Take Your In-store Retail Online
Single Channel Commerce is not adequate to sustain your business. In the long run, store owners will have to find a way to diversify their sales channels to maximize their earnings. In essence, look to establish a presence on all channels and then unify and control them from a centralized location.
Why Can't Retail Ignore eCommerce?
Omnichannel is the way to go – In other words, brands hope to merge services and features of multiple channels to provide a seamless, integrated and consistent experience to their customers.
Buyers are not limited to a single procurement point - no one device is favored. Consumers freely gravitate towards every touch-point (mobile, desktop, brick and mortar). Buyers transition from one medium to another in their buying cycle – they browse on one portal and then buy on another.
Take your retail business online - Unlock a new revenue stream and thrive in the booming online marketplace. Manage inventory, shipping, marketing, and reports from one platform. Let’s look at all the reasons why retail stores must establish a footing on digital channels.
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Create a differentiated customer experience and improve value proposition
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Additional sales channels and sources to assist with more conversions
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Nurture qualified leads and improve Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
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The ability to access and engage your target audience better
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Improve marketing and become more personalized in your messaging
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Integrate with social media and increase visibility with content powered by SEO
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Use analytics to assess your industry, consumer habits, and on-going trends
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Better customer support – address concerns and grievances quicker and 24/7
Challenges That Retailers Face
Relying only on the foot traffic to your retail store can cut short the earnings in case of an unforeseen circumstance, witnessed recently through the COVID-19 crisis, where most traditional retail stores came at the brink of bankruptcy and lost a lot of earnings.
That’s not it – these stores, during an epidemic period, will find it hard to adjust to the new normal and end up collapsing. The over-reliance on legacy solutions is severely compromising the output of many companies. Further from this, retail only brands that are yet to digitize their business and embrace eCommerce find it hard to cope and keep up with the digital transformation taking place.
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Operating on a single channel, limits your ability to scale and grow
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Not providing quality in-store experience to drive footfall
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Standard customer profiling – many SMB’s are still using a stock approach
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No analysis to review sales, customer profiles and business performance
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No real-time inventory visibility – unable to view their SKU’s on time
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An epidemic can severely jolt operations and force business closure
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Limited or restricted communication with the customers
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Still relying on manual processes to accomplish time-consuming chores
Solutions to Mitigate the Challenges
The ongoing struggle of acquiring clients, tumbling sales, and staying relevant has forced many conventional retailers to re-examine and reinvent their businesses with renewed urgency. They are starting to upgrade and innovate to survive the onslaught of incoming challenges and sustain their business in the long haul. Higher-ups in many traditional stores are directing their time, effort, and resources to serve their customers better – in essence, embracing eCommerce.
Here are all the measures they’d need to integrate to improve their operations, messaging, products, and overall standing – to avoid becoming a run of the mill company.
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A full-fledged eCommerce site, true to your business backbone
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An omnichannel model – where selling isn’t limited to one touchpoint
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Use of social platforms to further your objectives and promote your brand
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Automation to cut-down on all the backend processes and improve efficiency
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CRM, AI, video collaboration and other tools to improve customer connection
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A robust and intelligent POS solution to handle inventory, orders and supply chain
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Future-ready capabilities – cloud blockchain, voice commerce and analytics
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Advanced analytics module to examine your business elements at every stage
What Virtina Can Do for You?
The eCommerce experts in Virtina, having helped 880+ eCommerce businesses in both B2B (Manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors) and B2C (DTC brands and online retailers) across many industries are the best partner to take your retail experience online.
We specialize in revenue lift, revenue shift, profit maximization, and enhanced customer experience – use a platform-agnostic business first and holistic method based on our digital growth framework. Then implement and deliver using an adaptable engineered approach.
Here are all the things that Virtina brings to the table.
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Website Design & Development
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Tax Solutions
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Automation
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Advanced Analytics
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Omnichannel Selling Capabilities
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Payment Capabilities
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Point of Sale (POS) Solutions
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Commerce Revenue Optimization
Our Familiarity with POS Solutions
Your POS should be more than just a cash register – it should constantly coordinate and supply relevant information, like purchase history, customer information, product details, inventory availability, and more such useful metrics. Such a complex integration requires astute expertise – Hence Virtina!
At Virtina, having handled a ton of intricate point of sale integrations for various small and medium retail businesses – we have acquired extensive know-how about the same. Listed below are the various POS solutions for which we possess astute knowledge.
POS Integration Challenges
Retailers retiring their manual processes and adopting state-of-the-art POS solutions face a host of challenges. The new POS system that is integrated, in place of the antiquated methods, isn’t something that works impeccably – since many challenges arise along the way.
Populist Approach
Businesses often make the mistake of choosing a POS system with a vague and ambiguous idea about the same – they end up selecting a recommended and highly rated brand. Not knowing how it supports your company goes on to hurt them in the future. The best POS Solution must align with your business backbone.
Price First Approach
Letting the budget dictate the POS Solution can be severely harmful to your business operations. Going cost-effective on the POS integration will compromise the quality of all the functions and features you inherit. The POS solution must be an extension of your business – a small business may not need the same POS as an enterprise.
Overall Security
The last thing you’d want is to compromise the confidential data sitting within the POS. Hence it is imperative that when merchants opt for a POS solution, they acquire a firm understanding of the safety aspects. Keep any unauthorized element out and secure your POS data. Detect a breach early and protect all the confidential information.
Mobile Compatibility
A high-quality POS solution allows on the go monitoring of your entire business. No need to be present on the site – access the app and track all the intriguing metrics seamlessly. Know all about returns, delays, pending orders, low inventory, etc. Follow the journey of every SKU and never miss a thing.
Reporting
Comprehensive and detailed reporting is essential to any POS solution. The POS should be powerful enough to extract accurate and intriguing info about the business. A POS that fails to do that is redundant for your business. Switch to a system that allows customized reports. Valuable insights are the key to success.
Quality Control
POS systems are prone to errors in a unified eCommerce model; the last thing you’d want is to lose access to the other touchpoints due to a flaw. Assess the POS so as not to encounter an issue in real-time. Any syncing issues, inventory differences and a host of other problems should not lose you customers.
Integration
Most eCommerce platforms will not support integration with a newer POS. In which case, you’d need to upgrade the platform or customize the POS. Then some POS come with an open API, which allows more eCommerce integrations. In some instances, there exists a plugin that will enable you to connect the webstore & POS account. However, if the plugin offers limited functionalities and fails to address the business requirements, it’ll have to be modified. Some plugins may not support customizations out of the box; thus, you’d need a dedicated eCommerce expert.
Multiple Solutions
Another challenge that retailers face is in not knowing if their POS system integrates well with other business management tools such as accounting software packages or email marketing platforms. Such a drawback prevents companies from taking full advantage of the POS. Some POS systems interface to a system and others will have such integrations built into the software.
Inventory Syncing
Your entire in-store inventory is also offered online – often, the stores run into major syncing issues and find it hard to keep the correct track of inventory. It can get frustrating to the point where merchants have to intervene to update the irregularity manually. Wherever the data fails to synchronize, it can create a challenge for store owners to identify and update the same. Such 3rd Party POS solutions – often come up with mismanaged inventory, lack of visibility, overselling, inaccurate forecasting, procurement flaws & other issues.
They Are Happy
Our greatest asset is our customers who always prefer Virtina for eCommerce development.
Start an eCommerce Project with Us
Building a virtual storefront from the ground up, handling mobile commerce, or selling on a marketplace can feel like an overwhelming experience – but when the certified eCommerce pros at Virtina are at an arm’s reach - you don’t need to look elsewhere.
