Magento eCommerce Solution Process Flow

          From: eCommerce Solution Provider India

Business of Retailing

Retailing involves selling of individual units or small lots to large numbers of customers by a business set up for that specific purpose.  In most business activities retailing is extremely competitive and establishments are relatively high. The competition is more under price and it is mild somewhat by non-price forms as selection, display of merchandise, convenience of location and attractiveness of retail establishments. eCommerce solution provider companies in India advocates usage of online presence.

Retailing is one of the fastest growing segments of the economy. Retail industry also provides good business opportunities to people.  Mostly retailing involves buying merchandise or a service from manufacturer, agent or other retailer and selling it to consumers. The retail location includes visibility, affordability and lease terms

The following are principles of retailing that need to know:

Customer is the most important person in business:  Customer plays a key role in every successful retail operation. Customer is the main target to the retailers in every successful business. The retail business should be customer focused and has potential to make business success. Customer is the centre of business and everything we do should revolve around the customer. By focusing on customer, it will help in growing business and the team

Retail is detail:  This is one of the most important principles in retailing. The challenge should be “How to become more detailed and what detail we should focus on?” .Here we need complete details of what we are focusing on and to address and improve the understanding of customer. There will be mistakes in implementing but we should get better one from those mistakes. Understanding in detail is a key in retail

Understand the four P’s: this will help us understand overall foundations of retail business. The 4 P’s are Product, Price, Place, Promotion. These play a key role for successful retail business.

Product:  We need products that customers want to buy and that should satisfy customer’s needs and desires. Products must also deliver a profit to have successful business.

Price:  Price must be consistent in the marketing mix and meet the requirements for business. We need to price the product at accurate level so that customers will be able to buy products and to gain value from products. This also means pricing high or low which depends upon customer offering.

Place:  This decides the location for customers to purchase products it can be a physical store, an ecommerce website, a catalogue

Promotion:  Once if we have a product at right price, in a place where customer can access it. We need to tell them about this and promote the business and products. We have to make sure customers know that our products exist and are available for them anytime.

Customer service:  We need to provide good customer service that starts with understanding and knowing about the customer. To be successful we must deliver world class customer service. We should form a team and have to take extra time for customer in delivering more than expected.

eCommerce solution provider companies in India helps in managing all above parameters and factors in online solution.

10 major reasons for failure of online shopping in India

Online shopping is trending day by day in India by providing goods and services to the customers. India is the country where computer users are increasing so as the online shopping trends are also increasing. eCommerce solution provider India are also increasing at very high rate. Everyone wants to save money and time and online business offers both for users.

Online shopping has scope in India because it has begun in metro cities and targeted at youngsters. Also internet especially on mobile is available like never before. People are more concerned about the products that they buy and they can easily find and select items while sitting at home. But it is not growing in India at some level.

The following are the reasons for failure of online shopping in India:

India is a low credibility country: India is actually a low credibility country. We buy a five rupee pen without checking whether it is writing properly or not then how can we expect to buy costly items without seeing, touching and feeling it. This is the one of the reasons for being low in online sector.

Cost of customer acquisition is very high: Some of the online companies are spending money on TV advertisements when the customer is spending lot of time on internet. The money they are spending to make customer aware they exist. Normally an online company spends Rs.1000 to acquire a customer of Rs.400 but it is not really worth.

Logistics is a big pain: Cost of logistics is high in this country. People depend on logistic service providers. The problem begins based on the performance of service providers towards the customer.

Shopping in India is source of entertainment: when people go for shopping they window shop, they shop, they gossip and they walk. It is not an activity but they are having fun while shopping. But in online shopping the scenario is completely different.

COD rejection rate is high: No organization will accept the products if the customers don’t accept the orders placed by them but the market sources make it between 40-60% of price.

Poor product quality: Selling a low quality product is worse than selling an expensive product. Some online shopping sites are selling low quality products which reduce the traffic to the website.

Ineffective marketing: While hiring people they should choose who is experienced in the field of online marketing and also they should know the logics in implementing the ecommerce. Marketing is the effective tool for shopping sites.

Failing to change with times: The ability to recognize opportunities and responding to the changes is less. So many companies failed in developing new areas of expertise.

Vendor management: It is not possible to have everything in stock. Vendors in India will never be able to provide a synchronization system. And they will end up accepting order for items not in their inventory.

Underestimating the competition: Some business owners underestimate the reaction of the competition in their businesses. Any owner of existing business perceives a new entrant to the company will be taking away some of their customers. They could do this by introducing new products, improving product quality etc.  

Ref - eCommerce solution provider India

Why ecommerce is not popular in India?

eCommerce is currently in trend and reaching new heights everyday in India. The process of buying and selling products through the internet has become quite popular these days. Nowadays everyone is using eCommerce websites or online portals very efficiently and the websites are providing all goods and services according to the customer’s needs. Also it is more comfortable way of shopping. India is the second fastest growing economy in the world having great population and growing internet is high in India. The penetration of eCommerce is low in India compared to markets like the United States and the United Kingdom. eCommerce players are facing challenges due to some reasons. According to a recent survey conducted by DesiDime the following are the top 10 eCommerce websites in India.

1. Flipkart
2. eBay India 
3. Snapdeal 
4. Amazon India 
5. Myntra 
6. Shopclues
7. Dominos 
8. Freecharge
9. Jabong
10. Tradus 

Most of the websites are popular in India too. For example, irctc.com is the biggest success in ecommerce in India. It reduced the pain of an Indian. It has become easy to people to book tickets online.

The following are the reasons why eCommerce is not growing in India:

Logistics coordination: we cannot deliver everywhere all by ourselves. One day or the other we need to depend on the logistic service providers. The performance of service providers will determine the goodness that we create with the customer. Because of these barriers between the services providers and customers problems will arise.

Cash on delivery: Now this has become one of the good services for eCommerce companies in India. The logistic companies actually charge to collect cash on their behalf. They charge a huge amount depending on the provider, total items offered and also package value to use our cash. This totally degrades the unit of economics. 

Lost and damaged items: Business owners are not responsible for the lost and damaged goods which neither the service provider nor the customer will not be liable for. So, nobody will bear the burden of lost or damages inventory. This is risky when we are counting on low margins and huge volumes.

Marketing:  Marketing for an eCommerce company is a completely different game. It requires more of technical knowledge too. The best choice to keep someone who is experienced in the field of online marketing and also they should understand that it is not same as regular marketing. They need to know some tactics for getting traffic and sales on the site.

Vendor management: Every brand/manufacturer will have their own style of packing, billing and logistics. It is not possible to have everything in the stock. Vendors in India will never be able to provide a synchronization system. And they will end up accepting orders for items not in their inventory. So, lack of efficient vendor management is also one of the reasons.

Ref - eCommerce solution provider India

eCommerce myths busted

With the growth and popularity of internet over the years many e-commerce business solution have come in to market offering different products and services. For a normal person, the face of business is just a site which made them to presume is internet is an easy way to get going.

E-commerce website is the complete online business:

The most crucial misconception of many start-ups on e-commerce is that “setting up a good looking online portal with various products, shopping carts and payment options is the complete business”. However this is just a part of the online business process, many other internal processes should be setup for running a successful e-commerce business as detailed below.

1. Supply chain: A detailed plan on the flow of goods and services should be planned which involves product vendors, delivery management, financial transaction on the payments and settlements to vendors and payment receivables from customers. This also includes the plan for stock keeping models like Just in time etc.
2. Customer service: A well planned customer support should be established who should take care of the queries of customer and serve them better through all the channels over call centre, online chat and through social media.
3. Continuous research: Online business is very dynamic, business should offer customer specific, culture specific and regional specific services through thorough research. Offers like diwali specials, world cup special offers will help to boost the growth.
4. Be unique: Offer services which are unique to customers from your competitors like delivery on the same day, replacement offers etc.

Online payment is easy:

1. Online payment helps people to make transaction over various channels on the go after selection of products; however business should take utmost care on online payments as they tend to fall for online frauds like phishing etc.
2. Industry wide practices should be taken care on the payment gateway like ISO27001 certifications, PCI DSS compliance.
3. Transactions settlement: Business owners should have plan to keep their own payment gateway or outsources the same to payment processors and payment supply chain should be established (Banks – Customers – Business – Vendors).

Customers will automatically find our website for purchases:

1. One of the critical myths is that “customers will directly come to the site through search engines and visit the online store for purchases”. Similar to brick and mortar stores, marketing of the business should be performed, but in a different channel. “Web marketing” models should be initiated and some investment should be made to make the website reachable to customers like Google AdWords, advertisements in YouTube etc. A detail marketing plan is required to reach out the targeted customers like ad display though cookies etc.

Ref: eCommerce solution provider India

Important aspects that retailer should consider before going online

Online presence does help a lot to retailers. However there are few important aspects that retailer should consider before going online. Following are those important aspects.

Knowledge/expertise: knowledge and expertise about the product or service are keys to a successful business. In case of limited knowledge the retailer will be fooled by vendors, suppliers and competitors. They should have insights about the things they are providing. Also they should know about what they are going to do in their business and what are the goals and objectives of the business and how to implement.

Market/demand:  after getting an idea of what to do the next step is to explore market/demand for the product/service certain products are successful at international level whereas others will only have a domestic market for them. For this a market survey can be conducted to identify the market for the business. If product/service is expected to be sold locally, the demand for it needs to be assessed. For an international market rules and regulations for dealing internationally need to be found out.

Total project costs: it is important to assess the total project cost and to run the business. For the nature of retail we need to identify the cost of the store and furniture. In this the inventory which needs to be maintained is to be assessed and also for developing the website, shipping and billing is to be assessed initially.

Define the target audience: we need to focus on target audience and design everything from the website to marketing campaigns. Also make sure that we are targeting the right people by conducting survey such as questionnaires, speaking to customers through social media and holding focus groups. Involve target customers in the development of the business and continue to test. Consulting customers will also make us feel like they will reed loyalty and increase the likelihood of them by recommending to others.

Competition: before going online, information about market competition needs to be found out. In case a product is a monopoly then the competition will not matter. Otherwise the success of the business will depend upon the demand and supply gap. Always we need to be stronger than the competitors to gain an entry. Also we should know that who are the competitors, what is their market strategy and what factors are required to compete with them are important.

Staff/manpower: every business requires efficient manpower to succeed. The staff needs to be carefully chosen since they are the one who could make business. Also they should hire who have the technical skills for developing the website with good themes and designs and upgrading it with new features.

By: eCommerce solution provider India

mCommerce - new way of online shopping

Mobile use is increasing exponentially which has given a boost to mCommerce. mCommerce is trending and growing at very rapid speed. However this faces few challenges.This video discusses those challenges and issues. Following are the topics of this video.

1. What is mCommerce
2. mCommerce flow
3. Pros of mCommerce
4. Cons of mCommerce
5. Challenges of mCommerce
6. Issues of mCommerce

References:

1. Presentation - http://www.slideshare.net/ifourvineela/challenges-and-issues-of-mcommerce-ecommerce-solution-provider
2. eCommerce solution provider India

How to market an eCommerce website?

Owning an eCommerce website is not enough. One should market the eCommerce website online to have enough visitors and traffic to your website. eCommerce solution provider India boasts following ways of online marketing for eCommerce and online shopping websites to attract relevant and meaningful traffic to your website.

Social media: This plays a key role in getting traffic to the website. No need to spend hours on each day in order to promote your business via social media. Some of the best campaigns are executed in an hour each day. First we have to select the platforms for eCommerce business such as Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter. 

It should contain the industry related news and trends about the website. One should share the links of the website and feature specific products. If we share the links and products in every status update or tweet, it won’t be hard to get traffic and interaction with people, which is the ultimate goal of social media.

PPC: PPC stands for Pay Per Click. There are lots of different components involved in PPC from search network advertising to retargeting through Google product listing ads (PLA’s). This is really good way to advertise an eCommerce website in a sustainable, profitable manner. Before clicking on PLA’s they can see a picture of the item, name of the merchant and the price.

Retargeting is becoming increasingly popular. Why you’re bombarded with display network ads for website that you have previously visited. It is because of retargeting. It is difficult to set up retargeting campaigns, but there are other tools which make it easy to get started. Other than these we should go beyond Google AdWords and look at other PPC networks to market on.

Multichannel selling: This is really easy way to market ecommerce websites without spending a lot of money is to sell on multiple channels. Take advantage of platforms like Amazon marketplace and eBay which includes a business card and promotional flyer with the items you dispatch. We can poach customers from these big marketplaces has to be one of the main reasons of multichannel selling. It is sustainable, profitable and a great way to pull in new customers with minimal effort.

Mobile advertising: A large number of mobile store owners will also start advertising their products and services on mobiles. It is getting popular day by day and branded ecommerce store owners are going to be big spenders on mobile ads. Larger stores will make an attempt to get reach as many mobile users as possible. Also there will be rise in video mobile ads that have the potential which go viral on social networks.

eCommerce solution provider India: It is also a good idea to consult an eCommerce solution providers who can guide through the complete process. Years of experience and skills can help you market your website quick and safely.

Transition from eCommerce to mCommerce

There is a debate and discussion on how eCommerce to mCommerce transition is happening. Accordingly, mCommerce is revolutionizing however there are areas where eCommerce is still prevailing and would continue to prevail. 

• Discussion - transition from eCommerce to mcommerce

Sources:

• Presentation - Transition from eCommerce to mCommerce
• Reference - eCommerce solution provider India

Presentation covers following points

• What is eCommerce
• What is mCommerce
• Advantages and disadvantages of eCommerce
• Critical analysis of mCommerce
• Transition from eCommerce to mCommerce and its trend

Rise of eCommerce and online shopping

eCommerce is basically buying and selling products online. It also refers to the selling of services where payments for the services are made online. It involves the transfer of information across the internet. It includes different types of businesses, from customer based retail sites to auction or music sites, business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time and distance.

eCommerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this speed. B2B refers to electronic commerce between businesses rather than business and a customer. eCommerce is often faster, cheaper and more convenient than other methods of providing goods and services. eCommerce is subdivided into three categories:

•          Business to business (B2B)
•          Business to consumer (B2C)
•          Consumer to consumer (C2C)

B2B often deals with hundreds and thousands of other businesses. By carrying out these transactions electronically provides a vast competitive advantage.

The following are the top eCommerce sites in India

•          Flipkart
•          Snapdeal
•          Yebhi
•          eBay
•          Myntra
•          Shopclues
•          Jabong
•          Homeshop18
•          Tradus
•          Fashionandyou

Benefits of eCommerce include

·         Global marketplace

·         24*7 trading

·         Pricing opportunities

·         Speed

·         Less paper work

Online shopping

Nowadays online shopping is trending everywhere in India. Online shopping is easy, quick and convenient. Before ordering items we have to consider things like latest security software, web browsers and operating system.

The consumer can buy the product rapidly by doing some clicks from home. It saves the time and energy from going larger distances, also there is no time limit to place an order, the consumer can place an order at any time.

Credit card is the good payment option because they allow buyers to seek a credit from the issuer if the product is not delivered. Also credit cards may have a limit on the monetary amount, the customer will be responsible for paying if the information is stolen and used by someone else. Before providing personal or financial information we need to be careful and also check for the website’s privacy policy.

The system should be clean and it should be protected from viruses, malware and other online threats. We would discuss various topics related to eCommerce and related aspects in this blog.

By : eCommerce solution provider India