Go Online with an Integrated eCommerce Solution

Go Online with an Integrated eCommerce Solution

eCommerce portals are now a mainstream channel of sales for retail interactions offering new opportunities to augment revenue and get closer to customers. They act as important retail touch point to connect with business associates and customers’ to build a steady stream of revenue. In this issue of Retail insights we discuss the features that an Integrated eCommerce solution must have to suffice the demands of modern retail.Magazine

Traditional portal platforms come with a generic and loosely coupled integration with the retail ecosystem. A consulting engagement or a large development project is required to complete the integration. These and such projects often end up as a heap of functionality that is difficult to deploy and use.

On the other hand iVend eCommerce, an integral part of iVend Retail Management Suite reduces the need for a lengthy consulting engagement, allowing a retail enterprise to deliver results faster.

iVend eCommerce therefore significantly reduces the time to Market.

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Ease of Master Data Management in iVend eCommerce

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iVend eCommerce is the integrated eCommerce portal of iVend Retail Management Suite. Notwithstanding the business benefits of an integrated eCommerce portal, iVend eCommerce also extends a high level of convenience to the retailer – more from the view point of master data management. The fundamental and the most basic expectation from an integrated eCommerce portal is to not only have the transactions integrated, but also to have a common repository of the master data.

Master Data Management in the context of an eCommerce portal plays an important role in establishing a successful online business. One of the major aspects of master data management is the ability of the application suite to allow users a single application interface from where the entire master data can be managed. Specifically, we are referring to item master, their associated images, price lists, special price lists, gift cards, coupons, etc. In an integrated retail application like iVend Retail Management Suite, iVend Enterprise is the central repository of the entire master data. The configuration settings available in iVend Enterprise make it possible to either share the entire master data across the retail network or make it store or eCommerce specific.

Definition and management of images determine the aesthetics and usability of an eCommerce portal.Ease of master data management in iVend eCommerce_200X200 Since the customer does not have the option of physically feeling the products, the closest an online retailer can come is to show multiple different images and profiles of the product. Moreover a product can either be displayed on the home page or the entity page or on the product page or any other location on the eCommerce portal. The size of the image at all these locations is always different. Given the different locations (on the portal) and the image sizes, managing images can be a nearly impossible task.

iVend eCommerce resizes images automatically depending on the location (on the portal) where all the image is to be displayed. It is the same image that can be shown on the home page, entity page, product page, in the shopping cart, in the order confirmation page, etc. This feature significantly reduces the overhead of master data management for images.

Not only the images, iVend eCommerce being integrated to iVend Enterprise allows seamless integration of gift cards, coupons and loyalty cards between the two applications. Similarly price lists can be made specific to iVend eCommerce.

There are many more such features in iVend eCommerce that reduce the need to duplicate master data once it is entered in one of the integrated applications of iVend Retail Management Suite.

To know more about master data management in iVend eCommerce, please visit www.iVend.com or write to us at [email protected]

Content Management in iVend eCommerce

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Success of an eCommerce platform largely depends on its aesthetics, ease of use and most importantly the content management module. Content is closely tied to all of the processes such as display, order management, inventory, promotions etc. and so content management plays a fundamental role in Internet-based commerce.

The ability to easily update, add to and manage an eCommerce online store is a necessity for a successful and profitableeCommerce_Blog_200x200website. Content management system in iVend eCommerce allows users to not only manage products and orders, but customers, promotions, newsletters and much more. An integrated content management system puts a retailer in direct control of his eCommerce content. Intuitive functionality and modules in iVend eCommerce empowers Retailers’ without extensive programming experience to easily update and modify their portal without unintentionally affecting the overall design of a site. The portal comes with a mobile responsive skin and with the right customization from designers and developers, a user can maintain his webstore without ever writing a line of code.

iVend eCommerce allows administrators to make changes in real time, as a result, retailers have robust B2B or B2C capabilities, with personalization, and content-driven site much more quickly. iVend eCommerce has a content manager that includes the functionality for scheduling content and multi-level administrative privileges for different users, allowing retailer to customize the system based product release calendar and staff roles. User-friendly formatting, with clear fields for Meta summaries and titles in iVend eCommerce, makes it easier to optimize content for search engines.

With options for multilingual sites available, content manager in iVend eCommerce aids in reaching an international audience. iVend eCommerce has a Responsive design making it simple to create sites that users can view on any device irrespective of the screen size they view it on. Content manager in iVend eCommerce systems increases your ability to reach your full customer base with integrated Shipping and Payments.

For more features of iVend eCommerce Content manager and more log on to www.iVend.com or write to us at [email protected]

Infographic – Global eCommerce sales and trends

Multichannel transformation requires adoption of technology that dissolves the boundaries that create an operational divide across various retail touch points. As retailers continue to see rapid shifts in customer demands, competitors’ capabilities and available technologies, the pressure for Multi-channel transformation has reached a tipping point.
Retailers are investing, but it is of prime importance for them to know which capabilities are most important.
The infographic below highlights the new phenomenon observed in Retail indicating that almost one-third of the shoppers of the top 10 retailers whether big or small use smartphones and tablets to make purchases. In a recent event  India’s biggest online retailer Flipkart took just 10 hours to hit its target of $100 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), or the value of goods sold, , when it hosted its Big Billion Day sale

The mobile commerce trend is now picking momentum and empowering customers to engage more with retail sites, apps and transact easily. This calls for retailers to adapt to this ever-changing landscape if they wish to succeed in this realm.

Infographic - Global eCommerce sales and trends

Mobile Responsive: Future of Online Retail

Mobile Responsive: Future of Online Retail

Mobile Responsive Web design is a new design approach that enables retailers to build and maintain a single online shopping portal to serve to all kinds of customers on all sorts of Mobile devices: smartphones, tablets, laptops and more.

Mobile adoption is skyrocketing, as is the diversity of mobile devices on the market. Smartphones and tablets are currently leading multi-screen customer experiences. Today’s multi-device environment is bolstering mindshare and profile for responsive design because it offers a compelling promise to both website visitors and to those who build the Web: a single eCommerce portal that works on all devices.

iVend eCommerce portal’s new mobile responsive skin demonstrates that something as complex as shopping online for any commodity whether it is apparel, sports gear, footwear or car accessories or jewelry – can be easy, intuitive and secure on a mobile responsive site.

With Mobile responsive shopping portals, retail businesses can be in front of consumers at every step of their online Mobile Responsive-Future of Online Retail 2journey. Customers search for a business’ site, begin reading content and viewing videos from their desktop computers and then continue their shopping journey on their smartphones into products and services.

In contrast, if the retailer has a traditional, non mobile responsive website, the retailer runs a heavy risk of frustrating potential customers visiting the website from a smartphone due to the cramped interface appearing on the devices – eventually losing revenue.

iVend eCommerce, a mobile responsive shopping portal provides continuity between different viewing contexts, remaining completely agnostic to the type of device used and the size of the screen being viewed. This means that the same portal will present an optimized layout regardless of which device it finds itself being loaded in.

Consumers are increasingly wanting to share the purchases and their shopping experience in their social circle. New research indicates that more than 75% of consumers trust peer recommendations of products and services, while less than 15% trust paid advertising. iVend eCommerce gives retailers an opportunity to tap into this trusted form of communication to market their Brand and through a mobile responsive platform becomes a lot more easier.

e-commerce business is huge, it is therefore important for a retailer to think beyond immediate network and find creative ways to encourage fans to spread the message about the brand and a mobile responsive portal eases the task.

One thing is certain, that a mobile responsive eCommerce portal is the only durable, flexible and future-proof approach to building Online retail stores for today’s multi-channel retail landscape. A retailer who doesn’t want to lag behind and watch competitors go ahead must focus to get responsive with iVend eCommerce now.

What can Retail Integrated Ecommerce do for your SME’s

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These days, the whole world is online and e-commerce is changing the way that SMEs do business. Making use of efficient and effective retail integrated e-commerce models, you can significantly grow your business into something more successful than you could have ever imagined. Here we will take a look at just four of the many ways that integrating e-commerce into your retail enterprise can be to your benefit.

Benefits of Retail Integrated E-Commerce

1. Attract New Business

Gone are the days when small businesses had to hope for passerby’s to notice their boutique or rely upon word of mouth in order to make sales. In the online world, it has never been easier to attract consumers through successful keyword optimization strategies. Because every single one of your products, categories, departments, etc. can have their own customized search engine meta tags (ie: titles, keywords, descriptions), your business is far more likely to show up in your potential customer’s search results and capture their attention. With integrated e-commerce programs you can also monitor which key words seem to be drawing in the most clientele so that you can maximize the usage of those tags.

2. Keep Customers Coming Back

Once you have attracted customers to your page, it is important that you keep them browsing through your products and returning for more. The beauty of retail integrated e-commerce is that it simplifies the process of keeping consumer’s attention. By utilizing features and coding that suggest related or alternate products, product upgrades or add-ons, verbiage like “Customers who bought A also bought B”, customer ratings, ads for coupons and special offers, etc. are all great ways to keep consumers browsing through your online store. It’s also a smart idea to allow customers to obtain “e-coupons” that can be utilized within your actual retail location via their smart phone or tablet.

3. Operate in “Real Time”iVend eCommerce Banner

In this fast-paced society, your consumers expect quick transactions and real time operation. By integrating e-commerce models into your retail business you can instantly make updates to your product inventory, descriptions, availability, and prices. Not only is this ideal for making online sales, but it also plays a huge role in your ability to make on-site sales at your physical retail location. 73 percent of consumers have admitted to utilizing their smart phones or tablets while shopping and 47 percent of these use them to more closely investigate a product prior to purchase. More surprising is that 93 percent of those people who utilize apps in store will make a purchase on-site, the same day. These figures make it clear that quick and accurate product updates and descriptions are critical to making sales.

4. Understand Your Customers

One of the greatest attributes of retail integrated e-commerce is that it enables you to continuously get to know your customers better. Each time your consumers log into your website, you will get a better picture of what it is that they are interested in and how to better meet their needs. By “remembering” previously viewed or purchased products, your online system can present buyers with customized suggestions and offers that will yield a higher response rate – leaving both your business and your customers satisfied. Online purchases and in-store purchases can also be integrated through web based customer loyalty programs that will enable your buyers to accumulate points that lead to further savings by making purchases either on the internet or at your physical location. By being able to access their loyalty points through mobile apps, your consumers will also be more likely to spend more while visiting your store.

For details on Integrated Retail solutions and how can it help your business write to us on [email protected]

How integrated eCommerce application can help you expand?

When it comes to the world of Retail business, it is important to have all of your services integrated. This way, it is easier to recall information, send out data or perform other iVend eCommercenecessary tasks and virtual management of entire business. This is true when it comes to sales, as it is the driving point behind expansion and every other service imaginable inside your Organization. An integrated e-commerce application is capable of helping you expand not only through the in person retail store, but also over the Internet. This way, it is far easier for you to reach new customers, all through the help of the integrated e-commerce application. This ties up the in person, mobile and Internet based selling points together, so no longer do you need to log on and search through different accounts in order to see what sales were made where, but also to see where these sales are proving most profitable. All of this information is there to help you run your businesses easier, giving you more time to focus on expanding the company to fulfill the needs of more clients and customers.

For growth of your Retail business, you need to take advantage of every available selling point. If you don’t, you are reducing what your company is able to be and eventually just going to suffer setbacks to your competition. Due to this, you need to always push your company in every possible angle, but also utilize the easiest possible method available to you. If you don’t, you’re going to find it is rather difficult to survive, regardless of what the economy is doing and what you need to do to sell your product. E-commerce allows you to reach more people through the Internet, and with this Internet connection you can drastically improve your sales, but it all starts with integration and how it works with your business.

For any retail enterprise, the e-commerce service must work hand in hand with the in-store sales operations. This means, everyone is able to access the same information, the same content at any given time. This way, it is possible to increase and improve sales, as the system gives precise information and retailers have complete control on store inventory & merchandise management. It also works to benefit the customer also.

Integrated loyalty and customer rewards program ease the process of reward accumulation & redemption at online as well as physical store. This keeps their account up to date and allows them to earn points and rewards faster, which drives them to increase their basket size and come back to your store for a repeat purchase. This leads to overall growth and helps you expand faster.

Reaching more customers is the key towards expansion, and it all begins and ends with the Internet. Although selling in person products is important, selling online is essential, as it opens up your business to millions of users with no geographical boundaries. The e-commerce application integrated into the company allows you to track clients online, what they are buying from you and what is selling faster during the given year. All of this allows you to provide your clients with similar information and material they might find useful. The more items they see the more they buy, and the faster you’ll expand your company.

Benefits of eCommerce for Small & Medium Retail

Integrated retail systems are hugely important for your small business if you want to stand the test of time in this ever expanding digital world. Having an eCommerce Go Onlinesystem for your company will open up new sales avenues and can drastically increase your exposure. Not only could an eCommerce systems increase the overall performance of your business, but they could also positively aid the efficiency and and profitability of your business by making the operational processes much easier.

Integrated promotions-

Integrated Point of Service (POS) application can be a very effective tool when dealing with eCommerce. A good application will be able to customize to your own specific requirements. When sales are generated the checkout application will automatically create your receipts, remind discounts, list available promotional offers and assist user to complete a transaction.

You could also configure the system itself so that your company logo or graphics are displayed when the automatic receipts are emailed to the buyer. This can drastically increase your overall look of professionalism and could increase customer engagement.

Integrated Loyalty solutions

Loyalty redemption is an excellent way of retaining customers and getting them back to store whether online or offline for repeat business. eCommerce systems allow you to have greater control over these programs. You could have special days and discounts; for example you could set the system to allow customers to have greater discounts during the holiday period, or on their birthday.

Integrated Loyalty point redemption with an eCommerce application is great way to engage shoppers and make sure that they do not wander and continue to stay loyally tied up with your Brand.

Taking Other Avenues

Business is always competitive. In order for your small business to stay in the game and be ahead of your competition you should always be looking to utilize new avenues when it comes to; promotion, getting new customers, and re-selling to old customers. Multi-channel retailing is a great way to achieve this.

By using eCommerce you may be able to aid sales when it comes to mCommerce, mobile marketing, telephone ordering and other forms of multi-channel retailing. This is because you will be able to collect crucial details about your clients. For example you could:

  • Collect and opt-in email address to send out newsletters and offers.
  • You could ask customers for their address and phone number.
  • You could provide telephone details for people who would rather conduct business over the phone.

By using all of the multi-channel retailing methods you may be able to drastically increase the overall success of your business.

Other Benefits of eCommerce

Small businesses that are online have unlimited possibilities. Analytics is one of the most recent innovations in the retail sector. It allows you to view valuable statistics from not only customers, but visitors to your website. This means that you will be able to pinpoint flaws in your business. For example, if a large number of people are leaving on a certain website page then analytics will show you that information; or it could show you information about where your main bulk of visitors are from. This information can be very valuable and could help you to make decisions that could drastically increase the success of your company.

 

 

Electronics Vertical – Evolve to Expand

Consumer electronics globally has out performed all other industry verticals and has been resilient to the downturn of economy. Dynamism is inherently associated to this Electronics Vertical - Evolve to Expandvertical and managing a Consumer electronics Retail Store is a challenging task. More so because people visiting electronics store, walk in to Experience the Best in technology and feel its pulse.

Store formats in this vertical are variable with no limitations to size or range. One may see an e-store, mobile store, or large multilevel electronics and appliance superstores with elaborate displays and self-service Kiosks. But at all the places the one sentiment that electronics retailers share in common is that meeting customer expectations is a daunting task with a bigger challenge being efficient utilization of resources & retail space. Retailers strive hard to provide the right product mix to their customers in a constantly transitioning landscape of new product launches, models, and configuration.

It is therefore mandatory for these Retailers to strategically integrate their operations to differentiate themselves on high customer service levels while maintaining firm control of inventory at store and back office warehouse

Thousands of stores in over 45+ countries are running iVend Retail from CitiXsys Technologies and are more profitable and efficient. CitiXsys Technologies has a strong focus on Retail, Warehouse, and Inventory management offering innovative software solutions to its customers globally.

Enhancing modern retail industry experience, iVend Retail is a fully integrated, comprehensive Retail management solution to manage Head office and In-Store processes. iVend Loyalty, iVend eCommerce, iVend Mobility and  iVend Analytics are a few integrated modules making iVend the right choice for modern retailers of any size.

iVend eCommerce is an eCommerce and mCommerce solution that allows retailers to sell efficiently into multiple channels, all from one integrated system. With its seamless integration with iVend Retail, shoppers can conduct their business on the web in the same way as is done at the physical store – imparting customers a unified experience – where they have access to all products, images, virtual studios, promotions and schemes.

This application is not limited to retail and can be extensively used in industries like manufacturing, for listing their products and services on-line on the Internet

With 24X7 accessibility buyers can choose the buy products anytime, anywhere and retailers can sell their products to achieve the higher ROI. Our reporting tools are very comprehensive and allow you to see exactly what has sold where so you can make adjustments to maximize your sales and minimize your overheads.

An increasing number of leading retailers across the globe operating iVend Retail have realized significant business improvements and service differentiation. iVend Retail seamlessly integrates Head office functionality and In-Store functions efficiently into a unified organizational system with the backend ERP delivering better business results.

iVend Retail offers view of inventory across all stores enabling store managers and merchandize planners at the head office to have complete control over organizational inventory stock levels. Special orders with integrated shipping is available at all customer touch pints whether store or online. This allows better customer service right from Point of Sale by enabling product not in store stock to be drawn and shipped from the warehouse or to be delivered from another store

While buying electronics more and more consumers are using smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to make purchases, find coupons and learn where they can get the best deals. iVend Retail mobile solution helps shoppers browse e-store using their smartphones with comparative pricing features. Retailers using iVend find an effective way to leave a positive impression among customers and take advantage of this technology to Click Sales..

Retailing to e-tailing

Retailing has a long history, dating back to medieval traders and merchants. Since hundreds of years, retailers existed in defined geographies, with limited access to customer eCommerceneeds &  their shopping behavior with merchandise often limited to a single product category. All of that changed with the industrial revolution. With average incomes rising, markets emerged at a steady pace, and so did the consumer’s craving for consumer products.  This led to the rise of modern retailing with subsequent evolution of various channels of distribution, customer communication and transaction.

Modern retailing has rocketed with introduction of internet & mobility leading to wide acceptance of eCommerce & mCommerce platforms which in turn emerge as one of the fastest growing industries in world with likes of Amazon, eBay etc…  By 2020, online sales are projected to be USD500 billion or 20 percent of nonfood retail sales. For many types of retailers, the percent-to-total sales could even be higher, as eCommerce growth continues to significantly complement overall retail sales growth. Much of this will be fueled by the accelerating use of mobile platforms for shopping online.

Forward looking retailers have started integrating their brick-and-mortar stores with integrated Web stores to penetrate deeper into the market & boost their sales productivity. With Integrated eCommerce solution retailers no longer struggle to redefine the role of the store in a multichannel, millennial-led world.  They see Webstores as extended medium of their traditional store and want their customers to shop there with same ease & comfort.

With iVend Retail Management Suite retailers can successfully engage consumers wherever it makes sense in order to make it convenient for them to shop. Integrated eCommerce, Loyalty application and intelligent displays integrated with mobile devices can offer customers a satisfying multichannel experience that keeps them engaged. It is clear that all retailers need to aggressively embrace customer-shopping platforms of all types unless they find a way to create a differentiating value proposition that exploits the physical store advantages in a more compelling way.

For more details contact a CitiXsys representative in your region or mail us on [email protected]