Seller onboarding and seller support is the process of providing new sellers with the resources and support they need to get their business up and running online. This might include helping them get set up on a marketplace, providing customer service training, helping them build their product catalog, or providing tips on how to market their business.
Seller support and onboarding services are designed to assist businesses in navigating the complexities of selling their product or service online. It typically means providing ongoing assistance to sellers, such as offering advice on best practices, helping them manage customer inquiries, and troubleshooting technical issues, and providing businesses with the knowledge, tools, and resources to help them succeed in the digital marketplace.
Seller support services
1. Product setup and optimization
This service helps businesses configure their product or service in the digital marketplace to maximize visibility and sales. Services could include setting up product listings, optimizing product information, and ensuring the product is easily found by customers.
2. Marketplace optimization
This service provides a comprehensive review of the business’s online presence, including the product and content offerings, pricing strategy, and customer service. The goal is to ensure the business is taking advantage of all the available opportunities and maximizing its sales potential.
3. Payment processing
This service provides guidance and support to ensure businesses are properly set up to accept payments, such as setting up merchant accounts and navigating the complexities of payment processing services.
4. Shipping and fulfillment
This service helps businesses understand the complexities of shipping and fulfilment, including understanding the costs and regulations associated with shipping, and managing returns and customer satisfaction.
Related reading: Process optimization in onboarding seller listings for a leading e-commerce platform (Case study)
5. Customer service
This service helps businesses provide the best possible customer experience, including responding to customer inquiries in a timely manner, ensuring customer satisfaction, and building customer loyalty.
6. Analytics and reporting
This service helps businesses track their performance by providing detailed analytics and reporting, such as customer purchase history, customer demographics, and customer feedback.
7. Marketing and advertising
41% of sellers now market on social media, up 15% year over year. This service helps businesses effectively market and advertise their product or service online, including setting up campaigns, optimizing ad targeting, and measuring performance.
8. Brand building
This service helps businesses create and maintain a strong brand identity, including defining the brand’s core values, creating content that resonates with customers, and building an engaged customer base.
Steps to create a robust onboarding process for the marketplace
1. Create an onboarding checklist
An onboarding checklist will help ensure that all of the steps in the onboarding process are completed in a timely manner. This should include tasks such as verifying the seller’s identity, setting up accounts and providing access to the necessary tools.
2. Develop a comprehensive onboarding plan
A comprehensive onboarding plan ensures that all of the steps necessary to get a new seller up and running are clearly outlined. This should include everything from the initial contact to the completion of the listing.
3. Define your support process
Defining your support process will help ensure that you are providing the necessary assistance to new sellers. This should include the roles and responsibilities of your support team and the channels through which they will provide assistance.
4. Provide comprehensive training
Providing comprehensive training to new sellers will ensure that they are able to use your platform effectively. This should include both technical and product-related training.
5. Develop a uptime plan
Developing a plan to ensure the platform is available when new sellers need it is essential to provide a positive experience. This should include monitoring tools and protocols to ensure that the platform is always available.
6. Optimize and iterate
Lastly, the most important step of all is to repeat.
The definition of user onboarding makes it clear that onboarding is, in fact, a never-ending process – that is, if your product still gets updates.
So, the least you can do to keep your seller onboarding up to par is to check metrics like user activation, conversion, and retention rates, check for interface errors, look for ways to optimize onboarding copy and ask your sellers for feedback.
Netscribes offers seller onboarding and support services to marketplaces and retailers, which includes both voice and non-voice support via email and chat. This way we help online businesses to efficiently handle queries with quick turnaround times, leading to healthy partnerships. We also provide online training for tasks such as product uploads, managing seller panels, and understanding the client’s technologies and processes, among other areas. To know how we can help you streamline your seller support and onboarding process, contact us.
Based on insights by Ankita Malhotra, Manager, Seller Onboarding and Account Management, Digital Commerce
