Emerging Mobile Commerce Trends for Multichannel Retailers
When considering a multichannel selling strategy, mobile commerce should be at the top of your list. Retailers originally envisioned consumers researching products on mobile and then completing purchases on desktops; however, the data shows that consumers are proving retailers otherwise.
In the U.S., 166 million people owned smartphones by the end of March and eMarketer expects the number of tablets users to grow to 147.2 million by the end of 2014. As smartphone and tablet use steadily increases, it is no surprise that customers are turning to mobile as a preferred channel for online shopping; not just an important aid when shopping in-store.
Customers continue to demand more out of mobile, especially as technology further develops. Many of the top retailers have developed an m-commerce strategy as a competitive advantage and are quickly seeing the profit from doing so. (more…)
Vertically Integrated Commerce: Battling the Disruption
Two years ago, venture capitalist Boris Wertz wrote about vertical integration as the next big thing in commerce. Today, his words are proving true. Commerce brands like Frank & Oak, Bonobos, and ShoeDazzle (the list goes on) are disrupting how we buy merchandise online. Each one can offer customer experiences and prices that most traditional retailers cannot. They do it by building their entire supply chains, on their own.
For more traditional retailers, this disruption is intimidating. You may even be losing business to one or more vertically integrated commerce brands. You may be wondering how you could possibly compete. Rest assured, this disruption doesn’t mean you need to turn your commerce business upside down.
The more traditional retail model still works. You can still be immensely successful selling through your own website, sourcing from suppliers, using marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, and shaking a new customer’s hand in your brick and mortar store. But, to be successful in the modern commerce world, you’ll need to adopt some new strategies.
What to do now that Magento Go is shutting down
Magento Go is shutting its doors come February 1st, 2015 and, like others, you’re struggling to figure out what to do. To help ease this transition, this blog post will be about the steps you need to take to successfully transition from Magento Go.
While everyone’s transition is going to be different based on your eCommerce platform, the size of your business, and the extent of the remodeling you want to do, this can serve as an over-arching view of the process.
The best Magento Go alternatives for your eCommerce transition
image via Magento Go
Magento Go is shutting down, and everyone on it has until February 1st, 2015 to choose a new eCommerce platform. In order to ease this transition, listed below are nChannel’s top four Magento Go alternatives. While you may be looking for the “best” eCommerce platform, each platform has it’s strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately, the best eCommerce solution is determined by your needs.
10 Key Considerations when Evaluating a Multichannel Platform
nChannel Multichannel Platform
If you are employing a multichannel sales strategy, there’s no doubt you’ve experienced integration challenges. While multichannel increases revenue and attracts more customers due to increased choice and convenience, both B2B and B2C industry leaders are engaging in integration strategies to eliminate the complexity of multiple business processes shared between multiple systems. But the challenge of choosing an effective, long-term integration solution still remains.
What I’ve learned from researching this issue is that in a little less than 10 years ago, comprehensive, off-the-shelf solutions that managed or automated technology retail operations were hard to come by. Companies who could afford the tools invested in many different bespoke systems (custom made to task specification) and created their own DIY eCommerce platforms consisting of a patchwork of unwieldy and cumbersome disparate systems. Despite giving companies an online presence, these first-generation platforms have some serious issues and required a lot of time and money to operate and maintain. (more…)
