Perks of Choosing WooCommerce for Your Ecommerce Website - Infographic

When launching an ecommerce website, choosing the right platform is one of the major concerns for business owners. With several platforms available in the market, there is always a confusion as to which one to go for. SMEs often choose WooCommerce as a selling platform as it is an open source and comes with numerous themes that helps them to build both dynamic and static websites. Moreover, it is a secure plugin that keeps the viruses and other threats at bay.

Large enterprises tend to choose Magento as their website platform. But it is not flexible enough and one needs to hire a Magento development company to build the website. So, whether you are a new-fangled business or a large enterprise, WooCommerce development platform would serve as an excellent selling platform for your business. Check out the following infographic to know about the ways in which WooCommerce can prove to be a boon for your business.


View Original Source: https://www.biztechcs.com/blog/choosing-woocommerce-ecommerce-website-infographic/

3 Dos & Don’ts of Setting Up an Online Business!

“I want to have my online business” – is a great thought to have. It is a sign that you have an entrepreneurial psyche. But talk to someone who already has an established online business and they will give you a whole list of things that they wish would not have done. I believe that setting up an online business is not a piece of cake. There are a lot of aspects you need to consider. After all, the decisions that you make initially will have a huge impact on your business at later stages.

So, before you think, “Big deal! I just need to pay $12 for a domain name, choose a free website template, and get going”; consider these dos and don’ts. 

Let us start with the Dos first.

1. Have a business plan

Remember the adage “Look before you leap”? Well, it kind of applies here. Before setting up an online business, you need to understand that a business plan is the blueprint for your business.

2. Know Your Audience

First, you need to define your target audience and conduct a survey to find out how you can meet the needs of your customers.

3. Accept Criticism

Let us say someone advises you to hire a dedicated Magento developer and get your website developed in Magento. With Magento, you get to have all the solutions that an e-shop would need. So, listen to the feedbacks as it will help you understand your customers, offer a better product, and provide better customer services.

Now, let us talk about the don’ts:

1. Do Not Procrastinate the Launch

Practice how to create a product, generate a buzz, set targets, and launch it on time. Approach an ecommerce web development company to help you if you want. Only then, you will start generating revenues.

2. Do Not Have Unrealistic Expectations

There is no such thing as an overnight success. If you think you had misconceptions about certain aspects, rework on your original plans.

3. Do Not Ape Your Competitors

During the initial years after my business launch if someone asked me a question like, “Why should we choose you for Magento Ecommerce Website Development?” I used to give generic answers like “’Coz we’re better than our competitors.” But later, I realized that such generic reasons do not work anymore. It is very important to stand out from your competitors and offer them with something unique each time.

Winding up:

One needs to ensure that one indulges into best practices before launching a business. So, conduct R&D about your industry, try to know about your competitors, come up with a fantastic business plan and above all, know what not to do when setting up an online business.

The above-mentioned dos and don’ts are stemming out of my experiences. It does not mean what works for you will work for me.


View original Source: https://www.biztechcs.com/blog/dos-donts-setting-online-business/

How Can You Benefit Out of Shopify Custom Development?

It is difficult to choose one, when you have many good alternatives. If you were already a business person, you would have come across many situations where you had to make tough decisions. Only after adequate research, you can take the finest decisions. Even for choosing the best platform for your online store, you need to examine and explore all the available options in the market. One of those online stores creating platforms is the Shopify Development services.

Shopify App Development service is a popular ecommerce platform available in the market for upcoming online businesses. It provides a self-hosting solution. In addition, it features a bunch of tools in exchange of a recurring subscription charge. It further sets up a retail space for your online shop as the host.

When you buy a physical location for rent, it comes with walls and display fixtures. Similarly, Shopify gives the store owners front-end design templates. Along with that, it contains the ammo required to set up a basic ecommerce store.

You can also customize it with the help of a developer. A developer can easily exploit the functionalities it hosts. He does it by linking add-ons from the app store to make up for missing wants or needs. After signing up, a standard factory shop can undergo customization within minutes by following prompts that Shopify provides.

Some deeper adjustment by your developer can make sure your storefront puts your finest foot forward for start on. Maintaining the content of this storefront after its launch is easier than ever. This simpler repair is possible with a control panel that resembles the navigational properties of WordPress.

If you are looking to enter the market rapidly, Shopify development services is at your rescue. Moreover, if you have a tight initial fund, and you do not need extensive customizations Shopify App development is a great way out for you.

Shopify Custom Development

Your store needs further configuration, even with the development support. In addition to the monthly subscription costs, you can have a:

• Reliable
• Secure
• Responsive
• Successful E-Commerce Application

You can get all this at a low cost with Shopify. Shopify Custom Development is a step up from the free drag and drop type of online platforms. Shopify has subscription upgrade options such as Shopify Plus. It enhances the scalability of your business requirements over time through to an Enterprise level.

While the lower level options are great for your initial start, your website will someday, rush through more traffic. Number of orders would increase. Your novel marketing strategies like using gift cards or creative referral promotions would attract more traffic to your store. This would push the need for migration to a different and a more reliable platform.

Benefits of Shopify Custom Development

As an e-com shop creator, Shopify Custom Development brings in many advantages. This has popularized it extensively. Nevertheless, here is a listing some of the most important advantages of Shopify:

Ease of Management

An ease of management is a unique selling point of Shopify Development Services. A central control panel gives you an opportunity to manage content, product items etc.

Feasible Installation

Its subscription charges are highly affordable and the installation is very simple too. This helps the first-time users, as sometimes they lack basic awareness regarding the initial setup.

Vast Payment Options

Vast ranges of payment options are also available for you store. This delimits the loss of customer that you could face because of lack of payment options.

Marketing Benefits

Shopify has pre-installations of SEO features and it has integration with Google analytics. This helps the store owners to keep in touch with their buyers and promote their store.

A Perfect Guide to Lessen Shopping Cart Abandonments on Your Ecommerce Store

Losses are written in our destiny. Be it things or people. Some, we take for granted and some, we overlook. Despite of the fact that they have offered us moments to cherish and have added great value to our lives! For ecommerce store owners, Cart Abandonments are same. Often overlooked, unaddressed and ignored.

According to eMarketer, if you look at the combined e-commerce sales of $738 billion in the EU and US, the potential for a 35.26% increase in conversion rate translates to $260 billion worth of lost orders! Isn’t that as huge as an elephant? If you are an ecommerce store owner undergoing a daily Cart Abandonment Saga, it’s time for you to address this elephant.

How?

Well, first you need to understand why people chuck shopping carts. It can be anything in your case. Payment Security concerns, prolonged Checkout Process or unexpected Shipping Costs. The sooner you figure it out, the better. And for the business owners who are looking forward to obtain Magento Shopping Cart Development services, it’s important to offer a better checkout flow and design.

In 2017 and for many more years to come, it will become mandatory for estore owners to offer an impeccable and one-step checkout experience. We are here with a perfect guideline to help you lessen the amount of cart abandonments. Here’s how you bid goodbye to them:

Reliable Information Forms

Trust is a huge factor. Especially when it comes to providing private information about oneself. Think about the last time you filled a form while shopping online. Were you comfortable providing your personal information? If yes, was there a percentage of skepticism to it?

A research by Baymard Institute proved that whenever customers are asked for unnecessary personal information while checking out, it scares the daylights out of them! This can be anything. A phone number, email ids or other information which is asked for without giving any explanation.

The World Wide Web is full of companies that coax customers into buying and never deliver the products. So, your goal is to help your customers get over this kind of anxiety. Remember, when you ask for information that is ‘seemingly unwanted’, back it up by statements like “We might need it for shipping related questions” or “Don’t worry, your information will be secure with us.”

Ask your ecommerce development provider to include these pop-ups along with different fields that ask for sensitive information. Doing so will instill faith in your customers and they wouldn’t mind providing the needed information.

Authenticating with a Logo

If there’s a lack of security certificates on your website or a red strikethrough sign on the “https”, you need to wake up! This might be a sign of a wrongly configured server or an indication that your website is hacked.

A study by Actual Insights proved that 75% of the participants that were a part of their study have not purchased a product as they did not identify the security logo on the website. Some customers rely on the security certificates and use of https if they want to verify whether the images on your website are authentic and trustworthy.

Logos depicting that the website is secure and virus-free can lead buyers to buy fearlessly. The leading three brand logos that customers trust are – PayPal (66%), Verisign (63%) and McAfee (62%). So, make sure your ecommerce website has them. However, logos of recognition are not enough. The testimonials and portfolio present on your website and other forums can also work up to a great extent if they look authentic.

Readily Accessible Shopping Cart

Shopping Cart Motion Sickness. This might sound like a new term to you. But it is utterly irritating to navigate back and forth and recall the items added to the cart before purchasing. If this is what your website does to the customers, they are sure to lose interest!

It might be easy for Magento Development Service providers to build a separate page for shopping carts. However, customers like to access the cart irrespective of the page they’re transacting with. So, here’s what you can do:

• Provide your customers with a viewable chart listing the items on shopping cart.
• You can provide this chart every time they add a new product.
• Make sure that this chart is accessible on every page and is viewable anytime.

The above-mentioned steps will ensure that your Shopping Cart is shopping friendly and free from front and back navigations.

Reach Out through Emails

There are several reasons why people abandon carts. But the question here is, do you follow up? Or try to know why? When people abandon their carts at the last checkout step, you will get their email address. There are two ways to address this issue:

• Setting up an Autoresponder Email: When a customer leaves your cart, they immediately receive an automatic email letting them know about the items they left in the cart.
• Sending a personal email: Don’t always rely on autoresponder emails. You can personally email your customer to find out why they abandoned the cart. Or, ask what you can do to help them.

There are times when coupon codes and discount offers and cart authorizations don’t work. During such situations, getting in touch with your customers personally makes a huge difference. One, it lets them know that they are important. Two, they are sure to come back.

If you can resolve the problem without involving customers; it’s even better. They will feel cared for and appreciate your efforts. Also, lessen the interval of sending emails that address Cart Abandonment. This is because, the customers tend to forget and no longer care if reached out after a long time.

Simplifying navigations, providing diverse payment options and offering progress bars are some of the best ways to reduce cart abandonments. What matters here is, how you address the individualistic issues.

Have there been any Cart Abandonments issues on your website? What did you do to address them? Please feel free to share with us.

View Original Source:

https://www.biztechcs.com/blog/guide-lessen-shopping-cart-abandonments-ecommerce-store/

The 10 Biggest Web Technologies Every Developer Should Know

The World Wide Web has metamorphosed over the time from its inception and technology has been its vehicle to improvement. Given the availability of limitless resources and the constant competition to come up with better websites has made the job of a web developer much more difficult and challenging. Take for instance, the success story of YouTube. While other similar sites failed before, YouTube took the road to success riding on the Adobe Flash player technology.

They key takeaway from these developments is the fact that the only game changer for the web today is proper utilization of tech advancements and path breaking graphic user interface (GUI). But to be able to exploit the web technology advancements and to keep up with the latest user interface trends, web developers and web development companies have to be a master of all the upcoming and advanced technologies.

While there is no end to what you can learn, if you are passionate about web technologies, there are few technologies that any modern web developer simply cannot ignore. Here are 10 such technology areas.

1. Browsers

Web browsers are tools that create an easy to use interface between commands by the user and the results returned by the web servers in form of relevant web pages. Commonly used web browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet explorer etc. Each one of these offer varied functions to their users all of which should be mastered by every developer to make sure how his designed website is responding to different browsers. Cross browser compatibility is one of the most basic requirements of a website today. Users are more adept at using various modern browsers today. Internet Chrome is not the default option anymore. Nor is Firefox. Though developers continue to use Firefox as the standard browser, Chrome has more user base than any other browser.

2. HTML5

The main markup language since the very beginning, HTML provides structure of a website so that web browsers know what to show. With every version, HTML comes up with better range of capabilities. HTML5 is the latest version of HTML and is obviously the best till now. HTML5 had been able to bypass the problem of media plug-ins along with an array of useful functions and features. Acceptability of HTML5 across various platforms including major web browsers and mobile devices makes it an important technology which every web developer should master. HTML5 has made flash redundant and made it super easy to use video content natively in HTML.

3. CSS3

CSS3 is the latest version of Cascading Style Sheets which offers an assortment of features that determine how your web properties look – from colors, shapes to various animation and shadow effects. It has lessened the dependence on javascript and other web elements that were vulnerable to bugs, were time consuming to develop, and mostly not compatible across browsers. Web developers today are using CSS3 more and more in conjunction with HTML5 to create web properties that are less dependent on scripts.

4. Programming Languages

Programming languages are used to write the code. All languages have their own syntax and logic. Some, like PHP are more widely used than others. To survive the throat cutting competition, web developers must be efficient in using and understanding different programming languages. Some of these languages popular on different frameworks include Javascript, Python, Coffeescript, Ruby, Java, PHP, Go, Objective-C, etc.

5. Responsive web designs

With increased use of multiple devices to access the web, flexi or responsive web designing concept has become immensely pertinent. Today responsive designs make it possible for us to view web page across various platforms with ease, where the matter adjusts itself in length and width for better viewer experience. For flexible view of any portal on various devices, a developer must excel in developing responsive web designs.

6. Databases

Proper organization of data in digital format is what we know as Database. There are two types of digital databases namely SQL and NoSQL. The structure of SQL is tailored to make sure that all the data is correct and validated while NoSQL provides more flexibility for the building and maintenance of applications. Proficient knowledge of various databases like MongoDB, Redis, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL, etc. is a must for every web developer.

7. Frameworks

Frameworks are built to facilitate the development of proficient and dynamic websites, web applications and mobile applications. Working on various programming languages becomes much easier with the aid of these frameworks as you don’t have to start from scratch. The entire complicated and repetitive task is reduced by promoting code reuse for activities like database access, session management, etc. Some of the more popular frameworks that every web developer should master include CMS frameworks like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal; ecommerce frameworks like Magento, Prestashop; PHP frameworks like CakePHP, Zend Framework; Microsoft frameworks like ASP.NET, SharePoint;

8. Protocols

Protocols are a set of instructions on how computers and devices communicate with each other and process information. For example HTTP protocol works on how a website gets to the browser. It requests the server for the website and gets response with the HTML, CSS, or Javascript of the website. A comparatively newer protocol, DDP, creates a continuous connection between the client and the server where websites update without even refreshing the browser. Another protocol called REST is majorly used for APIs and uses standard methods to exchange information between various applications. It is very important for any web developer to be well informed about the technology behind these protocols.

9. API

An application programming interface or API is created by the developer of an application to allow the usage of some of its functionalities to a third party app or website without sharing the code. This makes it possible to combine multiple APIs to create new applications. APIs allows sharing of data between various web applications. Hence, a web developer should master the technology of creating good APIs. All the popular web and mobile apps today come with their own APIs that help integrate the app with various other services.

10. Data Formats

The organization and storage of data in the databases, according to their particular specifications, is defined by structures called Data Formats. When we talk of web development, JSON is leading the market as the most popular data format. XMS continues to be in use since the time web development was introduced. XMS format was used mainly by Microsoft. The format which is used in excel is the CSV format, which every web developer should be able to work with. Here, the formatting of the data is done using commas.

7 Easy Steps To More User Experience For Ecommerce Success Sales

One of the biggest challenges in the ecommerce industry is converting casual website visitors into paying customers. And whether customers will pay for your products depends not just on the quality of the products but also on the the way the products are presented. Excellent presentation increases the perceived value of the products and makes them more desirable in the eyes of your customers.

User experience (UI) design is all about presenting your products in the best possible way, to maximize their chances of being sold. Excellent user experience makes your customers come back to your store again and again. Given below are some important user experience best practices that you must follow to increase your store’s conversion rates and acquire more paying and loyal customers.

1. Don’t Make Your Customers Wait To View Your Website

Nothing gets your website visitors to bounce off it faster than slow loading web pages. Slower page loading is directly proportional to fall in conversion rates. Be it a small size store, or a big one, your visitors would not wait for more than 3-5 seconds. And making them wait longer is a surefire way to make them switch to your competitors. For fast load times and smooth checkout experience, you can trim down your code. Also compress image sizes, since larger image takes a lot of time to load. Use responsive design that adapts the designs of your website to look best on all devices.

2. Understand How Customers Read Information

To understand your customers better, you should put the most important parts of website pages across the top and down the left-hand side. Normally, visitors scan web pages in “F’ pattern. So bring their attention to headlines, headers by creating an appropriate ecommerce design.

3. Make It Easy To Find Your Products

For this, you need to create an algorithm driven system that shows most relevant products to customers when they visit your website based on their account preferences, product search history, and items previously purchased or added to cart. Predictive analytics is the next big thing in ecommerce and personalized product recommendations and personalized layouts based on predictive analytics will drive the future ecommerce stores.

4. Simplify Products’ Page Layouts

Experts say that, “Keep layouts as clean and sleek as possible.” Place the fundamentals – product code, price, brief description, size/color options, photo/video gallery in the right place. Also consider simplifying reviews, ratings and shipping options – all in a simple and clean layout.

5. Keep Color Focused & Under Control

Colors are a great tool to evoke emotions and put emphasis on something. However, the usage of too many colors might make the design confusing and unmemorable. So, always try to limit color options and limited color variations. Use your brand colors along with various shades and be consistent throughout the website. The more colors you use in your website, the more off putting it may appear to your viewers. Also, ensure the color palettes match your offerings. Keep a contrast between the texts and background so that people can differentiate both.

6. Ensure Text Is Large (Readable)

Ever thought that the typography of your website can have an impact on your conversion rates? If no then it’s time you did. Text on your website must be easily readable. Ensure they are large, clean and sharp with proper line spacing. Don’t forget that, the easier it is to read your content, the more likely customers will do so and the more likely they will get the information they require and will purchase from your store.

7. Use High Quality Images & Videos

Informative and quality images and videos matter a lot when it comes to providing a better user experience. You can display a range of images on your store, specially product images. The more information you provide, the easier it is for your customers to say “Yes, We want this.”! High quality videos and images give an exact idea about what you are offering to them.

Wrapping Up

The effectiveness of the above best practices depend on how best you implement them. But you will be able to identify the ideal way of doing things only if you try them out and experiment with different options (A/B tests) to see which option works best for you. What other UX best practices you think should be incorporated in any online store? Leave your views in the comments below.