Musical Instruments & Supplies: Key E-Commerce and ERP Integration Features

While industries such as fashion, jewelry, sporting goods, and electronics are establishing a strong foothold in ecommerce, the music industry is still catching up. It is responding to changing demographics, decreasing margins, and the increasing competition within the industry.

Consumers traditionally buy musical instruments at physical stores, so the "touch and feel" element is vital to winning them over. But if geography simply doesn't permit, then, the online experience must be compelling enough to make the sale. It certainly must be compelling to win and retain business-to-business (B2B) customers, like retailers and training institutions.

That online experience can be compelling, and increasingly, it is the norm. With revenue growth in musical instrument and supplies remaining sluggish over the last few years, ecommerce is helping companies innovate and experiment with newer business models while driving customer experience, all of which helps companies differentiate. In this article, we look at the key functional and process capabilities required for successful ecommerce adoption in musical instrument and supplies industry.

B2C - for businesses using ecommerce store for B2C customers

1) Responsive and customizable ecommerce store

Music is typically considered a right-brain activity and for your business to make an impact, it has to ensure that its ecommerce store is designed and crafted to deliver an experience appealing to that side of the brain. Hence, the ecommerce platform must make it convenient to customize the UI to deliver your brand experience. The store also has to be responsive, automatically adjusting to the screen size of the device. This is considered a "hygiene factor," in that consumers ...