Shoptech Media: 5 Ways How to Genuinely Care For Your Customers

Shoptech Media: 5 Ways How to Genuinely Care For Your Customers: Genuinely care for your customers because just like everyone else, your customers wants to know they mean something to others. Take time o...

5 Ways How to Genuinely Care For Your Customers

Genuinely care for your customers because just like everyone else, your customers wants to know they mean something to others. Take time out to communicate what they mean to you.
Customer appreciation is often viewed as a lost art. But it is a great way to retains customers. Keeping loyal customers affects your ceiling and is way less expensive than getting new ones. Smart businesses know that showing customers how much they genuinely care is an opportunity to win people over for life.
We don't want our customers get dissatisfied with our business and lost them, right?

12 Key Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction That is Bad For You Business

Below, we’ll take a look at five genuine ways to incorporate customer appreciation into your support routine without skipping a beat.

1. Personalize your customer service

There are many ways to personalize your customer service to show you genuinely care for them. Check out some examples below to get you started:

• Use their names, first name that is. Don't just say Mr so and so. Address them like you would a friend. You don't call you friend by their last name, right? If the name is John Smith, address him as John. Not Mr. Smith or John Smith.
• Smile and make eye contact for more personalized customer service. This is particularly true with a physical store, but would be different with ecommerce. However, people know when you are happy to be with them even if they are not physically around. It shows in the way you type what you are saying or in the choices of your words.
• Implement a loyalty program. Loyalty programs like , unique offers in exchange for reward points. Special rewards for referrals for instance is a great way to reward customer loyalty. Or you can perhaps roll out a bonus point campaign. Another great idea is to organize a prize draw for your loyalty members. Plenty of them ideas out there.
• Be human. This one is just that, be a better human being. A lot of times, we are so caught up with making sales that we forget the humanity side of business. There is more to life than just making sales, to put it simply.
• Make recommendations. When you are not able to provide the resources your customer is looking for, do not hesitate to make a recommendations. Recommendations does not only for resource, it can also be done in behalf of your customer.

2. Send a handwritten thank-you note

Never underestimate the importance of two little words: thank you. For your ecommerce business, these two words can boost the mood of your employees, encourage brand loyalty among customers, and nurture relationships with suppliers and professional partners.
A simple little thank you note can make your customer feel loved and send their lifetime spend through the roof.
Sending business thank-you cards benefit organizations across a range of industries. Any business that deals with members of the public can find opportunities to say thank you with a card. It is one of the most doable way to genuinely care for your customers, yet so few do it.

Customer appreciation is an investment in yourself. If you’re reluctant to spend the time and effort into sending out thank you for your purchase notes, consider it an investment.

3. Check in with customers

The Internet has made it simultaneously much easier and much harder to check in with your customers. The logistical side of checking in is miles easier than it’s ever been — you’ve got loads of options, and you can instantly connect with people pretty much anywhere in the world. But you’ve got to get a little more creative, both in your medium and in your delivery. We then got a great piece of advice:

Only reach out to customers with a value add.

Check in with customers through email, and social media. I find social media to be more effective as it is not that intrusive.

4. Don’t let red tape get in the way

When an organization is bogged down by restrictions and policies or there are inefficiencies within the administrative workflow, service really takes a hit on the chin. Your business is obviously not the government. Why so many rules? Why so many hoops?
It’s time to cut away everything that stands between you and your customers. Making it easy for them to do business with you will make it easy for them to recommend your product or services. Dont hide behind your company policies. A good way is to make things simple for your customers to transact with your business.

5. Recognize unique opportunities

To be successful ecommerce merchant, we need to be continually innovating and looking for opportunities to grow our business.
How do you find new opportunities to take your startup to new markets and growth levels?
When you’re targeting potential customers listen to their needs, wants, challenges and frustrations with your industry. Have they used similar products and services before? What did they like and dislike? Why did they come to you? What are their objections to your products or services?
When you’re talking to your customers listen to what they are saying about your industry, products and services. What are their frequently asked questions? Experiences? Frustrations? Feedback and complaints? Things like that goes a long way to show you genuinely care for your customers.
Additional resource for ecommerce growth:

Help Grow Your Business With These Powerful Life Tips

3 Simple Tools You Can Start Using To Get More Sales from Repeat Customers

Shoptech Media: 12 Key Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction That is ...

Shoptech Media: 12 Key Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction That is ...: Customer dissatisfaction is a bad bad sign for your ecommerce business. Our customers and clients are the lifeblood of our business, keeping...

12 Key Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction That is Bad For You Business

Customer dissatisfaction is a bad bad sign for your ecommerce business. Our customers and clients are the lifeblood of our business, keeping them happy is of utmost importance for ecommerce merchants or any aspiring retailer. Can you imagine your body running our of blood? Because that is what dissatisfied customers do to your business.
I ask a question on social media about this, and the answers where eye-opening. I wasn't surprised, but it opens up a lot for me particularly, regarding the causes of customer dissatisfaction.

Here are 12 Reasons Why Customers are Dissatisfied

#1. Misleading or Incomplete Product Details

A lot of sellers and retailers out there knowingly or maybe unknowingly, provide incomplete and sometimes misleading product details and information. As a seller and doing ecommerce business, play fair with your customers, after all, they are the lifeblood of your business. Keeping some of your fees hidden and uncovering this in the middle of purchasing process is a frequent reason for a human to complain. Practices like this ultimately gives customers the impression that company is cheating its customers.

The rule of thumb is just to be honest with your customers and buyers! If adding a feature means added cost, mention it in the description. If the product quality cannot match customer expectation, let your customers know about it. Giving Incomplete details or exaggerating product features is a leading cause of customer dissatisfaction.
These next two reasons for customer dissatisfaction can be joined into one, but I thought it would be helpful to break them apart.

#2. Slow Service is another cause of customer dissatisfaction

People want to know that when they approach you and your business, they’ll be able to get what they want as fast as they can. For instance, if a customer goes to a hairdresser and waits 60 minutes before they get a haircut, they’re more likely to go to the next one down the road.
Here at Shoptech Media, it is our mantra to act on customer request no more than 24 hours. Do the job the shortest possible time. If your company has a recurring problem of slow service, you may want to reassess your staffing. Recruiting more people can help you meet customer demand efficiently.
Alternative ways to make services faster are plenty. Some restaurants avoid bad service by offering buffets, where people can eat first and pay later. Most supermarkets now offer self-service checkout, allowing people to get in and out quickly. These are just a few of the brick-n-mortar ways but the idea is the same for ecommerce business. Get your services as fast as you can is one of the best way to avoid customer dissatisfaction.

#3. Customers are easily dissatisfied with Slow Delivery

Two weeks is the maximum estimated time of delivery wherever the origin of your product is. Beyond that, and it's a negative for customers. Businesses dealing in sending out items to customers will need to ensure their delivery services are on point. Just like with service, if customers have to wait a long time for an item to be sent out, they’re unlikely to shop with you again. I won't for sure!
One of the best ways to handle deliveries is to outsource the job. Fulfillment companies can be a godsend when it comes to keeping customers satisfied. Most fulfillment services will store goods for you, then quickly ship them off when needed.
It’s best to offer multiple delivery options. Some customers will want to pay extra for tracking or one-day delivery. Making sure customers get their goods or services quickly and without any loss in quality will keep them happy.

#4. When You are Difficult To Contact

To deal with customer complaints, you must make your company easy to contact. Stores often have receptionists or friendly customer service reps to resolve any complaints quickly. You should also offer fast and efficient phone service. Customers who have to wait on hold for a long time will only become more enraged.
You can integrate a 24/7 web help desk on your site and hire reps to staff it. Another easy way to bring your customer service another level is to use social media.  Sites like witter and Facebook Messenger can be used to handle customer complaints creatively. Make sure it’s easy to get in touch with you so you can resolve problems before customers defect.

#5. Poor accessibility is a major source of customer dissatisfaction.

Online accessibility is huge for today's businesses. More and more people now shop from their computers and portable devices, so this is especially important. Ensure that your website is optimized for all browsers, as well as smartphones and tablets. Make it easy to navigate and pay for your services. You may want a professional web designer to handle this for you.

#6. When You Breaking Your Word

Another cause of customer dissatisfaction is not being true to your word. Ecommerce business is about integrity. Regardless of whether you make it explicit or not, your products and services come with a promise attached: that they will be delivered professionally, on time and at the price indicated.
Your customers may not say it to your face but that disappointment and feeling of being short-changed will lead to them walking out the door. You are essentially breaking your word in the eyes of the customer.

Not keeping a promise is basically lying.

#7. Bad Quality Of Products Or Services

One of the most important parts of your business is offering the highest quality possible of products and services. If customers find something wrong with what they are given, you should offer apology for it and resolve the issue with a refund or replacement as soon as possible.
Make it clear to customers what kind of quality they can expect from your offerings. If you fail to deliver, then you owe them. For physical products, you should describe what condition they will be in. For services, let customers know exactly what they will get for their money.

#8. Profit-oriented business rather than customer-centric

In order to build and grow a base of loyal customers, you will need to listen to and value your customer's opinions. Put their best interests before your business. Even if you don’t think you’re in the wrong, an apology, a refund or some free gifts can go a long way.

#9 Rude and unfriendly customer support staff

There is a boom in “undercover shopping” services worldwide for a very good reason. It’s all too easy for staff at all levels to paint on a smile when they know someone is watching them. What counts of course is what happens in the thousands of unobserved customer interactions that take place every day.
The default tone of anyone working in your company should be pleasant, helpful and courteous. This is something that needs to be rigorously watched – all it takes is one bad apple to lower the overall impression of an entire team.
Customers rightfully expect a base level of civility in any encounters with your company. Fail this test and they won’t be back anytime soon.

#10. Sales Staff are Pushing too hard

Look, we all know sales is about persistence. Sometimes though, sellers don’t know when to slow down on that persistence and actually repel the client away.
Pushing too hard often times alienates customers who may be otherwise very happy with your services. The tone you take is equally crucial, it needs to be in keeping with your overall offering.
Use your judgment, ask questions, and observe past buying behaviors, especially if you are selling to existing clients, to best gauge when it’s time to stop pushing. Remember, just because the time isn’t right now, doesn’t mean it’ll always be that way.

#11. Limited Payment Options on checkout

Making it as easy as possible for your customers to pay is essential for increasing conversions and sales.

Easy Payment Process That Makes Customer Complete Purchase

This is why your checkout page is critical. It’s the final stop for people shopping on your website. It’s the place where they hand over their credit card information and finally part with their hard-earned cash.

Offer multiple payment options and make it easy as possible for your customers.

#12. Not able to match competitor

Consumers are looking for the best value. Value incorporates price, but it also includes benefits. Sometimes, for whatever reason, you will simply not be able to match a competitor’s offering for a particular product or service.
It goes without saying that surveying your competition should be a regular part of the marketing strategy of any business in order for you to have a clear picture of what you’re up against in the wider market.
If you are not able to match your competitors price, the best thing to do is to focus on value. Present your products to carry benefits over and above those of your competitor who is charging a lower price, you can justify the higher price. In fact, lowering your price might hurt you by masking the value that you are providing your customers.

12 Key Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction That is Bad For You Business

Shoptech Media: Smart Ways To Improve Customer Retention For Your ...

Shoptech Media: Smart Ways To Improve Customer Retention For Your ...: If you have to allocate resources for your ecommerce business, developing and building loyal customers is practically the most important a...

Smart Ways To Improve Customer Retention For Your Ecommerce

If you have to allocate resources for your ecommerce business, developing and building loyal customers is practically the most important area you can spend more on. But what can you do to make your customers stick around for the long haul? Here are five smart ways you can do to improve customer retention:

1. Sell more to your existing customers.

Discounting, promotions and active sales efforts can deepen existing customer relationships and entice them to purchase more of your products. In addition, increasing investments in education, training and marketing your products to individuals at a customer site can increase usage, further deepening the relationship.
The most common tactics used here are the basics of cross-sell and upsell. Both of these are good approaches.
There are a wide a variety of other strategies that can be used, many ways to implement them, and little need to just focus on cross and up-sell.
For instance, a company can also deliver customer value through down-sell and usage stimulation. Take for example a Bank that, instead of sending more product cross sales offers, sends credit cards to customers and offers to increase in their credit limit. They know that, on average, when  a customer’s credit limit goes up they will use at least some of that extra limit. This then is usage stimulation: same product, more sales.

WARNING: There is a tendency for companies to over use upselling and cross-selling. This can result in a negative impact on customer relationships.

2. "Red flag" high-risk customers and act quickly to retain them.

Build a process in the organization to actively monitor customers for the early warning signs of attrition – e.g., decreased usage or an increase in customer service calls. Develop specific campaign strategies to retain the most attractive ones.
After you establish your baseline or your starting point. Do the following:

PLAN: Plan your improvements, including setting goals.
DO: Put in place the actions required for improvement.
CHECK: Measure your success relative to your baseline.
ACT: Adjust or tweak your changes.

3. Address key sources of customer dissatisfaction.

Poor service can cause 78% of customers to give up on dealing with you altogether. Only 4% of dissatisfied customers complain. The rest will disappear seemingly out of nowhere. You’re up to 70% more likely to sell to an existing customer than a new one, so increasing customer retention is vital.
For instance, improving the accuracy and clarity of your billing processes can go a long way toward minimizing customer angst. Increasing the power of the service organization and the sales team to address customer complaints promptly and offer retention-oriented promotions are other ways to appease dissatisfied customers.

4. Resist downward pricing pressure among existing customers.

Slow your discounting as much as possible to improve margins while minimizing attrition.
In the highly competitive marketplace we hear dreaded phrases like, "Your fees are too high; can you do it for less?",  all of the time. The easy thing to do is to offer a discount, but that cuts into your profit margins and sets a precedent for the future.
What you can do when clients push back on your fees is to focus on your value. It's trite, but true. If it's worth it to the client they'll pay for it. But when faced with price push back, many are at a loss for what to do at that moment. Don't backtrack or talk about cost structure.

5. Focus your customer reward and incentives.

Reorient your field sales incentives to reward acquisitions of customers in key segments that exhibit the most "stickiness." Here are a few things you can do this:

• Celebrate your customers. ...
• Create an early-access program. ...
• Ask for customer feedback. ...
• Invite customers to a special event. ...
• Offer a referral bonus or reward for recruiting new customers.

Additional Resource
As you think about growing your customer base in the year ahead, remember that keeping your current customers happy plays a big role in growing your customer base.

In Conclusion

Building these steps into your operations will help you to significantly improve customer retention metrics and create significant value for your business.
Additional Resource on Customer Retention and Loyalty

3 Simple Tools You Can Start Using To Get More Sales from Repeat Customers

Double Your Sales with Customer Loyalty Programs

Best Pricing Strategy For Your Ecommerce Products

Choosing the best pricing strategy is a critical factor in retail because everybody wants to maximize the difference between a product’s value and what they pay for it. This is more true especially in the ecommerce world where customers can easily compare prices.
Today I am going to be delving into another area of ecommerce, the product pricing. The question we are going to be dealing with is, how are you going to price your products? Or, what standard do you use to price your product? Is there a better pricing strategy that you can use to give your product a competitive price?
Let’s look at some of the best pricing strategies retailers use to decide the prices of their products.

Suppose we consider an item bought from a wholesaler for $10 per item—how much should you charge a customer who wants to buy your $10 product?

5 Pricing Strategies You Can Use In Your Online Retail Business

#1. Doubling the cost paid for the product.

The retailer doubles what they paid for the product, and that’s the price they charge customers. The retailer puts a 100% markup on their products. An item that costs $10 is obviously sold for $20. Doubling the cost paid for the product, is what we call "Keystone pricing" strategy.
This gives a gross profit margin of 50%. The net profit is lower because  marketing costs and other overheads is not taken into account yet. The net profit from this type of pricing strategy is acceptable. Many retailers use this pricing strategy because it is simple, it is easy to decide how much to charge.
Keystone pricing is an effective way to establish a baseline, a reasonable price point that can move up or down depending on other factors.

The downside to this pricing model are the following:

• it ignores marketing cost and overheads cost,
• removes competitor pricing totally out of the picture.
• some products won’t sell at double the amount a retailer paid, especially when alternatives are readily available.

Keystone pricing may not be the best pricing strategy but it is the simplest to implement.

#2 . Accounting for cost and overheads formula

Many retailers use a more complex method that accounts for cost, overheads, and an acceptable profit margin. If we’re happy with a 20% net profit, and we spend an average of $5 on marketing and customer acquisition for every sale, and our overheads are $2 per sale, we’d charge the following:

($10 + $5 + $2) * 1.2 = $20.40

It’s easy when we’re making up figures, but it can be challenging for a business to itemize its costs and overheads. And, once again, this pricing model fails to account for the competitive landscape. It’s a viable model for stores that sell unique goods that aren’t available elsewhere, but if you’re in a competitive market, both of these models might leave you trailing the competition.

#3. Account for competitors price

On the web, it’s easy to compare prices, and price comparison sites are everywhere making it more and more easier to compare prices anytime. A smart merchant accounts for competitors prices when applying product pricing.
The easiest way to do this is to build a list of your competitors, track what they charge for the products you also sell, and make sure your prices are always the same or lower than theirs. Some sectors act this way, but the result is almost always a race to the bottom and razor-thin margins. Businesses that depend entirely on price competition are in a precarious position.
Accounting for competitors price is not the best pricing strategy but it is better than keystone model and accounting for the overhead and marketing cost strategy.

#4. Identifying key value items (KVIs) and product groups

Some products are more likely to figure in customer value calculations because they are more memorable or essential.
Products that attract traffic should be closely monitored. Again, these may not be your most profitable products. For instance, a widget store may make more money from widget accessories than from the widgets themselves, but it’s the widgets that drive traffic. Once they have bought a widget, customers are far more likely to buy the accessories, whether or not they are priced to undercut the competition.
After having identified the most important products in their market, retailers track the prices of those items on specific competitor’s sites and adjust their prices to match or undercut the competition. In some cases, it is worth reducing the price of KVIs beneath the level at which they generate a profit.

#5. Premium pricing

Apple is a prominent example of premium pricing. Their laptops cost more than their competitors’ for equivalent specifications, and their high price is a signal of quality. That signal is backed by Apple’s manufacturing perfectionism, but the company has margins that are higher than any other phone or computer manufacturer.
Premium pricing establishes a product as high-value in the minds of customers. It’s useful when used in concert with branding and marketing strategies that emphasize quality and luxury over cost. It can also be useful when customers struggle to attribute a real value to a product: Diamonds are worth whatever people will pay for them, regardless of whether they are intrinsically valuable.

In conclusion

The best pricing strategy takes into consideration all the factors. Not only net gain, but more importantly customer satisfaction.
Additional resource you might be interested:

6 Time-Tested Ecommerce Marketing Strategy That Works Everytime

Easy Steps to Build Your Own Business Website

20 Best Ecommerce Suppliers for Your Online Store

5 Indispensable Ecommerce Features Your Shop Should Have

6 Time-Tested Ecommerce Marketing Strategy That Works Everytime

Effective ecommerce marketing strategy that works starts from the moment a plan is placed to the time a potential customer lands on your website, down to the checkout page, and ends in customer support and re-targeting.
I prefer to ground it in the concept of “building” an ecommerce marketing strategy rather than just “making” one. The reason is that, this whole process needs to be taken a step at a time, and not just putting everything down.

So, let’s get started and build our ecommerce marketing strategy, step-by-step.

Step #1. Website optimization

Everything starts in the development stages of your ecommerce! A lot of websites are built without taking into account optimization at the point of build.
Website Optimization happens the moment a plan to create one is put in place. Your website is your address, the place where customers shop, at the same time have an experience that comes nothing short of wonderful.
Intuitive layouts, easy-to-read language, simple navigation, and a variety of design elements must lead to a clear call-to-action. Keep it easy for consumers to find the product or information they need. Strive to present your website as calming to the eye as possible. And when necessary,  create landing pages, and avoid cluttered product pages.
Website optimization is a tested and effective ecommerce marketing strategy that works all the time!

Step #2. Search Engine Optimization

After your ecommerce website is done and optimized, the next step is to do SEO. SEO or search engine optimization is an enormous and varied task handled usually by a team of specialist and costs ranging from a thousand to tens of thousands of dollars monthly.
The goal is How To Ensure Your ecommerce website is being found in Google search?

Some of the things to take into consideration regarding SEO are the following:

• Website analysis–Keywords, backlinks, structured data, schema and content are but a few of the important areas to consider in this step.
• Keyword optimization–Researching keywords, keywords density.
• Content generation–textual, informational, and graphical content that constitute the page.
• Maintaining an updated understanding of what the major search engines, especially Google, are using as criteria for SERP.
• Information technology skills–strong background in HTML, CSS, a number of programming languages and familiarity with a variety of operating systems and hardware platforms.
• Client management–an optimized site must, first of all, conform to the business strategy of the site owner.
• Analytical processing–ability to analyze problems, find appropriate resources and develop solutions.

The above list is summarized in the following work an SEO guy does:

• Content writing and content marketing–Many SEO specialists acquire this skill early in their careers, as it requires less technical knowledge than other SEO professional roles.
• Link builder--This is an SEO specialization that is growing in importance as more search engines have adopted backlinking as an important part of their search algorithms.
• Web researcher–The Internet is a complex, dynamic environment that requires constant analysis and evaluation.

Search Engine Optimization is a tested ecommerce marketing strategy that works every time! If you can do this without going to SEO companies, you are well on your way to an ultra successful ecommerce business venture!

Step #3. Mobile optimization

Responsive design used to dominated the web, but not anymore! Today, mobile optimization is the new preferable strategy of choice for business and personal sites.
Instead of simply compressing and slightly rearranging the content on the screen, the entire user experience is built around smaller devices .
Mobile optimization makes the conversion process easier and less stressful on the user. Below are some of the mark of a mobile optimized ecommerce website:

-Larger buttons
-Smaller images
-Auto-fill form fields
-Auto-detect location settings
-Guest checkout option
-Multiple screens instead of scrolling

Step #4. Website content

Content Writing is not just about writing any contents. The scope include but not limited to researching industry-related topics (combining online sources, interviews and studies), writing clear marketing copy to promote our products/services, and preparing well-structured drafts using Content Management Systems or a blog.

Blogging Help Boost Your Ecommerce SEO

Responsibilities

-Research industry-related topics (combining online sources, interviews and studies)
-Write clear marketing copy to promote for products/services
-Prepare well-structured drafts using Content Management Systems
-Proofread and edit blog posts before publication
-Submit work to editors for input and approval
-Coordinate with marketing and design teams to illustrate articles
-Conduct simple keyword research and use SEO guidelines to increase web traffic
-Promote content on social media
-Identify customers’ needs and gaps in the contents and recommend new topics
-Ensure all-around consistency (style, fonts, images and tone)
-Update website content as needed

Source

Step #5. Content marketing

Everybody on the planet starts their search in the same place no matter what they are looking for—the Google search bar. They used to joke that the best place to hide a dead body is on the second or third page of the Google search results because nobody ever goes there! If you don’t land your best content on that first search page to help someone educate themselves on a particular business problem, then you are out of sight, and out of the business.
Search engines such as Google love fresh contents. By creating contents through various verticals, it creates brand awareness for your business. This makes your content marketing more like a media publishing and provide search engines with contents to serve their users.
Consistently generating various forms of content including customer content, thought leadership pieces, press releases, analyst content, research, solution briefs, partner briefs, channel content, content for managed service providers, video interviews, blogs, etc, content marketing is one of the most tested ecommerce marketing strategy that really works.

Step #6. Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach and engage your audience. In fact, the importance of email marketing is so great that we recommend most businesses develop a plan for implementation by 2020.
An email is an essential part of our lives as professionals, individuals, and, yes, especially consumers. Think about this, how many people do you know is without an email address? There’s a good chance that you can count these people on one hand.
No matter what new tactics or strategies arise in the next few years in the digital marketing world, email marketing is still one of the most cost-effective ecommerce marketing strategy that really really work.

Other notable ecommerce strategies that are effective in addition to the 6 time-tested ones are:

-Social media marketing. I originally planned to include this in the top 6 list.. but opted not to in lieu of email marketing.
-Pay-per-click marketing. This one needs a little caution as a lot of people have lost considerable amount of money going this route.. including yourstruly.
-Re-targeting

In Conclusion

REMINDER: An ecommerce marketing strategy is slightly different than a strategy for other websites not selling products. Your main focus needs to be on building a great shopping experience – from the moment a potential customer lands on your website to the checkout page.
Let us know what you think about this 6 time-tested ecommerce marketing strategies in the comment section!

Easy Steps to Build Your Own Business Website

If you want to build and grow a successful business, a website is a must. Do you know that 97% of people in the world search the internet when they are looking for a local business. There are basically only 3% left out there that does not use the internet when searching for something. How the world have changed in so little time.
I have been meaning for months, to write a post about how you could build your own business website in easy steps. For some odd reasons, I couldn't quite get my thoughts around it, until today!

Anyone can build a basic business website by themselves

Creating your own business websites used to be reserved for tech savvy people and people with deep pockets! But not anymore. Today, anyone can build there own basic website on a $20 per month budget! However, keep in mind that basic websites can easily be outgrown by your needs. That is when you have to get professionals to have specialized functionalities built for you. And with that functionalities, the cost naturally goes up.

Steps to go through when building your own website

• Define your purpose
• Find a solid web hosting company
• Choose your site builder
• Outline your web pages
• Optimize your website
• Set up a payment processor

Let’s get through these one by one:

1. Define your purpose

What do you want to sell to the world about? If a business is solely about making more money for the owners, it’s probably not worth starting in the first place. Most if not all the successful business have successfully provide value to their target market. Google, for example, is not created for solely making money, but have provided a very valuable solution in the form of a search engine. Facebook has a very strong “why” to help us connect with more people, and so on.
Effort and resources are wasted just because the builder didn't sit down and asked the right questions. Questions like: What functionalities does your site need? Are you selling products online? You need to choose a site builder and host that specializes in ecommerce. What if you are dealing with digital products? You will need the ability to send files automatically. Do you want to provide direction to your store’s physical location? Make a list of features and functions you need. You will refer to this list as you consider which web host or site builder to select.
What features or marketing strategies would you like to explore? If you have plans to use paid ads, for example, you may want to make sure the host you choose can support a large increase in traffic and the easy creation of landing pages.

Start with the basic features and leave out the more complex later to the pros.

Defining your purpose can save you a lot of stresses and money along the way! And it may well shape your financial structure in the future!
Research your field. Research the competition. Here is a useful article on using information and  data to formulate your own strategy and easily implement them. Data-Driven Ecommerce Strategy: 5 Easy Steps to Implement

2. Choose a Solid web hosting company

In choosing a web hosting company, go for solid infra-structure. Avoid saturated web hosting companies that offer cheap hosting. They usually come with cheap service.
Because we are talking here of business website with ecommerce, it will serve you well to go for hosting that specialized in ecommerce for the simple reason that they usually are good at providing you the necessary package for an ecommerce website. A lot of web hosting are like do-it-all hosting. They host all, but are really great in one particular field. Since we are talking about business here, it will benefit you well to choose hosting services that specialized in ecommerce.

Look for the following features and packages:

• Decide what type of hosting you need: Shared or cloud hosting is cheaper and will be sufficient for most small business websites.
• High traffic or large ecommerce brands should consider dedicated or VPS hosting.
• Pay attention to uptime: If your site is unavailable, you are going to lose money. Look for a web host that offers at least 99.9% uptime and will refund a portion of your fees if they fail to meet their guarantee.
• Consider security: Hosts are tasked with keeping your web files secure, so you want a host that cares about security. Look for features such as an included SSL certificate, firewall, and malware protection.
• Think of the future: If your site is for informational purposes, a cheap, shared hosting plan may be fine. However, consider whether traffic will increase substantially as your business grows and look for a hosting provider with plans that will grow with you.
• Look at features: Hosts often offer a wide range of other products, including site builders, SSL certificates (which give your site the https prefix), free domain names, marketing credits, and email hosting. Choose a host that offers what you need, not a more expensive plan that includes “free” features you will never use.
• Pay attention to pricing details: Many hosts offer discounts on the first year or a “free” domain name that renews at a much higher rate. Before you buy, check on the renewal price for your second year of hosting service.

One of the more helpful thing I do when choosing a web hosting for my need is to check and read the reviews. Reading reviews allows you to get into the experiences of others with similar need as you.

A word of caution though: Review can be manipulated to suit an agenda.

Once you are able to find your web hosting of choice. Register you domain name.

3. Choose your site builder

All hosting providers I know comes with a proprietary site builder or access to a third-party builder with your hosting plan.
Here is a quick look at the most popular site builders on the market.
WordPress. As the most popular content management system on the internet, you have likely heard of WordPress. WordPress can be as complex or simple as you like, and there are a variety of themes to choose from. If you plan to expand your site, WordPress is an excellent option.
Thirtybees is an ecommerce platform that comes with nice and elegant theme you can build your business website on. I comes with a blog which handy for delivering contents.
Squarespace is a template-based site building tool and an all-in-one platform. They offer hosting, domains, a site builder, and even ecommerce features. Squarespace sites are quite flexible, but options are slightly limited compared to WordPress.
Weebly is a super easy to use, template-based site builder with drag and drop features. It is an affordable option, but businesses looking to expand will quickly outgrow Weebly.
At Shoptech Media, we have our own website builder system that have ecommerce as the core. Our system comes with a blog, and all the necessary functionalities an ecommerce business website need. It comes with a Data Analytics that is comparable or better than google analytics in terms of wider user data coverage. It also comes with a ticketing system and an email system to run your email campaign. Plan is in the work to build into it a POS. Contact us on how you can avail of these advance functionalities to take your ecommerce business to another level! Our team is standing by to accommodate your need.

4. Structure your web pages to get your navigation up to par

Keep in mind when you build your own business website, users should not have to dig to find information. If a page is important, be sure to list it in the main navigation bar or the footer.

Here are a few main website pages every site should include:

• Home page: This is your elevator pitch, your first impression. Explain who your company is and your values. Include a CTA to other pages, such as contact and products or services.
• Product/Services pages: Include one page for each major service or product line your business offers. For example, a bakery might include cakes, pies, and catering pages.
• About us page: A look at the history and the people behind your company. What is your founding story? What background do you want to share? Are you a veteran, a former police officer, do you have a family?
• Contact page: How can site visitors reach you? Your contact page may include an online form, phone number, address, hours, and embedded Google map.
• Privacy statement: This is the page where you explain what information you gather from site visitors and what you do with the information.

5. Optimize your website

The question remaining for you at this point is: How will people find you on the internet? Most users locate the information they need by typing (or speaking) a search into Google. For example, a family looking for a children’s clothing store might type in “kids clothing near me.” Or they log into their social media accounts and tell friends about it! These actions are part of the so called "search engine optimization(SEO)".

If you use WordPress, download the Yoast SEO plugin.
If you use WordPress.org, make sure you download JetPack and use the guide that comes with it to optimize your site.
Squarespace users can use the checklist provided by Squarespace.Our ecommerce system comes SEO ready.

Additional resource regarding SEO:

Two Reasons Why SEO helps your ecommerce business?

13 easy ecommerce SEO tips to generate more traffic to your shop

Page Load Speed! How fast is fast enough for your ecommerce SEO?

Does Blogging Help Boost Your Ecommerce SEO?

6. Set up payment processor

Popular payment options include PayPal, Stripe, and Square, though there are plenty of other payment processor options. The host you choose may provide an ecommerce option, as well.

Three of the most popular payment processor options:

• Stripe is an online payment API that works well for e-commerce companies. Collect for Stripe will also allow you to accept in-person payments.
• PayPal is one of the most popular online payment processors. They offer online checkout, invoicing, and payments that work well for most ecommerce businesses.
• Square offers a variety of POS systems, online checkout, and invoicing that works well for both online and brick-and-mortar businesses.

When selecting a payment processor, consider how your target audience prefers to pay and also how much each processor charges.

In Conclusion

Stick to the basic. Creating a business website can sometimes feel overwhelming. But with the wide range of tools and solutions on the market today, getting your business online no longer requires knowing how to code or spending thousands of dollars.
Following the steps outlined above to build your own business website, your business can be ready to connect with the 4.33 billion internet users in just an afternoon.

20 Best Ecommerce Suppliers for Your Online Store

Are you looking for ecommerce suppliers for your online retail business? Looking for the right suppliers can be downright hard if you do not know who and where they are.  I have researched 20 of the best product suppliers in the world today. This list should give you plenty to choose from.

The Top 20 Best Ecommerce Suppliers for Your Online Store

1. Alibaba

Alibaba offers a wholesale marketplace where you can find distributors for all different product niches.  With over 60,000 experienced manufacturers with design & production capabilities and on-time delivery and hundreds of millions of products in over 40 different major categories, including consumer electronics, machinery and apparel. Alibaba is easily the biggest ecommerce supplier in the world today! You can easily compare options in a particular product or niche.

2. Oberlo

Do you want your products dropshipped directly to your customers? Oberlo is the one for you. Oberlo is a dropshipping service.  The best thing about oberlo is that, it is partner with Shopify. This connection offers you the best of both world. They offer a wide array of products you can choose from right at your finger tips. Everything from fashion to technology. Oberlo lets you find products, add them to your Shopify store, and ship them directly to your customers. No inventory, no risk.

3. Sunrise Wholesale

Sunrise Wholesale offers another dropshipping option. Not as big and as popular as Oberlo, but just as effective. And it helps you facilitate the sale of brand name products. So tons of different niches exist from tech to decor. And they offer technology to integrate directly into your shop.
This wholesaler provides customers with products for their own drop shipping business. Sunrise has a large list of product categories including wholesale electronics, apparel, gifts, home decor, bulk buys, tools, toys, garden, and more!
Sunrise Wholesale integrates well with Ebay, Amazon, BigCommerce and Shopify.

4. eBay Business Supply

Ebay Business supply is a one-stop shop for all your business needs. Great value on new, used, and refurbished products. EBay does not serve as an actual supplier of products in this instance. But the ecommerce giant does offer a platform. And it helps businesses find wholesale products and supplies. So you can browse by industry. And compare options from different providers.
Take advantage of deep discounts on bulk purchases. Whether you need tractors or skid steers for your construction business or mannequins and cash registers for your retail store, eBay is the one-stop shopping solution for all of your business needs.

5. Doba

Doba is a droppshipping simplified. It focuses on connecting ecommerce suppliers with qualified manufacturers. And they handle all of the shipping and logistics for you. But they also integrate inventory. And integrate sales data right into your site.
Each supplier in the Doba marketplace has to meet rigorous technical and performance standards. View any supplier’s scorecard to see their fulfillment rates, average processing time, ship times and cost, and much more.
Excellent thing is that you can export your product listings to Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, Magento and many more ecommerce platform. They have API with over 100 major ecommerce platforms, including Amazon and eBay.

6. SaleHoo

SaleHoo is a supplier directory, and online community for dropshippers, wholesalers, and e-commerce stores. It is an easy-to-use tool that helps online sellers find profitable products from certified, low-cost suppliers.
SaleHoo is an online company that’s interested in you and your success and they have a great community of support staff aching and practically begging to help you succeed.

7. Wholesale 2B

Wholesale 2B is one of the best ecommerce supplier in the world. It is up there with the giants like Oberlo. They provide cutting edge tools & services, especially designed for dropship businesses that wish to integrate with dropshippers. They carry over one million products and facilitates dropshipping services for ecommerce sites. This site is known for having some of the most competitive prices you can find in the B2C market today.

8. Printify

Printify is a dropshipping and print on demand service for small businesses. It simplifies the way custom products are created and lets thousands of ecommerce merchants build profitable businesses. You can have custom T-shirts, hoodies, shoes, bags, socks, hats, phone cases, mugs, stickers, and more. Printify also boost of a robust API that integrates well with major ecommerce platforms.

9. Redbubble

Redbubble is another print on demand service that facilitates the delivery of products right to your customers. The platform give independent artists a meaningful new way to sell their creations. They connect over 700,000 artists and designers across the planet with millions of passionate fans.

10. Worldwide Brands

Is a directory of wholesale distributors from around the globe. They have more than 20 years B2B experience, they’re one of the more established marketplaces out there. Wordlwide Brands boast of more than 16+ Million certified wholesale products. And pride themselves as the only 100% certified legitimate directory!
The Worldwide Brands App lets you instantly find Certified Drop Shippers and Bulk Suppliers for those product ideas as soon as you think of them, no matter where you are!

11. Dropshipper.com

Dropshipper.com has an entire online database of products that you can add to your website and sell directly to customers. You can search for a specific type of product or just browse to find the best deals.
if you need product for your Website, Amazon, Ebay, Shopify, Volusion or BigCommerce then we are here to help you. Dropshipper.com carry over 2 million items with Drop Shipping directly to your customers. All product will upload to Shopify, Volusion, Big Commerce, WooCommerce Word Press, Ebay, Amazon or any other website.

12. National Dropshippers

National Dropshippers offers a huge selection of products from their dropshipping warehouses. They take pride in their constant efforts to offer the best range of products in the industry while also providing friendly, knowledgeable customer service. National Dropshippers keeps up with current trends and cutting-edge new products. When combined with the personal, attentive service you will receive from our staff, this is the surest way to provide our customers with the best dropshopping experience possible.

13. Wholesale Central

Wholesale Central is a B2B directory that helps wholesale buyers find wholesale suppliers and products. You can find items from Wholesalers, Distributors, Importers, and Manufacturers in a variety of niches. Wholesale Central connect buyers directly with wholesale sources, allowing both buyers and suppliers to maximize their profits.

14. The Thomas Network

This website is actually a network of various ecommerce suppliers. The online directory includes suppliers from various industries, so you can browse or search to find the options that are best for your retail business. They boast of 500,000+ Detailed Supplier Profiles!

15. Megagoods

A consumer electronics distributor, with concentration on drop ship/ fulfillment services.  Megagoods provides brand name tech items that cover everything from kitchen gadgets to gaming to car accessories.

16. Maker’s Row

Maker’s Row is a directory of American factories and manufacturing facilities. So you can use it to find domestically produced products that fit into your niche.

17. ChinaBrands.com

If you’re interested in dropshipping products made in China, this site includes a huge array of items, from toys and games to clothing and accessories. Chinabrands offers direct access to hundreds of thousands of the most popular products lines, with new and exciting arrivals added daily at the very lowest prices, it bring a world of online opportunity direct to the retailer, tailored to meet the exacting needs of their customers and key markets.

18. Modalyst

Modalyst is a dropshipping supplier with a variety of products. The site also offers integrations with some of the top ecommerce platforms and specializes in fast shipping. Find thousands of top suppliers in the USA and in Europe. With one click, ecommerce stores can add products to sell on their websites. This includes wholesale pricing, images, and product descriptions.

19. Spocket

Top dropshipping suppliers of original US/EU products. Spocket allows you to choose the best products to sell from thousands of dropshipping suppliers all over the world. There are more than 30,000 entrepreneurs who use Spocket to smoothly manage their dropshipping business!

20. DHgate.com

DHgate.com is one of the world's best ecommerce suppliers for goods made in China, connecting international buyers with Chinese wholesale sellers who offer the same quality products found elsewhere at a fraction of the price. DHgate hosts over 30 million products in a wide range of categories including Apparel & Accessories, Computers & Networking, Consumer Electronics, Toys & Hobbies, Health & Beauty, Bags & Jewelry, Home, Auto, and more.

In conclusion

This list is not exhaustive. There are a lot of ecommerce suppliers out there that we may not know about. If you happen to know one, please don't hesitate to let us know. This list will probably evolve over time as new trends and players enter the scene of ecommerce retail suppliers. But we present to you the 20 best ecommerce suppliers in the world today available for your online store.
Additional resource on dropshipping:

Guarantee A Successful Dropshipping Ecommerce Website

6 Things You Can Improved to have Successful Drop Shipping business

5 Indispensable Ecommerce Features Your Shop Should Have

Does your ecommerce platform comes with these features that are indispensible? If you are not sure you do, read on and check the list in this article against your ecommerce store features!

Here are 5 Indispensable Ecommerce features You Ecommerce Website Should Have

#1 An Really Good Ecommerce Have a Personalized Emails

Here in Shoptech Media, we believe that a personalized email system is the top indispensable feature every ecommerce should possess, to be able for your to effectively run your email marketing. With email marketing, there's a lot you can do to reach your customers or your target audience based on the kind of transactions they've completed on your website and what their browsing patterns tell you about the audience segments they belong to.

Things you can do with a personalized email system:

• Send upsell and cross-sell emails to people that highlight certain products based on a shopper's purchase or viewing history.
• You can keep your shoppers coming back for more with newsletters that feature product updates and exclusive discounts only available to subscribers.
• Send special offers to customers who've bought from you in the past but haven't visited your store in a while.
• Trigger emails to people who've abandoned their shopping carts, hopefully getting them to come back to your store and complete the purchase.

A lot of ecommerce platforms out there does not have personalized emails. They rely on third-party email sending system that either charge too high or too limited in functionality.

#2.  Data Analytics for Data-driven Ecommerce

Data analytics is the second most important and indispensable feature for an ecommerce store where the game is to continually adapt to buyers' buying decisions. Not only ecommerce websites, but for any website for that matter. You need to know who your top customers are, where new customers are coming from, the most and least popular products and categories in your store, as well as your conversion rates, and perhaps many more functionality.

Data-driven ecommerce is an indispensable concept for doing business online. As technology constantly evolves and continually shapes the buying behaviors of customers, your ecommerce strategy must also provide avenues for you to touch your customers.

Data-Driven Ecommerce Strategy: 5 Easy Steps to Implement

How Data Analytics Enhances Ecommerce Business Performance

The more inputs and insights you have about your customers and what they're doing, the better you'll be able to double down on the marketing tactics and channels that are performing the best. These types of insights are also great for personalizing and optimizing your website's customer experience. The more you know, the more you can do to keep sales moving upward.

Google analytics is a good place to start understanding the importance of a data-driven strategy. But with google, you as a store owner, cannot own the data. The best ecommerce platforms provides business people with that same or better functionality and owning your data at the same time. You'll have better security while allowing audience insights to guide your business decisions with real data.

#3. A Blog Platform To Boost Content Marketing and SEO

Blogs are indispensable ecommerce features. They are great as a way to provide rich stories and engagement for your audience - if you want to build long-term relationships with people, not every touchpoint should overtly be part of a sales funnel. Particularly great blog posts can attract powerful backlinks and can rank for long-tail search queries, in ways that product pages simply can't.
Google favors sites with dynamic, diverse, consistently diet of article contents. And blogging allows you to publish deep dives into product use cases, tips and backstories in ways that are not appropriate for product pages, allowing you to rank for informational, as opposed to transactional, keywords.

When your blog platform is integrated with your shop, it is not only easier for you to manage from an operational standpoint, but helps keep people on your store's website for longer periods of time, which also affects SEO. Of course you can do it with a third-party blog like Wordpress, the downside to that is your contents is located in a different place. But if your ecommerce have a blog integrated to its core, the contents basically reside within the database and are easily retrieve and tie up with your products.

Build Contents to Increase Visibility with Prestashop-thirtybees CMS Module

Does Blogging Help Boost Your Ecommerce SEO?

#4. Discount Codes and Holiday Sales for Merchandise Promotions

Often, if a visitor is considering making a purchase, the availability of a discount can make the difference. Almost all consumers are influenced by coupons in some way.

96% of all consumers use coupons, and 81% of them do so regularly. Looking at Millennial mothers, 70% will search for or download mobile coupons while they're shopping.

Source skulocal
You can use any number of third-party apps to handle this aspect of your online store, but they vary a lot in terms of capabilities. Using a platform where the features are built-in not only gives you more control over the kind of promotions and discounts you're running but makes it way easier for you manage in the long run.

#5. SEO Features to Maximize Your Discoverability

With Schema Pro module, you stay ahead of your competition in search engine results. 90% of ecommerce website finds it hard to rank in search results, and one of the primary reason is becasue they are not Google friendly. Meaning that, search engine like Google find it hard to read the data being sent to them. SchemaPro module gives you that edge over your competitors in search results display. The possibilities are endless!

When it comes to online marketing for ecommerce, you need the ability to take charge of your SEO. Your ecommerce system should come ready with it at the very least. But most ecommerce platforms does not have enough default SEO functionality. You have to go ask somebody to make it happen for you. I believe having a really good SEO features like schema and structured data sets your system 1 step above the others.
Some platforms have one or more of these features, so it's important to consider as you shop around.

Other indispensable ecommerce features to have are:

 

• One Page Checkout
• Ability to Send PDF Invoices
• Smart Social Media Functionalities
• Conversion Rate Optimization Options
• Easy Onsite Promotional Unit Management
• Ability for User Generated Contents

In Conclusion

If you want to have your ecommerce store developed by a developer, ask them if the system will have the mentioned top 5 indispensable ecommerce features. I understand that some developers charge cheap, but the product that is put forth usually are way behind the basics. It might be better to go spend a little northward and get your ecommerce platform up to world standard than have those features added later where it usually gets a little steep in price.

Why More and More Ecommerce Websites Fail to Break Through

Right now everything in my head is changing, the vision of the web I imagined 10 years ago is not what it seems to be today. To be honest, I am sincerely surprised that more and more ecommerce websites fail to break through considering that more and more people are buying online. I have seen a lot, and I mean a lot of them starts so promising, only to fold everything up within months. And then, I stop to wonder why? They seem to have done everything they could have done to properly sell and market the products, yet ended up with empty pockets.
Have you started to wonder why some sites work very well and others do not? Is the reason about money? Maybe it is! But quite frankly, it might not! Or are there a much deeper reason to this madness?

We Used to NOT care about emotions

Some time back, if somebody told me that it takes emotion for a website to be effective, I would have replied "we don't care, we just want to sell". .However, it is well documented that it is always easier to sell to someone who is already emotionally attached. Just take for instance a beautiful girl who is promoting "ingco grass trimmer/cutter". See photo below.
There is a reason why it is not a man but a beautiful girl is modeling it.  "Oops ... suddenly you bought them without understanding anything ( 'your wife will be happy ahah)'.

Do you see what I mean here? In today's stiff ecommerce competition, it is not enough for people just to "want to sell".

Are you an Airbnb or a Hotels.com?

To go to Hotels.com is always a chore for me ... the site is "bland", it's teeming with promotions, and it's feels crowded. I go there to find the room the cheapest possible and closest to my point of destination.
Honestly, the more I can close the deal quickly, the more it suits me ... because frankly reserving a room inflates me completely on this kind of site. It's a bit like shopping, you do it because you have to do it, but if you didn't have to, you wouldn't go.

Hotels.com reviews are peppered with not so nice comments

Hotels.com it's one of those foolish companies, who think they are being smart, by avoiding all feedback from their customers directly. They may have been able to keep me as a customer, but after chatting with a fake robot, and seeing that they have no email to contact, and calling them only to be disconnected because I didn't match one of their stupid erroneous prompts, I realized hotels.com is a scam artist like company. I wrote a detailed and in-depth review of a hotel I stayed at, the good and the bad. Hotels.com changed my 3 star rating to an 8 star rating, without my consent or permission, and they never posted the paragraphs of text I shared.

Source: hotels.com reviews
While Hotels.com site is "practical and functional", I have never found the shopping experience pleasant and accommodating.

In ecommerce you have to think in Airbnb mode

All things about airbnb is with an air of renewal. On the booking site, there are several things that strike me… the first thing is simplicity, we are not asked a thousand things… there's just a big field for research and that's nice. It must also be said that I like sites that limit actions on the screen ... after all, people want to have a vacation, not ride on a fighter plane.

Airbnb interface

Airbnb is not without bad review but the simplicity is off the roof. It only presents a few options. I'm looking for something. I don't need to say when I come… when I leave… how many people… Basically, where do you want to go? And so I like that, and people like that!
Personally I have never traveled through Airbnb (because I'm not a fan of homestay), but when I browse the site… it's distracting. Basically I'm looking for the coolest thing I can find ... and not a vulgar hotel with 4 walls. Of course I am looking for accommodation, but we are in a different logic ... we are looking for an experience, we do not want to sleep in a bed.

Internet users need to feel your store is "real"

This is where airbnb really get it right. Every property listed with them are real and personal. However, being real does not have to mean that the images is amateurish, but it is a good criterion for differentiation.

It's the same with your ecommerce

Now when people/clients call me I have a new favorite question that I love to ask: "Why will I come to your site rather than another? " They might say, "well, I have a good price" or "I am a certified dealer of this product.." or "My product is new or revolutionary". But reality sinks in and the website ends up with no traffic and nobody is buying anything.
To drive the point of what I have been saying: Anybody can do the following: "A product card with a photo, a description ... a price everyone can do it". And it's totally true, moreover, if you're just a bad seller, I don't see any reason how I would want to come to your house.
It reminds us of netizen reporting on social media. The videos and photos might not be of the highest quality, but it's a real, and not photoshoped or anything edited. We see real people, personal tattoos, the moles are visible… the hairstyle has slight flaws. It's very clean though ... but it breathes authenticity, it is alive.

Yes, ecommerce websites must feel authentic and real!

In conclusions

Ecommerce is a bit like going to the market ... you like it when the guy behind his stand makes you taste sausage ... "Another slice? Taste this one, it is very good! "... The idea is to awaken the taste as well as emotion.". Well in ecommerce you will understand it is exactly the same ... In the case that I mentioned Airbnb and Hotels.com have radically different strategies ... the difference between you and them is that, they have huge resources and you don't! So do not do like Hotels.com, unless you have protected financially, otherwise you are definitely  cooked.

Additional resources

Are You Ready To Start Your ecommerce Business this 2020?

Planning Growth of Your Ecommerce Business: 5 Key Best Practices

How To Create A Member-Only Ecommerce With Prestashop-thirtybees

Have you heard of private sales or direct sales or a member-only ecommerce? Yes, these are the shops that force you to register so that you can take advantage of their offers. This is what we will discussing today!
Member-Only Ecommerce  are direct sales technique used to get customers to register before they are able to see the details of the offer or the product. This technique is a good way to get the email of the customer before they even purchase the product. It is also an excellent way to grow your emailing database for your email campaigns later on.

The General Rule in development

As a general rule, it is always wiser to start with what you already have at hand rather than investing in new modules every time. For example, if you want to get into the private sales or direct sales or member-only sales market, or whatever you call it -Prestahop-thirtybees comes with such functionality and it is easy to configure it, really. This handy feature is so under-utilized that nobody even bother to check if this really exist with their system. And it is absolutely FREE!

Why  Do A Members-only Shop?

What is the point of a private sales store? It's a bit fashionable at the moment, but the first objective is above all to arouse interest in forcing the internet user to register on the store. After that, you have to be convincing in terms of prices - buyers  would naturally expect big discounts! However, this can also be used with VIP sales strategy.
The niche VIP strategy… you know? The concept is similar, but except that we do not break prices, we target a specific clientele with carefully chosen products that can please, with a very "strict" aspect on the type of client. Example, you can set up a private shop or a category for the sale of figurines catered to an exclusive clientele of pure Geek without breaking the prices.
If you are trying to get started in this niche, try to be original in your way of doing things, but avoid copying what large companies do by wanting to offer the same kind of products. Choose a different, segmented strategy!
With that said, in this tutorial, I am going to provide a resource so that you can right away get the hang of learning this wonderful feature that comes with the core Prestashop-thirtybees system.

Tutorial Resource and List of Tasks

1 x banner.psd file
Download sources
In this tutorial, we are going to go through the following stages of creating ourselves a new member-only ecommerce store.

• Deleting existing banners
• Integrating new banners
• Creation of a category with limitation and assignment of the product.
• Adjust category related error message
• Disable all extraneous modules
• Configure the basket module in no-ajax mode
• Add a new CSS rule in global.css
• Simulate an order with customer registration

Alright, let's dive in!

Login to your back office and go to your Modules and Services menu! We are going to disable some default images that came along with the default install.

Deleting and Uploading the new banners

search for "block Image Slider" and click "Configure", like so.

Once in the module configuration page, look for the "+" icon to add your new banner. It should bring you to a page like the one below:

Enter the details of your banner. Place a dummy target URL for the moment. We will get to that later when we have created the category to point to. Click save.
In the banner list page, disable the default images. DO NOT delete them yet, as shown in the screenshot.

Save your work by clicking the save button.

Creating the Category and assigning the correct member-only permission

Go to "Catalog" menu, and click on "Categories". Once in the categories list page, click the "Add New Category" icon at the top right. Enter you category name and details. For the sake of this tutorial, enter just the category name. Go back to it later and play around with it to make yourself more familiarize. Scroll down to the bottom until you see the "Group Access" options. Uncheck the checkboxes except the "Customer" group. Save your work.

This should make your new category accessible only by login in members! Pretty stuff!
Before moving on to the next task. Go back to the category you have just created, then scroll down to the bottom where you see the "Friendly URL". You should see it just above the "Group Access". Copy the text. We are going to use that for the target URL of the banner image we have created in the previous step.
To complete your target url, attach the friendly url of your category to the URL of your webshop. For example http://localhost/tb110/organic-garlic, because my installation is named tb110 inside the root directory localhost.
Go to the homepage and refresh. Click on the banner, it should direct your to the page like the screenshot below:

Creating/assigning the products to the member-only ecommerce

To do this is simple. Go to your products list then click on "Add new Product". Give your new product a name, then click on "Save and Stay" button.
Next is to associate the new product to the category. Click on the "associations". Click on the "Home" icon, then select the category you created in the previous step. Mine is called Organic Garlic.

Click the "Save and Stay" button to save your work. Next, click on the "Price" menu. Give your "Retail price with tax" an amount, then scroll down and click on "Add new specific price".

Apply your discount and set it to percent. Mine is set to 50%, like so.
Go to the homepage and refresh. You should see your new product and the category.

Disabling the Unnecessary modules

Let's disable the "Block best seller" and "Block featured product" modules to give our member-only store a unique look. Go to your homepage and refresh. You should not be able to see the products in the homepage.

Add a new CSS rule in global.css

Let's add a new CSS rule to our banner image so that opacity gets activated when customers hover over it. To do this is very simple. Go to your FTP, then look for the folder "theme" in your core prestashop-thirtybees files, then open the the theme you are using, mine is "niara" theme from thirtybees. Open the "css" folder.
The path should be: \themes\niara\css
Open the "global.css" in your text/code editor, then scroll down to the bottom and add the following css code:

Simulate an order with customer registration

At this point we are basically done with this tutorial. Now it is time to test everything! Let's do that!
Go to your homepage then click the banner.  It should give you the error message saying you are not allowed access. Click on the "sign in" menu at the top to create a new account, like so.

After creating the new user account, you should be able to access the member only product with no problem!

Congratulations!

You have just learned how to create a member-only ecommerce website!
For great resource on Prestashop-thirtybees check out our FREE tutorials:
Learning Prestashop-thirtybees

Using the Store Analytics Data to Your Advantage

Lots and lots of good stuff are available to your absolutely FREE!

20 Most Profitable Ecommerce Business Niches To Try in 2020 Part 2

This is the second half of the article 20 most profitable ecommerce niches to try in 2020.

The first part of this article which contains the top 10 most profitable ecommerce business niches to try in 2020 is found here.

Several Niches made surprising realty in the top 10

There were several niches that I didn't think are going to be in the top 10 that has made their way there. To say that I am surprised is an under-statement. I was literally stunned, especially the Waste Management niche, and Senior Living taking the #1 niche overall is unbelievable!
I was expecting Fashion and Technology niches to take the 1 and 2 spot with how saturated and rampant these niches are in the web today! Them taking the 4th and 10th spot respectively was a little disappointing. But still, the industry volume is still such at a high level with 713 Billion for Fashion and 351 Billion for Technology! There is still plenty of opportunity to make money in these niches!

The top 10 profitable ecommerce business niches with projected sales volume.

#1. Senior Living 1 Trillion, #1 in the top 20 most profitable ecommerce niches
#2. Online travel = USD 817 billion
#3. Augmented reality and virtual reality = USD 767 billion
#4. Fashion = USD 713 billion
#5. Waste management = USD 484 billion
#6. Automotive tire market = USD 453 billion
#7. Home healthcare = USD 447 billion
#8. Cloud migration = USD 411 billion
#9. Dietary supplements = USD 349 billion
#10. Technology = USD 351 billion
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#11. Athleisure = USD 350 billion by 2020

This niche is probably the most surprising one that cracked the top 20, and at 11th is just a tad short of entering the top 10 most profitable niche in the next 5 years!

Athleisure is a term made popular by the New York-based fashion industry 20 years after lululemon got its start. It describes a category of clothing meant to look athletic, but with no inherent technical function. Put simply, it’s the antithesis of the business I love.

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Athlesure has nothing to do with an athletic uniforms. It is the “athletic-look” fashions that have muddied the waters of real technical clothing. It is simply called "active wear". Yes, I think that is more understandable as seen in the photo below. Credit not ours:

#12. Gardening = USD 299 billion by 2022

In the UK along, people are spending an average of £24 billion per year on gardening products, representing 1/4th of the total gardening sales for 2019.

“While many consumers prefer in-person purchases for their garden goods, the growth of online horticultural retailing reflects the wider consumer trend towards internet shopping,” found a report by Oxford Economics commissioned by the body last year. “Consumer research shows that around £1 in every £10 of expenditure on garden plants is now spent online.”

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Soak in the following data:
According to analyst firm IMRG, garden was the fourth-strongest growth category in 2018, up 18% for the year as a whole – a figure which includes outdoor furniture sales.
Millais Nurseries, which runs Rhododendrons.co.uk, reported online sales growth of 40% last year. The firm worked with eCommerce agency Iconography to revamp its website, which went live last August.
Incredible growth in the gardening industry! If you are not set on your niche yet, this is the one to grab!

#13. Graphic Processing Unit(Graphic Cards) = USD 157 billion by 2022

The demand for the GPU market is expected to rise during the forecast period across the globe. It is due to constant changes in the graphic games, augmented reality (AR) &virtual reality (VR) gaining traction, and artificial intelligence (AI).

GPUs have been transformed to general purpose graphical processing units and can be viewed as external devices that can perform parallel computations for problems that don’t only involve graphics.

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Lately, GPUs have experienced a tremendous growth, mainly driven by the gaming industry. GPUs are now considered to be programmable architectures and devices consisting of several many-core processors capable of running hundreds of thousands of threads concurrently.

#14. Webhosting services = USD 154 billion by 2022

Here is what the experts said in 2018 about the growth of the webhosting services niche.

The global web hosting services market size will grow by USD 72.79 billion during 2019-2023 at a CAGR of over 13%. Growth of the e-commerce market and the implementation of AI in web hosting are some of the factors expected to drive market growth

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The real growth is double that of the projected growth and that is an awesome facts for ecommerce retailers! 2020 is a good year to get into webhosting services niche again!

#15. Cooking = USD 143 billion

Discover this hot $143 billion dollar niche and how you can profit from it.
You won’t believe how many people are ready to order a selection of smoothies for the next 2-3 days instead of making them. That’s proof people will pay for convenience.
Healthy meal deliveries are a growing niche too as more and more people can afford to order freshly cooked lunch at the office or a weekly family menu.

#16. Wireless connectivity = USD 127 billion

The growth of the wireless connectivity market is driven by the advancements in the telecommunications industry and high adoption of smartphones, increased demand for wireless sensor networks for creating smart infrastructure, increased demand for low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks in IoT applications, significant increase in the internet penetration rate, and rise in the adoption of IoT. Moreover, significant financial support from governments across the world for R&D in the Internet of Things, emerging needs for cross-domain applications, and proliferation of Wi-Fi as wireless connectivity standard in consumer and enterprise sectors are some major opportunities for the growth of the market.

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Get ahead of others. Get into this industry while it is still growing at a remarkable tune of USD 127 billion pace!

#17. Cloud Storage = USD 112 billion by 2022

With an increase in the adoption rate of cloud computing among businesses across all platforms, the cloud storage market is expected to gain major traction during the forecast period. Primary storage solutions store the data generated directly through various business processes and applications.

Market growth is strong. The enterprise SaaS market is now generating USD 20 billion in quarterly revenues for software vendors, a number that is growing by 32 percent per year, while the worldwide public cloud services market had a projected growth of 17.3 percent in 2019.

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#18. Baby care = USD 109 billion by 2026

In the last 40 years the population of our planet has almost doubled to 7.6 billion people. 386,000 babies are born every single day. Not only that, but parents are “raving fan” spenders. New parents spend an average of $4,000 per year to care for, clothe and feed their baby.
Sub-niches within this market include Amazon affiliate marketing sites, how to organize baby showers, and sites dedicated to baby names. You could create a blog dedicated to first-time parents who are in their late 30s. Or a blog about the adoption process in different countries. Even Spencer has dipped into this niche when he bought a mom blog.
So yeah, the opportunities within this niche are pretty much unlimited.
People in this market are willing to pay almost anything to ensure their families get the best possible start in life.

#19. Kitchen appliances and equipment = USD 112 billion by 2025

The global kitchen appliances and equipment market is forecasted to register a growth of 14.12% up until 2025.

With pacing technological advancements, the kitchen concept has gone through very radical change, with a major focus on increasing efficiency around the kitchen and reducing the time spent in cleaning and cooking.
Customers of the global market have started to link technological advancement as an indication of prosperity and are spending a disproportionate amount on beautifying their homes. This has led to the growth of the smart kitchen appliances market over the forecast period.

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#20. Home decore = USD 100 billion by 2023

Home decor takes the 20th spot on this list. This niche offers something for every dropshipper. Any novice ecommerce business benefits from the niche’s steady, even performance. They can fill a store with timeless classics, styles that never go out of style, and then slowly expand from there. This niche is a good space to play and learn.
People love to decorate homes they live in whether they rent or own an apartment, people like to decorate their living places and make it feel like home.
This is why the global home decor market is expected to hit $100 billion dollars by 2020. As a result, the niche tends to be in steady demand, and there is a lot of money to be made.

If you are struggling to decide, or you need more data to work with, use the following five steps to find your niche.

• Identify your interests and passions. This may be something you've already done. ...
• Identify problems you can solve. ...
• Research your competition. ...
• Determine the profitability of your niche. ...
• Test your idea.

Helpful resources

Data-Driven Ecommerce Strategy: 5 Easy Steps to Implement

Where Should You Focus Your Ecommerce Marketing Efforts First?