Wexford e-commerce start-up Scurri raises €1.5m

Today (30 June), Irish e-commerce software provider Scurri announced that it has raised a further €1.5m in funding to support continued growth. To date, the Wexford-based start-up has raised a total of €8.5m.

Investors in the latest funding round include Act Venture Capital, Episode 1, Pa Nolan and angels investors.

Since the onset of Covid-19 restrictions, Scurri said that it has seen a 55pc increase in delivery volumes, in line with the current and long-projected boom in the e-commerce sector. The firm said that new opportunities as a result of the pandemic have accelerated its growth plans.

With support from investors, Scurri is now fast-tracking several key strategic hires over the next six months to accommodate this growth, with longer-term plans to expand into new territories.

Scurri’s solution

Recently featured as a Start-up of the Week on Siliconrepublic.com, Scurri has developed a cloud-based logistics platform designed to meet e-commerce business needs.

It helps users select the most effective delivery option for each package, while providing tracking from dispatch to delivery, among other services. The company’s customers in the UK and Ireland include eBay, Gousto and Vision Direct.

Scurri said that it currently derives most of its revenue from business in the UK, where it helps with millions of parcel deliveries each month. Scurri’s platform allows retailers to create accurate labels for shipments and helps businesses to ship their products anywhere in the world through its network of carrier integrations.

Commenting on the latest investment, CEO and founder Rory O’Connor said: “We have very ambitious plans for the company in the next 12 months. For the past seven years Scurri has gone from strength to strength, from start-up to full-service software solutions provider with a growing list of blue chip and fast growth companies in the sophisticated and fragmented UK e-commerce market.”

O’Connor said that the market for the start-up’s product has “greatly increased and is years ahead of where it would have been pre-Covid-19”.

“We are in a very fortunate position and excited about what the next 12 months will bring,” he added.

“We are also extremely proud and thankful to our amazing team here at Scurri who, despite the upheaval the crisis has caused, rose to the challenge and helped ensure the company could capitalise on the growth opportunities that came with the recent accelerated growth in the e-commerce sector.”

Scurri was recently named as one of the top 50 global retail tech start-ups in the Discovery 50 industry ranking by Retail Week and World Retail Congress.

The post Wexford e-commerce start-up Scurri raises €1.5m appeared first on Silicon Republic.

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Why Manufacturers Must Invest in Ecommerce (+ Tips for Making It Work for Your Business)

Ecommerce sites are for people looking to buy things like books, gadgets, and clothing, right? Actually, that’s too narrow a…

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Postal operators “will lose business” if they don’t prepare for introduction of ICS2

Postal operators will lose business to their competitors if they do not act to prepare for the introduction of stringent new regulations – Import Control System 2 (ICS2). Posts are currently exempt from having to submit an entry summary declaration via the Import Control System (ICS) before importing goods into the European Union’s customs territory.

But the implementation of ICS2 from March 15, 2021, will compel Posts to provide a minimum data set (PLACI or ENS) including an accurate product description and, as of 2023, a valid HS6 code. It will also be the responsibility of the importing Post to submit the correct entry summary declaration. An efficient solution will need to be in place, especially when the exporting Post does not provide the minimum data set.

ICS2 will impact retailers importing goods or who sell or fulfil from outside the EU if their postal operator of choice isn’t ready.

“Submitting incomplete or incorrect data will cause shipments to be held by customs until the appropriate data has been submitted. This will impact hugely on transit times and customer experience. The effect of this will be that ecommerce retailers will move to other postal providers which have the right systems and processes in place to meet the requirements of ICS2. Efficiency and customer experience are key to any Post looking to secure their position and increase revenues. Not being prepared for ICS2 is simply not an option.”
– Martyn Noble, CEO, Hurricane Commerce

Hurricane has developed a multi-lingual data enhancement solution called Zephyr to enable Posts to complete and submit their entry summary declaration to ICS2. Zephyr validates product descriptions, returning a status code if invalid. It also provides a valid 10-digit import code as well as the most likely HS6 code and product description.

“Zephyr represents a fantastic opportunity for any Post to grow their business and improve their value offering over competitors”
– Martyn Noble, CEO, Hurricane Commerce

Zephyr has been proven to handle high volume data in lightning quick time with return times of 100 milliseconds. It not only gives postal operators peace of mind that all entry summary declarations via ICS2 are automated and compliant, but that they will be able making savings and improve their transit times by making use of fast track customs lanes.

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Acquia and Kibo partnership delivers frictionless commerce

Digital experience company Acquia has partnered with cloud commerce company Kibo to deliver Frictionless Commerce to consumers and great empowerment for brands.

The partnership will help brands navigate the ecommerce environment seamlessly whilst providing outstanding consumer experience by utilizing the optimization of digital experiences through data and machine learning provided by Acquia and personalization experiences from Kibo’s API-first microservices framework.

“Acquia and Kibo allow us to be much more targeted with customers, so we can bring to life the experiences they want based on their feedback, By applying machine learning and segmentation to customer data, we’re able to increase conversions and revenue through a variety of marketing channels.”
– Jennifer Skeen, senior vice president of omnichannel marketing at Sun and Ski Sports

Key benefits:

As provided by Acquia key benefits that will help brands streamline their ecommerce presence include:

• Innovative, personalized shoppable experiences fueled by a commerce-enriched 360-degree customer view augmented by Acquia Machine Learning driving better insights, loyalty and lifetime value.

• Decreased time to market with rich customer insights, responsive customer journey management, and robust ecommerce capabilities delivered through an easy-to-use platform.

• Increased business agility with open source code and open APIs, enabling retailers to seamlessly integrate the platforms with any system in their technology stack, deploy quickly and benefit from new innovations.

“We are thrilled to partner with Acquia to deliver frictionless commerce to more companies, Acquia’s open digital experience platform is a perfect fit for Kibo’s ecommerce technology, allowing our clients to easily achieve the true potential of each customer interaction at scale.”
– David Post, CEO, Kibo

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Ecwid Reviews 2020: Is it the Best Free Ecommerce Solution for Any Website?

Ecwid, for starters, is not like most of the other ecommerce platforms we’ve reviewed before. But then again, it turns out Ecwid is not that different when it comes to online selling functionalities. Very contradicting when you come to think of it.

So, what is Ecwid, and what’s the difference between Ecwid and other ecommerce platforms?

Now, before we look into Ecwid’s system, allow me to ask this…Have you ever wondered if you’re using the right ecommerce platform for your ecommerce business? Do you sometimes stumble upon a new service that’s more functional and cheaper than what you’re using now?

Well, count yourself lucky if you have. But guess what? You might not be able to shift to the new ecommerce platform or even just modify your site at all. And that has, in fact, been one of the major problems facing small ecommerce merchants for many years.

Well, at least until solutions like Ecwid came along, and proved to be revolutionary.

Have you ever wondered if you’re using the right ecommerce platform for selling online? Do you sometimes stumble upon a new service that’s more functional and cheaper than what you’re using now? Starting a small business is all about keeping your costs low, and finding an ecommerce platform to help you with that is half the battle. Unfortunately, when you run a small business website it often becomes tricky when you want to bring on a new ecommerce platform or even just modify your site at all.

📢 Editor's note: This post was originally published on August 5, 2015 and has completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

👉 Read our Ecwid review to find out more about this solution.

What Is Ecwid?

Interestingly, switching from one website hosting platform to another has always been challenging because many solutions purposefully create a closed system. That essentially complicates the process of transferring files or implementing extensive site customizations.

Thankfully, with a platform called Ecwid, you no longer have to worry about this. In fact, the entire goal of the company, which started in 2009, is to help you quickly and inexpensively create an online store system on your existing website.

In other words, you don’t have to create a whole new website. Just implement Ecwid on any platform, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you are good to go. It really is that simple.

For someone who knows the struggles that come along with trying to migrate websites- particularly when it comes to ecommerce – I’m always excited about solutions like Ecwid.

You can bet I’ve tried this one out on different types of websites already.

👉 Here’s the resultant review.

This in-depth review of the Ecwid system covers all the critical attributes you’d be interested in to see if it’s worth your time. By the end of it all, you’ll have learned about:

• Ecwid’s Pros and Cons
• How Many People Use Ecwid
• Ecwid’s Main Features
• Ecwid Ease of Use
• Ecwid’s Inventory Management
• Ecwid’s Pricing
• Sell with Ecwid on Social Media
• Sell with Ecwid on eBay and Amazon
• Importing and Exporting your Product Data on Ecwid
• Dropshipping With Ecwid
• The Ecwid App Market
• Ecwid SEO and Marketing
• Ecwid Security
• Ecwid and GDPR
• Ecwid’s Customer Support
• Ecwid’s Payment Gateways and Fees
• Integrating Ecwid With Other Platforms
• How Ecwid Compares To Other Ecommerce Platforms
• Ecwid POS
• Conclusion

👉 Now, let’s explore every single aspect individually:

Ecwid Pros and Cons

👍 Ecwid Pros

• Ecwid’s free plan comes with decent features.
• There’s a Starter Site package for merchants without websites.
• Ecwid accommodates dropshipping businesses.
• Ecwid provides plugins for integrating with many of the dominant web hosting platforms.
• Ecwid is pretty responsive.
• You can set up a multilingual online store on Ecwid.
• Ecwid is GDPR compliant
• Ecwid offers a wide range of ecommerce features at considerably reasonable plan prices.
• You can take advantage of Ecwid’s POS functionality to put up a supplementary offline store.
• The Ecwid App Store offers a range of useful ecommerce applications.

👎 Ecwid Cons

• Ecwid’s Free Plan doesn’t offer SEO editing capabilities.
• It’s impossible to edit your products’ URLs for SEO purposes.
• Ecwid doesn’t support product page AMP versions.
• You can’t build a complete ecommerce website on Ecwid.
• Phone support is only available to premium subscribers.

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How Many People Use Ecwid?

I find it rather impressive that Ecwid has managed to serve millions of merchants since 2009. Cumulatively, Ecwid’s solutions have supported over 2 billion stores.

What's even cooler is that the Ecwid isn’t one of those services that tend to focus on only the US or Europe. Its merchants currently span over 175 different countries, making Ecwid a global platform.

That means even businesses based in developing countries are progressively leveraging Ecwid in setting up and managing their online stores. Many of them are taking advantage of the fact that they don’t have to trash their existing sites just to rebuild new ecommerce stores.

But, that’s not the only reason why Ecwid is increasingly popular. Even experienced ecommerce merchants are signing up in droves because Ecwid is now PCI DSS Level 1 certified. In case you're not sure what this is, it's pretty much the gold standard for security in the ecommerce world. You can rest easy knowing that you and your customers' data is safe and secure.

Don’t get me wrong though. Ecwid doesn’t exclusively target merchants who already have websites. As a matter of fact, it just so happens that Ecwid is one of the few ecommerce platforms that offer a site for free.

And yes, that’s typically accompanied by the essential ecommerce functionalities you might need as a beginner. Therefore, you can capitalize on Ecwid’s provisions by setting up a complete online store without spending a lot of capital.

In all fairness, however, it’s worth acknowledging that Ecwid has its weakness too. Just like other ecommerce platforms we’ve reviewed before. But, how bad can they get? Stay with me to find out.

» Try Ecwid «

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Ecwid Reviews: Main Features

As we’ve mentioned already, Ecwid is a SaaS solution for setting up your own ecommerce website. Pretty much the same description you’d use for competitors like BigCommerce, Squarespace, Shopify, and the likes.

However, unlike these three, Ecwid makes strides in the market by catering to companies that don’t want to start a brand new site. The primary feature is that you can take your old site and quickly integrate the Ecwid system within a few minutes.

You can also mirror the system onto various other sites if you plan on selling elsewhere online. Ultimately, you get to manage all of these sites from one centralized place instead of switching between multiple dashboards.

And speaking of which, Ecwid provides a host of decent ecommerce management features. You can, for instance, add a wide range of products accompanied by their distinct attributes like weight, pricing, photos, etc. Then after establishing their shipping rates, you should be able to process different card payments as well as fulfill orders accordingly. In short, you’ll everything that comes with a standard ecommerce platform.

All that can be conducted on the Ecwid online system via your web browser. But, not entirely. It’s also possible to sync Ecwid between multiple devices, and as a result, sell on-the-go from your smartphone.

To facilitate that, Ecwid has built its own store management apps for Android and iOS devices. Although their functionalities cannot possibly match up to what’s offered on the web backend, you can rely on the apps for editing product attributes, uploading e-goods, adding product images, selling, etc.

Consequently, you can go to a tradeshow and still be able to make a few sales off your inventory. And all of these sales instances are bound to be reflected on the backend of your website in real-time.

The system is also designed to integrate well with social networks, so you can sell your items on Facebook if needed. Simply set the Ecwid system to add your items directly to your Facebook page, and voila! You’ll be able to sell and sync every single product accordingly.

Well, the same applies to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Ecwid allows you to export your product catalog to such platforms, then sync the sales data automatically as you sell items systematically across multiple channels.

The most outstanding channel, however, has got to be the Ecwid storefront. Expect Ecwid to revamp your site by turning it into a complete ecommerce storefront with capabilities like onsite payment gateways, one-page checkout, attractive product layout, item filtering, shipping service integration, and marketing automation.

Another part of Ecwid that we particularly enjoy is the shipping aspect. With real-time shipping integrations, you constantly know what is going on with your orders, and where they are being shipped to.

Then to top it off, Ecwid recently introduced a new feature called Starter Site. It’s a simplified one-page storefront for businesses that would like to proceed with Ecwid but are yet to set up a website. You can either run it on Ecwid’s primary domain or use your own domain name.

That said, you can think of Ecwid as some sort of ecommerce widget. And that, as a matter of fact, is the principal reason why we call it Ecwid in the first place. After inserting a brief HTML code, the entire system basically embeds onto an existing website like a typical widget, and then proceeds to display your storefront.

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👉 Overall, the Ecwid features you get include:

• Customer Experience – Product Reviews, Favorite Item Button, Check Out As Guest Or Create An Account, Automatic Tax Calculations, Real-Time Shipping Rates, Automatic Language Translation.
• Store Management – SEO Tools, Analytics and Reporting, Mobile Store Management App, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Promotions and Discounts, Order Management, Inventory Management, Product Options and Attributes, Sell Digital Items.
• Omnichannel Sales – Store for Both iOS and Android Buyers, In-Person Selling, Marketplace Integrations, Social Media Integrations, Sell Across Multiple Websites.
• Shop app: One of the most exciting recent features of Ecwid is the arrival of the new ShopApp feature for businesses who want to make a mobile connection with their audience. The Ecwid ShopApp gives online retailers more opportunities to connect with their customers, by creating a unique mobile app. With ShopApp, Ecwid will automatically create and publish a native mobile app to the Google or Apple app store on your behalf.
• The Ecwid Buy Button: The Buy Now button is another new feature from Ecwid that gives retailers more opportunities to sell. Adding a Buy Now button to your web page requires nothing but a tiny snippet of code. Although this feature seems simple on the surface, it comes with everything you need to handle a successful transaction, from tax support, shipping and payment components. What’s more, the Ecwid Buy now button also automatically adapts to the blog or website colors and style, so it looks completely natural.

You can easily add your Buy Now button to a homepage on your website, sidebar, or on your blog. There’s even the option to take your button with you to guest blogs and forums too.

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Ecwid Reviews: Ease of Use

Going by the recent control panel redesign, it goes without saying that Ecwid is pleasantly simple and straightforward. It doesn’t take much to learn the ropes here. Even a beginner should, admittedly, have an easy time navigating the backend end functions.

Well, in my opinion, I think anyone who’s tried out a CMS system before should be able to figure things right off the bat. All the principal functions are laid out systematically on the left panel of the Ecwid dashboard, while the right side is reserved for their corresponding options. Just like we’ve seen on WordPress and other CMS solutions.

Thankfully, you can get started on Ecwid without paying for anything. This makes the setup process much easier because you just need to punch in your email and create a password to go straight to the backend interface.

Now, to get your store up and running, Ecwid provides wizards for every platform you might want to place your ecommerce site on. If you have a WordPress site, for example, it only takes about three steps to fully integrate Ecwid. You can alternatively click on options like Facebook and Joomla, depending on where you want to sell.

That said, the backend onboarding process is flawless, since Ecwid walks you through every site creation and integration step with some nice photos and text. You can start working on your storefront in no time by adding products along with their attributes.

💡 In the end, your Ecwid storefront design depends somewhat on the theme you have on your website. You don’t get any default templates for customizing your online store.

The visual editor itself comes with very basic editing settings. Even on its starter site option, Ecwid is only capable of tweaks like product layout arrangement and alignment.

But, fortunately, you can work your way around this by relying on a third-party editing app. Otherwise, if you know a thing or two about coding, you can customize your own Ecwid theme from scratch using CSS.

Well, if you’re willing to spend money on your online store design, you can go ahead and shop for custom themes from selected template marketplaces. Ecwid has partnered with a few reputable ones to avail a range of ready-made themes.

But then again, that might not be necessary since Ecwid is capable of adapting to your site’s current theme. It automatically scans, detects, and analyzes your original fonts plus colors, before applying them to your product display.

Moving on, the web backend is only one part of the holistic Ecwid platform. It’s nice knowing that Ecwid includes a native shopping application for both iOS and Android. As a result, merchants can download a native management application for iOS and Android at no extra cost.

That alone means you can manage your Ecwid store and sell on-the-go, while also giving your customers a chance to buy products from the mobile interface.

For customers who buy directly from the storefront, one exceptionally handy feature is the language tool. And the reason is simple – since running an online store generally requires you to reach out to people from all over the world, you're bound to stumble upon customers who would like to read product pages and other content in their native tongue.

Ecwid can automatically detect and translate more than 51 languages. Therefore, you can bet you’ll be able to sell comfortably to Non-English speaking buyers from all over the world.

Ecwid Inventory Management

The Ecwid inventory system is as simple as they come, since it doesn’t seem to include any of the unnecessary bells and whistles you might find on other ecommerce platforms.

You’ll notice that each step here is clear and concise. So, you can simply go to Ecwid’s Catalog menu option, and edit your products’ categories, description, name, price, attributes, and image. It’s also possible to set SEO settings as well as tax and shipping options of each product in your Ecwid inventory.

Other inventory management features offered by Ecwid include out of stock product tracking, mobile device inventory management, barcode scanning, stock control management, product duplication, and more.

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Ecwid Review: Pricing

Apps aside the default Ecwid platform offers four plans, one of which is completely free. In fact, Ecwid markets the free plan quite aggressively, and it proceeds to assure you that they won’t be charging you at any point.

Well, from my previous experiences with Ecwid, the company continues to hold up to their end of the bargain by keeping the whole package permanently free. This is where Ecwid stands out, and in case you’d like to upgrade, you can bet that the premium payment plans won’t cost you much. They are all fairly affordable, especially going by the range of features they offer.

That said, the Ecwid's Free plan lets you sell 10 products, while the Venture plan increases the count to 100 products and you get extras like an iPhone management app. The Business plan, on the other hand, goes up to 2500 products for a reasonable price, accompanied by live chat support. Priority support, however, is only possible on the Unlimited plan, which also happens to accommodate an unlimited amount of products.

Eciwd Pricing Summary

• Free Plan – $0 forever for Google Shopping, Facebook advertising, Facebook pixel, selling simultaneously on multiple sites, adding a store to any website, starter site, and unlimited bandwidth, covering 10 products.
• Venture Plan – $15 per month billed monthly, or $12.50 per month billed annually for chat support, Google Shopping, Facebook advertising, Facebook pixel, advanced SEO tools, inventory management, access to App Market extensions, selling simultaneously on multiple sites, automated tax calculations, discount coupons, adding a store to any website, starter site, and unlimited bandwidth, covering 100MB per digital file plus 100 products.
• Business Plan – $35 per month billed monthly, or $29.17 per month billed annually for phone and chat support, automated abandoned cart recovery, 2 staff accounts, eBay integration, product variations, product filters, Google Shopping, Facebook advertising, Facebook pixel, advanced SEO tools, inventory management, access to App Market extensions, selling simultaneously on multiple sites, automated tax calculations, discount coupons, abandoned cart saver, adding a store to any website, starter site, and unlimited bandwidth, covering 1GB per digital file plus 2500 products.
• Unlimited Plan – $99 per month billed monthly, or $82.50 per month billed annually for priority support, phone and chat support, Square POS integration, automated abandoned cart recovery, 2 staff accounts, eBay integration, product variations, product filters, Google Shopping, Facebook advertising, Facebook pixel, advanced SEO tools, inventory management, access to App Market extensions, selling simultaneously on multiple sites, automated tax calculations, discount coupons, abandoned cart saver, adding a store to any website, starter site, and unlimited bandwidth, covering 10GB per digital file plus unlimited products.

Evidently, Ecwid is one of the cheapest solutions on the market. You can see that it's actually cheaper than many of the other platforms we've reviewed in the past. So, if you're looking for value, this might be the right plugin for you.

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Sell with Ecwid on Social Media

It hasn’t always been easy for business owners to sell their products through social media.

However, Ecwid, and a few other leaders in the eCommerce landscape decided that it was time for social platforms to be more accessible to the masses. Ecwid ecommerce helps companies of all shapes and sizes list and sell products on a host of platforms, including Facebook, SnapChat Pinterest, and Instagram.

• Facebook: To sell on Facebook, upload your product catalog from Ecwid onto your Facebook business page and show your products in your shop tab. You’ll need the Venture Business or Unlimited plan to get started. Once you have that, go to the Ecwid control panel, click All Sales channels and choose Facebook. Your products will then be available on your Facebook page as soon as you add your profile to your Ecwid account!
• Instagram: Instagram is one of the world’s most popular social media channels, and it’s also a great way to sell items through Instagram Shoppable products. You’ll need a Business account on Instagram and a Venture or higher plan with ECWid to sell on Instagram. Once you stock your online store with the products you want to sell, you’ll need to make sure that you’re located in an approved country, then use the sell on Facebook Integration from Ecwid to bulk sync your account. Once again, all you need to do is go into the All sales channels section of your control panel and set up your Instagram account in the Sell on Instagram section. You’ll also need to authenticate your Facebook account.
• Pinterest: Pinterest is another excellent service to use if you want to connect with customers on social media and sell products at the same time. Although Ecwid doesn’t have the same integrations that it has for Facebook and Instagram with Pinterest, you can use a tag to upgrade your selling. Within your Pinterest business account, go to the Ads > Conversions section, and click on your Create Pinterest Tag option. Copy the unique tag ID, then add your tag to your store page in Ecwid!
• Snapchat: If you have a younger audience, or just sell to people who love filters and pictures, then Snapchat is a great choice. Ecwid has it’s own Snapchat pixel that you can use to ramp up your sales. Within your Snapchat Ads manager, go to the Manage section, then Snap pixel. Create your pixel, and copy the ID. Within your Ecwid control panel, go into Settings > General > Tracking and add your Snap pixel. This will help you to track the sales you get from Snapchat!

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Sell with Ecwid on eBay and Amazon

Ecwid doesn’t just help you to improve your sales by letting you sell on social media or track the conversions you get from social channels. You can also ramp up your conversion rates by selling through marketplaces like Amazon and eBay too.

For instance, to sell on Amazon, go to the Ecwid control panel, and click on All sales channels. You should see an option to click on Amazon. You can connect straight to Amazon from Ecwid with no need for any third-party services. Just follow the wizard as it tells you how to link your accounts.

You’ll need to:

• Connect your Amazon seller account. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to set one up, register your brand, configure taxes, prepare a return policy, and specify shipping rates.
• List your first product: You can match products to an existing Amazon listing or create a listing from scratch. Remember to pay attention to the average Amazon pricing when choosing a price for your product.
• Wait for approval: After you add your products, Amazon will review your submission to ensure it meets with their guidelines. If your products are approved, they’ll be released on the marketplace.

If you want to sell on eBay, that process is simple with Etsy too. Attracting new customers at a lower cost is crucial to growing any business and selling on multiple channels can help with that. With the Ecwid ecommerce service, you can add your store to as many marketplaces, sites, and social media pages as you like, including Google Shopping!

The easiest way to add your products to eBay if you’re an Ecwid merchant is to use the Trimpo or Codisto.LINQ apps on the marketplace from Ecwid. This allows you to automatically publish new products to eBay, update your inventory and more.

Choose the app that works for you, select the products you want to list, and you’ll be ready to start delivering your products to buyers all around the world. Your app will even upload product pictures, prices, and inventory levels for you.

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Importing and Exporting your Ecwid Product Data

Since you might need to import or export product data while you manage your inventory, Ecwid doesn’t leave this functionality out of its inventory management system. You can easily export and import product info in bulk via CSV.

Now, the best thing about this is that Ecwid allows you to take advantage of up to 25 CSV columns. In other words, you can import multiple products along with 25 of their distinct attributes, including images, URLs, SKUs, names, variants, etc.

That said, it turns out the export function isn’t limited to your product data. You can also export your customer details as well as orders in bulk through CSV. These are the types of capabilities you need to transfer data to other ecommerce or analytics platforms.

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Dropshipping with Ecwid

All things considered, Ecwid was seemingly built for more than one business approach. It’s fully capable of going beyond the standard model of direct product selling, to support dynamic ecommerce merchants.

Case in point – if acting as the middle man between shoppers and suppliers is your kind of thing, for instance, Ecwid can come in handy for dropshipping.

But, here’s the thing. You can best achieve this by integrating a dropshipping app from Ecwid’s App Store. Thankfully, there are various options for different kinds of dropshipping businesses.

The most versatile ones can effectively coordinate between numerous customers and more than 100 suppliers on a single Ecwid dropshipping store. You can easily set up products, communicate with suppliers, track fulfillment plus shipping, sync your data accordingly, and more.

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The Ecwid App Market

Adding application extensions is a sure fire way to scaling up or customizing your ecommerce site in a reasonable manner. And that’s why Ecwid comes with its own App Market, which features a wide range of decent applications for merchants who’d like to expand their functionalities.

Apart from typical ecommerce tools, you can get add-ons for reward schemes, customer support, accounting, analytics, shipping, product management, dropshipping and store management.

Although a handful of them can be installed for free, the best Ecwid app options come at a price. And if you’re curious about their corresponding price ranges, the pricing structure for the Ecwid App market is quite diverse. Some apps charge a one-off fee, while others come with a monthly subscription system, or in some cases, commission-based pricing.

What you choose in the end depends on your specific needs and budget.

Ecwid’s app marketplace is growing all the time, with everything from tools that help you to get on social media and build your reputation, to solutions that are great for boosting your advertising.

Options like Xero make it easy to keep track of your accounting, while LiveChat and Tidio Chat improve your relationship with customers. After all, the better your customer service is, the easier it’s going to be to keep clients coming back for more.

Other excellent app choices include Google Smart Shopping, which allows you to display your products for sale on Google Shopping. Or you can check out things like Printful for POD designs that allow you to sell your own fashion creations online.

You can even find a host of shipping apps like ShipStation and ShippingEasy to help you fulfill your orders.

Ecwid SEO and Marketing

Although Ecwid is a third-party solution to your current site, it makes a decent attempt at improving your overall SEO standing. You can, for starters, define your product plus page SEO meta-descriptions. Then Ecwid even helps you further by automatically pre-populating the relevant fields.

Sadly, you don’t get advanced SEO editing capabilities by default. On the bright side, however, you would typically have to implement additional SEO and marketing tools to really get the word out.

Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites. So, all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google without any extra effort. It gets even better with WordPress sites, since you gain access to additional SEO plugins and the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.

Then when it comes to sales promotions, Ecwid offers abandoned cart recovery tools, along with volume discounts, discount codes, and promotional pricing. You can set up additional discounts, but that would require you to integrate relevant extensions.

Ecwid Security

It seems that Ecwid takes security seriously, since the company is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider. In addition to that, the company states that every transaction that includes sensitive information is transferred through a secure HTTPS channel.

That means you can rely on Ecwid to protect your customers’ confidential information. And just for clarity’s sake, Ecwid doesn’t handle, collect, or store your customers’ payment data. All the transactions processed directly by your payment processor.

The rest of the site data, on the other hand, is stored safely on Amazon Web Services secure servers. Then to reduce the chances of a disastrous breach, the entire Ecwid network is scanned and backed up on a regular basis.

Ecwid and GDPR

Going by the European Union GDPR regulations, all EU-based and Non-EU businesses are expected to strictly abide by the data laws when handling EU traffic. The principal objective here is safeguarding the privacy of EU web visitors.

👉 In short, your site should:

• Handle and save data securely.
• Seek opt-in consents from your web visitors before adding them to your mailing list.
• Generate relevant cookie and privacy notifications.
• Allow your visitors to accept or reject your cookie requests.

Well, from our analysis, you shouldn’t have any problem implementing any of these conditions. The Ecwid backend helps you comply accordingly by providing a range of relevant site tweaks.

To seek mailing list consent from your shoppers, for instance, you could simply introduce a sign-up option on your storefront checkout page. Then when you need to track your customers through cookies, just proceed to the Tracking and Analytics section within the Settings area, and enable the GDPR Cookie Consent Banner. Your visitors will subsequently be allowed to accept or decline cookies on the storefront.

Ecwid Reviews: Customer Support

Ecwid offers a “Chat With Sales” feature which is always one of my favorite ways to talk with companies. Simply send them a query and you can work on something else until they respond.

The company also provides a powerful support section with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities, and a forum.

Overall, the support outlets include phone support, online chat support and email support, keeping the response time short and support quality high.

In my opinion, the platform has everything you could want in terms of support.

Ecwid Payment Gateways and Fees

Come to think of it, it has never been easy to find an ecommerce platform that doesn’t charge transaction fees. But, interestingly, that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any sort of transaction fees on any of the plans they offer, making Ecwid a desirable ecommerce solution for any store trying to keep costs down or improve margins.

But, here’s the thing. Keep in mind that Ecwid is not a payment processor. That means you have to set up something like PayPal or Stripe to process all the transactions that come through your site.

Speaking of which, it’s pretty easy to implement any of these systems, since Ecwid integrates with over 40 international payment options. However, it’s worth noting that each of these processors has its own transaction fees schedule.

Fair enough. Now, imagine you’d like to collect both online and offline payments. Is it possible to proceed with a point of sale integration?

💡 Well, the good news is that there are plenty of decent POS card payment options. Ecwid integrates with Square POS, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle and PayPal card readers, allowing Ecwid to turn your store setup into both an online and offline system.

Integrating Ecwid With Other Platforms

Ecwid and WordPress

WordPress, as you probably know by now, is just a CMS platform. That means it doesn’t come with online selling capabilities.

But, thankfully, you can add easily transform your WordPress-based site into an online store by integrating an external application like Ecwid. Well, Ecwid itself is extremely handy because it provides a dedicated WordPress plugin for that.

Connecting Ecwid and WordPress, therefore, is a pretty straightforward process. Simply install the Ecwid plugin through your WordPress backend, activate it, and voila! You’ll be on your way to setting up a fully-functional WordPress online store.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, the plugin is completely free of charge.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive WordPress.org review.

Ecwid and Wix

Wix is a pretty decent website builder and hosting platform. And although you can add extra ecommerce functionalities to transform your standard site into an online store, it turns out dropshipping is still a major challenge.

However, you can solve that by integrating Ecwid with your Wix site. And just like we’ve seen with WordPress, this doesn’t take much since Ecwid has a specialized app for Wix users. Simply search for it among the third-party apps on Wix, and then integrate the extension with your Wix site. It really is that simple.

How Does Ecwid Compare To Other Ecommerce Platforms?

Ecwid vs Shopify

Ecwid, for starters, is essentially an ecommerce extension that allows you to transform a regular site into an online storefront. Shopify, on the other hand, is basically a complete closed-source ecommerce platform that allows you to create an online store from scratch, and before hosting it on the platform.

In a nutshell, therefore, Shopify is considered a powerful all-round ecommerce website builder (which inludes an ecommerce hosting solution), while Ecwid targets website owners who simply want supplementary online selling features on their sites.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive Shopify reviews.

Ecwid vs Wix

Wix is one of the most dominant website builders on the market today. You can use it to create your own website, and then proceed to host it on the platform as you possibly embed online selling extensions.

In contrast, Ecwid users have their own websites before they even consider leveraging Ecwid. And while Ecwid is a bonafide ecommerce solution, Wix is just a website builder that happens to support a wide range of ecommerce integrations.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive Wix review.

Ecwid vs BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a lot like Shopify. It’s a fully-fledged ecommerce platform with website building and hosting features. However, it locks your website in the platform as soon as you get it up and running.

Well, Ecwid cannot match up to BigCommerce when it comes to ecommerce functionalities. And that, when you come to think of it, makes Ecwid less complicated.

All in all, Ecwid is suitable for startups and small business merchants who already own websites, while BigCommerce is built for growing businesses that are setting up online stores from scratch.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive BigCommerce review.

How to use Ecwid with Squarespace

Business leaders can quickly and easily add Squarespace ecommerce functionality into their website by using the Ecwid Squarespace shopping cart. If you’ve already built an attractive Squarespace website, then you can add the Ecwid widget to transform that site into a fully functional ecommerce store.

By creating a free Squarespace store and combining it with Ecwid, you can create a more immersive and creative online selling experience. Ecwid also gives you the option to sync your Squarespace store with your social media pages, like Facebook and Instagram, so you have more opportunities for quick sales.

To get started, sign up with Ecwid and copy the widget codes from your dashboard page. You’ll also need to log into Squarespace too. Remember, Ecwid’s Squarespace shopping cart is designed to blend in seamlessly with the design you’ve created on Squarespace.

How to Use Ecwid with Weebly

If you want to take your Weebly website to the next level, Ecwid could be the perfect way to add a seamless shopping cart in no time. The Ecwid free shopping cart widget allows you to simply add a snippet of code into your Weebly shop and start delivering excellent checkout experiences in no time.

Like with many Ecwid integrations, the company has made it incredibly simple to combine your Weebly and Ecwid experience. After you’ve created your Ecwid account, you can easily add the ecommerce widget from the Ecwid environment to Weebly by copying and pasting some quick code. Ecwid even allows you to customize the appearance and functionality of your online store experience. Ecwid does all of the heavy lifting for you, by ensuring that your pages will be ready to display optimally on mobile devices and web browsers by default.

Ecwid also provides your Weebly store with things like a fast AJAX interface, drag and drop functionality, and a range of flexible shipping and payment solutions to delight your customers. You can also expect automatic updates whenever new functionality or patches roll out.

How to Use Ecwid with Drupal

Ecwid is one of the most versatile shopping cart solutions on the market today. You can begin online selling in no time, regardless of where you built your original website. For instance, if you already have a website on Drupal, then you can use the Ecwid selling widget to integrate checkout functionality immediately with your Drupal website.

All you need to do is create a free account with Ecwid and add either the buy now button or widget functionality from the Ecwid brand to your Drupal store with a line of code. You can rest assured that your buy now button will blend into the rest of your website’s design, and it will be optimized for mobile buying too.

At the same time, when you combine your Drupal and Ecwid services, you get the opportunity to expand your sales opportunities into different areas too. For instance, you can take your widget or button with you onto forums, social media, and blog pages too.

How to Use Ecwid with Joomla

If you’re using Joomla as your website building platform, then you can easily add an ecommerce store into the mix with some help from Ecwid.

To add your Ecwid store to a hosted version of Joomla, all you need to do is paste your store code from your Ecwid account into the Joomla site page that you want to sell from. The store code can sometimes be corrupted by the built-in editors, however, so make sure you disable that first.

To disable the default editor, go into System> Global configuration > Default editor, and set it to “None”. Once that’s done, go back into your Ecwid account, and click on All Sales Channels > Custom website. You can copy your code to clipboard and go back to your content within your Joomla website to paste your store widget.

You can also add shopping bags, category menus, and even search bars to your Joomla website with Ecwid if you don’t mind using a little more code. Just go to the Store Extensions section under All Sales Channels in your Ecwid account.

Ecwid POS

While Ecwid is popularly recognized as an ecommerce platform, it can be much more than that. Dynamic merchants seeking to supplement their online stores can set up an omnichannel commerce framework comprising of various online channels, as well as brick-and-mortar offline locations.

The trick here is capitalizing on Ecwid’s POS (Point of Sale) functionality. It’s built to support offline selling across standard brick-and-mortar stores, plus mobile in-person sales.

All these sales fronts are connected and controlled from a centralized Ecwid dashboard. The whole Ecwid framework is subsequently monitored in real-time to keep all the critical variables synced at all times. Therefore, even the slightest inventory or sales information adjustment is reflected across the system as soon as it occurs.

Now, if you intend to take advantage of Ecwid’s POS feature, you might want to invest in a suitable card reader. While online card-not-present transactions are processed by payment processors, in-store transactions are largely facilitated by card processors via card readers.

That said, other hardware peripherals required to set up a typically complete POS system include cash drawers, receipt printers, barcode scanners, etc. The good thing about Ecwid’s POS is that it’s pretty flexible. So, you should be able to embed any universally acceptable point of sale hardware (here can fin some of the best POS systems available).

In the end, therefore, what you ultimately choose for your retail store depends on your specific needs and budget.

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Ecwid Negative User Reviews

Ecwid is one of those platforms that continue to attract way more positive reviews than negative remarks. But, let’s face it. Although they are few, there are some pretty genuine negative reviews about Ecwid.

A good number of the complaints, for example, are on Ecwid’s customer support. Don’t get me wrong though. Users are satisfied with the level of support offered. The only problem is the number of options available to Free Plan users. It seems you can only get specialized live chat and phone support after upgrading to one of the paid plans.

And that brings us to another frequently recurring complain. That the Free Plan offers very limited features. Now, this is a double-edged sword if you ask me. Because free stuff always comes with a caveat.

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Ecwid Reviews: FAQ

Is Ecwid safe?

Ecwid keeps you and your data completely safe. The company is dedicated to ensuring that information is properly protected with all the right regulations. The company has earned incredible reviews over the years for it’s reliable checkout functionality

Which is better: Shopify or Ecwid?

That depends on what you need. While Shopify has more features and eCommerce tools to offer, Ecwid is more flexible if you want to add a shopping cart into another pre-existing site. Shopify gives you the all-in-one experience, whereas Ecwid is basically an add-on for a website you already have

How much does Ecwid cost?

There are multiple pricing options for Ecwid, starting with the free package, then continuing to Venture for $15 per month, Business for $35 per month, and the Unlimited package for a $99 per month subscription.

What does Ecwid mean?

Ecwid stands for “Ecommerce Widget”. The tool allows you to add checkout and store functionality to an existing website, and the name stands for that.

Can you dropship with Ecwid?

Ecwid is adding new apps and integrations to its marketplace all the time, including tools like Printful for dropshipping. Because of these integrations, it’s becoming a lot easier for people to import products from a dropship supplier straight to their store.

Does Oberlo work with Ecwid?

Oberlo is an app for dropshipping that works exclusively with Shopify. Ecwid has it’s own apps for dropshipping functionality.

Does Ecwid work with Shopify?

Ecwid and Shopify are competing store options. Shopify is designed to give you everything you need to build a store from scratch, while Ecwid adds ecommerce functionality to an existing store.

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What Are Others Saying About Ecwid?

Overall, Ecwid enjoys solid scores on customer review forums across the web. Most of its users are satisfied that for a considerably affordable rate, they get to upgrade their websites by transforming them into online stores. Then to top it off, the Ecwid grants them omnichannel sales capabilities across various online and offline channels.

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Ecwid Reviews: Conclusion

Evidently, Ecwid is not an all-round ecommerce platform and you cannot build an online store or host one on Ecwid. Even the Starter Site option is a very limited version of a storefront.

But, Ecwid is extremely reliable if you already have a website. And it’s pretty straightforward. Simply integrate it as a plugin, and you’ll end up with a pretty sleek storefront at a very reasonable price.

In a nutshell, Ecwid is ecommerce made easy for small dynamic merchants who need flexible omnichannel commerce capabilities.

Share your thoughts in the comments section below if you have any questions about this Ecwid review. Have you ever used ecwid? Do you plan on checking it out after reading this?

The post Ecwid Reviews 2020: Is it the Best Free Ecommerce Solution for Any Website? appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

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How to Increase Sales with Site Search

Serious about eCommerce? Get an edge on the competition with powerful, lightning-fast site search. Give customers what they want and watch revenue grow.

The post How to Increase Sales with Site Search appeared first on WooCommerce.

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Google Ads Optimization: 5 Tips To Reach More Customers

Google Ads is rolling out new features now more than ever, and advertisers are stuck with no clear understanding on how to make the features work. As a result of the complimentary website and marketing audit we provide to qualified retailers, we generally find that fewer than 40% of the features that advertisers could avail themselves of are actually being used.

Reap all the benefits Google has to offer and ensure your brand is reaching more customers with these 5 tips for Google Ads optimization.

5 Google Ads Optimization Tips

Reach a massive audience, increase eCommerce traffic and drive conversions by implementing these Google Ads optimization strategies:

• Optimize keywords
• Use location targeting
• Make it easy to convert!
• Use ad extensions
• Test ad copy and landing pages

1. Optimize Keywords

Consider The Buyer's Journey

When selecting keywords for your ad campaigns, remember to consider the stages in which customers are at in the buyer's journey. Those still in the awareness and consideration stages are more likely to search for broader keywords on Google than those in the decision stage.

Take advantage of Google's keyword planner tool to ensure your ads are being seen by the right customers. While you may want to increase brand awareness and reach, we recommend avoiding broad match keywords.

Instead, target consumers in the decision stage by optimizing keywords for relevance. Long-tail keywords offer endless combinations and are almost guaranteed to bring more traffic to your site.

Add Negative Keywords

Add negative keywords to avoid showing your ad to users who search for a specific word or phrase that you don't want associated with your business. Use the search terms report to get some negative keyword ideas.

Include negative broad match, phrase match and exact match keywords to your ad groups so that your ads appear in front of the right audience. However, avoid using too many negative keywords as it may result in your ads reaching fewer customers.

2. Use Location Targeting

Increase ROI by focusing your ad targeting on the places where you'll find the right customers. Leverage Google's location targeting settings to select where you want your ads to be shown. Choose from:

• Entire countries
• Areas within a country, like cities or territories
• Radius around a location
• Google My Business locations
• Places of interest
• Your business locations
• Tiered demographics

If you don't want your ads to show in certain locations, just select the locations you want to exclude in your campaigns. And if you're unsure whether location targeting will benefit your business, ask yourself if it's cost-efficient and helps you gain more customers.

3. Make It Easy To Convert!

By making it easy, we mean guiding customers to the checkout in as few steps as possible. Provide minimal options within your Google ad so that customers know what to click within your offer.

Keep your call-to-action (CTA) short and to-the-point. Keep it consistent with your brand's colors while making it stand out at the same time. The purpose of a bold CTA is to guide shoppers in taking the next step on the path to purchasing.

Be sure your CTA directs users to a landing page that corresponds with your offer. For example, if a user searches for "computer keyboards," link your CTA to a landing page with only computer keyboards (as opposed to a page of various electronics.) Offering shoppers too many options obstructs their path to purchase and may even prevent them from browsing your site.

Finally, try to avoid requiring prospects to fill out numerous form fields. Put yourself in the consumer's shoes - you probably don't want to give out much of your personal information, either. Though marketers love collecting information, try limiting form fields to 3 or 4.

4. Use Ad Extensions

Google AdWords offers various ad extensions designed to increase conversion rates and improve ad quality score. Utilize these extensions to provide your audience with more relevant information about your business before clicking your ad.

Include information such as location, phone number, ratings and more to give searchers a better understanding of your business and help drive more leads.

5. Test Ad Copy And Landing Pages

There is always something that can be tested within your ads. Take a look at your highest-performing ad, and compare it to your other ads. Discover what's working best, and implement those strategies into your other ads.

Also, test landing pages to compare the ad's performance. For example, send half of your clicks to one landing page (your "control") and the other half to a different landing page to see which performs better. If the second landing page performs better, set it as your new "control" so that you can test other pages against it in the future.

Conclusion

Reach more customers, improve ad performance and, ultimately, increase conversions by following these 5 tips for Google Ads optimization. At the end of the day, you want your ads to be relevant, useful and beneficial to the user. Accomplish this by making it easy for shoppers to convert.

Leverage your Google Analytics eCommerce reports to gain insight into your visitors' activities. Digest those insights and continue to test to see how you can improve your ad performance.

Here at Groove, we build Google Shopping, Search and Display campaigns to help increase website traffic with a low cost-per-click. If you'd like to learn more about how Groove can help your eCommerce store increase ROI, contact us through the form below with any questions or concerns.

Our team will be in touch!

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How to Find Trending Products to Sell Online

Whether you already have an established ecommerce business or you’re looking to enter the space soon, you likely know that the biggest challenge you face in selling products online is knowing what to sell.

There is no shortage of ecommerce shopping options out there today, from behemoths like Amazon to niche sellers on sites like Etsy. Every seller is in competition to serve the needs of consumers, more of whom will flock to online shopping than ever before in a post-pandemic world. How can you know what products are trending so you can stay a step ahead of the sales curve?

Let’s assume that you’ve covered all the other steps required to carve out your space in this competitive industry. You have a website, brand materials, and shipping and fulfillment capabilities. If you don’t, you know how to spin these things up once you settle on a product line or lines. What you’re looking for now are products to sell.

There are some useful tactics you can use to identify trending products before they reach their absolute peak and begin to lose demand. There was a time, for example, when everyone seemed to want a fidget spinner—but if you tried to jump on that wave now, you’d go nowhere.

With that in mind, let’s review the best ways to find trending products to sell online.

Use search tools like Google Trends and YouTube

Search engines, and the tools associated with them, are a great way to see what people are searching for and how popular those searches are becoming.

As we all know, there is no more powerful search engine (and perhaps window to the rest of the internet) than Google. If enough people search for the same keywords on Google, that keyword will start trending. You can use the accompanying Google Trends tool to track those trends.

Let’s go back to the fidget spinner example. Here’s how Google Trends shows interest in this one search term over the past five years:

As we can see, there was a specific period of time during which interest in fidget spinners exploded. If you were searching for this term in March 2016, you might have seen the early uptick of interest in this product. Finding a supplier for fidget spinners and capitalizing on the trend could have been an easy way to score a quick ecommerce victory.

But, much like the stock market, if you only caught on to the fidget spinner trend by the time it was peaking, you may have been left holding onto excess inventory as interest dwindled.

Keeping that in mind, use Google Trends’ Explore and Trending pages to identify emerging trends before they reach their peak. An inventory management system that allows you to quickly pull necessary stock as needed (rather than try to predict the curve of the trend) is crucial here.

Another way to take advantage of spiking interest in trends without taking on too much risk is to start a dropshipping ecommerce business, where you ship goods directly to customers from third-party suppliers (rather than holding the inventory yourself).  

A less scientific but more interesting way to use search engines to your advantage is to use YouTube. Google owns YouTube, but the latter is a popular search engine for video content in its own right. Searching for the best new products in your niche or expected niche on YouTube, and filtering results for only, say, the previous month, will highlight new hot items that are starting to catch on among the influencer and online review crowd.

Review social media hashtags, influencers, and trending posts

Social media: It’s not just for selfies. With a discerning eye toward what’s appearing most often on the posts of consumers and influencers alike, you can get ahead of the biggest trends before they go mainstream.

Jump on any of the major social media networks—such as Instagram, Twitter, or the resurgent Pinterest. Review their Explore or Trending pages to see what’s on the rise. You can also see which hashtags have the most overall posts on each platform, which can tell you whether a keyword has been saturated or is beginning to hit its stride.

A more targeted way to use social media is to follow specific accounts within your selling niche. For example, finding influencers in the world of men’s fashion and seeing what new products they’re promoting is a great way to gauge interest in a product. Is a particular post from that influencer seeing a ton of engagement? Is this product brand new, or even just a new take from an existing brand? (Everyone knows that Head & Shoulders makes shampoo, but did you know they recently unveiled styling products?)

Cross-referencing posts from a few different influencers, micro-influencers, and even posts that show up in the trending sections of these platforms will give you a sense of what’s becoming popular. Then it’s up to you to combine those findings with data from Google Trends or other market research to see if these products are on the upswing or if the time to capitalize on them has passed.

Work backward from trending news stories

Another great way to get ahead of trending products is to consider what types of products are relevant to the larger news trends of the day.

The kinds of products and services we want change with the times and are a reflection of the culture we live in today. That’s certainly the case when a pandemic turns the world upside down, affecting the way people work, shop, and live.

With that in mind, let’s consider how the pandemic has impacted our lives—and thus, what we’re looking to buy.

During the height of the first wave of pandemic in the U.S., many gyms and fitness centers were forced to close—and as a result, there was an uptick in interest around staying healthy and fit at home. Barbershops and hair salons also closed—and many had to take self-grooming and care into their own hands, with family members cutting each other’s hair or people attempting to self-dye their roots. There was also a huge spike in the number of people adopting pets from animal shelters. Think of all the pet-centric items, from dog beds to cat trees, that thousands of people suddenly wanted or needed. Then, of course, there’s the most ubiquitous “new” product to see a spike in demand as a result of the pandemic: stylish masks and face coverings for everyday wear.

Few news stories will affect an entire nation (not to mention the planet) the way the pandemic did. But looking for stories that have impacted society at-large and have the potential to shift consumer behavior will help you think about “trending products” in a new light. In fact, you might be at the vanguard of a new trend if you are able to identify how a product aligns with the changing times.

As before, it’s worth your time to cross-reference whatever you think of with results from Google Trends and social media activity. This way, you’ll see if your potential new product is actually on the rise, has already crested, or will fizzle out before it becomes a hit.

The bottom line

Like many things in the world of ecommerce, finding a trending product to sell before it’s already “trending” mixes science with art. You have to combine hard numbers from tools like Google Trends and Instagram with insights and impressions from YouTube and news articles. You won’t identify a best-seller every time, but staying ahead of what’s trending can help you supplement your existing catalog with a rotating cast of hot-off-the-press items that will keep your ecommerce business exciting and fresh.

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As Uber hunts for a deal, can Postmates leverage an IPO?

It’s been a busy last 24 hours or so for on-demand delivery company Postmates. According to reporting, the company is reviving its IPO plans, possibly selling to Uber, or perhaps looking to go public with the help of a special purpose acquisition vehicle, also known as a SPAC.

For Postmates, a company caught somewhere between DoorDash’s cash-fueled rise and Uber’s ability to lose hundreds of millions on its Uber Eats delivery service every quarter, multiples options are likely welcome.

Postmates first filed to go public in early 2019, but its IPO failed to materialize. The company was also reported to be pursuing a sale in 2019 after it had filed to go public. An M&A exit also failed to appear.

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But 2020 is very different from 2019. With GrubHub’s bidding war behind us, Uber appears hungry for more volume, and the IPO market is surprisingly hot given the global pandemic. Postmates may have a number of viable options in front of it, instead of a continued grind as a private company.

The IPO market

So what to do?

Despite some blips, if Postmates has managed anything like revenue growth acceleration because people have been staying home and ordering more food and other goods, the company’s IPO story could prove attractive. And if so, the firm could perhaps best what a cash-burning company can afford to part with in an M&A transaction by going public.

Let’s check the tape. It’s a commonly known fact that the public markets have favored technology companies this year, especially software companies. For many venture-backed companies, this is great news. For Postmates, it’s a slightly different equation, as its margins won’t match those of software companies, nor will its revenue recur in a similar fashion.

But, there are IPOs from this year that we can point to featuring companies that also do not feature strong margins or recurring revenue that did great. So, there is an IPO path for venture-backed startups and unicorns to go public even if they are not software entities.

Vroom

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What is CRO and how can it help your ecommmerce business?

Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO as we’re going to be referring throughout this article is increasing your conversion rate by encouraging visitors to your online shop to take specific actions such as buying a product, reading a blog, or subscribing to a newsletter.

Its purpose is to optimise your marketing to help make the customer journey sleeker and in turn, increase your sales. We’re going to be talking about the main ways you can optimise your customer journey and marketing to help grow your online business.

Four Principles of CRO

CRO is when you keep the customer front and center of your mind when looking to optimise your online shop. You need to be looking through the customer’s eyes so you will need to understand the four basic principles of CRO.

1. Value proposition

You need to ensure that you have a clear value proposition on your website. This helps the customer understand straight away what sets you apart from your competition – what’s your USP (Unique Selling Point)? Depending on your USP, you’re going to need to highlight it on your homepage in different ways.

For instance, if your USP is that your price is competitive, then highlight that with increased font size and bold tag. If your service levels are your USP, then dedicate your homepage to communicating that with your customers and why buying from you is better than going to a competitor.

As soon as customers know your value proposition and they can see and understand the advantages of purchasing from you this should help increase your conversion rate.

2. Incentives

Incentives are a fantastic way to encourage customers to purchase but there is more to incentives than just giving away free products or discounts on items. There are higher value incentives such as social proof and product/company reviews that are more valuable to you as a business, that you can encourage customers to do by giving them something in return. This can be anything from a discount on their purchase to loyalty points.

The quality of your information pages such as your ‘About Us’ and ‘FAQ’ can also help the customer make the decision to click through to your product pages. Everything on your online shop, including photos, content, and product descriptions are a way of incentivising your customers to purchase from you.

3. Reduce conversion barriers

The harder you make something the less likely you are to see your customers take action where you want them to. Comb through your online shop and identify where there may be barriers to entry for them. This includes anything from slow page load times, bad user experience, no product images, to checking out off-site.

You’ll want to make the process of any action on your online shop from purchasing to signing up for a newsletter as easy as possible. Here are a few ways you can combat this.

• Use on-site checkout
• Make any CTA (Call To Action) buttons clear
• Clear and descriptive product descriptions
• Good product photography
• Sign up forms with as little information as possible

Removing these barriers will not only make your customers’ user experience and journey on your online shop more pleasant but it will also incentivise them to complete actions.

4. Make the customer feel safe

Lastly, you need to make sure that the customer feels safe, browsing, and purchasing from your online shop. There are still many online shops out there that aren’t responsive, don’t have any trust signals, and overall look a bit dodgy. You want to avoid this at all costs by ensuring that you have an SSL Certificate, a responsive website design, customer reviews where possible, and good branding.

Where do I start?

Optimising your conversion rate does involve looking at the data and running tests for specific things to help you determine what will make your online shop more inviting to customers.

First of all, take a look at your data and establish a baseline and identify what conversions you are wanting to change. Once you’ve identified a few conversions you’ll then need to start running tests on them.

For example, if one of your conversions is to increase newsletter signups you may want to try A/B testing your blog page and showing the signup box in different places. A/B Testing is one of the most powerful tools you can use to help determine how something should look, feel, and work on your online shop. It can provide you with great insight into how your visitors are interacting with your online shop.

UX Designer at EKM Michael said, “What’s great about A/B testing is that you can test small changes to your website and find out the implications of that decision choice before delivering it to your entire customer base.”

Heat mapping can also help you identify what parts of your website are heavily used and which aren’t. It can show you where people are clicking, which links they’re navigating to the most frequently as well as how far down people are scrolling on your online shop. It can help you to identify what areas may need more attention and what areas are not used, that you can remove to make the user experience more simple.

But all of this won’t matter if you haven’t set up conversion tracking on your online shop if you haven’t already. This shows you if and how your customers are converting and will help you when it comes to optimising your website for conversion.

If you’d like to learn more about setting up your own online shop, you can speak to our ecommerce experts on 0333 004 0333 or request a callback here.

The post What is CRO and how can it help your ecommmerce business? appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.

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