With the launch of new technologies such as the iPhone 4 and the iPad, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago there was a time when the most advanced technology in an office was the telephone: A simpler time when pen and paper, or maybe a typewriter, along with the postal service and a filing cabinet was the basis of all work and communication. A time when salesmen went out and about to do business on the road and when computers were closer to abacuses than today’s superfast nanotech marvels.
When starting a new business in today’s environment, the technology you require has gone from being nonexistent, through large clunky and unreliable, to sleek, sophisticated, user friendly, often beautiful and increasingly open sourced. Here are some of the most important new technologies and how they affect new businesses:
Broadband Internet, HTML5
There is no escaping that we are now an online world. Without a website your company could make the best grommets in the world, but not many people would know about it. With the step to broadband internet, the World Wide Web came to households around the country like never before, (as dial-up was fairly limited), and made it possible for even the smallest start up business to create a webpage for people to see their products.
HTML is the core markup language of the internet, and the basis upon which webpages are built. HTML5 (and CSS3) is the latest version of this language, which is set to make it even easier for new businesses to incorporate various modern elements into their websites when browsers get up to speed with the technology.
Search Engines, SEO
Search engines have changed the way people search for businesses and services. When looking for anything from a new job to somewhere to sell your 1956 limited edition Elvis original album press, instead of going to the yellow pages, the majority of the world goes to a search engine.
Search engines like Google are now among the biggest and most profitable companies in the world which shows how big a part of our lives they have become. A new business that appears at the top of search engine rankings will get more business. So SEO (search engine optimisation) is an increasingly key part of any new businesses strategy, as this improves the position of a businesses website within the search engine rankings.
Smartphones
Smartphones such as the new iPhone 4 or the very popular Blackberry have massively improved the connection between small business owners and their customers. Even one person companies can maintain contact with their suppliers, other staff, accountants and clients without having to be tied to or constantly returning to a desk. With a smartphone a new business can have lower overheads also, as a number of apps available on smartphones can keep track of your finances, track your tasks and appointments, allow you to access the internet on the move and maintain a constant point of contact for potential new customers.
New technologies have revolutionised business, but have also made it easier for a business’s competition at the same time. The bar has been raised for everyone and new technologies are here to help.
Martin Able has worked for years as part of the Lancore team to provide the most secure money transfer services through complete payment gateways solutions.
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.
When it comes it familiarising yourself with the Google Analytics system there are a lot of areas that require looking into to give you a reasonably concise overview. Among the most important areas to familiarise yourself with are the monitoring of visitor data and creating and tracking goals within your sites account. This requires quite a bit of time to be put aside in order to really get a feel for the system. However, once you have this under your belt you can make the next vital step in analysing and utilising the data that analytics gathers for your site in order to really begin optimising your site for success.
As any website guru will tell you, ‘content is king’. This applies as much to an ecommerce site as to any other. It is vital that the site provides something invaluable to potential customers. Of course no website will be perfect for everyone but it is vital that even in a niche market you are providing a very high standard. For an ecommerce site, content refers to products and services.
