List Of eCommerce Trends To Watch

E-commerce is an integral part of everyone’s life as each of us is well aware of the advantages of online shopping. Due to this pandemic in 2020, massive growth has been witnessed in eCommerce sales.

Besides this rapid shift in online shopping, it is also found that mobile and digital media consumption has also increased massively.

The e-retail sales in 2019 were $3.53 trillion, which is expected to grow to $6.54 billion by 2022-23.

Measuring the increase in online business, most of the retailers are moving towards this growing industry.

So, it is important for each business to know about the value of eCommerce and the top trends that need to be looked for in 2021.

Let’s have a look at eCommerce trends in this year that are set to outline the marketplace –

The Rise in Voice Commerce

The Rise in Voice Commerce
The Rise in Voice Commerce

Whether it is searching or buying a product from an online shop, most people are increasingly using voice assistant devices.

Devices like Alexa and Google Assistant are helping people to make their tasks easy and smart by voice search, every retailer needs to use this technology. So start optimizing your store for voice search as more than 70% of U.S. households will have their smart speakers by 2024-25.

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Once you optimize your store with Voice Search, it will fulfill consumer’s demands and you can provide them ease and convenience of shopping.

You will be stunned if we say, “It is expected that the Voice eCommerce is to reach $40 billion in revenue by the end of 2022”.

Omni Channel Selling – A New Normal

Omni Channel Selling – A New Normal
Omni Channel Selling – A New Normal

In response to a survey by Harvard Business Review, it is found that people are using multiple channels during their online shopping on various platforms. It is expected that the rate of omnichannel customers will rise in 2021 as well.

Many businesses are already aware of the customer’s behavior of using multiple channels like mobiles, tablets, desktops, etc.

To benefit your online business through Omnichannel selling, you need to optimize your website to use it on mobile phones. It will help you to boost your sales.

You can also create a mobile application or a PWA (Progressive web app) to offer a seamless Omnichannel experience to your customers.

Give the option to your customers to purchase the products in various ways like – Buy online, pick up in-store, choose home delivery, get doorstep delivery, etc.

Global Consumer Base

Global Consumer Base
Global Consumer Base

Global eCommerce is selling products across geopolitical borders. As per the recent updates, the cumulative date anticipates a 276.9% increase in worldwide e-commerce sales.

It is found that a large number of online shoppers are looking to buy outside of their country’s borders.

To increase your sales abroad, you have to analyze the outside market through platforms like online advertising or social media abroad. For this, you will need to approach Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and Product Listing Ads through geographic targeting.

Through this global nature of the search, the local companies can reach their international audience to sell their products.

Competition in Digital Advertising

Competition in Digital Advertising
Competition in Digital Advertising

Digital advertising has become the leading form of advertising in most of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

The increased use of the internet and mobile phones has raised the level of digital advertising. Due to the developments in artificial intelligence and some other aspects, it is now possible to get the targeted audiences through low-cost digital advertising.

More companies are progressing to continue a large investment in a digital advertisement in 2021.

Mobile Payments

Mobile Payments
Mobile Payments

Mobile payments have become an easy and convenient way of digital payments for both retailers and consumers.  It is one of the topmost advanced technologies which is gradually increasing the rate of sales in e-commerce. It is now becoming an essential part of any online shopping platform to add their consumers’ online payment method.

At the time of the pandemic, people used to transact using mobile payment methods as there was a risk of getting exposed to the coronavirus.

In 2021, we can expect that more eCommerce businesses are going to accept mobile payment methods.

Videos & Interactive Content

Videos are one of the significant aspects of the online business world. 7 out of 10 people react positively after watching a well informative and appropriate video.  Across the world, 80 % of millennials use videos to decide on purchasing an online product.

Interactive videos can be used anywhere in the market like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Shoppable videos are the new frontier in the e-commerce world. Consumers can directly purchase the product through Pop-up or Swipe up features on videos added on various social media platforms.

The shoppable videos can be used by any kind of e-commerce space like fashion, beauty, technology brands.

It Will Be an Influencers’ Era

In 2020 it was expected that the influencer marketing industry would reach $9.7B according to Influencer Marketing Hub. The pandemic had disrupted the influencers’ marketing industry in 2020 but still, 88.5% of marketers consider influencer marketing to be valuable.

Mobile Payments
Mobile Payments

Influencers can help you to ensure the success of your product by lending their authority.

If your brand has a content problem, an influencer can market your product worldwide with their content.

In 2021, we will witness a large number of content creators and influencers selling the product and services of all varied kinds.  There will be a rise and prominence of commerce-led influencer marketing to drive a relatable conversion.

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Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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So, here’s how to take advantage of an influencer to increase your product sales –

  • Find out the influencers of your niche and get them to help you out to create content for your e-commerce business.
  • You can help influencers to increase their audience and in return, they will also help you out in your promotional activities.
  • Set them free to choose the platforms where they can market your product.

Conclusion

Be ready with all these trends in 2021 to boost your brand’s performance and value.

It will be important to know the potential of your product and add-ons to attract the audience.

Brands need to optimize their website and app as per customer reviews. It will be helpful to build a strong customer relationship with the brand.

How To Build A Successful Software Development Business

In this age of computers and smartphones, we’ve started to rely a lot upon the software programs that give them life. Since computers started becoming prominent, there has been a boom in the software development business.

The software has made life easier for everyone, from education, entertainment, business, or the day-to-day issues, the software has brought the solutions of almost all of them at the fingertips.

The convenience that the software programs have brought to the lives of the people has increased their demands. An increase in demands naturally leads to an increase in production and the same happened with the software market.

Software businesses are growing and new startups are emerging, seeing these businesses grow, everyone at least once wishes to start a software startup. The catch is to do the right things to make it a successful one.

Here are some suggestions that could help you make your software startup a success-:

1. Be Customer-Centric

A business thrives by the efforts they put to satisfy their clients/customers. Making money might be the dream that brings people to start a business but an important key to success is to satisfy the customer.

A customer-centric business thrives over the motivation of solving the problems incurred by the customers rather than just focusing on converting them and making them pay.

Make sure the customer service is responsive, efficient, and welcoming, and you’ll retain the customers and bring in new ones.

2. Minimum Viable Product

For any business, especially for a startup, the efficient use of capital is always an issue. Businesses face risks during several stages of production and distribution, and a faulty decision can deplete a lot of money.

Minimizing risk makes business much more smooth. For a software-based company, this can be done by introducing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

An MVP is the most basic version of the product with only the essential features of the product. After introducing the MVP, enhancements and upgrades can be done as per the feedback of the user-base.

This way, businesses avoid scenarios where they incur losses because certain features or the software is badly received by the public.

3. Collaborative Marketing

Marketing is an important part of business development and the interesting thing is that the field of marketing is open to lots of creative ideas, innovation, and experimentation.

Out of all the methods that software businesses use to market their product, an interesting way is to collaborate with other businesses where there is no conflict of interest.

The Co-Marketing model which is used by companies to promote each other’s products helps the participating companies access the other company’s user base and thereby grow their audience.

Because of the growth in the user base at a comparatively lower expense, it is a win-win situation for all.

4. Incentivize the Employees

Efficient employees contribute substantially to a business, however, it is not easy to make them work efficiently.

Even though the employees vow to work diligently in an interview, and a lot of them keep up with their words, often an employee lacks the motivation to give it their best.

The best way to motivate an employee is to give them an incentive and appreciation for their accomplishments.

5. Solve Problems

There are a lot of startups that tend to imitate successful products and fail because people aren’t finding the product helpful. Whatever the issue is, if the product isn’t helpful to the clients, if it isn’t solving their problems, it will fail.

Before developing a software program, always do in-depth research about the demands, the issues that the people are facing, how important will your program be for them- are there any other simpler means to solve the issue, does the issue really bother them, and so on.

6. Measure, Analyze, and Improve

To improve something, you need to know its present condition, and how the outcomes are affected by changing its aspects. The same goes for businesses, you need to be aware of certain indicators that reflect how the business is performing.

saas business applicationsImage Source: Statistica

These indicators are called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It is necessary to monitor these indicators along with other indicators and after analyzing the situation, make proper decisions that will improve the situation.

7. Offer Packages

The main source of revenue for a software-based business is subscriptions. While it is essential to offer some free tools for a user to hang on to the software, it is important to provide some exclusive plans that offer more sets of tools.

Such extensive tools are generally used by regular subscribers and businesses who are quite reliant on these exclusive tools and readily pay for them if the standards meet their expectations.

8. Client Retention

As we discussed in the last point that subscriptions are the major sources of revenue for a software company, now if the churn rate for the software is high, the business will lose money in the form of marketing campaigns to maintain the number of subscribers.

Retaining the subscribers is the key to success for a software business especially those with a SaaS product. Proper customer support, attractive offers, and quality products are the things that can make a customer remain subscribed.

9. Third-Party Integration

People extensively use computers and smartphones these days, most of the time, they need different software programs to accomplish a particular task.

Integrating the software with third-party software programs with which it is generally used, will help the users a great deal.

Making a flexible API that can be easily integrated with different platforms and worked upon by developers will help grow the popularity of the product and increase its value.

10. Make it Simple and Intuitive

For a software program to be convenient for public use, it needs to be simple. People don’t want to go through the hassle of learning how to make use of the program to accomplish tasks.

Popular software programs have a simple interface through which people can find their way easily and find the necessary tools and paths intuitively. Make it interactive, simple, and intuitive then see its shining.

Conclusion

Software products are growing rapidly with new ideas, innovative designs, and solutions to day-to-day problems.

While the opportunity is golden and resources are abundant, the journey to success is long and a tough one. The tips that we discussed above will make sure you get across some of the hurdles with ease.

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Why Developers Use WordPress For Website – 6 Important Reasons

Undeniably, when it comes to web development nothing can beat the popularity of WordPress. Most of the developers are obsessed with this platform. Even today, more than 43% and around 810 million of websites on the internet are built from WordPress only.

It’s a content management system (CMS) tool that lets you post a blog as well as develop a website. It makes web development as much as easy for beginners as well. It comes with a lot of functionalities which makes the development easy and quick.

It comes with a lot of themes that give your website an appealing look that helps in capturing the attention of people. For any type of website, you can get a theme.

For instance, to develop an online shopping website you can get plenty of the best wordpress ecommerce theme. You need to choose the one which suits the most as per your requirement.

Well, having a website is as important as logo design of a brand, you should never compromise with it. A well-developed website becomes the integral part of business.

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Moreover, the plugins of it add the functionalities in your website such as security, SEO, performance as much more. Most of the free WordPress eCommerce themes let you integrate the plugin in it.

It won’t be a bad choice to use WordPress. So, let’s discuss why developers choose WordPress for your website.

1. Ready For A Responsive Site

One of the key reasons to use WordPress is it’s responsive for all sizes of screen. It can be the foremost requirement while developing a website.

Your website must give the same visual experience across all devices which includes mobiles, desktop, tablet. Even when it comes to online shopping sites, people would be more likely to use mobiles rather than desktops.

So, it becomes the developer’s responsibility to make the website for all the devices.

Ready For A Responsive Site

You may never know which device users will use to visit your website, that’s why you must have a prior plan for it. You should not lose customers just because of this reason, so use WordPress which has this feature inbuilt in every theme.

There are a wide range of the best wordpress ecommerce themes free available which is perfectly built for all sizes of devices. Hence, this is why the developer chooses WordPress to create a website.

Top Statistics that Show the Importance of Mobile-Responsiveness

  • Nearly 90% of the world’s population is on mobile devices.
  • Mobile devices generate nearly 60% of global website traffic.
  • Internet users spend half of their time on mobile devices.
  • Nearly 50% of Americans spend up-to six hours on their phones per day.
  • There are over one billion tablet users worldwide.
  • More than 50% of internet users use mobile phones to buy online.
  • Nearly 50% of smartphone users are more likely to use a mobile site when shopping online because they don’t want to download a mobile app.
  • Nearly 32% of small businesses already have a mobile app and 42% plan to build an app for their business. 
  • More than 70% of web designers think that non-responsive design is the primary cause of visitors leaving a website.
  • 64% of SEO marketers say mobile optimization is an effective investment
  • During the Covid-19 pandemic mobile website shopping increased by 48%
  • Reducing mobile site loading time by 0.1 seconds increased conversions by 8%

2. Better Performance

Choosing WordPress is never a wrong choice, it gives higher and better performance. Every Free WordPress eCommerce theme provides a wide range of features and functionality to make the website user-friendly.

Even the performance is something that keeps your user engaged with your website.

Moreover, it also gives you plenty of plugins which include additional functionality on the website to improve the performance. It can be for SEO, speed, and much more.

Based on the requirement you can opt for any of it. An experienced developer uses the plugin whenever required and the most suitable one for it.

Having a website with better performance is needed to drive more user traffic which will directly grow your business. Therefore, developers choose WordPress for web development.

Top statistics that show the importance of website performance

  • The first 5 seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.
  • Website conversion rate drops by 4.4% with each additional second of load time.
  • The average mobile web page takes 15.3 seconds on load.
  • Nearly 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.
  • Off all the shoppers surveyed, nearly half said that they would be willing to give up animation and video for faster load times. 
  • The highest conversion rates occur on pages with load times between 0-2 seconds.

3. SEO Friendly

You may choose any Best eCommerce WordPress theme that will be SEO friendly. In fact, to rank higher and get noticed by the people, your website must be built with better SEO standards.

Even you can have the choice to add a WordPress plugin for SEO. There are multiple such plugins are available will make your site perfect for achieving better ranking.

The proper selection of keywords lets your site be visible ahead of others. The higher the rank you have, the more chances to get user traffic into your website.

That will directly affect your business growth. However, developers should know the myths about SEO, before implementing it for their site. A single misconception can divert you to the other path.

Top SEO optimization statistics

  • The #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks.
  • Nearly 50% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.
  • 53% of US consumers say that they research products online before deciding to purchase.
  • Nearly 60% of page rankings in the top 10 Google results pages are 3 or more years old. 
  • Google’s organic search is responsible for 59.2% of the world’s web traffic.
  • Nearly 75% of voice search results are from one of the top 3 desktop ranking pages for a given query.
  • Posts with videos earn more backlinks and see a 157% boost in search traffic.
  • After searching on smartphones for something nearby, nearly 75% of people end-up visiting the business within 1 day.
  • Nearly 30% of local searches result in a purchase.

4. Multisite Functionality

Another significant reason why developers choose WordPress for making websites. Multisite means from one central hub you can make multiple websites. In WordPress, by installing once you can make any number of websites for different purposes.

Multisite Functionality

This functionality allows you to create a private network for all of the websites you have. That’s why people include multiple sites from one platform.

When you expand your business by adding some new products and services at that time you need to add webpages. So, then it would be easier if you are using WordPress.

Thus, due to multisite functionality developers prefer to use WordPress.

5. It’s Open-Source

One of the most important reasons why developers use this platform is it’s completely open-source. The source code will be available to the developer without paying anything.

Users do not need to pay anything to develop a website from WordPress. It gives almost every functionality free of cost. Still, you can make the website for enterprise with all the necessary requirements.

That’s why many beginners choose this platform to initiate the development part.

Specifically, for small scale businesses, it’s really important. They might not be able to spend much money on website development. So, if there is any such platform free of cost, they will definitely go for it.

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However, for some of the WooCommerce WordPress themes and plugins, you need to pay some amount but still, it’s very cheap.

Thus, due to it’s open-source it becomes the ideal platform for beginners and experienced developers as well.

6. Powerful Security

Security is always a point of concern for developers when they create a website. But when you use a ready-made best eCommerce WordPress theme then nothing to worry about.

A lot of information is being entered in multiple ways. It’s the developer’s responsibility to keep all of that in a very secure manner. A little bit of compromise in it will cost them a lot and makes a negative impression in front of the users.

Everyday a lot of cyber-attacks are happening so it becomes very crucial to have a website that is built with higher security standards.

However, it’s a complete misconception about WordPress that it’s not providing security. But the fact is that almost every theme is giving you a higher standard of security. That’s why developers use this platform as it gives powerful security to the website.

Wrapping up

There are multiple CMS available on the internet but developers prefer WordPress over others. It brings a lot of benefits for publishing blogs and making websites.

No matter what website you want to develop, it has a solution for all of that. The above-mentioned points clearly say why developers are using WordPress for web development.

This Is Why SaaS Is Getting Popular

60% of businesses today are online and they all use SaaS products in one way or another. SaaS is nowadays considered an important part of a company’s unhampered growth and success in the ever-changing market.

So, let us have a peek into why SaaS is getting popular and how it can help your business.

What Is SaaS?

What is SaaS?

SaaS, elaborated as Software as a Service, is software providing technology that enables users to access data stored on the cloud from any device, connected to the internet using a browser.

It helps businesses run their applications on the cloud version without having to worry about investing in their hardware.

It has been in the picture since the late 1990s and has been a proven cost-effective solution for businesses.

Further simplifying it, It is a software on demand which offers IT solutions over shared infrastructure usually deployed via the cloud network rather than owned separately by a particular business.

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If you are looking at and thinking about why SaaS is so popular with businesses these days, then let’s dig into everything you need to know.Reasons why Businesses are Preferring SaaS

Here are some of the prominent reasons why businesses are going with SaaS:

Reduced Infrastructure Costs:

While you deliver your next software/project to your client using SaaS, you do not need to worry about all the key infrastructure it will require to run properly.

All infrastructural needs for your project are completely handled by your SaaS provider.

The providers are the one who are responsible for dealing with all the necessary infrastructural needs of your project.

The SaaS provider is also responsible for all the maintenance that your infrastructure will ever require during the time it is being used by you.

Low-Cost:

SaaS services are affordable for almost all businesses because SaaS providers charge businesses as per their usage. It is a cost-effective business solution as you only pay for the infrastructure you use.

As opposed to establishing the company’s infrastructure for the project, where costs can go sky-high and the resources might not get utilized to their extreme.

Trouble Free:

Every aspect of the infrastructure is handled by the SaaS provider, ranging from installations, maintenance, and upgrades, if needed all are taken well care of.

This results in almost no infrastructure related troubles for the business and ensures smooth working of it almost all the time. SaaS vendors always take care of their promises and try to handover their solutions in the designated time frames.

Fully Scalable:

As a business, we all want a service or infrastructure which we can expand and scale as per our needs.

When we run high on projects we would usually need more infrastructure for deployment and other parts of the project, whereas when the company is a little bit low on its workload, it requires less of everything.

SaaS helps you right away with this, when the company wants to scale up its storage capacities, it can be done quickly by just opting for a bigger plan, hence, eliminating all the needs of buying and implementing our infrastructure which can result in a lengthy process in time-critical businesses.

Unlimited Updates:

SaaS vendors usually take care of your software’s updates and also suggest and do upgrades as and when necessary, introducing you with the newest features in the market which can help you score big in your business.

You will always be in front, with all the latest patches and software updates delivered to you very easily and without any underlying complexities.

Secure:

SaaS vendors earn money based on the trust people have in their company. As the trust of people in SaaS companies increases, more people opt in to use the solutions provided by a SaaS company.

SaaS companies usually set up their data servers in such a way that they are geographically scattered. Scattering servers decreases the chances of security breaches and also provides more up-time to the customers.

While SaaS was on its progress stage, many companies held back off because they thought that SaaS was not fully secure.

But as time has passed SaaS has proved everyone wrong, and has emerged as a secure way for companies to use software and store their data.

Great Availability:

SaaS service providers always ensure that their systems are up and running all the time, most SaaS vendors have recorded uptime of 99%.

With this, all that you need to have is a computer connected to the internet to manage your tasks easily. This makes it particularly easy for everyone because a request is all you need to access the data.

So, what is the Future of SaaS in businesses?

Increased Productivity And Newer Apps:

Oracle’s reports show how widely GitHub’s user base grew between the users 2012 to 2018. It rocketed to 31 million users from a mere 5 million users in 2012.

This growth in user base points to only one direction, better and more proficient software developers, which have increased productivity and better ideas to deal with all the problems they are pitched with.

As a part of technological advancements taking place with SaaS, newer and more improved apps can come into the picture. SaaS will improve coding processes and the development tools indulged in it.

More Businesses Migrating To Cloud:

Today more and more businesses are starting to use cloud-based solutions for their workflows.

As the time comes, about 80% of businesses will migrate from the traditional, privately owned data warehouses to public cloud data warehouses, which will be a driving force to the companies of the future who want to implement and use different work cultures as well as for trying out different options for data storage.

Extensive Use Of AI And Machine Learning:

As per the reports of Oracle, 89% of people use voice assistants in one or the other way. AI-powered chat bots are used by companies to be connected with their customers always.

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Companies no longer rely on management for critical decisions, rather they use AI to make efficient decisions by feeding in the most accurate data available for a specific decision.

Final Thought

SaaS is an evolutionary system, which will always help you in one way or the other as it has so many benefits. It is a service where you pay as per your usage, so it simplifies costs greatly for companies.

SaaS solutions offer integration and customization capacities for all types of users.

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More and more businesses are now adopting SaaS platforms for their daily works and every other project. SaaS systems greatly decrease the complexities involved in deploying software projects.

These are some of the reasons why SaaS is getting popular with businesses these days.

How SaaS Products Can Expand Your Dream Business

Want To Gain Huge Revenues With Less Investment?

Investing in SaaS products is a great idea if you want to grow your business quickly without spending too much money on manufacturing, operations, and IT departments.

Implementation of SaaS products in organizations serve for versatile purposes to expand your business at its optimum level.

What Is SaaS?

Software as a service is the program integrated into the cloud-based infrastructure to store data in the servers that can be accessed online.

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Hence, the third-party vendor provides the cloud servers to store the data from where the consumers can retrieve the online data from their computer systems.

The SaaS provider distributes the software integrated to the cloud servers to the businesses purchasing the SaaS products.

Why SaaS?

SaaS Products are gaining huge attention due to low cost as compared to the traditional setup.

1. Flexible Deployment

The deployment of cloud-based software is extremely convenient as it does not require any prior hardware setup. Hence, no need to invest in workforce and maintenance charges to set up the software. A sustainable and effective solution to deploy IT software into the systems.

2. Subscription Payment Model

No need to worry about purchasing a license by paying a huge sum of money. All you need to do is subscribe to the SaaS products on a monthly or yearly basis. Hence, extremely cost-effective by paying only a nominal amount as per your requirement.

3. Customization

Cloud computing has made it possible to customize software at ease. Tweak your dashboard with the information required to be displayed. Avail the features with different levels of payment. Hence, highly customizable to meet the organization’s requirements.

4. Scalable And Reliable

The extensive data and activity reports are stored in cloud servers, hence highly scalable to handle huge volumes of data in the server.

SaaS vendors accept to protect the privacy of the client. Hence, the client’s data and information are extremely protected and confined to prevent any data leakage.

5. Trouble-Free Setup

The easy setup of the software is hassle-free and user-friendly. All you need is a good and reliable internet connection to access your data from the cloud.

6. Cost-Effective

Deployment of SaaS products gets rid of manufacturing and maintenance costs, hereby no need for technical employees to set-up software. Hence, extremely cost-effective due to low investment.

Transition To SaaS Products

In the emergence of the digital world, the evolution of SaaS products is happening at an accelerating rate. Industries across the world are demanding SaaS tools to manage and expand the businesses.

Source: BetterCloud

According to Better Cloud March 2015 poll, the average number of SaaS applications used by IT is almost double of 2015. Hence, a dramatic increase in the usage of SaaS applications was observed in 2 years.

Hence, SaaS applications are becoming the driving force to boost productivity.

According to the 2017 research report of BetterCloud, nearly 73% of companies will completely adopt SaaS-based technologies by the year 2020.

Moreover, 86% of end-users have believed that SaaS-based applications have generated higher success rates than desktop technologies.

Therefore, SaaS technologies are no longer alternative solutions for business processes. However, it has become the integral core to carry out all the business operations at its optimum level.

Hence, the potential of SaaS technologies is increasing with the evolution of digital space.

How Do SaaS Products Grow Businesses?

The prerequisites of a successful business are engaging workforce and efficient management.

A business will grow in real terms when more revenue is generated with lower investments. In other words, more clients are generating and retaining.

You have a fixed budget to set up a business, imagine if you are spending a huge proportion of the amount to the development and maintenance of the software with a skilled workforce. This leads to the investment at three levels, manufacturing, maintenance, and labor.

But if you are integrating SaaS-based technologies in your business operations, you can bypass the multi-levels of investment. Hence, a one-time investment in SaaS products saves the company’s resources.

Top SaaS Tools To Grow Business

The SaaS Products has lots of potential applications serving different purposes for different teams to effectively run the business operations.

You don’t have to be a techie expert to choose the SaaS tool for your company. Just focus on the features required to meet your company’s requirements.

Here, we are outlining the important SaaS Products to run and grow your business effectively.

Project Management

Project management tools are important to track your tasks to accomplish the projects and deliver them on time.

Proofhub is an easy to use project management software integrated with collaboration chat, organized files, and feedback platforms to facilitate a simplified and coordinated work approach.

Human Resource Management

HR management software is predominantly used in all organizations to hire the right talent and manage employees’ requirements.

BambooHR provides a user-friendly dashboard displaying insight reports on employee’s activities. The effective tool to manage employees starting from hiring the right talent, on-boarding, fulfilling compensation, and promoting friendly culture.

Team Collaboration

Setting up meetings and to get ready for video chat, communication with your team and manager is critical to gain better clarity on work progress and to discuss the solutions to challenges elaborately and effectively.

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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Zoom is the perfect tool to communicate with remote teams. Zoom allows video conferencing along with the options to share screen, file share, and messaging.

Employee Monitoring Management

When it comes to managing employees, employee monitoring tools are important to track your employees’ daily productivity.

WorkTrak is an effective SaaS tool that generates insight reports of employee’s daily productivity. Get acquainted with your employees’ performance, attendance, idle and active times and protect your company’s valuable data from insider theft. The best part is the tool comes with a load of premium features at extremely competitive prices.

Conclusion

The broad spectrum of SaaS products available can grow your business at an accelerating rate with less investment. Beat your competitors by integrating the SaaS tools into your daily operations.

eCommerce Marketing Ideas During COVID-19

It’s no doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on businesses around the world. Marketers are referring to it as the season of ‘crisis marketing’ where businesses must adapt to consumer demands to survive and thrive.

As consumers are locked indoors, the number of online orders is on the rise and many are working towards stocking up for worse outcomes due to the pandemic.

This is a time when businesses have to be clear and vocal about their communications and operations. Here is a list of the top eCommerce Marketing Ideas During COVID-19 being employed by businesses

1. Pay Per Click or Paid Ads

We’re all stuck indoors due to the Coronavirus and this is a time when people are busy stocking up. If your brand is contributing to helping people and committed to the cause, you should let people know.

PPC Campaigns or Paid Ads are experiencing lesser clicks on average but that doesn’t mean they’ve become irrelevant.

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Fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), healthcare and medical businesses, food, and retail – these are the sectors experiencing the fastest growing at the moment. Home improvement eCommerce businesses are seeing a steady increase in conversions and investing their money on ad spends.

  • Google Shopping Ads

Google is giving away free credits that online marketers can use to place shopping ads on the platform. For businesses selling courses or offering valuable products during these times, the Google Product Feed lets merchants sync their inventories with the Google Merchant Center and AdNabu has written a handy guide on how to use these Shopping Ads to your advantage.

  • Re-Targeting Ads

Over 2 billion people log in to Facebook every day and Google itself has a huge user base. Retargeting ads are an eCommerce marketing strategy where you place ads on external websites. When leads click on these ads, they are redirected to your main website or landing pages.

Nomatic does a wonderful job of applying this. Whenever a customer adds something to their cart and leaves it behind, they display ads on their Facebook Newsfeed.

Pay Per Click or Paid Ads

Source: Veeqo

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing has become a priority for brands that want to stay in business. Sales-focused content marketing won’t do too well since this is a time of crisis but content marketing that tells your audiences what’s going on will help.

Sharing updates about your changes in shipment policy, alterations to business inventory, and how the brand is adapting to changes across the COVID-19 landscape economically and more – these are stories your readers want to hear about.

  • Video Content

Over 78% of users online prefer watching videos over textual content according to HubSpot. eCommerce video content trends show that businesses with YouTube channels and IGTV videos tend to perform way better than brands who only post images and text content.

Product videos showing how the technology works or showcasing services offered by the business – these are what people want to see.

  • Blog Posts

There’s just so much that goes into eCommerce blogging but the top two tips would be – writing for your audience and sharing content that provides value.

Don’t sell too much but aim to educate your readers about what’s going on in the industry. Pay attention to optimizing your SEO and if you’re trying to learn more about eCommerce blogging strategies.

  • Interactive Content

Interactive Content has been shown to engage audiences time and time again.

Quizzes, for example, have been shown to engage audiences. 96% of readers don’t finish the pieces they are reading but when you leverage interactive content like surveys, giveaways, and contests, they are more likely to read until the end and participate.

With the blending of AI and VR, eCommerce marketers have already realized that interactive content is the future of marketing in the digital age.

BuzzFeed

Source: Outgrow

As for getting views and engagements, BuzzFeed has been doing it right so far and newcomers can learn from them.

3. Unboxing Experiences

Unboxing experiences are the holy grail of eCommerce marketing. Ask any influencer and they will highly recommend it. Despite the fact it’s COVID, there’s no denying that unboxing videos will help grow your brand.

People are willing to pay up to 4 times as much for the same product if the packaging on it looks simply stunning.

The way your boxes are designed, the messaging, and overall branding, when combined with the ultimate reveal, is sure to make an impact. Here’s an example.

  • Coupon Codes Inside the Box

Giving out coupon codes or promo codes during unboxing videos or at the start is a good way to attract new leads and convert them into customers.

It works!

4. Email Marketing

Big brands are reaching out to their subscribers and letting them know how they are being of help. Email marketing is critical to business success especially in times of this crisis. People are panic buying and brands are doing their best to assure customers that they can make it through the quarantine.

Email

Source: Emailonacid

Take a look at how TruEarth is marketing its products while staying mindful of the situation. This is what customers appreciate.

  • New Customer Email Flows

You should have a customer onboarding and welcome strategy put in place when you’re setting up your mailing list. And this needs to be automated. You can use marketing automation software for this.

You can trigger free content downloads and send helpful relevant content automatically to your leads when they fill up your sign-up forms.

  • Browsing Follow-Up Flows

Neil Patel has best described how to use follow-up flows to increase engagements, drive more traffic, and boost conversions. He knows what he’s talking about and for a business, following up with your potential clients indicates that you actually care and make a difference.

  • Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are being used as a follow-up strategy by businesses to boost sales and increase conversions. Over 70% of online shoppers fill up and abandon their carts before proceeding to the checkout page. You can prevent this and stand out from the competition.

  • Targeted Offers

Brands are kick-starting their businesses during this time by making targeted offers. We’ve covered this in our mailing list segment but if you want an in-depth guide on how to do that, read this.

5. On-site Marketing

On-site marketing involves optimizing a brand’s SEO strategy, meta descriptions, title tags, and more, in a bid to bring in more traffic and convert leads. The UX design of the website is also considered and making on-site engagement helpful to your customers is key.

A good example of this is recommending related products to your customers based on what they are adding to their carts. Encouraging your customers to share what they buy on social media is another effective tactic.

  • Sign-up Forms

Visitors don’t enjoy filling up sign-up forms which are why you want to make the process as painless as possible. Take notes from the likes of Medium and Facebook.

They’ve kept it simple. Integrate sign-up options using social media accounts for a smoother registration process. Mint has also mastered this art well by pairing it with strong copy, simple details, and a padlock icon for their call-to-action buttons for added security.

Sign Up Forms

Image Source: Justinmind

  • Product Pages

Product pages are the backbone of your selling strategy. The visuals you have must go well with the details and vice versa. Make sure you write product descriptions optimized for SEO while emphasizing on uniqueness and originality.

Product Page

Image Source: BigCommerce

Take a look at these examples and notice how each brand has clearly mentioned the features, benefits, and details for their offerings. Additionally, they’re crisp and concise which boosts the readability factor.

  • Content Copy

Copywriting is an essential element of successful eCommerce marketing. Using interesting and evocative language for your content copy without sounding too sales-y is what you should be going for. There are many good examples you can learn from. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of wordplay and create a sense of adventure through your offerings.

  • Product Images and Product Videos

Product images and videos should complement your content copy. You may have heard of this before but make sure your photos are high-resolution and taken in good lighting. Your product videos should showcase the different angles and have a model posing or demoing how your offerings work. Get your creative juices flowing! There’s no rule to this.

6. Selling Through Social Media

Closures of physical stores and the shift to online spaces have also forced consumers to live their life on the internet. More than 42% of consumers believe that shopping is going to fundamentally change in the future. This makes user-generated content online so much value since users are getting more active on social media platforms.

  • Instagram

Let’s dive into eCommerce marketing with Instagram. Optimize your brand’s profile bio and include a call-to-action. Your profile should be clean and simple. Make sure you also optimize your SEO and match the brand’s aesthetic with the tonality of your content copy.

Instagram

Image Source: Business2community

  • Facebook

Facebook is where shoppers hang out and leave raving reviews. If you haven’t yet created a Facebook page for your business, you’re missing out. Brands prefer spending money on Facebook ads for more engagement. Additionally, your Instagram feed can be integrated with these pages.

  • Youtube

YouTube is a breeding ground for likes and engagements. Your brand can get influencers to talk about its products and services. You can leverage customer testimonial videos and put them up on your business YouTube account to attract more viewers. Ultimately, you have complete creative freedom with this marketing channel.

Doing collabs with other brands or sponsoring influencers to promote your products are good for your business during these times.

7. Market Your Business Beyond Geographic Boundaries

If you’re trying to go local, we understand. But if you’re a business that provides international shipping, your interests would be best put into targeting different geographic regions. You can use Data Analytics tools for discovering new trends and getting new leads.

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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For brands that are trying to expand during this season, marketing beyond geographic boundaries is a fantastic way to improve engagements and overall reach. Creating a mobile app on major platforms like Android and iOS is a good way to do that.

8. Highlight Product Reviews

If your customers love your products, you can bring in more leads by highlighting product reviews. These are testimonials that strike a chord with your growing audience and encourage them to buy.

Highlight Product Reviews

Image Source:  Groovehq

Conclusion

We have covered some of the most popular ideas for eCommerce marketing during COVID-19. We realize that businesses are suffering from huge dips but these are some strategies brands can use to grow and connect with potential customers better. Ultimately, COVID-19 isn’t going to last forever but it’s true that brands will be redefining the way they operate moving on. And eCommerce will be that way.