Author: Jay

Do what you do best in – that’s what I’ve always believed in and that’s what I preach. Over the past 25+ years (yup that’s my expertise ‘n’ experience in the Information Technology domain), I’ve been consulting to small, medium and large companies ‘About Web Technologies, Mobile Future as well as on the good-and-bad of tech. Blogger, International Business Advisor, Web Technology Expert, Sales Guru, Startup Mentor, Insurance Sales Portal Expert & a Tennis Player. And top of all – a complete family man!

How Automation can Robust your B2B eCommerce Business

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A strong relationship with partners and customers is critical for B2B businesses. This needs to be reflected in the successful B2B eCommerce strategies.

Nowadays, the B2B eCommerce model moved beyond from just transactions to putting more emphasis on relationships and automated ordering systems.

With these relationship-centered B2B eCommerce models businesses are reducing their spending efforts on low-value tasks and focusing on Extended interaction with long-term business trends, multi-party deals, and on more complex transactions.

This new model has made numerous impacts on the eCommerce business. In fact, some of the techno giants are saying B2B is surpassing the B2C.

What is B2B eCommerce

Well, B2B eCommerce is the typical exchange of products and services between 2 different businesses or companies through the electronic platform. Or you can say, buying and selling the products on the web as the exchange media.

B2B eCommerce business is not limited just limited to selling and buying. It may cover many aspects like;

  • Business Relationship between 2 companies
  • Product information and research
  • Technical learning
  • Product Ordering & Tracking
  • Technical Support, Training and Services
  • Document exchange like User guide, etc

So, technically it brings a lot of value to this process.

Now see, where the “Automation” term is fitting in this process.

B2B eCommerce Automation

What comes first to your mind when someone says “Automation”? In general, it sounds like robots are assembling cars somewhere in factories. But in B2B eCommerce it is not an artificial intelligence SKY-Net-like program.

The “Automation” in B2B e-commerce context is the use of a computer programmed software tool to complete the tasks without human intervention.

Automation spot the patterns in data and make the decision in a fraction of a second.

Now come to the basic topic of this article. How this Automation can help the eCommerce business for a better result?

Benefits of B2B Automation

Let’s go through the five ways that automation can improve your B2B eCommerce business today.

Reduce Errors:

The manual data processing always makes a tiny glitch and these small errors can cost millions in a year.

Just an example: If a B2B seller would make a misenter in an amount at the time of creating purchasing orders, it can cause chaos for both.

To avoid such types of errors you can integrate an automation layer to your eCommerce Application.

So, the orders can be created and communicated without any risk of human errors or even without human introversion.

Basically, no manual intervention is necessary when the electronically generated documents are passed back and forth between seller and buyer.

Get rid of Workflow Friction:

In B2B eCommerce workflow, a great deal of friction is generated that involves manual moving of information from one end to another.

By the intervention of an automated eCommerce cart management system with the inclusion of invoicing programs can make the progress much smoother.

So, the waiting could be over for a work process like open, read and respond to the email, etc.

As both the buyer and sellers waste their time in moving the information between the system and associated people, an automated system can help them to do it faster.

Better Relationships With Customers

Business to Business buyers are decently becoming more enthusiastic about the benefits of integration and automation.

The integration of Automation creates a more intuitive and easier purchasing experience for buyers with automated catalogs.

Better Relationship

Image Source: FreePik

Relying on automated platforms, it is significantly more effective when B2B sellers offer a straightforward path to data exchanges such as order confirmations, purchase orders, shipping notifications, and invoices.

Get Paid Faster

With a manual workflow, the B2B sellers process invoices manually. A dedicated resource creates invoices manually and emails those to the buyers.

And on the buyer side, whoever is responsible gets around to opening the email manually, and getting approval for paying.

Automated Email

Image Source: FreePik

Whereas in the automated system invoices can be created and delivered automatically.

As a result, the buyers opt to pay automatically, and for the invoices, those are required oversight, the right person will see it and react more quickly.

Focus On What Matters for You

Somehow, people worry that automation is taking place in some jobs, and there is a kernel of truth in that.

The automation system will replace some human roles, but it will also encourage us to focus on what matters most for us and for our business betterment.

For example: The automation system will allow the salespersons to focus more on sales and upbringing new business rather than getting stuck in time and paper.

This will definitely reduce the cost while increasing revenue.

Conclusion

There could be many ways that workflow automation helps your B2B business right now. But the proper planning and execution of the strategies can make your eCommerce website a winner.

The eCommerce application development planning is not much exhausting work, but it requires proper knowledge and customer satisfaction points.

You should develop an appropriate site for online business in which users can easily manage their shopping items and place orders.

For a prosperous future of B2B eCommerce, businesses must have to work with the technology and data firms.

What Is The Saas Life Cycle-Application And Development

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A SaaS Project Management & Team Communication tool, the enterprises that purchase the services of SaaS providers will always come out on top with efficient operations and organized teams – said by Basecamp.

The Saas Life Cycle is a term used in the software industry to describe the process of creating a new software product. It’s a generic way of understanding the different phases that a software project goes through from the moment you start developing a new application to the moment you release it for users.

If you’re new to the Saas Life Cycle, you might be wondering what exactly it means. Or you might be wondering how you can take your new project through this process to make it more successful. Either way, you’ll learn more about the Saas Life Cycle and how it can help your new software project succeed with this article.

SaaS Development

From the view of experts, SaaS development is unique. It requires a specific skill-set and an open-minded approach.

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Here are some benefits of using a SaaS:

  • Lower costs. Since SaaS is a “cloud” solution the prices customers are required to pay are much lower than on-premise solutions.
  • Scalability. SaaS is an already developed solution, customers do not need to do much planning, as SaaS are highly scalable.
  • Upgrades. SaaS provides all the upgrades themselves, which is highly convenient for the users.
  • Integration. SaaS are perfect platforms for integration with other services
  • User Experience. SaaS solutions always try to make their UX enjoyable. Which lets their customers spend less time learning how to use the software.

The SaaS Development Life Cycle Must Begin With A Vision

You need to conduct a lot of research if you are willing to develop a great tool. Beginning with, identifying the needs of an organization is a crucial part to fulfill.

Gathering the ideas and evaluating the market will give you an idea of a product that is going to be useful and successful.

The Planning Stage

You can’t develop a SaaS Application much without having a great plan. You and your developing authority must understand how are you going to develop your SaaS, how much it will cost, when will you be able to launch it, and how is the marketing strategy going to look.

Software Development Strategies for your SaaS solution may help with answering those questions.

The Subscription Stage

After all decisions regarding cost and architecture have been finalized comes the time to choose your cloud provider. While there are many decisions to be made regarding a SaaS platform, the cloud provider selection is, probably, the most important one.

Subscription

The Development Stage

The Development stage is a complex stage. There are many decisions to make regarding the project’s architecture.

Actually, there is no point in developing a SaaS application unless it is suitable for all targeted users and has the potential to scale.

Below I have listed some of the essential requirements for a SaaS development to meet to be considered valuable for users and profitable for developers as well:

  • User Experience. The software must be easy to use and user-friendly.
  • Security. SaaS must to provide a high level of security, and its customers must believe in the exceptional security of their data.
  • Customer Support. The Built-in support processes, 24-hour access, and frequent, non-disruptive updates must all take place in a SaaS Application.

By keeping these basic practices in mind, the SaaS development process will mean the following:

Selection Af A Development Methodology

There is a large amount of methodologies available and that are known as the “Software Development Lifecycle”. Let’s break down some of the most common ones below:

  • Rapid – quickly to put together and speed-up the development, and then tested.
  • Spiral – here development divided into cycles, each of which is evaluated to then later influence the next cycle and better the methodology.
  • Agile – development methodology where each iteration gets evaluated after it ends, so that positive change and adaptation of plans can take place before the next iteration begins.

Agile Methodology

SaaS Will Mean HTML5

New products mean using the HTML5 technology. It is one of the most suitable for today’s environment. This technology provides rich Internet applications so, do not need the legacy plugins.

“When back in 2014 Microsoft announced that they will be discontinuing the support of Windows XP, Microsoft platforms that could not support HTML5 slowly began to die off.”

But there still may be some glitch issues with the use of HTML5 on mobile devices, but there are less and less of those each day. If there are any issues, then a native mobile app may be the best course of action.

SaaS Requires Published API’s

SaaS products must have API’s that provide for the development of external widgets and extensions by value-added resellers and other third-party developers.

APIs have to be consistent and should be maintained after publishing. Developers should ensure that APIs must be extended, which requires a very accurate architecture.

SaaS And Stateless Architecture

Stateless architecture is preferred because it provides smooth performance, elasticity, scalability, and fault tolerance. If applications are stateless, there is no need to allocate storage of previous requests, making the cost lower.

These applications can also scale easily, making it perfect for dealing with spikes in usage. Stateful architecture, on the other hand, requires more management and takes up more infrastructure resources.

Stateless architecture is not a requirement for SaaS, though it just may provide the best performance.

SaaS Upgrades

Upgrades must be built into the architecture in a way that will not disrupt user experience.

SaaS companies do not put out different version there – usually there are only two. If a new version is developed, it can be done on a separate server without any migrated clients to minimize disruptions.

Operations – Requirements For Development

New tenant on-boarding and billing services must be built into the SaaS architecture. IaaS and PaaS providers (if they are used), and third-party tools may help with managing that, though their integration must be in the software product itself. There isn’t a defined model for all of this, which means that the developers will have to get creative.

SaaS Implementation Methodology And Deployment

Once the software is deployed, frequent updates and security patches should take place to keep the support requests to a minimum while continually improving the UX.

Helpdesk calls and/or support tickets all result in increased operational costs, so the goal is to automate those tasks as much as possible and. Remember – constant monitoring and patches/updates will keep your customers happy.

SaaS Development, Operations, And Management Are Unique

Everyone must consider SaaS development, invest heavily in the talent of the people developing it.

This is the most expensive part of the endeavor – the requirement for a very specific skill set.

And, if you intend to have a top-rated piece of software – robust, expansion-ready, innovative, with well-received UI and UX, secure, and reliable in its implementation – then you must be prepared for the high costs involved.

Saas Development Tools

SaaS projects are usually complex and oftentimes unique. It means there is no defined stack of tools mandatory for SaaS development. You can build your SaaS development stack off of your project requirements, your architecture and your marketing strategy.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Nevertheless, some of the more popular tools for SaaS development are listed below:

Server-side development:

Conclusion

SaaS solutions have become the best options for many businesses these days. Their availability, scalability, and pricing policies all provide their users with an abundance of benefits.

Whether you are looking to adopt a SaaS in your business, or you are planning to develop a SaaS of your own, the concept is as innovative as it gets and it is worth all the attention it has recently been getting.

How To Put Together A High-Performing SaaS Marketing Strategy

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As per Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, SaaS marketing will deliver 75 % of cloud workflows.​ Isn’t it amazing?

The above data depicts the growing pace of the SaaS business model and the competition created by it in the industry. SaaS companies are finding it very difficult to stand out in the industry by providing products and services distinct from their competitors.

Well, for this reason, we have come up with dependable SaaS marketing strategies to help companies lead the competition.

It is more complicated than product marketing since you don’t have a tangible product to offer.

Yes, it is more difficult to tell someone that your software can help them in their daily process than selling a pair of shoes.

First, What Is SaaS Marketing?

We can say, It refers to the strategies implemented to promote software-as-a-service companies.

This marketing is exclusively unusual from promoting physical products since it has a varied customer base, distinct pricing strategies, complexity in their offerings, etc.

Since SaaS development is distinctive, marketers should use distinct strategies for promotion.

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Conclusion

These worthwhile SaaS marketing strategies, if leveraged, will enhance customer acquisition and lead generation for SaaS businesses.

Diverse offers avenues that marketers can explore to serve as beneficial SaaS strategies, and there are endless possible combinations that work for numerous businesses.

All you have to do is to try different approaches, and with the help of consumer metrics, figure out what works. SaaS marketing is a paradise for marketers.

Want to discuss more? Let’s talk!

The SaaS Trends You Should Watch Out For In 2021

Posted on by Jay

“Software as a service” (SaaS) is becoming an increasingly viable choice for organizations looking for the accessibility and versatility of software solutions and online data analysis tools without the need to rely on installing and running applications on their own computer systems and data centers.

Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022, which is a level of growth that will shape SaaS trends in 2021.

SaaS is a software distribution model that offers a lot of agility and cost-effectiveness for companies, which is why it’s such a reliable option for numerous business models and industries.

It’s also popular amongst businesses for its simplicity and user accessibility, security, and the widespread connectivity that serves to streamline business models, resulting in maximum efficiency across the board. Today, most companies are in the process of implementing various business intelligence strategies, turning to SaaS BI tools to assist them in their efforts.

2019 was a breakthrough year for the SaaS world in many ways. With a new year on the horizon, in this article, we’ll explore 10 essential SaaS trends that will stand out in 2021. But, before we do that, we will discuss the general characteristics revolving around the industry that will help put additional light on the SaaS industry trends for 2021.

Before we dig any deeper into our top ten SaaS industry trends for 2021, let’s dispel some common myths surrounding the industry.

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The Key Characteristics

Before we explore our essential software as a service trends for 2021, it’s important to consider what defines SaaS as not only a technological development, but as a working business model.

Flexible payment options: Businesses don’t have to go through the expense of purchasing software and hardware. Instead, they have the option of utilizing various pricing structures. Flexibility in payment models, where they only pay for the resource usage they need, for instance, is attractive for many organizations in today’s competitive world.

Scalability: Cloud-based SaaS enables businesses to expand with ease due to its inherent scalability. Companies can be selective about the types of features and options they want.

Updates: SaaS providers handle the necessary software updates and develop new features over time, so businesses don’t have to invest ample amounts of time in this particular area of operation.

Accessibility: With SaaS, businesses have the mobility of accessing applications from any digital device and location, making it especially convenient for mobile platforms. Additionally, it boasts ease-of-use and is user-friendly.

Increased collaboration: SaaS developments enhance a business’s ability to promote collaboration across teams and departments due to the facilitation of file sharing, in addition to a distinct ease of reading and understanding across systems.

Security: Most SaaS models are known for their enterprise-level security, which is a more holistic approach to security than many centralized, on-premise solutions. In Cloud SaaS, per-existing disaster recovery protocols are in place to manage potential system failures. This means that your business’s data is available and secure regardless of a data breach or system failure.

As businesses continue to rely on innovative data discovery tools and technologies to increase both their productivity and their efficiency, and as new software as a service trends continue to emerge, this young, groundbreaking industry can only go from strength to strength.

Even if figures diverge somewhat, the many forecasts conducted on SaaS industry trends 2021 demonstrate an obvious reality: the SaaS market is going to get bigger and bigger.

Indeed, according to Bloomberg, public cloud platforms, business services, and applications (SaaS) will all grow at a 9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) between 2019 and 2023, and worth $60.36 billion. A Betterbuys report reveals that the specific expenditure in the U.S. SaaS Industry is forecasted to reach $55 billion by 2026.

And according to Gartner, the global public cloud service market is projected to grow significantly in 2021 and beyond.

“Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way.” – Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, one of the planet’s biggest SaaS providers

All signs indicate that this coming year is going to be an interesting, trendsetting year for the trends in SaaS industry. Of all the developments currently in the pipeline, these 10 SaaS industry trends, in particular, are showing signs of standing out as the most significant in 2021:

1. Artificial Intelligence

The first of our most impactful trends in SaaS is of the autonomous, self-learning variety.

Today, Artificial Intelligence is all over the place – it made the top 3 of our list of our business intelligence trends for 2021 – and next year, it’s expected to make some serious waves. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming more widespread; it’s becoming a game-changer worth $15.7 trillion.

AI optimizes business processes, increasing productivity and efficiency while automating repetitive tasks and supporting human capabilities.

Within business scenarios, artificial intelligence (as well as machine learning, in many cases) provides an advanced degree of responsiveness and interaction between businesses, customers, and technology, driving AI-based SaaS trends 2021 onto a new level. There are numerous features developed by modern software providers based on artificial intelligence such as data alerts.

With an AI algorithm using the most advanced neural network for anomaly detection, and a machine-learning algorithm for pattern recognition, these data alerts learn from trends and patterns and let you know as soon as something important happens.

That way, when a pre-set goal is met, or when something unexpected happens, you will be notified, enabling you to keep continuous control over your business.

Since it is often easy to lose track of what really matters when so many KPIs have to be monitored, an online reporting tool will safely keep an eye on your data and anticipate any fluctuation and change – and alert you when it veers off course.

Artificial intelligence is positioned to disrupt the SaaS landscape in a variety of ways, improving the key characteristics of the SaaS model across the board. When SaaS is combined with AI capabilities, it enables businesses to obtain better value from their data, automate and personalize services, improve security, and supplement human capacity.

How will AI improve SaaS in 2021?

  • Automation: Machine Learning, a subset of AI, is utilized in SaaS to automate responsiveness in customer service reports and applications, such as AI-powered chat operations with live chatbots.It will also automate the onboarding process of SaaS.
  • Personalization: Software is easier to use with technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), which automatically processes human speech patterns, and voice control. This can be deployed across customer service functionality to improve customization and better address client needs.
  • Speed: Artificial intelligence-enabled SaaS speeds up internal processes and operations, allowing businesses to obtain fast answers to questions, make quick forecasts, and speed up their overall level of responsiveness.
  • Security: Due to artificial intelligence-enabled automation, and the ability of machine learning to recognize patterns, SaaS security is enhanced by the quick identification and remedy of potential threats with built-in self-recovery.

Artificial intelligence-optimized SaaS solutions provide businesses with the ability to augment their internal processes with fast automation, more efficiently address customer service operations, and improve the level of personalization and responsiveness throughout their processes, which will remain one of the trends in SaaS to keep an eye for in 2021.

2. Vertical SaaS

Our second forecast for SaaS trends in 2021 is Vertical SaaS. Whereas Horizontal SaaS focuses on clients across any sector and industry, Vertical SaaS is completely customizable, targeting clients within specific industries and supply chains.

Some examples are healthcare analytics software, retail analytics, or modern logistics analytics. Companies who are looking to benefit from specialization are finding Vertical SaaS to be a cost-effective, industry-specific option that allows them to refine the customization of certain features.

Why the Vertical SaaS trends are going to have such an impact in 2021?

Vertical SaaS providers also have the ability to adapt features according to client demand and industry, and effectively address customer needs within their niche. This results in more flexibility and upselling opportunities, and lower customer acquisition costs.

Vertical SaaS also provides the following benefits:

  • Customer intelligence: Enables businesses to obtain industry-specific customer data and intelligence, which plays a critical role in gaining customer-focused insights.
  • Pre-defined metrics and KPIs: Vertical SaaS is already integrated with pre-defined metrics, KPIs, and analytics that businesses can utilize to assess and address daily and long-term processes and performance.
  • Business value: Software is designed to meet industry requirements; therefore, it provides a higher degree of business value for company operations and performance.
  • Improved data governance: Vertical SaaS is positioned to address data governance procedures via the inclusion of industry-specific compliance capabilities, which has the additional benefit of providing increased transparency.
  • A higher standard: In 2021, higher quality service from industry-specific vertical SaaS providers will emerge, as each developer aims to distinguish itself from the ever-increasing crowd.

3. The Growing Need For API Connections

The API (Application Programming Interface) has been a fundamental part of software development for years, and this is precisely what our third SaaS trend focuses on. With the explosion of SaaS solutions and adoption by the market, the need to integrate them into an existing business system appeared.

Some companies may want to migrate all their data to a cloud platform, but many actually would rather harmonize it with their already existing infrastructure in order to improve it – and this is where the problem lies.

At first, SaaS providers didn’t come with a complete integration solution. That failure served to complicate the work and caused them to disappoint their customers as a result

They would then redirect their clients to a third party to supply the specific APIs enabling the customer to integrate the cloud solution into their existing system.

It was indeed better for the SaaS developers not to reinvent the wheel, and to win some precious time and resources relying on third-party APIs. Their go-to-market time frame was shorter, and they could focus on their core capabilities to develop differentiated functionality.

However, more and more SaaS vendors tend to provide greater integration capabilities instead of redirecting their customers to third parties.

As Benoit Lheureux, vice president of research firm Gartner Inc., says to Tech Target: “redirecting your customers to a third-party for integration solutions when integration is a requirement in every IT project of substance is falling short of meeting your customer requirements.”

If you are looking to invest in a cloud vendor’s services, you should ask the following questions beforehand to ensure a seamless integration:

  • What capabilities is the provider offering me to integrate the SaaS within my existing business system?
  • Can this provider also integrate the legacy systems I use?
  • Is my data protected while the integration process is worked through?

4. Increased Thought Leadership

One of the most effective ways to serve the needs of your target audience is through equal measures of inspiration and education – and as more SaaS providers tap into this mentality, we expect thought leadership will become a prominent software as a service trend in 2021.

At present, only 24% of SaaS businesses publish content to educate or enlighten. Others are solely company-focused, and 11% of the primary players don’t even operate a blog, according to Callbox. Astonishingly low figures by all accounts.

But, as the landscape becomes competitive with more SaaS startups competing for the attention of savvy businesses like yours, there will be far more SaaS resources available in the form of videos, interactive apps, blog content, eBooks, and digestible whitepapers.

In turn, this will make software as a service even more widely accessible while offering businesses a wealth of new information about the industry, making it all the more transparent as a result.

While you’re waiting for this SaaS trend to blossom, here are two industry thought leaders you should follow:

  • Mamoon Hamid: A well-respected industry expert and board director on 16 SaaS operations, including Wave HQ and CloudOn.
  • Noah Kagan: A celebrated tech player and one of the web’s leading SaaS experts.

5) Migration To PaaS

As the software as a service industry evolves and innovation increases, many developers or providers will focus on customer retention on top of customer acquisition.

That said, in 2021, we expect to see SaaS migrating towards the realms of PaaS (platform as a service) – developments that empower businesses to build custom apps as add-ons to their original services. The likes of Salesforce and Box have recently launched PaaS-centric services in a bid to hold a strong market share in their niche, and we expect to see this SaaS trend become all the more prevalent this coming year.

To put the relevance of this trend into perspective, here are 3 key advantages of using a PaaS development:

  • The enhanced features, functionality, and ability to customize will enhance your overall business agility, giving you more time and creative space to innovate and focus on your core commercial initiatives.
  • PaaS offerings are, by their very nature, robust, flexible, and accessible which means you will be able to scale your business more easily by using a platform as a service.
  • Security is a distinct advantage of the PaaS model as the vast majority of such developments perform a host of automatic updates on a regular basis.

6. Micro-SaaS

The sixth of our software as a service trends comes in the form of a little something called micro-SaaS.

Like any innovative and invaluable industry on the rise, large numbers of players begin to enter the arena, saturating the market and intensifying the competition – which means in 2021, and beyond, SaaS companies will have to find new ways to innovate, offer value, and connect with new prospects.

In response to a new, more cutthroat climate, we expect to see more micro-SaaS innovations emerge from the woodwork this coming year.

Typically, micro-SaaS businesses are run by a small team, sometimes even by one or two people. Micro-SaaS products are usually complementary add-ons to existing platforms or developments, created with the aim of improving a missing feature or enhancing an existing SaaS product.

These more niche, more “miniature” SaaS offerings could prove increasingly valuable to businesses across industries in 2021, which means we can all expect a host of fresh micro-SaaS innovations over the next 12 or so months.

To clarify the meaning of micro-SaaS in a nutshell, here is a definition of the concept explained by Storemapper’s Tyler Tringas:

“A SaaS business targeting a niche market, run by one person or a very small team, with small costs, a narrow focus, a small but dedicated user base and no outside funding. Hence, micro-SaaS.”

7) SaaS Pricing Policy Change

The seventh in our definitive rundown of SaaS trends comes in the form of policy. Studies show that 98% of SaaS businesses earned positive results from making core changes to their pricing policy.

By reviewing every aspect of platform pricing, a host of companies across niches have grown their audience, connecting with a broader demographic of consumers. And this growing SaaS trend is set to evolve in 2021.

Traditionally, software as a service companies have built their business models based on flexible pricing structures. By offering flexible price points, it has been easy for vendors to drive revenue. But in a seismic industry shift, software-centric businesses have been forced to remold their pricing policies.

Stiffer competition, industry saturation, and the rapid development of SaaS platforms (improved features and functionality) mean that software as service players of all shapes and sizes are starting to reinvent their pricing models according to the needs of their clients or customers.

By leveraging business intelligence and analytics to drive their pricing structures, droves of service-based software businesses are developing more tailored pricing solutions, enjoying increased success as a result—a SaaS trend that is sure to shape the landscape in 2021 and beyond.

When looking for a potential SaaS service, value for money is best represented in a service that will meet your needs on a sustainable basis. Make sure you keep this in mind in 2021.

8. Platform Unbundling

One of the most disruptive SaaS trends in recent times, platform unbundling is set to dominate the landscape as we move into 2021.

Most traditional software as a service platforms are considered horizontal, offering every single feature or function imaginable in one single tool. But, as user needs become more complex, and the industry continues to evolve, platform unbundling is likely to become all the more prevalent.

Every business—depending on its size, sector, and culture—has a specific set of needs, which means that today’s vendors are beginning to realize that not all of the functionality on their platforms suits every prospective client or customer. That’s where unbundling comes in.

Unbundling is a term used in reference to the growing list of startups that provide software-based solutions packaged in the form of an API (application programming interface) rather than a typical ‘full-featured’ platform. Such businesses are on the rise and are expected to make their mark in 2021.

While this is indeed food for thought, it’s important to remember that not every solution will suit an API-based unbundling business model. For instance, when it comes to data analytics, ambitious companies across industries will look to a centralized solution that offers all of the insights, features, and functionality required for online BI in one place.

While it’s important to remain abreast of this most vital of SaaS industry trends, before looking at unbounded services or offerings, you must consider whether doing so will work for your enterprise and its ongoing commercial goals. If you’re looking to improve your data analytics processes, in particular, unbundling is unlikely to be the answer.

9. A Mobile-First Mindset

Number nine on our essential list of SaaS industry trends is centered around the topic of mobile. By the year 2022, experts project that around 72.6% of the world’s population will browse the internet using their mobile devices.

In our mobile-driven age, we’re free from the shackles of time or geographical location, meaning that people can connect with their peers and remain productive 24/7, 365 days of the year. We are in the midst of a portable age, and as more innovative software developers wise up, the mobile-first mindset will serve to shape the future of SaaS.

Increasingly, companies across sectors operate critical parts of the businesses from their tablets or smartphones. Moreover, more employees than ever feel empowered to perform their jobs better by being able to work with dynamic mobile dashboards and various tools.

More software providers will adopt a mobile-first mentality, optimizing their offerings to suit a host of mobile devices. This means we’re likely to see an even more impressive array of mobile features in 2021. Also, as we move towards a new year, increasing numbers of software as a service vendors will develop new solutions to meet this growing demand.

To cut through the noise and push yourself to the front of the pack, offering robust and reliable BI tools that work across desktop and a range of mobile devices is essential.

Mobile devices and screens require a unique set of features and functionality, and by placing their focus on mobile-first design & development, SaaS vendors are likely to enjoy a healthy return on investment (ROI) next year and long into the future.

Mobile-first is, without a doubt, one of the most integral SaaS industry trends for 2021. There will be more portable platforms available to your company’s disposal than ever before — don’t miss out.

I’ve worked with the team at AndolaSoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Enhanced SaaS Solutions For 2021

SaaS industry trends aren’t showing any signs of slowing down, and innovative SaaS solutions will only continue to grow in the coming years. Artificial Intelligence-empowered SaaS, Vertical SaaS, the growing need for and development of API connections, increased thought leadership, a migration to PaaS, a plethora of micro-SaaS offerings, mobile-first innovations are here—and these software as a service trends are shaping the future of SaaS.

“Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is they are the most practical, as their innovations lead to progress and a better way of life for all of us.” – Robin S. Sharma, author & tech advocate

Above all else, these inspiring trends in SaaS are a testament to the enduring future of the industry and our increasing societal demand for robust software-centric solutions across the board. The revolution is here, and it’s digital.

We are in the age of digital transformation. As more companies migrate towards a cloud-based, data-driven existence, the scope for offering practical software innovations will continue to rise, and rise, and rise.

As data continues to be the driving force behind smart business strategies in a digitally dependent world, SaaS options are going to be an increasingly convenient and affordable option across industries, both now and in the coming years.

By taking stock of these essential SaaS industry trends for 2021, you will win tomorrow’s digital battlefield, pushing yourself ahead of the competition.

With these 10 trends in SaaS positioned to further enhance cloud-based solutions on the cusp of 2021, organizations, like yours, will have the technological capabilities to drive their business objectives towards successful outcomes.

For more digitally-driven insights, explore our guide to getting started with big data analytics and business intelligence for small business— or talk to our SaaS expert.

The Most Common Challenges Faced By Small eCommerce Businesses

Posted on by Jay

For a small eCommerce business, the eCommerce store is the primary retail growth engine for their business. The fast growth of eCommerce witnessed over the last 10 years. And it is expected to claim 17% of the industry by the end of the year 2022.

The pandemic has led to major growth in e-commerce business. Many offline businesses have shifted towards the E-commerce platform after observing a major downfall in the offline business.

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Back in the early days, you could easily sell anything and earn lots of money. The competition was very less, technology was not affordable at that time. But now everything has changed. 

(Source: Sales layer blog)

Amazon has become an important competitor for everyone. As China is expanding its business, that makes technology easily accessible for everyone.

This growth has also risen several eCommerce challenges as well. With this meteoric growth and demand for online business, running eCommerce is not easy, especially for small businesses.

It was estimated that 95% of business transactions is likely to be taking place online. So this is the right time for most retailers to overcome the barriers of ecommerce. 

As per the survey of NetSolution, 81% of the majority of shoppers begin their shopping journey with a normal online search. So, it is essential to make your online marketplace highly responsive to please the customers’ shopping experience.

Until 2020, the TTV (Total Transaction Value) in the digital eCommerce segment has been reported with a worth of 3.7M USD. And it is expected to hit 5M USD in 2023.

Total Transaction Value

Source: Net Solution

However, to make a stand out in this crowded marketplace, the eCommerce startups must address the core challenges of these niche businesses.

What is the biggest challenges for most e-commerce business?

Entrepreneurs across the globe face a lot of challenges of eCommerce while adapting to the digital commerce business. Here I have listed the most common eCommerce issues and their solutions while working towards building a successful eCommerce business.

1. Capitalization Of Data

The expansion of the eCommerce function to become a part of the holistic brand solution is the first and crucial eCommerce challenge.

To facilitate this, businesses are working hard to build efficient data-enabled eCommerce solutions that help them right from shipping to store management, new Key Performance Integrals (KPIs), beyond conversion rates, and the Average Order Values (AOV).

It is better to capture the systematic data rather than experimenting based on assumed market trends. The entrepreneurs who have realized the impact of the data on their day to day performance is a long-term business decision.

2. Customers’ Exploding Expectations

Retailers all over the world are continuously trying to build their reputation and a sharp brand image with the promise of a great experience.

In an era where experience matters the most and tech giants like Amazon are taking the online buying process to the proverbial ‘next level’ with anticipatory shipping methods, it is very difficult to meet customer expectations.

Thus, competing with these giant eCommerce Companies and fulfilling the never-ending customer demands is a huge challenge in today’s eCommerce business.

3. Agility Challenge

Agility is the capability of a business to introduce eCommerce development, advancements, and deploy digital content, react to seasonal changes, etc. rapidly.

Agility drives immediate digital eCommerce fulfillment and development. It is identified as one of the most important initiatives to adopt in the modern eCommerce business.

The agile eCommerce transformation is at the heart of the digital business, and scaling is essential for making it successful.

A large number of companies including startup businesses find it difficult to move or change quickly as per the needs of customers and seasonal demand.

It is usually because they can’t integrate new eCommerce technologies efficiently with their existing eCommerce applications. As end result penetration into the market gets harder.

4. Personalization Approach

eCommerce personalization is one of the key factors for a good customer shopping experience. Through personalization, retailers provide the customers with a personalized experience without noticing it.

In this procedure, retailers need to develop a one-to-one relationship with the customers. And it turns into a major challenge in front of eCommerce developers.

eCommerce business leaders must focus on developing a one-on-one relationship with their customers. And it needed to strengthen its developing tools and capabilities for a better, reach, and visibility amongst the consumers.

It only can be made possible with the integration of the latest eCommerce technologies, smart coding into current e-commerce frameworks to automate the entire customer journey.

Additionally, the AI eCommerce tool, machine learning approach, cross-platform data sharing also can harness the purpose of services.

5. Being Consistent

Consistency is the most critical element for a successful omnichannel shopping experience.

Customers use multiple platforms to search for items before making a decision which bounds businesses to provide seamless purchasing encounters through every product or service offered by them.

But analyzing and understanding customer interactions across all touchpoints and using it to build a consistent and seamless customer experience is one of the major eCommerce challenges for retailers.

6. Facing Competition

The internet offers everyone an equal platform and hence an equal opportunity. This makes the environment extremely competitive, with possibly hundreds of other businesses offering the same products or services as you and to the same target audience.

Even the most niche brands have to fight hard to carve a place for themselves. And every segment in the eCommerce space is set to get increasingly congested and competitive over the years.

A homegrown startup has to keep pace with a multinational giant and vice-versa. And every enterprise is continuously experimenting to come up with an innovative eCommerce business solution to gain an edge.

7. Data Security

The uptake of eCommerce also brings along associated eCommerce challenges – security threat being one of the most critical of them.

There is a looming threat of hackers and fraudsters attacking the host server and not just stealing confidential data but also infecting with viruses. Breach of credit and debit card details has become common news, and such lapses directly affect the trust of a consumer.

Phishing is yet another threat where hackers pose as businesses and ask for sensitive information from their customers.

Several users are increasingly concerned about the eCommerce websites’ capability to effectively shield their personal identity as well as the security of the transaction details.

8. Technology Partnerships

Technological partnerships are becoming increasingly popular in the eCommerce domain. When businesses join hands with a company to bring their idea to life, there is a lot at stake.

The end product can turn out to be a success not by focusing merely on the tech or processes but also giving precedence to trust, transparency, and communication between the partners.

Many businesses gravitate towards choosing a partner based on costs without setting the right expectations or understanding their work scope.

These gaps lead to a disastrous collaboration and eventually, the end product. With access to an enormous pool of talent and technology, outsourcing eCommerce development in itself can prove to be extremely beneficial if done right.

9. Customer Retention

Even some of the biggest players in the eCommerce segment struggle to retain their customer base.

The reason for customer-centric eCommerce challenges can be attributed to many factors such as :

  • the evolving expectation of the consumer
  • the presence of several similar options
  • failure to provide a pleasant shopping experience
  • and sometimes even the offers
  • discounts on the other platforms.

Customer loyalty is indeed a determining aspect in a business’s success, and even a minor glitch from the retailer can entirely ruin the brand reputation for a consumer.

Many businesses fail to understand that trying to retain a user is about investing in building a steady and rewarding relationship with them over time and employing every channel of communication to materialize it.

10. Relevant Leads

For eCommerce businesses, drawing good traffic may be achievable through promotions and other marketing efforts, but getting the relevant leads remains a huge challenge. No wonder the average eCommerce conversion rates are often minimal.

A report points out how only 2.57 percent of eCommerce website visits have been converted into purchases in the US.

The efforts invested in qualifying the visitor into a user can be futile if the right audience is not accessing the website. Several times brands fail to communicate the right message about their product or service and hence are unable to engage the interested audience.

11. Getting the right customers:

The online shoppers don’t shop in the same way as they were doing earlier. They use amazon to get their products, not only through google. They check lots of recommendations from social media. 

By using the smartphones, they easily get product reviews unlike in the stores and then buy it using all the available payment methods. Many things have changed including the way they accept the content and hold the communication through online. One major challenge of e-commerce is that consumers get distracted through social media and other technology.

The retailer needs to focus on their audience and how to attract them efficiently without hampering the marketing budget.

 Most businesses when going online face some of these challenges but with a strong marketing strategy and advanced technology, will help you to build a long lasting business with your customers.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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 You can get lots of opportunities of e-commerce business, where your business can easily reach out to your customers all through online methods.

Final Thoughts

To overcome these eCommerce challenges, businesses should operate as modern omnichannel retailers. They should focus on turning data into insights, knowledge, and ways for market leadership.

Inspiring shoppers and driving loyalty with personalization at scale can work in their favor and can help support their brand, business model, and international expansion.

In this highly competitive world, entrepreneurs need to use smart digital retail practices to address the eCommerce challenges facing online businesses with the right set of tools.

Finally, all of this must be backed up by strong digital leadership, providing clarity and support with the right resources to help you become a market leader.

On the edge of developing your eCommerce Application? Talk to our expert!

How Mobile App Can Bring A Modern Revolution To Competitive Business

Posted on by Jay

Now it is important that all companies have mobile software today.

The mobile application is a growing industry with significant competition: more and more processes from different walks of life are being transferred to smartphones as applications.

The niches in which the applications work is diverse: games, health, office programs or SaaS, eCommerce, etc.

The infographic statistics shows, building mobile applications must be a priority for many organizations, but it is often difficult to choose a better development method because the lines between the various options available are becoming increasingly blurred.

So, before choosing any development method for developing mobile applications, e.g. Web vs. mobile vs Hybrid, we will give the modern and trending integration options mentioned by professionals and the cons for each.

Depending on the project’s business goals and objectives, you can decide which development method you should choose. Also, this infographic will discuss more deeply about the development of mobile applications and their benefits.

Before that, let’s know;

What is the Importance of Developing Mobile Applications?

When developing applications for certain mobile platforms or operating systems, it is known as mobile application development.

They provide optimized performance for customers and have the latest technological advantages such as GPS compared to web applications. There is a special application store for mobile applications where users can access this application.

The leading mobile app stores – App Store and Google Play offer a huge amount of software that solves the tasks of users. However, there is still room for innovation in the market.

How Mobile App Can Bring a Modern Revolution to Competitive Business

Conclusion:

In the last few years, there is an overwhelming increase in popularity in the use of Artificial Intelligence in various fields of business, industries as well as users.

So, it is fair to reveal that AI is the future of mobile app integration and development. App development agency like Andolasoft and many experts are forecasting, this technology will grow rapidly and will offer more benefits to the user.

Want to develop a modern feature-packed mobile application for your business? Let’s discuss!