Thursday, May 31, 2018

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme (Shopping)

By: Jason
May 29, 2018

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme is a responsive eCommerce Shopify theme for store owners who wish to promote or sell their products online. It is a very modern and brand-oriented Shopify theme that looks equally wonderful on the desktop and mobile devices.

Whether you have a large set of products or small, Javenist is catered to all store sizes. This unique design is based on Shopify Builder. It is built with digital or electronic stores in mind and also allows quick installation. In different categories, you can alter your online store as you want!

We have tailored 7+ Homepages which come with vast customization power. Javenist includes 7+ Header Styles, 13+ Sections, 4+ Unique Slider, 5+ Unique Banner, and Footer Content. With Javenist, building online store websites becomes quick and easy.

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme is a feature-rich and multipurpose eCommerce Shopify theme. It features Drop-down Menu, Mega Menu, Mega Menu with Image, Theme Color Options, Breadcrumb Banner, Newsletter Popup, Ajax Cart, Wishlist, Quick View, Shop Grid/List View, Latest Blog, Contact Information, Contact Form, Google Analytics, 15+ Preloader, and Shortcodes.

All the necessary elements help your customers go from being interested into a product, to finalizing the purchase. The design is professional so that it ensures the utmost visibility of your products in different manners like Simple Product, Variable Product, and Affiliate Link Product. In addition, display your exclusive offers on the slider, featured products, bestseller products,new arrivals, hot categories, and organize your products in numerous sorting options as well. Social media integration is another excellent part of it.

This cross-browser compatible theme Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme will perform incredibly. Adjust your multiple store website with Javenist, as the way you desire! It is also richly documented and offering great support.

Read More >> https://themedirectory.xyz/21907557-2/

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

TOP 20 Shopify and E-commerce experts

By: Sven Lillepalu

Whether you are just starting out as a Shopify entrepreneur or have been playing the courts for some time, we are sure you agree that good advice is always welcome. To make your journey into ecommerce easier, Shopify has created the Shopify Experts program to match seasoned professionals in design, functionality development, store setup and marketing/SEO with those in need of help. Below, we have handpicked 20 Experts to help you customize your Shopify store and hopefully give your business a boost.

1. Carson

Carson is a team of reliable Shopify Experts to help you take care of your Shopify related small tasks. The process is very simple – you create a task on the website, get matched with a suitable developer, magic happends and voila – you get to review and accept the fulfilled task. Carson offers both monthly subscription plans as well as single task pricing.
heycarson.com

2. Shopafree

Standing out from the crowd, Shopafree is the world’s only free Shopify setup service. You heard us right – free.They provide you with everything from setup & design, app installation, content to photography and even support. What´s the catch? You pay Shopify for your account. Then Shopify pays Shopafree a commission. You get your site setup free. Simple!
shopafree.me

3. CRO Gurus

Larsen Consulting is all about conversion rate optimization. CRO firmly believes that the best frameworks for CRO are based on learning, research and data. And that the result of any optimization exercise has to be measurable and translate directly into improved KPIs. Volume discounts are available for larger orders!
crogurus.com

4. EXENLABS

EXENLABS is an enthusiastic team with extensive knowledge of Shopify. Their core competences range from simple theme tweaks to store setup to full-blown mobile app development. Their services are packaged in easy-to-navigate service packages. Also – be sure to check out their custom apps and the video tutorials section on their website!
exenlabs.com

5. Shopify & You

From a slightly different angle, Shopify & You is an ebook that will take you from your initial moment of inspiration to that exciting and all-important first sale. An easy-to-use, step-by-step guide that covers everything you need to know about designing, setting up and running a truly awesome online store with Shopify.
shopifyandyou.com

Read More >> https://blog.printoutdesigner.com/2017/11/02/top-20-shopify-and-e-commerce-experts/

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme (Shopping)

By: Admin
May 28th, 2018

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme is a responsive eCommerce Shopify theme for store owners who wish to promote or sell their products online. It is a very modern and brand-oriented Shopify theme that looks equally wonderful on the desktop and mobile devices.

Whether you have a large set of products or small, Javenist is catered to all store sizes. This unique design is based on Shopify Builder. It is built with digital or electronic stores in mind and also allows quick installation. In different categories, you can alter your online store as you want!

We have tailored 7+ Homepages which come with vast customization power. Javenist includes 7+ Header Styles, 13+ Sections, 4+ Unique Slider, 5+ Unique Banner, and Footer Content. With Javenist, building online store websites becomes quick and easy.

Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme is a feature-rich and multipurpose eCommerce Shopify theme. It features Drop-down Menu, Mega Menu, Mega Menu with Image, Theme Color Options, Breadcrumb Banner, Newsletter Popup, Ajax Cart, Wishlist, Quick View, Shop Grid/List View, Latest Blog, Contact Information, Contact Form, Google Analytics, 15+ Preloader, and Shortcodes.

All the necessary elements help your customers go from being interested into a product, to finalizing the purchase. The design is professional so that it ensures the utmost visibility of your products in different manners like Simple Product, Variable Product, and Affiliate Link Product. In addition, display your exclusive offers on the slider, featured products, bestseller products,new arrivals, hot categories, and organize your products in numerous sorting options as well. Social media integration is another excellent part of it.

This cross-browser compatible theme Javenist – eCommerce Shopify Theme will perform incredibly. Adjust your multiple store website with Javenist, as the way you desire! It is also richly documented and offering great support.

Read More >> http://cssgarcia.com/javenist-ecommerce-shopify-theme-shopping/

Ecommerce Business Blueprint: How To Build, Launch And Grow A Profitable Online Store

By: Richard Lazazzera

Starting an ecommerce business is hard work with many steps and decisions that need to come together at the right time. To help, we have put together a comprehensive resource list, compiled from Shopify's most popular blog posts. These posts have been placed into a logical order based on how you would research, build, launch and grow a profitable ecommerce business.

Let's dive in. 

Choosing a Product

Finding A Product To Sell

The first step to building an ecommerce business is to know what products you want to sell. This is often the most challenging part of starting a new online business. In this section, we will highlight the strategies you can use to find product opportunities, explore the ten best places to look for product ideas, and finally, we will reveal ten trending products that we came up.

>> Find a product on the Oberlo marketplace
>> How To Find A Product To Sell Online: The Definitive Guide
>> 8 Strategies for Finding Your First Product
>> 10 Places To Look For Products To Sell Online
>> 10 Interesting Product Ideas Trending Right Now

Evaluating Your Idea

Once you have a product idea in mind, how do you know if it’s a good idea or not? In this section, we will go through two exhaustive evaluations methods, evaluating both the product itself, as well as the market for your product choice.

>> How To Evaluate Market Demand For Your New Product Idea
>> How To Evaluate Product Viability
>> 5 Strategies To Evaluate Your Product Idea

Obtaining Your Product

Having found your product idea and evaluating them in the previous section, you must now figure out where and how you’re going to obtain your products. The next two posts will cover the various methods for acquiring your products, along with the pros and cons of each model.

>> Make, Manufacture, Wholesale or Dropship: The Pros and Cons of Each Model
>> How To Find a Manufacturer or Supplier for Your Product Idea
>> Alibaba 101: How to Safely Source Products from the World's Biggest Supplier Directory

Research & Prepare

Research Your Competition

You’ve found your product, evaluated the potential and sourced your supplier. It’s time to write your business plan, but before you get into that, you'll need to research your competition thoroughly so you know exactly what you’re up against.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/blog/14459769-ecommerce-business-blueprint-how-to-build-launch-and-grow-a-profitable-online-store

Saturday, May 26, 2018

12 Awesome Tips From Ecommerce Experts

By: Nathan Resnick

In today’s world of ecommerce, there are dozens of ways to scale. While some businesses focus on high ticket items, others focus on dominating hyper-specific product categories, and neither way is necessarily right or wrong.

I spoke to 13 ecommerce entrepreneurs to find their best answers. Here are their tips, which can help revolutionize your ecommerce strategy.

1. Think like a customer.

Katie Melissa is an ecommerce expert who focuses on product categories like watches and sunglasses. She dropships many of her products and has an eye for good design.

Melissa says you need to train yourself to think like a consumer because it doesn’t matter what you like -- it matters what the customer will like. She adds that you should build your inventory around what is selling, so you don’t end up with a backlog of unfulfilled orders.

Melissa recommends utilizing Hurrify, a Shopify plugin that creates a sense of urgency.

2. Intertwine your email and social.

Frank Hatchett is the man behind Online Dimes, an incredible resource for entrepreneurs looking to understand key ecommerce growth strategies. He also runs a huge 20,000+ person Facebook group, Online Samurais, which explores all facets of online marketing -- including how people make money by giving away free products.

His go-to tip for ecommerce entrepreneurs is cross-targeting through Facebook and email. When you can intertwine both email and social, you are often capable of having a higher conversion rate. As an example, when you’re targeting cold traffic on Facebook, you need to have a retargeting option set up so people can familiarize themselves with your company.

He suggests using Connectio, which lets you automate and optimize your Facebook advertising.

3. Learn through doing.

Richard Lazazzera is a former member of the Growth team at Shopify and now runs A Better Lemonade Stand, one of the most popular resources for ecommerce entrepreneurs today. He also teaches entrepreneurs through his program, Build Launch Grow.

He focuses on learning through doing. Many first-time entrepreneurs think too much before they actually start. Failure creates the opportunity to learn, and every failure is a step forward.

Read More >> https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295234

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Case Study: Ecommerce Opportunities in Chile and Latin America

By: Nathan Lustig

In late 2012, I met up with two ex startup chile friends over beers. Like most beery conversations between entrepreneurs, the conversation devolved into new business ideas. All three of us had seen ecommerce’s steady growth in Chile and were certain that it would continue to grow toward levels seen in other developed markets. After a few more beers, one of us said, “why don’t we just start a small ecommerce business, it’s the best way to learn about the market and see where the real opportunities are.”

That conversation led to more conversations and we got serious about launching a small ecommerce business to really get a handle on the market. But what product should we sell? And how would we validate the market to know if the product we wanted to sell made sense? And how would we do it without spending huge amounts of money?

I’m writing this post to shed light into our thought process and to show how we validated our ecommerce business without spending a single dime (peso in this case) for two reasons:

>> To give an overview of Chilean (and Latin American) ecommerce opportunities
>> To help other entrepreneurs think about how they can validate their own ideas without spending months and thousands of dollars buying inventory, developing software and wasting time on unimportant things.

By now, almost all entrepreneurs know about lean startup methodology and try to use it, but the how remains mysterious to a high percentage of entrepreneurs. I hope this post is useful.

Preview: tl;dr (Too Long Didn’t Read)

After much research, we launched La Condoneria, to sell condoms online in Chile. We validated the opportunity by spending less than $100 and didn’t build any technology. We learned a ton, reached $8000 monthly sales and 100k unique organic traffic using Jumpseller, a Latin American Shopify.

We tried to scale by creating our own product or taking representation, but because of regulatory issues based on the product, we decided the best we could do is a small business. We believe that the two best ways to make money in Latin American ecommerce are by having exclusive representation of a product, or creating your own product, a la Warby Parker. We believe there is a massive opportunity in full stack ecommerce startups in Latam.

Step 1. Research

We first wanted to see if countries adopt ecommerce in a predictable manner. We knew that ecommerce in Chile was growing at 30% per year, but the vast majority of people hadn’t ever bought anything online. We found a Forrester report that showed the phases of ecommerce adoption. It corroborated our hypothesis that new markets tended to follow similar paths:

Read More >> http://www.nathanlustig.com/2015/08/16/case-study-ecommerce-opportunities-in-chile-and-latin-america/

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

The Best Ecommerce Books for Leaders to Read in 2018 (Hint: They’re Not Necessarily About Ecommerce)

By: Aaron Orendorff

“Books,” wrote Charles William Eliot, “are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

At the risk of contradicting Harvard’s most-distinguished president … I’d like to add a caveat: certainly, books are friends, counselors, and teachers.

However, books — particularly the best books for leaders — are anything but quiet. At least, they shouldn’t be.

Getting books to speak up takes effort. As my friend Jesse Wisnewski recently noted in The Observer:

“Reading isn’t the same as having a face-to-face conversation with someone you want to learn from.

“But if you want to learn lessons from the books you read, then you must become an active reader: someone who is ready to ask questions, review their notes, and then take action. This shift in the way you approach what you read will help you to treat books like your best mentors.”

To that end, I reached out to 10 of the best mentors in the ecommerce space and asked them for the best ecommerce books leaders should read in 2018, along with the best lesson and quote from that book.

But, don’t be fooled. These aren’t books about “ecommerce” — not all of them anyway. Nor are they a round-up of 2017’s most famous titles.

Instead, these books, lessons, and quotes span the worlds of business, sociology, history, psychology, and customer service. So, let’s explore …

1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight


Recommended by Tobias Lütke, Shopify’s Chief Executive Officer

From Phil Knight’s humble origins — selling $8,000 his first year from the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant — to topping $30 billion at the time of publication, Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike offers an autobiographical account of one of the world’s most recognizable brands.

Best Leadership Lesson:

“War is the most extreme of conditions. But business has its warlike parallels. Someone somewhere once said that business is war without bullets, and I tended to agree.

“One lesson I took from all my home-schooling about heroes was that they didn’t say much. None was a blabbermouth. None micromanaged.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results.”

2. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Recommended by Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s Chief Operating Officer

Drawing inspiration from Marcus Aurelius’ 2,000-year-old quote — “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — The Obstacle Is the Way leads modern readers into the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism. “The Stoic,” Holiday says, “doesn’t look out at the world and try to change it; they try to change themselves — to orient themselves to be the best person they can in that world.”

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/best-ecommerce-books-leaders

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

What Is the Future of Ecommerce in 2018 and Beyond? 10 Trends

By: Herbert Lui

Next year, retail mega-giant Amazon will turn 25 years old.

Already commanding 37% of the ecommerce market, latest projections — compiled by Sellbrite — estimate the conglomerate will be responsible for half of all online sales within three years.

In light of those numbers, it’s easy to forget that — in the grand scheme of the commerce universe — both ecommerce and Amazon are still in their infancy. (As Jeff Bezos likes to say, it’s always “Day 1” at his company.)

Despite futuristic advances like two-hour delivery and a new drone service, long-term success starts with knowing the fundamental market opportunities and potential points of friction.

What is the future of ecommerce for 2018 and beyond? 10 trends offer the answer …

>> Ecommerce Is Growing But Is Only 11.9% of Retail
>> Multi-Channel Ecommerce Enables Anywhere Buying
>> Ecommerce Automation Is an Accessible Reality
>> Mobile Is the New Normal but Adds Purchase Complexities
>> Native Social-Selling Is Finally Delivering Results
>> International Ecommerce Remains Largely Untapped
>> Micro-Moments Are the New Battleground for Optimization
>> Content Is the Holy Grail of Ecommerce Engagement
>> B2B Ecommerce Dwarfs B2C by Over $5 Trillion
>> Fragmentation Is Ecommerce’s Biggest Challenge

1. Ecommerce Is Growing but Only Represents 11.9% of Retail Sales

Ecommerce market share in 2018, as a percentage of all retail sales, is expected to increase to 11.9% — up from 3.5% a decade ago.

But brick and mortar is still a dominant player by a landslide.

Fast growth plus relatively low market share means that there is still enormous opportunity for new players to outpace traditional industry leaders.

High-growth businesses need to watch who’s emerging, track who’s loved, and research how to be successful in both business and life. To capitalize on this trend in particular, companies must also focus on optimizing their in-store experiences in conjunction with their ecommerce expressions.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/the-future-of-ecommerce

Monday, May 21, 2018

B2B in Ecommerce: How the Best Succeed in a $7.6 Trillion Online Industry

By: Aaron Orendorff

B2B ecommerce — short for business-to-business electronic commerce — is the marketing, selling, and distribution of products from one business to another through an online or digital portal.

With an action-packed definition like that, it’s no wonder B2C gets all the attention. But, here’s the thing …

While B2C ecommerce is expected to hit $2.4 trillion worldwide by the close of 2017, it’s less than a third of B2B’s $7.6 trillion.

$7.6 trillion is worthless for making real-world decisions.

Comforting? Sure. Click-worthy? Maybe. But helpful? No.

Navigating B2B in ecommerce means understanding 10 trends reshaping how B2B electronic commerce succeeds:

>> Give Ecommerce for B2B the B2C Treatment
>> Make Wholesale Easy on Traditional Customers
>> Head Off the Deal Breakers Before It’s Too Late
>> Generate B2B in Ecommerce Leads with “Agnosticism”
>> Teach Commercial Insight Instead of Thought Leadership
>> Provide Content for Every Stage of the B2B Journey
>> Anticipate Multiple B2B Ecommerce Decision Makers
>> Humanize Your B2B through Social Media
>> Go Beyond “Just Business” Relationships
>> Price B2B Electronic Commerce with Both Automation and Negotiation

One-on-one guidance for B2B ecommerce growth

Shopify Plus hosts ecommerce’s largest ecosystem of Merchant Success Managers, ecommerce Gurus, and award-winning Agency Partners.

Those are just a few of the reasons — along with a dedicated wholesale channel for B2B sales — our merchants are growing 126% year over year.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/b2b-ecommerce

Sunday, May 20, 2018

17 Ecommerce Processes to Set Up, Maintain and Promote a Successful Store

By: Ben Mulholland

We’ve all had a moment of inspiration for our own online store. Whether (like me) you took up a new hobby (crochet) and showed your project to a family member (my gran) or you stumbled across a cheap source for a certain product, the lure of online sales is difficult to ignore.

Ecommerce is a massive sector, with a projected value of $4.5 trillion by 2021. However, without the proper ecommerce processes in place it’s more than easy to fail before you even get close to selling your first product.

“… data from Statista anticipates a 246.15% increase in worldwide ecommerce sales, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.5 trillion in 2021. That’s a nearly threefold lift in online revenue.” – Aaron Orendorff, Global Ecommerce: Statistics and International Growth Trends

That’s why we here at Process Street have put together this ecommerce processes pack. These templates will provide you with detailed instructions on how to do everything from setting up an online store to listing products, designing a logo, and promoting your content.

Better yet, every last process is completely free!

So, what are we waiting for? Let’s start selling!

WooCommerce setup

WooCommerce is a force to be reckoned with, with (according to BuiltWith) a 42% market share of the entire internet. This is partially due to its usability – if you own a WordPress site, you can host WooCommerce and sell products from it.

That’s why the first entry in our ecommerce processes collection is one to guide you through the WooCommerce setup process.

From start to finish, this checklist will let you set up a store and fill in all of the necessary information to hit the ground running. Not only is it a perfect compliment to anyone looking to test the waters with their own online store, but both the checklist and WooCommerce are completely free to use and install.

Shopify setup

While it isn’t as widespread as WooCommerce, Shopify can still push some serious business, having been known to process over $500,000 in transactions in a single minute during peak times. Unfortunately, many of the same simple mistakes that pose a threat to setting up other online stores also apply to this platform.

Hence why we’ve created this Shopify setup checklist.

Run this to make sure you gather all of the information you need in advance and save yourself the hassle of searching through multiple sources. Coupled with the helpful instructions to make sure that you don’t miss a trick when setting up your store, and this checklist is a must-have for anyone looking to try out the platform.

Read More >> https://www.process.st/ecommerce-processes/

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Starting An Ecommerce Business From Scratch? Here’s 6 Expert Tips

By: Victoria Greene

Dropshipping is an ideal solution for budding entrepreneurs who want to start a new business with very little upfront investment. Sure, it’s not without its flaws – and I speak from personal experience. But compared to manufacturing your own products or buying in bulk from a wholesaler, dropshipping offers an on-demand system that lets you control your inventory with ease, so you can focus your energy on maintenance and marketing.

How to Start Dropshipping

If you’re new to the dropshipping scene, you won’t find a simpler platform than Shopify. Sure, there are other options available, but Shopify is perfect for beginners. I myself run a number of stores using Shopify and find that as an all-in-one ecommerce solution, it has a lot of things going for it – not least that you can be (more or less) up and running within a day.

1. Don’t Bypass Product Research

There are all sorts of ways to research products online. But before you even go near a computer, I recommend sending half an hour brainstorming ~10 niches that you’re personally interested in. You’ll find it easier to motivate yourself further down the line if you care about the products you’re selling – and understand the needs and wants of your customers.

Next, head over to Google’s trusty Keyword Planner tool to discover what people are searching for in relation to these niche keywords online. Take note of keyword volume and competition. Keep in mind that your best chance of success lies in catering to niche markets over broader terms. eBay and Amazon already have generalists covered.

Speaking of eBay and Amazon, you’ll want to look here next to discover which products are selling well. If people aren’t already buying similar items from Amazon, then chances are the demand for them isn’t very high. Finally, delve into how your potential customers are engaging with popular brands in your niche on social media. Are there any overriding trends? And more importantly, are there any gaps in the market?

2. Finding Products to Sell with Oberlo

Assuming you’ve settled on a niche to move ahead with, now is the time to find the right supplier. I’m going to talk about Oberlo in particular, since it’s one of the easiest ways for beginners to import products from AliExpress suppliers directly into your Shopify store. Having done so, once orders start coming in, they will then be shipped directly to your customers with little to no intervention from you whatsoever.

When you’re starting out, having somewhere between 15-20 products is a good baseline. What I’ve found to be the case after working on a number of stores is that products in the range of $10-50 sell best. Of course, it all depends on the products you’ve chosen to sell – you’re obviously not going to sell a brand new washing machine online for less than $50.

Trending products are a great option, and if you manage to source them before they hit the commercial masses, you’ll have a better chance of establishing yourself online. Take a look at Google Trends to get an idea of what’s up and coming. Likewise, targeting a specific niche with promising search stats will ensure you have less competition and improved ability to rank your store for niche-relevant long tail keywords.

Read More >> https://hobowithalaptop.com/starting-ecommerce-business-scratch

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

How to Set Up Your Shopify Store

By: Nicole Martins Ferreira
14 May, 2018

Starting a new store can be both exciting and nerve wracking. Part of you is dreaming of all the possibilities from achieving success while the other part is worried you’ll fail. Creating a week by week case study is one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever been assigned. Despite having built several stores in the past, which all made money, I can’t help but worry about what will happen if things don’t go as planned.

On the bright side, this week is all about building the store. It’s one of the most exciting parts of the whole process. It’s the time when you finally get a chance to turn that idea in your head into a real business. This is going to be super fun!

In case you missed it, last week I covered how to choose a niche for your dropshipping store. And I decided to start a letterboard store. Feel free to check out that article first if you’d like to build your ecommerce store alongside me.

Choosing a Brand Name

One of the first questions you’ll be asked before you start your store is what your store’s name is. The business name you choose is important. It’s the name your customers will share with their friends, searchers will look for in Google, and you’ll be including on your website and marketing materials.

You’ll need to come up with something catchy, SEO-optimized or aligned with how you want to position your brand.

It can be hard to brainstorm ideas on your own. I mean, every time, I come up with a brand name on my own, I do a quick search and… it’s taken. That’s why I usually rely on a list of business name generators I compiled and update regularly. My go-tos? Shopify and Oberlo’s name generators. And those are the two I used during this case study.

Oberlo recently launched their own Business Name Generator that you can use come up with business name ideas for your store.

Read More >> https://www.oberlo.com/blog/how-to-set-up-your-shopify-store

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

31 Must-Join eCommerce Facebook Groups

By: Nicole Blanckenberg

Make it your eCommerce New Year’s resolution to connect. Joining eCommerce Facebook groups with other entrepreneurs, business owners and eCommerce veterans can go a long way in helping to motivate you, guide you and give you ideas.

There are thousands of entrepreneurs who took the plunge before you, as well as many on the same journey as you, and joining groups is a great way to get in touch. Groups provide a platform where you can learn from others – anything from blog writing tips to online marketing – while you grow your professional network.

Here is a list of the top Facebook groups that every budding (or seasoned) eCommerce entrepreneur should join.

1. King Pinning

King Pinning is a closed group of over 31k members. The group was created to bring like-minded entrepreneurs together, who want to expand and grow their businesses. What makes this group great is that they are pretty selective with their members, meaning it is totally free from spam while providing a platform for you to engage with other entrepreneurs. 

2. A Better Lemonade Stand

From SEO to CRM, A Better Lemonade Stand is an eCommerce Facebook group aimed at bringing passionate eCommerce business owners and industry leaders together. Discussions include a host of topics that include CRM, content, analytics, AdWords, SEO, SEM digital marketing, suppliers, product sourcing and Shopify platform tips.

3. My Silent Team

With over 39k members, My Silent Team is a great group where you can sign up for courses and learn from other creative and successful business owners. Created by author and successful podcaster Jim Cockrum, who wanted to connect entrepreneurs across the world with others in their areas.

4. Digital Marketing Questions

This niche Facebook group is ideal for those eCommerce owners who have mastered digital marketing or are looking for tips to help with best practices. From SEO and social media to PPC and analytics, this is a great group to ask questions, network and follow relevant industry content.

5. Ultimate Blog Challenge

I am a strong believer in creating a blog around your store niche to increase traffic through SEO and content marketing. This group is specifically aimed at people wishing to grow their store blogs for that reason. It was created as a platform for you to be able to ask blog-related questions and share your content.

6. Screw the Nine to Five Community

One of my favorite Facebook groups, Screw the Nine to Five, is perfect for all budding entrepreneurs who want to be surrounded by people who “get” you. An amazing community that helps with feedback, support and information on a wide variety of topics from marketing to getting out of the 9-5 life.

7. Shopify eCommerce Group

Specifically for those eCommerce online store owners running their eCommerce business on Shopify, this group is a great place to network, get eCommerce tips and all-round motivation. A great community resource for solving all your eCommerce hiccups and getting real feedback from others like you.

8. Shopify Strategy

Another great group for Shopify store owners is Shopify Strategy. This is more of a niche group that focuses on sales strategies and Facebook selling. With over 38k members, all sharing and giving feedback, this group is an invaluable community for Shopify users.

9. Selling on Shopify

Selling on Shopify is a public group for all things Shopify where its 36k group members can share case studies, success stories, their store progress, and also engage the group by asking questions, giving advice, seeking advice, liking and commenting.

10. Copy Monk

If you’re looking for copy inspiration for AdWords campaigns, your blog or social ads, then Copy Monk is the group for you. This Facebook group includes eCommerce veterans whose tips help increase conversions by providing compelling content, offering tips, tricks and ideas to get your ad copy performing quickly and effectively.

11. The eCommerce Group

The eCommerce Group is a private group made up of over 6k vendors, merchants and eCommerce experts. The group was founded by John Lawson, CEO of ColderICE Media, as a forum for members to discuss SEO, social strategy, FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon), Amazon, Ebay and eCommerce best practices.

12. Advanced WooCommerce

For the more experienced WP online store owners, Advanced WooCommerce is a place where store owners, WooCommerce enthusiasts and WP developers can share knowledge and ideas. It was created to help support those store owners looking for help on features and functionality to improve their WooCommerce stores.

13. Video Marketing Group

The Video Marketing Group tackles just that: video marketing. From marketing, ranking and production, to the best video marketing and marketing tools, this group is a great resource for eCommerce store owners looking to improve traffic through video marketing.

14. The Facebook Ads Group

The Facebook Ads Group, currently with over 38k members, was created for online store owners who would like to master the art of Facebook advertising together. So if you have a business, or you are just starting out, come join the fun and learn how to utilize the top advertising platform of the century.

15. Shopify Entrepreneurs

With over 53k members, this group was created for Shopify store owners, store managers and expert service providers that include developers, designers and marketers. The group diversity makes the Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook group an invaluable eCommerce forum for tips, advice and motivation. Plus, as a group member, you have access to an exclusive Shopify offer: win-win!

16. The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Insiders

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Insiders Facebook group is a relatively new group made up of savvy, opportunity-seizing entrepreneurs. The only requirement to join this forum is that you have to have a Shopify store. It being a niche group makes it a great way to get one-on-one feedback from other eCommerce entrepreneurs.

17. The Amazing Seller

If you are familiar with The Amazing Seller Podcast, then you will love this Facebook group. The Amazing Seller discussion group was set up to discuss previous podcasts, picking up the conversation and taking it further, as well as providing a forum where you can help select future shows. Started by Scott, the aim of the podcasts and the group is to learn how to make good money using FBA and private labeling to sell physical products.

18. Grow and Sell

Grow & Sell is a Facebook group where you can discuss eCommerce ideas and best practices with other forum participants. With over 14k members and growing, this group is the perfect platform to share success stories, get help and/or offer assistance. Although it is powered by Shopify staff and merchants, every store owner or prospective entrepreneur is welcome.

19. Ecom Insiders

Ecom Insiders is a great Facebook group with more than 7k energetic online sellers, with 26k members in total, who are happy to contribute from their experience and share insights and tips.

20. Niche Site Project 3.0

Niche Site Project 3.0 was set up by Spenser, the creator of Niche Pursuits. Niche Pursuits is a learning program for budding entrepreneurs where he shares what he is learning along the way in regards to SEO, creating valuable businesses online, and of course the tips and tricks he discovers for business in general. He created the group as a platform for students to interact with coaches, get exclusive updates, ask questions and swap strategies.

21. Ecom Empires

With a mission to help eCommercers succeed, Ecom Empires is a place for everything to do with eCommerce, building an online business and helping new entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams. Additionally, the 23k members have free access to Ecom Empires membership training, making it an invaluable forum for up-and-comers.

22. Shopify Mastery – 6 Figure Shopify Group

Shopify Mastery is a group designed for eCommerce entrepreneurs with the purpose of helping each other reach their businesses’ full potential. Currently this group has 29k members and covers all eCommerce topics from Google Shopping ads to scaling a business.

23. Online Samurais

If you are looking for juicy eCommerce marketing tips, then Online Samurais is the group for you. This group currently has 31k members and covers all types of digital marketing.

24. Facebook Ads Rockstars

Facebook Ad Rockstars is a group created and managed by Alex Fedotoff, who has managed a variety of Facebook ad agencies and consultancies. His group is for those online store owners looking to discover and collaborate on advanced FB marketing, training, strategy and tactics that generate 1,000%+ ROIs and ultimately offering a forum to help you take your Facebook advertising to the next level.

25. Shopify Brand Academy

This is a great group created by people who have been through the process of going from zero to a winning eCommerce brand, offering all the insights into what it takes to build a winning brand on Shopify. Managed by Weesqueak owner Susan and social media and email marketing expert Meghan, the group is designed to help you fast-track the Shopify learning curve by getting an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at their authentic brand.

26. Shopify Masters

This group covers everything you need when building a successful, physical product eCommerce business. Founded by marketer Stephanie Henry and performance coach Keith Dougherty, it gives you instant access to a team of helpful, knowledgeable Shopifys.

27. eCommerce Elites Mastermind

eCommerce Elites Mastermind is a group with just over 18k members. A great place to learn and network with like-minded entrepreneurs, in this eCommerce Facebook group you will see shared content on an array of topics including Shopify/Magento, Facebook ads, digital and social marketing, sourcing products, fulfillment processes, traffic strategies and more!

28. Shopify Newbies

If you are just getting started with your Shopify store or thinking of taking the eCommerce plunge, then this group is a great resource. This is a group where newbies are welcome to ask any questions.

29. My Shopify and Ecom Empire

Despite its name, My Shopify and Ecom Empire is a group for all online business owners wanting to build their own Ecom empire. Run by Tobias Berlin (who manages Mobile Profit Mastery, The Healthy Entrepreneur and The Future of Mobile Business pages) and internet marketing expert Al Friedl, there is lots of helpful, valuable information in this forum.

30. Shopify 7 Figure Group

Another successful 33k-member mastermind group is Murray Edwards’ Shopify 7 Figure Group. This group promises actionable advice that its members can instantly implement for great results. If you are looking for good insights into creating an awesome Shopify brand and building your eCommerce business, then this is the group for you.

31. Shopify eCommerce Manufacturing and Sourcing

If you are sourcing or making your own products, then this group is a gold mine of information. Hosted by Sourcify, an all-in-one platform to streamline client-manufacturer relationships, this up-and-coming group offers support to small or large eCommerce store owners.

Source >> https://blog.storeya.com/2017/01/ecommerce-facebook-groups/

Monday, May 14, 2018

Why Shopify is Best eCommerce Platform?

By: Mitul Patel   

Nowadays many product based owners are going to build an eCommerce website. To build an eCommerce website, you need to choose the best eCommerce platform which provides you more features for your online store. Choosing best platform is scary for every product based owners but Shopify helps you to remove your scary about choosing best eCommerce platform. Because Shopify is allowed make your eCommerce store mobile friendly, easy and quick. Shopify has lots of features for making your eCommerce store easy and feature more. Shopify provides many tools which help you to run your business online. Using Shopify, you can manage your online products, payment process and optimize your store easily. 

To sell your products, Shopify gives you many ways. You can sell your product on a many sales channel. There is no any limit for choosing your sales channels. If you want to sell your products at your own store then you can sign up to Shopify POS. Even if you want to sell product over social media, then Shopify gives you one or more channels like Facebook, and Pinterest.

Benefits of using Shopify Platform for eCommerce:

Themes for your eCommerce store: 

In Shopify, many themes are available for designing your store.  Shopify provides free and paid both themes. If you want to go with advance then you need to pay for themes. Also if your industry is not included in themes then Envato market- Themeforest provides best themes for Shopify.

Optimize your SEO easily:

When you start your online business with a new product then you need to think about how your customers find you? To find your customer, you need to use search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s search engine rank. Shopify helps you to optimize your SEO easily and also you can improve your search engine rank on google with Shopify.

Create Gift Card Store:

Shopify creates own gift card store. You can purchase your gift cards from gift cards page in your Shopify admin. You can sell your gift cards like other products. Your customer buys their gift cards from your store online.

Free Shopify App Store:

Shopify provides best free app options to bring your customers satisfaction & boost your sales. Also, your customers are added wishlist to your Shopify store without having a login. Oberlo app helps you to import your directory into your Shopify store. When you receive the order, Oberle will ship the product directly to the customers so you don’t need to take worry about shipping in Shopify.

So as I shared points of all benefits for Shopify, maybe now it is easy to understand why Shopify is the best for your eCommerce website. If you want to grow your online business then why not you can choose best for a your business. Build your online store which provides you best Shopify development services for your eCommerce website.

If you have any queries, you can share in the comment box. We surely listen to your questions and get back you proper answers.

Source >> https://www.bebee.com/producer/@mitultechs/why-shopify-is-best-ecommerce-platform

Sunday, May 13, 2018

The Beginner's Guide to Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment

By: Thea Earl

You put a lot of effort into making sure your customers have a great experience. You approve the images, you tweak your store, and you write the emails, all with the goal of leaving your customers happy.

But when it comes to shipping, it can feel like you’re handing your brand over to a stranger.

With some thought and planning, however, it doesn’t have to feel that way—which is a good thing, because shipping is a key part of your business. It’s the point where a customer finally experiences your product in person, and it can also represent a major expense in your business, depending on your shipping strategy.

That’s why it’s so important to map out a defined shipping strategy. Since the world of shipping and fulfillment can seem complex when you’re not familiar with it, we’ve got an overview of everything you’ll need to know to make the best choice for your business.

We’ll go over some of the basics of shipping your products and help demystify this complicated topic. We’ll talk about setting your shipping strategy, packaging, provide resources and links to popular carriers, look at tracking and insurance, balancing shipping costs with profitability, how Shopify can help you streamline your shipping, and apps to help make it all easier.

We'll cover...

>> Shipping strategy 101
>> Shipping rates and methods
>> Calculating shipping costs
>> Packaging and marketing
>> Packaging options
>> Insurance and tracking
>> Customs declarations and forms
>> Business accounts
>> Labelling your packages
>> Using a fulfillment warehouse
>> Shopify Shipping

Shipping strategy 101

There are some basics that set a foundation for the rest of your shipping. While you can come back and change each of these later on, as you learn more, these are the key decisions and steps that make up your high-level shipping strategy.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/blog/14069585-the-beginners-guide-to-ecommerce-shipping-and-fulfillment

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Divvit Digest: Shopify

By: Matt Ellis

Shopify is one of the most well-known names in ecommerce — as it should be, being the third most popular ecommerce platform in the world. Its user-friendly interface allows both tech wizards and technophobes alike to build an entire online store from scratch in a single day. Plus, its high user satisfaction rate matches the high number of ecommerce sites it supports.

But to some, including those just breaking into ecommerce, Shopify is still somewhat of a mystery. How does it work? Is it cost effective? Will it work for your specific needs? In this week’s Divvit Digest, we feature articles to answer all your Shopify questions.

1. An Honest Review of Shopify: Is It the Ecommerce Platform for You?

Our overview guide on using Shopify is aimed at people who either want to learn more about Shopify or are trying to decide if it’s right for them. Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce — the top 3 ecommerce platforms — all have very distinct methods and approaches to selling and site-building. This article covers everything you need to know to determine if Shopify is right for your ecommerce goals.

2. How to Pick the Perfect Theme for Your Shopify Store

After reading our review and deciding to go with Shopify, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty designing your site. One of the first steps — and most important — is deciding your theme. Your Shopify theme defines the look, feel, atmosphere and usability of your site, so it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. For advice, try going straight to the source: Shopify’s own blog offers a poignant and thorough guide on choosing the best theme for you.

3. 5 Best Practices You Should Know for Your Shopify Store Homepage

Like all ecommerce sites, your Shopify homepage will often be visitors’ first introduction to your store, so you want to make a solid first impression. Carson, a secondary support service for Shopify users, knows a thing or two about Shopify best practices. Their blog published this guest post from Tamal Santra, the Marketing Manager at Around.io, in which he explains 5 actionable tips for creating a captivating home page.

4. 10 Best Shopify Stores for 2017

Looking for design inspiration? Not sure what a well-made Shopify site actually looks like? The design agency Avex compiled a list of 10 great examples of Shopify sites designed right. Browse their list of sites to answer your questions or help inspire new ideas. Avex seems like an ideal judge of web design as well; their agency site received an honorable mention for the Awwwards.

Source >> https://www.divvit.com/blog-posts/divvit-digest-shopify

Thursday, May 10, 2018

How To Identify Target Customer For Your Shopify Store 2017

By: SHAHNAWAZ SADIQUE

The next thing that you’re going to have to do is identify target customer that you are trying to connect with. You’ve got a product niche all picked out and you’ve determined that the market size is sufficient to allow you to make money in said niche, but what about the actual person that is going to buy that product? You can’t market to a faceless crowd. You need to know who is most likely to buy your product or use your service so that you can tailor your marketing specifically for them and entice them to buy from you. Understanding your ideal customer starts with a basic understanding of how demographics work.

How To Identify Target Customer For Your Shopify Store

Demographics: How to Know Which Group to Market to

Some companies couldn’t live without demographic data. That is the only way that they can make decisions, create marketing strategies and plan elaborate ad campaigns. To be fair, we are talking about tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars invested in some cases so it is no wonder that they evaluate their marketing plan carefully before they implement it. But for the average ecommerce website that specializes in a particularly niche, market data isn’t a necessity. It is however, extremely useful. But to understand the data, you first have to understand how the groups are divided.

Read More – Freecom Blueprint Review

Demographic Attributes

To understand what sort of factors make up your target consumer, you need to understand what sort of categories that the experts divide people into. Here are just some of those categories.

> Men
> Women
> Men & Women 18-24
> Men & Women 35 to 34
> Men & Women 35 to 54
> Men & Women Age 55 and Over
> Level of education
> Size of the Household
> Ethnicity
> Race
> Income
> Occupation

So, you can see that identifying the ideal customer is a little more complicated than it looks on the surface and what goes into actually getting that information is even more difficult to understand. There are of course, some products that demographics are easy for. For example: if you were marketing tampons, you’d want to market them exclusively to women between the ages of puberty and menopause. If you were marketing cologne on the other hand, you might market the same basic age groups for men on the other side.

However, other information is harder to come by. When a company wants to know who is more apt to buy their product, they have several ways to get the information. The most common one is paying for surveys. You might even have worked at one of these survey centers if you are part of Generation Y. Now, they are pretty much obsolete as the internet has made it incredibly easy to collect data. Companies spend millions tracking consumers as they shop, as they window shop and as they search for things that they’d rather not have Wal-Mart know about. Of course, this data is compiled and separated, and usually tells companies with a great deal of accuracy what kind of person is looking for the products that they sell.

Unfortunately, this method doesn’t usually work for the average consumer, particularly not one just starting their own Shopify store. So, your method will have to be a little different. Even if you have no clue whatsoever who will be buying your products right now, there are some ways that you can identify your target consumer. Here are some tips.

Read More >> http://commonstupidman.com/target-customer-shopify-store/

“Crushing Your Search Competition on Shopify Plus”

By: Cooper Hollmaier

Hate Reading? Click Here for the Summary

Shopify Plus is a popular choice for online retailers because of its user-friendly interface and powerful toolset that allows any player in the eCommerce arena to quickly set up and maintain an online store. The Shopify Plus platform makes it easy to customize your digital storefront to align with your brand and connect with your target customers.

While Shopify Plus users are automatically set up for success by the intuitive nature of the platform alone, it doesn’t mean that your store’s on- and off-page elements are SEO-optimized out of the box. Here are a few tips and tricks to make the best use of SEO tools available in Shopify Plus:

Start with Keyword Research

Keyword phrases are the fuel for your search optimization efforts. These are the words users are typing in search engines in order to find the product or service that solves their problem. If you’re not targeting the right users and phrases, you’re wasting time. The goal of optimizing your Shopify store for search is to appear where users are looking for you and convince these potential customers that your store has the best product offering for their needs.

Keyword research can be a long and arduous process, but it’s the foundation for a successful search marketing campaign. Tools like Google Keyword Planner,  SEMrush, and Moz Keyword Explorer can help you get started as you explore the intentions of your potential customer.

On-Page Optimization

Once you’ve completed your initial keyword research, Shopify Plus makes implementing on-page optimization easy and painless. A few differences on the technical side from what you may be used to include:

Read More >> https://www.visiture.com/blogs/crushing-your-search-competition-on-shopify-plus/

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Shopify CEO says Canada is 'brilliant place' to build tech firms

By: Tobi Lütke

Canada is increasingly being viewed as a “brilliant place” to build technology companies, and the idea that entrepreneurs don’t have Canadian companies to look up to is a “false narrative,” according to Shopify’s founder and CEO.

Tobi Lütke said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang that while he had opportunities to move the Ottawa-headquartered ecommerce company elsewhere, he has been very “pro-Canada.”

“One gauntlet that everyone has to run when building a company in Canada is that it’s lacking a little bit in role models of companies to be like. That’s a false narrative,” Lütke said. “There are really good reasons why this happened, wonderful books written on various failures that people tend to point to. But they all happened because of internal failures and not for systemic, Canadian reasons.”

Lütke, a German immigrant, said that global technology companies already have an advantage in Canada because the country’s cultural norms and values are “significantly more progressive” than in other countries.

“You’re seeing a lot of interest in building companies in Canada for these reasons or relocating to Canada for these reasons,” Lütke said. “It’s a brilliant place to build companies, and I think that’s generally better understood now and I think you’ll see a lot more of that.”

Lütke’s comments come as Canadian business leaders and experts warn that the country’s global competitiveness is eroding in the face of aggressive U.S. tax cuts and trade uncertainty.

Read More >> https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/shopify-ceo-lutke-says-canada-is-brilliant-place-to-build-tech-firms-1.1073300

Monday, May 7, 2018

5 Best eCommerce Platform To Grow Your Online Business

By: Ekta Kashyap

“Opportunities don’t happen, You create them.” If you are wondering towards the opportunity of getting the best eCommerce platform, don’t be worry about it. It is disconcerting, to choose the best eCommerce platform from when starting an online business. Eventually, you should go with some research in choosing the best one for your startup or eCommerce business.

In this article, We will navigate you with the 5 Best eCommerce platform, after reviewing some of the top platforms for eCommerce that helps you to build and fast growth of your business.

5 Best eCommerce Platforms

Guys! let’s start, take a deep breath and start your online business. All you need is an idea for a product.

1. Shopify

The best eCommerce Platform that assists you to Sell Online, on Facebook, or in person. It was founded in 2006, and since then, the platform has hosted over 220,000 online retailers. It offers you to customize the eCommerce Software as per your business needs with satisfaction. Shopify plans range from $9/month to $299/month.

As a platform, Shopify offers a lot of flexibility in order to manage your online store, products, and inventory.

Moreover, if you find yourself zero developing and technical knowledge then don’t worry, Shopify is more user-friendly any business owner can use without technical skills.

Shopify also has a growing community where business owners share tips and knowledge and an app so you can keep track of your store anywhere at any time.

2. Magento

Magento is open-source software for building an eCommerce website written in PHP. This means it’s free, just like WordPress you can directly install it from your cPanel and build your store using the Magento Admin Panel.

Read More >> https://techcresendo.com/2018/02/02/5-best-ecommerce-platform-online-business/


Sunday, May 6, 2018

Shopify Versus BigCommerce Customer Review

By: Will Reynolds Young

Looking for an ecommerce platform for your online store? We interviewed a business owner with experience using Shopify and BigCommerce and asked to them to share their experiences. Here is a look at the pros and cons of both options. 

Introduce your business and tell us your story.

SKINourishment is a 100% plant-based cruelty free all-natural skin care company based outside of Austin, Texas. We make all of our own products right here in the United States and develop our own recipes. SKINourishment started back in 1996 with the invention with what today is known as the climbOn Bar and has now expanded to the climbOn, crossFIXE, POLYN and RIDICULIOUS skin care lines. We are a women-owned B-corporation and continue to expand beyond our current 30 plus countries. We can also be found at Whole Foods, REI, Central Market, Jet.com, Amazon.com and hundreds of local retailers.

How did you decide on the best ecommerce platform for your small business: Which solutions (BigCommerce, Volusion, Shopify, etc.) did you consider and what features and factors were most important?

We decided on Shopify's ecommerce platform after considering many of the options available. Originally our site was run on a custom PHP shopping cart software that was very intense to use and didn’t have many features. One of the key parts of our new site was to make it easy to use for our customers and for us to update on the back-end.

In our consideration we looked at WordPress with WooCommerce and even started development on a site and quickly found out that for a site of our size, 50+ skus that was not in our best interest. There were too many moving parts and points of failure for the site. Even during the development as WordPress was updated the custom features we built continually broke.

As a key decision maker in this process I ran a site on BigCommerce and found that BigCommerce was a greater starter site for me as a smaller brand. It didn’t tick many of the options that Shopify did. One of the key parts about Shopify reminds me very much of Apple and the developer community that surrounds both of these platforms.

Shopify has a large community of full service to one-time developers willing to lend you a hand at nearly any hour in addition to their incredible customer support. (More about their support later) In addition to the developer community these developers have created hundreds of out-of-the-box solutions to provide you with nearly any feature you would need on your store. From reviews to email marketing, upselling, to return management there is an app for that. We found at the time competitor app stores were either non-existent or severely lacking. I still feel Shopify leads in the app store by far from their competitors.

At the time we were choosing and moving to our new site we were also launching a rebrand and we knew that were going to expand our reach. Therefore we did consider a more advanced tool such as Magento, what we found was Magento truly needed a full-time individual dedicated to managing it and the setup was far beyond any of the other platforms to get started.

In the end, Shopify ticked all of our boxes with customer support, developer support, themes, ease of use and customer support. While price was a consideration we reminded ourselves that this site is one of the most important investments in our business and we didn’t want to let $50 or $100 get in our way from making the best choice.

Based on your experiences using both platforms, how would you compare Shopify vs. BigCommerce based on each of the following:

Website design templates/themes

Shopify truly has some of the best developers contributing to the platform. If you really want to dive deep beyond a template you have plenty of support systems.

User interface/setup

If any place Shopify, Volusion, and BigCommerce are similar the user interface and ease of use is it. I don’t find a huge difference between the interfaces between the products on the front end or the back end beyond the slight variances in features you find, it’s all very similar and easy. WordPress/WooCommerce and Magento have more of a learning curve but you also have a lot more ability to really dive into everything with you site.

I often feel when business owners are creating a site they are looking to a create the perfect site. The truth of the matter is your site will never be perfect, it’s a living and working prototype always. Often times the focus because the specific site design and a certain element when it should be making sure the site is easy for you and your customers to use.

Read More >> http://shawngraham.me/blog/shopify-versus-bigcommerce-customer-review

Saturday, May 5, 2018

12 Things to Sell on Shopify (Other than Physical Products)

By: Dayna Winter

When you think of Shopify, what initially comes to mind? Whether it’s dropshipping t-shirt businesses or maker shops, you’re likely thinking about physical products—small businesses creating and curating goods to sell in store or ship around the world.

But when we say “product”, we’re talking about more than just tangible things.

Many merchants are using Shopify in creative ways to sell, well, pretty much anything and everything else. Experiences, courses, rentals, and digital downloads are just a few business ideas beyond physical products.

If you’re just starting out on your journey to entrepreneurship, and still haven’t decided on an product to sell online, consider the intangible, too.

Services or other non-products may be your core business, or an add-on to an existing product based business. Products and non-products can be sold side by side in the same Shopify store.

For example: sell adventure tours to tourists online and then target them with an email campaign later to incite them to buy t-shirts or other merchandise to remember the experience.

What to sell on Shopify (other than products)

We looked at 14 Shopify stores selling everything from consultations to charitable donations to dress rentals to help inspire your own entrepreneurial genius.

For each type of business, we’ve suggested apps and tools to help you make the most of your Shopify experience, and make the checkout process as seamless as possible for your customers.

1. Services (Appointments)

Sin Chew Optical sells eyewear on its online store and in a physical location, but customers can also book in-person eye examinations via its website. This is a great option for primarily service based businesses like spas and salons that also offer physical products online.

"I provide eye test appointment booking online. If someone books an eye test we will just free up the slot to be sure we have an optometrist available during that time." – Adriel Wen, Sin Chew Optical

Suggested app: Appointment Booking adds a dynamic calendar to your store, allowing customers to book preferred time slots with real-time availability. The app syncs with Google Calendar and automatically sends confirmation emails to you and the customer.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/blog/12-things-to-sell-on-shopify-other-than-products

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Ecommerce Customer Experience: Mastering Acquisition and Retentio

By: Zee Aganovic
Have you been feeling anxious lately? You’re not alone.

We are at the dawn of a new industrial age called the experience economy, which is rapidly forcing ecommerce businesses to transform how they think and act. Not just because customers are seeking to buy experiences over tangible “stuff” today, but because it’s a matter of survival.

According to a Walker study, “By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.”

To help you compete in the future, here are the ecommerce customer experience tools you need to master the art and science of acquisition and retention.

What Is Ecommerce Customer Experience?

Providing an exceptional ecommerce customer experience involves creating relevant, meaningful, and memorable events for customers which in turn, translate into increased brand loyalty and positive brand favorability.

Today, these events happen primarily online — through on-site, multi-channel and omni-channel buying experiences. However, they also apply to post-purchase experiences both online and offline, including:

> Customer retention campaigns
> Unboxing experiences
> Customer support
> Pop-up shops and live retail events
> Product experiences themselves

For example, Apple is a master of staging memorable online and offline customer experiences via highly publicized and anticipated new product announcements and launches, beautiful retail store designs (think the Apple Cube in NYC), helpful online and in-store customer support delivered via “geniuses,” and the simple and intuitive user experiences of its software and technology products.

Ecommerce is at the forefront of the new experience economy where memorable events become the product. Why? Because ecommerce is an agile medium that makes it easy to create better buying experiences (“the art of customer experience”) and quickly get measurable customer results (“the science of customer experience”).

That’s why we are seeing a proliferation of analytics, testing and personalization technologies to help merchants influence people’s emotions about their brand. But emotions are very personal and are highly influenced by many factors that change over time.

Read More >> https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/ecommerce-customer-experience-acquisition-and-retention

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Email Popups for Ecommerce: How to Collect Emails & Grow Your Sales

By: Greg d'Aboville

On average, our ecommerce customers triple the number of emails they capture when they set up email popups. They’re still the number one way to build an email list, and I’m not the only one to notice the impact of popups.

But, as with any list-building technique, popups require some experimentation and practice. Some of our customers turn 3% of their visitors into subscribers, some others 16%. In this article we’re going to review the basics of email popups and show you different ways to make them work for your store.

Why Collecting Emails Matters

In Shopify’s own words, “Email marketing is the key to ecommerce success.” Why? Because email is one of the best ways to retarget your visitors.

According to Monetate’s latest report, “It takes first-time customers an average of 3.5 shopping
sessions—and 25 days—to complete their first transaction.” In other words, the chances of converting a first-time visitor are quite low so to turn a new visitor into a buyer, you’ll have to drive them back to your store.

To do so, you have only 2 options: Emails and retargeting ads. Let’s see why emails are an ideal option.

First, because we tend to trust emails more than ads. According to research by Criteo, a leading retargeting platform, the average click-through rate for retargeting ads is 0.51%. On the other hand, the average CTR for emails ranges between 4 and 14%. In other words, internet users are 26 times more likely to click an email than they are to click a retargeting ad.

But that goes even further. The conversion rate for emails is way better than other channels:

Let’s recap briefly:

> Retargeting is key to driving a first purchase
> Email is the best way to retarget potential customers as it converts better than ads

Your Options to Build an Email List

If you agree that email marketing must be one of the pillars of your ecommerce store’s success, one of the most pressing questions you should ask yourself now is: How am I going to convince these visitors to subscribe to my email newsletter? Don’t worry, I have a few suggestions for you.

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP FORMS (AND THEIR LIMITS)

The first and easiest way to collect emails is to add a newsletter signup form to your store’s homepage. It only takes a few seconds and doesn’t involve any additional spending. You’ll find directions on how to do it in Shopify’s FAQ.

Here’s an example of an email newsletter signup from Kylie Jenner Cosmetics:

The problem with traditional signup forms is that they don’t work that well. Take this case study from AWeber for example: Their signup form subscription rate was only 0.4%.

So, why do signup forms perform so badly?

Read More >> https://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/popups-for-ecommerce/