• Web hosting
• Domain name (unique URL, purchased separately}
• Website builder
• Online payment system
• Features that can help you grow sales and improve the website.

Fortunately, there are “all-in-one” platforms that provide web hosting, website builder, essential website features and sometimes a built-in payment system.

For this blog, we will list the most user-friendly and affordable ecommerce solutions that are most suited for small businesses.

Shopify – Good Choice for Small Retailers

Shopify is popular e-commerce platform in the US, UK, and Canada, as well as in other countries like Australia. It works best for businesses looking for an all-in-one ecommerce solution that includes hosting, a website builder, payment processing, and a ton of features for customizing the online store. Shopify offers the most add-on integration options for the online store, but they are not free.

Shopify is popular and a good choice for small business because of several reasons. First, it is easy to use. It does not require coding knowledge and small retailers can quickly set up their online store and start selling their products easily.

Shopify is also affordable with their basic plan starting at around $29 per month including all the essential features needed to set up an online store. They also offer a wide range of templates so that you can customize your store.

It is also easy to integrate with third-party apps and services, including payment gateways, shipping providers, and social media platforms, making it easy for small retailers to manage their ecommerce store.

Wix – Excellent Ecommerce Website Builder

Just like Shopify, Wix is also easy to use and is known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder. This feature makes it easy for small business owners to create and customize their ecommerce store without coding knowledge.

Their most affordable plan starts at $23 monthly, making it a good choice for small businesses with a limited budget. Unlimited bandwidth, online payments and custom domain is already included in this plan.

The features of Wix are difficult to in their price range. Their most advanced plan, costing $35 includes 50 GB of website storage, priority customer support, unlimited videos on your site, and a host of other features.

Wix has a wide range of templates and themes available specifically for ecommerce sites. This will make it easy for small business owners to create a professional looking website that reflects their brand.

They also have top-notch third party integration, built-in features like product galleries, inventory management, shipping and tax calculators which come in handy when you’re running an ecommerce store.

Square Online – Seamless Payment Processing

They also offer customizable templates that make it easy for first time ecommerce sellers to create a professional looking website. These templates are also mobile friendly so the site is easily viewable in mobile devices. This is a very important feature since many people use their mobile phones not only to browse or for social media; but for shopping too.

Square Online’s pricing starts at a very affordable $12 per month but they a free plan available. This is another advantageous deal for small businesses who are just starting out or those with tight budgets.

Actually, Square Online is more than just an online store. You can use payment links, QR codes (for table-side ordering), a virtual terminal for phone bookings, pickup or delivery orders, and the free Point of Sale app without paying a monthly fee.

Square Online is a true all-in-one platform thanks to its comprehensive infrastructure, making it ideal for small businesses looking for the simplest, most affordable multichannel selling solution.

A good selection of e-commerce features are available on Square Online, including product options, free store templates, site search, and integration with Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. In contrast to the other ecommerce platforms mentioned above, the website builder limited when it comes to customization.

They don’t have contracts, just a monthly or annual subscription fee. A paid plan is preferable because the free one has fewer features and prevents you from attaching your own domain name.

Squarespace – Simple, Stunning Web Designs

The all-in-one platform Squarespace comes with hosting, a website builder for online stores, and designs.

You must sign up for the Business or one of the Commerce plans in order to create and manage an online store. Due to its simplicity of use and attractive templates, Squarespace is used by many bloggers and businesses, but there are some restrictions as well.

A small number of third-party integrations, such as those for shipping, accounting, and marketing tools, are offered by Squarespace. In addition, you can connect with a few of the most important apps, including payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, and Afterpay) and social media channels. Beyond this, the platform’s built-in features are your only options.

Squarespace works well for online stores with a limited number of products, but it is not the best platform if you’re looking for a variety of ecommerce features. The themes tend to be minimalistic with a focus on beautiful imagery, which is advantageous for chic retailers with attractive product photos.

BigCommerce – Built For Scalability

BigCommerce is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that can be used by both big businesses and small ones. The Essentials subscriptions, the most cost-effective plans for new businesses, are best for those that are just starting out. Each plan comes with hosting, a website builder for online stores, marketing tools, and space for additional integrations.

BigCommerce does not handle online store payments. In fact, you can pick from among more than 20 different payment gateways, including Adyen and PayPal. You only pay the transaction fee associated with the chosen payment provider because BigCommerce doesn’t charge you for online transactions.

Subscriptions have tiered features, with only basic features on the cheapest plan.  For instance, the Standard plan, which is the cheapest, does not send abandoned cart emails, and the Pro plan is the only one that offers product-filtered search, which may be a deal-breaker for a boutique with a large inventory and limited funds.

BigCommerce Essentials makes setting up an online store relatively simple thanks to the step-by-step prompts in the dashboard that outline what to do next. Choose from more than 80 website themes, some of which are free and others of which cost between US$150 and US$300 each.

Big Commerce is not entirely user-friendly for someone without technical skills because some of the features, like the gift card editor, requires coding.

They have 700 additional tools and platforms like accounting, online marketing and shipping tools. This gives you a lot of options if you want to grow your online business.

Wrap-up

Australia has many options when it comes to picking the best ecommerce platform. Australians, like the majority of people in the world today, have quickly embraced the advantages of ecommerce for straightforward and convenient transactions. With the right choice of goods and services, business owners have countless opportunities to convert customers.

The post Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses in Australia appeared first on Creativ Digital.

There is no getting around the fact that a great product requires great UX design. However, small businesses frequently lack the resources to provide a great experience. Small businesses typically have simpler navigation, content, and audience segments, as well as easier-to-reduce objectives because brand recognition and traffic volume are lower.

In many instances, the difference between the cost of UX and the return on investment as a percentage increase in sales is negligible. UX incrementally improves performance. When traffic is high, this generates a lot of revenue with small percentage increases, but when traffic drops to less than 5,000 visits per month, the numbers for small businesses simply don’t add up.

What can UX designers do as a result? The solution, to use a cliched but apt business phrase, is to grab the low-hanging fruit. Here are strategies to help you succeed with UX design on a tight budget. The best web design tools or the best UI prototyping tools might be what you’re looking for.

Learn from Your Big Competitors

Do some research on competitors and major corporations in your client’s industry to see how they operate because big businesses frequently invest a lot of money in user experience. Choose five and compare them to the competition to get a good idea of the dos and don’ts. Online reviews for these well-known brands frequently contain gold.

You can compare competitors’ websites over time using comparison tools offered by some of the best SEO tools. You could even do the research and check out past versions of their websites on the Internet Archive to see how they have changed.

Improve UX Design Knowledge and Experience

There is no quick fix, but if you don’t already have a solid understanding of UX design theory, it’s time to start learning. This is especially true if you want to design UX for your own product but lack the funds to hire a qualified UX designer.

This is a great way to start out crushing UX design on a budget. Once you have the foundation, you should try to gain experience wherever you can, like by working as a UX professional’s shadow.

Create Mockups

Mockups can be used for a variety of UX tasks and are a crucial step in determining how users will interact with a website or app. With a pencil and paper, you can brainstorm and sketch out various elements to produce a very functional site map, page map, actions, content structure, and user flow, such as which pages are required, what your client’s goals are, and what customers are looking for. There are also a wide variety of tools available that you can use to make mockups.

Use Google Analytics

We can use Google Analytics to collect data about their behavior, whereabouts, devices, user flow, and actions without having to speak to our customers. There are many ways you can use this to enhance your user experience. You can identify the point at which users are abandoning an action or purchase, for instance. If this occurs midway through, what is deterring them?

The content strategy for your client can be shaped even by knowing which blog posts receive the most traffic. You can get site analytics from many of the top web hosting companies.

Use Heatmaps

It would be nice if UX designers could watch people using their app or website that they are designing. Ideally, this would be in a situation where they actually use it on a normal setting in order to get objective and realistic results. Alternatively, roping in your friend would be doing it on a budget.

Heatmaps are a great alternative, though, if you can’t watch someone use your site. You can add a tracking code for free on websites like Smartlook to collect crucial data on user behavior. Just be sure to include them in the cookie policy for the website.

Ask Existing Customers

Why not ask these contacts for feedback if most businesses, even if their numbers are relatively small, you will have a mailing list or database of customers or leads? Instead of just giving yes/no answers, formulate five straightforward questions that will spark conversation. Consider carefully what will help you gain the most understanding of the issues you are attempting to solve.

Offering a reward is one way to get more responses; for instance, those who respond could be entered into a drawing for prizes. In the process, you build goodwill and get insightful feedback from actual users. You can make use of a tool like Survey Monkey to analyze the results of your respondents’ answers.

Learn How to Boost Conversions

The ultimate objective for the business will almost certainly be some sort of conversion if you’re designing UX for a website. It’s important to learn some specific techniques, but good UX can also increase conversion chances.

A UX designer should have powerful tools like multivariate tests (MVT), conversion rate optimization (CRO), and A/B testing in their toolbox. The results won’t be conclusive if you don’t have the traffic, but there are still benefits to be had by taking note of the aforementioned strategies and making small adjustments.

Check First Impressions

Even if you’re still in the design stage, you can still conduct tests. UseabilityHub’s Five Second Tests are a great little tool to get a snapshot of what people think upon their first glance at the site.

As we mentioned, if your website doesn’t have a lot of traffic, the results of such conversion testing won’t be conclusive. You can elicit users’ first impressions by asking a few quick questions. Self-recruited tests up to two minutes in length are offered without charge.

The post Small Business: UX Design on a Budget appeared first on Creativ Digital.

A small business competing against larger companies may seem like a David versus Goliath scenario. One might think that it is impossible yet if you don’t take a step forward, you will never know the result. The most common obstacle of small businesses is the budget, especially when you are a start-up company with little knowledge on how you can build your digital presence. 

This blog post will give you some insightful tips on how you can rank up together with the larger enterprises in the ecommerce industry. There are limitless possibilities when coming up with the right strategies in your small business. 

Establish a solid digital presence for your small business

Nowadays, digital marketing is important when you have a business. No matter if it’s an ecommerce or not, going digital is the best strategy to work on your business. Millions of users are using social media and your potential customers might be on these platforms. That is why if you are missing digital marketing, you are missing a big break for your business. 

You can start by creating social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or Pinterest. Facebook, for example, has business digital tools which you can utilise. You may start organically or if you think that you can do a paid promotion or ads then go for it but if you are new to these strategies, you need to take time to learn. 

Build A Website For Your Business

For some people, building a website might be a challenge. While this might have been true in the past, building a website is easier nowadays. You don’t need to learn how to use code and be confused about how you can place a text or put some animation to your website.  You can avail the services of great web developers in Sydney who will customize your website according to your brand and business needs. 

With this, you can absolutely compete with larger businesses. Unlike having a physical shop where you can see a lot of differences, large companies have tall buildings and you only have this small cafe or shop but when it comes to the website you can both have the same privilege and designs. You will only have to put effort and skills to create a responsive web design to deliver what your potential customers see on your site. 

Offer A Good Customer Service

This is crucial if you have a site and you’re not paying attention to your customer service. You can surpass even large companies if you have better customer service such as live chats. An active telephone number where customers can reach you out easily. Not everyone can provide this quality, even one of the largest companies has an issue when it comes to reaching out to their customer’s concerns. You may opt to hire a representative to help you assist the customers on the line and make sure that they will be able to somehow answer queries. Keep in mind that familiarisation of the products and services are important.

Create A Strong Brand Identity

Elevate your business visually by having your own brand kit. It is essential for your business to have an identity to build. It is something that your customers will be able to remember. Pick the colour that will best represent your brand, choose a font that is readable yet has a good impact on the style, and last but not least, always integrate your brand logo. Be consistent in your brand. It is one good way to introduce your business with efficiency, credibility, and class.

Aim To Deliver Good Quality 

A business that has a good reputation cannot be dragged down easily. Be mindful of giving a good impression to your customer and always have the values within you and the employees you hire. Quality does not reside only in the products and services but also in the values that you adopt in the company that you own.

No matter how small your business is today, don’t stop aiming to reach your goal. With all the advanced technology nowadays, your hard work and determination to succeed in your chosen field will someday be a success, just keep on striving and formulating strategies that will help you win the competition. Be competent with fairness and quality.

The post How to Compete With a Large Ecommerce Business As a Small Business appeared first on Creativ Digital.

Too Many Manual Processes

Manual process is very time-consuming, making it difficult to scale cost-effectively or at a rapid pace.

It frequently necessitates the involvement of additional personnel in the process. As a result, a number of employees will be required to focus on duties that are not part of their core strengths. For example, when a highly compensated person is required to spend time filling out and mailing envelopes with completed schemes and receipts, the process costs can quickly spiral out of control.

To improve efficiency and profitability, businesses must streamline, automate, and measure the effectiveness of processes in their workflow especially across all customer-facing tasks.

Lack of Cash Flow 

Majority of small businesses have insufficient cash flow. Worse, they may have no cash on hand at all. As a result of this predicament, organisations are unprepared to deal with unforeseen occurrences and emergencies.

Simply put, cash flow refers to the entire amount of money flowing in and out of a company. In other words, cash flow problems might jeopardise a small business’s ability to develop and even operate.

The solution is straightforward, but it requires discipline. If you efficiently manage your cash flow, you’ll have a better idea of where you’re currently spending your money, which isn’t visible on your profit and loss statement. It’s critical to understand where and why your money is being spent. This procedure is effective when you also have a budget of present and anticipated spending. The budget can be used to estimate the size of the cash flow.

Establish payment schedules to guarantee that you have the funds to pay your vendors. It’s critical to plan ahead of time so you don’t find yourself with many invoices or bills to deal with at the same time. You can weather short-term emergencies with sufficient cash flow. It also helps you to concentrate on running your organization during challenging times without having to worry about disrupting operations.

Delayed Customer Support

Customer support is one of the important aspects which your customers are looking at. It is a very important business activity that one should never disregard on their website or even at your physical shop. The front desk is helpful to assist your customer. A chat support system in your ecommerce website, whether it could be a chatbot or live chat, is very useful when handling customer inquiries. Customers always have product inquiries and you must expect this to happen all the time. 

Imagine you have a potential customer who wants to confirm if a certain product suits what she needs and because you don’t have enough customer service support, with all the delayed responses, you will miss out on an important sale. 

As an entrepreneur, you must be prepared with answers to product queries. If you fail to show customers your expertise and answer them with inadequate product knowledge, they will have doubts and might not give you their trust in certain items or services that you are selling.

This type of pain point should be well-addressed. Make sure that you answer their queries on time and allow yourself to be prepared on handling future issues with your products and services.

Tightened Marketing Budget

Planning on how you can boost your sales, grow your audience or build your internet presence online can be a real challenge especially if you are a start-up and a small business. The budget can be difficult to handle on your own. 

Most small businesses lacked the financial resources to compete with the advertising budgets of most large enterprises. 

Instead of using traditional marketing, switch to digital marketing so you can have a better brand positioning. It is possible to sell your products at a reasonable cost through digital marketing. It is very easy to set up social media profiles and begin posting to increase business visibility. Social media nowadays are a good platform to introduce your business with a flexible budget. Start with a simple strategy and once you are able to get a grasp on the tactic on how you can implement a good presence, then you can start doing a paid promotion which later on can help you grow your business.

Tech Skills Shortage

Over the last generation, technological innovation has accelerated, particularly in the fields of internet applications and collaborative technologies. When integrating new technology with legacy systems proves difficult, business operations can suffer.

A company can’t just recruit more “techies” to be successful; it requires tech-savvy entrepreneurs who can swiftly assess needs, utilize cloud services and new technological opportunities, map out the best course of action, and provide timely results. Technology decisions need to be led by the business. It boils down to rethinking and reconsidering priorities. 

The post The 5 Common Pain Points of Small Businesses and How to Fix Them appeared first on Creativ Digital.

Thanks to ecommerce industry, a small online shop can reach a big audience at a global scale. Small businesses can gain their business success with the right strategy by choosing the best ecommerce website builders. Choosing the best ecommerce platform that will suit what kind of products and services you offer is one key to achieve your goals. Consider a lot of factors in selecting the ecommerce site for your business in terms of security and the features you need. You don’t want to create an ecommerce platform that is meant for larger enterprises that have a more complex interface.

In this blog post, we will be discussing three of the top ecommerce platforms and what might be the best among them for your small business.

Shopify

For small business owners, one feature that they would need is an easy-to-manage site. Shopify has an admin that helps in the overall management of your built online store. You don’t need to deal with software updates and running the servers. 

Shopify has a feature that lets you manage your own products, inventory, and all the essential aspects of managing an e-commerce store that you might need. Another good quality of using this platform is that it accepts electronic payment, fraud protection, PCI compliance and can integrate with social media networks such as Facebook and Google. 

This platform has a monthly subscription but most users consider their fee as a low cost compared to other sites. The only cons here are the hidden charges but have always been saved by the saying “you’ll get what you pay for.” Their basic features make it ideal for small businesses. You’ll get what you need, you just have to manage your store and think of good marketing strategies and use the ecommerce tools available wisely.

Woocommerce

It is one of the most popular electronic commerce platforms. It has an easy-to-manage interface and is cost-effective. Although setting up your online business here is a bit of a challenge, once you’ll learn the basics through tutorials you will then find how simple the platform offers. It is open-source software that is free to download but it needs a domain and web hosting. If you already have WordPress, then this will be as easy as you can imagine. You can start building your business online by downloading the Plugin and activating it.

One of the advantages of Woocommerce is that it does not use any licensing fee which gives you the freedom to create many online stores you wish to have. It is very flexible to use and you can gain access to many WordPress plugins for free. You can use it to add more features to your sites such as a Security firewall and forms. You can enjoy unlimited products and make unlimited sales. It has no restriction on e-commerce transactions. For the payment, it supports Paypal and Stripe but you can also use other payment gateways such as Square by linking it to Woocommerce.

Wix

Wix is one of the most user-friendly ecommerce platforms, offering simple ways to create serverless computing and no-code websites. It is very simple to set up your online store using Wix. It offers a variety of ready-made templates that you can customise and use. You just have to edit, upload your products and listings, re-design according to the brand of your business. It also offers a mobile-optimised version of your store which is really ideal because a lot of potential customers use a mobile phone. It has a search engine optimisation plan to help your business rank higher in Google. This platform is so basic to use that without so much effort you will be able to build a customer relation, generate leads and accept payment easily using different methods. This is good for small businesses as you can create your site for free and later on upgrade to a business basic plan for marketing.

Conclusion

To make the ideal decision for your online store, you’ll need to evaluate a number of things. You will have to consider the packages a platform has to offer. You can get the best out of a budget-friendly platform.  Pick the site that has the features capability to help you in your business such as responsive web design, built-in integration, mobile-optimised site and other marketing tools. Do not choose a platform just because it’s on the top trend. Do not choose a platform just because it’s on the top trend. The best ecommerce platform will greatly depend on your needs.

The post The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses appeared first on Creativ Digital.

It seems like despite the world’s best efforts, the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is still hanging in there. Millions of people have been infected worldwide and thousands have died since the virus was first detected late last year. As a result, many businesses have been forced to permanently or temporarily shut down.

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting public health and economies around the world. According to Google, search interest for the virus has increased +260% globally. While spikes in search trends are common during large scale events, there has also been a surge in traffic for related products and topics as a direct response to the pandemic.

How Google And Facebook Are Responding

As a response to fake news and information circulating around the internet regarding Covid-19, both Google and Facebook are removing anyone running ads to exploit the situation. Google for example has removed content on YouTube that claims to prevent infection in place of medical treatment and is blocking all ads exploiting the coronavirus disease.

How does it affect small businessmen like you? It doesn’t.  Unless you copy this type of messaging in your ads that claims to cure or prevent Covid-19 then these changes implemented by Facebook and Google will have minimal effect on your marketing.

These platform policies will most likely not impact your account. However, the pandemic and the resulting market changes will. Here are some strategies to prepare and adjust your accounts.

Review Accounts

It is always important to stay on top of marketing changes because the trends can impact your strategies. For example, it might affect your paid search and paid social accounts, from changing click and impression volumes to changing costs.

Staying on top of changes and current trends can help you to get a more accurate picture of where you stand in terms of your metrics. Monitor comments within your post too to prevent the spread of disinformation and fear-based comments can detract potential customers.

Communicate Changes With Customers

Communicating effectively with customers is a key factor in maintaining relationships. For example, your office or store might need to postpone operations temporarily and customers and suppliers will need to know the changes in your schedule in terms of office hours, delivery etc.

You need to communicate changes as soon as possible especially online. Google recommends changing business hours and description on Google My Business profile. Your description can be updated to reflect any changes in terms of precautions and any changes to your services.

Adjust Strategy

A lot of changes have happened due to the coronavirus disease pandemic. For example, hand sanitizers have been in short supply and social distancing is now the new normal. Remote working is also becoming popular while non-essential travels are banned by some countries in a bid to help prevent infections. These changes are stressful which is why marketers need to have a concise and clear messaging strategy.

For example, if you have products advertised that are flying off the shelves make sure that you’re still not advertising them when they become out of stock. Exclude out of stock products from store campaigns to prevent advertising products you no longer have.

For Travel Agencies

The travel and tourism business is perhaps one of the hardest hits sector due to Covid-19. In Australia for example, you can’t leave the country unless you get an exemption from the Department of Home Affairs and other nations have instituted similar bans on non-essential travel.

Despite the ban, there is still interest on “cheap flights right now” and “cheap flights due to coronavirus”. This means that while many people can’t travel beyond their countries right now, there is still interest for travel in the future. For the travel industry, this means focusing on the future. Advertise trips or activities in low-risk areas, and provide additional content about what trips and activities are still safe.

Bottom Line

While coronavirus disease pandemic has affected the livelihood and economies of millions of people and countries worldwide, keeping ourselves and our communities should be our first priority. Many businesses are feeling the effects of the business and staying up to date with the correct information is a key.

Businessmen and marketers should continue to monitor the situation as more industry experts, data, analysis and resources will come to light in the coming weeks.

The post How Covid-19 is Affecting Small Businesses and Marketers appeared first on Creativ Digital.

The “new normal” differs from state to state in Australia. For instance, in Western Australia the 2 person rule has been eased to 10 persons inside and outdoors. People can now invite up to 9 of their friends for some activities like barbecue but social distancing must be practiced.

However, Victoria – Australia’s most populous state – remains in lockdown. The differences in rules are making many businessmen to wonder how they can keep their businesses running during the pandemic.

Here are some basic guidelines to help you keep your business going despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Understand Your Financial Position

The impact of the pandemic has been devastating to many Australian businesses. This is why it is important to make decisions based on your current financial standing. There are still government restrictions in place when it comes to trading, keeping employees and paying outstanding debts which will be determined by your financial position.

Meeting with your accountant to discuss your options will help you make a plan that will minimize the pandemic’s impact on your business. Cash flow is important right now especially if your business has been impacted by the pandemic.

Check For Government Assistance

There are several stimulus packages for businesses that were introduced by the Australian government to help business owners with the disruption on their livelihood. For instance eligible sole traders can avail the Job Seeker Payment stimulus which now includes an additional coronavirus supplement of $550 per fortnight for the next six months.

Western Australia has a small business stimulus/relief package to support small businesses during the pandemic.

Contact Bank and Insurer

Australia now has a loan deferral arrangement for small business owners for those with existing loans with banks. If your business has been disrupted because of the pandemic, contact your bank to discuss this arrangement.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) granted interim authorization to insurance companies and brokers to offer payment deferrals and refunds to businesses impacted by Covid-19. This package includes benefits like deferring insurance payments up to 6 months and requesting refunds for unused policies.

Seek Advice on How To Defer Tax Payments

The Australian Tax Office is offering a deferment of tax payments if your business is impacted by the pandemic. Call the ATO on 1800 806 218 or speak to your tax professional to discuss your options.

Deferring tax obligations can impact your eligibility to avail stimulus packages so make sure you get expert advice.

Talk To Your Landlord

The Australian government has a moratorium in place since March 29^th on evictions for the next 6 months for residential and commercial tenancies who are in financial distress and cannot meet their rent.

Call your landlord to discuss arrangements regarding your lease especially if your business did not operate during lockdown or even after restrictions are lifted. 

Keep Informed of Changes

With so many fake news and different information available online, it is understandable to be confused and overwhelmed. The best way to keep up with the latest developments is to get information from reliable sources such as the following:

• WA.gov.au     
• Business.gov.au     
• Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman

The post Keeping Your Business Open During The Pandemic appeared first on Creativ Digital.

The Covid-19 outbreak has delivered a blow to businesses worldwide but business closures do not mean that these businesses are dead. Many corporations and businesses are asking employees to work from home and employ a skeleton force in order to minimize contact between employees. Grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants are also closing their doors to dining customers and clients and turning to delivery to satisfy demand.

While many businesses are adapting to these big changes to the way they do commerce, the big test comes in the next couple of weeks with countries like the Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and many others extending lockdown to keep citizens indoors longer in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.

So how are businesses adapting to the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Teleconferencing

Governments around the world are implementing social distancing as well as work from home orders to individuals and companies. This has led to a demand in teleconferencing software like Zoom and others.

Aside from meetings, teleconferencing is also the favorite go-to platform for other services and businesses. Online yoga classes, collaboration, webinars, demonstrations, press conferences and learning are now taking advantage of streaming platforms.

There are also reports of streaming being used for weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and other events. In the absence of physical presence, many people and employees are turning to video conferencing in order to get the job done and feel a sense of community.

Delivery Services

Many delivery services are experiencing a boom thanks to stay at home and work from home orders. With many businesses around the globe ordered shut to prevent people from congregating together, restaurants and shops are closed. The good news is that many of them are focusing on deliveries in order to make money and serve their customers.

Food delivery is a good space for restaurants right now. While many families are cooking food, it can be tiring to cook all the time. Many individuals also feel that cooking for 1 is too much of a chore so ordering food and getting it delivered.

Aside from restaurants, many services are focusing on home deliveries too. In many parts of the world, pharmacies, grocery stores, bakeries, retail and other services offer deliveries. Having goods delivered is a good way to follow stay-at-home orders and avoid crowds to follow social distancing rules.

Cashless Society

According to studies, paper money is even dirtier than the average toilet. Money is hospitable environment for germs, microbes and even viruses. These infectious organisms can last on paper money surfaces for more than 48 hours. In these uncertain times, cashless payments are a godsend.

While cashless payment is nothing new in many countries, many are embracing it nowadays thanks to the pandemic. Implementing cashless payments mean that both delivery service and recipient have minimal physical contact.

Cashless payment can be made through credit card, debit card, e-wallets, mobile wallets, UPI apps and gift cards. As Covid-19 infections rise so will the use of cashless options in order to limit contact between seller and buyer.

Wrap Up

Businesses especially small ones are hit hard by this current pandemic. With no relief in sight and lockdowns being extended, finding ways to survive and thrive are critical.

Taking advantage of this situation, observing how other businesses are coping and being innovative can keep businesses ahead of the competition. While it will be harder for small businesses, it is not impossible to weather this storm.

The post How Businesses Are Changing Due To The Covid-19 Pandemic appeared first on Creativ Digital.

Small businesses have a big advantage on social media compared to big companies. How? It all boils down to engagement. If a business does not engage with its customers, it will fail social media marketing.

Social media marketing is easy for small businesses as long as you actively post on your pages. Popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Reasons Why Small Businesses Have The Social Media Advantage

Here are some reasons why small businesses have the edge on social media over big companies.

Community And Individual Focused

There is a big difference between small and big businesses. The number of employees for instance, as well as revenue is very different between the two. But these are not the only differences. Small businesses tend to be more community and individual focused. They are more involved with their communities which lead to a connection with their customers.

Small businesses can also join the local chamber of businesses in their communities to connect and sometimes partner with other businesses in their marketing efforts.

Small businesses are also more likely to respond to their customers online. They use social media not only to connect and interact but also to launch and sell new products. Therefore, small business can handle influx of customers better and more easily foster connections with their customers on social media.

Less Expensive Advertising

It’s true that big companies have bigger wallets when it comes to advertising. However, social media is free. Paid advertising on these platforms can also be utilized but for the most part, small business owners can enjoy advertising on social media for free.

Instead of coughing up hundreds of dollars to reach the whole nation for advertising on Facebook, small businesses can choose to focus on their locality. Many small business owners know their customers personally making it more natural for their customers to share on social media. Current customers can post about your product or service bringing your brand on the radar of new customers within their networks.

Joint Advertising Efforts

Many small business owners also find it easier to collaborate with other businesses or even their competitors for their marketing strategies.

For instance you can post on Twitter that they can get a 20% discount coupon from another business if they buy from you and vice versa. Another alternative is to team up with another local business for a social media giveaway or contest.

Teaming up with other businesses can help boost brand awareness and broaden your exposure.

Personalized Attention

Small businesses are also better at personal attention. For many clients, patronizing small business is all about having a good buying experience. According to a survey, 53% of shoppers who patronized small businesses reported that they like the personal service they receive.

In a small business, owners as well as their employees can take time with their customers. They have more time to connect and answer questions.

A big corporation that sells across the nation does not have time to connect with their customers individually. But small businesses can take time to respond or give genuine responses to their customers. This direct connection gives small businesses an edge over large companies.

Social media is an amazing platform for small businesses to connect with their prospects and customers. There are even small businesses that have built their advertising around social media platforms. If done correctly, it can make your sales skyrocket.

Which social media platform do you patronize? Do you find it as an effective marketing tool? Tell us by leaving your comments below.

The post Reasons Why Small Businesses Have The Social Media Advantage appeared first on Creativ Digital.

One of the best ways to improve e-commerce revenue is by increasing conversion rate. Here are some strategies to boost your site’s revenue.

1. Abandoned Cart Exit Offer

According to experts, average shopping cart abandonment is approximately 60-80%.
Let’s say that you’re selling a product for $50 and have an average of 1,000 customers adding it on their shopping cart per month. If 40% buy and 60% abandon, this results in $20,000 in revenue. However, if you can cut abandonment in half monthly revenue immediately shoots up to $35,000 or a $15,000 increase.

One of the ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment is by adding an abandoned cart exit offer. It’s an offer that pops up just as a customer is about to leave. The offer provides incentive for the customer to continue their purchase. Coupon codes and free shipping offers are good examples of effective exit offers.

2. Cross-Sells and Sell Up Offers

Wouldn’t it be great if 20% of your customers purchased more? You immediately increase revenue without spending more on advertising and marketing. You can achieve this by presenting the right cross-sells and sell-ups to your customers.

A cross-sell is a related product that can be bought together with the original purchase. For instance you can recommend lipsticks when somebody buys eye shadow. An up-sell is an offer to purchase a higher quantity at a reduced price. Buying a third lipstick at 20% reduced price for example is an up-sell. They key to an up-sell is an irresistible price offer.

This type of strategy worked very well for Amazon during 2006 when 35% of their sales were a result of cross sells.

3. Affiliate Programs

Affiliates can help drive traffic to your website without costing you money for advertising. Affiliates are compensated with commissions from the sales they generate.
You can join an affiliate network where there are many affiliate marketers looking for websites and products to promote. This will give you access to experienced marketers and eliminate your need for hiring somebody to run the program. Alternatively you can run an in-house affiliate program using software where you can monitor sales and leads generated by marketers.

It is important to offer affiliates an attractive commission scheme to motivate them to promote your product or service. Your website also needs to be optimized to help enable your affiliates’ success. Remember the more successful your affiliates, the more successful you are.

4. Paid Advertising

As the saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. Two of the most measurable and scalable online advertising is Google Adsense and Facebook Ads. This type of advertising has access to audiences around the globe with targeting options so that you can offer your product or service directly to your ideal customer.

Many e-commerce websites try Google Adsense and Facebook Ads and say that they have failed and claiming that it does not work. However, it is important to consider that this type of advertising has a learning curve. It takes split testing and optimization to run a successful Google and Facebook advertising campaign.

If you’re new to this, start small with a budget that you can afford to lose. This will help you learn as you go so that you can figure out what works for your company. When you find out what type of strategies work you can begin to scale your campaign and hopefully improve your revenue. Additionally, there are many resources and training that can help you create winning campaigns.

According to Big Commerce, 51% of people now prefer to do their shopping online with 95% shopping at least once a year. Online shopping has helped to propel E-commerce to a staggering 12 million online stores. However, only around 650,000 of them generate more than $1,000 in sales annually. Employing the above stated digital strategies can help to generate revenue even with small amounts of traffic.

What is your best strategy to boost sales?Have you tried any of these ideas? What are the results? Tell us by leaving your comments below.

The post Strategies to Improve Your E-Commerce Revenue appeared first on Creativ Digital.