Posts Taged ecommerce-store

Meet xocbox and Aabaco at IRCE, June 7, 2016 in Chicago

The Aabaco Small Business Roadshow will be held in Chicago on June 7, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and xocbox is excited to be taking part in one of the panel discussions covering back office processes.

xocbox has been working on some innovative solutions for Aabaco merchants such as our drag and drop tool for section pages, EDI solutions and managing multi-stores.

We will be available at the Aabaco Small Business Conference throughout the day to answer questions and discuss your store, and during June 8 and 9 at IRCE.

If you are an Aabaco / Yahoo merchant, why not stop by and see how xocbox can help, or contact us now to set up an appointment.

Read More

As Ecommerce Grows, Recruiting Gets Tougher

The recent headline on the front cover of Internet Retailer magazine screamed out Always Be Recruiting. What is happening in the etail world?

Due to the improved economy, and huge growth in e-commerce, experienced e-retail staff have found themselves to be in great demand.

While this is great news for those seeking work, it is making life difficult for employers trying to find the help they need to remain competitive, and is especially frustrating for small and mid-sized companies whose staff may be moving on to greener pastures.

The US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting strong growth technical jobs that are essential to e-commerce. In fact, a survey by Dice.com which finds jobs for technical staff, found that 71% of those surveyed expected to see an increase in the number of technical staff they employ by as much as 11% in the first quarter of this year, and this scenario is expected to continue throughout the year.

One way companies are approaching this problem is with the use of technology in their own systems and processes to fuel growth, and this is where xocbox can help.

One of our customers recently observed that a process his staff had been doing manually before incorporating it into xocbox’s system, had taken about 15 minutes to do and involved cutting and pasting information from one place to another and possibly reformatting the data.

Since xocbox provides a central place to manage data from different sources, we were able to include this task into their processes, allowing staff to update data in their site in a matter of minutes by simply pressing a button and cutting out hours of tedious work.

If you are thinking of hiring more staff to keep up with an increasing workload, and ever changing demands, contact xocbox to see how we might be able to help.

Read More

Supply Chain for Small to Medium Sized Business

shirts
 
 
Supply chain is again one of the hot topics and is predicted to be one of the biggest areas of investment in technology for retailers during 2016.

In fact, the scramble to get ahead by retailers can be seen in the recruitment of new faces to manage the supply chain operation in companies such as Target and Wayfair.

Target announced that they had hired Amazon veteran Arthur Valdez as executive VP and Chief Supply Chain and Logistics officer, while home furnishings etailer, Wayfair LLC, hired Staples veteran, Sharif Sleiman, to lead its supply chain operations (Sleiman has also held managerial positions at Groupon, eBay and Oracle).

At the last ProMat Supply Chain Management show the focus was on supply chain management software, with an emphasis on systems integration, and the ability to fulfill increasingly complex orders.

Many businesses (including some large companies) still rely heavily on manual processes, and according to a report from Supply Chain Insights, managing procurement and supplier relations is still one of the most time consuming tasks they undertake.

Why is supply chain so important to the retailing giants, and how can small and midsized companies compete?

Software integration is integral to an organization’s success. If all the processes required to carry out your business don’t “talk to each other” then a person will have to step in to connect everything together.

A growing number of smaller businesses is now realizing that the investment in technology to solve these problems can greatly improve existing processes, and save valuable time and dollars.

xocbox can help

xocbox offers semi-customized automation solutions for small to mid-sized businesses and has provided EDI solutions to allow communication with suppliers and the electronic placing of website orders for fulfillment, inventory management, and can provide integration with third party products.

A recent project working for a small manufacturer of custom products, allowed orders to be placed via multiple ecommerce platforms and processed through the xocbox management system, and a work-order was then produced from the system to be passed on to the shop floor to make the product.

Previously the work orders had been generated manually, and as the products usually involved more than one trade to complete, had to be generated multiple times by hand. This new process has saved many hours of administrative time, and reduced errors (and frustration).

If you are considering automating a process in your business and are not sure where to begin, contact xocbox to discuss how we may help.

Read More

xocbox Offers Ingram Books EDI Compliant Solution

sell ebooks and print books online

xocbox.com now offers a fully integrated EDI solution for publishers working with Ingram Books.

Working with a publisher who offered ebooks on their own Woocommerce website, and also sold print books through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, xocbox has now enabled them to sell print books directly from their own website through their partnership with Ingram Books.

The Ingram EDI compliant solution offered by xocbox.com means that the publisher can now offer their customers  a choice of purchasing an ebook, a print book or a bundle of ebook and print.

The system is managed through the xocbox product manager where all book details, such as ISBNs, retail price, sales price, author information, publish date and book covers can be organized and pushed through to the Woocommerce website.

xocbox makes managing data an easy process, with user friendly screens and drop-downs.  The variations screen lets you choose the medium for the book you are selling.

 

xocbox option screen

 

 

When a customer buys a print book, the order is passed through the xocbox middleware to Ingram and processed for delivery to the customer.

xocbox manages the data ensuring that all transactions comply with Ingram’s EDI guidelines.

Ebooks are fulfilled by the publisher in the normal way, and Ingram drop ships the print books.

Contact xocbox for more information about EDI and Ingram Books, and integration with your website.

Read More

Etsy and Woocommerce Integration with xocbox

handmade clay pots

Woocommerce stores can now sell their products on Etsy using the xocbox product manager and integration tools.

Etsy offers Woocommerce stores that sell unique and/or handcrafted products another channel without any additional work when using xocbox.

Once your product information is in xocbox, you can push it to both Woocommerce and Etsy, and if you want to make your product descriptions unique for each store, additional form fields allow you to do this before publishing.

If you currently sell on Etsy and would like to open a Woocommerce store using your Etsy listings to get you started, no problem!

Once your Etsy products are in the xocbox product manager, any new products added can be pushed to one or both stores, as you move forward.

Selling more products just got a whole lot easier with xocbox!

Read More

Keep the ecommerce Platform – Change the Backend

cloud computing sofware

Recently we have been talking to several ecommerce merchants who have been considering switching their online store to a platform that offers more services, and is less expensive.

The big question they ask is, “how difficult would that be?”.

The simple answer is that migrating products to a new platform is something that can be done.
 
However, changing platforms is not something that should be taken lightly. Most people considering this have had their store for several years or longer, and it is easy to believe that by changing your platform you will receive immediate benefit, that is, sell more products.

Selling more products is definitely not guaranteed, and if you don’t pay special attention to the many details involved (such as, SEO, marketing, 301 redirects to name just a few), you could find yourself selling less.

If you are a mid to large-scale online retailer, you have probably found that as your business has expanded, so too has the complexity of managing all your backend functions.

Many of the functions that are needed to keep your products up to date, and to track orders often evolve into manual processes that take an extraordinary amount of time for you and your staff.

xocbox can work with you to take a look at your store backend processes and find solutions to problems that are taking you away from spending time with your customers.

We specialize in working with Yahoo merchants, and Woocommerce stores, but can offer advice on all types of integration problems regardless of the ecommerce platform.

Please call us for a free consultation at 858-752-3803, or contact us via our Contact Form.

Read More