The current situation demands that “your customer” gets easier access to their needs. By offering easy ordering, ensuring safe distancing, and enabling online payments, customers can save time and enjoy a hassle-free experience. The best way to overcome this challenge today is to go online and make your customers!

The Decision

The decision to choose the right e-commerce solution for your business is never easy!!

The E-Commerce industry is currently worth $4.8 trillion, projected to increase to $5.4 trillion by 2022. Business owners planning to start their E-Commerce business often imagine a website where they can list products and expect revenue to start rolling in. To drive traffic and boost sales, it takes strategic marketing, user engagement, and ongoing optimization. Creating a digital presence requires the same level of strategic thinking and planning process.

Business owner looks for the best E-Commerce platform, where they can operate core features, integrate new features, and 3rd party tools seamlessly.

There are a variety of options available in the market to help you sell your products online. Look for options that can delight your customers, run flawlessly, and fulfill orders in the fastest and most affordable way possible.

Choosing the right development approach to align with your business strategy is essential for success : 

  1. Cost of solution: Cost of solution is not just the cost in which it would be developed. There are Direct & In-Direct cost like Cost of Upgrades, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Support etc.

  2. Time to Develop: Solution development time should correlate with your Time to Market strategy

  3. Solution Scalability: Can the product grow as your business grows? There should be option for starting small, yet a facility to make it big.

  4. Solution adapts to Business Model: The solution should adopt to your Business needs and not the other way around. 

  5. Data Ownership: Who owns the Data? Ownership and Compliance of Data & Privacy is very critical in this age.

  6. Control over Technology: How much control you have over the technology in your business? As your business grows, control over the product becomes critical if you want to scale effectively.

  7. Ease of Operation: Does the solution allow for Ease of Operation & Inter- operability? A solution has multiple type of users and platforms it can be used from. The user experience for all user group becomes critical.

  8. Integration with 3rd Party Tools: Does the solution have the ability to integrated with 3rd Party? Integrating with existing or new external system like POS, Inventory, Book keeping etc is critical. The solution should allow for such an openness with other systems.

  9. Solution Support & Upgrades: Does the solution provide for Support, Upgrades? Development is just a beginning. A great post development support and continuous upgrades is necessary for growing business.

What are the different types of E-Commerce solutions available in the market?

  • Bespoke Solution
  • Open-source Solutions
  • SaaS Platform
  • Clones
  • White-Label Platforms

These platforms come with their own set of Pros and Cons. Look below at the comparison:

  Bespoke Open-source SaaS Clones White-Label
Definition Custom Development Solution like WooCommerce, Magento Platform like Shopify, Yelo etc Companies offering Clones of solutions Product which has the ability to White-Label / Brand the solution as per Business
Pros Best possible functionality

Ownership of Source code
Lot of themes and plugins available for quick development and cost effective

Highly Customizable
Tried and Tested model

Lower entry cost

Lot of features to adopt

No infrastructure cost
These companies will offer you such clone at a very low cost

Ownership of the Source code
Branded Solution

Ownership of Data

Low Cost
Cons High Cost

Longer Time to develop
No readymade mobile solution

Hidden cost

Issues with GDPR/ Data compliance

Not customizable

Mobile App will not be a branded solution

No ownership of Source code and data
Usually such firm download these clone code from open-source/ Github repository and add a UI wrapper around it

Outdated versions / technology

No customization available
No ownership of Source code
White-Label Platforms

 

Look at the below Decision Matrix and find a solution which is a good fit for your business model,

No Parameters Bespoke Open-source SaaS Clones Lokaly
1 Cost of solution Cost of solution will be very high Web cost will be Low as themes & plugins available. Mobile App would be costly Hidden charges for transaction, and other activities Low cost of solution No hidden cost, Low to Medium cost of solution
2 Time to Develop Very long development time Low to medium time to develop Low time to adopt Low time to adopt Low time to adopt
3 Solution Scalability Yes Yes there would be different pricing models No as it would be one time sale Yes, we have modular approach
4 Solution adapts to Business Model Product adopts to your Business Model Product adopts to your Business Model Business adopts to the Product Business adopts to the Product Product adopts to your Business Model
5 Data Ownership Customer Customer Mostly the SaaS platform would own Customer Customer
6 Control over Technology Full control with the ownership of the source code & data Full control with the ownership of the source code as per Open source license & data Least control of all model. Saas will not offer any customization & you will not own the code Full control with the ownership of the source code & data IPR/Source Code with Lokaly. 
7 Ease of Operation Yes Yes Yes efficiency is low Yes
8 Integration with 3rd Party Tools Yes Yes Limited as per their list Yes Yes
9 Solution Support & Upgrades Yes Yes Yes No Yes
  Upgrades          

Lokaly

  1. we focus on these differences to create a distinct experience for every user.

  2. Product should be offered at an affordable cost and quick turnaround
  3. Should be able to fit a small to larger venture using modular approach

  4. Product should have an openness to integrate with existing/ new tools

The code developed for Lokaly is from scratch with no open source or copied code base which gives us complete knowledge and control over the development.

What do we cover:

 

Aggregator Business Model (Marketplace with Store listing enabled)

   

 

Single Brand Store (Single or Multi location)

   

 

Pure Ecommerce Flow (3rd Party Courier Delivery Integration)

   

 

Hyperlocal Ecommerce Flow (Self Delivery, 3rd Party Delivery)

   

 

Dark-flow Ecommerce (Fulfillment WH, Multiple Suppliers)

Applications

 

Customer Application

Business Application

Point of Sale

Driver Application

Picker Application

Dine-In Application

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOBILE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLET

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Lokaly Offers?

• Complete White-label Solution with customized & branded solution on App Store
• Your own Marketplace subscription model
• Business Hours, Order Settings, Delivery Settings
• SMS Alerts on Order receipt & processing
• Custom offers & discounts at store level
• Online Payment Integration
• Flexible Licensing model: One-Time License / Subscription Monthly Model
• Modular Functionality to allow solution to grow as your business grows
• Wide variety of store type

Core Modules

 

Add-On Modules

 

 

Pricing Model

 

Clientele

 

As technology advances, customer demands for the latest tech increase too. For businesses, keeping up with the latest tech trends ensures that you can give your customers what they want. It also help retain a competitive edge and embrace the fast-paced changes to stay relevant in the industry. If your business does not keep up with the changing technology, you face the risk of being left behind.

Here are a few ways in which you can keep your business up to date with the latest technology:

Be prepared

It is essential to offer you’re your customers with products and services built with the latest technology. Innovating and improving products and services with the latest technology prepares your business for the future. Web technology, Mobile applications and new features such as AI, VR and AR can dramatically add value to customer experiences.

Don’t forget to check: How To Bulletproof Your Digital Business With Technology

Follow trends

Technology update is not a one-time thing. It keeps evolving. New trends are constantly around the corner. Having all this information gives you an insight into what you should include in your business growth strategies. Following latest trends will ensure that you are ready for what the future may bring in terms of technology.

Check out the competition

With competition getting fiercer, it is getting more and more important to understand what technology are others in a similar business using. This will ensure that you and offering similar or better services to your customers with advanced technology solutions. Checking out the competitors will help you strategize better about your tech strategy.

Keeping your business updated with the latest technology is beneficial in many ways. It enables businesses to offer better services to their customers and stay relevant in a fiercely competitive business world. Latest technology will ensure that your business is future ready.

In today’s world, technology transformation is inevitable. But while we keep our businesses up to date with the latest technology and the latest trends in the market, we should also ensure that we plan ahead for the future too. Bullet-proof your business with the right scalable and flexible technology.

Technology that is futuristic

Technology keeps evolving and businesses need to plan ahead. With the latest technology today, it will be easier to scale in the future and adopt something more futuristic. Adopting AI and ML based mobile applications today will make it easier to step into the future.

Technology that helps scale easily

No matter how great your forecasting model is, future is unpredictable. It’s important for businesses to invest in technology that can help adapt to the future developments in IT. For example, invest in scalable bandwidth and develop mobile applications with the latest technology.

Technology helps you adapt to evolving trends

The world of technology is constantly changing and businesses need to be able to adapt. Make sure that your hardware and software are up to date with the latest trends. It ensures that your business is set up for success.

Technology aids in streamlining operations

With technology your business will be well equipped to handle any future circumstances. It’s a good idea to frequently review your processes and implement technology solutions to streamline the operations.

Technology fosters good customer experiences

Customers keep a business alive. It is essential for businesses to analyse what technology the customer uses the most and ensure that they get the right information at the right time in the purchase process. This establishes good customer experiences for your business.

You can also read: Keep Up-to-Date your Business with Latest Technology

In order to bullet proof your business for the future, you need to ensure that you use the right technology for the right processes – a mix of mobile applications, eCommerce, web interfaces and more. These will ensure that you are ready!

One of the biggest decisions you will make for your business is the choice of the eCommerce platform that is scalable and will ensure long term growth. The platform should also help customers that are engaging with your brand to reduce friction while they’re getting the product they need. Ensuring employees have what they need to implement campaign strategies and at the same time be ready to use without add on cost for maintenance and installation.

Whether you are a brick and mortar store with a strong local presence or are looking for an enterprise eCommerce solution, building one from scratch is out of the question! The time frame and the cost is simply too high for such an endeavour.

The good news is that there are a number of ready to use eCommerce solutions such as Lokaly that enable you to go online instantly. These solutions are highly customisable too. Being white labelled, you need not worry about how it will ‘look’ for your brand.

Lokaly is ready to use, white labelled eCommerce solution. It enables local stores to quickly go online by quickly upload the products and begin selling.

Some of the features of this marketplace are:

  • Completely White-label solution
  • Customized & Branded Solution on App Store
  • Your own Marketplace subscription model
  • Customizable Features
  • Increase your revenue
  • Ensure your business continuity in the Lockdown or stay home period

Lokaly can be completely customised to suit your business requirements. It’s the easiest and fastest way to reach your customers where they are – online. It not only helps you keep up with the latest in the online world, but also helps keep in compliance with the latest no contact delivery policies for the covid 19 rules. With customisations, you can make the app look, feel and serve your customers as your business requirements.

Developing an excellent product and a great sales strategy is only half the battle won for a business. Providing good customer support after you have sold a product is also important. Shopping is not merely a transaction – the entire experience counts. By providing excellent customer support you can offer your customers better experiences while shopping with your brand. Shoppers that ‘feel good’ while making a purchase, will definitely be back for more.

There are 4 key reasons why customer support is important for your online business

  • It adds value to your product
  • It increases customer retention leading to recurring revenue
  • Results in positive brand image
  • Boosts employee moral
  • Adds value to your brand

What exactly is good customer support and why is it essential?

Customer support empowers customers through the entire purchasing process and post purchase experiences. It helps you better assist customers who are interested in purchasing your product by offering quick and accurate answers. Next, it is also useful during the purchasing process. You can provide customers with orders, errors while placing orders, or provide better package tracking details. Lastly, you can offer customers with support if they face any issues post purchase. You can make cancellations and returns easy to process or offer the ability to exchange faulty products.

A good product or service can only get you so far. If you add good customer support to the equation, the value of your offering as well as your brand instantly increases. It also has the potential to reduce negative reviews. This added value translates to increased revenue and customer retention.

With customer support, businesses can offer a lot more than sales transactions. You can give them a reason to love your products and your business!

Successful eCommerce websites go beyond listing great products and providing effective customer service. It is good to remember that first impressions carry the day and web design provides that first impression. Unattractive, cluttered designs are off putting. They drive traffic away resulting in lost leads. User-friendly designs funnel users smoothly through the sales funnel and increase conversions.

What they see impacts how they react

A haphazard design is like a cluttered and disorganized store. Finding products of choice becomes difficult and time consuming. a browser just needs a click to move away in the blink of an eye and enter an organized store. 

Impact of small changes on profit

Colors, shapes, and sizes create a psychological impact. The immediate conversion rate noticed after such minor changes are made appears insignificant. A mere 1% swing means a major jump in annual sales.

Accessibility matters

Information assimilation and processing strategies differ from person to person. Visual processors are impacted by font size and background contrast. An image that correlates with text is more accessible to the kinesthetically inclined.

Brand awareness and recall

A consistent design or logo appearing on the website, promotional material, and physical product stamps a permanent impression on the mind and increases immediate brand recall translating into a wider loyal customer base.

Read More: A Highly Customizable Solution For All Your Online Business Needs

Successful websites combine aesthetics and ease of use. A good design optimizes layout and browsing experience by converting abstract ideas of aesthetics and usability into concrete designs. It presents products, purchase options, and brand image clearly and consistently.

White labelling simplifies branding policies for marketeers while presenting high-value products to end users. It is a strategy used extensively in businesses dealing with both products and services.

Boost to branding: With a ready-made product in hand attention can be devoted exclusively to product branding. This frees up need to allocate resources on aspects not related to market impact and devoting time and energy to product promotion. In case of multiple third-party products, white labelling increases brand visibility too.

Customer loyalty: Customer loyalty increases with more products carrying a brand name. Customers trust brands that offer a wide range of products once they find a good product from a brand. White labelling puts the brand name on a variety of products.

Leverage Expertise: Experts in individual product development make the products and the company name appears on the label. It is a win-win situation for both the product developer and the company.

Ready-made refined products: During the development stage experts take the pain of rigorously testing products and ironing out issues that undermine the value of their product. The white labelled product thus comes with built in value.

Cost and time efficient: White labelling by passes cost involved in product development from scratch. No longer are dedicated teams needed for product development and research.

Decreased pressure on complaint redressal: Third-party tools take on the responsibility of dealing with complaints and for troubleshooting products.

Provides multiple alternate products under the same brand: Customer choice and needs differ. An array of alternate products serves to cater to these differing choices and needs.

Customer satisfaction is the aim of businesses. By white labelling products and services businesses develop an improved value chain that translates into more satisfied customers.

Mobile devices have become the go-to solution for all information gathering and almost all activity today. PWAs challenge Native app downloads that eat up memory space and slow down devices. They combine the benefits of native apps and web pages making information gathering and acting on the information fast and secure.

Easily downloadable on both mobile and desktop screens, PWAs are quickly accessible both online and offline. This adds to their appeal. Here are some reasons to invest in PWA now.

  • Combination of native apps and websites

PWAs consist of several websites. They work on search browsers and offer API integration. They provide immediate access to sites and load fast. they permit push notifications, have full-screen functions, and can be saved to the home screen.

  • Offline use

PWAs are free from connectivity breakdown issues. Their service workers act as intermediaries, storing and downloading information as needed.

  • No app store needed

As PWAs run across multiple platforms, they eliminate the need for developing different apps for different operating systems thereby decreasing cost. Automatic update is an added feature of PWA.

  • Easier to locate and use

PWAs are easily discovered by search engines, without the need for prompts to install native apps or register on them .This makes browsing faster and easier.

  • Can be linked and shared

As they are like websites, sharing PWA links is possible through messenger services and link sharing. Saved as bookmarks, it is possible to share them on social media.

  • Memory consumption avoided

As they are saved and stored on home screen, they use up virtually no memory on mobile devices. This increases user engagement.

PWAs are increasingly revolutionizing the emerging app market and disrupting the industry.

Using the latest technology in e-commerce significantly boosts a company’s chances to become a market leader. The latest technology can offer innovative solutions for enticing customers online. One such technology is Flutter, which takes cross-platform app development to a new level. Some of the main benefits of selecting flutter for e-commerce mobile application development are:

Faster time to market

In today’s competitive business landscape, speed matters above all. The use of cross-platform app development allows reducing the time to market. The product can be released sooner and the app will be available on two devices – Android and iOS while performing like a native app – stable and reliable.

Easy maintenance

It’s known that the release of the application is just the beginning. Maintenance of the application is a large part of the process. It’s time consuming and it costs you too. Flutter’s apps solve these problems as well. In Flutter, adding new features and fixing bugs is easy. There are plugins and widgets available to accommodate any new features you want to.

Cost efficiency

This is one of the most important advantages of Flutter. Because it is cross-platform, two separate teams need not be hired to develop the e-commerce app. So, it saves costs. Developing an app on flutter requires less financial, human and material costs than developing a native application.

Customizable advanced UI

With the focus on the end user, many companies focus on immersive user experiences. Flutter has a wide range of tools and widgets to help design flexible and advanced UI features.

Easy integration with the existing apps

Many companies are apprehensive about creating new apps and discard the old ones. Flutter is flexible and enables you to embed code even in the native mode. Flutter has many more benefits. The transition to cross-platform development is gradual, but a less painful process for businesses.

Flutter is stable, reliable and definitely an option for businesses who wish to move to mobile e-commerce – soon!

Lokaly is an e-commerce app and built using Flutter technology.

“Restaurants are Looking Beyond…”, says an article by The Economic Times. Restaurants are now adopting platforms that charge lesser commission fees compared to dominant food aggregators. Asking for high commission and masking consumers’ data, restaurants are moving to marketplace-based platforms. These changes (aka savings from hefty commission %) will be rewarded to consumers as discounts on their online orders. This is going to enable a more modest and effective model – Direct to Consumer (D2C).

When businesses opting for ready-made solutions, where they can save cost, get access to their consumers’ data and manage online business easily. Lokaly is a ready-made and transparent solution for small to large businesses. Lokaly has partnered with 30+ restaurants based in Ahmedabad. Also, Lokaly has developed solutions for some famous brands in the USA. Lokaly provides free trial and support to sellers to know the platform better.