Renee Garner

How to Integrate Magento and Sage

(This post was last published on March 11, 2015. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)

Installing an ERP like Sage is a crucial step for growing online businesses. ERPs are necessary tools to help manage inventory, purchasing and financial reporting. Even though necessary, adding another system to your technology stack complicates your business processes.

Instead of just working out of your eCommerce system like Magento, you now must worry about sharing that same data from Magento to Sage and vice-versa. This often requires you to hand-key online orders, inventory counts and shipping/tracking data between the two. Even during normal selling times, manual data entry can take employees several hours daily, slow down processes, and be error-prone.

When considering implementing an ERP like Sage, it’s important to consider how it will integrate with Magento. Integration eliminates manual data entry to ensure operational efficiency and data integrity across your organization. This article will provide a quick comparison of Sage’s various products and the best way to integrate with Magento. (more…)

eBay Inventory Management: Manage Inventory Like a Pro

(This post was originally published on April 15, 2014. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)

When you sell one or two items around the house on eBay, inventory management isn’t an issue. You have one designer purse to sell. You list it. Now, you have no designer purses to sell.

But, if you’re using eBay as a sales channel for your business, managing inventory can get a lot more complicated.

In this post, we’ll dive into what those complexities are and how you can overcome them.

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Improve Customer Loyalty Using Shopify

Today, over 100,000 businesses use Shopify to power their online stores. Shopify has fine-tuned the process for selling online so much that opening a store is relatively quick and easy for almost anyone.

But, today’s demanding customer requires more than just a webstore. In order to build loyal customers to your Shopify store, you need to consider some new strategies.

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Many Online Shoppers Prefer Image-Based Search to Find Items

When I’m searching online for a specific item to buy and am presented a sea of ads and description results, I quickly turn to image search to hone in on the find. Like many other shoppers, I know exactly what I’m looking for, I just want the ability to see items so it’s easier and faster to click and buy.

An article on mycustomer.com explains how Google has revolutionized the way we search. Consumers now demand image-based search functionalities when shopping online (not just text-based search). In a survey of 1,000 consumers WeSee found that three quarters of consumers (74%) said traditional text-based keyword queries are inefficient in helping them find the right items online. Another 40% would like their online shopping experience to be more visual, image-based and intuitive. (more…)

eTailers Should Use Business Intelligence to Capture Market Share

Companies serious about selling and capturing market share should be using Business Intelligence (BI) solutions. Today only about 10% of total retail sales in the U.S. are conducted online.  That means there’s a lot of online retail real estate ready for the taking.  To capture this unclaimed market share, you need to have an in-depth knowledge of the market, consumers, their needs and expectations, the competition and your own capabilities.

Business intelligence is the solution to understanding your market, so that you can win. (more…)