Sales CRM Vs. eCommerce CRM – Which is Best for your Online Store?

TechsPlace | There is no denying the fact that everything is shifting online. From groceries and stationeries to garments and sports equipment, there is nothing that isn’t available online. Moreover, massive discounts are attracting customers like bees to honey.

eCommerce also allows companies to effectively use email and digital marketing strategies to promote their products and make it easier for customers to pay. These factors have made eCommerce a hotbed that is establishing new sales records every year.

These reasons call for an extensive study of why you should invest in buying an eCommerce CRM for your business. This article will shed light on why an eCommerce CRM is the right choice for you and the reasons associated with it.

Why is CRM software essential for your business?

Each customer is different. They have varying buying habits, wants, likes, needs, and aspirations. And if you have access to these attributes, you can deliver what they need. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software collects essential customer data and stores them safely in a repository. This data can be used while brainstorming strategies and analyzing market trends.

The famous proverb “Data is power” applies here as it enables you to understand your customers well and deliver what they want. You can move way ahead of your competitors if you have in-depth market knowledge and the ability to build personal relationships with your customers.

CRM software provides you various features that help to interact with your customers regularly and provide solutions to their queries in an interactive way. It uses data to observe individual customers’ specific pain-points, device an appropriate strategy, and make relevant offers. The more knowledge you have about your customers, the better you will judge their needs and fulfill them.

CRM software is the perfect way to expand your current client list and build better relationships with your existing customers.

CRM software isn’t only for the big sharks

There was a time when CRM software was beneficial for only the big players in the industry. But we have come far into the future. Data is the core of the digital age we live in. The more data you have, the better are the chances that you will succeed.

Whether you have a hundred customers or a thousand, you need CRM software to compete in the market. The magnitude may differ, but the core principles remain the same. CRM software allows you to streamline your sales – from finding prospects and pitching to price quoting and customer support. All these stages require actionable data for proper execution.

So no matter whether you are a leading player in your industry or just begun, CRM software will supply rich data that will help you make essential business decisions based on sound reason and logic and not on mere hearsay.

eCommerce CRM or Sales CRM – which one should you choose?

There is no doubt that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software will make your business profitable. But there are many kinds of CRM software, and we will discuss two of them here – eCommerce CRM and Sales CRM.

A standard sales CRM software plays a significant role in finding customers, building robust relationships with them, providing top-notch customer support, and enhancing team collaboration. But there is a catch. Here are a few points that describe a sales CRM software explicitly:

1. They provide enterprise-wide solutions that are overly complex.
2. Most sales CRM software systems are too expensive and small companies find it challenging to purchase them.
3. Most sales CRM software systems are built to cover the needs of multiple industries, thereby lacking the features to execute a particular industry’s specific functions.

The above factors indicate that generic sales CRM software packages aren’t suitable for running an eCommerce portal. It’s because they aren’t built, keeping in mind the problems an eCommerce business may face in its day-to-day functioning.

Let’s see how an eCommerce software package provides better solutions

An eCommerce CRM software solution is specially built to help eCommerce businesses thrive and compete. It has distinct built-in features that allow online stores to flourish. And you get all of this at a low price.

The following points put it succinctly:

1. eCommerce CRM software packages have e-commerce focused features that help online companies manage their day-to-day needs.
2. eCommerce CRM software packages are very user-friendly and require minimum maintenance.
3. eCommerce CRM software packages are less expensive than generic sales CRM systems.
4. eCommerce CRM software packages are light in weight.

The best thing about an eCommerce CRM solution is that you pay only for things that you need.

What makes an eCommerce CRM software different from a generic sales CRM software?

Most eCommerce stores have a small team, and in some cases, they are run by a single person. A majority of them don’t require enterprise-level features, so it wouldn’t be wise to invest in something that will not give you the desired benefits.

eCommerce CRM software is designed considering your needs. It provides you multiple features specific to your industry to achieve more by investing in fewer resources. Moreover, it automates every business-critical function, thereby eliminating the need to hire full-time employees.

The following points suggest why an eCommerce CRM software will be ideal for your online business:

1. eCommerce CRM software integrates with your online business efficiently and tracks all business-critical data in real-time.
2. You need not require any special data analysis skills and techniques to monitor the results. The eCommerce CRM software keeps a keen eye on market trends and customer behavior and provides data in easy-to-read tables, charts, and graphs.
3. eCommerce CRM software prepares focused reports that provide a 360-degree perspective of your industry and what your competitors are doing.
4. eCommerce CRM software monitors the performance of your employees and prepares individual KPI reports. It also suggests training methods keeping in mind the needs of each employee.
5. An eCommerce CRM system is built, keeping in mind the necessities of your business. Unlike regular sales CRM software, you don’t need to pay for features you might never use.

It’s a widely accepted business fact that retaining customers is financially better than acquiring new ones. Although figures vary from industry to industry, statistics reveal that it is five times more costly to acquire a customer than to retain an existing one on average.

eCommerce software plays an essential role in building actionable customer profiles that help you ascertain your customer’s needs and deliver what they want. These profiles also allow in building better marketing campaigns and eliminate the guesswork that goes behind creating them.

Finding the best-quality eCommerce CRM software package for your business can be an exhausting exercise. In the points below, you will find a detailed description of the things you should keep in mind while searching for CRM software for your online business.

The following are the five features you should keep in mind while searching for a top-notch eCommerce CRM

1. Building better customer profiles

A generic sales CRM software package provides data such as – customer name, contact details, and order values. But for running an online business effectively, these details aren’t enough. The more data points you have, the more profitable your business will be. eCommerce CRM software does just that. It stores customer-specific information in a repository accessible by relevant business stakeholders – frontline executives, C-level employees, vendors, distributors, suppliers, etc.

The following is a compact list of factors that an eCommerce CRM software uses to make customer profiles:

1. Contact details of the customer
2. Source of acquisition
3. Purchasing pattern
4. Geographic details
5. Demographic details
6. Behavioral details
7. Psychographic details
8. Past purchases
9. Product divisions

By having access to such data points, you will create a detailed customer persona – what they are looking for, what product or service might interest them, their priorities are, etc. Detailed customer personas help build better communication strategies and enable developing a deep relationship with clients.

2. Analyzing the customer’s online behavior

In a brick and mortar store, it’s easy to note your customer’s behavior. You can see what they are searching for and monitor their reactions – awesome, awful, thrilled, or boring. But in the online world, it isn’t possible to watch your customer’s sessions without implementing an eCommerce CRM software.

While searching for eCommerce CRM software, consider the following points.

1. How many sessions do a particular customer, say A, have on your website?
2. What did A search in each session, and have they put a product in their wishlist?
3. At what time and for how long did individual sessions take place?
4. How many sessions did it take for A to finally purchase the product?
5. Did A share the product’s link with their friends or on social media platforms?

By observing the online behavior of your customers, you can identify the problems they are facing. You can also ascertain missed opportunities and capitalize on them.

3. Segmentation and targeting customers

Once you have prepared detailed customer profiles as explained in the points above, it’s time to divide your client base into profitable segments.

What are profitable segments?

Any group of people that react well to your marketing campaigns and ultimately purchase your products or subscribe to your services is called a profitable segment. Detailed customer profiles provide a rigid spine to create profitable segments. It’s because they select a few individuals out of a pool of customers by finding the commonalities they share.

The following are a few widely recognized segments that eCommerce CRM software can create:

1. Coupon getters
2. Discount freaks
3. Deal hunters
4. Word-of-mouth influencers
5. Repeated purchasers
6. Bulk buyers

By dividing your customer base into such segments, you can create different marketing strategies for each one of them. Some may respond well to email marketing campaigns, while others may give more importance to a phone call. Some might like to interact on a social media platform, while some may want to have a face-to-face interaction. eCommerce CRM software will help you decide who wants what and substantially increase your selling potential.

4. Tagging and note-creating

Tags play an essential role in forming subsegments. For example, you can tag three people as “Newsletter fans” from three different segments, namely coupon getters, discount freaks, and deal hunters – and you get a new subsegment “Newsletter fans.” You can create infinite subsegments in this fashion. The best part is that you can use a proven tactic to engage with the subsegment members.

Besides, notes can be used by teams that work together to share details regarding a segment or a subsegment. It helps them collaborate and remember the changes they have to make at a later stage for various profiles.

5. eCommerce CRM software is a one-stop-shop to communicate with your customers

Once you have detailed customer profiles and have divided them into segments, it’s time to execute your marketing campaigns. Instead of having multiple tools to manage your strategies, you can carry out everything from a single platform. eCommerce CRM software eliminates the need to import and export data and act upon it without any hassles. You can conduct email marketing campaigns, digital marketing campaigns, brand building activities, query solving sessions, customer interactions, team building activities, employee monitoring sessions, etc.

Conclusion

There are many eCommerce CRM software systems in the market. But it all depends on the features you want based on your online business needs. This article sheds light on the essential elements an eCommerce CRM software must possess, and it will help you make the right choice at the right price.

Guest Author

This article is contributed by guest author on techsplace.com.