The best solutions for your online store this year

The e-commerce market is becoming more competitive, and staying ahead of the game is essential for every e-store owner. The best way to accomplish this is to invest in new technologies, tools, and applications that will help you increase sales and provide a better customer experience. In this post, we want to show you a few solutions you should consider for your online business in 2023.

Some of these solutions are really basic, while others need a bit more knowledge, but their implementation could be your ‘to be or not to be’ in the e-commerce market. One thing is for sure – whatever you choose, it should be tailored to your needs, capabilities, and business profile.

Deferred payments

Deferred payments are a relatively new service, but they are growing in popularity:

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311122/global-bnpl-market-value-forecast/

This shouldn’t be surprising, as deferred payments offer an excellent solution for those who need to purchase something but don’t have the money on hand. It allows buyers to purchase an item now but postpone payment till two weeks or a month later.

It might seem that deferred payments are mainly beneficial to customers, but you can find them helpful too. First of all, e-stores can use them to attract more customers because they provide an opportunity to spread the cost of a product or service over time. In addition, a wider range of payment options enables you to reach more potential customers.

Secondly, deferred payments allow you to make larger sales without worrying about cash flow issues. This requires careful budget planning, but it may be highly cost-effective in the long run. And finally, it can improve business productivity and efficiency – especially as deferred payments are also available in the B2B model.

KLARNA

Klarna is an excellent example of a deferred payment system. It allows consumers to purchase items now and pay for them later. You need to download a special application and create an account to use it. More than 30 million people are already using it, and your future customers could be among them.

Klarna will help you increase customer loyalty as people return to businesses that make their life easier thanks to flexible installment plans.

Furthermore, in the case of any problems with payment, Klarna’s support will help you to resolve them quickly and efficiently. Klarna is an incredibly useful tool for businesses looking to expand their reach, grow their customer base, and increase sales.

PayPal

PayPal is an online payment system and financial services provider. It allows users to send and receive payments, do online shopping safely, manage money from a single account, and much more. PayPal is often described as an online wallet because it provides funds that can be used in e-stores.

A virtual wallet is undoubtedly a convenient tool for both shoppers and e-store owners. Why? The most important reason is speeding up the purchasing process and increasing customer satisfaction. And this leads to higher profits.

Another point is that PayPal is a secure platform that protects buyers and sellers from potential fraud. PayPal offers fraud prevention, buyer and seller protection, transaction tracking, dispute resolution services, and more. Perhaps most importantly, PayPal is one of the top payment processing services in the world today. It offers you access to an international network of buyers who have credit cards. This means that anyone with a PayPal account can be your customer.

Are you compliant with the Omnibus directive?

Lastly, we want to talk about a directive that’s already in effect. The Omnibus Directive is a form of legislation that improves consumer safety in the e-commerce industry. It has been in force in European Union since 1 January 2023, but not all e-store owners have implemented it just yet – usually due to a lack of resources or knowledge. Unfortunately, this may result in fines.

The most important aim of the Omnibus Directive is to adapt the regulations to the constantly evolving e-commerce market. The authors of this directive want to eliminate unfair practices such as: 

• False customer feedback
• Manipulation of prices
• Lack of product/company information
• Misleading advertising

This way, they want to make online shopping safer and fairer, which should benefit both buyers and sellers.

Your store has to be compliant with this directive. How can you ensure compliance with Omnibus? Remember these four basic elements:

• Be transparent with price reduction
• Show only authentic consumer reviews
• Place the phone number in a visible location on the website
• Inform about using price optimization algorithms (if you actually are using them)

Of course, that’s just an introduction to what needs to be done in your store. Here you can find the whole directive. If you still need to implement the Omnibus Directive in your online store, it is high time to do so. Otherwise, you could face severe financial penalties – up to PLN 40,000 per year or 10% of your annual turnover.