Author: Ajay Sahoo

How to Capture the Opportunity after 59 Mobile Apps Banned in India

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

Last week the Government of India did announce to ban 59 mobile applications as the government said these mobile apps were engaged in activities that were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity, and defense of the nation.

The list includes TikTok, UCBrowser, WeChat, CamScanner, etc and these apps are quite popular and have been widely used in India and in other countries as well.

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown that followed has changed the way many professionals work.

Technology has played a pivotal role — be it work from home or online classes or digital payments.

Same time, certain IT experts feel this may be the best and ideal opportunity for the Startups, particularly from India, to develop and deliver the alternative apps to shine.

What Entrepreneurs are Saying After the Ban:

Shortly after the announcement, Debjani Ghosh, NASSCOM’s president took to Twitter to laud the decision and encourage India’s start-ups to fill the void in the app ecosystem. Her tweet was accompanied by numerous entrepreneurs including PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who was also welcomed by the move.

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Debjani Ghosh, president of NASSCOM, feels that it is the right time for the government and industry to focus on building for the Indian movement. She tweeted –

How This is an Opportunity:

From the last 10 years, India’s tech start-ups have been struggling to compete with the digital offerings with foreign companies which is typically backed by heavy volumes of funding, and capable of undertaking relentless and wide-scale marketing campaigns.

According to experts, India’s tech start-up ecosystem has struggled to secure the same levels of investments that the foreign-backed firms receive. And coupled with the lack of institutional support for the Indian government as well.

The popular mobile apps like TikTok, UCBrowser, Vigo, and other apps, many of which come pre-installed on smartphone manufactures and sold by foreign-based companies in India such as Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, etc.

What We Can Achieve:

The whole thing is actually about data privacy. There no connection to the Indo-China Border conflict issue for this banning.

So here only to focus the Indian Data-Privacy policy along with other privacy policies to launch your mobile app into the market.

Other checkpoints like features, engagement, usability must to consider for developing a new mobile app.

Obviously, if you are developing a mobile app for public entertainment or people would use the app for their entertainment your data privacy policy need to be transparent as much it can be.

Security of User Information

With that kind of information at stake, mobile app developers need to do everything they can to protect their users and clients.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Some the step we can follow like:

  • Encrypt All Data
  • Be Extra Cautious With Libraries
  • Use Authorized APIs Only
  • Use High-Level Authentication
  • Deploy Tamper-Detection Technologies
  • Use the Principle of Least Privilege
  • Deploy Proper Session Handling
  • Use the Best Cryptography Tools and Techniques

The above guidelines will help to keep the mobile app secure as an oyster and keep your clients and users happy.

Conclusion

From video sharing app like TikTok to chat-based services WeChat, to eCommerce, to web browsing and gaming, the latest ban has provided a much-awated gift to the Indian digital niche, at a moment when the spirits may have been at their lowest due to Covid-19 pandemic situation.

Same time, the Indian Government also has to back the Indian startup as a wing to gain popularity. The time is ripe then, for India’s tech entrepreneurs to finally take center-stage.

What’s on your mind? Let’s develop it!

How to keep your SaaS Startup Revenue on Track

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

After an unprecedented bull run for 11 years, SaaS businesses are faced with a lot of uncertainty as they overcome the business impact of the global pandemic.

There is no fixed path ahead. The truths of each Monday are re-calibrated by next Friday. In the current scenario, agility is critical. You must look at the right leading indicators to make decisions quickly or risk getting buried under loads of data.

While revenue metrics like LTV, CAC, NRR, and Quick Ratio are solid ways to diagnose long-term trends with respect to how the business is performing, it is important to look at the leading indicators of your revenue health, and act on them before they significantly impact growth and cash flows.

Let’s dig into some metrics you should consider.

Cash Burn

Cash burn, the rate at which companies use up their cash balance or reserves, can be impacted by both revenue (inflows) and expenditure (outflows). It’s always good to conservatively assume a higher burn rate unless your business is accelerating.

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Even though there are multiple variables impacting your revenue, the key lies in being flexible and reacting wisely from an expenditure standpoint. It’s good to plan for all outcomes, and not assume you’re going to have a V-shaped recovery.

Practice conservatism and have one to three months of a runaway. This is impactful if the current situation is going to linger longer.

If your vendors are affected, reach out. You could prepay some of these expenses and probably negotiate a discount as well. A 10 to 20% discount means cash sitting on your balance sheet, which eases your expense burdens in the future

Sales Outstanding

At Andolasoft, we are seeing the DSO ratio increasing across all our clients as end customers are slow to pay in recent months.

Sales outstanding is basically calculating the time it takes for you to collect an invoice. This metric is one of the few things you can control.

If you received payment in 20 days pre-crisis, depending on the business you’re collecting from, it might take 30 to 40 days moving forward.

This could have a huge impact on your working capital. When forecasting for the next three to six months, take a closer look at the day sales outstanding ratio.

Accounts Receivables Aging Report

Given that most customers might be freezing their budgets, you may want to close payments on your receivables sooner than later.

On the other side, we’re also seeing businesses with stronger cashflow positions offering more lenient payment terms up to net-60 and net-90 days to build a stronger rapport with their customers.

A real-time accounts receivable aging report lets you see how much money your customers have paid, any outstanding payments, and current debt.

Aging reports help identify customers who aren’t paying, which makes it easier for you to reach out and negotiate payment terms.

Lifetime Value

The next thing you need to focus on is your growth sustainability. Growth should never come at the cost of profitability.

If you acquire a customer with a higher customer acquisition cost (CAC) and low lifetime value (LTV), it means you’re scaling but not profitably.

One way to balance growth and profitability is by the rule of 40. If your growth rate plus EBITDA equals 40%, it means you’re growing profitably.

In this scenario, you should ensure you’re bringing in the right kind of customers and make sure that your retention is high.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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The advantage of an LTV metric is that it gives you an idea of your customers’ quality. It also shows how well you’re able to retain them, which in turn, helps your team prioritize the accounts that are more likely to last longer than a free-trial period.

Total Credit Notes

Finally, you should be closely watching the leakage points in your revenue cycle.

The total credit notes report shows you the impact of credits and refunds you’ve offered to customers. While churn is bad news in itself, full refunds are even worse as they impact cash already in the bank.

I see some businesses restructuring their refund policies to only offer credits at this time, but it might have a significant hit on the brand. An option can be setting up internal policies, to look into the merits of each refund, then process it on a case-by-case basis.

On the other hand, acquisition teams are starting to use more coupons and discounts to close more deals.

While discounts are a great way to retain customers and continue running the sales machine, you need to watch its impact on revenue and ensure you are reporting on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and leakages correctly.

This way, you wouldn’t be pushed to a scenario where sales continues to close seemingly big numbers, but with all the heavy discounts you don’t even see its impact downstream on total MRR.

Everything you knew about growing a startup or SaaS business has been upended. You’ll be faced with making tough decisions and your commitment will definitely be tested.

But with a clear understanding of your startup’s health and how your finances are changing on a daily basis, you can navigate these choppy waters.

Planning to launch your SaaS startup? Let’s Discuss!

How To Robust eCommerce Store Using WordPress

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

Ecommerce is poised to become a major player in the global retail market, and the global eCommerce industry may make up as much as 6.7% of all retail sales by 2025.

And it’s not just giants like Amazon or Walmart that contribute to this figure, as the local marketplace features a multitude of stores selling everything online.

One of the best parts about entering the eCommerce world is that it’s easier than ever to do so. There’s a huge array of services that can give you everything you need to set up your online store with only a few clicks. Find a suitable eCommerce platform, you’re off to a good start!

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In our previous article about what you should consider before building an eCommerce store, we covered several of the best eCommerce platforms to choose from. This time, we zero in on building an online store with WordPress, one of the most popular and flexible solutions for eCommerce.

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress is a free-and-open-source content management system that is developed by both a core group of lead developers and a community composed entirely of volunteers.

About one-quarter of all the websites on the Internet have WordPress as their content management system, and for good reason—it combines ease of use that allows it to be applied to even the most basic websites and plugin-based modularity that allows its functionality to be extended to meet virtually any needs.

Its open-source, community-managed nature also ensures that WordPress is constantly up-to-date with security patches and new features. Tutorials and documentation to do just about anything can also be found all over the Web—if you have a question about WordPress, it’s almost certainly been answered already.

WordPress is particularly useful when building an eCommerce website because there are plenty of premade themes suited to an online storefront. It also features plugins that add complete eCommerce functionality to a site, from product display to shopping cart and checkout.

Finally, one of the top reasons to go with WordPress is that it’s a flexible platform that offers you complete control over what your website does and how it appears. On top of your storefront, you can also include a blog, a forum, and any other pages you need.

All this comes without any ongoing fees to make use of the WordPress platform. Your monthly fees come from your hosting company and domain registrar, with WordPress itself being free to use, and certain plugins and themes being one-time purchases.

Planning to create an online store with WordPress? This blog post will help you along every step of the process.

Step 1: Choose Your Domain Name And Hosting Provider.

The first step in WordPress eCommerce setup starts with your domain name. This will become the address of your future website. A domain name is what you enter into the address bar of your browser to access a website.

While WordPress itself is free, you’ll need to pay for your domain name, which starts at US$10 per year. The cost is well worth it, as having your own domain name (i.e. yourbusinessname.com) is far more professional-looking than having your name on someone else’s domain (i.e. yourbusinessname.otherdomain.com)

You will also need a hosting provider, a service that will host your website on the Internet. By having a dedicated hosting provider, you’re assured that your website will load quickly and not suffer from extended periods of downtime.

You have the option of a shared or dedicated host. With a shared host, your website is on the same server as several other websites, which is cheaper, but often provides you with less control over your website as well as potentially smaller storage and bandwidth availability. Meanwhile, a dedicated host is more expensive, but gives your website a whole server exclusively for your use, and gives you a wide degree of control, storage, and bandwidth.

After snagging your domain and host, you can now install WordPress, and there are two ways to go about it:

One-Click Install

In the one-click install, you register your domain name and get your WordPress site hosted from the same provider. WordPress recommends your host supports PHP 7, MySQL v5.6+ or MariaDB v10.0+, and HTTPS.

You can also use hosting providers trusted by WordPress, which will make installation easier and ensure that your chosen host is supported. WordPress itself recommends Pressable, BlueHost, Dreamhost, Flywheel, and Site Ground.

Manual install

With the manual option, you set up a server manually, then install the WordPress platform on your server, and configure it. You’ll need to have an FTP client, a database set up through cPanel or PHPMyAdmin, and access to your web server. As such, this option is recommended only for advanced users. WordPress has extensive documentation that can walk you through the process.

Step 2: Select An ECommerce Plugin.

What will separate your WordPress eCommerce website from a standard WordPress website will be the means by which you sell products directly from your site. There are no native WordPress eCommerce features, so to add this functionality to your website, you’ll need to install an eCommerce plugin.

WooCommerce

Once a mere eCommerce plugin, WooCommerce has now morphed into a whole platform with its own plugin system since it was acquired by Automattic two years ago. It’s a highly customizable platform that gives you total control over your online store. About 30% of all online stores use WooCommerce as their platform; some local stores that use it are Beauty Choice and Green Point Flowers.

WooCommerce features a complete eCommerce backend that helps you build and organize product pages, and provides a shopping cart and checkout process.

Easily manage and track customer discounts with the powerful WooCommerce plugin.

Download Plugin

It’s free to use, but you can extend its functionality even further with various paid and free extensions. Extensions can do anything from serving AI-driven recommendations to customers on product landing pages to providing the option for scheduled group and daily deals that trigger when a predefined number of people purchase an item.

Easy Digital Downloads

While most eCommerce plugins and platforms revolve around the sale of physical products, Easy Digital Downloads or EDD is specifically designed to help you sell digital products.

EDD allows you to create discount codes, place restrictions on downloads, and provides full tracking and data reporting of downloads, sales, and other statistics. You can also add new features to your EDD storefront with extensions, which give you the ability to sell software licenses and subscriptions, add payment processors like PayPal, and more.

EDD is free, with various paid extensions you can purchase.

WP eCommerce

WP eCommerce isn’t quite as fully-featured as WooCommerce, but it’s another popular and robust choice for creating an online store with WordPress.

It has all the basic features, including product pages, shopping cart, and checkout functionality, and comes with excellent data reporting capabilities and inventory management. Like the other plugins, it’s free but provides optional paid and free extensions that can add functionality. It also comes in a paid Gold Cart package option that adds more advanced tools, layouts, and features. You can also purchase premium payment gateways like Stripe and Authorize.net.

Step 3: Install Your eCommerce Plugin.

Once you’ve chosen an eCommerce plugin for your WordPress site, it’s time to install it through your WordPress backend. For convenience’s sake, the following steps assume that you chose the WooCommerce platform:

Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

On the sidebar, go to the Plugins section and click “Add New”.

In the search bar, type “WooCommerce” and hit Enter. Click “Install Now” on WooCommerce by WooThemes.

If you’re still at the stage where you’re looking for a hosting provider, you may want to check out Bluehost’s partnership with WooCommerce. Bluehost offers an all-in-one solution for WordPress eCommerce setup, which includes a domain name, WordPress with WooCommerce pre-installed, and SSL certification to keep your online store secure.

Step 4: Set Up The Product Pages.

Now that you have your plugin set up, it’s time to start adding products and their product pages. Every plugin does things differently, so we’ll cover the steps for doing this in WooCommerce.

At the very least, every product you add must have the following features:

  • Product name
  • Price
  • Image
  • Brief description

Begin by entering your WordPress admin panel, then select “Products” on the sidebar and select “Add Product”. WooCommerce allows you to add both physical and virtual products to your store.

a) Adding Physical Products

You’ll be greeted with an interface very similar to that of publishing a blog post on WordPress. Insert your product name where a post title would normally be, and add a description where post content would be. Then, on the right sidebar, add a product image for your product (analogous to a featured image), and then optionally insert more images in the product gallery.

Next, in the Product Data section, add more details about your product. The first thing to pay attention to is the Product Type drop-down box. The applicable product types for physical products are the following:

Simple: A simple product with no SKU options

Grouped: Multiple related products, which consist of several related “child” products, each of which is a Simple product

Variable: A product with different SKUs, for example, shirts or shoes that have different size options

External/Affiliate: Items sold outside of your store

For now, let’s go with a Simple product.

You’ll also see “Virtual” and “Downloadable” check boxes next to the Product Type. Leave these unchecked for physical products.
Let’s move on to the components on the left of Product Data, and what goes on in each:

The Attributes section is where you can assign special details to each product. You can add as many attribute fields as you like. Just make sure to keep the attribute consistent among similar products being sold.

b) Adding Virtual Products

Virtual products are products that are not sold physically, while downloadable products are downloaded from your store. Some products are both virtual and downloadable, such as eBooks.

Adding virtual products features the same process as physical products for the most part. However, with virtual products, you’ll check the “Virtual” or “Downloadable” boxes next to Product Type. When you select either option, you lose the Shipping tab in Product Data. You should also go to the Inventory tab and uncheck “Manage stock?”

For downloadable products, the General tab gets more options:

Downloadable files: Insert file links here for large files or files you’ve previously uploaded. Alternatively, click the “Choose file” to upload a file.

Download limit: Maximum number of times this file can be downloaded

Download expiry: Buyers can only download the file for a certain number of days.

Other than these changes, the process remains the same for physical products.

After the Product Data part, you’ll find the Product Short Description. This will appear at the top of your product landing page.

Your shoppers will see this short description before the full description that you’ve already written.

Once this is done, click “Update” and the product will be added.

WordPress eCommerce Product Uploading Tips

The following tips ensure that your products are attractive to customers, and can be located easily either from your storefront or through a search engine.

a) Don’t Forget Your Titles!

Your product should always be named in the title bar when you add a product to your store. You should also use SEO tools such as Yoast to determine the best possible title for your product based on SEO.

b) Create Catchy Product Descriptions.

Don’t copy descriptions from the product’s manufacturer. Be unique and creative with your descriptions. Also, use very specific, long-tail keywords that will ensure your product appears in search engine results. Finally, be short—limit descriptions to 150-250 words.

c) Mind The Quality Of Your Images.

Use a square-shaped featured product image to conform to WooCommerce standards. Also, use large, high-quality images to attract more customers.

d) Categorize And Tag Accordingly.

Place your products under categories and tags. The effect is twofold: Customers will have an easier time browsing for them, and Google will also consider them similar to keywords.

Step 5: Payment

Just as it is the last step in the shopping process, both online and offline, the last step in any WordPress eCommerce setup relates to payment. Your eCommerce site needs a means of receiving payments from customers.

Most online retail financial transactions take place over payment gateways, which are services that act as a middleman between you and your customer.

Upon checkout from your site, a customer is directed to the payment gateway’s website, where they input financial information or sign in to their account with the gateway. Money is exchanged securely from the customer to the payment gateway, and then the payment gateway transfers the money into your merchant account. Some payment gateways also host payment accounts as well.

PayPal is one of the leading payment gateways available, but it’s not necessarily everyone’s preference. Thankfully, WooCommerce supports a wide variety of other gateways, and adding them is as easy as a trip to the Payment Gateways section of the WooCommerce Extensions store, from which you can add the gateway of your choice with a single click. Payment gateways come in both free and paid forms.

To make use of most features of payment gateways, you’ll need to have an SSL certificate. This ensures that all transactions, and thus exchanges of financial information, between you and your customer are safe from the prying eyes of hackers. Getting an SSL certificate can usually be achieved through your hosting provider for a fee.

In Singapore, certain payment gateways are favored by both customers and local eCommerce sites. Here are some of the top that is in use:

2Checkout

2Checkout allows eCommerce merchants to accept payments seamlessly from all over the world, whether from mobile or online. eCommerce sites have the option of using 2Checkout as a hosted solution, where buyers are directed to the 2Checkout website to complete payment. More advanced site owners can choose to integrate their storefront directly with the 2Checkout Payment API.

Asia Pay

One of the largest payment gateways in Asia, Asia Pay is also among the top choices for payment processors in Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Paypal Express

Fast and efficient, PayPal Express lets users check out and pay for their items in three clicks. Users can store their financial information easily within PayPal, making the process quick and easy.

Avoid hidden charges and choose the correct payment gateways for your store.

Considerations when choosing a payment gateway

1. Cost

Every payment gateway charges a certain percentage fee per transaction. Check out the service charges for each gateway you plan on using. Sometimes, a higher fee is justifiable if a gateway has excellent service.

2. eCommerce Compatibility

Not all payment gateways are supported by every eCommerce plugin. Ensure that your payment gateway of choice is included in the list of extensions of your eCommerce plugin.

3. Financial Information Input

Payment gateways will offer two options for receiving financial information from customers. One is the hosted page, which redirects customers to the payment gateway’s website after checkout, where they enter their information. This is the most secure method, but it’s also a little unwieldy and is not likely to match your store’s visual theme.

The other method is integration, where customers input their financial information in a series of fields directly on your website, which will then be sent to your payment gateway. This method is much more seamless and convenient but is less secure.

4. Mobile compatibility

More and more online transactions are taking place over mobile devices. It’s imperative that users be allowed to purchase and pay for items from your store even if they’re using their smartphones. Choose a payment gateway that not only supports transactions over mobile but also has an optimized mobile experience with a good UI.

5. Security And Support

Few things are as important as the safety of your customers’ information. To ensure this, make sure that your payment gateway features encryption, support for SSL certificates, and anything else to do with the protection of data.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

You should also be able to respond to problems with payment, refunds, and other concerns about transactions. Your payment processor of choice should have efficient and timely support that responds to your needs effectively.

For more information about setting up a payment gateway with WooCommerce, check out this detailed guide.

Conclusion

This article is a WordPress eCommerce how-to guide that has walked you through every step of building your own online store on one of the biggest platforms on the Web. You’ve learned how to choose your hosting provider, decide what plugin to use, install your plugin of choice, add your very first product, and set up a payment gateway for your site.

Want to launch your own eCommerce Store? Let’s Discuss!

How To Boost eCommerce Sale During Covid19 Pandemic

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

Since the last few years, COVID-19 has made the most unexpected impacts worldwide. As of December, 2021, COVID-19 has affected millions of people worldwide with many deaths.

As with the New variants of Covid-19, the Omicron variant is emerging again, creating a major impact on millions of lives and to the economic sector.

As for the impact on the global business, we can’t say the industry like eCommerce is experiencing the complete fallout. The online sale has taken the hit but it is not completely down.

It’s clear that moving forward, choosing between online sales and brick-and-mortar stores won’t be the answer — instead, “offering a compelling Omni channel experience…is a requirement for survival,” says McKinsey analysts.

The drastic E-commerce growth amid movement restrictions induced by Covid-19 has increased the online Retail sales from 16% to 27.6% in 2021.

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According to a report by UNCTAD, online retail sales have grown in many countries, with the Republic of korea holding a large number of  shares at 25.9% by 2021, up from 20.8% the year before.

This pandemic has spread to over 100+ countries now. But as an eCommerce vendor, it is also time to deliver to their customer despite the circumstances.

Actually, it is very important to handle every step along the way with safety as paramount.

Despite this “post- Covid” era, the situation is constantly changing. With retail and E-commerce business has begun to observe behavioural shifts in the shopping habits , along with many new behavioural shifts observed in the shopping habits.

Online Shopping Increases By Demographic:

A report by BigCommerce has shown that in the Covid-19  various gender and age-groups have adopted E-commerce in varying degrees.

According to a survey it was observed that in the UK and US, 96% of millennials and GenZ are worried about the pandemic which has affected the economy. The widespread worry was  observed that this age group differentiate their behaviours  more noticeably in comparison to other generations.

Agility PR has reported that 30% of millennials has done more Online shopping during pandemic. In contrast 20% of Gen X, 24% of Gen Z and 8% of Baby boomers. 

More data has shown that 24% of boomers and 34% of GenZ have seen Covid-19 has created an impact on the items they are purchasing, compared to nearly half of millennials. These effects might include the cutting back on spending, carrying certain items  and spending less on the experiences.

There is also much disparity observed between genders, with 24% of men found to be online shopping in the pandemic, in comparison to 18% of women. Also, one third of men, in comparison to 25% of women, said that Covid-19 has created more impact on how much they spend on products.

Here I have drafted some safety measures that you should adopt to make your selling experience more effective.

Sanitize Every Place That You Work

For the safety measures, you need to do this at shipment centres, inventories, warehouses, and all the workspaces of your organisation where works are made out. This is the top priority for included people, especially those in the eCommerce sector, considering the far-reaching geographical capabilities of the industry.

Here are some precaution checkpoints of sanitization that you can undertake:

  • Screening the warehouse personnel regularly
  • Instant sanitization of the warehouse
  • Minimizing the working resources and maintain the social distance
  • maintain heavy caution on entry and exit points
  • An emergency phone line to contact the hospital or police station, if required
  • Maintain the manual register for all visitors
  • Contactless delivery

By setting as an example India with1.3 billion people shut down, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said “India’s COVID fight could make or break the global war. WHO said India has a tremendous capacity to deal with the pandemic as it has experience of eradicating smallpox and polio”.

With the contactless initiative, customers can ask the delivery guy to leave their order package in a secure location, from where the end-user can pick it up.

“It can go a long way in containing the spread of COVID-19 and protects both your courier partner and the end customer.”

Winners On The E-Commerce Shift:

Big commerce has reported that month over month, the food and beverage has increased. The impact of E-commerce on emerging markets has grown to 18.8% and also shows a big growth in the downloads of  mobile applications. It has allowed people to hire personal shoppers to prepare and also in some cases they deliver the goods.

The rise of E-commerce popularity was observed as many of us were quarantined  at home, usinging Netflix, Disney+ and all the gaming subscribers has observed growth at an unprecedented rate in Q1 2021.

Provide Training On Sanitization

In these testing times, the biggest threat to society is perhaps, ignorance.

Ignorance, perhaps this is the biggest threat to society. It is so important that each and every single person is well informed about the basics to fight effectively.

Government officials of many countries have adopted epidemic training and awareness procedures for staying safe.

This includes;

  • how to wash your hands
  • how to wear a mask
  • how to stay away from infected surfaces
  • how to deliver using contactless delivery

Collaborate With Shipping Aggregators

The most advantageous outcome of partnering with a shipping partner is to reduce the workload of your internal team and make sure a clean, hygienic shipping process end-to-end.

There are many vendors using this workflow, so you will be able to choose an alternate courier partner without wasting any time.

Keep Customer Support Paramount

To ensure customer satisfaction and general peace amongst customers, make sure that customer support is available round the clock.

Customer service at whim can make sure that the customer and the seller are constantly in touch.

Okay. These are the safety measure for online vendors to ensure the safety of packing to deliver the goods to end-users.

But can we see this lockdown period as an opportunity to boost your eCommerce sale?

As people are willing to stay at their homes these days and they need their daily life stuff also.

So, the answer is YES!

Strategies To Boost Online Sales

It is very obvious that the consumers are spending more time on the internet as they are social distancing and IT professionals are working from home.

So, our recommendation would be to consider your online presence of the online store. This depends on the eCommerce platform you use. Various eCommerce platforms have different limitations.

Example; The core features of Magento, WordPress, are pretty much search engine friendly.

If everything is OKAY.. then revisit your marketing spend and improve the effectiveness of your virtual communications.

1. Reach Out To Your High-Value Customers

Analytica says, “20% of your customers contribute 80% of your total revenue”. Considering this you need to prioritize the high-value customers ensuring their lifetime loyalty.

eCommerce Stats
Source: Squarespace

Applications like Wakeupsales, (cloud-based Salesforce Automation tool) act like the customer relationship solution and contacting platform all in one.

Through this, your marketing staff can stay in touch with the prioritized high-value customers remotely.

So, you can send personalized recommendations that include links to purchase online.

2. Adapt Your Marketing Messaging

During this sensitive period, you also need to rethink your marketing strategy.

However, brands should be cautious of pivoting too far away from their core brand messaging, or worse yet, coming off as opportunistic.

Below are some examples of brands that made simple adjustments to their messaging to “read the cultural room” while remaining authentic.

3. Create “Social Experiences” On Social Media

Staying home means surfing the internet and social media. So the brand needs to get creative about how they leverage their social media presence.

The brand can create problem-solving social media campaigns to gain more reach of your brand or product.

Also, consider the campaign must make aware of your brand and how your brand gets to solve the daily life requirement.

This helps to acquire loyal customers.

4. Offer Free Shipping Or Local Pickup And Delivery

Shipping cost is always a barrier for online users. So if possible, you can consider offering free shipping.

There is another option available “curbside pickup”.

This term of delivery is actually, a customer ordered a product online and can pick it up fro your local store.

It decreases the hassle of the delivery process. And for customers, it also cut the waiting time.

Still, you need to integrate the whole setup on your eCommerce website. This is not a big development process. You can integrate this delivery set up by hiring an eCommerce developer remotely.

5. Extend Your Return And Exchange Policy

“Extending your return and exchange policy in acknowledgment of the current climate could alleviate buyer doubt and incentivize online sales.”

So, changing the return policy can bring some sighs to your customers. As on the lockdown period, the delivery time and pick up time could be delayed. So, extending the return period could help to gain some loyal customers too.

6. Use Retargeting Ads To Reach Your Customers

Paid advertising can help you to reach such people which you cannot go with organic campaigns. And doing it smartly would help you to regain such visitors who were at your store before.

Technically, we called this a Retargeting campaign.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Through it, your ads or product can be displayed to those users who visited your website recently.

The various ads managers like Facebook, Google, etc have the algorithm to perform such methods.

Conclusion:

Developing and delivering the fruitful content display will always have the high-end stuff for your eCommerce website too.

So, before adopting all these methods and strategies, you need to ‘consider your existing website performance and capabilities.

When we come to the point of COVID-19, there is no ETA on when this crisis is going to end. But it is heartwarming to see all people coming together to fight this pandemic.

As the new Covid Variant, Omicron is growing gradually, therefore it is important to take all the necessary steps and grow your business gradually. Develop your E-commerce application now with Andolasoft. 

Our experts, App developers, will guide you with this path, by developing your desired eCommerce Application.

We at Andolasoft also urged the merchant to follow the guideline and secure every touchpoint.

Is your eCommerce site fully integrated to fight this situation? Let’s Discuss.

How To Overcome From B2B SaaS Marketing Challenges

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

B2B SaaS marketing is always tougher than customer marketing. And we are not saying that marketing to consumers is easy, but it is more traditional.

Anyone who works in the B2B segment knows that the industry creates its own sets of constant challenges. However, in the B2C industry, the marketing takes place with the customer, the sales cycle is smaller whereas in the B2B SaaS marketing, the sales cycle is quite prolonged. Mostly if you target smaller groups with higher priced products.

The list of challenges for SaaS marketing is much longer and pretty complicated. You need to understand not only about your product and services but also about your customer industries. It is important to create a good rapport and empathy with your customers, without these two factors your business can surely fail.

Whether you’re racing to market with a brand new offering, gaining a foothold and trying to scale, or firmly established and trying to improve performance, there’s no shortage of challenges SaaS businesses inevitably face.

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Still, not selling a physical product already possesses its own challenge and this is not familiar to many people as well. Not to mention, SaaS marketing can be very demanding, where not only growth but also it is more required for a successful business.

What Is SaaS Marketing:

Let’s start with the theory of SaaS first. SaaS or Software as a Service provides users the ability to connect and use the cloud-based application via the internet.

Basically, users or business customers hire this kind of application for their business.

On the other hand, you can hire this kind of application for your business, so your user can get connected over the internet.

And SaaS marketing is simply the process to market this kind of application.

If your company offers software as a service to other businesses, there are several targeted marketing strategies you can use to achieve the highest conversion rates possible.

If you are a SaaS vendor, you must adopt the latest marketing strategies to archive more customers and high conversions.

So how do you get started with SaaS marketing?

Still, before getting started the SaaS Marketing process you may face several challenges.

Challenges Of SaaS Marketing:

SaaS is a logical product. And the mindset of its customers is always different than other targeted customers.

The decision of purchasing a SaaS product would be more logical than emotional, pricing and compatibility like factor must take some part as well.

And the purchasing decision does not lie on a single person.

So, having these facts the challenges become more complicated when it comes to SaaS marketing.

Logically, marketers may have dealt with many physical products but in SaaS is not having any physical presence.

Other Major Challenges In SaaS Marketing:

Demand and SaaS offerings are always changing. The constant update and release of new features can make your marketing strategies chaotic before your previous strategy would make any significant impact.

  • Customers are not aware of the use of your SaaS product. So, your marketing strategy and content needs to detail educational
  • You need to bring together the SaaS B2B customers and your sales cycle.
  • Standing Out from the Crowd
  • Build a loyal customer Database
  • Targeting your audience
  • Dealing with constant changes

SaaS Marketing Strategy:

Statista data shows – “the total size of the SaaS market has increased to $116 billion in 2019 from $105 billion in just one year. And it is expected to cross $135 billion in 2020.”

So, as a SaaS vendor, you must take a deep dive into marketing.

Before jumping into SaaS marketing, you need to learn about the customer journey first. And can prepare your marketing strategy by following the respected journey stages.

The customer journey may consist of the following stages:

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Decision
  • Retention
  • Advocacy
SaaS Customer JourneyImage Source: Singlegrain[.]com

Actually, there are countless marketing strategies available to produce maximum results. With a mixed knowledge, I have listed some (would be) impactful SaaS marketing results.

  • Define Your Goals

The countless effort without the right directions is totally meaningless. To define a clear and achievable goal is the first step to do for successful SaaS marketing.

    • The goals must be specific and tractable by assigning KPIs and key metrics.
    • Figure your overall business
    • Figure how marketing and sales team can align to achieve the goals

The goal must be realistic. The bigger goal is always hard to achieve. So break down the bigger goals to smaller with realistic milestones.

  • Inbound Marketing

The inbound marketing methodology has four phases;

    • Backup your step
    • Evaluate how to create an inbound strategy
    • Define your buyers’ personas
    • Illustrating key traits of the buyers

And the very next step is to create content for them and address their issues and help them by solving those problems.

  • Content Marketing

Content marketing is an important strategy for any business including SaaS marketing as well. You may look at some of the biggest players of the SaaS market; strong content marketing is their key factor.

The content marketing methodology has encompassed two things:

    • Letting your audience know the use of your product
    • Establish your position at the related industry

You can extend your approach to social media platforms to provide the same information as well.

Existence, trust, and credibility are an important part of assets in the SaaS niche. And you can prove your existence by spreading the voluble information through content marketing.

  • Communicate Value Differentiators Of Their Product 

With the rise in the internet, the size of the market has enlarged. Many new and unique SaaS products were emerging daily, with at least ten competitors, who are launching similar products. This gives the customers a variety of options to choose, while purchasing any kind of products or services.

Therefore you need to demonstrate your product and marketise how your product is different from your customers.

You can handle this sales challenge by showing how your product is different and unique. The key is by doing some research on your customer’s industry and addressing their pain points of the future upgrades will be pretty much helpful for you. You need to communicate and concise about your product and how it will help the customers in solving their major issue.

  • Giving Users Free Trial

To encourage new customers and let them experience the actual benefits of your SaaS products, a free giving period is the best tactic to focus on.

And alternatively, it can be used for the lead generation as well!

This doesn’t mean you should go blindly without any strategy here;

“Optimizing the conversion rate within the free-trial period should be the focus of any SaaS marketer, and this will also mean one other thing: your product must be good.”

Through the free trial period, you would have the chance to showcase your customer service excellence.

Standing Out From The Crowd:

The shift from On-premises software to a cloud based SaaS took some additional time to get recognised in the market. B2b customers are pretty much apprehensive about their data security, location and many other things.

 Things might have taken some turn, however the last few years have noticed a significant development among various SaaS solutions.

However, the global cloud revenue is predicted to reach $ 474 billion by 2022, the ongoing pandemic has increased the demand for digital services and made the cloud a centerpiece for many new digital experiences.

  • User Engagement

And the last not the least Customer engagement is a goal that must stretch across teams and metrics.

It can be performed at a high level, as the knowledge and tap points of a customer for your product, company, or brand.

It is the relationship between your company and your customers and is closely related to customer loyalty and retention.

The better user experience can make a bold relationship between your SaaS product and customers and closely related to the customer success stories and retention.

Many biggest SaaS companies follow the strategy of building a loyal database for their customers. Under the SaaS subscription model, the costs are recovered along with time when the customers continue to renew the subscription.

New customer acquisition has become the top priority for many SaaS business.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

Customer retention becomes a key point in increasing profit for SaaS business. According to Salesforce desk, with 5% increase in the customer retention will drive profits up-to 125%

SaaS Product(Source: Unboundb2b)

The customer experience can be broken down into different stages and can be developed, and implemented separately. Like;

    • Short Signup process
    • Send the users through an onboarding sequence
    • In-App Chat Feature
    • Offer Free Training or Free Demo
    • Develop and link tutorial Videos to engage
    • Get Feedback for improvement

Warping Words

SaaS marketing is different from other product marketing. If you follow the right path and strategies then you can easily gain success for your SaaS product in a short period.

 For every business, becoming successful starts with attracting the right customers. It might take some longer for the SaaS company to grow, but it is achievable by following the right SaaS marketing strategy.

The strategy discussed above will work effectively in successfully growing your SaaS business.

And must make it a point to find regular feedback from your loyal customers and instantly try to improve the customer service.

Also, throughout the marketing methodology focus on retaining the customers as this can be a game-changer in your overall profits.

Thinking of building a SaaS product, let Andolasoft help you. Our Dedicated developers will build excellent SaaS products for your business, by following all the security major and latest features to grow your business.

Happy SaaS marketing!

Planning to launch your own SaaS product? Let’s discuss!

How Technology is Empowering eCommerce Business?

Posted on by Ajay Sahoo

eCommerce has been developing at the speed of light in the recent decade. Thousands of researchers, analysts, and marketers have been studying the holy grail of information – that’s a customer with a smartphone – and defining the strategies for more targeted and personalized marketing and products.

Today, many eCommerce businesses have tons of customer data needed to advance in the online marketplace. With data, as well as data analysis and intelligence tools and platforms, being readily available

They know exactly what their target customers need and want. For example, Amazon’s product recommendation engine generates 35 percent of the company’s net income of $10.07 billion.

In fact, those who have mastered customer research not only know your needs and preferences but also what you’ll need in the future.

This incredible opportunity, along with many other ones, was, of course, enabled by state-of-the-art eCommerce solutions that companies only dreamed about 10 years ago.

So what exactly drives eCommerce businesses’ obsession with data? What are the technologies that give them the competitive advantage they need to stand out in a multi-billion online marketplace?

  • Machine Learning Algorithms to Generate Personalized Product or Service Recommendations

The vast majority of online shoppers – 87 percent – start product searches online. Chances are you’re a part of this, too, if you rely on your smartphone to find new products. It makes perfect sense, as the experience of others can help to make a good choice.

Function of Beauty, an American fashion brand offering personalized hair-care, wants to take product research one step further. A customer looking for hair products such as shampoos and conditioners for their specific hair type doesn’t need to browse numerous websites and menu categories.

Instead, they can take a quiz on a brand’s website and receive a personalized recommendation.

Function of BeautySource: Screenshot, Functionofbeauty(.)com

This was made possible by a machine learning algorithm. A customer can choose their hair type, scent, size of a bottle, and provide other preferences.

The results provided by a quiz taker are fed into the algorithm that pulls from hundreds of ingredients to generate a truly unique set of hair care products. In fact, it’s able to offer up to 12 million custom combinations.

Inc. reports that the quiz has been already taken by more than 1.5 million times. This is truly a great example of how machine learning can help to increase the personalization and relevance of products as well as advanced customer relationships.

Algorithms like these can be used to generate custom products, services, and recommendations, and therefore, will continue to drive eCommerce businesses’ effort to maximize relevancy for customers.

  • Chatbots to Improve the Overall Online Shopping Experience

Chatbots are one of the hottest topics in eCommerce right now.

These apps can mimic human online behavior such as conversations with pre-written questions and answers, so they have a lot of applications in the area.

In fact, here’s what eCommerce businesses expect from using them, as described in the 2018 State of Chatbots report.

ChatBot ReportSource: The 2018 State of Chatbots report

Already, a countless number of businesses have developed their own chatbots to help customers.

The range of their applications, as you can see, is pretty impressive, so it’s safe to claim that any eCommerce business can benefit from using one.

Let’s consider an example of a chatbot making a difference. A well-known U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy, for example, has an impressive Messenger chatbot that helps customers with:

    • Finding products based on such criteria as price range, manufacturer, OS type, laptop type, and common applications (gaming, studying, etc.)
    • Connecting to a customer support operator from an appropriate service department (this is determined by the answers given by the customer to the chatbot)
    • Locating stores across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
    • Getting support like in-home consultations and other service-related inquiries.

Impressive, right? And all of this is available in one place. But the best thing that a lot of customers really appreciate is that they can get almost instant replies to their requests thanks to the chatbot technology.

ChatBot

Chatbots like Best Buy’s can really improve the overall customer experience by increasing personalization and relevance of communication with brands.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more and more people feel comfortable using them; in fact, one U.S. study found that 62 percent of online shoppers said they liked using a chatbot to communicate with a brand.

  • Hybrid eCommerce App Development

Apps continue to be a significant sales channel for eCommerce businesses around the world. In recent years, many companies have chosen to build hybrid apps, which combine the elements of web applications and native apps.

This means they’re built on CSS, HTML, or JavaScript, but use a device’s browser engine to render the HTML or JavaScript code locally.

This allows for more functions that aren’t accessible in native apps, such as local storage and accelerometer. Moreover, making an app hybrid also means that it:

    • Gets downloaded to a device
    • Functions regardless if the device is connected to the Internet
    • Integrates with the devices’ file system to allow local storage
    • Provides better access to dynamic online content
    • Integrates with web services.

The first obvious advantage of hybrid apps that many customers appreciate is offline availability. If made possible by the developers, all of their features can work without an Internet connection.

For businesses looking to build an app, these advantages of hybrid mobile app development should be considered:

    • Your app will work both online and offline
    • Launching updates and patches will be easier for your web development team
    • You’ll build the app faster, so if time to market is a priority, hybrid apps are a great choice
    • You’ll reduce the costs because there’s no need to build multiple versions of a native app for different platforms (Android and iOS, etc.)

  • Innovative Experiences with 3D Imaging, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR)

Attracting customers to product pages is one of the biggest goals in eCommerce. Product imagery and video play a deciding role in conversions; in fact, the State of Video Marketing 2019 report found that up to 96 percent of online shoppers say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. 

No surprise a lot of eCommerce brands have been learning how to improve product imagery and product pages as a whole.

Technology is the answer here, too, as it can help to advance customer experience with product pages with innovative imagery and video delivered by AR and VR.

Yes, we as customers were once quite happy with conventional product images. We’re not anymore, so businesses have to use technology to win over us. 

Using the above-mentioned technologies is indeed a great way to create an immersive, 360-degree shopping experience for online shoppers.

For example, a U.S.-based travel bags and accessories seller Samsonite is one of the companies leading the revolution of product imagery with 3D visualizations to improve customer experience.

3D ProductSource: Samsonite 3D Product Viewer, Samsonite(.)com

“It is important for our customers to have the opportunity to examine the goods in detail, and 3D visualization allows us to bridge the gap between online shopping and brick-and-mortar stores,” Business Wire quoted Jay Nigreli, VP of eCommerce at Samsonite, as saying. 

Indeed, customers visiting eCommerce websites that offer this experience have a great chance to get a better sense of a product’s materials, shape, and dimensions.

The technologies could be especially relevant for companies selling small products like jewelry, so we expect them to adopt 3D, AR, and VR in the future. 

Exciting Times Ahead

Without a doubt, the next several years will be transformational for eCommerce technology. As technology continues to redefine the rules of customer engagement, many new approaches, as well as exciting possibilities, emerge to help businesses stand out from the ever-increasing competition.

The points you’ve just read are among the biggest technology trends impacting eCommerce at the moment, and it’s clear that they will become more widely adopted, as more and more businesses are looking for opportunities to gain competitive advantage.