How Automation can Robust your B2B eCommerce Business

 A strong relationship with partners and customers is critical for B2B businesses. This needs to be reflected in the successful B2B eCommerce strategies.

Nowadays, the B2B eCommerce model moved beyond from just transactions to putting more emphasis on relationships and automated ordering systems.

With these relationship-centered B2B eCommerce models businesses are reducing their spending efforts on low-value tasks and focusing on Extended interaction with long-term business trends, multi-party deals, and on more complex transactions.

This new model has made numerous impacts on the eCommerce business. In fact, some of the techno giants are saying B2B is surpassing the B2C.

What is B2B eCommerce

Well, B2B eCommerce is the typical exchange of products and services between 2 different businesses or companies through the electronic platform. Or you can say, buying and selling the products on the web as the exchange media.

B2B eCommerce business is not limited just limited to selling and buying. It may cover many aspects like;

• Business Relationship between 2 companies

• Product information and research

• Technical learning

• Product Ordering & Tracking

• Technical Support, Training and Services

• Document exchange like User guide, etc

So, technically it brings a lot of value to this process. 

Now see, where the “Automation” term is fitting in this process.

B2B eCommerce Automation

What comes first to your mind when someone says “Automation”? In general, it sounds like robots are assembling cars somewhere in factories. But in B2B eCommerce it is not an artificial intelligence SKY-Net-like program.

The “Automation” in B2B e-commerce context is the use of a computer programmed software tool to complete the tasks without human intervention.

Automation spot the patterns in data and make the decision in a fraction of a second.

Now come to the basic topic of this article. How this Automation can help the eCommerce business for a better result?

Benefits of B2B Automation

Let’s go through the five ways that automation can improve your B2B eCommerce business today.

Reduce Errors:

The manual data processing always makes a tiny glitch and these small errors can cost millions in a year.

Just an example: If a b2b seller would make a misenter in an amount at the time of creating purchasing orders, it can cause chaos for both.

To avoid such types of errors you can integrate an automation layer to your eCommerce Application.

So, the orders can be created and communicated without any risk of human errors or even without human introversion. 

Continue Reading on Andolasoft Blog.

How To Put Together a High-Performing SaaS Marketing Strategy

As per Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, SaaS will deliver 75 % of cloud workflows.​ Isn’t it amazing?

The above data depicts the growing pace of the SaaS business model and the competition created by it in the industry. SaaS companies are finding it very difficult to stand out in the industry by providing products and services distinct from their competitors.

Well, for this reason, we have come up with dependable SaaS marketing strategies to help companies lead the competition.

SaaS marketing is more complicated than product marketing since you don’t have a tangible product to offer. Yes, it is more difficult to tell someone that your software can help them in their daily process than selling a pair of shoes.

First, What is SaaS marketing?

We can say, SaaS marketing refers to the strategies implemented to promote software-as-a-service companies.

SaaS marketing is exclusively unusual from promoting physical products since it has a varied customer base, distinct pricing strategies, complexity in their offerings, etc.

Since SaaS development is distinctive, marketers should use distinct strategies for promotion.

Main Article Source: Blog Andolasoft.

How Technology Helps Businesses During This Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic is a really difficult time for all. It has triggered a panic button all over the world as a medical emergency, disrupting the global economy and hitting businesses hard in the area of operation and survival.

The consequences such as social distancing, lockdowns, low production/demand, lack of labor, and a high degree of uncertainty, have questioned their continuity. But digital technology has helped pandemic hit businesses to keep up and running like least affected.

Thankfully, many tech companies are promptly offering next-level digital technology to keep their businesses operational even amidst the crisis. As the need for digital infrastructure has grown for businesses during this emergency, solutions like custom app development and cloud computing have proven beyond useful.

A Reality Check for Businesses

From retail, healthcare, and finance industry to grocery, apparel, and salon, every industry has to quickly adapt to the new situation; to serve their customers safe and fast. They have to consider options of virtual contacts, eCommerce tools, and technologies to respond to this crisis-ridden situation in a better way. These drastic changes in business sectors are long-term.

Pandemic and Contribution of Tech Stacks

Businesses are left with no option but to digitize all or some part of their activities to protect customers and employees put under travel restrictions due to the pandemic. Some of the tech stacks have already confirmed that they are getting a record number of requests for the implementation of remote work and digital services across multiple domains.

Again, shopper behaviors and ways of interactions have changed considerably, and the demand for digital technology is likely to continue in the future. Nearly around 75% of shoppers are using digital platforms for the first time. Web and mobile app development companies have to make sure that the approaching businesses are digital-ready and don’t miss a single customer in this unstable condition.

Recent data from McKinsey (Source: Covid-19 US Digital Sentiment Survey) shows the accelerated rate of digital adoption among US businesses and customers in different industries.

Challenges and Digital Adoption in the Press

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown many challenges at businesses – the most important being the company management and financial stability, thus making business resiliency and continuity their ultimate priority.

There are a few other areas where businesses are facing challenges such as reducing operation costs, maintaining data security, etc. Digital technology helps pandemic have a low impact on businesses by taking their eCommerce development to the cloud platform and automating the whole business from supply chain to sales management.

Digital Transformation to Address Pain Points

Digital technology is a savior for businesses in pre-Covid19 and post Covid19 era. It is not just a good to have a feature – but a necessity for companies to weather the effects of the pandemic.

And as businesses now come to consult with tech companies more and more, they are seen struggling in the following areas:

• Deploying remote staff

• Reaching out to customers virtually

• Remote access to business activities and details

• Adding to agility and competence

• Stay safe against new cybersecurity-related issues

• Cutting down operational costs and improving supply chain activity

While businesses are undergoing organizational, cultural, and social change, tech companies have been providing the required support to help them cope up with it gradually.

Continue reading on Andolasoft Blog

E-commerce Statistics tips for Strategic Planning in 2019

Owning your own eCommerce business? Then this is a must-read article for you. Whether you own your an online business or in-store one, you should be aware of the current e-commerce trend and where the market is going in-order to expand your business and get more sales. 

The below mentioned points will update your pre-existing knowledge on e-commerce and will remove the pre-existing notions that you have. On the whole, it will help strengthen your strategies for e-commerce marketing and in expanding your business.

E-commerce Statistics Tips

In order to study the E-commerce trend and get your business going accordingly, you should have knowledge about the following points

• ·         General Facts
• ·         Online Shopping trend
• ·         Mobile-based e-commerce statistics review
• ·         Behavioral study of the shopper

General facts

Here are a few general facts that you should take into consideration while developing e-commerce strategies for your business.

•            The total value of global retail e-commerce sales
•            More than 10% of global retail sales will be covered by e-commerce
•      There are about 12-24 million global e-commerce sites
•      Credit cards are the most preferred form of payment

The total value of Global retail e-commerce sales 

E-commerce statistics report a steady rise in global e-commerce sales. And this rise is speculated to reach over $4878 billion in 2019. (Source: Statista)

More than 10% of global retail sales will be covered by e-commerce

There is constant and steady growth in the field of e-commerce retail sales. While e-commerce accounted for only 7.4% of total retail sales in the year 2015, it has shown a remarkable increase and accounted for more than 10% of e-commerce sales in the year 2019.

More than 12-24 million global e-commerce sites

There are a huge number of e-commerce companies in the world. Actually, there is no particular definition of an e-commerce company. There are companies which have a business online and sell their products on their website. There are other e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba, etc. and companies who have their site but do not really sell anything online. All these companies altogether account for about 12-24 million global e-commerce sites.

Credit cards are the most preferred form of payment

According to a survey most of the online shoppers prefer credit cards as their mode of online payment. This is followed by electronic payment with sites like PayTM and then follows payment with Debit cards and cash on delivery.

Online shopping trend

As per the notice, here are the few shopping trends that are observed in the shoppers throughout the world.

• Men shop more from e-commerce sites than women
• The most active online shoppers

Read the main article on Andolasoft Blog.

How to Minimize the Cloud Security Risks for SaaS Application

Software as a Service (SaaS) has grown to become the world’s most popular software delivery model and is showing no sign of slowing down. Most modern businesses want to work with a set of applications that don’t require them to have their own storage, backups, and server rooms on site.

As a SaaS provider, you need to store plenty of sensitive data for both information and customer related as well. In this complex world that seems to see new cyber attacks and data breaches every week, all SaaS apps and businesses must take measures to keep their internal as well as customer data safe and secure.

As security technologies are changing fast and hackers inventing new ideas, how can SaaS companies keep up?

SaaS is literally taking over the cloud computing market. So, it is no surprise to find that the global public cloud service market is projected to grow to more than $200 billion in 2019, up from $175.8 billion in 2018, according to Gartner.

For medium-size organizations, SaaS is primarily a hassle-free and cost-effective alternative that offers new possibilities, flexible costs, as well as easy maintenance and deployment.

In case, if you have been running with a limited budget there are still many free and open-source tools are available to execute your security strategy. Now before we get into the best practices for securing SaaS application, let’s discuss the security challenges.

Security Challenges for SaaS:

Today, enterprises are focusing on data and business processes like records, pricing information, transactions, etc. If your SaaS provider is leveraging a public cloud computing service, all the data is possibly being stored with other SaaS applications.

So here’s the list of 9 common SaaS security challenges;

·         Data access risk

·         Instability

·         Lack of transparency

·         Identity theft

·         Uncertainty of your data location

·         Paying upfront and long-term

·         Not sure what you agreed to

·         How your data is actually secured

·         No direct control over your own data

Study says, “By 2021, 27% of corporate data traffic will bypass perimeter security, up from 10% today.”

Data stored in SaaS application needs careful analysis of the security controls and processes in each platform for efficient protection. However, as the huge number of SaaS apps are being used, SaaS App Security is what needed the most.

Main Article Source: How to Minimize the Cloud Security Risks for SaaS Application – Andolasoft Blog

How to Reduce SaaS Churn?

If you’ve just started to acquire your very first customers in your SaaS business, then churn may not be a big deal for you. But as you get over a thousand customers, churn becomes vital. And gradually it can be a big hurdle in the success of your business.

A high churn rate can put an impact on your company valuation, business growth, and the overall perception of customer satisfaction.

So where does the problem rely on?

High-growth expected SaaS startups think they have figured out every aspect. The path seems clear until churn begins to smack them in the face.

Suddenly, customers begin canceling and leaving at a faster rate than expected. Who is responsible for such flaws? No one will take the blame and that is obvious.

Sales team starts blaming the product team for not delivering whereas product teams blame customer success for not onboarding. Gradually marketing starts to worry about company reputation and growth. This is a common scenario.  

I’ve gone through some survey and what I found is extremely shocking. Here’s the list;

• Bessemer Venture Partners says an acceptable churn rate is in the 5 – 7% range ANNUALLY, depending upon whether you measure customers or revenue.
• Roughly 70% of SaaS companies in their survey had annual churn in the < 10% range, with 75% of those at 5% or under.
• 30% of SaaS providers surveyed have an unacceptable level of churn.

Why do customers leave?

There could be either number of reasons whereas the customer decides to hit that “CANCEL” button, and here are a few of the most common:

They’ve faced a poor customer service experience. That means they might have tried to find help for something and couldn’t get what they wanted.

• They might have had a poor onboarding experience and couldn’t achieve what they were expecting.
• They tried your software and it wasn’t meant for them.
• Your software might cost them a lot

Sometimes there’s no indication that churn is coming as customer cancels without raising any issues. However, there are some signs even before that customer cancels.

Common signs of churn-

• Payment issues: These include late or missing payments; credit card hasn’t been updated, and so on.
• Disengagement with your product: it means the customer doesn’t seem to be engaged with your product. it might include signs like fewer logins, increased bounce rates, etc.
• More complaints: When customers face numerous difficulties or bugs to use your product, they start raising issues and complain against it. This is the biggest sign that your customer is unhappy with your product or services.

Read the main article on Andolasoft Blog.

5 Exclusive Growth Hacking Tips to Grow Your Business

Starting a new business is always an important venture for every entrepreneur, and making it successful is the most challenging object for them. So, you need a flawless and unique strategy to build a successful business. And it is quite likely that you need a roadmap to improve your business sale.

However, increasing the product or business sales ensures your business costs and a move towards profitability.

In fact, there are many ways that can help to boost your business growth. And implementing the proven ideas allow you to reduce unwanted expenditure, enhance productivity, and expand your business connectivity; all of which can together increase the likelihood of more sales.

Let’s consider a real-life situation here-

You have an awesome startup idea and you’re quite confident that it will work. Or perhaps you’ve launched your small business. Now you are searching for some effective ways to grow.

Both the scenario offers a host of challenges. The study says, 90% of small business startups eventually fail. But with some outstanding growth hacking tips, you can count your business is a part of that remaining 10% that succeed.

Building and running a small business can be a monumental challenge. But if you stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends and figure out growth hacking tips, your chances of survival are much higher.

Here, I uncover the simple yet amazing growth hacking tips and techniques for 2019. Utilize them wisely and you will be a true performer.

Business Growth Hacking Tips:

1. Automate As Much As Possible:

Implementing software that automates manually is one of the most important steps you should take to ensure your business maintains high levels of productivity.

List out your needs and decide which type of software would be beneficial for your business. There are loads of software solutions available in the market. However, particularly these two are must-haves for your business:

·         Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer relationship management or CRM is a tool, strategy, or process that helps businesses to better organize and access customer data. You can adopt an all-in-one CRM that includes sales and marketing automation on the same platform.

Managing multiple projects at the same time has become a big mess for all most every organization. But those who are using project management software are away from the race.

So along with CRM, if you are using a project management software, then you are getting an extra bonus. It will help to manage your time, task, and other resources effortlessly.

Small businesses are vigorously selecting this option as it saves time, reduces technology costs, and improves collaboration.

·         Marketing Automation

Marketing automation solutions streamline processes, increase brand awareness, automate tasks, and attract leads easily. With built-in features like email marketing, lead generation web forms, landing page builders, and more it becomes an essential marketing growth hack idea.

Main Article Source:  5 Exclusive Growth Hacking Tips to Grow Your Business – Andolasoft Blog