In the dynamic world of e-commerce, adaptability and innovation are crucial to staying competitive.
A successful e-commerce strategy requires more than just managing a website or launching an application.
Companies need to constantly reassess their customers' journey and implement strategies that improve their capabilities, products and services.
One of the most influential platforms enabling businesses to thrive in the e-commerce world is Salesforce, the Rolls Royce of CRMs used to help build stronger customer relationships and, ultimately, facilitate faster growth.
In this article, we'll explore the latest trends in e-commerce and how Salesforce optimization can play a key role in improving your customers' online experience.
New e-commerce trends
B2C is just the beginning
Organizations in almost every sector are replacing old-fashioned experiences (face-to-face, ordering by phone or e-mail) with e-commerce experiences.
Here are a few examples:
The industry
E-commerce has changed the way manufacturers interact with professional buyers and end consumers.
With contactless sales, direct-to-consumer sales and teleworking, online sales are poised to conquer the entire industrial market within the next few years, according to PwC.
Health
Digital consultations are gaining in popularity, as patients do everything from meeting the doctor to ordering prescription refills on apps and websites.
In addition, companies such as medical device manufacturers are opening up new revenue streams by selling online to commercial customers and end-users.
Insurance
Banks have long prioritized investment in online transactions and services, but today insurers are selling and serving their business customers through digital portals.
Even commercial bankers are getting in on the act, offering e-commerce solutions for corporate payments and cash flow.
Ever simpler customer paths
It only takes three negative e-commerce experiences for a customer to abandon a site and never return.
To retain and satisfy their increasingly demanding customers, companies need to optimize online interactions.
The challenge is that buyer journeys are increasingly complex.
Consumers and business buyers discover products and services on social networks, buy products on apps, choose from flexible payment options and track products throughout their delivery journey.
To keep pace, companies need to be agile.
Payment trends
Increasingly, B2B and B2C customers are demanding new, more flexible options, such as payment in instalments, immediate purchase, deferred payment and subscriptions.
More sophisticated order management and post-purchase experience
Everything that happens between the moment a customer clicks on the "buy" button and the moment their purchase appears on their doorstep is the order management process.
Once a purchase has been made, today's e-merchant order management allows you to ship to multiple addresses, update quantities and choose from a variety of convenient payment options.
Social commerce
Customers like to interact with brands during micro-moments on social networks like Instagram and Tik-Tok.
Some suggest that social commerce could become an $80 billion industry by 2025 in the U.S. alone.
The growing value of first-party data
Today, major B2C and B2B brands collect customer data such as cell phone numbers and social network profiles before cookies are a thing of the past.
With first-party data, companies can :
- Discover emerging markets
- Building new relationships with retailers
- Product development and testing
- Responding to apparent changes in demand
- Faster production and execution decisions
An international e-commerce presence
Relatively low e-commerce penetration rates in still emerging markets mean that there is a plethora of new international opportunities.
To take advantage of this, companies need to focus on localizing e-commerce experiences by market.
For example, companies must take into account :
- Regional differences in seasonality
- Product preferences and price sensitivities
- Local payment methods
- Tax tricks
- Address formats
- Regional languages
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have revolutionized the way e-commerce companies interact with their consumers.
One of the most visible ways AI has influenced e-commerce is through the personalization of the customer experience.
For example, websites can analyze users' past behavior, preferences and purchasing habits, and offer them personalized recommendations to boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
In addition, AI has helped automate inventory and supply chain management processes. AI systems can predict product demand, optimize stock levels and even anticipate potential problems, helping to reduce costs, optimize delivery times and minimize stock-outs.
Customer service is another aspect of e-commerce that has been enhanced by AI and machine learning. AI-powered chatbots can instantly answer customer queries, handle returns and refunds, and provide 24/7 support.
How can Salesforce help companies take advantage of these new e-commerce opportunities?
Better understand customer needs
Today's consumers demand smooth, bug-free, personalized online experiences.
As a result, more and more companies are adopting Salesforce to create unique and captivating customer journeys.
With advanced features such as marketing automation and predictive analytics, Salesforce helps you better understand customer needs and offer them relevant products and services.
Salesforce facilitates multi-channel customer experience management
Buyers now navigate a multitude of online channels, from online stores to social networks.
By optimizing Salesforce, companies can unify their customer data, track their behavior across different channels, and deliver a seamless experience across all touchpoints.
Intelligent personalization
Personalization goes beyond the first name in an e-mail.
Salesforce offers advanced personalization tools that use artificial intelligence to recommend products, special offers and relevant content in real time.
This intelligent personalization improves customer engagement and leads to higher sales.
Secure customer data management
Data protection and regulatory compliance are increasingly important in e-commerce.
Salesforce has advanced security mechanisms and compliance features to ensure that customer data is stored and managed securely.
Advanced analysis
Data analysis is at the heart of continuous improvement of the customer experience.
Salesforce offers advanced analysis tools that enable companies to identify trends, predict customer behavior and make more informed decisions to develop their business.
Salesforce optimization for e-commerce - How do I do it?
Optimizing a Salesforce project for e-commerce can dramatically improve a company's efficiency and customer experience.
Here are some key steps for optimizing a Salesforce project in an e-commerce context:
1. Define clear objectives
Identify the specific goals you want to achieve with Salesforce, such as :
- Increased sales
- Improving customer loyalty
- Expanding into new markets
2. System customization
Salesforce is highly customizable.
Tailor it to your specific needs by creating custom objects, fields, workflows and personalized pages to reflect your business processes.
3. A/B Test
The integration of A/B testing with Salesforce testing makes it possible to optimize marketing and sales efforts by testing different variables directly in the Salesforce ecosystem.
Whether it's improving click-through rates in e-mail campaigns, increasing conversion rates on landing pages, or even refining the effectiveness of customer journeys, A/B testing can provide valuable data to help make evidence-based decisions, all without leaving your Salesforce environment.
4. Sales channel integration
Integrate all sales channels, including the online store, physical stores (where applicable), social networks and marketplaces.
This integration provides a consolidated view of customer and sales data.
5. Lead and opportunity management
Use Salesforce to track and manage leads from their first interaction through to conversion into a customer.
Create automated sales and marketing processes to streamline your operations.
6. Marketing automation
Use tools like Salesforce Marketing Cloud to automate marketing campaigns, send targeted e-mails and track campaign performance.
7. Customer service and support
Set up a robust customer support system with Salesforce Service Cloud.
Track customer queries, automate answers to common questions and ensure quality customer support.
8. Advanced data analysis
Leverage Salesforce's analytics capabilities to track market trends, predict customer behavior and adjust your strategy accordingly.
9. Supply chain management
If your business involves inventory management and logistics, use Salesforce to track stock levels, manage orders and optimize the supply chain.
10. Safety and compliance
Make sure your customer data is secure and that you're compliant with regulations, such as the RGPD.
Salesforce offers advanced security tools.
11. Staff training
Train your team to use Salesforce to maximize efficiency (Salesforce offers training resources and certifications).
12. Performance and customer satisfaction monitoring
Regularly measure the performance of your Salesforce project using KPIs such as conversion rate, customer satisfaction rate and sales figures, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
13. Bug mitigation
In the majority of cases, bugs result in one less customer and a loss of trust in a brand.
Especially in e-commerce, bugs have a detrimental effect on sales.
Here are a few examples:
- Payment errors
- Products not in stock but displayed as available
- Empty 404 and 500 error pages
- Delivery methods that don't work
- Problems logging on to your customer account
- Inability to add a product to the basket
- Failure of an application to work on your cell phone
- Product price inconsistency prior to payment
- Inactive buttons
- The emptying basket
- Site advertising bugs
QA testing at all stages of the development cycle, a continuous monitoring system, and e-commerce testing are essential to detect problems on your e-commerce site in production.
14. Improve user engagement
Lack of user engagement can have a serious impact on sales.
Use bug detection tools and tracking systems to quickly identify and resolve problems that could affect the user experience. Third-party bug tracking and automated testing solutions can be integrated for more comprehensive coverage.
Automated tests can help you to :
- Identify errors before they affect your customers
- Reduce bug-fixing costs by detecting bugs upstream
- Evaluate your site's performance and availability in real time
- Automated test platforms can also help you to carry out :
- Load testing to make sure your site can handle traffic peaks,
- Functional tests to check that all the site's functionalities are working as intended,
- And integration tests to ensure that all systems work harmoniously together.
Case study
Mr Suricate has already detected numerous bugs for its Salesforce commerce cloud customers, always in the context of e-commerce non-regression tests in the build or run phase:
- Drop in loading performance a few days before a Black Friday promotion
- CDN error sending wrong content to wrong countries
- Web accessibility bugs
- Size guide bug misconfigured on product page
- Add to cart from quick-view bug
- Degraded API response times and impact on user experience
- Regression on pixel-accurate pictogram alignments.
We can also take part in Salesforce multi-cloud tests in front/back contexts. For example, we can carry out room reservation scenarios on a public front-end site, and then move on to a private Salesforce cloud service back-end to check that the information entered by the customer has been correctly retrieved.
Thanks to its wide range of functions, Mr Suricate is the perfect ally for non-regression testing (NRT) and production monitoring for Salesforce commerce cloud e-tailers.
Conclusion
The e-commerce landscape is constantly evolving, with new trends and technologies emerging regularly. Salesforce, as the leading CRM platform, offers a range of features that enable companies to optimize their online presence and enhance the customer experience.
Optimizing Salesforce for e-commerce is not a one-off task, but rather an ongoing process that requires constant adaptation and updating. By following the steps outlined in this article and integrating automated testing and monitoring practices, companies are well positioned to thrive in this competitive field.
With the right mix of e-commerce strategy and testing, personalization and analytics, Salesforce can help you stand out in the digital world. By keeping an eye on new trends and being ready to adapt, businesses can not only survive but thrive in the ever-changing world of e-commerce.
Mr Suricate - French leader in no-code automated testing
Clearly, Salesforce is an excellent solution for use in e-commerce.
However, it's essential that the software is used correctly and is free of bugs to reap its full benefits.
The no-code SaaS solution Mr Suricate solution covers a wide range of automated tests to give your users the best possible e-commerce experience.
Take control of your applications and detect bugs in real time on your websites, applications and APIs by reproducing your user journeys at regular intervals.
