Integrated Management Solutions for Small Retailers

Many marketing and business services are now available for the small to medium business owner to take advantage of when starting out or looking to increase efficiency. As an owner you have an obligation to your customers to build a better product or to add quality services, not to be playing phone tag, emailing reminders, or doing data entry. There are many ways to integrate your business, sales and marketing into a centralize a management system with out breaking the bank. If you are a staff of one these options will really help you get organized accomplish tasks with greater efficiency. Whether you’re still in your research phase or are in desperate need of a marketing and management re-boot these are some options that may work for you.

It is never been easier to build your own website for business or personal use. Companies like Wix, Weebly, DudaOne, Squarespace and GoDaddy allow you to build your site from a template and host it for you all ranging from free to $30 a month. Some of these companies have recently undergone updates and now offer additional services including galleries, blogs, free hosting, mobile optimized site, e-commerce and customer support. Website building services offer a one-stop shop for new businesses that are looking to gain a professional web presence on a budget. Some may also provide mobile apps and logos at additional costs. If you are in the service industry and require inventory management I would suggest looking into companies like Front Desk, MindBody, Square or Clover. These companies include a website with their cloud based point of sale integration as well as appointment scheduling, inventory management, customer management, loyalty rewards, email reminders and email campaigns.

Dedicate the time to think about what factors are most important for achieving your business milestones, some service features may be more useful than others, so do the research to find the one that gives you what you need today and can provide you with future services when your ready to add them.

Questions to ask when researching these services:

Have them explain all their pricing plans and features to find the best that works for your business.

If you work in QuickBooks, some of the services that offer a Point of Sale may offer a QB export of online sales and employee-scheduling management for payroll.

Do they offer website or sale reporting

How are their website templates optimized for search engines?

Do they provide any integration with other service applications for example, form builders, calendars, booking appointments, page comments, and on-site chat?

What are the cancellation policies, what happens to my site if I want to change hosts or provider, and what happens to my customer information and purchase history like gift cards or store credits?

If you choose to add eCommerce, ask about security and how your customer’s data is being protected?

If I have a late payment or cannot pay what happens to my website and information?

These services will also act as reliable resource for up-to-date information on sales trends, marketing research and whitepapers to help you grow your business. They will also continually do security and software updates automatically so you can rest easy knowing your information is backed-up and safe.

Things to consider:

• Find and purchase your company domain from GoDaddy or similar service so that you own your domain and are not provide one. Choose something easy to remember and keep the length small.
• Be mindful of the images you use on your site, some of the services provide stock images. If you choose to use your own, make sure they are clear images and are the correct size and ratio for placement.
• Have content and images ready before you start building and plan where you want things to go first before you start moving things around.
• Prepare your content by creating an hierarchy of information and how customers will obtain that information.
• When your content is complete send to an online editing service like Scribendi to help you get the most out of your words. They are not expensive and have several business writing options.