With the rapid advancement in electronic technology, and its growing application in direct marketing through e-commerce worldwide, Blackwood Mall, an online marketplace, made the decision to expand its technology-driven retail business, through exclusive commercial alliances.
Blackwood Mall recently formed an alliance with Spec-Savers optometrists to enable Blackwood Mall the opportunity to have a physical presence in the Spec-Savers stores. The reciprocal alliance allows Spec-Savers to deliver added value to its customers through an online sales and distribution channel for the retail chain.
As an added benefit, Blackwood Mall has linked into the Spec-Savers loyalty points scheme, through which its customers can purchase products, either at Spec-Savers stores or on the Blackwood Mall site, and earn points which can be redeemed against any eye-wear or eye-care products available at Spec-Savers.
"Blackwood Mall learnt from previous dot-com failures that online companies need a physical presence," comments David Stear, marketing director from Blackwood Mall. "The partnership with Spec-Savers means that Blackwood Mall is represented at over 100 Spec-Savers stores and consumers have the option to purchase selected items at these Spec-Savers or online at Blackwood Mall. This model enables us to work with an established store to develop our own offering while giving Spec-Savers an alternative channel of sales, namely the Internet."
Edge-1 Portals, part of the Softline group of companies, did the integration between Blackwood Mall and its back-end system. Edge-1 Portals integrated the Spec-Saver`s online storefront into Blackwood Mall`s Pastel accounting system, streamlining the business management processes including ordering, supplying and tracking of stock.
"The integration saves us time on administration and also offers our clients reliability in the delivery of the products," adds Stear. "Added to this our customers still have the opportunity to enter a store and interact with a salesperson should the need arise."
"The SME business environment is just as complex as that of a large corporation," comments Mike Bryer, Managing Director of Edge-1 Portals. "This is the reason why the integration technology had to be customised to fit Blackwood Mall`s business environment. Most businesses have a Web site, but either it is not e-commerce enabled or without integration into any other business application. The online storefront only adds value to a business if it is viewed as an extension of the business and integrates into existing business applications, in this case a financial accounting and inventory systems."
Prior to the integration, Blackwood Mall had to print out the orders that were submitted online and then enter them manually into the accounting and inventory systems.
The integration of back- and front-end systems enables Blackwood Mall to synchronise inventory, customer and pricing information with its online e-commerce storefront, while orders placed on the Web are downloaded into the accounting system as a sales order. Unlike most e-commerce solutions, the integration was customised and removed the necessity for recapturing of the online orders into the accounting system. All changes to inventory, customers and pricing are automatically synchronised with the Web-based storefront.
Blackwood Mall is able to offer its customers the convenience of receiving a mixture of goods at competitive prices and short lead times between placing an order and delivery.
Edge-1 Portals is a recently formed Softline Limited group company which launched into the market to provide e-commerce integration for the small, medium and large enterprise (SME and MLE) markets. Edge-1 aims to make integrated e-commerce solutions available to a much broader base of users. The technology and related services are focused on integrating any Web-based e-commerce site with its back-end accounting systems.
"Integrating a company`s Web presence with its existing operational systems is the next logical step toward making e-business really cost-justifiable," continues Bryer. "Making our technology affordable to small and medium-sized businesses makes it possible for our clients to achieve this goal."
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