E-Commerce Sales Life Cycle Model - Start to Growth

To maintain a good sales ratio, it's important to maintain the e-commerce sales life cycle model. Without a doubt, sales are everything when it comes to making a profit in your business. The key to improving engagement and increasing conversions is to follow a solid model. There are no good choices or alternatives to the e-commerce sales life cycle model. It works like a framework and makes sure to optimise the various stages of the e-commerce sales process. Not only does the sales process but also convert a consumer into your loyal customer. It's also organised the total process of attracting, converting and re-training customers.

In this blog, we will get a detailed guide to the e-commerce sales life cycle model and all its details.

Let's start.

What Is A Sales Cycle In Business

The sales life cycle is simply a process that can be indicated as a step-by-step process guideline. A process that converts a normal consumer into a satisfied customer. 

Unlike traditional retail, where customers physically interact with products and sales staff. E-commerce sales cycles depend on digital marketing user experience, website functionality, and most of all, automated processes. It also helps to interact with global customers 24/7. There are a few stages to complete this sales cycle. Include :

• Attracting visitors 
• Engaging users (with product pages, reviews)
• Converting leads into buyers
• Fulfilling the order (shipping, digital delivery)
• Following up (reviews, customer service, loyalty programs)

A total go through of every action, decision point, input, and output scenario of your sales organisation's selling products. Any sustainable business growth requires a structured and polished business sales cycle. 

Every year, e-commerce sales grow. It's around 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide. Business followed an e-commerce sales product life cycle model, then 18% more revenue would be generated. It's a fact now !!!!

Why Is The Sales Cycle Important In E-Commerce

The sales cycle is important in e-commerce for many reasons. One of the most important things is that it helps businesses understand buyer behaviour. It indicates whether they’re discovering a product, comparing options, or ready to buy. When you find the pattern through this sales cycle, you can easily send them messages and offers accordingly. 

As a result, it's improved the user experience and boosted the wheel of sales. On the other hand, its sales life cycle offers better marketing strategies. You can easily track and align campaigns, emails, and ads. 

An efficient sales cycle contributes to reducing customer retention. Post-sale activities such as follow-up emails, reviews, and customer support create positive experiences that drive repeat purchases and brand loyalty. It increases the brand value and reaches more customers locally as well as internationally. In the long run, A positive customer review and revenue are all a business owner wants. So e-commerce sales life cycle maintains it properly. 

E Commerce Sales Life Cycle Model - Different Stages

The e-commerce sales life cycle model consists of different stages. Each stage activity different from the other stages. The e-commerce life cycle method offers a solid and true pattern that can remove all the errors from any sales. 

Another well-organised A+ advanced tool is Sales ERP software. It helps to control all your sales activity from inventory to track, maintenance, billing, stock, supplier, store management, QR code, accounting & more. With the AI-powered

Functionality makes it smarter than other tools in the market.

Talking about the e-commerce sales life cycle model

Each stage of business interacts with customers in different ways. The process of interaction is also different. Let's discuss all of it in one-on-one. 

Get Discovered

So frist things frist is to start a new business, you need some business ideas. So, select the business niche. Indeed, if you have an existing business already, then maintaining a strong position is mandatory.

If you really want to build a strong position, then at the very frist stage is to get to know everyone. So the most important thing is that get discovered by a normal customer or your targeted people. So what should you do? You need to recognise your brand or sales business in your clients. You may take help from a social platform, including:

• Search engine results (organic or paid)
• Social media ads
• Influencer marketing
• Email campaigns
• Content marketing
• Online reviews and referrals

The ultimate goal during this stage is to attract attention and generate interest in the customer. But remember it 

Businesses must create engaging, quality content, visually appealing product displays, and clear brand-promoting messaging.

Note -

Monitor Impressions and clicks (Awareness)

Interest Stage

Opportunities Don’t Happen, You Create Them 

Criss Grosser

When a customer shows interest, then you have the knowledge that the next very stage has started. In this stage, customer put their interest in your e-commerce sales products or any individual products. If we elaborate further, the consumer visits your e-commerce website, reads product specifications, watches a demo video, and checks customer feedback.

However, they are not yet converting your potential customers. For that, you have to play a strategy on it. You can share some useful content or video, or other things that can give more knowledge about your products. You need to describe your products more clearly and why they choose yours then others. If you are not clear about that, you have already lost your consumer. 

Note -

Check the bounce rate and session time 

Thinking Stage

Suppose you are a customer and want to buy a T-shirt. You fix 2-3 t-shirts from different online stores. This is the stage before of the purchase any products. In this stage, a buyer or customer compares 2-3 products in their colour combination, offers, quality & more. If you want a buyer to purchase your products and not purchase others one then you need to play some game here. The game is that you can give an offer or find out the competitor's limitations. Since you can work on those limitations and offer something new that your other competitors. 

You can work with return policy, whether the products are exchangeable or not, clear pricing, size of the products, etc. 

You can also clarify why they chose you or why you are better than others. A retargeting ad, a friendly email, some pop-up banners, and customer support can do this stage's job perfectly.

Monitor -

Check Add-to-cart rate 

Purchase Stage

Well Done Is Better Than Well Said -

Benjamin Franklin

This is the stage where a consumer or potential customer purchases their selected products. So if you have completed all the before stage tips, then we think you have a new sale and customer. E-commerce sales life cycle model manages all the stages so smoothly that a business owner dont need to do any extra efforts. Businesses can easily focus on other staff. But remember, this is an important stage also. Many customers drop out at this stage just to not having smooth or proper gateways. So make sure that when a customer chooses your products, they can easily complete their secure payment gateway. 

Remember :

Most of the customers use phones, so make sure your website offers a smooth mobile experience and a fast-loading website. If a customer faces any loading issues, then they feel unsafe, and sometimes they go to another website for their purchase. So loading the website frist is important. 

After purchasing any products, you can offer some reviews or your overall experience. Any testimonials that can help you improve the limitations you have. 

Bonus tips

Follow the Conversion rate

Support (Post-Purchase) Experience Stage

Purchase your products, and the end of the story, right? No, it doesn't work like that. After purchasing your products, you need to build a solid customer relationship with your present customers. You can ask them via email or call them if possible, whether their products are good or not or if they face any issues in getting their products. That helps to think that you are concerned with your customer, and that builds a positive reputation from their side. As a result, they can recommend your site or your store to others. 

After all that, you can also do below things:

• Sending thank-you emails
• Saying sorry if you  made any mistakes 
• Offering customer support through a chatbot 
• loyalty programs or discount coupons
• how-to guides or tips for using the product

Loyalty Program

A Satisfied Customer Is The Best Business Strategy To All -

Michal Leboeuf

There is a proverb that always gives value to the present customer, which means a present customer brings more customers if they find solid customer support. Sell your products and the jobs done. This is not the right approach. The good practice is to maintain a good relationship with the beloved customers. Instead, you can gift an offer, like after purchase discounts on new products. Sometimes customers purchase your products and go away because you dont offer any discounts or loyalty programmes. A good business strategy includes :

• Personalised product recommendations
• Birthday or special occasion offers
• Subscription services
• Repeat purchase rate
• VIP programs
• Exclusive deals for returning customers

You can also use some crm tools if you want to track customer behaviours and give them what they want. 

Advocacy Stage

Your Most Unhappy Customers Are Your Greatest Source Of Learning 

-Bill Gates 

After doing all the stages below properly, it's time to get some back from the customer. Suppose you have 1000+ customers who buy your e-commerce products and get all the necessary advantages from your customer support or loyalty program. Of those 1000 customers, you will have some 10-20 satisfied customers. That satisfied customer recommending your products to others via word-of-mouth, reviews, and social media. This is called customer advocacy. A well-designed customer advocacy program helps to gain more loyal customers. As a result, that will help your business and improve the overall ROI as well as brand value. 

If you have customer advocacy, then you will get below benefits :

• Deliver your message and drive conversion 
• Promote it on different social platforms 
• Give their reviews for your business 
• Reduce customer acquisition costs 
• Save money on market expenses & more

First of business, you promote your products and now your royal customers do it for you. To promote your products, you have already fixed a budget, but with the help of advocacy now you can save this budget. You can use this budget on another platform or another business. You can also use this budget to use those customers who are promote your brands with others. You can offer them an affiliate partner program.

Bonus tips 

Check NPS & Referral rate

E-commerce sales life cycle model changes the game for any e-commerce business for sure. Without this model, it's so tough for any business or organisation to do all that work so orderly and smoothly. Remember :

“With Organization Comes Empowerment”  

– Lynda Peterson

e-commerce sales life cycle model: get your business organized.

Best Practice To Improve E-Commerce Sales Life Cycle Model

Following the e-commerce sales life cycle model is a great practice for sure. But you need to monitor something else as well. You need to monitor each stage. You can focus on keyword optimization and also improve the SEO for your website so that your selected keyword or niche is always at the top of the SERP. You can run some paid ads for your selected area for better customer conversations. Share some engaging content on your blog platforms or other social sharing platforms. Apart from that, you can add some additional things like :

• Use CRM tools to track and analyse customer behaviour
• A/B test landing pages, emails, and CTAs
• Integrate omnichannel strategies for top-notch performance 
• Analytics sales funnel stage
• Stay updated with industry trends 
• Use the latest tools and technology

A positive mindset and an organized and strategic approach are all that is needed to succeed in any business. 

Endnote

A Goal Without A Plan Is Just A Wish 

When you have an e-commerce sales life cycle model in your business plan, then you have 360-degree control over your business. It's a roadmap that helps businesses understand, attract, and retain customers at every step of their buying journey. Investing in this structured approach, e-commerce businesses can improve user experience, boost conversions, and create a loyal customer base that keeps coming back.

Happy Customer - Happy Business 

FAQs

What Is A Successful Sales Strategy?

A successful sale depends on some requirements. A plan, a budget, technology and a proper model. The e-commerce sales model is the key to seeing the path and achieving your goal for your business. 

What Are The 4 C's In Sales?

It's a common phrase in the sales department. The 4 C's in sales mean 

• Customer
• Convenience
• Communication
• Cost

What Are The 4 A's In Sales?

The 4 A's in sales are: ecommerce sales :

• Attenbtions 
• Asist 
• Align 
• Assure 

What Are The 4 Models Of E-Commerce 

There are 4 models in the e-commerce business. Include:

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) 
• Business-to-Business (B2B) 
• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
• Consumer-to-Business (C2B)