From Bricks to Clicks: Getting Started With Ecommerce With Filipa Almeida From Onport

If you’re thinking about diving into ecommerce for the first time, you have a lot to consider. To succeed in the digital world, you may need to rethink inventory management, the customer experience, and more. But as Filipa Almeida, chief customer officer at Onport, points out, you’ll also expand your businesses’ reach exponentially. 

Why move to ecommerce? 

Plenty of business owners are content running their brick-and-mortar stores—why should they add digital sales channels (and make their operations a whole lot more complicated)? Filipa’s answer is simple: today’s customers expect an online option. 

“[Customers’] needs and requirements are evolving, and they expect retailers to evolve with them. They expect their favorite stores to provide the experience of purchasing online. … They expect to have the option of going into the store if they feel like going to the store or just having that same product at the click of a button.”

Challenges of going online

Getting started with ecommerce comes with lots of challenges, including logistical concerns. Businesses need to answer several fulfillment questions: do I want to go omnichannel? Will I ship internationally? And the list goes on.

Filipa points out that the customer experience also gets tricky when brick-and-mortar stores go digital. When small business owners see their customers in person every day, they get a good sense of what keeps shoppers happy. In the online realm, it’s harder to tell what’s working and what’s not. 

“So understanding how they can have that visibility … is something that really weighs on [merchants].”

How to choose the right ecommerce platform

If you’re considering getting started with ecommerce, you’ll need to choose the right platform. Filipa’s advice? Don’t be afraid to get in the weeds researching features.

She says, “When a retailer is looking at which platform to choose, they need to [ask], what am I looking for? What is critical for my business and for my operations? And then isolate that, try to narrow down those critical requirements … and look at the options available in the market.”

Links

• Connect with Filipa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipa-almeida-0114a029/ 
• Visit Onport’s website: https://onport.com/