Technology is developing faster than people are adapting to it. We have seen this many times in the past ten years. Let’s remember the elections in the USA and Cambridge Analytica, the influence of social networks on the self-image of our children, crypto millionaires and similar phenomena that we had no idea a few decades ago. Now, however, Covid and changes in education, work from home, etc. The world is spinning faster than ever, and on this circular view, entrepreneurs struggle to understand customers, compete, and make strategic decisions.
In the virtual world, online, information is the currency with which we buy our customers’ attention. We try to make your purchase decision easier. Almost the entire ordering process is done online:
- Sellers can access data via mobile and mobile devices during meetings with customers,
- Customers receive an order set up with the installer in the field just to confirm,
- …
Therefore, companies have catalogs or B2B Online StorePlus, the high expectations of online business. On the other hand, online shoppers demand the same good user experience they have in their everyday consumer life – all information must be current, quickly accessible and clearly displayed. That’s why Shopamine claims that the core of digitizing all processes is the catalog of products and/or services – because we sell them, right? The online store is an offer for the modern customer. Here all the data is collected, edited and given the correct format that allows us to use it in meetings, presentations and websites. Optimized and accessible through different interfaces, then navigate all other tools and integrate into other company operations.
Are you ready for an online sales solution that is integrated into all business processes?
A better life begins with process integration and data entry automation
You need good engineers, user experience experts, designers, a project manager, and above all, plenty of experience to set up, maintain and integrate new software into your company’s operations. In the past year, not only real estate prices have risen disproportionately, but also programmers, who are no longer as accessible to companies as they were in the old days! Companies also do not have the time and people to deal with the technical aspects and design solutions. Creating an online store and integrating it into a company’s operations is demanding, challenging and time-consuming. Often these are one-off projects that are relevant only for the first few months after publication, then the technology becomes obsolete and you are outdone by the competition left and right.
modern cloud technology
At Shopamine, they summoned up their courage and decided over a decade ago the concept of SaaS in developing their own online sales platform. In this they are unique in Slovenia and we dare say it on a larger scale. SaaS (Software as a Service) It is the principle of selling software as a service. Globally, this is the dominant principle because it quickly meets most needs, is flexible and much cheaper than dedicated software. In addition, it allows engineers to maintain service for a large number of clients at the same time, which is in the interest of both the software provider and the user, who always has the latest software available.
So far, Shopamine has gained valuable experience, tracks technology trends, analyzes customer workflows, and integrates all of these into the solutions they offer in their e-commerce application.
In their work, they recognized that most errors occur due to a lack of awareness of what new technology offers and enables. It’s not about knowing technology solutions, it’s about realizing how systems communicate with each other and establishing communication between systems as the basis for building the entire sales process. If the information is stored in one system and you need it in another, the program must provide the possibility of downloading. If the system does not provide a modern and standardized download method, then it is outdated software. Unfortunately, its developers don’t realize how valuable your time and that of your employees are. Don’t let your employees waste time and get frustrated with painstaking transfer and editing of data. They should focus on tasks that will bring higher added value to the company. In addition, we all forget that time is also wasted designing and implementing custom data transfer solutions that have to respect the limitations of legacy technologies and have to be maintained by someone.
“The process in which a supplier, online store, order processing, accounting systems, and CRM communicate with each other is not a concept drawn on a company’s start-up board. It is a reality available to you today.”
Book a free consultation about the challenges you can solve with Shopamine.
Some have interpreted it their own way and taken shorter paths, eventually calling the “SaaS Rescue Service” because they add costs, and have been left with inefficient or limited systems that employ students to move data from table to table.
Examples of such bad practices are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which enable “online selling” capability.
ERP systems are not suitable for online sales
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide good support for a company’s financial operations. They cover everything from offers, price list editing, invoicing, goods receipt and issue, inventory management, travel orders, payroll, etc. Some systems offer modules and add-ons for an online store, but they are designed primarily for other operations and do not meet the requirements of users regarding speed, efficiency and convenience for online stores. How about automatic content customization for mobile devices… ERP systems are also not designed to manage the content you need in the selling process (descriptions, help documents, assembly documents, image galleries, translations, product specifications, etc.).
Some ERP providers (or users) support the single window principle, but unfortunately insist on it even if the software was not designed for it. And it turns out, online appearances and e-sales can’t be fooled with your ERP system.
Effective digitization and automation of processes requires time, analysis of the situation and defining the goals that we want to achieve. The technology aspect of how your current systems work is not important to you, it is essential that you understand and be able to describe your processes and how your current systems support your business!
Efficient digitization
Planning is the key. Perhaps you also know someone who did not pay much attention to input specifications and is now paying dearly for mediocre or weak services and systems?
The red thread for creating effective online sales solutions on the Shopamine platform is identifying bottlenecks in the communication process between systems, redundant data entry, or the same processes that can be automated. For many successful companies, they plan the entire sales process:
- From XML files stored on a dusty server in Germany, to automatically importing and updating data.
- From exporting or transferring this data to other software, be it ERP or CRM and everything in between.
- From the customer’s first contact with the online store to the possibility of purchasing a complex assembly in which there are thousands of products to choose from.
- From placing an order to printing labels for delivery services and updating the order status for the customer.
- From logging data on clicks to automating advertising campaigns.
This is not a list of the jobs they offer. There is a lot more to online sales than just a product catalog. Only with this awareness can Shopamine offer solutions that integrate with other operations and contribute to increased efficiency.
After a 30-minute conversation with a Shopamine expert, the above wouldn’t sound too complicated.
Book a free consultation about the challenges you can solve with Shopamine.
Before starting the work described above, it is necessary to ensure that the part of the new e-commerce system that customers access (online store, catalog, B2B portal) will be intuitive, easy to use and easily accessible on all mobile devices. You definitely don’t want an interface where the user doesn’t know what to look for, where to click and how to access the product and information needed to buy. In 2021, you can no longer afford an online store with an unintuitive user experience, not optimized to run on a variety of devices, and unclear communication with your customers.
The UX expert has an indispensable place on Shopamine’s team of experts. Every step and button in the online store has been carefully thought out, and every design for content and function can be discussed. Their interest in the online store never ends, and at the same time they provide excellent user experience for the online store editing administrative interface. This is the key to quick and easy management of your content and products. Suppose – you will wait up to 3 seconds in the Woocommerce interface to display product information, and only a split second in Shopamine.
Do you think the new tool should allow whatever you think of?
Custom solutions are often made without the necessary prior knowledge of e-commerce. Your aspiring software agencies or IT department will create a solution exactly according to your ideas and business knowledge. But is the chosen contractor also an expert in online sales? This is often reflected in solutions that are narrowly focused and do not allow for upgrades or integration in a rapidly changing market. The advantage of SaaS software is that the professionals who develop the software respond to the ideas and needs of a large number of clients using the same software. So it is not a customized solution for each individual user, but a tool that dynamically adapts to the movements of the broader market. Would you pay the agency hours upon hours for solutions that will always chase the market, or would you rather simply fly over the Shopamine newsletter once a week and take advantage of new solutions and connections with the latest electronic sales systems?
Book a free consultation about the challenges you can solve with Shopamine.
At Shopamine, they regularly face the challenges of creating e-commerce systems for businesses, distributors, manufacturers and importers – B2C and B2B sales methods. While creating the Shopamine app, this was all to be expected. Thus, in their interface, they manage to layout pages with static content, product catalog, and a mixture of both. On presentation pages, pages with an article about certain advantages of the product, you can highlight products between the lines using the “Add to cart” button, without redirecting. On the contrary, you can provide additional content in the product list which will make it easier for the user to choose the right product.
They went further. Each page of the product also offers the possibility of unlimited content. This way, you can test and improve your conversion rate for purchase on each product page individually and ensure regular communication with the user. All of this is possible because they understand that a potential buyer can come from many different channels.
In conclusion, we highlight another key step, which is often not given enough attention in online sales: communication after purchase! Not many companies realize that online marketing has become relatively expensive. Many companies already have a website, they use ERP, CRM and some other software. If we add more to this mixture B2C and B2B Sales, the complexity is increasing rapidly. Shopamine has succeeded in creating a much more complex system for many companies, because they know the modern economy of sharing information between applications. It enabled them to communicate post-purchase with customers, who might have spent on the first contact or on the first purchase more than the margin of the product sold, and in all subsequent interactions (post-purchase) they reinvested.
Shopamine helps distributors and manufacturing companies When migrating or setting up a B2B online store for the first time. To help implement e-commerce solutions that are at the heart of modern business digitization contact them. In a free 30 minute chat, they will share their experiences with you and offer possible solutions.