Ecommerce the New Definition of Online Trade

The branch of technology that incorporates the electronic media in the buying and the selling process is known as the Ecommerce. Since the inception of the World Wide Web, the market has been clustered with millions of competitive websites that needed to use completely new strategies to attract their prospective consumers from around the world.

With the technical world advancing rapidly, and online stores gaining more momentum, environ is such that the consumers buy products regardless of their geographical barrier. This unprecedented growth of the E-commerce website has made this a feasible option making it probable for the sellers to deliver their products all over the world.

Just as a website can be the online brand identity, the ecommerce website enables the entrepreneur to successfully display information about their products and services. This category of websites construes the services and the products. Accrediting the business organization with this type of website, allows the industrialist to carve a niche among the million others. Nominal in investments, this website garners the potential of the website to yield unfathomed results.

The electronic commerce website draws in several technologies to ultimately produce the desired outcome. These following technologies like the supply chain management, electronic funds transfer, Internet Marketing, electronic data exchange, online transaction processing, inventory management systems, are integrated to make the website successful and functional. The electronic commerce is considered the sales component of any business. This exchange of data to facilitate the financing and the paying aspects is also a characteristic of the transactions that occur through the website.

The various components of the E-commerce Website

  • Virtual storefronts integrated in the website with online catalogs, which is clustered to form a “virtual mall.”
  • The demographic data collected through Web contacts.
  • Electronic Data Interchange or the business-to-business exchange of data.
  • Email, Fax and the use of media to promote the future endeavors and to establish the consumers.
  • Secured business transactions.
  • B2B trade and selling.

With groundbreaking popularity in the world, the retailers today prefer to have an online platform. Each year billions of dollars undergo transaction. The future of this looks bright, and with the recent developments in the field of web design and development, E-commerce is now a dynamic website that can be customized accordingly. Now, the website welcomes its prospective consumers with a more appealing ambience. This piques the curiosity of the end-users, thereby increasing sales and maximizing the returns.

Propaganda by the social networking platform is also popular. Millions of people use these social sites to connect and this makes it a potential hub for the sellers to propagate adverts. The relevant audience can be targeted with a complete detailed feedback so that they can ameliorate in their services.

The mobile boom has also affected the market with everyone now using a Smart phone to search the Internet. Being easy and always accessible make them a preferred podium to shop. This is the reason that E-commerce website be optimized to a M-commerce wherein the owner can display all his products. This should be adept for mobile viewing.

The e-commerce website has shrunk the diversity of the world. Now, integrated even in the mobile, the websites has increased their sales radically.

20 Must-Do Push Notification Best Practices For Ecommerce Marketers

Mobile marketing is the recent buzzword and push notification is definitely an indispensable part of this promotional journey. Reaching the users out of the app usage was not an easy task but the push notifications have made it possible. It has the power to stay apart without getting lost in the colossal crowd of unread messages. Although push notifications are the ideal way of grabbing user attention, they can be easily manipulated – if, in wrong hands, it has more influence to do wrong than anything right.

Problems

According to a report published a year ago, people find push notifications really annoying. The fact is push messages are nothing but attention seekers. They like to grab user's response being a direct communicating line between the customer and the app. It is important that only relevant messages reach the app user without infurating them. The problems that usually arise in case of push notifications are-

· When the user is giving consent for push notifications, marketers must ensure only the relevant updates are reaching the customer by knowing their set of preferences.

· It must be realized soon that push notification is a privileged tool that must not be used for spamming users with all day frequent messages.

· Wrong timing can annoy a user and make them instinctively delete the app. To avoid any such thing set the timer right for relevant alerts.

· Before sending any push messages certain criteria like age, time, basically all user info is must because otherwise you are bound to send wrong messages to wrong people.

· Push ads through notifications are a complete no for any user who wants to stay with you and likes your app.

· Late messages can annoy people to the core.

· Marketers must ensure that opting out of push messages must be as easy as opting in for notifications. Easy settings can stop the customers from deleting the app completely.

Industry Overview

The year 2015 was considered as the game changer for push notification industry. From general push messages, the focus shifted to segmented notifications to target users based on their preferences. The changeover from spammy, unrelated push messages to planned tactical ones significantly enhanced consumer engagement, retention, and experience. Every industry must be flexible enough to remain in the forefront of the varying flows of customer needs. The fashionistas and creators struggle to imagine the subsequent popular trend, whereas, the medical schools try to retort to nature's hard questions. To become a leader in a particular industry setting trends is more important than just following them blindly.

Push notifications are the most economical and best way to drive app retention and engage your customers. But, often it is applied in a thoughtless, insensitive, and honestly indecorous manner. A new report from Accenage that is based on more than 38 billion push messages suggests, if such notifications are applied and used fittingly, push messages can be very important on Android (until the launch of Android M OS), with 100% opt-in rate.

20 Interesting Solutions

The Push Notifications are as important as the user experience (UX) of your app because the researchers believe that more than 71% of the app uninstallations are typically triggered by the push messages. The bottom line is bad push practices can be harmful as push notifications directly hit the users and not the devices. So let's check out few of the best push practices to hit the bull's eye.

1. Respect to the Specific Local Timezone

It is quite easy to think and act according to your own time zone like "its 8 pm in India so let's start circulating the push messages". The push notification does not work that way. When your customers are involved it becomes vital that your messages hit the user at the right time when they are ready to receive it according to their time zone. A decent push service will definitely reduce the server load and stagger the messages over a window if required.

2. Internally Prioritize a Message

What is prioritizing a message? The marketers often think, the more, the better. Right? It is not the same in all cases. Many times, more can reduce your revenue, your users, usage, feedback, and everything. Sending 23-50 pushes a day to the customers can not only irritate them but also make them uninstall an app. Thus, internally prioritizing a message to 5-10 maximum per day can help and suit most of the applications.

3. Avoid Generic Pushes

Considering a hard limit to multiple pushes per day can be an effective practice. You might be thinking of sending various services that can help your app interact with the user, inform them and gain user preference knowledge. But, generic pushes can be termed as bad practice. Giving preference to the transactional messages can grab more attention of the user.

4. Value Your User's Sleep

As far as night is concerned, people usually want a good night's sleep in order to start a fresh day. Mobiles are usually put on silent or do not disturb mode while people are asleep. Considering this, do you really think people really have time to go through all the push messages pouring in through the night or in the early morning? So, marketers must also value the user's sleep and limit the notifications till day time. Maybe a summary push notification in the morning can be more effective than 10 odd messages at night.

5. Personalise Content For Users

The push messages can be personalized and sent to the users to make it more valuable. Exception for junk and irrelevant messages, news alerts, deals, and chats based on user preferences can create a positive impact. Numerous marketing automation are possible with some very basic data inputs. Like how long the app is installed on your device, what level of the game are at present, your last usage, and many such small things can help in personalizing push messages for the users.

6. Favor the Transactional Pushes

The 1: 1 push messages that are usually directed to the single user and are not commonly unique with audience division, is termed as a transactional push. For instance, their package is being shipped or there's a new like, and more. Such notifications are seamlessly bespoke as per the definition. Yet, timeliness is one of the best practices that one must adhere to.

7. Personalize with User Name

When a message is purely meant for a user and is indicated with the user's name in the push messages, like Ronit, it is time for your doctor's visit in another 4 hours; people take it more seriously and really like such notifications.

8. Make it Simple and Short within 10 words

To create impact in minds of the users, 10 words are more than enough to convey the right message what you wish to let your user know.

9. Correct Implementation of the Technology

To keep the 71% stats shown above at bay, implementing the notifications rightly is very important. It is not just about certificates and provisioning.

10. Seeking Permission is Indeed Vital

The pop-up alert appearing at the beginning of installing an app seeking permission is ideally the most vital checkpoint. Without the permission of the user notifications can not be pushed.

11. Seek a 3 rd Party Service

Setting up push notifications is not an easy task to do it on your own. Seeking help from the 3rd party service is the best option in terms of topping, consistency and good features.

12. Opt Content Preload

If you are directed to some in-app content by a push message, preloading it with available API is most likely to do. This can delay the push by few seconds but you get the ready to go UI, without waiting for the irritating loading screen.

13. Easy Availability of the Notification Settings

Difficulty in locating the notification configurations can be annoying for the customers. Easy availability of the setting to turn off or on the notification is vital.

14. Personalize Message as per Location

Appropriate location-based significant messages will develop engagement with the customers. Personalizing messages according to the location of the user can be a great practice.

15. Out of the Box Thinking

It is important that you deliver specific value and unique content to end users while incorporating the push notifications in your planning strategies. This requires out-of-the-box thinking. The push ads are not just a slice of your communication approach; it is a portion of customer's mobile involvement with your brand.

16. Smart Segmentation

The CRM software or the in-app behavior must be the intelligent factors for smart segmentations. The user behavior and profiles are both required for a solid division planning.

17. Defining KPI

The mobile key performance indicator can help you understand the real engagements, long-term retention or conversion, and lifetime or revenue value of the product whereas, the click and conversion rates just helps in understanding the preliminary achievement of a campaign.

18. Content plays a Major Role

The content of your message creates a strong impact on the success of push notifications. Such as, "off", "discounts", "promo code", etc. have a strong interest of the consumers.

19. Rich Pushes

Apart from the text content, the Android forever lol and iOS 10 brings forward rich pushes. Now, your push previews can include GIF images and videos. For arbitrary views from your iOS 10, you can study in detail.

20. Expired Message Removal

Once the message loses its relevancy, it must be automatically removed. For instance, 50% off on shoes was an offer valid a week ago but at present is of no use to the user, so it must be removed automatically.

Why is Betaout All In One Ecommerce Marketing Automation?

Betaout empowers the E-Commerce businesses to upsurge conversions and identify with the user engagement procedure using real-time user personality and committed data. It offers a tailor set of tools that the marketers of e-commerce businesses can utilize to distinguish themselves and then address precise client needs. The hassle free Betaout tool is an easy-to-use marketing solution that enables the e-commerce companies to bring their marketing efforts into a strict line, offering them the much-required edge over the competitors.

How E-Commerce Can Improve Productivity For Your Business – 3 Top Tips Revealed

E-commerce in business is huge business, and for a lot of reasons – as a general rule this is due to increasing your businesses profit.

The key is to let your computer to increase revenue and reduce unnecessary expense for your company, if you do then you are on to a winner.

Lets look at the top three ways e-commerce can help your company.

  1. Reduce your paper trail. We all know that endless filing and picking up paper after collections is a nasty business. By exchanging information with suppliers and fellow businesses creates a paperless process. I know that since the birth of internet banking I can pay all of my suppliers online, who would have thought that back in the 90s? This reduces your workload considering when I think back to the old days of collecting invoices and visiting suppliers it would take me days on end.
  2. Minimize those laborious tasks and costs. By getting your staff on board, instead of your staff entering data from one piece of paper to the next then finally entering it on a computer system (we have all been there right?) You can arrange for your staff to use the computer exclusively for of the businesses needs. Such as outgoing correspondence, work rotas, customer information and many more.
  3. Competition and automation. In this modern age e-commerce makes shipping for goods and services much faster, you can put an order in with a supplier in China within two minutes and have it delivered within days, that is the beauty of e-commerce, there are also trading communities available online where you can. These are called e-marketplaces where you can compare many goods and services from a range of hundreds of even thousands of sellers.

Just about any business can benefit in some way from e-commerce, whether that be a company website, selling goods on eBay or getting your businesses name out there on social media such as Facebook or Twitter. The great thing about it is there is little or no cost involved.

The Advantages of Clipping Path Services For E-Commerce Business

The approaching patterns in the realm of picture altering programming and advanced photography have offered much help in expanding the determination of photographs. The most current innovation in the advanced photographic field has extended the extension for the picture takers and the visual architects. Legitimate shading adjustment, foundation determination, layering, and the resizing of picture improve the pictures on the photos. The clipping path benefits require the procedure which includes the cutting of the required area of the picture from whatever remains of the photograph. The section way benefits have turned out to be much prevalent on the present date. The vast scale prevalence of the administrations can be seen in various commercial ventures that incorporate sites, handouts, magazines, inventories, gems outlines and different businesses. Picture cutting has various points of interest when contrasted with those that the picture altering organizations offer.

Quick and effective administrations

The picture cutting way benefits have gotten to be a standout amongst the most widely recognized practices. It has supported numerous and has various preferences for the client. Time is extremely valuable and those that need to make an imprint would need to comprehend legitimate time administration. The clipping path organization guarantees quality as well as a quick conveyance of work as well. The administrations are done under the reconnaissance and aide of the specialists. The procedure guarantees that no time is squandered. This component of quick work conveyance makes the procedure suitable for being utilized as a part of various real activities.

Spares time and conveys quick work

The time that is spared can be put into other significant and beneficial tasks. The general expense gets to be another central point that influences the brain of the customers and clients. The cut-out cover administrations offered by different organizations have offered a suitable answer for the customers and clients. This will subsequently offer the business some assistance with peopling to constrain down the financial costs in their separate ventures.

Better vector representations

This system of altering pictures and photographs will offer you some assistance with achieving vector representations. The loveliest part of section way is that the vector delineations are much cleaner, tidier, and all the more engaging. The strategy can be utilized for CAD or Computer Aided Design too. The marvelousness business can likewise be discovered getting a charge out of the advantages offered by cut-out ways administrations. The administrations are utilized generally by the models nowadays. They make cutting cover to offer the models some assistance with enhancing their facial elements and their garments. This outcome in multiplying the excellence and flawlessness of the pictures and photos.

Expands the significance of photograph altering

There is most likely about the way that a pivotal part has been played by the clipping path benefits in order to build the value and significance of photograph altering. Other than photograph altering, streak liveliness has additionally delighted in various advantages.

The upside of the section cover organization can’t be denied with regards to the regale it offers in logo planning, photograph modify, corporate character, photograph veiling, and so on. Cutting cover administrations give inventive answers for make the photographs look delightful and save them for eternity.

Beginning from the nuts and bolts the exceptionally essential question that strikes a chord is what is a Clipping Path? The answer is basic it is a procedure that will dependably guarantee that you get the best out of your picture. That is the main route through which you can have a magnificent pictures and a tranquil foundation according to your wishes.

A Clipping Path is a produced layout that speaks to a progression of smooth straight lines, or the sought state of the article which should be altered or cut out from the present picture which is under procedure. A way is characterized or a layout is drawn around the article which must be incorporated into the picture. There are two ways characterized in section way, the first is the comprehensive way which is the one where what is outwardly “inside” the way relates to what will be saved. The second way is the selective way, what is outwardly “outside” the way. Anything which is inside the way or the layout will be incorporated after the section way is connected to the individual picture which must be cut. Every one of the things outside the way or the blueprint which we have made amid this strategy will be overlooked from the last picture. Clipping Path, Color Mask/Multiple Clipping Path and veiling are the most widely recognized and the most well known strategies utilized today by all the main realistic experts everywhere throughout the world. Different devices are utilized like the Pen instrument, Magic wand apparatus, Lasso device are utilized at first to eradicate the part from the picture which we have a craving for expelling from the foundation of the picture.

There are ordinarily when we feel that the photo or snap would look better or more pleasant with the beautiful foundation or expelling the pointless items from the picture to make it all the more staggering. It is in fact an extraordinary approach to make your photo look exuberant and to add an alternate intending to your unique picture with an entirely unexpected edge to the photo. The thought remains that the more seasoned picture or the photo is upgraded through different techniques to make the photo or the picture look more satisfactory, including a greater amount of energy and speak to it and thus irritating the general promoting benchmarks of the accompanying picture to give it an alternate importance. That is the reason clipping path service have increased massive significance and stature as it gives superb photograph altering administrations around the globe. This system has turned out to be tremendously invaluable to different verticals and that is the thing that has made it all the more huge and advantageous.

Google AdWords Mistake E-Commerce Store Owners Can’t Afford To Make

Google AdWords and E-commerce go hand in hand. It is hard to find a store owner not promoting products using this robust online marketing platform or one who doesn’t wish to do so. But running an AdWords campaign isn’t merely about hiring an E-commerce AdWords agency for the task. Many store owners see thousands of dollars go waste without receiving much traction from the campaign. Here we take a look at some common mistakes that store owners as well as AdWords agencies should avoid.

  1. Forgetting Geography Lessons – Yes E-commerce makes it possible for you to run a store in Kenya and sell products in Malaysia. Although this may should as the farthest extension of technology, ground reality is different. If you aren’t Amazon you are most likely to sell products within certain geography or rather majority of your customers would come from particular geography. Thus geographic targeting is one of the fundamentals of running an AdWords campaign. If you fail to do so you would run ads everywhere possible in the world and would see little ROI from majority of your campaigns.
  2. Ignoring Ad Scheduling – E-commerce is a 24/7 business so much so that store owners often become complacent with their business. You need to understand that your store won’t see equal traffic or transactions throughout the day. Nor will all products sell equally well at all time of the day. For instance if you are running a multi-product store, clothing line can sell all around the day even during office hours while people may shop for lingerie only at night. Thus you need to deep dig into your data and generate intelligence around the behaviour of your customers to schedule your AdWords program.
  3. Following The Book Religiously – There are dozens of articles that would teach you the best practices of an AdWords campaign. Selecting the right keywords and targeting user searches is the base of an AdWords campaign. But sticking to the book isn’t a great idea in a competitive business environment. You need to be creative and venture out into the unknown. There are chances that you would fail but trying out something unique also gives you the opportunity to take a lead over your competition.
  4. Taking CPA Too Seriously – For years cost per acquisition or CPA has been one of the ways in which advertisers have judged the success of their campaign. However you shouldn’t take this as a sole metric to judge the performance of your campaign. Let’s assume you bid on two keywords – Budget Smartphone and Apple iPhone. Now you may spend equally in running both the campaigns but the revenue you would generate from each sale would be different by miles. Hence CPA isn’t the only thing you should be bothered about.
  5. Not Digging Deep – Often store owners as well as the advertisement agencies fail to dig deep into the numbers. They often look only at the top numbers in their campaign often missing out on clues that offer insights into emerging opportunities. Every dollar that you spend on the AdWords campaign should be accounted for when you are reviewing the performance of your campaign. This gives you better idea about the trends.

These are the few things that one needs to keep in mind while managing an AdWords campaign for an E-commerce site. Another option is to hire a white label PPC management service to handle all these issues.

Guidelines for Choosing the Right E-Commerce Website Hosting Service

E-commerce website hosting is a specific kind of website hosting platform used for hosting a website doing business online. It is different from a standard web hosting because it must have several business-specific functionalities and features to ensure smooth running of the website. Choosing the best e-commerce website hosting service provider is imperative for success in your online business endeavor.

What are the features to Consider

When it comes to e-commerce website hosting, the special features that must be considered are database support, SSL, specialized software for shopping cart management, online payment processing services, and of course security aspects. Entrepreneurs and businesses must have access to the right tools and best services that they can use to set-up and manage an online business.

All e-commerce websites must have access to the same fundamental features regardless of the size of their business or retail website. These features include a suitable domain name, the ability to process credit card payments online, and a user-friendly website. Web retailers must choose the right e-commerce website hosting service to take care of all these business essentials before they put up their business online and activate it.

Why Engage Services of an Expert

Small business owners may have a tough time finding a website hosting provider specializing in e-commerce hosting. You must have a good idea of ​​what to look for before you start your search. Choose a reputed provider with vast experience in successfully hosting e-commerce websites and at a price that fits within your budget without diluting the essential features required to manage and run your business smoothly.

You may have to decide between shared and dedicated web hosting and then plan in detail to take care of your present and future needs of your business. There are advantages as well as drawbacks of both approaches and that's why you will be better off hiring the services of an expert who can advise you on making the best possible move.

Shared Or Dedicated – Which One Is Your Choice

A shared e-commerce web server means you will be sharing the resources of the server with many other users as the hosting company will be running many websites on the same physical server. When you choose a dedicated server, you will be in complete control of server operations as your web site will be the only one on the server. You will be able to use all the resources and enjoy smooth operation.

Quite expected, the dedicated server hosting option will come at a much higher price than the shared hosting option. If you are an e-commerce business poised to take the big leap ahead, dedicated e-commerce web hosting service is highly recommended.

Managed dedicated server hosting will save you the hassle of utilizing your in-house expertise to maintain and run the server. The e-commerce web hosting company will include everything in the plan, including customization and management of the server. You will be able to tweak the services to match the specific requirements of your e-commerce business website.

Product Listing Tips For a Highly Successful E-Commerce Business

Every online seller must know that the presentation and marketing of their products / services directly impacts the sale and revenue models for their E–commerce business. Unlike a retail store, an E commerce platform cannot provide their customers an opportunity to handle the commodities physically and feel the quality. This is precisely why the significance of product listings and presentation becomes even more important. Online entrepreneurs can successfully help their online customers make an informed decision regarding their purchase by providing correct product listings.

Here’s how you can improve your product listings for your E-commerce business in 4 easy steps!

1. Provide a Detailed Product Description

Although photos are a must, do not underestimate the value add of written words. Your virtual customers will still require a useful description that offers information regarding product pricing, specifications, product care, shipping and various other essential details. The E-Commerce regulation requires that the price must be clearly mentioned. An informative product description is a great way to persuade your online customers that your product is worth purchasing.

2. Make the Product Description More Enjoyable To Read

Keep the product description a focused piece to help you make a sale, instead of lengthy creative writing. You can easily witness your sales soar by improving your online customer’s experience for your E-Commerce business. If you are not proficient with words, consider hiring a copy-writer to add polish and persuasion to your listings.

3. Include Long Tail Keywords to Make Your Products Easy To Find

If you find yourself struggling to attain good rankings in the search results, you can overcome this and get more search traffic by including long tail keywords. Four keywords or more are adequate. The longer the keyword, the simpler it is for you to rank high for that keyword in search engines. Find the most in-demand relevant keyword and expand it for longer variations. For instance, if the long tail keyword you are targeting is ‘Weight loss guide for beginners’, you can generate many more daily visitors through long tail search for fitness niche such as:

• best weight loss guide for beginners

• beginners weight loss guide

• free weight loss guide for beginners

• download weight loss guide

4. Tell A Story and Talk About the Product Benefits

In addition to mentioning the features, it is important to present the product in a way that is appealing and engaging. Customers want to know why they should buy a product, so it must clearly explain ‘what’s in it for them’. A straightforward headline and an engaging story will add personalized appeal and highlight the product benefits. The font size must be just right, and an array of colours can skilfully draw attention to the headlines and bullet points. Some brands tell the whole story behind the product so the customers know how it’s made and how it will add value to their lives.

Remember, your product listings must successfully ‘Engage, Persuade, and Sell’. Your product copy must not simply offer a product description on ecommerce platform and tell the online visitor what it does. It must persuade the readers to click on ‘BUY’.

Top 7 E-Commerce Website Design Trends of 2018

As evident by the numbers, the e-commerce market has grown tremendously over the years. Moreover, it is a fast-growing market with faster changing trends, which one needs to adapt to fetch the maximum results.

E-commerce, that once started with the sale of a handy product, now encompasses each and every product imaginable. From books to electrical equipment's – everything can be purchased online. Until a few years, back e-commerce was something that was connected using laptops and desktop, but the past few years have seen an increase in the use of mobile devices to make a purchase from e-commerce sites. This has made it necessary for online businesses to have a mobile-friendly version of their site, as a result of which mobile friendly-commerce website development is on the rise. Beside the use of mobile sites, there has also been a rapid increase in the use of mobile apps. All these factors have contributed to e-commerce becoming a major part of the retail landscape.

With the growing importance of e-commerce, let us have a look at the top 7 e-commerce website design trends for this year.

Mobile-friendly design

Considering how important mobile devices have become, it is not a surprise that a mobile-friendly website design is one of the most important e-commerce trends this year. As stated above, the rise in m-commerce has made it critical for business owners to come up with a responsive design to their site. A responsive design adapts to different mobile devices and eliminates the need to develop x no. of designs for x no. of mobile devices.

Use of templates

In the year 2014, Google launched its "Material Design" motif, which is a template used for developing Android Apps. An increasing number of e-commerce websites are now using the same design principals that "Material Design" is based on. Using the "Material Design" motif does not mean that your website will be identical to others, as there is a lot of scope for customization.

Efficient loading and layout

Efficient loading and layout of the site especially in the case of mobile devices should be a major concern among developers. This means that when a user opens the website, that what is important should load first. In the case of e-commerce websites, it is product-listing. So, instead of loading 100 products on one page, developers should focus on loading 10 products per page, and load subsequent sets of 10 if the user scrolls down further. One should note that e-commerce websites that load easily on mobile will appeal more to the users rather than the ones that take a lot of time to load.

Use of hamburger menus

Another trend this year would be the increase in the use of hamburger menus. Hamburger menus are typically defined by three horizontal lines, and they offer a convenient way to hide or reveal the menu, as necessary. This essential feature of the hamburger menu makes the site easier to navigate. The easier it is to navigate the site, the more appealing it is to the users.

Cinemographs

This year will also see an increased use of cinematographers on e-commerce websites. Cinematographers is a midway point between an animated GIF and a static image. It usually consist of an image with animated text over it, although in some cases a part of the image may itself be animated. Cinematographers are easier to load on mobile as compared to gifs. This is because when a series of GIF's are added to a page, the data requirement or the load time goes up significantly.

Adaptation

Websites adapting to different devices is no news, but in the future websites may adapt to the user themselves. For instance, as per the age or the web activity of the user, the website will be able to show some elements more prominently than the others. In other words, the website would be able to re-order itself.

The elements of the site would also shift either to the left or to the right depending on whether the user is left-handed or right-handed. For people who are color-blind, the site may also alter its color-palette.

Use of grid layout

The use of networks in e-commerce websites is one of the simplest yet effective forms of design. Grids use the available space efficiently and are also easy to navigate. A growing trend this year would be e-commerce sites adopting the grid layout but removing the borders, so allowing the grid to blend into the rest of the page.

Keeping these top 7 trends in mind, it is about time you begin the exciting journey of your e-commerce website development.

Why Magento Is Preferred Over Other E-Commerce Platforms

Running an e-commerce business isn’t an easy task and requires you to put constant efforts and to strategize to develop a strong web presence that helps you give a competitive advantage. While several significant e-commerce platforms are present on the web, Magento best suit the need to develop medium and large e-commerce sites.

The platform offers everything that is required by a Magento web developer to construct an innovative and feature rich websites or online portals. Even if, you get stuck in carrying the Magento website development, you can easily find a reliable Magento Development Company to get your job done efficiently.

Below are top reasons that make Magento a reliable e-commerce platform:

1. Built For E-commerce

Magento was created primarily to serve e-commerce web development needs. Thus, the platform comes with all the essential features that help in setting up a great online storefront. Some of the best Magento features worth considering are layered navigation, built-in shopping cart options, wish lists, multi-store and several other features.

2. Flexibility

No matter how small or large your Magento web development project may be, you can quickly build customised solutions that work in sync with your e-commerce business needs owing to the flexibility of Magento platform. However, you need to choose the right Magento support to build something perfect and unique for your business.

3. It is Mobile-Friendly

We are living in the mobile-dominated era. And so, your e-commerce site needs to be optimised for the mobile users. Since Magento comes bundled with mobile-friendly features, you don’t need to worry much about making your web portal customised to serve mobile users needs.

4. Optimized For Search Engines

Every Magento install comes packed with built-in SEO features. The Magento powered sites are capable of handling huge page traffic, page indexing, duplicate content and so on.

5. Shopping Cart Options

Shopping cart is one of the most indispensable components of any e-commerce site, as it allows users to purchase their desired products from any e-store. With Magento, you do not depend only on third-party shopping cart options and instead can use the built-in carting solutions that allow customers to make purchases from a store.

6. Make Multi-store Management

Before the advent of the Magento platform, store owners couldn’t dream of managing multiple stores on their own. But that’s not possible with the help of Magento. In short, the platform enables users to manage multiple stores from one admin panel. Furthermore, a Magento store can also be built in a distinguished manner by choosing a unique product catalogue.

7. Compatibility With Google Services

Magento has proven itself as the leading e-commerce platform by providing several services of Google search engine giant. Put it simply, the platform is compatible with all the Google services like Google Analytics, Google Checkout, etc. Using such services, you can easily track the flow of traffic on your site.

8. Provide Detailed Reports on Website Performance

Magento helps administer e-commerce sites without much hassle compared to other available e-commerce platforms. This is because detailed reports the platform provide to users regarding their website performance.

9. Offers Plenty of Useful Add-ons

Every Magento installation offers tonnes of add-ons like extensions, templates, marketing tools that helps in developing a fully functional online store. The best part is that you can add any new extension or install a new template without impacting your site’s performance.

10. It’s Free and Open Source

Lastly, the open source nature of the Magento platform enables to edit and use the code of existing websites for creating your own e-commerce site. Additionally, it’s free of cost.

Conclusion

So, here are some of the biggest reasons that make Magento a popular choice among retail businesses for putting up their e-commerce site or web portals.

Is Your E-Commerce Site Working for You?

Albeit building an e-commerce website is a herculean task, actually running it successfully and generating sales and revenues is even tougher, given the fierce competitive e-commerce global landscape. Thousand of e-commerce sites are selling almost similar products with identical features. How to convert your potential buyer, the actual buyer?

There had been a great deal of ongoing experiment and research to pitch various innovative ideas and strategies to woo the prospective buyers! Some often click; a few may not! But there are certain guidelines that can assure you that your e-commerce platform is ready to vie your competitors!

Take a look at these prudently and aptly picked crucible tactics that can help you generate revenue from your e-commerce site without expecting you to come out of your comfort zone.

Quality and Informative Content

This is the first condition, you should not compromise on. There are a number of businesses that are willing to spend a fortune on developing their online presence and marketing but turn a cold shoulder when it comes to investing in content. Make sure you are not committing this mistake! Content is always critical when it comes to online shopping. It helps exhibit, attract, inform and convert your visitor to buyer. Do not underrate the magical power of content! It is vital, and having a good supply of right, informative and thought-provoking contents is indispensable.

The content should have:

· Right pitch and tone in terms of website content

· Right blend of informative and attractive product description (not too descriptive but balanced and enticing)

· Set of FAQ about the product, for visitor for clarity about the product

· Quality images of the product, with the facility to zoom in and out

· Brief description of the company (of the product)

Do not forget to integrate a review page with rating option for your buyers to rate your products with an objective to display it on the website for other buyers to judge your products and the feedbacks provided by the buyers.

Explore Magical World of Infographics

Yes, this is true! Infographics are the buzz word in the global marketing ecosystem! It is the blend of pieces of information and graphics. A sizzling mix of right information embellished with an icing of enticing graphics can attract your prospects.

People intend to skim the content and do not actually want to read it all without it's decorated with the right quantum of graphics. What about reading some content without sketching the figure in your mind? We all do that! If you can create a pictorial narration of your product with all the right maneuvers, I am sure it will certainly grab the attention of visitors. Right sync of image and information is the key to an appropriate manifestation of any product.

Easy and User-friendly Navigation

You should minimize the number of clicks by offering user-friendly and easy e-commerce navigation. It will become easy for your visitors to understand and view your products without unnecessarily scrolling and clicking around the website. If they have arrived at your site looking for some product, it should be visible to them on the home page itself. Your site should have all the vital links ie products, categories, contact, about us and any other important informative links in your landing page ie home page. It can later be broken down into further categories and pages. The search box is yet another crucial link that should be displayed on your landing page.

Better avoid dropping down menus! It can only be seen when the cursor will hover on the product category. Our eyes move faster than a cursor and if your visitor could not find for what he / she has come to your site, he / she will quit without placing the cursor on product category! You may miss out your customers in this way. Let all your products be visible at a conspicuous place for your visitors.

The design and displayed product items should be clean and clear! Do not clutter too much of products (either graphics or content) on your landing page. Offer your visitors a great and satisfactory web experience. This will add brownie points to your website by enhancing your online visibility that initiating brand building.

Know Search Engines

I intend to draw your attention towards SEO (search engine optimization), which is the only bridge that shows your customers way to your website. SEO in itself is a tactics / mechanism that keeps evolving month after month and year after year. Every few months new guidelines are introduced by Google (the widely used search engine) and accordingly the businesses need to plan out their marketing strategies!

Your e-commerce site's design and content should be SEO friendly to be visible before a huge chunk of customers. Your designer and writer can help you develop such site that ranks better in search engines. Howsoever great your design, content or graphics could be, if it is not visible to your target market, you can not grow your business. Make sure your site is SEO friendly!

Finally, it's not all that can propel your e-commerce online presence and sales but there are several other associated factors like quality of products, after sale service, connectivity with your customers via social media platform etc. that can help your e-commerce reach new benchmarks of success!

Synopsis

E-commerce is the latest method of conducting online business but not without following certain guidelines! Most importantly you need to embrace the technology solutions that can enable you to grow your business! I'm sure your e-commerce site will rock!

Freelance Web Designer | WordPress Developer | Hong Kong