Author: Lori H Morrisis

Lori H. Morris is a digital marketing specialist and content writer, specializing in brand awareness and social media for startups and large enterprises. Lori H. Morris helps organizations at a Toronto website design company achieve their business goals through social media planning and execution.

Top Factors That Influence Online eCommerce Behavior

Posted on by Lori H Morrisis

You can setup the best eCommerce store in the world, but if you fail to fully understand online customer behavior or how to align your marketing practices for best results, you won’t get the results you’re looking for.

The good news is that there is lots of information on how to best market your products and services online.

It all begins with a working knowledge of your product and the niche in which you operate. It would also help to have a basic understanding of the operating systems that support your store. Then there’s the marketing side of things, and there is a good chance you will have to cover this essential aspect of retail all on your own.

But, there is one more crucial aspect of eCommerce that is sometimes underappreciated and misplaced in all the facts and figures. This is the behavior of the online customer. While the behavior seems pretty straightforward – a customer arrives on your site, sees something that interests them and if the price and shipping is acceptable, the transaction is made.

In a perfect world, yes! But, in reality things are rarely that simple. There is a lot more that goes into the buying process. The four stages of the frameworks are these:

  • Need recognition
  • Search for solution
  • Evaluation of alternatives
  • Purchase

Each of these stages of the process has specific factors that affect them. If you are thinking of investing time and effort into your store, you can’t ignore these crucial factors that affect your success.

The FFF Model Of Online Consumer Behavior

In 2012, two management professors working at the Priyadarshini Engineering College and S. B. Patil Institute of Management proposed a model for online customer behavior. Ujwala Dange’s and Vinay Kimar’s model is not the first of its kind, but is the most relevant one I have found to this day.

The FFF model includes both the external and internal factors when affecting buying behavior. It goes on to describe in detail some filtering elements that customers apply to their selection process when choosing a store to do business and the process that leads them to the final choice of product.

Let’s have a look at the factors that influence online shopping behavior,

1. Factors

From left to right, the first thing we see illustrated by Kumar and Dange are the factors that lead a customer to purchase a particular product. There are two categories the internal and external that affects a purchase. The external factors are those that can’t be controlled by the customer. These include five different sectors:

  • Demographics (including socio-economics, technology and public policy)
  • Culture
  • Subculture
  • Reference groups
  • Marketing

From these factors, the customer produces two very different buying emotions: non-functional and functional.

Functional motives for buying include those reasons that appeal to the needs of the consumer, such as the availability and convenience of a certain outlet. This could also include the environment of the shopping location and the selection of goods available.

Non-functional motives are related to reasons such as social values or cultural reasons for a purchase. These may include the specific brands available or the store brand itself.

2. Filtering Elements

Security, trust and privacy are the three hurdles that must be countered to attain successful online marketing. Customers use these three important factors to filter their stores and arrive at the one where they will be willing to do business. In other words, if you don’t pass these three tests from the customer, there is a good chance of losing customers, even if you are the cheapest option out there.

It is important to consider the risks involved with online purchases compared to conventional transactions in a brick and mortar location. Customers feel the lack of any tangible interaction as a high-risk purchase and must be reassured their cash and shopping experience is safe in every way.

They use the three factors mentioned to decide how reliable their retail outlet is.

Security

It is a hazard of the digital realm that information can be easily intercepted, lost or stolen. This includes the important figures of the payment made and the personal information of the individuals making a purchase.

The details of the transaction can be kept in the stores database and there are numerous cases of a security breach where all this sensitive information is accessed by the nefarious. Customers are becoming increasingly aware of this tendency to identity theft and are more cautious about who they hand this information to.

Privacy

Another important risk that even the most unassuming consumer is aware of is the threat that their information can finds it way to third parties with no end of misfortune. From spam to undesirable correspondence this is a serious issue. Even though the results of a privacy breach in this form will result in financial loss the inconvenience of this situation makes it serious enough to shun any non-trustworthy online retailer.

Trustworthiness

Trust is the single most important of the three and certainly the hardest to come by. There is an increasing amount of distrust online for these smaller stores. The obvious result is that bigger name corporations like Amazon are taking all the booty.

But, if you can attain a level of trust with your customer pool you will set yourself miles ahead of the competition. Trust tells the consumer they are the most important.

3. Filtered Buying Behaviour

The last topic covers a set of motives and expectations that your customers have about the filters set above and is important study material for the eCommerce entrepreneur.

How To Use Marketing Model To Develop a Better Store

Understanding these important points will allow you to build toward a better marketing model. The following takeaways should never be forgotten.

  • Understand that different demographics will have different motives for affecting their final purchasing decisions. Make sure that every aspect of your eCommerce presence is created with these details in mind.
  • Show some personality and present your human side in the store, this makes you a “real” person rather than a potentially dishonest machine. This can be done with those personal touches that show you really know your customer their needs and even what they like to see in a valued product.
  • Focus on customer service. If you are known for going the extra mile and making your customer feel it, you will reach that success you hope for. If they see you reaching out beyond the machine they will feel more inclined to do business with you.

Conclusion:

It’s very hard to read the exact behavior of users and consumers in your eCommerce business because online shopping completely depends on customers’ mindset. The above points can make your products to reach near your target users expectations. You need to do deep market and consumer behavior analysis.

We at Andolasoft provide wide range of services such as eCommerce application development/customization including store development. We have developed our own shopping cart (JuggernautCart) with digital products and services. JuggernautCart is one of the most affordable for selling your digital products/assets such as eBooks, add-ons, podcasts, images, videos and many more and you can customize and use these according to your needs.

4 Tips For Guest Blogging Success

Posted on by Lori H Morrisis

“There are still many good reasons to do some Guest Blogging”

Matt Cutts

If you want to rank your website organically on search engines, you’ll greatly benefit from link building.

You need successful back links if you want the best search engine rankings. If linking is already part of your SEO strategy, it will help your website appear in the top 10 results by search engines.

If you take a closer look, you will find out that every top-ranking site on the search engine has lots of links.

Links always provide power and context to pages that the search engine find authoritative.

A page with more links is more authoritative than one with fewer links. The problem here is that every site needs links and everyone is always campaigning for them.

Well, you might ask how you will actually get links when everyone is asking for one.

Google and other search engines use links to measure the popularity, authority and relevancy of any content on the Internet. Link building is a great way to increase your organic traffic and add to your SEO strategy.

Come 2018, here is some of the link building strategies you should consider if you’re already link building, and especially if you haven’t yet.

Negotiate Paid Posts

Do you do a lot of guest posting? Well, you will come across a lot of blogs that will charge you to publish your post.

These are very common in some niches such as coupon, work at home mom and mommy blogs. Most people don’t have enough resources for sponsored guest posts, so you can always find another creative option.

You can apologize for not having enough money for a sponsored guest. You can also mention the prices you charge for your writing. Make mention that the guest poster will be receiving your article for free and the traffic they will be getting if the post remains lie.

Request them to waive the sponsored fee for your post. It’s actually a positive note on your end, especially if the sponsored fee is lesser than the actual value of the article.

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Use this point sparingly since you might waste a lot of time negotiating with the owner only to end being unable to post on the site.

Include value in your guest posts, like videos or guides

Rather than using a generic text, you should consider using a PDF guide or a video in your guest posts. It’s a different way for people to see your information, especially since different people always learn in varying ways thus providing numerous perceived values.

Blog owners will also see the value. If you mention that you can provide a video, they will notice that you’re willing to provide something specific for their site.

Videos are a great start, but you can enhance your guest posting strategy with PDF guides. Empower guest bloggers to build a small section for resources on their website.

By offering value to the blog owner, you’ll increase your chances of being published. Pitch a video that’s about 5 minutes or so for the best results.

Target sites in different markets

Other guest posters will always advise you to post on websites in the same niche as yours. While it’s a smart idea, there will be lesser responses since many people will view you as a competitor.

If you’re in a competitive market, it’s hard enough to find someone willing to allow you to post on their site for free.

Did you consider guest posting on other sites in different niches? That’s advice you don’t hear often but it works perfectly if you try it out.

For instance, if you’re running a gambling site, you can always try guest posting in traveling or health niches. Make sure your content is angled to fit these niches perfectly.

You can try out a topic like ways on how gamblers can stay fit or top casinos any traveler should visit in their lifetime. It’s easy enough to customize the content for any niche so you don’t have to limit yourself to one niche since that’s what all the other guest posters are doing.

Once you step out of the box, you will be able to get more links than what anyone else is getting.

Create templates and use them effectively

You will find a lot of guest posting advice warning against the use of email templates because they are not personal or unique. Well, that’s a common misconception.

You should know that you’re advised not to use templates because most guest posters rarely take the time to create a good one. To create a personal and unique website, you need to show some familiarity with the site.

For instance, you can always mention that you have read some of the posts present on the site and actually have an ideal topic for your guest post.

Next, you should pitch a fitting and solid post for the site. Make sure the post is different than what’s already on the site and actually a good idea for the best results.

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For the rest of the template you should add an introduction, brief description on how you will send the post and a closing paragraph. With 4 paragraphs, you’re good to go.

It’s a very simple idea that’s not complicated. Basically, you need to become creative when you’re doing this. You can build links for yourself and summarize the anchor text or make it hard to work with depending on your needs.

Keep in mind that if you’re building links for other people, you might be requested to use a specific anchor text. With a little brainstorming, you’re good to go.

That’s all you need to know about guest posting and how to boost your site’s ranking by doing it effectively. Remember having quality links regardless of how little always comes in handy.

Therefore, take advantage of what little you have to improve the quality for the best results. Always concentrate on the content to make sure it connects with the reader.

Conclusion:

You may get more opportunity to do guest blogging, however you should choose the right website(s) to get high quality back links which would increase the rankings as well as traffic.Please make sure to check the domain authority and popularity of the website before guest blogging!

Are you interested for guest blogging? You’re most welcome! Check our Guidelines

The Next Generation of eCommerce

Posted on by Lori H Morrisis

Amazon celebrated its birthday on July 5, 2017. The conglomerate already commands 37 per cent of the eCommerce market according to recent projections. And will be responsible for half of all the online sales within 3 years.

Taking these numbers into consideration, it’s easy to forget that both Amazon and eCommerce are still in their infancy in the grand scheme of things.

In spite of the futuristic advances such as the new drone service and 2-hour delivery, success in the long run starts with an understanding of the potential points of friction and fundamental market opportunities.

What does the future of eCommerce hold for 2018 and beyond? The answer is in the following trends:

eCommerce is enjoying growth, but represents just 9.1% of retail sales

The market share of eCommerce in Q3 2017 expressed as a percentage of the overall retail sales has grown to 9.1% according to the U.S. census bureau, which is up from 3.5% just one decade ago.

However, brick and mortar businesses are still dominant, and by a huge margin. The quick growth coupled with a low market share means that the opportunity still exists for new players to outpace the leaders in the industry.

High-growth businesses should find ways to enjoy success in business and life. Companies that wish to capitalize on this trend also need to focus on optimizing the in-store experiences for customers in conjunction with the eCommerce expressions.

B2B eCommerce dwarfs B2C eCommerce by more than $2 Trillion

You might not have already made an investment in your own eCommerce wholesale channel, but you have probably considered it. The B2B eCommerce numbers speak for themselves after all. Statista estimates that the gross merchandise volume of B2B eCommerce transactions in 2017 is projected to equal $7.66 trillion up from 2013’s $5.83 trillion.

The difference in growth is almost equal to the whole amount of projected transactions in business-to-consumer transactions in 2017 at $2.143. The average conversion rate of business-to-business survey respondents was 10%, which is more than 3 times higher than the 3 percent average that B2C eCommerce executives reported.

The opportunity naturally comes with its own challenges. All B2B eCommerce buyers are also potential B2C eCommerce shoppers. Having shopped at Amazon, they are also likely to be conditioned to desire a similar experience i.e. streamlined, direct, and fast operations without any resistance between search and checkout. They are likely to prefer buying at the website and not via a sales representative.

It is mandatory to experiment with self-service B2B eCommerce.

 eCommerce Automation is an Attainable Reality for Businesses

Would you tell anybody if your business had a secret formula to reducing costs, saving time, and selling more? Marketing automation was that secret a decade ago. Enterprises such as Costco, Walmart, and Amazon, which had resources for research and development on a large scale leveraged its power to build empires.

Automation is an emerging new secret for the future of eCommerce. For starters, no eCommerce platform offers comprehensive automation as an accessible feature. Firms that are automating have either created custom in-house processes at a great financial cost, or assembled mix-and-match workarounds using third-party applications.

No platform has unleashed eCommerce automation until now:

1. Shopify Scripts

With Shopify Scripts, you can add relevant payment options, automatic discounts, and specialized shipping options to ensure that each customer has a customized checkout experience. Scripts provide enhanced control over the customer’s cart and helps optimize closest to the money.

2. Launch pad

Launchpad acts as the command center for major commerce events such as special celebrations, product releases, and flash sales. Schedule everything on the to-do list long before the arrival of big days and take the heavy-lifting and guesswork out of driving revenue to the store.

3. Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow refers to a 3-step visual builder that makes automation for any back-office or customer-facing process that you can imagine possible. By specifying actions, conditions, and triggers, you can create your own processes or even download and then install a growing number of per-made workflows without the need to code.

The biggest Challenge for eCommerce is Fragmentation

The accessibility of digital has made it possible for consumers to enjoy access to increased buying opportunities than previously. Phones now provide users with immediate access to numerous retailers. For the big-ticket items, it means an exponential increase i.e. touch points.

The lower-cost products hardly ever takes 3 months of research, but just about all the online buyers currently follow the same, meandering path. If you are a large company, this can scare you since niche boutiques are uniquely positioned to enjoy increased market share. If you are a smaller company, the lower barriers to market entry and growth will excite you.

Irrespective of where you sit on the fence between a dominant player in the industry and a startup, there is always an opportunity to win as well as an opportunity to lose.

International eCommerce is Still Mostly Untapped

1.4 billion People are likely to join the middle class in the world by 2020 according to McKinsey.

85 of these people will be in the Asia Pacific region. Retailers that enter this space early enough are likely to gain competitive advantage when it comes to meeting market demand.

For example, the William Wrigley Jr. Company, which is a leading manufacturer of chewing gum, has already gained 40% market share in China. eCommerce as a whole is actually likely to shift away from the West too in the future.

Why?

Every country introduces a new set of market preferences, constraints, and security challenges. Take a country such as a Nigeria for example, where U.S. eCommerce products might be in high demand but fulfilling this demand is highly risky.

You shouldn’t just avoid these global opportunities. A better idea would be to find a trusted partner and creative workaround. For example, Mall for Africa is a service that helps UK and US eCommerce companies reduce the stress and risk associated with selling into Africa because of fraud.

The company has managed to create distribution points in key locations to make sure that goods can be accessed even in somewhat remote locations and depends on rigorous and multi-level security systems to protect data and identities and even identify any unusual purchases.

The company has helped lower the risk and allowed brands such as Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie & Fitch, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew entry into African markets where they are in high demand.

Double down on the global eCommerce markets and ensure that infrastructure such as the international warehouses and global fulfillment partner is ready to handle it.

Mobile might be the norm now, but it adds complexities to purchases

You have probably witnessed mobile traffic outpacing or at least coming close to your desktop traffic levels in the past year. In the most recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw Shopify, mobile sales accounted for 59.6% of overall number of orders and 64% of the Black Friday sales specifically, which represents a growth of 10 percent year-over-year.

Native social selling is finally producing results

Selling directly on social media might still be in its experimental stage, but the results are in!

Instagram will have more than 1 billion monthly active users by the time you read this. Flurry estimates that the average adult spends about 5 hours daily on their devices and over half the time is spent on messaging, social, entertainment and media applications.

A good percentage of them are translating into sales with about 18.2% of respondents to the September 2016 survey reporting to have purchased products via social media directly. More are likely to buy in the future because the early adopters help vet and validate the experience.

MVMT Watches has already enjoyed some success with social selling. The brand generated $15,000 in revenue and 1,500 people visited their Facebook in a week. The brand director of brand and retention marketing, Blake Pinsker says that the brand’s mobile conversion rate was more than double once people became comfortable with the idea of buying from their phones. Blake says that the brand believes that its growth on its Facebook shop is almost the same as people familiarize themselves with the platform.

The Holy Grail of eCommerce engagement is content

Great content is helpful, educational, and entertaining. It is cost-effective and impact to ROI as a marketing strategy. It is the reason why 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. In addition, brands that depend on content usually save more than $14 on every customer you acquire.

Hypothetically, content is something companies can create as soon as the next day. Creating a product guide or launching a blog requires minimal resources. However, it is important to be strategic and thoughtful about your approach: the attention spans of consumers are spread thin and audiences have high-quality standards when it comes to what they read, watch, and interact with.

Some Final Words…

It is no longer “business as usual.” eCommerce leaders now have a world of opportunity to evolve and adapt, with success emanating from a series of small steps.

Except the web and mobile app development, Andolasoft has its own shopping cart (JuggernautCart) with digital products and serving others in building their own shopping carts. JuggernautCart is the most affordable shopping cart to sell your digital products or assets like eBooks, add-ons, podcasts, images, videos and many more and you can customize and use these according to your need.

Are you looking to build your own Shopping Cart! Consult Now

How To Increase Your Mobile App Downloads

Posted on by Lori H Morrisis

You have finally built a mobile app of your own! You really love your app icon and design, and it works perfectly on all of the devices that you tested it on.  You found a competition-free and unexplored niche.

There is just one problem (and unfortunately, it’s a major one): your app isn’t being downloaded by anyone.

If this is the case, then you have encountered the same problem that numerous app developers encounter after their apps have been published.

Don’t get discouraged – if you would like the entire world to use your mobile app – you can make this happen.

You can start making some real money after you begin getting downloads.

It just takes the right knowledge and some effort in order to get attention for your app from the masses.  In order to learn all of the best ways for increasing mobile app downloads, first, you have to understand how people download apps.

Let’s discuss some essential mobile application development language.

Most likely you have a basic understanding of what search engine optimization (SEO) is.  But do you know about app store optimization (ASO)?

In terms of your app’s success, they are quite similar, but ASO has an even bigger impact on your app’s listing than SEO does for Google’s search results. In addition, ASO specifically increases your app’s visibility in the market.  The higher its rank is, the more people will be able to find your app when doing a search.

After your app has been found by a user, ASO helps to determine as well whether or not the person will download your app.  Your ASO is affected by a number of different factors:

Positive Reviews – A mobile app with more positive reviews will have a higher rating.  When an app is highly rated by users, it will be ranked highly also, which will increase the number of downloads the app gets.

App Downloads – The higher the number of downloads your app gets, the more it will receive.  To rank highly, the goal of an app published should be to get steady amounts of downloads.

Keyword Relevance – Apps that have popular keywords in the description and title will get more downloads.

Revenue – Apps that have a good revenue generation record will receive more visibility in the app store.

Country – Your ranking for a region might be influenced by regional success.  There can be a snowball effect when your rankings are boosted in multiple regions.

Back links – Your app rankings can be improved if you have back links points to numerous relevant pages.

Social Proof – The popularity of your app across various social media platforms may affect its rankings in the app store – particularly on Androids.  Google+ shares and +1’s can determine whether your app is ignored or noticed by users.

App Starts – How many times your app is actually opened by users can impact your ranking significantly.

Retention – Your rankings can be affected by how many people keep your app for 30 days vs. how many uninstall it.  Your app description should be catered heavily towards your target audience in order to ensure retention.

When all of the above is taken into account, it can change how the general public perceives your mobile app dramatically, and how the app store algorithms treat it.

Now that you better understand the fate of your app after it has been published, we can take a more detailed look at some of the best ways to increase downloads of your app.

Get an Enticing App Icon Created

The first thing that somebody will see inside of the app store is your app icon, so your chosen design is crucial to your success.  When users are scrolling through an app store, your icon should pop out and be recognizable and eye-catching.

Be sure that the design you use clearly represents your app.  It needs to provide a clear idea of what users will get after they have installed your app.

Your app icon should be straightforward and not be too flashy.  It is best to keep things simple – you don’t want it to be too confusing or look cluttered.

Social Media Outreach

Even before making decisions regarding which social networks you want to use for building the public persona of your app, you first must decide which angle to get started from.  That means that the social media voice that you use needs to match the personality of your app.

What does your app resemble?  If it was a human, what would it act and sound like?

Use that voice on a consistent basis whenever you are posting.  If you have a cool and edgy app, then don’t use bland business language and bore your fans.  However, if you have an app that is geared for young professionals, then that type of business language might be well-suited for your audience.

The social media platforms that provide the most attention for apps are:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • FourSquare
  • LinkedIn

Don’t just post promotions and information about your app on the social platforms.  Instead, engage and create conversations with fans. To increase engagement, respond to the comments in the voice of your app.  This type of relationship will help to increase the amount of positive word-of-mouth you get for being committed to your users, and as a result, will increase your downloads.

Effectively Market Your App

Don’t get too conservative with your marketing budget.

Marketing is typically used structured over several months or weeks.  However, if you would like your app to see a sharp spike in the number of downloads quickly then, concentrate your marketing spend all within a short time frame.

In order to roll out a comprehensive marketing campaign at the same time does take dedication and courage, but you can see some outstanding returns when it is done successfully.

Depending on how much your total budget is, you should spend your money within a couple of days or at most a week.  Your advertising should be spread across the most popular channels that your target audiences use, and may include the following:

  • Social media
  • Websites like Digg and Reddit
  • Relevant magazines and blogs
  • App directory sites
  • Content marketing
  • SMS marketing
  • Email marketing

You will receive many of your downloads from organic searches, however, you will also get a lot of downloads from the landing page on your website.   That is why you need to have a webpage created that is dedicated to your new app and has a clear call-to-action that tells users to download the app.

Request Reviews

If you are able to get positive reviews from your app’s fans, it will result in an exponential increase in your downloads.

Reviews declaring that your app is valuable or that state that it provides an excellent user experience are great testimonials that tell other users that it is worth it to download your app.

You may be tempted to buy fake reviews to increase how much attention your app gets overall. However, if the app store discovers you have used that tactic, your app may be suspended.

Organic reviews coming from real individuals are much more valuable for your app compared to ones that are fabricated since you can learn from them also.  They will not only provide other users with feedback and a better understanding of the app, but they can also tell you what things need to be changed or fixed.

Request reviews from various individuals who have real influence.  Critics from major tech websites and popular You Tubers with big audiences are some excellent targets to send requests to.

Mention in your press release that you want to get feedback on your app.  The media outlets in some cases will have somebody on their staffs already who reviews apps.

Since you alerted them to something that relates to your product, they might return the favor and give you a positive review. After a publication has reviewed you, then contact all the smaller outlets you reached out to previously.  Tell them about the new article.  It may cause them to write their own review.

In the end…some closing points

It isn’t always easy to achieve getting more downloads of your app.

However, if you follow best practices and use the tips above, you will see a significant increase in your app store rankings and downloads.

Always keep in mind what your target audience’s preference is when trying these strategies out.   What works the best with general consumers may not work the same for your audience, so keep their best interests in mind when using these tips.

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