Shop2grab

With online sales increasing almost daily, it is becoming increasingly important for every business to have an online store. And the easiest way to set up one is to use a DIY eCommerce platform.

However, besides the eCommerce platform you choose to build the store, eCommerce business has many other facets, like finding the right products, ensuring that you reach the targeted audience, and fighting competition. With so many things to do, it only makes sense to ensure you choose a right & efficient eCommerce platform for your online store. Shop2Grab is one such platform and is available at a price as low as Rs 900 per month (& that even includes taxes).

Shop2Grab is an end-to-end eCommerce solution that provides almost everything you will need to set up your online store. The first step in setting up the store is to create a product catalogue. Shop2grap has in-depth product creation functionality, and you can easily add product images and descriptions. You will also be able to add discounts, group products, save the model number and add almost every other detail you would want to store for the product.

Once the products have been uploaded, it becomes important to choose a theme. Shop2grab has multiple themes available, and you can choose the one that suits your product category best. All you now need is a payment gateway to go live. Shop2Grab offers free payment gateway accounts for both Indian and International transactions, which has been included in the plan. You can integrate one from the multiple options available in the Appstore. Internal features built into Shop2Grab, like SEO optimization, will further help you reach the target audience.

The eCommerce software also has multiple reports to increase sales conversion and optimize operations. The dashboard has been built beautifully and will help you focus on the key report. On the whole, Shop2grab will give you everything you need to sell online.

However, just creating an online store is not enough. You will need enhanced features to beat the competition. Here are the features in Shop2Grab that we liked the most and can help you differentiate your store from competitors.

1. Logistic Support-  Handling logistics is always challenging with an eCommerce store and can delay your launch by days, if not weeks. Shop2Grab offers logistic support backed by the likes of Gati, FedEx & Bluedart. This guarantees zero delays in the launch, and you can start shipping your products from day one.

2. Facebook Store – Having a Facebook store can increase your sales by multiple folds. Shop2grab lets you build an online store with a few clicks. Though the transactions will be done on Shop2Grab’s platform, you will be able to showcase your products, and the “Add to Cart” button on the Facebook page also motivates you to take the transaction one step ahead.
3. POS System – If you own a retail store ensuring inventory synchronization becomes very important. To do this, you will need to work with your POS system provider and go through the hassle of integrating your online store with the POS system. Shop2grab simplifies the entire process, as it has an inbuilt POS software. So you will not need to handle multiple software and also can save expense on the POS software.
4. Product review and testimonials – When competitors start selling a product similar to yours, what can differentiate your store from theirs is user review and feedback. User reviews and feedback will also help you increase customer engagement on the website and help your users make decisions. This results in increased Sales conversion. Shop2grab has an easy review and product testimonial setups. You will also be able to moderate the reviews easily.
5. The theme editor – Shop2grab, has many beautiful-looking themes. However, the theme editor further multiplies the option by giving you the tool to edit the current themes. You can change the colours and the format for the store & easily synchronize it with your logo and corporate identity.
6. Payment Support – Many visitors will not have a credit card or don’t like doing transactions on their cards. The option of Cash on Delivery will help you convert such traffic and is thus absolutely important for any eCommerce store. Besides the Online payment options, Shop2Grab will also allow you to accept offline payment using COD, pick up from the store & bank deposit.
7. Marketing and email campaigns – Increasing your sale per customer is easier than acquiring new customers. Shop2grab has in-built marketing automation tools to help you do this. With shop2grab, you can send notifications and marketing emails to your customer and increase the frequency of their shop in your store.
8. Loyalty point system – Another wonderful feature of Shop2grab is the loyalty point system. The software allows you to associate points with products purchased. With every purchase transaction your customer makes on the platform, his/her points accumulate and can later be used to purchase a product. It works like the way a shopper stop or pantaloons loyalty card works.
9. Gift vouchers and coupons – Gift vouchers are essential to increase conversion. Shop2grab also has an internal gift voucher coupon management system. You can create multiple coupon codes with varied discounts and use them to attract the audience.
10. Manage affiliates and commission – Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways of generating sales. This is because you pay your affiliate a percentage commission only when there is a sale. No upfront payment has to be made; if there is no sale, no payment must be made. Shop2Grab will help you launch your affiliate program within minutes. It also calculates commissions and thus manages the entire process of affiliate sales.
11. Appstore – There is the App store for everything you miss on the platform. They have integration with 50+ external apps, including Hellobar, GETkudos, Zopim, and Viralmint, amongst others.

Even though Shop2grab is a DIY store, it lacks DIY trials; the company is introducing it by June 2015. For the host of features one can get on Shop2grab, I think DIY trials can be overlooked.