What is the best way to get an ecommerce solution that either has some level of Customer RElationship Management.. or can be integrated with one?

We have a local delivery business and most of our customers order regularly.. and we really need a system where we can keep track of when a customer should order. Many of our customers order via phone, but more and more are moving to the web. So i'm looking for a cost effective e-solution.. like $100/month or less.. where I can have a cool estore that caters to repeat customers, AND has some CRM functionality. Any suggestions would be great~!
Thank you!
Shani

You can get outsourced ecommerce storefont solutions for under $100 a month (1shoppingcart.com is one of them). But I doubt you'll find much in the way of CRM at that price.

If you know how to create a database you might be able to export information from outsourced shopping carts and then import the data into a database. Then you'd have to create database queries to pull out the information you want for CRM.

Janet Attard
Founder, Business Know-How Network
http://www.businessknowhow.com
http://franchisetrade.com
http://www.careerknowhow.com

There a book available from Amazon titled "Libbey and Pickering on RFM and beyond" that will blow away some peoples idea of CRM . As a matter of opinion, I think this book completely redefines Customer Relationship Management. RFM stands for Recency, Frequency, and Monetization. Here is a link to the book at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976517205/qid=1137897743/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8760849-1698540?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

This book has earned a spot on my desk next to Hopkins and Caples

In a brief nutshell and I mean brief, (because the book is oh so much more)when a business is managing its database of customers it needs to create different marketing programs for customers depending on how recently they have ordered, how frequently they order, and what dollar amount they order. Each costomer has a different need and buying cycle to meet.

This book is not a quick read, at least it wasn't for me because so many ideas and concepts were examined that my head buzzed for days.

Yes, the mechanical things can be handled by the excellent 1shoppingcart.com but how you make it work to suck up the cash is with RFM srategies.


Steve Robison
The marketing specialist for manufacturers
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http://www.SteelHeadMarketing.com

I see it's been a while since there was any activity on this post.

Just recently, I've been doing some webcopywriting and basic marketing in a joint venture that is marketing a software program that may fit your needs.

It contains a customer database, but more importantly, it lets you receive all your incoming phone messages (voicemail) directly to your computer and it automatically updates each customer record, saving you a copy of the recorded message.

Additionally, you then can also modify your database as it's "field customizable" to suit your own needs.

It's very easy to recover information from your database and to also create personally customized e-mail to each of your customers.

The cost is $1499 for an annual license, so that meets your criteria of under $100 a month.

Let me know if you'd like more information about it.



Shari Thomas