One Way to Use Amazon Small Business Lending to Make More Sales
If you had more wiggle room in your budget, you could put profitable follow-up on autopilot.
Too much to do—not enough time or money. If your workday begins with this sad song, you are not alone. Although the struggle is common (and real), you are unwilling to accept that this is how it has to be. After all, you’ve worked hard to grow your online business. Still, you likely know there’s a better way to do things; you just haven’t quite figured it out yet, or you lack the time and resources to make it happen.
And email automation? Well, you’ve already heard it’s a necessity for business growth, but how are you even supposed to go there when you continually feel like you are putting out one fire and then the next?
First things first, it’s time to take back control with two simple steps:
- Free up funds, so you have money to spend on multipliers like e-mail automation.
- Use e-mail automation to boost your online sales month after month.
Let’s break down the problems you are facing and how these two simple steps can provide the solutions you need to experience business growth.
Problem: You’re Making Sales But STILL Feel Strapped
Whether you tend to spend your own funds for inventory or dip into your savings for advertising, lack of funding can tank your e-commerce business. In fact, studies have shown start-up businesses have an 80 to 98% failure rate. Many times this failure is related to lack of funding.
When you lack the resources to invest in the tools and tactics to scale up your business, it tends to grow stagnant before it even gets started. Perhaps, like many struggling entrepreneurs, you’ve tried to stay away from borrowing money for your business. The problem is that this stance can be short-sighted, resulting in a cash-strapped lifestyle that leaves no room to invest in opportunities for your business that can bring the kind of growth you want to see.
Being in this position can leave you with a business you know has the potential to be successful, but you simply lack the funding and, therefore, the tools to make the most of what you have worked so hard to build.
Solution: Free Up Funds So You Can Scale
For every problem, there is a solution. In this case, you may discover funding solutions abound, but not necessarily the kind you want to use. From Amazon-funded loans to traditional bank loans, some may offer benefits, but you may or may not qualify. But then, do you even want to qualify? A closer look at many funding opportunities reveals that the cash advances are short-term and don’t facilitate consistent growth.
What you need is a lending resource that will tailor their services to your unique business structure and sales forecast. You need lending flexibility and long-term coverage to give you the capital and security necessary to take your business to the next level and beyond. The right online lender is focused specifically on e-commerce—not traditional brick and mortar buildings—just e-commerce. This means you can work with an online vendor that understands the unique funding challenges you are facing.
This optimal lending option provides you with lending based on your business metrics, so it is customized and personalized to meet your needs. Once you have the right style of funding in place, you are free to invest in your business—and make the most of the multipliers to yield an exponential ROI, instead of feeling like you are at a standstill.
Problem: Neglecting to Leverage Customer Retention
Now. With funding in place, you have a major obstacle out of your way, and you are ready to tackle Problem #2: lack of customer retention. A report from Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company revealed that an increase of only 5% in customer retention improves business revenues by 25 to 95%. If you were dragging your feet about investing in e-mail automation, that statistic alone should put some pep in your step.
Not connecting with your customers after the initial sale is costing your business. When you follow up with your customers, you increase the chances they will purchase from you again and again. However, very few e-commerce entrepreneurs have the time and in-house bandwidth to nurture this essential and profitable customer-seller relationship.
The more you sell, the more time it takes to reach out to customers for feedback, reviews, and post-sale customer care. There are only so many hours in the day!
Solution: Use Email Automation to Increase Customer Retention
The right email automation service takes this issue off your hands, so you can focus on other pressing daily tasks for growing your business. There are many email automation services available, but it’s important to choose one that will offer a comprehensive solution to simplify your customer service, review request e-mails, and automate feedback, so you can save time and make the most of your investment.
Features of the right email automation service include:
- Full customer insight and help desk solutions: identify customers quickly so you can ensure they have the highest quality shopping experience and customer service.
- Reduced response times: when you respond to a buyer’s question within 24 hours, he or she is less likely to provide negative feedback; customized auto-reply messages help you to solve problems for both you and the customer.
- Tailored templates for customer communication: utilize compelling templates in a variety of languages to meet the needs of a global e-commerce business (or to go global!).
- Intuitive feedback software: ensure the automatic e-mails and review requests to customers cease once they have contacted you for service or have left a review; this feature will help you to avoid negative reviews from disgruntled customers.
- Feedback management: receive alerts for negative feedback, so you can respond quickly to protect your reputation; an additional layer of protection includes automated e-mail templates tailored to a variety of negative customer feedback scenarios.
The Right Funding + Email Automation = E-commerce Success
Accessing the optimal funding solution will enable you to leverage the business multipliers you need to succeed in your e-commerce business. There’s no reason to settle for a stagnant business or fade out like the vast majority of start-ups. It’s time to take full advantage of the resources available to you.
Whether you are an Amazon seller or grow your business outside of the Marketplace, comprehensive email automation services will put you in the kind profitable position you dreamed about when you got into the industry.
About the Author
Ricardo Pero, Chief Executive Officer of SellersFunding, received an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and has 20+ years of experience in Corporate Treasury and Wealth and Asset Management. As an investor and advisor to companies in the U.S. and Latin America, he enjoys helping start-up e-commerce businesses of all sizes to achieve success.
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