How to Use Dropbox to Host Remote Data Feeds (an FTP Alternative)

by Neil on May 20, 2013 in Tips and Tricks with No comments

Tired of having to manually upload your data feed? Want to host your inventory files remotely without having to set up an FTP server? Believe it or not, there is an easy and free way out. With a free Dropbox account, you can actually host your vendor data in online using the app’s “Share Link” feature and have eCommHub fetch it automatically. Here are five simple steps to get you ready to put your store on autopilot!™

Step 1: Create a Dropbox account or sign in to your existing account. Once there, you can create a folder as a one-stop location for your data. If you’re a neat-freak like me, you can even make a separate one for each vendor and/or fulfillment warehouse.

A possible configuration for your Dropbox

A possible layout for your Dropbox

Step 2: Upload your inventory data to the appropriate folder. You can do this using the Desktop app for Linux, Windows, or Mac OSX, or through the online app. The only thing to be careful about is that if you are updating this file often, you should come up with a consistent name for the file. Dropbox’s “Share Link” URL is based on the name of the file and its relative location in your Dropbox, so if you ever get a newer copy of inventory data, you would simply replace the original file with the newer one. For example, name your file something simple such as “InventoryData.csv”.

Should look something like this!

It should look something like this!

Step 3: Grabbing the Link. This is the most important step because it is less commonly known that you can generate a static link based on the file as long as its name and relative location remain the same. Simply hit the Share Link button…

Click the "Share Link" button!

Click the “Share Link” button!

…and you will be taken to a screen where you can either put in a list of email addresses or grab a direct link. In this case, we want to grab the direct link so you can press “Get link” and it will be automatically copied to your clipboard.

Step 4: Prepare the link for remote delivery. If you paste the URL anywhere, such as in a basic text editor, you should see it look something like this: “https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff67f5scnl04uk0/InventoryData.csv”. If you try to navigate to such a link, you will notice it takes you to an intermediate screen where Dropbox prompts you to download the associated file.

The intermediate screen

The intermediate screen

In order to bypass the intermediate screen, and ultimately allow for eCommHub to remotely access the file, you just need to add “?dl=1″ to the end of the URL. You can test to make sure it works – for example, if you tested the URL “https://www.dropbox.com/s/ff67f5scnl04uk0/InventoryData.csv?dl=1″, it would download directly to your computer. That’s a pretty good indicator that eCommHub should be able to detect and parse it too. All that’s left now is to set up your inventory data file in your eCommHub account.

Step 5. Setting up your (newly remote) inventory data file. Sign in, navigate to the Vendors pane, and select an existing vendor (or create a new one first). At the main screen, hit “Add Inventory Data.”

Add inventory data!

Add inventory data!

You should then be taken to the 3-step inventory data setup process. Select “remote feed” as the method and paste in your complete, modified, Dropbox share URL. Choose  your desired frequency, go through the rest of the steps, and you’re done!

An example how the complete step 1 will look!

An example how the complete step 1 will look!

In just five minutes (or less), you’ve automated another component of your eCommerce experience. Remember to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook for more great tips!

Still have questions on the steps to setup inventory data? Check out this video for a quick walkthrough or get in touch with our awesome support team! :3

Growing a Startup Team, Organically

by Will on May 15, 2013 in Lessons Learned with No comments

In the last few months, eCommHub is proud to have added four new members to our team. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has certainly been an exciting experience to see the company grow cohesively. Anyone who’s ever gone through the hiring process knows that it can sometimes be slow-moving, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of the strategies we used to successfully grow our team, as well as some of the hurdles we faced during this process.

Why is it important?

Before we jump right into team-building strategies, let’s talk about why this should concern everyone. After all, many entrepreneurs get into the industry because they want autonomy. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), there is only so much one person can do alone. The simple truth is that the more your business grows, the more employees you will need. The importance of hiring is further compounded in a young company because every member has an immense influence on its future direction.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
- Jim Rohn, motivational speaker

Roshan Choxi, CEO of Bloc.io, told me this almost exactly one year ago. Since then, it has been a constant reminder to me that I need to surround myself with great people. The idea that we are defined by those we surround ourselves with can easily be applied to one’s role in any company. A startup’s culture is the average of its early team. Great companies do not hire people merely to pick up boring tasks they don’t want to do; they hire people that can help elevate their company and push its limits. They hire people better than them: the people that they can learn the most from.

Bringing the Pieces Together

Now that we’ve established the importance of finding the right people, it’s time to talk about how to find these solid hires. While eCommHub has been growing quickly, we are not yet a brand name that can choose from the resumes of the cream of the crop. I’m sure many of you can sympathize with that particular problem, whether you are an entrepreneur with an idea or a hiring manager for a big business. This means you must be very deliberate with not only who you bring on to the team, but how you hire them.

Always be hiring: First things first, always be hiring. Exhibit a proactive mindset and strive for clarity with respect to hiring. This does not mean you should be aggressive or annoying, but when people do ask about your career, don’t be afraid to let your passion and enthusiasm shine through. Sell your company and vision. Make sure everyone sees how much, not only you, but your whole team loves what they do; you may be surprised how contagious that enthusiasm is.

Right Place, Right Time: Great employees will not fall into your lap. If you want to meet the right people, you need to put yourself in the right situations! For example, Meetup is an awesome resource for finding like-minded individuals. You can search based on your interests and priorities. Atlanta Ruby Users and Southeast Magento Meetup are two local groups that are really relevant to eCommHub, and I’ve had a lot of success meeting great people there who have become great connections for us.

It’s bigger than you: Startups are in it together, so act like it. Collaborate with a variety of companies in different industries to cast a wider net. The social dynamics really change when your mindset goes from “how can I get this person to work for me” to “how can I help this person find the perfect job for them” . Sometimes the answer is eCommHub, other times it’s not and that’s okay. When I began to telling others that I had a network of entrepreneurs looking potential new hires, candidates began approaching me. This effect compounds exponentially once you actually start matching people to jobs that fit them. It’s a textbook win-win: by providing free leads to smart people and scrappy startups, I was able to screen more people for eCommHub while giving back to the local startup culture.

Smart Students: Be sure to develop a relationship with local universities. They are goldmines of potentially untapped talent. Think about how many students are currently twiddling their thumbs at part-time secretarial gigs at the Office of Alumni when they’d much rather work on projects relevant to their coursework. Sometimes, however, the official college organization in charge of connecting students and employers isn’t the best route to find these students. Instead, try finding them through college organizations that directly complement your needs. For example, Georgia Tech has several developer organizations and entrepreneurial societies full of brilliant and bright-eyed students raring to get some real-world experience.

Hire a person, not a role. An early founder does not have the luxury of waiting for that one, perfect rockstar candidate. Look for dedication, not just intelligence. It’s easy to teach people facts and techniques; it’s much harder to ignite passion that isn’t there. Also keep in mind that as young company, you’ll all be spending a lot of time together. You’ll need to be able to make decisions together effectively and for that, communication has got to be really tight. Getting along means getting things done.

 

 

Getting the right people on the bus is the first and foremost priority followed by building rapport and trust amongst the team members — the better the team works together, the better the results.
- David Cummings, founder of Pardot; owner of Atlanta Tech Village

 

Because eCommHub was at a stage where we needed every domain, including development, sales, marketing, and support, a strategy I had success with was primarily focusing on bringing together a group of people who got along well with each other. Then, after we had been working together for a while and had a chance to work with every facet of the company, we began to naturally gravitate to the roles we fit into and drive those areas all the more effectively.

A startup’s edge is having perseverance and taking risks. Take your next risk on a passionate individual who might not have all the skills you need just yet, but is scrappy and motivated enough figure them out quickly and put their all into growing your business.

Make them Great

To truly grow a team, you must be willing to invest in them. This comes down to paying competitively or providing an amazing experience. Here at eCommHub, we really believe in the value of both, but as a scrappy startup we make especially sure to provide each member of our team the job of their dreams. The way we do this is by giving them a challenge; we show them that eCommHub solves a real problem in the e-commerce fulfillment / drop-shipping industry and that everything they do makes a real impact for all of our customers. Together, we make tight integrations with the latest technologies to help make it easy for online retailers to optimize their workflow and deliver their products to their customers.

Once they step up to the challenge, we empower them by awarding them with ownership of their domain and being deliberate about establishing trust. A great leader will be careful to give people room to grow and favor encouragement over mandates. Once each teammate not only expects, but knows that the others will do a great job, magic happens!

Bringing the team together has been a three-month initiative that has been trying in some unexpected ways. Now that everything is finally starting to come together, I wanted to share some of the insights we have already gained from growing eCommHub. After just one week working together with the new team, I already felt motivated to achieve the goals we set out for summer and am more excited than ever for the future.

Look forward to some great features coming out of our icebox and regular updates for our progress!

We love feedback! What other ways do you go about hiring and keeping great people?

Updated Magento Extension – eCommHub Connect 2.1.0 Release

by Neil on April 27, 2013 in Features, Integrations with 3 Comments

We have released an updated version of our Magento extension. In short, it helps streamline the installation process for new users, makes it easier to go to eCommHub from within the Magento admin, and some other general/boring bug fixes and optimizations.

If you’re an existing Magento user, we recommend upgrading to the latest release as soon as possible to enjoy some of performance optimizations.

eCommHub’s New Pricing! Just Pay as You Grow™

by Kurt on April 15, 2013 in Announcements, MC with No comments

Since launching our unique Pay As You Grow™ pricing about a year ago, we have received a lot of positive feedback and seen immense growth. Many of you enjoyed the flexibility it provided, especially if you recently created your store and were just getting started with your marketing efforts.

Since then, our userbase has grown considerably and we learned a lot about how people use eCommHub. We found that there are a few distinct segments of users who use specific eCommHub features. Some use it more for inventory management, others for order processing, and many, both. It became obvious that our pricing did not make much sense for those who used it primarily for inventory management, due to the fact it was based solely on order volume. At the same time, there’s really no correlation between vendors, products, and order volume. It’s all over the map, but we took what we learned to create a model that would accommodate all of these use cases.

We hope that this new pricing reflects the increased value we’re committed to bringing to you as an eCommHub user. Our team has been hard at work, enhancing existing features and adding new ones. You may have already noticed a few like Discontinued Products, Fulfillment Logs, and Importing Tracking Numbers. These changes are making eCommHub a more robust and reliable infrastructure that already automates thousands of online stores and continues to grow.

So we wanted to keep the flexibility of our current pricing, but at the same time offer more options better segmented to how are users use our platform. We feel that you’ll find our new pricing very affordable with plans starting at just $35 per month and still very flexible, maintaining our unique Pay As You Grow™ offering.

Here’s how the new pricing works:

1) Select a base plan

You select a “base plan” with the features you want. We now offer 3 base plans: Basic, Professional, and Enterprise. For most of you, the Basic and Professional plans will be sufficient, we offer the Enterprise plans for higher-volume or if you need specific features. The base plans are solely based on features. You can see a breakdown of the features if you click “Compare plan features”.

eCommHub New Pricing - Select a Base Plan

2) Choose only what you need

Inspired by the flexibility of our order-based pricing before, we now bring that same dynamic aspect to Vendors and Products, allowing you to pay for only what you need and no more. However, regardless of which base plan you choose, all plans include up to 3 vendors, 2,500 products, and 50 orders per month for FREE. That means if you have less than those amounts, then you pay nothing other than the flat base plan. Otherwise, if you have say 5 vendors, then you would pay only for the 2 additional vendors. (See the pricing page for details on the unit costs for additional vendors, products, and orders)

eCommHub New Pricing - Choose only what you need

Other Benefits

One huge benefit of the new pricing is that it only accounts for orders processed by eCommHub. This means if you are not using eCommHub to process orders (e.g. you are only using it for inventory or only drop-ship some of your orders), then you will find it worthwhile to upgrade since  the old pricing accounted for your total order volume.

Likewise, our new pricing only accounts for Active Products, which are products actively being tracked from your vendors. The old pricing accounted for total products imported from your store, so the new pricing is beneficial if you are only using eCommHub to track certain products.

We also designed the new pricing with simplicity in mind, so it should be easier to understand and more clear what you are getting. With our unique Pay as You Grow™ offering, our pricing scales with your business and is affordable for startups, as well as cost-effective for high volume sellers.

Current Customers

First, I just want to say thanks to all of you that are existing eCommHub customers and have contributed to our massive growth! We have a lot more exciting things in store for you in 2013 and would not be here without you.

If you’re an existing customer, you can take advantage of the new pricing today. As a courtesy, we’re extending a grace period until June 15, 2013 to ensure a smooth transition. If you login to your account, you’ll see the details and receive a special discount if you upgrade early.

If you have any questions or concerns about the new pricing, just contact us - our support team is here to help.

 

How to set accurate shipping rates when drop shipping from multiple vendors or locations

by Kurt on March 24, 2013 in Drop Shipping Guides, MC, Tips and Tricks with No comments

Setting the shipping rates for your online store can be difficult, especially if you’re drop shipping from multiple suppliers or different warehouse locations. How can you figure out the exact shipping cost of your drop ship supplier? What happens if an order gets routed to 2 different suppliers, in effect doubling the shipping cost?

Working Around the Limitations of Your Shopping Cart Platform

The reality is that most shopping cart platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and others are not set up to calculate shipping costs from multiple locations. Though you can calculate real-time shipping using UPS, USPS, Fedex and other carriers, this method only takes a single location into account. It does not factor in extra handling or drop shipping fees.

For example, if both of your warehouses are using the same carrier (e.g. UPS), then the rates may still differ because each warehouse has a different shipping origin, resulting in different shipping rates. Not to mention the warehouses might give lower rates or may charge different handling fees. Furthermore, things get even more complex when a customer places an order for multiple items, with those items coming from multiple vendors. So what should you do?

Flat-Rate Shipping

In our experience, most drop-ship customers handle shipping by simply using flat-rate methods. For instance, a store may charge a simple flat-rate of $5 for shipping, even though its vendors have their own flat-rate shipping costs. You may actually pay more or less for shipping on each order, but the idea is that it averages out.

To keep things simple, a common scenario is to add a flat-rate for Standard Shipping (say $5.00) and another for Expedited Shipping (say $10.00). That way your customers have the option to get their orders quicker if they want.

shopify_flat_rate_shipping

If you want to give the illusion that your shipping rates are calculated, you could use more specific amounts that look random like “$4.92″ for Standard Shipping and “$9.96″ for Expedited Shipping.

In Shopify (and other carts), you can also set multiple flat-rate prices based on either price or weight. Overall, this can be a pretty powerful work around if you want to offer different flat-rates for different products or categories. You would just give each product a nominal weight like “1″ or “2″. Then, you could set a flat-rate for items with a weight of “1″ and a different flat-rate for items with a weight of “2″. You could even use this method to segment your products that go to different vendors; that way, you could always charge a higher flat-rate if you know one of your vendors charges a higher flat-rate.

Carrier Calculated Shipping

Most shopping carts also offer carrier calculated shipping, as a way to get real-time shipping rates from USPS, UPS, Fedex, and other major carriers. If you have just one vendor and you know that vendor uses UPS, then you could offer UPS calculated shipping. Be aware, however, that the actual shipping cost from your vendor may differ slightly. Your vendor may have a different origin shipping address or may get bulk shipping shipping rates (which is typically a good thing, since it means lower costs).

Just Offer Free Shipping

Another approach would be to factor in the vendor’s shipping cost to your cost and markup accordingly. More and more stores are offering free shipping, so this is another common workaround. However, be aware that this will bump up your prices. For example, if you sell commodity items and rely heavily on pricing comparison sites, this may not bode well against competitors that split their prices.

Don’t Sweat It, Focus on the Important Things

At the end of the day, it’s important not to get overwhelmed trying to offer 100% accurate shipping rates. That’s an optimization issue, and if you’re just getting started with drop shipping, you will have bigger issues to handle, such as marketing and getting your first customers. Down the road, if you are getting hundreds of orders per day, then it may be worth looking at optimizing your shipping rates.

Still want real-time, calculated shipping rates through multiple drop ship locations?

We’ve explained the most common ways drop ship merchants handle shipping settings above. In the future though, we are looking to offer real-time calculated shipping rates through eCommHub, provided that the shopping cart platforms will make this possible for us. If you are interested in this feature, please submit a feature request so that we can note and use it as leverage to make this possible with the shopping carts.

The history of dropshipping and what it means for today’s ecommerce world

by Kurt on March 15, 2013 in Drop Shipping Guides, MC with 3 Comments

Drop Shipping. You may have heard of it, but what does it actually mean? How is it used in today’s e-commerce world and who is doing it? Before we talk about drop shipping though, let’s take a step back to see how a traditional e-commerce fulfillment model works.

The Traditional E-Commerce Model

In the old days (10-15 years ago), opening a retail store required lots of capital. You needed funding to:

  1. Buy inventory in bulk from a supplier
  2. Physical warehouse space to store the inventory
  3. A storefront to sell the merchandise, whether it is online or brick-and-mortar

Then hopefully you had enough cash left over for marketing.

Traditional e-commerce fulfillment model

While cash heavy, buying inventory in bulk led to higher margins. However, the risks involved with this traditional model are high – if inventory goes unsold, it can lead to high loss and wasted space. Yet, this process has been the bread-and-butter of the retail world for quite some time.

Today, it’s easier than ever to start an online store

Nowadays, more and more stores are moving online. Shopping cart platforms like Magento and Shopify make it simple to do what was once unheard of: you can open an online store in a single day and maintain it for as low as $20 a month.

Cost and technology are no longer barriers to entry when starting an online store. However, e-commerce newcomers do not have the same resources as established big-box retailers, so you must find other ways to compete besides price alone. Instead, your focus should be on brand and quality products. It’s about customer experience and curation.

Enter Drop Shipping, the Perfect Fulfillment Model for E-Commerce

This is where drop shipping comes in. Instead of holding inventory themselves, these sellers simply route orders directly to the supplier, and their supplier sends the products straight to the customer. Even though margins are slimmer, it virtually eliminates inventory risk, which is a quite a feat to most retailers just starting out.

Drop shipping e-commerce fulfillment model

Drop shipping is also a smart way for retailers to test the waters with new products. Instead of buying inventory upfront in bulk, you can list items on your site and see what sells, which is worth it even with you break even or lose a little This shifts the competitive advantage from back-office logistics (who can compete with a fulfillment powerhouses like Amazon anyway) to customer experience and marketing – the fun part that most think starting a store is all about.

Drop Shipping Is Nothing New, Is It?

Make no mistake, drop shipping is not just a fad! It has been around for longer than you think. Items sold through TV and radio ads used an early form of drop shipping, and even a few brick-and-mortar stores used this form of fulfillment, especially for larger items (like furniture or equipment) that cost a lot to transport. However, drop shipping has really come into its own over the past decade, especially with the rapid emergence and growth of e-commerce. The fear of customers entering credit card numbers online has been replaced by the fear of not having an online presence quickly enough.

Even the big players in e-commerce are beginning to take advantage of drop shipping, or did in their early days:

  • Zappos actually began as a drop shipping company.
  • Wayfair.com, the second largest online retailer behind Amazon, has built their whole business around drop shipping.
  • Fab and Gilt also rely on drop shipping as a core part of their business.

Drop Shipping Shaping the Future of E-Commerce

Drop shipping is a growing trend because it perfectly fits the e-commerce world. It is here to stay and will continue to shape the way retailers interact with their customers. In the next five or ten years, we can expect traditional retail stores to become showrooms while the real fulfillment happens online, behind the scenes.

Imagine going to a local shop and browsing through the items at your leisure before making your selection. Then you drive home and your purchase will be waiting for you, having been drop shipped to your doorstep before you even got back.

That’s the future that drop shipping is helping make a reality. A world where e-commerce and in-store retail coexist in harmony.

Interested in learning more about drop shipping? We’ll be posting a series of drop shipping guides over the coming weeks. Stay tuned here to learn more.

Leave any of your drop shipping related questions in the comments below!

Looking for a Fulfillment Partner? Check out TAGG Logistics!

by eCommHub on March 5, 2013 in Announcements, Integrations with No comments

Here at eCommHub, we are always working to make your dropshipping and fulfillment experience better. One of the most important concerns e-tailers have with outsourcing their fulfillment is finding a reliable logistics partner. This decision could mean the difference between a happy customer referring your business to their friends and an angry one who tweets about an awful experience. That’s why we have spent some time looking into great fulfillment solutions. To that end, we are excited to announce a promising new partnership: eCommHub and TAGG Logistics are teaming up to make order processing and inventory tracking easier than ever before.

TAGG Logistics is one of the nation’s most reliable and transparent third-party logistics providers. Their order fulfillment services are top-notch, from keeping inventory updated for you to custom packaging and prompt delivery. With facilities located in St. Louis, Missouri, and in  Reno, Nevada, TAGG Logistics works closely with its clients to identify specific requirements and implement the most effective order fulfillment solutions.

We’re thrilled to be a partner with one of the premier e-fulfillment providers in the industry. Online retailing often requires several software platforms to seamlessly pass information back and forth. A critical part of this process is having TAGG’s warehouse management system (WMS) communicate with its client’s e-commerce platform to manage things like inventory levels, order flow, back orders, and returns processing. eCommHub will enable online retailers to more reliably put their store on autopilot by closely integrating its ecommerce software with TAGG’s warehouse management system, linking it to the e-tailer’s shopping cart.

“eCommerce fulfillment continues to be one of our fastest growing service segments,” said Tod Yazdi, Principal of TAGG Logistics. “Our clients are online retailers.  We hold their inventory and ship their ecommerce orders directly to the consumer.”  TAGG’s partnership with eCommub’s software platform will give our collective clients access to additional tools to manage inventory and online orders.

After many conversations about our partnership, both our team and TAGG’s agree that the best way to serve you is to work with you as a partner when providing fulfillment services. By outsourcing to a logistics expert like TAGG, your products get stored, distributed and fulfilled more efficiently, you will have fewer headaches and more time to devote to the core aspects of your business.

 

About TAGG Logistics
TAGG Logistics is a leading fulfillment, distribution and packaging provider for mid-sized healthcare and consumer products businesses that have outgrown their current capabilities. TAGG provides order fulfillment, distribution services, contract packaging, 3PL, reverse logistics and kitting and assembly via its St. Louis operations and West Coast fulfillment and distribution center in Reno, Nevada. To learn more, visit www.tagglogistics.com or call 866-991-TAGG.

About eCommHub
eCommHub is a platform for online retailers that don’t keep their own inventory, but instead rely on third-party vendors, drop-shippers, and fulfillment centers. The software integrates with the leading shopping cart platforms, like Shopify and Magento, to seamlessly automate inventory management and order routing. With its easy self-service setup and affordable Pay as You Grow™ pricing, eCommHub users spend less time managing their online store, giving them more time to grow their business.  To learn more visit ecommhub.com or call 678-653-1482.

eCommHub Launches App on BigCommerce Marketplace

by eCommHub on November 5, 2012 in Announcements, Features with No comments

Two new partnerships in two weeks!

eCommHub is pleased to announce their arrival onto the Bigcommerce App Marketplace, just one week after becoming the second partner on Lexity’s App store. eCommHub’s acceptance onto the Bigcommerce App Marketplace marks its third integration with a major shopping cart.

“Integration onto Bigcommerce, immediately on the coattails of the Lexity partnership marks huge progress for eCommHub,” says Heinrich, “but more importantly it marks the ability for SMB online retailers to automate what was once a very manual process. We’re excited to partner with Bigcommerce, and can’t wait to work with the thousands of online retailers on their platform who are looking for a solution for virtual fulfillment (drop-ship) automation.”

Adding BigCommerce to the mix, users can now access the full benefits of eCommHub on three major shopping cart platforms and through the Lexity App Store.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about giving the online retailer time to focus on building their business,” Heinrich added. “Time is one of the most precious resources for any business owner. eCommHub was built to preserve that precious resource, automating the tasks that can be automated, picking up where the shopping cart leaves off.”

About eCommHub

eCommHub is a platform for online retailers that don’t keep their own inventory, but instead rely on third-party vendors, drop-shippers, and fulfillment centers. The software integrates with the leading shopping cart platforms, like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce to seamlessly automate inventory management and order routing. With its easy self-service setup and affordable Pay as You Grow™ pricing, eCommHub users spend less time managing their online store, giving them more time to grow their business! Founded in 2011, eCommHub is backed by 500 Startups. eCommHub is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For more information, visit ecommhub.com or contact us at 678.653.1482.

About Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is the leading e-commerce platform for SMBs, enabling them to easily launch professional online stores in hours, not weeks or months. Existing clients Gibson Guitar, Pandora Jewelers, Collette Dinnigan and Willie Nelson’s Shop are using Bigcommerce’s built-in e-commerce and marketing capabilities to sell more with less effort. Bigcommerce was founded in 2009 by two Aussies turned part-time Texans with a vision to build a scalable, powerful e-commerce platform for SMBs. For more information, visit http://www.bigcommerce.com.

Get your online store ready for the Holidays!

by eCommHub on November 1, 2012 in Uncategorized with No comments

Happy day after Halloween!

I hope that you’re having a good day, recovering from the inevitable crash off the sugar high from too much Halloween candy. I admit it, I am too.

With Halloween out of the way, most of us here in the states are in preparation for the major holiday season ahead. And while that hustle and bustle began for some months ago (the people who plan ahead), most of us are about to delve into the busiest season of the year.

For those of you who use eCommHub or those who are thinking about it, I wanted to give you a heads up that now, more than ever, is the best time to get things setup and put on autopilot, all before the holiday madness begins.

Within just the past year, eCommHub has gone from an idea to a prototype to a full-fledged piece of software serving startups and household names alike, all who are looking to automate their virtual fulfillment (drop-ship) process to spend more time on what really counts, growing their businesses. We’re beyond thrilled to have each and every one of our customers, so to those of you who receive this, Thank You.

What continues to motivate us day by day is looking ahead to the future and expanding the vision, continuing to add features, releasing the software onto new shopping carts and in new marketplaces and bringing on the vendors to better serve the ecosystem and both sides of the hub. It’s a very exciting time.

I’ll apologize in advance as you’ll be hearing a lot from us in the coming months about what’s new and exciting here and how we’re working to change the world (of virtual fulfillment) <— we realize that’s a big goal, so for now we’ll continue to push on and work on it one online order at a time.

eCommHub Announces their Partnership with Lexity

by eCommHub on October 26, 2012 in Announcements with No comments

eCommHub, the leading provider of drop-ship e-commerce solutions for SMBs, today announced their partnership with Lexity, the top app platform for e-commerce applications. This new partnership will bring efficiencies to small and medium-sized online retailers by allowing them to more effectively automate the e-commerce supply chain.

“We’re thrilled to be the second partner on the new Lexity app platform,” says Kurt Heinrich, eCommHub’s Founder and CEO. “Having access to an app platform like Lexity and the applications in it such as eCommHub, makes it easier than ever for retailers to set up and effectively manage their online store.”

eCommHub’s web-based software automates inventory management and order routing, solving a number of pain points for online retailers, giving them the tools necessary to automate the processes that take place once the order is placed, where the shopping cart leaves off.

This new partnership further extends eCommHub’s list of shopping cart, marketplace, and app integrations, allowing these small and medium-sized online retailers access to the tools they need to run their online stores via the virtual fulfillment model.

“eCommHub is the elegant solution making the drop-ship (or virtual fulfillment) model work” Heinrich added, “and by partnering with Lexity, we can provide these retailers with better access to our solution.”

About eCommHub

eCommHub is a platform for online retailers that don’t keep their own inventory, but instead rely on third-party vendors, drop-shippers, and fulfillment centers. The software integrates with the leading shopping cart platforms, like Shopify and Magento, to seamlessly automate inventory management and order routing. With its easy self-service setup and affordable Pay as You Grow™ pricing, eCommHub users spend less time managing their online store, giving them more time to grow their business! Founded in 2011, eCommHub is backed by 500 Startups. eCommHub is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For more information, visit ecommhub.com or contact us at 678.653.1482.

About Lexity

Lexity is the developer of the App Platform for Ecommerce and helps online merchants drive sales through its innovative marketing apps. Lexity enables app developers to both speed development of their apps through easy integration with ecommerce platforms and gain additional distribution through participation in the Lexity App Gallery and ecommerce platform App Stores. Founded in 2009, Lexity is backed by Spark Capital, True Ventures and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups.  Lexity is headquartered in Mountain View, and has a presence in Bangalore, India.

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