The system of electronic commerce via the Internet. What is an online storefront?

The storefront of the online store is designed to solve the same problem as the storefront of a regular store, namely, to present goods to potential buyers. While the usual display is a real product, the display of the online store displays information about the goods, taken from the catalog. What information it is and how it is presented depends on what the online store sells for the goods.

As a rule, any product has a name, a brief and complete text description, photos of appearance and cost. Sometimes a product may have several prices depending on the size, weight and other attributes. For example, the cost of mattresses of the same type depends on the size. There are more complex cases.

On the product description page, information on the availability of goods in stock, delivery times, etc. can be presented.

Some products can be presented on the storefront with the help of the name, text description and photo. For other products, such as consumer electronics and books, you need to set a lot of attributes (parameters). For books, this is the title, author’s name, abstract, table of contents, year of publication, publisher’s name, ISBN number, dimensions and weight, type of cover, availability of a CD, information on available translations into various languages, examples of chapters and so on.

If the store presents a heterogeneous product, then for a product of each category it is necessary to use its own set of attributes. For example, TVs need to be described differently than car radios or players.

The more complete description of the goods will be presented, the easier it will be for buyers to make a choice when buying

A good online store has not one, but several storefronts (although they can all be on the same page as blocks). Each of the shop windows classifies goods in its own way, but they are all tied to a general catalog of goods. Here are some types of storefronts:

• tree catalog of goods;
• new goods;
• sales;
• most popular products;
• related and recommended products;
• products by manufacturers, manufacturers and similar

The tree showcase of the catalog allows you to search for goods by category. Opening the branches of the directory, the visitor finds what he needs. At the same time, he looks through the sections of the catalog, decorated in the form of a list of items of goods. With the help of such a display case, you can easily find a product by belonging to one or another category of goods.

A showcase of new products helps the visitor to find a product that has just or recently appeared on sale. As a rule, such a showcase is organized in the form of a list of items located in a prominent place on the main page of the online store. If every day a lot of new products of different categories come to the store, it makes sense to give a hierarchical structure to the storefront to facilitate searching.

Appointment showcases popular products and sales is clear from the title. Typically, these showcases are organized on the main store page, on the catalog page or on the product description pages.

The online store can be provided for a special system of analysis of purchases, identifying those products that are most often purchased together. These products can be regarded as related, and they can be offered for sale on the page for viewing detailed information.

Related products, the buyer can choose together with the main product as an addition to the purchase.

Showcases for manufacturers and manufacturers are usually a simple list of names of firms and factories. Clicking on the line of such a list, the visitor will open a page listing the products issued by the respective company or plant.

In addition to windows, or blocks with information, there should be a search in the online store catalog. The search allows the visitor to find the product he needs using the keywords found in the name or description of the product. In this case, you can specify additional criteria for the selection of goods, for example, at a cost. The search will help the visitor in cases where it is difficult for him to find a product in other windows, when he does not know the category or the exact name of the product.

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Most recently, we presented to all users of CloudShop, and now we have updated the look of online storefronts, listening to the feedback from the first users. The main change is in the location of your company logo - previously it was placed directly in the “cap” of the showcase, now it is placed under it.

We are pleased to consider the windows created by our users, and we invite you to get acquainted with the most interesting specimens - get inspired and put into service!

Our mimemeter is off scale. The master of manual labor not only creates cute decorations, but also very harmoniously draws up his shop window.

  An online storefront looks like it actually came into a store and looked at its shelves. Only without queues.

  Most likely the images of the goods were provided by the supplier. When paired with the pre-designed online storefront looks pretty laconic. Notice how smartly buyers are directed to the section "About the store."

  Another example of how you can arrange a web shop with handmade toys. The most important thing here is to make beautiful photos of the works.

  The showcase CloudShop is a fairly practical tool for steam merchants.

  A good solution is to provide phone numbers directly in the description.

  Handwork again. Notice the photograph shows all the details of the goods.

  Background Hats and product images are made in the same style. Bright photos are called to see the product in more detail and add it to the basket.

  Painting only emphasizes the philosophy of the store. I wonder what Vitaly Gavrilovich Tikhov, the author of the picture, thinks about this?

  By the way, in order to further stand out, you can use in the description of the store Emoji.

Want to create your online storefront? At your service - that will help create your online store in a couple of clicks.

Online showcase from Admitad Goods.

Internet showcase  from Admitad Goods - the most quick and easy way create affiliate online store. Earlier in my blog I have already published articles devoted to the creation of an affiliate online store and a regular online store on the CMS engine of WordPress. These articles are:

Then it seemed to me that there could not be a simpler way to create an affiliate online store, but recently a new plugin from the Admitad affiliate program aggregator has appeared. After the appearance of this plug-in, I realized that every schoolchild could create an affiliate online store and I urgently need to take the opportunity to be one of the first to implement it. Moreover, no money is needed for its creation.

3 steps to create an affiliate online store.

1. Install WordPress CMS:Admitad's Internet showcase is installed on the website with WordPress CMS. In my earlier articles (see above), I already covered the WordPress installation process.
2. Sign up for Admitad and add your site there, i.e. your site.
3. Connect to your site application Admitad Goods  on the Admitad website, download the plugin, install it on your website and configure it. Detailed video on installing and configuring the plugin is presented below.

The advantages of online storefronts.

If you tried to create an affiliate online store through the WooCommerce plugin, then you know that creating a database of affiliate products is quite a long process with a lot of repetitive actions. The proposed online showcase from Admitad Goods takes over the creation of the product shell, that is, its name, photo, price and link to the partner online store. And you just have to choose the products that you want to add to your storefront, and also add a unique description of the product so that the search engines can better index the pages from your site.

Separately, I want to emphasize that in this plugin there are the ability to update product data, which means that you will always have actual information. This is especially true of the price and availability of a product.

As a result, we have powerful tool  With the help of which we can create our affiliate online store absolutely free  (only domain and hosting is purchased for the site itself) in minutes  (with a unique description of goods a little longer), which may be the very automated money making machine  while you rest somewhere by the sea. I don’t know about you, but I have already started creating a new affiliate online store using the Admitad plugin.

The main feature of the online storefront is the fact that here users can view the product and its characteristics.

Creating an online storefront  helps to promote your products and services among consumers faster and more efficiently. It is very important, when developing your online project, not to confuse two completely different concepts: online store and online storefront.
  Creating an online storefront is done to acquaint consumers with a huge selection of the company's products, but not to sell it through the network. Most often, an online storefront is a directory that contains all the products and products of a company. A potential buyer can view the goods provided and choose for themselves what he needs.
  Such web resources help to significantly promote your business, and also cost much less than the development of other Internet sites.

Online Storefront - Company Face

Online storefronts differ from other web resources in that they only represent the product or service of a company without selling it. As a rule, it is a corporate site where visitors can find information on a product, description, cost and specification that interest them. In addition, often these resources also provide the necessary information to visitors about what the company can offer to its customers and customers. Of course, the creation of a shop window on the Internet does not involve any special difficulties, but when there are too many names for a wide variety of goods, the work on creation requires the hands of real specialists.

Internet shop features:

• An online storefront helps you find new customers and consumers. If we talk about this feature, then these sites have such an index that allows them to automatically find buyers through a variety of search engines.
• A web resource in the form of a storefront allows you to increase the potential income of your company several times.

  At the request of the customer, we can add a simple email order form to the product page! To make it easier to imagine the principle of the online storefront, you can take as an example thick catalogs with products that may interest potential buyers.
Creating an online storefrontinvolves the use of a variety of approaches:

• Creating a directory that will take into account the necessary features to facilitate the work with search engines;
• Such a website needs constant work to promote its specialists, so that potential buyers can more easily and without much effort find the product they need;
• Online storefront  is a business site rather than a simple online presence.

What do you get by contacting us?

• An individually designed design that fits perfectly for your company.
• We use CMS, which does not carry much load for the server.
• We will add some variety to your showcase, creating also reviews, ratings and other opportunities.
• We offer our customers an administrative panel to fill the site.
• We also offer support for modern html-standards and the possibility of search engine optimization.

Having decided to contact our company, you can be sure that your virtual showcase will be a real breakthrough for the business.

Online Storefronts (Web Showcases)

The next option for organizing online retail is a web-based showcase.

On the pages of the online storefront there is information about the company, catalogs of products (services), price lists for them and the application form.

In the online storefront you can publish company news, additional information about manufacturers, tips, analytical reviews, etc. This site provides more complete information about products and services compared to traditional sources.

Among the online storefronts are the following varieties:

static online storefront based on ordinary HTML files;

dynamic online storefront displaying information from some database.

Along with participation in the electronic trading series, this is the least expensive solution, but an online storefront, unlike a shopping series, does not provide a full sales cycle, including interactive procedures for invoicing, accepting payments, tracking order execution, etc.

The principle of the online storefront is based on the collection of preliminary applications with their subsequent implementation. According to this principle, for example, websites specializing in the sale of goods of limited demand (such as, for example, objects of art) work. The main problem for the seller is the need to ensure that the potential client fulfills the order on pre-specified conditions. The buyer risks getting the selected product or service late (or not at all).

A distinctive feature of this business model is the implementation of the purchase and sale process in several stages. First, the seller collects orders, then ascertains the supplier’s terms and conditions for the execution of the order, after which he informs potential customers (usually via e-mail), and finally, if they agree, he will deliver the goods.

From the point of view of sellers, the online storefront and online store differ quite significantly. An online storefront costs retail companies cheap, but it has significant drawbacks:

Disadvantages of online storefronts (1):

1) does not allow to automate trade from a real warehouse;

2) does not allow to reduce the number of sales companies and their operating expenses.

Disadvantages of online storefronts (2):

3) there is no flexibility in the management of trading processes and the organization of marketing campaigns.

All customer requests in the online storefront do not come to an automated order processing system, as in an electronic store, but to sales managers. Further, the business processes of the online storefront completely replicate the business processes of the traditional retailer. In this case, there is no possibility of a real reduction in the level of transaction costs, the profitability of a web-storefront differs little from the profitability of conventional trading methods. The main feature of the work of this form of Internet commerce is that the interaction between web store windows and the company's internal business process is carried out manually by managers (in the fig. Slide, this is shown by the corresponding arrows).

Online Storefront Transaction Processing Processes

The processing of transactions online store

Thus, an online storefront is only a tool to attract customers, an interface for interacting with them and conducting marketing activities.

Now consider the concept and functions of an online store.

Automation of trade becomes profitable only with the growth of its scale. As long as several employees cope with manual processing of customer orders, especially if the number of customers is small, it is easier for merchants to organize online trading on the basis of online storefronts. But for firms conducting hundreds of transactions per day, this is unacceptable.

The most complex, albeit difficult to implement, e-commerce system is an online store that covers all the main business processes of a commercial enterprise: choosing goods, placing orders, conducting settlements, tracking the execution of orders, and in the case of selling information goods or providing information services - delivery via electronic communications networks.

The advantages of an online store compared to an online storefront are that the buyer can offer personal service, a flexible system of discounts, and also immediately issue an invoice taking into account the cost of delivery, type of payment and insurance, tax deductions. In addition, the buyer can receive information about the passage of his order. The use of this model in e-commerce allows you to significantly reduce inventory in warehouses and thus receive significant savings on costs compared to offline shopping complexes. Since orders in the online store are processed automatically, the manager is no longer a necessary element in customer service, his task is to control the overall system operation.