Pre-Orders

How the pandemic is shaping tech decisions

There is no doubt that the decisions that retailers made early this year about where to focus their tech spending are changing rapidly as the year unfolds.

Whether it’s trying to attract a new, shelter-at-home shopper, the addition of new more relevant product lines, or how to carry out regular retail processes more efficiently with a smaller number of employees all working remotely, retailers large and small have been struggling to meet the challenge of COVID-19.

We have found that the pandemic has affected our retail customers differently, with some becoming busier than they were during the holiday season and looking for ways to automate more of their processes, some looking to boost their supply chain processes and source new products, and others trying innovative new marketing strategies such as live webinars, allowing them to connect on a more personal level with their customers.

xocbox has also been working to find innovative solutions to help our customers by working with their existing websites and technology, and introducing new integrated custom solutions to enable them to remain competitive and keep selling products during these difficult times.

If you are looking for cost-effective ways to manage your retail operation with the help of technology, we would love to help you – call us today at 858-752-3803.

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Pre-Orders for Woocommerce Stores

If you sell a product that is something your customers anticipate and can’t wait to purchase as soon as it hits the stores, then offering the ability to pre-order is a great way to attract new customers and entice existing customers back to your store.

The xocbox pre-order module was designed with your Woocommerce store in mind.  Unlike some of the pre-order plugins that are available, the xocbox module has the advantage of allowing customers to shop in the normal way and add items to their shopping cart, and also add pre-order items to the same cart.

When it’s time to checkout the whole amount of the cart is authorized, but only the available items are charged to the customer, and shipped.

When the pre-order items arrive in your store, funds are collected from those who have pre-ordered, and the items are shipped to them together with their tracking information.

This year  we worked with a publisher who added the pre-order module to their book store, and it has been a great hit with their customers.    They offer titles as ebooks, print books, or a combination of print and ebook.

As new titles are prepared for sale, they can keep in touch with customers and update them on pre-order dates and publication dates for both ebooks and print books, and their customers are then the first to receive new titles they are interested in.

xocbox worked with the publisher to create custom product pages and messages on their website, and also create custom email messages for each stage of the pre-order process.

Pre-orders are a great addition to any store that sells new and seasonal products where the store owner can predict the product arrival date in their store.

Books, games, electronics and fashion items are perfect products for pre-order, and enable you to keep in touch with past customers to let them know of new products they may like, and be the first to receive.

If you would like to learn more about the xocbox pre-order module, call 858-752-3803, or read more here.

xocbox Pre-Order Module

 

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