Data privacy and data security have been at the forefront of discussions over the last couple of years. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) brought in a wave of change in May 2018 on this front. However, it was primarily applicable to businesses operating within the European Union or those having customers in the EU.

The California State Legislature passed a similar bill in June 2018. Post amendments, the act has been brought into effect at the start of this year, on January 1, 2020.

An Introduction to the California Consumer Privacy Act

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a statewide statute and is also referred to as AB-375. While this is a state law, it has several larger implications for the rest of the United States, too. 

Passed with a view to bolster privacy and protect consumer data, the CCPA is revolutionary in many ways. Read on to learn more about this act and its implications on how you handle customer information. 

CCPA – What You Need to Know About Compliance, Provisions and Requirements

As a for-profit organization or enterprise that conducts business in the state of California, it is essential that you read up on everything there is around this revolutionary act. So, why should you care about this act? The California Consumer Privacy Act applies to businesses that fall under any of the following category or type:

• An entity that has gross annual revenues of over $25 million
• A business that deals in the buying or selling of 50,000+ Californian consumers’ personal data
• A business that earns over half of its annual revenues through the selling of Californian customers’ information 

If the above applies to your business, you must adhere to the provisions in the AB-375. Here are the most important requirements for your business to fulfill according to the California Consumer Privacy Act: 

• Streamlined data collection – The act requires businesses to put in place an organized structure and a streamlined process for collecting consumers’ personal data. 

• Full disclosure – Businesses must disclose what information they are collecting, the purpose for this data collection and which third-party businesses they share it with. You are liable to disclose 12 months’ worth of data collected if a consumer requests disclosure or deletion (free of cost).

• The option to opt out – Businesses need to feature a visible and clear link on homepage that says ‘DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION’. This link should not ask the customer to create an account in order to opt out. 

• Underage customers – For consumers under the age of 13 years, it is imperative for businesses to sell their personal data only if authorized by their parents or legal guardian. For those between 13 and 15, a business must first take opt-in consent before selling any data. 

What is personal information under CCPA?

According to the CCPA, personal information is:

Any information that identifies, relates to, describes or is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.

When we talk about “personal” information or data, it may include things like:

• Cookies
• Phone numbers
• Account names
• Driver’s license
• Passport number
• Social Security number
• Insurance policy number
• Credit card number
• Debit card number
• Bank account details
• IP addresses
• Pixel tags
• Geographical location history 
• Internet browsing history
• Search history
• Personal preferences (sexual, religious, political, behavioral, etc.)
• Biometric information (facial recognition, retina, fingerprint, voice samples, etc.)

Other Important Things Businesses Must Remember About CCPA

1. The consumer has the right to demand businesses to stop selling their personal information to any third party. In such a case, the business in question must avoid selling any user information or face heavy fines.
2. The timeframe given to businesses to react or respond to an opt-out request is 15 days. They need to stop further selling of customer data in this period and also alert any parties who have bought such data in the preceding 90 days.
3. You are required to include a two-step process for the deletion of customer information. The first step involves request submission and the second one is where the user agrees to the deletion of data. 
4. You should also update your privacy policy and include the aforementioned particulars in detail. You can also provide a tollfree number or link through which your visitors or buyers can avail these rights. 
5. Businesses must ensure that customers wouldn’t be penalized with price hikes or substandard service when they exercise their rights.

Am I CCPA Compliant If I Am GDPR Compliant? 

The simple answer to that question is that GDPR compliance does not equate to being CCPA compliance. One cannot deny the fact that there are a few common factors that point towards the similarities between CCPA and GDPR. However, there are some key differences between the two under privacy disclosure, data collection, nondiscrimination, enforcement and more.

How is CCPA different than GDPR?

Here are the primary factors that make the CCPA different from GDPR:

• CCPA protects residents of California, whether or not they are currently in the state. GDPR safeguards EU residents. 
• While there is no grace period for businesses under GDPR, the CCPA gives you time to rectify any violations and inform your consumers about it.
• CCPA refers to businesses in general, while GDPR makes a clear distinction between “data collectors” and “data processors.”
• GDPR’s financial penalties are applicable for non-compliance, whereas CCPA fines are only applied if/when a data breach happens.

Feeling overwhelmed with all this new information? Don’t worry, we have got you covered. While you focus on the business side of things, you can leave the website bit to us. Make modifications to your business website or build one from scratch with Qualdev. 

With over 15 years of experience, Qualdev has served more than 400 clients across geographies and industries to deliver a suite of cutting-edge mobile and web apps, websites and digital marketing solutions. Get in touch with us to know how we can assist you or fill up this form to request a quote now!

The post WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY ACT (CCPA) appeared first on QualDev.

In 2019 what will keep online businesses ahead? Augmented Reality(AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) – for interactive product visualization. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – for chatbots, up-selling, customer recommendation & automation. AI has changed the way retailers communicate and help customers. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) – for faster browsing and hence higher conversions. AMPs showed 62% higher conversion rates than normal pages. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) or Mobile Apps – for smartphone users, whose numbers are exploding. 67% of all U.S. online traffic came from smartphones. Multi-Channel Selling – Boosts sales. Multiple touchpoints and paths to purchase can boost profits as much as 95%. Social Media – is a perfect sales agent, 55% of people are buying products after social media discovery. Block-Chain – for cost-effective transparent transactions. Helps build highly secured programs for data security. Security – eCommerce is the most vulnerable industry, experiencing 32.4% attacks in various forms. Web Page Speed – For easy navigation and sale conversion. Fast browsing pages showed 88% higher conversion rates. Are You ready To Team Up With QualDev?

Perk Tip For Our Clients By the year 2020 there will be 6.5 billion smartphone users in the world. Of these, more than 69% of smartphone owners LOVE to use their VOICE & CAMERA for ease Bring your business to User’s Voice and Camera

Our team knows the techniques that work best for online businesses. Get a free consultation today

Contact Us qualdevpartners@gmail.com 631.961.8780 Pae tn 21-25, Harju maakond, Lasnamäe linnaosa, Tallinn, 11415, Estonia

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A website provides a platform from which a brand can connect to consumers, display their products and services and keep the online audience informed about the latest happenings at their company.

A website is an integral medium to promote your business and reach people across the globe. If your website is difficult to navigate and provides a poor user experience, it can affect your brand negatively.

Check out here some of the effective design tips to improve user experience and engagement on your website:

Create a responsive version

Smartphone users and iPad users are increasing day by day. It is important for a brand to create a responsive or mobile-friendly website. People love to browse the web on their phones when they want to look for products or services they require.

If your website does not function properly on mobile phones, it leaves a negative effect on your brand. There is always a requirement for responsive web design so that your website runs properly across all electronic devices.

Also, using more mobile friendly plugins provides consumers with an enriching browsing experience and can lead to a greater amount of revenue.

Improve page load time

When an online user visits your website, they expect the page to load quickly. A page that loads slowly is a cause for frustration, and it might lead visitors to leave your site before they even purchase your product.

So, remember to check the speed of the pages on your site and see whether they work on all devices like laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. The site should load fast across all platforms and offer online users a good browsing experience.

So, ask your web development company to work on improving load speed rates to lower bounce rates and increase sessions.

Simplify your website navigation process

It is very important for a brand to simplify the navigation process on their website. Visitors often find a website’s navigation process to be very complicated.

As a result, they leave the site never to return. So, try to make the navigation process as simple as you can so that users can browse through the website without any hassle.

Try to keep your navigation intuitive, make your labels descriptive and try not to have more than seven menu items.

Usage of white space

It has often been seen that business owners think that too much of white space on a website is a big no-no! They think that a website should be packed with as much information as possible.

However, market research has revealed a very different story altogether. White spaces around headings and titles have a positive influence on user attention. It also gives webpage a fresh, open and modern look.

So, as a brand owner, it is important for you to understand this and explain this to UI or UX design company you hire to develop your site.

Create an impressive home page

The homepage is a summarized version of your entire site. Online users will look at this page when they visit your site for the first time.

It is the entryway to your website and most users observe this page to determine whether they would navigate further on your website, or not. Websites with the best UX are easy to follow and simplistic in nature.

Their design is not overwhelming and is yet good enough to impress online users at the first chance. The home page should have a design comprising of subheadings, short paragraphs containing sentences, large texts, and bullet points to enhance user engagement as well as conversions.

Define clear call to action

Apart from having a responsive web design version of your website, it is important for you to have the proper call to action that guides user behavior. A call to action button on your homepage is always helpful for increasing conversion rates on your website.

Reputed SEO services provider suggest that instead of a text link, a call to action button can increase conversion rates to a considerable extent.

If you wish that the call to action you use should be game-changing, then make sure to use words like “discover’, “start” or “learn” in it.

Use bullet points

Bullet points, headlines and any sort of numbered lists are always helpful in capturing user attention. This is a great way to provide all the information visitors require quickly and efficiently.

You can always get creative with bullet points by using icons and images that would stress on the point you are trying to make and to stick to the tone your brand sets.

Use realistic and relevant images

A photo, video, or a GiF is something we all love to see. The use of realistic stock photos is more likely to draw attention to a page.

According to research, users spend 10% more time to look at the pictures on the “about us” page rather than reading the page content.

So, when you are giving a UX design company the responsibility of developing your website, ask them to incorporate great visuals for better user engagement. Also, custom illustrations are always a great idea to improve user experience and engagement at the same time.

When compared to regular stick images, customized illustrations have proved to be helpful in keeping visitors on your site.

The post 8 Actionable Web Design Tips to Improve User Experience appeared first on QualDev.

The definition of success depends on the nature of your app and your business goals.

In order to ensure that your app is successful, it is important for you to understand where your competitors went wrong. It is necessary to understand their mistakes and build features into your app to get a better possibility for success.

Here are the top most important reasons why most mobile apps fail. Check out these reasons, ensure you will not repeat them and make a successful mobile app:

Lack of originality in app development

App stores are over saturated with apps that are very similar to each other. This sets new apps that provide similar services as existing ones at a very big disadvantage.

In order to avoid this, it is necessary for you as a brand to carry out competitive research, to help you to figure out strength and weaknesses of your app, and to define your own competitive advantage. Building a product with the same features as that of your competitor will seldom help you win consumers.

A unique value proposition (UVP) is the preliminary step that you need to consider for overall business success.

Lack of market research and not defining a target audience

Often great theoretical ideas simply do not work out when they are put into practice. The decision to launch your project must be research driven.

You have to get clear ideas on questions like:

1. Is there a market for the type of app you are planning to develop?
2. Does your app solve an existing problem?
3. Are you making someone else’s life easy?
4. Are you offering a unique experience?

As a brand, it is important that you have a justification for why your consumers will love the app. You need to collect data and facts that prove that your app is better than the app of your competitors.

Furthermore, not defining the target audience before starting with the process of mobile app development is another mistake that many brands make. Not defining a target audience will leave you clueless about whom to cater to, and about who would benefit from using your app.

So, before you start the process of developing an app, it is required to carry out market research and define a target audience.

Ignoring consumer feedback

Many businesses tend to ignore consumer feedback about the app after it is launched. This mistake can land a brand in trouble.

A business can only grow when they value consumer opinion and listen to what they say. However, it has been seen that only a few app developers pay attention to this section and thus miss opportunities to meet user demand.

It is always recommended to add feedback and comments section to your app. Once, you have this feature, it is very important for you to go through feedback that consumers provide.

Some of the comments can be harsh while others can be appreciative. This is the place from where you can gather clues that will help you improve your app.

Feedback can be anything like a comment about the services you provide, slow response time or the interface used.

Poor user experience

The app that you develop must always offer consumers a great user experience. It is an integral part of the mobile app development process.

If a user struggles with understanding the basic functionality of your app and cannot figure out the core functionalities easily, this means your app has poor usability.

Some of the common examples of poor user experience include:

1. Slow or lagging app performance
2. Long loading time
3. Lengthy registration process
4. Difficulty accessing features

In order to avoid this, it is very important for app developers to follow the best UI/UX practices that are laid out by the platform that they are developing the app on.

Ignoring these would be a big mistake, as each platform is unique, and their users are accustomed to using it in a specific way. Therefore, your app has to provide users with a familiar and consistent user experience.

Improper app testing

Not testing your app properly before launching it, can affect user experience largely and lead to a crash in no time. A single crash is enough to stop users from using your app.

It is the fact that most of the negative reviews are for app crashing. The more negative reviews you have, your app is more likely to fall.

Make sure to carry out a proper QA before you actually decide to launch your app. App testing must be done thoroughly with a documented process in place, to ensure that your app is market ready.

If you fail to impress your users at the first instance, it is difficult to do it the second time over.

Sloppy app launch strategy

The success of a mobile app goes way beyond development and design. Not strategizing and planning how to launch your app perfectly, can quickly lead to consumers losing interest in your app.

If you wish that, your app should have a high download and retention rate; it is important for you to plan proper pre-launch activities and launch day strategies for your app. Carry out your plan methodically and execute it in a timely manner.

The goal is to impress new users quickly before they lose interest. So, plan some exciting activities for the day you launch your app, and keep users engaged by providing new updates and features.

The post Why Most Mobile Apps Fail (And How to Avoid Failure) appeared first on QualDev.

Let us all be honest though. It is easy to forget to prepare for the approaching holidays when we are busy with the day – to – day hustle of running our eCommerce business. How many times has a holiday come, only for you to realize that you never prepared a promotion for it?

Need a Free Consultation – Click here

Why Is It So Important To Plan Ahead?

A number of holidays and observances fall within the last three months (October, November, and December) of the year. This means that retailers and eCommerce businesses are extra busy during these months marketing, managing, shipping and providing great customer services. No wonder retailers feel that this is an important time of the year. It is a time that they can use to their advantage to hit yearly targets, move new products and clear out old inventory.

Taking advantage of these holidays can be tough though. The downside is that many ecommerce entrepreneurs who are yet to get their footing usually miss important holidays because they did not plan for future events well in advance.

Upcoming Holiday Dates

The last quarter of the year is packed with holidays, some obviously bigger than others. Preparing a list of these holidays, and going online and studying about them would help you collect information that would help you strategize and plan your marketing efforts and stock figures. Familiarizing yourself with the upcoming holidays, and decide which ones are important for your business and to your customers. Some of the main dates you would want to keep in mind are

Plan! Prepare! Stay Ahead!

So now you know why it’s important to plan for the holidays, it’s time to get organized and prepared. There are a few components to an effective holiday marketing campaign. Before you begin executing your campaigns, you need to begin by planning a few critical components. Here is what you could do to help stay ahead of your competition and plan for the upcoming holiday season.

Plan

1. Decide which holidays you want to participate in.

The first thing you will need to do is to decide which holidays your store will participate in. As we mentioned previously, there is some type of holiday almost every week in the last two months of the year. Participating in and preparing for all of them would be madness so you will want to strategically choose your battles.

If this will be your first time doing a major holiday promotion, we would suggest choosing two or three to tackle; for example, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas.

2. Create a promotional calendar. 

Now that you know which holidays you want to participate in, it is good to start mapping things out. Staying organized will be critical over the busy holiday season to help ensure the success of your campaigns.

3. Plan your return policy and additional payment options. 

You will probably want to reconsider a few policies for your store in light of the holiday season and being competitive. Many online and offline stores will offer and more liberal and extended return and exchange policy for the holiday season. You will need to consider if this is the correct move for your store by carefully considering the impact it can have on not only sales but also how it will affect your already established processes.

4. Determine which ad channels to focus on. 

Every business, big and small needs to choose their ad channels strategically. Being too scattered will only compromise your campaigns in the end.

One of the most important parts of preparing for your holiday promotions is to begin preparing your marketing needs and material. Marketing campaigns have many components to them that all need to be in alignment to achieve the most success, which is why it’s so vital to begin preparing these things ahead of time.

Prepare

The months of November and December are guaranteed to be hectic times. If you leave all the work till then, you’ll likely find yourself skipping out of key pieces due to lack of time. That is why it’s so important to begin prepping your content right away so you can leave November and December to executing your promotional calendar.

1. Emails

If you have an email list, this is going to be an important promotional channel for you. If you have written promotional emails before, you know they can take a good deal of time and hitting the send button can be nerve-wracking. This is because once you hit send you cannot take it back. This is even more reason to prepare this channel ahead of time. Keep in mind, because of the importance of the holiday season; you will likely want to be planning several emails for each promotion. In addition, you may want to consider segmenting your email list for maximum effectiveness.

2. Ad Copy

Writing strong and compelling ad creative can take time to come up with. This is precisely why it is so important to begin writing ads ahead of time.

3. Blog Content

As things get busy, writing blog content will be the last thing on your mind. This is why it’s a good idea to write blog post ahead of time for the holiday season. Additionally, you’ll probably want to post your blog posts prior to other marketing initiatives to ensure they have time for Google to pick them up and begin attracting organic traffic.

4. Landing Pages

Next to emails, creating landing pages for your promotions and sales can be extremely effective at helping further bump up your conversion rate for the holiday season. You may want to consider creating separate landing pages for your ads as well as your emails. In Shopify, this can be as simple as creating a new collection or page for each promotion.

5. Design & Graphics

Your design and graphics will help tie your campaigns together and keep things consistent. From your email designs to promotional banners for your website, Facebook and Twitter, Graphics can help you visually and quickly help your followers and visitors understand your promotion. Getting design work for your campaigns done early can take a major task of your shoulders when it comes time to execute.

Track

Irrespective of the media you use to market your store and products, it is good to remember that this is only half of the equation. The second half, and arguably the most important, is tracking your efforts. Without proper tracking and analysis, you will always just be guessing the true success of your campaigns.

Execute

The final step is naturally to launch your campaign by closely following your promotional calendar. By the time you get to this step, if you have planned and prepared properly, you should have most of the components ready to go and it should simply be a matter of executing on each step of your plan.

Adapt & Modify

If you have set up your Google Analytics and stay on top of your campaign results, you can modify your promotions while active to help ensure their success.

The holiday season is a busy time for ecommerce stores and retailers across the country. Planning, preparing and executing proper marketing shipping and customer relation strategies would go a long way to ensure that as a business owner, you are able to reap the most benefits and pull in the maximum sales possible.

Related Post – TOP TIPS TO MAKE YOUR HOLIDAY MARKETING CAMPAIGNS ROCK!

The post Prepare Your Online Store For The 2018 Holiday Season appeared first on QualDev.

The 2018 holiday marketing season is right around the corner and things are all set to heat up from next month on-wards. Do you have your eCommerce marketing plans ready? Here’s a smart checklist to help you promote your eCommerce retail business during and before the holiday season begins. Need a Free Consultation – Click here

Set Proactive Holiday Goals
Compared to the 2017 holiday eCommerce sales in the United States, 2018 is all set to notch a 13 percent increase in the eCommerce sales figures. As per holiday marketing forecasts, whopping $90 billions of dollars worth of sales are in the offing for online retailers looking towards smart opportunities of making their presence felt online. If you happen to be one of the many online retailers waiting to make a kill online, then at the very outset, you have to figure out what this opportunity means for your line of business. What are the expectations that you have from your ongoing and future eCommerce transactions? What is the kind of profit that you are looking towards generating in the upcoming holiday season?

All that you need to do is estimate the current performance of your eCommerce business and set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) goals. With the right goals and deadlines in place, you will be able to analyze if your eCommerce holiday marketing plans have actually worked or not. So, to define your holiday eCommerce success right away, you need to set your goals before you go ahead with anything else.

Establish a Feasible Holiday Marketing Budget
It is important to chalk out a well-planned holiday marketing budget for investments in marketing and promotion. For instance, it is essential to know how much you would like to spend in the forthcoming Christmas season to achieve your goals. In case you are running short on budget, you may not be left with enough money to cater to your e-store’s share of gift buying. On the other hand, by investing too much, you may end up with little or no profit on your hand in spite of making a significant boost in your unit sales. Citing an example, an online retailer in Manhattan recently invested in a $2,000 promotion for horse warmers, an item which is a far cry from being a traditional holiday gift idea. Though his holiday marketing campaign tripled the overall sales volume, his items had to be sold at discounted rates. At the end of the day, the profit raised from each horse warmer was a mere $12 – certainly not worth the risk and efforts!

To avoid such situations and to make the most from your budget, it is a good idea to base your holiday marketing budget on the data collected from marketing campaigns conducted across the year.

Free-shipping Offers are a BIG Draw!
Your holiday marketing plan can be made all the more attractive by including free-shipping offers for online purchases. As per a survey, 47 to 54 percent of most online orders include one form of free shipping or the other to induce shoppers to buy more. Decide whether you intend to provide free shipping on all orders, or only when a minimum purchase amount has been reached. Alternatively, you can ensure good results from your marketing campaigns by allowing for free doorstep deliveries of the products purchased during the entire holiday season, or on some pre-decided days.

Peak-day Promotions are Important
While Christmas sales are popular across the holiday season, there are five landmark days that are known to pull in higher traffic and sales. These are:

• November 22, 2018: Thanksgiving Day
• November 23, 2018: Black Friday
• November 26, 2018: Cyber Monday
• December 12, 2018: Green Monday
• December 14, 2018: Free Shipping Day
• December 31, 2018: New Year’s Eve

Believe it or not, online holiday sales figures witness a mercurial rise on each of these 5 days. Sales figures as high as $1 billion were reached on Thanksgiving Day 2017 in the United States, while Cyber Monday and Black Friday eCommerce  sales were tracked at $2.2 billion and $1.6 billion respectively. Green Monday 2017 showcased returns of $1.4 billion for online retailers in the form of desktop eCommerce sales while over $845 million was generated on Free Shipping Day as a result of similar online store sales.
All in all, it makes good business sense to have separate and more lucrative holiday marketing strategies for these peak selling days. Think out of the box and plan your retail marketing strategies with pay-per-click ads, ready email campaigns, or other promotional efforts to garner the best returns.

Prepare Keywords and PPC Ads Beforehand
Holiday eCommerce marketing is incomplete without pay-per-click advertising. It’s wrong to wait until the last minute to place PPC ads. Optimize and plan your campaigns in line with a prepared schedule so that you are ready with the right keywords and ads much ahead of the holiday rush.

Rich Media Ads do the Trick
Media advertising opportunities are the right way to deal with the fierce e-commerce competition that is all set to take center stage during the 2018 holiday shopping season. So, even as it is a good idea to buy PPC ads on popular search engines beforehand, you can top the race by looking at other media channels like TV, radio, newspaper, email advertising, etc. For instance, you may like to advertise your ware and promotional schemes via audio or video, and also display ads that can be clicked upon by potential customers. Video streaming services serve as excellent advertising vehicles as users cannot skip the ads. YouTube is another helpful resource for rich media advertising. Investing a part of your holiday marketing campaign budget in each of these advertising platforms will go a long way in helping your e-commerce store get its due attention during the crowded holiday season.

Content Marketing will never Fail to Provide Good Returns!
Linger no longer, as now is the right time to begin publishing Christmas shopping guides, helpful content for holiday shopping, tips for Thanksgiving Day purchases online, etc. It helps to ensure that search engines get ample time to index the content generated by you before online shoppers start Googling for product information or buying guides.

Are you ready to create the right magic with your smart holiday marketing moves? Go full throttle ahead and reap rich returns before others do. You may like to start by ticking off the items on the above checklist – you will be glad you did!

Related Post – ECOMMERCE EMAIL MARKETING – BEST PRACTICES TO TRIPLE YOUR SALES

Related Post – Prepare Your Online Store For The 2018 Holiday Season

The post Top Tips To Make Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns Rock! appeared first on QualDev.

The General Data Protection Regulation (henceforth referred to in this article as GDPR) spells a new beginning and a definite change in strategies for enterprises – especially eCommerce businesses around the globe.

Understanding GDPR

So, what exactly is the General Data Protection Regulation and why should you be concerned about it? The GDPR is basically a European Union (EU) regulation that acts as the new data privacy law. It is, by far, the most comprehensive and well-structured data privacy law globally and has been created to monitor and regulate how companies gather, use, share and handle customers’ personal data. The GDPR will require a thorough review of how you process customer data.

What qualifies as personal data?

Personal data includes pictures, electronic mails, bank details, IP addresses, social media posts, behavioral data or anything that makes it possible to directly or indirectly identify a person.

Why was the GDPR introduced?

From a business point of view, the GDPR’s aim was to enable businesses to enhance their customer service levels, inspire greater customer loyalty and confidence in the company, engage in advanced sales and marketing, and help gain a competitive advantage in the market by approaching customer data differently.

From a layman’s point of view, the whole idea behind the new regulation was to ensure that every individual has greater control over their data (or the right to know what happens to his/her data). The GDPR now empowers individuals to ask a business for any personal data, question and demand a free copy of the same. As a consumer, one can even request an organization to delete all personal data.

When will the GDPR come into force?

The GDPR is all set to be in action from May 25, 2018.

Whom does it apply to?

The new regulation will primarily have an impact on all businesses operating within the EU, or those who have customers in the EU. The latter part of the aforementioned statement should matter to you (eCommerce businesses) because irrespective of your location, you will need to comply with the new rules if you collect, use or share EU residents’ personal data. It is highly likely that you, as an eCommerce business, have (or will have) European customers – the GDPR, then, should matter to you.

In simple words, if your eCommerce website is available/accessible in Europe, you have to comply with GDPR.

GDPR has unique consequences for eCommerce companies

Here’s a complete breakdown of how you are required to maintain customer data May 25 onwards:

Opt-in only

Before gathering any personal data, it is mandatory to obtain the customer’s consent. It is also required for organizations to make the data available at their request.

Granular consent

The GDPR makes it clear that in cases where customer data is to be used for multiple sales or marketing activities, the approval for each one has to be taken separately – and you are obligated to maintain records of what, when and how each individual has consented to.

Privacy

Having duly signed privacy agreements is a must for third-party vendors who have access to your customer data. It is essential that you are clear about what happens to the data collected (including secure storage, management, and processing).

App security

Anything that you intend to do with the data of an EU resident needs to be registered (including information about where the data is stored). Applications that contain sensitive data will need to be secured and certain data breaches will have to be reported to data protection authorities if required.

Data storage, retention, and transfer

The data must be stored only for as long as necessary and the GDPR does not allow the transferring of data to any area outside the European Economic Area (unless that nation has an ample protection for the rights/freedom of the data subject with reference to the processing of personal information and erasing it on request).

How can you ensure GDPR readiness?

There are a few ways in which you can be sure of riding this wave of change smoothly.

• • • People and systems
      

Are you equipped with tools or software that can take care of these new demands? Also, do you have a data protection team (or an individual) to handle any such requests or compliance problems?

• • • Privacy policy and opt-in process
      

Have you updated your consent forms, privacy policies and disclosures to ensure GDPR readiness? To obtain consent from your customers, you may need to make certain changes to your opt-in processes.

Pro tip: Most noteworthy, you could think out of the box and offer rewards or incentives to obtain their consent!

• • • Data audit
      

Have you thought about the existing data that you have?

How can you preserve it?

Have you obtained explicit consent for storing this data?

Where is it stored?

How is it stored?

Is there redundant data that you can get rid of?

Are there any potential security challenges?

It is the right time to conduct a thorough data audit and then take a call on what you need and what you don’t.

• • • Third-party assets
      

Do you use any third-party services (applications, cloud solutions, themes, etc.)? If the answer is yes, you must ensure that all sub-processors are GDPR compliant.

• • • Communication process
      

Develop a clear, concise, transparent, intelligent and easily accessible communication process that keeps the consumer in the loop (with reference to obtaining their consent, allowing them to raise complaints or requesting removal).

• • • Cost
      

Businesses that are not compliant with GDPR would have to pay fines up to 10 million Euros or 2% of the annual global turnover for the previous year (whichever is higher). What is even more concerning is that non-compliance can lead to a loss of trust in the company (from a consumer’s point of view) and cause major damage to the goodwill of the brand. It’s best to evaluate your business strategies and take into consideration the cost of regulatory compliance now.

• • • Data Breach
      

Do you have a well-defined process in place to handle data breaches? 72 hours is the deadline that GDPR has set for a company to notify any affected user(s) about an incident that compromises the security of personal data. Your business is liable to pay fines of up to 4% of your annual revenue (global) or 20 million Euros (whichever is greater) in case you suffer a data breach. The call is yours!

• • • Website security
      

If your entire website has an SSL certificate, you are GDPR compliant. Furthermore, it is also essential that the database itself is encrypted. Hence, it is not only vital to have full HTTPS for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, but for GDPR as well (as opposed to partial HTTPS).

Here’s the complete guide to the legislation: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/

How we can help

Finally, GDPR is around the corner and if you aren’t ready for it, you need a trusted partner who can ensure that your online business continues to run without any hiccups and adapts to this paradigm shift smoothly. QualDev is that partner.

With comprehensive solutions for all types of eCommerce businesses, QualDev takes a tailormade approach to each client, and take care of their specific needs in the most hassle-free and cost-effective manner.

Get in touch with our experts to put all your GDPR worries to rest.

Disclaimer: GDPR is a complex regulation. We urge you to read it in its entirety and consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance.

Data source: https://searchdatabackup.techtarget.com/tip/Being-GDPR-compliant-is-not-just-a-concern-for-the-EU

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What’s in the deal?

For starters, the acquisition is, by all means, a good thing for DigiCert customers. The sole reason here being the fact that when it comes to delivering safe identity and encryption solutions, DigiCert is a name many already trust. The brand is also associated with innovative solutions and unparalleled support.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem already! Just how will the transition take place? Although simple, many would find this question a difficult one to answer. Not for DigiCert though. The company after all is innovative.

To ensure that the transition takes place seamlessly, Symantec Website Security is now reaching out to people and businesses that may be affected or have already been affected by their move. This is in a bid to ensure that the continuity of online business is not disturbed and that no one halts his or her services in the name of a cyber-security breach. As a matter of fact, the company wants to ensure that no one is affected in any way.

Google Proposal Background

On the 27th of July 2017, Google came up with a plan for all TLS server certificates issued by Symantec. The plan featured specific dates that would affect quite a number of operations on the world wide web. The critical dates included:

• 1st December 2017 – All Symantec SSL and TLS certificated were supposed to have been issued from a new PKI infrastructure by this date. That was and still is, the only way Google Chrome would trust such certificates.

• 15th March 2018 – This had everything to do with Chrome 66 Beta or if you may, the Google Chrome66 update. Google Chrome has been sending prompts to users whose sites are secured with SSL and TLS certificates. Websites that have certificates issued before 1st July 2016, would see the warning signs. One important thing to note here is that nothing will have been lost by the time you see the warning. Your data encryption will still function properly and your security will not be at risk.

• 13th September 2018 – This is around the time that Google will launch Chrome 70 Beta. Google Chrome will show a warning for sites secured with SSL/TLS certificates issued by Symantec’s existing PKI infrastructure. Again, your security won’t be compromised and your data encryption will work just fine. Your site visitors will however, be distracted by a warning shown by Google Chrome.

It is important to note that on the 1st of August 2017, Mozilla Firefox announced that it would follow the time-line Google proposed. Google went on to reconfirm its timelines on the 11th of September 2017. That did not leave DigiCert customers with much of a choice.

What to do

Symantec evaluated all certificates to ensure that businesses comply with browser requirements. They planned to ensure that by the time they handed over operations to DigiCert, no one’s business had been affected. So where exactly does this leave Chrome 66 users? From the aforementioned timelines, certificates issues before June 1 2006 should have been replaced by March 15 2018. DigiCert embarked on an ambitious outreach project to ensure that affected customers enjoy a seamless transition.

The fact that DigiCert offers free replacement certificates to help users avoid disruptions and warning signs while using HTTPs sites is a big statement from the company. It appears that they actually mean business when they say they do not want anyone to be affected. It also appears that they are moving systematically with Google’s timelines. All one needs to do is visit a Symantec portal for a free certificate. This will last for a certain validity period, so yeah, there is a need to rush before the free offer ends. A free web tool is available, so you do not need to worry about how to find out if your certificate has been affected. Enter your domain name and the web tool will inform you if you are using a certificate that needs to be replaced. The tool can help any business identify any certificate that will be affected by the release of Chrome 70 as well as Firefox 63, slated for later this year.

What is next for Chrome 66 users?

The most appropriate answer would be, ‘Don’t worry, everything’s under control’. That is if all the aforementioned plans by Google, Symantec and Digicert are anything to go by. As a Chrome 66 user, you should be keen on the launch of the Google Chrome66 update, which happens to be April 17th 2018. Note that you can replace your certificate through other certificate providers if you wish. This could be for a fee though.

As soon as Chrome 66 is released, the browser’s developer tools will immediately begin noting certificates that Chrome 66’s distrust. Google has without a doubt taken a tough stance on certificates issued by Symantec. Chrome 70 will also come along with the same measures. Just like Chrome 66, the browser is designed to distrust any certificate that was issued by Symantec’s old infrastructure.

What happens if one does not comply?

One will feel the pinch as soon as Chrome 70 launches. According to Google, Chrome 70 will get rid of Symantec’s old infrastructure and any certificate it has issued. This move alone is enough to make one realize what Google actually feels about Symantec’s alleged security violations. It also says a lot about Google’s commitment to ensure that Chrome Users feel safe. Can the same be said of Mozilla? That’s a whole new story for another day – so far so good though. Just like Google, they have taken the necessary measures. Focus now shifts to Chrome 70 and whether they will live up to the hype and stand out as a success, or not.

The post Replace Symantec Issued Certificates Ahead Of Chrome 66 appeared first on QualDev.

The place of e-commerce in the modern business setup is not easy to ignore. More companies now have online platforms from where they run their entire operations, or websites that complement the operations of their brick and mortar store. With the number of internet users growing rapidly, businesses the world over need the best technology partners in help with their e-commerce projects. QualDev Inc. has emerged as one of the most reliable search engine optimization (SEO) providers. It is against this backdrop that QualDev Inc. featured at the fourth position on GoodFirms list of Top 10 Digital Marketing Agencies NYC, and made it to the fifteenth position on the Top Digital Marketing Companies In USA. This recognition as a Top SEO Company in USA has come  due to the hard work put in by every member of the team at QualDev Inc.

Over the years, QualDev Inc. has created a reputation for providing high-quality e-commerce solutions and 100% satisfaction. The company has invested heavily in recruiting talented personnel and using latest technologies to deliver on their total satisfaction guarantee. While many clients still complain about the quality of services in the SEO industry, QualDev Inc. has continued to exceed their clients’ expectations.

Speaking about this recognition by GoodFirms, the company’s CEO was thrilled about this milestone, “You see, when we started QualDev, our dream was just to provide excellent e-commerce solutions and sometimes it has not been easy. It is a largely unregulated industry and there are unscrupulous players who lower the clients standards and expectations. We have had to work very hard to retain a consistent client base. We would never have imagined that a company such as GoodFirms would recognize our efforts,” said the CEO. “It is an honor and we vow to raise our standards even higher. We also wish to thank our clients who have stood with us on this journey. We promise to grow even bigger together by providing tailored e-commerce solutions to power businesses” he added.

The rating by GoodFirms a globally renowned B2B research organization, has become a yardstick for businesses in SEO, due to its objectivity, independence and the value it adds to the reviewed businesses. QualDev Inc. has had to constantly review its processes and fine-tune them to deliver excellent services in order to make it to GoodFirms list.

By leveraging the latest technologies, and maintaining close collaborations with clients, the team at QualDev Inc. has managed to deliver on its promises to clients. They work closely together using dedicated reporting systems, to ensure that the client stays in the loop about their ongoing project. It inevitably leads to better outcomes and more satisfied clients. By providing tailored e-commerce solutions, the company has managed to rope all types of businesses in its client base.

The management of QualDev Inc. reckons that most of the new orders that their business receives comes from return clients and referrals from happy clients. With the company’s recognition among the Top Digital Marketing Agencies NYC and Top Digital Marketing Companies In USA, their customers can expect to receive even more dedicated e-commerce solutions as the team gears up to achieve the apex position on these lists, and the title of the Top SEO Company in USA.

About QualDev Inc.
QualDev Inc. is an e-commerce solution provider based in Melville, NY. They offer a wide range of high-quality services that include responsive web design, static websites development, e-commerce website development, mobile apps development, and online management systems among other solutions. The company combines excellent services with competitive pricing to stay ahead of the competition.

Contact
QualDev Inc.

Pae tn 21-25, Harju maakond, Lasnamäe linnaosa, Tallinn, 11415, Estonia

Email: qualdevpartners@gmail.com

The post Goodfirms Research Highlights – Qualdev Inc. Among Top 10 Digital Marketing Agency In Nyc appeared first on QualDev.

We appreciate their continued business, and are here to help them succeed every step of the way.

We wish everyone Continued Success and a Very Happy New Year 2018!

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