How Bitcoin payments are improving the conversion of eCommerce Website

Planning to hire an ecommerce developer for getting a feature-enriched online store is what almost every e-commerce business owner will look for but those who want to keep all payment related issues at bay will definitely be focusing on Bitcoin. Within the past six months, Bitcoin has actually been constantly increasing its basic mainstream process. Its a great news that stores like TigerDirect, Virgin Galactic, Overstock, Lord & Taylor, and even NewEgg have accepted this digital currency. Later when the news came that Dish Network is also accepting Bitcoin, future became more bright for this modern digital currency.

Understanding Bitcoin in Detail

Before knowing the impact that Bitcoin has made, lets look deep into what is it all about. An advanced form of digital currency, Bitcoin enables carrying out transactions without requiring need of any banks or some other middleman. Bitcoin enthusiasts process, verify and publicly record transactions from consumers wallets and the best part is that there is no transaction fees involved. 

Created by some programmer, much about whom is not known, Bitcoin debuted in the year 2009. People can purchase them, keep in their digital wallets and make their use at the time of paying for goods or services. Payment for a transaction is processed as the Bitcoins are transferred via Coinbase or Bitpay. Nowadays, one can also get the open source Bitcoin plugins for different e-commerce platforms like Magento, Prestashop, X-Cart by going online.

The Impact on Current e-commerce Industry

Despite the fact that some risks are linked with Bitcoin, it is a very dynamic and interesting technology that will have a strong impact on the way e-commerce transactions will occur in future. Its ability to serve as an innovative and viable solution has made it the heart-favorite of leading companies. Let's take a look at how Bitcoin is allowing e-commerce businesses to attain better conversions -

• Instant Gratification : Time is of great importance in every business as everyone wants everything to be done in quick time. With Bitcoin, you need not wait hours or days for a transaction to complete as it allows the person the mental peace that the payment made for the required product/service is not pending and the transaction is instant.

• Overseas Business Made Easier : People in developing countries do have problems getting access to banks or other financial institutions. However, with Bitcoin, such people can keep all such problems away. Bitcoin being a peer-to-peer service, assures that the payment will reach its specified destination safely. It also eliminates the need to go for currency conversion or making any payment for foreign fees.

• Establishing Reliance : Bitcoin always keeps the customer first unlike other banks that don't allow users total control over their finances. Due to instant confirmation of payments, you can have an updated budget. Also, as you don't require following any bank regulations, you have the full liberty to run your business in the desired manner. Bitcoin is totally secured and this increases trust in the businesses to go for it.

Top 10 tips towards Designing an Ecommerce Site that Boosts Sales

Ecommerce Changing gear to Mcommerce

The ecommerce industry has been witnessing a revival for better future in past two year. The already big industry is on the verge of taking it to new heights with the shift from social commerce to mobile commerce. Last year saw the surpassing of mobile users over desktop and this has ignited this revolutionary growth towards greatness. A look over the retail mobile commerce industry sales in the range of 2011 to 2016 by eMarketer reveals much of the story. 2011 industry worth was somewhat around $13.64 billion which has reached $52.17 billion this year. It has been predicted that by 2016 the industry will be worth $86.86 billion a 24% growth rate to be precise. To make the most of this fine situation one must be ready with all the power of delivery, be it service to architecture of the ecommerce portal. In the later part of this write-up, points which must be kept in mind while designing a successful ecommerce portal has been discussed.

The Design and Development need

The rightly designed store be it offline or online has the capacity to connect with audience. People do not like to enter a shop with clumsy showcasing of products even with huge collection. A basic human psychology is that, we never like cluttered stuffs. This applies for the case of ecommerce business too. Design is a crucial part while planning any ecommerce store as this is the feature that keeps the interest alive in the mind of the user. With right design only the user experience gets better. Functionality gets defined on the basis of the architecture and latest trends which people often are comfortable with.   

Boost sales with following design tips

As sales is the most vital thing that remains in the back of the mind of every store owner, hiring a company with right expertise over the designing of ecommerce web page and development is crucial. An authority firm takes care of all the aspects related to these two and primarily design. Following are the points which must be looked over with better care while designing to boost the sales of any eCommerce portal. 

1. Clarity in call to action buttons: This buttons are like the lifeline of any ecommerce portal, as through these only the visitors comes into the site expecting what they desire to be present. The placement of these buttons is hence very much vital in any web page. Also make sure to use the right color, design and size of the button that goes with the aesthetic of the site and at the same time grabs the attention of visitor.
2. Keep important information transparent: All the information such as shipping policy, privacy policy, terms and condition, etc must be presented in the most visible spots in web page. This builds trust and makes people buy from your store.
3. Make finding easy: With finely balanced navigation only this can be attained, hence make sure to do that. A visitor must have the freedom to navigate in all through the store with ease from any point.
4. Make images large and clear: When someone buys from your store the most attention is given over the image of the product as this s what they are buying. Keep it in high resolution and try to upload more pictures from various angles.
5. Give alternative looks of products: If your product has various versions in respect to color, etc make sure to upload all the pictures.
6. Keep space for reviews and testimonials: Consumers likes to hear what other has said about any product and so this part is crucial and must include. This helps in better decision making.
7. Let them have choice: Never try to force people with registration, this pisses off people. If someone like your product they will do that for sure prior to shopping.
8. Checkout process: This stage must be divided in stage prompting users to go to the next and very much easy to understand as buyers comes in various sizes and shapes.
9. Keep it simple: Make the form filling segment lesser in size. Unnecessary data’s must be skipped and not be made mandatory to be filled by the buyer.
10. Make it mobile: As most of the buyers are now coming from mobile platform, responsive design is a must. People should be able to access your stores mobile version.

5 Steps to Design a Custom Responsive Shopify eCommerce Theme

Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform widely used in India. Many companies in India run dedicated shopify stores to sell a wide variety of items including fashion accessories, clothing, furniture, electronic gadgets, and much more. While it can be a daunting task to set up a well designed and developed online store, the Shopify eCommerce platform helps you create an appealing store instantly!

For all those who are trying to learn the nitty-gritty of designing a custom responsive Shopify eCommerce theme, this post is worth a read! I have shared the top 5 steps that will help you come up with a great Shopify Theme.

1. Open an account on Shopify
   Open an account on Shopify by adding necessary personal information asked for. People can choose a free 14 day trial option or else directly choose any of the 4 pricing plans.
2. Enter your storeOnce you complete the sign up process, Shopify will send you a confirmation email with a link that you need to click to enter your eCommerce store’s admin page. You can log in to your Shopify store by adding your email address and password on the admin page. After you successfully log in, you will get to view the store dashboard.
3. Select a themeThere are numerous free and paid themes to choose from. Carefully choose a theme that goes best with your company and its products or services. After you select a theme, you will get to learn about the theme features including whether it is responsive or not, etc.
4. Customize the theme
   It is very easy to generate custom shopify theme by clicking on “Go to your Theme Manager.” You will need to click on the “Theme Settings” icon to do necessary customization. You can change the background color, text color, and font, add images, add your company logo, insert social media buttons, set up product page preferences, etc. After you make the additions, you can preview the page and then save the changes.
5. Use the Template Editor
   The Template Editor can be used to change HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and liquid code in your theme files as well as upload new images and such other important files to your custom responsive Shopify eCommerce theme. The Template Editor consists of theme files. All themes consist of 5 types of file:

• Assets - Here all images, JavaScript, and CSS files are stored.

• Config – In the config folder, HTML settings file is kept that helps Shopify custom theme designers easily modify or change data related to their theme.

• Layout - It contains the theme.liquid file and is used to keep all common elements of a website, including codes in one place for instant changing of a code as and when required.

• Snippets – It contains reusable codes.

• Templates – Here multiple micro templates or codes are found that can easily be inserted into the layout file.

Thus, a Shopify eCommerce theme can be easily customized to enhance the store’s look and offer a memorable, repeat visitor experience.

What to Consider While Getting an Ecommerce Software and Online Shopping Cart Solution

When the taste changes, the menu changes, this has been the rule of business from the very first day. Taking the account of ecommerce industry, Volusion shared a very nice infographics lately; the data shown in there has been collected from Forrester, eMarketer and some other authority agencies. It’s being documented that by the year 2011, 53% of the US population were very much comfortable with the concept of online purchasing. Based on this result, it has been calculated that the online sales is bound to see an increase of 62% and the net industry worth will be $327 billion in the year 2016. 

Spending $1738 per year in eCommerce Shopping

The average purchasing habit of a common citizen of America is expected to be around $1738 by the year 2016. Now, this is the data calculated with a presumption of standard environment and approaches. If you wish to be in this league, first thing that you might want to make sure is a flawless store. Let’s begin with the idea sharing now.

The Steps of Building

There are certain time-proven steps which every business owner takes for making sure that their store is flawless in every aspect. Once the strategy building part is over, much of the focus has to be shifted over the technical parts. Just hiring any firm with good repute is not always the most important task.

This is because there is no one better that the client himself who understands his own business model. Thus, along with having fine ecommerce software solutions and a certified firm handling the project, several parts like planning, execution etc., have to be looked over at every phase. In the next segment of this write-up, will try to explain those major areas.

Areas to Look for

Being an entrepreneur and especially of an ecommerce store is never an easy task. And as said earlier much of the effort has to be given over various segments which will be discussed here for your understanding.

• Aesthetic part: This is the segment which comes in the first phase of the project life cycle. A successful store must have a great UI and along with that sensible choosing of color & typography. All these together have mass effect on the user behavior while they are inside your store’s interface. There can be no jerks and all the ‘call to action’ parts have to be clearly visible. The structure of the store has to be user friendly with fine breadcrumbs and menu options so that user always gets the freedom of browsing any segment of the portal from any point.

• Shopping Cart and payment gateway experience: Much depends on this part as when someone gets ultimate experience with the store’s interface, he will surely try to buy something from there. Thus, make sure to keep a very precise shopping cart system that makes people pretty interested in the buying process. Also, a SSL is must for trust establishment when they are inside the loop of payment gateway.

There are many other points which are there for discussion, but for the beginning the above essential points around the aesthetics and the functioning of an ecommerce solution will help you a lot.

What Makes Mobile Ecommerce Interface the must-have for Every Ecommerce Service Providers

The E-commerce industry is directly connected with the most favorite habit of modern generation and i.e. shopping. The way of shopping has changed over time and now it’s time for mobile rule. With practically smartphones in every hand reaching audience has to be through mobile now for a wider reaching. There are major convenience factors too which advocate thinking E-commerce for mobile platform, like people can shop at any moment they please. All these have made the arrival of mobile E-commerce so very majestic.

The Changing Habit of E-commerce

The eMarketer, an independent survey and analysis portal, released a survey of US mobile commerce sales through smartphone and tablet for the period of 2012-2017 and the results were impressive. The sales percentage showed a rise of 56% with net value of $38.84 billion in 2013 compared with 2012. Also, it is expected that by 2017 this industry will touch valuation of $108.56 billion and that’s only of US. This tells how big the game is and why companies are investing in this concept.

India’s Contribution in the Projection

Even if you consider this whole episode from India’s point of view the rise of mobile user has been quite remarkable in the past 2 years. As per I-Cube estimates by June 2014 it is estimated that 150 million users will be from urban sector and 32 from rural. This stat shows the power of growing user base and primarily mobile user as this is the segment of the population which does make the revolution of mobile commerce such a strong phenomenon.

The Growth of E-commerce for the Mobile Platform – The Way Ahead!

Every business owner desires to reach maximum number of potential buyers and that too in the most efficient way. In the present global web industry scenario the most of the traffic comes through tablet, mobile or pad platform. The web platform had many limitations like time slot dependency and limited flexibility. 

Any general user used to sit in front of desktop on their convenient time after finishing their chores as that is placed in a fixed spot; also shopping based on instant mood is not possible due to its limited availability all round the clock. These kinds of issues have been rightly solved with the introduction of mobile commerce. 

A data sheet shared below shows that 53% of mobile users of 2014 will be more comfortable in shopping through a mobile version of e-commerce portal than a desktop version. This made the popularity reach sky high and as a result of that many mobile programmers are choosing the career of mobile commerce development.

E-commerce Platform Options for mobile

Every reputed name in the e-commerce industry are very much aware of the mobile friendliness demand of entrepreneurs and for this all the platforms are now cross-platform compatible. Names like Magento, VirtueMart, PrestaShop, CS Cart, and Zen cart are open source and have integrated interfaces meant for mobile platforms. With the utilization of various supportive modules, extensions and plug-ins and robust server of MYSQL the ruling of mobile market is set attaining new heights.

What Can You Learn from Award winning eCommerce websites?

If someone is asked about the one thing that he remembers from the favorite eCommerce site he uses, design, color and lastly functionality will be the three aspects that the person will harp about most.  We human beings are hardwired to be impressed with good looks. After we are satisfied with the looks we shift our interests over to the functionality (or say, usefulness, in the more mundane world).

Looks to fall in love for

It is estimated that 37% of eCommerce site visitors decides in the very first 3 seconds about whether to stay in that space of not. This calls for the right UX design and presentation. Only with the right arsenal at right time one can make sure of keeping visitor hooked to their web page and then impress them for buying from the store. According to the source of IBM Online Retail Index’s retail sales growth it is seen that the mobile commerce has attained 31% and all eCommerce has touched a growth rate of 20%. This tells how big it is now to be fit for all kinds of platform and so the design has to be responsive and cross-platform compatible.

What’s there in Sight?

There are many examples in the modern web world that highlights successful brand establishment through unparalleled design sense. Apple is a prominent name in this regards and has made it very much clear that a trustworthy design and shaping-up of brand DNA makes the sale go sky high. As this write-up is concerned about award winning eCommerce sites the focus will now be over them. For making sure that yours too touch that golden class standard getting the help from a professional eCommerce Development Company is most essential. Without right through process and brainstorming about an attractive idea the store won’t be able to hold its fort for long in this competition. Following are 3 of the best names in eCommerce niche that have won accolades and awards world over.

• Whipping + Post: This one is designed by a reputed firm namely ‘Out of the Sandbox’ and truly they have delivered a magnificent one. This one is appreciated for its clean and clutter-less design. The power of typography is really expressed in this site and the color has been chosen wisely keeping in mind the theme of the business.

• GREATS Brand: This one is crafted by a small agency named Wonder sauce. Its menu is truly unconventional yet very much UI compliant. The landing page has been designed without any jerks and the prime focus has been given over product showcasing. With a modern responsive look it has done fair deal of business in its targeted demographic location and is one of the most known award winning eCommerce site.

• Goodwin and Goodwin: The name itself is quite interesting with repetition of the same term with a plus sign in between both of them in the logo. But, there is no repetition in the design department and the whole navigation is done in an exemplary way. Its elegance has made it so very famous among designers and users alike.

These are just a few of the names in the wide world of eCommerce site’s manifests a beautiful, but useful design. Taking a pick of three from a horde of supremely excellent eCommerce websites, is like having a discourse over a drop of water from an ocean.

What we can certainly refer to is the prevalent trend and the hint at what is doable and achievable in the form of an eCommerce business.  

What it takes to have an ecommerce website?

The ecommerce and all its peripherals are gaining pace in the context of development and innovation. With the rising number of general awareness among the common people, more and more individuals are trying their hands in this concept - both as a user and as business owner. Both ways it is the flavor and possibilities of this concept that attracts them to use and execute, respectively. 

The Word is written on the Wall!

A recent data survey showed that 35.6% of global B2C ecommerce sales are being generated from Asia Pacific region in the year of 2014 and is expected to go up to 39.7% by 2016. This comes from a very small fraction of 42% internet user who stays in Asia. This is the prime reason that both industry wise and development wise this is the region which is in the limelight globally when it comes to ecommerce revolution. In the Smartphone usage percentage meter India attains a healthy mark of 62% for browsing products and giving review. This user base is only 9 a small fraction of the total mobile user of the nation as only 9 million urban users do use mobile internet in Smartphone. All these makes is very much important to be acquainted with the development flow of the whole concept as that ensures smooth operation and successful ventures.

Points to keep in mind while developing an ecommerce portal

Any standard ecommerce development process calls for particular step following which starts from basic market research. It’s not always about technical evaluation as most of the development agencies consider, it more of a business approach with the support of technology fit for online world. Most of the ecommerce entrepreneurs seek the answer of steps to be followed while crafting an ecommerce portal with the help of developers. Getting the right ecommerce website services development agency is not always the ultimate goal to look after. There are several intrinsic steps which must be looked over for real authority development. Few prime steps are discussed below for the understanding of all.

• Market research: This is not the technical part, but more closer to business analysis. Prior to the planning of any ecommerce portal the niche study is must. If you are targeting a particular age group or demographic region competitors from that part must be analyzed. Without knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor you will not be able to plan flawlessly.

• Site Architecture Planning: The portal’s components and functionality logic must be defined in this stage. Consult with the development team and ask them to set the final functionalities and integrate them in the site. Without the right user journey path setting in the portal the interface cannot deliver maximum result in the form of ROI.

• Graphic design and UI finalization: Here the need of professional UI designers are must and not just that responsive design element integration is also a must. 

• Right platform choosing: Only a supportive development cell will suggest you with the right ecommerce platform for building your store upon. Top names like Magento, Shopify, Woocomerce, etc are the most favorite.

• Launch in right hosting: The hosting server environment determines the site speed and not just that the security of the product details. 

If you are really interested to make a go at the domain, this is the time! What you now need is a little bit of handholding! In the form of ecommerce, a world of opportunities awaits you!