Develop Ecommerce Website for business growth

It’s good to see Ecommerce web sites success in recent years, however shop keepers sitting quietly in their shops instead of being busy in selling products is certainly not a good scene to watch.

Shop keepers don’t need to panic at this stage, the fact is that online selling share in the organized retail is less than 1%. Indian e-commerce market is still in nascent stage but it has got the huge potential to grow in years to come.

E-Commerce Overview

E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce is a methodology that addresses the need of business organizations, vendors and customers to reduce cost and improve the quality of goods and services while increasing the speed of delivery. E-commerce refers to paperless exchange of business information.

India and Ecommerce

The eCommerce sector has seen unbelievable growth in 2014. The growth was driven by rapid technology powered by devices like smartphones and tablets, and of course access to the internet through broadband, 3G, 4G etc.

Good to see the growth shown by Indian companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal etc and huge interest by investors around these companies indicates the immense potential of the market. Still after so many years of operations, all the major e-retailers are yet to start making profits.

E-commerce is creating an entire new economy having huge potential and is fundamentally changing the way businesses are done. It has advantages for both buyers as well as sellers.

Books, apparel and accessories and electronics are the largest selling products on the online retailing platforms, constituting around 80 per cent of the volume.

India has an internet user base of over 50 million users. The penetration of ecommerce is low compared to markets like the USA, China, Europe, UK but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants.

 

Advantages of Ecommerce

• Using E-Commerce, companies can expand their market globally with minimum investment.
• E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
• E-commerce helps in providing better customer services. E-Commerce helps in simplifying the business processes and make them efficient. E-Commerce reduces paper work.
• 24x7! Customer can do transactions any time, anywhere from any location.
• E-Commerce application provides user more options and quicker delivery of products.
• E-Commerce application provides user more options to compare and select the cheaper and better option.
• A customer can put review comments about a product and can see what others are buying or see the review comments of other customers before making a final buy.
• E-Commerce increases competition among the organizations and as result organizations provides substantial discounts to customers.
• Customers need not to travel to shop a product thus less traffic on road and low air pollution.
• E-Commerce has enabled access to services and products to rural areas as well which are otherwise not available to them.
• E-Commerce helps in serving public for services like health care, education, social services at reduced cost and in improved way. 

The complete article is available here - http://www.kalpaksolutions.com/article_develop_ecommerce_website_for_business_growth.php

Kalpak Solutions has successfully completed 15+ E-commerce Websites so far, most of the recent websites have been developed using WordPress and WooCart. For more details please visit - http://kalpaksolutions.com/ecommerce.php

Implement a neatly designed system of workflows through ERP software

Written by : Sandeep Gohad, Founder – Kalpak Solution

Do you have an easy access to information about your sales, purchases, inventory, production, accounts? Are you using different software for different processes? Is it taking a lot of time to reconcile financials at the end of the year? it's time to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system! 

What is ERP

ERP refers to the software and tools that businesses can use to process and manage information from all departments of the company. It plays an important role in business process management.

To integrate all aspects of business operations into one easy-to-use system, many companies turn to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.

ERP software stores the information in one database, giving businesses a simplified look.ERP software runs on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, including within premises (client/server) or hosted (cloud-based).

ERP software makes it easier to track the workflow of various departments. It can reduce the operational costs & time. One time entered data can be shared across all the departments. For eg. Data entered in an enquiry register can be used in all the stages like Quotation, Purchase order, Invoicing etc.

In the above mentioned diagram, Company is accepting an enquiry from it’s customer, in an ERP software data stored as enquiry will be used in all the stages like Quotation, PO, GRN, Invoice.

Most of the ERP software covers the following modules - product planning, material purchasing, inventory control, distribution, accounting, marketing, finance and HR.

There are different flavors of ERP that serve various business domains. It’s no more restricted to only manufacturing sector. ERP solutions are specially designed for specific industries, like finance, communications, education, healthcare etc.

Benefits

Key benefits of ERP software

• Scalability : It is possible to add new functionality to the system as per the business needs. This adds a lot of flexibility in the implementation of new changes.
• Data quality and access : - Compared with traditional approaches (manual record entry), an ERP software improves data quality by improving the underlying processes. Data can be accessed from any location (if you are connected with internet), so no geographical restrictions.
• Reporting system : single reporting system to check status of any operation in real-time, across all the departments.
• Enhanced sales, purchases, inventory functionality.
• Production Management tool and reminder systems will make sure that you are always up to date while being with your dealers.
• Alerts for Minimum & Maximum stock will help you to manage inventory properly.
• Creates sales territory to track and segment your sales completely.
• Manage post sales activities.
• Manage user roles to control information flow.
• Easy collection of metrics : number of leads, invoices, payment cycles etc.
• Multi user : Software will be accessible from multiple locations. Multiple users can do the data entry.
• Data Storage : Control the entire factory operations at a single server/place.
• User rights, login, security : – Functionality wise Login and Passwords will be created for the access rights. User logs will be maintained. OTP password, IP based login can be implemented for security.

Implementation

• You need to be patient!
• Set reasonable goals and objectives.
• Test software in all departments.

ERP software solutions can definitely make a business more profitable. It plays an important role of automation of most of the functional business processes.

Kalpak Solutions has successfully developed 20+ ERP software so far.

Please visit Kalpak Solutions ERP page to know more details.

Digital Marketing for building credibility and trust

Digital Marketing for building credibility and trust

Written by : Sandeep Gohad, Founder – Kalpak Solutions | Posted On: Friday, March 6, 2015

The company will not survive without the trust and confidence of the customer. Digital marketing can definitely help in building credibility and trust also it brings traffic to the website. Statistics tells us that using social media to promote a business definitely works!

2014 statistics showed digital marketing remained a top growing field. It is interesting to see that every year businesses are giving up traditional advertising methods and focusing on Digital Marketing via SEO, Google Adwords or Social Media etc. As of 2014, statistics state that 71% of all internet users are now active on social media sites.

Facebook reported that its quarterly profit jumped 90% compared to last year and that's because of it's advertising revenues, it is also reported that there's increase in its monthly active users, now totaling 1.35 Billon people worldwide. The above mentioned statistics shows the increasing popularity of digital marketing and changing trends in marketing strategy.

Let's go through the popular trends in Digital Marketing -

• Content Marketing: The name explains the meaning itself. It is the present and future of digital marketing. Genuine and informative content including text, audio, video, info graphics etc. which can be promoted through SEO, SMO for creating awareness and branding of your service/product. Finally content marketing plays vital role in driving indirect and direct sales.
• Email Marketing: This is another trending method of digital marketing which yields an exact and quick ROI. In this method of digital marketing, promotional, informative and direct emails are sent to prospective clients. It's a good method of direct digital marketing.
• Mobile Marketing: Mobile marketing consists of advertising on mobile applications and websites which are more of consumer centric.
• Social Media Optimization (SMO): Social media platforms are very powerful mediums to drive sales of your service/product. Using social platforms like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin etc. you can promote your business to various segments of customers.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This is one of the oldest but yet worthwhile method of digital marketing which helps you to get your website on 1st search rank. The only drawback is that it is time consuming and is costly.
• Paid Search Marketing: This is very effective and transparent method of digital marketing which is also called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In this, we actually 'pay per click' as our websites get clicked by potential customers. Google Adwords, Bing Ads are widely used for paid search marketing.

Although it's about posting positive comments about your company/products/services to attract new customers, you have to be careful, happy customers can help you, but unhappy customer can harm your business... 

For interesting statistical data of digital marketing check the following links - 
http://www.webdam.com/2014-marketing-statistics-infographic 
http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/75-digital-marketing-stats-from-salesforce-marketing-cloud-research

Kalpak Solutions provide digital marketing services as per your business needs.
To know more please click here.

Project Management Software to keep schedule and costs on track

Project Management Software to keep schedule and costs on track

Written by : Sandeep Gohad, Founder – Kalpak Solutions | Posted On: Monday, February 16, 2015

Consider executing simplest of tasks we use project management without even realizing we are. Activities like planning, executing, monitoring and closing all are the essential parts of project management. Project management provides a systematic way to accomplish goals.

In this article, I will talk about the advantages of having project management software and it's process flow.

Project management software can manage the activities like planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, communication, decision-making and documentation.

Please check the above process flow diagram, I have considered 3 entities – Customer, Project Manager and Employees. Every entity's role is defined and will access the project management software for various inputs and outputs.

Process flow

• Customer will explain the scope to project manager/concerned person.
• Project manager will add new/existing customer details in Project management software.
• Project manager will create the project, will attach project scope documents.
• Depending on project type, the tasks will be created or will be taken from master data (if it's a reparative kind of project)
• Project will be divided into several tasks.
• Several tasks will be divided into several sub-tasks.
• Project manager will be able to assign tasks and or sub-tasks to employees from employee master data in project management software.
• Project manager will be able to enter task/sub-task completion date.
• Employee will login with his/her credentials into project management software.
• Project management software will maintain the status of every individual sub-task like pending, completed, rejected with remark.
• Employee will change the status of sub-task after completing it, default status will be pending.
• Project manager will get automatic email/sms notification after completion of a particular sub-task, he will review it and change the status to approved/rejected with remarks.
• Set of sub-tasks will complete a task and similarly set of tasks will complete a project.
• Project management software will send email/sms notification to client after completion of project.
• User name and password will be given to client to access the project management software, he will go through the project and will approve/reject it with remarks.
• Project manager can schedule project stage wise billing in project management software, after completion certain tasks an automatic invoice will get generated and will be sent to client by email.

Advantages

• Universal Access. You and your team can manage tasks from any internet enabled computer.
• Centralized Project Management. Handle all aspects of managing multiple projects from a central online location.
• Integrated Collaboration Tools. Unlike other tools, you get a whole lot of integrated tools like document collaboration, workspaces, calendars, and email to synergize with project management.
• Create Tasks. Automate the project management process by creating unlimited projects, tasks and subtasks with name, description, status, dates etc.
• Manage Responsibilities & Permissions. Assigning responsibilities to employees for projects, tasks or subtasks with completion date. Easily manage viewing and modification for projects, tasks and subtasks for each teammate.
• Task Dependencies. Create elaborate precedence relationships between tasks in a project to reflect sophisticated real life projects.
• To Do Lists. 'To do' lists allow every team member to manage themselves with an easy view of which task has been assigned to him, they have completed or yet 'to do'. Various Project status can be maintained like – info awaited, in progress, pending/hold, completed.
• Automatic Notifications. Automatically notify all involved parties of important events - a deadline is met, a task finished or a task assigned to somebody by email and sms.

I would like to mention that such kind of project management system is most suitable for organizations who deliver the services through the medium of documents, designs, diagrams etc. Documents/drawings/images/design can be stored in project management software with Upload/download facility.

Designing firms, law firms, accounting and taxation firms, structural designing firms who deliver cad drawings can make use of project management software to store/backup complete work done by them.

Features like tracking progress of each and every sub-task, due date reminders and notifications by email/sms, report generation, automatic invoice generation are few of the most useful features.

Kalpak Solutions has designed and developed a customized project management software suitable for accounting firms and structural designing firms.

Please go through the features of project management software developed by Kalpak Solutions.

Improve your website’s search engine ranking using ethical ways

Improve your website's search engine ranking using ethical ways

Written by : Sandeep Gohad, Founder – Kalpak Solutions | Posted On: Thursday, Janaury 1, 2015

Feeling good about your recently launched website developed by a professional website development company? Well, congratulations! but does it appear on top when you search it on Google/Yahoo search engines? This article talks about simple and cost effective ways to boost your website traffic and ultimately help it appear on top.

Website world consists of billions of web pages, what can be done to make Your Website standout from the Competition? This article will help in improving your search engine rankings using ethical ways, I will be taking an example of our recently completed project – Premier Tennis League.
Kalpak Solutions recently completed an important project for Premier Tennis League, we developed their website in 2 days, got just a week's time to promoted it.

• Content is king – Write the content do not copy it from some source and keep on updating contents frequently.
• Domain name- make sure to have your domain name short, meaningful and easy to spell.
• Keep it simple, clean, and fast
• Important to have relevant meta Tags, key words and page titles.
• Submit your website to search engines
• Keep an eye on web traffic through Google analytics.
• Google local business listing – it's free & very effective.
• Use social networking – facebook, linked in, google+ etc
• SEO, Digital marketing, google adwords – these are little expensive ones.

Case Study – Premier Tennis League

I will be taking an example of our recently completed project – Premier Tennis League. Kalpak Solutions recently completed an important project for Premier Tennis League, we designed and developed their website in just 2 days, got just a week's time to promoted it.

Challenge : We realized that there are very few tennis news followers who read articles/tournament coverage reports/tournament calendar on internet. And even less followers who search tennis related words on search engines like google which made our job even more difficult.

What Kalpak Solutions did to promote Premier Tennis League website in a very short duration

We started with basics and what we normally do after completing any particular website. We optimized all website pages using on-page optimization techniques like optimizing content, keyword researching and analysis, improving titles, heading tags etc. For off page activities we used Search Engine Marketing (SEM)platform.

As mentioned earlier, we had just a week's time for web promotion and there's no way to get website indexed in such a short period.

We decided to use all possible (ethical) ways for web promotion like :

• Pay Per Click (PPC) using google adwords – It didn't work as there are hardly few tennis followers who search on google search for tennis news, videos etc.
• Facebook advertising – We got excellent response through facebook advertising and we got around 4,000 likes and around 1,000 website hits through facbook advertising campaign.

It's not necessary that google adwords or facebook advertising will pay off every time, it depends a lot on your product type/services you want to promote.