By understanding the impact of e-commerce on advertising, we can discover new ways to engage customers, increase sales, and stay ahead in this competitive digital marketplace. Let’s dive into the world of e-commerce advertising and uncover strategies to boost your brand’s success. 

Understanding the E-commerce Landscape

The rapid growth of online shopping has reshaped the business landscape, making it crucial for marketers to grasp the dynamics of the e-commerce industry. Today, consumers are increasingly turning to the convenience of online platforms to make their purchases. This shift has created a unique and highly competitive marketplace, where effective advertising plays a pivotal role in capturing customer attention and driving sales.

To navigate this landscape successfully, businesses must recognize the significance of tailored advertising strategies that align with the specific demands and preferences of online shoppers. By understanding the intricacies of the e-commerce landscape, marketers can position their brands strategically and leverage the power of digital advertising to achieve sustainable growth and success.

Key Strategies for Advertising in the E-Commerce Era 

Developing a Comprehensive Marketing Plan

A well-thought-out marketing plan is like the roadmap that guides your journey to success. Begin by identifying your target audience and understanding their demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Set clear objectives and goals that align with your business vision. Next, allocate a suitable budget to ensure your advertising efforts are adequately funded.

Developing a comprehensive marketing plan lays the foundation for effective decision-making and strategic execution. It’s a powerful tool that keeps you focused, organized, and on track as you navigate the dynamic world of e-commerce advertising. 

Creating a Compelling Brand Identity

In the crowded e-commerce landscape, it’s crucial to stand out from the competition and capture the hearts of your target audience. This is where a compelling brand identity comes into play. Craft a unique value proposition that sets you apart from others. For example, if you’re selling handmade jewelry, emphasize its meticulous craftsmanship and your use of ethically sourced materials.

Establish a consistent brand voice and visuals that resonate with your market. Whether it’s a witty and playful tone or a sophisticated and elegant aesthetic, make sure it aligns with your brand values and your customers’ preferences.

Building trust and credibility is also vital, so highlight customer testimonials, awards, or certifications to reinforce your brand’s quality and reliability. By creating a compelling brand identity, you forge a strong connection with your audience, increasing brand loyalty and driving sales. 

Optimizing Website and User Experience

A smooth online journey can make all the difference in converting visitors into loyal customers. Remember, your website is your virtual storefront, and providing a seamless user experience is paramount. It encourages visitors to stay longer, explore products or services, and potentially make a purchase.

Businesses can optimize their websites by making product categories and search functionality more accessible. Implement a user-friendly checkout process that minimizes friction and reduces cart abandonment. Simply put, enhance the website design and navigation to make it intuitive and visually appealing.

With a growing number of users accessing websites from mobile devices, businesses should make it a priority to make their websites mobile-friendly. Ensure that it is responsive and displays properly on smartphones and tablets.

An optimized website also allows for better tracking and analysis of user behavior. By integrating analytics tools, businesses can gather valuable data on visitor demographics, traffic sources, and browsing patterns. This information can inform advertising strategies, allowing businesses to target their audience more effectively and tailor their messaging based on user preferences.

Leveraging Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have become powerful tools for e-commerce advertising, allowing businesses to connect with their market on a personal level. Identify the relevant social media channels where your audience spends most of their time. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, tailor your content to each platform’s unique features and user preferences.

Create engaging and shareable content, such as eye-catching visuals, informative videos, or captivating captions. Consider leveraging influencer marketing and user-generated content to expand your reach and build trust with your audience. By harnessing the potential of social media, you can create a community around your brand, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to your e-commerce store. 

Implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies

Appearing at the top of search engine results is crucial for driving organic traffic to your website. Implementing effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies is key to achieving this. A thorough keyword search is crucial to identify which terms and phrases are regularly used by your potential clients to search for products and services.

You can also optimize your website content, including product descriptions, blog posts, and landing pages, with relevant keywords and meta tags. Creating high-quality and relevant content is essential, as search engines prioritize valuable and informative content for users. Building authoritative backlinks from reputable websites further enhances your website’s visibility and credibility. 

Exploring the Benefits of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

With PPC, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad, making it a cost-effective advertising method. Platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads allow you to display your ads prominently in search results and across various websites.

By strategically selecting keywords and creating compelling ad copy, you can reach potential customers at the right moment when they are actively searching for products or services similar to what you offer. Monitoring and optimizing your PPC campaigns allow you to refine your targeting and maximize your return on investment (ROI). 

To unlock the full potential of PPC advertising, consider collaborating with a Google Ads agency. These agencies specialize in managing and optimizing Google Ads campaigns, leveraging their expertise to maximize your results. They stay up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies, ensuring that your ads are targeting the right audience and appearing in the most effective placements. 

Tracking and Analyzing Campaign Performance

Photo by Our-Team on Freepik

Tracking and analyzing campaign performance is essential to ensure the success of your advertising efforts in the e-commerce era. Implementing robust analytics tools enables you to gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your strategies. Set up tracking mechanisms to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, and customer engagement.

Analyze the data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. For instance, you may discover that certain advertising channels or campaigns are driving higher conversion rates, so adjust your budget accordingly. Make data-driven adjustments to optimize your campaigns and allocate resources where they generate the highest return on investment. 

Takeaway

In every kind of business venture, success lies in the ability to adapt and experiment. As the landscape of e-commerce evolves, it’s crucial for businesses to continuously refine their strategies, embracing new opportunities to connect with their target audience.

The digital realm offers an array of platforms and tools—from social media to SEO and PPC advertising— allowing marketers to explore different avenues and find what works best for their brand. By staying nimble and open to experimentation, businesses can stay ahead and capitalize on the ever-expanding possibilities of e-commerce advertising.

While it’s important to know what data you should be collecting and analyzing, you also need to know what not to get caught up in.

Vanity metrics in eCommerce are things you shouldn’t be wasting your time or resources on.

Vanity metrics might look good to other people or even to you, but they don’t help you understand your customers or your business performance in any way that will inform your future decision-making and strategies. You might get excited about vanity metrics, and they can create the illusion you’re improving in some way. The reality is that, unfortunately, true vanity metrics aren’t actionable. They’re usually related to things that are out of your control or things you can’t meaningfully repeat.

We can compare a vanity metric to an actionable metric. An actionable metric is one that’s going to help you grow in your business and reach goals.

Vanity metrics are hollow, with little substance below the surface. An example of this would be if you have 10,000 people who are registered for an account with your business, but only 100 of them are active.

The following are five vanity metrics to ignore in eCommerce, so you can put your time and attention elsewhere.

1. Social Media Followers

Over the years, we’ve learned more about how irrelevant social media followers can be. This is true not only in eCommerce but across all industries. Social media followers can be great if your message is truly being amplified.

Unfortunately, in marketing, while you might feel pride for your number of followers, if your engagement is lacking, it’s a vanity metric.

This is why niche influencers have become so important to brands in the past few years. Niche or micro-influencers have a smaller audience and number of followers, but the ones they do have tend to be highly engaged, which is much more valuable.

Companies and brands that buy followers are part of the reason that social media followers are a vanity metric.

2. Traffic and Impressions

Traffic and impressions aren’t something you should ignore, but they are still, in many ways, vanity metrics. For example, your pages that get the most traffic might not ever lead to conversions.

It can sound great to say you have a page getting thousands or tens of thousands of views a month, but if it’s not converting, it doesn’t have much relevance. You might also have to question whether or not your content is getting to your target audience if you have pages with high traffic and low conversions.

3. Rate of Email Opens

If you have an email list and send messages, you might religiously check the open rate. Open rate is a vanity metric that has very little to do with the success of a campaign. Your open rate is the number of emails that are opened divided by what you sent, subtracted from the bounce rate.

You can assess open rate if you want to figure out what people thought about your subject line and timing, but that’s about it.

4. Likes

Similar to social media, following likes on your social pages aren’t especially impactful, even though they can feel like they are. Page likes might show you if your brand or products are popular, but is that popularity turning into sales?

Likes are easy for people to give, and they have no effect on conversion rate.

5. Clicks and Conversions

Clicks and conversions aren’t completely irrelevant, but if you’re an eCommerce business, you might be better off if you use revenue and cost per sale as actionable metrics here instead.  People might be clicking on your site, but then they immediately leave, or they could come but then not engage with your content. What is it about your site that isn’t converting?

Other relevant and actionable metrics for eCommerce that you should assess include cost per lead, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.

Vanity metrics are easier to obtain, and they can be more exciting, which is why marketers put more focus on them than they should. While you might take a look at vanity metrics, they aren’t going to help you make decisions or take action, so don’t put too much stock into them and waste time you could be spending elsewhere.

In this article, we’ll cover the most common eCommerce security threats that online businesses face today. Let’s review those threats and how to avoid and get rid of them.

What’s an eCommerce security threat?

When talking about eCommerce security threats, there are loads of them, from phishing attacks to cross-site scripting. Basically, any hazard that could damage an online store’s security can be considered an eCommerce security threat.

Those threats target different parts of eCommerce stores and can result in loss of money, personal data, access to the store, etc. Prevention is always better than cure, so strong security measures are the key to limiting the possibilities of eCommerce threats and ensuring the best possible user experiences for your customers.

What is SQL Injection Attack, and how to solve it?

Let’s start with SQL injection attacks since those are one of the most prevalent security dangers for online stores. It consists of cybercriminals incorporating damaging code into a SQL database. In this way, they can get ahold of confidential information, such as credit card data. Or else delete the crucial information or the entire database.

When working out a solution to such a problem, the most effective methods are input validation and parameterized searches. Also, as a preventive measure, you can disable the function of the display of database issues on the production website. In this way, the hackers won’t be able to use information about database issues to their advantage.

What is a DDoS Attack, and how to solve it?

This attack happens when cybercriminals push loads of traffic to the website in order to damage the server and ensure that it cannot be used. In this way, they hope to gain profit by demanding ransom, otherwise conducting a DDoS attack.

You can’t stop someone from trying to launch a DDoS attack, but you can take preventive measures in order to make sure that they won’t succeed in their attempts. As well, preventive measures will help minimize the results of the attack. Such measures include training your staff to react quickly and efficiently to the attacks as well as installing programs that scan, find, and eliminate viruses and malware.

What is Cross-site scripting (XSS), and how to solve it?

Cross-site scripting means hackers insert damaging code that affects users visiting your website. Once the user accesses the site, the code runs. It is used for different purposes, such as stealing sensitive data if the user fills out some forms or collecting cookies.

The concept of a solution to cross-site scripting is quite simple, but for some websites with complex data management, it may be challenging. You need to apply a web application firewall, which will filter bots and other damaging activities. This way, it’s possible to stop the attack before any code runs on the website.

What is credit card fraud, and how to solve it?

When it comes to credit card fraud, it’s a threat implemented by both regular users and bots. Yet, real card owners have a right to challenge charges coming from unauthorized hackers. While it’s advantageous for real users, the company is at a disadvantage. There is no compensation for the damage. Let’s imagine that a few large purchases were made with a stolen credit card. The company both loses the money and the products that could be sold to users wanting to buy them.

In order to ensure that such things won’t happen to your online store, you need to ensure the strong security of your point-of-sale system. Additionally, you can take precautions to make sure that your products and services are protected and that there is no risk of losing revenue due to fraudulent transactions.

What are malicious scrapers (robotic attacks), and how to solve them?

Malicious scrapers are specific kinds of robots that are created and used to go through websites and gather relevant information. It’s necessary to point out that some of them are actually legal and used for good. Meanwhile, others are specifically designed to carry out various malicious activities.

When it comes to eCommerce, malicious scrapers are usually employed to look for a specific product, price, or other inventory information. In this way, the hackers can not only copy the layout of your product pages but also sell the items on another website at reduced prices.

The harm of malicious scrapers lies in the fact that they not only drive traffic away from the website but also charge users for products they have no intention of sending.

Since those bots don’t navigate the websites like ordinary users, businesses can put restrictions on those users who seem to act suspiciously on the websites.

Sum up

There are lots of different ways how cyber attackers get to eCommerce businesses. It’s not always easy to recognize the threat or take action when it’s already happened. Thus, prevention and strong security are the best strategies to protect your website against dangerous and illegal activities.

A good place to start is to pay attention to the user behavior, implement necessary verification of the customer IDs, screen the website for suspicious activity, etc. The earlier you detect a security flaw, the more likely you’ll be able to get ahead of it.

The mentioned security threats are only a few examples of the dozens of security threats that exist out there. Consider working with trusted eCommerce specialists who can cover every aspect of your digital security to eliminate all the risks. Many eCommerce services companies offer maintenance and support of eCommerce businesses, including scanning for vulnerabilities and strengthening security.

The value of eCommerce in improving the environment

According to some reports, more than 4 billion people worldwide use social networks; more than 2.5 billion people prefer to shop online (and with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, this number began to skyrocket). As a result, they significantly impact large masses of people. So, if all social networks and eCommerce sites use the principles of environmental ethics, the world will become a much better place.

It is worth noting that each direction can have its tools for improving the environment. So, for example, Google Flights, in addition to data on the time and place of departure, also provides information on how much CO2 an aircraft emits. So, if there are several flights at once that depart from the same city, at about the same time, then we can choose a flight that will be more environmentally friendly. Even such a seemingly insignificant choice can make the world a better place.

Tips for creating a quality store

Many companies abdicate their responsibility, saying that nothing depends on the actions of one institution, but this is not the case. Offers several tips to build an online store that will be good for the environment:

• As suppliers, choose companies that use only environmentally friendly technologies and materials in the production of products;
• Give up paper workflow;
• Give preference to eco-friendly packaging;
• Use electric cars;
• Upgrading warehouses give preference to robotic technology.

Today on the market, you can find many suppliers who neglect environmental requirements. The cost of such goods is much lower, but they cause significant harm to the environment. If each online store chooses only suppliers with the appropriate quality certificates, there will be no problems with waste recycling in the world. For example, SAP Ariba, the largest service in the B2B system, offers a detailed overview of corporate supply chains, which enables partners to assess the social, economic, and environmental impact of transactions.

Today, most large companies have gone paperless to reduce deforestation. All waybills and invoices can be received and signed electronically. This practice is widespread in all large companies.

When packaging goods, it is worth choosing materials that can be further recycled. For example, polyethylene can be replaced with paper or cardboard, or recyclable bags can be chosen – no more plastic floating in the ocean and orbiting the planet.

To transport your products between warehouses, it is worth using electric cars. It allows you to minimize the level of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Robotic technology and artificial intelligence allow you to optimize work in the warehouse and reduce errors due to the human factor. You can connect them with artificial intelligence by creating mobile applications, which automatically processes orders and generates parcels. When choosing equipment, you need to pay attention to how much electricity it consumes.

These are the actions used by giants such as Amazon and Ant Financial. Together with Google, they promote informed choices in favor of environmentally friendly solutions.

If we talk about web development, it is worth indicating that you care about the environment. So, for example, you can put certain content on the site or post your certificates, if any exist. If you sell various products, organic products can be separated into a specific category or put a unique mark on them. In some cases, it makes sense to make small discounts on such categories of goods. In the UK, for example, Mastercard has partnered with HELPFUL to offer discounts on over 150 green-labeled products.

Also, when developing software, make sure that your site is connected to a server that consumes as little power as possible.

At the moment, new business models are being actively developed and tested to improve the environment. One of the most important areas is creating access to an individual “environmental panel” to truly understand their impact and options for a more sustainable lifestyle.

To determine web development costs, it is necessary to consider what tools and technologies were used in the process of work.

Conclusion

Every entrepreneur who cares about the environment can make a significant contribution to the preservation of our planet. Typically, these eCommerce platforms cost more to develop, but they will allow people to make more informed product choices. They may even encourage them to become more environmentally friendly principles in other aspects of life.

So, just how do you start it? Well, we took a look at some of the key considerations for you to get your business off the ground. We observed what other brands are doing and what they integrated into their operations to ensure their business grows.

And, with so much advancement and evolution in the industry, scaling your business in 2022 is not too difficult. Let’s have a look at what you can do to grow your new online business this year.

Get the Right Staff In

We know, budgets are tight and resources are limited, but the fact is that in order to kick off a successful business from the start, you need to get the right people in. You, as a business owner simply cannot do it all by yourself. From web design to procurement, supply chain, customer management, and digital marketing, running an eCommerce business takes various skills.

Luckily, there are tons of options for you. Freelance and remote workers are incredibly accessible nowadays, and it is actually really simple to find the right help you need at the budget you have.

The next step is to actually look after those staff members and ensure that they help grow the company. This means that you, as the business owner, need to handle HR matters. Aside from employee engagement and fair compensation, make sure you also focus on employee appreciation if you want to attract and retain top talent.

It is important to keep in mind that employee satisfaction is one of the top elements to retaining your staff. Especially remote staff. So, make them feel like they are part of the company and engage with them regularly while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.

Create a Functional and User-Friendly Website

Your website is one of the most important elements of your online business. It is the face of your brand, your sales platform, and your calling card all in one. So, you need to make sure that your site is optimized for the customer journey.

If you are working with a tight budget, building your website on WordPress is your best option. It is easy to use, gives you tons of functionalities, and is affordable. Additionally, there are hundreds of useful WordPress tools for you to choose from and integrate into your site.

You are able to add forms, pop-ups, work on your SEO, integrate chatbots and so much more. So, if you can’t afford a web developer, this is a great option for you to get a great, functional site up and running somewhat quickly. What we love about WordPress is that it is incredibly user-friendly, and the more you play around and work on it, the more you can add to your site.

When you are creating your site, consider the customer journey. So, what do your landing pages look like? How much content does each page contain? Is your content simple yet informative? Do you provide your customers with enough information and is it SEO-optimized? It is also important to focus on elements like your images and CTAs, as well as your sales, funnel to ensure that your visitors convert.

Source

Focus on Your Digital Marketing

Now you need to figure out how to get your name out there. Digital marketing is quite a broad concept and has tons of small elements to it that make up the full marketing sphere. So, you will need the following:

• Social media platforms, like Facebook or Instagram. Depending on your business, you can add LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter.
• A blog on your website.
• An email platform.
• Google ads account.
• A marketing and content calendar.

All of these channels will work together. So, work out what content you want going out throughout the month. Create themes for each week, and then create campaigns that will be uniformly sent out across all of the channels over that week.

So, say you are launching your new product. Write an educational and informative blog about the product. A helpful how-to, or guidelines on the products. Take some useful content out of those, create the emails, as well as the social posts, add some CTAs and launch the campaigns across all of the channels.

Conclusion

One of the biggest pieces of advice we give to new businesses is to keep an eye on what is happening at all times. What are your competitors doing? What is trending in your particular industry? Are there new products or services? What do your customers want? Also, pay attention to digital marketing trends as well as eCommerce news. Things are constantly changing and evolving. There is always something new and useful for you to try, so keep your eyes open.

Remember, your website is the place where you convert your bottom-of-the-funnel leads into sales. So, you can’t risk having a poorly designed website, as it will only increase the bounce rate. When designing a website for your small business, consider your target customer to ensure your site provides an excellent user experience. Below are a few reasons why effective website design is essential for e-commerce.

Serves As Your Company’s First Impression

Your website reflects everything your brand stands for and helps consumers form a first impression of your online business. As a business owner, you should focus on leaving a lasting positive effect whenever customers visit your site. The last thing you want is customers spending a few seconds on your site and moving to your competitor’s page because your website appears old-fashioned and unattractive.

Therefore, invest time and money in creating an attractive website that reflects your brand. This means choosing appropriate colors that match your company’s logo, an easy-to-navigate layout, and readable fonts. Also, use images wisely and ensure your site is accessible to all, including individuals with disabilities.

Improves Usability

An effective website design allows visitors to access what they are searching for without much hassle. Typically, most online users will visit your site searching for detailed information about services and products, contact details, and the about page. With this in mind, create a website that allows easy navigation from one page to another to ensure visitors have a memorable user experience.

To achieve the best outcomes, make an effort to design a fast-loading and responsive website. According to an Austin web design team, an attractive design alone doesn’t make a great website. Today’s websites receive a lot more mobile traffic than desktop. So, it’s crucial to make your website accessible on smartphones and tablets. Doing so is key to keeping visitors engaged on your website, which boosts your lead conversions.

Fosters Your SEO Marketing Plan

Your business website has a significant impact on the outcome of your SEO marketing strategy. Ideally, a good web design will boost your SEO rankings, while bad web designs hurt your search engine optimization efforts. Note that when visitors leave your site after a few seconds of navigating your homepage, it means they aren’t satisfied with the result.

In turn, search engines drop your rankings on their results page. To improve your rankings on search engines, consider incorporating several web design elements that foster SEO. These include improved site speed, easy-to-read design, sitemaps, and mobile-friendliness.

The success of your e-commerce business depends a lot on your website. That’s because it’s the first element of your online presence that target customers connect with when searching for products and services relevant to your business. Therefore, commit to designing a website that leaves a great first impression on your visitors, enhances usability, and fosters your SEO strategy. To achieve the best results, make sure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and attractive.

But if you want to grow your store, you need to use technology. There are many useful tools that can help you with that. And if you wind up in a situation where you’re wondering how to sell Amazon business assets, the process will be much easier after you grow it with the help of technology. Let’s take a look at how technology can help you grow your FBA business.

Track IP addresses

IP address tracking provides online merchants with many benefits. If you know someone’s IP address, you can present them with a highly personalized experience.

Also, you know their location through IP API, which provides you with the following benefits:

• Content localization. You can localize your store’s content to present the right items to customers based on their location, but also the correct currency, and regional pricing. You can also deliver the content in the native language of the person who’s visiting your store.
• Understanding taxes and tariffs. The taxes and tariffs you need to pay vary from country to country, and if you’re selling your products globally, you can set up the right price for each location based on those countries’ tax laws.
• Preventing fraud. IP intelligence allows you to identify suspicious behavior like if your store is being accessed by someone who is from a country with a high rate of fraud. You can set up a list of banned countries and then orders coming from those places will be automatically rejected.
• Managing digital rights. There are many laws relating to internet distribution rights, especially for digital media assets. IP geolocation allows you to establish territorial rights and address content issues for every country in the world and restrict access to certain countries so you don’t break the law.

Provide amazing customer service

Without loyal and repeat customers, you would never be able to grow a business. That’s why it’s important to provide your customers with the best possible experience through customer service.

As much as 93% of customers are more inclined to make repeat purchases from companies that provide exceptional customer service, so it’s a good thing that you can use technology to improve your customer service.

One of the most common technologies used in customer service is chatbots. This is mostly because they help you provide your customers with 24/7 support and respond to their queries and concerns quickly and accurately every time.

Personalize customer experience

Nowadays, personalization is the key to success and something customers simply expect. It provides a great user experience and most customers will even make shopping decisions based on how personalized their experience was.

Personalization has existed for a long time in marketing in one way or another, but it has never been easier and more accurate than now thanks to technology. If you want to create a shopping experience based on personal preferences for each customer, you need to use AI.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data are a great combination for personalization because they can provide you with analytics and foresight into your customers’ behavior patterns.

All of this allows you to:

• Give product recommendations. AI is able to predict behavior patterns, so it can recommend useful and relevant product information. With its machine learning algorithms, AI can predict what content to present based on the customer’s search history and other data.
• Create better advertising campaigns. When you look at data such as purchasing history and patterns, AI can create content marketing strategies aimed at certain customers. And with AI marketing automation, you will have all the necessary data for a strategic marketing campaign.

Take advantage of voice search

The days of people using just a mouse and keyboard to search for products online are long gone. The rise of voice search and voice assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home has made it possible for people to purchase products online by voice command.

For an eCommerce business to stay successful, they need to adapt to this new way of shopping, and you can do that with the help of technology.

Here is just some of the technology related to voice search:

• Shopping lists. Voice assistants allow their users to create shopping lists and order the products from eCommerce stores they choose. If one of your customer’s voice assistants learns that they order from your store regularly, it will start adding products from your store to their shopping list.
• Audio band signatures. Any audio tone related to your company such as music composition or jingle is called an audio brand signature. You can set up this signature to play over a voice assistant every time someone purchases something from you, which will help build brand identity and recognition.
• Assistive technology. Voice search isn’t just for the younger generation, it can also be very beneficial for the visually impaired. If you enable voice search, you’ll be able to reach a whole demographic that can’t shop online in a traditional way.

Final thoughts

We are living in a digital age and technology is all around us. If you use technology and know all the ways to get more customers to your online business, not only will you succeed, but you will also grow your business more than you thought was possible.

The most popular eCommerce platforms in 2020

Today, there are several eCommerce platforms to shop from, so if you’re looking to build a custom eCommerce website, survey your competition and use developing tools to create the most attractive website for yourself.

• Shopify: Used in more than 175 countries, Shopify has an easy-to-use interface, custom domains to pick from, and is ideal for small and medium businesses.
• WooCommerce: WooCommerce, a completely free shopping cart plugin, is perfect for small businesses looking to save money on creating a platform that already has a WordPress presence.
• BigCommerce: While BigCommerce is definitely pricier than other eCommerce platforms, it comes with many features such as bandwidth without limit, a large number of themes, etc.
• Magento: Magento has been a great fit for small as well as medium businesses that have the required number of people and time to create a website, with benefits like instant purchase and global sales.
• OpenCart: OpenCart is open-source software that you can easily integrate with your website, and lots of extensions and themes you can use, to have the best experience.
• 3dcart: An extremely easy to use interface and platform, 3dcart comes with advantages like two-factor authentication for extra safety, and is a scalable platform.
• Drupal: A free eCommerce platform, Drupal is great for smaller businesses with a smaller budget, and is very helpful in aiding customers to customize the website as per their needs.

Things to consider before developing an e-commerce platform

• Focus on the target audience:First, you must understand the product that you’re selling, and then understand your customers even better. A good practice is to make a list of questions and assign suitable choices as responses, so your customers can answer them to the best of their abilities.
• Conduct thorough research on the industry:It is important to understand your industry, and who your target customers are before starting web development. Consider all factors such as the age demographic, consumer tastes and preferences, etc so you can develop the eCommerce platform and its components like product categories, filters properly.
• Focus on branding:Perhaps the most crucial thing here is to decide how you want your brand to be known. Take a look at the most popular eCommerce businesses, their logos, catchphrases, multiple features such as clear product images, genuine reviews, and what they stand for as a brand. Consider those and design a unique logo, something that sets your brand apart, and strategize accordingly.
• Keep an eye on the budget:You should exercise caution when it comes to managing your development budget. Understandably you could get excited and end up spending too much, but it is a good practice to make financial decisions carefully and revise the budget each time so you don’t exceed it.
• Observe your competitors:It’s always good to observe how your competitors are managing their websites – what are the tools they are using for promotion, are they using social media, what’s their page design like? Give equal importance to the technical tools they are using as well, such as their domain name, content management system, etc.
• Create an MVP (Minimum viable product):Naturally, selling products is the first task of an eCommerce platform. Meanwhile, the ultimate aim of an eCommerce MVP is to evaluate the capabilities of a certain business and hence drive customers to purchase things from that business. Seek help from an MVP if your aim is to run a unique, innovation-led eCommerce platform with a great algorithm and superb product selection.

The benefits of custom eCommerce development services

While an off-the-shelf eCommerce software might seem more viable to companies because it is cheaper than custom development, a business may suffer heavily in the long term if it goes for off-the-shelf software rather than a custom one, as it may fail to cater to specific needs. Here are some of the benefits of custom eCommerce development:

• Unique processes and requirements. You get to help your customers through different processes of billing, choosing items, checkout, etc. which is only possible with a customized platform.
• Custom SEO. A custom eCommerce platform will come with the search engine optimization you specifically need, unlike the generic one provided by off-the-shelf software.
• Improved conversions. Higher levels of customer satisfaction will lead to increased conversion rates.
• New tech and more updates. Using a customized eCommerce platform will ensure you have new technology integrated, and hence better performance.
• Business integration. If you want your eCommerce platform to be integrated directly and efficiently into your business, it can be done only through customized eCommerce web development.
• High quality, aesthetic appearance. Your platform needs to look good and reflect your brand, only possible through customization.

Whatever decision you make, you need to choose between hiring in-house developers or outsourcing your development process to software contractors. We believe that hiring and an in-house dev team is not economically reasonable for most eCommerce businesses. In the next section, we explain why outsourcing can be more beneficial.

Why should you outsource custom eCommerce website development?

• Cost-saving.If you choose to outsource to a development company, you can save on costs like payroll, rent for the office, etc, as you are hiring offshore developers.
• Access to high tech.Should you outsource eCommerce website development; you will have access to top technology via the skilled developers who work for you.
• Focus on core business.Not only will you have to pay offshore developers much less, but you don’t need to spend your management resources on working with a tech team, because it will be under the control of the outsourcing company. This you can invest in your core business.
• Save time.You save a lot of money when you hire outsourced developers, but you also save a lot of time because you don’t have to train these developers, thus increasing productivity.
• Higher flexibility is possible with these outsourced developers in a short period of time, which would otherwise not be possible with an in-house team.

How much does it cost to hire an eCommerce programmer in different countries?

It is fairly expensive to hire eCommerce programmers, especially in-house, for your company. However, if you want to hire programmers at affordable rates, the easiest way is through outsourcing. If you seek outsourced programmers, you can save a lot of money and yet rest assured of the quality, as these programmers are very skilled. The rates to hire eCommerce programmers in different countries vary, such as in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, it is $37 an hour, $55 in Mexico, Latin America, $25 in the Philippines, Asia, and $20 in Egypt, Africa.

Tips for sourcing and hiring offshore eCommerce developers

• Check their profiles. Before hiring the offshore developers, conduct a thorough check of their profiles, take a look at their previous work, seek reviews, and so on, to determine their reliability and skills.
• Make code review. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you can hire a freelance contractor for a couple of hours who will evaluate your future contractors. There are plenty of platforms like Upwork where you can hire a developer online for a short-term project.
• Ask for references. A good portfolio of your potential outsourcing is important, but real feedback from their former customers will give you most of the answers on your decision stage of hiring.
• Discuss everything related to the workflow. Your working hours, communication style, reporting, etc. should be discussed in advance so that both sides are comfortable during their work on the project.
• Don’t choose the cheapest option. Good developers are never cheap. In offshore countries, development rates might be lower than in North America, Western Europe, or Australia because of the lower price of living there. But still, you should be ready to pay if you want to have the job done on a high level.

Bottom line

In this article, we touched on the main aspects that businesses should consider building their eCommerce websites. Each platform, development model, and hiring style can be the best decision in different circumstances. We hope that this article raised the questions that will help business owners to understand what’s best in their case.

During the first wave of COVID-19, when the lockdown was imposed and the government introduced new health regulations and put social distancing rules in place, the demand side of the economy uplifted in contrast to the supply side. Seeking a whole new solution and maintaining the equilibrium between demand and supply amidst the pandemic, the logistics ecosystem resorted to contactless delivery.

What is contactless delivery?

As it can be understood by the term itself, contactless delivery requires no contact between the sender and receiver. Contactless deliveries are entirely inverse of the conventional approach of delivery methods. Since the old approach of delivery focused on picking up the product from the dispatcher and delivering the product in hands of the customer, the new approach is quite different. In this approach, the delivery executive does not physically handle the product at the end-stage. And, the payment and proof of the item being delivered are also done through digital means.

But what do the consumers prefer- is it the old approach or the new approach? Since the coronavirus pandemic poses a threat to everybody, consumers across the world sought a solution to receive their orders without compromising their health. Seeking safety first, consumers have started to prefer contactless delivery as there is a lesser risk of being infected by the virus. Also, tracking the final mile deliveries gains immense significance with the growing popularity of contactless delivery.

How are businesses catering to the growing demand?

Contactless deliveries are one of the major reasons which has boosted up the demand for a plethora of items in the covid era as it offers customers and delivery executives transparency, hygiene, and safety. This consequently resulted in creating trust and allowed the customers to rely on the sellers they buy from. The pandemic has also allowed businesses to relook and restrategize their policies. To cater to the growing demand amidst the pandemic, e-commerce platforms are introducing chatbots to help the customers in case of any query. In addition, the sellers have also started providing their customers, touchless store experience to enhance their overall buying experience.

Risks associated with contactless deliveries

There might be a bunch of benefits of contactless deliveries but there is a greater risk associated with it. Sometimes the delivery person might be a fraud, dealing in wrongful activities. This can be dangerous for customers as in some cases they do not know who is going to deliver the product and can also lead to loss of money and resources. On part of sellers, there is a high risk of their image being tarnished, forcing customers to pivot to other sellers. So the sellers must always provide all the necessary information about their delivery personnel to the customers.

Benefits of contactless deliveries

• Trust and emotional connect

Since the vaccine was recently launched in the market, it will take a long time to vaccinate the global community. So till then, the customers will prefer only contactless delivery service. Hence, the businesses which provide contactless delivery service have chances to get huge sales benefits because it creates trust and an emotional connection in the mind of consumers.

• Health and hygiene

Since during the pandemic, the foremost preference of the consumers is contactless deliveries, this can help in controlling the virus from spreading by following the strict guidelines and social distancing.

• Digital growth

The coronavirus pandemic has played a major role in shifting consumers to online modes of shopping. This can help rural buyers to acquire more and more knowledge of digital mediums and also has enabled online sales to grow further.

• Proof of delivery

In the old approach which was majorly followed before the pandemic, the customers had to sign the documents physically as proof they had received their order. But in contactless delivery, since there is no contact between the delivery personnel and the customer, how do businesses get proof that the item is delivered?

• In contactless deliveries, the delivery personnel places the item on any flat surface while maintaining social distance by standing six feet apart.
• Then he/ she notifies the customer through the mobile app that they have reached the location.
• The customer then picks up the product allowing the delivery personnel to take a picture of him/her with the item.
• The delivery personnel then sends it for verification that the product is delivered to the right place.
• If in case the customer is not available at the locations, then the delivery personnel looks for an alternative receiver.

Are contactless deliveries here to stay?

In just a year, contactless delivery service has become the norm. Consumers prefer their issues to be resolved and receive their orders and services in a fast yet efficient and contactless manner.

Covid-19 has put everybody at the risk of being infected, which is why consumers are not ready to step out like before. The behavior change is going to stay so it is safe to say that even contactless delivery service will continue to stay, at least until after the pandemic is over. Contactless delivery has given the rise to in-home consumption and a rise to contactless outside-home consumption.

As we navigate through the pandemic, the benefits of contactless delivery are also expected to grow as the technology available would evolve further.

Businesses will continue to see the advantages that it offers especially in regards to enhancing efficiency and productivity. The benefits that contactless delivery offers to organizations, workers, and customers will continue to serve all stakeholders in the future.

As the digital boom has seen consistent growth in eCommerce throughout the years, forecasts anticipate that worldwide online sales will reach $6.5 trillion by 2022. That’s why retail shops and individual entrepreneurs are rapidly following the established eCommerce sellers by setting up their own online stores.

Nowadays, doing so has become simpler than at any other point in history, thanks to online shopping platforms like Shopify. One of the best things about Shopify is that the platform permits physical retail stores to make the transition to digital easily. That’s primarily due to Shopify’s POS system that allows them to tie the Shopify backend into the existing retail business and enjoy a smooth integration of inventory and accurate reporting.

The necessary steps you need to take in order to set up your eCommerce store with Shopify are, in fact, very straightforward. In their essence, eCommerce stores are very similar to regular websites, except that they permit users to make direct purchases.

However, not all Shopify stores are created equal, and not all of them generate huge revenues. Read through our step-by-step guide and learn how to create a Shopify store that actually sells.

Register For A Shopify Account And Set Up Your Shopify Store

Shopify offers a 14 day free trial time to all newly registered users. Register your Shopify account and tick on the “start free trial” button to access the Shopify site builder, which will help you create your brand new online store.

The Shopify site builder is pretty straightforward and mirrors the Lego conception. The site builder empowers you to put different site pieces together to work the way you want. There are a couple of methods to establish a Shopify store, either with their pre-built Shopify templates or to create your Shopify store from scratch using Liquid.

The first method uses the pre-existing templates on the platform and offers the ability to modify them to create your unique store. These templates are easily accessible on the Shopify theme store, where you will find 100+ pre-built free and paid templates to select from.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for something more individual and unique, Shopify also offers you the option to design your site from “point zero.” You can do so by using their self-developed PHP language named Liquid, an easy-to-master language that allows you to develop your Shopify store from the ground up.

Photo from Elegant Themes

Attach Products To Your Inventory And Display Them On Your eCommerce Store

Once you register for an account and set your Shopify store up, it’s time to add the products you plan on selling and create an inventory. Like making your Shopify store, there are two modes of adding goods you desire to sell on the platform.

The first way is to add products that you have an inventory of manually. As we mentioned in this article’s introduction, thanks to Shopify’s brilliant POS tools, physical stores can easily integrate their existing ERP software to the platform and enjoy a seamless transition to digital.

Photo from Apparel Magic

To start adding products manually, click on “products” and choose to proceed with the “add product” option. This product section of the platform is an important utility for your eCommerce store because it lets you set collections, vendors, and tags aside from basics like product names and specifications.

The second way of attaching items to your Shopify store would be the dropshipping method. Open the Shopify market and select a dropshipping app such as Spocker, AliExpress Dropshipping, or others. This way, you can search for and add new products to your store directly from the app’s interface.

Once you add your goods to your inventory, it means that they’re effectively saved in the system. However, these products will not be automatically put on your Shopify shop, so you’ll need to go through one more step. Launch your store editor and determine where to add individual products or collections. Whether you’ll display varying collections of products in different sections of the store or you’ll go with an all-in-one catalog – the decision is all yours.

Configure The Payment Methods

Upon adding and displaying the products on your Shopify store, it’s time to reflect on all important eCommerce features. And one of the most important eCommerce features every online store owner needs to think about is determining how you want your buyers to pay for acquisitions made on your website.

Standardly, PayPal is one option for your store, but first, you’ll have to set up a PayPal merchant account if you want to use this paying method. Other than PayPal, you have two additional payment processors you can make use of.

The first one is Shopify payments, which is directly provided by the platform. If you elect to go with this one, Shopify payments allow you to process virtually all payments through your account. Nonetheless, this payment processor can be a bit limited since not all prospective buyers can use it. It’s convenient only to a handful of countries, and there are further constraints on what businesses in which countries can utilize Shopify payments.

You can also do this by utilizing third-party payment processors, but before you do so, make sure that’s available for your area.

Photo by Roberto Cortese from Unsplash

Set Up Your Shipping Parametres And Manage The Shopping Carts

To set up your shipping parameters and patterns, enter “settings” and then select “shipping.” In this window, you can arrange all details regarding shipping from carriers to displaying lists and prices.

You can also create different shipping arrangements to cater to your varying orders regardless of whether they’re domestic or out of your country. Moreover, shipping qualifications can also be set; for instance, what weight of orders obliges what sort of packaging.

To efficiently manage your customers’ shopping carts, from the “settings” menu, select “checkout,” where you can arrange the method through which your clients make their purchase.

For instance, do you want anyone to be able to purchase without an account in your store or not? The checkout section is an essential area of your site that you can utilize not just for revenue generation but also for data capture reasons and other marketing purposes.

Launching Your Shopify Store

Finally, to start your Shopify store, you’ll need to sign up for one of their plans. Naturally, different plans come with different features, so ensure that you thoroughly cover everything and select a plan that will best suit your needs.

Before you go live with your store, add your domain name to Shopify. Just as with any site, you’ll need a domain name by which customers and search engines will find you. To assist you in setting up your store, Shopify will assign you a default domain: www.your-store-name.myshopify.com. However, if you want a more customized URL for better brand recall or better search rankings, you can either buy a domain from Shopify or use a custom domain name that you’ll purchase elsewhere.

Photo by Jacky Chiu from Unsplash

Final Thoughts

In case you’re planning to make any online sales, Shopify is probably the best solution for you. It doesn’t matter if you plan on selling digital goods or physical products; Shopify has you covered. The best part of this eCommerce platform is that you can create and run a professional-looking online store without having to learn a single line of code. Besides, because of its popularity, Shopify has a vibrant online community. If there’s something you want to know or you need truthful answers to Shopify-related topics, ask, and you’ll be very likely to find someone who knows the answer and is willing to share.