Maximizing ROI on Online Store – Part 1
As we have discussed before, an online store requires significant investment (money and time) to setup various front-end and back-end operations. In return, we get following important capabilities automated: Showcase your catalog online Take online orders and ship products Track inventory and order supplies Accounting and reconciliation of money flowing in and out Handle returns […]
Financial Management Part 2 – Where is my money?
In the previous article on Financial Management, we focused on how money flows from customer bank account to merchant’s bank account. The number of hops it takes suggests the need for making sure every rupee is accounted for, and hence the need for reconciliation. Reconciliation – Art of tracking money Reconciliation is the process of […]
Financial Management Part 1 – Money Flow in an Online Store
One of the oft-ignored components in an online retail store is that for Financial Management. In our component overview article, we presented basic details of this component. Here we will dive deeper into the component, paying special attention to making sure we track the flow of money from customer bank account to your (merchant) bank […]
Mobile-friendly Online Store – Fad or Need?
When we asked our interview panelists “How important it is to have a mobile app for your store?“, it was a unanimous verdict: significant portion of visitors are coming through mobile and hence a mobile strategy is going to be very important for the companies. We also wanted to explore how much of the above […]
Selecting the right shipping partner
Ability to ship the ordered goods reliably, safely and on-time is very important for any online store. US had organized shipping companies (FedEx, UPS) well set-up before ecommerce revolution came. In India, it is the other way: ecommerce boom has pushed the players in courier/shipment market to offer these services at the level expected by […]
Selecting Payment Gateway
A payment gateway (PG) helps you collect money from the customer when they are ready to pay. Other than Cash on Delivery (COD), all payment methods are pre-paid, which means customer ‘pays’ for the goods before they are shipped. In India, these payment gateways are popular: CCAvenue, EBS, DirecPay, PayU, ICICI PaySeal. Given that PG […]
Building Front End for Online Retail Store
Building (or enhancing) a front end is usually the most important activity for your online retail business. As presented in Online Retail – Component Overview, Shop Front needs to be attractive and usable enough to convert a casual visitor into a buyer, customer portal needs to be rich enough to keep the customer happy and […]
Online Retail – Component Overview
An online retail business consists of many components, each of which must be continually fine-tuned and optimized to ensure long term success of the business. Note that I am talking about the business components and not architectural components when you build them. While technology components will closely follow these, that is not the goal of […]
Technology Insights from Business Leaders – Part 4
This is 5th and final article in the series based on interviews with 4 founders of online retail stores: Gokulraj of Zapstore.com, Abhishek Shah of Fetise.com, Nimish Adaniof Engrave, and Vijay Singh of Aaramshop. The introductory post for the series can be found here. What are your criteria for selecting a Hosting Provider? Gokulraj: I […]
Technology Insights from Business Leaders – Part 3
This is 4th article in the series based on interviews with 4 founders of online retail stores: Gokulraj of Zapstore.com, Abhishek Shah of Fetise.com, Nimish Adaniof Engrave, and Vijay Singh of Aaramshop. The introductory post for the series can be found here. Which internet marketing strategies have worked for you? Gokulraj: We aren’t that strong […]
