Top tips for making the most of your COVID-19 online retail scheme

At the end of this month, Enterprise Ireland’s COVID-19 online retail scheme will come to a close, with €2m of grants being administered to Irish-owned retail companies to assist their online capabilities. With this mind, digital eCommerce solutions specialist, Kooomo advises that it is imperative retailers understand where this money is best spent in order to build an effective platform that drives sales.
Ciaran Bollard, CEO of Kooomo says “This is a fantastic and highly commendable initiative that will see retailers awarded up to €40,000 to ‘develop a sophisticated and transactional online presence’. In such a trying and uncertain time, this scheme will offer retailers the assistance they need to survive now, as well as thrive in the future. But those that receive this grant must invest wisely to create the most effective eCommerce strategy for them and ultimately, drive sales.”

In light of this, Kooomo outlines the following top tips for retailers receiving the grant, or those looking to currently invest in their online platforms: 

1. Opt for a cloud-based digital commerce solution

Nowadays, the term ’’cloud’’ is being used as a definition of something modern with advanced online abilities, that can be used everywhere. In the simplest terms, it means storing and accessing data and programs over the web as opposed to your computer’s hard drive. This makes it accessible from multiple locations, through multiple devices. Cloud commerce improves business agility greatly, speeding up the ability to update the platform in light of new regulations for example, and also creates a more secure environment for data. It also improves performance and scalability, enabling an eCommerce platform to cater to the ever-changing customer demands, whilst cutting costs through reduced cost of development and IT maintenance. 

2. Create a competitive customer experience 

    It’s no secret that in today’s retail space, customer experience is key. But this goes far beyond removing friction from the customer journey in terms of streamlining the payment process, speeding up delivery times and simplifying navigation - it’s about how you make your customers feel and tapping into your customers’ emotions to offer an unrivalled customer experience. This includes everything from packaging and payment options to personalisation and the ways in which your customers can contact you while integrating all of your touchpoints effectively to create an omnichannel experience. This means connecting online and offline to enable options such as ‘click and collect’ and or buy online but return in-store. 

3. Optimise your product pages 

Product pages are arguably the most important pages on your entire website because it’s where users make the decision to buy your product. If your product pages aren’t optimised, your conversion rate is going to take a serious hit in the process. You, therefore, need to ensure you have high-quality images that allow shoppers to experience products online in the same way they would in person, while also having a strong navigation that allows cross-selling and upselling. Your load time has to be three seconds or less and you can also introduce features that encourage purchasing such as showing stock availability, waitlists and suggested items. Additionally, your shipping and returns policy needs to be highlighted on your product pages and clearly accessible because extra costs associated with shipping are the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment.

4. Integrate user-generated content and reviews

93% of customers find user-generated content to be helpful when making a purchasing decision, 71% of consumers feel more comfortable buying a product after researching user reviews and 70% of consumers trust online peer reviews and recommendations more than professional content and copy. It’s clear to see the benefits of user-generated content and reviews! You can encourage customers to review your products in a multitude of ways as well as integrating a plugin such as TrustPilot, Feedaty, or ReviewBuddy. 

Bollard concludes, “There are many ways that retailers can develop a strong online presence but the key to this is understanding what your customers want and need, building a strategy based on that and implementing the right tools. With so many advances in technology, it can be difficult to decide what’s best for you, but the above tips create a strong foundation for any eCommerce platform to succeed.”

In addition to the Enterprise Ireland COVID-19 online retail scheme, Kooomo has waived its setup fees to further aid retailers who have faced some of the most difficult trading times in history to sell online. This support will enable any retailer medium or large to get their products online without incurring any costs.

To understand more about how Kooomo can help your business, book a 1:1 call with our support and commercial team: request a consultation with Kooomo here.

ENDS

About Kooomo:

With 17 years of international eCommerce experience powering over 1 billion transactions, Kooomo has been built to integrate with the systems you already use, allowing complex projects to be delivered in six weeks using our Magento switching toolkit.

Kooomo is trusted by international brands through to SMEs such as Morrisons, Umbro, Mothercare, Havaianas, La Sportiva, Blauer, amongst many others. Any company can be up and trading globally - supporting all currencies and VAT rates, across all sales channels within six weeks. For further information, visit: www.kooomo.com

Kooomo is a next-generation platform that is truly redefining digital commerce by offering the best in class, international platform. Disrupting the marketplace with its affordable setup and flexible pricing, agility and speed to market. Recognised by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, Kooomo is a cloud commerce platform built for global eCommerce businesses. It connects your products with your customers online, in-store and through marketplaces. The full stack of technology needed to deliver a 360-degree digital commerce solution which is integrated with an eco-system of over 200 partners to future proof your business.