Key Features In An eCommerce Platform to Sell Office Supplies Online

With the traditional office supplies brands moving online, we see a trend of office supplies eCommerce stores. This trend is very much here and is going to stay.

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to sell office supplies online, an eCommerce platform is a right way to start your journey.

While most of the platforms promise stability and scalability for your eCommerce store, what is the trick to choosing the perfect and specific one for your business? Go a little deep into the features of your shortlisted eCommerce platform before you launch your office supplies business online.

How to Choose the Right eCommerce Platform for Your Office Supplies Business Needs

Here are some key features that you need in an eCommerce platform to sell office supplies online.

The eCommerce store

First things first.

Is the eCommerce platform you are considering packed with features that allow you to build an eCommerce store without any HTML and CSS knowledge or any developer?

An eCommerce platform with user-friendly, design-building, drag-and-drop features is quick and convenient. It should have modern template designs to relate to your brand. Responsiveness to all digital devices of different types and sizes is a must.

You may not like the ready-to-use themes and designs. Does the platform offer you eCommerce customization options for your store? A platform with customizable theme settings and prebuilt widgets lets you control your eCommerce store design.

Integrated Product Catalogs With Multiple Distributors

Setting up an eCommerce store requires you to upload product pictures, write the product description, upload prices, and regularly track and update them. So, what differentiates a good eCommerce software from an ordinary one? Here are some features to look out for:

• Pre-built aggregated catalog in sync with multiple distributors so any changes will reflect automatically on the eCommerce store.
• Free rich content like product images, descriptions, tech specs, etc. to encourage buyers to purchase.
• Custom catalog to allow the addition of products outside the distribution network or services like warranty, installation, etc. to your custom catalog.
• A structured and universally accepted taxonomy to maintain a clear products catalog
• Catalog for government contract items that are aggregated or customized based on the contract.

SEO and Omnichannel Marketing Experience

A study by Business Insider indicates that 23.6% of eCommerce orders are directly linked to organic traffic. This proves why businesses need to appear on the search result pages, and that too on page 1!

Go for an eCommerce platform that allows you to create, execute and manage ad campaigns right from the eCommerce store. You will also need dynamic content management capabilities to create SEO-friendly landing pages, blogs, homepage, tech specs, marketing collateral, etc.

A comprehensive application marketplace or app store featuring pre-built integrations with best-in-class service providers is the best bet. Your store should be mobile-friendly, and well-equipped with social selling functionality to market and sell across social media channels.

Advanced Configuration & Order Management

The office supplies business needs to create complex product combinations, kits, and assemblies, bundles of different SKUs(including configuration SKUs). This makes advanced product configuration a MUST-HAVE feature for office supplies online stores.

Order management lets you offer products at different price points without any extra paperwork required.

You can track orders and close them upon successful delivery. In this era of click-easy ordering, it is important to include instant ordering facilities as office supplies tend to get exhausted quickly.

Ink and toner finder

Selling ink and toner is profitable among all the business supplies inventory and has a recurring requirement. If you have a large assortment of ink and toner cartridges and other office supplies in your store, you need to provide a product finder that allows buyers to search for products by brand, model, or cartridge number.

It allows customers to easily find the product they need without having to call or email a request.

Checkout Experience

eCommerce brands lose up to $18 million dollars in revenue every year because of cart abandonment. And the number one reason that triggers cart abandonment is the complex checkout experience (high extra costs like shipping, taxes, and fees).

To give a clear picture of any additional fees or charges they might incur, the ability to automatically calculate taxes and freight based on the geographical region is a requisite feature.

Integrations with PayPal and Stripe, as well as the bandwidth to accept widely used credit cards, gives your eCommerce store’s customers multiple payment options and a better checkout experience.

Instant Dropshipping Facility

How hassle-free is it to have a facility that lets you sell without stocking up the inventory? Dropshipping it is.

It helps you save time, money, and space without worrying about incurring costs of inventory, shipping, and packaging the products.

An eCommerce platform that facilitates dropshipping by linking your orders directly to the suppliers creates a smooth business experience for you:

Integration for Automation

The eCommerce platform you use should be a fully-fledged solution, not just a basic store builder. This is where integrations come in handy. Here are some important integrations to look out for:

CRM

CRM strengthens your overall eCommerce experience by managing your customer data through a single window. It makes your lead capture process easy and streamlines opportunity management. You get comprehensive reports on customer behavior, store analytics, and distributors. It helps in closing more deals and steering clear from cart abandonment in most of the cases.

Sales quoting

Sales quoting software reduces the long sales cycles. It offers multiple quote templates for both simple and complex quotations. The mobile quoting feature facilitates on-the-go quoting for sales reps.

PunchOut

PunchOut offers seamless, transparent, and personalized procurement, creating a phenomenal shopping experience. With a PunchOut feature you can access the supplier’s eCommerce store from within their eProcurement systems.

It allows B2B customers to search, select and add products from a customizable PunchOut catalog. B2B customers can pull the requisition back into their procurement system and route it through internal approval processes, avoiding the usual checkout process.

Reporting and Analytics

You need inbuilt reporting and analytics tools to understand the store’s performance and make informed decisions about how to improve the sales funnel. With advanced eCommerce analytics, you can –

• Gain insights into their customers’ journey, from landing page to checkout to cart abandonment.
• Search for quotes, sales orders, purchase orders, etc. based on multiple criteria with advanced translation filtering.
• Create highly effective reports based on filtering criteria and even specify report output.
• Generate and print or export reports to any format including Excel CSV, HTML, and PDF.

Unparalleled Customer Support

There are days when things can go south with the best software solutions. Your only support at that time is customer service.

Choose an eCommerce platform that offers access to 24/7 customer support via phone, email and live chat. It should also have an online information database to help teams solve individual-specific problems and respond to queries efficiently.

The Closing Phrase

Office supplies business operates with a huge catalog and significant demand. So, you have the bandwidth to include more products in your catalog any time the demand increases.

To absorb the need for scaling up, you need a strong foundation backed with modern technology. It’s not only about the right start but also about a long term association.

VARStreet is an eCommerce platform designed specifically for online office supplies businesses.