When you want to be everything to everyone, you end up confusing your customers. This stems from a lack of focus, direction, and overall brand identity. This is why choosing a solution with features that are tailored to your needs is important. It should enhance what you already do and help you do it even better. Everyone has different priorities for various business situations. An e-Commerce solution should be an extension of your business; you shouldn’t subject yourself to something cookie cutter when your business is unique. Your e-Commerce solution should have features that help you emphasize your values and what makes your business special, be it your unique brand and design, efficiency in delivery and service, or your awesome product lines and expertise. This blog post will help you make sense of the many features and benefits offered in e-Commerce solutions today. Whatever your business priorities are in e-Commerce, here’s what you need to look for in an ERP (Dynamics NAV Business Central) integrated e-commerce solution. Read More
Standing Out in a Saturated E-Commerce Market
Standing out by bringing your business online is not enough; it used to be that being online gave you the leg up. But with technology advancing at such a fast pace, the e-Commerce market is becoming more saturated with more competition than ever. The benefits of being online are clear and everyone wants in. Now the challenge is to stand out by excelling in the industry where a lot of the competition is neck and neck – it comes down to what differentiates you as a company (your unique sales proposition, your target, your strong points) and how you convey that in your e-Commerce site.
Having an e-commerce website doesn’t mean it’s its own entity – it’s an extension of your brand and company. It should also be an extension of your ERP (like Microsoft Dynamics Business Central NAV). Here are some ways you can stand out with an integrated webshop solution. Read More
Ways to Improve Customer Webshop Experience When Timing isn’t Right
Getting e-Commerce sales can be tricky because you have your own timeline while your customers have theirs. They operate on their motivations with varying states of urgency. Suffice to say, the timing isn’t always right. For the customer, the reasons could range from not the ideal price and insufficient content and research. On the business side, it generally means you are in between items (not currently in stock for seasonal reasons or just out of stock of a popular item). The e-Commerce industry moves quickly and having some strategies in place to mitigate the “bad timing” situation can go a long way to smooth out what might be negative situations for customers. Read More
Meaningful e-Commerce Experiences Start with ERP Integration
The e-Commerce experience is made up of a combination of technology, people, process, and interaction. When this is done well, it can drive higher revenues, improve your working culture, and create a loyal customer and partner relationship. What really makes a standout e-Commerce experience, for both customers and business users, is integration. When integration is used as part of your overall business and is at the core of your overall e-Commerce strategy, it helps you create positive change by advancing technology and business processes, and helps to attract and retain customers. Your business will run cohesively, efficiently, and intuitively. Read More
Delighting the Customer vs Decreasing Problems in B2B eCommerce
As individuals or businesses, we all look to improve. In e-Commerce, this could mean making business processes more efficient or improving customer experience in various ways, from simplifying product search to providing even more relevant information. However, sometimes efforts to improve could be taken for granted by the customer; the more above and beyond customer expectations we go, the more it becomes the new standard. While improving by adding more features and options to the online shopping experience to meet high expectations is something we should always do, decreasing problems may have a bigger and longer lasting impact. Read More
Amazon Might be Goliath, But Your Online Business Can Be David
Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants is a fascinating look at how the underdog can win in business. Gladwell challenges us to think of different ways to battle the Giant.
The story of David and Goliath is an example of fighting your opponent in a different way than they are expecting. For example, Goliath is a 6 foot nine warrior covered in heavy armor that he expects will protect him in close combat. David, on the other hand, is not playing by Goliath’s rules. He dresses lightly for agility, is small of stature, and notices that there is one vulnerable spot on Goliath’s forehead not covered by armor.
David’s prior experience as a Shepherd helped him hone skills in slinging stones to protect his sheep from fierce predators like lions and bears. Gladwell states, “David and Goliath is a book about what happens when ordinary people confront giants.”
Courageous David slings his stones straight at Goliath’s one vulnerability, his forehead, and slays the Giant because Goliath didn’t expect it.
The book is packed with stories of people who faced huge challenges and were forced to respond. Their stories are similar to the fierce challenges that online retailers face when competing with Amazon.
Going International – Is Your B2B E-Commerce Solution Ready?
Globalization is an on-going challenge for businesses in international markets and e-Commerce adds another layer of complexity and more factors to consider. There is increased reach with the digitalization of the shopping experience, but customers still expect a consistent, though not identical, experience no matter where they are in the world and no matter what device they use. Adapting to different cultures, audiences, trends, local currencies, and holidays takes some finesse, experience, and technical expertise to pull it off gracefully and seamlessly. Read More
WEBINAR: E-Commerce as a natural extension of MS Dynamics NAV | June 21, 2:00 pm (Eastern Time)
See E-Commerce for NAV in action and how to improve the overall experience for both business users and customers. You’ve got untapped potential; you know Dynamics NAV; we’ll teach you how to make the most of what you got.
The Nav-to-Net™ e-Commerce suite of solutions caters to every business need: B2B, B2C, Sales Agent Portals and Vendor Portals. It is built with Responsive Design and has multiple integrations that make e-Commerce simple to use and manage within your Dynamics NAV.
If you are unable to attend the webinar, you can sign up for a personalized demo and have all your questions answered.
Parametric Search – A Customer Snapshot
For businesses with extremely large product catalogues, search functions are their bread and butter. It helps define the customer experience, from browsing and exploring various product lines, finding a very specific item, to narrowing down and filtering the catalogue to see a selection of relevant items. Well-managed website search correctly identifies items the customer is looking for and meeting their expectations. In the first of our “Customer Snapshot” series, we’ll be showing how real-life customers of Digital Vantage Point use specific Nav-to-Net™ features like parametric search to great success as examples and as inspiration. Read More
Help Me Help You – “Self-Service” Features in e-Commerce
If you want it done right, do it yourself. Some of us feel duty bound to that philosophy as it gives us a sense of control; we know exactly what is needed, our own personal preferences and motivations, and how to get to where we want. Before the days of e-Commerce websites, having the customer do things themselves was generally considered to be bad. Why? With their lack of resources, knowledge, and tools, there are things customers can’t readily manage; there are so many roadblocks in the overall process. It’s also probably implies you’re not doing a good job in anticipating the needs of customers to help them. It is always in the company’s best interest to help customers.
Now with technology and e-Commerce changing how things are bought, sold, and managed, there is so much that can be done. There is now a large amount of information at the customer’s fingertips. In order to do “self-service” successfully, there needs to be an element of control. From the small details that a customer wants to manage in the front end to the boundaries that the company set ups by managing the roles and permissions and guidelines in the back end. Read More