eCommerce Integrate Solutions

Okay so genuine question for any retailers out there —

how many hours a week does your team spend manually copying data between your POS and your online store?

inventory exports. price updates. re-entering web orders into your system. reconciling numbers that don't match.

because if you're running Retail Management Hero and selling online, there's a pretty good chance the answer is 'more than it should be.'

here's the thing nobody tells you when you set up eCommerce alongside your POS:

the two systems don't talk to each other. at all. every piece of data that needs to exist in both places has to be moved by a human. manually. every day.

and that works — until it doesn't. until a customer orders something online that sold out in-store two hours ago. until someone spots a price on your website that doesn't match the register. until your end-of-week numbers just refuse to reconcile.

Octopus Bridge fixes this by connecting RMH directly to your online store — Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, wherever you sell.

inventory updates the moment a sale happens

price changes in RMH push everywhere automatically

online orders land in RMH without anyone touching them

it's not a workaround. it's just the connection that should have been there from the start.

Most skin care companies by now have realized the importance of having high-end websites with ecommerce and the benefit of generating profits from the Internet. Skin care companies due to the competitiveness of the market and because of the well-educated consumers must invest in professional website designs, ecommerce technology, and result proven website architectures to stay competitive.

Technology has to be robust enough and offer the right functionality. The administrative side must be user-friendly and fit the needs of the skin care company.

Once this is in place a skin care company is in operation online, the website and ecommerce solution must perform and produce results and product sales. What are the best ways for skin care companies to increase their website conversion now and sales? There are many choices out there but to simplify it, a skin care company has to drive traffic to the website and convert that traffic (visitors) into buyers (shoppers).

To achieve this here are the best 5 ways:

1.Professional Graphic Design & Website Development Due to the competitiveness online in the skin care industry, skin care companies who invest into ecommerce and count on being able to rank high in search engines, receive the traffic, and convert the traffic into buying customers must have well organized, technology sound, and appealing websites that are user-friendly. There are many website developers out there, but not many have experience in the skin care industry. It is important to contract the website development and ecommerce implementation out to a firm that is knowledgeable in the skin care industry and knows what works and what does not.

2.Search Engine Optimization (SEO) This is also known as organic search engine marketing, it is the most important online marketing method that yields the best results and ROI if done professionally. This over time will drive qualified traffic to a skin care ecommerce website. Long-term benefits are the rankings achieved in search results that if maintained for years can drive traffic to a skin care online operation. Furthermore, it provides online visibility assisting in PR, branding, distribution, sales efforts, and much more.

3.Social Media Marketing (SMM) It is very important for skin care companies to build out their communities utilizing social media. Once those accounts with social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. are setup, it becomes crucial to market them and integrate them. The amount of time people spend on for example Facebook surpasses even websites such as Google. Skin care consumers love educating themselves on the latest and greatest in the skin care world. Social media channels are a great way for skin care companies to release information, educate consumers, and build out a large following and product loyalty.

4.Conversion Optimization Conversion optimization is the act of utilizing several tools and methods to convert the website visitor into a buying shopper. Once a skin care company has launched their website and is marketing it, it becomes important to convert as many visitors into buying customers as possible. Especially if financial budgets are being spend on advertising and marketing. Return on investment becomes at this point crucial for any company. Some examples of conversion optimization can be found on many ecommerce websites. Those are incentives for the visitors such as first time shoppers receiving a percentage discount, free shipping, holiday specials, customer royalty rewards, etc. All of the incentives serve as conversion tools for the website operator.

5.Consulting Services Skin care companies, are not experts at every aspect of their business. Just like most companies cannot do all the work in-house. They contract out many aspects of their business to receive professional services and expert advice and job execution. It can be challenging to contract these tasks out to vendors as well as projects manage them without the proper experience. Skin care business consultants are a great way for skin care companies to avoid pitfalls and costly mistakes or bad vendors. It is very beneficial for skin care companies to work with consultants who have experience in the skin care industry as well as offer the right services to support a skin care client. Furthermore, the right consultant will have relationships with vendors that are of value to skin care companies.

As a skin care company, if the above 5 ways of how to increase conversion and product sales are followed, so will the results and benefits. One of the most important aspects is getting it done correctly. If there is lack of knowledge by the skin care company hiring a consultant is always a good idea. Get expert help and get the proper foundation to be successful.

Internet sales tax is now becoming an integral part of an ecommerce business, but that hasn’t always been the case. Back in the old days of ecommerce, consumers and retailers were both able to enjoy avoiding this tax. Regulations were almost nonexistent at the time and online shoppers grew accustomed to not having to pay website sales tax. As a result, e-commerce businesses began growing exponentially.

Unfortunately the free ride is almost over. A number of states are beginning to set regulations and cry foul over the loss of billions of dollars worth of tax revenue over the past few years. Retailers without a web presence are also arguing that online businesses have an unfair advantage, because they are not required to charge the same tax. Both parties are calling for a new national internet sales tax to be set up.

For now, the majority of states only require online businesses to collect internet sales tax from customers who live in the same state as the physical location of their business. Some states have stricter rules and take into consideration merchant account, distributor, warehouse, drop shipper and sales representative locations as well. It is critical that you read the tax regulations of all the states with any kind of link to your business. If you fail to pay the applicable taxes, there will be consequences that could seriously damage your business. Not only will you have to pay the total amount you owe, you will also be fined interest and penalties for each year that you did not pay.

Follow this checklist to get started:Research each state that your business has any kind of involvement in and figure out whether or not you need to collect internet sales tax from consumers in that state Register to collect taxes in the state or states you are required to Collect website sales tax automatically through a reliable e-commerce/shopping cart solution File a tax return to the appropriate state(s) and include total proceeds with your return

There are a number of important features to look for when selecting an ecommerce solution capable of automatically collecting internet sales tax from appropriate customers. They include: - Simple website sales tax wizard built into the store admin - Automatic calculation of tax amount during checkout - Simple setup which allows you to choose tax percentage by state, county, zip code or country - Be able to mark down nontaxable products - Canadian tax support - Choose whether tax should be applied before or after discounts - Choose whether certain customers or customer groups are exempt from taxes

To ensure there are no problems on your tax return, you must rely on a good sales tax software to calculate and record accurate internet sales tax. Not only does your ecommerce solution have to have this feature, it also has to be easy to set up so that you only need to enter the necessary information once and it will automatically do the rest.

1)Search Engine Friendly :- Easy to understand urls that are human readable. Allows full customization of titles, meta descriptions, and page content. It avoids duplicate content, and allows you to manage your sitemap easily.

2)Multi-Site Functionality :- If you have, or think that maybe one day you will have more than one online shop, Magento is for you. This powerful feature means that you can have 2, 5 or even 20 stores running from the same admin panel. This allows you to manage orders and customers from one place instead of having to switch between different websites, this makes life a lot easier and is a great reason to use Magento.

3)Social shopping :- Ecommerce is going social and Magento is certainly keeping up with this trend. Here are 3 built-in Magento features that help make your customers shopping experience a more social one. a) Customer Reviews b) Send to a Friend’ option. c) Add to Wishlist functionality

4)Expandable :- Magento Connect is to Magento what the iTunes App Store is to the iPhone. The variety and quality of extensions is excellent and following a recent revamp it’s now even easier to find the right extension for your needs. Pricing for extensions does vary, but the detailed information, customer reviews and support forums give you all the information you should need on whether your buying the correct add-on to your ecommerce store.

5)Advanced Reporting :-In addition to currency exchange, Magento keeps you in the loop when it comes to your product statistics. These statistics include shipping costs, taxes, refunds and coupons. Also, you can get online shopping cart statistics such as abandoned carts or a break down of what exactly the customer decides to purchase as well as reports about product reviews and items customers have searched for. You can even take these reports and move them to spreadsheet programs. Spreadsheets are also useful for your products when you need to start a new product line and you have a lot of products to start out. You can move these spreadsheets to product listings on your site with little trouble.

6)Guest Checkout Option :- A small addition that helps separate Magento from the crowd. Many online shops require that your customers have register before making a purchase, this can put them off and potentially lose you the conversion at the very last hurdle. Magento however, offers an alternative, you can adminster whether users have to register or can optionally checkout as a guest to help save them time. This little feature may help boast your conversion rate and has been a hit with our clients.

7)Save Time and Money :-The Magento application program has a variety of different extensions that will prove useful to administrative and sales functions. Because one simple system covers everything you need from A to Z for your business, you will not need to invest in a separate program for order processing or customer service. This cost-effective tool is specially designed to fit the needs of site owners offering a variety of different products and services.

8)Built-in Newsletter Support :- Allow your customers to signup for newsletters, and manage them from within Magento.

9)Themes :- Magento Themes are certainly not for the light-hearted, but once you have an understanding it does offer some amazing visual design and customisation options. To see some brilliant examples of what is possible with Magento take a look at the Magento Spotting section of their blog.

10)Capable Application :- When you are developing a site for e-commerce, accessibility and page load times are extremely important. You will need to use web-hosting service providers committed to quick page load times to stay within an acceptable range for the application. Doing this will improve your sales conversion rate and your site usability.

1)Search Engine Friendly :- Easy to understand urls that are human readable. Allows full customization of titles, meta descriptions, and page content. It avoids duplicate content, and allows you to manage your sitemap easily.

2)Multi-Site Functionality :- If you have, or think that maybe one day you will have more than one online shop, Magento is for you. This powerful feature means that you can have 2, 5 or even 20 stores running from the same admin panel. This allows you to manage orders and customers from one place instead of having to switch between different websites, this makes life a lot easier and is a great reason to use Magento.

3)Social shopping :- Ecommerce is going social and Magento is certainly keeping up with this trend. Here are 3 built-in Magento features that help make your customers shopping experience a more social one. a) Customer Reviews b) Send to a Friend’ option. c) Add to Wishlist functionality

4)Expandable :- Magento Connect is to Magento what the iTunes App Store is to the iPhone. The variety and quality of extensions is excellent and following a recent revamp it’s now even easier to find the right extension for your needs. Pricing for extensions does vary, but the detailed information, customer reviews and support forums give you all the information you should need on whether your buying the correct add-on to your ecommerce store.

5)Advanced Reporting :-In addition to currency exchange, Magento keeps you in the loop when it comes to your product statistics. These statistics include shipping costs, taxes, refunds and coupons. Also, you can get online shopping cart statistics such as abandoned carts or a break down of what exactly the customer decides to purchase as well as reports about product reviews and items customers have searched for. You can even take these reports and move them to spreadsheet programs. Spreadsheets are also useful for your products when you need to start a new product line and you have a lot of products to start out. You can move these spreadsheets to product listings on your site with little trouble.

6)Guest Checkout Option :- A small addition that helps separate Magento from the crowd. Many online shops require that your customers have register before making a purchase, this can put them off and potentially lose you the conversion at the very last hurdle. Magento however, offers an alternative, you can adminster whether users have to register or can optionally checkout as a guest to help save them time. This little feature may help boast your conversion rate and has been a hit with our clients.

7)Save Time and Money :-The Magento application program has a variety of different extensions that will prove useful to administrative and sales functions. Because one simple system covers everything you need from A to Z for your business, you will not need to invest in a separate program for order processing or customer service. This cost-effective tool is specially designed to fit the needs of site owners offering a variety of different products and services.

8)Built-in Newsletter Support :- Allow your customers to signup for newsletters, and manage them from within Magento.

9)Themes :- Magento Themes are certainly not for the light-hearted, but once you have an understanding it does offer some amazing visual design and customisation options. To see some brilliant examples of what is possible with Magento take a look at the Magento Spotting section of their blog.

10)Capable Application :- When you are developing a site for e-commerce, accessibility and page load times are extremely important. You will need to use web-hosting service providers committed to quick page load times to stay within an acceptable range for the application. Doing this will improve your sales conversion rate and your site usability.

Magento is a latest open source ecommerce platform that can be customized as per your requirements. It offers flexibility and control over the functionality and appearance of an online store. Magento is the best ecommerce platform and is highly admired by merchandisers. With a good magento developers India one can built the best Ecommerce platform that helps in taking online business to its next level. Being an open source Magento is cheap and has rich features eCommerce solution that offers complete flexibility and control over the appearance and functionality of an online store.

magento development has taken on a large scale in India. Below listed are a few features that Magento has:

1.Site Management: -> It can manage multiple stores and sites from one admin panel. -> Supports multiple currencies -> Supports localization -> Upgrades with just one click -> CMS for informational pages ->Flexible management of tax rates that supports both US and other international markets

2.Marketing promotions and tools -> SEO friendly URL’s -> URL rewrites -> Easy to view recently viewed and compared products -> Upselling in shopping cart -> Cross selling on product pages -> Newsletter management -> Polls -> Bundled products -> Discount and other flexible coupons that can be restricted to stores or to certain products and categories. -> Auto generated site maps

3.Shipping: -> With one order shipping can be done at multiple places -> Tracking orders online -> Flat shipping rates per order and per item -> Rates as per weight of the product and destination

4.Catalog management : -> Inventory management -> Batch updates of products -> Virtual products -> Configurable as per color, size and brand. -> Tax rates per location -> Rewrites search results -> Google base integration -> RSS feed for low inventory alerts

5.Customer accounts: -> Maintaining order status and history -> Re-orders from account -> Reviews of products submitted -> Products tags submitted -> Address book with unlimited addresses -> Default billing -> Default shipping addresses -> Has newsletter subscription management -> Order status -> Order history -> Ability to add comments

6.Product browsing: -> Can view multiple products -> Product reviews -> Stock availability -> Option for product selection -> Has zoom in capability when it comes to product image -> Upselling multi tier products

7.Payment: -> Accepts checks -> Accepts money orders -> Accepts purchase orders -> Integrated with Google checkout -> Credit card method for offline payments

8.Offers payment extensions to: -> Dibs payment -> VCS -> Safer -> eWAY -> Protx -> Cybersource -> Cash on delivery -> Fontis secure pay -> Ogone payment -> Saferpay -> Paybox -> Servired -> Bank Prepayment -> VCS -> Fontis paymate -> Fontis SecurePay -> Fontis Paymate Express -> Fontis New Zealand

9.International support -> Multi-lingual -> Site registration -> Supports multiple currencies -> Has ability to specify each payment method

10. SEO friendly: -> Google site map -> Search engine friendly -> Auto generated site map -> Meta information on categories and products.

11.Customer service:

Apart from the above mentioned features a good Magento developer India also allows one to provide the best customer service by providing features such as: -> Order status and history -> Customizable order emails -> Order tracking made easy from accounts -> Order history -> Contact us form and much more.

Magento development India has reached to its peak levels because there are companies that have a team of Magento developer India that helps in creating striking design that helps in building a successful ecommerce store that increases online business.

If you’re designing your first online store, always think of conversion (for retail: sales) as your main goal. The usual elements of design and website usability must be consider. This includes the right color combination, use of a call to action for purchase, use of product photos and easy site navigation.

Once you’ve got the basic elements down pat and are satisfied with the look and feel of your site, complement it with good copywriting to establish a solid brand and a clear and unique selling proposition.

Finally, it’s time to consider adding special features to enhance your site and increase conversion.

•Item tagging, categorization and cross-selling. Creating the proper categories for your products is just one part of the equation. You can consider adding a tagging feature to your product pages. This way, you can design the site architecture such that products with similar tags may display as thumbnails in the product page. This will encourage cross-selling of similar items.

•Top-selling items and gift ideas page. Just like in a brick-and-mortar store, there will be visitors who enter your site simply to go shopping. Help them make that next purchase step by giving them suggestions on what to buy.

•Reviews section – Online shoppers today are smarter and have more time on their hands to check out other options (including your competition). A common trend in online shopping is for the site visitor to look for items they like, narrow down the choices to a specific brand and finally to check out review sites to find out what others are saying about the product. Having reviews readily available on your site prevents your visitor from leaving the page to go to another site just to look for those.

We hope you find these tips helpful in designing  your first online store. There are eCommerce solutions available online that would help you build your online store without the hassle. Shopster.com is an example of a website that provides the full service for online merchants – it helps you connect with product suppliers and dropshippers and has add-on services for website customization and optimization.

The Technology for Marketing and Advertising (TFMA) show 2011 is the UK’s largest advertising and marketing show. Last year over 10,000 delegates and visitors attended TFMA which was home to leading marketing and ecommerce specialists, showcasing the latest technology and tools.

TFMA 2011 is being held this year at Earls Court, London; the show opens its doors on Tuesday 1st March and runs until Wednesday 2nd March 2011. Each day the Technology for Marketing and Advertising show opens at 9.30 and closes at 17.30, giving attendees plenty of time to discover new and innovative marketing techniques.

Over the last few years advertising and marketing has evolved due to ever changing technologies and an increasing level of online interaction from consumers. The advances in mobile technology have meant that shopping habits have changed and will continue to change in 2011. Keynote speeches at TFMA 2011 are set to heavily focus on customer relationship management and interactive and more intuitive marketing. In order to effectively manage these new forms of advertising and marketing companies will need an equally as innovative multi channel ecommerce solution.

Advansys will be at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising Show 2011 to demonstrate the benefits of our award winning ecommerce platform.

Ecommerce solutions are becoming more than a platform to manage sales but a vital tool to effectively optimise marketing strategies and streamline businesses. Being able to manage all aspects of your online business including mobile sales from one system can dramatically cut costs and above all else increase sales.

If you are looking to increase sales and get ahead of the competition in 2011, come and see Advansys at TFMA 2011. We will be at stand H26 alongside sister company SEO Junkies to provide information about our complete ecommerce and internet marketing solutions.

If you are unable to attend TFMA 2011, please contact one of our TFMA ecommerce specialists for more information about how we can help you grow your business.

Ecommerce took the web by storm and created an environment where consumers found it very easy to shop online and also in making transactions. Business and communication have become effortless over the past few years and things have changed for the better. Still, there are critics simply not convinced at the foolproof organization of ecommerce solutions on websites and their deployment. Offshore outsourcing companies have strived very hard to cement their credibility but still have not been able to put an end to this raging debate.

The benefits of ecommerce solutions have been many. Offshore outsourcing companies India providing these solutions have been able to create a 24*7*365 business environment for organizations where operations are on the move all day. Physical presence of personnel is not mandatory as every transaction happens electronically. These solutions have made everything accessible globally. There are no restrictions or inhibitions left and traditional communication and sales methods have been sent packing into oblivion. Speed has been the biggest talking point of the process. The agility with which the transactions are carried out has been exemplary. Every detail is available on the web and before the buyer finishes yawning, the deal is sealed with all formalities. It has created space for a good web design company and web development company to thrive. Businesses have been given the opportunity to go global and establish a presence on the global forum.

Cost reduction has become possible in a big way. Since reconnaissance has become simpler, products have become easily available and their prices have gone down. The same products were exorbitantly priced when they were not easily available because they were deemed rare. Customers get to self service themselves and are not entitled to approach somebody to help them out. Ecommerce makes things self explanatory and lends a lot of solidity to websites. Any successful web development company or web design company would review ecommerce solutions as a channel of marketing through which any product can be marketed. Offshore outsourcing companies have had the chance of a lifetime working on these ecommerce solutions because of tremendous demand.

On the flip side, there have been some shortcomings noticed in ecommerce solutions. The first one is delivery. Since the goods are bought on the web, the exact date of delivery at times does prolonged. Even the shipping costs involved in the process go up. The next one is that though you see the product on the website, you are not sure whether it functions well in real life and the way it is packaged. Of course, no website would sell anyone wrong products and then risk lawsuits still one is uncertain about the workability of the product. The article ordered online might perish on the way of its delivery. If the good is malfunctioning, then returning it again becomes a very difficult job since the payment is already made. Another concern comes up with the number of transactions an individual is entitled to make. Most of the websites allow just one at a time.

Cyberspace has quite a number of shopping cart ecommerce solutions drifting around. Very few are worth mentioning, maybe around 18 or so paid carts. In this article we will look at how to sift for the better ones, testing criteria and the deal breakers.

Ecommerce Top Solutions – There are various of really good ecommerce shopping carts out there with useful features that make running an online store a breeze. The trick is to identify and narrow down a few good ones before you make a final decision.

A merchant running a new online store with a small amount of products maybe less than 20 would not have the same requirements as an established store selling almost 100 products. Also a merchant with 100 products would be different that a store selling 500 products. Its important not to just look at the price but the solution as a whole like. Take a lot of things into consideration like number of products, security, disk space, ease of use and a trial period. If you want smaller stores but more than one there are carts for that too.

Testing shopping cart features is a must before you can make a decision. A trial period is available with most shopping carts. Pick the ones that have a 30 day trial period, 7 days is just too short to try out most shopping cart features. Granted, setting up a basic store might only take 15 to twenty minutes for the experienced but testing features take more time. Remember for newbies, this is also a learning process. If need be try out the support service.

The final decision – In putting together your business plan make sure to have enough stash to keep your business running for at least a year. Online stores usually take close to a year to break even. You also want to keep to a tight budget. I would suggest going for secure ecommerce solutions that cost around $30 or less per month so you would not have to spend more than $350 or so a year. For that price make sure it includes unlimited products, popular payment gateways, good customer service and no hidden fees.

If you desire a website with ecommerce functionalities then we suggest you go for shopping carts built on the ASP.Net platform. Shopping carts made using the ASP.NET platform can incorporate functionalities which make it easier for users to get their online shop up and running in a short span of time.ASP.NET as a technology allows developers to create shopping carts that are flexible, search engine friendly and can be set up quite easily. User-friendly administrative features coupled with a scalable architecture make these e-commerce solutions quite popular amongst users.

The flexibility provided by the use of ASP .NET framework actually adds power to your online storefront. You can add unlimited products, categories and even customize the layout and design according to your convenience. Users can create several sub categories within the existing categories. These applications are so easy to use that users can themselves change the design and layout as many times as they want through a control panel. Shopping carts developed using the ASP.NET framework support database friendly languages like MS-ACCESS and MS-SQL.

ASP.NET based  e-commerce solutions provide a user friendly interface and a secure check-out process.ASP.Net when used as a framework allow developers to  provide functionalities like shipping rate calculation during real time. This is done by adding a smart ASP code snippet as a plug in into the check out page. Advanced ASP based software’s like Ace Flex allow users to sell both digital and physical products online. E-commerce solutions built on the .Net framework provide complete control to users enabling them to modify their shopping carts from any web browser anywhere in the world. While opting for shopping cart solutions you should go for those vendors who provide customized, scalable solutions at an economical cost. Ensure that your applications are developed and set up on dedicated application servers so that it can be easily managed from your hosting account.

ASP. NET based ecommerce solutions have a very bright future. If you want to keep your costs further down then we suggest you go for vendors based in low cost locations like India. These vendors have the experience and expertise to develop innovative E-commerce solutions based on the ASP.NET platform and will provide you with good value for your money.

Now a days Software Solutions like e-commerce solutions and Ajax Development solutions  are developing in ASP .net Technology at web design company India Functionalities

One mistake that many make is trying to incorporate a flashy design in your store.  The fact is that keeping your online store simple is one of the best tools for you and for your customers.  When you have too many graphics, the end result is that you confuse and overwhelm your visitors.  They are also too heavy meaning that the visitor has to wait longer to see your page.  Instead, keep it simple.

To help you to do that, use ready to use templates and be sure that the ecommerce solutions that you use are ones that are able to be integrated properly. Design integration is essential here.  You will either need to have a set of templates that are specially created for your ecommerce solution or you will have to change the html code in your store to match that which you have in your graphics file.

When having these features is too costly, do consider a free design or even a low cost template.  Put more of your money towards marketing now and later you can make changes if you need to.  The bottom line is that great custom design means expensive money but not necessarily more customers.

To find a good design for your store, consider TemplateMonster.  Whatever you do, do not consider flash templates as they take a long time to load, they are very expensive and they also can decrease your search engine ranking.  By far it is important to consider only software and programs that you know you can trust such as XCart for your ecommerce shopping cart.

Display Your Information

Many make the mistake of not providing enough of their contact information to their visitors.  If you just want to leave an email address, do not expect customers to be placing many orders.  You need to create a sense of professionalism by providing your visitors with your full contact information including your company address and phone numbers.  This builds trust.  When they trust you, you will increase your visitor to order ratio considerably.

For those that do not have an office and do not want to use their home address, there are solutions you can use.  One of them is to sign up for a Post Office Box or even a UPS Store box.  With the UPS Store, you will even get a suite number and avoid the PO Box problem.  You should also supply a phone number on every page of your site.  Ecommerce shopping carts are not the only place to provide this information.  If you do not have a number, use a service like GotVmail as a virtual phone system.

The fact is that you need to consider this for improving your level of customer service.  Respond to each and every phone inquiry and email that you receive within 24 hours.  You can also consider having a live chat feature or live support button on your website.  This is helpful with any software program including XCart because it allows your customers to ask questions and for you to offer help as you monitor their actions on your site.  Due carefully consider the offline button though.  You may not want to have it shown at all because this often is a drawback when a customer can not find a time when you are actually online.  For those that have a busy store, consider an online support board to help.  This allows you to track a ticket history, solve any unresolved problems and it helps you to hand inquiries quickly.

As an owner of a “bricks & mortar” business you may be wondering just how ecommerce can boost your business, especially since there are so many options available to you. In this post we explore the potential offered by virtual stores to transform your business into a successful and innovative operation.

Why Ecommerce works with you

Any ecommerce solution primarily opens up a new world of opportunity for your business, helping you to establish new and rewarding relationships with customers, potential business partners and product manufacturers. Ecommerce enables your business to reach those customers who are unaware of your business, giving you the opportunity to present the solution to their problems with your product range. A virtual store allows you to reach out to an untapped market of new customers, increasing your customer base and improving your sales.

Still not convinced?

If you are still unsure whether introducing ecommerce into your business model will work, take a look at some of the very persuasive reasons below!

Open for business 24/7 – an ecommerce site gives you the ability to break out of constrictive “business hours” timescales. Since closing time doesn’t occur online your virtual store hours can be unlimited allowing your customers access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Reach customers across the globe – ecommerce opens up new ways for your business to reach international customers. Provided you have the capacity to meet international trading regulations and currency differences, an online store will give you unlimited global selling potential.

Increase your sales revenue – extending your physical store with ecommerce is an easy way to increase your sales revenue, potentially increasing company profits across the board. Expansion into an online marketplace opens up new selling opportunities for any business – old, new, niche or mass market.

Decrease your running costs – expanding your company online decreases the running costs of a business which are sometimes too expensive to justify. An ecommerce store runs with far less employees such as sales and customer service staff since your website does the selling for you!

Deliver information – your ecommerce store is an easy way for you to deliver key information about your company and your products. An online presence gives customers instant access to company details and product information allowing them to make quicker buying decisions. You can also run promotions online, reducing your overall marketing and advertising spend.

Combining the strength of your physical “bricks & mortar” shop with the incredible potential of an online presence spells long term success for your business. A large number of ecommerce solutions and platforms are available to suit every business, but the key to developing a strong online presence is to engage the services of a professional ecommerce web developer. Professional developers and agencies will recommend the ecommerce solution which is the perfect match to your business, allowing you to create a comprehensive shopping service for your current and future customers.

Introduction: A recent study reports that almost 40% of current Internet companies turn away international orders because they do not have processes or systems in place to fulfill the order or they don’t have idea of solutions for the challenges they are facing. Even though, Internet makes it possible for a company to sell their products in an international marketplace through online, many companies are not prepared to go global. In this article we will study the general challenges faced by a company in International ECommerce and solution for the same.

Major Challenges of International ECommerce:

Cross border orders & Global Shipping: Shipping is the key step in the International ECommerce Systems. Smaller products mean air transport is affordable but for larger merchandise the shipment through freight forwarder is feasible. The Ecommerce system should support both kinds of Shipment facilities.

Communication barriers: Another challenge in international eCommerce is developing websites without communication barrier. It should support international audiences, i.e. customers of each country. The websites should also provide interface for translation of one language into another that addresses the culture of the target region or area.

Import and Export Laws/ Tax System: Each country, province or county have their own law for Ecommerce trading and tax system. The eCommerce system should provide interface and facility for accommodating such region specific tax system and settings.

Internet Payment Systems & Security: The International payments are a major concern for the online customers. The eCommerce system should support International Payment System but through a secured channel for payments.

Marketing and Promotion of products: Many of the eCommerce System lacks the support for Marketing and promotion of products through the system.

Top 5 Challenges of ECommerce Websites: Don’t waste the customer’s time: Time is the most important commodity in online shopping. You want your customers to be able to find what they want and buy it as quickly as possible.

Lack of browser compatibility: While 80% of the market uses Microsoft Internet Explorer, failing to design your eCommerce site to work with other browsers is passing up a huge opportunity

Poor UI design of website: When a website is not well organized or looks unprofessional, many customers will immediately look elsewhere.

Poor customer service options: All eCommerce sites should make it easy to get questions about products and purchases answered.

Security concerns of customers: Many websites fail to recognize how apprehensive some shoppers are to enter their sensitive information into unknown eCommerce sites

Other Challenges: The other eCommerce challenges are low conversion rates of orders, high shopping cart abandonment rates, low average order sizes, high bounce rates and low return visitor rates.

Challenges addressed through Open Source ECommerce Systems: With some simple (and some not-so-simple) adjustments, an eCommerce site can improve its profitability significantly using the open source technologies and systems. The Open Source Ecommerce Software such as Grove Cart (from eGrove Systems Corporation), Prestashop, ZenCart and Magento supports different Shipping Gateways, Multi-lingual support and translation facilities as well as different currency support. Grove Cart, Magento, ZenCart also supports region based tax settings and different payment gateways such as PayPal, Authorize.net, Google Checkout, etc. The website security is addressed through the provision for transaction through the secured socket layer which most of the eCommerce systems have these facilities. Magento eCommerce systems provide interfaces for email marketing through the ecommerce website itself.

Grove Cart have the feature of one page checkout thus by saves buyer’s time and it also have the different browser compatibility. One of the most important features of Grove Cart is the vast gallery of templates that facilitates rich UI design options for companies.

Conclusion: We have in place system for International ECommerce solution using Open Source Technologies such as Grove Cart, Prestashop, Magento, ZenCart and Joomla – Virtue Mart Systems. In future, the growth of international eCommerce is likely to be explosive, as there are vast support from Open Source Communities and entities like eGrove Systems Corporation.