eCommerce Blog - Page 23

Do you dream about starting your own e-Commerce business as an entrepreneur? If you would like to be your own boss and you have a plan to start your own online business, the time is now. It is quite cheaper, easier and much faster to start an online business than ever before. But, that does not mean that is it easier to be successful in an e-Commerce industry. Being able to start your own business and being successful are two different things.

One of the best things about e-Commerce is that you can start a business anywhere in the world with the help of powerful solutions like nopCommerce, for free. nopCommerce offers comprehensive features that is easy to use for new online businesses, yet powerful enough for the most demanding ecommerce expert.

So, you are selling great products in the right market with an aggressive marketing plan but for some reason the sales are down; why? A smart way to get back on the right track is to identify the primary challenges that your online store site is facing. In many cases, the problem does not always come from the products, marketing plan, industry or your product advertisement but from your e-Commerce website. It is sometime quite tough for some business owners to pinpoint the culprit when sales are dropping. Here are a few key reasons why your e-Commerce store is losing business.

In e-Commerce world, store owners use product images to influence the customers. Since the customers cannot touch, smell or see the actual product on a store site, images is the only way by which online shoppers are able to interact with the products. Due to this limitation, online store owners must use an e-Commerce software solution (like nopCommerce) that provides different tools to make the images stand out. Ultimately, if the images make your products look more attractive, online shoppers will be more confident in purchasing from you.

Many online businesses understand the fact that first impression count when selling online. This is the reason why many online merchants showcase their products from every possible angle and zoom to provide a real world experience on their store site.

Today we will discuss how good quality product images can increase the revenue of your e-Commerce store.

There are many online stores that are suffering from inability to provide a real-time customer service. This can easily lead to cart abandonment as customers are disconnected from someone who can answer their questions in real-time. As the customer reaches the finish line of placing an order, something barricades the checkout process that abolishes the potential sale. The reason could be as simple as answering your customer’s question while they are adding product(s) to their cart.

Live chat has the ability to provide convenience and real-time answers to the online shoppers. An online store without a live chat feature can be seen as letting your customers walk around an empty store and figure out things themselves. Yes, it is understandable that these days many online shoppers are quite used to of figuring out thing themselves but there are a good number of people who leaves the online store just because they couldn’t find the product they are looking for or they had a question about return policy but nobody is there to answer their question. Yes, there is a “Contact us” page on the store site but if customer is interested in buying an item, they want answers right now, they don’t know how much time you as a store owner will take to respond back. It could be a day or two when you get back to your customer and the customer already ordered the item from some other online store..

Today, we will discuss why every online store should offer live chat.

Enhancing the level of customer experience on the website has become one of the top priorities for store owners because it is something that acts as a differentiator in this competitive e-Commerce industry. Even little details can make a big difference in terms of how customers feel about products and the company.

Many of us have heard this before that it is important to provide a positive customer experience. But the question is; how do you do that? Winning loyal customers is no longer providing quality products to the customers. Today, customers are more educated and have many options. They are willing to pay more money for convenience and better experience.

Your customers are constantly interacting with you as a business via many channels like email, social media, in-store visits and customer service. So, the definition of an enhanced customer experience is making your customers happy over all these channels and providing exactly what they are looking for.

Why so much time, effort and money are being invested by many e-Commerce business owners on the design of the website? The answer is quite simple, to drive customers to conversions. One of the most critical things on an online store site is the homepage as that’s the first place where customers will interact with your online business.

We all have heard the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” and it means that a good picture can easily tell a story and convey the meaning behind it. Just like this phrase, a homepage of an online store should have the power to tell your customers who you are, what you do and what you have to offer during their first interaction with the site. Any time, if your homepage fails to impress the online shoppers, they will go somewhere else to buy what they are looking for.

Here are a few key elements that you store site homepage must offer.

Drop shipping is a practice of order fulfilment that allows online merchants (or store owners) to sell online without having to stock inventory or ship orders. In the whole process, when a product is sold, the 3rd party wholesaler or manufacturer ships out the product directly to the customer and the merchant / store owner never sees or handle the product but still earns the profit. Drop shipping is a great way to start an online business conveniently and practicality without worrying about stock as it helps in minimizing the risks in the e-Commerce industry.

Today, we will discuss a few reasons why e-Commerce retailers should consider drop shipping.

The term “design” is a very wide-ranging and an ambiguous term. It is wide-ranging because it covers a wide range of categories in design. It is ambiguous because when someone says that he/she is a designer, it not a clear answer as there are number of responsibilities that are incorporated under the umbrella of term “designer”.

In e-Commerce industry, a bad design and cluttered website can easily drive away the potential customers from your online store. So, while planning the design of the store site, it is very important for store owners to understand the difference between user-experience and user-interface. If a store owner wants to hire a person to work on the design of the website and do not understand the difference between UI and UX; he/she might end up hiring a wrong person for the job.

In today’s technical environment, you will often hear the terms user-experience (UX) and user-interface (UI). Just because these two terms has a similar nomenclature, it does not make the meaning of both terms same. The most common misconception is that many people think that UX and UI is a same thing and terms can be interchanged but it is not true. The fact is that the user-experience is affected by user-interface but at the same time, is not depended on it.

Choosing a right domain name is the first important step to a successful planning of an online business. Domain name is just like an internet identity for your online business which reflects who you are, what you do and what service / product do you offer to the online shoppers. The reason domain name is seen as an “internet identity” is because no two domain names can be same and while choosing a web address that is unique to you is a chance for you to select the best possible domain name that describes your online business (or e-Commerce store).

Many times, business owners do not put much effort in choosing a right domain name for their business which can be as devastating as choosing a wrong physical location for your business. Domain name is just like a virtual address for your online store so you should invest same amount of time, thought process, planning and effort to select a right web address just like how you would select a prime physical location for your business where shoppers can find you easily. Yes, it can be a little tedious process to come up with a good unique domain name that has not been taken yet but it is not that difficult if you think strategically.

According to many researchers, 2015 is going to be an amazing year for an e-Commerce industry. In 2015, online store owners (or retailers) must bring their A game in order to survive in this competitive e-Commerce industry. Today, customers are not only knowledgeable but know what item they want on what price by doing a price comparison. Customers are also interested in knowing product reviews, availability of the product (or inventory) and expect free as well as fast shipping.

People are shopping online more than ever before. This makes it quite critical for online retailers to know what online shoppers are interested in buying and how they would like to buy. So, it is important for all retailers to keep an eye on all the ongoing trends.

Here are a few key trends for the year 2015...