Considering an e-commerce solution? Great idea! While setting up an e-commerce store is now incredibly easy, and many small businesses opt to set up their online stores on their own, larger businesses that want to offer their customers an omnichannel retail experience often prefer to partner with an ecommerce solution provider to ensure that their online store works flawlessly and integrates smoothly with their brick-and-mortar operations. Before you decide which is the best e-commerce solution for your business, here are 5 considerations that will help you get clarity, be prepared for the implementation process, and end up with a rewarding e-commerce site.
1. Master Data Preparation
Businesses, when built on strong foundations, seldom see decline, and the same is true for your e-commerce store. Preparing the product master data is the first step towards setting up your eCommerce site. The product master data includes data such as product category, profile, description, specifications, high resolution images and videos. Incomplete information negatively impacts the customer experience in your e-commerce store and leads to lower sales, so be prepared to invest time and work closely with your e-commerce solution implementation company to provide this data.
2. Suitable Solution and Experienced Implementation Partner
Choosing the right implementation partner is as important as finding the right solution for your business. Sometimes the partnership is comparable to marriage. While selecting a suitable retail e-commerce solution is the first step, engaging with an experienced ecommerce solution provider goes a long way in successful implementation. Many projects fail or have cost overruns not because of the solution but because of the way it was implemented.3. eCommerce platform vs Native Development
One of the biggest dilemmas faced by retail businesses that are embarking on eCommerce implementation is whether to go for an existing packaged eCommerce portal solution like WooCommerce or Magento, or to opt for a bespoke development of the online catalog, shopping cart, and ordering and delivery solution. The following criteria can be looked ateCommerce platform VS Native Development
- Merchandise and Assortment Complexity: the depth of the product categories and their relationships
- Ordering and Delivery Features: Whether the solution supports direct purchases, reseller sales, aggregations, and BOPIS (Buy Online and Pickup In Store)
- Integration Requirements: Delivery partner integrations, payment gateways supported, analytics, CRM solutions
- Budget and Time to Deliver: If you want to quickly get started with your e-commerce store and build on the same in an iterative manner, then packaged solutions would be a good choice
- IT Development Partner: The skill sets of your IT partner also has to be weighed before deciding
Payment Modes, Gateways and Wallets
4. Payment Modes, Gateways & Wallets
The online payment modes have increased in the recent past, going beyond the traditional Credit Card. There are multiple gateways and aggregators to choose from. Some of them are the offshoots of banks and others are pure play tech companies. These payment gateways provide a multitude of options from cards, net banking, and e-wallets to coupons. Online shoppers are used to having a variety of payment options to choose from, and different customers have different preferences when it comes to payment modes, so make sure you don’t compromise on the payment options in your e-commerce store.5. Digital Marketing and SEO
Setting up your online retail e-commerce site is very much akin to the opening of your physical brick and mortar shop and is therefore not sufficient to start attracting customers. You need to aggressively promote your online presence by applying digital/social marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies. Let’s just say, social media engagement is like fodder to your retail business. Moreover, the content on your retail e-commerce site should be searchable, easily accessible to your target audience across a variety of devices, and stand out from the millions of e-commerce sites on the world wide web when your ideal customer gets online and looks for the kind of products you offer. This is an often-ignored area that you need to pay attention to, and you can check with your ecommerce solution provider what kind of support they provide in this area.Digital Marketing and SEO
Keeping these pointers in mind will help you reach out to your customers in a more impactful manner and take you closer to your desired outcome. Posibolt provides a variety of end-to-end solution and implementation services, all leading to successful e-commerce implementations.
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