Selling Online – With Magento and Other Channels

If you’re considering to set up an online storefront using which you would like to sell your products or services, then the e-commerce platform you choose to power it is an important consideration. An e-commerce platform should not only offer all the shopping cart features but also give you the inventory management tools, the online transaction processing and other useful resources that can take your store to the next level.

One such e-commerce platform is Magento. Magento, an open source e-commerce platform, provides a flexible shopping cart system and other functionalities that can control the appearance, the content of an online shopping.

That’s not all. It is actually a multi-selling channel that provides you with an internet marketing tool that uses SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and catalog management tools that are very powerful. Here are some features of Magento:

Built-in analytics and reporting tool

You can use this tool to monitor your consumer trends. If you would like to understand your customers, then you’ll have to monitor their purchasing trends. You can then craft a strategy that works for your business. This tool can help you to determine the sales, the best-reviewed products or services, total sales that have been invoiced and reports among others.

Powerful catalog management tool

Catalog management tool allows you to export and import your products using offline batches. You can even integrate any third-party back-office systems with it. You just approve/disapprove the imports, product-by-product or in batch. You can even edit the product tags and configure RSS feeds and alerts for the low inventories.

It provides you with a customer account option.
The customer account options are included in this e-commerce platform to help you save the unlimited customer addresses in your address book. Your customers also get the chance to save the items in a wish list, which can be shared with families and friends.

It provides you with order management feature.
You can use this feature to view the orders, edit the orders, create the orders or even fulfill the using the admin panel of the platform’s dashboard. It can also help your customers to re-order their previous orders from their account in a seamless manner.

It has a shipping feature.
If you’re looking for a platform that can configure your online store according to best shipping practices, then look no further. Magento provides a real-time integration system with the shipping service providers such as UPS.

It supports payment gateway platforms such as PayPal and Amazon.
There is a seamless integration with the major payment gateway platforms. This feature can allow you to accept the checks or even money orders from your customers.

It has SEO capabilities that can help you attract more traffic to your e-commerce website.
You can use this feature to re-write the URLs that can help you improve your site’s ranking on a search engine. You can also use this tool to auto-generate the popular search terms on search engines.

It supports multiple languages.
The user interface of Magento can be translated in over 60 languages. This provides a global platform through which you can grow your business.

It supports multi-store
Magento allows you to setup multiple websites, if you want, on the same backend and inventory. This can be very useful if you want to have niche websites for your products.

Magento Strengths

Why is Magento a better platform compared to other e-commerce platforms such as the Shopify,  Volusion,  BigCommerce or any other platform? Well, there’s a lot that you can learn about this e-commerce platform. Here are the advantages of Magento over other e-commerce platforms:

It has an intuitive and a visual-based page editor which can allow you to create and customize your items easily. Even if you are a newbie in this platform, you can still use this e-commerce platform because of the intuitive user interface. It supports mobile phones. If there’s one e-commerce platform that seamlessly integrates with smartphones, then it’s Magento. More people have shifted from desktop computers to mobile computers. Magento supports integration with smartphone allowing these users to make their orders using their phones.

It has an advanced SEO. These techniques that can help you to attract more traffic to your e-commerce website by improving your site’s ranking on a search engine. It supports third party integration plugins. You can link up this platform with the EBay, the PayPal, the Mail Chimp, the Google Shopping and the QuickBooks.

It has a very large community. Magento is open source and, therefore, a large community of merchants from different countries have found it useful in their business. You too can join this community. It is free. While other e-commerce platforms are commercial, Magento is completely free. Therefore, you will save a lot of money with it.

The order management feature allows you to view the orders, edit the orders, create the orders or even fulfill the using the Admin panel of the platform’s Dashboard. This can also help your customers to re-order their previous orders from their account in a seamless manner.

What about other Selling Channels?

Besides Magento, here are 5 other e-commerce platforms that you can use to set up an online storefront include:

Shopify

The Shopify is an e-commerce platform that’s provided by Amazon to help users manage their businesses easily. Among the features of this platform include:

Handling numerous orders per minute. Accepting payments from multiple payment gateway systems such as the PayPal and the Bitcoin. Provision of service in multiple countries due to support of multiple languages. Improved security. It uses certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant system that provides the same level of security as banks. It has a shipping feature that provides a real time integration system with the shipping service providers such as UPS and FedEx. You can easily migrate to other platforms such as Magento.

The Volusion

This platform comes with a handy dashboard that you can use to add products and customize the look of your website. Here are some features of this platform:

You can plan on migrating to another platform such as Magento or Shopify during the set-up process. It has a fairly improved product generation area where you can add the products easily. It uses certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant system that provides the same level of security as banks. It promotes a stable and scalable eCommerce hosting. So, if you want a hosting company that can host your organization’s data, then you should consider the Volusion.

The BigCommerce

If you’re looking for a simple solution that can jump-start your online business, then the BigCommerce can be of help. This e-commerce platform has the following features:

It accepts payments from multiple payment gateway systems such as the PayPal and the Bitcoin. It has a plethora of social media marketing tools such as Facebook and Twitter. This will help you to drive traffic to your website. It has e-commerce analytic tools that can help you to analyze consumer trends with a specific focus on most reviewed products or total sales. This can help you to craft strategies that appeal to your customers. It supports multiple languages, therefore it can be used in many countries. It has a shipping feature that provides a real-time integration system with the shipping service providers such as UPS and FedEx. You can easily migrate your data to other e-commerce platforms such as Magento.

The Shopping Cart

If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform that can help you set up a multi-channel selling system, then you should consider the Shopping Cart. Besides helping you to set up an online multi-channel selling system, this system has a built-in affiliate app that helps you monitor the behavior of your customers. It also boasts of integration of multiple payment gateway systems such as PayPal and Skrill.

The Wix e-Commerce

Aside from helping people to develop websites free of charge, Wix also provides an e-commerce platform that can help people with catalog and order management functionalities. The Wix e-Commerce has a nice visual editor that allows to add and customize items easily.

Introducing Linnworks & how it integrates you multi-channel sales process

Your customers expect that your e-commerce site should interrelate with any company using any channel. Such channels can be either using a phone or conducting online businesses or just purchasing an online store. The ever expanding e-tailing systems mean that B2C organizations have to allow their customers to access more traditional channels.

Ideally, you should provide your customers with a seamless, integrated system that lets you incorporate the products you’re are creating to multiple retail channels such as eBay, Magento, Amazon, 3D Cart and Zen Cart among others. This results in a multi-channel and Omni-channel retail pages. This will save you a great deal with order management, shipping of service data and updating of inventory levels. So, how do you integrate several channels?

This is where the Linnworks comes in. You can use it to download the orders from the channel that are in one place, mark the orders as they’re shipped on the channel, upload the shipping service data and help the tracking of  numbers in the channel and updating the inventory levels so that they match inventory level. So, how can you integrate several channels using Linnworks?

Here’s how you can use Linnworks to integrate multiple channels:

While on the Linnworks Dashboard, select the “Settings”. Click on the “Channel Integration” link. To add a new selling channel to your Linnworks, click on the “Add” button. This will bring the new screen where you can type the name of the selling channel and click “OK”. To delete a selling channel from your Linnworks, click on the “Delete” button. Confirm the deleting process and click the “OK” button.

By following the above steps, you will be in a position to help your customers with mechanisms to interrelate with any company using any channel that they wish to use.

Conclusion

After looking at different e-commerce platform, you are now thinking: “Why platform is superior?” Now, that’s a good question. Inasmuch as all the e-commerce platform offers the basic utilities of catalog management, order management, and shipping features, it’s important to look at the bigger picture.

The e-commerce that you select a platform that not only provide the basic e-commerce features, but also one that’s free and has been tested and found to be useful—which can take your site to the next level. Honestly speaking, such a platform can only be Magento. So, why only Magento? Here’s why Magento is superior:

It is free. While other e-commerce platforms are commercial, Magento is completely free. Therefore, you will save a lot of money compared to other platforms. It has a very large community. Magento is open source and therefore a large community of merchants from different countries have found it useful in their business. You too can join this community. It supports third party integration plugins. You can link up this platform with the EBay, the PayPal, the Mail Chimp, the Google Shopping and the QuickBooks.

Well, there you have it. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions that you’d like us to answer. We will be glad to respond to your posts.