3 Ways E-commerce CRM Will Help Your Sales Soar

Selling on the web has turned the sales process for many on its side. The traditional linear model of sales is fading as customers in both the B2C and B2B spheres are able to browse web stores and buy on their own timeline. They never even have to speak directly with a sales person and can abandon the sales process at any time. For this reason, e-commerce CRM systems are becoming more popular and vital to online sellers. Here are some ways e-commerce CRM can help your close more sales on a more unpredictable sales playing field.

1. Track customer visits – a robust e-commerce CRM system will track a prospect’s activity on the web store from the very first visit. By integrating analytics with your CRM, you can see when prospective buyers first entered your web store, from what search engine and even what page they saw. You can see click streams and gather information to market better to other customers in similar locations or with similar habits. You can also see customer cart abandonment and follow up with those customers via email to remind them of their interest in your product. Without this visibility, you’re blind to what is driving traffic and conversation in your web store and any step forward is done without knowledge of cost and benefit.

2. Track Campaign ROI - Imagine seeing the success of your email marketing reported instantly and accurately in your software. By tracking keywords and referrers and analyzing click-through on your web page, marketing goals can be targeted differently to achieve more sales and growth. With each marketing campaign, you can track who opened and clicked through your email and even go so far as to see which sales were converted directly from leads funneled in by your campaign. The e-commerce CRM system then tracks this customer has a conversion from that campaign so you can see what got them to your store in the first place. In seeing what doesn’t work or lies flat you can narrow your marketing goals and cut costs on campaigns that don’t generate new business.

3. Improved customer service – Whether a prospect buys and becomes a customer or remains a prospect but just has a question, your customer service and support staff should have the tools to efficiently track customer questions and complaints in the e-commerce CRM system. Create support cases which can track customer communications, reference knowledge base articles and notify product managers when certain items are receiving more complaints than others. If a customer feels that you are paying attention to them and taking care of their needs, they are much more likely to bring their business back to you in the future.

The sales process in the e-commerce world is very different from the old funnel model. Customers move in and out of sales stages very frequently and can move forward and backward at will. By using a powerful e-commerce CRM tool, you can track the customer’s every move on your web store and keep in touch with marketing and email communication. By keeping your brand and company in front of the online customer at all times, you can exert some influence over a customer’s buying habits in the sometimes unpredictable world of e-commerce.