VP of Sales and Marketing, Jason Chan, sat down with Besty Westhafer and Tony Bodoh from the Congruity Group to talk about what it means to be an extension of your customer’s brand. Here are Jason’s suggestions for really knowing your customers and how retailers can apply them to their businesses.
Think Like A Consumer
As a long time entrepreneur, Jason has decades of experience running his own business, starting all the way back with his candy sales in high school. Although he continued to pursue more lucrative merchandise, each of these endeavors taught him the same basic lessons – you’ve got to hustle, pivot, know your audience, and know your industry.
“If you’re in tune with the industry, you’re going to know what’s coming and what’s good – and what’s not good,” said Jason.
As an eCommerce seller, you are also a consumer. You know your personal preferences and how a good hook can make you purchase something you may have never thought you needed before. Jason suggests applying these same principles to your business. What are you portraying to your customers? What experience are you working to deliver to them? Do you have the tools to alleviate their biggest pain points?
Know Your Industry
On the flip side, reaching your audience is also about knowing your own business and industry. How can you improve what you’re already doing? Are their options to cut costs and increase profits? How are you successfully handling customer demand? What many sellers do to answer these questions is to work on changing their own shipping and order fulfillment themselves without asking if that’s the best way to do it. As Jason shares, many sellers are married to the personalization aspect of packaging their products, and they forget to take into account how to achieve this goal in a timely manner for both their company and their customers.
“I had one client that used six different types of paper to do their box. I didn’t even know there were that many types of paper. They were doing all of these things because they felt it was such a personalized touch,” Jason said. “I suggested to them that no other client is doing this. You’re either the most genius to have gone with the most special packaging ever or you’re wasting your time and money.”
Knowing your industry is about understanding the difference between realistic and unrealistic expectations. As this retailer quickly learned, their previous tactics were not working to their advantage. That’s why the next step in better understanding your customers is simply by talking to them.
Ask For Feedback
As Jason suggests, the best way to know your customer is to ask what they care about the most. Use your social media channels to reach out to consumers and ask if they care about the custom packaging or how they feel about your company’s current shipping and fulfillment times. Chances are, customers are going to be more ecstatic about the product itself rather than the intricate packaging.
eCommerce experts, like those on Jason’s team, have the knowledge to help retailers work through these obstacles and find solutions for improving their online businesses and creating a better shopping experience.
“That’s what’s going to save you the time that you as an entrepreneur don’t have time to do because you’re selling and marketing your product as you should be. Let you be the expert on your product and let us be the expert in the shipping and logistics,” says Jason.
Choosing the right third-party logistics partner can help your business grow exponentially. At Rakuten Super Logistics, we can help you reduce your costs, increase your sales, improve your customer service, and streamline your entire shipping and fulfillment process.
Rakuten Super Logistics (RSL) is the leader in eCommerce order fulfillment services and freight brokerage. RSL offers national fulfillment services and a network of 15 US fulfillment centers located in Anaheim (CA), Atlanta (GA), Austin (TX), Chicago (IL), Denver (CO), Houston (TX), Las Vegas (NV), Miami (FL), Olean (NY), Reno (NV), Salt Lake City (UT), and Scranton (PA). Their state-of-the-art technology allows for integration with popular shopping cart platforms and online marketplaces including Amazon, Big Commerce, Channel Advisor, eBay, Magento, ShipStation, Shopify, Volusion, Walmart Marketplace, and WooCommerce. RSL offers modern fulfillment solutions for leading eCommerce retailers focused on reducing shipping costs, improving order accuracy, decreasing shipping times, and increasing customer satisfaction. Contact us to request a quote and learn more about partnering with RSL to fulfill your eCommerce shipping needs.
