How will the 2016 USPS Rates Increase Affect Your Business? Overall rating: ★★★★★ 5 based on 23 reviews
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How will the 2016 USPS Rates Increase Affect Your Business?

2 March,2016 Business Advice, E-Commerce No Comment Author: Marie

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With the growing number of eCommerce sites, online shopping has become the norm for many people. In fact, there are countless websites that offer their online shopping services. However, as of this year online retailers will begin to experience many changes due to the fact that most shipping carriers such as UPS and FedEx have increased their prices. The United States Postal Service, more famously known as USPS, has also changed some of its products offerings aside from the price hike, which is the first in the last 3 years.

The USPS Rates increase may seem extreme, but USPS is still the best option for small businesses especially for light weight packages. You may visit the Pitney Bowes page or the Postal Regulatory Commission website for more information regarding the changes and new prices.  Given these, it’s high time for small businesses to think out of the box and explore other ways to deliver their products or even have a carrier mix to utilize different shipping providers in order to get the best service and costs.

It is not advisable for businesses to have just one carrier. They must create a shipping strategy that considers all factors in order to avail of the best service and prices. Cloud based shipping solutions are also available and these are good options for small businesses because it simplifies the shipping process. Lastly, having the right packaging is vital. Companies should use packaging for the sole purpose of making sure the items remain in good condition. Shipping small items in big packages is a waste of space and can incur additional costs.

Price Increase Overview

  • No changes for First Class Mail and the Forever Stamp
  • Overall Priority Mail Express Service 15.6% increase
  • Average retail price of Priority Mail Express 14.4% increase
  • Priority Mail Express Flat Rate Box has been discontinued
  • First-Class Package Service 12.8% increase
  • Standard Post is now called Retail Ground 10% increase
  • International Shipping Prices -Global Express Guaranteed (GXG) 7.1% and Priority Mail Express International (PMEI)6%

The USPS is also encouraging ecommerce companies to use the Intelligent Mail Package Barcode (IMpb) and meet all its requirements to benefit from the commercial mailing prices.

What are the benefits of IMpb?

  • No more scanning. There is no need to scan a parcel 11 times. It is now easier for companies and customers to track information, while improving USPS customer service
  • FREE insurance without having to go to the post office to purchase it
  • 5-50% savings on postage, but depending on the package size, weight, class and distance of delivery.

In order to take advantage of IMpb, all packages must have unique tracking IMpb barcode. To qualify, businesses must have their own web based shipping solution or application. The good thing is that most businesses that have been transacting online already have applications that incorporate shipping charges into the shopping experience. But due to these changes, business owners should check with their providers how these changes affect them. Some apps like ShipperHQ  and WebShopApps have automatic updates while Magento has patches that need to be installed.

Google Introduces Accelerated Mobile Pages

27 February,2016 E-Commerce, What's New No Comment Author: Marie

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Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is making a giant leap towards the goal of a faster and better mobile internet set by Google themselves. However, what would it consist and how does it affect the marketing industry?

Google announced about AMP last October, targeting to greatly enhance the performance of mobile internet. Anyone can collaborate with AMP and create mobile webpages using it. Read on for some important details you must know about AMP.

What exactly is AMP?

To put it simply, AMP is a revised version of the mobile web that ran on reinvented variations of the computer language that was used to make web pages, the HTML. The revised version takes away many elements from the original that slowed down the loading of a page on mobiles. The AMP also has better visual qualities when compared to the older version. Google asserts that the pages that are created using AMP HTML could load faster by 15-85% when compared to the version of the web page that is non AMP.

It is also made easy for publishers of web to begin with tutorials of AMP to create their pages. However, with the revision, Google is also taking away marketers and infrastructure advertisers who relied on the non AMP versions. Though certain factors of AMP will need a fresh approach towards mobile advertisements, there are plenty reasons to resort to AMP.

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Enhancing the search engine rankings

We all know mobile responsiveness is a criterion for search engine rankings. Since Accelerated Mobile Pages are particularly designed for quick loading and to provide good experience for mobile users, pages with AMP would certainly get the boost in rankings. Besides, quick loading implies more views on ad and more views of pages.

As per Kissmetrics, forty percent of users will close the page if it requires more than 3 seconds for loading. So quick mobile pages are definitely everyone’s option. Hence, web paged with AMP are likely to rank higher in the search engine rankings.  Speaking about page views, Google ensures that AMP traffic could be measured and analyzed, like it would do with any other regular pages.

Regulating Ads

Google’s announcement on January pertaining to advertising on AMP had few interesting aspects on how ads would work and what publishers would be allowed to do. When the AMP would launch, it would comprise of vital and fundamental functions. This involves the allowance of trafficking ads with servers of ads of your choice, and support for many formats and demand sources. It also gives complete control over placements of ads and also will allow measuring the views. Google is strongly determined about making the ad contents on AMP beautiful, secure, and of course faster! However, though Google is letting marketers and publishers have control regarding various factors of advertising, there are few parts which are forbidden.

6 Ways to Boost Traffic to Your Ecommerce Site

21 January,2016 Business Advice, E-Commerce No Comment Author: Marie

If you are a company which is engaged in eCommerce then it is imperative that you boost traffic to your site. Studies and surveys have often shown that an increased traffic will result in an increase in sales. Increasing traffic to your site is really challenging so we have come up with this list of the top 6 overlooked ways to boost traffic to your eCommerce site.

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1. Social media campaigns

The best way to boost traffic to your e-commerce site is by getting involved in a social media campaign. This allows you to contact your customer base directly. The best type of social campaign would be the one which has a strong message in it. It is best that you keep your customers engaged and show them that you care about the cause as it can bring in more traffic to your e-commerce site.

 

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2. Creating a good blog

Content is the bedrock of any eCommerce site and what could be better than to make the customers share their own stories on your blog. Having a content strategy is prevalent in almost 80% of companies which tells you how important it is; but to make them work to your advantage is a different thing. It is best if you can make them talk about the relevance of your products in their life which will make these blogs seem more realistic and honest and will deliver a valuable message.

 

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 3. Promoting your products via Apps and more

There is no better way to promote your products than putting them in an app. There are apps for almost everything imaginable and more of these apps being developed every day. This is why it will be prudent to either develop apps by you or sign up on a site which will help you make your product more visible to the customers.

 

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4. Virtual presentation of your products

It is always advisable to show off your products in real time. This is why we recommend that you make videos of your products and upload them, so your customers can see the products. There are two ways you can employ to publish these videos. The first one is to give third parties like YouTube and others the responsibility to publish it. While, the second one is self-hosting, this is also a powerful method that puts your site on the higher echelons in terms of videos.

 

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(c) Laura Roeder

 

5. Buying Domain Name Misspellings

It is better if you can buy misspells for your domains rather than invest in the variations of domains such as .org.net and more. The beauty of misspells is that, suppose you have 5 misspells and they have an average 7 visits per day, then as a result, you will have a total of 35 visits from them in a day.  This is a very sound strategy to employ when you are trying to boost traffic for your e-commerce site. (i.e., receive.com common misspellings are receive.com, recive.com)

 

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6. Customer Reviews

According to market surveys, as many as 88% of customers trust online reviews which has prompted most of the companies to have some sort of review receiving mechanisms in their online and offline stores. Therefore, increasing traffic can be made easy if you are being able to convince your customers to write reviews on your e-commerce sites or about their experience with your products and services. (Source)

 

Looking for eCommerce solutions? Simplio Web Studion can help you with that! Check out more information here.

 

The Top 10 Global E-Commerce Markets

27 October,2015 Business Advice, E-Commerce No Comment Author: Marie

With eCommerce being the new shopping destination these days, various global markets are ruled by various eCommerce giants. Let’s find out what the Top 10 Global E-Commerce Markets are!

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  1. CHINA
  • Sales: $426.26 billion
  • Increase: 35%
  • Top online retailer: Alibaba
  • E-commerce sales as % of total retail sales: 10.1%

In China,  46 % of the population is using the e-commerce platform recording 35% sales increase, Alibaba boomed the e-commerce business growth, currently it is the largest online retailer.

  1. UNITED STATES
  • Sales: $305.65 billion
  • Increase: 15.7%
  • Top online retailer: Amazon
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 6.5%

USA the number two position in this global list, the rise in e-commerce business is rising at a rate of 15.7% yearly.

  1. UNITED KINGDOM
  • Sales: $82.00 billion
  • Increase: 16.5%
  • Top online retailer: Amazon
  • Ecommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 13.0%

UK leaded the retail e-commerce sales a couple of years back. When compared with USA, UK lacks behind with only $200 billion.

  1. JAPAN
  • Sales: $70.83 billion
  • Increase: 14.0%
  • Top online retailer: Rakuten
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 4.9%

87% of the population is well versed with the online shopping concept, thus Japan takes up the fourth position. Rakuten is the online retailer that leads the Japan’s e-commerce sales, the company is known to be one of the largest in the world.

  1. GERMANY
  • Sales: $63.38 billion
  • Increase: 22.1%
  • Top online retailer: Amazon
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 7.3%

Germany hits the 5th position in the list though it has shown a rapid growth of 22.1%, close to China. Amazon has the largest share in the market.

  1. FRANCE
  • Sales: $38.36 billion
  • Increase: 12.1%
  • Top online retailer: Odigeo
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 4.6%

The e-commerce market in France is practically led by Odigeo a travel company, though travel websites are not accepted in retails sales despite being the largest e-commerce company in France.

  1. SOUTH KOREA
  • Sales: $33.11 billion
  • Increase: 13%
  • Top online retailer: Coupang
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 9.0%

South Korea ranks seventh in the list, although it is the third largest with 9% retail sales in the last year. Coupang is the largest retail e-commerce store in South Korea.

  1. CANADA
  • Sales: $24.63 billion
  • Increase: 17.4%
  • Top online retailer: Amazon
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 5.2%

Amazon strongly holds the largest share of e-commerce sales in Canada, while Costo runs second in the competition.

  1. RUSSIA
  • Sales: $17.47 billion
  • Increase: 16.0%
  • Top online retailer: ulmart.ru
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 2.2%

59% of the Russian population enjoys having the internet access, e-commerce sale in Russia barely make more than 2% in comparison to other countries sales.

  1. BRAZIL
  • Sales: $16.28 billion
  • Increase: 22.0%
  • Top online retailer: B2W Digital Inc.
  • eCommerce sales as % of total retail sales: 3.8%

The last but not the least Brazil makes it to the 10th position. The e-commerce sales are pretty low in comparison to other countries. The infrastructure is not up to the mark, hence making it difficult for the delivery process which directly affects the e-commerce.

(Source)

A Comparison Review of Prestashop to Magento and Woocommerce

7 February,2015 E-Commerce No Comment Author: Marie

Prestashop, Magento and Woocommerce are three most popular ecommerce platforms to build powerful online store. But the question is which one is more powerful and better for starting or promoting your business online? Certainly, all three have their own pros and cons yet their objective is same, that is to design a fully functional ecommerce site.

After a careful research and also basing on experts suggestion, we are able to do a comparison review of Prestashop, Magento and Woocommerce. We hope this comparison review will be of help to those who are planning to start an online store and in the process of looking for an ecommerce platform most suitable to your business needs and market demands.

Prestashop

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Prestashop is an open-source eCommerce solution with plenty of features. It is easy to setup. It allows you to use a quick configuration process. Prestashop is available for download in two options: fully-hosted Prestashop cloud where you can start selling online in minutes or self-hosted Prestashop where you can get full technical control of your online store. Both are entirely free and ready to support your ecommerce activities.

Online stores designed using Prestashop are absolutely gorgeous and can be managed easily even of you don’t have much technical knowledge.

Pros and Cons of Prestashop

Pros

  1. Prestashop is easy to install and customize.
  2. Dashboard is also very intuitive and very user friendly. All needed information is quickly available on Dashboard.
  3. Easier to configure than Magento and Woocommerce.
  4. It is available in 40 languages. Fully supports English and French.
  5. Prestashop has a Live Configurator to easily customize the PrestaShop theme by changing fonts and colors.

Cons

  1. It has only few customization options especially when it comes to graphics so you cannot play with the graphic element much.
  2. You’ll need to purchase templates, themes and modules if you want the most out of Prestashop.
  3. Prestashop has compatibility issues.
  4. They don’t have an official support team, but you can find plenty of developers and users in the PrestaShop forum.

Magento

Magento

Magento is also an open source eCommerce platform like Prestashop. It is an intelligent and smart platform for designing online store with powerful functionality. It is available in two editions – Community edition and Enterprise edition. The best idea is to test free version to get familiar with basics. Magento gives its users all kinds of modules, features and extensions. Their technical support has also gained many praises.

Magento is best for big businesses or those looking to grow their business quickly.

Pros and Cons of Magento

Pros

  1. Magento has more out-of-the box features than Prestashop and Woocommerce
  2. Magento is perfect choice for bulk products editing and capable of handling large databases smartly.
  3. You can smartly play with multiple categories and products. If you are running a small business, it’s better to opt for Prestashop or WooCommerce instead of choosing Magento in the beginning.
  4. Magento has wonderful power of handling massive amount of data and traffic.
  5. Magento has SEO features not found in Prestashop, WooCommerce or any other eCommerce solution.
  6. Provides more themes for the user.
  7. Great technical support.

Cons

  1. It is expensive for small business owners.
  2. Setting it up requires quite some time due to its complexity.

WooCommerce

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WooCommerce is a wonderful content management system that comes with plenty of functionalities. It is not a standalone CMS but is a solution that works within WordPress. It can be taken as best choice for serious content management and highly suitable for those companies who cannot afford Prestashop and Magento.

Founded in 2011, WooCommerce is relatively young compared to Prestashop and Magento. It is the best choice for those looking to add eCommerce functionality to their websites or blogs without having to leave the comfort of their CMS.

It has endless choices for plug-ins to make your store even more powerful and stronger. The best part is that it is easy to work with WooCommerce even if you are technologically challenged.

Pros and Cons of WooCommerce

Pros

  1. As a website owner, Woocommerce can be taken as best compromise between usability, cost and security.
  2. It is FREE and easy to use.
  3. It has less administration costs when compared to Prestashop and Magento. Images can be uploaded quickly and it has the capability to manage massive amount of data.
  4. Woocommerce is single stable platform for all of your website development needs that includes products management, blogs or content management, advertising, search engine optimization, user friendly & attractive interface, newsletter etc ….

Cons

  1. By default, it is not ecommerce ready instead you need a Woocommerce expert to build ecommerce store. Once you are done with initial setup, take help from an expert and ask him to build an online store using Woocommerce platform. Undoubtedly, blogging can be managed yourself but programming always needs help of an expert.
  2. Base plugin might not suffice, so premium extensions are needed.
  3. WooCommerce is useless if you are not a WordPress user.

At the end, it is clear Magento, PrestaShop and WooCommerce have their own advantages and disadvantages. Although it is clear that Magento is best for small to medium business and Magento and WooCommerce for any business size.

Certainly selecting best web development platform out of three Prestashop, Woocommerce and Magentodepends on your project requirements and budget too. The final decision is up to you surely, but this comparison review will help you in making wise decision according your business project hopefully.

 

Sources: ITX, Prestashop, Torque Mag

Prestashop Quick Checkout is Almost Here

6 January,2014 Developers, E-Commerce No Comment Author: Nir Appelton

Prestashop Quick CheckoutFor us, 2014 starts with this: Proud to present our new star product! Register to Get notified when it is released: PSquickcheckout.com

PrestaShop Quick Checkout is literally a one-page checkout for PrestaShop users. When I say users, I am not talking only about online shop owners, but also about every online customer that want to purchase something online, from a PrestaShop site.

No matter how great the sales and offers you have, a delayed checkout may lead a client to find another place to shop. Customers appreciate businesses that offer great service and fast checkouts, and usually reward them with return visits. Sometimes they even refer others to your site.
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E-commerce to M-commerce

14 February,2013 E-Commerce No Comment Author: Nir Appelton

Mobile-Commerce-TrendsIn 1997, President Clinton speaks of the early days of E-commerce in the USA.

‘’About 4 millions American families will buy holiday gifts online for the first time this holyday season. I intend to join them!’’

Once upon a time consumers had to go to great lengths to acquire the things that made their life better. As time went by, retailers and marketers came up with inventive ways of getting their customers what they want. Along the way, various technological advances guided the evolution of commerce. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television; all helped eager consumers look for what they wanted to purchase and where they wanted to purchase.  Catalogues, the telephone and the postal service combined to let the public shop in the comfort and tranquillity of their own homes. However, the ultimate shopping experience was yet to come.

It wasn’t until the year 1994, that businesses found the most ideal way to serve their most valued customers. It took the combination of the pioneering technologies of the personal computer and the internet to launch the future of retail marketing.

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SaaS Ecommerce

26 November,2012 E-Commerce No Comment Author: Nir Appelton

What is SaaS?

The delivery of applications over the web as a service is called as SaaS or software as a service. Companies using SaaS do not have to invest dollars in purchasing the software or spend time in managing the solution. All they have to do is to access the software using the internet and benefit from the on-demand software without doing hardware management. The web-based software typically run on the provider’s servers and the user is free from the management of aspects such as security and availability of the solution.

Research firm Gartner has predicted that by 2013, 90 percent of e-commerce sites will certainly use at least one product from SaaS or SaaS vendors. Further it is also stated that 40 percent of e-commerce sites will begin to use SaaS solutions by the end of next year. Popularity of SaaS has driven companies such as Salesforce.com to extend its software as a service business. The software giant now offers applications enabling businesses to mine social Web information and keep in touch with both present and potential clients.

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Hello World

26 November,2012 Developers, E-Commerce, Giving Back, Managers, Mobile, Our Customers No Comment Author: Nir Appelton

Hello World – SimplioLabs is here!!

Online commerce and mobile commerce are cutting edge online money making options in these days and with them, comes the responsibility of choosing the right web designer. Only appropriate website designing services can cater to top notch website designing solutions, that includes interactive website creation, online brochure making and of course the complicated virtual store or ecommerce website development.

SimplioLabs is here to address all clients, with requirements related to web designing. We have an excellent development team, which is enthusiastic, confident and certainly competent to provide any sorts of contemporary and trendy website designing solutions. Having an excellent client retention report, we boast to claim that our team members have insightful know how in all aspects of the website design and development.

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“They are now part of the Diastasis Rehab business team after working with them almost a year now. I cannot even imagine having another company managing my Presta shopping cart. After a bad experience with a programmer, I needed a new programmer (one that knew prestashop shopping cart) and most important one that I could trust. Finding all three was a difficult process! Lucky for me I found them. I cannot say enough about the diversity of services that this company provides. Every step of the way they make amazing suggestions to increase my sales and they get back to be right away either by email or phone. They have even created a simple and easy check out program for Presta Shop. They are actually a one stop shop! They updated my SSL, are setting up and changing my server to a dedicated one, setting up streaming of my DVD, website design, creating a specific program for address verification on Presta cart and handled the integration of Presta cart with my fulfillment house. I am now working on developing an APP with them”

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