POS Solutions, POS Retail, Ecommerce Merchandising
Article | June 7, 2024
In 2004, Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Luke established an online website to sell snowboards. They tried a bunch of online store builders but were not satisfied with the status quo. So, they decided to build a tool that could operate their website. Soon, they realized that the tool was more powerful than the website's business. And hence, Shopify was born.
Eventually, Shopify became one of the largest eCommerce store builders in the world. By 2009, the company had $100 million in sales and decided to launch its own API as well as an app store. More than a decade later, Shopify is now supporting over 800,000 stores globally and is a $125 billion company.
While the company has shown remarkable growth in its business, it would be ignorant to say the market's needs have been fulfilled by the Shopify platform. Shopify's eCommerce platform works for a lot of businesses, but that does not mean it will work for every business.
Here is why Shopify is Not the Right Fit for Every Business:
Shopify's growth over the years shows that the company has taken several steps to address the market's inherent needs. However, the presence of several other companies and the issues still faced by merchants show some significant gaps in Shopify's offerings:
1. Cost of Setting Up: Each price-point offers a fixed set of features and functionalities. If you want anything over and above that, you will have to buy the subsequent package. For instance – something as conventional as a Gift Card is not available in the $29 per month package; to get it activated, pay as much as $299 per month.
2. Cost of Operations: The additional functionalities and features cost extra in your package. Even basic features like transaction or credit card processing attract an additional fee. To add to that, you have to purchase the app to activate the feature from the Shopify app store. Even though some apps are free, the apps that offer maximum value tend to cost north of $39.99 per month.
3. Limited and Expensive Themes: The entire Shopify store has a total of 73 themes, with the prices going as high as $180 a theme. This means that as a merchant, even after paying the high price, you may end up with an eCommerce platform that hardly stands out from the crowd.
In short, while Shopify was started with great intentions, the cost of using it has started outweighing the probable value it has to offer. This issue gets further highlighted when one starts looking at the Shopify alternatives.
Best Alternatives of Shopify
While Shopify suits the needs of a certain set of merchants, here are the alternatives that can suit the merchants looking for more tailored, affordable, or customizable solutions:
1. Quick eSelling
Quick eSelling is one of the most affordable and easy to deploy ecommerce store builder among the Shopify alternatives. It can be deployed in under 10 minutes for the basic variant. Its free variant has some prolific features like a native Android app, responsive website, and a catalog that can support up to 1000 products.
The free package requires a 5% transaction fee, which gets eliminated the moment you upgrade to a paid plan. All the paid plans have a fixed monthly fee and no setup costs. The list of standard features includes a wide set of functionalities like customizable web-store themes, SMS & Email marketing, comprehensive payment gateway integrations, detailed analytics reports, inventory management systems, social media plugins, discount coupon codes, and even live chat.
The premium package which costs around 50% the price of the $299 Shopify package, comes with a dedicated account manager and enterprise-level integrations.
Ideal for: Merchants who are seeking an affordable, easily usable, and quickly deployable solution.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is popularly considered one of the most preferred alternatives for Shopify. It is quite convenient for website owners as it is a plugin for WordPress.
Unlike other tools in the list, WooCommerce is designed to make WordPress sites work as functional eCommerce platforms. And in that particular aspect, it does a great job.
However, if you are not already using an established WordPress site with high traffic, running WooCommerce can become quite expensive. On average, a website owner has to spend as much as $1000 in setting up a WooCommerce store with a moderate degree of customization.
Even if you are not customizing a lot, running a WooCommerce store can cost you as much as $150 in a month. This would cover your hosting, themes, shipping plugins, security, and SEO. You will pay additional 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Ideal for: Someone who has a successful WordPress website and now wants to convert it into an eCommerce store.
3. Yo!Kart:
Yo!Kart is a popular self-hosted multi-vendor platform for building online marketplaces. Unlike Shopify, it is a standalone platform that comes with a lifetime license and rich ecommerce features. The platform is fully customizable and scalable.
Yo!Kart packages start from $999 and every package comes with a 1-year free technical support, free installation, and full source code. There are no monthly or yearly recurring fees.
Considering it is a comprehensive platform, you may need some technical training to understand the system.
Ideal for: Business owners who want to start ecommerce websites like Amazon or ebay where multiple sellers are selling under the same roof.
4. PrestaShop
PrestaShop runs on the basic premise that creating an online eCommerce store should be an affordable exercise for any merchant. That is the reason why it is available for free and comes without any additional monthly fees.
Its features include eCommerce functionalities like CRM & Email Marketing, Inventory Management, Multi-Store Management, and SEO Management. You can get a basic eCommerce store running by paying the registration fee for the domain and the hosting fee dues.
While this may seem like a great alternative, given the fact that it is practically free, there is one major caveat – you cannot deploy or personalize your PrestaShop eCommerce store unless you know how to code. The entire platform has been designed, keeping in mind people who can code at professional levels of proficiency. The cost of hiring a developer who can add features to your store or modify the theme can be very costly.
In addition to this, some basic features like promotions & reviews management, data security, and mobile access are not available on the platform.
Ideal for: The merchants who have access to programming talent and don't mind a basic eCommerce store.
5. Wix
Wix became popular as an online website builder. It also offers interesting eCommerce functionalities. For as low as $35 a year, you can have the Business Basic package that comes with a free year of using the domain, analytics reports, and 20 GB of storage.
If you want greater control of your eCommerce platform but are not a professional programmer and are not interested in hiring one, Wix can be a great alternative. Its most expensive package costs about $80 a year. It comes with features like email marketing, SEO management, inventory management, data security, and promotions management.
The challenge is – most of the charges marketed by Wix are very affordable for the first year in operations. After a year, many of these features, like the domain, will become payable elements. This way as soon as the first year of your operations is over, your cost of running the eCommerce platform will dramatically go up.
Ideal for: Merchants who want to have greater control of their website's design without the need for coding skills and those who want the first year of operations to be largely affordable.
Conclusion:
Shopify can work for you if you are seeking a limited set of features. However, for lesser price-points, the alternatives for Shopify offer great functionalities. Quick eSelling is good for cost-effective and rapidly deployable eCommerce websites that come loaded with native features. WooCommerce is a viable option if you have a WordPress site and want to convert it into an eCommerce store. Yo!Kart specializes in building multi-vendor marketplaces.
PrestaShop can be handy and very budget-friendly if you have access to coding talent. And Wix is good if you want greater control over what your store looks like, without getting into the programming aspects.
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POS Retail
Article | May 10, 2024
Top e-commerce platform providers streamline businesses’ localization efforts for successful global expansion. Discover the leading e-commerce companies that promise effective internationalization.
Contents
1. Understanding the Going Global, Being Local Approach
2. Overcoming Challenges in Global E-commerce with Localization
3. Top E-commerce Platform Providers Ensuring Effective Expansion
3.1 Core dna
3.2 Inxeption
3.3 OroCommerce
3.4 ChannelSight
3.5 Expedite Commerce
3.6 SamCart
3.7 Pepperi
3.8 payever
3.9 Fonteva
3.10 Brikl
4. The Future Reflection
1. Understanding the Going Global, Being Local Approach
The adage ‘going global, being local’ represents the necessity of localization efforts for the international expansion of e-commerce platforms. Localization enables businesses to adapt to the languages and cultures of new regions. This endeavor is significantly strengthened by organized data collection, understanding customer preferences, and forward-looking solutions like address validation APIs. Localized efforts further empower enterprises to fine-tune their international e-commerce marketing strategies along with sales and POS techniques, ensuring high customer engagement and sustainable business growth.
The complementary effect between global expansion and localization can also be seen in companies’ ability to establish deep connections with international customers through comprehensive website customization, showcasing respect for cultural differences, values, and languages. Moreover, the localization of crucial products and pages allows for excellent shopping experiences for users, irrespective of their regions, guaranteeing wide acceptance and continued business success.
2. Overcoming Challenges in Global E-commerce with Localization
Expanding or establishing international e-commerce platforms requires careful contemplation, as it poses many crucial hurdles that can impede business growth and result in customer discontentment.
Here's a breakdown of the core challenges in e-commerce platforms faced by companies while going global and the practical solutions for countering them:
Cultural and Language Variations
Marketing strategies that are effective in one area or country might not work in the other. Failure to understand each region's cultural variations may lead to customer isolation and unsuccessful e-commerce localization measures. Moreover, the inability to cater to customers' language preferences may result in missed sales opportunities and deter customer engagement.
Nonetheless, businesses can effectively meet such challenges through proper multilingual and translation support investments, resulting in a heightened sense of belonging among international customers. Furthermore, companies should conduct thorough market research, analyzing local trends, cultures, and preferences to customize essential products, offerings, and pages and modify their sales, marketing, and POS strategies.
Data Collection and Address Veracity
International data collection is another notable challenge for global e-commerce platforms, owing to various regions' differences in address formatting, languages, and cultural practices. Such incongruities not only complicate the data collection processes but also result in the loss of cross-border customers.
Yet, extensive, standardized, and accurate data can be collected by employing advanced analytics tools and incorporating address validation APIs. The solution further entails complying with significant data protection regulations such as CCPA or GDPR, which remain imperative in protecting customer safety. Not to mention, through effective secure transmission protocols and data encryption, businesses can improve data security during its collection, processing, and storage processes.
Payment Preferences
Cross-border transactions require companies to deal with varied payment methods, currency conversion fees, fluctuating values, and exchange rates, which can impact customer satisfaction and business profitability. The diversity of payment gateways further adds to security concerns, while other factors like compliance obligations and technological infrastructure affect the companies' POS strategies.
Therefore, to meet the diverse preferences of various regions, businesses must actively offer international customers multiple payment options, enabling seamless transactions at POS stations. Significantly, by partnering with credible financial institutions and payment gateways, supporting the local currency, and adopting fraudulence identification measures, companies can vigorously promote customer experience. Businesses must also clearly communicate the payment fees and currency conversion rates, elevating customer trust and ensuring continual operational success.
Shipping and Logistics Requirements
From handling diverse shipping requirements to fulfilling customer expectations of quick order deliveries, e-commerce internationalization notably requires the completion of exacting tasks. Besides, businesses may face heightened expenditures and remain prone to shipping delays or loss, which could adversely impact customer experience.
That said, companies can overcome this hurdle by meticulously streamlining shipping and logistics processes. This can be ensured through establishing local warehouses, collaborations with expert local and international shipping providers, and using advanced inventory management systems for optimal warehouse inventory management. Such measures ensure effortless last-mile deliveries, portfolio variegation, and smooth transactions.
Compliance Obligations
The diversity of jurisdictions, which entail data protection, consumer rights, product standards, and taxation, poses a considerable challenge for global e-commerce. Traversing these diverse regulatory requirements demands substantial resources and knowledge to ensure compliance and avoid legal problems.
Indeed, complying with various countries' market and legal regulations poses a big challenge for global e-commerce platforms. Yet, measures like strategic partnerships with legal experts or consultants experienced in target and new market regulations can help businesses prevent issues associated with regulatory compliance. Moreover, setting up an internal compliance monitoring unit and regularly updating business strategies to fit changing regulatory environments can help companies attain business growth and mitigate legal troubles.
3. Top E-commerce Platform Providers Ensuring Effective Expansion
With 24/7 accessibility and enviable marketplace exposure, the leading e-commerce platform providers are securing the success of businesses’ expansion endeavors.
Listed below are the top companies that promise successful expansion of businesses:
3.1 Core dna
With a notable integrated platform for content and commerce, Core dna facilitates effortless scaling for e-commerce platforms of mid-market to enterprise businesses. The company utilizes a cloud-native and API-first strategy, empowering firms to establish seamless customer experiences across varied channels. It renders innovative developer tools, structured content management abilities, and unmatched support services to businesses, helping them manage high-traffic volumes and expand their e-commerce platforms.
From helping teams handle content to offering promising tools like AI Assistant and Visual Page Builder, Core dna enables businesses to thrive in the digital environment. The company’s platform is built on a secure cloud infrastructure, which entails API-led integrations, performance optimization, and responsive, design capabilities. Core dna effectively ensures scalability and adaptability for global audiences through its strong multi-language support, content scheduling, and versioning. Furthermore, it helps businesses handle checkouts, payments, carts, products, and promotions, providing them with tools for lead capturing, email marketing, and customer segmentation.
3.2 Inxeption
A pioneer in the industrial commerce sector, Inxeption endeavors to streamline industry processes and connectivity, empowering e-commerce platforms to succeed in the digital arena. The company aims to simplify online sales processes and leverages blockchain technology for ultimate business success, affording unparalleled transparency, security, and operational efficiency. Its vertical marketplaces give buyers easy access to trusted sellers and offer suppliers effective sales channels to expand their online businesses.
With Inxeption’s Managed Store, businesses can turn their offline product listings into online ready-to-buy catalogs. It provides unique tools for advertising, credit checks, order fulfillment, and the launch of extended payment term programs. The company further enables businesses to widen their reach and expand their audience through advanced audience databases and digital marketing tools. Importantly, it provides companies with real-time analytics, helping them gain greater supply chain visibility and make well-informed decisions.
3.3 OroCommerce
Through its impressive suite of platforms, OroCommerce empowers businesses to optimize their sales processes, gain a 360-degree view of their customers, and create responsive design applications. The company mainly offers innovative solutions to B2B businesses to efficiently build and scale their commercial operations, ensuring high customer engagement and satisfaction.
OroCommerce boasts promising CRM and marketplace solutions, providing businesses with features like configure price quote (CPQ) and request for quote (RFQ) to meet their diverse needs. Other features like digitized product listings and multiple payment options help companies automate and refine their operations efficiently. Not to mention, through the OroMarketplace platform, the company offers innovative digital marketplace management software, which can adjust to multiple corporate structures and render stock visibility and scalability for growth. Furthermore, it allows businesses to expand nationally or globally, giving them significant insights into sales activity and enabling operators to create new revenue sources through promotions, value-added services, and memberships.
3.4 ChannelSight
As a leading digital solutions provider, ChannelSight renders crucial insights into user engagement to businesses, enabling them to maximize conversions and leverage data to enhance product performance. The company boasts a vast network of retail partners and undertakes measures to strengthen businesses’ online presence. With exemplary tools and strategies, it empowers e-commerce platforms to give enjoyable shopping experiences to users across different touchpoints, promoting their expansion and profitability.
Notably, the company offers customers various features that help businesses make their media shoppable, predict inventory trends, attain top search placements, and optimize conversions. Through its e-commerce enablement platform, it makes integration with social media platforms, online retailers, and digital touchpoints easier. Likewise, its prominent ‘Buy Now’ technology helps businesses sell products directly through online videos and social media posts, simplifying checkout processes and driving peak financial gains.
3.5 Expedite Commerce
Expedite Commerce leverages innovative methodologies and cloud-based solutions to help B2B companies transform their e-commerce platforms for more significant revenue generation. The company provides after-sales support, enabling sales, finance, and marketing leaders to meet the digital world's challenges effectively. Its impressive e-commerce platform offers features like flexible product listings, secure payment processes, and tailorable storefronts, ensuring easy scaling and sales growth for businesses.
With its all-inclusive suite of solutions, Expedite Commerce offers B2B companies e-commerce storefront and CPQ solutions and Guided Digital Discovery tools that enhance confident purchases and customer experiences. The company’s exceptional Digital Guided Selling Software further allows for personalization of buying experiences and renders scalable solutions. Moreover, the company simplifies various processes through its Contract Lifecycle Management feature, ensuring operational agility and accuracy.
3.6 SamCart
Transforming digital sales for entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses, SamCart is an innovative e-commerce platform provider that strives to simplify online sales through the creation of user-friendly interfaces and efficient checkout pages. Established in 2013, the company has grown remarkably, empowering creators to enhance customer engagement via effortless checkout experiences and limitless customization.
With multiple impressive features, SamCart promises smooth transaction experiences. For instance, its Embedded Checkout feature allows for effortless incorporation of checkout into any website page, augmenting customer convenience. The company’s drag-and-drop editor further allows for seamless customization, and its Popup Checkout option renders quick checkout abilities to users. Similarly, the Sales Page feature lets businesses enhance shopping experiences through multimedia content, maximizing sales and profitability.
3.7 Pepperi
Pepperi is a prominent B2B e-commerce and mobile sales solutions provider. It enables businesses to expedite their sales operations and drive financial gains. Through sales force automation, route accounting, retail execution, and more, the company helps firms effectively address their customers’ needs and drive success in their expansion ventures. From allowing users to establish tailored digital storefronts to enhancing their back-office workflows, Pepperi undoubtedly renders a scalable and dependable solution to achieve B2B excellence.
Significantly, with its Unified Commerce platform, Pepperi refines all sales functions, ensuring tailored experiences for sales reps and buyers. Also, its Mobile Order Taking App for Sales Reps helps augment order effectiveness and customer interactions, while the Retail Execution Platform helps businesses enhance their in-store operations. The company also provides comprehensive insights into customer actions through its Inside Sales and Support feature, assisting businesses to make well-informed decisions, undertake expansion, and enhance operational productivity.
3.8 payever
A forward-thinking fintech firm, payever empowers businesses by streamlining and securing payment processes, rendering them multi-currency and multi-language support. The company provides cost-effective pricing models and payment options that address varied scenarios and allow for seamless transactions, helping businesses with their scaling endeavors. Furthermore, through its adaptable commerce platform, payever provides for the integration of crucial tools like invoicing, online payment processing, and POS systems.
The company boasts an impressive array of services and tools focused on refining checkout processes. With striking API integration and consolidated transaction management, it helps businesses skillfully meet the demands of the digital business world. Also, from payment initiation at POS to enabling transactions through QR codes and tailored links, payever addresses different payment situations, including international payments, making it effortless for businesses to widen their operations.
3.9 Fonteva
Fonteva specializes in cloud-based software solutions and caters to non-profits, associations, and event-based organizations. Fonteva delivers highly modifiable events, membership, and e-commerce applications, enabling easy scalability and integration with other business solutions. The company’s prominent array of tools allows for successful event operations, including coordination, fundraising, and membership management, which augment the overall attendee experience and welcome new possibilities.
Significantly, Fonteva enhances revenue potential through a promising suite of features, including integrated shopping carts, revenue accounting, and an online storefront. It further boasts impressive reporting features, providing insights into customer demographics, revenue accounting, and order management, which ensure sound decision-making. From personalized pricing options to comprehensive tools for the growth of e-commerce companies, Fonteva renders multiple merits to businesses, making for streamlined operations and high customer satisfaction.
3.10 Brikl
A premier provider of progressive e-commerce solutions for the custom and promotional products sector, Brikl aims to enhance online selling and design processes. The company offers firms a promising platform for creating and selling tailored products. Its prominent offerings include highly intuitive designs and customization tools that allow businesses to modify products to meet customer needs.
Notably, with its on-demand platform, Brikl enables quick setup of firm and team stores, employing user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality. It further boasts features like bulk logo addition and vector designs and facilitates the creation of catalogs and easy product customization. Businesses can import live stock data and utilize marketing support for better brand visibility and enhanced revenue growth. From effective asset creation to expert content and video production, the Brikl Creators platform helps businesses maintain a strong brand relevance across varied channels.
4. The Future Reflection
The journey toward successful global expansion for e-commerce platforms indubitably demands a localized approach. From meeting paramount obstacles like linguistic diversity and intricacies of shipping to ensuring far-reaching acceptance for brands, the e-commerce localization process greatly benefits businesses. Similarly, the future of global expansion of e-commerce companies would lie in the continual incorporation of adaptation efforts with advanced technologies and data-driven techniques. Companies must accelerate such pursuits by partnering with major e-commerce platform providers, capitalizing on cloud-native solutions, streamlined payment systems, and modular architectures. Additionally, considerable emphasis should be placed on sustainability and eco-friendly practices and the use of composable commerce that stays poised to usher in unmatched adaptability and responsiveness, reflecting a promising trend in e-commerce. Ultimately, with the power of forward-thinking technology, customization, and sustainability, firms can leverage all the necessary ingredients to drive success in tomorrow’s digital world.
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POS Retail
Article | December 24, 2021
To manage a drugstore efficiently, shopkeepers would need a pharmacy POS to automate inventory management, curbside collection, or drive-thru orders. Our today’s article will point out the 5 best pharmacy software that can improve your business operation.
ConnectPOS: An awarded POS system
Being trusted by more than 10 thousand retailers worldwide, ConnectPOS offers the best solutions for multiple retail industries including pharmacy.
Product and order management
Thanks to the option that assigns each location to a different outlet, your inventory will no longer be cluttered. Customers may order online and pick it up in the shop. Refunds and exchanges are also accepted in physical locations.
Customer management
ConnectPOS supports loyalty programs with extensions from dependable vendors (Aheadworks, Amasty, etc). With the group pricing feature, you can develop effective tiered pricing for multiple consumer groups, thus providing your customers with a better experience. Moreover, gift cards, which can be used in both online and offline retailers, are accepted by ConnectPOS.
DataScan: A well-known pharmacy POS
Being in the pharmacy business for over 35 years, DataScan has a broad knowledge of the profession and always keeps up with industry trends.
For wholesalers and analyzing sales
This software includes a system that can do your shopping for you! It will compare prices from all wholesalers to find the best deal. You can also keep track of all previous outcomes and sales.
Financial reporting
The system will not only track your sales, but will also provide financial reports for you and your accountant. You will also receive an end-of-day reconciliation statement to assist you in staying on track.
PrimeRx: Efficiency drug system
As an all-in-one pharmacy POS software for automated prescription filling, invoicing, and claim processing, PrimeRx is ideal for independent, retail, and multi-store pharmacy owners. It enables a customizable workflow that is both efficient and straightforward.
Automated refill management
By evaluating the patient, prescriber, and pharmaceutical inventory, this system can fill prescriptions. Scheduled refills, as well as missed or expired refills, are displayed on the Dashboard.
Updates and Interaction with customers
The Patient Status Board is a standout feature of PrimeRx. You may converse with your customers as they wait for their prescriptions using this board. Customers can see where they are in line and how much longer they will have to wait. They will not have to disturb the pharmacist or the technician, and they will not be in the dark.
PioneerRx: Global pharmacy POS
PioneerRx is considered the most widely used pharmacy POS system. Its purpose is to deliver new tools to small businesses so they may outperform their larger competitors.
Inventory control
Inventory management using shelf stickers is one of PioneerRx’s primary features. This POS system creates shelf labels rather than pricing labels for each item. This helps your personnel to swiftly determine whether an item needs to be replenished or has been placed in an inappropriate location.
Financial Intelligence and reporting
You may send prescription data to pharmaceutical companies via the PioneerRx system. Make your own label revisions and financial reports as well.
BesyRx: A feature-rich system
As a pharmacy POS system that is uncomplicated and easy to use, BesyRX is confident in its product, with the introductory sentence “Your search for the best pharmacy management software ends here.”
Signature capture for electronic and mobile delivery
BestRx comes with a signature pad that allows you to electronically collect signatures. This includes signatures for prescriptions, HIPAA, and credit cards. The e-signatures are saved in the system and may be retrieved for audits or reporting as needed.
This software also has a mobile delivery system that allows the pharmacy to keep track of all shipments received digitally.
Document Management
BestRx makes document management simple by allowing your team to scan and import papers straight into the system. Furthermore, the papers may be retrieved at the press of a button. The papers are securely kept and backed up on an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant cloud server.
Conclusion
Most pharmacy POS systems include various features to help your drugstore increase sales and efficiency.
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