Author: dit_redesign

Here are Some of the Exciting New Features that Shopify is Offering

Posted on by dit_redesign

If you want to set-up an online business, Shopify is one of the best platforms to consider.  At DIT Interactive, we work with various platforms and we have certified shopify web designers and shopify web developers team for our customers. By this virtue, we understand that Shopify is a robust system, and that reflects in the fact that it powers over 500,000 online stores. Merchants and shopify website designers alike love the ease of use, array of features, and customization options available with this platform. However, there are various new features & functionalities that shopify has added lately.  By making use of these great features, you will be able to further enhance your online presence and increase your chances of garnering higher sales revenue.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of some of these new features:

New Developer Tools:

A total of four new APIs have been created for developers. These include APIs for marketing events, reporting, resource feedback, and draft orders. This will help merchants gather insights into marketing efforts. They will be able to know which products/services are selling and which ones aren’t moving. This way, merchants will be able to make informed product decisions.

Multi Location Inventory:

One of the biggest pains for merchants is the management of inventory across multiple locations. Shopify is expected to launch its multi-location inventory system this year.  This would mean that merchants can have a single Shopify account, and be able to manage inventory from different locations. It will be a complete changeover of the existing inventory management system.  Bulk order fulfilling will be much simpler now.

Custom Storefronts:

Shopify can be seamlessly integrated into any platform for selling your products or services online. This could include in-game mobile purchases, listing your products on websites, desktop aps, mobile apps, etc. A new storefront API has been developed which will help developers assist online merchants in creating a Shopify custom design and buying experience that is standard across different sales avenues.

Multiple Sales Channels:

Shopify is already actively engaged with multiple sales channels. You can sell your products across such platforms as Facebook, Pinterest, and Wanelo. However, 3 more platforms have recently been appended to the system. These include Kik, Buzzfeed, and Wish. These 3 platforms will bring new audiences to your products and services, and help you grow your business.

Improved Discounts:

The new API for price-rules makes it easier to build as well as manage discounts. With the help of this new API, more sophisticated discount rules can be created. Plus, there are 2 new price rules that can be used – Discount Code Creation and Free Shipping.

New Theme Settings:

The theme editor interface has been updated to make it more customization and functional. Shopify developers can add their own HTMl code without worrying about the breach of the templated theme’s UI. Moreover, images can be directly uploaded and alt text can be edited. Finally, there are over 150 complimentary fonts that can be implemented.

Shopify Polaris:

This Ecommerce platform has come up with a complete revamp of its admin interface’s appeal for mobile as well as desktop. Moreover, the UX language has also been updated into a new design system called Polaris. The beauty of this new system is that it is feature-rich.  Moreover, not only can it be used internally; it can also be used externally to create user interfaces for applications that assimilate with Shopify API.

New Chip & Swipe Reader:

The beauty of Shopify is that it encourages selling of products and services from anywhere. The launch of its new chip & swipe reader is a case in point. Payments can now be accepted on smart phones and tablets. It is going to take personal selling to the next level.

Have we missed any important change? Write to us in the comments section. hire certified shopify development partner base company for your store. you can contact us via email or phone.


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Instagram Has Launched Shoppable Posts for Bigcommerce Retailers

Posted on by dit_redesign

We are a Bigcommerce development company, and know for a fact that various social media platforms are exploring the great opportunity that online retail provides.  By selling products on social media, online merchants get a larger audience to work with.  On the other hand, social media platforms get to create an additional revenue stream for their business.  One of the best examples of the same is Instagram’s shoppable posts program.  Businesses in USA that use Bigcommerce will now have access to the same.  This program can transform the way in which online businesses sold products and services on social media.  We are a team of Bigcommerce developersand designers.  Being in the field, we believe that this new approach is going to be a big hit in the industry.

More about Instagram Shoppable Posts

Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links in post captions.  Therefore, such shoppable tags are quick and easy in helping you attract more people to your online store.  Before this option was launched, people had to rely on 3rd party services.  However, it is a much convenient option to do it all from the same platform.  Therefore, Instagram Shoppable posts carry significant importance to Bigcommerce merchants and the entire industry of Bigcommerce designand Bigcommerce development.

Access to Analytics

We are currently living in the world of knowledge and data.  Such data is driving many business decisions.  Moreover, it is also important for online merchants.  Those Bigcommerce retailers that take advantage of Instagram’s shoppable posts will get analytics from this photo-sharing social media service.  Here are the things that businesses will be able to access:

  1. How many people viewed product information
  2. How many people clicked on the link through to the product page

What is Instagram’s Benefit?

So, how would Instagram benefit with this new service?  There are 3 major benefits that Instagram will receive by the launch of this service:

  • Monetizing:  The first is the additional revenue stream that Instagram can add.  There is news that Instagram would not take a cut of the purchase amount.  Instead, Instagram has devised another strategy.  To be able to display such shoppable posts in those users’ feeds that are not followed by the business, these business accounts will need to pay a fixed amount.
  • More Advertisers:  Because of the uniqueness of this service, Instagram will get more advertisers.  The effects of the same are already visible.
  • More Time:  Finally, this is a subtle benefit to Instagram for launching the service.  Because of these engaging posts, users will find another reason to spend more time on Instagram. The social media platform will be able to get a larger share of the users’ time.

This was a basic overview of Instagram Shoppable posts.  If you need a Bigcommerce developer or an entire team, we can help you with affordable and high-quality service.  Contact us today via phone or email.

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How Can WordPress Help to Improve Your Website Development

Posted on by dit_redesign

We are a WordPress development company, and we are in absolute love with the tool.  It is loaded with features, and at the same time it is not difficult for professionals or even beginners to use.  Additionally, WordPress is open source and that makes it cost effective for you.  Most small and medium sized businesses have a budget constraint, and therefore this cost effectiveness can go a long way.  It is because of these reasons that a WordPress web developer would not even consider WordPress for blogs, but even for content management systems and feature-rich websites.  All of this development can be used while just using a web browser.  That is the power of WordPress.

Here are some of the benefits of using WordPress for website designing & development:

1. Cost Effective:

We mentioned this upfront as well.  Wordpress is completely free and readily available for use.  That means that your cost of the website project drops significantly.  The money that is saved can be directed towards marketing your website or using it for business operations.

2. Updates:

The world of technology is moving very briskly.  This means that your new version of a software system will be outdated in a few months’ time.  That is an extremely scary proposition.  With WordPress, though, the upgrades are constant and you can download them without a hassle.  There are multiple web developing minds that are working on continuously upgrading and evolving the system.  For you to be able to have an access to the latest version of the software means that you have all the latest tools & features at your disposal.

3. SEO Friendly:

Search Engine Optimization is an extremely important element of marketing for businesses.  When your target audience searches for a certain term on search engine, you want your website link to come up on top.  Efforts need to be put in by specialists to get this done.  However, the good news is that WordPress is optimized for search engines.  This means that you don’t have to spend the extra effort in making your website search engine ready; it already is that way.

4. Social Media:

Another feature of WordPress is the various social media tools that come connected with your website.  You can link them to your Social Media and start marketing from there.  Social media marketing is becoming big in the modern time, and this tool available with WordPress will go a long way.

5. Community Building

WordPress has brought together a large and dedicated community of users and developers.  These are people with technical and non-technical backgrounds who are working tirelessly to make WordPress the tool of choice.  Their work helps make WordPress better with the passage of time.  The better that WordPress gets, the more options that you will have with you.

6. Easy to use Software:

The tool is very easy to use.  Wordpress isn’t complicated.  Designing, therefore, is easy for even a non-technical person.  However, if you need customized designs and options; you will have to engage a professional WordPress theme developer. 

7. Customization:

Finally, WordPress lets you completely customize the theme to suit your business requirements.  If you are with a professional WordPress theme developer, they will generate a theme for your business that suits your specific needs.

So, these are some of the benefits of using WordPress for website designing & development.  If you are looking for a WordPress website developer, you can contact us

Easy Process of Handling Shopify Spam Bot Registration

Posted on by dit_redesign

We are a Shopify development company.By that virtue, we are in touch with many Shopify users.  One problem that these users generally run into is spam bot registration.  That’s why we decided to write this blog to tell you more about spam bot registration and how to manage such registrations.  It is a simple process and this general process can work equally well with other eCommerce platforms too.

WHAT IS SPAM BOT REGISTRATION?

There are many customers in your email list.  That is perfect because you can send them regular emails and newsletters.  That is an effective way of staying in touch and improving brand recall.  However, information of some of the people in your list may look odd.  As an example, some people might have real emails but their first and last names are number strings.  What does that mean?  That means that these registrations were made by bots with stolen email addresses.  So, what does this mean?  Your Shopify web designers may have done a great job stitching together an appealing store front, but your marketing isn’t driving enough traffic.  That is because your email list is polluted and emails are being sent to people who haven’t subscribed.

HOW DOES THIS HURT YOUR BUSINESS?

There are many ways in which this phenomenon hurts your business.

  • Your email campaigns’ open rates and click-through rates decline.  That skews your data.
  • There are high chances that the recipient could mark you as spam.  Remember they didn’t actually register on your list!  That makes your emails default to the spam folder.  That will also raise flags with other email providers.
  • If your very first interaction with a user is spammy, you lose your opportunity of dealing with them in the future.
  • If you are using merge tags in your email, your email will start like ‘Hi 5513413242.’
  • Your list size will grow, which would mean that you will pay more money to your email providers.  However, there are fake subscriptions pushing your cost up.

HOW TO FIX SHOPIFY SPAM BOT REGISTRATION?

This is how trained Shopify web developers will resolve the situation.  It is simple enough for you to do it yourself.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Identify the Bot Subscribers:

So, the first step in the process is for you to identify which of your subscribers are bot subscribers.

  1. If you haven’t connected your Shopify store to an email provider:In this case, you will have to be first logged into your account.  From there, you need to visit the ‘Customers’ tab.  When you see your list of customers, sort them by name and see if there are a bunch of entries that stand out.  You will perhaps see a trend.  In one of our customers’ case, all these bot registrations started with 55.
  2. If your store is connected to an email provider: In this case, you will be logged into your email provider’s account.  Now, you need to go to the synced list and sort it by name.  Try to look for anything that stands out.  What you are looking for is strings of numbers in the first and last name box.  In many cases, you will see a common denominator.

2. Automate Bot Scrub Flow:

Now is the time for you to automatically scrub out bot registrations.  However, you want to first give yourself a chance to convert these real emails into real registration in your list.  In this case, we are going to use Mailchimp as the email provider.  However, you can essentially do the same with other providers as well.  The goal of this step is to establish an automation flow.  This is meant to remove any bot-like subscriptions from your list.  Moreover, you also want to try to convert your bot subscriptions into real ones.

  1. The first step in the process is to create an Automation Flow.  You can name it anything, say Bot Removal.  Edit the Action to delete from list.  You need to also amend the Trigger to make sure that you check the option of Import.
  2. Once this is done, you need to amend the ‘Segment.’  This it in order to look for all list entries that have a bot pattern.  If you remember, my customer was looking for first names that started with 55.
  3. Now, you design an activation email for these subscribers.  Your hope is to convert as many of them into real subscribers.  In the email, you should tell them upfront that they registered with you but their information looks off.  Give them a call to action to create a real account.  Also inform that that this email will remove them from the list.

This is it.  All your bot subscribers will now be removed.  Once this is done, you should check back with your Shopify list every month or two.

We hope this article was helpful.Tell us what you think in the comments box. If you need Shopify website designers or are looking for a professional full-service Shopify development company; you can contact us.


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How to Improve Your BigCommerce Store? Here are Some Tips

Posted on by dit_redesign

BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that is packed with robust features and tools. If effectively used, these features and tools can help to grow an eCommerce store.  We are a BigCommerce development company, and understand the various areas where many stores need improvement. Our BigCommerce developers suggest that the following 5 aspects of your BigCommerce store can be improved to grow your online retail business.

1.Make It Easier to Find Products:

You need to streamline search on your BigCommerce store to make it easy for your customers to find the right products.  Here are a few things that can help:

    1. On-site search:  This is where your customers are interacting with your site.  They are putting in a query.  By tracking these searches, you will get to know which products your customers are interested in.  When you perform such examination and try to improve your search, you will see immediate benefits to your BigCommerce store.
    2. Identify Misspellings:  You can’t expect your customers to know the exact term all the time.  There are going to be mistakes.  You need to make sure they see appropriate search term correction.
    3. Google Analytics:  BigCommerce Expertssuggest that you should enable site search in Google analytics.  This will give you a breakdown on the various metrics of onsite search.  It will tell you about such things as:

      1. Things that people are searching for

      2. People that left the site after they attempted a search

      3. New trends or products that are worth exploring

      4. Most common search queries that should be on your navigation menu

    4. Keywords in Product Pages:  Finally, it is also important to add keywords to your product pages.  These are expressions that your customers use to represent your products.  Use of keywords will help you improve SEO for your website.  Moreover, it will also make it easier for customers to search for your products.

2.Revamp Your Navigation Menu:

You have to find different ways of improving your customers’ shopping experience.  For that you will need to gain insight in what products they are interested in.  There are a couple of things you can do to get the desired information and then revamp your navigation menu.

    1. Customer Use Data: You need to collect data on what navigation menus your customers use the most.  There are also tools that you can use to track where your customers are interacting with your website.  Tools like CrazyEgg and HotJar can be helpful.
    2. Design for Mobile: You need to consider how your navigation acts on mobile devices.  If there are too many navigation items, it can make it cumbersome for your mobile users to navigate your website.
    3. Keep it Simple: You need to design your navigation in a way that your customers find products and items where they expect them to be.  If you have useful links on your website, you should have them available in the footer.  These links include contact information & shipping/return policies.

3.Image Optimization:

Photography is critical to all eCommerce stores.  Images are being used extensively these days on product pages as well as marketing material.  It is a way of luring the customers as well as giving them more description of the product.  In that case, you need to make sure that your images are optimized and consistent.

    1. Maintain Consistency:  You need to make your images consistent in terms of content and dimension.  Using a white background with a consistent backdrop can help with the cause.  This can also help with your store’s brand.  When you are exporting your images, you need to make sure that they are consistently sized too.  You don’t want to provide odd-shaped product thumbnails.

    2. File Size Optimization:  You need to ensure that your file sizes are not excessive.  If you are using photos from cameras or phones, they tend to typically be much bigger than needed in the case of your BigCommerce store.  You need to reduce the image size by reducing the dimension of the images.  Your BigCommerce product photo should be 1028px Wide by 1028px High.

4.Product Page Improvement:

Product page is where you can really sell your products.  This is where you convince our customers to buy from you.  Now that this product is expected to have the bigger impact, it is expected to have the biggest room for improvement too.  You need to take a look at your product names.  Make sure that the product name is description enough for your customers to find the right product.  The name should accurately describe the product and the name should also match with hat the customers are searching for.

5.Optimize Shopping Policy:

One of the most important eCommerce factors is shopping cost and speed.

    1. Clear display of shipping policy & costs:  Shipping policy as well as the cost should be clearly displayed.  It should be ideally on the product page itself.  This will ensure that customers are not shocked and they aren’t abandoning the cart.
    2. You should also consider a free or flat-rate shipping policy to make it easier for your customers.

These changes will help you make your store effective and more customer-friendly.  

If you are looking for an expert BigCommerce developeror you need help with BigCommerce design, we can provide unmatched expertise in the field. Contact us.

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4 Technologies Can Make Your Customers’ Ecommerce Experience Safer

Posted on by dit_redesign

Over the history of eCommerce, one of the most pressing concerns has been consumer security.  According to a survey, more than half of online shoppers think that retailers are not going the distance when it comes to protecting personal information and credit card data.  This ensures that over 30% of such online shoppers hesitate before making any purchase online.  We are an eCommerce development company, and we have run into online retailers who are concerned about this.  Our eCommerce web developer team always advises our clients to make use of the most advanced technology to improve security.  This will ensure that customers are not hesitant about sharing sensitive information on their website.

There are technologies that can help you improve your store’s security and hence your customers’ trust.

Let’s talk about the top 4 technology trends that you should consider adopting:

1.Mobile Wallets:

Customers have gone mobile.  They are spending a lot of time there, and are also doing online buying from their mobile devices.  In the recent times, our eCommerce website designer team has got huge requests for mobile designs of eCommerce.  That tells us about the growing popularity.  However, now their wallets are going mobile too.  Your customers can now be using apps such as Android App or Apple Pay.  These apps store their credit information, and that ensures that your customer can pay without physically presenting the credit card.  Its use has been limited till recently, and that has been because of the lack of knowledge on the part of the consumers.  Experts believe that this technology will grow exponentially in the coming times.  This technology is secure because there is no need to present the credit card physically.  Thus, consumers don’t have to carry it around with them.  This reduces the chances of the customer losing their card.  On the other hand, the technology also makes use of high end tokenization and encryption technology.

2.Blockchain:

Have you heard about BitCoin?  That is one form of Blockchain.  Such blockchains are known to be secure.  This is because they manage transactions in a unique way.  These transactions contain a chain of every transaction, right from start to end.  This information in the chain can be reviewed but never altered.  This means that accountability has been automated, and leads to secure validation of transaction data.  Moreover, there is a lot of potential that the technology offers like making transactions less expensive, more transparent, and faster.  Also, there are fewer chances of chargebacks and frauds with Blockchains.

3.Secure Shopping Cart Software:

So, Bitcoins are still not omnipresent in the industry.  Credit cards continue to be one of the most preferred payment methods for most online shoppers.  Therefore, you need to do things to keep this information secure.  One way of doing that is through locked-down shopping cart software.  When you are setting up shopping carts and selecting a software tool for the same, you should make sure that your systems comply with the evolving PCI security standards.  Moreover, your cart should have advanced features like multiple firewalls and data encryption of sensitive information.  Plus, now you have the option of avoiding software that stores credit card data on your website.  Your website can be hacked, and can lead to excessive monetary and trust loss.  You can try to work with PCI-compliant third-party processors.  They can handle your sensitive information and take the risk that is associated with the same.

4.Multilayered Fraud Management:

Being an eCommerce web design company, we have seen fraud management as a big problem for E-tailers.  Not only does this lead to monetary loses, but also puts at risk customer trust and their future purchasing potential.  Therefore, you should adopt a comprehensive and multi-layered risk management strategy.

These technologies can help you make your eCommerce store more secure.  If you need to connect with an eCommerce website design company for more information on the same, we will be happy to help you. Connect us

Shopify’s Chip & Swipe Reader is Versatile & Affordable

Posted on by dit_redesign

When you talk to Shopify web designers, they will talk volumes about the quality of design options that are available.  These designs, and the platform itself, are beautiful, secure, and simple.  However, as a Shopify development company, we get amazed at what all the company does.  There are numerous other things that the company has been doing too.  We are talking about Shopify’s 1st in-house designed hardware.  This is the Chip & Swipe reader, which is now shipping in the United States of America (USA).

This hardware was unveiled in the month of April in 2017, and pre-orders for the same were being delivered in July.  At this point, this reader is now shopping to all U.S. Shopify merchants.

WHY THIS HARDWARE?

Given that you are with Shopify, we can safely assume that you are an online merchant.  On the other hand, there are talks about retail being dead.  Of course, you see that there are so many big department stores that are closing.  However, we believe that retail is not really dead.  The way of conducting retail business has changed.  In-person selling is still thriving, although in the form of experiential retail, specialty boutiques, multichannel strategies, etc.  Therefore, those old shopping adages don’t work anymore.  New research needs to be done and new ideas need to be adopted.  If that is done properly, you will still be able to succeed in a retail set-up.

Shopify’s Chip & Swipe reader has been designed to keep the future of retail in mind.  Not only is it versatile, it is highly affordable too.  It is so sleek and easy to carry that it can be used in-store or during festivals or even at markets and pop-up kiosks.

MORE ABOUT THIS HARDWARE

We mentioned earlier that we are a Shopify development company. We have qualified Shopify web developers & designers in our team. So, if we are going gaga over a piece of hardware; it better be good. From what we have seen and read, we think that there are great prospects on offer. Shopify has always been a platform that has tried to promote entrepreneurship through different means. It has strived to provide a consistent experience across channels. Therefore, not only can you make use of this platform online; this new hardware will enrich your experience with in-person retail as well. Those store owners, who are new to Shopify POS, get this absolutely free.  Everyone else (eg. If you want to upgrade from your previous piece of hardware) get it for $29. That’s a great piece for an amazing piece of hardware.

Here are some of the interesting features of this Chip & Swipe system:

  • Size: This hardware is pocket sized and absolutely wireless. That gives you the flexibility to sell from anywhere.
  • Long Battery Life: When you are in retail; you know that you don’t work from 9 to 5. Your hours can vary, and hence your devices’ battery life should support the same.
  • Security:  The hardware makes use of industry leading encryption system to support its EMV chip technology.
  • Integration:  You are selling online and offline. Therefore, Shopify integrates the information to let you have a snapshot of how your entire business is working.

All of this makes us believe that this new hardware is going to be a winner, and is going to win over customers around the globe.

On a separate note, if you need help with Shopify development or are looking for a team of great Shopify website designers; we can do the needful. Contact us


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Top WordPress Trends for the Year 2017

Posted on by dit_redesign

WordPress is an extremely popular Content Management System (CMS). We all know that. It has over 50% market share.  That talks volumes about the quality of the platform.  We are a WordPress development company, and we are completely in love with the platform.  Despite being in the market for over 14 years, this platform continues to improve with time.  There are new trends that are picking up on WordPress.

Here are some of the top ones:

1. Mobile Usability:

Ask any WordPress web developer, they will tell you about the increasing number of customers that talk about mobile. Mobile is the thing of the present and the future.  It is said that over half of the users use their mobile device to search for information online.  This means that there is a tremendous opportunity to be tapped.  Therefore, optimizing for mobile is extremely pertinent.  This is not enough though.  In the recent past, many developers have been including mobile in their strategy.  However, what needs to happen is that mobile should be a part of the plan right from the beginning of the planning process.  That is where WordPress’ mobile-first themes will pick up in popularity in 2017. These themes are fully responsive and are efficiently optimized for mobile devices.  If you still do not have a mobile version of your website, it is time that you did that.  That will help improve your website’s user interface by leaps and bounds.

2. Video Headers:

WordPress started off as being a blogging platform. However, it got picked up as a business platform. Recently, this content management system came up with its first default theme for business websites.  This has made the functionality simple. What it has also made possible is to simply add video headers for various topics. What are these? These are decorative images with motion. That can enhance the look and feel of your website. Your WordPress theme developercan easily embed these videos in the template by playing the video and looping it automatically. In the year 2017, there will be more WordPress themes with video headers.  That will help your website gain more traction.

3. Multipurpose Theme:

Multipurpose themes have existed for a long period of time. However, they have only become more popular in the recent times. These themes are highly customizable. This means that you have the flexibility to customize your website to suit your brand’s individual needs. It is important for you to start conversing yourself with multipurpose themes for WordPress. There are various ones available, and they will be extremely important in the future.

4. SAAS Platform on the Rise:

Software as a service is something that we have all known about for a while now. It is not new to us. However, an increasing number of plugins as well as themes are being implemented successfully. This will only rise in 2017. This means that your plugins will be more affordable now. This is an absolutely win-win situation for both developers as well as users. The developers will be able to earn regular revenue and the customers will find more affordability.

5. Drag & Drop Content:

Once the website has been developed, you don’t have to be an expert WordPress website developer< to use the drag and drop content modules. This drag and drop system will give you more control over the various elements of design. This will obviously not affect the underlying structure of your website. This is a great way of updating and enhancing your website’s user interface.

Apart from these, there are changes in current design trends. Moreover, what is becoming increasingly popular is the combination of WordPress and Ecommerce. If you need more information about these trends or want to have information about our WordPress website development service, you can contact us.

BigCommerce vs. Prestashop : Which Platform Is Better?

Posted on by dit_redesign

Being a BigCommerce development company,we understand that there are numerous shopping cart platforms for you to choose from.  In fact, we work with quite a few eCommerce platforms ourselves.  However, not all of them are of the same quality.  All platforms offer different features and options.  The one platform that works for you depends upon your requirement and the strengths/weaknesses of the various platforms.  Out of the hundreds of platforms available, most of them offer just basic functionalities.  There are only a few that go the extra mile to provide you with a complete solution.  BigCommerce expertsbelieve that BigCommerce and Prestashop are two of the best eCommerce platforms around today.  That’s why we have put together some information on the two platforms and created a comparison to see which one is better for your needs.

BigCommerce:

We do a lot of BigCommerce design and development. By that virtue, we understand this platform really well.  It is currently one of the best hosted solutions around.  One of the reasons for that is that this platform offers all the convention features that a shopping cart should have.  This includes security, support, and the right environment for the server.  However, there are various other features and functionalities that make BigCommerce development more effective.  Here’s a list of those features and functionalities:

  • 99% server up-time
  • Daily Back-ups
  • Content Delivery Network: This feature can be used for building the BigCommerce store.
  • Support:  Now, this is something that really differentiates BigCommerce from some of the other stores.  The support that is on offer is absolutely unparalleled.  There is a qualified team of experts that can help you handle any problems that you run into.  Moreover, there is a huge base of knowledge that is available on the web.
  • Article Access:  If you are stuck with a problem, you can access over 500 articles to solve the various issues that BigCommerce developers can run into.
  • Security:  This platform’s PCI compliant.  This means that your customers’ data is absolutely secure.  In today’s times of ransomware and other malware, this is a great advantage to have.
  • Hosted Solution:  Finally, BigCommerce is a hosted solution (as we mentioned earlier).  The admin panel is extremely simple to use as well as intuitive.  This makes the process of store development very simple.  There is absolutely no programming that you are required to know.

PRESTASHOP

Talking about Prestashop, this has become among the top open-source solutions.  It is gaining in popularity, and here are some of the unique features that it presents to its users:

  • MVC Pattern:  Prestashop meets the object paradigm and MVC pattern.  This is great for technical users as they will get extremely simple to individualize and very clean code.  If you have enough programming language, you can mold the platform to your liking.
  • Intuitive Back-End: This makes a great amount of difference to the entire system.  The back-end can be easily managed and there is no need to possess any technical skill.  You can add categories, products, and images without a hassle.
  • CMS: So, this is not just an Ecommerce platform.  Prestashop comes with in-built CMS capabilities.  You can append more content pages to increase traffic and also become more appealing to the search engines.

COMPARISON

Now, let’s draw a comparison between the two platforms:

  1. Store Management: Both these platforms are pretty strong when it comes to features for store management.  Be it managing inventory, orders, or products; or having significant number of payment and shopping options, multiple currencies, and languages; both these platforms excel in that regard. BigCommerce experts will point at an advantage that BigCommerce offers, and that’s the fact that it lets you sell on Facebook.  With Prestashop, you will have to have a paid module for the same.
  2. Marketing and SEO: Marketing is super simple and effective with both these platforms.  Having discount systems, coupon codes, wish lists, gift certificates, and more are easy with these two platforms.  They are both SEO friendly too.  BigCommerce offers an option of abandoned cart saver.  That is not the case with Prestashop.  Moreover, BigCommerce is a little easier to configure as well as use.
  3. Business Analytics: Both these tools have powerful built-in analytics.  They fully integrate with Google analytics.  When it comes to marketplace, though, Prestashop has the advantage because of its much bigger marketplace.

Therefore, both these platforms have their own advantages and drawbacks.  BigCommerce works better for those online merchants who want to focus on business without worrying about the technical part.  Merchants with some technical knowledge, however, can do a lot with Prestashop.


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Set Up Customer Groups for BigCommerce

Posted on by dit_redesign

As an experienced BigCommerce development company, we run into various customers who want to have an online store for the first time.  Their intent at all times is to ensure their store’s user interface is good.  Moreover, they want to make sure that their products are presented properly on the site.  However, what can be missed is the target marketing part of it.  In other words, BigCommerce designers will be made to focus on graphics and user interface and your BigCommerce developer will emphasize on ensuring that the code is bug-free.  However, you need expertise and guidance in target marketing too.  That’s where qualified BigCommerce experts come into the picture.

Optimize Your BigCommerce Store: A Guide to Setting Up Customer Groups

CUSTOMER GROUPS

BigCommerce, and other Ecommerce frameworks, let you set up customer groups.  This is the process through which you organize your customer base into isolated groups.  By doing so, you can adopt different strategies for different customer groups.  As an example, you can apply discounts or offer rewards to patrons or direct customers towards certain product categories.  Moreover, you can also allow or restrict access to some portions of the website.  If you are on the BigCommerce framework, here are some of the things you can do:

  • Differentiate between regular retail customers and wholesalers.
  • Set up status of tax exemption for some customers.
  • Offer discounts to certain customer groups.

BENEFITS OF CUSTOMER GROUPS

You are encouraged to talk to your BigCommerce development team about customer groups.  However, you need to be convinced about the benefits of the same before doing so.  These groups have the ability to serve your customers according to their specific needs.  Here are some of the other benefits of the process:

  • Identify the most and the least profitable customers of yours.
  • Provide special discounts to some customer groups.
  • Adjust your marketing efforts towards customers with the highest profitability.
  • Improve your customer service.
  • Stay on top of the latest shopping as well as purchase trends.
  • Gain an edge over your competition.
  • Segment customers on the basis of their location, lifestyle, behavior, and other factors.

HOW TO SET UP CUSTOMER GROUPS?

Setting up customer groups is a reasonably simple process.  Here are the steps involved in setting up customer groups for your BigCommerce store:

  1. Go to Customers > Customer groups
  2. On this page, click on the option ‘Create a Customer Group’
  3. Now you need to punch in a name for the group under the ‘Group Name’ field
  4. The next step is to identify and decide the access that various customers will have:
    1. Here you can restrict a particular group’s access.  You decide what a particular group can access and what it can’t.
    2. There is also an option to move all your new customers to this group.  You need to either check or uncheck this option.
  5. Once you have completed these steps, you are good to go ahead and save your changes.

This process will create the parent category.  If you need to create child categories under this, you need to click on the + symbol.

DISCOUNTS FOR CUSTOMER GROUPS

One of the important features of customer groups is that you can apply specific discounts to specific customer groups.  This customer group can have discount on a particular category, specific products, or even the entire website.  What you need to note is that coupons are separate.  Hence, if a customer has coupon; they will be able to get coupon discount on top of the category discount.

CUSTOMER GROUP FOR GUESTS

You will need to create a Guest customer group for all those customers who are not logged into your website.  You can set up Guest customer group after Customer Groups have been configured for your website:

  1. Go to Customers > Customer Groups
  2. Select a group from the dropdown menu that says Customer Group for Guests

DELETE A CUSTOMER GROUP

You can delete a customer group that you do not need.  You need to go to the Customers menu, and check the box that is next to the customer group you want to delete.  Now you click on the Trash icon and hit Okay to confirm.

CONTACT US FOR HELP

If you need help with creating customer groups, or you need BigCommerce experts to help you make your eCommerce venture successful; we can provide the designed service.  Our BigCommerce design and development team has the expertise and the acumen to deliver unparalleled results.


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