Friday, November 19, 2021

What is Headless Commerce: A Complete Guide

The world of eCommerce evolves way faster than you can imagine. So what’s new in eCommerce? Headless commerce! 

Though it has been introduced quite some time back, its potential is being explored these days and the developers are getting seasoned with it and businesses are leaning more towards it. 

We thought of analyzing the ins and outs of headless commerce today. This blog will outline everything you need to know about it. Let’s get started. 

  • What is Headless Commerce? 

Headless commerce is the practice of decoupling the frontend (also known as the presentation layer) from the product & order management system and shopping cart functionality on the backend (also referred to as the application layer). 

The traditional eCommerce model closely tied these two systems in a monolithic architecture. Therefore, any changes in the front end required updating the backend. Naturally, the updates were slower. 

Headless commerce architecture brings a revolution in eCommerce website development as it offers a platform via RESTful API that comprises a cloud-based infrastructure and a backend data model. As the platform is not knitted with the backend, content, products, payment gateways, and all other frontend features can be easily delivered on kiosk screens, smartwatches, and other IoT devices. 

  • Difference between Traditional Commerce and Headless Commerce 

If you are still confused about the difference between traditional and headless eCommerce, this section will clear your doubts. 

1. Frontend Development 

In traditional eCommerce website design, frontend developers may face several constraints while designing the user interface. In order to make changes, they may need to spend a long time editing the code, database, and the front-end features. Developers can also be apprehensive of mistakenly preventing any future upgrade or voiding a warranty. 

Headless commerce gives a break from all that. The developers can create an engaging user experience from scratch that suits the business needs. They need not worry about modifying databases in the backend. All they need is to make an API call. This offers greater flexibility. 

2. Personalization 

Traditional platforms deliver a predefined experience to the customers and the administrators. Of course, there are several themes and plugins to customize the e-store, but that is limited in comparison to headless commerce. 

With headless commerce, the developers create user experience from scratch. Naturally, it renders greater control over the appearance and feel of the website. All you need is to engage an experienced and reliable website design company. The learned experts can take care of the rest. 

3. Hassle-Free Customization 

This is an extension of the earlier point. In traditional eCommerce, the developers often had to edit several layers of coding to make a customization. 

However, as the front and backends are decoupled in headless commerce, it opens a horizon of customization and the developers can make any change - from adding a new field to the customer account to implementing a custom checkout flow without any hassle. 

4. How Headless Commerce Works

Without getting into the technical nitty-gritty, here is a quick overview of how headless commerce works. A headless commerce system passes requests between the presentation (frontend) and application (backend) layers through API calls.  

For instance, once the users click the “shop now” button, the presentation layer or the frontend sends an API call to the backend or the application layer in order to complete the order. Consequently, the backend sends another API call to the frontend to display the confirmation of their order.

  • Benefits of Headless Commerce

Ecommerce giants like Amazon leverage the power of headless commerce. As you can imagine, it has some advantages that you cannot overlook. Let’s reveal these ones by one: 

1. Omnichannel Shopping Experience 

Headless commerce enables you to deliver your product videos and other content to any channel available in the market. From Alex skills to refrigerators with screens - people can purchase anywhere and everywhere. Considering the rapid evolution of interactive digital signage, smart kiosks and other commerce-centric IoT devices, the omnichannel shopping experience is a matter that business owners cannot afford to overlook.

Also, you need not rearchitect the entire platform to publish across channels. Imagine the amount of time and money you are going to save! 

2. Seamless Integration 

Headless commerce solution operates with an API that paves the way for easier integration and communication. You can add your e-store to any new device and outreach to more customers in an effective way. And it takes only a few hours to integrate the eCommerce platform into a new device. 

You can also integrate IoT enabled elements into the headless commerce platform. Some of the examples may include smart cross-selling, proximity marketing, IoT based loyalty programmes, etc.

3. Long-Term Cost Savings

Initially, headless commerce may seem to be more expensive, but you need to look at the long run. You can add any and every frontend feature without impacting the backend. Also, you can offer a personalized user experience on multiple channels. It leads to greater chances of conversions. 

4. Remain Competitive 

Ecommerce trends are gradually changing and it’s time to leverage the trends to remain competitive. A stunning frontend with new-age features is a significant aspect of an e-store. 

Thanks to headless commerce platforms, you can easily deploy various rapid updates and innovative elements on your e-store without impacting the backend system. This speeds up the process. Naturally, it offers a competitive advantage. 

  • Drawback of Headless Commerce 

The only drawback we can think of is that it has no frontend presentation layer at all. Therefore, the developers need to build everything from scratch - from the landing page to the product pages. 

However, this is not a drawback if you deeply consider it. It offers greater personalization and flexibility to the developers and enables them to create unique e-stores that resonate with the business niches.   

Headless Commerce Platforms 

  • Magento 2
  • BigCommerce 
  • Shopify Plus 

Headless commerce allows you complete control across all the touchpoints to offer a cohesive customer experience. We hope our blog helped you to understand why headless commerce is the future of eCommerce. We would like to know your thoughts on it.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

How to Build an App that Goes Viral


Building an app is easy, but how about ensuring that the app goes viral and drives thousands of downloads?

Overwhelming!

There are an estimated 2.2 million apps available in Apple App Store and 2.9 million apps in Google Play Store (source: Statista). With so many apps available, it’s difficult to drive downloads and keep people engaged. However, it is not impossible. With the right strategy in place, you can make your app go viral! Today, we will talk about just that.



How to Make Your App Go Viral:


A Guide Many often the concept of virality is associated only with marketing. We admit that marketing plays a key role in helping an app go viral but this is not the only component. The objective of virality should also power the app development process.

Build a Unique App


No matter how much you spend in marketing, it’s not possible to gain and retain your users if you are not offering something unique. For that a competitor analysis is crucial. Install your competitors’ apps and minutely note what they are offering.

Now, try to exceed those by offering something innovative. This will ensure that your users are getting something new from your app and thus the app is enhancing their convenience.

Not sure how to beat your competitors in the game? Engage professional mobile app development services and let the experts brainstorm innovative ideas.

Keep Your App Simple and Innovative


One of the major mistakes you can make while making your app unique is going overboard. Simplicity is the key to virality. If the users fail to understand how to use the app, they will uninstall it and opt for a simpler one.

Remember, the users are not here to appreciate hundreds of features that your app offers. They are here to execute their work. Let your app help them do it without any hassle.

No matter how much unique your app is, it should always be intuitive and simple to operate. Complex navigation is a big no. If you think some elements need a little elaboration, include them in the app onboarding process. Let the users try it hands-on so as to get a hang of it.

Let Your Users Spend Longer Time on Your App

The more a user spends time on your app, the more attached they become to the app. It will enable them to check various features the app is offering, browse the products/services, and these will be retained in their memory.

And as you can understand, the more attached they are with the app, the reliability of the app increases. Naturally, they will feel confident using the app and recommend the app to their acquaintances.

Here is an example of how popular apps increase the users’ time on the app. Say, Uber or Zomato - a cab booking and a food ordering app. They show the driver’s/delivery person’s journey to the destination on the inbuilt map in real-time. It would be enough for the users to know that the driver or the delivery person is on his way. However, monitoring the car movement on the app keeps them hooked to the app and they keep tracking “where and why did he stop? Which street he is taking?” and so on.

Push notification is yet another weapon to encourage people to interact with the app. Here is a study by Invesp. Sending mobile app push notifications can increase app engagement up to 88%. Further these can boost app retention rate by 3-10x. Leverage the power of push notification and boost your app engagement rate.

Rewards & Incentives


As you can see, we are gradually entering into the arena of digital marketing right with push notifications in the previous pointer. And by now, you must have understood that the distinction between app development and marketing is fading to the extent of being invisible.

Coming to the aspect of rewards and incentives, it’s common human psychology that users prefer to perform an action when they have a certain motivation.

Rewards can be given in different forms. It may include unlocking new features, winning badges for certain actions, temporary access to the premium version, and so on.

You can also reward people for inviting their acquaintances or converting for the first time. Rewards greatly stimulate necessary action.

Marketing Campaign


Create a buzz in the market before and after the app is released. The pre-release campaigns should include your app’s usability, benefits, and so on. You can use your social media platforms and your website for marketing pre-release campaigns.

Post-release campaigns may include user-generated content, rewards, and so on. All these will encourage more people to join the community and use your app.

You can engage professional digital marketing services to create innovative and creative campaigns for the app. Go beyond static images in favour of videos and animations. These will help the app go viral.

Way Forward


As you can see, you need to put some extra effort to make your app go viral. Implement these strategies and keep implementing these to get your desired results. Found the blog useful? Share your thoughts with us.

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Google’s New Guidelines on Phrase and Broad Match Keywords

Keyword matching is an important aspect of search engine optimization. From exact match to phrase match - different types of keyword matching techniques are employed by the marketing experts. Recently, Google Ads has announced updates regarding the ways a query is matched to keywords. Let’s take a deeper dive into it.




Google’s Guidelines on Keywords

 

Earlier in 2021, Google announced that an exact match keyword (that precisely matches with the query string) will be preferred when the keyword is eligible to match. This is intended at reducing complexity. Now, Google has extended the rule for broad and phrase match keywords. After much discussion with the experts of digital marketing services, we have outlined the types of keywords that will be prioritized from now on.

Identical Keyword


If a query, say, “buy blue shirt for men” matches several broad match keywords you have used, say, “blue shirt for men”, “shop blue shirt for men”, and “buy blue shirt for men”; Google will prefer the identical keyword, i.e., “buy blue shirt for men”.

Exact Match Keyword


Following the previous example, exact match keywords will be prioritized over phrase and broad match keywords. In fact, if an exact match keyword is deemed similar or less relevant than broad match keywords, it can still be selected by Ad Rank.

Relevant Broad Match Keywords


If more than one broad match keywords are present, only the aptest broad match keywords taken from the suitable ad groups should be prioritized. Google Ad Rank will then decide which keywords to select among the narrow set of broad match keywords with equal relevance.

Here is an example cited by Google. Say, someone, searches for “fast sushi delivery near me”. On your account, you are running campaigns for a broad match keyword “food delivery” and “quick sushi delivery”. Now, the phrase match keyword will be selected since it is more relevant.

Keywords with Higher Ad Rank


If you have multiple phrase match or exact match keywords eligible in your account, but don’t have any eligible broad match keyword, the keyword with the highest rank will be selected.

Why is it Important


The natural language processing capacity that the BERT algorithm brings to keyword matching means that your ads get featured for the most relevant searches. Knowing how Google matches keywords will help you to save time and optimize your campaigns. The experts of PPC services highlight that you don’t need to use the same keyword in different match groups as broad match covers the same queries. And since all the matches are treated with the same priority by Google, it’s possible to optimize your resources to diverse directions.

Further, Google recommends grouping keywords into thematically coherent ad groups so that the ads serve from the ad group as expected. Here is the instance that Google cites: Say, your business offers food delivery and your most popular search categories are pizza delivery and sushi delivery. Here, Google recommends three ad groups so that you can customize your creatives and landing page: one for pizza delivery, another for sushi delivery, and a third for food delivery.

With this information in mind, check out how your campaigns are performing and optimize as required. Let us know your thoughts.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Factors Influencing Website Design & Maintenance Cost

 One of the most troublesome questions that comes to your mind while considering developing or revamping a website is “how much do I have to pay?”

And it’s a common concern. However, the worst mistake is to settle for a site that comes at a cheap price. A website is an important brand touchpoint and it plays a crucial role in evoking reliability among your audience. Therefore, you must pay attention to designing a user-friendly and engaging website even if it costs you a little more.

Now, as a professional website development company, it’s difficult to give a clear-cut answer to the question we started with - how much do you have to pay to build a website.

That’s because, several factors influence the cost of website design. This contributes to a custom pricing for each website. Again, when maintenance is involved, it’s further difficult to measure the pricing as it is a recurring cost.

Let’s take a look at the factors influencing the price of a website design and maintenance. We will also explain which costs are one-time and which ones are recurring. In the final segment, we will focus on an estimated website design cost for your project.

Without further ado, let’s dive in then.


Factors Influencing Website Design Cost

First, let’s check out the factors that will determine the cost of your website. Take a look.

  1. Number of web pages

The cost of a website design increases with the increase in the number of web pages. For instance, an eCommerce website usually has more product pages than a small business website. Therefore, eCommerce website development services cost higher than regular CMS based website.

  1. Technology Used

The use of technology is a determining factor for website cost. A dynamic web application built with PHP or Magento will surely cost higher than a static website built with WordPress. That’s because the developers have to put more effort while dealing with complex technology.

  1. Features

The more features you add, the more you pay. For instance, a standard or basic website may include integrated social media, Google map, and contact form along with a mobile responsive layout. If you want to add image slider, newsletter subscription, blog, client testimonial, and other dynamic elements into your website, it will cost you more.

However, if you ask the experts, paying a little more for an appealing dynamic website design is always recommended. You are developing the site to attract the customers and win a competitive edge. Investing a little extra will readily pay you back by helping you to achieve your goal.

  1. Varied Quotes

Each company has its own price chart. The quote will vary depending on whether you hire freelancers or an experienced website design company. The expertise of the company, the team size, location, and several other factors work contribute to it.

Not sure why location is a factor here? Well, web development price in the UK can be 3-4 times more than that in India for a similar quality work!

Cost Breakdown of Website Development & Maintenance

Here’s a step by step approach to estimate the cost associated with website development.

  • Domain cost

The first step to crafting a website is to obtain a domain name. For this, you need a domain registrar like GoDaddy, Google, BlueHost, HostGator etc.

A premium domain will cost you higher but offer some extra facilities. You can register the domain every year or purchase it for two consecutive years.

Many professional domain registrars offer an integrated service where you can get a dashboard for managing databases, email accounts, hosting, and DNS.

  • Hosting

The next task is to host your website so that it finds a place in the virtual realm. Hosting service providers will offer you space on the server at their custom quotes.

You can book a server on a yearly or monthly basis. Some choose VPS hosting plans for a secured web experience, some choose shared hosting plans while some are okay with dedicated hosting plans.

You can talk to the customer support team of any hosting service provider. They will help you to choose the right hosting plan for your website as per your requirement and budget.

We recommend you to provide a safe user experience at your website. Therefore, ensure to get an SSL certificate for your site. You can opt for it while choosing a hosting plan.

  • Website Design

The cost of custom website design varies on different factors including the company quote, the design you choose, the number of web pages you require, and so on. This is usually a one-time cost but you can modify or revamp your website as the industry trends change. That will demand you to pay some more.

Here’s a serious consideration. There are some basic readymade designs that come for free or at a low cost. However, these template designs are not professional and don’t suit any serious business. Therefore, it’s better to get a custom website that fits your business goal and niche. Remember, your website must reflect your brand aesthetics.

  • Content Management System (CMS)

Before talking about a CMS, let’s quickly define a static and a dynamic website. A static website has content that doesn’t change frequently. It doesn’t require a separate CMS. However, the content on the dynamic website changes and you need to include a CMS here. It’ll help you to change the content without disrupting the structure.

There are various CMS available on the web including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. You can also build a custom CMS to make your site more engaging.

  • Content Writing

A website design is incomplete without content. You can also write the content for your site but if you want it to be more professional, user-engaging, and optimized for search engine, hiring content writers is a better idea.

Documents, write-ups, images, infographic, video - the professionals can create diverse content for your website.

  • Search Engine Optimization

This is an optional step but crucial to driving more visibility and web traffic. Engage professional SEO services to earn valuable backlinks, enhance your site’s rank on the search engine, increase brand awareness, and draw relevant audience to your site. Various companies offer distinct quotes for SEO services. Pick the right package as per your business requirement.

Remember, SEO is a long-term process and you need to invest in it for some time to get noticeable results. Trust us when we say, it’s worth your money, time, and effort.

  • Database

A website is a repository of data and it’s increasing every moment. You need an efficient mechanism to deal with it. And a database management system is what you need at this hour. It can facilitate some interesting additions to the site.

Depending on the extent of integration, its cost will vary.

  • Maintenance

If you want your site to feature a top-notch performance all the time, you need to engage a professional maintenance service. You can either hire a regular or on-demand maintenance as per your budget or requirement. The professionals will fix the bugs, slow loading time, add different features, and more according to your necessity.

Estimating Website Design Price

As you can understand, website design price depends on diverse factors. That’s the best part about custom web development. It allows you to pay for just what you want. Therefore, it’s always better to engage a custom web design service instead of a template-based one.

The price range of website design significantly varies from one company to another. You can get an idea of it in this link. You can find three packages here - Starter, Best Buy, and Premium. Pick the right package as per your budget and requirement. Also, the prices outlined here are the starting ranges. You can further customize the site with more features.

Got any query? Feel free to comment below.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

How to Make Mobile App Marketing on Social Media a Success?

Audience analysis? Completed. Mobile App Testing? Done. Competitive analysis? Checked!


Do you think that is all it takes to ensure a successful launch of your mobile app? Sorry to disappoint you, my friend, but your work is just half done.


Unless you spread a word about your new app, it can be difficult to generate interest and demand among your target audience. With millions of apps out there, you need to go the extra mile to help your app stand out from the crowd.


And to get people talking about your app, what is better than utilising social media to achieve this purpose? The best part of generating social media awareness is that you can target the audience based on demography and interests. As a result, you can put your efforts in the right place and get the right results.


So, here are some tips to create social media buzz about your mobile app. Ready to roll then?



Focus on interactive content – See, content is called the 'king' not without reason. Creating interesting content strengthens the messaging of your company and positively engages your target audience. Having said so, you must remember that churning out an endless number of blogs will not cut it anymore. The key is to diversify your content no matter which social media platform you choose to promote your app.

Need proof? Let the numbers do the talking. According to a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, 77% of professional marketers have opined that interactive content helps repeat visitors and thus has a high ‘reusable’ value (contentmarketinginstitute.com). Therefore, to encourage more installs for your brand new app, post as much content like polls, videos, quizzes, giveaways, and info-graphics as possible on the official pages on your social media accounts.


Expand your social media presence – Keeping your marketing effort restricted to just a few social media platforms will prevent you from getting optimal results. Go beyond Facebook and Twitter to utilise emerging platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and even Quora. As an exclusive Q&A platform, Quora lets you ask questions or answer those that are related to the niche of your business. By enabling you to represent a unique image of your brand, this platform lets you bring your new mobile app to the focus of the relevant audience.


Coming to Instagram, you can get the best results out of a variety of ads like image ads, carousel ads, stories ads, and IGTV ads on this visually-driven platform. Remember the sensation created by The Swift Life, a gamified social networking app back in 2018? No sooner did the preview video drop on YouTube than people went all gaga about it. So you see, each platform has something unique to offer which you will not realise unless you are using it.


Partner with influencers – Like it or not, social media influencers might know your target audience better than you do. Most importantly, they can connect with your customers at a greater personal level than you do at this moment. That way, don’t you think it would be intelligent to get the influencers on your side for an effective mobile app marketing? With influencers endorsing your app, the audience will feel motivated to download, install, and use it.


Take HotelTonight’s collaboration with Gregory Tinary, for example. By getting the popular Instagram influencer talk about its hotel booking app, the brand increased its number of followers and app users to an impressive extent. But, bear in mind that choosing the right influencer should not be done in a rush. Make sure the influencer has a relevant audience for your app, has storytelling ability, commands loyalty among the audience, and posts quality content.


Integrate paid with organic social – There was a time when organic social helped businesses gain better visibility but, as platforms switch to a pay-to-play model, that trend is declining and giving way to paid social. In fact, according to a study conducted Google, over 49% of app download is driven with social paid ads today. That means when you take this route, you can hit the bull’s eye without beating around the bush.


Of course, organic social enables you to nurture your relationship with the audience, but relying exclusively on it can help you very little with driving more leads and conversions. So, how about combining the power of both paid and organic social media? From optimising organic content to monitoring paid ads, social media marketing services experts help you gain faster results by doing everything needful for making your mobile app a hit among the audience.


Post user-generated content – What to do next after you have launched your mobile app? Post-launch marketing tactics are critical, and thus you should pay full attention to them. To get started, you might want to post User-generated Content (UGC) on your social media profiles that would acknowledge customers for their support and playing a role in the promotion of your app.


Moreover, posting UGC content motivates others to pattern themselves after these examples.

Encourage submission of reviews, videos, and photos to show the utility of your app in improving the lives of people. If you are still not sure how UGC content helps boost user acquisition, be informed that 90% of customers consider peer recommendations before making any purchase decision (nielson.com). Yes, that’s right! So, to maximise your app marketing, there is no overlooking UGC content.


Incentivise your customers – Given the benefits they bring for your business, customers definitely merit rewards and acknowledgement. If needed, it might also be a smart move to incentivise them for boosting the app downloads. Just launched a shopping app? How about offering an exciting discount to first-time users? To create more demand, you may also resort to other means such as giveaways, limited offers, rewards, and competitions.


If you ever doubted the power of reward marketing, see how Starbucks turned heads on Twitter by offering customers free drinks in exchange for its app download. As we know you are convinced, we suggest you think something similar along these lines. According to the experts of any reputed digital marketing agency India, this tried and true method can enhance the acceptability of your mobile app and can yield the best result.


Closing Thoughts – Promoting your app on social media needs a mix of tactics. When you do the marketing right (provided your app truly offers value), you can create a recipe for mobile app success. And as we cope with digital transformation in the post COVID era, mobile app marketing is the way out for keeping your business on move amid the craze of ‘new normal’. Should you need, seek professional help but make sure you are using the tips discussed here for driving value for your business. Wishing you luck and success!


Thursday, October 1, 2020

Alternatives to Google Keyword Planner – Recommended by a Top SEO Agency

If you want to rank high on the SERP, there’s no other choice than engaging professional SEO or PPC services. Of course, if you have adequate tech efficiency, you can always perform the optimization practices by yourself. No matter whichever model you choose, the first step is to execute an exhaustive keyword research. 


Google Keyword Planner is one of the most used tools. However, there are plenty of tools to find new keywords, learn keyword difficulty, and get an insight into search volume. Here’s a quick guide to some of these.


Keyword Tools used by Top SEO Agency Professionals

1. Ahrefs
You may be familiar with Ahref’s organic traffic dashboard and backlink reporting, but it also got a really powerful keyword research tool. The paid tool offers a deep insight into keyword ideas along with the search volumes for different match types. It is also equipped with a keyword difficulty score metric and many top SEO agency professionals admit that the results are more accurate than other similar tools. 


2. Moz
Moz has a dedicated keyword explorer integrated into its exhaustive SEO research suite. Its filtering options enable you to pinpoint your specific requirements.  It also has an estimated search volume and keyword difficulty score checker alongside related query ideas. These ideas are very helpful to expand your reach.


3. SEMrush
SEMrush has an inbuilt keyword tool driven by a huge database of search data from 26 countries. With this extensive tool, you can get a better insight into current ranking domains, estimated CPC, keyword difficulty score, estimated search volume, and new keyword ideas.


4. WordStream
The tool became popular to help search marketers easily manage their PPC campaigns. It also has a free keyword tool though with a limited number of searches. You can check related keywords on the free results but you have to become a paid subscriber to learn the search volume. 


5. Keywordtool.io
One of the most interesting parts about this tool is that it scrapes keyword suggestions from an extensive database of Google, Amazon, Bing, and even YouTube. Therefore, you can select suggested keywords from every Google language, TLD (Top-Level Domain) and location. You can also find similar options for other search engines that it supports. Here, you can get an access to the hundreds of suggested keywords without paying any bucks but you need to purchase a plan to get an insight into search volume estimations.  


6. AlsoAsked
This is a less-known free tool by Credo. It pulls data from People Also Asked section on Google to give you an insight into what people are asking. This can help you in keyword planning. 


7. KWFinder

With this tool, you can focus your keyword research efforts in five countries and also in most of the popular languages around the globe. Its results also include relevant keyword ideas and keyword difficulty score. However, this is a paid tool so you can conduct only a limited number of searches for free. 


Conclusion
We hope you have got an exhaustive idea about keyword research tools. Try these and maximize your SEO efforts.

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Must-Have Features in Mobile Commerce Apps

Let’s start today’s discussion with an interesting study: by 2021, mobile commerce sales are expected to account for 54% of total ecommerce sales (source: eMarketer). As you can understand, developing a mobile commerce app can take your business to a new height!

The best part about such an app is its convenience. Of course, we are talking about the users! However, developing a convenient and user-friendly mobile app for your store is a whole different story.

No worry. We’re here to guide. Today we will discuss some handpicked features that according to any experienced mobile app development agency, your app must have. We’re sure that this guideline will help you to set a focus.


Features to Incorporate in Your M-Commerce App

1. User Profile

A user profile is an advantageous option for the customers to keep a track of their purchase, save their cards, add money to the app wallet (if your app has one), and perform many more tasks. Since all the information are already saved in the profile, they can easily shop and checkout in no time.

Here are a few things you must ask them:

  • Name

  • Credit / Debit card number

  • Billing address

  • Shipping address

  • Email address

  • Phone number

The best part is that in an app, people have to put their information only once. That's why there's a low chance to bounce.

Also, every user is unique and if your app can show personalized offers or recommended items depending on the user’s earlier behaviour, you may expect a rise in your sales.

Fun fact: Do you know that 90% of people find personalization convenient and appealing! (source: Neil Patel)

2. Push Notification

A significant advantage of a mobile app over a desktop site is its ability to communicate with the users. Leverage the feature of push notification to send discount promotions, product updates, new stock, flash sale, and anything else that can allure people to visit your store. You may also send push notifications on "package on the way" or "product delivered" to keep your users updated.

Quick fact: Do you know push notification has 50% more opening rate than emails? Cool, huh!

However, make sure not to overdo it! Push notification is a great weapon to market your products unless you flood the users with tons of notifications and lead them to stop engaging with your app altogether! Here's how often you should send push notifications.

3. Customer Loyalty Programme

A dedicated app is an amazing platform to facilitate a customer loyalty programme. There are several ways to promote customer loyalty. For instance, you can reward the customers on their spending an amount during purchasing or purchase frequency. You may also reward the users once they install your app or if they share your app with their friends and the latter purchase something from your store.

Remember, consumers prefer to use ecommerce apps both for greater convenience and to receive exclusive deals and cool promotions. And a loyalty programme encourages that!

Interesting fact: a recent study by CodeBroker notes that 75% of consumers are more likely to participate in a loyalty programme if they can access it easily from an app.

4. Easy Checkout with Multiple Payment Options

What is the most crucial feature in your app to increase sales?

Checkout - right. No brownie point for answering!

Make sure that the checkout page is fast and hassle-free. Remember, the more steps your users have to follow, there’s a higher chance of their bouncing! So try to use the information they have already inserted (like email id and phone no.) and let them checkout by providing address and selecting a payment method.

Equip your app with multiple payment options as follow:

  • Major credit cards like Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express

  • Debit Cards

  • Google Pay / other UPI apps

  • Paytm

...and anything that you find relevant! Make sure that your app is secured and all the consumer information are safe!

5. Location Tracking

User location is a crucial data and you should use it to your advantage. Geofencing technology comes into your assistance for tracking a mobile location.

Bonus Point

Given the contemporary situation, it's time to add some new features in your app. These include your delivery system (contactless delivery), change in payment methods (only online payment and no COD), and so on. These vary from one business to another so feel free to communicate your requirement to the mobile app development company that you have hired and the professionals will customize the app accordingly.

Conclusion

There you go! Make sure to incorporate these features into your m-commerce app and enhance user experience (UX). And as you know, UX is the key to the success of any business! However, ensure to hire reliable mobile app development services provider who has immense experience in developing secured and robust apps.

Want to add more points to the list? Go on, feel free to comment below.

Monday, May 11, 2020

Native Ads: An Approach by Digital Marketing Agency in India 


In this ever-competitive digital world, brands need to carefully plan how to engage with the audience in a meaningful way, not only to increase conversions but to develop brand reliability as well.
Throughout the day, people consume content from news portals, blogs, and social media channels, etc. And digital marketing services provider maintain that all of these platforms are potentially rich for native ad placements.
If you are not yet introduced to this trend, it’s time to learn all about it and beat your competitors. So, keep reading.

Native Advertising – As Defined by a Leading Digital Marketing Agency in India 

Native advertising is a paid advertisement that harmoniously blends with the feel and function of the content media and platform where it appears. The publisher controls and is deemed responsible for rendering the ad.
A native ad doesn’t look like an ad. Rather, it seems to be a part of the editorial flow of the respective web page. For instance, such an ad may show up within an article you’re reading on an online news portal or as a post on your Facebook feed.
The professionals at any esteemed digital marketing agency India prefer such ads that are intentionally more contextual and non-disruptive than any other forms of ads.  
  • Types of Native Ads
Interactive Advertising Bureau or AIB categorizes native ads into six types. These are as follow:
  1. Paid Search ads appear at the top of a Google search result and appear to be an integral part of it.
  1. Recommendation widgets appear on a publisher’s website and showcase recommended products or content related to the article you are already consuming.
  1. Custom ads appear within your app interface, for example, a new filter in Snapchat.
  1. In-Ads with native elements seem like typical ads but are contextually more related to the site where they appear.
  1. Promotion Listings or sponsored content are designed to seamlessly fit into the browsing experience.
  1. In-feed ads appear directly on an article or blog post.
Quick Fact: According to a study by Marketing Land, native ads have 60% higher CTR (Click through Rate) than other display ads. No wonder that in the US, two-thirds of the total ad-spent in the last year was spent on native ads.

Is Native Ad Programmatic? 

It varies. Programmatic is an automated manner of buying ad placements. Programmatic marketing uses real-time systems and algorithms to automate either the targeted placements or creative experiences of the ads.
As you can guess, programmatic native ads are created by leveraging contextual signals and machine learning. These ads are customized and placed at the proper platforms to obtain quality leads.
However, not every native ad is programmatic and you have to manually set it. And it’s the time like this, that you should engage professionals from any agency offering digital marketing services India. With long experience and expertise, the professionals can serve you the best.

Is Google Display Native Ad?

 Yes, Google Display and Video 360 have native creative formats that you may integrate into any display campaign.
The native creative may target:
  • Site creative – Square or rectangular display format
  • App install – Google Play
  • Video – Similar to site creative but uses video instead of an image
A native creative may include various components like a headline, an image or video, body text, logo or advertiser brand, and Call-to-Action (CTA).

Brand Reliability is Key to the Success of Native Ad 

A native ad is indeed a popular way to engage the audience and connect brands to the consumers effectively. But, if potential consumers don’t trust a brand, the money spent on creating such an ad may lose its worth. So, make it a point to establish and maintain the audience’s trust.  
Reliability, credibility, and relevance are the three key aspects to establish a powerful brand image. You must ensure to develop secured sites, listen to and act on the customer feedback and offer relevant solutions, and interact with the audience.
Also, among numerous available offerings, it’s crucial to choose the right internet marketing agency in India that can help you get the best return on your investment.  
Conclusion 
Start using native ads as a means for your brand to make an effective connection with the consumers, earn their trust, and achieve higher conversions.
Our pro suggestion? Focus on developing trust with supreme user experience; success will chase!
What’s your take on it? Comment below and share with us!

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Is Your Business Ready to Leverage the Boom in Ecommerce Market

The global pandemic has led people to believe eCommerce will sink deep down. But, take it from us, eCommerce is not going anywhere, not anytime soon. In fact, according to a study by Space Shop Commerce, global eCommerce sales may reach $3.9 trillion this year. And by 2021, this number is about to touch $4.5 trillion!
Are you curious to know which factors are operating behind it? Which sectors are benefitted the most? And more importantly, do you want to leverage some benefits, but clueless where to start?
No worry. As a reputed eCommerce website design company, we will help you to take a closer look at it.


Factors Playing a Key Role in the Growth of Ecommerce  

Convenience is the very first reason behind the growth of eCommerce. People don’t have to waste time and energy in visiting multiple stores for purchasing something as they can easily buy these with a few mouse-clicks (or finger touch!) and get the delivery at their doorstep. Further, with enhanced mobility bandwidth a la 4G technology, the entire browsing and purchasing process has become faster.
The availability of numerous eCommerce stores has spoilt potential buyers with choices. Different discount offers, coupons, and promo codes also help in slacking some budget. Free shipping beyond a certain price is yet another alluring factor.

Most Benefitted Sectors

The following sectors have benefitted the most due to the rapid growth in eCommerce:
  • Grocery
  • Apparels
  • Jewellery
  • Electronics
  • Food
  • Cosmetics
Other than these, pharmacy too is witnessing a rising growth in eCommerce sales, especially in the urban area.

How can You Leverage Its Benefits  

This is the most interesting part. As you can understand, it’s high time to convert your brick and mortar shop to an online store. It will not only allow you to reach a wider audience but you can also notice a positive impact on your revenue. Here’s what you can do:
1. Design an Ecommerce Website
Ecommerce website design is the first leap to take. An attractive and optimized website will drive more leads and boost your ROI (Return on Investment).
2. Design an Ecommerce Mobile App
If you already have a site, take your business to the next level with an app. This will further enhance convenience for the users. You can also create an app independently.
Remember, mobile commerce accounts for over 50% of total eCommerce sales (source: Bigcommerce). So, the professionals at any mobileapp development agency remind you not to neglect this part.
Now, designing an eCommerce website or app must be hectic and you may miss something or the other. Relax! We got you covered! All you need is to minutely go through the following passages and make sure your site or app incorporates these features. 

Must-Have Features in Your Ecommerce Site or App

1. Responsive Design
If you are designing a website, make sure it is responsive so that anyone can access it via any device. The first element of a responsive site is its scalability. Constantly pinching the site on a mobile screen to adjust its visuals highly affects the user experience.
2. Loading Speed
Usually, people don’t spend more than 3 seconds for a web page to load (source: Hobo Web). Especially, a significant part of online shoppers comprises impulsive buyers. You surely don’t expect them to wait for 10 minutes while your webpage loads.
So, optimize your page loading speed. The same thing is applicable for your app as well. If it takes a long time to load, people will stop using it and subsequently uninstall it.
3. Quality Pictures
Pictures play a key role in alluring people to make a purchase. So, ensure that your store has high-quality and attractive pictures of the products. But there’s a catch. Large pictures often slow down a site and contribute to increasing the bounce rate.
This is why you better engage a professional eCommerce website development company to optimize the images.
4. Save the Shopping Cart
With so many shopping sites available in the digital ecosystem, you cannot expect potential buyers to see one item on your store and go straight to the purchasing process. They spend significant time in browsing multiple sites, check the rates, often think twice whether to buy – and all these may take more than two to three days before they make a purchase. During this process, your store must save the items that are already added to the cart.
Wish list functionality is yet another must-have element in your e-store. If any of your products is out of stock or too pricy for some customers at that point of time, they can save it in the wish list and purchase later. It doesn’t clash with the cart.
5. Don’t Delay Conversions
Delaying the conversion is the worst mistake you can make and a compulsorily sign-up form works as a catalyst in this. Your intention should always be to reduce the steps before someone can make a purchase.
People often find it inconvenient or time-consuming to create an account. And the guest check out option can be a rescuer at this point. To reduce friction, you may enable easy checkout only with contact details (phone no. / email id) and payment mode.
6. Include Reviews
More than 50% of online shoppers purchase a product based on its reviews (source: Pew Research). So, customer feedback should be an integral feature in your online store.
7. Stay Available
Your potential customers may have any query or confusion and you need to resolve that as soon as possible. Make sure to keep your contact information visible. Ideally, you can install an automatic chatbot on your e-store. This will help to resolve general confusions without any hassle.
If you want to increase your revenue from your e-store, you’ll find this blog really effective - cool hacks to stop shopping cart abandonment.
Conclusion
Remember, the competition is quite steep once it comes to eCommerce sales. According to 99firms, the contemporary global digital ecosystem is crowded with 12 to 24 million eCommerce stores. If you want to create an impactful presence among these, you need to deliver a top-notch user experience.
So, it is better to engage eCommerce website design services or hire the professionals at any mobile app development company to build an attractive and feature-rich site or app along with the above-mentioned features.
What’s your take on our article? Comment below and share your thoughts.