Ever since the emergence of e-commerce businesses, the way people shop has been transformed with no signs of turning back. As an e-commerce business owner, the fact that your business is growing is good news but as a business grows, it also presents different types of problems, as well as different solutions… more money, more problems, right?
Being able to recognize and overcome the issues your business is facing as it continues to grow is what’s key here… The way you were able to solve certain issues a year ago, may not work anymore because your business is on a larger scale now. So, in knowing that, you want to ensure that the approaches you’re taking today won’t affect the further expansion of your business.
Take a look at some of the biggest challenges growing businesses face and how to overcome them.
Overcoming the Challenges of a Growing E-Commerce Business
Challenge 1: Keeping Up With Competition
The e-commerce world is extremely competitive so, despite the fact that your business is doing well and growing, you still need to do your due diligence to make sure your business is setting itself apart from your competition… All too often, e-commerce business owners will only conduct competitor analysis when they’re initially building their business site, but competitor analysis isn’t just a one-time deal… it should be on-going.
Solution
Conduct a thorough competitor analysis of other businesses in your niche. Find out the type of products their selling and the prices they’re selling them for. You can even talk to some of your suppliers to get insight on what type of products they’re seeing sell quickly to determine if you should add those products to your store. The key here is to never stop looking and learning.
Challenge 2: Utilizing the Right Systems
With any business, it’s heavily reliant on large volumes of information in order to operate successfully. Things like inventory, customer information, accounting, financial records, and employee information are things that businesses will not be able to effectively keep track of without the right type of business management system.
Day-to-day operations are things that can be delegated or even outsourced but as your business grows, it going to be even harder to make sure that all the information is being processed appropriately and accurately without a proper infrastructure in place.
Solution
Invest in consulting services that can provide you with the right system solutions to meet your growing business needs. JD Edwards consultants are experts in their field and will provide your business with solutions to not only help your business meet goals but also to ensure your business successfully grows.
Challenge 3: Data Security
Because you own an e-commerce site, breaches in data are one of the biggest challenges that are the hardest to recover from. According to statista.com, 2019 saw the likes of 1,473 breaches in data that amounted to over 164.68 million sensitive records being exposed to cybercriminals.
So, the fact that you own an e-commerce business means that your business is at risk for having company and customer information exposed. These cybercriminals will take that information and use it to steal money and identity.
The issue with this type of threat to your business is that it can lead to serious legal issues and someone could try and sue you for that happening. Fortunately, there is a solution to protect your business from online threats.
Solution
For one, you want to always make sure you’re backing up your data on a regular basis in the event it gets stolen; you also want to create unique passwords. On a larger scale, you want to invest in business insurance and always use a virtual private network (VPN).
As an online business owner, you have the freedom to work from anywhere which means you’ll be working off of public wifi. When working off public wifi without a VPN, you’re practically inviting hackers and cybercriminals to steal your information.
Because your business is at a higher risk, it’s important to just overall be knowledgeable about the various signs of fraud and the overall threats to be aware of, to not only protect your business, but also your own personal assets.
Embrace Business Growth
Growth with your e-commerce business has been looked at as a blessing and a curse for some people but what it really is, is a sign of your own growth as a business owner. Sure, business growth may seem like it comes with more problems than you want but growth is what you want, ultimately… Nobody starts a business in the hopes that it plateaus… you want it to grow!
So, moving forward, plan your business to grow and embrace the problems that come with it just as you would embrace the success that comes with it. The key is not the problem itself… it’s how you respond to the problem.
