E-Commerce Winners and Losers - analysis piece

E-COMMERCE WINNERS AND LOSERS -- ANALYSIS PIECE

By Paul Wellings, Head of Media, with e-commerce financials software house Access Accounting Ltd, Colchester, Essex. http://www.access-accounts.com

The secret of success in e-commerce, which will separate the winners from the losers, is responding to customer orders and quick delivery.
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Think back to last Christmas when news reports claimed that sales and orders for the UKs e-tailers showed a 100% increase.

Some companies have found the transition to the net easier than others -- the catalogue mail order industries for example. The successful cyber-players are already being separated from the webs also-rans.

The On-Line Shopping Report recently listed all the big names that did not even respond to customer enquiries let alone to processing orders and delivering on time. Over the Christmas period there were delivery horror stories. Obviously e-commerce like any business relies on its back-up distribution systems.

People such as WH Smiths and Amazon operate a 48-hour turnaround. That should be the norm in e-commerce. In the fast-moving world of cyber trading the consumer will show no mercy. Some companies may not get a second chance.

As an e-commerce financials software house we have found that the key to success is for a business to seamlessly integrate its back office accounting systems with remotely hosted web sites. This brings down the cost of e-commerce to a level that can be afforded by every business. Affordable end-to-end e-commerce is available NOW in standard packaged software. There are no excuses to fall at the first
fence.

Have a look at http://www.access-accounts.com to find out how easily you can publish a web shop from data held in your accounts software. Discover for yourself how sales orders in your web site can be updated into your accounts software and how your customers can trail order progress on your web site.

It may be a paradox but self service systems where the customer answers their own questions by visiting your web site actually provides the very best and fastest service they could wish for. Happy customers are profitable customers, so get your web site hooked up to your accounts software today and next Yuletide you will be able to replace horror stories with a successful Christmas tale.