5 essential upgrades that eCommerce can bring to your retail business

The transition from offline retail to online retail is one exercise that most traditional players are apprehensive of. But as time shows, people who display inertia towards emerging trends are the ones who usually get left behind and go out of relevance. So, several traditional brick-and-mortar retail chains are embracing the eCommerce business model, albeit reluctantly. 

However, what such players fail to realize is the fact that eCommerce can go a long way in streamlining their sales and give them a better bang for the buck in term of RoI.

The following features that are common to all eCommerce sites offer them a great edge over the traditional model:

Site Search: This is the most useful functionality that is desired by all consumers. By being able to search for what they want, businesses provide consumers with the luxury of options, which they relish. Having a site search features that turns up a healthy mix of results can drive traffic and lead to more sales.

Inventory Management: Inventory management is a critical aspect of all retail businesses. Building an inventory management feature that is capable of keeping track of orders is essential. Updating the availability stocks after the completion of each order can help businesses plan for a rise in demand and stock their warehouses accordingly.

Vendor Management: While inventory management helps keep track of products that are going out, vendor management tracks products that are coming in. This helps in streamlining the ordering process and makes reordering of products easier. Such functionality is useful for businesses as it can help them maintain sufficient stocks ahead of demand.

E-commerce Website development

Cart Abandonment: Studies show that 77% of shoppers abandon their carts before checkout. Catering to this customer segment and convincing them to complete their checkout can lead to a significant boost in revenues. An automated tool that indicates cart abandonment can help businesses greatly.

Live Chat: This ranks as the most crucial feature that is offered by eCommerce sites. Live chat feature helps customers seek redressal in real-time and get their issues sorted. This is helpful for businesses to as it helps build customer loyalty and reduce the impact of poaching by other websites.

Implementing these features while building an online shopping cart is crucial for offering a hassle-free shopping experience for customers. If you are a business looking to transition from offline sales to online sales, the team at Openwave can help by catering to all your website needs. 

We are a reputed eCommerce website development company in Malaysia. Get in touch with our sales team and to receive a free quote today!

Shopify vs Magento Community Edition: Which fares better?

Magento and Shopify are two prominent brands racing to court retail stores and businesses. Both of them were started between 2004 and 2007. Both of them have re-shaped the retail space, taking in hundreds of thousands of stores and millions of customers. And both of them have established a global footprint and a brand-worth in billions. However, while both corporations have enticed and drawn hoards of customers, each one varies on certain levels.

Here we’ll explore their differences to see the pros and cons of each to see what makes them unique.

The SEO parameter

Marketing effectiveness is a prime target for customers in this area, and a strong SEO functionality is a must for both of these platforms. Shopify grants the customers a more-or-less fixed SEO functionality component, allowing them to insert suggestions on a smaller scale. Meanwhile, Magneto is designed as a non-hosted open solution and a broader range of possibilities are made available to customers to modify the SEO strategy.

Integration ability
 
Magneto has 906 payment gateway extensions against a mere 41 for Shopify, and a total of 1817 marketing extensions against 287 for Shopify. Shopify presents a slightly more limited app-store, and while its extensions are of a similar template as those of Magneto, they come with a more fixed implementation. This gives Magneto the clear edge in this area. 

E-commerce Website development

Technical process
 
Shopify can be taken out of the box as a wholesome product that doesn't need any more work to be done. Meanwhile, after downloading the Magneto program, one needs to invest a certain amount of time in configuring and running the program.

Design themes
 
Shopify has a nominal selection of themes that can be availed from their library for free, and a few premium themes that can be purchased for within 200 dollars. All of them are designed for a plush look, and come fully customizable. Meanwhile, Magneto offers a far more expansive selection of themes, most of which come with a typical e-commerce styling. However, Magneto's themes are noted to lack the elegant touch that customers look for these days, although they are customizable.

Costs

Shopify offers customers a range of different pricing packages, the cheapest of which is a 9 dollar per month subscription. Magneto's community edition is free, although the application comes without a technical startup which could involve more work for the customer. Both applications have a standard fee for payment processing.

In conclusion, both platforms have their specialties. If you're a starter with limited technical knowledge, Shopify, as a plug-and-play, might suit your needs. If you're willing to hire a software professional, then opt for Magneto.

 Shopify's simpler features and less complex layout could do it for smaller businesses and start-ups, while Magneto with its more complex features helps sustain larger customers for bigger enterprises. Choose wisely, or if you need help, you can always talk to the experts at Openwave.

11 Reasons Why Online Customers Don’t Buy From You

A lot of online entrepreneurs spend a considerable amount of time working on setting up their website. But once the site is set up, though, they forget about it – which is a primary reason why it doesn’t do well. An online site or store is a continuous investment on your part. Like a plant, it needs regular nurturing and care if you want it to make you money. 

Here are 11 reasons why your site could be performing poorly, and your customers don’t want to buy from you:

You don’t update often
 
You need to make constant changes, keep your content fresh and use modern design to keep your website relevant with time.

Vague communication
 
Do you use a grid-based layout for clear communication? Is your content easy-to-understand and targeted at the right audience? If not, you’re going to lose out. 

Cluttered layout
 
A cluttered layout is distracting and annoying, especially on mobile devices. If everything isn’t clear, with lots of space in between, customers have a poor UX and are unlikely to convert. 

Lack of trust
 
Is your website good enough to be the digital face of your business? A bad-looking, slow-performing one will showcase your business is a negative light and won’t generate trust among visitors. 

Messy CTAs
 
CTAs should never be too long. They should also be easy-to-access. Use small, direct, targeted CTAs like “Contact Us Now!” or “Register Today!”.

Sluggish loading
 
If it takes more than 4 seconds for a page to load on your site, you’re going to lose out on a lot of users. Speed up load times to cater to impatient visitors. 

Off-target ads
 
Pop-ups may catch your visitors’ attention, but they are also annoying and will destroy their mood. The advertising you use should be subtle and targeted. 

E-commerce website development

Audio can be noise

Some sites become annoying when they auto-play audio. Also, sometimes sound can auto play because of broken code. Ensure your audio isn't becoming noise.

Wrong content
 
The photos and videos you showcase will tell prospective customers a lot about you. Make sure to use material that throws the best possible light on your business.

Excessive linking
 
It’s all well, and good to use external links as reference citation – but too many links can lose customers. Only use the smallest number of links possible.

Negligence to analytics
 
You customer preferences and market trends should play a prominent role in how the site behaves. Ignoring analytics will reduce conversions. 

It's difficult to get a foothold in the eCommerce industry – or on the internet – if you don't know what you're doing or you don't keep up with the latest web development trends. You can consult with an experienced web development company if you are searching for a way to maximise conversion rates.

Get Your Site to Perform Better and Watch Sales Shoot Through the Roof

Every eCommerce business owner is worried about the conversion rates – the performance metric that shows the percentage of website visitors that buy a product or service on the site. A higher conversion rate will, of course, translate into higher sales and greater revenue for the business. 

There are a lot of factors that affect conversion rates, perhaps the most important one being the user experience (UX) – and the UX, in turn, is influenced by website load times.

E-commerce website development

Slow webpages can kill conversion rates

There is nothing worse than a slow internet site. Nobody has the patience to wait around for more than a few seconds for a website to load these days – why bother waiting, when a competing site loads much faster? Slow pages will not only lose you customers, but they also showcase your business in a bad light. 

Fast websites, on the other hand, give a massive boost to conversion rates. According to a Wal-Mart report, page speeds of a couple of seconds are twice as likely to convert as page speeds of 3 to 4 seconds. 

Measuring your performance is essential

The top factors that you should be measuring affecting your site load times include the following:

Page load time: The metric analyses how long it takes to get all the content on a web page loaded in a browser.

Ping time: The first byte download time is the measure of the time needed for a small package of info to travel from a page to a browser.

Render time: The metric refers to how long it takes for content to become visible on a page.

To boost your website load times, you can do the following:

Optimize your Cache: Caching significantly reduces load times. 

Get a better host: You may want to pay more for a better host – or get a host that isn’t on the other side of the ocean.

Make your site responsive: To get webpages to load faster on mobile devices, use responsive design.

There are additional tweaks you can do to get a better response on your site. You may want to consult an experienced web development team for strategies on how to get the most out of your site.

How to enhance Conversion Rates on your eCommerce Store?

Getting an eCommerce store going isn’t easy, as you may well know. You face direct or indirect competition from retail giants like Amazon, Alibaba, and you constantly have to keep rethinking marketing strategies to stay relevant in the rapidly evolving eCommerce world. 

Here are some easy ways you can boost conversion rates on your eCommerce store:

What do you sell? 
 
Can your customers tell what you are selling within the first 3 seconds of landing on your site? Users have short attention spans – they won’t stick around if you aren’t able to explain what you’re selling in quick time.

Don’t separate customers from their shopping cart 
 
Psychologically speaking, we all expect to receive something of value when we pay for it. When customers buy from an eCommerce store, you should avoid inducing separation anxiety by separating them from their cart during the checkout process, like some stores do. 

E-commerce website development Malaysia

Make navigation as easy as possible 
 
Your store should be as easy to navigate as possible. Use the sticky navigation design to make your menu accessible even when visitors are scrolling. When displaying products, use a grid layout and be clear about the pricing and the shipping – nobody likes surprise charges.  

Make your site load faster 
 
Your store has to be able to load fast, even on mobile devices. If it takes more than four seconds to load a page, users will probably abandon your website and check out a competitor’s store. 

Pitch again 
 
Sometimes it’s possible to convert a customer that has “bounced” from your store, especially if they’re planning to buy a product later or are on the fence about it. Don’t write off your bounce list – use remarketing strategies to convert them. 

Reassure your customers 
 
You need to win your customers’ trust if you want them to share their credit card details. You can do that by having great security and an easy returns policy – with “trust marks” prominently displayed everywhere. 

It may also help to move to a different platform – like Magento –if your store is underperforming or you can get an m-commerce app and target mobile users. It pays to consult Openwave experts, and it may be a good idea to have experienced developers Malaysia to optimize your store for you.

Top Benefits of Putting Your Real World Business Online

The eCommerce market is expected to generate revenues of $1.9 trillion globally by the end of this year. By the year 2020, revenues will have doubled to $4 trillion. If you own a real world store and don’t own an eCommerce website, the statistics say you’re losing out on a lot of business. 

Still not convinced? Here are some of the top benefits of putting your real world business online:

You will be able to find customers worldwide
 
 The internet has no boundaries – and your store won’t either. Getting an online store will help you find customers outside of your locality, and you may even be able to sell your products globally. If there isn’t a demand for a certain product in your area, there might be some in another country. 

You save on infrastructure costs
 
You save on paying for storage space, lighting, electricity, and other infrastructure costs for your products. It’s possible to carry a larger inventory at reduced costs.  You also don’t have to pay employee wages (though that money may well be spent on site maintenance and development). 

Your store will stay open 24/7
 
You can keep your store open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will be able to make money even when you’re sleeping. Your real world store, on the other hand, can only stay open at certain hours during the day, typically. 

E-commerce website development

People love discounts 
 
Discounts, promotions, and coupons are very attractive to customers. You can sell your products online at reduced prices and pass that benefit on to your customers. Reduced prices always make customers feel happier about buying from you. 

You can find a lot more customers online 
 
There are over 3.5 billion internet users in the world at the moment. By putting your store online, you boost your business’ visibility, and you can find a lot more customers than ever before. Competition from retail giants like Amazon.com is greater than ever, so make sure you spend a lot of time optimizing your store. 
 
Building an eCommerce store is easy – you can use a popular platform like Magento or WooCommerce to do it in a short span of time. You can also hire a development team to do it for you.

Most Effective Types of Marketing Videos that will Boost Your Conversion Rates

Videos are expected to feature prominently on websites and eCommerce stores in 2017, as more and more designers and marketers wake up to the untapped potential they have to offer. Research tells us that more than 70 percent of all customers that watch a product or service related video are likely to purchase that product or service. 

Here are the most effective types of marketing videos that should help you boost your conversion rates:

Product demos

We’re all familiar with product demonstrations they used to give us at local stores. Product demos haven’t lost their relevance today – they’ve just morphed into the video format. Product demos are an entertaining way to show your audience what your product can do. Well-made product demos have been known to boost conversion rates as much as 10%. 

Product Reviews and Testimonials 

Customers are more likely to trust a product if fellow buyers have reviewed the product and have good things to say about it. Product reviews and testimonial videos should be an integral part of every eCommerce website. 

E-commerce website development

Comparison Videos

Users tend to get overwhelmed by the number of choices web stores give them. Comparison videos are a great way to compare two products in the same category – like the PS4 and the Xbox One – and listing the pros and cons of each, which helps your customers to decide on which to purchase. 

Interactive Videos 
 
Interactive videos help you tell a story and engage your users by enticing them to click on a link to learn more about a product. 

How-To Videos and Tutorials 
 
Customers have short attention spans, and people are unlikely to want to wade through thick product manuals that describe the product they have just purchased. How-to videos and tutorials help you teach customers on how best to utilize your product in an entertaining manner. 

While videos are important, they still need a well-designed web store as their foundation for maximum impact. If you’re still struggling with conversion rates after you’ve been running your web store for a while, it may be worth the investment to hire eCommerce experts from Openwave to tweak it.

Grow your eCommerce Business with the Help of a Blog

As an eCommerce business owner, you have to compete with millions of other eCommerce businesses on the net. You probably spend a large portion of your time building up an email list, advertising and contacting customers in an attempt to get more paying customers. 

Everyone knows blogging, but not many businesses leverage blogging effectively as a potential marketing tool that can help convert customers. Even infrequent blog posts can be very beneficial to eCommerce businesses.

Here are some ways you can expand your eCommerce business with the help of a blog:

Blogs make search engines sit up and take notice

There are several reasons why blogs get you noticed by search engines. First, blogs add more quality pages to your website, which is always a good thing. Second, they signal that your website is getting updated with some regularity, which automatically ranks you over websites that don’t get updated. Blogs written with the right keywords in mind will also attract a lot of traffic back to your website.

And, finally, any of your blogs that get shared by people on their social media feeds or other platforms generate more links back to your website.

E-commerce Web development

Blogs are better than social media when it comes to promoting products

Blogs are much better than social media when it comes to promoting a new product or business. There is more room to talk about your product, for one. You can also use some high-quality images to tell a story.

Blogs help you provide valuable information to your customers

If you tend to get a lot of questions about some aspects of your business or products from customers, you can write blog posts dealing with each question. Your blog thus helps you answer a customer’s questions in more detail. You will also be able to customers who search for answers to their questions online.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply have a blog if you don’t have a website that customers will find attractive. If you’re new at website development, you should consider hiring Openwave professionals to make changes to your website or to help you migrate to a better eCommerce platform like Magento.

These Top eCommerce Platforms Can Build you Stunning Web stores

Are you planning on putting your business online in an attempt to make money from virtual customers? Having a website that doubles as a store isn’t enough these days. Customers tend to be picky online and expect a lot from the virtual stores from which they want to shop. You need to stand out from the crowd and make waves by building a virtual custom store that is attractive as well as easy to use.
 
Here are some of the top eCommerce platforms you can leverage to build stunning web stores:

Magento

Magento happens to be the most popular eCommerce platform in the world at the moment, as well as the most search engine friendly. Magento is suitable for both small and large businesses, but it can be very complex and isn’t recommend if you are a programming newbie.
 
Shopify

Shopify is very popular because it is simple to use and it makes it easy to set up a fully functional web store in quick time. The downside is that Shopify isn’t for you if you want to self-host at a later date. It also doesn’t have too many customization options. 

E-commerce development

 
WooCommerce

WooCommerce is perfect if you already own a WordPress website that you’re planning to turn into a web store. WooCommerce is a word press plug-in with a lot of features, like a shopping cart program and access to secure payment getaways. 
 
BigCommerce

BigCommerce is perfect if you want a platform without an upper limit if you’re planning on launching a big store. BigCommerce has a lot of customization options, and it lets you add as many products as you want to your store.
 
There isn’t much that separates the names on this list, except for minor differences. There will be one that best suits your business, though, so do your research before picking.
 
If you don’t have much technical experience or programming knowledge, you probably won’t have a problem with building web stores with any of the platforms we’ve mentioned on the list. 

However, it takes a great degree of technical skill to build an outstanding web store – it may be worthwhile to hire a professional Openwave developer to do it for you.

Which eCommerce Platform Should You Choose for your eStore?

Are you planning on building an eStore for your business soon? There are a lot of platforms you can choose to help you build your eStore, and choosing the right platform for your business can be a confusing proposition at the best of times.

Here are some tips that should help you choose the right platform for your budding eStore:

Should you go for a Hosted platform or a Self-hosted platform?

A hosted platform is where the company gives you both the software to create your online store as well as hosting space on a server for it. A self-hosted platform, on the other hand, only gives you the software to help you create your online store. There are benefits and drawbacks to both options. A hosted platform is more stable and easier to manage in the long run, but it is usually more expensive too. A self-hosted platform is much cheaper than a hosted platform.
 

Ecommerce website development

Most Popular eCommerce Platform Choices

If you’re planning on choosing a hosted platform, there are three platforms with the market lead at present: Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion. Shopify has a great user interface and add-on apps. It is very easy to customize, and you can get your store up-and-running in no time. The downside is that you can’t customize it beyond a certain extent. Volusion has even fewer customization options than Shopify, though it is very cheap to use and makes putting up your store effortless. Volusion is suited for businesses on a tight budget. BigCommerce is not as customizable as Shopify, though it gives you access to a lot of features.
 

The winner – Magento

If there’s one platform that surpasses the functionality offered by all the three forementioned platforms, it’s Magento. Magento is a very complex self-hosted platform that has a lot of customization options and packs quite a punch. The downside is that it is very hard to handle if you don’t have any programming knowledge – it’s almost a given that you will need expert help at some point.
 

It’s important that you choose the right eCommerce platform to maximize your conversion rates. Still confused on which platform to choose for your eStore? An eCommerce expert will be able to analyze your business requirements and recommend you the right one.

Why your Business needs Mobile Commerce to maximize online sales?

From shopping to business, everything has turned online at the moment. Today, shopkeepers and retailers can quickly check their catalogs online through mobile. Isn’t it interesting?

With the development of the Internet and smartphones, mobiles continue to bring progression in B2B commerce. Over 3 billion users are using the Internet worldwide. The figure clearly indicates that mobiles are turning the face of B2B industry.

Here’s why your business needs a mobile strategy to survive the growing competition:

Keep Mobile-ready to grow your Business:

It is very true that these days most of the B2B happens on the phone, either through online chat or calls.  This process surpasses the PC technology and makes entrepreneurs to switch to smartphones for improving their business.

24 hours Connectivity makes the Difference:

For customers, round the clock connectivity makes all the difference. Seamless transitions from searching for a service/ product to buying it happens at any time. So, B2B commerce should provide 24 hours mobile experience to their customers to enhance their business growth.

Handiness plays a success factor:

It’s no secret that you can’t carry your laptop or desktop everywhere. So, shopkeepers and retailers prefer mobile devices than PCs.

Mobile commerce is on trend right now:

More and more traffic is coming to the website and other online portals via phones. So, there is no surprise that B2B marketers are utilizing the latest trend to increase traffic. Today, 50% of B2B commerce has mobile channels, which register around 40% of their sales through phones.

Planning to enter into B2B industry? Mobile apps are the perfect solution for your business. Get in touch with an expert developer for building your M-commerce app right now.

4 Secrets to developing a profitable E-Commerce Business

With the boom of the Internet and social media, a new category of entrepreneurship has arisen. An E-commerce platform offers retailers an ultimate opportunity to run a business worldwide with just an Internet connection and laptop.
 

Here are four secrets for building a successful business that generates good traffic and sales:
 

Make your Website look more Professional:

Normally, business owners have a tendency to over-design their site to make it look fresh and unique. They may add sound in the background, large graphics and add flash animation. This is a big mistake, particularly for business-oriented sites. Hence, it is essential to design an organized and professional looking website that makes visitors quickly find what they are looking.

E-Commerce Business

 Improve the Customer engagement:

 Turn your customers into active participants on your site to boost sales and loyalty. The simplest way to do this is to create a blog and provide a comment section. Set yourself on social networking platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn. Also, make sure you have a high number of followers and page likes so that Internet users can follow you through their social media platform and stay in tune with your updates.
 

Generate Traffic to your site:

Boosting traffic to your website is the best way for running a successful e-commerce business. Search Engine Optimization is not hard to generate traffic, but is time-consuming. But social network is an incredible way to connect with existing customers and attract newbies. Also, your site can be listed in popular directories as it boosts your web presence.
 

Create a Blog:

In today’s digital era, you need a brand identity to succeed. The simplest way to establish and promote an identity is by setting up a blog. Blogging has become an internal part of the online business, much like a domain name.
 

It’s not easy to build a thriving e-commerce business, but it can be done with a lot of perseverance and hard work. Call a skilled expert to turn your e-commerce store into a highly profitable and fruitful business.

5 Holiday Promotion Ideas for E-Commerce Stores

For an E-commerce retailer, there is no better season than the holidays. So, running promotions during festive time will boost more traffic and sales. But knowing what kind of promotions to choose and how to set it up can be tricky. In this article, we’ll see a few advertising ideas to increase sales and public awareness for your brand.

Email - It truly works:

If you could invest in only one marketing channel, it ought to be email. But to be clear, you should also explore and test every other marketing channel. With that said, email is the best channel at your disposal, since it drives sales and traffic, promotes time sensitive deals, helps to nurture consumer loyalty, features your blog post and outperforms social media.

Provide an enticing Offer:

Free shipping is by far the biggest profit driver when it comes to online shopping. 70% of retailers stated that free shipping is the number one criterion for the customers to make a purchase. So, providing free shipping on all orders for a limited time frame is very crucial. Offering a special gift with every purchase is another great way to add value.

 

 

Market your Special Promotion on Social Media:
Among the social networks, Facebook alone has more than 1.7 billion users, while Twitter and Instagram have around 313 million users. As an e-commerce retailer, you should be aware that social media promotion plays a vital role in improving your brand’s presence.

Partner up with Global Brands:

Developing a partnership with a global organization will boost sales for both brands. When you cross-promote each brand through social networks, emails, and blogs, you can reap the benefits of higher traffic and sales.

Create valuable Content:

One of the best promotion ways to grow your e-commerce business is to post relevant content for the products. Before giving a hard shell to your customers, engage them with your products by providing valuable and understandable content.

With the holiday season just around the corner, you have to incorporate successful marketing campaigns. Just remember to start your promotions early to win a huge number of customers. If you want a million more ideas, you can contact one of the best e-commerce experts in the market.