Author: blogger
The cost of capital is low and your company made it through the recession. Now may seem like a good time to buy but youre scared off by the high business mergers and acquisitions failure rate. Studies conducted in the late 1900s and early 2000s show that M&A failure rate hovered around 70%.
However, recent results project an upward trend. According to Bain & Co, only 30% of M&As underperform, down from 50% of previous years. While the science of predicting the success (or failure) of M&A may seem hypothetical, there seem to be factors that hinder or help M&A.
Integration program
Budgets and people dont integrate themselves. Before the deal closes, its important to have a detailed integration plan that covers all facets of the organization. Moreover, first steps towards integration should be taken before the ink dries. Combining synergies on paper is easier than doing so in practice, but cultivating and maintaining processes should smooth the transition.
Target sighting and metrics
M&As with synergy targets and metrics in place have a better chance at succeeding. Collecting, analyzing, and presenting data on a regular basis lets the board know if the unit is growing according to plan or if actions need to be taken to correct missteps, should growth plateau or slow.
Maintaining business intelligence
Loss of key people has a definite impact on the future performance of the merged entity. Its important that new organizational structure and leadership is set early in the integration process to prevent business intelligence from literally walking out the door.
Protect your base business
While its important to have a smooth transition process, getting work done should still be top priority. Management shouldnt be distracted by M&A activity. They should be vigilant against competitors who may try to take advantage of the flurry of activity and present a unified front to customers despite gaps in the integration.
Lack of due diligence
Performing proper due diligence can unearth factors such as pending law suits, outstanding tax debt, and extreme vulnerability to litigation that can dissuade a potential buyer. A thorough background check can protect your base business and can save you time and money.
Relative Size
A significant difference in size between the acquiring and target company has been found to be a factor in poor acquisition performance. M&A can flounder if the divested company is too large to manage or if smaller acquisitions dont receive the time and attention they required.
Cultural Differences
Salient differences in corporate culture is another factor that can hamper the chance for success. When a company is acquired, the decision is typically based on product or market synergies, “soft factors” that can be overlooked with the assumption that personnel issues can be overcome. While cherished aspects of a work environment may seem petty compared to the bottom line, their removal may result in resentment, productivity decrease and loss of key employees.
Business Merger and Acquisition Experience
While previous M&A experience is not a necessary requirement for success, it does help when detecting red flags and creating and implementing a better integration plan. If this is your first M&A, seek the advise of expertise of knowledgable professionals.
Proformative.com is a free, open and independent community of corporate finance, accounting, treasury and related professionals that offers a wealth of expert advice, information and accounting resources . Finance forums like Proformative allow you to learn about M&A and other relevant issues important to finance, accounting, and treasury experts.
Many companies are turning to website design that incorporates ecommerce functionality. It seems like it should be fairly simple. All they need to do is decide which products to sell and put up a few pictures and then they can sit back and watch the revenues come in. Unfortunately, this has led to the failure of many ecommerce sites. Here are some of the top mistakes that companies make when it comes to ecommerce website design.
They do not make their site easy to navigate
Many companies make it very difficult for customers to find their products. They either do not have a functioning menu that allows customers to find specific products or they make that menu very difficult to find. If customers do not have a clear path to the items that they are looking for they are unlikely to spend a lot of time looking for them. This means that you will end up losing potential customers to your competition and this can lead to the failure of an ecommerce site much more rapidly than you may think possible.
One possible fix for this problem is to include a search feature in your website design. By providing a way for customers to get directly to specific items you will make your website design much more efficient and this can help you get the kind of revenue you have been hoping for.
They do not have a fully functioning shopping cart or payment solution
When trying to entice customers to purchase goods online your website design has to include a fully functional shopping cart and payment solution. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to select products and finding it impossible to do so. It can cause you to lose customers very quickly and again, this can cause an ecommerce website to fail. You also need to make sure that once the customers have found the products they are looking for that they can check out and pay as quickly as possible.
If you ensure that your shopping cart and payment areas are easy to find, simple to use and functioning properly you can quickly increase the amount of revenue that your site is bringing in.
Customers cannot get a clear idea of what the items look like
Customers want to be able to tell what they are purchasing before they are willing to pay for it. You need to make sure that you are using a combination of clear, crisp photographs and descriptions that give your customers a clear idea of what they will be paying for. Be sure to include measurements and any options that a customer can choose from. Consider grouping like items together to make them easy for customers to compare.
In the past, when digital photography was just getting established it was more acceptable for the images to look grainy or unclear. This has changed. Digital photography has progressed so far that there is no reason why an ecommerce website design cannot include high quality photographs.
By addressing these three top mistakes relating to ecommerce website design it becomes much more likely that your site will be a success and generate the kind of revenue you have been looking for.
Today, diverse shopping carts are being used by e-retail outlets to enhance their e-commerce and Web Development activities and offer a unique experience to its customers. There is an exhaustive list of Shopping Carts that include Magento, PrestaShop, CubeCart, OpenCart and StoreSprite. Two of the major open-source Shopping Carts that have attained high popularity in the recent years are OS Commerce and Zen Cart. Many Web Development service providers offer these two Shopping Cart Solutions at a very large scale. However, it is proven that Web Developers do not embrace a single Shopping Cart solution completely, because of the fear of obsolescence or lock-in.
The comparison among OS Commerce and Zen Cart Shopping Cart has taken place by Webmasters at many levels, and this article, by no means, intends to be an extension of the same. This article instead discusses the benefits of both OS Commerce and Zen Cart in a little detail and helps you choose a sound Shopping Cart for your Web Development projects.
Zen Cart Shopping Cart for Efficient Web Development
For efficient Web Development, developers bank on Zen Cart Shopping Cart. Zen is free, extremely user-friendly, an easy-to-install and open-source shopping cart. More than the developers, Zen Cart is a Shopping Cart solution for shoppers. Zen Cart also offers various exclusive features like multiple payment support, varied shipping options, quantity discounts and coupons.
Zen Cart also features multiple customer modes and sales and discounts, unlimited category depth and display modes. It also efficiently supports XHTML template system and offers the liberty to use unlimited extra pages and several ad banners. Many Web Development Companies in India, believe that no Shopping Cart solutions comes as close as Zen when it comes to features and benefits.
OS Commerce for a Strong and Dedicated Shopping Cart
OS Commerce is an open source online shopping cart that offers a wide range of features to online e-commerce stores. Like Zen Cart, OS Commerce also supports multiple currencies and allows the customers to print invoices directly from the order screen. Many Web Development companies vouch for its easy database backup system, and effective Web Development processes.
OS Commerce Shopping Cart features a rich set of functionality that allows e-commerce owners to setup and maintain online stores with minimum efforts and absolutely no costs. Many Web Development, India, firms have Java proficient web developers and are solely dedicated to designing projects in Java language.
Hope this article has been able to provide some help to all those who are yet to decide between Zen and OS Commerce Shopping for their Web Development projects.
The Ecommerce world is one of the most lucrative industries to be involved in and lot of people endeavor into starting up their own online store or business. Ecommerce website owners often ask “what does it take for a web site to succeed?” There are many factors but here is a list of 10 most important areas to concentrate on.
1. Clear Storefront Layout and Navigation – Design cannot be overlooked. A user should instantly feel like he or she knows what to do and what is being asked of him or her to get to a preferred destination. An ecommerce web site should home page almost always must include a search bar, a navigation bar with browse by category, special offers via a colorful rotation banner such as deal of the day, merchandising boxes that work together to offer popular items, security and confidence building purchase icons such as contact phone numbers with customer service links, SSL and secure experience icons, shipping and credit card/payment option logos, and a clearance or discount section.
2. Significant, Useable, Filterable, and Actionable Product Information – First, provide an easy to filter navigation and the option to compare items. This puts a user in charge of his or her own shopping destiny and encourages buying by increasing participation in the selection process. A good amount of content in each section and about each product allows users to learn more about your categories, products, your company, and the experience one can expect, building the consumer confidence needed to make a purchase and be happy about his or her decision.
3. Product Photos – Product photos are a big deal! Many users need to see, in good detail, the quality of the product he or she will receive. Include zoom tools so users can see the detail, even if you think this is not important. If your product warrants multiple angles or light shots, show them. Your users will reward you with a confident purchase, one less likeley to be returned. Best practice would be to find the best competitor out there and make sure your site has better or “as good” pictures as that site.
4. Calls to Action – Invest in features that will help customers interact with your site and understand your products better. Investment ideas are to go with some leading trends such as expandable interactive images, flash, interactive tours, videos, live chat with customer service, professional looking slideshows that show high level technical prowess, and the list goes on. The idea here is to provide a user an experience eh or she cannot find elsewhere.
5. In Your Face Product Promotion – When you go to a store are all products set up the same? Most likeley, no. A store’s objective is to push viewers to see many items in a way that is fashionable and exiting to the customer. Many stores forget that cross selling suggestions, product reviews, featured products sections, clearance areas, coupons, and any interactive presentation is seen. Push viewers to more interaction, and to buy today! Additionally, merchants that now provide advanced, exceedingly fast shopping experience tools such as AJAX can now gain a competitive advantage via site speed increase, earning customer loyalty and additional revenues.