AIMG | Accurate Imaging Saves B to C Client from Ecommerce Holiday Shopping Season Nightmare

During a routine quality assurance check of a client’s website, AIMG found that all the links pointing to the client’s third-party ecommerce shopping cart solution were dead. The service had been disconnected. And it was right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. The potential loss of sales to the client, who manufactures and markets a consumer-based technology product, was colossal and could have resulted in dire consequences. AIMG wasted no time and immediately took action. As a stop-gap measure, AIMG pointed all the broken links to the client’s Contact page, where order inquiries can be made easily by calling the toll-free Sales number provided.

The problem resulted initially from a miscommunication between the client and the 3rd party provider. Since the client was travelling, he had no idea the service had been disconnected. As a result, all of the product sales web pages that were associated with the 3rd party shopping cart service were no longer available online.

President of AIMG Joe DeMicco comments, “Our client came to us having already committed to the service, which we happily integrated and which definitely offers certain benefits to a start up. The service allows customers to get up and running pretty quickly and at generally less cost; however, when AIMG is part of the planning process we help clients to look further down the road, after success is achieved, to determine at what point the 3rd party solution no longer makes sense. 3rd party solutions are virtually a one-size-fits-all platform, offering the customer little customization. A customer invests a lot of time putting their product into a system they do not own and over which they have little control, including look and feel. Product pages are no longer available online if the service is discontinued or the system falters. The customer is left with a rather large file of his product page information but no live product pages to sell with. A custom application, on the hand, gives the client full ownership and complete control. It offers options for greater functionality, flexibility, a branded, customized look and feel, and expandability along with the growth of the client’s product lines. And it eliminates the threat of lost product pages – a great comfort especially during a critical selling period. We were happy to have spared our client from a near disaster. I am proud of the conscientiousness and effectiveness of my quality assurance team.”

AIMG is currently working closely with the client to develop a custom application that satisfies his ecommerce and total business management solution needs and over which he will have complete ownership and control.