According to several top economists, the financial crisis of 2007-2009 (also known as the credit crunch) is the worst of its kind since the Great Depression that spanned from the late 20s to the early 40s in some nations. This was a period devastated by both World Wars and The Great Depression was a consequence of these. Both rich and poor countries were affected by this as personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, with international trade plunging by half. The United States were severely touched by unemployment which rose to 25% and the UK's industrial sector (our most powerful domain) suffered immediately devastating effects as the demand for British products collapsed. It was a time of hunger marches, unemployment rises, falls in production and some of the most worrying times in recent history.
Caused by a variety of factors such as house prices, easy credit conditions, subprime lending and more, what we now know as the credit crunch, has been in the news for almost two years and has affected everybody's lives. The first global economic crisis of the 21st century has changed the business world and with this coinciding with the upsurge in technology and internet usage, it seems companies are having to change their strategies to more cost effective methods.
In 2007, internet sales rose by 30% taking them to £163bn and this isn't showing any sign of slowing down. In August 2009, UK shoppers are reported to have spent £3.8bn, which is 16% higher than the same month in 2008 and with quintessential British companies like Marks & Spencers reporting a 30% increase in their online sales in the last quarter, it seems e-commerce is the future.
It is one thing to have an ecommerce platform and another to have an effective online retail facility. This is often down to the technology being used and with the huge amount of information available on the internet, it isn't always easy to create a distinction between the different shopping carts and online stores available. At CTI, we have identified this issue and have become experts in the world's fastest growing E-commerce platform, Magento.
Magento is the future of online retail, it enables us to create completely customised websites that allow users an amazing amount of flexibility in their site build at a fraction of the cost. The way Magento works has given CTI's web development team an incredible opportunity to develop ecommerce platforms that are SEO friendly and compatible with all leading payment gateways. For our clients, this is an incredible advantage as not only they are able to attract more traffic to their site through increased search engine rankings, but they are converting a higher percentage of these hits into sales. Put into simple terms, we have outlined a few key features of Magento that will help you understand why it has been praised by businesses, wholesalers, retailers, developers, marketers and designers:
1. Flexible Pricing: Allowing you capitalise on one of your 7 P's with coupons, discounts, bundles, Buy 1 Get 1 Free and far more.
2. Increased Average Order: The powerful tools Magento has will help you maximise order values and even cross sell on product pages.
3. Social Shopping: The web has gone social and Magento enables this with customer comment and review fields, wish lists, "send to a friend" and more.
4. Mobile Commerce: Things are moving fast in ecommerce, literally! This is why Magento is compatible with mobile devices including the iPhone.
5. SEO Friendly: This is one of the most important points of Magento. It's structure makes stores easier to find in search engines like Google.
6. Scale-able: Magento offers the possibility to grow your e-commerce platform at the same rate as your business and even grow
The rise of online shopping has given us the possibility to thrive in an area we know best and where we are rapidly become authorities on the matter. CTI has great expertise in regards to Magento and the fact that this platform is extremely expandable and scalable to our clients, has meant that they can cope with the ambitious growth they aspire to.
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