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The widespread outbreak of the pandemic affected almost all sectors across the globe in a very short period. While some industries such as travel and tourism took a major hit, other industries like e-commerce saw increased sales, engagement, and revenue.
As social distancing and personal hygiene became the top priorities, people increasingly opted to shop online and now, it’s more than just a necessity. It’s the new normal. E-commerce businesses shifted to remote working models overnight while managing customer support and communications completely digital.
Bain & Company, in a joint report with Flipkart, titled How India shops online (authored by Arpan Sheth and Shyam Unnikrishnan), said: “COVID-19 has caused an inflection in e-commerce penetration globally driven by consumers’ need for safety and convenience and even in India, online is gaining salience. We expect India’s e-commerce growth story to be inclusive — one that empowers sellers and consumers both.”
E-commerce businesses have efficiently managed sales and customer support processes remotely during these unprecedented times with the help of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. E-commerce enterprises are leveraging the advanced capabilities of a CRM to have intelligent, contextual interactions with their customers from any part of the world.
Most of India’s leading online grocery retailers managed their bulk of incoming orders and tickets during the COVID-19 lockdown effectively with good management. This is how CRM helped e-commerce firms in taking their sales and customer support to the next level.
E-commerce platforms encounter huge amounts of customer queries and requests. A SaaS-based CRM solution can automate their ticketing process by assigning a ticket to the right agent or the relevant team. Furthermore, support teams can resolve, escalate, or close the ticket as and when necessary within the cloud CRM itself.
Customers reach out to eCommerce support centers through their preferred channels of communication. This could include calls, emails, live chat, or even social media. It’s essential for e-commerce firms to be omnipresent and respond to these regularly. With an omnichannel support system, support agents can respond to incoming queries across multiple channels through a unified dashboard.
Managing customer data is essential for all internet businesses. Understanding customers and their needs better can help businesses serve them in a better way. A CRM helps support agents access the necessary information required to respond to customers and close tickets in a timely manner. Additionally, e-commerce companies use CRM to gain a 360-degree view of their customers. They can access all the relevant information such as customer interaction history, past purchases, payment preferences, etc on a single dashboard.
What online businesses struggle with these days is managing their orders. E-commerce platforms can view and access all the orders on a unified dashboard as well as automate the order fulfillment process using a CRM solution. They can also streamline workflows by seamlessly integrating the CRM with payment, fulfillment, shipping, and enterprise systems. Segmenting and profiling customers is also made easy through a helpdesk.
A powerful reporting engine in the CRM provides reports and metrics that help e-commerce platforms gain valuable insights into their sales and support processes. Not only does this help in tracking and monitoring your productivity, but helps in making better data-driven decisions as well. Reports related to SLAs, the first response time (FTR), initial turnaround time among many other metrics can help businesses better strategize their support process.
2020 indeed has been a year of crucial changes in terms of working culture as well as business strategies. But along with that technology also has brought with it new opportunities and ideas, especially for e-commerce sectors. With the help of these technological advancements and intelligent CRM tools, e-commerce industries have dramatically grown during this pandemic.