How can a competitive storefront disrupt the Ecommerce industry in the near future?

The internet has changed the way we shop. When you think of purchasing a product, you first turn to search for that product on the internet. Online shopping knows no boundaries in this modern time. Reports suggest that nearly 2 billion people around the world could be your customers. If we consider the Pakistan ecommerce market then it has become hyper-competitive because every business is working strategically to have an online presence. But, the key factors affecting the business growth and expansion in Pakistan are privacy, security, and trust concerns. A good population of customers hesitate to buy online because they have issues regarding the authenticity of products and online sellers' reliability. Many of them want to physically see products or make a purchase from a brand with a trusted online presence.

Here, a competitive storefront using innovative technology can make a difference for e-commerce businesses in Pakistan. Merchants can make access to their products more convenient for customers by developing a user-friendly online purchasing platform. The e-commerce storefront puts a stamp of authentication on brands providing a secure, reliable, and seamless shopping experience to customers. This helps bring in customer satisfaction and helps attain their loyalty. Moreover, a competitive storefront through automation gathers useful data such as regarding customer preferences, customer purchasing behavior, and emerging market trends. This valuable data lets merchants analyze and make data-driven decisions. All this is necessary to survive as a part of the ecommerce industry. Your efforts don't end here. The quality of the online storefront needs to be continuously enhanced to make it more competitive.

Key Features of Competitive Storefronts

What is a competitive storefront? What should it acquire to stand out among others? Here are mentioned features and functions it should have for the convenience of both merchants and customers:

• Competitive storefronts have user-friendly interfaces. Its design is very responsive with high performance to provide customers a seamless browsing across multiple devices. These storefronts make shopping enjoyable, increasing sales ratio.
• Trust and security are the essential elements of sales online. A competitive storefront should apply strict security rules to protect customer data and transactions as it is the main concern of online buyers.?
• Competitive storefronts mention product details, pricing, and product availability. By providing detailed product descriptions with high-resolution images and customer reviews they enable customers to make informed purchasing decisions.?
• Leveraging data analytics and machine learning algorithms, competitive storefronts offer personalized product recommendations tailored to each consumer's preferences and browsing history. By delivering relevant and targeted content, these storefronts enhance the shopping experience and drive customer engagement.
• Competitive storefronts integrate seamlessly with other business systems and technologies, enabling efficient inventory management, order processing, and customer support. With real-time synchronization and automation capabilities, these storefronts streamline operations and improve overall business efficiency.

Traditional ecommerce storefront model

While platforms like Shopify and Magento have long been leading platforms in the e-commerce market to develop storefronts, they come with a certain set of limitations that hinder businesses from achieving true competitiveness.

Limitations of Shopify

• Shopify charges a commission on sales, even after businesses have invested time and money into setting up their online stores. This hidden cost prevents businesses from maximizing their potential earnings.
• Shopify restricts businesses to its payment gateway service. This limits flexibility and innovation, as businesses are limited to a single payment option.
• Shopify does not provide multi-level product categories which makes it challenging for businesses with multiple product offerings to organize their inventory effectively.
• Shopify's support services are limited which often direct users to forums or self-help articles instead of providing personalized assistance.
• You need to get the technical support of an expert to develop and run the store.

Limitations of Magento

• Storefronts developed on Magento often face slow page loading speeds, especially on small or shared servers. This may result in a poor user experience and loss of potential buyers.
• Complex coding makes it challenging for beginners to customize and manage their online stores effectively.
• To upgrade to Magento 2, businesses have to build their storefront from scratch which wastes time and money.

Building a competitive store front with Comverse by Ginkgo

For long business leaders have been using Magento and Shopify to develop a storefront but these two have limitations, as mentioned earlier. The launch of Comverse by Ginkgo is a revolutionary step in Pakistan that will provide e-commerce businesses an opportunity to develop an online storefront which brings in multiple advantages as compared to traditional storefront models.

Comverse offers a wide range of features and functionalities that empower businesses to create engaging online storefronts. Comverse is a comprehensive solution that caters to the complex needs of modern businesses. With built-in key features designed to help businesses start, grow, and scale their online presence, Comverse provides a seamless and user-friendly experience for both merchants and customers alike. Here's how Comverse can help develop a competitive storefront that disrupts the e-commerce industry in the near future, let's have an in-depth review:

• It increases the brand's reach to a wider audience with its marketplace management system. Using their interface merchants can manage their products, orders, and fulfillments streamlining operations.?
• Many customers withdraw to purchase if they don't find the prices in their currency. Comverse by Ginkgo with its multi-currency management system helps ecommerce businesses provide their international customers with a seamless shopping experience. It automates the switching of currencies and recalculating rates into customers' currency. This feature enhances convenience and encourages global sales.
• A store theme represents the brand, multi-customizable storefront themes offered by Comverse let businesses create a stronger global presence. By customizing the look and feel of their brand to resonate with customers' regional culture, businesses can enhance engagement and brand loyalty.
• A simplified payment procedure can turn a visitor to your online store into a potential buyer. Therefore, the multi-payment gateways feature by Comverse allows merchants to configure and integrate any payment gateway such as HBL, MCB, Bank Alfalah, PayPro, Jazz Cash, NIFT, etc. easily. This flexibility also enables businesses to collect orders' payments instantly without any delays as a customer can pay via preferred option which enhances convenience and customer trust.
• People like to be appreciated and rewarded for their loyalty, and a well-executed loyalty program can do that. With Comverse's loyalty program merchants can provide a rewarding shopping experience that keeps customers coming back for more and boost sales. Customers can earn points for every purchase they make. These points are automatically tracked and collected in their account. Customers can then use these points for discounts, free products, or other rewards when they reach a certain number.?
• Comverse introduces a digital wallet feature that enables customers to pay seamlessly using their digital wallets. Merchants can credit coupons, refund orders, and loyalty points directly into customers' digital wallets, providing a hassle-free shopping experience and enhancing customer satisfaction.
• With the enhanced discount module feature your store can offer promo codes, shipping discounts, and buy X get Y free promotions through a single screen. This helps gain customer confidence and increase sales.
• Your store can converse with customers in their native language. The multilingual management system ensures a great customer experience, regardless of customers' locations thus increasing sales opportunities at the global level.
• Choose the best and fastest mode of delivery for every order with a multi-logistics management system that automatically picks the best logistics provider on predefined criteria. This ensures efficient order processing and accurate delivery, enhancing customer satisfaction.
• Managing inventory is the biggest challenge because orders are dispatching and returning so keeping an eye on inventory status is necessary to avoid any inconvenience. Comverse's multi-location inventory management system allows businesses to synchronize inventory across multiple retail locations which results in increased store sales and streamlined operations.
• Advanced Reporting Dashboard provided by Comverse lets businesses understand customer purchasing patterns. By automating reports such as sales reports, inventory analysis, and marketing reports, businesses can make data-driven decisions and develop their strategies according to market needs.
• Built-in featured apps, including size charts, wish lists, push notifications, and delivery time slot management enhance the functionality of e-commerce storefronts. These featured apps further enhance the shopping experience for customers and keep customers engaged.

Comverse allows complete control and customization, enabling businesses to integrate new technologies and third-party software systems effortlessly. One of the key advantages of Comverse is its open integration platform, which allows businesses to have complete control over store operations and customize them according to business needs. The platform is easy to use and you can create your storefront using multiple themes with just a few clicks.

Moreover, you are not left alone or need to search for experts to get technical help like merchants have to do while building stores on Magento or Shopify. Integration of Comverse with Ginkgo Retail serves as the backbone for e-commerce operations. It equips your storefront with a wide range of functionalities and provides access to powerful tools such as inventory management, order processing, customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, and more that are essential to running an online store successfully.

Comverse is designed to meet the complex needs of modern e-commerce businesses, offering flexibility, scalability, and adaptability to changing market demands. It offers everything businesses need to create a competitive storefront that drives sales and customer engagement.