The Challenges Faced by Brands Selling on Ecommerce Sites

A large number of brands, both new and established, like to make their products available online for purchase through third party e-commerce sites like Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, and so on. While doing so comes with its own merits, there are a range of disadvantages to it in the long run as well. Let’s take a look at the challenges faced by such businesses and what can be done to resolve them.

But first, let’s take a look at why some brands like to do business on third party platforms:

• It helps businesses boost their sales with better customer reach and engagement.
• Brands do not have to spend too much money on advertising, shipping and marketing their products as the third party site will handle such matters.
• It is less risky to test new product launches on a third party website.
• There is a chance for more exposure.

While these are definitely advantages that growing brands can enjoy, there are some limitations that are hard to ignore as well.

Resolving the challenges of selling products on third party websites

Blockchain-enabled services have proven to be highly successful in resolving a number of issues that small brands face. Such solutions are easily enabled through the Authlink platform. The following are some of the major issues that business that sell products on external websites face, and what can be done to rectify the issues in a practical manner:

1. Low or zero access to customer data:

As the customer data is managed by the third party website, brands cannot access them to improve their service experience. However, with Authlink’s QR-code enabled smart tag services, brands can keep track of customer behaviour patterns through their scanning trends. This is a simple and effective way to understand customer needs.

2. No way to establish product authenticity:

With the enormous number of products being sold in major third party websites, many customers have fallen victim to counterfeit product sales in the past few years. This is an issue that Authlink curbs by making the authenticity of products easily verifiable. Customers can scan their product labels to ensure that their purchases are genuine and approved for sale by the original brand.

3. It is not feasible to introduce loyalty schemes:

While third party websites generally introduce their own reward campaigns, it is not always possible for growing brands to do the same. But by setting up a reward scheme for loyal customers through the Authlunk platform, it becomes easy and effective. All a customer needs is a smartphone to participate in such schemes.

4. There are no means for direct brand-customer communication:

Keeping close contact with customers gets difficult for brands when there is a middleman involved. This issue is rectified using Authlink’s Customer Connect service. Instead of waiting to get in touch with the support team on the third party site, customers can get in touch with the brand directly to get their queries resolved.

5. It is difficult to get direct and timely feedback about product use:

Regular feedback is essential for brands hoping to improve their products and services, and enjoy better business growth in the future. Through the Authlink platform, a brand can ask for regular feedback from customers throughout the product use period. This also helps in personalizing the product use experience in many ways.

6. Tracking inventory efficiently is a challenge:

If a brand is working with a number of third party websites and possibly has a website of its own, it is usually really hard to keep track of the products. This is where Authlink’s Track and Trace services come in. Businesses can digitally track the whereabouts of their products and ensure that nothing is amiss.

Easen your business processes

Authlink offers a range of blockchain services that add value to your business. Book a demo of the platform or sign up for the beta version today.