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skqq-net · 5 years

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BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Which Is Better?

Because of the platforms treasure BigCommerce and WooCommerce, environment up an on-line retailer is much less advanced than ever earlier than.

On the other hand, whereas each of those selections provide a stout suite of points, it’s essential you elevate out your study earlier than making a final dedication.

Listed right here, I’m going to flee you by a complete comparability of BigCommerce vs WooCommerce – so it is extra simple so that you can purchase.

BigCommerce – Scalable eCommerce Platform

BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform that lets you originate and develop an on-line retailer in a subject of minutes. The device bundles all related eCommerce points right into a single allotment of system. It allows prospects of all tech phases to make a decision their on-line store to the next stage.

With BigCommerce you pay a month-to-month cost and you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly robotically type a completely personalised area. There you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly checklist product catalogs, determine orders and funds, apart from to flee promoting and advertising and marketing cAMPaigns.

WooCommerce – Fascinating Outstanding wordpress Plugin

With WooCommerce, you first want to purchase an online area internet hosting supplier and type a wordpress net area. Right here is consequently of WooCommerce is a plugin comparatively than an all-inclusive retailer builder. wordpress is an particularly versatile scream materials administration system that helps you so that you just would possibly possibly properly add diverse capabilities to your area.

WooCommerce is a stout suite plugin that is very most attention-grabbing for any individual making an attempt to originate an on-line retailer. The plugin lets you type and checklist product catalogs, monitor your orders and inventory, and different diverse points.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Which Is the One for You?

It’s prime to restful repeatedly take into memoir what capabilities and points you’ll want from the very open. To realize that dedication extra simple, this is an in-depth overview of an essential points of each eCommerce platforms.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Getting Began

Hosting is the place the two suppliers fluctuate primarily essentially the most. With a BigCommerce opinion, you don’t want to fright about discovering a internet hosting supplier. As a alternative, the platform does the full lot for you. On the other hand, if options about easy methods to code, you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly additionally merely to seek out it limiting.

wordpress with the WooCommerce plugin works solely in a completely totally different map. To make make the most of of this system, you first want to purchase and pay for a bunch. Thankfully, hosts treasure A2 Web internet hosting, Hostinger, and bluehost, as an illustration, have a one-click on set up course of for wordpress.

As a result of wordpress is launch-source, you’re given stout creative freedom. Nonetheless you will seemingly be responsible in your net area’s velocity and safety. This association that if somebody hacks your net area or it slows down, you’ll want to restore it your self or search for genuine succor.

You may acquire began and type your net area in a couple of minutes with each of them. The variation is that with WooCommerce you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly want to elevate out reasonably extra work your self.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Consumer-Friendliness

One among BigCommerce’s basic focus is to be explicit person-suited. With this in thoughts, the setup course of is extraordinarily straightforward and takes a subject of minutes. BigCommerce lets you obtain and set up capabilities straight to your retailer.

Whereas some are free, others have prime charge plans and even free trials. Equally to plugins, these add diverse functionalities to your store in instruct to realize it extra simple to make the most of. You’ll to seek out the full apps and knowledge about them within the BigCommerce app store.

On the totally different hand, the utilization of wordpress with the WooCommerce plugin will likely be overwhelming for some. Creating the wordpress area within the main area will likely be complicated.

The set up and activation of the plugin itself are straightforward and would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly be completed straight from the dashboard. It takes a while getting used to the controls and points.

On the other hand, when you’ve personalised your retailer settings, together with product catalogs is straightforward.

BigCommerce presents a streamlined setup course of, which takes factual a couple of minutes. And whereas WooCommerce general takes reasonably extra time to realize used to, the setup course of is restful certainly straightforward.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Templates

When it entails themes and templates, these two instruments are almost limitless. Aside from the truth that they’ve numerous of themes so that you can purchase from, these platforms mean you can personalize them out of your editor.

Each BigCommerce and wordpress with the WooCommerce plugin have a range of free and paid themes, all of which attain with diverse designate tags. You may moreover rent an online developer to type a completely personalised area for you.

On the other hand, there’s one huge distinction between the two platforms. BigCommerce is designed significantly for eCommerce. This association that every template you look will seemingly be for on-line retailer homeowners.

With WooCommerce, acquire incredible you make the most of the ‘eCommerce’ filter when choosing the template in your retailer. You may moreover keep on with WooCommerce’s default theme ‘Storefront’ which is free to make the most of.

When it entails enhancing current themes in wordpress, you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly edit the CSS or make the most of PHP. With BigCommerce, you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly acquire alterations to templates from the platform’s HTML/CSS editor.

Each WooCommerce and BigCommerce provide a big choice of themes so that you can purchase from. And if that is not AMPle you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly customise CSS and HTML of your theme.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Pricing

BigCommerce has Three plans so that you can purchase, the most charge-fantastic ‘Commonplace’ opinion will cost you $29.95 a month. For this designate, you acquire limitless merchandise, storage dwelling, and bandwidth. WooCommerce, on the totally different hand, has no open cost, so the cost can fluctuate relying in your alternate options.

BigCommerce and wordpress designate their merchandise very in a completely totally different map. As a result of your on-line retailer is hosted with BigCommerce, all it’s basic to elevate out is pay a month-to-month subscription. This varies primarily based totally on the scale of your retailer and the points you’ll have.

BigCommerce presents its supplier free of charge for 15 days. Should you’re a tidy agency, you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly moreover telephone BigCommerce’s purchaser attend crew to to seek out out which customized ‘Enterprise’ subscription is goal for you.

Every opinion comes with 0% transaction payments, limitless product itemizing, apart from to diverse gross sales channels to combine with, and 24/7 keep agent attend.

Whereas each wordpress and WooCommerce are free to make the most of, you elevate out want to pay for internet hosting and area title earlier than you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly acquire began. These pricing plans fluctuate counting on the host you path together with, you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly acquire extra knowledge about primarily essentially the most attention-grabbing low-charge wordpress internet hosting right here.

While you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly even have a bunch, the quantity you make the most of relies upon upon solely in your wants and charge vary, as internet hosting is principally essentially the most attention-grabbing compulsory cost you’ll want to pay to open an on-line retailer with the platform. You may elevate out the full lot from designing your retailer to putting in plugins.

eCommerce

Web internet hosting

Space title

Theme

Complete/300 and sixty 5 days

WooCommerce

$5 – $15/month

$1 – $15/300 and sixty 5 days

free to ~$100

$61 – $300

BigCommerce

$29.95 – $249.95/month

$1 – $15/300 and sixty 5 days

free to $250

$374.4 – $3 014.4

Level to, that WooCommerce plugins and additional effectivity would possibly possibly properly possibly merely cost a diminutive bit additional – nonetheless these prices rely solely on what you would like.

BigCommerce’s plans are comparatively expensive, nonetheless you acquire the full lot you would like in your on-line retailer. Whereas wordpress and WooCommerce are free, you restful want to pay for internet hosting and area title.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Reinforce

When it entails attend, there are 2 huge variations between these suppliers. BigCommerce is system as a supplier, so when having a probe for its plans you acquire 24/7 keep chat, e-mail, and check out with attend. And, since WooCommerce is a free plugin it will no longer have 24/7 telephone attend.

BigCommerce has attend telephone numbers in the UK, Latest Zealand, Australia, USA & Canada.

And whereas not having telephone attend, WooCommerce restful helps you out. You may submit tickets and make the most of the keep chat system to sort out your issues. When pondering that it is free, you acquire one hell of a deal.

That is not even speaking concerning the particulars mistaken and succor boards each of those selections have. And WooCommerce has hundreds of boards and blogs the place prospects just like you try and resolve their issues.

BigCommerce presents you with a 24/7 telephone, e-mail, and keep chat attend. And whereas WooCommerce cannot match that, it does have keep chat and impress attend.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Closing Ideas

After our BigCommerce vs WooCommerce battle, we will look that they each provide to succor you acquire began with an on-line enterprise. Nonetheless they elevate out it in a diverse capability, so easiest you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly assume which one is more healthy in your net area.

BigCommerce is conception of as considered one of primarily essentially the most intuitive and straight forward-to-utilize builders. Or not it is a good totally different:

Should you would possibly possibly properly possibly possibly additionally very properly be making an attempt to have the full lot in a single area and optimized for you, no subject what your ability diploma is.

WooCommerce is a sturdy free wordpress plugin. Or not it is a good totally different:

Should you’ll have extra management over your net area and its scream materials, and likewise you might be not apprehensive to elevate out some technical work.

What elevate out you mediate? Is it increased to have extra management or to have most points completed for you?

The publish BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Which Is Greater? appeared first on Web Web internet hosting Opinions by Correct Purchasers and Web Web internet hosting Consultants.

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filipeteimuraz · 6 years

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The Best E-Commerce Software

Quicksprout is reader-supported. That means we use affiliate links. When you click, we sometimes earn a commission. Learn more.

So, you’re ready to build an online store and sell, ship, and manage your business. We’re here to help. We took a look at six of the biggest names in e-commerce software to find out which store is easiest to set up, customizable to your liking, and economical. There’s no stress needed here: all of our options offer at least 14-day free trial periods for you to set up your store and see if you like it and it has all the features you need.

Shopify Quicksprout pick: Easiest All-in-One 14-day free trial

BigCommerce Quicksprout pick: Impressive Features Free

Wix Best Pre-Made Shops 14-day free trial

Squarespace Best Free Templates 14-day free trial (with one-week extension if requested)

Magento Best for Scaling Unlimited free trial

WooCommerce Best for Customization 30-day free trial

What’s the Right E-Commerce Software for You?

There are two worlds in e-commerce software: hosted and self-hosted. With hosted platforms, like Shopify and BigCommerce, you’ll get ready-to-go drag-and-drop templates, but you’ll give up some customization ability and pay a subscription fee. For most merchants, Shopify and BigCommerce are going to be in a dead heat. Both companies offer products that provide the same thing: an all-in-one hosted e-commerce solution for online businesses. They both do it well and they both start with similar price points.

If you’re trying to decide between Shopify and BigCommerce, we recommend comparing both during their free trial periods and see which one is a better fit for your business. Both offer a couple of weeks to set up and explore your store, no credit card required.

It’s also possible to build a store with Squarespace or Wix site, monetize your existing site, or even build a non-store site and then convert it to a credit-card accepting store later on. This is a good option if you’re already using Squarespace or Wix, if not sure how much of your sales you’ll run through your site, or are just in the ideation phase. Wix will let you build you’re whole site for free; you’ll only need an e-commerce subscription when you’re ready to take that first credit card transaction. You can get up to 21 days free with Squarespace if you ask to extend the two-week free trial an extra week.

Want more customization power, or not ready to pony up a monthly fee? You want self-hosted software like Magento or WooCommerce — you’ll be nearly limitless in what you can do, and there are plenty of pre-made plugins you can pay for and install to avoid coding every little thing (think abandoned cart e-mails or related products carousels). If you go this route, we recommend brushing up on the best practices for running a successful e-commerce site, making a list of all the features you want and tallying up the add-on fees you’ll be paying before you commit to building your store.

The Top 6 E-Commerce Platforms

Shopify

Quicksprout pick: Easiest all-in-one

All-in-one hosted e-commerce platform

Free 256-bit SSL certificate

Unlimited products and bandwidth

Offers Shopify Payments, its own payment processor, as well as integrations with over 100+ other payment gateways

Integrates with Instagram, Facebook, MailChimp, Google Analytics

Shipping discounts with USPS, UPS, and DHL Express

Clients: Leesa, LeSportsac, Nestle, Zendesk, MVMT

Shopify is one of the most recognizable out-of-the-box solutions for small business owners — by some measures, it’s the second most popular e-commerce platform in the world after WooCommerce, and continues to grow like crazy. We think it’s a good fit for e-commerce sites that don’t have a lot of in-house technical support and don’t crave a ton of complex customizations.

Shopify is a full-blown hosted e-commerce platform, which means that it takes care of everything you need to run an online business, from a website to website hosting to inventory management to accepting credit card information. It also offers point-of-sale hardware, and integrates into online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

Shopify’s core product comes in a few different plans for different prices, ranging from $29/month to $299/month. More robust functionality (and more perks, like better credit card rates, more user accounts, and advanced reporting) come with the higher price tag. If you already have a website and are interested in adding some shoppable products and a shopping cart, we recommend skipping down to where we discuss Shopify Lite. Full-blown Shopify is probably more than you need.

Shopify makes it pretty straightforward for a small business to get up and running — like a lot of hosted e-commerce platforms (including BigCommerce), you have a 14-day free trial where you can actually build your entire store and try out the features and functionality without ever entering a credit card number. Shopify is template-based, which means you choose the basic look and layout of your store from 10 free or 57 for-purchase themes, and customize from there. Shopify claims that its templates are fully customizable, and it does give its merchants full access to the HTML and CSS of their stores, but heads-up: Shopify uses a Liquid setup, which will have a little bit of a learning curve for those who are more used to PHP.

Because it’s such a force in the industry, Shopify integrates with pretty much every other app, SaaS, and technology out there, be it live order tracking, automated up-selling bots, or finding dropship products to sell. Shopify has its own app store a la Apple and Google with built-for-Shopify (and often built-by-Shopify) technology that you can plug and play to make your store do everything you want. This is a double-edged sword for some merchants, who find that Shopify relies so much on third-party integrations that some of its built-in technology is lacking. A good rule of thumb: Make a list of all the functionality you want for your site and see if you’re satisfied with what you get for free during your 14-day trial. If not, explore what add-ons and plugins are available (there are over 2,400 in the Shopify app store) and see how much they’ll add to your bottom line.

Speaking of bottom lines: You’re going to have to do a lot of math to see which payment gateway makes the most sense for your business no matter which e-commerce platform you choose. But one of Shopify’s biggest standouts is that it’s built its own payment gateway, Shopify Payments. While you still can integrate with over 100 others (in fact, you’ll have to if you have customers outside of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore), Shopify Payments potentially eliminates one more integration you’d have to do to get up and running. At 2.9% + $0.30, Shopify Payments’ rates are right in line with other leading payment gateways, including PayPal, stripe, and Authorize.net, but it does tack on an extra 2% transaction fee for any payment that isn’t processed through Shopify Payments. Check to make sure you qualify to sign up for Shopify Payments in its Terms of Service, then get out your calculators. Remember, accepting multiple payment options is one of the 11 best ways to boost online sales.

Outside of its core e-commerce hosting, Shopify offers a supercharged and highly customizable ShopifyPlus plan for high-volume merchants and enterprise businesses, and Shopify Lite, which is essentially just Shopify’s payment processing functionality. The Lite plan might be interesting to very small businesses just entering e-commerce. It acts a lot like PayPal: you can pop a Shopify Buy Button into your WordPress or Squarespace site, swipe credit cards with its app, and sell on Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Shopify Lite is $9/month.

Frontend features

Discounts

Gift cards

Digital products

Product reviews

Free shipping

Refunds

Customer accounts

Guest checkout

Abandoned checkout recovery

Automatic carrier shipping rates

Automatic taxes

Flexible shipping rates

Backend features

Blogging platform

Customer profiles and groups

Order fulfillment

Synced mobile app

SEO optimization

Product variations

Inventory management

Reporting

Customer support, training, and resources

24/7 support on phone, live chat, and email

Help center

Downloadable guides on e-commerce basics

Free on-demand courses, live coaching calls, business templates and more through Shopify Academy

Two podcasts: Shopify Masters and TGIM

Free tools and free stock photography

Shopify community forums

Shopify Experts on shop setup, design, custom coding and more – for hire

Shopify brick-and-mortar support and networking space in Los Angeles

BigCommerce

Quicksprout pick: Impressive Features

Unlimited products and bandwidth

Free SSL certificate

Integrates with over 60 payment gateways with no transaction fees

Shipping discounts with USPS

Integrates with social media, Google Shopping, PayPal One Touch, ShipperHQ

Clients: Toyota, Ben & Jerry’s, Camelbak, Kodak, Paul Mitchell

Like Shopify, BigCommerce’s core product is available at a few different functionality tiers, ranging from $30/month to $250/month; also like Shopify, higher tiers are more robust, including features like abandoned cart saver, product filtering, and customer loyalty programs. Unlike Shopify, though, BigCommerce has a sales cap on each of its plans. If you’re bringing in more than $50k/year, for example, you’ll no longer qualify for the Standard plan, and be automatically upgraded to Plus ($80/month with a sales cap of $150k per year).

Once you’re inside the product, you’ll see both are built to act similarly. BigCommerce is also theme-based, with 7 free mobile-friendly templates (plus 119 for purchase) for you to install and customize, be it through a drag-and-drop site editor or from the ground-up using the theme’s framework. Shopify and BigCommerce are so comparable we recommend comparing both during their free trial periods and see which one is a better fit for your business. BigCommerce offers 15 days to set up and explore your store, no credit card required.

One difference you’ll definitely notice is how many native features BigCommerce has installed right out of the box. It offers an outstanding number of technical integrations and marketing features that Shopify might only be able to provide if you buy and install a plugin or extension (for example, single-page checkout). For some, BigCommerce’s roster of pre-installed features is going to be annoying — kind of like how annoying it was for people who didn’t like U2 having its most recent album auto-downloaded on their iPhones. BigCommerce customers might roll their eyes as they scroll by an option to add gift wrapping already built into their control panel. But those who aren’t overwhelmed by the options may find that they don’t need to pay extra for the functionality they do want. We recommend making a list of the features your business needs requires and testing if you like how they perform during your free trial, and check out what’s available in BigCommerce’s app store. That store isn’t as massive as Shopify’s (600+ add-ons and integrations compared to 2,500+) but there’s a lot to choose from. You also have access to BigCommerce’s flexible API if you need to make a custom integration

BigCommerce doesn’t have its own payment processing technology, which means you’ll have to integrate with a payment gateway before you start taking orders. It gives you over 60 to choose from, including all the big hitters: Authorize.net, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Skrill. Like Shopify, the higher tier your plan, the lower your rates. Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce doesn’t charge a transaction fee to work with these processors, so you’ll save a little there.

In addition to its core e-comm platforms, BigCommerce is also available at the enterprise level and with products tailored to B2B wholesalers. In summer 2018, BigCommerce also announced its new Commerce-as-a-Service solution, which is geared to service content-first small businesses who already have an established web presence — namely, a WordPress website. Through an integrated plugin, WordPress users (and businesses using other content management software) will be able to work in their CMS while “centrally managing catalog, customer and order data through BigCommerce.” Prior, customers would have to port their entire websites over and rebuild it on BigCommerce’s hosted platform, or opt for a self-hosted solution like WooCommerce or Magento. Commerce-as-a-Service is really new to BigCommerce — there’s no pricing and interested customers need to request a demo — but we’re excited to see where this technology goes. It could be an exciting bridge between the robust functionality of a hosted e-commerce platform and the hands-on DIY integrations of self-hosted solutions.

Frontend features

Single-page checkout

Coupons

Discounts

Gift cards

Product ratings and reviews

Real-time shipping quotes

Abandoned cart saver

Free shipping

Faceted search

Wish lists

Backend features

Reporting

Blogging platform

Customer groups and segmentations

SEO optimization

Order fulfillment

Customer support, training, and resources

Live chat, email, and 24/7 phone support

Getting started how tos

Downloadable guides

Video tutorials

BigCommerce community forums

Designers, developers, and marketers for hire

Blog

Webinars

Submit an idea

Wix

Best Pre-Made Shops

Free plan allows you to create your store

Upgrade to accept payments

Ready-made templates

Drag-n-drop store builder

You might know Wix as a drag-and-drop website builder, but it’s also a drag-and-drop e-commerce shop builder, too. And the process is just as simple: create an account, choose your template (there are 60 e-commerce templates to choose from), load your inventory and product pages, set up payment information, and start selling. You can even get started picking your template, designing your store, and trying out the store manager where you’ll track orders, manage inventory, and send out customer newsletters with coupon codes or sales — all for free. Signing up is a simple a logging in with your Google or Facebook account.

It’s not until you want to accept payments that you’ll need to upgrade your account to a business / e-commerce account. Wix Business plans range from $20 to $35 per month — but they’re billed in full yearly subscriptions at the time of purchase, so really you’ll be laying out $240 to $420. You’ll get 14-days to test drive the plan.

All business plans allow you to accept online payments without paying commissions, and get unlimited bandwidth (so any number of customers can visit your store). The more expensive plans grant you more storage, up to 100,000 emails a month and higher-priority support response. You’ll also get 30G of Google Drive and email storage, so once you connect your domain you can use Gmail as your email at your unique address.

With a business plan, you can take credit cards, PayPal, offline payments, and don’t have to pay any commissions to Wix. Not all businesses are the same, so neither are the Wix templates. Any Wix template can run a store, if you add the “Wix Stores” app, or you can get a head-start with a pre-made stores template. To do that, you’ll first choose your business-type.

Run a bookings-based business? You’ll start with a Wix Bookings template. Your customers will get auto-email reminders about the event. Sell sessions individually or as part of a membership plan. If you accept offline payments, it’s as simple as checking the “mark as fully paid” box on the bookings dashboard. There’s even a bookings template for restaurants.

We like that it’s super fluid to make sales and note when you’re busy: simply block off time you’re not available in your Wix schedule on the mobile app; sync your Wix Bookings with you Google calendar automatically. Customers can also book directly from their mobile phones, too — by creating a club and inviting your customers to it, they can chat you, book a service, RSVP to an event, or start a discussion from the app.

We haven’t seen anything like the Wix Music page includes a customizable music player and a way to sell your music directly from your page, without paying any commissions. Your reporting will include most-played, most-shared, most-purchased, and most-downloaded songs.

There’s also a pre-made template for ticketed events businesses. You can set the ticket price, manage the RSVP list, invite and add guests, and edit details.

From there, it’s all the drag-and-drop joy Wix is known for. You’ll want to design a “storefront” or homepage, product pages for each of the items you sell with images and product information. Want the menu in a different place, in a different font, with other elements? Drag it, change it, save it. If you’ve ever felt templates to be limiting — I can change that but only in those 3 predetermined ways?! — then you’ll love the new Wix Code. It’s a hybrid platform, with all of the ease of a drag-and-drop and the control of your own customization and scripting with a built-in database, JavaScript backend and integrated development environment. Simply turn on the Wix Code editor and you’re in. (We should note: it’s in beta.)

We like the clean lines and look of the Wix templates, the drag-and-drop ease of it all, and the head start the pre-made stores give you. Unlike self-hosted e-commerce plans, which require upgrades to access features like coupon codes, everything’s included with a Wix e-commerce plan.

Frontend features

Mobile optimized

Product galleries with unlimited images

Sale and featured product ribbons

Secure shopping cart

Confirmation emails

Coupons

Free shipping

Tax and shipping calculations

Courses and training videos

Wix help center

Wix code (beta) video tutorials, articles, examples, and API references

Wix meetups

Squarespace

Best Free Templates

Unlimited products and bandwidth

Free SSL certificate

Stripe payment gateway with no transaction fees

Integrates with social media, ShipStation, PayPal, Apple Pay, MailChimp, Google Fonts & Typekit

Coming soon! Squarespace-powered email marketing

Clients: Taboocha, Rodarte, Halo Top, Baiser Beauty, Shhhowercap

Squarespace is best known as a website builder, but its e-commerce solution is one of the most popular in the world. In large part that’s because e-commerce functionality is built straight into nearly all of its plans: Even if you start with just a basic website, you can sell products. That grow-into-it flexibility makes it an interesting option for businesses who aren’t quite sure of their future plans. With a platform like Shopify, you’re e-commerce or nothing. A business without a thriving online store would be never choose Shopify.

But that makes choosing the right Squarespace plan a little bit more complicated. It splits up its products into Websites (with Personal and Business plans) and Online Stores (with Basic and Advanced plans). You can make transactions on both the Online Store plans, as well as the Business Website plan. A good rule of thumb: if you’re primarily selling product through your site, definitely opt for an Online Store plan. If you’re website is primarily content, and you happen to sell a few things, a Business Website plan might be plenty. All plans come with a 14-day free trial to test out the features and functionality, with the option to request an additional trial week if necessary.

The Business Website plan has pared-down functionality — the reporting isn’t as robust; there are no customer accounts; there are fewer inventory, order, and tax features — plus it tacks on a 3% transaction fee to all purchases. But it’s also only $18/month, which is one of the cheapest hosted options available.

Both of Squarespace’s Online Store plans comes with the full toolkit you’d expect from an e-commerce platform. Basic starts at $26/month, billed annually (or $30/month if you want to pay month-to-month), and Advanced ratchets up to $40/month billed annually (or $46/month-to-month). The Advanced plan gets you more — flexible discounts, gift cards, abandoned cart recover, access to the API.

If you do go with a Squarespace web store, it’s going to be beautiful. That’s not to say you can’t have a beautiful store with any other e-commerce platform, but with Squarespace, it’s basically a guarantee. They’re all built for mobile and aesthetically modern, albeit lots are heavy on imagery — you’re definitely going to want to have killer photography. It has over 20 template “families” to choose from (each family may have a few variations, but the same underlying structure), which can then be customized with Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor or by tinkering with the HTML and CSS. You can choose any, but some are better suited for web stores than websites, with features such as Quick View and Image Zoom, and advanced Product Page functionality. The best news: they’re all free. With a lot of other e-commerce platforms, the really covetable templates come with a price tag.

With Squarespace, what you get is what you get. Unlike pretty much every other e-commerce platform, it doesn’t integrate with endless apps and extensions. It comes with about 70 of the most popular and most useful built right in, and provides setup support, troubleshooting, and general questions for all of them. But there’s no app store or marketplace like you see with lots of other platforms. You can install third-party customization, but those will required some sort of code injection or “Code Block” — no one-click install. It’s really important to test out the functionality of your Squarespace site during your free trial and see if you like what you’re getting. If not, another platform with more integration capabilities might be a better option.

Squarespace also doesn’t give you options with who you use to process payments. With Squarespace, you’re locked into Stripe and/or PayPal (there’s also options for Apple Pay and Venmo). This won’t be a problem if you’re store services customers in certain areas, but Stripe doesn’t support all countries — only 26. If that’s the case, PayPal will be your only option (which means your customers must have a PayPal account to make a purchase).

Frontend features

Single-page checkout

Discounts

Coupons

Gift cards

Real-time shipping quotes

Abandoned cart saver

Free shipping

Related products

Wishlists

Order status modules

Distraction-free checkout

One-click account creation

Two-step checkout

Automatic guest checkout

What’s in a name?

Magento recently changed some of its product names. Here’s a before/after:

Old nameNew nameMagento Community Edition (CE)Magento Open SourceMagento Enterprise Edition (EE)Magento Commerce (On-premise)Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition (MECE)Magento Commerce (Cloud)Magento Commerce Order Management (MCOM)Magento Order Management

Courses and training videos

Video library of basic how-tos – free

On-Demand Training – $119–375

Unlimited On-Demand Track – $1,498 for 365 days of access

Magento 2 Development Essentials – $3,750

Javascript Development in Magento 2 – $3,000

Magento enterprise licenses

Magento Open Source is free. Magento Commerce — an “all-in-one cloud solution that delivers the power of Magento at affordable prices for Small Business” — is not. Prices are relative to your gross sales revenue. But it’ll cost you ~$20,000 for up to $1M in annual revenue. Sell more, pay more. Though Magento is really open that their prices are negotiable — so schedule a demo and get negotiating!

To get a sense of where Magento’s pricing stake points are here are quotes Portland-based creative agency Graybox got from Magento in 2017:

Gross Sales RevenueMagento 2 Enterprise

Edition (EE)

Magento 2 Enterprise Cloud

Edition (ECE)

Up to $1 million$22,000$40,000$5–10 million$32,000$55,000$10–25 million$49,000$80,000$25–50 million$125,000$190,000

There’s no limit on store count, country count, language, or currency on your license. You can manage multiple stores, transact in multiple countries, in multiple languages and currencies, and use worldwide shipping all on your one subscription (instance). Go big, go global, launch more stores!

WooCommerce

Best for Customization

Free open-source software

Use the free template Storefront, or buy an upgrade

Integrate with Stripe, PayPal, USPS, MailChimp and more

53,216,823 downloads and counting

WooCommerce brags that it has 53,216,823 downloads, and as such is the most popular eCommerce platform for building an online store (stats from Builtwith). It’s a lot like the 100 Billion hamburgers McDonald’s has served. It doesn’t mean it’s the best hamburger, but they sure do sell well, so there’s something good enough about it. They power 30% of online stores — the most of any e-commerce software. The catch? If you want to do more advanced or powerful things in your store, like run a recommendation engine or sell recurring subscriptions, you’ll need to pay for extensions. Some extensions are free, but many aren’t, they’re $29, $79, sometimes $199 for a one-site subscription. When its integrated so well into a platform you’re probably already using, well, it’s no wonder that 53 million people have used it.

WooCommerce runs on any self-hosted WordPress.org site. You’ll need a theme. That’s the beautiful outer layer of your website. (If you’re already running a WordPress site, then installing Woo is as simple as activating any other plugin. You know the drill.)

WooCommerce has a free template called Storefront, which prioritizes speed, uptime, and theme/plugin simplicity. It’s the “official” theme, and it’s purposefully clean and simple. It is built and maintained by WooCommerce core developers, and promises “water-tight” integration between the theme, WooCommerce, and any extensions or plugins you add. (WooCommerce.com is running on a $39 Storefront child theme, which gives the Storefront theme a new look.) There are also plenty of templates for sale that aren’t created by WooCommerce or WordPress.

You’ll be able to sell physical and digital goods, instant downloads, or affiliate goods in online marketplaces. It also accounts for product variations and configurations. Shipping, including drop-shipping, “is highly configurable.” Want to calculate shipping prices per customer? Want to limit shipments to specific countries? Offer free shipping? It’s all possible.

If you upgrade, using any of the 300+ premium extensions, you can add on bookings, repeating subscriptions, and memberships. There are hundreds of extensions in the WooCommerce official marketplace. Popular ones include Stripe, PayPal, USPS, Amazon Payments, Authorize.Net, ShipStation, and MailChimp. For example, want to add reviews to your Storefront site? There’s a $19 extension for that. Want a pricing comparison table to show the difference between your Bronze, Silver, and Gold Memberships? There’s a $19 extension and you’ll get access to a shortcode generator to copy and paste into your layout how you’d like.

Notable extensions

Google Analytics

Delivery Notes

PDF Invoices and Packing Slips

Affiliates Integration Light

New Product Badges

WooCommerce Subscriptions

WooCommerce Memberships

WooCommerce Bookings

Dynamic Pricing

Table Rate Shipping

Product CSV Import Suite

At WooCommerce, the customer service team is manned by “Happiness Engineers.” These very same team behind WordPress.com, Simplenote, Jetpack, and Longreads. The motto? “We believe in making the web a better place.”

They work remotely from 69 countries, speak 84 languages, and strive to live by the Automattic Creed, which includes the line, “I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.”

That customer loyalty and product-first mindset permeates the entire company. In fact, the first three weeks of any employees time are spend in customer service, and one week a year “forevermore” after that. Why? “We believe an early and ongoing connection with the people who use our products is irreplaceable.”

To get in touch with this support squad, the first stop is documentation. You’ll find extremely detailed step-by-step instructions, how tos, and ways to fix common issues like blurry images. Need more help than that? Woo also has a help desk where you can submit a ticket or start a live chat. There’s no phone, Facebook, or Twitter support.

Frontend features

Shipping calculator

Free shipping

Mobile responsive

Digital or physical goods

Instant downloads

One-page checkout (with $79 extension)

Social logins (with $79 extension)

Name-your-price (with $49 extension)

Recommendation engine (with $79 extension)

Courses and training videos

User guide and documentation

WooCommerce Plugin Forum

Helpdesk

WooIdeas board

WooCommerce GitHub repository

WooCommerce REST API Docs

WooCommerce Meetups

Recap: The Best E-Commerce Software

Make a list of all the features you want, decide how much hands-on customization you’re after, and give your first pick a spin. All of our top picks have at least 14 day trial periods for you to get your store up and test the software:

Shopify Quicksprout pick: Easiest All-in-One

BigCommerce Quicksprout pick: Impressive Features

Wix Best Pre-Made Shops

Squarespace Best Free Templates

Magento Best for Scaling

WooCommerce Best for Customization

http://www.quicksprout.com/best-ecommerce-platforms/ Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-best-e-commerce-software.html

0 notes

andrewmrudd79 · 6 years

Text

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites

At Tips and Tricks HQ we predominately work to produce solutions for WordPress users. Although we believe WordPress is one of the top solutions for an online business, we also understand that sometimes people need a non-WordPress solution. We have put together a list of ‘pay-per-month’ style e-commerce solutions for those people who wish to run an online business but don’t believe they will be able to handle WordPress.

There is an extensive list of e-commerce softwares available online that are ready and waiting to snatch up your online business. While a particular platform may work perfectly for one company, it is important to ensure the features are compatible with your own needs before locking yourself into a lengthy contract. Comparing rates of a number of e-commerce platforms allows you to see which company will give you the best value for money while ensuring they will provide you with the features you need.

Some companies offer free trial periods or have low costs associated to their e-commerce platform. This may sounds great although ensure you dig deeper into what features they are offering. There is no point signing up to a company if they are not supplying you with the basic features you require.

Why do People Choose a ‘Pay Per Month’ E-commerce Platform?

More and more people are choosing to sign up to an e-commerce platform opposed to hiring a web-developer to create their website. Below we have listed a few reasons why some online businesses choose this option.

They don’t believe they have the skills required to manage their own website

They do not have a large sum of money to pay a web-developer upfront

They believe that signing up to an e-commerce platform will save them time and money

E-commerce platforms require only basic web knowledge to set up and manage

They have heard of other companies success from using a ‘pre’ developed e-commerce platform

What You Will Need to Consider Before Choosing an E-commerce Platform

Pricing:

Work out a budget for your online business and research companies that can meet this budget. There is generally an e-commerce solution to meet all budgets and requirements. Weighing up the pro’s and con’s of each company will allow you to see which one will best suit your online business.

Payment Platforms and Security:

Ensure the company you choose will allow your customers to pay via your preferred payment platform. Choosing a company that accepts well known payment gateways such as ‘PayPal’ and ‘Stripe’ will lessen the chance of an abandoned cart. Using a reputable e-commerce solution is important in ensuring your customers credit card details are in safe hands.

Number of Items You Can Sell:

Finding out the maximum number of items you can sell can be beneficial in the long run. It is always important to think ahead. You may only have a handful of items now although in the future your business may grow and you may have more items than you ever thought you would. Companies such as BigCartel have a maximum limit of 300 products.

Available Addons:

If the core e-commerce platform does not have the feature you need for your business you will need to look into the addons that are available and also investigate the cost of each. Some popular addons that you may need for your company include: email tools, shipping product tools and social media tools.

Device Compatibility:

Ensure that the e-commerce solution is compatible across a range of devices. The themes that are used should be fully responsive. The majority of your customers will be searching your website from their mobile phone. The most popular e-commerce solutions such as Shopify can be viewed across all devices.

Social Media Compatibility:

Years ago no one would have considered ‘social media compatibility’ to be an important factor when deciding which e-commerce solution was right for them. In today’s society, social media is often a tool seller’s use to promote their products to large audiences. Some e-commerce solutions have direct links to popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

SEO Benefits:

Choosing an SEO friendly e-commerce solution will better your chances of ranking towards the top of an internet search. The ability to add a blog, to use your own domain name and the ability to enable customer comments and reviews are all beneficial features in the long run. You can read more about SEO here.

Customer Service Offered by the Company:

Good customer service will allow you to set up your business simply and easily. Being able to speak to a ‘real life’ person will allow you to quickly get the answers you need to proceed to enjoy sales on your site.

Overview of Six Robust E-Commerce Platforms

E-commerce Solution

Basic Base Price Product Limit Customer Support Can you offer Coupon Codes and Gift Cards? Can you have a Blog? Staff Account Limit File Storage Included with Basic Plan

BigCommerce

$29.95 per month. BigCommerce do not charge a transaction fee. Unlimited 24/7 live agent support Yes Yes Unlimited Unlimited No transaction fee charges.

Comprehensive list of features included in basic package.

Phone support.

Lacks free themes and has an annual sales limit for each plan.

Shopify $29.95 per month. International cards are charged at 2.9% and 30c per transaction.

Unlimited

24 hour email, live chat and phone support. Yes. You can offer coupons although offering gift cards requires an executive plan. Yes 2 Unlimited Can be used online and offline.

Allows for multiple payment options including COD.

If you don’t use ‘Shopify Payment’ you get charged an additional transaction fee.

Wix Wix offers users 500MB of storage for free. Their popular ‘Unlimited Plan’ is $12.50 per month. Unlimited Premium support is offered with all paid plans. No Yes 1 10 GB is includued with the ‘Unlimited Plan’ Large collection of designer templates.

Drag and drop design that allows you to easily create a website.

Once you choose a theme if you decide to swap you have to recreate your stall from scratch.

Squarespace $25.00 per month billed annually. Sqaurespace charge 3% for each transaction that takes place. Unlimited 24/7 customer support. You can offer coupons to your customers. Yes 1 Unlimited No coding experience is required.

Drag and drop features.

No manual mobile editor.

BigCartel You can offer 5 products for free using BigCartel. For $29.99 per month you can sell up to 300 products. 300 (when using premium plan) Online support. You can offer discount codes (when using the premium plan) No 1 Enough for 300 products with 5 images per product. No fees on what the customer pays.

Inventory tracking, ability to sell in person and on Facebook.

Free for up to 5 products making it useful for small businesses.

Lack of support, limited payment options and limited flexibility.

Volusion $15.00 per month is their cheapest plan. 100 Online support offered with mini plan. You can get phone support in the $35.00 plan. Yes No 1 1 GB of bandwidth is included with the mini plan.

Offers a free trial period.

No transaction fees and has the ability to create a customer loyalty program.

Only 28 free themes.

Some coding knowledge is needed for customization.

The Best E-Commerce Platforms for an Online Business

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is an e-commerce platform that was born in Australia and offers solutions for small and large scale businesses. This e-commerce solution is often compared to Shopify as they offer similar features and plans. Many themes offered by this company you will need to purchase along with addons needed for specific business types.

The standard plan to use Bigcommerce starts at $29.95 which gives you unlimited file storage, unlimited staff accounts, the ability to offer coupons, gift cards and discounts. Bigcommerce does not charge transaction fees across all of their plans. Using the standard plan you can sell up to $50,000 of sales before needing to upgrade your plan.

Features of Bigcommerce:

Bigcommerce allows you to use all leading payment gateways such as PayPal, Braintree and Stripe.

Easy to manage product inventory.

Using Bigcommerce you can design a store quickly and easily.

Bigcommerce integrates with both Apple Pay and PayPal.

This e-commerce solution supports a large range of different currencies.

Bigcommerce is PCI compliant and takes care of all security and hosting of the website.

This e-commerce platform allows you to buy a new domain name or use an existing domain name.

Shipping options to improve conversion.

Bigcommerce offers 24/7 chat, email and phone support for all technical issues on your website.

Customization:

You can extensively customise your site if you have some coding knowledge.

Shopify

Shopify is currently one of the most recognised e-commerce platforms with over 1 million active users. Shopify allows users to fully customize their sites and purchase addons from an extensive inventory if needed. Although this e-commerce platform allows users to easily design their site, Shopify is more expensive when compared to other solutions. With over 55 billions dollars of products sold through the Shopify platform, it continues to be a popular choice for small and large online businesses.

Shopify plans range from $29.00 to $299.00. The basic $29.00 plan allows you to have an unlimited number of products and an unlimited amount of storage. The basic plan does not allow you to offer gift cards and only allows 2 staff accounts.

Features of Shopify:

There is 100 professional free themes to choose from.

User can easily customize colors and fonts across the entirety of the site. No design experience is needed.

Shopify supports over a hundred different payment gateways.

Shopify is fully responsive meaning that customers can view your website across a variety of devices.

Ability to add shipping and tax to your products.

You can choose whether or not you would like to have a blog on your website.

There is no limit to the amount of products you can sell.

Shopify allows you to have a custom domain name.

Each product can have multiple images attached to it.

Shopify is PCI compliant.

Shopify offers 24 hour support where you can email, live chat or phone their support lines.

Customization:

You can achieve a large amount of customization if you have some coding knowledge.

BigCartel

BigCartel is a popular choice for small businesses. This e-commerce solution is basic although perfect for those who are inexperienced. Although this platform does not allow extensive customization, many addons provide the features needed for a range of online businesses to function. BigCartel allows room for coding although no coding is needed to use the basic functionality.

Using the free plan you can create an online store where you have access to limited themes, can have one image per item and have up to five products. For $29.99 per month, BigCartel allows you to have 300 products, upload 5 images per product, have your own domain, have inventory tracking and offer discount codes to your customers. The plans offered by BigCartel are simple and generally not appropriate for large scale companies.

Features of BigCartel:

BigCartel was designed for people to sell items that they have hand crafted.

BigCartel offers a range of free fonts and themes that can be used to design your website.

Those familiar with code can tweak the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The ability to start an online business for free is an option when using BigCartel.

Customization:

BigCartel allows some customization although not as much as some other e-commerce solutions such as Shopify.

Squarespace

Sqaurespace is used for personal blogs and for small businesses. It’s simple and easy approach appeals to small business owners that do not need extensive customization.

For $25.00 a month you can create a website with unlimited pages and bandwidth, a free custom domain, ability to sell an unlimited amount of products and receive donations and receive 24/7 customer support. Squarespace charges 3% per transaction that occurs.

Features of Squarespace:

24/7 support

Templates unique to Squarespace

Ability to add gallery blocks anywhere on your website.

You can link your Sqaurespace account to a number of social media platforms.

Responsive designs that you can view a preview of what they will look like on a mobile device.

Many different blogging tools available.

Ability to sell an unlimited amount of products.

You can offer gift cards and discounts using this e-commerce platform.

Customization:

Sqaurespace provides a number of templates you can use to customize your website.

Wix

Wix has recently grown in popularity due to their affordable plans from just $5.00 a month. Wix is suitable for small businesses although does not have the features needed for a large scale company. The support is not comparable with that of companies such as Shopify.

Wix offers a free plan that gives you unlimited pages, 500 MB of storage and secure hosting. For $24.50, which is the most expensive plan, you can upgrade your plan to receive unlimited bandwidth, 20 GB of storage, free domain, no ads and customized Favicons.

Features of Wix:

Wix is fully responsive and offers a range of 200 different apps to suit a range of businesses.

Wix gives you the ability to add a blog to your website.

20 fonts can be used across the entirety of your website.

1000’s of vector images are available to use on your website.

Wix allows you to automatically add links to photos on the social media site Instagram.

Customization:

Wix has limited customization options. This platform focuses mainly on a simple and easy to use design.

Volusion

Volusion is an up and coming e-commerce solution that has processed more than $28 billion and has 180,000 users. Volusion gives business owners the ability to create a unique site without needing to know any code. This e-commerce solution offers 24/7 support and good value plans making it an increasingly popular choice for new business owners.

Volusion offers a 14 day free trial period. The cheapest plan available is $15.00 a month that allows you to display 100 products and has 1GB of bandwidth. For $35.00 per month you can have up to 1000 products, receive 3GB of bandwidth and are able to receive support over the phone.

Features of Volusion:

Volusion boasts unlimited products and inventory management.

A range of approved apps are available that allow you to create a site that suits your business needs.

Fully responsive themes and search tools that your customers can use to locate a specific product.

A free slideshow feature that allows you to promote specific products on your website.

You can have multiple photos and videos per product.

Volusion comes with a built in barcode generator.

Volusion comes with features such as ‘related product’, ‘inventory management’, ‘tax rate calculator’ and ‘manage returns’.

24/7 online support is available.

Customization:

Volusion offers a number of unique themes that can be used to customize your website.

This is a follow up article for the how do I start a blog series that we have been publishing on this site to help users get started and create a successful blog and earn an income.

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites originally posted at TipsAndTricks-HQ

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites originally posted at Homer’s Blog

0 notes

davidmhomerjr · 6 years

Text

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites

Why do People Choose a ‘Pay Per Month’ E-commerce Platform?

They don’t believe they have the skills required to manage their own website

They do not have a large sum of money to pay a web-developer upfront

They believe that signing up to an e-commerce platform will save them time and money

E-commerce platforms require only basic web knowledge to set up and manage

They have heard of other companies success from using a ‘pre’ developed e-commerce platform

What You Will Need to Consider Before Choosing an E-commerce Platform

Pricing:

Payment Platforms and Security:

Number of Items You Can Sell:

Available Addons:

Device Compatibility:

Social Media Compatibility:

SEO Benefits:

Customer Service Offered by the Company:

Overview of Six Robust E-Commerce Platforms

E-commerce Solution

Basic Base Price Product LimitCustomer SupportCan you offer Coupon Codes and Gift Cards?Can you have a Blog? Staff Account Limit File Storage Included with Basic Plan

BigCommerce

$29.95 per month. BigCommerce do not charge a transaction fee.Unlimited24/7 live agent support Yes Yes Unlimited Unlimited No transaction fee charges.

Comprehensive list of features included in basic package.

Phone support.

Lacks free themes and has an annual sales limit for each plan.

Shopify$29.95 per month. International cards are charged at 2.9% and 30c per transaction.

Unlimited

24 hour email, live chat and phone support. Yes. You can offer coupons although offering gift cards requires an executive plan.Yes 2UnlimitedCan be used online and offline.

Allows for multiple payment options including COD.

If you don’t use ‘Shopify Payment’ you get charged an additional transaction fee.

WixWix offers users 500MB of storage for free. Their popular ‘Unlimited Plan’ is $12.50 per month.Unlimited Premium support is offered with all paid plans. NoYes1 10 GB is includued with the ‘Unlimited Plan’ Large collection of designer templates.

Drag and drop design that allows you to easily create a website.

Once you choose a theme if you decide to swap you have to recreate your stall from scratch.

Squarespace$25.00 per month billed annually. Sqaurespace charge 3% for each transaction that takes place.Unlimited24/7 customer support. You can offer coupons to your customers. Yes 1 Unlimited No coding experience is required.

Drag and drop features.

No manual mobile editor.

BigCartelYou can offer 5 products for free using BigCartel. For $29.99 per month you can sell up to 300 products.300 (when using premium plan) Online support.You can offer discount codes (when using the premium plan)No 1 Enough for 300 products with 5 images per product.No fees on what the customer pays.

Inventory tracking, ability to sell in person and on Facebook.

Free for up to 5 products making it useful for small businesses.

Lack of support, limited payment options and limited flexibility.

Volusion$15.00 per month is their cheapest plan.100 Online support offered with mini plan. You can get phone support in the $35.00 plan.Yes No 1 1 GB of bandwidth is included with the mini plan.

Offers a free trial period.

No transaction fees and has the ability to create a customer loyalty program.

Only 28 free themes.

Some coding knowledge is needed for customization.

The Best E-Commerce Platforms for an Online Business

Bigcommerce

Features of Bigcommerce:

Bigcommerce allows you to use all leading payment gateways such as PayPal, Braintree and Stripe.

Easy to manage product inventory.

Using Bigcommerce you can design a store quickly and easily.

Bigcommerce integrates with both Apple Pay and PayPal.

This e-commerce solution supports a large range of different currencies.

Bigcommerce is PCI compliant and takes care of all security and hosting of the website.

This e-commerce platform allows you to buy a new domain name or use an existing domain name.

Shipping options to improve conversion.

Bigcommerce offers 24/7 chat, email and phone support for all technical issues on your website.

Customization:

You can extensively customise your site if you have some coding knowledge.

Shopify

Features of Shopify:

There is 100 professional free themes to choose from.

User can easily customize colors and fonts across the entirety of the site. No design experience is needed.

Shopify supports over a hundred different payment gateways.

Shopify is fully responsive meaning that customers can view your website across a variety of devices.

Ability to add shipping and tax to your products.

You can choose whether or not you would like to have a blog on your website.

There is no limit to the amount of products you can sell.

Shopify allows you to have a custom domain name.

Each product can have multiple images attached to it.

Shopify is PCI compliant.

Shopify offers 24 hour support where you can email, live chat or phone their support lines.

Customization:

You can achieve a large amount of customization if you have some coding knowledge.

BigCartel

Features of BigCartel:

BigCartel was designed for people to sell items that they have hand crafted.

BigCartel offers a range of free fonts and themes that can be used to design your website.

Those familiar with code can tweak the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The ability to start an online business for free is an option when using BigCartel.

Customization:

BigCartel allows some customization although not as much as some other e-commerce solutions such as Shopify.

Squarespace

Sqaurespace is used for personal blogs and for small businesses. It’s simple and easy approach appeals to small business owners that do not need extensive customization.

Features of Squarespace:

24/7 support

Templates unique to Squarespace

Ability to add gallery blocks anywhere on your website.

You can link your Sqaurespace account to a number of social media platforms.

Responsive designs that you can view a preview of what they will look like on a mobile device.

Many different blogging tools available.

Ability to sell an unlimited amount of products.

You can offer gift cards and discounts using this e-commerce platform.

Customization:

Sqaurespace provides a number of templates you can use to customize your website.

Wix

Features of Wix:

Wix is fully responsive and offers a range of 200 different apps to suit a range of businesses.

Wix gives you the ability to add a blog to your website.

20 fonts can be used across the entirety of your website.

1000’s of vector images are available to use on your website.

Wix allows you to automatically add links to photos on the social media site Instagram.

Customization:

Wix has limited customization options. This platform focuses mainly on a simple and easy to use design.

Volusion

Features of Volusion:

Volusion boasts unlimited products and inventory management.

A range of approved apps are available that allow you to create a site that suits your business needs.

Fully responsive themes and search tools that your customers can use to locate a specific product.

A free slideshow feature that allows you to promote specific products on your website.

You can have multiple photos and videos per product.

Volusion comes with a built in barcode generator.

Volusion comes with features such as ‘related product’, ‘inventory management’, ‘tax rate calculator’ and ‘manage returns’.

24/7 online support is available.

Customization:

Volusion offers a number of unique themes that can be used to customize your website.

This is a follow up article for the how do I start a blog series that we have been publishing on this site to help users get started and create a successful blog and earn an income.

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites originally posted at TipsAndTricks-HQ

0 notes

aileenmbatts · 6 years

Text

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites

Why do People Choose a ‘Pay Per Month’ E-commerce Platform?

They don’t believe they have the skills required to manage their own website

They do not have a large sum of money to pay a web-developer upfront

They believe that signing up to an e-commerce platform will save them time and money

E-commerce platforms require only basic web knowledge to set up and manage

They have heard of other companies success from using a ‘pre’ developed e-commerce platform

What You Will Need to Consider Before Choosing an E-commerce Platform

Pricing:

Payment Platforms and Security:

Number of Items You Can Sell:

Available Addons:

Device Compatibility:

Social Media Compatibility:

SEO Benefits:

Customer Service Offered by the Company:

Overview of Six Robust E-Commerce Platforms

E-commerce Solution

Basic Base Price Product Limit Customer Support Can you offer Coupon Codes and Gift Cards? Can you have a Blog? Staff Account Limit File Storage Included with Basic Plan

BigCommerce

$29.95 per month. BigCommerce do not charge a transaction fee. Unlimited 24/7 live agent support Yes Yes Unlimited Unlimited No transaction fee charges.

Comprehensive list of features included in basic package.

Phone support.

Lacks free themes and has an annual sales limit for each plan.

Shopify $29.95 per month. International cards are charged at 2.9% and 30c per transaction.

Unlimited

24 hour email, live chat and phone support. Yes. You can offer coupons although offering gift cards requires an executive plan. Yes 2 Unlimited Can be used online and offline.

Allows for multiple payment options including COD.

If you don’t use ‘Shopify Payment’ you get charged an additional transaction fee.

Drag and drop design that allows you to easily create a website.

Once you choose a theme if you decide to swap you have to recreate your stall from scratch.

Drag and drop features.

No manual mobile editor.

Inventory tracking, ability to sell in person and on Facebook.

Free for up to 5 products making it useful for small businesses.

Lack of support, limited payment options and limited flexibility.

Volusion $15.00 per month is their cheapest plan. 100 Online support offered with mini plan. You can get phone support in the $35.00 plan. Yes No 1 1 GB of bandwidth is included with the mini plan.

Offers a free trial period.

No transaction fees and has the ability to create a customer loyalty program.

Only 28 free themes.

Some coding knowledge is needed for customization.

The Best E-Commerce Platforms for an Online Business

Bigcommerce

Features of Bigcommerce:

Bigcommerce allows you to use all leading payment gateways such as PayPal, Braintree and Stripe.

Easy to manage product inventory.

Using Bigcommerce you can design a store quickly and easily.

Bigcommerce integrates with both Apple Pay and PayPal.

This e-commerce solution supports a large range of different currencies.

Bigcommerce is PCI compliant and takes care of all security and hosting of the website.

This e-commerce platform allows you to buy a new domain name or use an existing domain name.

Shipping options to improve conversion.

Bigcommerce offers 24/7 chat, email and phone support for all technical issues on your website.

Customization:

You can extensively customise your site if you have some coding knowledge.

Shopify

Features of Shopify:

There is 100 professional free themes to choose from.

User can easily customize colors and fonts across the entirety of the site. No design experience is needed.

Shopify supports over a hundred different payment gateways.

Shopify is fully responsive meaning that customers can view your website across a variety of devices.

Ability to add shipping and tax to your products.

You can choose whether or not you would like to have a blog on your website.

There is no limit to the amount of products you can sell.

Shopify allows you to have a custom domain name.

Each product can have multiple images attached to it.

Shopify is PCI compliant.

Shopify offers 24 hour support where you can email, live chat or phone their support lines.

Customization:

You can achieve a large amount of customization if you have some coding knowledge.

BigCartel

Features of BigCartel:

BigCartel was designed for people to sell items that they have hand crafted.

BigCartel offers a range of free fonts and themes that can be used to design your website.

Those familiar with code can tweak the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The ability to start an online business for free is an option when using BigCartel.

Customization:

BigCartel allows some customization although not as much as some other e-commerce solutions such as Shopify.

Squarespace

Sqaurespace is used for personal blogs and for small businesses. It’s simple and easy approach appeals to small business owners that do not need extensive customization.

Features of Squarespace:

24/7 support

Templates unique to Squarespace

Ability to add gallery blocks anywhere on your website.

You can link your Sqaurespace account to a number of social media platforms.

Responsive designs that you can view a preview of what they will look like on a mobile device.

Many different blogging tools available.

Ability to sell an unlimited amount of products.

You can offer gift cards and discounts using this e-commerce platform.

Customization:

Sqaurespace provides a number of templates you can use to customize your website.

Wix

Features of Wix:

Wix is fully responsive and offers a range of 200 different apps to suit a range of businesses.

Wix gives you the ability to add a blog to your website.

20 fonts can be used across the entirety of your website.

1000’s of vector images are available to use on your website.

Wix allows you to automatically add links to photos on the social media site Instagram.

Customization:

Wix has limited customization options. This platform focuses mainly on a simple and easy to use design.

Volusion

Features of Volusion:

Volusion boasts unlimited products and inventory management.

A range of approved apps are available that allow you to create a site that suits your business needs.

Fully responsive themes and search tools that your customers can use to locate a specific product.

A free slideshow feature that allows you to promote specific products on your website.

You can have multiple photos and videos per product.

Volusion comes with a built in barcode generator.

Volusion comes with features such as ‘related product’, ‘inventory management’, ‘tax rate calculator’ and ‘manage returns’.

24/7 online support is available.

Customization:

Volusion offers a number of unique themes that can be used to customize your website.

This is a follow up article for the how do I start a blog series that we have been publishing on this site to help users get started and create a successful blog and earn an income.

A Selection of E-commerce Platforms For Non-WordPress Sites shared from Tipsandtricks-HQ

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1nebest · 6 years

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BigCommerce raises $64 million to build e-commerce sites

Austin, Texas-based BigCommerce has completed a big round of funding.

The growth stage startup, which builds e-commerce sites for Sony, Toyota and 60,000 other merchants, has raised $64 million to accelerate its business. The investment was led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from General Catalyst, GGV Capital and Tenaya Capital. And it brings BigCommerce’s total raised to over $200 million since it was founded in 2009.

BigCommerce has developed a template for its customers to launch websites with manageable shipping and payments tracking. It also makes it easy to cross-sell on Amazon, eBay and Facebook. The company claims it is able to help e-tailers cut down on costs by as much as 80%.

“Every product company, brand company, physical retailer on the planet has decided they need to get serious about e-commerce,” said Jeff Richards, managing partner at GGV about why he’s invested. It’s a “huge category with a very big business that’s doing extremely well.”

BigCommerce has built a robust business in the United States and Australia, and hopes to use the capital to expand further internationally. It sees an opportunity to build out its presence in Europe.

The company also recently built an integration with Instagram to make it easier for consumers to purchase directly via the app. BigCommerce also has partnerships with PayPal and Google and plans to double down on cross-platform opportunities.

While BigCommerce’s business resembles Shopify and Salesforce’s recently-purchased Demandware, CEO Brent Bellm says that while the former focuses on small businesses and the latter targets large enterprises, BigCommerce’s sweet spot is somewhere in between. It aims to build sites for brands with between $1 million and $50 million in revenue.

Yet BigCommerce’s own revenue numbers exceed that of the clients it is targeting. Bellm said that the company is approaching $100 million in annualized revenue.

When asked about whether that meant the company is targeting an IPO, he said that BigCommerce is “on a track where that’s possible” and that he believed this financing would be “the last round as a private company.”

If Shopify’s stock performance is any indication, public investors are hot on the space. Shares have gone up over 600% since its IPO in 2015.

Competitor Magento, on the other hand, was taken private after spinning off from eBay. Bellm believes that BigCommerce is better positioned to take advantage of a growing preference for SaaS business models.

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payment-providers · 6 years

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New Post has been published on Payment-Providers.com

New Post has been published on https://payment-providers.com/ecommerce-product-releases-april-17-2018/

Ecommerce Product Releases: April 17, 2018

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-April from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on video content and format, accelerated mobile pages, shipping, customer requests, and artificial intelligence.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email [email protected].

Ecommerce Product Releases

Smartly.io introduces creative platform to automate storytelling at scale. Smartly.io has launched a suite of services that combine creative automation, ad buying, and creative testing in a single platform. With the addition of the new Video Templates feature, Smartly.io customers can now automatically generate video and stills to fit a variety of ad formats on Facebook and Instagram, buy ads in real-time, and test their effectiveness.

Smartly.io

Adobe updates Spark Video for square format. Adobe has announced an update to Spark Video, a free online tool and iOS app for creating videos. Users now have the ability to produce videos in a 1:1 square aspect ratio, which is helpful for social sharing and mobile viewing.

BigCommerce adds Google AMP. BigCommerce has added native support for accelerated mobile pages, making it possible for BigCommerce merchants to deliver near-instant page load times for mobile shoppers. With AMP, an open-source framework launched by Google, BigCommerce merchants have the ability to easily generate a streamlined version of their website’s category and product detail pages on mobile devices, resulting in significantly faster page load times, and up to 20 percent higher click-through rates.

Boxed launches a free-shipping membership program. Online bulk retailer Boxed has launched Boxed Up, a paid membership tier. While Boxed still has a free membership plan, Boxed Up offers additional benefits, including free priority shipping for orders over $20, 2 percent cash-back rewards, price-matching, and preferred-customer service.

Boxed

Yotpo launches A.I.-powered Insights. Yotpo, a user-generated content marketing platform, has announced the availability of Insights, a new feedback analysis service. Insights enables marketing, customer service, and product teams to better understand customer feedback at scale, with real-time business intelligence to improve the overall customer experience, as well as inform operational, commercial, and product development strategies. Contact for pricing.

Kahuna launches tools marketplace sellers. Kahuna, an artificial-intelligence-based marketing technology company, has launched a suite of buyer and seller tools tailored exclusively for marketplace businesses. Kahuna’s SaaS for Marketplaces leverages a proprietary A.I.-based engagement platform to drive marketplace vibrancy, seller optimization, and buyer marketing. It is available as part of the broader open ecosystem with partners such as Oracle Responsys and Magento.

Promo integrates Shutterstock to enlarge video library. Slidely, the maker of video creation platform Promo, has announced a new content integration with Shutterstock, adding more than 9 million high-quality videos — from 3.5 to 12.5 million — to the Promo platform over the next few months. This integration enables a massive increase in Promo’s premium video library from 3.5 million to over 12.5 million.

Slide.ly Promo

ShippingEasy integrates with online marketplace Bonanza. ShippingEasy, a provider of cloud-based shipping, inventory management, and customer marketing solutions for ecommerce sellers, has integrated with Bonanza, an online marketplace of approximately 28 million items. Bonanza integrates directly with ShippingEasy, auto-downloading all order details and, also, syncing tracking numbers and status updates. ShippingEasy customers can also automate delivery through mapping or assign shipping preferences in real-time. Bonanza customers can take advantage of shipping automation, estimated USPS rates, multichannel integrations, customer insights and analytics, and more.

Synup launches CoinFriendly, a repository of Bitcoin-friendly businesses. Synup, a provider of SaaS-based location intelligence, has announced the launch of a new website, CoinFriendly.io. With 10,717 Bitcoin-accepting businesses listed on CoinFriendly, the website is the single largest repository of local businesses that accept cryptocurrency for transactional purposes. The new website will allow Bitcoin users worldwide to identify these stores and services in 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

Etsy adds purchase links in “Convo” screens. Now on Etsy, when a potential customer sends a request, a seller can tap the listings icon from the bottom of every conversation — “Convo” — in the “Sell on Etsy” app to create a custom listing. Buyers can then add that custom listing to their cart right from the Convo, making it easier to get the sale. The option is currently available for the Sell on Etsy app for iOS. It will roll out for Android in the coming weeks.

Braintree payment processing now available on Yahoo Small Business sites. Yahoo Small Business has partnered with PayPal to make Braintree payment processing available to online sellers. Braintree offers a seamless online checkout experience, as well as advanced fraud-detection tools. Braintree allows Yahoo Small Business ecommerce customers to get paid with credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal, with multiple settlement options.

Yahoo! Small Business

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listiqueblog · 7 years

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How 3 Brands Conquered Global Markets with Localized Websites

Absolutely any brand of any size can go global. For many, it is as simple as setting up the backend of your site to allow for international currencies and shippers.

Here’s how it works on BigCommerce for instance:

In fact, many brands are pushed into international ecommerce rather than actually seeking it out. Someone finds you online, wants to buy an item and suddenly you’re shipping your goods to the U.K. rather than to Arizona.

But the stories you’ll find below aren’t just about an accidently expansion into a new region. Though those random international purchases can guide you to which regions may be best for you to expand, it is important to have a holistic strategy around cross-border expansion.

Why?

Because you have the opportunity to scale and grow your brand in a new international market –– one that may potentially be in lack of your particular niche.

This means increased sales and revenue far beyond the one-off customer request. Who doesn’t want that?

A strategy is the only way you will successfully accomplish this.

Too many brands launch into a new market without having done their competitive and cultural research or website localization updates.

We’ll talk through all of those in this guide, but first, let’s see how 3 various brands successfully expanded — and what we can learn from their ecommerce localization efforts.

First and foremost, what is clearly most important to succeed in a new, global market, is to deliver localized information for:

Currency: Showing customers prices in their own currency

Customer service: Offering customer service in their own language

Language: Offering a dedicated site in their own language (or having a multilingual website)

Payment method: Offering payment methods most used and trusted in their region

Shipping expectations: Transparency around shipping expectations, including any duties and tariffs.

Social media: Social media and site content will need to reflect their cultural norms including dress, holidays, climate and more.

Here is how 3 brands, from a small business to an enterprise organization, found success abroad using the website localization process and tactics above.

Some of this could require a localization service, but some brands are lucky enough to have all the pieces in-house to build beautifully localized websites.

The International Expansion Playbook

What if you are ready to invest in international expansion and localization to own a brand new market long before you competitors?

That’s what this guide will teach you to do.

Get it now.

O Boticario: Sniffing Out New Markets

O Boticario is Brazil’s second largest cosmetic company, and the world’s largest perfumery and cosmetics franchising network. The brand has more than 4,000 stores across Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, the United States, Paraguay, Japan, France and Venezuela.

While O Boticario continues to grow their brick-and-mortar and wholesale footprint across the globe, their online global expansion into already competitive arenas –– like the United States where brands like Avon and Natura have large market share –– is done with tremendous amounts of care and precision.

For all three of their cross-border commerce regions (U.S. Portuguese-speaking and Spanish-speaking), O Boticario is demonstrating just how to go global by localizing sites for SEO, sharing content across them for increased productivity and using analytics to further merchandise for the specific audiences down the road.

Ditching the copy & paste method

When it comes to brand owned channels like their .com, pt. and es. sites, O Boticario is setting the mark in ecommerce website localization. From translations and localized content to unique merchandising based on consumer shopping habits in each location, the brand is providing immersive digital experiences that speak to local consumers.

Tailoring content and media by market

Effective website localization goes beyond just product selection. Consumers, across all markets, demand to see content and media that they can relate to. When your brand understands this, you’ll be able to create templated websites that follow a single format, but that can house new blends of content by market.

Here is how O Boticario accomplishes this.

O Boticario US

O Boticario Spanish-speaking

O Boticario Portuguese-speaking

Understanding that customer service is king

Don’t forget to include localized language based answers to frequently asked questions, contact forms in the correct language and more.

O Boticario does this well, allowing customers to find the answers they need without losing anything in translation.

Spanish contact page.

English FAQ page

Fully translated product information

Taking the extra time to fully translate product information means building increased trust with local shoppers that may have concerns regarding color, size, fabric, and other key factors that go into the development of a product.

Plus, localized product page content helps your product pages rank for SEO in the regions you’re trying to earn net new audiences.

See below how O Boticario translates all product page information for their localized audiences.

English product page information

Spanish product page information

Portuguese product page information

The last thing you want to do is use a third-rate translation service or agency. Make sure that content is written by native speakers, with an additional proofreader to make sure your brand isn’t misrepresented in another language.

Seamless checkout

O Boticario uses First Data’s payment gateway on all three sites to collect transactional data holistically. First Data allows for global payments and syncs with hundreds of payment methods across the globe.

Better yet, First Data offers the Clover POS for brick-and-mortar stores to keep inventory up to date across all properties.

Above is the backend of BigCommerce and the toggle you use to switch on your preferred payment gateway for your customers on localized storefronts.

Keeping social in mind

Be sure to localize your social media accounts for your new locations as well. Below, you can see O Boticario’s new US-based Instagram account.

Vivino: Wine Delivery for Every Corner of the Globe

Founded in 2009, Vivino is an online review and marketplace for wine globally. With more than 3 million wines listed, nearly 7 million users and office locations in Denmark, the U.S., Ukraine and India, Vivino is one of the largest wine databases and companies in the world.

The company began as a simple iphone app for Denmark residents, but quickly scaled –– realizing the opportunity for a wine ecommerce business in the process.

Only about 5% of wine sales are made online today –– but Vivino holds a large share of that market.

And, with grocery and gourmet food sales skyrocketing (and Amazon’s purchasing of Whole Foods likely to only encourage that growth), Vivino is primed for global leadership status.

This is why the brand decided to launch localized wine ecommerce sites in The UK, Belgium and The Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

These 4 markets are strategic for the brand, as they are emerging markets in gourmet and online wine ordering and delivery.

In general, Vivino excels in key areas such as:

Localized language and SEO

Localized product features and reviews

Presence in emerging markets

Understanding consumer preferences across borders

Vivino re-directs shoppers based on their IP address to the appropriate URL. With a dedicated digital flagship site for the Vivino community based in the US, the localized ecommerce sites for the emerging online wine markets further engages communities in specific locations.

This helps to ensure Vivino stays top of mind in the world’s largest wine consuming countries.

Product pages reflect the same branded style across all the properties, but various localized media mentions are used based on the location, as well as language-specific reviews for increased trust and social proof.

“The BigCommerce design platform is extremely valuable in that it helps with localization, provides a local development environment and allows us to quickly move into markets and generate sales,” says Will Pearson, Commerce Operations Manager at Vivino.

Product pages are localized by:

Media mentions

Consumer reviews

Preferred wines by region

Psychological triggers

Language

Currency

Let’s take a look.

Vivino UK Product Page

Vivino Italy Product Page

Vivino Spain Product Page

Vivino Belgium + Netherlands Product Page

Vivino Case Study

A global strategy helps Vivino grow 200% YoY. Get more of the details here behind the technology they use to power a worldwide wine checkout.

Neon Poodle: Proving SMBs Can be Viral Sensations

Even if your business is small, you can still think very, very big. Yes, localized international domination BIG.

Neon Poodle is a great example of this. The brand launched in Australia in 2012, offering kid-friendly neon signs for interior designs.

The brand immediately took off in Australia and New Zealand, leading the founders to think much larger than Australia itself.

Today, the brand has launched a localized site in the EU and will be launching their US version shortly.

The duo is a testament to how a small business can optimize for worldwide ecommerce sales, launching in one region after the next.

Here are a few things different about each localized site:

Products: Each site will have specific products based on the styles of each region. For the EU and US markets, the founder is attending localized trade shows to determine trends, and then work with her supplier to house the warehouses in those regions for the specific goods.

Shipping: Various regions require different shipping methods.

Payments: Various regions require different payment methods.

Pricing: Local currencies are used

Blog post content: Specific blogs for each region

Neon Poodle AU

Neon Poodle UK/EU

Neon Poodle Case Study

Learn how 2 founders manage 3 international sites and grow their brand 232% YoY.

Localized warehouses and trends

Sammy, co-founder of the Neon Poodle, travels consistently. One week, she is in the US. Another in the UK. And yet another back in Australia. This isn’t just a time traveling habit of hers. She is on her way to various country-based trade shows to see what is trending for each individual market.

“We have warehouses in each location. One here in Europe, in Holland. One in Brisbane, soon to move to New Castle. And another in L.A. That’s our US base,” says Sammy.

The brand uses BigCommerce to manage localized inventory across the board, and BigCommerce’s Ecommerce Insights to determine product market fit for each region.

“Looking through the BigCommerce analytics and Insights helps us to determine our demographic. That’s the most important. Then, based on those demographics, we various cross-border customers on Instagram and social media,” says Jason, co-founder of Neon Poodle.

“I also use the Ecommerce Analytics to see what people are looking at. If a product’s not getting as many looks as it should, I ask: ‘Is it the photo that’s driving problems?’ Or, ‘Can I change the photo and then have a look to see if people are going to click on it or not?’ Or, ‘Is it the product is just not good? Do I look to remove that product and add a different one?’

“It’s all about seeing the end to end customer flow, coming in from the specific domain they are on (relating to their region) and then all the way through to where they check out or drop off.”

BigCommerce’s Ecommerce Insights tool above helps brand merchandise effectively for their localized audiences.

Setting realistic shipping expectations for localized shoppers

When you have your own warehouses to serve the localized markets you have expanded into, you’re winning in the cross-border game.

Why?

Because like anywhere else, speed of delivery and cost of shipping are vitally important. With a local warehouse, you can pick, pack and ship cost effectively and quickly for both you and the consumer.

For Neon Poodle, the brand ships to any international locations, but only the localized regions have free shipping.

Key Takeaways for Going Global

As merchants look to new markets, it is imperative that you focus on build an organizational model that works, regardless of where you are going. Sure, localization is done country-by-country; however, the blueprint in which your team is globally distributed should be consistent and interchangeable across markets.

You can’t go without a plan. Once you have the foundation put in-place, key stakeholders and a process that empowers in-market teams to work with autonomy, confidence, and efficiency, you will be successful.

Here are the key takeaways:

Don’t cheap out on supply chain: Blend analytics and operational mindsets

In-market specialists: Internal or external, make sure they have gone global before or are setting their sights on doing it right, right now.

Technology enablement: Make technology work with you, not against

Don’t cut corners on the supply chain

When rolling out a global strategy, spend extra time building a logistical foundation that can scale, much like Neon Poodle’s.

Here are a couple tips:

Stock Management – Understanding how to arrange your warehouse is just as important as the product you stock in it. Create efficiencies by taking an analytical approach to your warehouse blueprint. As you arrange and distribute bins, take a customer-focused approach and consider buying trends by market, creating a segment within your warehouse that mirrors how consumers shop.

Total Landed Costs – Always be transparent with your customer. If you do not have a localized warehouse, communicate duties and tariffs to your international shoppers up front.

Go with those that have gone before

Investing in cross border commerce is a huge risk.

It helps to work with professionals that have done it before and know how to execute on a localization strategy.

Whether you hire in-house, leverage external 3rd party partners, or choose to do the cross-border legwork yourself, not having global experience is a huge red flag.

Remember, though, that global experience it is not restricted to just one domain or discipline. Even bringing on an advisor, developer, or specialist to help you understand the market can help alleviate bottlenecks and setbacks.

To avoid complications, make the following a requirement when evaluating talent for key roles within your cross border commerce strategy:

Business Affairs: Minimum of 3 to 5 years’ experience

Creative: Understands template design that allows for localized agility

Development: Has previously developed localized, multi-store websites

Marketing: Has an equal distribution of analytical yet creative ideation

Shipping: Has global experience and a firm understanding of local packaging demands

Make technology an enabler of efficiency and success

Leverage technology to automate and optimize workflows as you scale. For example, when localizing your website, build a technology infrastructure that allows your creative and marketing teams to customize by region –– but not have to deal with various image sizes and formats.

Using a SaaS platform like BigCommerce helps.

All the examples above use the same template for each region, working to localize the content rather than the look and feel. This helps to communicate holistic branding, and makes it easier on your internal teams.

Have your web designer and developer keep in mind the following:

Homepage – Keep the content block flexible. Make the theme easy to edit via your ecommerce CMS and allow it to be segmented by country/region (AKA multi-store).

Navigation – Build your site with dynamic navigation. This allows your marketing team to properly merchandise and prioritize content and product by region.

Publisher Friendly – Keep content publishing easy, as your teams will have to customize and modify content by location.

In the end, you’ll reduce your exposure to risk by investing in people, process and technology. And, by looking at others who have already been successful is launching a cross border commerce strategy.

In Chapter 3, we’ll get more specific about the people, process and technology your brand might need to go global right now.

The International Expansion Playbook

What if you are ready to invest in international expansion and localization to own a brand new market long before you competitors?

That’s what this guide will teach you to do.

Get it now.

Want more insights like this?

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How 3 Brands Conquered Global Markets with Localized Websites published first on http://ift.tt/2wGG0YJ

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euro3plast-fr · 7 years

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100 must-see marketing stats, data and trends 2017

A compilation of 2017’s digital marketing research to help inform your 2018 strategy

Because the state of digital marketing is always evolving, it is important to keep up-to-date with the latest research in your industry, or marketing technique, to stay ahead of your competition. Yet, it can often be difficult to find the digital marketing research you need to help inform your digital strategy.

Download FREE Resource – 10 Digital Marketing mistakes

Use our SMB mistakes guide to help you focus on the digital marketing techniques that matter.

Access the 10 Digital Marketing Mistakes

As we near the end of 2017, we have collected all of the research the team at Smart Insights have found helpful and informative. Hopefully, this will help you too!

SEO statistics 2017

Organic search visits fall 3% as growth weakens across devices (Merkle, Digital Marketing Report Q3 2017)

61% of marketers say growing SEO/organic presence is a high inbound marketing priority (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Media and publishing have the highest average Moz domain authority of 86 (Track Maven, 2017)

254/500 Small-medium businesses only have a basic understanding of SEO (Higher visibility, 2017)

Google accounted for 91% of US site visits [roduced by mobile search in Q3 2017 (Merkle, Digital Marketing Report Q3 2017)

In 2017, 48% of 1,200 global digital marketers say on-page SEO is still considered to be the most effective SEO tactic (Advanced Web Ranking, SEO stats report 2017)

65% of marketers agree that link building is the most difficult tactic to perform (Advanced Web Ranking, SEO stats report 2017)

50% of page-1 Google results are now HTTPS (Moz, 2017)

As of April 2017, the global marketing share percentage, in terms of the use of Search Engines heavily favours Google, with over 77% (Smart Insights 2017)

18% of local searches done on mobile devices lead to a sale within a day (Junto 2017)

Download Premium Resource – Successful SEO Guide

Our comprehensive guide to Search Engine Optimisation best practices isn't just for SEOs, the clear explanations mean that it can be used by marketers to ask the right questions to boost their SEO.

Access the Successful SEO guide

PPC and CTR statistics 2017

Mobile adblock usage is surging internationally and has overtaken desktop usage (PageFair 2017)

The global number of desktop and mobile devices that block ads grew by 142 million YoY to reach 615 million devices Dec 2015-Dec 2016 (PageFair 2017)

60% of consumers don't know a Google advert when they see one (Smart Insights 2017)

The average click-through rate in Facebook ads across all industries is .90% (WordStream 2017)

The average click-through rate of a paid ad is 2%, yet ads in the first position earn an average click-through rate of almost 8% (Clever Clicks 2017)

Both desktop and mobile ads deliver branding effectiveness but mobile ads perform better - particularly at the bottom of the funnel (comScore, The Global Mobile report 2017)

75% of people who find local, helpful information in search results are more likely to visit the physical stores. (Google 2017)

Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords. (Google Economic Impact Report)

Google display campaigns reach 80% of global internet users (Google Benchmarks and Insights)

Local Inventory Ads (LIA) accounted for 19 percent of all Google Shopping clicks on phones. CTRs on LIAs are 19 percent higher than PLAs on phone and desktop Merkle, Digital Marketing Report Q3 2017)

Download FREE Resource – 10 costly AdWords mistakes

The top 10 paid search mistakes and what to do instead. Covering the most up to date and most common mistakes the guide is a great reference point to help you succeed with paid search marketing.

Access the 10 costly AdWords mistakes

Digital strategy, transformation, and technologies statistics 2017

Considering the most popular options in martech stacks, it's no surprise that social media management (61%), search management (65%) and email marketing automation (46%) platforms were in place before 2017 with over a quarter with a new or updated solution in 2017 (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017)

49% of organizations do not have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017)

37% of organizations have no plans to run a digital transformation programme (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017)

39% of marketers don't think their organization's marketing strategy is effective (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Only 6% of companies think their digital marketing and traditional marketing integration process was completely optimised (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017)

More than 8 in 10 (83%) of Account Based Marketers plan to expand their marketing stack for account-based marketing purposes in the next year (#flipmyfunnel Account-Based Marketing survey)

Considering the marketing activities with the highest ROI, marketers consider organic search or SEO (32% rated highly for ROI), content marketing (30%) and email marketing (30%) the most effective (Smart Insights, Managing Digital Marketing research report, 2017)

The modern living room features a multitude of connected devices, including significant innovation and adoption of OTT and IoT landscape (comScore, State of Digital, 2017)

Sending/receiving emails (79%) and finding information about good and services (75%) are the most popular internet activities (UK National Statistics)

40% of marketers say proving the ROI of their marketing activities is their top marketing challenge. (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template

Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system.

Access the Free digital marketing plan template

Ecommerce statistics 2017

Email marketing and SEO are the most frequent sources of ecommerce traffic for respondents across all revenue ranges while channels such as affiliates and content marketing were less frequently used (MarketingSherpa ecommerce benchmarks 2017)

Average ecommerce conversion rates are 1% – 2%. Even if you are doing everything right, you can still expect to win the sale around 2% of the time (BigCommerce 2017)

For the majority of online transactions, the path from awareness to conversion is very short — 71% of consumers make their purchase within a week of awareness or desire (KPMG Global Survey - the truth about consumers 2017)

Less than half (43%) of companies with online stores report seeing significant traffic from social media (MarketingSherpa ecommerce benchmarks 2017)

In Q2 201, total digital commerce has grown to account for over 1 in every 6 discretionary dollars spent by consumers (Smart Insights, Q4 2017 Online Marketing Statistics)

Consumers in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Belgium and South Africa were most likely to be influenced by price or promotions. In these countries, more than 38 % of consumers said price and promotions were the factors that drove their most recent product choice (KPMG Global Survey - the truth about consumers 2017)

64% of consumers say that watching a video on social media influenced them to make a purchase (Animoto, 2017)

22% of omni-channel sellers sell through other marketplaces (including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, etc. (BigCommerce 2017)

Ecommerce is growing 23% year-over-year, yet 46% of American small businesses do not have a website (BigCommerce 2017)

37% of online spend in the US and Europe is now made through Amazon. This figure is 57% for US consumers (Salmon 2017)

Download FREE Resource – 10 ecommerce mistakes

Explore the top 10 ecommerce mistakes and how to avoid them. Ecommerce is a fast-moving environment and we actively keep our mistakes up to date so you’re always making the most of your marketing

Access the 10 Ecommerce mistakes

Content Marketing statistics 2017

53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Content marketing has become an almost universal tactic, with almost 90% of companies using it in 2016, and even more utilizing it in 2017 (Content Marketing Institute B2B Content Marketing)

The majority of content marketing has limited impact with 75% of blog posts getting fewer than 10 social shares and zero links from other domains (Buzzsumo and Moz)

70% of marketers lack a consistent or integrated content strategy (Altimeter)

87% of B2B buyers give more credence to industry influencer content. Buyers also indicated they give more credence to peer reviews, third-party publications, and user-generated feedback. More than two thirds (68 percent) of buyers said they frequently give credence to peer reviews and user-generated feedback. Sixty percent give credence to content authored by a third-party publication or analyst. (DemandGen Report – 2017 Content Preferences Survey)

Top five B2B content marketing tactics: Social media content (92%); eNewsletters (83%); articles on your website (81%); blogs (80%); in-person events (77%). (IMN Inc.)

Third-party/analyst reports (77%) is the most valuable B2B content viewed during decision-making process (B2B content preferences report, 2016)

54% of B2B marketers rate their content marketing strategy as 'moderately effective' (Smart Insights)

Marketers believe research reports (46%) generate leads with the highest customer conversion rate (Ascend2 - Lead Generation to increase conversions report)

60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day. (eMarketer)

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Social media statistics 2017

Facebook provides the highest social value for B2C (96%) whereas Linkedin provides the highest social value for B2B (93%) (Smart Insights and Clutch, 2017)

Written articles (27%), videos (26%), and images (24%) are the three most engaging content on social media (Smart Insights and Clutch, 2017)

Only 5% of web-using adults have a lot of trust in the information they get from social media (Key trends in social and digital news media, Pew Research Center, 2017)

70% of Instagram posts don't get seen (Independent, 2017)

Social Media captures over 30% of online time (Global web index, 2017)

40% of internet users are most likely to use social networks to keep in touch with what their friends are doing, whilst only 27% use social to research/find products to buy (Global Web Index, 2017)

25% of Instagram ads are single videos (Sprout social, 2017)

Social Media and video viewing are the two most popular online activities, together accounting for more than a third of all internet time (Smart Insights, Q4 2017 Online Marketing Statistics)

86% of consumers prefer more authentic and honest brand personality (Sprout social, 2017)

User-generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate (Sprout Soical, 2017)

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Mobile Marketing statistics 2017

1 in 3 Gen Z in North America are using voice command on Mobile (Global Web Index 2017)

UK users spend almost 2 hours per day online via mobile (Global Web Index)

Increasing brand awareness and engagement are the biggest objectives for mobile advertising (Brand Quarterly, State of Mobile 2017)

Mobile now represents almost 7 in 10 digital media minutes, and smartphone apps alone account for half of all digital time spent (comScore, U.S cross-platform future in focus 2017)

Creating personalized customer experiences (32%) is the greatest long-term growth potential for mobile products (Open Mobile Media, State of Mobile 2017)

48% of cousers start mobile research from search engines – (Smart Insights, 2017)

Targeted mobile ad spend will grow from $12.4 billion in 2016 to $32.4 billion in 2021 – (BIA/Kelsey, 2017)

Avg. page load speed on mobile sites is 22 seconds – (Think With Google, 2017)

A 10 second page load time has a 123% higher bounce rate than a 1 second page load time (Think With Google, 2017)

69% of digital media time is spent on mobile (comScore, 2017)

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Email Marketing statistic 2017

29.8% of marketers believe their email marketing is average (Smart Insights and GetResponse, 2017)

Limited internal resources (28%), lack of strategy (28%) and lack of content (23%) are the biggest challenges to delivering successfully automated email marketing programs (DMA, Marketer Email Tracking Study, 2017)

PC and tablet users have unique click rates of 3.8%, a 40% increase over the 2.7% mobile click rate (MailChimp, Impact of Mobile use on Email 2017)

Marketers are out of touch with what customers want - they see trustworthy reputation (38%) and exclusive content (29%) as the most effective for sign-ups but consumers want money-off discounts (45%), free samples (35%) and free delivery (35%) (DMA, Marketer Email Tracking Study, 2017)

Personalized email content based on software/machine learning is 55% effective (OneSpot, The return of Email personalization, 2017)

Open rate has increased from 35% to 58%, unique open rate has increased from 15% to 25%, click rate has decreased from 10.8% to 3.8%, unique click rate has increased from 2.1% to 2.5% (SendGrid, 2017 Global Email Benchmark Report)

Over 205 billion emails are sent every day - a figure expected to grow by 3% each year (Radicati)

Open rates are 14.31% higher in segmented campaigns than in non-segmented campaigns (MailChimp, 2017)

Clicks are 74.53% higher than non-segmented campaigns (MailChimp, 2017)

80% of marketers are now carrying out basic segmentation, with a further 14% planning to do this in the future (Adestra, Email Marketing Industry Census 2017)

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Influencer Marketing statistics 2017

Influencer marketing will be integrated in all marketing activities for the majority of marketers (Traakr Influence 2.0: The future of Influencer Marketing 2017)

84% of Marketers worldwide say they would launch at least one influencer campaign within the next 12 months (Smart Insights 2017)

70% of teenage YouTube subscribers trust influencer opinions over traditional celebrities (Google, 2016)

86% of women turn to social networks before making a purchase (Alist daily, 2016)

71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference (Alist daily, 2016)

48% of marketers planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2017 (Linqua, 2017)

Over half of internet users say they follow some sort of celebrity account on social, with figures reaching as high as 68% among 16-24s (Global web index, 2017)

Advertisers that implemented Influencer Marketing in 2016 received $11.69 in Earned Media Value (EMV) on average for every $1.00 they spent (RhythmOne)

71% of luxury brands measure influencer success through web traffic (Econsultancy 2017)

YouTubers with over 7 million followers are earning $300,000 on average, Facebook and Instagram accounts with over 7 million followers are also getting over half that amount too (The Economist)

Other (UX, Video, ABM etc.)

Video will make up 80% of consumer online traffic by 2020 (Animoto, 2017)

96% of consumers ages 18-34 watch a social video a few times a week and 75% of millennials watch video at least daily (Animoto, 2017)

18 videos are published per month by businesses (Hubspot, 2017)

62% of marketers plan to increase their investment in Facebook video in the next year (Animoto, 2017)

Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day (Social Media Today)

Users who have a bad mobile user experience are 60% less likely to revisit and purchase from that brand in future (Smart Insights 2017)

Diary studies are used by just 2 in 10 (22%) researchers and just under half (47%) use search log analysis (NNG, user experience careers)

Global cart abandonment rates have increased 1.3% (up on the previous quarter) to 76.9% (SalesCycle, The remarketing report)

VR devices are currently too expensive according to 66% of respondents and the majority (86%) would like to try VR before buying (Ipsos MORI via Marketing Week)

17% of users delete apps because they are not useful and 17% delete them because they take up too much storage space (MarketingSherpa, Customer Satisfaction Research Survey)

Youtube remains the top content distributional channel to add into a marketing strategy (49-52%), within the next 12 months (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Over half (52%) of consumers want a fast response to their issues, something that can be hard to achieve with an automated service (Smart Insights)

27% of users skip video ads because they don't like video ads that play before the video they want to see (Smart Insights)

21% of respondents characterize Sales and marketings relationship as either misaligned or 'don't know' (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

Marketing priorities include converting leads to customers (70%) and attracting visitors to their site (55%) whilst considerably less (29%) said sales enablement was a top priority (HubSpot, State of Inbound 2017)

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/100-must-see-marketing-stats/

#Blog – Smart Insights

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