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.

The post What You Need to Know About Amazon Marketplace appeared first on QualDev.

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.

The post How is Artificial Intelligence Transforming eCommerce? appeared first on QualDev.

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.

The post The 8 Benefits of Having An E-commerce Website in Today’s Business Scenario appeared first on QualDev.

If you plan to build an online store or you have one in operation, it is imperative to choose a powerful eCommerce platform. The choice of an eCommerce platform can make or break your business. It determines the reliability, availability, uptime, ease of customization, user experience, scalability, and quality of product display, among other things.

Shopify has emerged as one of the best eCommerce platforms for several reasons. It is an out-of-the-box eCommerce solution that has everything an online trader requires when they plan to enter the eCommerce industry.

Shopify services cover all the ground needed to set up a successful online store. It is the third most popular e-commerce platform, with a market share of 9.97%.

Incredible Shopify Ecommerce Numbers

Based on information from an updated post on ‘Shopify and You’, As of June 2019, there were 820,000 merchants on Shopify. In 2017 alone, 200k new merchants joined the platform. Total revenue for the full year 2018 was $41.1 billion a 59% increase over 2017.

In 2018 alone, there were 218 million buyers on the platform. To date, Shopify has enjoyed $100 plus billion in total sales through its platform.

In the same post on ‘Shopify and You’, A company report for 2019 shows that Shopify made over $1.5 billion in sales during Black Friday. This translates to 10,978 orders per minute and peak sales volume of $870,000 per minute. The same report says that Shopify Plus merchants have enjoyed a 126% year-over-year average growth.

Looking at these numbers, Shopify emerges as the go-to eCommerce platform for any serious business. For an online platform that started as a snowboard store, this growth is nothing short of phenomenal.

Today, Shopify hosts some of the biggest brands, such as:

• Angry Birds
• Bulletproof
• Budweiser
• The Economist
• The New York Times Shop
• Red Bull
• Foo Fighters
• 50 Cent
• Leesa Mattress
• Penguin Books
• Tesla Motors
• Nestlé
• The Hummingbird Bakery
• HarperCollins
• The Lady Gaga Official Shop

If you want to leverage the booming internet market, you need such a powerful eCommerce platform on your side. 

Why use Shopify for your eCommerce Store?

As an online business owner, it is important to assess the strengths of any eCommerce CMS you wish to use. Shopify has grown in popularity in the retail industry for several reasons. Here are some of these reasons

1. Quick Set Up And Easy Use

If you are not tech-savvy, you don’t have to worry about setting up your online store. Shopify is easy to set up, and you don’t need any programming or coding experience to use the platform.

The company takes care of all the hosting and backend server operations. As a retailer, you need your products, descriptions and a name for your online shop to start trading.

There are tutorials available on the company’s website to get you started, and from here, you only need to customize your eCommerce store.

Editing descriptions, customizing color schemes, adding titles for your images and managing other processes on the Shopify dashboard is easy. Once you have logged into your dashboard, you can manage inventory, track your sales, offer discounts, manage orders, transactions, and much more. 

2. Full Hosted Ecommerce Platform

When looking for the best platform for eCommerce store development, go for one that offers a full range of solutions. Shopify is a hosted solution and deals with the whole range of website solutions you need to set up your store.

3. Security And Reliability

Security and privacy concerns dominate the internet market today. Most online traders have suffered losses due to data losses from their databases. Shopify is one of the most secure eCommerce platforms. This is one of the reasons for its popularity. 

Their strong security system and reliable hosting ensure that your data remains safe. The eCommerce company takes care of all server maintenance and upgrades. This ensures the security and availability of your store and shopping cart at all times. Shopify web developers focus on security precautions. This has given this e-commerce platform an edge in the market. 

4. Scalability

As your business grows, there’s a need for more resources to accommodate this growth. Your eCommerce platform should support your store’s growth and not curtail it.

Shopify has the functionalities to help you scale your business. Store owners can choose from a variety of plans based on their businesses’ projections. Your scale up or down depending on the reality of your business performance. 

All Shopify plans offer unlimited bandwidth, but premium plans have more features and capabilities.

5. 24/7 Tech Support

Your online store will serve customers around the clock. If any technical problems arise, Shopify is always available to help. There are video tutorials available to help you troubleshoot and solve problems before you even feel the need to request further assistance.

6. Mobile Responsiveness

In 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was via mobile phones, up from 50.3 percent in the previous year. When building your online store, you should plan a strategy to tap into this market.

In 2019, Shopify saw 79% of traffic and 69% of orders from mobile internet devices. The company thus appreciates the importance of mobile in the eCommerce landscape.

This eCommerce platform is responsive, making it easy for all internet users to access. The CMS is mobile-friendly and helps you reach a larger customer base, as more consumers are now on mobile.

7. App Store

Shopify offers you an app store from where you can source apps that help you promote your brand and increase sales.

These simple to install and easy-to-use apps can boost the efficiency of your eCommerce store operations. They save time, build sales and make it easier to manage your online store.

8. Payment Gateways

Shopify offers its payment gateway (Stripe). The Stripe payment option is easy and cheap to start using on your store. Customers can also use other payment options, which allow you to target a broader market.

Other reasons for choosing Shopify while developing an eCommerce store include its affordability, SEO and marketing tools, abandoned cart recovery, chance to build a visually appealing online store by customizing ready-made themes, etc.

Wrapping Up

Shopify is, without a doubt, an important tool for businesses that seek success in the eCommerce industry. This fast-growing eCommerce platform is affordable, easy to use and allows you to build a beautiful online store.

When it comes to security and reliability, Shopify ranks among the best eCommerce platforms. All these features and advantages make Shopify the go-to eCommerce platform on which to build your online store.

The post Planning To Build An Ecommerce Store? Use The Shopify Platform appeared first on QualDev.

As a business owner, you have to embrace the latest digital technologies to stay ahead of your competition. For instance, if you have an online store, it is important to leverage the best eCommerce content management system (CMS).

The Ultimate Ecommerce Platform

Magento is the leading eCommerce platform. It receives glowing reviews across all industries. This platform provides you with total control of your online store. Magento Commerce stands out not only because it is easy to set-up; it is reliable, flexible, provides hosting freedom, it is easy to customize, provides the latest in security, and built-in SEO.

Other amazing features include ongoing site backup, Multi-Website Options, acceptance of multiple payment options, scalability, Currency and Language Support, 3rd party integrations, and so much more. These features have accounted for Magento’s dominance in the eCommerce industry.

It powers 1.2% of the internet, which translates to 12% of all e-commerce sites. In total, over 250,000 active sites use this CMS.

The arrival of Magento 2

Despite the impressive features and proven performance of the current Magento platform, developers still want to improve it. Support for Magento Commerce 1 ends in June 2020. All businesses running on this older version will need to migrate to the updated Magento 2 platform if they wish to continue to receive the level of support and flexibility that they have grown used to.

If you talk to any reputable Magento development company and ask for eCommerce solutions, they will most likely recommend that you use the new 2.x eCommerce platform.

Magento 2 migration is now the most dominant topic amongst Magento users. In such a situation, many important facts may be overlooked, preventing users from making informed decisions. If you run an eCommerce store on Magento, you need to get your facts right before deciding against switching to Magento 2.

The first version of Magento 2 arrived back in 2015. For over five years, Magento developers have reviewed the system. This culminated in the development of the current Magento 2. This updated platform promises awesome features that boost the performance of online stores.

Users will have a choice of three Magento editions:

1. Magento 2 Open Source (Free edition)
2. Magento 2 Enterprise Edition (premium version)
3. Enterprise Cloud Edition (SaaS option)

Is The Migration Necessary? A Look At The Benefits Of Magento 2

For most eCommerce stores that already use Magento 1, migrating their businesses to a new version may sound like a lot of work. After all, Magento is one of the most efficient CMSs on the market. It powers the most successful eCommerce stores. To many an upgrade would seem unnecessary.

However, Magento experts and industry analysts say that the new upgrade offers exclusive advantages. As an online store owner, you have to adjust your business to embrace such changes. This helps you maintain a competitive edge.

How is Magento 2 better than its predecessor?

Some of the pros of Magento 2 include:

1. Cost savings

Since Adobe took over Magento, the company has invested heavily in boosting the efficiency of its product. With Magento 2, Adobe promises eCommerce stores cost-savings when it comes to publishing content, including landing pages, new product launches, etc.

The new platform makes it easier for marketers and merchandisers to create and deploy content. There’s no need for costly technical resources. Your businesses can use these savings to fund other critical areas of operations.

2. Improved Business Performance

During the test launch of Magento 2, Adobe carried out a study to determine the impact the new platform will have on business. Their findings show that the new platform will boost revenues, by cutting the cost of content management and improving efficiency. Positive findings that predict business growth include higher website conversion rates, increased site traffic, an increase in average order value, KPIs and revenue growth, among other things.

3. Improved Functionality

Magento 2 Commerce boasts of having more options to help business owners increase the functionality of their stores. Magento 2’s extension marketplace will ensure increased efficiency for supported eCommerce sites.

The built-in ‘premier’ extensions will cut down on the time and resources used for different site operations. All extensions on the new eCommerce platform undergo rigorous quality checks and testing before they become available to merchants. Unlike what happened with Magento 1, no room has been left for poorly developed tools.

In essence, business owners will receive more effective tools to help them with tasks such as shipping and logistics, marketing automation, security and fraud detection, payment options and a plethora of other functionalities.

4. Ease of Customization

Magento has a reputation for its ease of customization. Magento 2 users hail the platform’s easy-to-use content development functionality, as the most outstanding feature by far.

5. Better Load Page Times

Most internet users want faster loading pages. As a site owner, achieving this is not easy. However, Magento 2 offers a timely solution with a 50 percent faster page load time. This new platform also boasts of having the capacity to handle 117 percent more orders per hour than Magento 1.

6. Giving Merchants More Control

Magento 2 is a more complete CMS, designed to provide business owners with more control. New features include business intelligence tools to help with shipping and B2B capabilities. Other features include new social integration tools, more secure payment gateways, more streamlined checkouts, safer and more enhanced data storage practices, to name a few.

The admin interface is also more user-friendly. This reduces the time you need to manage your store. Your employees will also find it easier to learn and customize the Magento 2 interface. Creating a new product is faster, and this system comes with faster import capabilities.

Magento 2 offers a wide range of other benefits. It is mobile responsive, comes with improved SEO and other search features, makes use of better security standards. Updates are automatic and ongoing.

The Bottom Line

Magento 2 has so much going on for it. This makes it crucial for you to migrate your store. It is worth your time because the migration offers all the benefits of Magento 1 and much more. The migration process might be resource-intensive, but it is worth every penny. If you want to get the best out of your eCommerce store, it is advisable to always adapt to such changes fast in this highly volatile industry.

By choosing the best Magento partner when migrating, you will get more out of this updated CMS. A reliable Magento solutions provider will help you prepare for the upgrade and plan a seamless migration process.

The post Magento 2 Commerce Upgrade: Is the Migration Worth All the Hype? appeared first on QualDev.

Having your own website will diversify your online presence, improve e-commerce sales and conversion rate and protect your brand from fluctuation and ever-changing rules that affect marketplaces. E-commerce websites are a revolution in the shopping space, now people can shop from the comfort of their own homes and even run their own businesses!

As a seller, having an e-commerce website in addition to your brick and mortar store, provides you with an avenue to inform your customers about your business, present your products, and allow them to make payments online.

After witnessing the rapid growth of the online marketplace, here are some reasons why it is important to have an e-commerce website for your store:

1. Opens The Door To The Global Marketplace

When you run a physical store, you only serve the local marketplace. However, handling an e-commerce site gives you the ability to inform and deliver your products and services to customers all around the world, regardless of the distance and time zones.

No matter day or night, your website remains open at all times and the customers will appreciate being able to shop around the clock, for what they want when they want. Moreover, you can improve sales, because your website will remain active all 7 days of the week. Websites are active 24 hours of the day. When compared to the usual opening hours of a physical store, having a website gives you an extra advantage.

2. Strengthens Your Brand

If you are moving away from e-commerce giants like Amazon or eBay to your own e-commerce website, it gives you more control over your brand, allowing you to expand your offering on your own terms. If you consolidate your brand on your own e-commerce website, you can tell customers that they are buying from you, not from an e-commerce giant.

This gives you more ways to generate brand loyalty because you are the owner of the sale and therefore the customer. Your goal should be for consumers to associate your product with your brand and think about your brand when they think about anything to buy from that category of products.

When you run your own website, you can retain complete control over its look, content, and performance. The possibilities are endless. You can even boost your brand with ideas like using custom packing boxes to make a long-lasting impression on your customers.

3. Reduces Competition

If you were an Amazon or eBay seller earlier, you would probably notice that a bunch of competitors would list products similar to yours every day. This applies to all products in all industries and means that you have to compete with a pool of suppliers in local regions for the same target group, offering similar products with similar prices.

The only factors that beat the competition would be to reduce price, reduced quality, or reduced the variety of products you sell. Not only is there is no room to run an e-commerce business plan in such marketplaces, brand loyalty does not matter here, as brands that have created loyal customers would have their own website.

Having your own online e-commerce business is one of the main reasons why you have loyal customers. With your own e-commerce store, you have the freedom to serve your customers directly and thus build good relationships with them.

In addition, you understand all the details of your business and can take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.

4. You Can Make Your Own Rules

By running your own e-commerce website, you have the freedom to set the price as well as list products that cater to your customer’s persona. On your website, you are free from barriers and:

• You can add photos and videos according to your needs.
• You can change the design and navigation of your website.
• You can change the color scheme and theme of the website.
• You can change the position of buttons and text.
• You can add a blog.
• You can tell your story on the ‘about my business’ page of your website.
• You can introduce some customers and make portfolios or reviews.

Most importantly, you do not have to worry too much about your competitors, because their offerings would not appear next to your products, unlike how it was when you selling on an e-commerce marketplace like Amazon or eBay.

Moreover, you can decide how products should be bundled and rated, and whether you want to offer free shipping or not. Giving free coupons and freebies can produce a positive impact on the behavior of your consumer, as consumers assume that you are doing good business.

Having your own website makes it easier to experiment with different offers. You do not have to worry about the impact of these changes on your profit margins, because you do not need to give a percentage of each sale to any third party site. With a website, you finally control your business and have the opportunity to test and validate what works.

5. You Can Run Personalized Marketing Campaigns

The fact that you have your own website does not mean that customers come to you automatically. Once you set up an e-commerce website, you should work on campaigns that bring buyers to your site.

The first step in customer acquisition is to direct traffic to your site. It is not always easy to set up the right campaigns. However, you have much more flexibility in how you can get people to find you and buy from you.

Some common tactics include using Facebook and Google ads to reach your audience. You can also create content for your website by searching for and incorporating keywords that help users find solutions or products that you offer.

According to Clutch, 37% of buyers say that discounts or coupons can motivate them to return to a website they visited earlier. In general, there are countless ways to increase awareness of your brand. These include creating videos or contests that can lead to a sale.

Having your own e-commerce website is important in this competitive space. Your website will provide a great way to strengthen your brand, win loyal customers, gain new knowledge, and be creative in your marketing.

Let us know in the comments section below if you have any suggestions or query regarding the article and contact us if you are looking for custom e-commerce development.

The post 5 Reasons that show how an e-commerce website enhances your store appeared first on QualDev.

It is important to understand that experts have been reviewing and working on the platform for more than five years with the aim of identifying faults and dealing with them. This has led to incredible improvements that storeowners and users of the updated platform would feel first hand. Even without thinking about the benefits you will enjoy, it is worth considering that the new platform comes with numerous improvements. Here’s how

1. The Positive Impact of Magento 2 on Your Ecommerce

Businesses looking for stability may feel that they may have a problem migrating to Magento 2. However, one should approach the migration process keeping in mind the transformation that this new platform can deliver to your operations. These benefits extend from the performance of your site to how it functions.

The five years put in to the development of Magento 2 have gone into evaluating the strengths in order to reinforce them, and weaknesses to identify and put solutions in place. One of the strengths has been a robust platform that is easy to customize in order to give your store a personalized touch. The new platform now allows developers to develop a more personalized shopping site for you and your customers.

Over the last 10 years, Magento has been the preferred ecommerce platform online. Magento considered suggestions it received from expert Magento development services and users over these years, to develop an enhanced robust platform. This means that Magento found and fixed the few issues that were bothering users of the previous version of the platform.

2. Better Loading Time

Increased traffic at instances when you are running a campaign or you have a promotion, was a huge challenge for users of Magento 1. The first version of the platform was not built to load as fast. This means that few could handle surges in traffic. New developments in Magento 2 changes customers experience even when there is a surge in traffic.

The new MySQL database system has allowed better processing of queries, re-indexing and caching. This process is important for Magento because it enables easier update of URLs, product data and inventory, among others things. With a more efficient indexing system, transactions are easier and faster to process.

Magento 2 was also built paying more attention to performance. That is why re-indexing has been boosted with the aim of boosting the performance of your website. This has also opened up the possibilities of working with dynamic databases such as PostgreSQL, a preference for many who oppose the use of MySQL.

3. Eliminating Confusion in Admin Interface

The admin user interface has been one of the most problematic elements of Magento 1. The layout has been accused of causing confusion and being intimidating to first timers. That problem was solved in Magento 2.

A compelling reason for Why You Need to Move From Magento 1 To Magento 2, is so that you can enjoy the responsive features of the new platform. The new version is easy to use and navigate. It means that you customer will get to pages or products they desire faster. The options you are given are not too many and confusing. This helps to improve customer experience, and in the process boost their liking for your store.

The product interface has also been boosted on several fronts. It has allowed easy addition of images and videos to the page. This includes video URLs that can come from platforms like YouTube.

4. Improved Security

In the wake of increased incidences of cyber-attacks, a lot of attention has gone into the security of the online platform. The process of development has also paid attention to these developments over the past 5 years. Developers have been working to improve security of Magento site.

Personal information shared on Magento will never be compromised. This will enhance the confidence of shoppers who are looking for such an assurance. This is an attractive feature that will get them trooping to your website repeatedly.

5. Better Customer Experience

The process and requirements of checkout define the experience a customer has on any ecommerce website. This has been one of the concerns for Magento 1. On Magento 1, although the customer could checkout from a single page, there were too many steps to needed to follow to get to the checkout page. These steps were eliminated in Magento 2. The checkout experience is now smoother and easier to personalize, another attractive feature that will keep customers trooping back to your website in droves.

6. Better Scalability

A main concern for businesses was how to scale up their services. Even the best Magento development services would find trouble enabling scalability when working with the first version. With Magento 2, it is now easy to create pages and process more orders within an hour. You will therefore never worry about a growing number of clients and the need to process more orders. This is part of the overall performance improvements on Magento 2.

7. Easy Integration

Coding platform around the world has improved significantly. You need to integrate with a many more plugins than you would before. Magento 2 has opened up the power to integrate without exposing you to danger online. This means that you can now expand your payment systems, include customer loyalty programs and add more features to enhance your customer’s experience. The integrations are so seamless that visitors will enjoy visiting your page.

The development of Magento 2 has aimed at enhancing performance and giving visitors to websites built on the platform a better eCommerce experience. With greater mobile responsiveness, admin interface and features that improve security of Magento site, you have every reason to embrace the new platform. It will transform your ecommerce website into a site that everyone wants to return to repeatedly. Collaborate with a specialist Magento developer to ensure you enjoy the fullest scope of these benefits.

The post How Is Magento 2 Better Than Its Predecessor? appeared first on QualDev.