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Tag: Shopify

  • Bharati Balakrishnan joins Shopify India as country head and director

    Bharati Balakrishnan joins Shopify India as country head and director

    Mumbai: Global e-commerce company Shopify has appointed Bharati Balakrishnan as country head and director to spearhead its business in India. 

    Balakrishnan will be leading a growing team that will continue to focus on supporting made-in-India companies of all sizes and flavours on their journey to becoming leading global DTC brands. She will leverage her deep ties with the Indian e-commerce and start-up communities to strengthen Shopify’s robust ecosystem of partners and developers as a key source of tailored apps and tools to help merchants start, scale, grow and manage their businesses, said the statement.

    She joins Shopify with more than 15 years of experience in various roles at global management and tech firms including Alibaba, Bain & Co, Future Group, and Paytm. Her skills in building national brands from the ground-up, coupled with broad expertise straddling brick-and-mortar, distribution, e-commerce, and India’s burgeoning start-up ecosystem, will help drive Shopify India’s continued growth.

    “I have three simple goals – reinforcing Shopify’s position as the go-to commerce platform for Indian businesses of all sizes, strengthening its reputation as a merchant-first platform, and growing Shopify’s key merchant and partner relationships,” said Balakrishnan on her new role.

  • Make your online business Work

    Make your online business Work

    It’s no good really having an online business that doesn’t do well. You want your online business to flourish and to rake in sales and revenue while you sleep.

    Today’s consumers are disgruntled, hard-to-please people, and somehow you’ll have to let them see that what you’ve got to offer is something wonderful, something that will delight them.

    Know what you want to sell

    Once you’ve done all the planning, and your online business is up and running, how can you be sure to set your business on a course for future success? Starting an online business requires you first knowing what you’re going to sell and to whom.

    Also, pricing is most important and you’ll have to do market research and benchmark against competitors on what is a fair price. And what about invoicing? How many entrepreneurs don’t struggle to get paid on time? There are luckily online apps for easy accounting and invoicing, but what happens when you’re at a loss as to how to actually get started with your online business? It’s jolly hard work and there’s a whole lot of things that need to be done at the right time to make it work.

    Get a solid foundation for future online success

    It’s why Shopify, an eCommerce platform makes it so easy for you to set up your online store. It’s a leading commerce platform that can be of assistance to businesses of all sizes.

    Assuming that you’ve chosen products to sell, the next step is –

    • Finding suppliers. With dropshipping you don’t hassle with upfront inventory costs or shipping logistics because with dropshipping, products are sent directly to your customers from the wholesaler.

    • When it comes to choosing a domain name, it has to be a name that is unforgettable and that represents your niche ideally.

    • You’ll also need to create a marketing plan and use it to achieve your marketing goals. This marketing plan is important because it guides your business and helps you understand its goals in terms of financial reports, what services it offers, what its sales reports look like. It will help you see what can work and what won’t work for your online business.

    Your plan should also include a summary outlining who your direct competition is and what advantages you have over them.

    • Blogging too, is a good way to drive traffic to your store, because customers love to read about the product and services they’re interested in. Writing useful content and putting it on various channels gives a good chance for promoting your product.

    • You want to know how to actually reach your true, interested customers and you’ll discover how to with Search Engine Optimization – SEO – or on social media.

    It’s all so easy

    Whatever your online business is – music, pet products, flowers, jewelry or something else, the platform can help you sell your products. Simply read their terms of service and benefits because they’re there to launch and manage your online store, allowing beginners to create an online store without coding, without software installation and without hosting services.

  • Want to be an e-retailer? Then, click here

    Want to be an e-retailer? Then, click here

    MUMBAI: The world is moving online; today with a click of a button people can shop, pay bills and get entertained.

     

    Every business model today is or plans to ride the digital wave, but not many have been able to crack the code. There are many who have spent lakhs to set up the online business but haven’t been able to generate the right buzz amongst its target audience or generate enough revenue to sustain the competitive market.

     

    According to Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the e-commerce market saw a jump of 33 per cent to Rs 62,967 crore in 2013 as compared to previous year’s Rs 47,349 crore. Also, currently, there are over 2.5 crore online buyers in the country and still counting.

     

    To cater to this need, new online portals are launched every now and then, thus making the sector highly competitive. And like how everyone once in a while needs a godmother, Rage Communications with the launch of Ystore has just done that.

     

    The new offering is a comprehensive e-commerce platform to enable retailers to go online with significant ease.

     

    “The success of large e-commerce sites such as Flipkart, eBay and Amazon in India is driving interest in various categories. Retailers from almost all consumer product industries have shown keen interest. In particular, clothing, jewelry, home accessories and lifestyle product retailers are most excited and several online stores have already been launched,” says Rage Communications director JRK Rao who adds that these are also the categories that are most suited for online commerce.

     

    It works on two business models. First, it builds a store either using the YStore platform, or any other commercially available e-commerce platform. Typically, there is a one-time fee for the design, development, and deployment of the store, followed by a nominal quarterly management fee to cover routine store maintenance functions.

     

    The second one works on a very reasonable monthly license fee basis. A single monthly charge covers all initial set-up costs, and all future software upgrades as they are made available. This makes it relatively easy for small retailers to enter the online commerce space at minimal cost.

     

    The 200 professionals in technology, design, user experience and business analysis provide a range of services to its clients.

     

    It includes store-front design using pre-designed templates, or fully customised layouts, implementation of all commerce features, from the basic to the most advanced features that are offered by high-end commerce sites, creation of the initial catalog of products for sale, managing taxes, shipping charges, payment gateway for credit card and bank transactions, order tracking, gift registry, inventory, merchandising, integration with external marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, affiliate marketing sites, and more.

     

    Apart from that, it will also help clients to optimise performance across devices – laptops, tablets and smartphones, search engine optimisation, ongoing search marketing, database marketing, email marketing, leads management, online customer service, detailed analytics covering site traffic, user experience and sale conversions, server optimisation for efficient site performance and ongoing content and catalog management (if required by e-tailer).

     

    The company which has offices in Chennai, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney already has over a dozen e-commerce sites on board – using both YStore and other commerce platforms.  A few among those are: soakandsleep.com –a premium bed and bath products; parisera.com – handcrafted products for women; strandofsilk.com – contemporary Indian designer wear and thejus.com – gold and multi plated gift articles among others.

     

    As per online space watchers, there are many factors driving the e-commerce industry worldwide. Penetration of smartphones and internet amongst tier II and III cities is slated to be the main cause behind it. Ready availability of inventory at a central warehousing location and for retailers the ability to reach customers anywhere and at any time are just a few others pointed out by them.

     

    Having said that, they also believe that apart from YStore there are many platforms, like Shopify and Browntape that help retailers sell online. “So, what’s important is how you’re able to be different from each other and how you’ve been able to master your particular niche. This is already a crowded sector, and any new entrant will need to significantly differentiate itself from the dozens of other companies who have been here successfully for years,” points out Seedfund managing partner Mahesh Murthy.

     

    Nonetheless, researchers and analysts agree that e-commerce will continue to grow in a practically limitless manner, for a wide range of product categories. In the years to come no retailer can survive without harnessing the reach and power of the internet.