“There is no doubt that the rising cost of fuel is tempting consumers to shop at home, and the trend will probably be buoyed by their need to ensure they are getting value for money.”
Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer

For more on this report, please click this link:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006409&src=article8_newsltr

“UK retail e-commerce spending will reach £44.9 billion ($83.9 billion) in 2012, according to Verdict Research”

“Online retailing is continuing to boom in the UK despite pessimism about the economy, according to a survey.”

For more on this report, please click this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7432643.stm

In a review by software review experts ‘Personal Computer World’, NetDirector e-Trade Pro proved to be a competitive and solid piece of ecommerce software

Alan Stevens of ‘Personal Computer World’ stated:

“We signed up for the free trial of e-Trade Pro, which gives 14-day access to the full package, and found it very easy to use. Building a shop for real is likely to take several days but there’s nothing difficult about it – all that’s required is a little time and determination.”

“Tracking and processing orders is easy too, with a management dashboard to see what’s been happening and mail alerts when orders are taken. Order processing is then largely down to you, but stock-level management can be automated and Sage integration added as a chargeable extra.”

“Other useful options include the ability to display adverts and to capture customer details and use them for marketing mail shots and newsletters.”

“In terms of performance, the reference sites we looked at all worked well and we were impressed with the response of both these and our trial shop.”

“We found NetDirector e-Trade Pro to be an effective tool for companies looking to get up and selling on the web.”

Personal Computer World - Posted 23rd May 2008
http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/software/2216684/review-netdirector-trade-pro

The growth opportunity is indisputable; online retail sales grew by over 50% in 2007 with a record breaking Christmas for many e-retailers. Double digit growth is predicted by all the experts for at least the next couple of years. But are you still struggling to get your business online? Or is your existing online shop failing to deliver results? Is now the time to evolve your online operation into a more efficient business?

We’re all aware that a less favourable outlook on the High Street means that ignoring the online sales channel just isn’t an option. The UK consumer has fully embraced online shopping and the technology has improved considerably to offer a much enhanced shopping experience when compared even with just 2-3 years ago. And from the website owner perspective, things have improved too. You no longer have to shell out thousands of pounds on websites that don’t function properly or take months to build.

We have come up with the following guide on how to take hold of the ecommerce opportunity.

Choose your Technology Partner Carefully
The quickest and most cost effective way to get your shop online is via the new ‘pay-as-you-go’ ecommerce software packages that are available to purchase online. These allow you to ‘rent’ a fully functioning online shop with minimal or no upfront financial layout. You populate the store with your products / services, add your shop logo / branding and off you go. Some suppliers even have no contract and this therefore means you have no long term financial risk for your new online venture.

Find the Right Online Payment Partner
To sell products or services over the internet, you will need a Payment Service Provider (PSP) integrated with your website to accept credit and debit charge payments. There are many PSPs to choose from, all of which charge using different criteria and different products and packages – so consider carefully before making a decision. You may also need an Internet Merchant Account (IMA) which is a special type of bank account designed to accept funds from payments made online, but banks typically require certain guarantees if you do not have a trading history. If you have a new business and want to get trading online as soon as possible, the quickest and easiest solution may be a PSP Bureau (such as ‘Metacharge’). Bureaus work closely with partner banks to get new businesses through the risk and compliance hurdles and trading online as quickly as possible.

Get your Act Together on Fulfilment
Put together a plan for stocking your online business and for dealing with anticipated and unexpected demand. The better ecommerce software packages include real time stock management. The last thing you want to do is disappoint your online customers – that’s a sure way to lose business. Find a delivery company that will suit your products, your customer expectations and consider the cost implications and if/how you will pass on the charges. There are more and more delivery companies in the market so shop around. Devise your strategy for dealing with the bugbear of online shopping – RETURNS. And whatever you decide your policies to be on Delivery and Returns, make sure that you make these readily accessible and understandable on your website.

Sort out your Product Data and Images
Populating your online store with your products or services can take considerable time if you have a large catalogue. Businesses often under-estimate how long this will take, especially if no product database and associated images already exists. Be realistic about target launch dates or alternatively, adopt a phased approach; launch your site with some key product lines and add as you go along. If you don’t have images for your products, avoid poor photography and employ a specialist as this will vastly improve the presentation of your website. Take time with your product descriptions and make sure your web pages really sell your products. Check to see if your ecommerce technology allows videos and product reviews from customers as recent research shows that these are highly effective selling tools.

Pull Together a Marketing Plan
The success of your online business will depend on how effective your marketing is. Simply publishing your products on a website and hoping that customers will come flocking is no longer a reality in today’s competitive online market. Understanding how to promote your business online and resourcing this adequately will be key to your success. Make sure that the ecommerce software you purchase allows you to run a full marketing programme; with promotional functionality for discounts, special offers, seasonal activities, as well as voucher codes, loyalty programmes and email marketing campaigns. Many of the cheap ecommerce packages only offer limited promotional functionality.

Ensure your Website can be Search Engine Optimised
Ensuring your website can be found by the leading search engines, such as Google, is critical. Before purchasing ecommerce software, make sure that you have checked how search engine friendly it is. Basic search engine optimisation (SEO) tools such as meta tags and keywords, alt tags on images, sitemaps, and search engine friendly URLs / page titles should be included. Ask your technology provider if they provide additional services to help you in this complex, but vital online marketing activity. Investing in SEO can reduce your reliance over the long term on more expensive online marketing such Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising.

NetDirector e-Trade Pro offers the complete ecommerce solution

£99 +VAT per month — No Contract –- No Extra Charge for Hosting – Automatic Software Upgrades Included

Sign up now for a 14 day ecommerce free trial and access your ready to use online store within 60 seconds!

Alternatively call 0845 055 9040 or email sales@netdirectoretradepro.co.uk for more information.

“Internet consumer spend will hit £44.5bn, accounting for 13.6% of all retail spend by 2012, according to a Verdict Research report.”

For more on this report, please click this link:
http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/37680/Etail+spend+to+grow+by+32+this+year.html

NetDirector e-Trade Pro e-commerce software is entering the Polish market on 1st April, 2008. With a network of resellers already signed up, entry into this overseas market looks promising.

However, the normal model of £99 +VAT per month will not be adopted. Instead, the software will be given away for free with commission being taken on transactions. This model will mitigate any risk for the budding Polish e-retailer.

NetDirector e-Trade Pro Polish Sales Site: www.etradepro.pl

The latest edition of Polish e-commerce report has just been released. Please find key information below:

Auctions y/y revenue growth 53%
Shops y/y revenue growth 73%
Total revenue (auctions + shops) 8.1bln PLN (1.7bln GBP)

Biggest Shops and their Revenues:
agito.pl (electronics) - 25mln GBP [126% y/y growth]
komputronik.pl (computers) - 20.8mln GBP
merlin.pl (Amazon-like) - 16.7mln GBP

There are around 4000 shops according to the report (we know there are over 5000)
35% shops were created between 1 and 2 years ago
36% shops were created between 2 and 5 years ago
9% shops were created more than 5 years ago

Nnumber of Products Offered
<100 - 15.6%
100-1000 - 40.8%
1000-10000 - 34.4%
>10000 - 9.2%

Monthly Revenues (Net)
<2100GBP - 42%
2100-10500GBP - 25.8%
10500GBP-41600GBP - 12.9%
>41600GBP - 9.8%
Don’t know [!] - 9.5%

4.6mln Poles buy in e-shops - Yearly Spendings per Customer
>63GBP - 22.5%
63-210GBP - 30.7%
210-625GBP - 21.9%
625-2100GBP - 15.3%
>2100GBP - 9.3%

For those who can read Polish …here is the full article
http://www.internetstandard.pl/news/143692.html

We have a number of clients at G-Forces who have large product catalogues and / or products that have complex technical features. We are therefore working on a piece of functionality to add to NetDirector e-Trade Pro, our e-commerce software, which will allow online shoppers to easily compare the key features of a number of similar products.

We want to improve the online shopping experience and to replicate the offline shopping world, where a consumer would ask a shop sales person for advice on how different products compare. Online shopping is great for sourcing  masses of product information, but being able to access it in a user friendly format is sometimes difficult.  We want to make it easier for shoppers to find the right product that matches their specific requirements.    

A good example of a product category where this would work well is lawnmowers. There are many different makes and models in the market, many of which are very similar. It is difficult to tell the difference between models and without human interaction with an expert sales assistant, an online shopper could easily make the wrong choice. The end result - customer is not happy and the shop owner’s returns are higher than they should be. And lawnmower returns are not easy to deal with!!! 

The idea is that the online shopper will be able to select products for comparison on one of our e-commerce sites and these products will then be displayed side-by-side in a user friendly format which lists key features and the comparative data for the products displayed.

In the lawnmower example, technical features listed could be engine size, grass bag size, length of cutting blades, power source, accessories etc. Of course, price and availability / delivery details would be necessary. But it would also be nice to include user generated product reviews, expert or ‘Which’ type reviews as well as shopowner recommendations (for eg. ‘our manager recommends this lawnmower for compact, family gardens because….).  

The product comparison functionality is just one of the enhancements that we are working on to improve e-Trade Pro, our e-commerce software package, over the coming months. All software updates are automatically available to e-Trade Pro users. Watch out for further news!

“Stats suggest that the average abandonment rate for shopping carts is around 60% and that 12% of these customers bail out before reaching the checkout stage.”

e-consultancy.com - Posted 11:00 26 Feb 2008
http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/365079/how-to-plug-leaks-in-your-shopping-basket.html

Getting the checkout process right as an e-retailer is of paramount importance. This is the critical point to convert the perusing customer with some of their hard-earned cash. The customer is most sensitive during the checkout stage - you’ve done some good work to get them there and you mustn’t blow it with silly mistakes. Through the development of e-Trade Pro, we have researched countless whitepapers, articles, websites and more to try and identify key practices that must be implemented as part of the checkout process. These have since been incorporated into the software and we are still improving it every which way we can.

The article by e-consultancy relates to some of these key practices. Each have been commented on in comparison to our ecommerce software:

Link to the Product Page

e-Trade Pro (eTP) does this. The question is whether to open up the product link in a new browser window or not? Some customers don’t like new windows opening up… however, if you don’t create a new window and re-direct from checkout page, the shopper may not return to that page for whatever reason. Hmmm… We have kept it to open in the same window believing all shop links should open in the smae window.

Suggested Related Items
Available on the basket page as well as other ‘Featured Items’. We have kept this off final checkout page as want to keep this nice and simple as possible for customer - no distractions - just place the order please

View Basket Button Easy to Find

In eTP, the basket overview is always available in the top right hand corner when shopping. However, we have removed it on pages like the basket, billing and delivery and final checkout page - why do you need it on those pages when you are viewing the whole thing in the middle of your page? Also, this is the process adopted by ecommerce giants such as Amazon.com and Dabs.com.

Some future functionality to be added into e-Trade Pro is the facility for the shop owner to move components around the template… Play.com prefer their basket on the left hand side which will be possible in the software after this feature is completed.

Show Delivery Prices

eTP allows customers to see the delivery options and prices before the Checkout. The prices are estimated based on default delivery option - for example, if the shop is a UK shop, the standard UK delivery will be applied. However, on the basket page the customer has the facility to update the delivery options / prices based on their exact location including country and postal / zip code - this prevents the ‘nice surprise’ on the checkout page.

Estimate the Delivery Time
Ok, so our software isn’t perfect… yet. We don’t have an intelligent mechanism in order to predict the delivery time for the customer. However, we do offer a content managed text / image area on the basket page that will easily allow any shop owner to inform customers of expected lead times. Some text like this could easily be entered and would be very obvious to any customer:

‘Orders placed before 3pm will be dispatched (and should be received) next working day.’

Clear Checkout Button

eTP always has a clear checkout button when an item has been added to the basket. A little shopping trolley moves in the background of the basket overview to attract the customer’s attention after they have added an item(s) to the Basket.

Show Payment Options
Again, our e-commerce software has an area that is dedicated to display all payment options on the basket page. It is made very simple to upload images of the credit cards you accept and further write some text about payment options - for example:

‘Shop X accepts the following credit cards:’

Add Product Images
It is good practice to include thumbnail images against the line items in your order to give customers the confidence that their items in the basket are the right ones before completing the purchase. eTP does this as standard as can be seeen in screenshot under sub-heading ‘Link to the Product Page’ above.

Link to Returns Policy
eTP includes a link to the returns policy on every page in your shop. It is in the footer along with the delivery & returns and terms & conditions. Form a more obvious link to the returns policy on the basket page, a link can easily be populated into the content managed text / image area.

Add a Contact Number
During e-Trade Pro’s development, it became apparent to us that displaying a telephone number for customers at all time was very important - people on the phone are easier to convert into paying customers than through a website… well, I suppose this is dependent on the sales skills of the phone representative

In eTP,  we devoted a particular area in the banner specifically for the telephone number. Click below:

Being the shop banner, it appears on every page in a prominent position where the customer will easily see it. We have even made the area open to insert live chat tools as well as telephone numbers, email addresses (not advised on own) etc:

For more information on NetDirector e-Trade Pro, please visit our website: http://www.netdirectoretradepro.co.uk

NetDirector™ e-Trade Pro e-commerce software launches in the UK market on Tuesday 4th March, 2008. Dubbed ‘The Complete e-Commerce Solution’, it stands as a contender for one of the UK’s leading e-commerce software packages.

Developed by G-Forces Web Management Ltd (established 1999), the 18 month project involved collaboration between both its UK and Polish offices.

With no contract and a fixed monthly payment of £99 +VAT including hosting, it is adopting the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. With a number of professional services available to buy online including the complete shop set-up, design packages and search engine optimisation the e-Trade model is answering the cries of the next-generation Internet Shop Owner / Buyer where simply publishing products in a website is not enough to stay competitive.

With over 250 shops (actual businesses) setup and trading during the testing phase, the software has proved itself a successful ecommerce platform with which shop owners seem to be very happy with:

“NetDirector™ e-Trade Pro is an excellent e-commerce solution that has enabled us to drive revenue and continue to grow month on month.”
Jamie Smith, Managing Director of http://www.squadronleader.co.uk/

A 60 second shop builder function on the sales site with a free 14 day trial makes this software a must-try for any budding e-retailer.

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This Blog isn’t about selling you the software (that sells itself). Instead, it’s about telling you the e-Trade Pro development story (past, present and future) including:

- Why we have made the software the way it is.
- Why certain things have been done the way they are.
- Why we have used the technologies we have.
- Why we believe that our software excels over others.

We hope you enjoy…