge! Ask your customers to submit content you can publish (perhaps on the basis of a modest incentive) and they’ll usually be more than happy to do so.

How to Survive (and Win) the Post-Christmas Lull

 There’s always a sting in the tail with the annual Christmas ecommerce frenzy. Things are just about as peachy and positive as it gets for a couple of months, after which comes the inevitable lull. 

One of the biggest (and most common mistakes) made by smaller businesses is focusing too heavily on leveraging shoppers’ appetite to spend over the festive period. And in doing so, losing sight of the importance of compensating for what happens next.

Consumer spending always dips massively in January and February – a fact and a reality there’s nothing you can do about. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty you can do to survive and even thrive during this post-Christmas lull.

A few suggestions on how to make January and February slightly less painful for your online business:

1. Launch a Sale

It’s a pretty old-fashioned concept in this day and age, but consumers still cannot resist the prospect of the classic ‘January Sale’. They’ve already overspent during November and December, yet are attracted to January discounts like moths to flames. Don’t forget that your closest competitors are probably planning major January sales of their own, so it’s worth doing likewise.

2. Leverage the New Year Attitude

New year, new start, new opportunities etc. – the New Year attitude that temporarily motivates the masses. At the very beginning of the year, people become determined to improve their personal productivity, clean and sanitise their homes, improve their health, do something charitable and generally become ‘better’ people. All of which can and should be leveraged in your sales and marketing strategy for the New Year.

3. Launch Something New

Most businesses time their new product and service debuts for the spring and summer. They instinctively avoid times of diminished spending, for reasons rooted in logic. However, this also means there’s a glaring gap in anything new and interesting hitting the market at the start of the New Year. If you’ve been sitting on something you think your audience will get a kick out of, why not take advantage while your competitors are hibernating?

4. Get Serious with Email Marketing

Ideally, every single sale you made over Christmas will have resulted in another email address making it onto your list. In which case, there’s no better time than right after Christmas to start working on a serious (and appropriately segmented) email marketing strategy. Too soon to start bugging those who only recently shopped with you? Not at all – it’s always best to reach out to satisfied customers while they remember why they shopped with you in the first place!

5. Stay Active and Communicative

Last up, don’t make the mistake of going quiet and temporarily vanishing into thin air. Due to a combination of fatigue and the fact that business is slow, countless brands go dormant and largely inactive after Christmas. In doing so, they overlook (or are oblivious to) the fact that social media use skyrockets during the darker and gloomier months of the year. Hence, there’s really no better time to engage your audience and take your social media marketing strategy a step further.

The Rise and Rise of mCommerce

 Once again, the extraordinary value and importance of mCommerce has been illustrated in the numbers alone. As of right now, approximately 1.6 billion people are known to be using mobile devices to make purchases online. Or to put it another way, that’s more than 25% of the entire population of the world. 

Not only this, but as the popularity of mCommerce continues to grow worldwide, traditional eCommerce by way of desktop and laptop computers is seeing something of a decline. Nothing particularly dramatic, but a 15% in 2019, compared to the year before. During the same period, transactions originating from smartphones doubled.

Quote these figures to the average business owner and chances are they’ll be anything but surprised. After all, mCommerce didn’t exactly come out of nowhere and nor is it a secret that the modern world is addicted to mobile. But what is interesting is the way in which so many business owners still seem entirely unsure as to how to adapt and engineer their content for success in the mCommerce era.

Smooth and Simple

As a rule of thumb, the key to success when it comes to mCommerce is to deliver a smooth, simple and seamless experience for every customer. Easier said than done, but nonetheless essential.

Speed and simplicity are the two most important attributes demanded by today’s consumer. For example, approximately 65% of mCommerce shoppers are unwilling to wait more than 4 seconds for any given webpage to load. If it takes longer than this, they’ll head elsewhere. When they do, close to 70% stated that they’d be far more likely to go through with a purchase, if the mobile experience as a whole was on-par.

By the end of 2020, total mCommerce value in the United Kingdom alone is expected to hit an incredible £42 billion. What’s more, mCommerce will also account for at least 45% of all online sales – its highest figure to date.

So it’s abundantly clear that mCommerce isn’t going anywhere but skywards for the foreseeable future. Hence, now really is the time to invest as heavily as necessary in creating a premier mobile experience, built in accordance with the following key principles:

• Creativity. However you choose to go about it, your mobile website needs to stand out from the crowd, delivering a strong and true reflection of your brand. It shouldn’t be a generic, watered-down version of your primary desktop website.

• Visuals. Most mobile shoppers expect the kinds of high-quality visuals that make it quick and easy to see what it is that’s on offer and whether or not they want it. Creative imagery having much greater impact than standard stock photography.

• Adaptability. It’s no good to provide a mobile experience that’s outstanding on the customer’s Samsung smartphone and pure garbage on their iPad. Quality mobile web design means ensuring your content and layout can adapt to all devices, without exception.

• Simplification. Ideally, the customer should be able to find whatever they’re looking for and complete the entire purchase process in just a few touches. The slower and more complicated the conversion process, the less likely it is to happen.

• Speed. Last up, capitalising on the value of impulse purchases and generally maintaining the attention of modern audiences means providing a lightning-fast mobile experience at all times. When mobile site speed isn’t up to scratch, it’s game-over.

The Four Biggest Ecommerce Changes You Can Expect In 2020

Every year brings its own unique shifts and changes to the online retail landscape. 2019 looks to be no exception to the rule, with a handful of ecommerce trends set to dominate the months ahead.

So whether you’re running an online business or are simply a spectator on the sidelines, here are the four biggest ecommerce shifts you can expect to see this year: 

Social Selling
First up, the key to success on the world’s leading social platforms has always been to avoid the hard-sell at all costs. And it still is, but this doesn’t mean that selling on social media isn’t an incredibly effective strategy for the savvy business. It’s the classic case of selling without selling - finding ways to promote your products, your services and your brand without resorting to the hard-sell. Images and videos showing your products in use, influencer recommendations, exclusive deals and discounts - there’s a lot you could be doing to promote your products subtly yet effectively on social media.

Multi-Channel Selling

It’s also worth remembering that today’s consumer doesn’t make purchases exclusively through one online channel. A recent survey has found that around 90% of consumers still shop offline, 45% use branded online stores, more than 75% have made purchases on Amazon and around 35% use eBay. This means that irrespective of the demographic you’re reaching out to, it simply makes sense to sell your products and/or services through a wide variety of channels. If you’re still selling your wares exclusively through your own website, it’s time to think about getting your eBay and Amazon stores up and running as quickly as possible.

Smarter Payment Processing

The simplicity and seamlessness of the payment process can be the ultimate deal-breaker for today’s consumer. They’ve made it right through to the final payment process, but it’s still spectacularly easy to lose them at this late stage. In fact, research suggests that of the 70% of shoppers who abandon their carts before making a purchase, the majority cite issues or inconveniences regarding the payment process. In this instance, ‘smarter’ payment processes means simplified, streamlined and accelerated payment processes. A checkout process with as few mandatory fields to fill in as possible and a variety of payment options to choose from.

Custom Packaging

Last but not least, consumers are placing heavier emphasis on the appeal of product packaging than ever before. Along with the elimination of unnecessary packaging and the exclusive use of recyclable/recycled materials, custom packaging is also making its mark. To such an extent that almost 70% of shoppers admit being impressed and engaged by brands that take their packaging seriously. If you lack resources to come up with your own custom packaging in-house, there are plenty of third-party specialists who can help.

4 Ways to Avoid E-Commerce Annihilation

Nowadays, it’s often said that in order to be able to survive as a retailer, you need to get involved in the ecommerce revolution. But at the same time, it is hardly difficult to notice how the ecommerce field is already utterly and completely dominated by a few leading brands. Put simply, no matter what you want or need, chances are you’ll be able to easily pick it up from a leading name online.



All of which seems to leave little space for smaller online brands, considering the David and Goliath struggle they usually face. But as far as the professionals are concerned, not all hope is lost. Quite to the contrary, as there are some ways and means by which focusing on what matters can assist any online store avoid complete annihilation by the ecommerce giants.

1. Don’t Count on Low Prices Alone

It is worth bearing in mind that most consumers value other elements of the service package above low prices. Amazing customer service, extremely reliable delivery times or just a brand with a story and ethos they can connect with. Surviving as a small ecommerce business means focusing on what it is that makes your brand both different and awesome from rivals.

2. Be a Service Provider, Not Just a Vending Machine

What this basically means is the way some online stores seem to exist like glorified vending machines, while others are exceptionally rich in engaging and useful content. The difference is that the large majority of web consumers respond significantly better to the latter. Therefore, it is crucial to make all efforts to build and market your businessand brand around so much more than products alone. You have to become an all-round service provider and an online authority your clients turn to for more than purchases alone.

3. Get to Know Your Clients

Loyalty schemes are both effective and important, with eMarketer recently revealing that next to 55% of web consumers admit that their spending habits are influenced by such programs. Nonetheless, it is once again crucial to go beyond the norm in order to be as competitive as possible. Provide regular e-mail updates, carry out surveys, request thoughts, reviews and opinions, find out what their priorities are.

4. Stay Social

Last up, you need to use every scrap of information you come across regarding your customers in terms of the content you create and your effort to maintain relationships. One of the most crucial pieces of the puzzle is that of staying social – making the most use of your social media channels and building one comprehensive online presence. It is not like the CEO of Amazon has the inclination or the time to get directly involved with customers via Twitter or Facebook. As a much more personal and small business, it’s very much something that you can do and hence should be doing.

How To Achieve E-Commerce Success

You may think that running an e-commerce business will be a breeze compared to setting up a shop and doing things the old-fashioned way. Be warned though – if you go in with this attitude you are going to run into problems very quickly. E-commerce does offer fantastic opportunities for start-up businesses: it is quite possible to reach a global client base in a relatively short space of time. However, in this fast-moving world you need to stay constantly up-to-date with ecommerce marketing techniques and technologies or you will be left behind your competitors.

Many e-commerce businesses have failed because their owners simply don’t know how to establish – and maintain – a strong online presence. With that in mind, here are some tips all small online business owners should bear in mind when they are starting out:

Business Model: It’s important that you’re very clear from the beginning exactly what kind of company you’re going to be. How will your business make money and what is it that makes it unique? What areas will you need to focus on in particular and where are the risks likely to be?

Know Your Clients: To be able to market yourself effectively to your core customer base, you have to know what their priorities are and what they are likely to respond to. How can you ensure they come to your online shop and not those of your competitors? Keep an eye on upcoming trends and make sure you keep your product range fresh, innovative and relevant.

Watch Your Overheads: If possible, competition between online retailers is even fiercer than between those who sell offline. Buy as low as possible by getting as close to the manufacturer in the supply chain as you can. Don’t rely on one supplier, but instead seek out several so you are not forced to pay more out of necessity. This way you can be sure of reasonable profit margins on the majority of your products, even if you make a loss on some lines.

Be Visible: This is perhaps the single most important rule for an online retailer. You may have great products, you may have a beautifully designed website and your customer service may be second to none. This will all count for nothing, however, if you haven’t invested in SEO. Your customers must be able to find your website so keywords, back links, advertising and blogging are all essential tools in your arsenal. SEO can be tricky to negotiate so many e-commerce businesses find it advisable to hire in an expert to ensure it’s done properly.

Communicate: The majority of e-commerce sites will rely on repeat business for the bulk of their sales. This means, if you are to succeed, your customers should have such a good experience of your website that they want to come back. Make sure all your product descriptions are clear and accurate, that you respond quickly if there is a problem and that you make it easy for them to communicate with you. Include email addresses, contact forms or comment boxes on your site, and use social media sites to encourage communication through these channels as well.

How To Market Your Online Business

The world of e-commerce is moving so fast these days that if you don’t have a strong e-commerce marketing strategy your company not be able to keep up with the many competitors out there. In the days before the internet, it used to be much simpler to market your company, but now there are so many option open to you online it can be confusing. Here are just some of the online marketing strategies you can use to get your e-commerce business noticed and increase your sales:


Email Marketing: Make sure your website includes an email registration form where visitors can sign up for product information or special promotions, for example. Ensure the form asks for relevant information so you can categorise your clients according to their priorities and preferences. Then, when it comes to sending them marketing emails you can employ a targeted approach rather than sending the same emails to everyone on your list.

Blogging: Blogging on your website is a very cheap and easy way to promote your business online, as long as you are providing the reader with relevant and useful information. If you do this, you can become established as an authority on your market sector and, hence, a reliable supplier.

Pay-Per-Click: Pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of e-commerce marketing. You pay each time somebody clicks on your advert and is directed to your website, so it can be a very quick way to drum up some new business. There are other equally effective marketing methods which are more slow-burning, but if you are in a hurry – say, for example you have a limited product promotion – this could be for you.

Use Social Media: The majority of online companies also now recognise the benefits of using social media such as Facebook or Twitter to draw attention to their activities. The trick when doing this is not to advertise your products too belligerently – social media is about taking part in discussions and forums, and building up an online presence in a more gradual way. You can also use your posts on these forums to build back links.

Use SEO: Search engine optimisation is important for improving your search engine rankings. You need to use the correct keywords in your headers, categories, meta descriptions etc. to boost your online presence and increase traffic to your website. It may even be worth hiring in a specialised SEO consultant to do this job for you because it’s quite a skill but it’s a key part of your online marketing strategy.