Here are salient features to evangelize your potential customers into lasting ones; how to twist your e-commerce brand for the better!

It’s always the right time to shop with your e-commerce website or app – be it 2 AM or 2 PM. It allows you to buy or sell tangible goods, products or services online at the place of your convenience. E-Commerce is electronic marketing. Traditional businesses include – manufacturer unit, distributor, wholesaler, retailer, customer, advertisement.

Traditionally, many companies had a perfunctory online presence to supplement their in-store experience. People used to browse online to check the availability of items and relevant price comparisons. Now, these websites help in optimizing the search. Retailers didn’t want to sacrifice their in-store sales.

Why use E-Commerce?

• Low entry cost
• Reduces transaction costs
• Access to the global market
• Secure market share

Types of E-commerce

• Business-to-business (B2B) online transactions involve buyer and seller are two different entities, similar to manufacturers issuing goods to the retailer or wholesaler.
• Business to Consumer (B2C) involves businesses selling products online to consumers. It is the direct online trade between the company and the consumers.
• Business to Employee (B2E) involves an intra-business network where companies provide products or services to their employees. E-commerce website development companies use B2E networks to automate employee-related corporate processes.
• Consumer to consumer (C2C) involves many websites that offer – (1) free classifieds, (2) auctions, and (3) forums where individuals buy through online payment systems like PayPal.

How does E-commerce work?

• Ecommerce websites allow customers to find their product(s), add them to their ‘cart’ and securely enter their payment information to complete their purchase.
• Electronic businesses work on business models that facilitate online sales. Consumers use web browsers to connect to the home page of a merchant’s website on the internet.
• The consumer browses the catalogue of products featured on the site and selects items to purchase. The select items get a place in the electronic equivalent of a shopping cart.
• When the consumer is ready to complete the purchase of selected items, she provides a bill-to and ship-to address for purchase and delivery.
• When the merchant’s web server receives this information, it computes the total cost of the order – including tax, shipping, and handling charges – and then displays the total to the customer.
• The customer can now provide payment information, such as a credit card number, and then submit the order.
• Upon validation of the credit card number, the order completes at the Commerce Server site, the merchant’s site displays a receipt confirming the customer’s purchase.
• The Commerce Server site then forwards the order to a Processing Network for payment processing and fulfilment.

What are the pros and cons of E-commerce Websites?

Pros of E-commerce Websites

• No checkout queues
• Reduced prices
• Shop globally
• Easy access 24/7/365
• It caters to consumers of all demographics – age, profession, preferences

Cons of E-commerce Websites

• Unable to examine products personally
• It does not work without the internet
• There are chances of credit card number theft;

How can you convert your e-commerce website traffic?

A vital part of conversion is to offer customers exactly what they are looking for; It might sound deceptively easy, but most retailers get it wrong.

Companies use – (1) AI-enabled search tools, (2) virtual assistants, (3) advanced search, and (4) suggestions, (5) repeat purchase, (6) related search, (7) what goes best, (8) combo offers, (9) seasonal discounts and offers, (10) festive treats, (11) best in this price, (12) best seller, (13) dollar value discounts, (14) percentage discounts, (15) buy one – get one, gift, and (16) free shipping.

Moreover, engaging the voice of the customer can illuminate what works and what doesn’t for an e-commerce retailer’s site.

Also, the best way to resort and improve the overall customer experience is by predictive analytics. It helps companies understand how much inventory they require in the coming days. It also clarifies how the demand-supply gap comes up; and what the competitors bring up within a similar price range and category. AI enhances forecasting, and AI-driven demand forecasting improves accuracy.

Scaling an e-commerce business enables more precise inventory investment, leading to fewer markdowns and clearance. It prevents waste and enhances sustainability. Predictive analytics manages customer’s expectations on the product, pricing, availability, and delivery times. It personalizes the customer journey, listening to the voice of the customer, and putting predictive analytics to work will be the only way that any retailer can take. But if you offer the customer exactly what they want in a shopping experience designed just for them makes omnichannel promises a reality.

Factors to Consider When Creating an Ecommerce Site

• Website safety and security
• Optimization before and during eСommerce website development
• Website search and filtering functionality
• Registration and related issues
• Payment options
• Shipping rates
• CMS integration
• Mobile functionality
• A website design that matches the products you are selling
• Good shopping cart design
• Proper product showcase and descriptions
• Customer support and contacts – Add various chat options for those who don’t wish to talk on the phone;
• Social proof – Written reviews or product unboxing
• Good Marketing strategy
• Supporting Blogs and articles

Top E-Commerce Platforms of 2021

• Best Overall: BigCommerce
• Best for Startups: Squarespace
• Best for Small Business: Wix
• Best for Large Business: Magento
• Best for Ease of Use: GoDaddy
• Best for Dropshipping: Shopify
• Best for International Sales: Smoolis
• Best Affordable Option: Square Online
• Best for Brick and Mortar: Weebly
• Best for Online Only: 3dcart

Business niches for E-Commerce Sites

• Amazon
• Flipkart
• Alibaba
• Snapdeal
• Myntra
• IndiaMART
• Book My show
• Nykaa (and more)

Critical Factors to Consider While Investing In E-commerce Ventures

Customers leave E-commerce businesses in the dust – (1) If they don’t know how to use the site, (2) If the product value isn’t clear, and (3) Navigation is difficult;
Besides following the software development life cycle, businesses need to consider – (1) Branding, (2) SEO, (3) User Experience, (4) Transparency, and (5) Engagement;

In Conclusion

Electronic commerce websites have brought customers to the center of everything. Companies (1) track their purchase history, (2) preferences, (3) site visits, (4) purchases, (5) relevant assortments, (6) the voice of customer data, and (7) predictive analytics to give brands the ability to be fully customer-centric, allowing the customer to dictate how they want to shop regardless of the channel. Also, rewarding them on their every purchase as percentage discounts, loyalty points – can be a great way to evangelize them. Branding is your purpose; SEO brings in traffic; Customers love a great user experience; Transparency builds trust. Boost overall engagement. Follow us for more relevant updates!

Please share your suggestions at info@itfirms.co

The post Planning an E-Commerce Brand appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Developing an e-commerce website is not possible without breaking a sweat, and here we are with the cost and effort breakup to make the most of the available resources and get you going!

There is a corresponding digital solution every B2B or a B2C requirement for the small-medium-large businesses. There cannot be one single website to address B2B e-commerce/Mobile e-commerce. What makes them glisten is the ease to set-up, the features they come up with, the categories/subcategories they adorn, and their scalability to add new capabilities/features/product or service categories, free 24/7 support, SSL Certificate, Mobile Commerce Ready, the ability to handle frauds, the ability to work upon unlimited bandwidth, the unlimited 24/7 support.

Narrowing Down Straight to the Cost of an E-Commerce Website

The cost of an e-commerce website could range from $5 thousand to more than $5 million, depending on the choice of platform and requirements. It can be: Shopify for getting up and running quickly, Square for selling in-person and online, Selz for a full-featured drag-and-drop store builder, OpenCart for total customization, BigCommerce for access to multiple storefronts on one platform, Gumroad for selling digital products, 3dcart for built-in marketing and management features, Big Cartel for smaller stores with custom products, WooCommerce for adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site, PrestaShop for a free platform, E-junkie for selling across multiple platforms, Ecwid for selling on social media or Wix for simultaneously creating a store and a blog; there can be many more Platforms to Build an eCommerce Website in 2020.

Also, the e-commerce development companies should continue investing money to improve the function and experience of their online store when the initial development is completed. Plus, spend some part of it into marketing as well. Do not let it go off stream to take any action, jump right in and action your thoughts proactively.

Cost Estimation for E-Commerce Website Development

There is no exact cost to build an e-commerce website. It can go anywhere from about $5,000 to millions of dollars. As a theoretical first figure (upper-limit), we assume that the e-commerce website development cost is $3, 50,000.

• Ecommerce Platform: There are industry-specific integrated solutions based on ERP systems and software as a service (SaaS) offerings designed to be comfortable for business owners to set up and configure themselves.
• e-commerce Web Design: Often the SaaS offerings have design galleries, themes or templates that can be applied to the site. Minimal and clear interface, Highlighting the value proposition, Unique and product-specific UX, Custom web design for unique buying experience, Flat design/material design, High-quality stylish imagery, Design with conversion rate in mind, Highlight brand’s lifestyle/vibe and Lead to the product page with fewer clicks. These can cost around $0 – $250 – $1,000 – $2000 for making minor changes and customizations to advanced ones.
• Custom e-commerce Programming and Functionality: Many platforms provide module extensions support where third-party functionality can be added to your site.
• E-commerce Web Hosting: A typical SaaS-based hosting solution can start around $300 a month for decent service and support and cost upwards of $1,000 – $2,000 a month.
• Cost of an E-commerce Website: Considering all the variables discussed above, let’s see how much does an e-Commerce website cost:

Reference: www.atlanticbt.com)

The cost estimation starts forth by checking the sales/traffic goals and required custom features. Additionally, factors like the (1) e-commerce platform like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce etc. to be used, the number of products and product varieties that will there be, i.e. size, colour, etc.? (2) Check if the pricing is complex or standard? (3) Analyze whether you have the content/images ready and organized or do you have to prepare it? (4) Check if the type of hosting solution that you require for your business? (5) What payment gateway Paypal, Authorize, SecurePay, etc? (6) Is the site going to be responsive, i.e. optimized to view across all devices? (7) Is the site going to comprise blogs, social media, and other special features? (8) You’ll also want to have a third-party hosted or self-hosted platform.

Basic Components of E-Commerce App Development

The cost of making an online store depends on multiple things, including the following:

• domain/hosting
• web development services
• web design services
• features, CMS, database, integrations
• SEO/marketing
• ongoing maintenance and updates

Essential Web Store Features

• Customer registration
• Search / Navigation
• Complex pricing
• Product reviews
• Checkout – easy and flexible
• Multiple payment options
• Mobile-friendly
• Miscellaneous categories like order status, product variations, shopping history etc.

E-commerce Website Cost by Type

• The estimated cost to build a small web store $15,000 – $20,000.
• The estimated cost to build a mid-size e-commerce site $30,000 – $50,000 and more.
• Estimated cost to build a large web store $55,000 – $160,000.

What you must consider here is that these are just the initial costs and these can be proportional to the features and properties added in later stages of development, plus the additional expenses that are tagged during maintenance and hosting of the website. Often, some costs differ for small-medium-enterprise setups. These are:

Conclusion

While there can be many different elements affecting the e-commerce website cost like the categories, product pages, related products, website cost and custom functionality development etc. The SaaS platforms like Magento or WooCommerce or Shopify would cost somewhere around $3K – $10K but the custom development can get expensive as extensions can often break while upgrading the core system. Imagine a poor code that can cost you more money than the amount that was originally invested. Also, businesses should feel free to interpret the cost and effort requirements as they best resonate with their current and estimated situation in coming future.

Note: All the price figures listed are illustrative but very closer to actual ones and are subject to change based on the demand in the market.

The post What is the cost to build and host an eCommerce website? appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Entrepreneurs have discovered new avenues to grow and make most of the opportunities on offer. No doubt, the segment is lucrative and holds tremendous potential to keep you going and growing.

With the rate at which eCommerce is flourishing, there is a possibility that by 2019, the worldwide eCommerce market will cross $2.4 trillion mark, as per a research.

While the predictions indicate a fruitful future, one must understand and note the security vulnerabilities related to the online business. Online frauds and security breaches are not new and eCommerce has had its share of incidents when eBay compromised the data of 145 million accounts back in 2014. It was considered as one of the biggest breaches of all time then.

Here are five practices to follow if you want to counteract the latest cyber threats.

1. Integrate SSL certificates

SSL certificate implementation is a mandate, and if your eCommerce developer isn’t pushing to include it then probably your business is in wrong hands. It is recommended to change your eCommerce development company immediately to the one that understands the criticalities of online thefts.

Certificates like SSL authenticate the transaction, identity users and encrypts the data at store and transit, which makes the end-to-end connectivity between website and user’s system secure and authentic.

Users are now well-aware of security basics. They are less likely to share their personal and credit card details with a website that doesn’t have a padlock icon with HTTPS in the URL.

2. Choose hosting provider and eCommerce platform wisely

It’s the sole responsibility of your eCommerce web development company to assist you in choosing the perfect hosting as well as the development platform. However, you need to be aware of the prerequisites for selecting the desired service providers. Look out for a user-friendly hosting provider that offers a range of tools and applications ensuring website’s security and confidentiality for uploaded data. Make sure it offers 128-bits or 256-bits AES encryption, performs regular security checks, has a backup feature and maintains comprehensive logs. Also, it should comply with the PCI DSS requirements.

While selecting a platform, take note of security procedures in place. Most prominent eCommerce platforms by global leaders are Magento and WordPress WooCommerce, especially because of their extensive security features than anything else.

3. Two-factor authentication

Try adding an extra layer of security through two-factor authentication process. In this process, user needs to authenticate himself via two means. The first is the basic combination of username & password while the next comprises a real-time code that is generated by system for short duration and sent over user’s registered phone number or email address.

4. Don’t save customers’ sensitive data

Avoid collecting and storing user data, especially their credit/debit card details because cyber criminals can easily get hold of your database and steal the information for their vested interest. Ask the associated eCommerce web development company to process payments via encrypted checkout tunnel that eliminates the need of server to access customer data.

5. Advanced encryption techniques

Encrypting data is a necessity, and so is it for browser communications. The communication between the browser and the website needs to be protected by implementing advanced encryption techniques, ensuring the information transmitted across communication channel is safe. Make sure the updated versions of SSL, EV SSL are in place that add to the security of your eCommerce store.

Final words

Apart from above-mentioned practices, you need to be proactive in identifying weak links. You can employ a dedicated team of security professionals who check, track and monitor proceedings on a regular basis.

Do not let hackers have the last word. Instead, offer a safer environment to your users who help you earn a livelihood.

The post Follow These Five Practices to Safeguard Your E-commerce Website appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.