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Archive for the ‘Shopify’ Category

Best Payment Gateways for Dropshipping as well as E-commerce Stores in 2021

May 24th, 2021

In a rapidly rising digital marketplace, e-commerce as well as dropshipping is in great buzz. With the increasing hype of dropshipping, cashless economies are now prevailing. Simple payment methods like PayPal are available across countries. These payment methods can be integrated with every e-commerce platform whether you have a Shopify Website Design or Magento E-commerce Development. Thus, most of the online marketers are getting handy for an entire new kickoff in dropshipping.

What’s An E-commerce Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway is an essential element that promotes any online transaction between your business and your clients. Selling items, as well as services, are only possible with an integrated payment gateway. Payment gateways link a brand with users and draw much of the UX. Ranging in complexity, both e-commerce, as well as dropshipping stores, rely on these gateways for financially feasible operations. In fact, dropshipping businesses require a payment gateway to fulfill transactions for selling products from manufacturers.

An e-commerce payment gateway is liable for all transactions of the store. Users just need to enter their card details on the payment gateway page after adding items into the cart. So, the payment gateway will then deduct the amount from the user’s card and transfer it to the dropshipper’s bank account after charging some transaction fees. Whether your store is built with Magento E-commerce Development or Shopify Website Design, payment gateways can be integrated with every store.

Why e-commerce Payment Gateways are Vital in Dropshipping?

Dropshipping stores work similarly to e-commerce stores. The only variation is they don’t sell goods from their inventory directly. Thus, to sell goods of manufacturers, they need a payment gateway to carry out online transactions. Different providers provide different types of payment gateways. You just need to choose the right one.

For instance, in the USA, PayPal is the most common e-commerce payment gateway. In Canada, Payoneer, as well as Stripe, are mostly opted gateways. So, while addressing a specific country, choose a payment gateway that is already trending over there. Different e-commerce development platforms such as Bigcommerce, Magento E-commerce Development, or Shopify Website Design leverage multiple payment gateways integrations.

Best Payment Gateways for Dropshipping Stores

Here’s a curated list of the top-notch payment gateways that dropshipping businesses use the most. You will get in-depth details about the supported countries, and the transaction fee charged by these payment methods.

PayPal is the most widely used payment gateway for e-commerce stores across the continents. It’s the most trusted payment gateway in over 203 countries. It supports all major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express card, Citibank card, etc. To start dropshipping transactions, you will need to set up a business PayPal account. It charges no transaction fee.

Stripe is a US-based gateway that’s accessible in over 25 countries. It facilitates all premier credit cards. But, it’s mostly accessible in Canada, Australia, and the UK. Like other major gateways, it offers WooCommerce integration as well. It charges no fee.

2Checkout is another renowned gateway that’s handy in nearly 87 countries. It supports all major credit cards including MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club, American Express card, and more. It’s being used in many third-world countries in combination with another payment gateway. It leverages no charges on transactions.

Authorize.net is presently accessible in nearly 33 countries. It’s one of the oldest as well as most trustworthy payment gateways. It also facilitates multiple extensions for smooth integration with WooCommerce stores. Authorize.net charges the lowest fee 2.90 + $0.30 per transaction for e-commerce as well as dropshipping stores.

Now we have Skrill, a payment option feasible in more than 40 countries. It costs 1.9% checkout transfer fees. It also provides an official extension for integration with WooCommerce and Magento E-commerce Development dropshipping stores.

WePay is an online payment method for dropshippers who want to add a seamless as well as swift payment gateway to their store. Though WePay is a custom payment solution, it currently offers a limited number of payment options only.

Google Pay is the most reliable option with Google security for e-commerce store owners in western areas. Most users in the USA and European countries use Google wallet for adding money. As they shop online, they can pay hassle-free with the Google Pay checkout option. Not only is this method faster than other gateways, but also much more trustworthy. Google checkout also charges a meager amount since the payment holder also has a bank account.

Wrapping Up

A payment gateway is a crucial aspect of any e-commerce business. However, choosing the right one is a bit difficult task. So, just test with multiple payment methods and pick the one that works quite well. If you are just starting, go with trendy payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout to reduce the risk of losing potential customers to your web stores. Reach out to Clap Creative for in-depth assistance with payment gateways. We offer top-notch e-commerce development with Shopify Website Design, WooCommerce, and Magento Development Services.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento, Shopify

Is Shopify Website Design for E-commerce secure?

May 18th, 2021

Shopify is a fully-hosted cloud-based SAAS service employed by over 600k merchants worldwide. It has strongly established itself as the leading SAAS platform across the world. Our developers at Clap Creative, a top Shopify Development Company have frequently rated Shopify as the simplest e-commerce platform for 5 years in terms of usability as well as scalability. However, a question arises that how secure is Shopify Website Design for e-commerce? So, let’s take a glance at what makes an e-commerce site secure and what’s the role of Shopify.

Challenges in E-commerce Security

At first, it’s crucial to know what makes a website secures. Particularly let’s observe what it is that makes an e-commerce store secure, and Shopify Website Design is considered to be secure. There’re 5 key things we need to look at when thinking about site security:

Credit Card Details

Payment security is the foremost priority. When your client pays you online, they have to fill a payment form like a credit card number and CVV. Usually, users make 50% of payments on a store through credit cards only. Tokenized payment gateways don’t store the credit card details on the server. However, many other gateways still feed credit card details to the server. In these cases, the server managing the transactions must be fully secured as well as PCI compliant so that users can shop safely.

Shopify is very secure for Credit Card Processing. It’s PCI level 1 compliant since the beginning. It implies that it sticks to the highest standards of server compliance for secure payment processing. Thus, users can pay and you can accept the payments without worrying about credit card security breaches. It’s one of the main perks of Shopify over self-hosted solutions.

User Data

Along with storing credit as well as debit cards, you also capture a lot of details about your buyers during checkout. This user data is generally saved in a database. Data fields include name, address, email, items ordered, passwords, etc. As a store owner, it’s your duty to keep the user data secure.

Shopify Website Design offers security for User Data. Shopify has taken plenty of measures to secure user data in the past years since the launch of GDPR in Europe. These measures involve limiting the login attempts and assuring that only app developers have access to the data they require to run the apps to avoid data leakage. Thus, user data is safe as well as secure on Shopify.

Fraud Prevention

It’s common these days that people can easily place fraudulent orders with a store. If it’s happening in your store, you’ll be losing a huge amount hand over fist as most popular stores don’t have time to manually review all orders. Once fraudsters get along an easy target, they’ll hit you strongly and before the fraud is identified. Thus, you need to take effective measures to handle fraud transactions to prevent your business from risks.

However, Shopify Website Design from a leading Shopify Development Company like Clap Creative can save you from frauds. Shopify has an outstanding fraud protection system to flag doubtful orders. Thus, you can manually review the orders before processing them in Shopify. You can also turn your orders to be manually or automatically fulfilled. So, you have full control over the entire setup. Therefore, you can check suspicious orders before dispatching.

SSL

SSL is crucial for websites. It’s not only a basic need for processing online payments securely but also prevents your site from malicious attacks. SSL is vital for every page on your site. Sites storing payment details in an insecure way are prone to lose user’s trust as well as their brand’s value among users.

However, all Shopify equips all stores with SSL throughout. A good Shopify Development Company will avoid loading an insecure script so that you’ll have SSL working fine in your store. The price of an SSL certificate is inclusive of your monthly Shopify fees at no additional charges.

To Conclude

Shopify is a high-end secure platform. It’s far more secure than its competitors such as Magento as well as Woocommerce. Being PCI level one compliant and having a dedicated team for security, makes Shopify the best option for e-commerce. Clap Creative, a renowned Shopify Development Company is very skillful in implementing all the features of Shopify Website Design in your store, making it secure as well as user-friendly.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

How to Use Shopify Website Design for A non-e-commerce website or A Service Business?

May 14th, 2021

Many people think that Shopify e-commerce is the only benefit of this platform. However, along with selling products online, you can also offer services. It implies whether you’re a copywriter, a teacher, or an architect, you can establish your business online and start making sales. Thus, Shopify Website Design is an all-rounder to promote any type of business online. Whether your products are physical or service-based, Shopify is the ace selling platform on the web. It’s pocket-friendly as well as beginner-centric. It also features ample support through Shopify experts and a friendly community of sellers.

Though Shopify was initially launched as a platform for product-based businesses and operates very well for businesses. However, there are many key tips as well as secrets that make Shopify a fairly great platform for service businesses. So, here’re some tips to leverage Shopify Website Design for your service business.

Using Shopify As a Service Business

Shopify can perform quite well for businesses that need an online catalog of their products but don’t certainly want to allow online buying. We, at Clap Creative, a leading Shopify Development Company have designed several sites, where Shopify’s collection and product capability have been integrated to showcase a business’s services and products but no real orders are made online.

Selling Your Services as Products

Most of the services that you provide are actually products, just not in the typical, materialistic sense. Instead of trading physical items, you are trading your knowledge as well as skills to users who need to use them. Shopify can help many service-based businesses including consultants, accountants, freelancers, designers, and everyone else! If you have a typical product business but are looking to attempt out new things such as appointment settings, product set-ups, order delivery, or support services, you can do all these things and even more with Shopify. Shopify Website Design through a good Shopify Development Company allows a constant flow of revenue, as they usually sell vital services that people always need.

Utilize Shopify Apps

There are also ample useful apps available on the Shopify app store to further boost the performance of service-centric companies. Here’s a few of them:

  • Globo Request a Quote App

This app is great for service quotes, or businesses that sell ready-to-order items. Instead of having the typical “add to cart” as well as “checkout” options, your prospective users can opt for a quote request. Thus, they will then fill out a form mentioning their needs, and you can drop a quote back in a fancy as well as a customizable email template.

  • Book That App

This app allows you an operational as well as responsive bookings calendar. It permits your users to hold back times without using third-party apps. Thus, they can’t get away from your website. This is great for all appointments as well as consultation services.

  • Events Calendar App

This app offers you a fantastic events calendar to display on your site or web store. You can select from multiple layouts and sync them with external calendars from Google, Outlook, and Eventbrite. It’s a terrific option for consultants who hold webinars, or dance as well as gym businesses that offer open classes. You can add info, photos, and links to each event so that users can find it all in one place.

  • Making It Work for You

There are ample other cool Shopify perks that present it as the perfect platform for everyone irrespective of their business niche. This involves dynamic templates, beautiful designs, smooth credit card payments, and user-friendly UI for both products as well as service businesses. Moreover, it can all be customized as per your needs.

To Sum Up

Shopify is the perfect platform for most businesses, whether they’re selling physical products or services. If you’re not sure if your business is suitable for e-commerce, you can contact Clap Creative, a renowned Shopify Development Company to get assistance with Shopify Website Design solutions. We offer affordable Shopify Website Design, 24X7 support, and training services. To find out more get in touch today!

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

How E-commerce Web Design Help Web Stores To Uplift Ordinary Products and Brands

March 22nd, 2021

The E-commerce industry is a highly promising business with great returns. The e-commerce businesses have seen huge growth during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is because of transport restrictions. Thus, online shopping is the only alternative if the local market is unavailable due to the lockdown. However, even with a flourishing E-commerce business or a well-established E-commerce Web Design company, being able to sell all products is very challenging. Although some products might be highly useful yet they may fail to reach that high standard. That’s where the image of big brands becomes so important.

Let’s take the example of Apple. Apple’s bold as well as sharp marketing strategy has been emblematic for decades. Apple usually rolls out a slight update or a similar product with just a slight change in the feature, yet yields huge sales just because it’s Apple. Thus, a brand’s image plays an important role in product selling. Some E-commerce Web Design tactics can drive the sale of normal products and the brand’s image.

Elaborating Product Descriptions

The selling rate of products is directly proportional to their usefulness as well as after-sales support. In the e-commerce sector, the after-sales service is usually handled by the seller. This imparts trust in the consumers, whereas the usability of a product is a more abstract matter. Products that have useful functions have high orders online. However, those that do not have real benefits can be optimized for orders by elaborating the descriptions. Thus, the compelling description serves the readers with better awareness about the product and its uses.

For instance, in a menu for a small restaurant, you’ll see just sober item descriptions such as “Cheesy Chicken burger with a large drink” it’s fine if you’re quite hungry and not in the mood to go very far. But, it’s not at all interesting for a little choosy people. On the other hand, in a rich lounge, the same item could have a very compelling description as “A crispy ground chicken patty seasoned with sauces and smoked paprika with a melting cheese slice packed in a soft bun, served with a large exotic drink”. Thus, how you describe an item matters to increase sales.

Writing SEO-Oriented Content

Online marketing is nothing without Search Engine Optimization. SEO practices in E-commerce Web Development involve publishing informative as well as appealing blogs about the products on the website. Some articles also compare the products using infographics and images, giving detailed reviews to help the buyers. Ecommerce Web Design companies know the impact of video and graphical content so they also publish product videos. Moreover, writing a piece of FAQs about the product that you want to sell can bring relevant traffic and increase the sales rate.

Some products have enough hype in the market, so they are preferred by the users due to their brand image. However, some products need more awareness in the market to influence the users.SEO is the only way that helps a product or its brand get the hype in the market. Thus, E-commerce web design with SEO from a leading Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento Development Company can trigger the sale of each product in the listing.

Making Bundles of Tempting Deals

Customers showing interest in a specific product will surely buy it. If a customer needs one product, then he might need other related items too. But, sometimes customers are not mentally prepared to checkout with the new items as well. Thus, providing a neat bundle of related items can be a good approach for increasing sales, especially for those items that do not easily get hype among users. Moreover, adding suggestions of some items during checkout may also work to an extent.

Let’s say you want to sell a range of grooming products for men. Suppose you have a beard shampoo, beard oil, beard cream, razor, comb, and a pair of scissors from a new brand, and none of these items have that level of sales. So, there’s a way to add these items in suggestions for the users buying other similar stuff. But, the more influencing way is to add the items into a grooming kit for men with 10% off the whole price. Seeing all the items in a bundle with a discount will surely change the mindset of the customers. Thus, selling less inspiring items becomes easy as a bundle.

Creating detailed as well as Unique Brand Profiles

Besides improving product sales, boosting the brands can also escalate customer engagement and, thus, sales rate. Presently, most brands have their persona, a unique logo, and a tagline. An instinct of uniqueness attracts people to explore the brand more. However, some companies are not well-established brands but have an excellent range of products. So, creating detailed profiles of such a brand can be a great move to attract users. It also helps to raise the brand’s and its products’ market worth

Although an exclusive brand profile adds up to the sales rate in an e-commerce business yet you need to focus on the after-sales service. This will blow trust for the brand in the potential customers. As per various e-commerce Web Design companies, such a marketing scheme will help you with the sales in the short as well as long run.

Summing Up

Having a good e-commerce business can help you come out with flying colors. However, using the proper marketing strategies can help you get the best output in sales. As an ambitious e-commerce company, selling only high in demand products will not help you excel. So, you also have to sell less attention-grabbing products. With the help of Clap Creative, a leading company for Web Design Los Angeles, you can get help for increasing product sales and improving the brand’s image.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Internet Marketing, Magento, Shopify

5 Best Shopify Apps of 2021 for Boosting Store Sales

March 3rd, 2021

As Shopify has become the popular choice for eCommerce store development, the number of applications being developed for this platform is also ever-increasing. My focus is mainly on the apps that help your store boost its sales. If you are like most eCommerce business owners that have invested in Shopify development as the platform for their website, you are probably also hired Shopify eCommerce SEO experts to bring traffic on your site. However, all that effort will be for nothing if that traffic does not convert.

Below are the top 5 apps of 2021 that can help your Shopify store increase its sales –

  1. Infinite Options

This app lets you customize your product pages beyond the 3 customizations per page limitation. This is a totally free app that lets you add more product choices per page, hence increasing your chances of selling more to your website’s visitors.  You can check out this app here – https://apps.shopify.com/custom-options

  1. Testimonial Showcase

This app is the perfect way to build trust in the minds of your website visitors. This app lets you showcase the testimonials and reviews of your customers on your eCommerce site. When your new visitors check out the positive reviews you have received, your visitors are more likely to purchase from you.

You get several customization options that let you decide how many testimonials to display, the colours you want to use, various layouts to choose from.  You can find this app here – https://apps.shopify.com/evm-testimonials-showcase

  1. Aftership

One of the reasons for refunds and charge backs for your products is shipping related problems. That is why my next pick is Aftership. This is a free app that lets eCommerce site owners track their product shipping in the following way –

  •    It auto tracks shipments from over 350+ courier companies
  •    Shows the tracking result on your store
  •    Notifies your customers when the product is out for delivery when it is expected to be delivered or any exceptions that may apply

Check out this app here – https://apps.shopify.com/aftership

  1. Product Upsell

This one is a paid app but is also the highest selling app currently available. It is an excellent tool for increasing your sales. As the name suggests, this app lets you upsell to customers when they buy something on your website. For example, if a customer adds a smart phone to his or her cart, this app will show related products like back covers or screen guards that can be purchased with that phone.  This statistically improves your chances of selling more products to the same customer.

You can get this app here – https://apps.shopify.com/product-upsell

  1. Persistent Cart

Cart abandonment is a major challenge for eCommerce stores. Persistent Cart is an app that can help you reduce cart abandonment. This is how it works – when your customers visit your site and add items to their cart; this app remembers the entire list of items. When your customers exit the store without purchasing and return to your store using any other device even, this app automatically places all these items back into their cart.  Try this app for yourself and you will notice a noticeable reduction in your cart abandonment.

Check out this app here – https://apps.shopify.com/cart-persistify

Conclusion:  These are just a few of the apps that I can recommend for your eCommerce store. However, there are several other good apps that solve various purposes like SEO for Shopify or help with Shopify support and maintenance. By combining those apps with the ones suggested here, you can ensure a boost in the productivity and profitability of your Shopify eCommerce store.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

How Shopify Web Designers Help Businesses With Dropshipping?

March 3rd, 2021

Dropshipping is an approach to sell products without having a warehouse storing the inventory. Dropshipping lets you sell products, buying them from a supplier that owns the inventory and ships the item for you. Shopify web designers allow you to handle the price that your clients see in your Shopify store, while just paying the wholesale rate to the supplier. Dropshipping model follows a simple procedure.

When a customer places an order online, you purchase the items from a third-party and then ship the product directly to your customer. There is no need for an inventory. Thus, a seller doesn’t have to deal with the products directly. However, products are the most vital part of a dropshipping business. The quality of products that you opt to sell will decide the future of your online store.

Thus, the Trust of the customers in the things you sell is necessary for your dropshipping business to excel. If you have a dropshipping business as a side business, then suppliers can ship your products to the customers directly on your behalf. This saves your time and allows you to focus on your main business as well. These suppliers could be manufacturers, warehouse owners, wholesalers, or just wholesale shop owners.

Shopify web designers make it easy to find suppliers through Shopify’s online marketplace Oberlo, and other dropshipping platforms. But, in the standard retail model, you need to have a full stock of the products only then you can show them in stock in your online store. Thus, you have to handle the products yourself from stocking them to fulfilling the orders.

Dropshipping on Shopify

Many businesses rely on Shopify for dropshipping because Shopify web designers have made it easy to set up. A common approach for dropshipping on Shopify is to seek out a supplier using Shopify’s marketplaces or Shopify app. These apps connect you as well as your store to various suppliers around the world. Shopify not only allows you to start your dropshipping business but also provides you the supplies through Oberlo. It’s a marketplace developed by Shopify Designers that helps business owners find products at wholesale prices to sell.

With Oberlo, you can browse various wholesale stores to import the products directly to your Oberlo linked with your Shopify store with a single click. As soon as a customer buys a product, you’ll be able to complete their order through the Oberlo. Shopify features the flexibility of location in dropshipping. You can run dropshipping business from anywhere with an internet connection to communicate with suppliers as well as customers easily.

The Bottom Line of Dropshipping

Dropshipping is very easy to get started if you are a beginner. Running an online business is much easier with Shopify where you don’t have to handle physical products. Perhaps, the biggest benefit of dropshipping is that it’s possible to launch an eCommerce store without having to invest in and handle the inventory. In dropshipping model, you don’t have to buy a product unless you’ve already made the sale and got paid by the client. Thus, you can offer a wide range of products to the customers, since you don’t have to purchase the products for selling.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

Skyrocket your online store growth with Shopify plus web designing

February 26th, 2020

Today, cutting-edge technologies are giving merchants ample opportunities to discover how they can diversify their mainstream business methodologies. With e-commerce being on the front-foot, brands now are able to match the exceeding expectations of customers.

Furthermore, a report demonstrates that eCommerce is expected to grow double by 2023 to more than $6.5 billion.
However, the only challenge begins the moment you have to choose the best among all e-commerce development platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Weebly and many others. But you don’t have to panic! Shopify is here to save you. Many folks on hearing about Shopify web design think that it works great for small and medium enterprises only. Well, that’s just half a story!

Here if, Shopify supports the small-scaled ventures, its upgraded version Shopify plus assists large-scaled enterprises. Let us take a look at both of the platforms altogether to discover the things in the right perspective. Below you will get to know about different products and services you can sell on Shopify that may give you an idea for your business to grow –

Physical and Digital products

The hand-made products, manufactured ones and also the ones you have made digitally such as Lightroom presets, email templates, e-books.

Consultations and Memberships

Shopify allows you to sell online or personal consultation services whether you are a life coach or an author. Moreover, you can create member-only services for your customers to have access to your content.

Ticketed Experiences

Shopify gives a great opportunity to sell tickets for businesses encompassing travel or adventure services, workshops and many more. If you are an artist running a networking or a collaborative event, Shopify would help you do that too on your website.

While Shopify web design enables everything that you need for the seamless customization of your e-store, Shopify plus eCommerce platform is always a step ahead. For instance, when it comes to shipping through Shopify, you would get flat rates and calculated results. But with Shopify plus, you could access a shipping script to configure more precise rates which means you can modify your shipping options, cart content or even minimum order value. Precisely, Shopify plus gives you great control, both in set-up and customization without much hassle of conventional strategies.

Read on to observe the splendid features of Shopify plus: –

Web design and Templates

The templates for Shopify plus web designing can also be available in different languages that would be further useful in reaching customers from several locations. The basic level customization for your site can be done through the Shopify web editor. By uploading a list of your products, where you want them to be displayed, and divide them into their respective categories. There are plenty of guides out there that can show you how to play with Liquid (Shopify’s theme) to change the appearance and functionality of your e-store. One utmost feature of Shopify Plus for web design is that you get your own dedicated launch manager. They’re there to make sure that you can integrate your new website entirely into Shopify. Shopify plus also let you edit your checkout.

Multichannel Selling

Shopify Plus is the form of ultra-modern eCommerce platform, specially designed for high-volume enterprise brands. Its core advantage is that it provides more control, customization, and automation for your standard commerce setup, combined with faster speeds while covering multiple channels. Shopify Plus is infinitely reliable because the solution is constantly monitored and upgraded to ensure maximum efficiency and robustness. Shopify Plus makes it simple to sell your products on all major marketplaces and cover social networks. Its multichannel capabilities boost customer engagement, improve sales and enhance brand efficiency.

Among many other benefits, the new additions in Shopify Plus that will boost the efficacy of Shopify web development would be as mentioned below –

CHECKOUT APP EXTENSIONS COMING

There will be no more routing to external checkouts in the new version. The new checkout app extension will enable merchants to purchase your app through Shopify’s checkout.

EASIER AND CHEAPER FULFILMENT PROCESS

The Shopify Fulfilment network includes the centers across the globe and has a smart inventory. That optimizes fulfillment for all merchants and keeps delivery costs down.

SHOPIFY POS and PLUS NEWS

Shopify user community will now be able to sell in multiple languages and currencies, thanks to the new translations’ API. As a Shopify developer, you should adjust your apps so they can work with this new feature.
The latest Shopify plus developer tool is the Shopify App CLI, that generates code automatically with a command-line interface tool. It also allows you to generate samples such as products, orders, and test stores. Furthermore, there will be…

  • New libraries coming to GraphQL, with ten most popular libraries (Shopify_api gem, Shopify_python_api) being fully compatible.
  • There would be a developer preview environment available.
  • Shopify developers can also submit their new apps in more languages (up to seven).

Summing up

Shopify web developers as well as Shopify Plus web designers can really benefit from these additions in this platform. Whereas, when it comes to set-up an all-new online store and you do not want to face any technicalities, Shopify web development services with updated features and experience in the eCommerce industry will prove to be beneficial. After all, moving business online should be one time but fruitful investment and you cannot afford to take any chance with your business. Make your business reachable and hassle-free through Shopify web designing.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

How to Successfully Launch Your Shopify Store in 7 Easy Steps

July 4th, 2018

Preparing to launch a new online store can get as exciting as it can get stressful both at the same time. How? Because of a number of potential things that could go wrong during the launch process. But if you are planning to launch your store on Shopify, you will get a free trial period of 14 days (along with countless other benefits) which, though doesn’t sound much, but is more than enough to get you going. For e.g. you can use this time to build up your store idea, product information, a compelling storyline etc.

Before You Start:

After the trial period, you can choose the Shopify web development plan that best suits your needs. Currently, the three plans are available at $29, $79 and $299 per month. For beginners, the basic plan at $29 is more than adequate to suffice all their retailing requirements. Now, apart from choosing the pricing plan, you also need to select the sales channels of your choice such as Facebook, Pinterest etc. along with whether you want to sell online or in-person.

First Step: Sign Up

  • This initial step requires signing up for your Shopify account which basically involves-
  • Password protecting your account
  • Providing a name for your store
  • Adding your business name, address and billing information
  • Adding your custom domain name.

Here you will get two options while adding a domain name, you can either buy a new domain from Shopify itself (which will normally cost $14.99 for a dot-com domain) or can easily connect one you have already purchased elsewhere.

Second Step: Themes

This step involves organizing the way your store will appear to your potential customers. You can initiate by exploring the free themes (or can go for the paid ones if you aren’t satisfied) available as part of your Shopify package, thereafter you can customize your theme (if you feel the need) though most themes work just as fine on their own.

Third Step: Products

This is an important step related to loading and organizing your first products along with learning about the Shopify product listing features. And for your convenience, I have broken it down into mini-steps to follow-

  • Use good quality images and optimize them for faster loading.
  • Your retail pricing should be reasonable and intelligent.
  • Use clear product descriptions (aim for writing a unique description for every product, not the one provided by the manufacturer).
  • A basic understanding of how Shopify uses categories to differentiate products.
  • Duplicate well-published product pages to add products faster.

Fourth Step: Payment

This is a crucial pre-launch step that involves connecting your payment gateways way before you start driving any traffic to your webstore. Here PayPal (by plugging in your PayPal account details in the dashboard) and Shopify Payments (activate it by connecting a bank account in the payment section) are sufficient to provide you with enough options to cover this step. Manage your overall tax related settings at this point as well.

A Tip: Do a test transaction by going through the checkout process to ensure everything is functioning properly with accepting payments.

Fifth Step: Pages

Next step includes creating at least 7 standard static pages apart from the ones Shopify template will automatically create for every one of your added products. These pages are-

  1. About Page
  2. Contact Page
  3. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
  4. Shipping Details
  5. Return Policy
  6. Terms of Service
  7. Private Policy

It may seem like a lot of work but is very easy once you get started. Simply, click on ‘Online Store’ in the side menu, choose ‘Pages’ and then click ‘Add Pages’.

A Tip: Do not copy paste other people’s ideas into these pages but write your own content, hiring a professional copywriter at this point might be a good investment.

Sixth Step: Blog

Now, this step is totally dedicated to writing and managing blog related content on your website, so ensure before the launch that you have some launch-specific blog content added to your website. You can do this by clicking on ‘Online Store’ icon on the left side menu, then choose ‘Blog Posts’ followed by ‘Create Blog Posts’ and write your articles therein. These blogs will not only make your website more attractive but can also improve your site’s ranking among search engines through targeted keywords.

Seventh Step: Launch

This final step involves devising a launch plan even if it’s a small one. It includes cold emailing at least 5-10 online publications informing them about the launch of your website. Also, announce this launch on your personal Facebook page and your immediate circle. Another effective way is publishing several guest posts on several websites on the day of your release.

Closing Thoughts:

Shopify is one of the best available options when it comes to setting up your online store as fast as possible. It can work wonders even for those who are not familiar with the technicalities of this field. Shopify provides a smooth interface along with a super easy navigation system to its clients. You can also avail the benefits of its 24/7 customer service available through live-chat to help you along the way.

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Categories: Shopify

What’s New in Shopify Website Design in 2018

February 20th, 2018

E-Commerce trends are something that creates fundamental, lasting changes that reshape not just how people shop, but how they live. Particularly, Shopify website design trends, leave behind a residual effect that makes them worthy of the hype. And it’s justifiable as well if you look at the edge it gives to its clients on various levels.

One of them being, Shopify merchants don’t have to leave as their businesses grow bigger (unlike other traditional software in the market) as they are not dependent on the next biggest company to upgrade to get more advanced services during their growth period. Apart from this, you already must be aware of (assuming you are a user) the countless other benefits it bestows upon its users along with massive updates every year that are nothing short of icing on the cake.

Speaking of updates, 2017 was considered an important year for Shopify users as it brought with it some important upgrades such as merging of service design and development, mass disruption to foundational internet services, the rise of diversity Shopify designers, design sprints etc. So, we can safely assume, expectations from Shopify this year will be sky-high as well.

Let’s take a sneak peek at what Shopify has to offer us this year-

  • Illustrations Taking Center Stage

Illustrations work as a brilliant and versatile addition that add fun to your Shopify website through visual elements. This year more and more illustrations will be incorporated into header images, custom iconography, animated visuals and bespoke fonts. Apart from this, unique styles of illustrations will be available to create an entire brand identity.

  • More Organic and Oblique Shapes

Web and mobile design have so long been dominated by sharp-edged and right-angled UI based cards, but things are about to change this year for Shopify users such as primary elements taking more organic shapes, backgrounds will be abounded with almost amoeboid blobs of color, dramatic diagonals etc. Shopify sites will also see double down on straight lines to mix effectively with these organic and spherical shapes.

  • Animation is King

This year, Shopify web pages will not only present us with information but allow us to interact with, and impact that information via the heavy use of animation which, as you know, have the potential to make any experience overwhelming, esp. for those with cognitive disabilities. Even subtle animation can help ensure users don’t miss out on important info by guiding their attention to the right content at the right time.

  • Scrolling on Different Levels

Scrolling, as we know, is the sliding movement of webpage either vertically or horizontally. Till last year, the primary focus was mostly on keeping the essential information above the fold. However, because of users viewing content on all screen sizes, the fold has become more difficult to define recently. 2018 may bring new styles of scrolling to enhance the greater level of interaction to the customer journey.

  • Floating Navigation Menus

Till now conversion focussed sites or those with sprawling menus rely solely on fixed navigation due to its ease of constantly keeping navigation controls at user’s fingertips, simplifying the overall experience. Shopify users this year can expect a visual detachment of navigation controls from rest of the site design which will follow you throughout the site, reinforcing the feeling of navigation as a global object rather than part of any one page.

  • Immersive Multimedia Longform

Since long-form content is powered by a CMS, it only seems viable to publish long text field on the page. But recently, the concept of ‘featured stories’ is on the rise again telling riveting, lengthy stories by combining custom layouts with copy carefully tailored to the presentation thus enriching the narrative with video, sound and much more.

  • Video Implementation

As we have already learned above about the role a moving image or animation play in capturing the attention of a potential customer. Featuring content such as story-telling, advertising, and modern-day photography through videos encourages a greater level of engagement. Facebook, Google, and twitter too view videos more favorably.

  • Microinteractions Everywhere

Animation, as we know, is pretty easy to add on websites nowadays. But a new type of user focussed animation called micro interactions is slowly gaining its way from mobile apps to websites. Microinteractions are animated responses to user behaviors that activate in a realistic way when users click a button or hover to animate a drop-down.

  • Variable Fonts

Today, the massive abundance and diversity of gorgeous typefaces available on the web make it much harder to believe how earlier we have managed to create all our textual content with just a handful of typefaces. The trend of using variable fonts this year which are basically single fonts behaving like multiple fonts is sky-high and as expected, Shopify is going to get a lot better than its earlier types.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned trends for Shopify web design have already started to leave their impression on the web. Lookout for these design techniques to create a positive brand perception to attract more and more customers this year.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Shopify

Comparing the Benefits Between Magento and Shopify

January 17th, 2018

Location, as we know, have always played a major role in determining the success of any company. Nobody wants to set their shop in a secluded area devoid of any customers. Similar logic applies while you try to set an online store but with a minor difference, you have to choose an e-commerce platform rather than an actual location.

Choosing an e-commerce platform may appear to be a minor difference but in no way, it is to be mistaken for a minor problem. What’s the point of establishing a nice-looking online store brimming to the top with a variety of products where customers cannot find you? It gets, even more, tougher due to the vast majority of options available (each claiming to be no.1) to pick from.

But if you look at things more closely, you will realise that there are very few platforms on top such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Big Cartel etc. among which the main competition is actually between two e-commerce giants namely Magento and Shopify. Let’s learn a bit more about them.

Magento, originally developed by Varien Inc. in 2007 and currently owned by eBay, is an open source e-commerce platform written in PHP. Magento website development services are currently available in two versions namely Community (which is free with basic features) and Enterprise (which is paid with advanced features) edition.

Shopify, on the other hand, was launched by Snowdevil founders in 2006 by Daniel Weinand, Scott Lake and chiefly Tobias Lütke as an API (or Application Programming Interface) platform. It is basically a cloud-based e-commerce store platform written in LIQUID which enables the Shopify web design and customization to be extremely user-friendly.

Now that you are aware of them, let’s dive in a bit deeper and learn about their various benefits and what distinguishes them.

  1. Popularity Ratio

 The first thing any client will look for is the popularity ratio and here Shopify seems to hold an upper hand by hosting more than 2,40,000 websites on its domain with Magento slightly behind with 1,60,000 sites to claim its own.

But this tells more about the businesses that own them, not efficiency ratio as Shopify is mostly popular among small businesses whereas Magento is more suitable for medium or large companies.

  1. Web design/Customization

 Both Shopify and Magento provide you with the facility to build your websites from scratch choosing from various themes available which are highly responsive with robust customization capabilities.

The difference lies in the usability, where Shopify works on the drag and drop philosophy enabling easy theme customization, Magento with the help of Bluefoot (a CMS and page builder module) enable clients to build a uniquely designed website.

  1. Apps and Add-ons

When it comes to flexibility, Magento is the clear winner. Shopify with a little over 100 apps and Add-ons comes nowhere near Magento which provides more than 5000 extensions to its clients owning no doubt to the open source nature of the platform.  

  1. Expenses

Since it’s an open source network, the Community edition of Magento is completely free to use and its enterprise edition costs vary according to company’s needs. However, hosting 3rd party services may cost a little.

Shopify, on the other end, works on SAAS (software-as-a-service). Initially, you get a free trial period of 14 days after which it ranges between $29 to $179. Though you may save on hosting as Shopify is self-hosted.

  1. Payment Getaway Options

Shopify offers its users a smooth experience when it comes to payment options. With 70 payment getaways, Shopify clearly holds a major advantage here over Magento which offers far less to its users though it can be increased via 3rd party add-ons.

  1. Inventory Management

 Here you will have to choose according to your requirement as both offers bulk upload features with add and edit options. You can add unlimited products on Shopify with its monthly plans with only one exception i.e. starter pack, which costs $14 and will limit your stored items to 25 only.

With Magento you don’t have to worry about product management as it allows virtually unlimited products but faces another issue, it weighs down your site’s loading time which you won’t find in Shopify.

  1. SEO Management/Driving Traffic

When it comes to generating traffic, SEO plays a very important role as it drives more organic traffic to your stores via search engines. Both platforms are extremely SEO friendly and provide extensive SEO capabilities, however, Magento ranks slightly higher in a study of SEO scores with Shopify closely behind.

  1. Speed and Performance

The speed with which any website loads determines its success rate. If one compares Magento 1.0 with Shopify, Shopify is the clear winner, but things have changed with the coming of Magento 2.0 which is incredibly fast compared to its earlier version. 

  1. User experience

When it comes to user experience, a lot of people seem more satisfied with Shopify than Magento. Even the admin panel of Shopify requires no advance knowledge and easy to maintain whereas, with Magento 1, clients need professional help due to its complexity of setting up their store. But Magento 2.0 with its user-friendly admin panel and readymade extensions have resolved that issue which Magento 1.0 had.  

Conclusion

It’s hard to make a clear assumption as to who should be the winner as both have their advantages and disadvantages. But what we can gather from the available information is that both Shopify and Magento provide excellent hosting platforms best suited according to the customer’s needs. So choose wisely.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento, Shopify
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