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The Biggest Ecommerce Trends Coming in 2014

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Hosting

The post The Biggest Ecommerce Trends Coming in 2014 appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Staying ahead of technological curves and customer demands is essential to business success in a world that moves faster by the day. eCommerce in particular looks to be an area of intense development in the New Year, and the implications can mean increased revenue and reputation for your business. From going mobile to integrating your marketing approach, business is changing, and so should you.   Mobile Matters Spearheading the evolution of eCommerce in 2014 is the evolution of mobile technology. As retailers recognize the importance of presence in a crowded market, those ready for the switch will see appreciable dividends from their mobile investment. The concept is simple. With more individuals using their mobile devices to browse the web at their convenience, companies must respond in turn. Those unwilling or unable to recognize the importance of making shopping convenient for their customers will lose ground with competitors whose agile solutions better fit market expectations. This agility comes in multiple forms. Responsive web design, a method of designing websites around the myriad sizes and interface limitations of a broad range of devices, will allow customers to view websites both at home and on the subway with equal ease. Mobile payment options, such as PayPal and Google Wallet will allow customers to make purchases without the cumbersome need to input card information manually. Finally, evolving methods of tracking sales conversion from mobile activity will allow businesses to better understand which efforts are paying off and which need improvement.   Integrated Solutions As businesses continue to recognize the importance of delivering tailored content, product offerings, and marketing to their customers, new platforms will evolve that facilitate all three. Currently, businesses rely on eCommerce systems to complete transactions, content management systems to deliver content marketing, and a third platform to distribute email marketing. The problem with this approach is that individual platforms do not communicate with one another, permitting an unwelcome disconnect between customer behavior and information tailored to pique their interest. In 2014, platforms will develop that will integrate this system in order to better target audiences and individuals based on product purchases and web activity. By observing trends in customer purchases and marketing information viewed, businesses and their assets can better respond to current and changing customer needs. The result is a more agile business that understands its audience and can make a stronger impression with current and potential patrons.   Multi-Channel Marketing The customer’s focus is no longer directed toward one channel or another for an appreciable amount of time. The modern Internet user is a rapidly moving and engaged individual that uses multiple channels to achieve multiple goals over varying times of day. This sea change requires that businesses adapt to browsing habits in order to maintain relevance. The manner in which this accomplished has been referred to as “multi-channel presence”; creating a coherent brand across all channels upon which customers spend their time. The result of this approach is a distributed but ubiquitous message that remains on customer minds wherever they go. For your business, this requires understanding your target audience and bringing your marketing to their venues on interest. Prominent businesses are performing market research to paint a picture of user behavior and then create social media accounts with tailored content that engages users on that platform. A strong business might have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest, all with content that resonates with the respective audience.   Personalization As methods for tracking customer preferences and behavior develop, customers are learning to expect a more personalized experience both on and off. Instead of rote marketing emails covering a range of products, distributed content must offer recommendations or highlight sales that are relevant to individual interests. This arises from a growing recognition that customers with to engage their brand more actively than ever before. Whether that engagement comes in the form of a comment on social media, a conversation in a brick-and-mortar store, or online shopping advice, discerning patrons want a personalized experience and a human face from their place of business.   Alternative Funding Traditionally, venture capital was the primary source of start-up cash for businesses looking to make an immediate impact. Since that time, however, non-traditional platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have enabled “crowd funding”; a method of drumming up start-up capital through the largesse of interested, everyday individuals. What’s unique about this method of funding, aside from the source of capital, is its reliance on narrative to build interest. Successful campaigns on Kickstarter have a well-developed back story, an engaging personality, and an emotional appeal that connects the requesting business with the generous supporters. For small businesses in particular, this is an excellent opportunity to leverage a relative size disadvantage into an appealing connection. In 2014 , more businesses looking to turn innovation and an appealing narrative into business success will utilize these platforms to great success. The key lies in emphasizing your human connection and giving back to more generous patrons with exclusive access to events and early product tests. The combination of engagement and involvement will help customers become invested in your business and build the resources needed to elevate your efforts.   The New Year promises to be one of customer involvement, engagement, and accommodation. Businesses who recognize the importance of mobile will find the benefit of existing where their customers do. Integrated marketing platforms and efforts will help make sense of distributed activities and presence. Finally, customer engagement will drive revenue and even generate funding in the process. Regardless of the specific venue, eCommerce is changing, and your business stands to benefit from the exciting evolution. web hosting Continue reading →

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Google Transparency Report: Government Removal Requests Continue to Rise

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Hosting

The post Google Transparency Report: Government Removal Requests Continue to Rise appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Revelations surrounding government monitoring of heavily populated data streams and communications channels are on everyone’s mind as such news introduces a sea change of perception about our privacy rights. The simple fact is, our browsing habits and published content are no longer as “free” as they were once understood to be. But even beyond our the limitation of our own expression, what’s most concerning about these developments is the new and unprecedented level of authority governments are attempting to exercise over the world’s most important communications medium. With Google’s report as an accurate barometer, the situation is clear: the rights of Internet users are currently viewed as averse to efforts designed to shape public perception of governments, both local and international.   Government Takedown Requests Increase As mentioned, the issue with this new era of Internet monitoring lies not just in limitation of our freedoms of speech, but in the presumed authority that local and national governments have to censor content on the web. What was once thought to be a public domain, where anyone could post anything provided it respected the boundaries of international law, has become a curious combination of created content and concerted takedowns. A recent Google transparency report tells the tale better than any news narrative could. According to the company’s blog post on the data, Google received 3,486 take down requests regarding 24,737 pieces of content between January and June 2013; a 68% increase over the same period in 2012. Additional data provided shows the trend is rising exponentially , with approximately 2,000 requests in 2011, 2,500 in 2012, and nearly 4,000 in 2013.   A Troubling Trend What’s more stark about this data than the sheer volume of requests is the nature of such requests. According to Google, takedown orders were most often connected to stories about local government dealings and content critical of local and national governments. More often than not, these requests fell under the category of “defamation”, while some were even claimed to be copyright. The trend is startling. With more governments ordering more takedowns of critical content, the aim is clear: censorship for the preservation of public perception. Attempts to curtail public expression, particularly in the realm of government criticism, represents an unfortunate turn away from transparency and toward the limited exchange of productive, albeit challenging conversation.   A Powerful Ally Fortunately, while takedown requests continue to rise, Google’s established policy against censorship of the Internet represents a valuable ally in the protection of free speech online. The data cited earlier also features a list of US and international takedown requests, and whether or not those requests were met with compliance. According to data provided, the compliance rate for these requests has fallen dramatically from 2010 to now, likely in recognition of the danger of Internet censorship. While this practice of attempting to silence critical voices may not seem like a big deal for your business or personal blog, the implications are farther-reaching than you may realize. The power of the Internet lies in the free exchange of ideas, allowing for meaningful conversation that raises profound and important ideas and institutions to the top. This process is what breeds innovation, disrupts deleterious practices, and enriches society as a whole. Fortunately, Google’s transparency report shows that those in favor of a free and unedited Internet have a powerful ally and a strong ideological foundation on their side. Government takedown requests continue to rise, but those wishing to preserve the core of what makes the Internet such a powerful tool, are not going down without a fight. web hosting Continue reading →

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Ecommerce 101: 5 Questions To Ask When Creating An Online Store

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Hosting

The post Ecommerce 101: 5 Questions To Ask When Creating An Online Store appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Whether you’re a charming local shop or a big-time business, online retail is a huge opportunity to take advantage of. The bonus? Building your own online shop is not as difficult as you might think. With the right solutions, some design know-how, and attention to the critical components of customer satisfaction, your online shop can take shape, starting today.   What do I need? With an online store becoming an expectation of retailers, solutions have been built that help get your shop online as quickly and effortlessly as possible. eCommerce solutions, such as WooCommerce , facilitate your product catalog, shopping cart system, and logistics more readily than a ground-up shop. While it may not possess the unparalleled flexibility of an in-house solution, putting your wares on the Internet sooner rather than later is the goal. With a working site in place, it’s important to facilitate transactions for obvious reasons. Customers are more likely to purchase your products if they are provided with payment options they trust. Here, PayPal fits the bill nicely, though the 2.9% plus $0.30 fee per transaction can add up quickly. For this reason, there’s no better solution than enabling credit card purchases, which means setting up merchant accounts with card vendors.   How Should It Look? If your business has an existing website, then your online shop should mimic it as closely as possible. Doing so avoids confusion and helps capitalize on the reputation your brand has earned from your prior marketing efforts. eCommerce solutions provide this functionality, though sometimes at a premium. At the very least, each service allows you to select a color scheme and upload a company logo, which is an excellent basis with which to start. For a modest fee, you can further customize the appearance to better match your original scheme, so it’s important to gauge what your brand image is worth to your organization.   How Should I Present My Products? Shoppers have very specific expectations when shopping online, outlined by the unique context of digital purchases. Without the in-store opportunity to touch materials and observe product quality, online shoppers need more convincing through visuals and pertinent information in order to turn a view into a sales conversion. The key is to eliminate the pain points of the process. Make the price clearly visible so that customers know what they’re getting into. Reinforce this with product specifications that are relevant to its quality. Finally, approximate the in-store experience as much as possible with multi-angle, high-resolution images and a few shots of the product being used/worn by someone “in the wild”. Doing so helps instill confidence in the purchasing process, and allows customers to see themselves using the product in their own life.   How Should I Handle Logistics? The next two essential components of your online store are shipping and returns/exchanges. When shipping products, it is best to build a relationship with a carrier. Having an account with an established carrier will help you earn discounts and improve their service. Shipping calculations then go through your carrier, and most eCommerce platforms will display the shipping costs to the customer based on this information. When handling returns, it’s important to have a clear policy and protocol. Customers are far less likely to do repeat business with a company whose return policy is inconvenient. Provide pre-paid shipping labels or, at the very least, coherent instructions that make the process understandable. Whatever you do, avoid putting the responsibility of shipping on the shoulders of the customer, as lost returns, bad experiences, and wasted clerical time will cost you far more in the long run than a few pre-paid returns.   How Can I Promote My Store? Once your store is online and all the pieces are in place, it’s time to publicize. The Internet is a crowded place, and standing out requires making an impression in the minds of current and potential customers. Recent marketing research has shown that a “multi-channel” presence will raise awareness of your site by repeatedly delivering a coherent message on each of the channels where your customers exist. Find out where your core audience resides and build your strategy around those channels. Create a hashtag for Twitter that exemplifies your brand in order to spread the word. Post pictures of new products on Pinterest and reach out to your customers. Keep your branding consistent and your presence prevalent, and your store, and sales will benefit. Creating an online store is an exciting endeavor, but getting your ducks in a row is a vital part of the process. Start by gathering the needed solutions and then design it to match your business website. Present your products with the customer’s needs in mind and promote your presence through fruitful social media channels. Finally, handle logistics with a dedicated carrier and do what you can to facilitate seamless and simple transactions. Your business success is built upon a strong foundation, and with these considerations in mind, your foundation can deliver future success in droves. web hosting Continue reading →

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8 New Year’s Marketing and Web Design Resolutions For 2014

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Hosting

The post 8 New Year’s Marketing and Web Design Resolutions For 2014 appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . For many, New Year’s means a new start; a chance to make things even better than the year before. But your body and your mentality aren’t the only things that can benefit from this outlook. Around the world, businesses are looking for opportunities to shape up and ring in the New Year with positive change, and setting the right resolutions can mean big returns in 2014. Here are eight ways to usher in a New Year, and new potential, for your business.   Know Your Goals Success on the Internet is a nebulous thing. For some, it’s 5 million YouTube hits that ultimately translate into no material gain or following. For others, it’s understanding the aims of your content and website and gearing efforts toward fulfilling analytics that indicate success. The latter are the ones you should listen to. Google Analytics, Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, and myriad other Internet kudos can give the impression of accomplishment, but without knowing what your ultimate aim is, little will come of these digital atta-boys. If your goal is retention, focus on the percentage of new visitors versus returning visitors. If engaging content is your goal, focus on bounce rate and time spent on page. Know what you want and watch your barometers to determine whether it’s happening instead of chasing vanity metrics to nowhere.   Produce Content Welcome to the new world order. The marketing wisdom of the past simply does not cut it anymore. New users, bombarded by information and cheap sales pitches every day, are becoming wise to the tactics of salesmen and want something more substantial from their brands and their browsing. What do they want in their place? Content . This means informative articles, slideshows, presentations, and infographics that enrich their lives and demonstrate an understanding of their needs in a real way.  With more businesses adopting this innovative new strategy every day, it’s clear that content is here to stay, so plan on engaging your customers and leveraging your know-how to great effect.   Build User Profiles These same users demanding greater value from the firms that supply their needs are doing so with increasingly high standards for personalization. With social networking, news feeds, and browsing experiences tailored to individual needs, it’s no wonder why customers are driving this paradigm shift. But while you can’t cater to the highly specific whims of every member of your consumer base, you can develop an understanding of their personalities. Intelligent businesses are creating  buyer personas  that drill down to the circumstances, interests, and mentality of the types of users that frequent their site in order to help fulfill their specific needs. This not only helps guide content, but also can shed light on why particular products, methods, and sentiments are, or are not, increasing sales.   Go Multi-Channel The modern customer sees the world through a multitude of lenses. Tablets, mobile phones, television, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are just a few of the channels through which content is delivered. Behind us is an era when a single ad spot on a prominent TV program meant sales and here is a greater challenge: grabbing the attention of the perpetually distracted. The solution, as it turns out, lies not in shining a spotlight on one piece or another, but in creating a coherent and intelligently tailored brand experience on all channels. Your organization should have profiles on all major social networks with content optimized for the particular platform. The aesthetic and messaging between them should be uniform in order to imbue the same sentiments consistently. Doing so builds brand perception and association by working with customer habits instead of against them.   Tap Into Video With mobile phones, tablets, and even laptops connected to televisions, video has become more available than ever. But the medium’s potential isn’t fulfilled simply by its ubiquity. Showing your organization in motion quickly conveys information, emotion, and a human appeal. A well-crafted YouTube channel can house everything from product demonstrations to documentaries to quick, viral clips, presenting effective marketing without the arduous task of reading lines of text on a small screen. Furthermore, posting video enables comments, feedback, and video replies that get the conversation going and engage customers in the process.   Be Responsive Tablets and mobile phones have been mentioned multiple times already, and for good reason. According to research, mobile Internet usage is  surpassing desktop Internet usage  as we speak. And while pinch-and-zoom browsing capabilities are available on phones, the more elegant approach to addressing mobile needs lies in responsive web design. Responsive web design uses media queries to determine the size of the browser viewing the page and adjusts the layout to optimize the experience on respective platforms. Why make the change? Simple. Mobile customers have a distinctly limited interface and form factor context that makes viewing of desktop sites difficult. By creating large-format text for easier reading, large navigation buttons for more accurate selection, and a layout optimized for vertical scrolling, customers are not only more likely to view content, but build a positive brand association in the process.   Location, Location, Location As our understanding of mobile increases, the capabilities of mobile devices follow suit. Mobile applications have already put deals and product catalogs in user pockets, but the next wave in commercial innovation is being ushered in by location services. By implementing new technologies at brick-and-mortar stores, customers passing by or entering businesses can receive coupon codes and information about special deals. Not only does this take the bargain hunting out of their hands, it adds extra incentive for in-person and post-visit sales conversion. Offering the right deals remains your responsibility, but these new solutions will make distribution much easier.   Focus on the Customer With evolving technologies, increasing demands, and new challenges for meeting consumers’ changing lives, it’s a buyer’s market. With the ubiquity of firms vying for attention (and money) and the ease with which customers can find other shops offering similar wares, the onus lies with you, the business owner, to fulfill their wishes. Savvy shoppers are no longer interested in cheap ploys for attention or sales, but instead want real deals, real communication, and a real relationship with the establishments they patronize. Above and throughout all things listed here, make the customer priority number 1, and rest assured that the New Year will be a happy one indeed. After hitting the gym and pledging to drink more water in 2014, focus on improving your business with a little know-how and elbow grease. Know what you wish to accomplish in the New Year and develop enriching content that helps facilitate those goals. Focus on your customer and know who they are and what they want. Tap into new technologies through responsive web design, location services, and video, and make your presence known everywhere that customer attention is directed. Much like a gym membership, it takes time to see results, so prioritize your business’ success and enjoy the dividends in turn. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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A Pocket Guide to Small Business Content Marketing

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Hosting

The post A Pocket Guide to Small Business Content Marketing appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Marketing is a fickle animal. The multi-headed hydra of analytics, theory, and outright instincts leverages our understanding of human perception to the betterment of brand perception. With an explanation like this, it’s easy to understand why copious, dense volumes of information and thousands of pages of research exist to help explain the science of crafting sentiment and currying favor. But as a small business, you probably don’t have time for this kind of in-depth reading. You need answers that will positively affect your business and you need them now. With content marketing demonstrating its potency as one of the most effective methods of appealing to customers, here’s a quick reference that should get you marketing faster than you can say “multi-platform brand identity integration”.   Know Your Value Content marketing is, at its core, the delivery of your unique value in multiple formats in order to dynamically engage customers and shape brand perception. The linchpin of any good content marketing strategy involves understanding what you have to offer; what you give to your customers that no one else can. If you haven’t identified this yet, the process is actually quite simple. For B2B businesses, your value likely lies in your authority as a center of knowledge and know-how to your industry. For B2C businesses, your value lives-and-dies with your ability to fulfill a particular lifestyle that resonates with your customer base. If you feel that you don’t, at present, offer a significant value in either of these sectors, do some research and look for space in the market to fill with your expertise or unique identity.   Know Who You’re Writing For Once you have this value established, you’re ready to take the first steps in creating content. But before you begin, it’s important to understand how content marketing works. The act of putting out valuable information or photos that enshrine some lifestyle or ideology engages customers based on fulfillment of their wishes. The key is to deliver the value you identified initially to your customers in real and tangible ways. To this end, it is essential to always remember who you are creating for: the customer. For a B2B business, self-aggrandizing posts or rote description of your current practices focuses far too heavily on yourself. Try branching out by offering industry insight and case studies on successful members of the industry community. For a B2C business, any content you release that doesn’t somehow enable the lifestyle you prescribe is wasted space. For clothiers, for example, effective content marketing may include style showcases incorporating your pieces alongside items from other retailers. Doing so not only enables the creativity of your customers, but demonstrates your desire to help them, not simply push product.   Format Matters Now that you understand what your content should contain, the next step is understanding how to express it. For many, it may be tempting to simply start a blog and push helpful and knowledgeable pieces of information or fun posts about trends and news. Unfortunately, while all of this may be enjoyable to write, or even engaging to view, the Internet reader is extremely fickle, distracted, and picky. Knowing how to play the game is vital to making good content stick. A simple rule of thumb can help guide your decision: video and photos rule. This rule is comprised of two facts. The first is that video has an  immense impact on sales , driving engagement and fueling customer sentiment due to its digestible format and capacity for expression. The second is that photos, both by themselves and used in tandem with text pieces, resonate. Since browsing eyes tend to skim, photos offer a quick infusion of communication that can rapidly lead to engagement. In fact, photos receive  53% more Likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs  than any other format, both by themselves and as a hook for a text post with the link in the caption.   Building Volume The bustling din of the Internet poses a real challenge for businesses trying to make their voice heard. Creating unique content with specific promised and fulfilled value are a start, but the visibility is not simply determined by quality. To a large degree, what determines the visibility of items on the Internet is a sort of game. When someone types something into Google, results are returned based on a number of factors, including popularity, number of inbound links, and relevance based on keywords on the page. Blogs and YouTube channels function through organic traffic, which comes from search queries that ping terms contained therein. In order to appear in the top part of Google’s page rankings, blogs and YouTube channels must build a sufficient volume of content, reinforced by strong keywords, so that the search engine values them as relevant. The topics of search engine optimization and search algorithms could span volumes. For the sake of your endeavor simply understand that building a following for your business blog or video content takes time. Constructing a volume of work sufficient to garner organic traffic is the name of the game so keep chugging away with this in mind.   Understanding Metrics Finally, once all of your hard work is out in the universe, it’s essential to identify hits, busts, areas for improvement, and so on in order to tailor more successful content in the future. The problem is that most analytics don’t offer the kind of insight we think they do. In general, site traffic and specific page views are seen as the holy grails of metrics, but knowing the value of other, more nuanced statistics can steer your ship to greater effect. For the sake of brevity, we’ll highlight three particular metrics of note: bounce rate, average time spent on page, and click-through rate. Bounce rate is a percentage that indicates what fraction of total visitors to a particular page viewed the content and then immediately left the site. You want this metric as low as possible, since consequent visits to other parts of your site means that your content was engaging enough to inspire further exploration. Average time spent on page is pretty self-explanatory, demonstrating whether or not visitors actually viewed the content or simply made a snap decision based on an element they didn’t like and left. Finally, click-through rate relates to your requests that customers check out product information, subscribe to your YouTube channel and so on. In order to encourage engagement, good content should inspire action, and this metric demonstrates whether or not that call was heeded. And that, as they say, is that. Content marketing’s capabilities are astounding, provided that the concept is leveraged correctly. Identifying your unique value and delivering it to customers will help build your image as an involved, human, resource. Using attractive formats can help motivate content views while building a volume of work will help drive organic traffic. Finally, understanding the value of particular metrics will help formulate strategies more effectively moving forward. While more in-depth resources exist that help enlighten the concept further, knowing even the basic framework of content marketing can get your efforts moving and your business growing in dynamic and exciting new ways. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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