There are some loud rumbles of change in the fintech world. You may have heard them. Bitcoin went through the roof from around AUD$750 to almost AUD$6000 in 12 months. There are new payment options like AfterPay (pay items off in 4 installments) and on-the-fly escrow agreements, ICO’s, crowd funding and smart contracts that are all radically changing the way we do business online.
KND has been digging into a lot of ecommerce this year across platforms like Woocommerce, Magento, Neto, Lemon Stand and custom solutions. We are seeing some extremely sophisticated operations where software is the backbone of the entire sales process end to end – from warehousing, stock management and fulfilment to shipping and front end sales.
Fulfillment services like NP Fulfillment and the new Amazon service are changing the way retailers approach stock and inventory. It allows even micro businesses to operate on an international scale, with less staff and clearer fixed costs.
Conversion Optimisation is now as critical as Search Engine Optimisation. And, with the enormous amounts of data we collect from prospects and customers, we can offer a more personalised service that more accurately targets customer needs. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is going to bring it to a whole new level in coming years, but we’ll save that conversation for another day.
Entry Level eCommerce
There are great entry products online too, like Shopify, Bigcommerce and Wix, but they will only get you so far. They are perfect for getting started cheaply, but have monthly costs from $50 – $150/month plus transaction fees.
Big Boys
The other end of the scale is Magento with integrated software to manage everything from warehousing to point-of-sale. Retailers with complex requirements around variable pricing, multiple levels of wholesale, multiple warehouses, multiple currencies and 10’s of 1000’s of products will need this. One size does not fit all in this instance. We usually create some custom middleware to integrate the various systems.
Middle Ground
And, in the middle, sits the very capable WooCommerce for WordPress. You’ll need to install additional software in order to take donations, manage memberships, multi currencies and most other functions that sit outside a basic shop. However, it’s very easy to use, cheap to run and is very capable at handling some extremely busy and complex sites.
Retail hasn’t changed, just the tools
Ecommerce is rapidly evolving and customers have high standards. New technologies hit the market every day, but it’s easy to get caught up in the tech and miss the basics. The cost of running an online store is significantly cheaper than bricks and mortar, but the business model is the same. The outgoing costs are the same, they just have cooler names.
| Bricks n’ Mortar | Online |
| Shop Fit-out | Custom graphic design User Experience (UX) conversion optimisation |
| Marketing | SEO Social |
| Advertising | Adwords banner ads social ads |
| Customer service | UX communications and system emails fast and cheap shipping clear returns policy |
| Rent, Utilities, Maintenance | Hosting site upgrades security general maintenance. |