Start the new year right by keeping your customer top-of-mind

After a year full of unprecedented events on the world stage, we know we can’t predict all that 2021 will bring. What we do know is that most companies are re-evaluating their sales model, setting a path to digital transformation to adapt to future buying habits. To get their businesses ready, decision makers told us they will focus efforts on a few top priority areas.

What your peers are focused on

Following the unprecedented health and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020, Nexway reached out to our clients, prospects and partners to understand the impact on their business and strategic priorities.

• How have businesses been impacted?
• What are e-commerce managers’ key concerns?
• What are managers’ top priorities for e-commerce & payments for 2021?

What we learned is that businesses are grappling with the best methods for selling and distributing products to customers today. Very quickly during the pandemic, companies had to adjust to more remote working while customers shifted their buying habits. One business leader described this situation as a “new world, new way of working.”

In this new world, some of the biggest ecommerce challenges companies are facing include lower consumer spending and mounting costs, especially due to increased commissions and fees. For many, reaching new clients or the right customers was most important. For others, transaction fraud and cybersecurity were the chief concerns.

RANKING E-COMMERCE PRIORITIES

We asked managers to rank their e-commerce and payment priorities for the year ahead.

RANKING OF THE TOP E-COMMERCE PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT 6-12 MONTHS

In a digital age where the customer truly is king, it should come as no surprise that the highest ranking strategic areas managers are looking to solve are also customer-centric. Technology also plays a key role in addressing each of these priority areas.

The top three

1. Customer experience – Consumers today have ever higher expectations of service, so companies must have a deep understanding of their consumers’ emotional needs and desires to provide personalised responses.
2. Customer support –  Customer service not only plays the role of helping customers out when they have a question or a concern, but can actually be one of your business’s best levers of growth by accompanying people along the customer journey.
3. Payment management – The Merchant of Record works within a business’s over-arching customer experience to manage the entire payment journey, including everything from accepting a range of payment options to preventing fraud to maintaining data compliance to adhering to local sales tax regulations.

In today’s uncertain business environment, it helps to remain flexible in your strategic approach to e-commerce. Focus on a few priority areas, and then test and adjust as you go. By taking the time now to set clear goals for 2021, you can give your business a good start to the year ahead.

Give your online business a boost. Join 700+ businesses growing with Nexway. Contact us.