The advent of the Internet and its paraphernalia has definitely changed the way shopping is done today. Gone are the days of wading through traffic, scouring store after store, rummaging through shopping items to buy products. Today shopping is done within the comforts of one’s home. Thanks to technologies such as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems today eCommerce is carried out with ease.

If it is the Internet that transformed the mode of shopping by bringing in the concept of eCommerce, then it is social networking that breathed a new life into eCommerce through the concept of customer engagement. Previously eCommerce was all about attracting customers to web portals and making them buy products or pay for services as quickly as possible. However, today, thanks to social networking, eCommerce is expanding beyond simple B2C and B2B shopping portals. The widespread adoption of social networking has shifted the traditional online shopping model to incorporate consumers' active participation in the marketing and selling of products. As customers have the last word and buy products if and only if the products appeal to their preferences, enterprises today attach great importance to customer preferences, their likes and dislikes. Hence, enterprises first identify customer demands and then create products and services.

In a nutshell, the success of eCommerce depends a lot on providing a great customer experience. Unless and until the customers are satisfied, no amount of effort can help enterprises gain a competitive edge in these growing ecommerce solutions  . This includes a sharp user interface, secure data management, a solid POS, rapid performance and the ability to handle large amounts of traffic.

Collaborating with product engineering   provider who has the right mix of experience and expertise can help enterprises to develop cutting edge eCommerce solutions. Here is a look at the capabilities of a leading software R & D services expert with experience of working with multiple BPM workflow modeling tools (e.g., Appian, JBPM, OS Workflow) and reporting tools (e.g., Jasper, BIRT, Appian, Kettle, Microstrategy).

·         Online storefronts, catalogs and shopping carts

·         Web-based administration products for managing inventory, coupon codes and gift certificates

·         Point of sales (POS) and payment processing solutions

·         Web portals for travel, ticketing and event management

·         Online auction engines based on open source libraries

·         Websites optimized for the user content generation

·         Location-based shopping services for mobile phones

·         Robust, scalable platforms for digital content delivery

·         Next-generation ad servers

With eCommerce changing with evolving times, there is the need of innovative eCommerce solutions to keep up with changing customer preferences as it helps to ensure customer satisfaction.

Related Links: business intelligence tools , iphone application development

 
The lead generation process largely influences the quality and quantity of the leads procured by a B2B company. Today there are many new automated lead generation solutions that can be implemented to ensure that marketing is able to ably coordinate with the sales team to identify and track the leads while the ones that don’t close are recycled back for further nurturing.

Since one of the most important goals of the marketing team is to be able to deliver better qualified leads to sales it is of utmost importance to filter them in the first phase itself. This first phase is when the prospect visits the website. Most of the time marketers focus only on those who have registered with the website, but in recent times this will not suffice. Since there is high possibility of anonymous visitors turning into prospective clients the quality of the lead generation process largely influences the quality and quantity of the leads flowing into the company.

Automated lead generation solutions can capture qualified leads, rich with background information of the anonymous visitors. Combined with a good lead scoring model marketers would be able to pick out those who have shown interest on a regular basis.
To get more sales-ready leads and to close more sales, marketing teams should carefully consider each lead generated, and in coordination with the sales team identify and track the quality of each lead and decide at which stage the lead is in the sales funnel. This way, they can also ensure that leads don’t close are recycled back to marketing for further lead nurturing. Usually, pre-qualified leads have a significantly higher conversion rate than cold contacts which helps sales achieve sales targets faster.

Advantages of using latest automated B2B lead generation tools include:

  • Identifies high value prospects and decision makers.
  • Provides real time insights into a website visitor’s intent.
  • Procures actionable intelligence to convert a visitor into qualified sales lead.
  • Relieves your inside sales teams from time consuming prospecting tasks.
  • Sometimes, offers direct integration with your sales pipeline software and process.
  • Provides improved conversion rates, sales performance and efficiency.
  • Drives effective collaboration methodologies.
  • Enables knowledge sharing across organization to bridge the gap between sales and marketing.

To increase the possibility for the sales teams to make a personalized connection with qualified prospects in real-time marketing automation tools can be implemented by B2B companies.

Read more on - social media campaigns , Lead Management software