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Many have heard the term “ecommerce” but are a bit confused as to what it means. While ecommerce is often thought of as a company that does business online, it’s more than just sales. Ecommerce can encompass a number of transactions that take place online. Let’s take a closer look to determine what ecommerce really is.
Basic Description
The basic definition of electronic commerce is the transfer of information through the internet between customers and businesses or businesses to other businesses. That makes ecommerce seem like a very broad concept and it really is. In fact, ecommerce is one of the most important functions of the internet.
More Than Just Sales
As mentioned above, ecommerce is more than just sales. While you may think of ecommerce as a purchase you make from Amazon, it’s much more than that. The transactions you make through your bank’s website, your use of PayPal, and your subscription service to Netflix are all considered ecommerce. Even when you purchase stock online, that’s considered ecommerce.
Benefits
There are so many benefits to ecommerce. Not only does ecommerce allow customers and businesses that are thousands of miles apart to complete a transaction, but if you run an ecommerce site, you’ll more than likely have less overhead. Not to mention that ecommerce transactions are often much faster to complete. The customer can easily find what they need through advanced search methods and checkout with express checkout. It’s much, much better than traditional commerce.
Disadvantages
While ecommerce does have many perks, there can also be disadvantages. Ecommerce does require time, research, and an investment. If you don’t know how to build a website, you will need to hire someone who does. Also, some customers are still leery of online stores. Your business is also limited to online shoppers.
Is Ecommerce for You?
If you’re starting a business, you may wonder if ecommerce is the way to go. The truth is you may have a better chance at being successful online, especially if you can offer something unique. When you have a traditional business, you are limited to a smaller clientele, which may not have enough target customers to help your business be successful. When you setup shop online, you’re able to reach literally millions of shoppers.
Ecommerce is what keeps the internet alive. Without online transactions and sales, it would cost a small fortune to use the internet. The sites you use on a daily basis, such as Facebook, wouldn’t be able to run without paid memberships. In other words, ecommerce opened up the doors to make the internet available to the masses.
About the Author: Brian Moons is a web developer with his own business and he loves helping his clients develop all sorts of sites, including ecommerce sites. If you’re just starting out, consider a magento theme – something simple that will help you launch without a ton of overhead.
You already probably know that the abundance of customers or the lack of them can make or break your business. If you do not communicate properly with them, you will probably not be selling much.However, with the abundance of communication tools available today; one would be silly not to make total use of them.
Customers expect greater access to you and your business and are always on the lookout for businesses that offer them this constant connectivity. Out of curiosity, they want to pull up your Facebook pages, your Twitter streams, or your company blog to learn more about you and to freely ask the questions that are in their minds. Companies that make it easy for their customers to communicate with them flourish, while others dry up.
It’s time to get close and personal with your audience. Start talking, but more importantly, start listening! Start conversations to see what your customers really want from your business.
Here are that can be used to keep the channels of communication open at all times:
1. Facebook – It’s the world’s favorite social networking site and therefore, is sure to draw customers. It’s easier to explain products visually, so using Facebook to post photos and videos is a good idea. End users can go there to show their own photos and post testimonials about the product, which will make prospects feel like they are going to be making the correct decision by investing.
2. Twitter – Closely following in the footsteps of Facebook is another social networking site-Twitter. One of the best ways for small businesses to connect with their customers is to collect email addresses from customers/clients, and invite them to connect with you on Twitter. Twitter seems to be better for business to business communication, although the length of the information to be shared must be measured carefully.
3. F.A.Qs – When people sign up for a newsletter they should be given the privilege of being allowed to ask questions and getting the answer replied to.
4. Email – Another communication channel coming into full use now is e-mail. E-mail is a very personal activity for people – so, if you can engage them in a meaningful conversation through this channel, you will often see great results.However, since emails are all about the written word they have to be captivating enough to get the attention of the prospect from the first line itself.
5. Surveys – Make talking to your customers a simple thing by conducting surveys. In the form of questions one can easily chat up potential customers as well as find out how satisfied existing customers are with the products/services offered.
6. An Attractive Blog Section – Blogs when used by a particular business allows them to share tips, news, and the latest updates. It enables us to address questions and comments, endorse press related to the company, and reveal a more personal side. This makes customers feel like they have made an actual connection with the people behind the product.
7. Skype Calls – These calls are very effective in making customers feel closer to the business. No longer do they feel the distance as face-to-face interaction makes them feel closer to the business.
8. Chat – Chat is another form of effective and 24/7 communication that businessmen can have with customers. Since customers can get answers to their questions at any time of the day via chat, they come to look upon the business as trustworthy.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect with your customers. They’re waiting for you to initiate communication and use it as a means to build a lasting relationship.
Kian Manning is a financial consultant at a leading outbound call centre. He believes that keeping the channels of communication open at all times brings customers closer to the business organization.
At present designers have very tough time than before. Because, previously they only had to design websites for the one device i.e., The desktop computers. But today with the great progress in the technology and the devices that we use, web designing has become tougher when compared to earlier. With more number of people using the devices such as televisions, a smart phone, wide and small screens and designing a website for them is a challenging task for web developers.
If you are having an online business and want to get the best results use responsive web designing for your website so that you can it is accessible to the devices. If your website is not designed on the responsive website designing, then you are going to miss lots of business. Here are some of the benefits as well as tips for using responsive web designing tips.
It saves money:
Earlier website designers used to develop a single site for many different modes like the mobile version, desktop version etc. As the resolution is different for the each of the devices. And this costly. If the companies have to develop each every device like iPhone, iPad and android mobiles, which are going to be released in the market then it is going to cost a lot for the company. What if a new device is going to be released into the market? This is the beauty and advantage of the responsive website design. It allows your website to be displayed on any of the screen type, size and width, even on different width screen televisions to smart phones. All you need to do is design website which is responsive designed as it saves costs and also saves your money.
It saves time:
The actual fact is that you have to develop and design your site only once which saves your money and energy. Which helps with some of the events like work less, less stress, so that you need not repeat the task again and if the new device or product comes into the market.
It beats your competitor:
As many of the designers do not have knowledge of the responsive web design. If your site is designed on these parameters then you can get benefit from this. Do make many changes and transformation on the website so that it exactly fits to all of screen and all sizes, which will ultimately help to get more traffic than your competitors.
Increase conversions:
When more number of people visiting your site then surely they are going to appreciate the changes that they have observed and helps them to get better experience. Responsive web design helps in everything that a user wants and it make to get more number of conversions.
Increases the Life of website:
One of the major benefits of using the responsive web design is that the life of the site will be increased as the more number of people will be using it and will conveniently fit to any type of the device. It works excellent for all types of the device that a user is using.
Author Bio: The guest post was contributed by Lucy, financial guest blogger from Manchester, UK. Wrote many articles on ppi claims . Find out more about her blogs @financeport.
As a business, you know how online review sites like Foursquare and Google+ Local are playing an important role in the purchasing decisions of consumers. And as a business, you know that it’s equally important for you to know what is being said about your company, products and services on these sites. This is why you need to invest in online review monitoring tools.
Sure, you can take the time out of your day to visit every single online review site on your own and see what’s being said, but that will take you a very long time, and as a business, you have more important things to do. Instead, you can invest in tools like Review Trackers, which are programs designed to scour all the review sites for you and provide you with an alert any time a new review is listed. This allows you to focus on your job.
There are different online reviews monitoring tools that you can use, but it’s important that you use the right one for your business. Here are a few things to consider when choosing an online review monitoring tool.
Price
The first thing that you need to consider when choosing an online review monitoring tool is the price. You don’t want to end up choosing a program that is too expensive, as you’ll want the price to be within your budget. On the other hand, you may want to be weary of those programs that are very cheap, as you may end up losing some valuable benefits or other perks that you could get if you spent a little more with a different company.
Alerts
You’ll also want to pay attention to the alert schedule for the monitoring company. Does the company only alert you once a month about online reviews, or do they give you the option to choose your own schedule? If you really want to stay on top of your online reviews, then you’ll want to choose a company that gives you alerts on a daily or in real-time basis.
Along with the frequency of alerts, you’ll also want to know how exactly the company will alert you. Are they just going to send you an email, or will they call your office? If you’re always connected to your email, then receiving alerts via email is acceptable, but if you’re always checking emails at the last minute, then you may want to choose a company that provides alternative notification methods.
Review Sites
Some online review monitoring companies will only check a few select websites, and then there are those that will check every single website on the Internet. If you really only care about a few sites, then you can go with a company that only checks a few, but if you want to keep an eye on your company’s overall online branding, then you’ll want to stick with a company that will provide you with insight on all the websites it possibly can.
Caroline Jones works for Review Trackers. She is often found blogging for business and educational purposes and recently wrote about online review monitoring tools.