eCommerce Best Practices

• Online knowledgebase is an evolutionary process that is happening gradually with more participation from various sectors.
• The benefits of online knowledgebase are tremendous and widespread.
• The publishing of documents on web, organizing and making them. searchable is only the beginning of realizing online knowledgebase.
• The wikis have already played a great role in the field of knowledgebase. Online wikipedia is a great example. Online how to, ask me, guidelines, manuals are some other examples.
• Building semantic web and artificial intelligence are next great evolutionary step. The documents are not only interpreted by human, but are also used by software to derive and use the knowledge. Read more

Reviews are the most recognized way of gathering feedback from customers and experts for a particular product or service. Through reviews, customers talk to each other, thereby giving the retailer a tremendous amount of insight into the reception, positioning and performance of the product. Reviews are much better than a focus group, as the people involved are not getting paid for it, and thus have better credibility and respect inside he social community. Read more

Gift services today come in a variety of formats which fits into either electronic format or postal type. Electronic format allows shoppers to use a virtual card or certificate with redeemable points. The similar format is also replicated offline through postal where it could be a point’s card or certificate – this allows shoppers to go online and redeem and also visit the store offline and use the gift services. Read more

Partner service extranet

Retailers can create a web site that is exclusive for their partner or partners. The web site can be a part of retailer existing site with an exclusive private access area which only the partners can view. Another option is have a private extranet that uses a separate URL hidden from public view. In both cases the main objective is the same – provide a site that services the partners. Read more

Retailers should know the difference and requirements to which of their online products require help in the form of downloadable formats or viewable online charges. Also equally important is the updates to these online manuals with respect to their product category. Read more

There are still some reasons for returns that are within your control. Unclear copy or graphics that are hard to associate from the catalogue to the web can be remedied and improved upon. Sometimes the retailer’s operational divisions can also make errors in order entry or distribution that adds up to excessive returns. There are also cases where a consumer ordered an item in the spring but did not receive it until late summer. Successful retailers have managed to overcome returns by measuring and analyzing causes of returns, calculating actual costs of returns and creating a plan to reduce the costs and maintain higher levels of customer services. Read more

The most important objective of any online knowledgebase solution is to provide contextual information about systems, processes, tasks, products, services and procedures to users as needed. From a quality perspective, it is critical that information supplied to a knowledgebase solution be complete, timely, structured and well formatted. Read more