Ways to get your eCommerce business ready for Christmas sale

by eCommerceblog

The Christmas holiday season is just around the corner. Christmas is a great opportunity for your eCommerce business to take advantage of the holiday season to drive sales. Christmas and new year is not only busy for shoppers alone, they are extremely busy for store owners as well. The Christmas season is always a massive hit on the market. Every company prepares the most effective and unique promotional campaigns to hit maximum sales.

Ways to increase Christmas sale :

1. Review your last year sales :

This is the most important step for a successful marketing campaign. Analyse your previous year data to create a marketing campaign. If your previous year social media marketing was successful, then you can depend on it, this year too. In addition, you need to look at what did not perform well? If you can identify the problem and fix it, then you can rely on your last year’s marketing campaign.

2. Festive letters :

To keep your customers up to date with any offers that you are promoting  during the Christmas  season, it is the best way to get hold of as many of your past customers as possible. A good looking newsletter is sure to attract the customers. Accordingly you can design your letter, based on Christmas themes.

3. Free shipping :

One survey says that the percentage of sales increased by 49% after offering free shipping service to the customers. Most of the shoppers are always looking for free shipping to save money. That’s why many stores are offering free shipping. This has been regarded as one of the most powerful marketing strategies to increase sales during Christmas. If you don’t want to offer free shipping to customers then you can create a conditional shipping rule, by which customers can enjoy free shipping if their order value exceeds a certain amount.

4. Offering discounts :

During the Christmas period you can outline on the front page of your online shop, that you are offering a discount on certain items for just one day or a week and this offer changes every day. That way you will have people coming back for more every day to see what is the next offer.

5. Using social media :

Social media is the most influential tool for any type of business, whether it is online or offline. Social media helps you to inform your customer about your Christmas festive discounts and sales. To increase the number of customers to your store, you can use paid advertising campaigns.

6. Creating promotional ad’s :

During the Christmas season, there is neck to neck competition between stores. Promotional  ad’s play an important role in attracting higher traffic. Higher the traffic higher will be your sales and returns. These promotional ad’s highlight the Christmas discount your store is offering, free shipping ad’s which help in increasing your sales.

7. Offer gift wrapping service :

This service is something customers usually look out for during the Christmas period. For some, gift wrapping is a boredom job if it is on a large scale and also time consuming. So shops can offer gift wrapping service to customers. Customers willingly pay extra for such services.

8. Optimize the performance :

When you are dealing with an eCommerce store, customers rushing online can also slow down your store. so it is essential to optimize your store performance which enables the customer to have hassle free shopping.

9. New content :

Content marketing strategy plays an important role in attracting the visitors on your site and then converting them into customers. This year take the time to improve your content marketing strategy and try to build a niche. New content will provide new and repeat customers, it will improve your brand awareness and better customer engagement.

10. Rewarding loyal customers:

Every customer likes receiving personalized messages and your loyal customers will definitely appreciate it. This is the best way to express your gratitude. It may only be a simple holiday greeting, however it can help you to make a strong customer relation.

Conclusion:

If you start early enough your Christmas this year will be a successful one. Above mentioned tips may place you firmly on a good track to celebrate Christmas with maximum sales.

Tips to boost eCommerce sales for the Thanks Giving weekend

by contenteCommerceblog

Finally 2020 is coming to an end, but before that it’s thanks giving and Christmas time. Thanks giving has been regarded as the beginning of Christmas shopping season in united states. Black Friday is an informal name for Friday, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Many stores offer highly promoted sales on black Friday and open very early such as midnight.


Tips to boost eCommerce sales

1. To reach existing customers :

Keep your existing customer base as the center of your eCommerce marketing strategy. Cashing in on your existing customer is the easiest way to boost your sales. They already know your brand and product you sell. Use social media channels and email marketing to target your existing customers to show your deals and discounts you have instore for them. Target them first, other wise they will head else where for holiday deals.

2. To set referral program :

To boost online sales on cyber Monday, you can provide extra discount and exclusive deals for shoppers who refer a friend, co-worker, or a family member on black Friday. There is a gap of two days between black Friday and cyber Monday. Your existing customers would like to refer someone in exchange for more savings. You as a seller will get more sales.

3. To optimize landing page :

First optimize your landing page when the festive season is around. So make sure your landing page look attractive, engaging and optimized.

To make it attractive, give your online store theme based specific banners for black Friday, cyber Monday and Christmas.
To make it engaging, add your deals on landing page, like black Friday deals, cyber Monday sale and Christmas discounts.
Optimize your online store for desk top, mobile devices. Shoppers don’t like unresponsive slow loading website during the Holiday rush. Make sure you offer your shoppers a hassle free shopping experience.

4. To play with buyer psychology :

Buyers are people, just like all of us and they too are driven by irrational decisions. As an e-seller apply buyer psychology to your eCommerce holiday marketing strategy. Like creating a fear of missing out. Buyers are often looking to get their hands on great deals and fear missing out due to seasonal rush. Adding tags on your page like “last minute offers”, “count down deals”. You can sweeten the deal by giving free shipping and same day delivery are two more great ways to sweeten the deal.

5. To use social media :

first find your most popular social media channels, know where most of your shoppers are visiting, accordingly make your social media strategy. Target audience and come up with creative campaigns for events like black Friday, cyber Monday and Christmas. Plan your social media posts specifically for each event. Also you can run paid and promotional posts on your best product deals and discounts.

6. To improve your content strategy :

Blogs are a great way to improve SEO and incoming traffic. When it comes to thanks giving weekend you have to make changes in your usual content strategy. Your content should promote your black Friday and cyber Monday deals.

7. To optimize for mobile :

Sources confirm that every year, mobile devices claim more and more purchases. So make your website mobile friendly. Your site’s design should meet the modern standards and should impress the customers while shopping. Comparison shoppers love to research product prices online.

8. To use live chats :

Before purchasing customers has many questions, if their queries are not answered on time, they may leave the site and this can be a loss to your store. Make sure that you are responding to your customers quickly. For a hassle free communication, you can offer live chat support on your eCommerce website. This will reduce the time consumption between you and your consumer.

Conclusion :

The festive holiday season is all about the sales. The competition online is already stiff and it is only going to get tougher during the festive season. Now that you know the tips and tricks to stand out from the competition, it’s time to perfectly execute the marketing strategy.

What to test in an eCommerce Website

by eCommerceTechnologyblog

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.

Why you should have an e-commerce website..

by eCommerceblog

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.

2021 Vision eCommerce Trends To Expect In The New Year

by eCommerceTechnologyblog

The dynamic world has made the eCommerce business both scary and exciting. Changes either help us to grow or face new challenges that we are not able to sustain.  This business is still expanding bigger and brighter than before. This content will give you a sneak peak of the eCommerce growth in 2020 and beyond.

#1. Global eCommerce Sales:

The market share of eCommerce business is 17.5% of the total global retail sales. Studies state that eCommerce sales will reach a new high by 2021. It is going to grow approximately up to 265%, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2021. eCommerce business has more opportunity for growth in future. This shows that traditional business should embrace online business trends along with their offline business.  

#2. Prevalence of Omni Channel:

Omni channel shopping means to know what, where, when, why, and how people are purchasing the products you sell on a particular channel. Multi channel shopping is on the works for instance, people search for the product online but then buy in-store directly. Knowing your customers taste and preferences will help you to promote your product. Make sure that you adapt click and collect strategy, where shoppers can purchase online and pick it up in a store close to them.

#3. Shopping through Social Media:

Instagram, twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube are the social media channels which provide shopping facilities just a button away. social media allows businesses to enable product tags in their posts. when people tap to view a product, they usually see the product image, product description, price and a link where they can purchase the product. Social media is a tool for hassle free communication.

#4. Cross Border Shopping:

Study shows that 57% of online shoppers have made online purchases from an overseas retailer in the last six months. Shoppers are looking for products online outside their home country. Growing eCommerce trend is going global. Make sure that you invest in infrastructure and technology which will help your eCommerce business to adapt to overseas buyers.

#5. B2B eCommerce:

B2B eCommerce is the online selling and marketing of products from one business to another. The target audience of b2b company is not a consumer, but another company. So these companies require a unique approach of marketing and branding their products. B2B buyers usually need to go through various steps including sales representative interaction, negotiations and approvals before they can make a successful purchase.

#6. Mobile Shopping:

With their mobile devices shoppers can now browse, research and purchase products whenever and whatever they want. more than 50% of all internet traffic is from mobile devices. google has also shifted its algorithm towards mobile users. The websites that perform best on the mobile will be ranked accordingly. websites which do not accommodate mobile users, will have low readability and slow page loading speeds. To optimize your site, Google provides you with few tools to check if your website accommodates mobile users.

#7. Voice Commerce:

Voice operating assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google voice console are going to be the buzz in the new year. A very recent trend to the eCommerce world is the rise of voice technology. It has led to new ways on how people interact with brands through voice activated online browsing. 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 answered accordingly. Voice commerce are faster, easier and time saver.

#8. New Payment Modes:

Flexible payment  mode has become the priority of online business this year. Popular payment services such as Google pay, PayPal, Google wallet, PhonePe and more have significantly helped to increase the conversion ratio. This digital mode of payment allows the customer a frictionless shopping experience. In fact 70% of people expect that digital payments will overtake cash and cards by 2030. The more convenience you provide in payment, the more and better results you reap.

Conclusion:

The competition online is already stiff and it is only going to get tougher in the coming years. So arm your website with new trends for eCommerce to help you get ready with the changes of the coming years and elevate your eCommerce business in 2021 into a new height.

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How Crucial is Catalog Building and Indexing

by with No Comment eCommerce

The eCommerce Catalog Building and Indexing enhances a customer’s shopping experience online. Retailers are looking for ways to keep B2B and B2C customers informed and engaged about the products in their e-store. A well managed online product catalog helps to meet customer behaviors by ensuring visibility for your products. A clear and concise catalog will highlight your company as well as build trust and credibility between the customer and your business.

ECommerce Catalog Management is the process of organizing data in a consistent, user-friendly, attractive manner across all sales channels like Digital channels such as Websites, Apps, Automated Retail such as self-service kiosks, Resellers, Whole sellers, Agents and others.

The online catalog provides precise information about your e-store products such as product name, descriptions, price, supplier or manufacturer information, and other related product details. Any information regarding the products needs to be accurate for customers to identify with the product they are looking for.

People are spending more time online than ever, so it is imperative for retailers to have catalog data that gives the best online experience. Products with vague information result in loss of business revenue. An organized data that is cataloged gives users the opportunity for product discovery which is crucial for sales conversion. 

Here are the benefits of Catalog Building and Indexing that retailers cannot overlook. 

1. Instant launch of New Products in the market

Retailers are launching new products every month; they need to be instantly available for customers over multiple channels. It can take 30 to 60 days for products to go from offline to online digitization. Catalog management like Automated tagging of inventory helps to classify inventory into appropriate categories by auto-generating product attributes, data discrepancies, and fixing data inconsistencies. Automated enriched product data will be enriched, consistent and uploaded for the customers across all sales channels simultaneously.

2. Better Omni Channel Experience due to Automated Tagging

Automated Retail Solutions helps in product accuracy and to keep track of inventory on a real-time basis. Retailers need precise inventory statistics for sales and that is enabled by correct categorization of products. Automated product with catalog management tags help brands to keep track of stocks providing a hassle-free omnichannel experience for their customers. 

3. Increased Loyalty Base from Customers

Traditional manual product tagging procedures require a lot of man-hours for eg: tagging 200 to 300 products a day can take up to 30-40 hours. With high possibilities of inaccuracies that can range from visual inaccuracy to misclassified product title; to wrong tags, automated tagging is a saving grace for many retailers and distributors to get the tens of thousands of tagging products in minutes with accuracy. Customers will be able to locate products closest to what they are looking for giving them a good online experience making them loyal to the brand.  

4. Faster discovery of products by Customers

Catalog building and indexing in the order that is filtered by Manufacturer, Brand, Price, Type, Products, and more; allows high-quality and unified product information to be visible and helps customers narrow their search preferences faster. With the right categorization, chances of shoppers discovering and buying a product are more likely resulting in more transactions.

5. Real Time Inventory Visibility reducing the gap between Demand and Supply

Retails can gauge their product stock better with the catalog management    process. This allows them to gauge their inventory such as categories, subcategories, images, layout, and more; for their audiences with varied preferences in purchasing patterns. So, for a retailer, its a must to accurately tag products in their inventory to ascertain their product stock better. This helps to analyze the inventory stock based on the product categories. And also, helps to connect with audiences enabling smarter merchandising and better forecasting of business revenue. Catalog management helps retailers tend to customer demands in real-time.

Conclusion

Catalog Building and Indexing processes help to acquire consistent product databases by identifying duplicates, correcting errors, standardizing naming, titles. Moreover, it helps retailers, distributors, and manufacturers to take stock of inventory and connect their products with the right consumers online.

Altius technologies enhance customer experience by making important product information quickly and easily accessible. So, you can avail Altius’ Catalog Building and Indexing Services for a faster time-to-market. Thus helping customers discover your products quickly and efficiently.