A marketplace must stand out from the competition to achieve a reasonable solution that would benefit everyone. Many physical stores have been converted to online stores to ramp-up the eCommerce operations. There is a silver lining to the COVID outbreak for the marketplace businesses that flourished throughout the pandemic.
Magento 2 Multi vendor Marketplace extension has several features that will advantage the admin, seller, and the customer. You don’t have to add other modules for raising a ticket or to run a discount deal. The Knowband’s Marketplace module for Magento 2 platform is fully configurable and any non-coder can install it in few simple steps.
Many visitors, guest customers, or current customers face issues while shopping in a marketplace. Not only customers but sellers do face issues and to solve it, you must have a customer seller ticket system. This is not it but with Magento 2 multi-seller marketplace your customer can easily return products.
This article is to highlight the features which make the Magento 2 Multi vendor marketplace a complete package amid the marketplace modules available.
The seller can go on a vacation mode
Yes, you read that right! If a seller wants to take a break from the marketplace then he can. The multi-seller marketplace extension allows the seller to go on vacation mode. The sellers have to raise a request to the admin of the marketplace to temporarily disable their marketplace store after the admin’s approval.
The seller will submit the vacation request from a separate section of the seller’s dashboard. After the approval, the profile will get inactive for that time of vacation.
The single invoice even if the customer shop from different sellers
The invoice management functionality of the Marketplace module for Magento 2 is very useful. The customers will not always like the products from a single seller but they generally buy from different ones.
Getting so many invoices can confuse them so the invoice management process is simplified by the Magento multi-vendor marketplace plugin. The customer will get only one invoice for the order placed in one go.
The seller can run deals on Magento 2 Multi vendor Marketplace
For their products on Magento 2 Multivendor Marketplace, sellers can create several discount coupons. The coupons created will enable the seller to encourage customers to buy more to take advantage of the discounts.
Seller is free to add banners, shop logo, and custom HTML content on the seller page for a separate product range. Seller enhances the exposure of the brand by incorporating banners, logos, and shop info. There is no need for any other module to run deals on a marketplace.
Isn’t it a rewarding feature!
Bulk upload of the products from seller dashboard
What will happen if a seller has to list the products individually? It will take much time and effort for this simple task. Now, the seller can save their time and efforts as the Magento 2 Multivendor Marketplace allows bulk upload of the products.
The seller can upload a product list in .CSV format and this will enlist the products in a few clicks. The Time Saver Module!
Easy return and refund functionality
What happens when a product you bought from an online store does not fit you? Either you will exchange it or raise a return request. What if the eCommerce store does not have a return option? This makes you feel disgusted and you will never look back to that very same website due to the poor customer experience.
With the aid of Magento 2 Multi vendor Marketplace, customers do not need to undertake any special procedure for return/refund/replacement requests. This can be accomplished classically. Even if the consumer purchases the products from different vendors and returns the products of a specific vendor, the invoice will be sent only to that respective vendor.
Customer can raise tickets
Any customer can directly raise a customer-seller request in case of queries or questions regarding products or services. Customers can do it from the front end of the marketplace and see the status of the previous tickets.
Final Words:
The Magento 2 Multi vendor marketplace can be an advantageous platform to start a marketplace as it does not require any additional module to manage the invoices, running deals, or to bulk upload the product list. It helps you handle all the sellers and customer orders effortlessly. Inventories are no more a headache as every seller can manage it from the seller dashboard.
To see the demo you can visit the marketplace website or click here to see the tutorial video. KnowBand team has developed solutions related to every eCommerce business and is always available to assist you with your online business website issues.
The marketplace Module is now available for OpenCart and PrestaShop Platforms.
An eCommerce website development demands expertise, market research, and many other necessary factors that need to be taken care of. There can be two ways you can create an eCommerce website: Develop a website from scratch by coding or create an eCommerce website on existing platforms like OpenCart, PrestaShop, or Magento.
But, your efforts will go in vain if the plan, strategies, marketing scheme, and the website URL is not optimized. So, lookout for a website development company that provides you the best in the industry for your eCommerce business.
Introduction to eCommerce
The eCommerce business is flourishing and has established its roots during the last two decades. Trade started with human communication in prehistoric times and has been carved and molded as time changed. Selling and buying online is the latest business trend followed by millennials.
eCommerce has been a disruptive force in fashion retail, from raising global sales to turning the industry futuristic. There is a sea of opportunities in online businesses and this brings forth a profitable market for start-ups. Brick and mortars and physical stores are choosing to explore and reap the advantages of this booming industry.
eCommerce is a simple and easiest way of expanding business over digital media without owning a physical store. Yes, to start an online business, you don’t require a warehouse or a large space that you usually need for an offline business.
An eCommerce website is not just a means of shopping but it is a modern trend and establishing your identity requires a lot of features and functionalities to sustain and stand out in the market. Payments, shipping methods, product page customization, and return management are the basic requirements of an eCommerce.
This guide will be a complete manual for those who want to start an eCommerce business. But, before that, let us understand the eCommerce business types.
Single vendor: An eCommerce website that is designed for one seller and the product listing, inventory management, payment methods, shipping, and other functions will be handled by the owner himself.
Multi-vendor: A multi-vendor online website or a marketplace is a platform for several sellers where they can sell their products and services. The very first example that is coming to my mind is Amazon. A multi-vendor marketplace involves three entities: Admin, sellers, and customers. All three are interconnected and interdependent.
E-commerce business models:
Before the execution of your master plan, you must know the business models which are most accepted in the eCommerce industry. Website development will be easier if you understand your target audience and your own position in the business.
There has been a lot of debate about four business models for B2C (Business To Consumer), B2B (Business To Business), C2C (Consumer To Consumer), and C2B (Consumer To Business) as the growth of globalization, consumerism, and trade has continued. All these models have gained remarkable success and are discussed here in brief:
B2B– the B2B refers to a model where one business makes a transaction with the other business. For an instance, a manufacturing company will sell the product to a whole seller rather than a consumer. These transactions typically happen in a supply chain.
B2C– when a business generates its revenue by selling its products to the consumer. The business-to-consumer eCommerce platforms are the most common ones. Single and multi-vendor, both can happen to be B2C platforms. The biggest online marketplace Amazon is B2C.
C2B– Consumer to business is exactly the opposite of B2C. If you are a consumer and you have an idea of developing functionality then you can suggest this to a business. Customer reviews and feedback also count in C2B.
C2C– Consumer-to-consumer is a business model that allows customers to make the transaction with another customer. Craiglist, Etsy, and eBay are famous C2C websites.
Now, you have a clear idea about the business models and how they work for an eCommerce. If you want to start a service providing business like personal care, hair and massage, a hotel booking website, or a marketplace then we have solutions to all your demands.
We develop a website that you dreamt about and offer custom website development services for those who already have a website and looking for some personalized solutions. Be it a clothing business or a hotel booking for pets, we will create what you want and provide expert assistance throughout the venture.
Here is a list of benefits an eCommerce has over a retail brick and mortar store. I am sure this will help you if you are still not sure about it.
Part 1: For a decade, KnowBand have been empowering eCommerce businesses
There is an eCommerce Production Company shore, packed with the competitiveness that is significantly growing. If you want to win this race, make sure you remain completely updated about all aspects of eCommerce. That is what we are here for.
KnowBand is serving eCommerce companies for a decade and we are best known as a plugin development company for eCommerce platforms like PrestaShop, Magento, OpenCart, and Shopify. We have a specialized team for custom modules and website development services for online stores.
Hire us to convert your aspiration into reality. Share your project and let us think!
#1. Plan with experts
We give you a chance to discuss your project from the grassroots and plan it with industry experts. You can completely trust us for the best output as we have many happy customers all over the world. We will ensure the number of days it will take with all the expenses and other necessary terms and conditions well before.
Planning is the first step for a project and when it is a website, you need to be precise and peculiar with your needs. As I said, discuss your project and leave the rest to us.
#2. Design and Develop a store
Projects come with varying degrees of complexity within all types, but the design is one feature that all successful projects have in common. Project preparation, then, is about understanding, prioritizing, and allocating the tasks and it requires the resources to establish the foundation for a successful project.
We design your website as you want it. The design of a website is most important as it is responsible for conversions. We surely do not take things for granted when it comes to our customers’ satisfaction. We will develop a fully functional eCommerce website for your business with the best UI and UX, integrated with all possible features according to your requirements.
Our goal is to do right the first time all the time. Now you have discussed the plan and we have a curated solution ready for you. Next comes the execution; the process of putting a decision or plan into effect. Strategic management is considered to be one of every organization’s most critical tasks since it covers the entire spectrum of strategic decision-making of the organization.
We will be there to implement your eCommerce business and help you with attracting the target audience, potential buyers, and provide you matrices to keep an eye on your daily transactions.
We offer comprehensive system maintenance services, including post-implementation assistance, assured repair time, technical oversight, as well as personalized hosting and server management solutions, server virtualization, and cloud storage.
After the website launch, post-deployment support aims to provide continuous technical support. This involves constant work based on existing needs like minor changes, modifications to changing situations, 24/7 assistance from experts, and others.
If you purchase a plugin for your PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, or Shopify platform developed by Knowband, you will be benefitted from 3 months of free support and maintenance assistance. We believe that the customer is king! and our squad always looks forward to solving your issues without delay.
Do you want to build something great together? Click here to submit your requirements.
Part 2: Advantages of Knowband’s Web Development services for eCommerce
It is quite possible to miss out on esteemed opportunities available with the advent of new technology. If one does not have the expertise to tap into these changes, this situation is even worse. Well, this is the scenario for companies that have limited website development and design knowledge.
Let’s face it, website service providers have tremendously changed how online businesses operate. The web development service provider makes the navigation easy. Help your website rank good in Google search i.e. they make it SEO optimized. Help you increase sales with good marketing strategies and make the website design engaging which can do more conversions. Some of the major benefits of an eCommerce website development service provider are discussed in this part of the article.
Superior UI/UX
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, your eCommerce website needs the best UI and UX designs. There is perhaps nothing more important when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of a digital product than ensuring that users have an outstanding user experience. It’s UX and UI are the components of your digital product that make sure this happens.
A superior UI/UX for a PrestaShop website will bring consistency to your eCommerce store pages and the website application. It is important to take care of fonts, color themes, styles, and icons throughout the website. UI and UX design help in building brand credibility. It is been said that customer satisfaction can bring more traffic and improve sales and investing in efficient UI and UX design ensures customer satisfaction.
Mobile-friendly
Responsive web development services enhance the cross-over operation and user experience of a mobile web page over many gadgets and screens. The mobile web opening is also on the hike, as noted and anticipated, so set up your mobile-friendly website and gain an upper hand over the competition.
Improved experience with users.
A mobile-friendly layout makes a website more accessible.
A responsive architecture of websites is cost-effective.
Scalability is an aspect of a scheme, software, or solution, or rather a functional quality. A scalable solution for a system is the one that can accommodate expansion without hindering the existing workflow and guaranteeing an increase in the output or efficiency of the process.
We surely develop websites that can be expanded and customized whenever requires. We even provide scalability to expand your single seller store into an online multi-vendor marketplace.
GDPR Compliant
Is your website GDPR compliant? The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) essentially protects EU citizens against data breaches and misconduct concerning privacy. The new regulation requires organizations to provide information and transparency to EU citizens on how to store and collect their data.
Technology Driven
Technology-driven processes refer to processes that are driven by the potential of the technologies available. In the face of evolving technology, companies are more adaptable, wanting to give them more speed and adaptability.
A cultural identity that recognizes change and innovation is often more inventive, helping create new solutions that perform well in the market.
Our custom solutions are technology-driven that often benefits businesses more substantially from implemented technology, and they also give them marketplace benefits.
Part 3: Custom eCommerce Website Development
Chatbots
Reports say that the website conversions get improved by 23% with the incorporation of chatbots. Chatbots are effective tools for real-time conversions and adding this to your eCommerce website will make a huge difference. The other benefit of giving instant customer support services is that it increases customer engagement.
We provide the best chatbot support system for the PrestaShop platform. We have a readymade solution that connects the eCommerce platform with WhatsApp chat or other social media messengers.
Click here to read the benefits of live chat for an eCommerce.
Powerful Search tool
A customer will be ungratified if you fail to deliver the result they were looking for. A powerful search engine helps your customer to find out the correct product or service when they got stuck in your navigation. We can provide a sturdy search tool for your PrestaShop store to improve the visibility and performance of search results. Text search, voice search, and image search are required in your eCommerce store for giving your customers a better customer journey.
Read these two listed articles to know the importance of a robust search tool.
Pagination is the most boring element of a website when you are shopping online. Customers find it annoying clicking on the ‘next page’ button to see more products and this can become a reason for increased bounce rate. What can be the solution to this problem?
You can add a plugin to your PrestaShop store which will remove this next page hassle and allows the user to scroll infinitely. They will not have to switch the pages during the online purchase.
Is your website allowing you to add custom shipping methods to your eCommerce store? If not then you are in the position of losing some potential buyers due to limited shipping options.
Custom shipping methods let you add multiple (custom) shipping methods to your PrestaShop store.
To check on your sales funnel, you open up your store website, and you find out you have some things to work on.
You know that more customers should be persuaded by your product pages to add your (awesome) products to their carts, but they do not seem to be, and you are not sure why or how to fix it. A product page is the cardinal element of a website.
To design a product page, you need an expert’s hand and we are here to be one that too on a speed dial.
A curated product page for the PrestaShop store can level up your conversion rate and reduce the bounce rate. Our squad takes care of your product, brand, Copywrite issues, and design and user experience.
Refer to these resources for designing a product page and why it is important to have a crafted one.
A PrestaShop store conventionally has a multi-page checkout option which appears to be boring and time taking. While developing a website, it is necessary to design a smooth and user-friendly checkout page.
We have a custom plugin that removes your multiple page checkout page with a super handy, single-page checkout. The One Page Checkout allows guest login, social sign up, custom delivery methods, and adds multiple shipping choices. It has a lot of alluring features that enhance the checkout experience of the customer.
Refer to this article for smooth eCommerce checkout tips.
Multiple Payment Gateways
Shoppers always look for new ways to shop and the eCommerce stores should have the right choices to use them. For new consumers, flexibility is also appealing, so providing various payment methods also translates into more purchases and greater turnover.
Allow COD, credit, and debit card payments or any other digital payment gateway like PayPal makes them more confident while they shop. To keep up the trust, you can add some trust badges on your website. We create a website that allows you to add several payment methods and these increase the conversion rate.
I have listed the top two articles to read for payment methods:
There are so many other options to choose from then why KnowBand? KnowBand provides out of the box solutions for eCommerce platform and website development services. We have 10 years of experience with eCommerce companies and our happy customers are all over the world.
There’s a good reason why we are the best because we give you hand-picked functionalities and integrate them into your eCommerce store. The deep integration with your store-building software will speed up your workflow, in addition to providing the right type of functionality, security, and efficiency.
You can share your project details with us and our proficient team member will contact you to discuss the rest. our email communication details are support@knowband.com or you can drop a comment here if you find this article helpful.
A Service Marketplace builds a bridge between the service provider and the service seekers. The industry is booming and the existence of such companies is providing businesses to many. India’s famous service provider- Urban Company, US-based Upwork, a freelance service provider platform-Fiverr, all are popular Service Marketplaces ruling the industry. We will be discussing these famous service marketplace companies later in the same article.
A service marketplace startup can be an inspiring hyperlocal business idea for aspiring service providers. A website with multiple services will act as a service marketplace. Several services like hose keeping, Auto-cleaning, personal care, fitness training, tutoring, writing, designing, etc. can be started.
How does a Service Marketplace Model Works?
People use a website to buy services from individuals, professionals, or businesses to cater to the need. But the pressing question which arises here is where does the revenue for the marketplace platform come from?
The commission is the key! Service Marketplace runs on the fastest revenue model-commission. There will be three interfaces to establish a business model for a service marketplace:
The Admin: One who owns the website and gets the commission
The service Provider/freelancer: Registered as a service provider like a freelance writer or an electrician. He gets the money from the service seeker by providing the service after the task gets completed.
The Service Seeker/customer: Individual or the benefiter who will be getting the service by paying the service provider.
A marketplace can have some other revenue models too but the commission model is the most lucrative one.
Famous Service Marketplace Companies
Service Marketplace businesses can be established in multiple domains. The services can be categorized according to the industry and niche.
Fiverr is a freelance service marketplace for business. It offers 300+ digital services across the world. It is one of the most popular freelance service marketplace businesses.
Upwork is another Service Marketplace Company where you can find the right freelancer or agency for your project. It is the world’s largest hiring platform that connects professional freelancers and savvy companies.
Companies like Fiverr and Upwork are making a profit out of every transaction that occurs on their site. This revenue model is named commission and is the most popular marketplace monetization strategy.
Urban Company: With 30000 + skilled service professionals near you, Urban Company is expanding in many countries to meet all your needs-home maintenance, appliance & electronic repairs, beauticians, and much more.
Hyperlocal Service Marketplace
If you want to try your business idea on the hyperlocal service marketplace, find a fast, inexpensive, and simple way to test it with real users.
The market size of hyperlocal services was projected at $1,324.2 billion in 2019, reaching $3,634.3 billion by 2027, showing a CAGR of 17.9 percent from 2021 to 2027.
Due to a lack of time and domestic assistance, home moving services have gained considerable popularity in the urban cities, and associated benefits such as service can be booked at one click, enhanced payment getaway, and real-time tracking, which further adds to the growth of the hyperlocal services industry.
For low investment hyperlocal business ideas and a better understanding of hyperlocal marketplace business, you can refer to our previous blog posts.
Establishing a Hyperlocal Service marketplace isn’t easy but with the help of experts and professionals, it can be done. You can make us your expert in your new journey. There are some modules available on the Knowband store which can help you start a hyperlocal service business. These modules are compatible with other modules and you can immediately start your hyperlocal service marketplace with the combination of these.
1. Multi-Vendor Marketplace:
KnowBand provides Multi-Vendor Marketplace Addon to help eCommerce store owners build their own marketplace for sellers who can sell their goods to consumers.
Marketplace extension’s Main Features are:
Easy seller monitoring and management
Proficient seller dashboard
Manage sellers’ commissions
Effortless Category and Product Management
Compatible with a mobile app and other modules
Refer to the product page of the Multi-Vendor Marketplace for a better understanding of the module. This module is available for PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, and Magento 2.
To handle on-demand bookings and book daily/hourly rental products you can add the Booking and Rental System Module to your PrestaShop or OpenCart store.
It can help you start your on-demand service business with ease.
Customers can book services or online products with flexible schedules
Easily manage appointments
Perfect for hotel bookings with all necessary features
Facilitates hourly and daily rental management
3. Hyperlocal Marketplace
Hyperlocal Marketplace is the one-stop solution for your new business startup. Even if you are an owner of an existing eCommerce website for PrestaShop, by adding the Hyperlocal Marketplace module you can start delivering in your vicinity by adding parameters like location and distance range.
Hyperlocal Marketplace module has some amazing features which will allow you to manage your marketplace as admin. With the seller interface, sellers can add as many products as they want to. Since a marketplace admin earns by the commission or subscription revenue models, it allows you to add multiple sellers.
Key benefits of Hyperlocal Marketplace to admin and seller:
Admin can manage sellers easily
Sellers can add geo-locations where they can ship
Allows customers to check product availability in their geographic location.
Hyperlocal Service Marketplace is one platform for many sellers who can provide different services. Hyperlocal is getting more attention because many people are less likely to go out these days while others are carelessly going out in the world. Also, these hyperlocal sellers can deliver the service or product on-time as compared to big brand eCommerce companies. Most importantly, customers know the trusted sellers or store owners in their neighborhood. I can see tremendous opportunities in the market for Hyperlocal Service Marketplace.
If you are sure about this then don’t waste this golden time. Go Work!
Was this article helpful? You can drop a comment below or write to us at support@knowband.com for any eCommerce assistance.
The marketplace is the only platform where you can find all the required stuff under one roof just like ‘Amazon’-the world’s largest online marketplace. The opportunity in the marketplace business is at the peak and after the pandemic, many start-ups around the globe are taking a lot more interest in the marketplace business model.
There can be two ways one can build or create their own multi-seller marketplace.
From the scratch by coding: by developing marketplace software using coding languages like PHP or other.
On an existing eCommerce platform like Magento, PrestaShop, Shopify, Opencart, WooCommerce, etc.
The former needs lots of money and technical expertise while the latter can be done without any professional coder. If you are a beginner then you must use the existing eCommerce platform rather than starting from scratch. The best solution to create one is Knowband’s Magento 2 Marketplace module which is developed by professional coders with all the technical expertise. We have added several unique features and tailored the extension in a way that it can satisfy the demands of the admin, vendor, and the customers in all possible way.
1. Who can sell on Magento 2 Marketplace?
Marketplaces are the platform where third-party sellers offer their products for sale. And, Marketplace module for Magento 2 allows anyone, literally anyone to register as a seller. The front end of the Magento Marketplace has a seller registration page from where any visitor can register as a vendor.
The seller request needs the approval from admin and once it is done, sellers can sell!
2. Add Several Membership Plans
After the seller registration, the seller has the choice to opt for a membership plan. You can create several membership plans based on the number of products a seller can upload and the valid number of days like a monthly plan or yearly plan for which the plan will be activated.
The store owner can charge some amount to sellers as membership fees.
3. The vendor can manage Inventory
In order to start selling in minutes and control their inventory within your marketplace, your sellers should add their own products. In Magento 2 Marketplace extension, each seller has its own order control panel called a seller dashboard for handling customer orders, and customers can buy from several sellers at once.
The product list for the in-stock product can be auto-updated as it has inbuilt cron functionality.
4. The seller can upload Products in bulk
The bulk upload of the product list is possible with Magento 2 Marketplace Module and the seller can upload .CSV file from the dashboard. This will reduce the extra time spend on product listing and this can be done effortlessly.
5. Order handling by both admin and sellers
Both the owner and the associated seller would be handling the orders placed on the marketplace. The vendor can see the orders in the seller dashboard, while the admin can see all the orders in the admin panel of the Magento 2 marketplace module. You can change the order status, mark an order as shipped, pending, etc.
Furthermore, the store owner may decide to allow or forbid the sellers from handling the orders with the help of Magento 2 Multi-vendor marketplace module.
6. The shipping system
The seller can add shipping options: The Magento 2 Marketplace module enables sellers to integrate their own shipping options. With the aid of this, they can add many shipping options to their goods and chart them.
Admin can add shipping options: The module also helps the administrator of the store to add different shipping options for the sellers.
7. Payment flow structure
Making the on-time payment is an issue when there are many sellers but cron automated payment functionality releases the burden completely from the admin’s head.
The store owner may enable automatic seller payouts that automate the payment request process. Admin may either use cron URLs for this setup or use the “Process Paypal Payout Status” cron directly.
Also, the sellers are entitled to make payout requests for the balance. The admin can approve the payout requests manually with a single button click, making it easy for the admin to manage the Magento 2 Marketplace operations.
8. Effortless Commission Management
The sellers’ commission can be configured by the admin on three levels.
Global commission: All marketplace sellers will be subjected to the Global Commission Rate. For instance, if you add 20% as global commission then it will be fixed for every seller and every product listed on the marketplace.
IndividualSeller Commission: The commission fee can be charged differently on the seller level for individual sellers on the Magento 2 Marketplace.
The priority is set to the seller wise commission option.
Category Wise Commission: Third and the last way to charge the commission is category wise. Store admin can set the default commission on the categories.
The admin can see the commission earned order wise from every seller.
9. Default email templates
It is necessary to notify the sellers and customers about the order updates on time. There are several default email templates in the marketplace modules for the Magento 2 platform that are pre-crafted for sending different updates.
We listed several email templates in our Magento 2 marketplace module’s backend which can be used for sending notifications to sellers and customers. Using this plugin, the admin can edit any email template right from the admin panel. Multiple languages support all the email templates.
10.Versatile Approach and compatibility
The module is compatible with all Magento 2 themes. It supports multiple languages that can help you sell globally. Many Magento 2 extensions are compatible with Magento 2 Multi-vendor marketplace module. You can even create your mobile app using Magento 2 Mobile App Builder.
More to offer:
There are various seller details that can be monitored by admin like best-selling products, product and seller reviews, transactions, earnings, orders received by individual sellers, and much more. The marketplace module has many other features that can help you create a marketplace on Magento 2 platform. Refer to the user guide or the video tutorial for the same.
Final Words:
It’s becoming easier to build an online marketplace, and with accessibility comes stiff competition. However, that’s nothing to be afraid of. You will make your marketplace site stand out from the crowd and beat the competition with the best blend of techniques for what you’re offering. Knowband’s marketplace solution can help you launch your online marketplace from the beginning to the end.
Now you know the important features of the Magento 2 Multi-vendor Marketplace module and I hope this article was helpful to you. Drop a line in the comment section if you like it or write to us at support@knowband.com if you need any assistance in creating your marketplace.
The trends in the business industry change every day hence no businesses have attained perfection. It is okay if sales are dropping on a day and the bounce rate has increased but it becomes a snag if you cannot do something about it. Sometimes the increase in bounce rate for eCommerce is due to shipping charges. Is there any way we can reduce shipping cost? Yes, We can!
If increasing rates isn’t in the cards, and you want to cut down the cost then these pro tips can help you potentially reduce shipping cost. Optimize your products on the eCommerce store and practice these methods to make your product affordable for you and your customer.
1. Change your packaging material
The packaging material is a major factor that affects the shipping cost but by changing the material a merchant could save a lot. Shipping charges depend upon the size and weight of the material you are using for packaging. You can always go for a small-sized box made with a lighter material to reduce shipping cost. Alternatively, you can switch to a poly mailer or a padded bubble wrapped poly bag and avoid the extra cost.
2. Take help of regional carriers
By decreasing the shipping distance with the help of regional distributors an eCommerce store owner can save some pennies. A bulk order can be shipped to one place for a particular zone or region.
An app like ‘Product Availability Check by Zipcode’ can be used by the store owners while uploading the product. The admin can map zones with zip codes for different geographic locations.
To reduce the shipping cost bulk orders can be sent to the regional distributor who will ship the product to its right destination
3. Waive off the shipping cost with in-store pickup
In recent days, to avoid the shipping time delay and to get the product by the earliest customer started opting for the in-store pickup option. This feature benefits both the merchant and the customer. It increases impulse buy opportunities, fewer returns, and cut down the shipping cost for the merchant. Consumers get the benefit of click and collect too by saving the extra cost which is meant to be spent on shipping and they can collect the order as per their convenience. This is a win-win option for both parties.
4. Merchant can do liaising with the supplier
Liaising with the supplier will reduce shipping cost for the merchant. The owner can ask for lower delivery fees with this. The extra transportation cost will be reducing it to nearly half the price and this is most applicable to high-value products. Always try to negotiate with your suppliers to get good deals.
5. Cut down the cost by taking prepaid shipping services
Various third-party carriers offer prepaid shipping services where they provide good deals and discounts. Prepaid shipping will get you up to 20% off shipping costs simply by buying a range of shipping labels in advance. You don’t need to add them to a package before an actual order needs to go out. This not only saves time but also costs.
It only works if you regularly ship orders of the same weight and measurements or if you know the same details and scale.
6. Hybrid orders can save money
Hybrid shipping providers pick up your orders and then partner with other carriers, to move the parcels to a sort facility or post office site, where they are delivered to a local area for the last mile delivery. In certain cases, this can reduce delivery costs by as much as 50%. The biggest drawback to hybrid systems is that they have a restrictive weight, volume, and size strategy. Delivery times can also be longer than using normal shipping options with the same carriers.
Final Words: Some of the main factors that decide the performance of your online company are the degree to which you reduce costs. These amazing ways will lower pricing. If not closely controlled, shipping costs can escalate rapidly. And by the end of the fiscal year, you’ll find that they’ve put a huge dent in your profit margin.
Knowband provides some tools to help you with shipping issues like the COD plugin and free shipping addon. These can help you with a better shipping experience and increase customer conversions.
With other businesses fighting hard to sustain in the COVID crisis, the online grocery business is flourishing. The pandemic has for the first time inspired many customers all over the globe to purchase online groceries. The situation in other countries such as India, Canada, Italy, and France is no different.
A grocery marketplace platform will be helping many small vendors to sell groceries online. The outbreak has anticipated the in-store visits for foodstuffs and groceries to critical decline and people are more cautious and making proactive online purchases for food, groceries, medicines, and other household things.
Shopping patterns formed by consumers in the midst of self-isolation may become a standard for imagining new possibilities for the future. The global market size of online grocery business is estimated at US$ 27.5 billion and the further growth projected was to hit US$ 129.5 billion by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 24.8% in 2019–25.
Look around to see competent strategies and marketing plans before starting your own marketplace grocery store. How do you carve your niche in the market? We have developed two modules focused on customer comfort and security for helping you build up your own Multivendor Grocery Marketplace. Before rushing to modules, let us understand the business model it follows.
Insight into the Multivendor Grocery Business Model
The grocery business model can either be an inventory model or a Marketplace model. But with the Multi-Vendor marketplace extension, you can make the hybrid model for your grocery marketplace. A model in which the admin and the seller both can sell their products and services is coined as the hybrid model. To make a multivendor marketplace that will bring more traffic, you must take care of the user experience and convenience.
Attract with Alluring UI
An attractive user interface is the most important part of a website or application developed for Multivendor Grocery Marketplace. Not just attractive but it should be efficiently designed and completely accessible. You must take care of the page loading time, product category display management, secure and flawless transactions, and transparency.
For a successful multi-seller grocery marketplace, a simplified product listing and order handling management system are vigorously needed. The product finding should not be difficult for customers. Before starting up, you can ask for the demands and types of products people prefer. An online survey can be conducted.
Even your strategy should dwell on what your clients don’t want. Try focusing on both positive and negative feedback. Keep a record of the grocery products your customers disliked.
Multiple Payment Gateways and on-time Shipping
Offer customers several payment methods on your multi-seller grocery marketplace. Add a quicker payment gateway like PayPal, Stripe, etc. and let the customers make payments at the click of a button. Avoid using a payment method that people have not heard of because they prefer only reliable and secured gateways.
In any on-demand business, shipping is the most important factor, particularly in grocery. Delivering quality grocery products on time will help you attract customers. No matter how good your App Design is, or how smooth your checkout process is, you’ll lose the entire game if you have a bad distribution network.
Modules which can help you start your grocery business:
1. Create your Marketplace for Grocery business:
The module allows you to make a multi-vendor marketplace for your grocery business. It is mobile responsive and compatible with the mobile App. Also, supports the return manager module.
Admin and Seller benefits of Marketplace
Easy Vendor Registration: The multi-vendor marketplace allows easy seller registration from both the admin panel and the front end of the marketplace. Any small or big grocery business owner can register on your marketplace.
Easy Seller Monitoring and Management: Admin and seller both are allowed to track the orders from the admin interface and seller interface. The product listing can be done by the admin end as well as the seller end.
Commission Handling: Admin can easily define, edit, and manage commission on goods- charged by a vendor, and commission on delivery- for delivery staff, on the eCommerce platform for grocery stores.
Effortless Category and Product Management: The multivendor marketplace has an effortless category and product management functionality. The store owner is allowed to check the added product and permit the seller if he can sell that product or not.
Versatile Approach: All Product types are supported with a multivendor marketplace module. You can add many products in a different category. A grocery business with several products will grab customers to your website.
Track Grocery Orders: Admin can track seller orders and sellers can track customers’ orders.
Add Custom Fields on seller page: for seller profile, admin can show custom fields on seller front page and make custom fields as many as required
Effective Membership Plans for the grocery sellers: Admin can allow sellers to opt for a membership plan. Sellers should subscribe to the plan to get their items published in the admin shop. Sellers to turn off their membership plan if possible. Also, he can set a one-time setup charge for the plans he makes for sellers.
About Seller Dashboard: Your grocery marketplace seller dashboard in the marketplace module will help you monitor your progress as a seller, maintain outstanding customer service, and maintain your account in good standing. All sellers have access to the seller standards dashboard.
Transaction Payout Request: Seller can ask for the payment to the admin. Admin can auto-update the settings for payments.
The seller can add custom shipping methods: Multiple custom shipping methods can be added by the seller for product delivery.
Track Earnings: The seller can track the orders from the seller’s dashboard and keep a record of earnings.
Link Social Accounts: Link your grocery business with various social accounts that can help you increase brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Email Notifications: This functionality allows admin and seller to send email notification for order updates and other parameters.
Customer Benefits:
Multiple Choices from Multiple Vendors:
In a multi-vendor marketplace, a customer gets multiple choices from multiple sellers. The cost comparison is easier and the competition always plays an important role in a business.
Feedback is Important:
Your credibility for your brand depends on the vendors listed in your market place. But you have to make sure none of them ruins your brand name with their unprofessional services. Your main goal should be to have reputable vendors on your marketplace. To do that, you have to get customer feedback and take action accordingly. Highly reviewed products and with good ratings will be the preference of many.
Easy Return/Refund:
Grocery comes in fast consuming goods category but your marketplace should be ready with the unexpected situations in case a customer needs to return any item. The multi-vendor marketplace module is compatible with the return and refund manager module available on the Knowband store.
A customizable and optimized marketplace module can help you in starting a new Grocery Multivendor Marketplace. You can find detailed information about the module on our product page. This extension is available for PrestaShop, OpenCart, and Magento 2 stores.
2. Hyperlocal Marketplace:
Grocery should be delivered on time hence the idea of Hyperlocal grocery business came into the picture. The hyperlocal Marketplace module is available for the PrestaShop store. It allows the admin to add a location in which the owner wants to operate the marketplace.
All the features of Hyperlocal Marketplace are similar to the Multi-Vendor Marketplace module but it has some additional functionality to support on-demand delivery. Time, Geo-location, and distance parameters, which are the major requirements for Hyperlocal Grocery Marketplace businesses are integrated into this module.
Define the radius of the marketplace: Admin can set the radius and distance in any parameter where he wants to operate the grocery business. Suppose, 25km radius is set by the admin then he will operate anywhere but not beyond 25km of the distance.
Customers can enter the Geo-location: While searching for a product, a pop-up will appear on the screen of the customer which will ask them to enter the location for product delivery.
Live location or Pincode: There are two ways a customer can choose their location, they can go for the live location or enter the Pincode. Now, the marketplace will display products from the sellers delivering in that location.
Multiple Shipping methods for multiple delivery locations- It allows the seller to provide different delivery modes for every location. They are allowed to select the location for delivery by adding the Pincode or according to the region/area details.
Delivery Charges: Seller can charge for the delivery either by weight or by distance. It is customizable from the seller dashboard.
Admin can review the location: Admin is allowed to review the locations entered by sellers and approve them.
To understand the module in detail and its features and benefits for customer, seller, and admin, you can visit our product page here.
Wrapping Up
Maximize the efficiency of a multivendor marketplace with technologies such as automation, organizational flexibility, and bundling resources, during and after the pandemic. The grocery marketplace has tremendous scope by 2025. Even during and after the pandemic, the grocery market is flourishing all over the world. This is the right time to start your Multi seller Marketplace or a Grocery Delivery business.
If you need any kind of assistance for setting up a marketplace for your grocery or any other industry, our customer support team is ready to help in your new journey. You can visit the Knowband store or write to us at support@knowband.com
Right from the beginning of communication, we needed a channel to express our thoughts. Being a netizen, we all know how important it is to have a customer support communication channel. Customer support channels are an important part of business, be it in-store or an eCommerce. To provide a quality customer experience, the store owner must give up to scratch customer support and customer services.
There are tons of communication channels available that an eCommerce can use as a customer support channel but you have to choose the right one for your business. Having said that, the best support channel of communication is the one your customer chooses so try to offer many. Some of the best possible ways to connect with your customers to provide user support are discussed below. Voice support, written support, and chat support are the major communication channel types available.
Customer Support With Voice Communications Channels
Phone calls:
The old traditional voice support system is phone calls. The telephone-based contact center is one of the most common solutions for customer service teams, and most of the businesses have already set up a traditional telephone-based call center. This is a tried-and-tested system with demonstrated performance, and since consumers are familiar with the process, it is a common communication channel for businesses to introduce.
Every customer needs the assurance that they will be able to get in touch at any time and receive a response in the shortest time possible. Make sure your number is clearly shown in your store so that even if the customer does not call, he knows he has the option to do so.
web calling:
It is highly advisable over the traditional phone call. A web call is a good option as the customer does not have to leave the website for getting any support.
Using WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) technology, a click-to-call button ensures that consumers can engage in a voice call with an agent directly via the website. It comes with features like Desktop Dialing, No hardware is required and it is easy to use.
Offer Customer Support with Verbal Content
Another way to deliver customer support can be through verbal communication channels. Sometimes a customer needs to raise a query with detailed information. In that case, the verbal content channel will be the best fit.
Email:
Email support is the most used and acceptable after phone calls. This is a flexible medium that can be used to exchange personal correspondence about customer service or to disseminate news and knowledge through the customer base of an organization.
The benefit of email is that both the client and the agent have the right to make their emails as detailed and structured as they would like. There is a drawback for email support as you have to wait for the response. Though it is a good option for taking customer feedback and to send follow-up emails.
web forms:
Web forms work in the same way as emails, but a key benefit is that they do not allow the customer to leave the website set in the first place, which can enable longer stays.
The main advantage of the web forms is that people who send them also obtain confirmation of acceptance so that those who know the message have been received by the client.
Responses are also sent to the customer’s email address, making potential communication simpler. Web forms are also a safe way to collect consumer data-provided that GDPR is compliant.
Marketplace Customers-Sellers Ticket System Addon like modules for eCommerce store can help the customer to raise a ticket to get the support or any service.
Offer Chat Support:
Millennials prefer using chat messengers over calls or emails. Even for day to day conversation, people are using chat more than phone calls or web calls.
Live Chat:
Live chat is an extremely beneficial function for your shop, as it allows the executive to respond rapidly, allowing the customer to overcome their concerns and, as a result, closing the purchase. This can also be a proactive feature, where a customer service executive can serve as a personal shopper and assist with the selling of items.
Messenger App:
Messenger apps are considered as convenient chat support communication channels and they are quick. Messengers are a better choice as you can easily see if the message has been delivered or not. Social messenger is a module for messenger support for your eCommerce store. This can help you connect with your customers through Facebook messenger.
Messengers are powerful tools as they can be used for broadcasting messages and to offer promotions.
Social Media:
Social media is a powerful tool with double support, marketing, and communication. It is a platform which can be used as both marketing and customer support communication channel. The good service comes with better communications. Millennials spend most of their time on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, etc.
Organizations may and do make use of this to their benefit. Particularly on Twitter, many businesses ensure that they communicate using their brand ‘face’ as they participate in consumer interactions to enhance or alter the image of their brand.
Other Customer Support Options:
FAQs:
To give a better customer experience it is important to answer all the questions your customer has for you and your product. The FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions page helps users to find answers to all their questions in one location.
Not only does it make life easier for your website visitors, but it can also save time and resources for your company because you don’t have as many clients contacting you for answers. You can list some common queries to your FAQ’s to help your customers.
Contact Forum :
Customer forums are anyway important for customer support. Many users face the same difficulty or have some queries that can be answered on the forum. Contact forums improve customer relations. Customers feel that their feedback is important and it will create an impact on both users and the owner.
Bottom line:
If you want to provide excellent customer experience to your existing and new users, choose a communication support channel which will be convenient for your user. Keep in mind that the customer base is important and analyze it well for your product and services. A customer support channel can improve customer satisfaction which ultimately enhances the retention rate.
Online shopping from eCommerce websites is now a very common way of shopping. With changing time, the online shopping and pick up in-store concept is gaining thrust. People often opt for home delivery but many are opting for in-store pickup too.
Shoppers love picking their orders from the brick and mortar store because they don’t want to wait for it to deliver which may sometimes kill the excitement if delayed. Buy online and In-store Pickup is the best option for the impatient ones.
You can start offering ‘Click and Collect’ services on your store by incorporating ‘Store Locator and Pickup Extension’ to your existing website. The module developed by Knowband is easy to install and configure. It is catered specially for the merchants who want to allow the in-store pickup to their customers.
How does buy online and pick up in-store works?
The process of Buy online and Pick up in-store (BOPIS) also known as click and collect is simple and you need to follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Buy your product online
Buy your product online through the website or mobile app of the store you want to purchase from.
Step 2: Choose the preferred store location on the checkout page
After the first step, select the near-by store from which you want to collect the order.
Step 3: Select the pick-up date and time
Following that, you have to mention the date and time on which you will be collecting the order.
Step 4: You will receive a confirmation mail
After the successful checkout, you have to wait for the confirmation mail sent by the store admin.
Step 5: Collect the order from the selected store
In the meantime, the owner will pack your desired items for you.
Yay!! Now you can go and pick-up your order on the selected date.
Sellers are in advantage with ‘Click and Collect’
Shoppers want access to products instantaneously. They always look forward to finding a product that is available for instant purchase and ‘Click and Collect’ will lend a helping hand to sellers who believe in customer satisfaction.
The store locator and pick-up module are integrated with Google locations and allow customers to pick up from the nearby store. Some of the major benefits of buy online and pick-up in-store are discussed here.
1. Save time and money on shipping
Higher shipping costs and delayed deliveries are a reason for cart abandonment. Click and collect service saves the shipping cost and encourages more customers to buy online. The merchant even saves money which is spent on the delivery channel.
No delivery boy is required, no transportation charges and moreover you save time.
2. No more delivery failure
Late delivery can affect customer satisfaction and it might cause you, potential customers. But, if a customer purchases the product online and collects it from the store, there won’t be any delay or delivery failure. They can buy online and pick up from the store at their convenience.
3. Increases Overall Sales
Even if a small customer base of your online shoppers converting to click and collect will uplift your sales. In reality, click-and-collect or BOPIS retailers reported an average sales growth of 20%.
• Balance In-Store Inventory
Leveraging BOPIS from nearby brick-and-mortar locations enables order fulfillment. Geolocation intelligence identifies the closest store with the item in stock for delivery after a customer places an order online. If the product in stock is not available in local stores, retailers can conveniently import the items from another store location that has the item available, speeding up the process.
• Increases Average Order Value
When a new customer arrives at your store, there are chances that he will purchase more products from your brick and mortar. This increases the average order value (AOV). Buy online and pick-up in-store hence increases overall sales.
4. Fewer Product Returns
Product returns are the problem faced by every merchant being it small or a big brand. Allowing customers to purchase online and collect the order after trial can help you reduce the number of returns. You can promote this on your online store to grab customer attention and believe me, this will yield favorable results.
4 reasons why customers prefer Buy online and Pick up in-store
1. No extra Shipping Charges
Customers do not have to pay charges for delivery or fast shipping. They can buy online and pick-up the order at their convenience from the nearest store without any hassle.
2. Makes shopping easier
Many customers afraid to shop from new websites but a store with ‘buy online and pick up in-store’ which is present in their vicinity makes it easier. Let customers decide what they want, when they want it and how they get it. Offering freedom to purchase online, home delivery, or in-store pick-up is advantageous this is everything they are looking for. No late delivery and no more waiting!
3. Gives customer more flexibility
Comfort and convenience are what every human is catering for. Online shoppers want retailers to make purchasing their products and services simpler. Consumers want websites and retailers to work together better as well. An extension like store locator and pick up allows customers to shop any time in their comfort zone and allows them to pick up the order with their convenience. This is the flexibility every customer is looking out for.
4. Boosts customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is a result of customer satisfaction and overall customer journey while purchasing from your store. A business doesn’t work without potential buyers and the factors which can cause you customer opportunity are not an issue anymore.
Since store locator and pickup extension overcomes the major bounce rate issues like extra shipping charges and late delivery for impatient buyers, this is a highly recommended industry trend to implement in your store.
Knowband’s Store locator and Pickup Module for an eCommerce store
You can easily start ‘Buy Online and In-Store Pickup’ in your existing eCommerce store. Knowband is a specialized eCommerce platform that has developed several solutions for demands and requirements that an eCommerce store owner desires. The store locator and Pickup Module is the one designed to attain the need of launching the click and collect option in an online store.
It is integrated with Geolocation functionality and the store owner can easily generate Google API key for the Google maps.
The details like the name of the store, owner details, contact number, and store timings can be displayed using Store locator and Pickup Addon.
The module allows users to select the desired store location, date, and time for order pick-up.
The Store locator and Pickup Module is available for the following platforms:
Any online website on these platforms can incorporate the plugin and start offering click and collect to increase foot traffic in brick-and-mortar stores.
Conclusion:
If the retailer allows connectivity between its online and in-store shopping networks and provides the opportunity to provide the consumer with a real-time feed of available inventory, in-store pickup is not difficult. This immediately lets the customer know if he/she can pick up the order from the desired store right away.
You can implement BOPIS- Buy online and Pickup in-store for better customer experience, grow sales, and to keep up with the trend. Undoubtedly!
The possible benefits to be obtained by entering an online marketplace can differ between industries and firms, and between buyers and sellers. If you are looking for the advantages and the downside of the online marketplace before starting one then you have landed on the right page.
The marketplace model is booming in the business industry and the growth rate is out of the blue. Companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, ETSY are operating for years and are now at the top.
There are many types of online marketplaces and websites where you can sell your goods to customers who would not otherwise find you, in addition to having your own physical and e-commerce shop. An online marketplace has various advantages for the admin, seller, and buyers.
Benefits of Online Marketplace for your businesses
An online marketplace is a platform for small businesses to bring it on the web. Sellers and merchants are benefited but the customers get the most advantage. Some of the potential advantages are summarised below:
General business benefits
Develop new partnerships:
There are greater opportunities, either within their supply chain or through supply chains, for sellers and buyers to develop new trading relationships. The radar of a marketplace is anytime greater than an individual eCommerce website because many sellers and buyers from different niches come to the same platform for their needs.
Greater Transparency:
Because the availability, rates and stock levels are all available in an open environment; e-marketplaces can provide greater transparency in the buying process.
Operate anytime:
Time restrictions and concerns with various working hours for foreign trade are avoided when round-the-clock operations are feasible. No one has to wait for the shop to open as these marketplaces can be operated anytime from anywhere. The online Marketplace is highly convenient for both sellers and buyers.
Easy Management:
Product Information Management software that automates the bulk upload to your marketplaces of product information. This way, at the same time, you can be sure that the catalog and stock details are standardized in all your networks.
Choose Revenue Stream:
There are two ways the marketplaces earn income, one is commission based and another is by charging subscription or membership fees. Some of the e-marketplaces find commission the best choice as it is easier to operate and is a sustained source of income. While the online marketplaces like OLX make money through premium subscription plans.
Benefits of the online marketplace for the buyer
Best Deals:
Buyers can secure the best deals due to updated information on the availability and price of the product. An online marketplace brings the right buyers in touch with the right sellers with much greater precision than it could ever happen in a simple web search.
Convenient to compare product and prices:
Instead of wasting time calling individual suppliers, e-marketplaces provide an easy way to compare rates and products on a single platform. One of the key benefits of an online marketplace is that it puts together all deals from different vendors or service providers. Customers are more likely to use an app with a wide variety of choices so that they can select exactly what they want without restricting a single provider to their preference.
Builds Trust:
Developed e-marketplaces provide the customer with a degree of confidence as they exclusively work with vendors who are members. This builds trust and looks convincing when a new customer visits the eCommerce marketplace. A significant number of buyers feel intimidated by sharing card details for financial transactions when they operate on a new website.
Benefits of the online marketplace for the seller
Regular orders
Sellers get daily requests from both new and existing customers for quotes and products. An e-marketplace increases business opportunities. You could meet customers with whom you’ve never crossed paths before, or pursue new demographic niches and find new prospects for sales.
Sales Channel
You provide multiple touchpoints for clients to connect with your brand when you sell through multiple platforms, online, offline, and everywhere in between. To advertise and sell products, the online marketplace creates an alternative distribution channel.
Low cost of marketing
When compared to other distribution platforms, e-marketplaces may deliver reduced marketing costs. The seller can reach a potential customer with little effort. You can sell right there where potential customers are found without investing either extra time or money. Marketplaces have the benefit that they have their resources, target groups, and customers.
Sales overseas
The global e-marketplaces will provide opportunities that you would not be aware of for overseas sales. Through online marketplaces, overseas sales are incredibly easy. In particular, foreign operators, such as Amazon or eBay, typically provide assistance and rights to retailers. In the face of high inventory levels, an enticing price will persuade foreign customers most of all. Provide multiple payment gateways according to customer demands.
Final Words:
These were the major advantages of the online marketplace but never forget the fact that there is a risk involved in every new business. Different types of online marketplaces are classified considering several parameters like their focus, niche, revenue-generating system, etc. If you want to start your marketplace or sell on an e-marketplace then you should study both advantages and disadvantages. An online marketplace might be the ticket to building a big, profitable business with a lasting impact if you can resolve the challenges.
Every eCommerce store merchant waits for the holiday season because there is maximum participation of the online shoppers in the store during this time. Along with that holiday season records the highest sales in the entire year. It is time to prepare online store for holiday season.
Over the next few months, the online stores will be planning for a shopping marathon, and eCommerce traders need to get ready to meet the enormous demands that come with that. You need to do the eCommerce holiday planning, starting with effective marketing strategies, offering free shipping and easy returns, and a lot more to stand out from the competitors.
Optimizing the store for all these points is necessary to achieve holiday sales, nothing holds more importance than providing customers with a seamless and hassle-free shopping experience and increase customer retention.
Refer to an eCommerce Holiday Calendar for holiday readiness. As you know, the holiday season begins from Halloween and ends at the arrival of the New Year and you have to plan your marketing campaigns months before it begins.
ECommerce Holiday Season Statistics 2020
If we talk about global m-commerce stats, it has already surpassed eCommerce. The numbers speak about the importance of smooth site functionality on mobile devices.
Did you know m-commerce accounted for 35.8% of the total sales in the US in 2020, as per Statista? For the year 2020, the record sales according to Statista was 755.3 billion US dollars, which was 729.3 in the year 2019 and 701.2 billion dollars in 2018.
Customer Loyalty is a major concern for every business. From the previous year’s eCommerce holiday season data, only 12% of customers are continuing to stay loyal.
During the 4th quarter of 2020, Amazon generated total net sales of 125.56 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing 87.44 billion U.S. dollars in the same quarter of the previous year.
Adobe tweeted, online shoppers spent 4 billion U.S. dollars during 2020’s Cyber Week — a 20.7% increase YoY.
2020 was a delight to small businesses as 44% of people planned to spend on small businesses.
How to prepare your online business for the holidays?
For starters, add some holiday vibe to your online store. Use attractive banners with holiday offers, discounts along with the wishes to make it more engaging. Additionally, you can use eCommerce plugins that enhance customer engagement, brand awareness, customer retention and gives a flawless checkout experience.
Here is the list of 13 modules by KnowBand which can help you optimize your store this holiday season. This is the time to start preparing for a holiday rush to ensure a lucrative selling season.
Modules to increase customer engagement
In a dynamic eCommerce environment, stay ahead of trends and in line with the industry’s fresh and up-to-date trends. Use Spin and Win Popup and Exit Pop up for customer engagement.
1. Add exciting Spin and Win Popup
Increase customer engagement on your website by adding a Gamification element. Popup draws the attention of your customers towards the eye-catching spin-win wheel module and engages them in a fun activity.
Along with user engagement, this plugin can be a treat to your home page. It has several themes for every occasion and event, for example, Christmas, New Year, Halloween, and Cyber Monday themes for the holiday season. Visitors are asked to try their luck by spinning the wheel and grab some exciting offers. But, to complete the spin, a user needs to share their email address, which you can use for your eCommerce email marketing campaigns, and thus boost your conversions.
The module provides merchants with tons of customization ranging from designing the look of the popup to set up the time for the popup appearance. Click here to check out the Spin and Win fortune wheel module.
Available for:
PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, Magento 2, WooCommerce, and Shopify
2. Exit Pop-up
The next eCommerce Holiday planning idea is to add an Exit Popup in your digital commerce. It is not always used to show an offer. You can configure it as per your requirements based on what outcomes you want to achieve through it.
Exit popup appears when a customer leaves the browsing area or intends to exit the tab. You can make the pop-up as appealing as you can. Also, you can ask for feedback from your customers.
Using the exit pop-up module can reduce the bounce rate, increase customer engagement, and boosts conversions. During the holiday season, you can compel users to shop more from your eCommerce store by offering some exciting offers when they are about to leave.
All eCommerce stores look forward to repeating sales and to make it easier, Knowband has a range of plugins. Adding a Gift Card and Loyalty Point program will be a great holiday season idea.
3. Offer Loyalty Points
Encourage repeat purchases by rewarding your customers with loyalty points. Our Loyalty Points module ensures customer retention as well as customer acquisition. It lets you provide reward points to every new user who performs a sign-up on your store and triggers impulse buying, followed by more loyalty points on the successful purchases.
This marketing strategy converts visitors into potential buyers and makes them stick to your store in the long run. It also enhances brand loyalty to a great extent. You can set up some rules for users like offer loyalty points when customers share their feedback. It can also include offering loyalty points based on the total cart value, product quantity, product price, selected payment methods, etc.
These points can be used as a discount voucher on the checkout page. Click here to check out the Loyalty Point module.
Available for:
PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento, and Magento 2 store
4. Gift the Product
Since you are setting up your store for the holiday season blast, you can attract visitors and upsell by giving gift products on a fixed amount of purchase.
There are some major advantages of giving gifts with purchase. It increases the average cart value, boosts conversion, and reduces the bounce rate on your store.
Gift the product is an amazing plugin and it can set your sales on fire. It is a sales strategy that attracts and converts the buyers. Refer to this blog that explains how you can use the Gift with Purchase campaign in B2C Marketing.
Available for:
PrestaShop and Opencart
Build Brand Awareness
5. Gift Card Module
While striking off the eCommerce holiday season checklist for customer retention and advance sales, consider selling personalized digital gift cards.
The Gift card module is a must-have plugin for holiday season sales, as it brings new customers to your store. Also, it saves your customer from sending awful gifts to their loved ones.
Other benefits of the Gift Card module are that it boosts brand awareness and makes digital gifting easy. Customers can send photo gift cards with custom messages.
Prestashop, Magento, and OpenCart eCommerce stores.
eCommerce Plugins to improve the shopping experience
When developing an eCommerce website, you have to make sure that the website is mobile responsive and keep users engaged for a while. Create a mobile app for your website or make the pages mobile responsive with the AMP module. You can also use the Progressive web app (PWA) plugin to make your digital commerce user-friendly.
6. Mobile App Builder
Mobile App Builder is not just a module for holiday season sales but it is for everyday user experience.
It lets you transform your eCommerce website into an Android and iOS Mobile App conveniently, without any requirement of coding or technical knowledge. The app will give a rich and user-friendly, experience to smartphone users.
Since users nowadays demand an app for an easy browsing experience, the Mobile App Builder module makes it the best fit to provide an amazing user experience.
The holiday season is coming close, now is the best time to introduce your mobile app and delight your users, and grab huge holiday sales.
Moreover, to achieve the best shopping experience, the Mobile App Builder offers easy customization, Social login, Fingerprint login, and OTP login. Also, it has WhatsApp live chat and Zopim Chat support. The real-time synchronization of the website into App is a bonus. Sell across the world with its multi-lingual support, multiple payment and shipping methods, etc.
We are currently running an exclusive offer for the PrestaShop website owners where they can get an additional 30% discount on the new purchase.
All you need to do is apply the coupon code “MOBI30” during the checkout.
Available for:
Prestashop, OpenCart, and Magento eCommerce stores
7. Reduce site load time with AMP
Our AMP module tackles the slow loading of your website on mobile devices and increases the page load speed to a great extent. When website traffic is at its peak in the holiday season, the website speed may get affected.
Thus, the AMP module, ensures that your mobile users do not find any troublesome experience with your website and are offered a faster and smoother loading.
Also, faster loading not only helps you reduce the bounce rate but also benefits in improved mobile rankings on the search engine.
Talking about its features, you can enable the AMP functionality for multiple pages on your website like the Home page, Category page, Product page, etc. You can also customize these pages as per your requirements.
A Progressive web app provides App like experience when a customer explores the website on a mobile browser. In the holiday season, eCommerce receives a lot of attention, and to keep your customers engaged, you have to provide a responsive interface. PWA makes the store more interactive and user-friendly.
Even with no internet, the website will display the products and loads the pages using saved caches. PWA is smooth, lightweight, and fast loading. Convert your website into a PWA with KnowBand’s Progressive web app builder without any coding knowledge.
A responsive website is engaging and has the potential to convert your visitors into customers and they will spend more time. Provide an awesome user experience to your customers when they visit your store for holiday shopping.
Being an eCommerce store owner, you must provide your customers with a hassle-free checkout experience this holiday season. Unlike the multi-step checkout process, it displays all the checkout elements on a single page and reduces the checkout friction.
To make the checkout path convenient for customers, our One Page Checkout offers Social Login, Guest Checkout, Inline Validation, Google Auto-address fill, and supports nearly all the payment methods and shipping services. A long and complicated checkout shackles the shopping experience which eventually results in cart abandonment.
The Prestashop One Page Checkout is our best seller extension. It has 10000+ downloads on the PrestaShop Addon store while 12000+ downloads on the KnowBand store.
Find the complete features and benefits of the One Page checkout module for the respective platforms:
The Abandoned Cart module helps you recover your lost sales by sending regular follow-up emails to the abandoned carters. With so many competitors, there are hundreds of choices available and many users leave the orders in their cart. While planning for the holiday season, prepare your store to track the user behavior for cart abandonment.
The module reminds users about incomplete purchases and converts them into customers by including exclusive offers in your emails and on a reminder pop-up.
You can send serial emails as reminders and if not sure how to write an abandoned cart email, refer to our guide.
The Abandoned Cart module can boost your conversions significantly.
Are you prepared for managing the order returns? Since the holiday season captures a huge number of orders, there will be returns for sure. Use a return manager to prepare online store for holiday Season. Our Return Manager module ensures that you do not lose out on customers due to a poor return process.
The Return Manager module helps you manage your eCommerce returns conveniently and enhances customer loyalty by making the return process way too easy for the customers.
The module provides 3 return choices to the customers in the form of Credits, Refund, and Replacement, and allows them to highlight the defect by uploading the image of the defective/damaged product. One interesting feature of the module is that the admin can create the return request on the customer’s behalf.
PrestaShop Booking and Rental system addon provides your customers with a hassle-free online booking experience and makes it a simple task for the merchants to manage their online bookings.
This PrestaShop addon offers an appointment booking facility, hotel booking facility, and rental booking facility. It lets you adjust your booking days and time slots as per the availability, and you can adjust the price for different days and timing. There is much more it offers for every booking type.
If you have a costume rental business then this Halloween, manage your orders with KnowBand’s Booking and Rental system plugin.
If you wish to transform your online booking PrestaShop website into a mobile app, you can look out for PrestaShop Booking and Rental Mobile App.
13. Product Customization
Consumers are increasingly demanding a customized shopping experience from their favorite brands. Delivering an amazing customer experience that can help you grow sales this Christmas season requires a strong customer data management system and personalization tools.
Personalization benefits have also made their way into the product experience. Customization allows online consumers to create more considerate gifts, which is a product feature that is projected to grow in popularity over time. It’s a brilliant and memorable method to please customers to have a pleasant interface that allows them to customize a product online.
Customers may choose the appropriate printing options for their items with KnowBand’s Product Customizer.
Available for:
Opencart and PrestaShop eCommerce store
14. Multi-vendor marketplace
Earn extra cash this holiday season and make money while you sleep. You can introduce your marketplace website and allow vendors to sell on it. A marketplace runs on various commission models like membership fees, commission model, and subscription plans, etc.
KnowBand’s multivendor marketplace provides major two revenue options. The store manager can create different membership plans. Also, they can charge a commission on products sold.
It has several facilities for the admin and seller of the marketplace. Convert your website into a multi-vendor marketplace like Amazon or ETSY. Whether you are a new or an experienced merchant, you can always look forward to expanding your services.
Available for:
PrestaShop, Magento, Magento 2, and OpenCart eCommerce
Modules to send stock alerts
15. Web Push Notifications
Notifications and stock alerts can drive your customer’s psychology and trigger impulse buying. This holiday season, notify your customers about the new arrivals, price drops, various product statuses, and abandoned cart details.
Knowband’s Web Push Notifications module lets merchants schedule the alerts for their users about product availability with push notifications. For each of them, the user can decide whether they want to receive updates regarding them.
Moreover, you can customize the welcome popup in the holiday season theme that shows the request message for notification approval.
Many customers visit multiple stores to compare product prices. and You can compel the Customer to Return to your Store with the Back in Stock Module. The Back-in-stock module allows the eCommerce store owners to inform the customers about the re-stocked products.
It sends a push notification or an email to registered customers about the product which is back in stock. The customers can opt to get notified when the product of their interest comes back in stock.
You can find the back in Stock Module for your Prestashop and Magento eCommerce store on our Knowband Shop.
The user can refer your store to his/her friends, family, relatives, etc. by sharing with them the affiliate link or the referral code. In addition, they can send it over email and also share the link on social media directly from their affiliate account.
You can assign the commission to the affiliate partner for every new signup via their referral and also provide incentives when the referred user places an order. The commission rate can be set under the configurations of the module. Check out
Wrap up: That’s it. Get your desired module before it gets too late to leave an impact on your holiday sales. One thing is for sure: The online commerce sales on holiday season 2021 will increase and if you don’t have an online presence for your business, you need to get started.
Plan out your goal, remain updated with trends, and use new technologies.
Here are some helpful resources to get you started:
What is the best way to start an online store?
The most effective eCommerce platforms
How to optimize the product page?
If you have to need eCommerce assistance, you can drop a mail to us at support@knowband.com
