An increasing number of retail merchants are looking to complement their traditional ‘brick and mortar’ operations with an e-commerce presence, but are unsure as to what solution would work best for them.  The challenges of this venture are many, such as:

• Keeping product and customer information between the two storefronts up-to-date.  Manually performing these tasks can be time-consuming and customers are easily frustrated when the order they placed cannot be processed due to inaccurate stock information.  They’ll take their business elsewhere.
• Designing an e-commerce site that is attractive and easy to navigate.  Surprisingly, many retailers do not realize that merchandising on the web is equally as important as merchandising in a ‘brick and mortar’ storefront.  Prospective customers that have difficulty browsing a cumbersome, unappealing website aren’t likely to make a purchase or return in the future.
• Structuring an e-commerce site for optimal search engine compatibility.  Keywords and metatags need to be used in a manner that provides the website a higher rating by search engines.  What is the point in having a web store if nobody can find it?

In an effort to provide a solution that addresses these issues, TallySoft partnered with AbleCommerce®, a leader in the ecommerce industry.  The AbleCommerce® shopping cart, based on Microsoft .NET technology, presents a best-of-breed ecommerce shopping system that tightly integrates with the TallySales Retail Solution.

AbleCommerce® offers many features, including:

• A store layout that is highly customizable using tools such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Themes, Wizards and a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) Editor.
• Operates on a Microsoft SQL, MySQL or PostgreSQL database.
• Payment Processing with VeriSign®, Authorize.Net®, PayPal®, Google Checkout®, Paymentech® and many others.
• Shipping service integration with UPS Online Tools®, FEDEX®, USPS®, CanadaPost and DHL.
• Product Kits for selling multiple products together in a single package.
• Product Discounts, Promotions and Specials.
• Cross-selling of products to provide easy access to related items, categories or webpages.
• Robust customer management, including Customer Groups and Affiliates.
• Froogle feed, Yahoo feed and Shopzilla integration.

…and many others.

The TallySales Ecommerce Manager allows retailers to extend the power of the TallySales Retail Solution to their AbleCommerce® web store.  Management of the web store is easily and efficiently performed by eliminating redundant tasks such as content management and order processing.  The benefits to this integration are:

• Single entry of product information.  Select existing products from your ‘brick and mortar’ inventory to be offered in your web store and make them ‘web ready’ by defining web-specific information.  Inventory management allows minimum stock levels to be defined on a product-by-product basis and rules to be implemented for dealing with low/out of stock items.
• Streamlined processing of orders.  Order payments may be processed automatically on the web or in the ‘brick and mortar’ storefront after the order is received through the TallySales Ecommerce Fulfillment application.  Order status updates are synchronized between storefronts to ensure that your customers are kept informed.
• Automated updates between locations.  Product, inventory levels, customer information and orders are all automatically updated at configurable intervals.  There are no files that have to be manually generated and then uploaded to your website.  ‘Out-of-stock’ products are removed from the website or displayed as ‘not available.’
• Automatic generation of metatags.  Embedding the correct metatags in your product pages (and in the right amounts) is crucial for good search engine results.  Metatags are automatically created based on your existing product information, so there is no need for you to become an expert.

Show me how the screens appear!

How the TallySales Ecommerce Manager works.

Using Microsoft.NET technology, the TallySales Ecommerce Manager communicates with the AbleCommerce® web store via a Microsoft Web Service developed by TallySoft.  This communication synchronizes inventory, customers and orders between the locations, eliminating what would otherwise be a time-consuming manual updating process.

Stocking the web store:
Following the basic configuration of the AbleCommerce® web store, it is time to prepare the merchandise that will be offered. This task includes not only determining what merchandise is to be offered, but also how it is to be presented and at what price. Because products offered in the web store are created through the standard TallySales purchasing methods, no double entry is required. The existing product must simply be enhanced to be web ready. The life cycle of a web store product would follow these general steps:

• The product is processed through the standard TallySales purchasing system. At this point, the product is defined and available for sale in the brick and mortar store.
• The product is made ‘web ready’ through the TallyCommerce Ecommerce Manager. Web pricing (if different), associated images, the area of the web store in which it is displayed and inventory-related settings are defined.
• The product is published to the web store daily through ascheduled automated update. The product is then available for sale in the web store.
• Changes to basic product information (e.g. pricing) and stock levels are updated at regular intervals through a scheduled synchronization.

Processing Web Store Orders:
When a customer places an order through the web store, it is processed through several fulfillment steps before delivery occurs. The steps are described below.

• A customer order is retrieved from the web store by a TallyCommerce Ecommerce Manager automated update at user-defined intervals.
• An optional pick list for the order is generated in the TallyCommerce Fulfillment module. The pick list is used to physical verify that the merchandise is available and allocated for the order.
• The new order is processed through the TallyCommerce Fulfillment module. If payment was not made at the time the order was placed, it is now settled. Once the balance of the order is settled (through either the web store or the TallyCommerce Fulfillment module), the order is designated as accepted.
• The merchandise is packaged and the shipment is processed through the AbleCommerce® user interface.  Shipping information, such as tracking numbers and dates, is recorded for reference. An e-mail notifying the customer of the shipment is automatically generated.
• Shipments are sent to the customer for delivery or set aside for pickup.