web hosting

Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Your E-commerce System

Many companies are moving their businesses online because of the potential the internet offers to move far beyond the traditional brick and mortar offerings and explore new markets.  Apart from the internet itself, there are many tools available to help effectively market your products or services and send your business soaring to new heights.  An e-commerce website is the key to your success, and a powerful retail management system like Microsoft Dynamics RMS can be that tool needed to propel your online store ahead of the competition.

What is Microsoft Dynamics RMS?

Microsoft Dynamics RMS is a software product that provides a robust, yet intuitive interface for administering all the business related needs of an online retailer.  It allows you to manage everything from point-of-sale systems to the centralized controlling of the multiple storefronts that make up your business.  Offering a built-in web integration tool, the software can easily be integrated with e-commerce shopping carts scripted in ASP.  When coupled with such a shopping cart, the extensive features of Microsoft Dynamics RMS allows you to leverage real-time data from your retail system to ensure that your customers are always up to date with the most recent products and services.

Designing Your Storefront

The design of your store is critical when integrating a shopping cart with your retail management solution.  You may want to start out with a simple design and then make gradual upgrades as the demands of you and your customers increase.  Furthermore, take careful consideration to the overall presentation of your store and how it might appeal to potential customers.  For example, if you sell teens apparel or ring tones, you may want to choose a fun design targeting younger customers.  If you specialize in services and solutions geared towards IT professionals, it would probably be best to do away with all the flair and opt for something more professional.  Whatever you decide, find yourself an e-commerce system that can deliver the extensive customization options you need to support various types of stores.

After getting your shopping cart and all the associated features together, it is time to integrate your store with the Microsoft Dynamics RMS software by using the integrator tool.  Once this process has been completed, the data from your retail management system will be automatically synchronized with your online store.  From here, you can access the administrative panel of your shopping cart and then make whatever changes that need to be made in regard to products, services or features.

Market Your Store

Just having a beautiful online store integrated with a dynamic retail management system will not make you an instant success.  In order to attract new customers, you will have to take a proactive approach and promote your store as you would any other business orientated site.  Therefore, you need to make sure your shopping cart offers search engine-friendly features that help you make the most of your keywords, URLs and meta tags.  Microsoft Dynamics RMS can provide the streamlined management facility you need to make an impact, but it is up to you to make your online store a success.

How Will You Host Your E-commerce Site?

If you desire to open a storefront online, take note that there are several methods that can be used to power your e-commerce site, including an in-house solution, colocation, shared hosting, dedicated and managed hosting.  The method you choose will depend on various factors, but mainly your budget, level of technical expertise and the requirements of your business.

In-House Method

Hosting your e-commerce site in-house involves setting up a server room, purchasing the necessary hardware and software components, leasing a reliable high-speed connection and employing an IT team.  Experienced IT personnel are required to handle day to day technical aspects such as performing backups, monitoring security and basically doing whatever it takes to keep the server up and running.  The costs and complexities that come along with an in-house operation are considerable and often too much for startups and small businesses to handle.

Colocation

Colocation refers to an alternative solution that allows businesses to store their server hardware and network equipment in a facility maintained by a hosting company.  The firm provides you with physical storage space, internet bandwidth and electricity to power the hardware.  There are many advantages to this type of arrangement, including a lower cost for bandwidth and the enhanced reliability you get from the data center.  The disadvantages are that you must purchase your own hardware and actually find a provider that offers a colocation service in your area.

Shared Hosting

One of the most common ways to run an e-commerce website is through a service arrangement known as shared hosting.  In this environment, the websites of multiple companies are stored on a single server, which share an internet connection and various other resources between them.  While suitable for the needs of many, this type of service is best for companies that anticipate a small to moderate amount of traffic and have a limited budget.  This is mainly because there are strict limitations in regard to disk space, bandwidth and control.  With that said, a reputable firm should be able to provide you with a stable platform that can support the needs of both startups and small companies.

Dedicated and Managed Hosting

Dedicated hosting is a method that calls for you to a lease an entire server from a hosting company.  The provider is responsible for maintaining the hardware and network connectivity while the bulk of server administration falls on your shoulders.  This could be a downside because of all the technical challenges that go into maintaining a server, but there are number of benefits as well.  For example, you have extensive control and flexibility that permits you to run your own operating system, database servers, web applications and services.  For those who lack the experience or time needed to handle these tasks, managed hosting exists, a solution that eases the burden of server administration.  Though notably more expensive, managed hosting will allow you to focus more on promoting your e-commerce site and servicing customers rather than dealing with the all the complexities as these processes are handled by the provider.

The fact that there are so many options for hosting an e-commerce site works to your advantage.  What you need to do is a carefully assess your situation and determine which service is best for your business.  After settling on a reliable solution, the fate of your online business is in your hands.

Can You Handle E-commerce Alone?

Constant efficiency and availability are critical factors for any company whose business revolves around e-commerce.  Every element of the organization’s architecture from operating system and web applications to hardware and network connectivity must be designed with fault tolerance and redundancy in mind.  An inaccessible website or damaged OS kernel could put your operation on halt and send customers in the direction of another retailer.  With your competition located just a quick click away, it is crucial to the take the necessary steps to make sure your systems are always available.

The Challenges of Cost and Maintenance

In order to accurately gauge the costs of obtaining greater availability for your systems and infrastructure, you must first determine the degree of reliability your business requires.  For many large online businesses, storing data and applications in multiple locations is an ideal solution.  While relying on a multitude of redundant data centers can help an organization achieve that elusive 100% level of availability, investing in such facilities can be a rather costly and daunting task.  Not only must you consider the expense of building or even leasing a facility, but also hiring a dedicated IT staff and the ongoing maintenance of your systems.  Achieving the fastest response times and the best performance typically demands a world-class service and support on an around the clock basis.

Considering Third-Party Help

One challenge many organizations are faced with today is the decision to create and maintain their systems in-house, or rely on a third-party company to host their applications and IT operations.  Making a decision on either model is based on various factors.  Experience and infrastructure are two great reasons to choose an outside vendor.  Professional hosting companies have access to data center facilities and infrastructures that the average business would have a difficult time replicating internally.  Traveling this route can give you the ability to do away with expensive upfront investments on servers and applications, while sparing your company the burden of maintaining complex systems.  You also have a better chance of getting a scalable infrastructure that allows for upgrades as your business grows and its demands increase.  In addition, choosing a third-party hosting provider as your partner enables your company to leverage both the good and bad times they have experienced.  This in turn, better assures that the host can effectively handle trouble problems when they arise.

If you do choose to partner with an outside firm, it is important to go carefully go over the fine print and pay close attention to what is being guaranteed.  You need to make sure the obligations and commitment to reliability are clearly outlined in the contract so that everything is understood by all parties.  If you can, take a physical tour throughout the provider’s facility to ensure that the best practices are being followed and your e-commerce systems are taken care of.  Should your internal IT staff be strong enough to maintain the entire project internally, be sure to devise a sound strategy that will keep your systems online despite the hardships or disasters that might come your way.

How to Avoid an E-commerce Disaster

Numerous elements go into achieving success with an e-commerce site.  This is one area in which all your vital components need to be working in harmony to create consumer interest, trust and happy customers.  Succeeding with e-commerce calls for all your business processes to be optimized and streamlined, ensuring that everything flows smoothly when consumers visit, navigate and make purchases from your site.  In order to make this happen, many hazards must be avoided to keep you from succumbing to an e-commerce disaster.  ‘

What Leads to a Disaster?

There are a number of instances and obstacles that can lead you straight into a disaster.  For example, you could sign up with an unreliable web hosting provider, select the wrong e-commerce solution, or choose a payment processing method that hinders or completely derails your online transactions.  This is the type of website that runs slow or offers horrible navigation, making its usability inconvenient and very undesirable.  It is an environment where consumers are not sure about making purchases or feel as if their most essential needs are not being satisfied.  While abandoned order pages and shopping carts are tell-tale signs of a disaster, turbulence may commence from the very moment a potential customer lands on your website.

If you want to avoid a disastrous situation with your e-commerce site, you need to make yourself aware of the following inadequacies:

Bad Web Hosting

It is important to know that an e-commerce site is only as efficient as the underlying platform.  When choosing a bad or inadequate hosting solution, you stand the chance of suffering from limited bandwidth, slow loading pages and worst of all, excessive downtime.

All of these instances can result in a loss of customers and ultimately, loss of sales.  An ideal e-commerce platform is one that leverages reliable, high-performance server hardware, redundant high-speed internet connections and the best security practices.

Ineffective Content

Having a website that clearly communicates to your audience is one of the essential keys to succeeding with an e-commerce venture.  You must be able to relay the unique value of your offerings beyond price in a manner that makes visitors want to stick around and make a purchase.  While you don’t want to come on too strong, using cleverly aggressive, action-orientated content can serve as the powerful persuasion you need to convert your visitors into long-term customers.  Play around with a few approaches to find out which processes work best for your business.

Poor Navigation and Usability

Almost every website owner is under the assumption that their sales flow and navigation is intuitive, transparent and user-friendly.  We are here to tell that this is not always the case.  In fact, even the most well designed websites need a little fine-tuning every now and then.  Does your site provide too much information or is it lacking in the content department?  Are there any elements that will distract your visitors from what they need to be focused on?  The answers to these questions and several more can tell you a lot about the navigation and usability aspects of your website.  If outstanding flaws are identified, diagnosis these issues and then optimize your site accordingly.

Chargeback Defense Strategies

As annoying as they may be, chargebacks are something that many online business owners just have to deal with.  They have simply become another common element of e-commerce.  It may not be fair, but in many cases, customers can back their way out of a purchase and leave you stuck to bear the financial burden.  Adding to the problem is the aspect of less scrupulous characters looking to commit fraud with someone else’s credit card.  It can be a frustrating ordeal, but this article will provide some strategic tips to help you combat the dreaded chargeback.

Common Chargeback Claims

Most chargebacks originate from fraudulent transactions and customers who make the claim of never receiving the items they purchased or even making a purchase at all.  Because many of the credit card policies today are designed in favor of the consumer, as the merchant, you are generally required to pay the costs of the merchandise along with a penalty fee for the chargeback.  This may occur whether the claim is legitimate or not.  Merchant account providers having varying fees on chargebacks, typically factoring in the percentage of total monthly sales as well as your history of incurring such claims.  So what is an online merchant to do in this seemingly no-win situation?  Fortunately, there are several proven methods for minimizing the frequency of these claims and dramatically reducing their overall impact on your bottom line.

Obtain Your Merchant Account from a Reputable Provider

Chargeback defense starts by selecting a reputable merchant account provider for your business needs.  Sadly, a large number of companies have blemished the market by delivering less than stellar support and pouring salt into the wound with hefty penalties and astronomical fees.  Therefore, when choosing your merchant account provider, it is imperative that you learn more about their policies in regard to chargebacks.  Keep in mind that not all providers are the same but the more reputable ones will be willingly to help you resolve matters and only charge moderate fees.

Select a Dependable Payment Processing Solution

When choosing your payment processing solution, put strong emphasis on a service that provides efficient, state of the art security mechanisms.  Though a solution equipped with SSL encryption would be a good start, you also need to have something in place that ensures the legitimacy of credit card purchases to protect your business from fraudulent transactions.  AVS (address verification) and CCV (credit card verification) are two viable anti-fraud features that should be applied to authorize all purchases on your site.

Stay on Alert

The best way to fight chargebacks is to remain proactive and look for signs of suspicious activity.  Keep an eye out for inconsistency in the usual ordering logic and customer behavior.  If you start to suspect that something is not right, further investigate the matter to determine if fraudulent activity is occurring.  Whether it is something fishy with a home address, email address, IP address or phone number, whenever in doubt, take the necessary actions to find out what is going on.  Like most offensives, one of the most effective ways to deal with chargebacks is prevention.