By Author admin

What is omni-channel retail? 15 of the best solutions for omnichannel success

With omni-channel retail (or omnichannel commerce) brands utilise multiple marketing channels to create a single user experience and sell their products both offline and online.

Access to internet-connected mobile devices has transformed shopping into a 24/7 activity across multiple channels. Omni-channel is a “multichannel” approach to sales that focuses on providing seamless customer experience across all channels.

There are 4 key channels:

  1. Online store
  2. Marketplaces (amazon, ebay, etc)
  3. Social (facebook, instagram, youtube, snapchat, etc)
  4. Physical store (or pop-up stores)

To be successful in retail you need to show your product wherever consumers are spending their time. When retailers own all these channels it enables cashflow 24/7 from multiple different sources and devices.

You need to keep customers moving around within your ecosystem, with each channel working in harmony to nurture more sales and engagement. Omni-channel marketing is about providing a cohesive, seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels.

An example with Jane:

Jane is 22 years old and travelling home on the bus from university. She is browsing Instagram when she sees an influencer wearing a beautiful dress she likes. She clicks on the image and there is a link to view the item on an online store. On the store she watches a video of a model doing a catwalk in the dress and loves it even more. She can see reviews from happy customers that they love the dress so she adds to cart. She has an event tomorrow night so she selects same day delivery. She arrives home and 1 hour later her new dress arrives. She tries it on but unfortunately the size isn’t perfect. She jumps online and looks for a local store with the right size in stock. The next day she jumps in her car and heads into the store and is pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to in-store exchange the online item to the correct size. While there she sees some amazing shoes that match the dress. She tries them on but unfortunately they don’t have her size in-store. The store assistant uses her iPad to find another store that has her size in-stock and she places a ship-from-store order from another state and the shoes will be delivered to Jane’s home tomorrow. Jane couldn’t be happier! The following night after her shoes arrive she gets dressed in her new outfit and posts an image on facebook tagging the store and thanking them for their service. Jane didn’t realise at the time though the store rewards anyone who tags them on social so she automatically earned a loyalty point which she was notified by on email. She clicked the link to review how the rewards work and could see she now has 10% discount on her next purchase, so she will go back in-store tomorrow for that bag she liked … to be continued. 

As you can see from Jane’s journey there was a SOCIAL > WEB > STORE > SOCIAL > WEB > STORE omni-channel experience.

The journey of an omni-channel shopper is spread across bricks and mortar stores, social media, apps, desktops and mobile devices.

digital-mirrorPhoto: Ralph Lauren’s New York City flagship store scans items the shopper wants to try on, which are then displayed on the interactive mirror in their dressing room.

Rethink your offline and online experience

You need to rethink what your physical store experience will be in the future. Build relationships with customers by offering workshops, complimentary makeovers, touchscreens for efficient product testing, etc.

Your online experience should allow shoppers to watch tutorials, find stock availability and their closest store, track rewards, virtually try-on products, create wish lists, read reviews etc.

Shoppers want a seamless engagement, consistent messaging, and the ability to control the purchase process based on their own needs, availability, and preferences.

15 omni-channel solutions:

  1. Provide “click and collect” (customers order online and pick-up in store). Display integrated in-store stock visibility.
  2. Provide “ship from store” (retailers use stock from physical stores to fulfil online orders)
  3. Provide “endless aisle” (enable customers in your physical stores to virtually browse/order products that will be shipped to their home)
  4. Reward social sharing and reviews of in-store purchases
  5. Provide digital mirrors (scanned items displayed on interactive mirror with social share option)
  6. Give in-store staff iPads for digital experiences in-store
  7. Develop suburban distribution centre spaces for speed of delivery (Same-day or next-day). Focus on simplicity and efficiency of delivery.
  8. Provide an easy returns process (including in-store from online)
  9. Provide multi-channel loyalty and gift card usage
  10. Consolidate data from across channels and systems into an integrated customer profile
  11. Use Analytics to provide real-time insights so you can provide the most relevant experiences across all channels
  12. Integrate channels (eg allow shop online from social media)
  13. Provide useful mobile functionality for a better in-store experience (eg compare, wish-list, reviews, videos, etc)
  14. Use profile data to orchestrate digital and offline experiences that are consistent and targeted to the right audience.
  15. Remember returning customers from any channel and provide a personalised experience, allow repeat purchase, quick checkout, etc.

A cohesive omnichannel strategy enables you to deliver the experiences customers want, leading to stronger brand loyalty, higher retention rates and lower churn rates.

To achieve omni-channel success you need to partner with an experienced digital agency to help you setup and integrate your systems (eg Order Management System (OMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Information Management (PIM) etc, with your commerce platform (eg Magento, Shopify etc) and the best suite of marketing and analytics tools to provide automated personalised experiences across every channel.

acidgreen have been specialising in digital commerce for over 20 years and were pioneers and innovators of omni-channel commerce in Australia. If you would like to learn how acidgreen can get your business omni-channel enabled simply contact us.

 

By Author admin

Magento Commerce B2B vs Bigcommerce B2B

What is the best B2B commerce platform?

 

Traditional eCommerce is Business-to-Consumer (B2C) where a retail store provides products directly to consumer. When a wholesaler sells their products to retailers or manufacturers, this is called Business-to-Business (B2B).

Frost & Sullivan expects that B2B ecommerce will hit $6.6 trillion by end 2020. In a 2020 survey, 41% of B2B retailers expect to grow their online channel by more than 25% this year.

In this article today we will battle two great commerce platforms who offer B2B functionality… Magento Commerce and Bigcommerce.

FIGHT!

SaaS v PaaS

BigCommerce is a SaaS cloud-based solution and Magento is a PaaS open source solution.

SaaS (Software as a Service), also known as “Cloud”, utilises the internet to deliver applications which are managed by a third-party vendor.  The key advantage of SaaS is that it reduces the time and money spent on installing, managing, and upgrading software. SaaS products though generally offer minimal customisation and lack of control.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) delivers a framework to build upon and to create customised applications. All servers, storage, and networking can be managed by the enterprise or a third-party provider while the developers can maintain management of the applications.

Magento’s open approach is key to merchants being able to deliver differentiated commerce experiences and Magento has an extensive ecosystem which is a core differentiator and source of continued innovation.

Magento is also open source so allows complete flexibility and customisation. This is why Magento is typically the go-to for scalability and flexibility.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) volume

Bigcommerce says that it “empowers your team to build sleek site designs for large catalogues, with customer and pricing segmentation down to the SKU level.”

Bigcommerce though has a maximum SKU per product limit of 600. If you have a large catalogue or plan to grow your business, choosing a platform with SKU limits essentially restricts the upside of your business.

Magento on the other hand does not impose any product limits. Magento can theoretically handle millions of SKUs though anything over 300,000 will require infrastructure investment and optimisation.

Core B2B functionality

Bigcommerce B2B is a suite of 3rd party add-on applications that are pre-integrated with BigCommerce’s core platform. You will need to pay for these services on top of your subscription (eg apruve, brightpearl, bundleb2b, punchout2go, etc). Apruve is required for lines of credit and bundleb2b for corporate account management, bulk orders, etc. In other words lots of what should be standard in an enterprise B2B platform is not and requires additional paid services.

True B2B is unfortunately not included with Bigcommerce plans.

Magento’s included B2B features include:

  • Company accounts with multiple buyers in tiered organisational structures
  • Self-service tools to manage buyer roles and permissions
  • Full order, quote, and invoice tracking for buyers across the company
  • Automated order approval process based on rules set by each company
  • Online sign up for new company accounts
  • Quick order forms and list uploads for buyers who know exactly what they want
  • Saved shopping lists to make repeat purchasing even easier
  • Fast reordering from previous orders with just a couple of clicks
  • Seller-assisted shopping for sales reps to place orders for customers or troubleshoot issues
  • Seamless request-for-quote process for online deal negotiations
  • Punch-out support using partner extensions to serve customers buying from eProcurement systems
  • Customer-specific catalogs and pricing to reflect negotiated contracts
  • Multi-site support to tailor experiences for different brands, audiences, channel partners, or geographies
  • Targeted content and promotions that personalise each visit and boost conversion
  • Drag-and-drop merchandising and content tools to create compelling sites without the help of IT
  • Flexible fulfilment with support for shipping and in-branch pickup

Gartner B2B review

Gartner have concerns with Bigcommerce B2B saying it “still lacks natively some of the more complex customer management functionality. It doesn’t natively support the ability for clients’ customers to set up or manage their departments and cost centers, or create workflow for approvals, budgeting or support/sub-user accounts. It also does not support clients’ abilities to manage their customers’ spending and available credit.”

From the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, Adobe/Magento is a LEADER while Bigcommerce in comparison is lacking in vision and ability to execute.

Forrester Wave B2B review

Adobe/Magento was also named a LEADER in The Forrester Wave B2C and B2B Commerce Suites. They said “Magento Commerce has an above-par, large, loyal, and highly capable delivery ecosystem that Adobe engineering is harnessing to increase its development velocity.”

forrester b2b

Adobe’s top scores were in the criteria of:

  1. Personalization (5 out of 5) – top score
  2. Product Vision & Roadmap (5 out of 5)
  3. Delivery & Extensibility Ecosystem (5 out of 5)
  4. Sales Channel Support (5 out of 5) – top score

Again with B2B Adobe/Magento are LEADERS while Bigcommerce has a weaker current offering and weaker strategy.

Conclusion

While Bigcommerce is making some progress in the B2B space it still lacks natively some of the more complex customer management functionality and true B2B is unfortunately not yet included within Bigcommerce plans.

WINNER: Magento Commerce

Magento/Adobe is a B2B Gartner and Forrester Wave leader allowing compete customistion, flexibility and scalability and is the clear winner today in the battle of B2B commerce.

For consultation on your B2B digital transformation contact acidgreen today.

By Author admin

Responsive Design vs. Mobile Site: Mobile Responsive Design Best Practices

If you are ready to create your first eCommerce website, one of the major decisions you need to make is what type of site you need. This generally means that you need to compare the benefits of a responsive design vs a mobile site. There are, however still many eCommerce companies that have two websites – one for desktops and one for mobile devices.

If this is your situation, there are some very good reasons why you should consider opting for one website that’s responsive, rather than maintaining two different sites. We’ll cover this topic first, then move onto discussing mobile first designs promoted by Google and why this approach is the best responsive design for mobile and tablets for 2020 and beyond. 

Last, we’ll take a look at some of the mobile responsive design best practices that will help to create better experiences for shoppers.

Responsive design vs mobile site – which is best?

There’s one big difference between a responsive website and a mobile website, and that’s the reason they were created. To put it simply, mobile websites were created specifically to be used on mobile phones. They were designed in response to the increase in smartphones that were being used to access the internet during the late 90s. 

Since then, we have seen a rapid increase in the number and types of mobile devices that are used to access the internet, to such an extent that a mobile website is no longer good enough. That’s because mobile websites are designed to open correctly on only one screen size. If the size of the screen changes, it can’t open correctly in the user’s browser. 

As you can imagine, opening correctly on only one screen size isn’t a viable option for most websites. So as the number and size of mobile screens continue to increase (smartphones, iPads, Android tablets, etc.,) a mobile website is now fairly redundant and if you continue to maintain it, you’ll be missing out on a lot of traffic.

Responsive design for mobile and tablets, also called a mobile responsive website, was developed to fill this gap. They are designed to open correctly on any device, regardless of screen size. They are designed with flexible images and fluid grids that size correctly to fill the screen, regardless of device. So they can be opened and viewed on iPads, smartphones and PCs; you can even resize the browser on your PC and watch as the screen becomes smaller or larger, whilst the contents alter so that they can still be viewed easily.

A well designed mobile responsive design should also be able to detect whether the user is using a touch device, and if so, enable swiping between columns. The benefits of a mobile responsive design that’s also adaptive (changing to suit the type of device not just the size of the screen) are obvious. For businesses, you design one website and it works seamlessly across all devices and for shoppers, they are assured a positive experience on every screen.

The rapid rise in mobile responsive websites was given an even bigger boost by Google who decided to prioritise the user experience (UX). Now that you have a better understanding of the responsive design vs a mobile site debate, let’s take a look at the reasons Google is promoting a mobile first approach to web development. 

Mobile-first – The best responsive design for mobile and tablets

In 2016, Google started experimenting with mobile-first indexing and made it the default for all new websites in July 2019. This means that Google now uses the mobile version of a webpage for ranking and indexing purposes, meaning that Google preferentially indexes the mobile version of your website.

So if you still have two websites, using separate URLs for mobile and desktop versions, Google displays the mobile version to mobile users and the desktop version to desktop users. However, it only indexes your mobile pages. Mobile-first isn’t something you can avoid, because Google wants to provide identical experiences to users of mobile devices and desktop computers. 

This means that content viewed on mobile devices and desktops have the same headings, same structured data and the same content. If you purposely upload less content to the mobile version of your webpages, Google will notice, and you’ll likely experience less traffic to this site. An important point to note, however is that mobile usability isn’t the same as mobile-first indexing. This means that if your site passes Google’s mobile usability test, it doesn’t mean that your pages will display correctly on mobile devices. 

So what you need is a mobile responsive design that changes the content on the screen based on the screen size and the device used, enhancing usability. Key features of a mobile responsive design include dynamic content that changes, condensed navigation, optimised images, correct padding and spacing, and a mobile OS. 

To ensure that users have a positive experience when searching the internet, Google has developed a number of mobile responsive design best practices. These best practices are used by developers to create a website that adheres to a mobile-first approach. This ensures that your customers can use any device to access your website and that Google can easily index and rank your site. 

6 Mobile responsive design best practices

The majority of Google’s best design practices are concerned with creating the same experience on both mobile devices and desktops. Below you will find some of these best practices that help to ensure your website offers the best experiences to your customers.

1. Keep important elements within reach

Most of us hold our mobile phones in one hand and use our thumb to navigate around a web page. This means that you need to keep important elements within reach of the customer’s thumb. These elements include your CTAs (call to actions) and other important links. For example, it’s easier to place the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, as this makes it easier to reach with a thumb.

2. Ensure your main CTA is still visible

Most websites have their main CTA in the navigation bar. For example, ‘Learn More’, ‘Free Quote’, ‘Make an Appointment’, ‘Call Now’, ‘Request a Demo’, and so on. On a mobile phone however, this main CTA is often dropped from the main navigation bar, significantly reducing your conversions. This highlights the importance of designing for a mobile audience first and a desktop second

3. Prioritise layouts for mobile devices

The clear difference between a responsive design for mobile and tablets and a desktop computer is the space that’s available on the screen. On a desktop computer there’s plenty of space to lay out your page, showing different paragraphs, tables, sections and blocks. On a mobile phone however, all of these elements will be stacked on top of one another, creating a very long page. For web pages with few elements, this isn’t a big problem, but for pages with lots of elements, including elements that display new information when the curser is hovered over them, it’s a big problem. These pages will be extremely long, and the hover elements won’t work. This is why we use the mobile first approach and design a website with layouts that suit mobile devices, then adapt these designs for desktop computers.  

4. Use SVG not JPG or PNG images

Images on a responsive website need to be scalable, increasing and decreasing their size whilst keeping the image crisp and clear. That’s why you need to use SVG images (scalable vector graphics) and not JPG or PNG images on your mobile responsive website. SVG files load quickly, helping your site to load faster on a searcher’s browser. Whilst using SVG files is recommended, it’s only available for computer generated graphics, not normal photographs. You can get around this issue by providing your developer with all the resolutions used on mobile devices. Your developer can then ensure that any on-page photographs are exported at the correct resolution, depending on the device. It’s a bit more work initially but pays of in the end.

5. Leverage native hardware

Another of the mobile responsive design best practices concerns the mobile’s hardware. That’s because the hardware on mobile phones can be leveraged by mobile responsive websites to increase the usability of their sites, making it more user friendly and increasing UX. Examples include scanning credit cards, sharing photos on social media, two factor identification and checking inventories online. Your developer can code these types of functionality into your mobile responsive design, whilst making them unavailable on websites that open on PCs. The more user friendly your mobile responsive website, the better your rankings and the greater your traffic. 

6. Don’t use popups on mobile responsive websites

The problem with many popups on webpages is that they detract from the user experience, particularly on mobile web pages, where visitors are unable to read the content until they click on the popup. Google doesn’t like anything that reduces UX, so it can reduce the ranking of pages that use popups. Best practice is to disable popups on all mobile webpages, so if the content of the popup is important, we simply add it to a section of the page. 

For more information on mobile responsive designs for your ecommerce website, call Acid Green on 1300 139 658 or send us an email enquiry.