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Website Development is a Breeze With WordPress

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Edikon Staff

Small business owners rejoice! No longer is it necessary to hire or consult a webmaster to build and maintain your site thanks to WordPress. More than just a popular blogging tool, but a powerful and dynamic Content Management System (CMS), WordPress can also be used to build and update a website.

So why WordPress? Well, first of all, it’s free. With its powerful CMS, a small or medium-sized business can use it easily and quickly to manage their website. Here are a few ways in which WordPress can be good for your ecommerce site.

  • Ease of installation. From the get-go, WordPress is a one-click setup process that is included in our library of pre-installed scripts.
  • Efficient search engine optimization. WordPress can be configured and optimized for beneficial search engine rankings.
  • Ease of website updating. Previously, one had to be familiar with complicated HTML commands to make any updates or changes. However, once WordPress is set up and ready to go, updating content has never been easier.
  • Themes and plug-ins. Grab some free design themes, polls, contact forms, ratings, and many other neat features to add to your site without having to hunt down a developer.
  • Support is easy to obtain. If you do need assistance, just get a hold of one of the thousands of WordPress developers and experts by through a Google search.

The frustrations of small business owners having to deal with complicated HTML language or using a webmaster are gone thanks to WordPress’ ease of use.   You can install WordPress right now via your control panel!

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E-commerce development is all about ‘traffic, conversions and sales’.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Edikon Staff

As a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to improve your ecommerce development through a better customer experience. But often times, it takes more than tweaking the website, or signing on with another affiliate program in your bid to grab more market share.

Set aside, for the moment, all you may think you know about marketing your site, and consider the three-steps posted on ‘Making Moguls’/Inc.com, “Will Your E-Commerce Company Make It? How to Tell,” is Rudina Seseri’s take on determining if you’re on the right track.

Here’s a summary of her tips:

Traffic: Gone are the days when you could launch your e-Commerce site with little attention paid to the quality of your visitor; you must promote the “engagement” of your customer too, you can’t count on just getting a fair share of the “cross-over” traffic from an “established brand.”

More importantly, do you really know your customer, his likes and wants and how you can “engage” him to keep him coming back to your site?

Aside from the common choices available through “paid search, online ads and affiliate programs,” which have reached that feared “saturation point,” other traffic-building methods do exist.

But, first, establish a means to “track and manage your ROI,” notes Seseri. Use  analytics to get deep-in-the-weeds with your customer; then experiment with some “program testing” targeting his profile – even try a referral program that uses an existing customer/user base.

Conversion: Know the difference between converting the visitors coming to your site to buy, and the other customer who comes to you through a third-party reward program. Obviously, the conversion rates will be different, and it pays to know your own industry to understand expected conversion rates.

Sales: Count on three aspects in the cycle “to affect the size of the order you’re getting…product mix, sales incentives and up-sells, for starters.”  Then make sure you’re comparing apples-to-apples when you’re looking at the kinds of e-commerce websites:

  • Sites with their own products (Gross sales here are the ‘face price’ of the good.)
  • Sites selling goods from other sites. (Gross sales generally mean “the value” of the goods sold through those sites sans dollars going to your e-Commerce site.)

 

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Don’t Make These Mistakes in Ecommerce Development

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Edikon Staff

The advent of the mini mall in the 1970s was as revolutionary to the shopping experience as ecommerce sites are today. If your business’ consumers are going to look for you online, then you had better know the essential elements of effective ecommerce development.

If your site does not meet the expectations of your customers, then they are entirely likely to simply click and leave. To make certain that your virtual store meets all of your shoppers’ expectations, avoid the six things that consumers hate about ecommerce sites.

  • According to a Stanford Study, 42% of consumers do not trust a website that falls victim to poor graphic design.  Carefully consider the images you use, the colors you select, and the general visual appeal to the entire site.
  • Your customer loves the ability to peruse your goods or services online, but when they want to connect with a live person, they want to do so immediately.  If a site does not clearly provide contact information or if no one returns their communication, shoppers will not bother to visit your site again.
  • Online shoppers also despise spending their valuable time sorting through products because the company did not do so adequately itself.  Be sure that your offerings are logically organized in an understandable manner.
  • Sites that do not provide a general search function are also pet peeves for today’s consumer.  Many of your customers want the ability to just enter their desired item into your site’s search engine.  Those online stores that don’t offer this option send many shoppers packing prior to any purchase.
  • Many businesses make their customers register or login to make a purchase.  They use this ruse to gather consumer information, but it angers many shoppers who will leave your site to avoid entering their personal information.
  • The use of substandard grammar makes a company appear unprofessional and unconcerned about the little details.  Make sure that you have really proofread all that is on your site.

Considering these undesirable items when designing your ecommerce site is essential to entice and keep your customers coming back.  It’s also helpful to have the expertise of a firm that specializes in planning, building, and deploying your online store.

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You can build a great website with WordPress

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Edikon Staff

A well-designed website is the cornerstone for any digital marketing plan and it is websites that tend to stump many business owners and managers, especially small business owners with limited technology experience.

Fortunately, there is a way for any business to get a high-quality website no matter what their technical abilities. The open-source blogging software developed by WordPress is a highly functional, easy-to-use package that can help you create beautiful websites at reasonable costs.

The beauty of the WordPress program is that is it takes only minutes to set up a full-fledged website. WordPress has also developed a huge community of users and contributors who are constantly bringing new functionality and new flexibility to theplatform. Many consulting companies are now also providing support and development services for WordPress users.

Most business operators would probably want to step up WordPress (wordpress.org) on their web hosting account. WordPress websites and blogs work on two levels. If you don’t have a clue what html is you can still manage a WordPress site. If you are an html pro, you can apply your skills to the design and operations of a WordPress site.

WordPress has brought quality website design and functions within in reach of anyone who wants to use them.

If you want to learn more about how a WordPress website or blog can help you get more out of your digital marketing, please get in touch.

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E-Commerce Development Trends to Watch

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Pablo Martinez

The worldwide e-commerce market is expected to produce $1 trillion in revenue by 2014, with online purchases making up 54% of all retail sales.  A significant portion of this business is going mobile.  In the U.S. alone, mobile commerce revenues are expected to hit $18 billion by 2014.  As more consumers turn to mobile shopping, retailers are being forced to optimize their websites for mobile or be left behind.  Here are some other e-commerce development trends to watch: The strength of small business.  In brick-and-mortar stores, small independent retailers can find themselves outmatched by national chains and large retailers.  Online, however, small businesses have a more level playing field.  Small stores have the advantage of not being burdened with outdated organizational structures and compartmentalization that make it difficult to adapt to ecommerce trends.  Small businesses who can position themselves in a specific niche and offer unique, individualized products can have tremendous success online. The challenges of shipping.  E-commerce means that anyone can place an order from anywhere at any time.  This can strain supply lines, especially as more consumers demand next day delivery and free shipping.  Successful online retailers need to be able to ship the right order to the right customer at the right time—and do it cheaply.

Reputation Management

As the numbers of consumers participating in social media networks skyrockets, it’s become a matter of a few clicks for customers to get customer feedback on businesses in real time.  A quick search of Twitter or YouTube can yield more information than anyone wanted to know on customer experiences with a particular store—good and bad.  Successful e-commerce retailers need to find ways for the conversation to be about them in a good way.  Good customer service and logistics will reap rewards.  As for bad experiences—well, remember what happened when the FedEx guy threw the computer monitor?

Third-party e-commerce developers

As e-commerce sales grow, more Internet startups are looking to third-party experts to help them optimize their e-commerce solutions.  Industry experts can help retailers streamline their performance and stay on top of rapidly changing trends. Edikon is proud to be your e-commerce development solution. Get in touch with us to learn more about our integrated e-commerce solutions.

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