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We had a chance to interview Franklin Hatchett, a well-known ecommerce expert who has been a rockstar and a mentor to many ecommerce enterprises and runs an online dropshipping program.
How long have you been in the business of helping ecommerce retailers for? What have your platform/company goals been?
I have been helping ecommerce retailers online for 3 years, Our goal was to bring affordable training to ecommerce entrepreneurs from all over the world. We hit that goal very quickly and grow to over 15,000 members and our training platform is very prominent in New Zealand.
Which eCommerce platform do you prefer and why?
We use and recommend Shopify for its simplicity. When using Shopify you can literally get started and have a shop up and running within an hour. Using Shopify can get anyone set up with a store and selling quite quickly, this makes it easy for anyone to start an ecommerce business online.
A common problem in ecommerce is retailers having traffic but no conversions. If they’re gathering traffic but not making any sales what would you recommend?
From my experience, the biggest problem with people not getting sales is store speed and they don’t even know it. When it comes to shop optimisation no one is doing it and its crippling their store. First impressions matter and if someone can’t load the store within 3 seconds they will be leaving. From the research we have done, most stores are loading at 7 seconds or more. A simple way to fix this is to compress images before uploading them to the store and using the right image size. This will dramatically increase website speed. Website speed is something that just can’t be ignored anymore.
Where do you think the future of ecommerce marketing is heading? Is it chatbots, IoT, more personalized content, big data?
The future of ecommerce is domination. Everything is going to work well with your Shopify store. Email, chatbots, content, multiple advertising revenue and combining all of these is going to make you more money no matter what. Anyone from anywhere in the world can buy online right now and it’s very fast. Just yesterday I found some art online, purchased it and now it’s getting sent to me from Ukraine and will arrive in 3 days. Online ecommerce will eventually bring traditional retail to its knees if they don’t adapt. If you can get your store up and running using the right tools to maximize profits then you will dominate your niche as well.
Do you see mobile users as being the ‘future’ of eCommerce retailers? What are your personal experiences while using mobile shopping, if at all?
Mobil is accounting for more online traffic every single day, mobile is something that people must be aware of moving forward. According to some research I’ve read over the last 12 months most people don’t even own a laptop anymore or they have sold it. Why have a computer when you can just use a smart phone on the go? However, even though most online websites are responsive a lot of them don’t load quickly on 3g networks. So, mobile traffic is going to become very important but right now its still not perfect on 3g networks.
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