Online shopping is changing, and especially that which is carried out on mobile - mcommerce. We’ve seen a huge 59% growth on mcommerce year on year from 2015-2016 compared to just 17% on other forms of online shopping. Hardly surprising considering how much time we are glued to our smartphones as they are becoming more powerful devices. So what has contributed to such a leap in growth? And how can you get involved?

Storefront Apps

Most of your big name stores have their own app you can download and shop on away from the standard browser. They can include push notifications to alert users of sales or new lines added. You can also personalise the settings to each person, giving them a shopping experience that is unique to them. This will also allow you to pull in more accurate data on your customer base. Win win for everyone!

Single Clickers

I know a few people who feel they have been personally victimized by Amazon’s one-click payment option. It’s so easy to be impulsive online, especially with one click options. Whilst Amazon dominates this area of ecommerce, this multi billion dollar patent ends this month! Apple and Google are likely itching to offer up their version to shoppers. Asos is another key player who will be seen to adopt this in the near future.

AR

There’s a lot of work happening in the augmented reality industry. Just check out the video below of Apple’s ARKit:

Studies have shown that almost half of shoppers would be willing to spend more on a product if they could experience it with augmented reality before buying. As AR is exclusive to mobile and as we saw such a craze with Pokémon Go, we should expect to see a popularity with brands who are using the feature.

From making it easier and quicker for customers to get through the purchase journey to making the experience more interactive, mcommerce is expected to see a continual growth which shows no sign of stopping!

Get started with your own website! All our sites are fully responsive for mcommerce to flow for your customers.

By January 2018, it will no longer be legal to charge customers for making credit or debit card payments. As part of a EU directive, the UK are also banning charges added to American Express, Apple Pay and Paypal transactions.

Whilst this is mainly an attack on large scale retailers who are profiting from these charges, this will have an effect on the small business owner who may rely on this small income to balance costs.

The surcharge is applied to reflect the cost of processing payments where large businesses are usually charged approximately 0.6% for credit card transactions and 10p – 20p per debit card. These charges will be higher for small shops to process purchases. Local authorities have also been brought to attention with the DVLA applying a flat fee of £2.50 for a card payment. This has led to a huge £42 million in fees since 2012.

The highest offenders have been seen to be take-away giants JustEat and Hungryhouse who both add 50p to the bill for paying by card. Whilst this may not seem a lot, it equates to 5% of a £10 bill. Airlines were next to come under fire, Flybe charging 3%, Ryanair and Norwegian asking for 2% each.

The abolishment of these charges is part of a broader campaign to increase the household income by reducing the cost of living. Stephen Barclay, economic secretary to the Treasury said “Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and that’s why card charging in Britain is about to come to an end”.  In a society where we are going cash free and making an increasing volume of ecommerce transactions, the charges are outdated.

This change is likely to encourage businesses to increase their prices to combat the deficit. An easy solution which may not be possible for the small business owner.

Are you a small business owner? How will this affect you?

For any ecommerce advice, or to set up your own online store give us a shout!

Nowadays there are many different platforms out there which make it simple to sell products online. Whether you choose to set up through a third party website such as Etsy or want to create your own branded online store, like those available with Kommand website builder, you don't need to fork out thousands to set up an online shop.

However while setting up an online might be straightforward, making it a success isn't. Here are five areas you should consider before launch to help you avoid online disaster.

1. Choose Your System Carefully

Take time when researching the options available for different online shop platforms. You will want to find one which suits your needs perfectly. Some areas to be aware of:

1. What is the support like? Can you get hold of someone if there is a problem?
2. Will the website work on all devices (i.e. is it mobile responsive?)
3. How flexible are the themes? Can you fully brand your website to reflect your business?
4. Is there room to grow?

2. Research Your Competition

This doesn't just apply to online shops, but any website.

Use keyword research to check out your competition. How do they differentiate themselves? Are their websites modern and easy-to-use or outdated and confusing? Use the downsides of these websites to create a list of positives for yours which can help you create a USP (see point 3 below). If your competition has high shipping costs could you consider making yours cheaper? Think long and hard about how you can compete with them, is there a genuine chance you can grab some of the market or is it completely dominated? Research is incredibly important so you can understand the market you are entering and the customer behaviours.

3. Find Your USP

Similar to the point above as a new shop you are going to want to find a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. What is the unique point which makes your business better than others? Why should customers choose you over other businesses? When you decide what point or points makes you unique use them to advertise your business. Put them on your homepage and in any marketing, on and offline. Customers won't search for these things so make it clear, from the beginning.

4. Be Wary of Manufacturer Product Descriptions

Unless you are producing your own goods it is likely that you will be selling products from a manufacturer who will supply photographs and product descriptions. If you leave these unchanged then your content is going to be the same as other online shops which can have a negative effect on SEO. By re-writing product descriptions, and if possible taking additional, high quality product images, you will set your business apart.

5. Get Your Head Around SEO

Unfortunately optimising an online store is harder than optimising a blog. By having lots of individual pages for each product, numerous problems arise that make SEO difficult for Ecommerce websites. However there are some tips you can follow to help minimise your chance of being penalised:

• Add product reviews using a review widget. This will help keep the page 'living' as new posts will give search engines something new to crawl. Product reviews also help with social proof and persuade customers to buy.
• Avoid duplicating content on lots of different pages. Instead write unique product descriptions for each product.
• Use unique titles, descriptions and headings - These areas are the foundation of improving SEO so make sure to optimise unique versions for each page. Also optimise your URLs to include brand and product names.

You can read more about SEO in this post and also in our SEO Basics posts: title tags, meta descriptions and anchor text.

Interested in Setting Up an Online Shop?

If you want a simple way to sell products online Kommand website builder can help. Set-up is quick and easy and our monthly packages start from as little as £25.00 per month. For more information about setting up an online shop, you can contact us today. 

At Kommand we like to keep up to date with any developments in APIs we integrate into our system. We recently got news of a new Mail Chimp feature we think our clients could benefit from - Product Recommendations - and wanted to pass the information on to help you take advantage of the feature to better connect with your customers.

What is Mail Chimp’s Product Recommendations Feature?

Product Recommendations have been added by Mail Chimp to assists in analysing the purchase history of customers to detect patterns in their buying behaviour to predict which items they’ll buy next.

The days of personalised email marketing being reserved for big brands with equally big marketing budgets is coming to an end. This new feature allows businesses of any size to create personalised recommendations quickly and easily.

What Does It Do?

By using the personalisation tools in Mail Chimp you can find out more about your audience and in turn, increase the relevancy of the messages you send them. If you sell online, this new feature makes it incredibly easy to deliver the right content at the right time.

The enterprise-level technology detects patterns in your Ecommerce data and uses this to predict your customers’ buying behaviour to target the right customer with the right product. Mail Chimp builds a profile of each individual’s purchase history which can see by viewing their subscriber profile.

Why Use Email Marketing?

If you aren’t yet using email marketing as part of your online marketing strategy, then you are missing out on a vibrant and powerful way to connect with your customers.

Email marketing has managed to remain a key element in marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. Think about it yourself: how many people do you know with an email address? Lots. And all of these people can be targeted through email marketing.

And for those that think email marketing is dying? Smartphones put a clear stop to that. In fact, reading email has been the number one activity on smartphones for a long time, and with better technologies and designs continuously being developed marketers are always able to find new innovative ways to push conversions through email marketing to catch users on the go with targeted, personalised messages.

Why Start an Online Store?

Ecommerce (online shopping) has grown rapidly in recent years. Popular product categories in the UK include fashion and sporting goods, followed by travel and household items. Other popular categories include movies/music and books/magazines.

There are a number of reasons why you should open an online store. You don’t have to pay rent and you can reach millions of customers from the comfort of your home. However to have any shot at success you need to have a user-friendly, secure, solid website. Kommand’s website builder offers just that, and more, with integrated SEO features making it straightforward to get your website ranking highly on search engines such as Google. If you already have a Kommand website and want to make the switch to an online shop, or are brand new to our brand why not get in touch for a friendly chat about how we can help you make the most of your business online?

Emails us: support@kommand.me or call:

Glasgow - Tel: 0141 345 2130

Middlesbrough - Tel: 01642 989 069

London - Tel: 0203 026 0730 

Today's post runs you through five tips to drive traffic to your website.

1) Create A Buzz Online

Make use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get word out about your venture. Before it's up and running, put up 'coming soon' notices that will create interest and pique curiosity. You could offer opening discounts codes to those who sign up to your mailing list. This way you will also build a list of potential customers to target with email marketing. You may want to limit these discount codes to the first 100 customers to sign up.

If your ecommerce business has already been running and your recently switched to a new website you could run an 'anniversary' or 're-launch' discount code instead. 

2) Link Your Website to Your Social Media

On your website, put social media buttons that link to your pages. Ensure that you have accounts on the most popular platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. It is well worth it to hire a professional photographer to take photos that will cast your products in the best light. Visuals can be a huge deciding factor for those looking to buy, so high quality photos are a must. 

With a Pinterest 'Pin it' button on your website, you will encourage browsers to 'pin' products on their Pinterest boards. You can track what people are pinning using Pinterest analytic tools. It is indicated on the Pinterest business blog that over 90% of those who use this platform use it to gather information about products and plan their purchases.

On Twitter, you can promote your e-store and let people know when you have new products, content on your website or special offers. An engaging tweet on Twitter can go a long way. On Facebook, you can show and tell browsers what your store has, answer queries and get feedback. You can also run competitions.

3) Keep Your Blog Up to Date

A lot of well-known eCommerce sites have blogs on their website. Not only do blogs help to keep existing and potential customers updated on new launches and company news but it can also improve your SEO efforts.

Your blog can offer advice, tips, recipes or company news. You may want to post testimonials or you could feature content from other's (with their permission of course). For example if your website sells clothes you could post blogs of how people style their purchases.

Whenever you post new content on your website, post links to it on your social media platforms. This will encourage people to share your content and to visit your website.

Shoot videos and podcasts to demonstrate how to use the products you are selling or their benefits. People really related to actual people and being shown more than only being told. You can also get word out about your expertise by writing articles for professional networks like LinkedIn.

4) Promote Your Online Store to Bloggers and Publications

Whatever line of products you are selling in your store, there are people out there who like and use them and would buy from you if they knew how to find you. Blogger outreach programs are a relatively new phenomenon but have proven to be highly lucrative. If you are able to reach out to bloggers with a wide audience and ask them to do a shout out about your store or particular product you can see an increase in sales.

Send them some photos, a link to your website and a brief cover letter talking about your store and that you'd like them to cover it in their blog. If they take you up on it, it can make a big difference in bringing traffic to your website. Some bloggers may request payment for an advertising post, or a cut of any sale made. 

5) Put Your Name On It

You should always put your logo onto any images of your business or products. That way if someone stumbles across your image they will be able to trace it back to your website. You may also want to write guest blogs for popular websites. Some will allow you to put a link to your website on theirs, which will help boost your SEO and traffic to your website.

Sell Online Like A Pro!

If you are interested in starting an Ecommerce business as your main job, or a side project then you will need to invest some time and effort into properly promoting your products. For more information about setting up an online shop, you can contact Kommand. Our monthly packages start from as little as £25.00 per month.