Hi, Jess, tell us about yourself and your background.
I’m the Ecommerce Empowerment co-founder. I’ve been on eCommerce sites since 1999. So, I’ve sold on eBay and a lot on Walmart, especially Walmart FBA. I sold on Etsy, Mercari, Facebook, marketplace, Fiverr, Gumroad, Shopify, a lot of different stores. In 2017, I created a free Facebook group, called Ecommerce Women—selling on Etsy/Amazon/Shopify and Beyond. And since 2018, I have been mentoring clients from that Facebook group, and in the eCommerce space, specifically selling on Amazon, but now expanding to all eCommerce platforms. In October of 2019, my business partner and I established Ecommerce Empowerment. It is a premium eCommerce education solution. We teach all eCommerce courses for Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Facebook marketplace, etc.
eCommerce was booming in 2020, and so did consumer reviews. — How can your online stories better utilize this data to improve their customers’ experience?
As to customer reviews, specifically for physical products or even digital products, everyone should be taking those customer reviews of their products to enhance the customer experience and to enhance the products. So, if we are talking about a negative customer review, then how can we provide a solution for those customers in 2020? We saw a huge uptick in some markets, up to a 40% increase in sales for various products, brands, and services. Having that positive customer experience will keep customers coming back and then help you identify other products that might be necessary for or needed.
Your customer is your main focus. It’s not like, “oh I have an idea.” Of course, your idea might be great, but what does the customer want. Answer those customer problems, help them streamline their business or streamline their personal life, help them find a solution to everyday issues, whether it’s like a cat toy or a personal health and beauty product. Everything can be optimized to increase that customer engagement.
In your POV — what is the ultimate checklist for a good customer experience strategy?
So first, you want to identify the problem: what is happening with your customer? So, let’s just go with a beauty product because it’s easy. I’m 40 and I’m getting wrinkles. That’s my problem. How can you develop a product that’s going to help my problem? So, help me with my fine lines and wrinkles.
Then, how can we implement that product and then market that product in an affordable way? Focusing on the customer problem and then developing a solution would be the main focus and the top tip. What is the problem? What are some solutions? Let’s take those solutions and see what product we can develop to answer that.
If the customer has some customer loyalty, the top tip would be developing a product, having people use it, having that feedback, and taking the feedback if it doesn’t work. Then we need to improve our product. So, solution-driven products are what you need to focus on as an eCommerce seller.
On your LinkedIn, you said you have sold over $2.3 million on eCommerce via Amazon, eBay, Mercari, Shopify and Poshmark since March 2016. Do you think understanding consumer experience is important for you to achieve something like this? And why?
Yes, 100%. I launch needs to be customer-focused and solve a problem. For example, I sold kids’ toys. Like the kids are bored, let’s make them happy. I have offered services for digital products and physical products and all of them are solution-driven for my customer and my client.
Since you are also a coach, what do you think is the most common mistake you see in some business owners’ customer experience strategy?
I think for a business owner, the biggest mistake is not doing that product research, so not identifying which products are most profitable, or not identifying what the solution is. I could have a great idea for a travel beauty bag, but how is that solving the problem if there are thousands of other beauty bags? So, I need to make sure that my product is helping my customer in a differentiated way. A business owner needs to do their due diligence and understand what the customer needs, not just some like fly-by-night.
Social media pages have become crucial for companies in most industries, especially in eCommerce. Do you have any strategy for social media regarding customer experience?
Social media can be a powerhouse marketing tool. What I typically say to a brand-new seller, no matter what platform you’re on, start with one social media platform that you’re comfortable with. This is because Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Reddit, like all of these various platforms can be pivotal in the growth of your business. If you have a Shopify store, then why don’t you start an Instagram account and reflect very nice images of your products, brands, or services with value-driven information? Let me tell you, the amount of free advertising you can get by building that baseline community around your product brand or service can be dramatic. I rely heavily on social media. We have spent less than $500 on Facebook and Google ads in the past few years. I can tell you why because the social media channels that we have built have organic. We get 99.9% of our sales, our organic sales.
Are you working from home before the pandemic after being a small business owner? It looks like working from home is going to stay with us for the foreseeable future, do you have some suggestions for other small business owners on how to improve the customer experience while working from home?
I’ve been a work-from-home mom and a small business owner for five years as of this month. Prior to that, I worked in a corporation, and I got a taste for eCommerce in 2015. In 2016, I started working from home full-time. And so, during the pandemic, it was a little bit of a challenge at the beginning because I had four children at home with me staring at me for entertainment, and I’m managing all of their schoolwork.
So really making sure that everything on all of your listings is optimized. It doesn’t matter what platform listing optimization. Then make sure that you are responding to your customers within 24 hours depending on the platform. There are requirements, make sure that you’re reading your terms of service for the platform that you’re selling on. Then keep refreshing, keep adding new customer-focused products, keep bringing value to your community. Because even though we’re not in our corporate setting, you can still build from home very successfully,
What is your favorite CX metric?
Probably the feedback because when I get positive feedback, then not only does it solidify the fact that my product is valuable to my customer, but it brings me fulfillment.
