Posts Tagged ‘e-commerce development company’

20 Must Have Essential Features for Your E-Commerce Store

July 14th, 2018

Have you ever wondered why some e-commerce sites barely scrape the surface while others generate high revenues month after month? Is there some secret recipe for their success that only they know about? Well, as the saying goes, “Winners don’t do different things, they just do things differently”. For e.g. they start with covering up their fundamentals such as UX driven design, fast and reliable hosting, SSL certificate etc. Next, they focus on features that make your website easy, fast, secure and visually appealing.

But I understand you have a lot going up your sleeves and doesn’t have much time for exploring these issues. Don’t worry though, you are not alone in this. Here I have covered 20 such features to boost the sales of your online store. You can either try these if you are more of a DIY person or can take the help of any E-Commerce Web Development company to help you deal with the issue. Let’s move on-

Page Header

  • Domain Name

Domain name is your unique identity that protects copyrights, trademarks, build credibility etc. so always aim for a domain name that’s easy to read and remember.

  • Logo

Lay special emphasis while creating your business logo as it will serve as the chief visual component of your company’s overall brand identity

  • Tagline

Create a rock-solid tagline that represents the vision and mission of your business and encompasses everything from your business image to the summery of your benefits to the help it provides in recalling your brand.

  • Call-To-Action

Insert a clear call-to-action button that helps to direct your reader’s attention from decision fatigue and confusion to the meaningful content based on your needs.

  • Navigation

Providing an easy-to-use navigation is one of the safest ways to ensure that your customers don’t get confused while surfing your site by providing the most descriptive path to your products and services.

Above the Fold

  • Image Slider

Telling your story with sliders instead of displaying one image after the other randomly is one of the most popular visual display modes in web design today which not only give a professional look but also helps in grabbing your visitors’ attention.

  • Reviews/Testimonials

The benefits of providing reviews and testimonial options are many, it helps build trust with your visitors as well as allow you lots of media attention which will eventually lead to an increase in SEO rankings.

Below the Fold

  • Content

Providing high-value content will help you generate more sales apart from providing value and enhancing usability. Magento E-Commerce Development software offers special plugins just for the sake of developing a strong content strategy.

  • Features

Always include the main features of your products and services as it helps in distinguishing characteristics in order to boost its appeal to potential buyers.

  • Links

Build clear and visible high-quality links that will help visitors circumvent your website’s inner pages with ease.

Footer

  • Live Chat Feature

Offering your customers, a live-chat option is of great value to your site as it facilitates instant communication to help them through whatever stage they are having trouble with.

  • Social Media

Adding social media links at the bottom of your main page will offer your site visitors an option to better understand your business via social media channels.

  • Contact Information

Providing contact information at the bottom is essential as it proves the authenticity of your business as well as let your visitors contact you whenever need be.

Page-list

  • About Us

You may not know but ‘About Us’ is one of the most visited pages of your site. Use it efficiently to present your brand’s story to your audience in a compelling way.

  • Contact Form

Including a contact form page is also an important feature that lets your visitors know when to expect a response to their query.

  • Privacy Policy

The main purpose of this page is to let your customers know that you collect, use and share the information provided by them.

  • FAQ

Now, the FAQ section is a must as it’s the prime go-to destination for customers that have any specific questions regarding the products or operations of your business.

Blog

  • Search Bar

In the blog section, a search bar greatly helps your visitors to narrow down the information they are seeking, do not forget to add this feature.

  • Comment Section

A comment section in your blog has many benefits, including improved visibility, helps in establishing credibility, increased user engagement etc.

  • Share Feature

Allowing your audience with an option to share your articles is the next best thing you can do to promote your site in the social media realm.

A Tip: use WordPress Web Design Services to unleash the full potential of your blogging feature.

Conclusion

Running a successful e-commerce store requires effectively handling its back-end features way more than just managing the front-end ones. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your shopping portal is kept up-to-date in order to keep your customers engaged. How? By thinking two steps ahead of your competitors and making it a regular habit to install fresh, customized and user-friendly features.

Advantages of E-Commerce Website over Brick and Mortar Store

June 25th, 2018

In order for a business to grow, it needs to reach new customers consistently and learn ways to communicate effectively with the existing ones. But if you are already running or have run in the past a traditional brick and mortar store, you know how difficult it can get to achieve these two requirements. However, creating an e-commerce website for your retail store might just be the only thing you need right now to break through the limitations your physical store presents while increasing sales for its products.

What is E-Commerce?

Before venturing further into e-commerce business, you should know what e-commerce selling entails. It encompasses the transfer of information across the internet followed up by a commercial transaction. Therefore, it comes in various different formats. E-Commerce can be anything from a branded website to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay for selling through social media platforms to any such stuff. Due to the availability of multiple ways to sell to consumers over the internet, businesses are no longer bound by time and distance.

Major Benefits of Having an E-Commerce Website:

  1. Customizable

Personalisation can greatly enhance the online shopping experience for customers. Apart from the segmented email list based on location, purchases made and how much money a customer spent, personalization can also be achieved by retargeting a customer who abandoned his/her cart in the past by showing the ads of the products abandoned or greeting them with a name on their next visit etc.

  1. Round-the-clock Availability

Another advantage of an e-commerce website is that your online store will be open for business 24/7 whereas your physical store will only let you open from 9 am to 9 pm. Even with Facebook ads, you can attract someone only from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. But with an e-commerce site, you can attract almost anyone whether working in odd shifts or with time boundations or simply being lazy enough to go to a store.

  1. Outreach

One limitation of having a brick and mortar store is that it only allows you to sell products on a local level but with an online store you can easily sell your brands to customers on a worldwide scale. Your e-commerce site will also let you the ability to discover your customers whether they be in UK, Latin America or neighboring countries. Also, its drop shipping option will take care of pricing and shipping issues.

  1. Cost Benefits

One of the major benefits of online stores is that it has a much lower start-up cost compared to physical retail stores where just the rent of store location amounts to thousands of dollars per month, not to mention the additional costs of employees, infrastructure etc. However, you can easily start your own e-commerce store single-handedly in a couple of hundred dollars, plus you will save plenty on employees etc.

  1. Showcase Bestsellers

E-commerce makes it much easier to show off products to customers as it provides the option to display best sellers in an effective manner. The reason I mentioned displaying best sellers is that they are proven since other customers have already bought it and are happy with their purchase. Also, you can easily showcase new products as well by including them in upsell and marketing campaigns.

  1. Impulse Buy

Getting your customers to become impulse buyers is another big advantage that your online store can provide but your physical store can’t. All you need is an attractive product photography, the one with human emotions or vibrant colors and use them to create amazing ads that can drive impulsive buys. You can even use showcasing limited quantities or countdown timers to further the drive process.

  1. Order-taking

In retail stores, we have often seen long lines at cash counters which makes the overall shopping experience, a painful one and deter many people from going to stores. But with online shopping, there is simply no waiting time. A customer can easily place orders in his own time schedule and from the comforts of his own home which, as a result, allows you to accept a high number of orders with ease.

  1. Scalability

In your brick and mortar store, whenever you want to grow your business to accommodate new products or hire more cashiers, you will need to find a bigger space, spend money on renovating and wait for your lease to end. However, with an e-commerce website, you can easily add countless products to your store without worrying about holding inventory or shipping products allowing you to scale quickly.

Conclusion:

Operating a business is challenging and time-consuming in itself. But you can make it easy for you by investing in a professional website. Just remember, e-commerce is no longer considered a luxury in today’s times but more of a necessity. Without it, you are limiting the potential for growth. And with it? Well, you can answer that for yourself now.

E-Commerce Marketing Tactics for Driving Traffic to your Webstore

March 9th, 2018

So, finally, you have created your e-commerce webstore and set-up your social media profile. Now what? No audience seems to be flocking to your site with cash in hand as you might have expected. In fact, creating your website and social media presence is only the first and most probably the easiest step towards driving traffic to your store.

The rest is a long and tiring journey that can take ages to complete, extracting a large chunk out of your investments along the way.

Just kidding…

But it isn’t piece of cake either, simply knowing where to start while creating a winning digital marketing strategy for ecommerce can get pretty tricky in itself and the only thing harder than marketing your e-commerce store effectively is trying to do it with outdated ineffective techniques.

One thing to understand here is, when it comes to ecommerce marketing tactics, there are good ways and there are better ways. There are also bad ways that should be avoided at all costs. Don’t worry, here we will try to cover every possible tactic to help you along your journey to success. Let’s get started.

Craft your Content as Best as You can

As high-quality content entices users to continue clicking, reading and exploring, therefore creating and distributing content that is entertaining, informative and helpful to potential customers help build positive associations with your brand. Its various benefits include-

  • Content adds value to your brand
  • Helps you know your customers through feedback
  • Establishes your brand as an authority
  • Helps build a loyal customer base

Always remember, a well written, appealing content that is error-free, structured and reader-friendly demonstrates your business’s competence.

Never Underestimate the Power of Influencers

I assume you are familiar with the saying, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know that counts’. That maxim is the age-old secret for marketers trying to build awareness and loyalty for their products and services. It also safeguards your website from cynicism associated with traditional marketing and advertising methods.

Since you can back your product or services with glowing reviews from influential bloggers or with stellar celebrity endorsement, the chances of people making a purchase increase tenfold as they are often seen as genuine and authentic. Targeting influencers also let you reach out to their loyal followers or audiences.

Use KPIs to your Advantage

Establishing KPI or Key Performance Indicators should perhaps be the most important stage for your digital marketing strategy as it helps in setting strategic goals and ensures those goals remain aligned with the company’s interests. Some of the most important KPIs for digital marketing include-

  • Number of unique site visitors
  • CTR or Click Through Rate
  • Return visits to websites
  • CLV or Customer Lifetime Value
  • Total Revenue
  • ROI or Return On Investment
  • Total conversions
  • CPA or Cost Per Acquisition

Ditch the dot-com Domain Name

As the dot-com domain is getting more and more crowded these days due to the influx of online businesses with their long and confusing URLs, it only seems viable to carve out your own digital nook by ditching the dot-com domain and going for something that’s more in compliance with what you do such as dot-me (.me), dot-lifestyle (.lifestyle), dot-boutique (.boutique) etc. It’s also a great way of telling the world who you are and what you do.

Abstain from Two/Three-word Key Phrases

The problem with going for two or three-word key ranking phrases is that they are highly competitive since they tend to have high search volumes and because everybody wants a piece of the action. Unless and until, you have months to spare on it, going after key phrases that you may not stand a chance of ranking is a futile effort.

For e.g. it’s useless to rank for the term  ‘web development’ because you are a web development company as you will never be able to crack the competition among giants fighting for it. Instead, narrow it down using ‘ecommerce web development’ or even better, providing a location such as ‘ecommerce web development Los Angeles’. it will ultimately bring more targeted and organic traffic to your site compared to ‘web development’.

Unleash the Power of SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of your website through search engines. SEO is single-handedly one of the biggest factor responsible for the success of your e-commerce store, apart from generating traffic, it also enables you to turn this driving traffic into potential customers or subscribers.

Below are mentioned some such tips to improve your SEO rankings (apart from the ones mentioned above)

  1. Avoid duplicity while publishing content as you can get penalized by search engines.
  2. Do not forget to add product reviews.
  3. Instead of copy-pasting manufacturer’s product descriptions, create a unique and search engine friendly description for each product.
  4. Optimizing product images by adding related keywords into the ALT tags of every image.
  5. Keep product content only a link away from your homepage in order to make it easy for users to find products.
  6. Create unique meta-descriptions for every webpage

Getting Started

If earlier you were clueless about where to begin, now you have learned some creative and uniquely practical tactics to drive traffic to your webstore. Always remember, you should never take ecommerce marketing lightly as your sales and the overall success of your company depends on it.

6 Magento E-Commerce Trends to Follow in 2018

January 2nd, 2018

Magento, since its foundation in 2007, has seen its share of ups and downs but through continued persistence and a strong will to survive it has turned out to be the most successful e-commerce development company among business world in the recent years and will continue to do so in 2018 and well beyond that.

Magento basically provides a sophisticated e-commerce platform, easy to navigate for users and operate for owners. What gives Magento an edge over its competition is its ability to increase user engagement and improve conversions by providing a variety of user-friendly options and an ease to access them.

Speaking of user-friendly options, below are listed some of the hottest Magento trends of this year which will continue to dominate in 2018. Be sure to follow them.

  1. Chatterbots-  are basically chatting robots which are designed to engage users interest by providing useful info and solving queries in real time via auditory or textual methods. It recognises keywords the user inputs and responds with a pre-programmed answer in order to move the conversation forward in a meaningful way.
  2. Omni-presence- everything is interconnected in today’s world, thanks to technology, why should our shopping experience be any different. Another hot feature added by Magento is allowing the users to be present in various shopping sites at once and the freedom to access these sites from any device.
  3. Mobile connectivity- smartphones are getting smarter by day and those who embrace it are far ahead in the race for modernisation. Magento grabbed this opportunity early on by making its software mobile-friendly and providing the users hassle-free experience of shopping anywhere, anytime.
  4. Live video feed- live video chat is another revolutionary idea implemented by Magento which has escalated the user experience tenfold since its introduction. Just the idea of another person live streaming the demonstration of his product is intriguing. One can also ask questions and clear doubts in real time thus building trust.
  5. Using social media- this feature works in collaboration with social media sites by providing links to your searched items on social media (this is called indirect marketing) for reconsideration purposes. You can also tag the product to your friends and it also provides ‘easy to purchase’ options which are just a few clicks away.
  6. Push notifications- this process works by re-engaging your visitors by providing them with an option to accept notifications for future. These notifications contain the information of newly launched products or offers/discounts, reviews from authentic users on items viewed, alerting them of pending items in shopping card and informing them about the delivery details of their products.

Magento has been a leading software company in e-commerce development for many years and a trusted name among famous brands such as Coca-Cola and Burger-King. Evaluating its growth over the years, it is safe to assume that the future of Magento is bright and the new features it introduces every year to stay on top are nothing less than icing on the cake. Stay connected to remain in touch with the future of e-commerce.

Gaining Edge in E-Commerce Sector through Digital Experience

December 5th, 2017

As it has been mentioned several times by me, the e-commerce sector is a highly competitive one. It is one where you must capture the attention and the trust of your visitors from the very get-go to be able to stay alive in. You may have already read many articles about how your e-commerce business can gain an edge over your competitors. One thing that might have been missed is how important digital experience is for your business. That is what we will be discussing in this particular post.

There are certain methods that can be implemented in order to enhance the digital experience of your website’s visitors or your prospect customers. Here are some the key things to put under consideration –

Awesome Multi-Channel Experience

There was a time long ago when the digital experience was only limited to the computer screens. That has not been the case for many years now. Your website must be ready to offer customers the best experience on every single device and screen size. The transition a customer has to make between a desktop and a smartphone has to be smooth and seamless. This goes beyond making a site responsive. It is about putting yourself in the user’s shoes. The familiarity with the brand must not change nor should the customer have to enter their already submitted details again when they change devices.

Go for the Personal Touch

Personalization is another way to enhance the customer’s digital experience. It does not just mean that you should have the customer’s name mentioned on the checkout page or on the website’s header. It means to truly offer them a personalized and customized shopping experience. At every step, your customer should see product recommendations that are tailor-made just for them. When customers will see products that they actually are interested in, it will also help increase the conversion rate for your online store.

Different Approach for Different Users

Implementing Technologies to Improve Experience

In order to achieve all the above-mentioned changes, there need to be certain technologies implemented during the e-commerce development stage of your websites. These technologies can include plugins, CRM integration, Interfaces, visitor analytics tools etc. With the appropriate use of the right technology, the transformation of the digital experience for customers can be enabled. Webstore owners need to identify and partner with the right e-commerce development companies that have the necessary tools for this purpose.

It is high time for online stores to think beyond their products and web designs. They need to wake up to the fact that their competitors are now competing on a whole different front where providing customers with an enhanced and personalized digital experience. Just having the knowledge of what to do will not be enough, having the tools and the know-how is what that is needed.

Infographic: E-Commerce Platforms Usage Comparison

November 27th, 2017

Clap Creative Infographic