24Seven Cart to be featured at the 2013 Retail Pro Global Conference

LAN Services is using the convention platform to welcome the business & alliance partners, retail technology experts and the retailers to come & learn more about the different eCommerce integrated solutions designed specifically for Retail Pro®. The company is exhibiting its robust, end-to-end eCommerce application, 24Seven Cart, along with a web Integration, called Retail Pro Link, designed exclusively for Retail Pro® POS software users.

“The Retail Pro® 8 users who are operating the offline stores are definitely going to benefit from this web integration. It helps in syndicating the POS functionalities with web store features”, commented Anil Jindal, the President and CEO of LAN Services. “Retailers can navigate seamlessly through multiple product categories and this integration supports multi-currency & multiple payment gateways including tokenization”, he further added.

The Retail Pro® link bridges the two different technology platforms and lets pass the information from the retail management software in the brick-and-mortar store to the web store and vice versa. It lets the product data upload from the retail management software to the web stores and downloads customer order information back to the Retail Pro®.

The near real-time updates on both platforms come with an option to run the scheduler to share information. Retailers can set the scheduler down to a minute level accuracy. Retail Pro® software owners can manage both platforms at one go thus eliminating the double data entry on different platforms.

Additional benefits of the integration are as follows:

•     Provision for standard & matrix products.
•     Auto updates of the entire product attribute.
•     Ability to generate various product and customer order statistical reports within 24Seven Cart.
•     Automatic & manual uploading of information.

Integrating Retail Pro® software with 24Seven Cart adds functionality for social media networking to enhance the customer experience.

About Retail Pro

Retail Pro International, LLC is a global leader in Point of Sale, Store Operations, Merchandising, Planning, Business Intelligence and Payment Processing software applications for the specialty retail industry. For over 25 years, Retail Pro has enabled specialty retailers to achieve their full potential through a unique, scalable, reliable, and highly customizable retail management solution.

Today, Retail Pro is used by more than 52,000 retail stores globally in markets such as fashion, luggage, footwear, collectibles, gifts, home furnishings, sporting goods, and accessories. With unparalleled functionality, flexibility and ease-of-use, Retail Pro has established itself as a trusted solution for today's specialty retailers worldwide. The solution is delivered through a global network of business partners to over 87 countries, translated in 18 languages.

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Microsoft Dynamic Retail Management System (RMS) integration launched by LAN Services LLC

To simplify the retail point-of-sale operations along with managing web store processes, LAN Services LLC has launched an online shopping cart solution, 24Seven Cart, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics RMS .
Automation of the business processes is the first & the foremost issue that any retailer pays heed . Whether it’s their operations in retail outlets managed through POS or multiple processes of the web store, every retailer wants to streamline various functions. Managing both the technology platforms are quite cumbersome as it requires manual entry of product information. Additionally, processing orders of both the platforms simultaneously is annoying.

To remove these types impediments, LAN Services has come up with an advanced 24 Seven shopping cart application that integrates web store operation with MS RMS point of sale systems . This aggregation of two different technology platforms has increased the capabilities by adding their features.

To seamlessly integrate these applications, LAN Services has developed a middle ware/ web Integrator. This integrator helps in sharing and updating the product & order information on both the systems. The sharing of information happens instantly and retailers get the additional capability to schedule this process. The retailers can fix this data update process to a minute level accuracy.

This middle ware is capable of integrating POS with multiple web stores too. It offers flexibility to upload the product information through POS to web stores. All the product information such as product images, their attributes, multiple prices, their descriptions and the promotional offers get uploaded through a click.

Conversely, POS get the order information from all the web stores. Retailers can download the customers’ orders, payment information, shipping data and customers’ address details from the web stores. The real-time process syndication displays the updated information regarding the products, their units available, orders processed & shipped and payment details.

This whole synchronization process practically eliminates the requirement of manually entering the data on different systems. In addition to this, it also lets the retailers to generate various reports regarding sales, payments, orders, products etc.

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Energizing the retail sales with 24Seven shopping cart

eCommerce technology giant, LAN Services LLC is driving the retail industry with the integration and launch of 24Seven Cart with Visual Retail Plus point of sale (POS).

Product lines become unmanageable if it contains a large variety of products. Retailers, especially in apparel, footwear & CPG industries, find it burdensome to manage such a huge product line. Point of sale systems (POS) definitely helps retailers in managing their products and respective retail functions. However, even POS has its own limitations.

Certain retail functions such as sales return, shipping, mail management, promotional offers, social media etc. cannot be managed through POS systems. To overcome the shortcomings of POS, retailers are now adopting online marketing. They are coming up with the online stores to manage additional retail functions.

Nonetheless, managing a physical store with an online store is also difficult to handle. In view of such situation, LAN Services has launched its online store solution; 24Seven Cart integrated with Visual Retail Plus, windows based point of sales application.

Managing & sharing information simultaneously on both the systems requires a web integrator that updates the relevant data. 24Seven Cart comes with an inbuilt plug-in that integrates web store with VRP enabled POS application. This web integrator lets the retailers to synchronously update the product information on the web store and conversely downloads the online orders & customer related information on the POS. It eliminates the repeated data input on both the platforms. 

Scheduler automatically updates the process of information exchange between the two platforms. Additionally, retailers can also manually manage this data sharing process. Since the information gets updated on near real time basis, retailers can set the scheduler for information updates down to a minute level. 

The VRP integrated shopping cart comes with an additional functionality. It offers  access to different marketplaces such as Amazon & eBay. Retailers get deeper insights with the inbuilt reporting tool that accurately computes about the sales, overall revenue generated, revenue generated product wise, orders pending, shipped orders, remaining products available and many other customized reports.

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Reinforcing the retail Point of Sales with 24Seven Cart

The eCommerce and POS integration solution provider LAN Services LLC has, once again, strengthen its presence with the integration and launch of its foremost web store solution 24Seven Cart with Visual Retail Plus (VRP) POS. 

Retailers, especially in apparel & footwear industry, always find it more cumbersome to manage their several products and their related categories. It is the quantity which makes the whole store unmanageable. Things become inept when such retailers need to manage their multiple stores. Additionally, conditions become worse when they need to manage their web stores along with physical stores.

In addition to this, their POS systems don’t offer the facilities of managing shipping operations, mails to the customers, social media, sales returns and other customization services. In view of such milieu, LAN Services has revamped & launched its web store solution; 24Seven Cart integrated with windows based POS, Visual Retail Plus.

Visual Retail Plus POS is a leading point of sale applications used by the retailers in apparel & footwear domains. Integrating 24Seven shopping cart with this windows oriented POS lets retailers to share & update information on both the platforms simultaneously.

Integration with this POS offers retailers to run a scheduler to or manually update both the systems. 24Seven Cart uses a customized middleware to create a link with Visual Retail Plus POS. It gives the flexibility to upload product related information such as inventory data, products, their images, multiple prices, their description, etc. from POS machine.

On the contrary, this link also downloads customer order information such as online orders, customer information, payment details and shipping data from the web store.

Features of VRP integration with 24Seven Cart:

• Removing the repeated data recording requirements.
• Updating accounting and sales information on a real time basis.
• Sharing product information in multiple stores.
• Generating analytics report on sales, orders and payments.
• Automatic stock level updates.
• Sending purchase order information like back order reporting, closed orders and invoice tracking.

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Launching the Advanced Content & Image Management Feature for 24Seven Shopping Cart Software

Every business, whether dealing in wholesale or retail, wants to expand their business operations from one place, city or country to another. Multiplying the business operations has its own innate requirements. Building up additional capabilities require extra human resources, technical expertise and need to administer infrastructure, operations, finances etc. The latest trend of taking a business online definitely possesses certain advantages as compared to a physical store. Nonetheless, trade tricks to manage an online business are bit different and require a different set of skills.

Managing an online business necessitates the owners to learn to administer the contents like products, images, files or videos of their web stores. Looking over the contents of the web store consists of managing the multiple layout templates, intuitive user interfaces, multiple product and relative categories, automated order processing, mechanized payment & shipping integration, capabilities to manage products’ multiple prices and all its relative settings for allowing to activate the features.

24Seven Cart is an endogenously built eCommerce platform by a California-based LAN Services LLC. This feature laden eCommerce platform offers varied functionalities in its content management system (CMS). Web store owners have the ability to manage the web store’s content through an innate editor. They can even link their web store to other websites, accommodate refine panels for sorting the products, optimize at the web store level. Additionally, CMS in 24Seven Cart also facilitates adding extra web pages under multiple headings and adjust their placement on the web page.

Moreover, retailers are able to upload the multiple product images, banner images, image on the home page and resize them accordingly. The image zooming functionality offers more visual clarity regarding the fine details of the products. Similarly, web store owners have the ability to standardize the mail templates for the mails to send to customers.

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Social Media Planning for Web Store

ECommerce has given an additional platform for consumers to search products, access product information, read product reviews and recommendations, compare prices, get best deals and finally make purchases. Howbeit, eCommerce is a technology designed, developed and implemented to ease the purchasing process.

However, since the products are going to be utilized by the customers, from here the social media comes into the whole picture. This platform gives consumers a medium to interact with others, share their views about various things, make social circle and recommend about specific things.   

       

Lately, webmasters are using this social media channel to offer an additional space to consumers for making well-informed decisions about their purchases. Online marketers are keeping a tab to get deeper insights on the social media activities of their consumers. They are stepping further by searching ways to utilize the social media data and highlight those items or services that are most recommended/reviewed.

Following points will help in growing online community & increasing the traffic to the web store:

Content Posting: Posting content on a regular basis helps online retail shopping cart owners to engage customers for a longer duration. Online customers’ response differently to different types of content postings like textual or image or any video. Additionally, the frequency of the postings also helps in checking the engagement levels with the web store.

Integrating social media buttons: A consistent postings on the social media channel likely results in getting more likes. The best way to increase the number of likes is integrating social media buttons in your web store. This not only serves as an additional platform, but also offers various information regarding the items or services, their reviews and first hand user experience of the products/ services.

Best price deals on social media: Offering the best price deal or deal of the week or an exclusive offer on social media sites drives more traffic to the eCommerce shopping cart. These are the very basic call to action contents. Twitter gives the functionality to display information about pre-sales or any preferred customers’ specials. Facebook gives the flexibility to run contests and any campaigns.

Sift negative feedbacks: Feedbacks are a very strong medium and if used properly, it offers the chance to enhance the overall productivity by streamlining the different processes. Webmasters need to be agile to sift-out the negative feedbacks. Feedbacks with negative impressions possess a ripple effect which discourages the social media community to opt for particular item or services.

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Making Your Online Store Stand Out

The global eCommerce sales, forecasted by eMarketer, are going to reach $ 1.2 trillion by the end of year 2013. This makes it very clear for retailers that it’s not going to be an optional marketing channel. The capability of eCommerce to cross the locational barriers and reaching the national & international customers has allowed the online retailers to opt for this channel. Retailers, worldwide, are encashing on this fad. 

The easy & cheap availability of technology, the technological innovation, pervasive internet technology  and access to  the untapped markets has led a flurry in the eCommerce industry where every retailer tries to carve his niche in the market. However,  whittling  and establishing your online business in this fast changing online space is the real nuisance for many online retailers. 

Additionally, the efficacy of the nuisances related to managing the online web stores are more coarse as compared to managing physical stores. The competition in this online space is much similar an offline physical market and the deciding factors for continuous growth are whipping out the small online retailers. 

The free or easy availability of over the counter eCommerce solutions has helped many retailers to establish their online store and letting them to manage front and back-end of the web store. Customization of any type in the online retail shopping cart to improve the overall efficiency gives higher customer experience and comprehensive centralized control of the online store. The technological innovation in eCommerce industry such as the application of social media and mobile communication devices are indispensable to make your web store noticeable in the industry.

The following points will give you an idea about the making your web store look unique among  your peers:

Tailoring to distinguish: Pre-designed, over the counter eCommerce shopping carts comes with a lacuna of inability to accommodate any tweaks to fit in custom requests. For illustration, personalize products feature is a new characteristic that is difficult to accommodate in off-the-shelf eCommerce platforms.  This feature can be used to incise your identity in any products. Any associated video showing the customization result in the product will effectively influence and enhance the customer satisfaction. 

Higher Control & Functionally: A hosted eCommerce shopping cart softwares suites more to those online retailers who are not much technology savvy. This type of arrangement is meant for transferring the web store’s control to the eCommerce solution provider company so that they can focus on more business-oriented processes.

Here are two points which should be taken care of are that the online retailers, before opting for such hosted arrangement, should check the type of services provided by the eCommerce company and the level & type of control and authority given to eCommerce solution providers. ECommerce companies usually handle the various aspects of eCommerce operations like order management, data feed management, hosting services, security management and web store optimization services. Online retailers should check whether the customization services are included in the agreement or not.

Handing over the important functions of web store management may jeopardize the overall control & authority of the web store.

Innovative application: Digitization of the new innovative marketing channels has given the online retailers an ability to make their web stores more interactive & personalized. They should have to utilize the reports generated data from order management, inventory management, overall marketing and social media. 

Any trends displayed in such reports may indicate particular interests and interactions and it should be used for offering custom rewards or offers or any gift certificates.

The eCommerce platform should be flexible enough to integrate extensions, plug-ins and various modules to offer a unique browsing, transacting and moreover sharing the shopping experience with others.

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