E-Commerce 04 Jan 2013

Outsourcing and Ecommerce – Top Strategies to Make a Profit in a downturn

There are many companies looking for more sales and profits without increasing the cost of overhead. Outsourcing in ecommerce is one of the most cost-effective solutions companies use today, and – thanks to the many reputable agencies – results can be seen in just a few months’ time. Some outsourcing strategies in ecommerce are, however, more profitable than others, therefore, and the best practices are detailed below to provide online store owners and merchants a competitive advantage and a comprehensive guide to finding the best salespeople at the lowest possible cost.

Minimizing Investment

e-Commerce

When getting started with ecommerce outsourcing, it is important to ensure that the agency provides all the monitoring software and training. Internal training – if already exists – can be used to provide a guide to freelancers. Getting a new module for the ecommerce website or offering new ranges of features would involve an investment. Therefore, sticking with the existing store features and functions in the first few months is the best strategy for giving outsourcing a try. Making constant improvements and changes would only confuse sales staff and reduce their productivity.

Building on Expansion

Once the sales figures have gone up and there is an opening on the market, the success can easily be multiplied by introducing better products, more options, features, add-on services and promotions. When there is a sales strategy already in place, it is time for expansion. The increased traffic to the site would mean a demand for development of the speed, security and server capacity. Offering more and diversifying services or products is the next step towards building a large business through ecommerce outsourcing. However, this strategy will only work if the agency has a method of motivating the best performing salespeople in the team.

Thinking Big

When calculating the cost and profit per outsourced hour, it is easy to plan ahead in e-commerce. As the company will know exactly how much the sales figures went down in a month and how much it did cost them to hire an outsourcing agency, they can easily increase profits by getting more people to work on the project or for more hours. For international companies, one of the most important advantages of getting an agency handle the sales staff is that they can have people working on their ecommerce project 24 hours a day, thanks to the different time zones employees might live in.

Introducing New Products

Sales and ecommerce outsourcing is not only relevant to existing online stores, but also to marketing new products. When launching a new service or package, the best results can be achieved through well planned marketing campaigns developed by agencies. There is no need to stick with a few products; as the sales would come in on a regular basis, the management would have more time and energy for planning new launches, creating innovative services, conducting market research and developing products based on customers’ needs. Therefore, ecommerce outsourcing can be beneficial not only for selling existing products, but also for expanding a company.

– BackOffice Pro

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