5 Web Design Tips for Creating a Great Ecommerce Site

posted on March 4, 2022

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No matter how excellent your products may be or how carefully you’ve planned out your marketing strategy, a poorly designed website can stunt your business growth in an instant. The fact of the matter is, it only takes a few seconds for an online visitor to form an impression and decide whether to keep browsing on your site or to leave and find a more user-friendly website. As such, having an attractive, clear and concise eCommerce site is imperative today. To help you maximize conversions and retain customers, here are a few of our top web design tips for creating a great eCommerce site.

1. Embrace Minimalism

Although minimalism is typically used to describe interior design, it’s becoming a significant trend in web design. Keeping things clear, uncluttered, and straightforward in our hectic, modern world is essential. And when it comes to designing an eCommerce website where there’s usually a range of products and categories, it’s even more crucial to keep it simple. So this year, strip away anything that might make your site look overwhelming or busy and get straight to the point. All of those extra bells and whistles only create distractions, which reduces the chance of visitors purchasing something from your online store. So instead, stay focused on the sale and make it easy to navigate by keeping it attractive.

2. Nail Your Branding

These days, online users are much more cautious than ever before about handing over their personal info and credit cards due to the overwhelming presence of online scams. For this reason, establishing trust with your customer base is fundamental for creating a successful online store. In order to do this, your branding needs to be polished and on point. This means putting the time into nailing the look and tone of your brand and keeping it consistent. It’s also a crucial part of setting your store apart from the crowd and creating an emotional connection with people, the key to driving sales. If you haven’t already, make an effort to prioritize your branding, so you understand your business identity and which avatars you’re targeting.

3. Do the “Grandma” Test

If you’re planning to target certain generations, like the Baby Boomers, keep in mind that many shoppers aren’t as comfortable online or are just starting to get familiar with the concept of eCommerce. That’s why having an easy, user-friendly layout is essential. To ensure your site hits the mark, perform the “grandma” test. Ask a friend or relative to browse your website to see if it’s easy to navigate or if it could use some improvements. Ask them to be honest with their feedback, as this will help you improve the functions on your site to improve retention. If it’s not clear or easy to use, you could be missing out on a lucrative niche of shoppers.

4. Don’t Cheap Out on Imagery

The quality of images used on websites can directly impact conversion rates. And since consumers can see or touch the offered products, they have to rely on your photos to determine if it’s worth the money. If you’re using images that are blurry or insufficient, no one is going to trust it. This is why having professional, high-quality photos are even more important for eCommerce businesses.

5. Keep Text to a Minimum

Conveying your passion for the products that you’re selling is great, but the truth is most people don’t have the time to stop and read through long descriptions. Instead, online users today want to scan through quickly and find the key bits of info they need to make a decision. So focus on getting your point across, break up your content into small sections, and keep it to a minimum. Also, segregate sections clearly using large, bold fonts and distinguishing your CTAs. Remember, the simpler it is, the better your chances of converting sales.

Above all, your eCommerce site needs to look professional, which can be tricky if you’re trying to manage several roles in your start-up and don’t have experience in web development. But that’s where we can help! Hire top web development freelancers at Goodie Website. This way, you can avoid pricey overhead costs and get the expert support you need to enable your online store to flourish.

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Top 8 Ecommerce Plugins for WooCommerce Stores

posted on March 4, 2022

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Wondering about the 8 best WooCommerce plugins for your online store?

Read on!

Building an online store with WooCommerce has many benefits, so it’s hard to pick one. But if you twist my arm, I would say that the collection of WordPress plugins for WooCommerce stores is definitely my top reason to use WooCommerce. After all, WordPress has numerous plugins that cover almost every bit and byte of additional functionalities or features you might ever need for your WooCommerce store.

Ok, so WooCommerce plugins are a major attraction. Since you probably don’t want to spend hours going over hundreds of plugins, we have created a hand-picked list of useful and handy WooCommerce plugins to help you get more out of your e-commerce store. You may know some of them, you may know most of them, but hopefully, we’ll get to introduce you to some new ones that will help you increase sales and grow your online business.

Let’s dive into the list of the 8 best WooCommerce plugins that we love the most.

1. Mighty Review for Discount

The ‘Mighty Review for Discount’ plugin is the perfect way to encourage your customers to leave their honest reviews in exchange for rewards. In turn, this will build trust around your product and encourage customers to make more purchases.

Key Features:

  • Enables the offering of great discounts for reviewing your products and increasing engagement.
  • Allows the offering of conditional discount coupons by setting a minimum or maximum amount to spend.
  • Customized review reminder emails can be sent to customers.
  • Select products or product categories to which coupons can be applied.
  • Apply trigger event; single/multiple review(s) to send coupons.

Developer: MightyThemes

Price:

2. Mighty Frequently Bought Together for WooCommerce

If you want to recommend relevant products to your customers to encourage bundle purchases, the ‘Mighty Frequently Bought Together’ plugin will be of interest to you. This plugin helps you display related products, upsell, cross-sell or customize products to improve the buyer’s shopping experience, increase the number of add-on products, and boost your sales by up to 30%.

Key Features:

  • No limit on the number of product suggestions for a single product page.
  • Choose the number of product recommendations and positioning of the FBT products box.
  • Apply discount conditions and highlight the products that are currently on discount.
  • Customize the labeling of total price and buttons for single product or multiple products.
  • Completely customize the look and feel of the recommended products according to your needs.

Developer: MightyThemes

Price:

3. Booster for WooCommerce

‘Booster for WooCommerce’ is a preferred plugin as it offers several useful features to help you do everything from cross-selling to adjusting currencies. This plugin acts as a plugin suite to help you customize the functionality of your WooCommerce store and run it more efficiently.

Key Features:

  • Create PDF invoices and packing slips for simplifying your orders and paperwork.
  • Localize your store by displaying language, price, and currency according to your user’s country.
  • Enable setting custom WooCommerce payment gateways.
  • Create buttons and price labels for your products.
  • Set up a shopping cart and checkout experience for your customers.

Developer: Pluggabl LLC

Price:

4. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

The ‘YITH WooCommerce Wishlist’ plugin is a popular one that places the wish list button on your shop’s page. It enables your buyers to quickly save any of their favorite products so they can easily find them again any time or share them with friends and family. Also, your customers can buy products directly from their wish list by simply adding them to cart.

Key Features:

  • Enables you to add the ‘Add to Wishlist’ short code and lets your users add, rename or remove a wish list.
  • Choose a page on which you want to display a wish list to your customer.
  • Allows your users to create unlimited product wish lists.
  • You can choose to enable/disable the wish list features of users which have not logged in.
  • Allows you to choose the layout for your wish list page and tables.

Developer: YITH

Price:

5. Order Delivery Date for WooCommerce

This ‘Order Delivery Date for WooCommerce’ plugin allows your customers to choose a delivery date and time on your website’s checkout page. Also, this plugin allows you to set the minimum required time for order delivery in hours and show holidays on the calendar on days when product delivery is not available.

Key Features:

  • Allows you to set a limit on the number of orders that can be placed in a day.
  • Provides an option for your customers to choose “As Soon As Possible” deliveries.
  • Enables you to set time slots for specific delivery dates.
  • Lets your customers view the estimated delivery or pickup date of their order.
  • Allows you to set up same day and next day delivery with cut-off time.

Developer: Tyche Softwares

Price:

6. Product Slider for WooCommerce

The ‘Product slider for WooCommerce’ plugin enables you to easily create an impressive carousel to showcase your WooCommerce products in a nice sliding manner. As a result, the look and feel of your site will improve and highlighting specific products will lead to an increase in your conversions and sales.

Key Features:

  • Allows you to create unlimited product carousels/sliders in any part of your pages, posts, custom template, or widget.
  • Equipped with a dedicated short code generator to easily build an attractive product slider carousel.
  • Lets you set your slider on autoplay and control its speed.
  • Allows you to enable touch swipe support.
  • Select a maximum number of products to show on the slider and choose if you want to display the product name, price, rating, and add to cart button.

Developer: ShadedPlugin

Price:

7. OptinMonster

Though not exactly a WooCommerce plugin, ‘OptinMonster’ is a powerful plugin which can help you with lead generation and conversion optimization of your WooCommerce store. With this plugin, you can create campaigns like pop-ups to grow your email list, floating bars to display on-going sales, countdown timers to create a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect, and more.

Key Features:

  • Allows you to easily create stunning popups like full screen welcome mats and gamified spin-a-wheel pop-up.
  • Featured with signature exit-intent technology which shows your visitors a pop-up just before they are about to leave your site.
  • Enables geolocation targeting to personalize campaigns based on the current location of your visitors.
  • Completely customize your campaigns using a user-friendly drag and drop editor.

Developer: OptinMonster Team

Price:

8. WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips

The ‘WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips’ plugin allows you to automatically send PDF invoices or packing slips to your customers. It is a very useful plugin that attaches an invoice to the order confirmation emails and streamlines your entire invoicing process.

Key Features:

  • Enables automatic addition of PDF invoice to emails of your choice.
  • Allows generation of PDF invoices or packing slips in bulk.
  • Lets you customize your invoice templates.
  • Multilingual support for several languages such as English, French, German, Russian and more.
  • Creates invoices by using a sequential invoice numbering approach.

Developer: Ewout Fernhout

Price:

Conclusion

The good thing about these plugins is that they can help you in running your WooCommerce store in an even better way. If you are a beginner, we suggest that you first go for the free versions and try those for some time before investing money in premium versions. Hopefully, our list of must-have WooCommerce plugins is useful to you and helps you in either building a successful online store or further improve an already existing one.

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Tips to Build an Online Services Marketplace in 2022

posted on February 27, 2022

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced people to shop online more often; now, more and more people rely on online apps to fulfill their day-to-day tasks. No wonder businesses rely on e-commerce marketplace app to bring their business online and earn more revenue. The online marketplace is not only a great way to get more customers but also provides convenience to users as they can order whatever they want from the comfort of their homes.

A marketplace owner connects customers with service providers, which creates a win-win situation for all. To create an online marketplace, one doesn’t have to own goods; instead, creating a medium that connects businesses with customers is a great and profitable idea. The sharing economy market is anticipated to reach $355 billion by the end of 2025.

Weigh the Potential of Your Idea

It is important to know the potential of your idea. It doesn’t have to be one superb idea; in fact, it can be adapted as per the needs of the market and the target audience. Therefore, one needs to analyze the market before actually implementing the idea.

No doubt, the potential of online shopping is vast. By the end of 2022, global e-commerce sales are expected to grow to USD 5.4 trillion.

Benefits of an Online Marketplace

The online marketplace is beneficial for businesses and customers. With more people relying on online shopping, the online marketplace is greatly beneficial for businesses around the world.

Let’s dive deep into the benefits of an Online Marketplace

Increase in Sales

With the online marketplace, local businesses can get in touch with a bigger audience. There is no barrier to a geographical location, and businesses that can’t move inventory from one location to other can greatly benefit from it.

Better Profit Margins

Since the online marketplace increases reach, more customers buy products which help businesses increase profit margins.

Minimum Setup Cost

The cost involved with setting up a business through an online marketplace is marginal. In the offline mode, there is a lot of costs incurred, such as renting a store, hiring employees, etc. With the online marketplace, all these costs get vanished.

Lower Risk

As the cost involved with the online marketplace is less, therefore, the risk is also less. When we see the business model, it is far more scalable than physical shops.

Improved Marketing

Marketing is essential for every business. It’s important to make your online store stand out from the rest. There are a number of opportunities in the digital space to market your store. Clickable banners, ads, etc., can really help in enhancing the visibility of an online store.

Analytics

Businesses need to analyze customer behavior, which helps them in making important business decisions. The online marketplace helps businesses know how many customers they get every day, which products are bestsellers, and so on. For instance, you are running an ad campaign and tracking the campaign’s success, you need to track customer patterns when they see your ad.

How Does it Work?

The working of an online marketplace is simple and easy to understand. When you receive an order, you can either accept it or reject it depending upon factors such as availability, delivery time, etc. If you accept the order request, then vendors are informed about the same, and they ship the product to the logistics partner.

How To Start an Online Marketplace

Starting an online marketplace requires a bit of work. Here, we are listing the steps that you need to take to build an online marketplace.

Research

The first and foremost thing is deep research. You have to solve a real problem; for instance, Airbnb aims at solving the problem of expensive hotel rooms. The very first step is to analyze a problem worth solving. Take a look at your competitors and study market leaders.

Know About Target Audience

To make an idea successful, it’s important to know about your target audience. Do a careful analysis and research to ensure that your idea is actually what your target audience needs. It’s important to validate your idea, it takes some time, but it’s worth the effort. It’s important to get answers to the following questions:

  • Would you use this product?
  • How often would you use this product?
  • Size of the total addressable market?
  • Feedback from the interviewed group of customers

Planning

In the planning stage, one has to gather requirements, create specific documents, and design wireframes. In the planning stage, it’s also important to know what part of the project would be at what time.

Development: How to Build a Marketplace Website/App

There are a few crucial steps that one needs to understand before building a marketplace website/app:

To build an app, there are two ways:

  • Build the app from scratch
  • Use a ready-to-use solution

You can either build an app from scratch by getting in touch with an app development company or utilize a ready-to-use solution, which can be customized as per diverse business needs.

Define Key Features

Key features should be defined before building an Online Marketplace. One has to accommodate both sellers and buyers that will utilize the app. Key features of an online marketplace are:

  • Stock and order arrangement
  • Transactional control
  • Statistics and analytics tools
  • Multiple payment modes
  • Social media integration

Key App Components for the Buyer

When it comes to a buyer’s app, one needs to make it intuitive and easy to use. Make your solution such that buyers find it easy to trust and use. The security of the app should never be taken for granted, and proper measures should be taken to ensure the same.

Some of the important features of the buyer app are:

  • Easy signup and sign in
  • Advanced search options
  • Shopping cart
  • Multiple payment modes
  • Wishlist
  • Ratings and review
  • Real-time tracking

Focus on the UI/UX aspect

UI/UX of the app should be given due importance. The UI/UX of the app should be designed by keeping in mind the target audience, features, and goals you have identified. It’s always a good idea to create an MVP- Minimum Viable Product; it’s a product with just enough features required for the working. MVP helps businesses to test their product and analyze what users like and don’t. It’s like testing waters before actually launching the product.

Appropriate Tech Tools

Development problems that occur during the process of building a marketplace can be resolved by utilizing the right tools. When you are taking the help of an app development company, they have appropriate resources to provide you with a great solution.

Prepare for Proper Maintenance

After the launch of the product, the work doesn’t end. The process of maintenance involves improving your application, updating it with time, etc. The business should analyze what their customers like and what improvements need to be made. Some features become obsolete with time and need to be changed. After the app deployment, the work regarding customer support, bug fixes, the addition of new functions, etc., is an ongoing one.

Final Words

The demand for online marketplace applications is on the rise, which means more and more businesses as well customers are into these apps. Though the competition is soaring in the field, new features and new-age technology is helpful in providing businesses with what they need. The above-listed steps are helpful in building an online marketplace that can take your business to new heights.

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Live Streaming Shopping in 2022: Best Practices

posted on February 15, 2022

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The retail landscape is more complex and more online than ever. Across this increasingly tuned-in space, brands are looking for ways to boost their sales and retain their customers. Be it beauty, cosmetics, fashion, consumer electronics all industries today sit side by side, jockeying for a sliver of consumer attention.

A live streaming shopping model is where retailers, influencers, or celebrities market and sell products and services via a reliable live video shopping platform where they demonstrate and discuss products and answer audience questions and queries in real-time.

Livestream shopping isn’t new, it started in China and soon spread across the globe. During Livestream shopping shows, hosts, generally celebrities, influencers, or brand advocates tell their stories, demonstrate and launch products and interact with the audience. The format generated $60 billion in sales globally in 2019 with China far in the lead, and only $1 billion of those sales taking place in the U.S. As per reports, live video shopping is estimated to make a flabbergasting $60 billion annually.

Best Practices for Live Streaming Shopping in 2022

1. Use Best Quality Equipment

Great input, of course, leads to quality output. In other words, the equipment you employ, whether it’s cameras or microphones, will have a direct influence on the quality of your live shopping show. The end result will certainly be faultless if you take care of the equipment you utilize. You can go for equipment like a professional backdrop, like one with your logo, tripod stand, ring light and audio mixer, etc.

2. Choose Your Equipment

Choosing a reliable live stream shopping platform is very important for the success of your brand. Channelize.io Live Shopping Platform can help companies engage new and existing shoppers directly on their website or app. Unlike other live video shopping platforms, ours allows customers to add goods to their basket and make purchases without leaving the broadcast. Furthermore, you can simply assess the KPIs that evaluate your buyers’ activity during shopping shows with our platform!

3. Have a Plan in Place

Without a plan in place, your live shopping show would look unprofessional and boring, automatically weaning the audience away from your live stream shopping show.

You are not, however, required to come up with the full script straight away. An outline with subjects to discuss, on the other hand, would keep your live shopping show on course. Additionally, a call to action during a live shopping show would ensure that you get the desired results.

4. Engage With Your Audience

Answering questions live is the million-dollar method to make your audience feel appreciated and heard. In some ways, by addressing their queries, you’re encouraging audiences to come back for more of your live shopping shows. Furthermore, you may enhance engagement by asking viewers questions, providing them with exclusive offers, deals, and coupons, and conducting live competitions and giveaways.

5. Allow Your Guests to Take Over Your Live Stream Shopping Shows

Turns out, bringing onboard a new host or guest is one of the fail-proof strategies of live streaming shopping shows because it breaks the monotony of your live stream content, and mostly, it brings in fresh perspectives. Simply said, influencers have the potential to increase your readership.

Summary

The advantage of live video shopping is that your shoppers now feel as though they are part of your live stream shopping show and are influencing what you do. A live stream shopping show won’t be limited by location or time zone, and it’s certain to be watched by a large audience.

Live online shopping provides enormous benefits, and every industry is eager to learn how to use it. A live shopping platform indeed can be a great platform for repurposing your content and boosting your brand image.

Channelize.io offers an unparalleled live streaming shopping platform to help your business reach a wider audience. Additionally, it will show prospects that you are innovative and leverage the latest technology to meet their needs. Channelize.io also offers pre-built integration for Shopify. Now Shopify owners of all sizes can install our “Live Shopping & Video Streams” Plugin and go live.

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Choosing an eCommerce App Template to Supercharge Your Business

posted on January 21, 2022

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This article is designed to help eCommerce store owners who are searching for ways to boost their online presence. Whether you’re brand new to eCommerce or an established professional, you’ll likely have noticed that reaching a wider audience is easier with a mobile app. The number of smartphone users in the United States reached 298 million in 2021, and this number is expected to grow even more. More mobile phones means more mobile shoppers, and by 2024, the number of mobile buyers is expected to be 187.5 million! Looks incredible!

While it’s easy to see why an app would be important for your business, you may not have the 3+ years of iOS or Android development skills to build your own or the budget to hire your own team. Choosing an eCommerce app template will help you bridge the gap.

What Is an App Template?

An app template is a fully-fledged application that already contains the necessary functionality and allows app creators to customize interfaces, adjust the images, and use their own colors, themes, and content. In short, templates help you create a mobile app even if you have no coding skills, saving you time and money.

How Do App Templates Help eCommerce Store Owners Create Apps?

There’s a bit of a glut of app templates on the market which can be quite overwhelming. The good news is that you can find templates created specifically for eCommerce sites. These templates already contain pre-built eCommerce-specific functionality: store navigation, item search, filtering, product descriptions, carts, check-in, check-out, and more. All you have to do is customize the template, and you’ll have a ready-to-go application. It’s easy to edit and customize templates, so your app will look exactly how you want. You can replace banners, adjust visual element colors, apply new color settings, and more — all using step-by-step instructions without a single line of code.

How Do I Create an eCommerce App with an App Template?

Let’s use a Shopify site as an example. We’ll walk you through the steps of creating a mobile app with the Appery.io eCommerce app template. There are only five steps:

  1. Link your store with the app template
  2. See how your site looks on a mobile device before customization
  3. Customize and edit the interfaces
  4. Test your customized app
  5. Export the app to Android or iOS so it can be installed on mobile devices

These steps are quite straightforward, so you’ll have a mobile app in no time.

Choosing an eCommerce App Template

Here are some examples of eCommerce app templates that will help you build your own mobile app:

1. Zappter

This eCommerce app builder contains ready-made eCommerce templates that will help you start developing an app. The process is pretty straightforward as well. After signing up, you have a choice of hundreds of templates. Choose your favorite, modify and customize it, use the suggested plug-ins if you need additional features, and publish your app.

2. Builderfly

Builderfly is a mobile app builder focused on eCommerce, and it offers several popular templates in its marketplace. In addition, when the app is ready, it has a feature to track user behavior by tracking activity in real time and sending relevant offers with discounts or ads.

3) Appery.io

Appery.io offers a template for Shopify users. The template syncs the Shopify website catalog with a newly built mobile application and provides codeless customization; you can change color settings, replace banners, adjust elements, and more. It also allows you to preview the application before publishing it on the App Store or Google Play.

4. Instappy

With Instappy, you can create your eCommerce app for iOS or Android by choosing one of the numerous app templates from their “Themes” section. In their Shopping and M-Store category, you will find templates for food & beverages, furniture, clothing & accessories, books, shoes, and other types of eCommerce stores.

5. ConstApps

ConstApps integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, and Magento and contains a number of ready-made themes that you can use as a template for your mobile app. You have the option to choose a default theme or choose a specific “clothes store” theme or a “restaurant” theme.

Have you tried one of the solutions listed above? If yes, please feel free to share your experience and also name the app you’ve tested.

Useful Tips for Choosing an eCommerce App Template

Here are some tips that will help you choose an eCommerce app template for your store:

  1. You’ll almost always get a fully-developed app with an eCommerce app template, but keep an eye out for extra plug-ins if you want to add more integrations or functionality.
  2. Make sure that the platform you choose offers documentation with an explanation of how things work. As mentioned above, the steps can be easy and straightforward, but step-by-step guides with instructions never hurt.
  3. See whether or not you will have complete ownership of your new mobile app created with the help of an eCommerce app template.

Conclusion

If you want to boost your eCommerce business’s conversion and sales, don’t forget that a significant number of your customers may be spending most of their time on mobile phones. Consider eCommerce app templates to build your first mobile app and supercharge your business.

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Number of Shopify Stores Globally Triples During the Pandemic

posted on January 20, 2022

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Amid increasing demand, businesses have continued to leverage the Shopify infrastructure to join the eCommerce space that has skyrocketed amid the pandemic. The growth has been facilitated by the changing consumer behavior that will likely stay around after the pandemic.

According to data obtained by Genus AI, between March 2020 and January 2022, the number of Shopify live websites surged 201.53%. At the onset of the pandemic, the platform hosted 1,287,547 websites that have recorded a triple growth to 3,882,345. Therefore, Shopify has added a staggering 2,594,798 new live stores in under two years.

Elsewhere, based on regional distribution, the United States accounts for the highest number of Shopify live stores as of January 2022 at 2,666,627, a growth of 178.53% from March 2020’s figure 957,393.

The United Kingdom ranks second with 156,466 live stores growing 218.81% from March 2020. In March 2020, Australia had 38,298 live Shopify stores growing 165.79% to 101,795 as of January 2022.

Canada ranks fourth with 93,680 live stores, followed by France at 59,560. Germany recorded the highest growth rate between March 2020 and January 2021 at a whopping 480.18%, among the top six countries with the highest number of Shopify live stores.

How eCommerce growth is altering retail space

The research report highlights how the growing eCommerce space is altering the retail sector and the resulting impact. According to the research report:

“The emergence of more online stores has altered how consumers shop but also the range of providers from which consumers can buy products and services. Consequently, this has increased competition in the space.”

Furthermore, the report recommends how businesses can survive the surging competition in the space. 

“Overall, businesses are compelled to distinguish themselves from the competition to stand out and attract new customers.”

The growing eCommerce live stores are certainly ramping up competition in the sector. To stay afloat, businesses need to focus on innovative measures to attract more users and retain them.

Read the full story with statistics here: https://genus.ai/blog/number-of-shopify-stores-globally-triples-during-the-pandemic/

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6 Reasons Why an E-commerce Website Is Important for Your Business

posted on January 19, 2022

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The world has gone online. Gone are the days when we used to visit malls and shop at retail stores for our everyday wants and needs. Nowadays, it’s easier than ever before to order a product you like while sitting on your living room couch or browse through different brands on your desktop or mobile device, with the goods arriving at your doorstep only a few days later. Shopping online offers convenience, better deals and a whole new shopping experience.

It is time for you to hop on this bandwagon as well! Starting an e-commerce website for your business ensures that no market remains unexplored by you – after all, over 50% of consumers worldwide have made purchases online. It might be hard to get going at first, but if you do things right from the start, your business surely will profit in the long run.

Why Do You Need an E-commerce Website?

If you have a business, an e-commerce website can be a great way to increase your revenue. Online retail sales have been growing steadily in the past decade and are projected to continue doing so for years to come. In 2010 alone, online shopping accounted for 8% of total retail sales, totaling over $180 billion dollars. This number is only going to keep increasing as more people go online every day and rely on the internet by default rather than just using it when they need information or entertainment.

Reasons Why an E-commerce Website Is Important for Your Business

It’s no wonder that businesses everywhere are turning towards e-commerce websites as a means to boost their bottom line. But why should your business take advantage of this trend? Here are the top six reasons:

1. E-Commerce Helps Businesses Go Global

E-commerce business has no boundaries and your company has a legit chance to get discovered by a worldwide audience. Also, it increases your customer base manifold as more and more countries come within easy reach! As a result, an increase in sales is just a few mouse clicks away.

2. Increases Brand Awareness

One of the basic criteria for running any kind of business is to create your identity and build your reputation in the market. As e-commerce websites are available online, people easily get to know about your company and its products or services. This helps you gain a lot of exposure over time and eventually boost your brand value exponentially.

Building up your brand is much easier when you have an e-commerce website because you can display all available products in one place, so customers are more likely to find out about your business no matter where they’ve encountered it. Also, if your website ranks high in search engines for specific keywords, your business will have even more exposure since potential customers are introduced to it every single time they search for something that you offer online.

3. Your Shop Is Open 24/7

The biggest advantage of having an e-commerce website is that it allows you to maintain a virtual store that operates throughout the day and all through the year! You can rest assured that there will always be someone present online who might just make a purchase on your website at any point in time! Also, such platforms allow you to target a global audience that is always on the lookout for new products and services.

Since e-commerce websites don’t require any physical presence on the part of the owner or employees, there’s no need for them to have restricted opening hours that adhere to certain times of the day or week; thus, an e-commerce store is virtually open 24/7. This means that you can reach people all around the world, no matter when they’re shopping.

4. Offers Better Marketing Opportunities

With e-commerce, it’s possible to introduce ads in newsletters and on search engines, which almost guarantees a whole new wave of customers since they’ll be coming from multiple directions at once. In addition, your customers will have the ability to share your products with their social media contacts through sharing widgets on your website. Advertising through social media shares has been proven to exponentially increase traffic over time thanks to the viral effect.

5. Payment Flexibility

With plenty of marketing features available on e-commerce websites, you have a larger platform to offer more details about your business, its activities, and other related matters to potential customers who might be looking for similar solutions online. With a strong online presence, you can increase your exposure manifold and easily connect with a wider range of audiences! You can gather information about people’s buying habits based on the reviews they leave after having made a purchase on certain sites. This helps you understand what works best for your buyers.

As opposed to physical stores, online stores don’t necessarily require a customer’s financial information upfront; it’s your choice whether you’d rather process their order right away with the option to pay later or in installments. This allows you to have more time to get in touch with your customers, while also building up a line of credit that makes purchasing from you a breeze for the customer. As a result, they will probably keep returning for more.

6. Maximum Security of Transactions

As stated before, dealing with physical inventory is one of the most complicated aspects of starting an online store; however, after this problem has been solved it’s typically smooth sailing for businesses operating online stores. Transactions take place in a virtual space, where both parties are shielded by fraud protection services like PayPal’s Buyer Protection. Fraud has become much less common since the introduction of these services.

With the use of state-of-the-art technologies, data encryption techniques, etc., businesses are able to provide their customers with maximum protection when they are buying products or services from them.

Conclusion

When you invest in an e-commerce website, your business will be able to grow and flourish. In this article, we’ve explored the many benefits of having an online store for yourself or your company with proven examples that show how they can help businesses succeed!

The post 6 Reasons Why an E-commerce Website Is Important for Your Business appeared first on SiteProNews.

Top 6 Criteria for Selecting an MSP

posted on January 14, 2022

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In a bid to gain an edge in the competitive marketplace, many organizations are imbibing emerging technologies like cloud, AI, and ML into their business processes. However, the implementation of such technologies is unwittingly breeding a diverse and complex hybrid IT environment.

These complex IT environs typically span multiple business models, processes, and data, making it complicated and costly for organizations. Enterprises which rely solely on their efforts to manage such environs are simply sub-optimal at delivering on their core business agendas. Taking cognizance of this conundrum, IT Managed Services Providers (MSPs) have come to the fore.

Managed IT services feature a range of capabilities, providing more potential than ever for IT organizations to transform, grow, and innovate. With MSPs, clients can focus on more business-critical activities and achieve better results. But there’s a catch. With a plethora of possible MSPs, it could be a tightrope walk for clients to choose the right one for their organization.

This blog will help you figure out what to look for when selecting an MSP.

6 Traits to Look for When Choosing an MSP

As a matter of fact, all MSPs are not equal. There’s a broad spectrum of external IT service providers a company can choose from. How do you pick the right one? Here’s the criteria that helps you choose an effective MSP:

1. Skillset and Expertise

Any MSP must possess specialized skill sets that go beyond basic IT maintenance and availability management. Enquire about their skills related to end-to-end capabilities, security, cloud tech, cross-platform integration, among others. Also, ask about the availability and scalability of their services and their collaboration practices. Moreover, an IT MSP must have expertise across all delivery models, including but not limited to managed services, cloud, traditional IT, and outsourcing. With this approach, you will have a managed service provider who would cater to all your evolving business needs.

2. Proactive and Tech-Based

An effective MSP follows a proactive approach that empowers clients in failure prevention and continuous improvement. Look for this attribute in your provider. Moreover, find out whether the external service provider employs sophisticated technologies that provide high visibility across all your platforms and processes which will aid in intelligent monitoring, and automated workload prioritization.

3. Support for All Clouds

Today’s cloud ecosystem has a host of cloud strategies, including public, private, multi, and hybrid clouds. Moreover, organizations are harnessing the services of multiple cloud vendors to meet their needs. Assess whether the MSP has the minimum proven experience handling multivendor, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. The right IT managed service provider should be able to help you plan, buy, manage and operate across multiple cloud models and vendors. Moreover, ensure that the MSP has strong relationships with leading cloud vendors. Take, for instance, Veritis, which has proven experience in dealing with top cloud platforms, including but not limited to AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle Cloud. As a US-based cloud managed services provider, Veritis provides the entire gamut of cloud services encompassing the public, private, hybrid, and multi clouds.

4. Portfolio and Flexibility

Ensure that the MSP offers a broad portfolio of managed services, including application management services, managed cloud, managed security, and managed IT infrastructure services. Also, look whether the provider offers flexibility in doing business with you, such as giving you the options ranging from no vendor lock-in to pay-as-you-go pricing models.

5. Performance-Based SLA’s

Ensure that your MSP is willing to commit to performance-based service-level agreements. In this way, the responsibility for performance rests with the managed services provider. Moreover, foster those commitments with fines or other consequences if those agreements are not met.

6. Global Reach and Local Expertise

An MSP with global reach and capabilities can help your organization grow and expand in today’s diversified marketplace. They present many benefits, including handling client projects that span multiple nations, local language support, and local-level compliance requirements.

Capping It Off

There’s no question the digital world is evolving quickly, making it difficult for organizations to stay abreast. Roping in an MSP will not only help you ride on the coattails of emerging technologies but also increase your learning curve and time-to-value. Your search for the right MSP ends at Veritis.

With over a decade-long experience in offering IT managed services, Veritis can help you stay relevant in this highly competitive market. We bring industry-leading expertise and capabilities to help you identify your requirements and realize an integrated multisourcing strategy. Join forces with us today to focus on creating value and innovation rather than operating chores.

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eCommerce Mobile App Development: Tips to Build an App That Sells Well in 2022

posted on January 5, 2022

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Making purchases through websites and eCommerce apps has become the most popular and convenient way to do shopping. According to Statista, the global eCommerce software application market will bring over 1.3 billion dollars in revenue between 2019 and 2024. So, if you still haven’t entered the eCommerce market, it’s high time to launch an eCommerce app for your business.

Check out this article to learn everything you need to know about mobile shopping app development and the top mobile commerce trends in 2022.

Mobile Commerce Trends in 2022

The constant growth of the eCommerce market contributes to the active development of new aspects in mobile commerce. So, whether you plan to build an eCommerce application or already have one, you should be aware of the recent trends in eCommerce mobile app development so you can benefit from them.

Chatbots

Chatbots enable businesses to automate communications with customers on a 24/7 basis. This mobile commerce technology allows businesses to not only answer the most popular user requests, but also to anticipate their next questions, thanks to AI and Machine Learning advancements. Thus, every client receives personalized customer support and an excellent shopping experience.

AR

Augmented reality in eCommerce allows users to test a product before buying it. What does it look like in practice? Customers see how products will look on them or in their homes to ensure they meet expectations. Thanks to this trend, you can provide an excellent shopping experience to your clients, even during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Wish List

You can significantly increase sales on your site and improve your customer experience with a wish list. Once you implement a wish list into your eCommerce app design, the number of users who return to your store will grow, thus raising the number of future store purchases. Moreover, this feature can incorporate notifications that can inform the client of the desired item’s availability.

Geofencing

More and more stores use geofencing for promoting their products on the web. With this mobile commerce trend, you can promote items based on a user’s location which allows you to focus on a specific target audience. Apply geofencing to increase your eCommerce app sales by up to 20% as other companies have already done.

Omnichannel Shopping Experience

If you want to develop your mobile business commerce, you have to sell in more than one place. Focus on an omnichannel shopping approach to boost mobile commerce sales by growing a website, an app, and social media presence simultaneously.

Voice Assistants

A voice-friendly website or eCommerce app is an essential retail business element in 2022. People use assistants such as Alexa and Siri when buying goods for their home such as clothes, cosmetics, books, and much more. So, if you want to increase store sales, voice searching technology can do that for you.

One-click Purchasing

Experience has shown that customers often abandon the purchase process when faced with performing too many steps to complete a transaction. With a one-click purchasing feature, however, there is no need to retype data over and over because your payment details are saved.

Shopping Personalization

Shopping personalization can raise customer satisfaction by 20%, allowing businesses to grow their incomes quickly and effortlessly. Many companies invest heavily into personalized marketing to draw user attention with personalized emails based on their previous purchases. Besides, this trend is associated with the use of Predictive Analytics which can forecast the product a customer will buy next.

Big Data

Want to predict buyer preferences or to calculate a suitable product price based on hundreds of your competitors’ price tags? Big data algorithms help businesses anticipate the latest mobile eCommerce trends and user preferences, so that you can pack your store with products that are in high demand.

eCommerce App Development Process

The eCommerce app development flow is comprised of several stages:

  1. Defining requirements to figure out the features, interface, and design elements of the future app.
  2. Market analysis to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of your project, along with the opportunities you may deliver to users.
  3. Gathering a team of highly competent specialists who can successfully implement all your ideas and requirements. This includes hiring a project manager, UX/UI designers, quality assurance, backend, frontend, and mobile developers, DevOps specialists, etc.
  4. Developing an MVP (minimal viable product), namely the main features that will be tested by the users to collect feedback.
  5. Further app development, based on the gathered feedback.

Ecommerce Mobile App Development Cost in 2021

eCommerce app development costs may range a great deal, depending on many factors, including the complexity and functionality of the app. The more features your eCommerce app contains, the more time your team will require for their implementation. To calculate the total time on building a mobile commerce application and estimate your project’s budget, you can divide the whole development process into the following work types:

  • design
  • front-end development
  • back-end development
  • non-tech development and meetings

In addition, consider the location of your outsourced team and the complexity of the features you want to add. On average an MVP of a shopping app can cost between $50,000 – $80,000.

Conclusion

Use the mobile commerce trends mentioned in this article to develop your business by driving tremendous traffic and increasing sales. Hire a team of professional developers to save money on eCommerce mobile app development features so you can launch a user-friendly and functional application for your store.

FAQs

How Much Does It Cost to Develop an Ecommerce App?

Creating an eCommerce app can cost from $25,000 to $150,000 or more, for both iOS and Android, depending on the project’s complexity and functionality.

How Do You Make an Ecommerce App?

To build a successful eCommerce app, you need to come up with an excellent app idea first. Make a thorough analysis of the market to define the problems of your target audience. Then, list down the essential features of the application, plan out its design, and proceed with its further development.

What Makes a Good Ecommerce App?

With a good eCommerce app, you can deliver a remarkable customer experience for your users and your prospective clients. Equip your application with the best eCommerce features so that it can make your business flourish.

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How are Electronic Signatures and Digital Signatures Different from Each Other?

posted on December 10, 2021

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People often get confused between an electronic signature and a digital signature. Many people think that the meanings of both these terms are identical and that they are interchangeable. However, this is not the case. Both these terms are different from each other. In this article you will learn about electronic and digital signatures in detail and how these two concepts are different.

Electronic Signatures

An electronic signature, also known as eSignature, is a digital form of a wet ink signature. It can be described as any electronic symbol, image, process, or sound attached to a message or document to recognize the identity and provide consent on it. It is often associated with a record or contract where a third party intends to sign the document. To put it simply, when there is a requirement to verify the document, eSignatures are used. It specifies that a person has acknowledged the contents of any electronic message or is authorizing that he/she is the person who has written the message.

Presently in several countries, including the United States, Australia, the European Union, India, and Brazil, eSignatures are well recognized within their jurisdiction as well as traditional signatures. It means that these signatures are considered completely legal and valid in these countries.

Digital Signatures

A digital signature is a secured signature generally used with an electronic signature and comes with encryption criteria. It helps identify a person’s identity in digital forms, like a fingerprint embedded in a document. To put it simply, when there is a requirement to secure a document, digital signatures are used. When it comes to the authentication of digital signatures, it is performed by trusted certificate authorities that are liable for offering digital certificates similar to licenses or passports.

Thus, it is usually authorized. A person requires a digital certificate so that he/she can be linked to the document. A digital certificate plays an important role in validating the document to determine its legitimacy and to show it has not been forged. This further helps in authenticating the identity of the original person with the signature.

Digital documents that are obtained online are often at the risk of tampering. However, with the help of a digital signature, the documents can be secured completely, thus preventing the chances of tampering by any fraudulent party. For any kind of modifications or amendments, only the authorized person can access the document.

Differences Between eSignatures and Digital Signatures

Let’s have a look at some of the key points that shows the clear difference between eSignatures and digital signatures:

  • As mentioned in the description, an electronicsignature is a digital form of a wet ink signature that is legally binding and secure. On the other hand, a digital signature is also a secured form of a signature that works with eSignature and usually relies on public key infrastructure.
  • eSignatures can be anything: a symbol, image, sound, or process that is linked to a message or document to recognize the identity of a person and to give consent to it. On the other hand, a digital signature can be considered an electronic fingerprint encoded that helps confirm a person’s identity.
  • eSignatures are generally used to verify a document, whereas digital signatures are often used to secure a document.
  • In the validation process of eSignatures, there usually are no trusted certificate authorities or trust service providers involved. Some national acts and regulations usually validate these. On the other hand, the digital signatures validation process is carried out by trusted certificate authorities or trust service providers.
  • eSignatures may be at risk of tampering. However, digital signatures are a highly secured form of signature.
  • Some of the most common types of eSignatures are verbal and electronic ticks or scanned signatures whereas in comparison, the different types of digital signatures include Adobe and Microsoft.
  • When discussing the document processing platform, a digital signature can be either a Microsoft pdf or an Adobe pdf. On the other hand, an eSignature can be a basic eSignature, click-to-sign signature, advanced e signature, or qualified signature. There are many eSignature tools like GoSigner, DigiSigner, DocuSign, and so on.
  • An eSignature usually comprises fewer security features, whereas a digital signature comprises numerous security features, making it more secure.
  • An eSignature is a general expression and much broader concerning electronic data. On the other hand, a digital signature is a signature with public-key-based cryptography.

Conclusion

Though the terms digital signature and electronic signature are sometimes used interchangeably, these are completely different from each other. Both are used widely today for various purposes. When it comes to choosing between the two, both have their importance. You can choose the type of signature based on the type of document you want to sign and the level of authenticity that is required or expected of the document.

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Why Cryptography Is Heavily Used in Internet Communications

posted on December 9, 2021

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Today, the internet has become the way to communicate, do business, shopping, study, etc. The covid pandemic has soared its usage even amongst those who did not use it earlier. Given that, it has also become the place for storing your most sensitive data. Simultaneously, the threat to our security and invasion of privacy has become a big concern. This is where cryptography and encryption come into the picture.

Here, we need to understand what cryptography is and why it is heavily used in internet communications.

What is Cryptography?

Cryptography is a technology that embraces coding and increases digital information and physical assets security. Through it, resources like network connections, computer time, and access to databases are accessible only to those individuals, systems, software processes, etc., authorized to access them.

In the term Cryptography, ‘Crypt’ stands for ‘hidden/vault.’ In contrast, ‘graph’ stands for ‘writing.’ The process involves using encryption and a key to transfigure a plaintext input into an encrypted ciphertext as output. A specifically used algorithm always generates the same ciphertext for the same plaintext and the same key.

Important Reasons for Using Cryptography Heavily in Internet Communications

Traditionally, encryption and cryptography use was limited to government and military organizations. But the rise of visualization and computer networks changed the scenario completely.

Computers were initially connected over an open network that made it pathetically easy for anyone to snoop on data traveling across it.

This resulted in the spread of encryption and cryptography over computer networks. Today, Cryptography has become such an integral part that it is included in almost all leading data protection software like Acronis, AWS, Arcserve, Asigra, etc. AWS data protection services undoubtedly lead the pack. We list out a few important reasons for using Cryptography in almost all internet communications.

Privacy and Confidentiality at its Best

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Privacy and confidentiality of data is the most significant advantage and importance of cryptography. It lends security to your private key, making it virtually impossible for any unauthorized person to access any of your data and your virtual identity.

All messages, information, and data are encrypted with a cryptographic algorithm and a key. The key is revealed only to the recipient and the sender. An interceptor or a hacker can at the most access the encrypted message but cannot decipher it. Because of this stronghold on privacy and anonymity-related issues, all criminal activities and fake surveillance entities’ efforts to decode sensitive information are successfully averted.

Maintaining Data Integrity

Data integrity is nothing but ensuring that the data’s consistency, legitimacy, and accuracy remain intact when transmitted over an untrusted medium like the internet. It blocks all opportunities for data tampering or accidental alteration. Hence, everybody remains confident that no hacker can misuse their data. If any qualified professional has altered the data, both parties know about it immediately. This is generally achieved using digitally signed message digest codes.

Identification and Authentication

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Cryptography utilizes authorization techniques to determine the identity of the participant in a particular transaction. It provides a path to the sender and receiver to identify and confirm the data’s identity and origin. The security procedures allow all to protect and store information across devices with highly specialized procedures like advanced authentication to prevent unauthorized access or customers.

Generally, cryptography employs two types of authentications. They are:

Integrity authentication

This is a means of verifying that no unauthorized change in the data has occurred from its creation to transmission to storage. A digital signature or message code created for that data helps achieve this. Key agreement techniques are also used here. MAC or HMACS are leading examples of it.

Source authentication

Image courtesy of Pixabay

This is the process of confirming the information creator’s identity, like the system or the user. It is mainly established using an SSL certificate. Whenever you try to connect to any website, the browser only allows it after verifying its SSL certificate.

Non-repudiation

This implies that none can deny the validity or authenticity of the data under the radar. Cryptography prevents the disclaiming of the creation/transmission of any message and transaction, thereby lending it digital legitimacy and traceability. The process uses a service, which provides both proof of origin and integrity of information. Hence, none can refute it.

Non-repudiation bears a solid resemblance to data integrity but with a difference. Instead of verifying if the message was changed during the transit, non-repudiation focuses on knowing who sent the information. A digital signature algorithm is used here to ensure that neither the sender nor the receiver can deny their roles in the message transmission.

Other Benefits of Cryptography

The above four benefits are touted as the primary goals of cryptography. Other advantages that highlight the benefit of cryptography are:

Usability across devices

Modern cryptography has easy applicability across devices and operating systems. Hence, your data remains secure on all devices. You can even encrypt your SD card or any other external storage device. This makes it easy and safe for both online business owners and their clients and customers. Moreover, you can access the same data on any device by following the protocol.

Provides a competitive advantage

Today, thanks to the covid pandemic, most businesses are forced to move online. Cryptography protects all information at rest and in transit. This makes all-important handling information feel secure. Given that, most companies have an encryption plan implemented for working. It also helps them avoid regulatory fines.

Wrapping up

There are plenty of reasons that make cryptography a must-have tool whenever interacting online in any way. It offers you privacy and security and builds trust for your business, and lends absolute peace of mind.

The post Why Cryptography Is Heavily Used in Internet Communications appeared first on SiteProNews.

8 Tips to Efficiently Manage Your E-store Orders During Sales Season

posted on December 3, 2021

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As a business owner, planning and managing sales can be a very hard task.

Sale seasons provide sellers with a great opportunity to clear old stock and improve purchases. Yet, the entire process can be very tricky and a wrong step can ruin the entire experience.

To make sure you don’t make mistakes during an overwhelming sale, we are here with 8 tips that can make it easier to manage orders without affecting brand targets.

8 Tips for Better Order Management

Below are 8 tips, we think you should consider to better manage orders during a big sale.

1. Understand Your Sales Trend

Analyzing your data and making decisions based on quantitative facts is very important. If you don’t know the trend of your brand sales and have only a vivid idea, you won’t be able to plan things properly. Therefore, as your brand grows, you should keep a record of all your products, sales, and services.

Managing orders during a hyped sale period is hard but if you have previous data to work on, you will be prepared for anything that comes your way!

You can use excel sheets to keep a track of your data. You can use graphs to graphically analyze your performance and help other employees understand where the brand is headed.

2. Use the Right Tools

Your website is an interface through which customers get to know your brand and make purchases. While ease of use matters immensely for a user, it’s also very important for you. If the order process is hard and lengthy and you don’t have any tools for data backup, managing a huge influx of customers will become even harder.

To avoid that, you should use the right tools on your website that make order management smooth and fast!

Let’s take an example. When you are faced with orders in large quantities accidents can occur. You might accidentally cancel an order. If you don’t have the tools to retrieve them you will lose your sales and will end up panicking. To prevent that situation, you can use a tool like the Magento-2 restore cancelled order extension.

3. Analyze the Market

Knowing your brand and having tools to efficiently manage orders is very helpful. Yet, knowing market trends and how they are changing is also very important. If you want to be good at management, you need to have the right knowledge of what is trending and what isn’t to make good decisions and plan well.

When you are collecting data to make a plan, you should know what products will be popular during the sale seasons. Then find out the number of potential customers who require a certain product. Also look at your competitors and see what they are up to.

4. Plan Sales and Inventory

After you are aware of market trends and have your previous sale data, you can work on making a solid plan. Based on your research you should make weekly sales plans during high-demand seasons. Make sure to keep a realistic approach and plan based on your data and what might happen instead of what you want.

Check previous year’s sale data and make alterations in your plans based on out-of-stock items, weather conditions, one-time promotions, etc. You can divide larger categories of products into sub-categories to easily manage them.

Once that is done, you should plan your stock for each month and keep a safe backup in case of spikes in sales. Make sure to avoid overstocking as you might be left with a lot of products that can be very hard to sell. Make decisions based on your data and you will be good to go!

5. Hire Temporary Workers and Maintain Positive Relationships

Certain seasons require you to hire new temporary employees to meet the growing sales demand. While hiring is a smart move, make sure to develop strong relationships with your new employees and be very clear about the rules.

Certain companies are not clear about the temporary nature of the job. That affects employee morale and with bad reviews and poor quality work your order management can take a strong hit.

Plus, bad reviews from an employee can affect brand reputation, therefore make sure your employees are happy and satisfied with their employment so things can be managed well from their end!

6. Keep Track of Markdowns

Sales are a great way to get rid of products that are declining in value. Many brands offer clearance or year-end sales to get rid of last season or old-fashioned items. Yet, if you don’t keep track of sales, your sales might lag behind the target.

That way the markdown (reduction in prices) may decline even further, below a preferred margin. You may even find it hard to sell your products and your inventory (active or available assets) may pile up. That can be very chaotic!

To prevent that, you should consider markdowns on your products as soon as you identify a poor performing item. Based on your target sales, you should offer discounts to get the best rates for poor-performing products before the markdown goes too low.

7. Use the Low Season to Recharge

During certain seasons when sales are low, you can take time to recharge and make plans. The low sale period can be a great opportunity for in-depth research. Make sure to use it wisely so you can better manage sales in the peak season.

During this time you should take feedback from employees and reevaluate your goals and strategies. You can come up with great ideas without the stress of the sale involved. The planning from this time can help you make decisions faster when the sale season arrives!

8. Get Expert Help

We can never deny the importance of experience when it comes to management and planning. If it’s possible, you should hire an expert to help you plan your sales strategy and manage sales in a short time.

Experts have years of experience and they know market dynamics well. They can use various analytic tools to help you decide your next move. If you cannot hire a full-time expert, you can work with a consulting company that can guide you better and help you manage sales.

Conclusion

In this article, we went through 8 tips that can help you manage sales during high-demand seasons. The first thing is to plan ahead. For that, you should have your sales data from previous years. You should also perform thorough research and know the market well.

To work efficiently, you should consider tools to work faster without errors. The right tools will automate manual processes, allow data backups, and improve work speed.

Sale seasons increase workload immensely therefore you can consider hiring new employees. If you do so, make sure to keep them satisfied so they can work in your favor. Another thing you should do is to keep a track of sales and apply discounts to control markdowns.

Lastly, you should consult with an expert or a company to get a helping hand. Their experience and advice can prove to be game-changers for your brand!

The post 8 Tips to Efficiently Manage Your E-store Orders During Sales Season appeared first on SiteProNews.

The Banking Tech Stack for 2021: The Next-Gen CRM

posted on November 28, 2021

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If we ask people about their first association with banks, the majority will think about complex and highly regulated institutions—an image that is hard to connect with the now happening digital-first revolution. Meanwhile, we know we can order a new credit card through a mobile app and engage in a witty exchange with our bank on Twitter. So, are these previously traditional and heavy-footed institutions just accelerating their digitization?

With customers switching banks in the pursuit of better experience, banks face the reality where besides implementing a mobile app and creating social media accounts, they need to direct their digitization efforts towards yet another overarching trend—customer centricity. They need to understand who their customers are, meet them where they are, and personalize their journeys.

Good news is, such a tool as a Customer Relationship Managment (CRM) can serve not only your bank’s needs but help it put customer experience at the center of all activities. Today it goes even further, as customers’ growing expectations make banks recalibrate their tech stack and adopt a banking CRM—a next-gen tool tailored to their industry. It can cover the entire customer journey cycle and create exactly those conditions.

Consistent Omnichannel Experiences

Customers can have multiple touchpoints with their banks, both digital and physical, from visiting branches and requesting services online to seeing ads and communicating with chatbots. As a rule, they treat all their experiences as one connected journey and expect consistency wherever they feel it convenient to communicate. Meanwhile, bankers who operate outside the context can treat each encounter with the same customer as an isolated experience, which usually involves asking the same questions, offering irrelevant services or those the customer already has, etc. Such situations intensify customers’ frustration, make them unwilling to share personal data in exchange for nothing, and discourage them from building strong relationships with such an institution.

A banking CRM can become a hub where all those isolated touchpoints and banking processes can be connected, which makes it easier to register all customer engagements and activities and add new insights to customer profiles. What’s more, the CRM platform creates perfect conditions for connecting functional and process-specific silos and encouraging data sharing between branches, call/service centers, and operations.

As a result, each banking employee from any branch, be it a teller or a loan officer, can have access to the unified customer view and up-to-date information, like seeing that his or her colleague from another branch has already sold a certain service or offered a new package and the customer said a plain ‘no’ or asked for details and promised to think about it. Additionally, the accumulated and unified customer data can be used in an array of activities, like training chatbots to let them engage in more relevant conversations or orchestrating customer journeys throughout a banking service lifecycle.

A tailored and empathetic approach

In addition to relevant offers and fast service, customers crave building relationships with their banks, viewing it as an imperative for their loyalty and trust; and they have no problem switching their banks for those with a more personalized service.

Banking CRMs make sure bankers have everything about customers at their fingertips and can source the most important insights at will, like financial objectives, preferred channels, existing accounts, or household details, which helps them shape communication around the customer in real time. As a result, bankers are able to discuss products and services from the point of view of the customer’s needs rather than of the offer’s general value. It makes customers feel that they talk not just to a banking representative but to a person who cares about their well-being.

What’s more, CRMs also help identify customers who are about to switch banks and provide bankers with the instruments to engage such customers proactively to find out the reasons behind their doubts and try to solve the problem.

Efficient customer support and self-service

Customer service channels are important touchpoints that influence the overall image of a bank brand, and this is where customers expect a caring attitude most. It means that customer service should become a part of a connected experience based on the CRM platform. It will allow support agents to have access to customer data, solve issues from one centralized place without toggling between different systems, and streamline a number of processes, like data entry, case routing, and more.

As a result, agents will be able to act within the context of customers’ banking activities, utilized services, and personal details that can influence the tone and offered options and, of course, eliminate repeated questions.

Using customer data analytics within a CRM, it’s possible to accumulate the most frequent requests and delegate such issues to a chatbot or cover them with a self-help knowledge base in a mobile app, which will save customers from waiting on hold but solve their problems fast, anytime, and in a secure way, authenticating them via biometrics-based technologies. It meets the customers’ growing need to address their problems on their own prior to contacting a bank representative.

Financial literacy and education

To nurture trust even further, banks can foster customers’ financial awareness and help them make smart data-driven decisions on their own. This way, customers will find it easier to understand short- and long-term consequences of their actions and can communicate with bank representatives as partners, without the feeling of being tricked into an unprofitable scheme.

This can be done through a mix of consulting and educational methods. First of all, banks can provide personal consultations once the customer is about to take out a mortgage or another big loan or when they experience financial hardships and are clueless how to act. It’s also possible to connect your banking CRM with a portal where customers can get self-help via a knowledge base, video tutorials, and the community of fellow customers or enroll into a virtual situation-based onboarding. Banks can even partner with local schools to run seminars or include financial literacy into the curriculum.

It’s a good idea to use social media channels where it’s possible to share engaging content regarding financial wellness strategies and positive financial behavior in different scenarios, like building a house, having a baby, planning for retirement, living through the pandemic, etc. You can also accompany your sales offers pushed via ads or mobile apps with short how-to or why-to videos to let customers reflect whether they need it instead of immediately clicking the close button.

Final thoughts

Living in the interesting times of an experience economy and customer centricity peppered with global disruptions, banks have to learn how to care about their customers, improve customers’ well-being, and raise financial awareness. Otherwise, they risk losing those potential customers who might have had a negative experience at one of the touchpoints as well as those customers who find it easy to switch banks because of all the accumulated frustration.

It means that banks should implement different technological instruments, including banking CRMs, to accompany customers along the entire journey, gathering data and strengthening loyalty.

The post The Banking Tech Stack for 2021: The Next-Gen CRM appeared first on SiteProNews.

4 Effective UI Improvements to Skyrocket Website Conversions

posted on November 26, 2021

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One of the most significant barriers for websites to get conversions is the website itself, precisely due to the User Interface (UI) and UX (User Experience).

Today, there are many ways to build a unique website without spending too much time or resources. These easy tweaks will help boost user experience and boost the website’s conversion rates.

Note: there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for improving UI. As we move into an increasingly connected world that has seen the most significant shift to online since WWW was introduced- it is now even more crowded and competitive.

Image courtesy of <a href=”https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/internet-statistics”>Broadband Search</a>

Getting in front of consumers ahead of your competitors has never been easy. And now, thanks to social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Pinterest, social and online presence have become one of the most vital parts of a business today.

What is UI?

The user interface is the website’s design that supports the user’s experience (UX) when browsing. Therefore, almost all website elements, including buttons, search bars, CTAs, icons, and text layout, can be considered UI design elements.

Researching and refining how your users interact with your site is a great place to start to boost conversions and generate more leads. User experience ensures users find valuable services and products on your site as efficiently as possible.

For all businesses, one of the main aims is to generate more sales. More sales equate to steady growth and better financial outcome. UI, along with UX, plays a vital role in this growth.

There are some fundamental components of UI that make for a more effective website when placed together.

The site’s usability and its visual design and interaction design affect users’ interpretations and use of a site. Therefore, the site’s information architecture is vital as it ensures users can access the information they need.

Wireframing is an integral part of UI. It is a visual guide representing the site’s design framework, outlining how buttons, tabs, and menus respond to users’ actions. It helps to make sure users can easily navigate throughout the website.

When building a substantial brand value and reputation, businesses must emphasise a high level of user satisfaction across all areas, including the website. As e-commerce continues to grow, online shoppers have higher expectations when it comes to the online experience. Therefore, online stores opt to push to satisfy the needs of their customers as the top priority.

A representation of the steady growth of e-commerce from 2000 to 2020 with a significant increase toward the end thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic: Statista

The need for a brand to get its online presence and site right has never been more critical than now. In addition, a well researched and thorough UI can effectively grab consumer attention and enhance user experience, thereby improving ROI.

UI Design Elements

UI elements of a website consist of parts and elements that designers use to improve the development of apps and websites.

An online study found that improving a site’s navigation may help increase the conversion rate by as much as 18.5%. Therefore, all websites must pay attention to the UI and UX. Here is a look at four practical ways to improve UI:

1. Improve conversion with persuasive CTA

A highly effective call-to-action (CTA) button does what it says on the tin and helps to deliver a direct yet straightforward statement for the user. In addition, it gives clear directions to the user concerning what to do next, and upon clicking the button, it provides the users with the idea that they are visiting a different website.

With great design and UI that is simple yet catchy, CTAs are crucial as they guide consumers into the sales funnel where conversions happen.

Image courtesy of GoSquared

With a focus on mobile users, presenting a large area responsive to a tap or a click on a call-to-action button is essential to leading the user to the right destination.

Unfortunately, many buttons on a website are purely graphical and embed small link texts, which work well for viewing sites on a desktop but are not very mobile-friendly. Designs like this can cause frustration to users and deter them from using a website altogether.

Also, we advise you to use a standard colour of red for each type of call-to-action button. If your website visitors get used to a particular colour for a specific button, they will subconsciously be more attached to it.

When designing a template, make sure to pick the right colours for each type of CTA button. If a call-to-action button is too small and not clickable, chances are there will be fewer clicks, and conversion rates can drop significantly. Make sure that all-important links incorporated into the button are identified quickly and have a correct anchor.

Tip: Do not play around with button colours too much. If your “Get Started†button is colour blue, try keeping everything consistent (i.e. avoid using a different colour for the same button on a separate page) – this may confuse the user.

2. Use white spaces effectively

The first step in improving conversion rates is to pay attention to the psychology of colour.

Make it the goal to remove all excess clutter and noise from a page. Then, replace the white space with the images that matter. Adding a background image to one page is possible, but it is essential to ensure it doesn’t distract users from the aspects you want them to see.

White spaces allow users to scan the website smoothly without being too distracted by any clutter or unnecessary elements on the page. White areas are a great way to increase click-through rates. For this reason, keeping an adequate amount of white space on a page can lead to more leads and a higher conversion rate.

Furthermore, white spacing makes information on the page look more clear and defined.

The use of white space on Apple’s website promoting latest handset

However, using colour in the right way can be tactical leverage for any business with this in mind. Using colours is effective to help focus the user’s attention to specific parts of the page and work well for actionable elements such as CTAs.

Tip: Using warmer tones like orange and yellow attracts the eyes the same way red does, expanding against darker, colder tone colours such as blue and green. Highlighting these crucial elements of the page ensures they do not get lost.

3. Link padding

Anchors and links present on the site by default are usually the same size, keeping in line with the rest of the elements on the page. Unfortunately, this means they can only span that specific area to remain clickable, such as the height and width of the text.

Expand the clickable area for superb usability of the link. Adding extra padding to the text can also be done by converting the link into a block element, making it appear more extensive and inviting.

You can use the following simple code to increase the padding of the link:

a {
display: block;
padding: 6px;
}

A larger area will, for obvious reasons, be more clickable and easier to use. This method also makes these links more mobile-friendly, giving users less chance of missing the link. Converting links into blocks also helps make the text area span the entire width of the box, making the theme ideal for sidebars.

Adding a healthy amount of padding to the link is essential as it ensures the link itself is visible enough to be clicked.

Tip: Do not overuse padding on text links (i.e. links that are not buttons). These may confuse and frustrate mobile users when scrolling down. Users can accidentally click the link without intending to do so.

4. Design based on users

Sometimes it is easy to get carried away with designing your new website. However, it’s increasingly important to offer your user what they want compared to what your business thinks they might like. Thinking about the consumer, what they need, and the types of things they would look for will help construct a better, well-thought-out website tailored to users’ needs.

A timeline indicating progress on the site is one of the best UI elements to include on a site. The timeline helps users understand where they are in the sales funnel and essentially helps them in and out sooner.

Use tools like Google Analytics and Finteza to determine the pages your users stay on, how they go from page to page and where they drop off.

Unfortunately, design elements are of much concern to users. Yes, they help make sites look attractive. Still, the baseline is that consumers want to get things done in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of hassle and frustration. A good design will have all these elements integrated. In addition, the easier the sales process can be, the more inviting it is for users, giving them a positive shopping experience and making them more likely to come back.

Tip: Use heatmaps to determine the website areas where your users seem to be focusing most. Determine the areas that need tweaking, then use them to display the most important CTAs.

One of the main points to consider when creating and having a website is that it needs to constantly be updated to work best for those interacting with it. Make sure to run tests and audits, helping you keep on top of the competition.

The post 4 Effective UI Improvements to Skyrocket Website Conversions appeared first on SiteProNews.

Sell on Facebook With IONOS

posted on November 23, 2021

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See how easy it is to start social selling on Facebook when you connect your IONOS online store to your Facebook Business Page. We’ve made selling on the world’s largest social media platform simple. Just how simple exactly? Here’s how it’s done: From your online store control panel, go to the “Sell on Facebook” page […]

How to Get Better Responses on your Customer Feedback Forms

posted on November 22, 2021

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Auditing your performance is a standard business practice. Regular performance reports let you know what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what needs changing. In addition, you can tell how your business is doing by looking at data—like sales, site traffic, brand mentions, reviews, and so on.

However, there’s nothing like asking the customer directly. Getting feedback straight from your customers saves you from speculating. For example, instead of concluding that one of your landing pages isn’t effective, you get to ask customers exactly why it isn’t working.

That said, using customer feedback forms is not without its challenges. You want honest feedback, not just a positive one. In some cases, customers will write down inaccurate and nonsensical responses, which don’t really help paint a picture of their experience with you.

So, how do you get accurate and thoughtful responses in your feedback forms? Here are a few valuable tips to help you create the most effective customer feedback form:

1. Survey Your Regular Customers

Customers who stand to benefit from changes and improvements in your business model are most likely to give you honest feedback.

People don’t care about writing accurate feedback for shops and brands they don’t usually buy from or recognize. After all, if they don’t come back as often or know much about you, they won’t really care to give their actual feedback.

However, if you are a brand they know, like, or consistently buy from, they will have an incentive to air out what they think of your company, products, and services.

You can reach familiar customers through the following ways:

  • Email Drip. Send electronic feedback forms to people subscribed to your email list.
  • Loyalty programs. Ask members of your loyalty program (i.e., membership cardholders) to fill out a brief feedback form at check-out.

If you’re a small business, you might be able to recognize your regulars as soon as they step into the store. If so, you can ask them to fill out forms while they’re waiting in line or while they’re dining in.

In any case, choosing return customers who already have a connection with your company is a great way to avoid unwilling participants.

2. Use Targeted Feedback Forms

If you have a wide range of products and services, it might be wise to use targeted feedback forms for different customers.

For example, you can give feedback forms to customers based on their recent product purchases. You can ask them about the products they paid for and disregard other categories that weren’t in their transactions.

Though you have multiple versions of your feedback form, each one will be considerably shorter. This also makes it easier to hand out brief feedback forms while the customer is waiting in line or at check-out.

However, this method might require you to get more responses. After all, you want to audit data about your entire business model to know how you’re doing.

3. Make It As Easy As Possible

As mentioned, customers don’t really have a concrete incentive to write accurate and thoughtful feedback. You are asking for their time, so it’s crucial that it doesn’t cause them any more trouble.

If customers have a terrible time navigating your website, answering your feedback form, or understanding your questions, they might get frustrated and give up on it.

You’ll get more high-quality responses if your survey is easy to find, understand, and fill out. The more high-quality answers you get, the more valuable it is in assessing customer feedback.

Here are a few ways you can make feedback forms as accessible as possible:

  • Send direct links to the feedback form instead of asking customers to find it themselves.
  • Pay attention to your website’s UX (i.e., loading speeds, navigation, color scheme, etc.) so people aren’t having a hard time navigating to your forms.
  • Proofread and edit your questions.
  • Choose standard fonts that are easy to read.

4. Keep It Short

Even your most loyal customers have their own personal schedules to attend to. So avoid giving your customers 5-page feedback forms.

Feedback forms that take too long to fill out won’t hold the respondent’s attention, and they’ll end up either abandoning it or start writing rushed responses.

Here are easy ways to make feedback forms short and straightforward:

  • Use A Satisfaction Scale. Ask customers to rate each category in 1-5 (i.e., 1 being the worst and 5 being the best). This makes answering forms quicker than letting them write down paragraphs.
  • Use A Checklist. Have customers check off categories of products that they like. You can ask for more specific suggestions and feedback at the end.
  • Use Character Limits. If you’re letting customers write down their thoughts, you can add character limits on text fields. If they have more pressing concerns, ask them to send you an email instead.

Shorter feedback forms don’t just benefit the respondents. It also makes it easier for you to audit their responses. For example, a Likert scale (5-point scale) can be easily translated to data for auditing. More pressing customer issues should be discussed and resolved through other channels.

Bottom-line

Customers willing to think about and write down their thoughts will give you more concrete and helpful feedback. However, you need to remember that customer feedback forms are often filled out at the customer’s discretion. If it takes too much of their time, they’ll be less willing to give you accurate information.

Not listening to customer feedback leaves your business stagnant.

However, without accurate information, you won’t be able to properly assess how customers truly feel about your business. Not only do you need to know about the things you’re already doing right, but you also want to know about what you need to improve on.

The post How to Get Better Responses on your Customer Feedback Forms appeared first on SiteProNews.

The Future of Business Payments – Trends and Predictions

posted on November 9, 2021

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Payment methods have advanced technologically and rapidly in the past few years. Consumers can choose different ways depending on their circumstances as more payment methods have been streamlined. Payment methods move from traditional cash points as more people live cashless, meaning contactless payment methods are desirable. The new techniques also make it easier to move and manage money.

Biometric identification

Apple Pay and, more recently, Android Pay opened the gates to biometric authentication, from using fingerprints to using facial recognition. However, the technology’s growth is slow due to software support being limited. With software upgrades and more product launches, the future of business payments will open the world.

Heart beat analysis and iris recognition are currently tested technologies to ensure that payments’ security is up to standard, and every loophole is closed to criminals. With its accuracy and efficiency, more customers are using biometric payment cards for their everyday use.

Other European countries, the United States, and Middle Eastern countries are starting to adopt payment methods. The benefits have already been seen with fewer records of identity theft reports.

The United States has had the opportunity as Amazon has rolled the new technology in Amazon Go stores.

It works by analyzing palms for the unique vein configuration under the skin, making payments easy by just waving the hand through the scanners working the same way as facial recognition.

Artificial intelligence

Payments using artificial intelligence have been in the market for a while now. The software upgrades in recent years have made it possible for accessible, quick payments by customers making its customer base grow. Security is a significant factor contributing to its popularity as AI technology works very fast to detect and stop any suspicious payments.

Double charges in different cities are flagged as suspicious, and the account is suspended when the time matches of last seen don’t add up to the payment times seen.

An example is if a payment is made physically in City A 100 miles from city B, the AI technology will stop payments in City B if another transaction is done in under an hour. AI intelligence benefits also clearly show correct balances in bank accounts when payments are made, even as many banks still suffer from delays and disruptions, making it an ideal payment method for businesses in the future.

Mobile apps

Payment using mobile apps for many businesses is a must to retain and bring in new customers. The ease and convenience eliminate the need for customers to waste time looking for wallets, wait for payments to be processed, and then wait for change.

The future movement of mobile apps from cash systems is certain as many businesses opt for loyalty card systems where the customers are rewarded every time they use the businesses app. The intelligent recommendation is also replacing debit cards with the same features on mobile as on the cards, then the need for double payments is eliminated.

Digital currencies

The value of cryptocurrency has skyrocketed in the last few years, increasing the value of the digital currency industry.

Forex trading analysis shows that consumers are investing in digital currencies, and the result is that many businesses globally have to incorporate them as legitimate payment methods.

Unlike a decade ago, digital currencies are considered assets, with many having a more practical value than gold, the most stable precious metal traded. Used by a few businesses today, the shift is expected to grow in the future as a standard payment method for goods and services.

Real-time payments

Contractors and businesses doing businesses on a large scale no longer have to wait for payment processes to be completed in a few businesses days. Peer-to-peer payments are the future of business payments where payments are instant. Consumers and businesses alike value the idea of sending and receiving payments quickly and in a secure way.

The effect is that even money sent across borders is instant, with some of the most outstanding services experiencing a high increase in global peer-to-peer transfers.

Benefits to businesses are that the time delay experienced costing the business money and transfer costs associated with traditional transfers are eliminated, making it one of the most recommended p2p expected to be popular in the future.

Conclusion

The future of payments is expected to make bank accounts a simple pathway for services to make payments. Some big service companies like Google have already launched their versions making customers use banks as a second option that soon will have to market their services to get potential customers. With customers expecting more value, the additional benefits customers get from future payment methods ensure that convenience in online shopping is achievable. Personalization of the processes depending on the product range being purchased is also guaranteed. With payment methods changing for good with businesses embracing technology advancements, the need for hard cash and traditional approaches will cease to exist.

The post The Future of Business Payments – Trends and Predictions appeared first on SiteProNews.