How to Choose the Best Mobile Shopping Application Tool for Your Mobile Website

blogger /

Are you planning to get a mobile ecommerce website designed for your business anytime soon? Then, you should definitely invest in a state of the art mobile shopping application tool first. Building a mobile ecommerce website is tough enough for developers, and without the proper platform to work on, the problem is bound to be even more serious.

However, you need to be careful when choosing the platform. There are so many mobile ecommerce application platforms out there that you are bound to feel a little overwhelmed when trying to choose one among those. These pointers may help speed up the selection process a bit, though:

1.The mobile ecommerce application tool must be easy to integrate with your new mobile website. Make sure that it is compatible with most major technologies used in mobile website development. Compatibility with Java is a must, but things will be even better if it works properly with PHP as well. Also, make sure that user-friendly interfaces can be designed with the platform. It will ensure that visitors find it easy to look for products in your mcommerce website. In the restrictive environment of a mobile ecommerce website, this functionality is sure to please most visitors, and keep them coming back to your website.

2.The payment module that can be built with the mobile ecommerce application platform needs to be highly secure. Mobile commerce websites have the notorious reputation of being easy to hack. As such, having an encrypted transaction system will inspire confidence in customers to share their credit card information with you. Also, be sure to inform customers that their credit card information will never be stored in the database of your website. This will assure customers that their payment details would remain confidential.

3.The mobile commerce platform should have inbuilt tools for incorporation of additional features within the website. The most important among these is a mass messaging tool. This will help you to send out SMS messages to your customers in bulk, whenever you have a special offer available in your website. It will serve as an excellent marketing tool and will particularly come in handy in situations where you have a special offer available for a few days only.

4.Make sure that the mobile shopping application tool is available at a price that fits your budget. True, you will probably make excellent profits from the mobile ecommerce website being designed, but these days, it makes sense to be a little cautious while making an investment. If the price of the tool of your choice seems to be a little too on the steep side, always try to bring it down a bit through negotiation.

Choosing the perfect mobile shopping application tool is never easy. However, if you keep the pointers mentioned above in mind, then the task should be simplified quite a bit. So, go ahead, do a little research on the internet, and find the best tool for your mobile ecommerce website now!

Top Three Mistakes Companies Make with ecommerce Website Design

blogger /

Many companies are turning to website design that incorporates ecommerce functionality. It seems like it should be fairly simple. All they need to do is decide which products to sell and put up a few pictures and then they can sit back and watch the revenues come in. Unfortunately, this has led to the failure of many ecommerce sites. Here are some of the top mistakes that companies make when it comes to ecommerce website design.

They do not make their site easy to navigate
Many companies make it very difficult for customers to find their products. They either do not have a functioning menu that allows customers to find specific products or they make that menu very difficult to find. If customers do not have a clear path to the items that they are looking for they are unlikely to spend a lot of time looking for them. This means that you will end up losing potential customers to your competition and this can lead to the failure of an ecommerce site much more rapidly than you may think possible.

One possible fix for this problem is to include a search feature in your website design. By providing a way for customers to get directly to specific items you will make your website design much more efficient and this can help you get the kind of revenue you have been hoping for.

They do not have a fully functioning shopping cart or payment solution
When trying to entice customers to purchase goods online your website design has to include a fully functional shopping cart and payment solution. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to select products and finding it impossible to do so. It can cause you to lose customers very quickly and again, this can cause an ecommerce website to fail. You also need to make sure that once the customers have found the products they are looking for that they can check out and pay as quickly as possible.

If you ensure that your shopping cart and payment areas are easy to find, simple to use and functioning properly you can quickly increase the amount of revenue that your site is bringing in.

Customers cannot get a clear idea of what the items look like
Customers want to be able to tell what they are purchasing before they are willing to pay for it. You need to make sure that you are using a combination of clear, crisp photographs and descriptions that give your customers a clear idea of what they will be paying for. Be sure to include measurements and any options that a customer can choose from. Consider grouping like items together to make them easy for customers to compare.

In the past, when digital photography was just getting established it was more acceptable for the images to look grainy or unclear. This has changed. Digital photography has progressed so far that there is no reason why an ecommerce website design cannot include high quality photographs.

By addressing these three top mistakes relating to ecommerce website design it becomes much more likely that your site will be a success and generate the kind of revenue you have been looking for.

How Do You Increase the Conversion Rates of Your E-commerce Business

blogger /

As an owner of an e-commerce business, you must be analyzing your website visitor data regularly. Have you ever wondered why the conversion rates are low? Out of the thousands of people visiting your website, why do only a few complete the purchase process? Why do a majority of them abandon the shopping cart midway?

The answer is simple. While browsing your e-commerce website, visitors are looking for credible information that convinces them about the benefits and value of purchasing your product or service. With the short attention spans and limited time that net-users have, they just move away if they do not find what they are looking for. Of course, you cannot provide all the information at one go, and the visitors might have specific queries for which they need answers to.

Convert them when they are interested. Visitors come to your e-commerce website when they want more information about your services, when they want to compare your services with those of your competitors, or when they want to make a purchase. Whatever be the reason, the key is that they seek INFORMATION. By proactively offering the right information in the right manner, you can see positive change in the conversion rates.

The Solution: 24×7 Virtual Customer Support

How would you like if you visit an e-commerce website, and you get all the support you need, in a friendly manner through representatives of that company? Would it not impress you if you have the option of contacting them through any channel, be it live chat, telephone, or email, and getting complete support while you make your decision of whether to make a purchase or not even in the wee hours of the night?

You can also offer the same superior level of support to your e-commerce website visitors through 24×7 Virtual Customer Support. You do not need to have a complete support team in-house, as it might prove costly and tedious. You can outsource your customer support process and get all the benefits with investment within your budget.

You can hire the services of a suitable partner that can offer all types of support from a single front, with people who understand your product or service and hold-hands with your prospects while they visit your website and make a purchase.

By offering complete ONLINE CHAT SUPPORT, PHONE SUPPORT, EMAIL SUPPORT, and assisting during the purchase process through LIVE ORDER TAKING, you can make your prospects feel comfortable while they select your company for their needs.

Interacting with a responsive live person is always better than automated replies. Studies have shown that cross-sell and up-sell rates, and shopping cart amounts increase if visitors can interact with the representatives of the company while they visit their website.

With professional 24×7 customer support you can get the edge your competitors are struggling for and ensure that all genuine visitors get the attention and the service they deserve.

Key factors that affect the success of an M&A

blogger /

The cost of capital is low and your company made it through the recession. Now may seem like a good time to buy but youre scared off by the high business mergers and acquisitions failure rate. Studies conducted in the late 1900s and early 2000s show that M&A failure rate hovered around 70%.

However, recent results project an upward trend. According to Bain & Co, only 30% of M&As underperform, down from 50% of previous years. While the science of predicting the success (or failure) of M&A may seem hypothetical, there seem to be factors that hinder or help M&A.

Integration program

Budgets and people dont integrate themselves. Before the deal closes, its important to have a detailed integration plan that covers all facets of the organization. Moreover, first steps towards integration should be taken before the ink dries. Combining synergies on paper is easier than doing so in practice, but cultivating and maintaining processes should smooth the transition.

Target sighting and metrics

M&As with synergy targets and metrics in place have a better chance at succeeding. Collecting, analyzing, and presenting data on a regular basis lets the board know if the unit is growing according to plan or if actions need to be taken to correct missteps, should growth plateau or slow.

Maintaining business intelligence

Loss of key people has a definite impact on the future performance of the merged entity. Its important that new organizational structure and leadership is set early in the integration process to prevent business intelligence from literally walking out the door.

Protect your base business

While its important to have a smooth transition process, getting work done should still be top priority. Management shouldnt be distracted by M&A activity. They should be vigilant against competitors who may try to take advantage of the flurry of activity and present a unified front to customers despite gaps in the integration.

Lack of due diligence

Performing proper due diligence can unearth factors such as pending law suits, outstanding tax debt, and extreme vulnerability to litigation that can dissuade a potential buyer. A thorough background check can protect your base business and can save you time and money.

Relative Size

A significant difference in size between the acquiring and target company has been found to be a factor in poor acquisition performance. M&A can flounder if the divested company is too large to manage or if smaller acquisitions dont receive the time and attention they required.

Cultural Differences

Salient differences in corporate culture is another factor that can hamper the chance for success. When a company is acquired, the decision is typically based on product or market synergies, “soft factors” that can be overlooked with the assumption that personnel issues can be overcome. While cherished aspects of a work environment may seem petty compared to the bottom line, their removal may result in resentment, productivity decrease and loss of key employees.

Business Merger and Acquisition Experience

While previous M&A experience is not a necessary requirement for success, it does help when detecting red flags and creating and implementing a better integration plan. If this is your first M&A, seek the advise of expertise of knowledgable professionals.

Proformative.com is a free, open and independent community of corporate finance, accounting, treasury and related professionals that offers a wealth of expert advice, information and accounting resources . Finance forums like Proformative allow you to learn about M&A and other relevant issues important to finance, accounting, and treasury experts.

Counterfeit Mobile Accessories Increasing in Number

blogger /

Jakarta, Indonesia The government of Indonesia has admitted to have loopholes in its security. The demographic location of the country makes it hard for the authority to seal and guard more than 17,000 islands from fraudsters who are illegally transporting fake products in and out of the country. Counterfeit medicines, illegal drugs and gadgets have the highest number of fakes. The latter of which have been too dominant and mainstream that it can be found in the streets of the suburbs of the capital, lined side by side on the pavement, with policemen seemingly oblivious of the haggle of the vendors and passersby. It has already been an accepted fact in the country to have those kinds of products scattered around and the authorities neither tolerate nor discourage the people anymore.

Warnings continue to be carried on, though, by international organizations. Along with legitimate manufacturing companies, raids are being operated and thousands of fraudsters have been caught red handed.

The Peterson Group, a Taiwan-based company which distribute mobile phone accessories and laptop accessories across Asia noted that the international commerce sector has tightened their licensing programs and inspection process to carry out more operations and jail few more thousands fraudsters.

In Singapore, two men were arrested last August 21 for their suspected involvement in the wholesale distribution of counterfeit mobile phone accessories. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested men aged 24 and 53 who refused to give their names in the media. In total, about 76,200 pieces of trademark-infringing accessories such as phone casings, batteries, power banks, screen protectors, headphones, Bluetooth receivers, speakers and power adapters – with an estimated street value of about S$941,000 – were seized.

The authorities are considering taking serious views on intellectual property rights for the infringement and will not hesitate in punishing the two if found guilty. The problem though is that both of them do not want to divulge the other members of their party who deal with them in selling counterfeited accessories. Investigations are still ongoing.

A key way of ensuring safety and quality is to only buy mobile phone accessories from a registered manufacturer and trusted retailer and having confidence that those accessories are genuine and have been tested to ensure they are safe for users, which includes testing to ensure they meet national and international standards.

Consumers are advised to be more cautious of buying these products as it can be harmful and dangerous after few times of usage.