subject: Gear Up For New Ecommerce Opportunities [print this page] Experts say that the recession-draught will be over sooner that expected. In fact, we see signs of a recovering market with financiers opening doors for new investments. Top market-research farms equivocally predicted that retail sell will be up by at least 35% by mid-year 2010 and by year end, it should go beyond 55%.
So, if youre a retailer, are you ready for the new wave? Do you have enough resources (which you might have shredded during those tough days!) to counter an increasing rush of orders? Are you thinking beyond your retail store?
Think for a while how will you harness the growth to derive the best benefits? Of course, you have your retail store! With a better market condition your customers will surely walk into your store. However, the real problem is awareness. To bring new customers to your store or to simply sell your products you will have to make the information about your products readily available to your customers. The best way to do that is through your online storefront.
So, if you already have an online storefront powered by a good shopping cart software, its the time to refurbish it for new customers; else, you should start planning to get one. An integrated ecommerce store is the answer to reach those customers beyond your physical store. However, before you chose your shopping cart, you should consider the following:
If you are using a POS (point of sale) system like Microsoft Retail Management Systems to run your store, you may want to integrate it with your shopping cart. So, your shopping cart should provide the option to integrate Microsoft Retail Management Systems or any other POS system.
Your customers are from different states or countries. So, your shopping cart should support multiple tax and shipping options.
You may need to display your products in different categories, departments and so on. The online storefront should support so.
Your customers will look for discounts, freebies, related-products while shopping in your online storefront.
The ecommerce software solution should have a robust content management system so that you can avail your customers with the maximum possible information about your products.
Finally, the ecommerce software solution provider should ensure that you can avail any customization at a reasonable cost.
The competition in the market is going to be fierce; at the same time, you will get a greater customer-base with potentiality to buy products. As a retailer, you will need to provide your customers with the right product at the right time. The key to success will be to make your products so popular that even if a customer walks into your store he/she will already know what to buy. Nothing but a completely customized and integrated ecommerce store can make this possible for you.
