New e-commerce developments are upon us from brains akin to the likes of Einstein and Copernicus. First, there was ‘ye olde’ methods of paying for things; trading pigs and chickens at the local market or swapping shiny shells for goods and services; next there was actual gold and jewels in rich men’s pockets which were swiftly swapped for paper money because wallets and purses couldn’t handle the weight. In the modern age we have progressed from paper money and cheques, to plastic money, to online digital money and now…now we have some of these offerings below. People want to pay for things with as little hassle as possible and while keeping track of their accounts at the same time.
Apple iPhone 4 (Image Courtesy Of Apple)
Square
The ‘Square’ looks like a sugar lump with an audio jack sticking out of it. This clever device allows you to make payments from your mobile at any location which has the appropriate software, or alternatively if you are a retailer, allows you to take payments from customers if they are also tooled up. It is free to sign up to the service and you can even have your receipts sent to your email or mobile phone to save on paper. What is most interesting is that as a retailer you can set up your Square account to use photo verification, so that whenever someone makes a payment, you can visually confirm they are the account holder.
Pageonce
Pageonce is a free iPhone app which can be used to make payments and help keep track of all your bills and transactions from your phone. Unlike regular mobile banking, this cracking app ties all your bills and services into one handy place to let you keep track of and manage your money. Bank accounts, utility bills and many other types of payment can be tracked and altered from the palm of your hand, allowing you to see a calendar of payments, charts and other stats on your spending. All in all it could be the best way for you to manage and hopefully save money.
NFC
Near Field Communication is a contactless way of transferring data from a mobile device to a receiver within a 10 centimetre radius. This technology was designed with mobile devices in mind and is an ideal platform for people to make close proximity payments with their phones. Currently used in some parts of Asia and Europe, NFC is used to pay for public transport ticketing, to read ‘smart posters’ and to use a mobile phone as a debit/credit card. Phones need to be built with NFC hardware inside, much like Bluetooth, but the infrastructure is already out there, ready for it to be used more widely.
As an online multi-currency payment processer and merchant service operator, Lancore is a market leader when it comes to online commerce and has opened up a world of new markets for new and existing business customers worldwide.
Having worked in money transfer services for over a decade, Martin Able has vast experience in ensuring secure online credit card processing.
Browsing the web on a mobile has never been easier. There are more than 68 million mobile internet users worldwide and this number is growing. Since the development of Smartphones like the iPhone and Android platforms, getting online on your phone is an increasingly seamless and daily occurrence. Also, next year sees the launch of 4G internet. Much like the 3G internet currently used by mobile surfers but up to 20 times faster. With this in the pipeline you can be assured that mobile commerce is going to be a big part of the future of business.
Social Media is big business and with the right plan of action and a delicate touch any site can utilise people power to improve their ecommerce. Here are a few brands which have made a big difference to their ecommerce growth using social media.
Design is of course a major aspect of ecommerce as an attractive design can be as important as the function of the site. This is what initially draws potential clients into your site and someone can turn on a site in an instant if they don’t like the design. People are fickle like that. What you need to ensure is that your site is both well arranged and the colour scheme and design is attractive. Fortunately web designers aren’t left in the dark when it comes to development tools, and with the impending release of Adobe Creative Suite 5 things are about to get even better for them.
In previous blog posts we have looked at how you can analyse site traffic tools such as Google Analytics to better tune your site for better conversions. Once you are confident on your sites ability to convert visitors into customers then you may start wondering how best to drive not only traffic to your site, but traffic that you actually want on your site. After all, 1000 potential customers is better than 1000000 casual visitors with no chance to convert.
The first stage of creating an ecommerce website is of course coming up with a good idea. Whether you’re selling organic tomatoes or Toshiba televisions you have to have your ideas in place before you go on to the next stage. One area that must almost immediately be attended to is the site design. It has to be eye catching, organised and fit with the theme that the site is trying to create.
Whether it’s for an ecommerce site or any other, it’s vital to get your name out there. There was a time when businesses got promoted by word of mouth. It still holds true for websites, word of mouth is a great provider for business, but in this case word of mouth most often refers to people posting on forums or from websites linking to you. However getting this to happen requires some work and you can’t simply rely on them coming to you. Here we provide a variety of seller utilised methods for getting your name out there to the right people.
With any website there are a multitude of hurdles to get over to get the website up and running. The process of laying down a design for a website and getting development underway can be a somewhat arduous procedure. However, particularly for an ecommerce site, the work does not end there.
Aside from the obvious functional elements that a good ecommerce site needs it also has to be visually appealing. Furthermore, the visual and layout options of your products must be helpful and easy for your customers to use. If a site appears disorganised and provides too much information contrary to the sites purpose then it will bemuse customers and few will stick around to browse your site further or make a purchase.
