Open up your business with online order tracking19 September 2005
As consumers increasingly look to the internet to locate and purchase a wider variety of products and service with greater ease, small businesses are increasingly looking to meet demand through the establishment of key ecommerce websites solutions.
We have discussed in previous articles the benefits for small business in the creation of extranets, one of which is the availability of online order tracking for both buyers and sellers.
Offering customers the option to track exactly where their order is in the delivery process as part of your online shop can improve both efficiency of your small business and customer satisfaction.
What are the benefits for small business?
Including order tracking facilities as part of your online shop will benefit small businesses both in terms of efficiency and control over online trading, and in terms of advantageous customer responses.
- Integrating back office inventory processes with stock orders and deliveries will deliver significant cost and time savings - knowing in advance when an item of stock is likely to run out makes ordering easier and reduces holding stock levels.
- Status reports - awareness of an order's position in the delivery process can aid efficient trouble-shooting, improving staff productivity as less time is spent chasing a shipment.
- Allowing customers to check for themselves what stage their order has reached will reduce the time spent by staff responding to and solving client queries and problems.
- A greater level of customer service is achieved as both buyer and seller can access information regarding the delivery status and specifications quite literally at the click of a button.
- Customer frustrations and potential complaints can be assuaged by the availability of a pro-active method by which they can see their order as part of the business chain.
- By opening up online transactions for easy customer viewing in real time, a small business can create an improved relationship of trust with the client.
How can this be implemented?
Constructing an online shop may seem daunting for the small business, but there are a number of packages and services available on the market to facilitate the implementation of such an advantageous move into ecommerce.
Products such as BT's Internet Trader Pack - Shop offer excellent ready-made advice and page solutions for the creation of an online shop front, and the Internet Trader Pack - Payment offers a good online credit and debit card payment solution. IBM's Customer Order Analysis and Tracking System (COATS) using Websphere software also offers comprehensive and adaptable business solutions.
