E-commerce businesses are blossoming, and it doesn’t look like the industry will be slowing down anytime soon. But are you able to keep up with the increasing demand? One way to ease the burden is to use a communication solution that makes life easier for customers and staff. Let’s dive deeper into the subject!
E-commerce keeps growing stronger
E-commerce (electronic commerce, sometimes written as “eCommerce”) refers to all commercial transactions made over the internet. It may not come as a surprise that it keeps growing every year. Broadband speed has kept increasing, allowing for better user-friendliness online. At the same time, e-commerce companies have become more sophisticated, and to stay competitive, you must meet the demands of your online customers.
The great thing is that consumers love to shop online! E-commerce sales were $870 billion in the US in 2021, a 14.2% increase compared to 2020 and a 50.5% increase from 2019. E-commerce represented 13.2% of all retail sales in 2021 in the US. In 2021, retail e-commerce sales reached around 4.9 trillion USD worldwide. This number is expected to grow by 50 per cent over the next four years to around 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025.
For successful e-commerce – you need successful communication
The separate parts of your business need to be adequately linked with each other if you want to thrive in the e-commerce world. Your online store and presence must be tightly integrated with your warehouse, distribution, logistics, and customer service. To make this work, you need a communication solution that combines these separate components in one system and makes them talk to each other.
TIP: If you’re looking into the best communication solutions for physical retail, you’ll find this blog post interesting!
Communication made easy with VoIP and UCaaS
A dedicated telephony solution can help e-commerce companies of all sizes master their communication. As more companies have already switched to cloud services, they’ve also discovered the benefits of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). With VoIP, you get more features than a traditional PBX solution, and you can easily make inbound and outbound calls over the Internet. As we’ll explore later in this article, a good telephony solution is vital for e-commerce companies for smooth internal and external communication.
But most modern businesses need more than VoIP to communicate seamlessly for all touchpoints. A further development of VoIP is UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) which takes your communication to the next level. It provides even more options and the ability to unify multiple communication channels in one platform, like telephony, text, email, chat, and more.
Enhancing external communication and customer support
Even if your customers only shop online and you don’t have a physical store, they will expect full customer support. According to HubSpot, 33% of consumers would contact a company’s customer service via social media rather than by phone. However, that means most customers still prefer calling, so the option to contact you via phone should be an alternative.
With UCaaS, your customers can reach out to you on their preferred platform. Since all your communication channels are linked, that means a customer can contact you via the live chat on your homepage and later continue the conversation in an email.
You can also accept orders around the clock and set up self-service options like chatbots to answer questions outside of working hours. Customers can then get help even if your customer support team has left for the day.
7 reasons why e-commerce teams love UCaaS
UCaaS allows for quick, accessible communication both internally and externally. You gather telephony, video conferencing, messaging, and collaboration tools in one platform. Here are some reasons why your team will love UCaaS.
1. Liaising between different departments
As it is a cloud-based solution, your employees can work from the office or remotely but still access all internal data. They can be a part of video meetings, training sessions, or conference calls, chat with their colleagues, etc., and get the same experience.
2. Call routing
Call routing between departments is a piece of cake. Do you want a customer calling the office to be connected to the warehouse? No problem. If the line is busy, you can route the customer to another line or department. Not only will it save your employees a lot of time, but your customers will also appreciate getting in touch with the right person directly.
3. Scalability
Since everything is managed in the cloud, scaling is easy. E-commerce businesses usually experience seasonal variations and see spikes during holidays like Christmas and Black Friday. UCaaS will be helpful as adding or removing call agents to accommodate seasonal workflows is easy.
With reputable UCaaS solutions like Telavox, you also only pay for what you actually use, and there is no need for maintenance.
4. Automation
One of the most valuable features is automation. Using automation for repetitive tasks gives your employees more time to spend on complex tasks. You will see positive effects such as higher productivity and more satisfied employees. For e-commerce businesses, you might find the use of automation especially helpful to do the following:
- Using contact lookup to instantly see who you're talking to
- Tagging conversations and contacts
- Status reporting
- Using wrap-up time to give you time for admin between calls
- Updating customer data
- Monitoring statistics
- Using programmability to pull customer information from your e-commerce platform
5. Maximised efficiency
Customer service managers will love how easy it is to monitor the customer service team's performance and how queue management allows them to add more staff to a queue if necessary.
6. Mobile-friendliness
Another benefit is mobile-friendliness. All staff can log in to the system and collaborate with colleagues using a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. You can manage customer interactions, even on your phone, as long as you have an Internet connection.
7. Integration with other systems
Are you using CRM systems like Salesforce, MS Dynamics 365, or HubSpot? Integrating your telephony with your CRM system will do wonders for your internal processes. Your team is always provided with up-to-date analytic insights.
Summary: UCaaS and telephony for e-commerce businesses
E-commerce has exploded in recent years. Your communication solution must live up to expectations to keep up with future developments and deliver what your customers want. With UCaaS, you create the right conditions for the future and get that carefree, seamless way of speaking to your customers.
One of the most prominent problems customer service managers face is staffing. A lack of statistics complicates optimising the number of agents and calls, but if you connect your call center to UCaaS, the problem is easily solved. By integrating your contact center with UCaaS, you create a holistic solution with benefits for you, your agents, and your customers to get an enhanced customer experience.
Are you interested in learning more about UCaaS and communication solutions? Take a closer look at Telavox’s solution, where PBX, chat, meetings, and contact center are gathered in a single platform. Are you in the retail industry? Learn how Telavox’s solution can benefit your business.
