Troy Cox, Bigcommerce: "American online shoppers are spending larger portions of their budgets online"

How would you describe the current state of affairs of the US ecommerce market in terms of potential for foreign players eager to tap in?

As the leading global ecommerce market, the US continues to experience rapid growth and can be an exciting opportunity for international businesses to compete and take advantage of the latest advancements in online retail. Retail brands continue to experiment with new ways to make online buying just as immersive as in-store with new products, payment services, shipping options and sales across new channels such as social networks. Conversely, shoppers are willing to have new options presented to them when looking to make a purchase and are willing to try new types of payment methods and buy across non-traditional sales channels.

Could you provide some best practices for foreign SMEs who want to sell to US customers, such as consumer preference, shopping experience etc?

With so many advancements in the US retail industry, shoppers have come to expect a few things when buying online:

1. Free shipping is one of the most influential drivers when consumers are making an online purchase; if you find that you cannot offer free shipping, consider building in the price of shipping to the overall cost of the product, so shoppers aren’t presented with unexpected costs at checkout.

2. To attract new customers, consider offering coupon codes and discounts to get them to try your products. This can be a huge driver for transforming someone who might just browse your site into a customer and eventually a long-term, loyal shopper.

3. It’s essential to have a mobile-responsive site since more than 30% of orders now come from phones and tablets. Shoppers are looking for a seamless purchase experience no matter what device they use, and a responsive site that is equipped with a frictionless checkout experience such as PayPal or Pay with Amazon can greatly increase conversion.

4. Consider selling across non-traditional channels such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. With social networks equipping their platforms with options for consumers to make a purchase through posts and tweets, there is an opportunity to review if those types of channels would resonate with your customer base.

How does the recent NACHA initiative towards faster payments adoption in the US affects overall ecommerce, both locally and in international sales?

By increasing the speed at which businesses receive funds from online payments, the latest NACHA initiative encourages and supports the creation of more innovative and advanced payment solutions. The initiative also gives business owners more clarity and the power for faster decision making, and also gives them a better picture of their cash flow and liquidity.

What online fraud types have you encountered since foundation and how have they been mitigated?

Fraudulent orders can be frustrating for business owners, because they can cause chargeback fees and lost merchandise. A business’ ecommerce platform can be one of its best partners to equip against fraud because select platforms such as BigCommerce can automatically analyse every order placed through an online store, and flag potentially fraudulent transactions.

Also consider if your platform is PCI compliant, which protects against credit card data breaches and eliminates the cost and hassle of compliance, which can cost thousands of US dollars each year.

Given that the Chinese ecommerce transactions volume surpassed that of US in 2015, do you find it feasible for US to reclaim its number one place in the international arena? If so, what should be done to that end?

The growth in China’s market proves the expansion of the industry worldwide, which is an encouraging growth trend for anyone in ecommerce. China has the largest population in the world and also has some of the most established ecommerce companies, including Alibaba and JD.com, so it’s no surprise that its total volume has surpassed every country.

This doesn’t mean that the US will fall behind but rather US-based commerce companies can work to remain competitive and bring the best offerings to their shoppers. Even more encouraging, American online shoppers are spending larger portions of their budgets online. BigCommerce has just conducted a study that shows online shoppers in the US are allocating nearly 40% of their household shopping budgets to online purchases. We only expect this to grow as more online options become available to them.

About Troy Cox

Troy Cox graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor of finance and IT and received his masters in business administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is the senior director of product for Bigcommerce, where he directs product strategy and management to build new and industry-leading features on the Bigcommerce platform. 

Prior to Bigcommerce, Troy served as chief technology officer for a number of Australian startups, including IT service company gizmo, real estate investment firm Azure Property Group and Peakhour, a company that delivered business applications to small- and medium-sized businesses. Before his time spent in the startup space, Troy was a technical lead for Microsoft’s messaging and groupware businesses in Seattle and Sydney.

About Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is the leading ecommerce platform for fast-growing and mid-market brands. Bigcommerce’s cloud-based platform enables merchants such as Dorco, Gibson, Martha Stewart, Saint Heron, Toyota and Travelpro to cost-effectively grow their businesses with more traffic, higher conversion and superior performance.