Many e-commerce entrepreneurs have small-scale operations that do not require a huge workforce to run. With that said, they are also the kind of companies that have limited resources for expansion. They will need help in handling the customer and tech support tasks through e-commerce outsourcing.

If you’re a small-scale e-commerce company and you’ve been thinking you don’t need that much help in managing your I.T. or customer support, think again. You may be experiencing any or all of the following situations and you don’t realize yet that you need e-commerce outsourcing for the more technical parts of your business.

#1 Your e-commerce site does not look professional or credible enough for your customers to trust you with their credit card info.

Some websites fail to provide trust badges that signal the veracity of their status as sellers as well as offer assurance on the current level of security available at their website. Meanwhile, others choose to hide their shipping rates and often fail to provide an estimated delivery date.

In all these cases, you’ll need an e-commerce outsourcing support team who understands how online shoppers respond to certain signals, such as the colors you use for web design and the way objects are arranged on your website.

The best thing to do now is to perform a site audit. You can probably do the basic stuff, such as evaluate the quality of photos displayed on your product pages and the messaging you’re conveying in your web content.

But, it will get technical pretty quick. That’s why you’ll need to outsource the writing and photography work to professionals rather than do it all by yourself.

#2 Another possibility is you’re making it difficult for your customers to buy from you.

Some sites take their buyers through several hoops before putting them on the payments page. If they need to login before they can proceed to the checkout page, make sure it will be very easy for them. To begin with, there are a couple things you can do.

• Integrate Facebook, Twitter and Google logins to your website as alternative ways of using email to verify their accounts.
• Use cookies to keep track of your customers and make use of your site’s analytics to extract meaning from the data you have.

For all these issues, you’ll need the help of SEO specialists, data analysts, and web developers.

#3 You’re not giving your buyers enough information and assistance on navigating your site, using your mobile app, or taking advantage of your order tracking service.

Be generous in providing information and support to users of your mobile app and to online shoppers who are having difficulties navigating through your site. While millennials breeze through the intricacies of mobile technology, many boomers are still learning how to operate their smartphones. Your buyers belong to different demographics and each group will have requirements that you’re expected to fulfill.

The job of handling requests for help from your customers will fall on your e-commerce outsourcing team, particularly your tech and customer support agents. They’re not just competent in introducing a service and guiding your customers through any process, they’re also trained in fixing technical issues with your website, app or service.

#4 Your payment options are limited or unsecured.

Don’t limit your payment option to traditional credit cards provided by banks. Newer forms of credit have turned virtual, which generates single-use card numbers for online shoppers to use. The auto-generated card numbers mask the real credit card info of shoppers and protect them from possible breaches by hackers.

Another option is to allow your shoppers to use their bitcoin wallets to pay for their online purchases. Mainstream adoption for bitcoin isn’t yet complete, but its popularity is rising. And, this won’t be the only cryptocurrency you’ll be dealing with in the future.

Whatever payment option you choose to add, you’ll surely need an e-commerce support team that can handle the data management and security work for your company. The global nature of e-commerce makes outsourcing a better option. Compare this to hiring an in-house team, which can limit the amount of work they do and the number of hours they spend on their tasks. Data security is a 24/7 job that should be handled by two or more teams working in shifts.

You’ll also need a support team that’s trained in verification and processing for different types of payment options. The best agents to hire are those who not only possess the technical skills to accomplish the tasks at hand but also the language skills and personality to go with it to confidently communicate with customers.

#5 Your shipping and inventory woes continue to keep you up at night.

It may be an added cost, but having your team send out SMS to customers informing them of their packages’ whereabouts will lead to a huge improvement to your bottom line.

If you’re using software to automatically generate and send out these texts, make sure you have a support team on standby to answer messages and calls from customers looking for assistance in tracking their orders. No matter how efficiently your logistics software does the work, customers still look forward to talking to a warm human voice rather an emotionless robotic one.

Problems with keeping track of inventory and order fulfillment? Outsource the job of tracking, entering data, and sending or forwarding messages to and from 3PL providers and merchants. Ensuring there’s a smooth flow of communication among the stakeholders is even more critical for e-commerce companies that make use of drop shipping to reduce their inventory and warehousing costs.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, there’s always a need for friendly assistance that does not come out of a box. And, it’s not just the warm friendliness that’s needed, but also the confident technical competence that sends a message of assurance and comfort to online shoppers no matter their age, location or background.