Help! my e-commerce system is such a pain.

Here are the common e-business pains (with solutions), best practices and things to look out for what maintaining and choosing your E-commerce system. This post deals with the the operator / business side. The next post will address the pains and solutions from your customer's view point.

1. "Keeping my products consistently up-to-date is draining my resources and time."
   
   Solution: Integrate your accounting package and online store together. Thereby, maintaining one centralised hub for your product information. Integration done properly, will mean when you update or add a product in your accounting package or ERP, it will immediately show in your online store. Best Practice Tip: Always ensure your site has great product content i.e. descriptions, multiple images and related product information. (again, ask your integration specialist to link your products with their related products from inside your accounting package or ERP.)


2. My ordering process is a mess! Managing the order process, getting orders processed and shipped out is an area that needs serious consideration. Pushing the orders through the pipeline and then maintaining proper order status is another pinch for operators.
   
   Solution: 360 degree integration plays a massive role here. Integrate your products, payment gateways, shipping providers properly and the order flow will become tight, clear and, the goal of goals, error free. Again, when you are integrating your payment gateway from your store to your ERP, then make sure each order's status is sent back to the website for when the client logs in.
   
   Best Practice Tip: Sit down and map out your order flow. e.g.
   
   
   


3. Customer support. My office is inundated with follow-up and website related calls. I just want to do business.
   
   Solution: The solution here begins at the beginning. Choosing your storefront. Your store should make it simple to edit product/site content, provide accurate order status (see best practice tip above), and customer account information. Seeing to these areas from the beginning is your best defense and will cut down of call volumes and support required by your office staff.

Im swamped selling in so many different places!

Your hosted B2B supplier catalog solution

Are there any hosted B2B supplier catalog products on the market?
I am looking for a solution, where a company can quickly, add/maintain there product catalog. I am looking for a solution that can be hosted, and that a regular Inventory/Marketing Administrator can setup and configure. - IndustryCustomer


The Rapidtrade Solution:

Dear IndustryCustomer,
Thank you for your email.

To improve operational efficiencies from either the staff or the sales side, the Rapidtrade sales management & ordering system is your solution. It integrates your sales team and suppliers into your backend accounting system/ERP. They are presented with your catalog, complete with specific customer pricing structures and discounts, on their PDAs and desktops, allowing them to place orders on-the-run into your ERP. The application runs on PDAs, laptops & online.

This means for you, the ERP remains the central product hub: all discounts, stock information & pricing structures setup here will remain in place across all orders. Simply change and update products in your ERP.

Email me and I would be happy to discuss your the integration side and help with your exact requirements. Email: rachael at rapidtrade . com . au.

Kind Regards,
Rachael Shaw
Rapidtrade Software

Doing business online: 'Restaurant Industry'

I deliver meals to families and am looking to setup online ordering for my customers. I need to be able to customize the "store" to match my menu/website and I need to be able to add and change menu items weekly w/o knowing html. I also need for the customers to be able to pay with paypal or cash or check. I need to be able to set up different delivery zone prices and I need to run reports on items sold to make my production report. I have been researching for weeks and am overwhelmed by all the choices. I appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
CustomerABC

Solution:

Dear CustomerABC,
Thank you for your email.

There are a few things to consider.
Firstly, how do you plan to handle your online orders once they start coming in? Too many (e)retailers are starting an online store without a plan in place to handle the orders. Putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. Do you have a process in place to take care of the volumes you want? Do you have an accounting package that this information will eventually have to end up in?

Once you take care of your processing situation, and then consider which type of cart suits your business the best. No use investing in a cart and then trying to squeeze your business into a model, that may work for electronics, but does not work for you. Think of your workflow first and then get the shopping cart that fits you.

My recommendations are carts especially designed for your industry:

• ProductCart Catering Software
• Catering Solutions Online
• Top Draw Media
  

To take care of order processing, consider integrating the shopping cart with your ERP or accounting package. This way the ERP remains the central product hub: all discounts, stock information & pricing structures setup here need to immediately translate to the webstore. Then, from the online store side, all orders will pass through a clean checkout, payment gateway and into your ERP. Planning for the growth pays off.

Email me and I would be happy to discuss your the integration side and help with your exact requirements. Email: rachael at rapidtrade . com . au.

Kind Regards,

Rachael Shaw
Rapidtrade Software
www.rapidtrade.biz

Saasu Online Accounting : Just what I need.

Online accounting is here!

Saasu is the way forward for small, tech-savvy, cost-efficient businesses. http://tinyurl.com/saasu



www.rapidtrade.com.au/ContactUs.aspx

Thinking of changing a page name?

You make an executive decision to change your "contact us" page to
"contact[company]". Sounds easy enough? Simple?

Ah don't rush...
Keep in mind, this will break all links to the contact us page and could erase all your hard-earned search engine rankings.

Your answer is called a "301"
Firstly, edit all your site's internal links to point to their new locations.
(remember your all-important sitemap)
This will keep all your internals talking to each other.

Now lets think your homepage and other landing pages.
What about your visiting search engine robots?

Keep the welcome mat out by...
Setting up a permanent 301 redirect for your website. This tells search engines:

"I have permanently moved the pages you are looking for.
Relax, I'll show you where they are now.
Take note, so you remember for next time, follow me..."

For a step-by-step approach click on the first link at the end of this post.

There are many configuration options available to you with a 301 redirect. These depend how you choose to apply the redirect. See the link below for server options and different techniques. Click on the second link to find out more.


1. 301 redirect the simple way (with pictures)

2. Advanced Redirect Options

Maybe it was simple after all..

Are your keywords a mess? Overwelmed by metrics?

Your neighbours have not seen you for days.. ?

...Oh... buried under your keywords ...

I see ...
Truth be told your keywords are sprouting like old potatoes and completely out-of-control.

Never fear, look .. its Rand Fishkin here to save the day with his
"Buckets & Buckets of Keywords" movie


SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday - Buckets & Buckets of Keywords from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.