Editor’s Note: This is from our friend Victoria Sullivan at Payability – She took the time to address a major issue with e-commerce businesses that we can all learn from!
The ultimate goal in business is to achieve long-term sustainable growth, right? But for many business owners — e-commerce owners especially — growth can come in waves. If this happens to you, it’s important to not get discouraged when you’re in a slow cycle. After all, there is most likely a reason for your stagnant growth, which means there’s also a solution.
Here, we break down (and fix!) five reasons your e-commerce empire isn’t growing:
- You aren’t selling the right products
Your sluggish growth could be due to low or no demand, so you’ll want to check the viability of your products. Do people actually want or need them? At the end of the day, it’s critical to invest in products that will actually sell, otherwise you’re not going to make any money. Consult a product research tool to see how popular (or not) a particular item is, that way you’ll know if it’s worth investing in or if you should go in a different direction.
- You’re only selling on one marketplace
If you’re only selling on one platform, you may want to think about diversifying. After all, some consumers might be loyal to one retailer like Amazon while others will shop around and purchase from the site that offers the best deal. Listing on several marketplaces allows you to reach both kinds of consumers and increases your chances of getting sales.
- You’re taking on too much
A common problem many e-commerce sellers face is bandwidth — or lack thereof. In many cases, marketplace businesses are one or two person shops so by default, the owners wear many hats. Sound familiar? If you’re taking on too much of the day-to-day operations, you’re not going to have time to focus on growth. So it might make sense to hire a virtual assistant or automate more aspects of your business. For example, you could outsource customer service to a virtual assistant, join Amazon FBA so you don’t have to process orders yourself, or automate things like inventory management.
However you choose to delegate or automate, you’ll be reducing your workload AND keeping your business running — not to mention finally taking things to the next level.
- You’re not managing your inventory
As we just mentioned, automating inventory management is one way to kickstart your business’s growth. When you manage your inventory well, you never have to worry about stocking out or losing sales. In fact, you’ll know exactly how much inventory to order at a given time, plus when and how much to reorder. Having this information — which can be calculated and managed automatically with an inventory management tool — allows you to always have the optimum amount of product ready to sell and ship. Plus, you’ll be able to turn inventory more quickly and never lose sales momentum. A win win for your business’s growth.
- You don’t have enough access to cash flow
Another win is having cash flow, but in e-commerce, it can be difficult to have enough of it when you need it thanks to payout delays and other factors. Fortunately, you can bridge your cash flow gaps with solutions like Payability.
Payability is a financing company designed specifically for marketplace sellers. They have a variety of options depending on your unique needs:
- You need a large lump sum of cash: With Payability’s Instant Advance option, they buy a certain amount of your future receivables up front and at a discount. You can use this advance to make large inventory purchases or other growth investments.
- You need daily payouts: With Payability’s Instant Access option, they pay you your income one business day after making a sale, allowing you to more efficiently turn inventory and keep your day-to-day operations running smoothly.
- You need on-the-go access: With Payability’s Seller Card, you can access your funds 24/7/365, including on weekends and holidays.
Since 2016, Payability has helped more than 2,500 e-commerce sellers grow their businesses 2.5 faster than their competitors. For example, Gina Goldring used an Instant Advance to grow her Amazon business by 50% in one month. To hear from other sellers and to learn more about how you can leverage Payability to finally grow your business, visit http://go.payability.com/fbamaster.