There are nearly 10 million online retailers in the world, with a quarter of them located in the United States – so, how can an online retailer be noticed in such a vast sea of competition? Mikel Lindsaar, CEO and Founder of StoreConnect, explains how and where to find the right tools that will give entrepreneurs the edge.
Statistics show there are 2.5 million online retailers—a.k.a. e-tailers—in the United States and 9.1 million of them globally;(1) that’s a lot of competition. Although there is no fixed average on the initial investment, it could run anywhere from $1,000 for a small, basic online store to $1,000,000 or more for an enterprise company.(2) Moreover, to launch an online store, there are a myriad number of steps an entrepreneur must go through, and the slightest miscalculation—monetary or otherwise—could spell doom. Regardless of size, all online stores have one thing in common: funding.
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Whether it’s your own or someone else’s money, a savvy entrepreneur will make sure every single cent is spent where it needs to and will keep an eye on the expenditures. And regardless of how well versed they may be in matters of finance, everybody could use a little help.
“Whether it’s your own or someone else’s money, a savvy entrepreneur will make sure every single cent is spent where it needs to and will keep an eye on the expenditures. And regardless of how well versed they may be in matters of finance, everybody could use a little help,” says Mikel Lindsaar, CEO and Founder of StoreConnect.
E-tailers, explains Lindsaar, need to maximize their valuable time and assets in order to rise above the cacophony and be able to compete against the big stores. In 2021, retail e-commerce sales passed $4.9 trillion worldwide, and online sales are predicted to grow to more than $5.5 trillion by the end of 2022.(3) How can an etailer get a leg up and stand head and shoulders above all the competition? Many e-tailers have turned to software to help them with running the show; specifically, Salesforce®. However, using the world’s #1 CRM program is not enough; entrepreneurs still need an edge. That’s where the combined forces of StoreConnect and AFDigital come into play.
StoreConnect is disrupting the online SMB industry by taking SalesForce and enhancing it, thus helping e-tailers focus on the business and not on the technicalities of their website. StoreConnect is an e-commerce AppExchange package created exclusively for Salesforce.
For their part, AFDigital recognizes the need for e-tailers to put their customers at the center of their world. They too are tailor-made for use with Salesforce. They guide clients toward a smarter customer journey that enhances the customer’s experience. AFDigital emphasizes their client’s social media marketing, customer journey automation, training and digital marketing operations.
Together, these partners are disrupting the online SMB arena by helping e-tailers to maximize their time and assets and have the necessary tools to do what they do best: growing their business. Enhancing the best-selling and most widely used sales program gives online storeowners a single platform from where to manage content, point of sales, appointments and bookings, subscriptions, shipping and inventory, customer service and much more. In the end, joining forces with other liked-minded leaders, such as AFDigital, StoreConnect guides entrepreneurs to lead the way. That is the edge e-tailers need.
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“No one wants to be bogged down and busied up with minutiae. E-tailers need a powerful, configurable business solution to manage their website, online sales, provide amazing customer service, run all their digital marketing campaigns and have up-to-date detailed metrics. Running a business is not easy, but with the right tools and help, it becomes more manageable,” says Lindsaar.
AFDigital’s CEO, Robin Leonard added, “‘With StoreConnect, we don’t need to consider integration costs, nor install 3rd-party plugins to meet specific requirements. It is simple to set up, requires no development skills and we can launch our client sites rapidly. The only maintenance required is ongoing content optimization, allowing our clients to focus on what matters, not the tech behind it.’’