Top Magento development trends to follow in 2021

Surprisingly, there are more than 20 million ecommerce websites globally. Picking the right eCommerce platform is the foundation for benefitting from a successful online store. In today’s world, modern shoppers expect quick, consistent and smooth customer experience. Most of the eCommerce startups out there, fail due to their inability to deliver their customers a smooth customer experience. Another reason is, the eCommerce website is the platform on which they are built. Although there are tons of eCommerce platforms to choose from, Magento is gaining popularity and trust among the online owners. Startups and entrepreneurs are now seeking better Magento development services for expanding an edge over their competitors.

Some of the trends in 2021 for Magento eCommerce development are :

#1. Consistent and smooth consumer experience :

one of the most important features for an online website is to have a consistent and smooth consumer experience. Websites having this feature ranks higher on SEO. It also makes your online store stand out from the rest of your competitors. If your website doesn’t satisfy this feature then, you may lose potential customers, sales and revenue generated through them. Hundreds of new eCommerce websites are flooding the market on a daily basis, so make sure that your eCommerce website builds a consistent and smooth user experience. Platform like Magento helps your estore to fulfill this requirement on a large scale.

#2. Push notification :

website push notifications are short messages, sent by your website to your subscribers, browsers and customers. This feature is used by estore owners to grow their traffic inflow as well as to engage with their existing traffic flow i.e. their potential customers. Push notification is done through personalized emails, social media and SMS. Magento helps your website to deliver personalized push notifications to your customers by analyzing their buying patterns.

#3. Progressive web app [PWA] :

With PWA, customers have 24/7 access to the online store. It works in areas facing poor internet connection. Customers can view all the information irrespective of their platform. Magento has adapted this revolutionized feature. With this feature you can optimize eCommerce experience.

#4. Live streaming :

On eCommerce marketing, live streaming is the most effective feature, which is catching the trend. Recently webinars have gained much importance in the digital world. Live streaming of your store with live chats with your customer on a platform like Facebook helps the customers to know your product well and also the eCommerce owner will help the customer to satisfy their queries. Through live streaming you can engage with your customer from anywhere anytime. This huge shift happened because of the pandemic which pushed brands and retailers to move ahead, with this trend.

#5. Visual search :

people use visual search mostly to get directions, and identify landmarks, shop recipes, and local business reviews. People are searching more images than ever before. Platforms like Pinterest get 600 million visual searches monthly. If you want your site’s content to be served to your visitor as a search result, ensure you use image SEO. Equipping your online store with visual search and image recognition can help you attract more young buyers to your online store. Magento provides this feature to increase the capability of your eCommerce website.

#6. Voice search :

voice search has taken the eCommerce industry to a next level. The users no longer need to type a single word to search for any product with voice search feature. Voice operating assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google voice console are the buzz of the new era. As soon as the device has input, it will detect the language in which the query has been asked. The keywords in the query will be captured and the query will be answered accordingly. Magento by having this feature, helps in faster, easier and time saving search.

#7. Artificial intelligence :

artificial intelligence [AI] is transforming digital strategies. As it has the ability to improve digital marketing strategies and provide valuable customer insight for companies. For instance brands like Amazon and Spotify are using AI systems successfully. AI can analyze consumer search patterns and behaviors, use data from social media platforms and help businesses understand how customers find any product or services. So we can say that AI is the driving force behind digital marketing. Magento with this feature helps in enhancing the overall customer experience for eCommerce website and the businesses

#8. AR/VR :

Augmented reality [AR] and Virtual reality [VR] is enhancing the shopping experience. For example the users can now actually visualize the product in their surroundings and then decide whether to make a purchase or not. The main objective of AR in marketing is to achieve increased brand awareness and greater customer engagement. Best example of AR is Lens kart, it allows you to take your photo from your phone and test different types of frames by virtually placing it on your photo. You can move around and check how it looks. Magento eCommerce is providing a wonderful AR/VR technology in 2021.

#9. Integration with social media :

People spend a tremendous amount of time on social media platforms. It naturally becomes a good place to market your products and them and gain brand awareness. Leading channels like Facebook Instagram have added marketing packages to help businesses. Social media are a powerful digital marketing technique. Magento has been quick in adapting this trend to boost sales and increase revenue.

#10. To make B2B consumer centric :

today’s is a competitive market. Where we see neck to neck competition among the estores, Now there is a need for B2B companies to understand their buyers and develop a direct-to-consumer channel. This helps the estore owners to understand customer information and imparts a great customer experience. Magento has this feature of enabling B2B businesses to shift their attention from being product-centric to customer-centric.

#11. Conversion with micro animations :

The world has largely appreciated the utilization of animations such as GIFs. Currently the world is witnessing trends like memes and entertainment. Almost every social media is entertaining people with a wide range of memes. This is quite engaging. Hence animated icons can be used as one of the eCommerce shipping best practices. Magento with this revolutionized feature is helping in increasing conversion ratio.

#12. Smart search functionality :

There is no point in creating a website, if people are unaware of it. Magento has this functionality feature to look into the SEO parameters to help drive traffic to your platform. Not only driving traffic to your website but also helps in enhancing conversion ratio, thus giving a better user experience.

Conclusion :

For eCommerce platforms based on Magento, any change in technology or updation is not a big challenge to tackle. With the boom in mobile devices and websites online shopping continues to touch new heights in the coming years. Magento incorporates all the latest functionalities and keeps innovating to help brands stay ahead in online business.

UNSPSC/eclass/Etim classification.. why they are needed?

When working with product master data management [MDM] and Product Information Management [PIM], one important thing is product classification. There are two types of product classification standards 1. Internal standard classification  2. External classification standards. Internal standard classification, is using your own internal classification being product grouping and hierarchy management within your organization. External standard includes 

1.UNSPSC 2.eclass 3. Etim 4. GPC 5.commodity codes or HS codes.

Here we discuss about the first three external standards :

UNSPSC :

It stands for the United nations standard products and services code [UNSPSC]. Mostly used for the UN Development Programme [UNDP]. It is a global standard for classification of product and services. This standard is often used in public tenders and at some marketplaces. It has five levels of hierarchy with eight digit coding numbers. UNSPSC competes with a number of other product and commodity coding system like eclass, GPC etc.,

      The levels allow users to search products more precisely. The five levels of classification are : [segment, family class, commodity, business function]. Each level contains a two character numerical value and textual description.

UNSPSC classification example :

The UNSPSC can be further extended by adding a 9th & 10th digit after the commodity number. These numbers can indicate business relationships to the supplier such as rental/lease. For instance the classification code is “43-20-15-01-14”

Segment: 43 information technology broadcasting and telecommunication devices and accessories.

Family : 20 components for information technology or broadcasting or telecommunications computer equipment and accessories.

Class : 15 computers accessories

Commodity : 01 computer switch boxes. Docking station.

Business function : 14 retail.

  • Each level including the lowest “commodity” level of the UNSPSC hierarchy has a unique number assigned to it. For any given UNSPSC number, you can tell which segment, family and class the particular commodity belongs to.
  • Along with UNSPSC, companies can create their own taxonomies.
  • Also having a unique number for a given commodity doesn’t create confusion while translation of the commodity’s description in any language.

Eclass :

One of the standard classifications is eclass. It is suitable for different industrial branches, internationally successful and available in multiple languages. Eclass classifies a wide range of industrial products and was developed by leading German companies. It represents a standard for the exchange of information between suppliers and customers and especially represents the procurement markets for buyers. Eclass operates on the principle of a hierarchical system and classifies products and services into four step category [main groups, groups, commodity classes, properties]  

Classification example for the computer doc station.

19-01-92-01

19- information, communication and media technology.

  1. Computer system.

92- Computer system accessories.

  1. Docking station.

Similarities between UNSPSC and eclass :

  • Both UNSPSC and eclass have four levels of hierarchy.
  • Both support multiple language

Compared to UNSPSC, eclass has one more advantage. The standardized classification system under eclass, helps to perform statistical evaluation. It also helps to find, seek and describe products in a targeted manner. For this reason standard sets of properties are attached to the four levels of classification structure. These properties are used to describe the classified products.

ETIM :

It stands for European Technical Information Modes. Etim is used for the classification and technical description of products in the electronic industry. The central association of electro technical craftsmen [UNETO] in Netherlands, developed the basic model of this. The Etim standardization was initiated in Germany and has so far been supported by the association.

      Similarly, Etim provides product information from one source – the manufacturer. The main aim of this type of classification is to make sure that there are no ambiguities or misunderstandings when it comes to sharing the technical characteristics of products. So Etim helps manufacturers send product information to their wholesalers in a streamlined way.

Benefits of Etim : 

  • Reduces the risk of errors in product data.
  • Model is multi-lingual and translations are provided automatically for international markets.
  • Information can be sent either digitally or in print.
  • The consumers get better, more accurate product information.
  • The model is a reusable template.

ETIM uses the following way to classify products:

  • product groups
  • Product classes
  • synonyms [alternative keywords]
  • features
  • values
  • units

For example : EG000009 

Here G stands for group.  A string of six numbers that identifies the type.

The following are the industries that are adopting Etim:

  • Electro-technical
  • HVAC and sanitary
  • Building construction
  • Ship building.

          Likewise, we see that Etim is a free and open standard. However, Etim international allows companies to become influencing numbers of the association that allows them to vote on changes and improvements to the Etim standard.

Need for classification :

Even if you have already sorted your products into your own classification, and use this classification in your web shop, as a search tree. Customers and partners may ask you to additionally sort the products according to standard classification such as Etim, eclass etc.; above all the wholesalers want the industry to sort their products into standardized classes in order to offer their customers products from different manufacturers via uniform classifications.

              Thus the need for classification is to create a uniform and logical system, to manage product data. And also to facilitate problem free communication among different subjects. For instance, you and your partner use different words to say exactly the same thing. Thus the classification of products and services can prevent misunderstanding and unite classification.

       Therefore, Data collected for product classification, is always available with the clients. And so, the customer can find exactly those products that meet his requirements the most on the market.

Best UX practices to ensure a pleasant experience for your customers

What is UX ?

The way your visitor feels about your website determines whether he/she will use it again is all about user experience{UX}. While navigating your website, if the visitor finds it difficult what the website is all about, than Conversions are too far- in fact your visitor will not return to your site again. Hence it is necessary that you pay attention to the UX on your website and strive to improve it. 

Keep your website simple and easily understandable. Your content should be to the point. The same goes for advertisements. 72% of the users get annoyed when seeing irrelevant ad’s and promotions on a site. Users now expect more functionality and better usability. Your website should be rich with relevant content and designed to provide them with everything needed to purchase and use your service or product.

To transform your website into an effective marketing tool, you have to create an effective small business website with a dynamic user experience.

The following practices will ensure a pleasant experience for your customer :

#1. Clean website design :

A clean and simple web design makes it easy for the user to find what they are looking for. Remove the unnecessary clutter on your website. Most website visitors will spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website. Grab your users attention above this and impress them to increase the time they spend on your site.

#2. Choose colors and fonts appropriately :

we want the layout to look attractive. If the visitor feels hard, to make out what your page says, the more likely they are to back out of it. The website back ground should be simple clean and always easy to read. So look carefully while choosing color. Make sure that there is a healthy contrast between back grounds and font colors. Make your font size unique- so that your users can actually read it without squinting or zooming in.

#3. Keep it simple :

Readability and accessibility play an important role in creating great user experience. Just because the text in your app is error free, doesn’t mean it is easy to read. Low readability will create navigation problems and your user might feel lost. Instructions should be straight forward and easy to follow. You can achieve simplicity of your website, if you use simple language, which all users can understand it.

#4. Speed up the loading time :

Your website should fully load in a few seconds, even if you are using a secure website format. Study shows that 53% of visitors will abandon a web page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Many times slow speed affects user experience because people treat surfing the web is like talking to people. If your webpage is slow than users will look for something else that says more in less time. Google page speed helps to know about your website loading speed.

#5. Regular updates :

Your website is the first impression a customer or client will have of your business. Make sure the information they see is current and updated on your website, if the customer see stale information, they may not visit your site again. Keep your website updated, by uploading new content, product related videos and photos. This type of changes attract the visitors to your website.

#6. Mobile device compatibility :

We live in multi -screen world. This is great. Now-a-days customers find it handy and easy to search through mobile. Make sure your website is mobile friendly or you may lose many customers. mobile friendly websites are responsive. Responsive design helps solve many problems.

  • It adapts to screen size.
  • Improves users experience.
  • It is cost effective.
  • It is easier to manage.

#7. Easy to navigate :

Navigation is a huge factor when it comes to SEO, and this is because it directly affects the customer experience. Customers should move swiftly and easily around your site without confusion. Easy navigation will make customers and clients want to return to site over and over. When your website offers a rewarding experience, users will be more likely to return to it.

#8. Know your target audience :

You design products for specific users, this means you will have to get to know them inside out. Find out what their problems and pains are? What their needs are? Only by providing solutions to these queries the customers will get what they want with ease. This will give users a pleasant experience while shopping on your website.

#9. Clear call to action :

For eCommerce sites, your purchase call-to-action [CTA] will generally be an add to cart or a buy now button. Having a clear CTA is essential to convert traffic into sales. Tests have shown that CTA button performs best at the point in the page where the visitor finds information they need. Use a more strategic approach and place the button at the point where the visitor is prepared to make a decision. The button should look different on your page. Phrases like Buy now, Check out and Add to cart work really well. They are tested, tried and true.

#10. Functionality :

Functionality is what UX is all about. For a great functionality, remove stocky images and difficult terms. Use right images that work for your audience. For instance website like Amazon doesn’t have the most beautiful design, but it has excellent functionality. 

#11. Include reviews on product pages :

Including customer reviews on your product pages can be a very powerful tool in converting visitors into buyers. Visitors look for reviews as this will help them to learn about the service customers received when ordering products. Showing customer reviews on product page will show new visitors that you are a trust worthy seller. 

#12. Offer different payment methods :

Offering different payment methods on your e-commerce store has lots of advantages including

  • Customer convenience 
  • Payment customization
  • More security

If people don’t see their preferred methods of payment they’re much more likely to abandon their cart. There are more than 200 different ways to take payment online. Use those payment methods which are more popular with your customer. Some popular methods are PayPal, Alipay and credit cards.

Conclusion :

The primary purpose of UX design is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through utility, ease of use and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product. Users experience gives your business the ability to increase repeatable traffic. It also provides an excellent return on investment. Increases digital sales, saves labor and time.

Ways to Optimize your eCommerce product pages

Beautifully designed home pages are important for making a good impression. But no pages have a greater impact on sales and overall conversions than product pages. It’s where your customers evaluate your products, look for special offers and ultimately decide to click the “add to cart” button. Thus helps the visitor to become the customer. Make sure that your product page is optimized, so that you don’t miss out on potential visitors.

The fundamental secret to e-commerce growth is not more traffic, but more conversions from the existing traffic. So there is a need to create a highly effective and optimized site that helps to convert as many visitors as possible into sales.

Ways to optimize your product pages..

#1. Clearly specify your product name :

product names affect search rankings to a great extent. Use the keywords to create descriptive product names. Ensure that they are to the point and include the necessary descriptions customers might be searching for. Make sure that your product names are relevant and match with the description provided on your landing page.

#2. Use high quality images:

Shoppers move rapidly through web pages or search engines, unless something catches their eyes. Large clear and high quality photos of your products can make it easy to grab the attention of the shoppers. The shoppers can’t see the product in person, but they can assess the product, its quality with a high quality photo/image. High quality photos cover all the product details and makes the buyer feel confident while making their online purchase.

#3. Provide detailed product content :

Beyond product images, a great ecommerce product page should provide a high level of information about the product. It’s the content that informs customers about the benefits and features of a product. It can convince them to buy from you. Make sure that you use a polite, engaging and personal touch in your product description. This will help the customers to decide while buying the product. Detailed content will also help you rank higher in SERPs and thereby bring in more customers to your store.

#4. Add trust badges :

Now-a-days we hear a lot about data breaches, cyber theft, credit card frauds and personal information being stolen by hackers. Due to this customers become more wary to share their personal information online. This is creating a barrier to e-commerce shopping. As an online owner, you have to convince the shoppers that their information is safe in your hands. To build this trust, trust badges are recommended. As per study, 48% of shoppers agreed that the trust seals help them to decide whether to make a purchase. Trust badges are easy way to let shoppers know that their purchases are safe and help to build confidence in your company and feel comfortable to make purchases. 

#5. Improve site speed :

Site speed is one of the main factors for ranking websites in the search engine. Searchers hate waiting. Check the loading time of the web page, if it takes more than three seconds to load then there is a need to make the website lightning fast. There are many tools available to make the site faster, such as web page test, Google page speed, Yslow and others. Quickening the site speed of your product pages is the ultimate remedy to cart abandonment, Rather than getting discouraged with slow pages.

#6. Make mobile a priority :

Today over 80% of online shoppers use their mobile phones to shop through e-commerce. Make sure that you optimize your website to use on mobile phones equally well. A mobile unfriendly store may lose its customers, sales revenue, traffic and everything.

#7. Sense of urgency :

Create a sense of urgency in the minds of your customers, so that they rush to make purchases. You must use FOMO[fear of missing out] well enough to convert engagement into purchase. One way of doing this is by announcing a limit time sale. You must ensure that you make them realize that they will miss out the sale if they are late. You can do so by adding a countdown clock. Another way of doing it, is by letting your customers know that a limited quantity of the products is left.

#8. Reviews from customers :

Reviews build trust and give potential customers the reassurance they need from others to make their purchasing decisions. Given the power of referrals, it’s best to prominently feature reviews from customers on your product pages. For instance Shopify users can download the product reviews app on the Shopify store.

#9. Pricing and shipping costs :

On the product page, you should clearly mention the price of the product. One more aspect where most e-commerce websites fail is the shipping cost. Very few e-commerce product pages list the pricing and shipping information transparently. Usually the shipping and VAT charges are added later on. This will put off your customers interest. Instead try to be more transparent about your charges in the first place. Show your shipping charges and the complete cost of the purchase right on the product page. To make the offer more sweet, you can offer free shipping to your customers. 

#10. Display the return policy on your ecommerce product page :

Your goal should remain as transparent as possible with your customers. A great way of doing this is by outlining your return policy on the product page. Your customers must know the steps that they may need to take, if they wish to return the product. A clear return policy on the e-commerce product page makes things clear as well as reduces the conflict that might arise after the purchase of the product.

Conclusion :

As an online seller, the product page is your final moment to win the sale. If you can show buyers the benefits of your products on this page, they will complete their order and give you a sale. You can easily craft a product page that drives conversions, by using the tips in this guide. With few changes and adjustments, your product page will keep shoppers engaged and gradually lead them towards completing their purchase.

What to test in an eCommerce Website

People are adopting online shopping like never before, and global eCommerce market size is expected to grow very high in the coming years. Current technology trends and accessibility have made it possible for every business to create an eCommerce platform in no time and start selling. It is important to test eCommerce websites and mobile applications, so that it enhances users experience, customer data security, quick load time, safe and secure transaction. All these factors help in maintaining the website stability and enjoyable customers experience.

Why testing is important for your eCommerce success:

eCommerce applications have lots of users world- wide as they deal with finance, marketing retail and wholesale, manufacturing and auctions. Better testing techniques will safeguards the website from failure. The main reasons for testing your eCommerce application is to check the usability of the application, its user friendliness and to make your eCommerce website/ application bugs free.

Following are the important factors where testing of eCommerce websites would be helpful :

1. Ensuring the readiness of transactions :

Testing an eCommerce website will help you make sure that every single webpage on your website is tested well enough and is validated to complete all the eCommerce transactions. It will also confirm whether it is ready for the customer use or not.

2. Enhancing the usability :

The success of online buying website depends upon the increased and smooth usability, along with reduced risk factors. Testing process for eCommerce website deals with both of these aspects.

3. Reducing the risk of changes :

The changes in your eCommerce website should enhance customers experience and a hassle free transaction. Testing makes sure that the incorporated new changes doesn’t affect the website and it is bugs free.

4. Evaluating the functionality and compatibility against load :

In order to serve customers requirements and needs perfectly, every organization needs to ensure that the function provided in their websites are working properly at different amounts of load conditions and whether the website is able to support different browsers and platforms or not. Testing is a must for eCommerce website to ensure the compatibility and good working conditions of the website during heavy loads i.e. during holiday season as well.

Important segments of eCommerce testing :

Testing eCommerce website will help you to identify and rectify errors, that affect your website’s performance and a good customer experience.

#1. Home Page:

Home page is the first page to appear when a user opens the website. On an eCommerce website the homepage consists of a very rich and useful source of information. It is important to test the interoperability and functionality of the homepage of the e-commerce website.

#2. Category pages :

It is one of the major areas in terms of testing. The range and breadth of the products should be tested by checking that the products are grouped as per category or not. Also check, how quickly the user is able to find the correct product category on the website.

#3. Product detail page :

The product detail page is the heart of the eCommerce system. Hence it is really important to make sure that the product detail pages are tested thoroughly and how the functionality of these pages work. It involves checking elements like,

  • Product code and title
  • Product image
  • Enlarging the image
  • Product description
  • Full body view of the product….and many more.

#4. Shopping cart :

Separate resources and efforts should be dedicated towards the functionality of the shopping cart. They should also test that the quantities, shopping cart items and display option are shown accordingly. Whether the transactions taking place on the website or not ? The functionality of removing and changing items in a shopping cart should also be tested.

#5. Payment Gateways :

This factor is very important for both the businesses and the customers because it involves money. The payment gateway allows a merchant to accept credit, debit card and other forms of electronic payments. So payment modes should be safe and secure as these are important targets for hackers and scammers.  The checkout and payment gateway should also be tested with different payment options such as PayPal, online banking, cash, etc..,

#6. Search :

Most of the customers come to the website and search for a specific product that they have in mind. Hence the website should make it easier for customers to locate the product without much difficulty. This is a crucial segment which should be tested thoroughly. This factor helps in determining the success of the eCommerce website, because customers often have only a few features of a certain product in mind. Search algorithm of your website helps the visitor to find the best product, they are looking for. 

#7. After order tests:

Whenever a customer places an order there are many things that will happen afterwards, such as showing the shipping status, there is an option to cancel the order in case the customer doesn’t want it. Sometimes the customer wants to return their product in case of a defect or a complaint. So there should be a feature relating to the returns as well. The things to be tested here are that these features are working properly and are easy to use or not, because this can affect the customer.

#8. Browser compatibility:

It is important for eCommerce applications to work on all types of web browsers such as Google chrome, Firefox, opera etc.., you need to test the browser compatibility of the application to make sure that your customers are able to use your e-commerce website without any hassle.

Testing eCommerce application work flow :

  • Search functionality, sign up and login options
  • Features for posting product reviews so that other customers can see them and make their decision.
  • Sorting features, to filter different product types
  • Adding or removing products from the shopping cart.
  • Checking out process, invoice generation and order number, payment processing and payment gateway for buying the product

            So, to offer a hassle free e-commerce experience to customers, it is important to test the complete workflow of your website and mobile application. Before planning and performing the functional testing, specialists should understand and familiarize themselves with the e-commerce website very well, so that they can plan tests accordingly.

Pull up :

By conducting thorough eCommerce website application testing, you can significantly reduce the number of errors that crop up when the website is made live to your customers.

Reasons why digital asset management is important for brand success

Any media content can be defined as a digital asset, but this definition is incomplete. Digital assets come in several forms, the common ones include images, audio, videos, documents, pdf’s and so..on. DAM is a system that lets you organize your assets quickly and efficiently. It is almost like a library, where all the information you need is accessible at your fingertips.

       DAM is the source where marketers can find every relevant version of media assets that have been created for the brand images. The most important objective of DAM is that it must be simple and easy to understand. If you can’t access, modify and use your stored digital assets, when and how you want, then the DAM solution isn’t working for you. Good DAM supports workflow and allows content modification.

Importance of digital asset management:

1. Reduces the cost:

New digital assets are always being created. But having more files means it’s easier to misplace them. DAM eliminates the cost of recreating the lost materials once they are stored in the system, they are secure and easy to retrieve.

2. Streamlined distribution:

DAM platforms give stakeholders the information they need. Faster sales team, external partners can all have instant access to materials. This will enhance the distribution process across channels and other systems.

3. Reduce workflow:

By providing a complete picture of available content, DAM enhances the value of assets through reuse and repurposing and reduces the possibility of miscommunications.

4. Maintains brand consistency:

DAM solutions help ensure all team members are using the same, on brand files. With simple search tools, marketers can curtail the use of outdated or low quality file versions. This consistent use of right content helps ensure brand messaging to every consumer.

5. Enhances creativity:

A variety of DAM tools bring efficiency and agility to content creation version control, workflow approval – reduce time spent on manual tasks and enhance creativity.

6. Permission to access:

 Governance tools allow DAM administrators to control how different user groups can interact with assets. This allows organizations to restrict access to sensitive content.

7. Improves return on Investment [ROI]:

DAM systems often includes analytic tools that track who is using which asset when, where and how. This data can be used to inform system optimization.

8. Meta data:

meta data brings order. Keywords allocated should be more specific to be found easily. This requires some work when entering data, but it pays off during ongoing business.

9. File storage solutions:

DAM has a substantially large and clear storage solution. Temporary solutions such as CMS Microsoft share point, Box does not have the depth of a DAM platform in storage. Design and development of DAM is for this purpose.

10. Facilitates multi channel:

Multiple marketing channels via DAM platform is very time efficient and cost effective. Information is centrally stored in a DAM platform with the help of connectors for the relevant channels, they can be easily displayed without any problem.

Conclusion :

In a nutshell, DAM is an organization or company’s method of storing and organizing digital capital, for easy retrieval when needed. This boosts the productivity of teams, promotes innovations and makes digital assets more secure.

Tips for boosting your SEO score in 2021

Google always changes algorithms regularly. This is done for better user experience as well as satisfaction. Google wants to make sure that the displayed results are as useful and supportive as possible.

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is a set of activities attempting to improve your website’s ranking on the result list of search engine SEO not only expand the awareness and popularity for your website, but it also helps website owners not to miss a promising target market.

SEO strategies are built according to Google algorithm, so as to achieve a higher rank on the result list. Algorithms are a system of rules and signals which are used to judge your website. Once those rules and signals are changed, SEO techniques and strategies should be accordingly updated or else your website will not be considered as a good website by Google. This will have a negative impact on your online business.

Tips to boost your SEO score in 2021

Tips to boost your SEO Score in 2021

1. Improve your website loading speed:

Site speed is one of the main factors for ranking websites on the search engines. Searchers hate waiting. Check the loading time of the web page, if it takes more than 3 seconds to load then there is a need to make the website lightning fast. If your website page loads faster than they are ranked on top on search engines compared to pages that load slowly. So if you want to rank higher on Google, your site needs to load quickly. There are many tools available to make the site faster. Such as web page tests, Google page speed, Yslow and others.

2. Improve dwell time:

If the visitor to your site quickly bounces from your page, this will result in down ranking of your website on search engines. So to improve the dwelling time on your site, make sure that your site is attractive and help engage the visitor for a longer time. Along with good and unique content, you can add videos on your site about your online store. This will help in increasing the dwelling time of visitors.

3. Target Keywords:

Effective  keywords help your site to target the qualified traffic from search engines to your website. If the keywords are bad then all your efforts made for your online store goes in vain. Optimizing keywords is the most important aspect of SEO. Make sure you use keywords which the customers are using regularly. Effective keywords help you to measure traffic potential of your website.

4. Optimize your page:

Optimizing pages on your website helps your site to become more search engine friendly. It helps your site to draw a significant level of online traffic, also helps in improving the user experience. Optimizing your page helps to grow your ranking.

5. Effective and unique content:

Unique content always works wonders for an online business. It means content is original and not duplicated from anywhere else. Because search engine ranking, rate unique content high and improves the website’s position. It is found that 2 out of every 5 e-commerce content is duplicate. Websites can be penalized for posting duplicate content and can also remove the sites with duplicate content. Google wants to provide their users the best experience through unique content. Content should be effective, capable of driving traffic to your website and converting them to your customer.

6. Consistent URL:

SEO friendly URL structure helps in building consistency. It helps to promote your page ranking and enhance the user experience. Offering a great user experience and useful, unique content will help your website to optimize your URL structure. Following tips help you to keep your URL consistency :  

  • Keep it simple and consistent
  • Use short URLs
  • Keep it organized
  • Use right keywords

Make sure that your URL structure and format is the same for all the pages of your website. Also the words in the URL should be the same to the content on your website. This will enhance users’ experience.

7. Use broken link building:

Broken link is one of the technical errors that should be prevented for a better SEO result. Your website should not be judged as an old and neglected website by search engines. Detecting and repairing broken links, is an ongoing process which will help you in top ranking on search engines.

8. Contact us page:

 Providing contact details before proving its own ability to raise the truthfulness in customer’s mind. It creates business opportunities, improves customer service. A website with precise contact details is likely to be more reliable than others. According to this Google put higher ranks for such sites.

9. Off-page SEO:

Off page SEO also helps to boost your online ranking away from your site. Google review is one of the most powerful tools for your online store. The number and quality of reviews act as a leading conversion factor. Make sure you encourage the customers to leave reviews, which will add positive feedback for business.

Pull up:

Therefore to achieve good results in a digital marketing strategy. It is essential to stay up to data on the SEO trends that will arise with growing frequency.

Why you should have an e-commerce website..

With the growing popularity of the internet and technology, it has become easier and quicker to buy and sell online. People can now enjoy shopping and even running their own business from the comfort of their own homes.

       Technology has become very innovative and helps a consumer to have a great shopping experience in the long run. E-commerce has proven to be quite beneficial to businesses. E-commerce business takes place through different mediums- it could consist of a branded website, a marketplace like Ebay, Amazon, even over a social media platform such as facebook, pinterest instagram. Although there are innumerable ways of selling products 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. As a seller with an e-commerce website you can tell your customer about your e-store, showcase your products, shipping terms and mode of payment online.

Here is the list of reasons why you need an e-commerce website in today’s internet world..

1. Global market:

Having an e-commerce website gives you the opportunity not only to reach out local customer but also national and at international level. You can offer your products to customer around the world irrespective of distance and time zone.

2. Open 24/7:

Compared to regular store hours, online shop is open 24/7. With this facility of online shopping, you won’t lose out sales. Customers enjoy to purchase what they want and when they want it.

3. Make Money:

The more places you offer your products, the more chances you have to make sales. Creating an online store opens up a whole new opportunity to generate revenue, along with your physical business sales.

4. Customer convenience:

Customer can check necessary information like your store hours, phone number, address which helps drive in person. Additionally, if customers are busy, move away, or can’t get out to your store for another reason, the website provides the convenience of being able to shop from anywhere.

5. Marketing through Social Media and Search Engine:

 With good search engine optimization [SEO] your website will appear in the top result of search engines such as Google. Also social media website like Facebook and twitter will provide you with a platform to build trust with your customer through reviews and ratings. They also keep customer informed about your products and offers. This helps to drive in more traffic to your website.

6. Low Cost:

Setting up an e-commerce business costs less than setting up a brick and mortar store. Most online market places and e-commerce sites have a free signup. They normally take a small fee charged as a percentage of the sale, for allowing you to sell products on their platform. Social media provides cost effective ways of marketing your online business. You can manage your business on your own by avoiding payroll expenses.

7. Increases Brand Awareness:

Between these social media mention, gaining fresh customers through search and tapping new online markets, the end result is increased brand awareness. More people will be aware of your company and its products and interested in buying them. As more people share and spread your site and its products brand awareness will grow which means increase in sales.

8. Speed Up Business Operations:

Today the most successfully businesses are able to combine the physical and the online shopping worlds into one. The best example is the “take away” service by the restaurants. Offering an online ordering system with both delivery and take out options increases your sales by saving customers time.

9. Personalization:

You can use your website to connect with your customers by providing a personalized service such as order tracking, delivery confirmations and product recommendation based on their order history.

Pull up:

In short getting an e-commerce shop 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.

Altius Technologies

eCommerce website with woo-commerce – build on eCommerce store

An eCommerce platform is a system which allows to create an online store and perform business activities like marketing, selling, managing sales, delivery and shipping the product and many more.

      There are various eCommerce platforms through which online store can be commenced like Shopify, big commerce, woo commerce, 3Dcart etc., Every eCommerce platform has its pros and cons. So one has to choose the platform which can satisfy their business requirements. Woo commerce reliability and flexibility make it the best eCommerce platform for all type of business.

Why to choose woo commerce as an estore builder?

Compare to other eCommerce platforms, woo-commerce  simplicity to install, user friendly, cheap to build, makes it the most widely used eCommerce platform in the world. More than 26% of the leading eCommerce website uses woo commerce for their online store.

1. As an open source:

Woo commerce is a free plugin. As an open source, one can have a complete control over the web shop. It  can be completely customized  around any of unique and custom business requirements. Since it is an open source, there is no need to pay any fees for the use of it.

2. Easy and effective design option:

Woo commerce is best known for its easy and effective design options. There are different types of eCommerce themes available to make the store attractive . It helps in engaging the audience and encouraging them to explore more about the products and business. Woo commerce helps in customizing the online store, with its advanced customization features.

3. Easy to use for non tech owners:

Woo commerce is very compatible with word press. For non tech owners, it is easy to understand how woo-commerce works and manages the eCommerce website. With word press, you get every thing you need for a business. If you need a hassle free way to set up your website, word press is a good choice.

4. Easy to sell any product:

With woo-commerce you can sell any product, anywhere anytime. You can sell both physical and digital products  on this platform . With woo commerce you can also sell data based services such as appointments or any type of services, Accommodation, bookings. By using plugin, you can sell basic subscription based content too. You just need to build a beautiful website.

5. Picking up an apt theme:

An attractive and beautiful theme can attract the audience and encourage them to explore more about your products and business. Woo commerce is compatible with all type of themes. So you can pick high performing theme, which suits best to your business.

6. Customization:

One of the great features of woo commerce is customization of eCommerce store . Most experts recommend using woo commerce because of its advanced customization features. With woo commerce you can edit every part of your eCommerce website. Creating “buy now” button, will place your webpage at a higher ranking level. This will help you to increase your conversion rate and sales.

7. SEO friendly:

Woo commerce plugin makes it SEO friendly. With word press you can easily edit body content and other page elements to optimize product pages. With word press and woo commerce, it is easy to optimize your website.

8. Flexibility:

Woo commerce is super flexible when it comes to integrating with third party software system with ecommerce shop. Woo commerce plugins also allows to integrate 3rd party service which includes payment gateways, shipping service and accounting services. It also allows users to pay through debit cards, credit cards, cash on delivery etc.

9. Security Matters:

For online store owners cyber security is a must. Along with selling products and services, you are selling a secure shopping experience. World press is good for online stores. The world press itself is secure enough to block cyber criminals from breaking into your site. Woo commerce is secure because it gets regularly updated.

Conclusion:

Finally word press is all about plugins. It has over 50,000 plugins. A plugin for

  1. A better on page SEO
  2. Ecommerce tools
  3. Better security

Whatever you need you can find a great plugin. When you look for any ecommerce platform, don’t keep price and features of the platform as the main criteria. S elect a platform which supports your business needs and helps it to grow.

Best ECommerce Platform and Website Builders

ECommerce websites are virtual stores where products and services are listed in categories for customers to browse and buy them online. Many software providers offer best eCommerce platforms along with online store builder tools. With these set of tools you can create customized eCommerce website for your business. The best eCommerce platforms can enable your business to set up an online store that suits your need.

Best eCommerce Website Builders of 2020:

1. Wix :

This is a very simple and user friendly website. The big advantage of using wix is, it has easy drag and drop interface. It means you can drag and drop content blocks, spacers, images and texts wherever you want them. It also has limitless customization options .Wix usability scores 5/5 . It has a professional looking design without searching high and low for the right app’s. Wix provides a beautiful eCommerce website templates. You have to simply plug in your images and content on the website. It has two negative points, one is negative customers review and there is no 24/7 customer support.

2. Shopify :

It is regarded as one of the giant of the eCommerce world. It offers easy integration with your social media sales channels, user-friendly, inventory tracking and some decent SEO features. Shopify is the best eCommerce website builder for small business owners, who are just starting. As it has ample resource for new business owners. It helps not only to start your business, but also helps in developing it on long run. Shopify usability scores 3/5. Along with these pros of shopify there are certain weaknesses such as poor design on free templates, extra transaction fees on credit cards. Shopify is easier to use, if you pay for a quality theme and apps available on the platform.

3. Square space :

It is one of the cheapest website builders on the market. It’s an all-in-one solution provider website for small business. It also provides blog and beautifully designed site pages, which an online store needs the most. The pages on square space platform are easily navigable. Customers can find what they need quickly and easily. The square space usability score is 4/5. One of the weaknesses of square space is, it does not have a sound SEO and secondly you have to master the learning curve for square space.

4. Big commerce :

If your online shop is the core of your business, you should definitely consider big commerce. Big commerce is a website builder and eCommerce software solution together. Simply uploading the products, creates your eCommerce store. There is no need of any extra work to make your shop functional and well designed. Also you can add details about your product. It is also good in terms of search engine optimization [SEO]. Big commerce doesn’t charge transaction fees. It also offers support via phone, instant chat and email. It also provides advice guidance about online selling through their eCommerce team of expert. Big commerce usability scores 3/5. Few of the weaknesses of big commerce are limited free themes, negative customer reviews and complicated customization.

It was tested and found that big commerce wasn’t the easiest website builder, but it was one of the easier-to-use online store.

5. Woo commerce :

Woo commerce platform is very easy to use. It is simple to install and cheap to build an eCommerce website. Woo commerce is a free plugin, that can turn your WordPress website into a fully functional eCommerce website. Through woo commerce, you can customize your eCommerce website according to your needs by choosing your own plugins. This makes woo commerce one of the best contenders for those looking to start an online retail business.

6. Core commerce :

Core commerce was set up in 2001 to focus more on providing eCommerce services to small and medium business. This platform is based on simplicity and transparency. It promises the customers that it is easy-to-use platform with no hidden charges. Core commerce offers store designing, order processing and marketing. It also offers unlimited product customization.

7. 3dcart :

This platform is user friendly with plenty of innovative features. 3dcart was incorporated with most eCommerce features into one platform. This platform helps you to increase visitors and sales. Includes features like social media marketing, SEO and an expansive market place. It also has a strong support team, which works round the clock to ensure that your website works optimally. Many of the features of 3dcart platform are highly tailored to the needs of each business.

8. Weebly :

Weebly is an all purpose drag and drop website builder, with lots of customization. It also offers a free website builder option. It provides shoppers with a convenient shopping cart. Weebly shopping cart software is set up automatically when you create your online store. So you can start selling online immediately, no technical skills needed. Weebly usability score is 4.5/5. Main weakness of Weebly are

  • fewer customer service options
  • extra costs for most eCommerce option

Conclusion :

The right eCommerce site builder for your business will depend mostly on your budget and your business. Each eCommerce platforms and websites has their own pros and cons. So consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.