How to Grow an Online Electronic Store Using Omnichannel Retailing?
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The market for electronic products is simmering hot in 2023! The worldwide electronic product business is predicted to grow at a 6.8% annual rate from $1,191 billion in 2020 to $1,653 billion in 2025. The spike is primarily attributable to lockdown that boosted demand for essential technological devices among professionals and students who are increasingly working remotely.
Do you want to hear about the one channel that fueled electronic product sales between 2019 and 2021, when all retail locations were closed due to an ongoing pandemic and customers were desperate to get their preferred tablets, smartphones, and other electronic devices?
Yes! It is an online electronic store that operates through company-owned online brand stores and top-tier eCommerce platforms like Walmart, Amazon, and Flipkart.
Challenges of selling electronic products online
Selling electronic products online is a very challenging task as there are many problems that retailers face while selling them. Some of the critical ones are mentioned below:
1) Return issues
The return process of online purchasing is very troublesome for customers. Many consumers have to pay for the cost and effort of returning goods themselves even when there are problems with the product itself.
2) Quality issues
People are becoming increasingly aware of the quality of products they buy online. Online retailers have been selling numerous products for years. However, due to poor Quality Control (QC) issues from brands, there are many reports that customers received low quality or damaged products that failed to perform and were not as advertised. Moreover, customers face problems in returning these products to the company. These problematic issues hurt the reputation of online retailers and scar customer loyalty.
3) Shipping and delivery problems
Electronic gadgets are fragile, and sellers face the challenge of shipment without damage and delivering it on time. If the size of electronic products like TV, refrigerators, washing machines are too big, the retail company has issues providing it at the preferred customer location.
4) Customer satisfaction issues
A customer has a habit of visiting the brand showroom, then viewing, inspecting, trying, feeling, and expecting a product demo from sales representatives. They also get into bargaining to bag the best offer. An online electronic store does not offer these vivid experiences with a human touch that can create huge customer dissatisfaction.
5) Product infringement issues
It may happen that the seller or the delivery partner has infringed with the branded electronic product and sold a used, old, repaired, or duplicate product using the online platform to cheat the customer. It can hurt the image of electronic brands.
6) Poor online customer experience
The main reason for a poor online customer experience is terrible customer service due to sync issues between the retailer company and the brand selling electronic products. As a result, when a customer calls with a complaint related to a web purchase, their plea is often unaccepted by the company, seller, and the brand affecting the online customer experience.
7) Maintaining product catalog
Manually updating the electronic products catalog is a significant challenge. New products are continually being introduced with advancements in technology, and many existing ones become obsolete. Furthermore, not every eCommerce platform can support a dynamic product catalog.
Electronic products sold online
- Mixer grinder
- Smartphones
- Smart Tv
- Fridge
- Vacuum Cleaner
- Air coolers
- Air purifier
- Water purifier
- AC/DC Motor
- Laptops
- Tablets
- Home Theatre
- Washing Machines
- Accessories
Ways to grow an online electronic store using omnichannel retailing
1) Boost electronics product sales with AR technology
Customers check the features, size, colour, working and view the demo of every electronic product before finalizing their purchase. Effective technologies in omnichannel retailing like Augmented Reality (AR) can help you sell more and keep more of your revenue as 40% of customers are willing to pay more for a product if they can experience it through AR.
Increase engagement by 66%: More time on your website increases the likelihood of a sale. Even if they don't buy right away, their increased attention means they have developed a good relationship with your brand and product, making them more likely to buy in the future.
Increases conversions by 40%: AR can increase sales and retain visitors on your site longer. It can show a product in a user's space by offering 3D views, making buying decisions clearer, simpler, and more manageable.
Reduce returns by 35%: In addition to selling more, retailers may expect to keep a more significant portion of the revenue due to lesser returns. It is especially critical if you are used to depending on in-store sales as returns on eCommerce purchases can be up to five times greater than those on purchases made in brick-and-mortar locations.
2) Make your inventory available from any location
Omnichannel order fulfillment enables consumers to purchase from any location (online, in-store, on their mobile devices, or from digital displays) and have their orders completed from any location (store pick-up, home delivery, pick-up locker, etc.). Retailers can sell more, fulfill orders faster, lower the cost of unsold inventory, and ensure customers discover precisely what they're looking for by leveraging real inventory insight and sophisticated order orchestration and routing capabilities.
These are the promising omnichannel fulfillment strategies that make inventory available from any location:
Ship from nearby stores: Get the products shipped directly to the customer from nearby stores
In-store pick-up: Allow shoppers to pick up products from stores that have inventory
Endless Aisle: Browse in-store using Endless Aisle and deliver it to the customer's home
Ship-to-store: Ship products from the fulfillment centre to a specific store.
3) Get a single view of inventory across channels
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Retail operations are complex systems consisting of numerous moving parts: inventory management, warehouse management, and transportation logistics – not to mention the complication of online and in-store alignment. When any of these systems cannot communicate with one another, stock levels become inaccurate, orders are difficult to trace, and consumers cannot receive the service they require.
It is where a unified view of inventory enters the picture. A unified view of inventory, enabled by omnichannel technology, allows retailers complete control over their real-time stock movements, pricing, and locations.
It assists in increasing stock accuracy & product availability across multiple channels without the need to manage channel-wise inventory, thereby making inventory management a lot easier.
4) Efficient catalog management
Catalog management for electronic products is a huge challenge. Some of which are
- Lack of real-time visibility into inventory & inability to analyze and react to demand
- Managing product listings across multiple sales channels
- Keeping new and existing product listings updated online
- Adding and expanding your product catalog easily
Omnichannel platforms like Fynd Platform help you upload and manage product catalogs easily across multiple sales channels all at once.
Retailers can successfully upload catalogs on the Fynd Platform to create single or bulk products in easy steps - fill up the product information, description, attributes, and media, then preview and get their products live instantly.
This cool feature lets retailers easily update, configure, and upload new products into the system and launch them on completely optimized product pages for mobile phones and tablets.
5) Order management
A single dashboard of the Fynd Order Management System (OMS) shows aggregated order views from every sales channel (new orders, processing orders, and orders already been processed).
Every time you order a product, it is automatically bundled with destinations and shipping providers. There is no need to worry about shipping because Fynd makes sure that their trusted delivery partners pick up orders from the storefront and deliver them to the customers.
The Bulk Operations feature from Fynd is highly useful for sellers who process 100 to 1000 orders a day. They can use the Fynd panel to process the bulk orders quickly and download the entire list.
Fynd serves some of the world's most incredible brands on its omnichannel platform like Mothercare, Tiffany, Hamleys, Just Watches, Vision Express, Reebok, Mercedes Benz and a lot more. Check out a wider list of brands catered by Fynd here. By the end of Q2 of 2023 Fynd is all set to welcome all major electronics brands and launch their omnichannel journey.
Conclusion
Technology will always be cool, and customers will always have the thrill of owning the greatest & latest electronic products in the market. If you have an online electronic store, you should integrate omnichannel retailing into your business as consumers prefer brands that provide a seamless shopping experience driving 80% incremental store visits.
Are you ready to go omnichannel? We will assist you in implementing the right strategy for generating new revenue streams for an online electronic store. Book a demo with Fynd – India's largest omnichannel platform for retailers, startups, and budding entrepreneurs.
