Finding new customers is the biggest challenge every entrepreneur faces today. In addition, the other challenges include retaining the existing customers, keeping pace with the technology, and satisfying the customer expectations. To do all this, managing time effectively is the key. No worries, here are four recent trends in the world of SMB that can come to your rescue.

The four key trends for SMBs
• Finding new business channels
• Playing the mobile game very well
• Providing unique customer experience
• Benefiting from partner innovations

Here are the ways to understand these trends in depth and how to play the game very well.

Go multi-channel
Arrange to sell your products on multiple online market places. You can also think of having your own dedicated online store and also a physical brick and mortar store. Discover the right combination that will benefit you. For instance, Playn, an independent eyewear firm sells through all these three modes.

Tips to go multi-channel
• Research deploying point of sale software to help you out in selling across different channels
• Ensure that your inventory systems interact with each other
• Take help from companies having extensions to fill the gap between your online market places and your own online store.

mCommerce is the future
We are heading towards a future that will be more mobile oriented than the present. By 2019, it is estimated that the mobile sales will reach $154 billion. Smartphones are today the mobile hub for your customers. They are influencing online shopping in a big way. They help in discovering the right products, check the prices, search for specific items, take pictures in stores and finding promotions or coupons.

eMarketer says that among the group of SMBs that have plans to have their own site, a majority have not optimized their sites to be mobile friendly. Take the Google’s mobile-friendly test to see how your store looks on different devices. It is a must for you to have a mobile responsive site.

Enhance the customer experience
Gartner says, about 89% of the companies are competing based on customer experience. Creating an enjoyable customer experience is a must for companies to stand in today’s competitive market scenario.

Ways to enhance customer experience
• Develop a well-designed modern store online
• Find innovative ways to improve the user experience
• Provide a great customer service and provide contact information

Small businesses must think of how to connect with customers to create a better experience from the fundamental level. Find interesting ways to interact directly with your customers. Also think of investing in your shopping cart to reduce cart abandonment and boost up customer experience in order to bring in more sales.

How to connect with your customers in a better way
• Maintain an element of consistency across multiple channels
• Create a better checkout experience
• Share your thoughts with your customers on your home page, contact us page and product pages.
• Post the shipping and return policy on all the product pages and not only at check out

Partnering for success
Today entrepreneurs can take advantage of the digital and cloud technologies. There are a large number of cloud based services for running business operations and marketing. Some of the sophisticated technologies that can help you today are Brightpearl, Springbot, Taxjar, Zendesk, Mailchimp, TaxJar, and Yopto. These products are evolved with a keen eye to future and hence they can effectively meet your needs and improve sales.

Find the best Magento development company to be able to invest in the capabilities of this incredible platform to create a revolutionary site for your online business. Also, Magento Small Business can help you benefit by connecting with your partners in a better way.