4 Business Benefits of a Hub-Spoke Integration Architecture
One of the fundamental decisions we made, while building the nChannel platform, was to use a hub-spoke architecture. We did so, because the list of technology benefits was significant. And, we chose to pass those benefits on to our customers, in the form of business benefits. The bottom line: hub-spoke architecture is simply an optimal way to build complex technology platforms.
Let’s take a look at hub-spoke architecture and the key business benefits it can bring to your business:
- Reduces the liability of scaling your business.
- Increases your business’s ability to adapt.
- Creates a “big picture” window into your business’s successes and struggles.
- Maximizes the return on your technology investments.
Operation Holidays 2014: 5 Tips to Increase Your Online Sales
This holiday season should be a big one for retailers. Deloitte anticipates that total holiday sales will increase somewhere between 4.0% and 4.5% over 2013, for total sales of $981 to $986 billion. Another recent projection from eMarketer–even better news for e-retailers–projects eCommerce growth for November and December at 16.6% this year to $72.4 billion, up from their estimate of 15.3% last year.
In their Seventh Annual Online Retail Holiday Readiness Report, IBM provides key metrics to convince sellers to sell online this year. Average order value (AOV) and items per order both rose to record over the past year. AOV in 2013 was $122.46 in December, a 13% increase from 2011.
Multiple sources are reporting promising numbers for this holiday season. It’s not too early to start prepping for the most wonderful time of year. (more…)
What We’re Reading: Predictions for Retailers, Avoiding Delivery Issues This Holiday Season, A New Channel for Home Goods
The retail world is in a constant state of change. Just as soon as you think you’ve got it down, something new pops up. We’re constantly bombarded with predictions and proclamations about how retail is changing. We’re being inundated with (often conflicting) advice about how to do it right. It isn’t easy to see the forest through the trees, but that’s what we’re here for.
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…)
The 5 Best Magento Extensions of 2014
“Magento” is more popular than the term “eCommerce”, and searched for twice as often as its competitor Shopify. Magento also powers more than 26 percent of all eCommerce sites in the Alexa top one million sites list. Magento is rapidly becoming the face of eCommerce, because of two reasons: it’s free and it’s open source. Like many open source platforms, the list of extensions can be overwhelming. So, we narrowed it down for you.
These are our top 5 Magento extensions to consider for your eCommerce business. (more…)