The importance of E-commerce and the Infamous Shopping Cart

As we all know, e-commerce has been becoming a booming industry all over the world. There has been a surge in the number of e-commerce websites popping up over the past few years, and with good reason. Internet shopping has not only become more popular, it’s also much safer and more secure than it was years ago.

However E-commerce isn't without its flaws. One of the biggest challenges facing online retailers is attracting more visitors and improving conversion rates. This may seem obvious and of course it is, but the route to achieving this can be more complex than you think. You yourself will know how frustrating it is when you try to buy something online and everything just slows down, things start to buffer, and the entire user experience just starts to fall apart. Frustrated consumers will eventually look to another online retailer who can deliver their desired sales transaction in a quicker and simpler way. To stop this from happening you need to have a well thought off and executed e-commerce strategy.
There is no single key to a successful e-commerce strategy, there are a set of keys that you need to have in order to achieve success. These are SEO strategies, mobile commerce strategies, an appropriate e-commerce platform and user-friendly website functionality. If you can get all of them right then you’re on the right path.
One of the best ways to make the entire e-commerce process straight forward, is by creating a shopping cart software. E-commerce websites these days are built using sophisticated shopping cart software’s that are both easy for potential customers to navigate through and make purchases, but at the same time easy for business owners to update. The SenseCart is the ultimate shopping cart solution developed by our infinitely talented team. So don’t hesitate to call or mail us at your leisure if ever your business is stuck in a rut.

Does a Mobile enabled website matter to your business?

We live in the age of smart phones. If you stop to think you will realize that the age of smart phones is here to stay for a long time. Smart phones are fast becoming the primary method of surfing the web. Majority of internet related work is now done on smart phones. Travelers across the world use their smartphones to book tickets, check emails, review hotels, browse outlets and anything else required on their journey. Travelers can now create an entire itinerary from anywhere in the world.

The ever so hard working men and women in the corporate sector now use smartphones for analytics, tracking emails, spreadsheets and even official presentations are processed without a help of a home computer or laptop. With almost anything and everything available online today, millions of people now shop online using their smartphones. Mobile technology is increasing at a rapid speed.

Today, India has 243 million internet users – more than the United States and second only to China. And they are leapfrogging traditional desk-bound technology. Facebook, the world’s biggest social networking site, says that it has more than 100 million users in India, of which nearly 84 million access the site through mobile phones. This suggests the rise of the mobile internet users. 

This is one of the reasons our team of experts here at Senseware have been constantly preaching to our clients for the past few years now, the importance of having a mobile friendly website. 

Google who haven't made it a habit of sharing information about their algorithms, posted an article expressing the importance of mobile-friendly websites. 

The very first lines of the article stating that: 

“When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps. As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns.”

Top Ten Reasons Why You Need A Digital Strategy

You’re directionless! Without a digital strategy, your company lack clear strategic goals on what you want to achieve online. And even with a goal you need a digital marketing strategy to  evaluate through analytics whether or not you are achieving set goals.

There are 2 key components to your sales success. The key to success depends on differentiating yourself from your competitors. Your digital strategy can help you connect both of these key components to your audience.

When you don’t have a defined digital marketing strategy you can end up with various departments working at cross-purposes as they promote marketing messages that contradict each other.

GAIN HIGHER GOOGLE RANKING
With a well-planned digital marketing campaign in place, you can coordinate all of your online marketing strategies to raise your website’s profile and gain a higher ranking on search results. A great majority of internet users (potential customers) only go through the first page of Google to look for a certain product or service. That is why positioning on the search results is extremely important.

WORKING EFFECTIVELY
When insufficient resources are devoted to both planning and executing your digital marketing ambitions, you are likely to lack specific digital marketing skills which will make it challenging or even problematic to respond to competitive threats effectively.

IMPROVE YOU WEBSITE ANALYTICS
Every company with a website has analytics. But a great number of companies do not have the time or resources to review or act on these analytics. A digital marketing  strategy enables you to continuously improve key aspects of digital marketing like search marketing, user experience, email and social media marketing.One important fact to remember is never live in the past. Keep innovating and try new approaches in order to gain and keep your online audiences.

GETTING PROPER ROI
Potential customers will constantly access several digital marketing channels while researching your services or products. With a well planned  digital strategy, you can incorporate data from all your digital marketing channels to get a clear picture of what each contributes to the sale. This will allow you to identify the most successful strategies so you can invest your resources to get the best Return On Investment.

MAKE BETTER USE OF RESOURCES
Even though some companies may possess ample amount of resources. A large part of those resources are constantly wasted. This occurs when different parts of the marketing organizations purchase different tools or use different agencies for performing similar online marketing tasks. This is usually seen in bigger companies.

QUALITY LEAD GENERATION
Last but not least we come to the lead generation part of your strategy. Many a times companies are satisfied with digital agencies or tools providing them with a substantial amount of leads. But in most cases its always the quality of leads that should always take priority over the quantity of leads.

Follow these key pointers and we are certain that your business will spring back to life. And if you still require any assistance be sure to contact us as your leisure.

21st APRIL: Threat to your websites!

ARE YOU READY FOR THE LAUNCH OF GOOGLE’S MOBILE-FRIENDLY ALGORITHM?

When it comes to search on mobile devices, your users should get the most relevant and timely results. Google have announced that as of 21st April, they will be expanding their use of mobile-friendliness of your website as a ranking signal.

What does this mean?
That your customers will not be able to search you on GOOGLE if your website is not responsive.
Don't lose half your customers when Google changes it's algorithm on 21st April in favour of mobile-friendly sites.

Is YOUR WEBSITE is mobile-friendly, test by clicking on the link : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

WHY IS GOOGLE FAVORING MOBILE-FRIENDLY WEBSITE?

Mobile devices now account for over 50% of Internet use. If your website is not mobile friendly, over half the world's Internet users will not be able to find YOUR website as easily after 21st April. And over half the people who do visit your site will still not be able to view it properly either. 

Google is still all about delivering an unbeatable user experience, and mobile usage is only growing:

• 1/3 of organic search is now happening on mobile devices.
• 60% of internet traffic overall is happening on mobile devices.
• 18% of Millennials—who will be taking over the workforce in the next decade—are “mobile only” users, which means they do not own or frequently use desktop computers for internet access.

Mobile-compatible websites have been a best-practice since mobile internet access over-took desktop internet access at the dawn of 2014, but a year later, Google is adapting to—and thus speeding up—the trend.

And it’s not just B2C. As mobile devices get smarter and Millennials move into more corner offices, the B2B marketplace will be routed if caught unprepared. In fact, mobile-friendliness is already a significant B2B marketing issue. Google’s own research found that:

• 14% of C-Suites have completed a business purchase on a mobile device.
• 90% of execs have used their smartphones to research a business purchase.
• 34% of buyers did not complete a purchase because they ran into non-mobile-friendly interfaces. 

Find out from the following blogs which confirms the News :

• Impact on non-responsive e-commerce websites - ( Article for E-Commerce Websites Impact )

• Impact on non-responsive websites - ( Article for E-Commerce Websites Impact )

• HEAR FROM THE GOOGLE ITSELF - (Webmaster Central Blog GOOGLE) 

It’s good to be kept informed, you can ask us any question on senseware.net

Interview with Mr. Ajay Prakash, Founder & CEO of Nomad Travels speaks on Importance of having a responsive website & Digital Marketing

Q1 : Why did you decide to revamp you website into a responsive (mobile) website?
Website needs to be alive to what is the need and frankly i was bored of my our website and i needed to revamp it. And what is important is that a website has to be well thought of and you just make a website because you want to make a website, you need to make it because you have a reason because you have a product because you have a service which you will be able to offer to much wider client base by creating a website

Q2 : how do you think it is important to have a mobile enabled website in today's current senario and do you think that people are using their mobile to view website more then desktop?
Defenetly, i is just not website it the whole emphasis of commerce is actually is shifting on to the mobile platform and if it is website merely offering you information it might be accessed much on mobile but if it offering a specific service then the younger generation we definitely and totally glued in and checking constantly. So yes website which display well on the mobile is essential.

Q3 : Also can you tell us how important Social Media play an important role in your business. 
Social Media is important but you need to engaged in the right way and not getting on to Social Media if you cannot handle it correctly. The wrong kind of response will turn people off.Having said that i have used Facebook but have not used Twitter to the extent one could. But it is also amount time someone has to do this and FaceBook definitely generate leads and also let to some business done because we where theter

Q4 : What are the TIPS that you can give to listers to this Audio
Firstly you have to distinguish from what is available in the market place as there is an over load of information. So you need to structure your product or your service in order to differentiate it from what others are offering, so this is the first thing.
If everyone is selling a ceiling fans then if you are selling a ceiling fan then it has to be revolutionary or it has to be ridiculously cheap. So you need to differentiate yourself which is the one.

Secondly, you need to update your product or your service offerings. The frequency with which you update things and the relevance of what you are updating has a direct baring on how it is ranked in the search engines, how it is looked by prospective clients and 

Thirdly, is that you definitely need to use Social Media to the best ability that you have. It might not be your 100% but you need to be out there and you need be doing it intelligently.

Q5 : Can you tell us how Senseware has helped you achieve all these?
Senseware has been pretty responsive for what we have asked, whether it was in terms of tweaking the website or in terms of the social media campaigns.It is young set of people and a dedicated set of people. So talking to them, communicating to them and getting them to do things has been quite easy so i think working with Senseware has been pretty good for us.

Q6 : Would you recommend people to work with Senseware ?
Sure.

Thank you for reading this Transcript interview 

To know more about Mr. Ajay Prakash's travel business visit www.nomad-travels.com

To know more about Senseware, visit www.senseware.net

Is the money you’re spending on SEO marketing for your business yielding dividends? Here’s how you can find out.

Once you’ve implemented and executed your SEO campaign it is positively essential to track your campaign and measure its progress. There are a number of ways to go about tracking your campaign.
Track your site’s search engine rankings.
Track the amount of traffic your site is receiving.
Track the number of returning visitors to your site.
Track the number of sales/conversions your site receives.
Track the link popularity of your site.
It is important to understand that ranking isn’t everything. The most important aspect is to understand the quantity of traffic brought to site is not as important as the quality. Ranking is completely meaningless unless the traffic they bring in through leads ultimately turns into sales.
Simply ask yourself in a given scenario what would you prefer 50 visitors on your website of which 30 make purchases off your products or services or a 250 visitors of which 15 make purchases?
Several variables should be examined on a regular basis in relation to metrics and conversion:
Pathway through your website.
Single access pages.
Most visited page and top entry pages.
Landing page for pay per click campaign.
Search phrases.
Search referrals.
There are many more such variables that may help you measure the progress of your SEO campaign. For a more detailed list of solutions please contact the experts.

Is your website invisible?

Brick and mortar companies don’t refuse to put a sign up in front of their businesses just because they have put large amounts of money into promoting themselves via television advertising. Online companies, likewise, should not disregard optimizing their sites for search engines – a relatively inexpensive exercise –simply because they have put large amounts of money into other marketing strategies.
                                                                                                          - Jordan, 2008
      
You can have the best website ever, with majority of its design and content in a league of its own. You can invest thousand’s or even lakh’s of rupees into the creation of your website. But if no one can find your site all the expenditure of your time and money would have been in vain. By ignoring SEO, you’re ignoring the most common way people search for things on the internet. A website with good search engine listings will gain more visibility. And more visibility eventually leads to healthier traffic which in turns leads to sales. People who get to your site via a search engine are by definition more qualified leads and will more likely purchase your products or services. There is a simple truth in this logic. If someone conducts a search for certain keywords and phrases directly related to your products or services, they will match with you and be far more open to your offering.
Here at Senseware we believe if you create a website you have to use SEO. You need to be positive that when your visitors enter a phrase or word to search for your website they shouldn’t land on the websites of your competitors.