Recent Articles
Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition (IRCE) Trends and Takeaways
This year’s Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago welcomed leading eCommerce professionals, with over 600 exhibitors and more than 10,000 attendees to take part in workshops and sessions, where they discussed ideas and advanced eCommerce technologies. The event was focused on the retail customer and online community, with companies of all sizes. A few of the 200 plus eCommerce pioneers included, the President of Target.com and Mobile for Target Corp., Jason Goldberger as the keynote speaker, Co-founder, Executive Chairman of reddit, Alexis Ohanian, along with the President of 1-800-Flowers.com, Christopher McCann, and VP of Forrester Research, James McQuivey. The exhibition was highlighted as the leading display of technology and services under one roof, with some companies including, Avalara, Magento, PayPal, eBay, Freestyle Solutions, Marketing Sherpa, reddit, G2 Crowd and many more. Check out the list below for some key takeaways and upcoming trends from this year’s event. 2015 IRCE Takeaways Check out the articles below highlighting news from IRCE 2015. The Internet of Things Is About Experience… and Data by Tim Parry, Multichannel Merchant The Internet of Things is
How Content Marketing for Ecommerce Drives in Customers
“Content marketing for eCommerce is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action,” according to the Content Marketing Institute. Quality content through storytelling is not the only aspect to consider to increase sales, as research shows the amount of information on the Internet is expected to grow by 500%, between now and 2020. This can make it more challenging for SMB’S to compete with storytelling alone. Here are some other tips to consider to drive customers to your website. Incorporate Visuals As video is expected to become the content medium of choice this year, it is vital to keep your customers engaged with visuals. Consumers are more likely to connect with pictures and videos, according to co-founder and CMO of the influence marketing agency TapInfluence, Holly Hamann. The ever-growing popularity of social media outlets, including Instagram, You Tube, Pinterest and Vine are expected to be the top platforms for small businesses this year. Even if you think your business
How to Increase Sales with Amazon and eBay
It’s no surprise that a retailer can increase sales with Amazon and eBay. There is proven measurable research that confirms revenue is gained in sales, customer acquisition, brand recognition and more. “Sellers report an average 50 percent increase in sales when they join Amazon Marketplace,” according to Vice President of fulfillment by Amazon, Tom Taylor. Increasing sales with Amazon and eBay will help promote your brand by giving your customers new outlets to find you. If they are not visiting a marketplace specifically searching for your product or your store, they may stumble upon one of your products on Amazon or eBay. This gives you an opportunity to find a new customer and a chance to win repeat business, especially if you are selling products that require frequent or repeat purchases. Amazon and eBay take up the largest share of the market, and as these third-party marketplaces continue to grow, market sales for your business could follow suit. When consumers come to Amazon and eBay, they are most likely finished with their research and at the purchasing stage of their shopping experience, making it even more essential to
A Breakdown of Amazon’s New Manage Inventory Page
One aspect of maintaining a healthy seller relationship with Amazon is having enough inventory on hand to cover customer demand. Through Seller Central, you can get “near-real time data” for each product in your inventory on the Manage FBA Inventory Page. As Amazon explains on Winning with FBA, “You can see your Fulfillable and Unfulfillable units, any units that have been put on Reserve for pending sales or other fulfillment center activities, and the Inbound amount, we are expecting from any of your shipments yet to be received.” The eCommerce giant has been beta testing a new ‘Manage Inventory’ page. With Amazon's new manage inventory page, sellers have been able to try the new page on Seller Central, while it’s in Beta status. The new page promises a revamped seller approach to managing sales, inventory, payments, customer conversions and removals. It also includes product images for a seller's products to quickly identify listings. Permanent migration for all sellers to the Manage Inventory page will take place on June 15, 2015. The new page offers a new navigation header meant to highlight
Managing Multichannel Sales
Do you take advantage of the many sales channels available to expand your reach and grow your business as fast as possible? Even the smallest retailer can reach a market of millions when selling online. If you do, are you managing multichannel sales in the most efficient manner? Multichannel inventory management can help you grow your business by providing seamless third-party integrations through Magento, Amazon, Bigcommerce and more. Managing multichannel sales can be simple, but in order to do so, you want to be sure you have the right tools in place. Even though adding sales channels may help your business prosper, it can also add bottlenecks if not managed properly. To efficiently manage and ensure you make the most of your multichannel sales strategy, consider an order management system (OMS), which will allow you to: Seamlessly integrate your business operations across all of your sales channels into a single workflow from the entry point of shopping to the delivery point of shipping. Sell your entire inventory or just a small sample through your storefront and other channels. Automatically download new orders,
Imagine Conference for Magento
Imagine Commerce is the premier Magento and eBay Enterprise commerce conference. It’s always an informative event and it stayed true to form this year. Over 2,400 commerce experts came together in Las Vegas representing merchants, agencies and technology providers across more than 40 countries to network, exchange ideas and build relationships. Themes throughout the keynotes centered around shrinking the distance to your customers. That is, gaining insights into customer behavior through touch points in business processes such as multichannel inventory management. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Unbound Commerce’ – to explore the unlimited possibilities of commerce. "We're past the inflection point. We no longer need to be afraid of change...We can be unbound." – Mark Lavelle, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Commerce Technologies, eBay Enterprise Reimagining retail was the underlying message behind the case study of Rebecca Minkoff, a trendy New York City-based retailer specializing in luxury handbags, accessories, footwear and apparel. Emily Culp, Senior Vice President of eCommerce and Multichannel Retailing for Rebecca Minkoff, described their development of a responsive design site which integrates with their store.