Artificial intelligence and its components, including concepts like natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), are already being leveraged to automate and enhance the many aspects of eCommerce. If you as an eCommerce business wish to stay ahead of the curve, it is time for you to explore the evolving concept of AI and embrace it in order to be at the forefront of digital evolution.

Let us first understand the different roles that AI can play in eCommerce, what its different facets are, and how AI can reshape the way you run your eCommerce business.

Give your visitors a personalized experience

AI algorithms, as you would have guessed by now, are far smarter than us mere mortals. From an eCommerce perspective, AI algorithms can accurately analyze all the accumulated business data and customer journeys to identify buying intent, recommend relevant products and services to your visitors, custom-design digital marketing campaigns and strategies for you, and even give you custom landing page layout recommendations. Imagine the sheer level of personalization that is possible with AI! If you wish to take the next step towards offering your website or app visitors with the best possible browsing and shopping experience, it would be wise to invest in this technology today.

Give your customer support team a breather

AI-enabled chatbots has truly revolutionized the way customer support teams function today. You can rely heavily on these chatbots to assist your website visitors or app users with instant responses to their queries, on-demand support, grievance resolution, and assistance with buying decisions. The best part about AI-powered chatbots is that you don’t have to monitor them 24/7 – you can focus on the other aspects of your business while these digital ninjas take care of the above areas. This way, your customer support department can become more efficient and you can ensure cost-efficiency along with heightened customer satisfaction.

Product recommendations

AI-powered algorithms can recognize your offerings based on the images you feed into the system. This can help you in more ways than one because now your customers can find exactly what they are looking for by simply uploading images! AI engines can also be used to provide product recommendations, thereby allowing you to find novel ways to cross-sell your product range.

Fraud detection

AI can play a big role in helping you identify and get notified instantly about any fraudulent activities, including account breaches, security breaches, or payment frauds. Thanks to the smart algorithms, AI tool integrations can analyze historical data, patterns, and trends to detect any irregularities or glitches. This can help you as a business owner to keep fraudulent transactions, breaches, and activities at bay and ensure real-time protection against such threats.

AI in your supply chain

Studying the data collected from different sources (including your shipping routes, delivery schedules, weather data, supplier contracts, market trends, historical data, etc.), AI algorithms can effectively help your eCommerce business stay on top of your supply chain management and demand forecasting. Using AI for supply chain optimization can lead to smarter logistics, better inventory planning, lower costs, and prevention of overstocking or stockouts.

Real-time dynamic pricing

Adjusting your product pricing is the key to ensuring that your business stays competitive while still making the targeted profits month on month, especially given the volatile demand-supply cycles. AI-powered algorithms can even enable you to make real-time price adjustments if the market demand, competition, and other factors call for it.

So, there you have it – the list of benefits of AI is endless and we have only scratched the surface at the moment. If you were to look at industry-specific case studies and real-life success stories of businesses like yours effectively integrating artificial intelligence technologies into their processes, you will know exactly what kind of challenges to expect, how to circumvent them, the solutions that may be right for your business, and the expected outcomes post deployment.

Conclusion

As we step into a new era of digital explosion, AI for eCommerce will prove to be a literal gamechanger for businesses that aspire to be pioneers in the near future. Trends like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), ChatGPT, a host of Chrome extensions, and voice-driven eCommerce are expected to re-shape the way the eCommerce world operates today.

Work with a digital expert for AI integration in your eCommerce business

If you are on the lookout for a partner or solution provider who can guide you through the scope of AI in eCommerce, look no further! At Qualdev, we specialize in helping brands and businesses reach newer heights by ideating and implementing new-age digital solutions. As an eCommerce development company, Qualdev has several years of experience in the industry. We have helped several businesses realize their full potential in the eCommerce space with a host of cutting-edge solutions that include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Web analytics
• Marketplace management
• UI/UX design
• Web design
• App development
• Content creation and content marketing
• PPC
• Digital marketing strategy execution
• AI integration

Looking for an avant-garde web development company in New York for your small or mid-sized eCommerce business? We are always excited to learn about new businesses and help them with future-ready solutions. Get in touch with our team.

The post How AI Can Be Used in eCommerce: Top Facts, Use Cases & Benefits appeared first on QualDev.

“We don’t just sell websites; we create websites that SELL.”

― Dr. Christopher Dayagdag

Here are seven proven best practices for website design that we at QualDev swear by and that you should know about –

1. Keep it simple

They say, “If you think math is hard, try web design!”

An important rule to remember while designing your eCommerce website is to stick to simplicity and aim to create to appeal to a broader audience. A minimalistic approach helps the website and favors the products. Everything on the website should have a purpose, with nothing distracting the user from focusing on content.

If the design is complicated, there is a good chance that the visitor will not understand or appreciate it. Websites that have fewer colors per page, pure hues and simple and readable fonts are the ones that sell. This ensures the buyer sees the woods behind the trees, and the most helpful information does not get lost behind flashy design.

2. Easy navigation

If it were not for convenience, people would have never shifted to online shopping. The process of buying from website should be rational and free-flowing from one point to another so that the process feels natural – akin to muscle memory. If a visitor to your website needs to click ten diverse menus to get what they are looking for, they will most likely flee within the first few seconds.

User experience can be simplified by keeping the following in mind –

• The brand logo should bring the visitor back to the homepage
• Hamburger menu bar allow visitors to choose the correct category
• Filters help narrow down search results
• An easy to locate search bar shortens the buying journey

3. Use quality visuals

The better the quality of graphics and visuals on your website, the more the users will favor your online store. This could include the following (with easy zoom-in zoom-out capabilities) –

• High-resolution photos (preferably creative photography)
• 360-degree views of your products
• 3D models or renders to show minute details
• Short and engaging videos

A huge reason visitors abandoning category and product pages, is because the owners of the website have failed to create visually appealing landing pages.

4. Make it look professional

Imagine giving your sensitive information, like your credit card number, to a website that does not look professional. This is how a customer would feel as well. Building trust is crucial if you want your ecommerce website to succeed and thus instill a professionalism and credibility. This means it is essential that your site content has –

• No typos or misspellings
• Consistent font, color palette, and footer design from page to page
• Fully functional product links and CTA buttons

If you want your shoppers to take you seriously, you need to show them that you are serious about your business. The only way to do that is with a professionally designed website and app.

5. Make it responsive

A recent report states that mobile has surpassed desktop devices as the most favored method to surf the internet. 79% of smartphone users buy products online using their mobile devices. So, if an ecommerce website is not engineered with a mobile-first approach, it is going to fail miserably. If you wish to grab new buyers who enjoy shopping on their phones or tablets, ensuring that your website design is fully responsive is important.

6. Provide multiple ways to get in touch

Your patrons are likely to hit the “Order” button faster if they know how to get in touch with you when they face any issues during their shopping journey. Having the following items on your contact page would undoubtedly help –

• E-mail, phone number, chatbot for instant contact
• Store location
• Social media profile links
• FAQs page for any contemplated queries

7. A breezy checkout

Remember how we said nothing kills a sale faster than complicated product pages. Well, a clunky checkout is the second reason. You are bound to lose customers if your checkout process is long and complex. If you want people to buy from your website, you must make buying as concise and hassle-free as possible. Make sure the steps on the checkout from your website are –

• Clean, simple, and easy to navigate
• Give the option to check out as a guest user or register an account
• The navigation and check out process should be crystal clear and easy to understand
• Offer different shipping options
• Provide a list of things to do in case of any problems
• Offer return or refund options

Once the purchase is completed, direct your consumers to a confirmation page so they know everything went through successfully.

The proverb “never judge a book by its cover” does not apply to ecommerce websites because there is a high chance that if your design fails to make a tremendous first impression, visitors are more likely to bounce. Enforce the tips outlined above and create a high-converting ecommerce website design that brings in more conversions!

Designing an ecommerce website can be a thorny task, but QualDev has you covered. QualDev is a web development company in New York known for building clean, customized eCommerce website designs that create lasting impressions both visually and interactively. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us today!

The post 7 Best Practices to Keep in Mind While Designing Your eCommerce Website appeared first on QualDev.

That being said, if you are looking to build your own eCommerce website, here are 10 success stories that are sure to inspire you –

1. Taylor Stitch

Taylor Stitch launched its ecommerce website over a decade ago in 2010. They offered sophisticated and affordable clothing tailored for men. Their website’s popularity spread like wildfire due to a unique feature Taylor Stitch on their website. They displayed customer success stories on important pages of their website. Customers could purchase items and post stories with images and videos of their newly purchased merchandise. This helped new customers form deeper “connections” with the brand and their offerings, and hence they became more likely to not only make a purchase but also share their buying experience with friends.

Not more than 3 years after the launch of their website, Taylor Stitch made $1.5 million in sales. More than a decade later, they are still going strong.

2. Triangl

Triangl, a brand that needs no introduction, was founded when Erin Deering discovered that she was unable to find a bikini that fit her well, made her look good, and didn’t cost a fortune. So, she decided to make her own. After the company went online using a Shopify template, it made over $5 million within the first year. Better still, they were able to increase their revenues 5 times over the following year.

Besides offering a great product, Triangl’s trust in Shopify helped the company flourish rapidly.

3. Pour Moi

The lingerie and nightwear store, Pour Moi, has been around since 1998. In 2015, using Shopify, they launched their first eCommerce website. Shopify provided them with the options to make the whole customer experience of exploring the store, adding items to the cart, and finally purchasing them, simple and hassle-free.

Pour Mio’s amazing range of lingerie, and their strong presence online, has helped them expand their presence to over 50 countries.

4. Sunday Somewhere

Going online with Shopify in 2010, Sunday Somewhere was a complete sensation. Selling premium, handmade designer eyewear, and providing a unique combination of quality and simplicity, they were able to gain worldwide recognition in almost no time.

Choosing a Shopify template and customizing it, enabled the brand to display their products creatively, using eye-catching camera angles and creative product placement.

5. Bremont

There is no brand that screams “luxury watches” louder than Bremont. Founded in 2002, and a winner of many awards, Bremont has a reputation for creating stunning chronometers. After they launched their ecommerce website in 2017 (which is based on Shopify again) the company made about $17 million in revenue.

Manufacturing more than 50,000 watches annually, Bremont is thriving in the watch making business, and they owe it all to their inspiring online presence.

6. Zero Gravity

Zero Gravity, a company that creates stunning, on trend iphone cases, is fast gaining popularity across the United States. Since their launch in 2010, the company has been dedicated to designing one-of-a-kind iPhone cases. Using unusual elements like embroidery, each case is artistically designed and 100% unique.

With their Shopify website, they provide customers with a place to get unique cases for their iphones. If you visit their website, you are bound to find something trendy that fits your iphone too.

7. 18 Karat

Offering creative homeware and furniture, 18 Karat is an attractive online furniture store, with extremely appealing products. What makes them unique is that they combine the smooth, luxurious feel of premium furniture with the freshness of nature.

Using the warm colors of fall, this Shopify-based online store completely captures the safe and comforting feel that a home should provide. Expanding beyond furniture, 18 Karat also offers art and other home décor to elevate your living space and take it to the next level.

8. Pure Cycle

By focusing on style and comfort, Pure Cycle has made a real name for them in the world of bicycles. What is extremely cool about their Shopify website is that they have adopted Shopify’s AR feature to give potential customers a real feel of the bikes they sell, thus helping customer make informed decisions while buying the bike their hearts desire. Customers can shortlist bikes on the website and then visit any Pure Cycle’s physical store to test it out in person.

This amazing feature not only saves time but also provides the customer a fun and exciting online shopping experience.

9. Gymshark

Gymshark started out as a group of friends in a garage, screen printing their products one at a time. Today, they have a gargantuan social media following and are valued at over 1 billion pounds. Creating an extremely engaging eCommerce website with Shopify has helped Gymshark expand their customer base to over 130 countries. The company does not have any physical stores and functions completely online.

They have experimented with “pop-up shops” which is something that keeps their customers excited.

10. Negative

Since the company’s launch in 2014, helping women feel fit and have confidence in their own bodies has been the only goal of Negative. The company was able to grow its revenue by 150% in just a few years.

In fact, this Shopify store does so well that it has received acclamations from Forbes, Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal for reuniting appearance and comfort.

Are you looking to launch or redesign your own eCommerce website? If you are, consider using Shopify to get the job done quickly and easily. QualDev is a Shopify development company that lets you hire experienced Shopify web developers to improved your online presence and ensure that your business goes places. Get in touch with our team to know more!

The post 10 Great Shopify eCommerce Stores to Inspire Your Own appeared first on QualDev.

Ten years ago, Shopify’s architect Tobi Lütke desired to trade snowboards. He realized it was particularly challenging to market snowboards online without an eCommerce platform. That is when Shopify was born. Today, Shopify’s web development interface leads the website and app designing world, catering to businesses of all types and sizes. Whether you sell online, on social media, in-store, or out of the trunk of your car – Shopify has got you covered.

Shopify’s evolved techniques and features can help any business boost sales, bait more customers, and offer a convenient and superior user experience. Let us take a deep dive into how Shopify provides custom-made services and helps businesses improve their game.

Shopify’s customization options for eCommerce businesses

1. Custom made themes with a template

Whether you want to assemble your website from scratch or start with a themed template, the decision can possibly keep you up for nights. Ground-up development gives the owner complete authority over the developer’s every decision to plan, create, and optimize. That level of power can be appealing. Shopify provides its customers with the right balance between from-scratch development and easy templatized options, which proves to be less taxing. All the creation can be done through a template. Your website will stand out but not at the risk of unfamiliarity. Thousands of businesses around the world have used Shopify Plus themes, exploring various design layouts and functionality features. Shopify Plus customizes everything that counts to today’s online clients. Automating full-scale campaigns, creating personalized buyer journeys, offering intuitive payments, and directing social selling are just a few things that Shopify can help you with. It even provides excellent documentation, API support, and tools.

2. Custom made products

Product customization is about striking an equilibrium between the frontend (for customers) and the backend (for your team), as your final goal is to display your products beautifully. With Shopify, purchasing, updating, adding, removing, and managing products is super easy and convenient.

3. Custom discounts (yes, it is more than coupon codes)

It can be hard to obtain new shoppers, retain, and award the existing ones, and maximize your average order value. However, optimizing discounts at scale can be a massive challenge for brands. Using the wrong value can reduce profits and devalue your brand. Suppose you have thousands of products for sale on your site, offering discounts to customers who buy in bulk but manually adding each value you want to offer is difficult because you cannot automate the process.

Fortunately, automating and customizing discounts on Shopify can be broken down into three options –

1. Custom checkouts

If you cannot close the deal, all your offers, designs, and products are in vain. Before Shopify Plus, the customization of the checkout process was the most significant object on Shopify. Making purchasing as easy as possible can be achieved by customizing the checkout screen to allow –

• Opening with PayPal and Amazon Pay
• Creating an account via email, Facebook, or Google
• Applying the coupon code automatically
• Applying free shipping automatically

2. Price discounts

Owners can use price discounts to mark down products or collections. The effect allows the customer to compare a price that shows off savings in dollar amounts, percentages, or both.

3. Custom Scripts

Shopify Scripts authorizes you to make custom codes to apply a combination of buying incentives automatically using –

• Discounts based on past purchase behavior
• Percentage (%) or amount ($) off products
• Tiered pricing for volume
• Free shipping
• Buy one get one (BOGO)

4. Customize your website at scale

You do not have to barter responsiveness and promptness for customization and management. Both are possible with Shopify – pacing new assignments, products, and campaigns as well as simultaneously building creamy, unique, and personalized customer experiences. Shopify Plus puts the power in the hands of brands without compelling them to sacrifice speed, skill, or deep customization.

How can Shopify web developers at QualDev help to customize your website/app?

As a leading Shopify web development company, QualDev can assist in setting up your website using the best theme from the Shopify theme store. We will support you in choosing the best theme for your site, installing it, and personalizing it with your content (including designing banners, etc.). No customization included.

However, using ready-made themes may not work for new business owners. That is where QualDev pitches in with high-quality custom Shopify stores that are built specific to your needs. We will work with you to construct that perfect design, taking your brand and identity into account and adding our expertise and experience to it. We can also help you set a B2B, multi-language, multi-currency site.

If you have an existing e-shop but need some help with specific functionality, integration with third-party apps, improving the look-and-feel, or bringing your Shopify store to the final step in your vision, or helping increase sales—QualDev can help! Explore our solutions and get in touch with our team today.

The post 4 Things You Should Know About Shopify appeared first on QualDev.

This trend has picked up steam in the recent past for good reason. Not only is eCommerce a profitable way for business owners to sell merchandize, but also the preferred way for customers to buy what they need.

A Quick Checklist to Starting Your eCommerce Business

Here are a few important things to keep in mind while planning to make the switch to eccommerce to get your online business started.

Licenses

Different states have different laws that govern businesses. It is essential that you find out everything there is to know about these laws, rules and regulations before getting started. Depending on where you are and what the nature of your business is, you may require to acquire various certifications, permits and licenses. Consult your legal advisor about tax liabilities and business compliance requirements for your type of business. There may be laws regarding import, export, shipping, etc., so understand all the implications that may be relevant to your ecommerce business.

Platforms

Unlike the era gone by, it is fairly simple for anyone to set up an ecommerce business today. With numerous user-friendly tools and software available to business owners, it is no longer necessary for you to create your own ecommerce website from scratch. Instead, you can choose to use any of the following ecommerce platforms:

1. Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular all-in-one ecommerce platforms out there. With an easy setup and hundreds of ecommerce templates to choose from, Shopify offers a range of customization options. With excellent back-end support and secure payment integration, it is also amongst the most reliable platforms. Here are some of the key features and functionalities the platform allows you to explore:

• Select your own domain name
• Customize the look and feel of the template you choose
• Create a structured product catalogs
• Organize SKUs
• Track and manage orders
• Post and manage content easily
• Make smart decisions based on eCommerce analytics

2. Magento Commerce

Affordable, customizable and trusted by hundreds of B2B and B2C enterprises, Magento is ideal for businesses. With flexible and extensible ecommerce options, you can create a unique shopping experience using this platform. The salient features of Magento Commerce include:

• Cloud hosting and deployment
• Seamless third-party integrations
• Customer segmentation and personalization
• Content staging and preview
• Inventory and order management
• End-to-end support
• Business intelligence tools

3. eBay

Here is a great alternative to creating and maintaining a full-fledged website for your ecommerce operations. eBay Shop enables businesses to showcase their offerings in one place. The customization options, allow you to use eBay’s staggering customer reach (millions of buyers worldwide) to draw attention to your own merchandise. It is essentially a digital marketplace that charges a small fee for every new product you list. Some of eBay’s standout features for eCommerce businesses are:

• A customizable storefront
• Easy product listing options
• Branding and personalization options
• Assign and organize SKUs
• Content management and promotion

4. Etsy

Hey, whoever said Etsy was only meant for creative businesses and artists was not entirely correct. Etsy doubles up as an online marketplace that enables you to list your products alongside other sellers. With a massive customer base, it provides a phenomenal option for businesses who do not want to spend a fortune on marketing.

• Easy account and store setup
• Fully customizable storefront
• Streamlined product listing options
• Handy sales tools

Apart from the platforms mentioned above, you could also consider other similar options such as Yahoo Small Business, Yola, Volusion and BigCommerce. All these platforms offer ecommerce as a service at reasonable rates and are extremely user friendly. 

Some of the factors that small businesses must consider when choosing a platform to host their ecommerce operations are:

• Affordable starter packages
• Data security
• User friendliness 
• Scalability 
• Personalization 
• Conversion and marketing tools
• Order fulfillment options
• Shipping support 
• Easy third-party integration
• Customer relationship management support
• Accounting support

Marketing

While you may invest a lot of time and effort into streamlining your ecommerce business on the platform of your choice, it is also important that you bring qualified traffic to your online store. Make sure you do your research about what kind of marketing strategy is best suited for your business type. You can explore targeted online marketing options such as:

• Email marketing
• Paid marketing
• Social media marketing
• Pay-per-click ads (PPC)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Content marketing
• Video marketing

Gone are the days when you would rely solely on a brick-and-mortar store to conduct business. eCommerce is the present and future of businesses. This business model allows you to reach a wider audience base, market your offerings easily and sell products and services to your customers in any corner of the world. 

Make sure you check off every pointer mentioned in the checklist above to work your way towards creating a successful ecommerce business. If you need a partner who can help you create and maintain your eCommerce store, check out our dedicated services.

QualDev is the frontrunner in ecommerce development solutions for businesses in the United States. Whether you want to set up a new ecommerce store or manage your existing one, we can help you. Get in touch with us today!

The post Go Online: How to Unleash the Potential of Your Business with eCommerce appeared first on QualDev.

Today, we are at a stage where eCommerce and mobile commerce has become the norm. Given the amount of time people spend online, the digital shopping ecosphere has become a highly competitive space. However, there is a long list of things that eCommerce businesses can do to sustain themselves and thrive.

Since your website is the single point of contact for your online shoppers, it is important that you ensure it delivers an exceptional user experience. Having worked extensively on eCommerce projects, we have put together this definitive checklist of best practices for your eCommerce website.

10 best practices for eCommerce website that you must follow

1. Design for mobiles

The mobile-first approach has been doing the rounds for over half a decade now and for good reason. Unsurprisingly, mobile commerce is expected to account for approximately 73% of eCommerce sales by 2021. It is essential that you prioritize the mobile user experience by designing your eCommerce website for mobile.

• Design important interactions in the thumb-friendly zone
• Create tap-friendly call-to-action (CTA) buttons
• Provide a hamburger menu for easy access to navigation elements

2. Don’t make your site too heavy

Waning patience levels and short attention spans are the new normal. Any delays in terms of page load time can have a direct and detrimental effect on your conversions. This can also have a long-term impact because it leaves customers with a bad taste and impression of your brand. Here are a few things you can do to optimize your eCommerce site so that pages on it load quickly:

• Monitor the site speed and server performance regularly
• Keep a tab on the image size
• Avoid including heavy videos
• Keep an eye out for unfriendly plugins

3. Keep your navigation clean

An overcrowded the navigation bar and homepage is a strict no-no. When you have a prospect on your website; you do not want them to be confused about where to go next. Ensure that your navigation is well structured and easy to follow. Ideally, only the most important links to resources on your eCommerce website should be a part of your navigation.

• Use standard, legible and recognizable fonts
• Ensure that the search bar is easily accessible to visitors
• Keep the design and layout as simple as possible

4. Don’t let your CTAs merge with the other content on a page

The last thing you want is for a qualified lead to abandon your website because they did not know what the next action to take is! It is important that your CTA buttons stand out in every section and on every page of your site. Here are some tips to make your CTAs loud and unambiguous:

• Place CTA buttons in such a way that they are easy to spot
• Use large, bold fonts for the text on your CTA button
• Make use of contrasting colors for your CTA buttons

5. Personalize the user experience

Ever noticed how successful supermarkets stock and arrange products and sections? Think of your eCommerce website as a superstore and drive your customers around based on their interests. The idea is to make life easier for the user by showing them what they are most likely to purchase.

• Use data and analytics to understand user behavior
• Upsell and cross-sell related products

6. Offer deals and discounts upfront

Allot a dedicated space on your homepage, and other key pages, to showcase promotions and special offers. After all, no one can resist the temptation to check out a super-saver deal, right?

• Display your sale and promotions loudly and clearly
• Feature a separate banner below your navigation

7. Don’t talk like a machine

The best eCommerce websites are those that speak to you as a human would. Imagine a friend, who knows a thing or two about a certain product, telling you about why it is so great. Now apply the same concept to your product pages.

• Focus on utility and benefits over technical specifications
• Provide multiple appealing images and demo videos of the product
• Make sure your product page is well structured
• Include customer reviews and ratings

8. “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!”

Let these iconic lyrics written by the Eagles’ be the mantra for your website. Make the checkout process on your website as quick and simple as you can. A majority of eCommerce website visitors abandon ongoing transactions because the process is either too lengthy or complex. Avoid cart abandonment by making sure that you:

• Offer guest checkout option, without the need to register for an account
• Provide multiple payment options and secure payment gateways
• Ensure that the checkout process has minimal steps

9. Offer free shipping

Admit it – nobody likes to pay extra for shipping. Imagine completing the entire buying process only to realize right at the end that there are additional charges for shipping! Unexpected cost additions contribute to cart abandonment. Your customers are already expected to pay taxes on top of the basic price for a product. Save them the agony of having to pay for shipping.

10. Don’t ignore website SEO

Almost half of the online shopping populace begins their journey via a search engine. If your eCommerce store is not visible for relevant search phrases or keywords in the top results, you are doomed. There is every chance that your potential customers will buy the same product from a competitor. Proper website SEO, and local SEO, is integral to your eCommerce strategy and should be a priority.

So, there you have it. This comprehensive list of dos and don’ts should hold you in good stead when you create your own eCommerce website. At QualDev, we offer a bouquet of eCommerce web development services that are customized to meet your needs.

Learn how you can take your eCommerce business to the next level with us. Drop us an email or call us at any time!

The post Do’s and Don’ts – 10 Best Practices for Your eCommerce Website appeared first on QualDev.

Amazon US alone gets over 150 million unique visitors a month.

More than 50 percent of all product searches begin on Amazon.com.

Over 30,000 SMBs in the United States leverage Amazon’s Marketplace service.

If you are unfamiliar with Amazon Marketplace, it is time to say hello to one of the world’s most crowded online marketplaces. Amazon Marketplace has evolved into a potent force, since it provides a holistic environment for sellers to generate huge revenues.

Here is everything you need to know about Amazon Marketplace.

What is Amazon Marketplace?

Amazon Marketplace is a robust eCommerce platform that is owned and run by Amazon. It supports and enables third-party sellers to showcase, advertise and sell a variety of new or used products. 

Today’s brands and businesses strive for attention and space in an increasingly competitive eCommerce environment. Amazon’s incredible Marketplace platform provides them with a powerful channel to not only list but also promote and sell their products. 

Why is selling on Amazon a highly rewarding option for businesses? 

As is evident from the statistics mentioned above, Amazon is one of the biggest eCommerce platforms in the world. Apart from being the most-visited online shopping destination, there are several other advantages that make selling on Amazon a profitable prospect for a variety of B2C businesses.

• For starters, Amazon provides you with an option to showcase your products in creative ways to millions of customers (or visitors).

• The virtue of eCommerce means that your products are visible to your potential customers 24×7.

• Amazon Marketplace also offers different advertising opportunities and channels to promote your products. You can use the Amazon Advertising portfolio to explore various types of targeted product display ads, PPC search ads and more. The platform also features programmatic ad buying functionality.  

• It is fairly simple for your customers to make online payments via Amazon. The funds are transferred to your bank account directly (and securely) even if it is a COD order. 

• Amazon Marketplace provides you with additional services such as product photography and account management from certified third-party vendors. These are paid services that businesses can avail off in case they do not have their own resources.

• Amazon offers phenomenal shipping and order fulfillment services. Whether you choose FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) or Easy Ship, you can rest assured that your product deliveries are taken care of efficiently. Most brands and retailers prefer FBA, since this method enables quick shipping through Amazon Prime. 

Apart from the aforementioned FBA option, Amazon also provides alternatives like:

1. Seller-Fulfilled Prime: This method can apply to your business if you adhere to the standards set by Amazon Prime (with reference to packing, shipping and tracking). To qualify, you must have a cancellation rate that is less than one percent. Additionally, you are required to meet a 99% on-time order shipping benchmark. Amazon requires sellers to complete a trial period where you handle the shipping yourself.
2. Self-Shipment: If you are a large retailer or brand, this fulfillment option is the least recommended. While the method allows you to pack and ship products at your own pace, it puts all the onus on you, thus making it difficult at times when you may receive a high volume of orders (or bulk orders).

Rules and regulations surrounding product feed

Amazon has several different guidelines regarding what you can and cannot include in your product feed. To always be on the safer side, it is best to include a high quality and quantity of product data for all your offerings. Here are some of the mandatory fields that your product feed is expected to include, irrespective of the category that the products belong to:

• Brand
• Product title
• Product description
• Price
• Condition of the product
• SKU
• Product ID
• Product category
• Shipping time 

The customization of Amazon’s initial product feed and its regular maintenance takes time, but is worth the effort if you have a few exclusive products. For brands that want to sell thousands of products, this can become a cumbersome task. 

While this is just a broad overview of what Amazon Marketplace offers, there are several other features that you can explore. Whether you wish to kick-start an eCommerce business, take your brand to the next level or expand the reach of your products, Amazon Marketplace is your best bet. 

With millions of potential customers waiting to discover your awesome products, it is a great time to explore Amazon’s unrivaled reach. All you need is a digital marketing agency that can help you get started. At QualDev, we enable businesses in the United States to realize revenue-driving opportunities by leveraging Amazon Marketplace and its related services. Become a participating seller and get in touch with our team today to start your journey with us.

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Integrating AI in eCommerce has helped to increase the market standards for many companies. Identifying different patterns in consumer behavior and analyzing data sets with the help of AI, has led to the creation of a more personalized experiences for consumers.

How exactly has artificial intelligence gained a foothold in the world of eCommerce?

Marketing of eCommerce

Marketing any business requires expertise. Artificial Intelligence provides cost-effective solutions that assists in the marketing of various products and brands. Businesses can offer their marketing campaigns and plans to Artificial Intelligence platforms such as Bind, Google Adwords, Facebook and others, through which marketing operations can be handled quite efficiently. These solutions help businesses to utilize their marketing budget most feasibly and help to minimize Cost Per Click.

Offer Services at Lower Costs

AI services are quite affordable. They help to improve the customer’s shopping experience, as well as to automate daily processes. A Chatbot is an example of the most cost-effective service provided by AI. How? Chatbots are software designed to act as a medium of interaction between service providers and consumers. A company can use this software to resolve queries and to answer questions that customers have in real-time. This can help to decrease response time.

Companies and businesses can also reduce the cost of hiring new customer care staff as Chatbots can perform all tasks associated with customer care in real-time. Therefore, Chatbots help in developing a customer-centric approach.

Chatbots are enhancing the impact of AI, by providing good customer support through capabilities such as:

• Providing consumers with targeted or personalized offers
• Self-learning capabilities, helps them improve with time
• Address customer needs through deeper insights
• NLP (Natural language processing) helps to interpret voice-based interactions with consumers

AI Can Be Used in Sales and Lead Generation

The most significant use of Artificial Intelligence is for generating sales. It tracks the purchasing patterns of consumers and extracts their data from eCommerce platforms. If such tasks were left to humans, it would take many hours and manpower to collect data and track customer behavior. These tasks have been simplified by AI, lowering the burden. This has helped companies increase sales and generate more leads.

Virtual and Voice Assistance

Over the years, Artificial Intelligence has focused on providing customers with more interactive solutions. By providing voice assistance in real-time, AI has largely contributed to improving the user experience. This makes it easy for service providers to interact with their customers with ease.

Some popular virtual assistants include Siri, The Google Assistant, and Alexa. A growing number of eCommerce companies are now focusing on adding virtual assistants to their platforms. Virtual assistants are designed to interpret and understand messages that customers leave, and can also process native languages.

AI has transformed how consumers process their purchases. A good example is when “My Starbucks Barista” was launched some years back. It allowed customers to use voice commands to place orders. Companies can use personalized data extracted by Artificial Intelligence like the customers’ preferences and purchase history, to send recommendations and offers to their customers.

Provision of Personalized Recommendations

AI uses emails, pop-ups, and text messages to provide consumers with product recommendations. Searches made by consumers are tracked to understand their behavior. Artificial Intelligence is also used to display ads and images of products on social media platforms and search engines that relate to the interest of the user.

Brands in return enjoy increased returns on investment due to improved ratings and reviews. Companies such as Netflix and Amazon use view history and data from past purchases, to recommend different movies and products to their consumers.

Visual Search Engine

Visual search engines are becoming more popular and are being used in the eCommerce sector as well. The AI helps users to search for anything they want with a single click. The visual representation of products is more appealing to consumers and they are more inclined to buy since they can now view the color, design, dimensions, and size of the product they wish to order. This move has helped to improve the consumers experience of offerings from the brand.

Benefits of Recommending Product to Customers

eCommerce platforms can benefit in multiple ways by recommending product:

• Provide a personalized shopping experience to online shoppers
• Improved sales and customer retention
• Higher numbers of return clients
• Enable personalized business email campaigns

Other Ways in Which Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming the Ecommerce Industry

• AI is providing solutions that are creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across brick-and-mortar as well as online stores. For example, AI-based omni-channel solutions are utilized to combine machine and AI learning, computer vision, and natural language processing to reduce the gap between online and in-store customer experiences.
• AI-based data analytic tools provide a host of benefits such as online sale analysis, customer profiling, etc. and allows a business to increase their intelligence of customer requirements.
• AI-enabled supply Chain Automation can assist in the effective management of supply chains for eCommerce platforms. Businesses can make decisions based on market needs, delivery schedules, and vendors.
• AI-enabled email marketing can send out marketing emails for services or products that are of interest to the recipient. Such email marketing tools are more aligned to address individual consumer needs and allow for intelligent user analysis based on the responses received. These emails appear more human than automated.

Endnote

The points above show how Artificial Intelligence contributes to eCommerce. Many small and large businesses have transformed themselves by adopting AI. Many more are projected to take similar steps in the future. There is no doubt that AI has secured its place in transforming day to day activities. Experts project that major tech companies who offer eCommerce development services will use Artificial Intelligence as a major theme to drive innovations. Many such companies are making huge investments in AI ventures. It is projected that in 2020, 85% of consumer interaction will need no inputs from humans.

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Based on the type of company you run, you could opt for distinct e-commerce strategies to spread your message using your website. In the beginning, you would focus on developing and creating the best website on the best platform. This is where Magento proves to be useful. Using this platform provides your online store with a lot of advantages. In this article we share some of the major benefits that will help you decide whether or not this platform is ideal for your e-business.

What is Magento?

Magento is an open-source platform developed for eCommerce websites. The platform has a wide range of options for integration as well as customization. It offers expandability, scalability and flexibility. The major benefits of the Magento eCommerce platform means it is among the best eCommerce platforms available on the internet these days. Although some work and precise designing is required to get things right, the power, as well as potential offered by this platform, is unparalleled. It is great for store owners who deal with a high volume of customers and sales.

Magento offers three major variations of its core product. These variations are – Magento Open Source (non hosted free edition), Magento Enterprise Edition (flagship product with more features and support) and the Magento Commerce Cloud which is hosted by Magento on their AWS stack. You can choose a version according to your need.

The Benefits of using Magento for an Ecommerce Store are listed below

1. Flexible Content Management System

When compared to other platforms, Magento is excellent for eCommerce. The platform has a profound and adaptable CMS. It works well for every store, whether they plan to pitch 10 items or 10 million items. Irrespective of the size and kind of e-commerce website you have, building a site using Magento is quite easy. 

2. Advanced SEO

Every single owner of an eCommerce business wants their online business to rank higher on search engine results pages; and once at the top, they take all steps to ensure that their websites show on the first page of search results. This feat is unachievable without SEO. For this reason, Magento developed advanced feature for SEO that permits owners of e-businesses to improve the ranking of their product pages. The features of the platform enable you to optimize URLs, set rich snippets, develop a sitemap, canonicalize tags, optimize keywords, add ALT tags for image, etc.

3. Extensions

Magento has the largest selection of high-quality extensions in the world. Their extensions provide the ability to extend the features of a Magento store at any time. For instance, when you start an online store, you may not require a live chat extension; however, this can be added later, as and when the traffic grows. The Magento Marketplace has extensions provided in different categories, like for marketing, payments, customer support, accounting, sales, analytics, shipping, as well as for site optimization. 

4. Highly Secure

In contrast to a few other eCommerce solutions that are available on the market, Magento is compliant with PA-DSS. This indicates that Magento follows not just the globally accepted security standards, they also follow the 14 vital protection criteria as well. Large businesses that sell products to customers on a global level are more worried about the safety of the payments they collect online; and they find that Magento meets their needs perfectly. It is a good choice for those firms who wish to provide their customers with secure payments options.

5. E-Commerce Store Loads Faster 

Magento aims to create some of the fastest eCommerce worldwide. According to recent stats from Google, the speed related to the loading of web pages is crucial because they found that more than 50% of users abandon a page that does not load fast. Magento’s heavy-duty platform enables administrators to keep page load time at a bare minimum, even when websites receive a high volumes of traffic.

6. Hosting Options 

When it comes to the use of its platform, Magento, does not force businesses to remain with the hosting that comes with this platform. Magento permits every eCommerce store to freely choose a hosting company based on their requirements. This provides online businesses with the freedom to have ownership of their own files and to select the hosting companies that they want for their website.

7. Multi-Website Options

Magento has the ability to host many websites and control them from a single back-end admin. This is one of the many features that make Magento popular. This particular feature has made Magento the best eCommerce CMS platform for business owners who operate many online stores and pages.

8. Support Related To Language And Currency 

Many well-known eCommerce platforms providers do not provide, or only offer a few options for other languages and currencies. Magento, on the other hand, supports numerous international currencies, enabling online store owner to operate their online store anywhere in the world. This feature has made it quite an efficient platform for US stores as well as international stores. Magento supports a wide range of languages as well.

9. Customized Integrations 

By permitting integration from 3rd parties, Magento provides more choices to customize an online store. This is an important advantage of the eCommerce platform that Magento offers. Magento enables every single store to be customized. Some basic 3rd party integrations, consisting of main web applications, additional payment gateways, etc.

10. Unlimited Options 

Magento keeps abreast of current design trends, needs of online stores, and online security requirements. This platform is able to handle a lot of requests. Doing so makes Magento the best option for a large-scale business. Magento eCommerce also makes online shopping bigger, quicker and completely customizable.

11. Mobile Friendly

We are living in a mobile era and a large chunk of online shopping takes place on mobile devices. Magento offers the opportunity for websites to have a responsive design so that they can provide a seamless user experiences across different screens. The Cross-platform compatibility, cross-browser compatibility, and device form agnostic capability of Magento makes it fit for the new era.

Bottom Line:

Magento is an outstanding platform that enables online store owners to create and design eCommerce websites of all sizes and complexity. It has a wide range of SEO capabilities, tools, etc., that make the platform the best choice for every website owner who intend to sell their products or services online. If you are planning to go for Magento, Qualdev is a premier Magento development company.

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ecommerce covers commercial transactions, including the transfer of data via the internet. This transfer takes place through different mediums – it could consist of a branded website, a marketplace like eBay or Amazon, mobile applications or even over a social media platform such as the Facebook Marketplace, Pinterest Buyable Pins, and the Shoppable Ads on Instagram. Although there are innumerable ways of selling product to consumers online, the benefit of selling online is the convenience of being able to sell products or services to any consumer at any time, irrespective of their location. 

Let us take a look at the key benefits of having an ecommerce store

1. Sell Quickly

In contrast to the conventional methods of retail, a basic ecommerce store can be set up in a few clicks. There are a lot of ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Squarespace from where you can use some pre-made templates to design your own store. The platform looks after the hosting, maintenance, PCI compliance, etc. Other marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay need that you set up an account with them before you can begin to sell. A number of SaaS-based ecommerce platforms exist and have made the selling process quite realistic as well as simple for businesses.

2. Low Cost

Setting up an ecommerce business costs less than setting us a brick and mortar store. Most online marketplaces and ecommerce sites have a free sign-up. They normally take a small fee, charged as a percentage of the sale, for allowing you to sell products on their platform. You can make use of drop shipping to obtain inventory without investing a huge sum. Social media, Google AdWords or organic search provide cost-effective ways of marketing your online business. You can manage the business on your own thereby avoiding payroll expenses. You can build your business as and when your sales grow.

3. Shoppers begin the hunt Online

Prospective customers use digital channels a lot these days to locate products and services they need. Compared to 71% in the previous year, this year about 87% of shoppers started their search for a product online. Irrespective of whether they buy the product offline in a physical store, their search began online on a website like Amazon or eBay. Shoppers compare prices, brands, look into reviews, etc. when they search online for a product. Thus, it is important for a brand to have an online presence so as to reach their target customers.

4. Insight on Customer Data

Another benefit of selling online is that it is quite simple and easy to collect data, measure it and act on it. Selling online enables you to get your hands on first-hand data by way of tracking how customers interaction with your website. The data provides you with insights on how to improve customer experience and boost sales on your website. The availability to track customer interaction enables you to identify and perfect feedback loops of any actionable insights that will help you enhance your customer experience. All you need to do is ensure that you collect and act on this data in ethical ways and ensure that you protect it.

5. Reach Out To New Customers

As mentioned earlier, ecommerce selling has different formats. Every single channel has its own unique audience with whom sellers interact. An online site can assist a business to reach international shoppers as well. Social sites can help a business reach totally new demographics. Marketplaces such as Amazon give you a wider audience, and also help a business to identify niche markets. Marketplaces such as Etsy, Poshmark, Newegg, etc., catering to particular people who are on the lookout for specific products. The best part is that a business can use different online touchpoints to ensure that they interact with and engage many different audiences.

6. Strategy for Content Marketing

Having a presence online enables your business to offer a lot of data about the products and services you offer your customers. A branded website offers the sellers a place to provide their customers with key content. Key product content consists of some detailed product descriptions, comparisons of products, availability of inventory in-store, and pricing. This information assists customers in their purchase decisions both while they shop online or whether they choose to buy in-store. an ecommerce website can be used to provide customers with a lot of data regarding the business or how to make use of the products they sell. Blog posts, as well as videos, can be posted on a website to offer a lot of helpful content regarding the usage of products or services.

7. Serving the Niche Markets

ecommerce helps businesses to cater to the needs of niche markets in an easier way. For instance, a rare coin collector will find it quite tough to get a seller. However, the internet has made this quite simple and easy. In case you cater to a niche market, it might be easier to sell your products online.

8. Meet Customers at their location

Shoppers do not only turn to the internet to research about products they also make purchases online. ecommerce has made it quite easy for shoppers to purchase products anywhere and at any time. they can purchase products via Instagram Ads, or even mobile apps. ecommerce also provided a way for sellers to get rid of friction points and has made it easy for buyers to buy products they desire from any source, from anywhere.

Conclusion

In short, getting an ecommerce shop up and running is simpler, involves low-costs and low-risks, than setting up a physical store. As long as you have a perfect business plan and have products that cater to the needs of your customers, the internet is here to offer a passive income as well as a high ROI in the long run. If you are looking for professional help in your e-commerce store development, we are one of the leading ecommerce website development companies in USA and are here to help you walk the path to success.

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