Sun Wah Food’s Online Store
It is without a doubt the most exciting time within our business. We have jumped from a B2B environment to a B2C environment by implementing our very first online store. However, it wasn’t an overnight decision but a three month process.
This webstore will ultimately be the gateway for customers to purchase directly from the comfort of their home or mobile device. Who has time to wait till after work in order to go to the local supermarket, just to find out that they don’t stock the item you specifically wanted?!!
Argh!! The frustration is real. But don’t fear, our quality range of Chilli Oils are available to buy direct from our very own online store, chillioilonline.com.
The online store will now put our business ahead of our competitors because the fact is, they are not even in the space, so our company is already two steps ahead.
We have partnered up with a fulfilment company, Ogden Fulfilment, that deals with our back end inventory, so all we have to is tell YOU about our services and products… that easy!
The difference between this and ‘dropshipping fulfilment’ is the plain fact that this is our own British born product, that we hand make the Chilli Oils in our warehouse based in North London. We can keep track of our inventory, stock up when low, manually process orders, and even keep track of how much stock is sold.
Dropshipping is pretty much finding someone else’s inventory and sell that through fulfilment, this is a cost effective approach because the inventory is not kept in your own warehouse, all you’re doing is when someone places an order, you create the order and ship it through the third party, so in effect you become the middle man.
“Convenient, easy to use, a few clicks and it arrives in a few days… simple!”
Building our E-commerce Platform
In order for the E-commerce platform to work, we had to implement and integrate a number of applications to build a solid foundation for online presence. In particular, these are the back end applications that work together to deliver the ‘automated’ digital service that you see as the customer.
The three main applications outlined here are the backbone for our, chillioilonline.com.
WordPress
An easy to use application to form the basis of our partner website sunwahfoods.co.uk, which allows us to form a web presence and for potential customers to find us online.
WordPress is great for building simple web pages very quickly and to enhance your experience even more, it has ample plugins that you can integrate into your web pages so you can create a fuller user experience i.e. Social handler, SEO, or even sliding images.
Shopify
The place where you can create your online store immediately and have customers buying from you within hours.
This was a no brainer, obviously costing a bit for their services, but if you want your business to expand in the digital space in the 21st Century, this is the way forward.
Ideal if you sell a physical product, as their templates range from simplistic to artistic, and has the ability to form product catalogues according to your business.
MailChimp
This service is the link in the chain if you will, and will automate your email correspondence, creating a digital customer service agent for your business.
Once set up correctly and according to your business specifics, this could change the way you run your business forever. As your business grows, it is essential to take care of your customers, old and new.
MailChimp is a clever application, although I am still learning it’s capabilities, already I can see the long term benefits in retaining customers. The ability to keep existing customers in the loop with new deals, new products, or just creating an email conversation is amazing!
Check out our latest online store chillioilonline.com and start buying our quality Chilli Oil now, so you can enjoy your food today!
Follow us @sunwahfoods on most of the social media platforms for updates, progress, and enjoy our Chilli Oil journey.
