What do you call an annual event that attracts avid users for the most user-friendly, integrated cloud platform that can run your entire business? Zoholics – of course.
This week, April 9-11, 2019, more than 1,700 enthusiastic Zoho users traveled to Austin, TX to hear the latest news from Zoho. Zoho is the creator of Zoho One, a cloud-based all-in-one software package that includes everything you need to run your small business.
Zoho made three major new product announcements – each met with enthusiastic applause and even a few cheers from the Zoholics crowd.
These include Commerce Plus, a fully integrated e-commerce platform; MarketingHub, an all-in-one marketing automation suite; and Orchestly, a business process workflow system.
Zoho Commerce Plus: a personalized e-commerce and omnichannel experience
Zoho joined Shopify by introducing a small business ecommerce platform, Trade More. But Zoho aims to outperform existing solutions by providing the ability to not only do business online, but also link it to CRM and take a full picture of customer interactions into account.
The company has also incorporated personalization so that each buyer can have a different and personalized experience. Personalization includes customer location, recently viewed items, Google search source, inventory availability, and customer history, among other factors.
The inventory part integrates with Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and other marketplaces to centralize order management, according to Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s chief evangelist.
Commerce Plus also includes fraud detection, the ability to do A / B testing, heat maps and more. Famous e-commerce expert John Lawson was impressed as he tweeted:
Your Zoho sites will not only be dynamic, but also CUSTOMIZED with dynamic personalization based on location (country), recently viewed items, Google search source, stock availability, weather data, customer history … OMG #game changer # zoholics19 pic.twitter.com/B7D23OIhl9
– John Lawson – CEO (@ ColderICE) April 9, 2019
Commerce Plus offers attractive pricing: $ 100 per month, plus $ 30 per employee or $ 75 per user.
MarketingHub: Marketing Automation, Streamlined Analytics & Reporting
MarketingHub is a new application that coordinates and automates marketing activities. It helps businesses plan and execute marketing campaigns in an all-in-one suite, without having to deal with a cobbled together patchwork of marketing technologies by different vendors.
The goal is to help small businesses automate their activities while saving time and resources.
It also provides business and marketing information equivalent to enterprise platforms, but at an affordable price for small businesses. For example, using advanced analytics and reporting, MarketingHub shows you lead performance by source in a single graph, as Anita Campbell tweeted:
MarketingHub is included in the ZohoOne pricing plan.
Orchestly: Systematize workflows
Orchestra “Orchestrates†business processes. This means that it helps to trace work flows and manage internal processes. It can be fully customizable to your business.
For example, if you have an auto repair business, you can trace the process from welcoming customers to the actual repair, said Vijay Sundaram, chief strategy officer.
Orchestly is also included in ZohoOne, which costs $ 30 per employee per month, if billed annually.
Zoho is planning a seat move
Zoho also announced plans to build a new US headquarters in the Austin area, much to the delight of Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who was on hand to kick off the event.
The company recently purchased 375 acres of land near Austin, with the intention of building a 100,000 square foot campus. The US headquarters will eventually move from Pleasanton, California.
Zoho employs more than 7,000 people worldwide, in 12 offices in India, China, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to the United States.
Image: Small business trends
