By Bridget McCrea
In AmazonSupply.com: Can Today’s Distributors Compete? How to Succeed in a Changing Marketplace, Brian Strojny, CEO at Insite Software, offers a long list of ways to position your business for success in light of AmazonSupply.com or any other new competitor in your market. Here are eight of them (Download the white paper and read the complete list here.)
1. Evaluate your ecommerce strategy now. If you have an existing ecommerce site, what changes need to be made to get your site up-to-speed? What are the trouble spots in your online shopping experience that might encourage a customer to leave and shop elsewhere?
2. Beef up online product content. Content and resources will set you apart from all of your competitors, not just AmazonSupply.com. Online content that should be reviewed and improved if necessary includes product descriptions, product specifications, FAQs, support documentation, and product images.
3. Evaluate your traditional commerce experience from the customer’s perspective. How easy is it for your customers to purchase from you? Are there glaring errors in the buying process that you should fix?
4. Refuse to get into a price war with Amazon. AmazonSupply.com will always be able to offer lower prices than you. Rather than engaging in a price war, consider lowering prices on key items to remain relevant or implementing a price matching guarantee on identical items when a customer asks for it.
5. Leverage your ability to provide personalized service. No one knows your customers the way you do. Use this to your advantage to provide world-class, personalized customer service. .
6. Overhaul your fulfillment and shipping processes to improve speed and efficiency. Examine your order fulfillment process from start to finish and fix any issues you discover along the way.
7. Recognize the power of having a physical presence in the market. While ecommerce is being widely embraced, the fact remains that some customers and some situations will always warrant a visit to a local physical store location.
8. Empower your employees to do what it takes to keep the sale with you. Encourage all employees to go above and beyond the customer’s expectations to ensure the current sale – and future loyalty – stays with your organization.
You can read part 1 of this story, “Going Up Against the Web’s 800 Pound Gorilla” at http://www.tedmag.com/news/Features/Going-up-Against-the-Web-s-800-Pound-Gorilla–Part-I.aspx
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