Category: Productivity App

The Growth of Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce

Posted on by Jay

Technology combined with eCommerce has taken the world by storm even prior to the Covid-19 crisis. Customer satisfaction, brand recognition, and the effectiveness of the sales procedures are the pillars on which the e-Commerce industry thrives. With technology increasingly infiltrating the e-commerce market, retailers are on the lookout for innovative ways to improve these aspects with newer features to automate processes and stay ahead of the curve.

All this reckoned with, the integration of AI proved to be a game-changer for eCommerce and retail platforms, thus shaping retail digitization.

The below graph indicates Statista’s estimates of retail sales to amount to nearly $30 trillion by 2023. Nasdaq estimates 95% of purchases by E-commerce to be facilitated by 2040.

Retail-ecommerce-sales(Source – indatalabs.com)

The implementation of Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce can change business functions with demand forecasting and big data based on behavior, product, and, action. The usage of AI in the eCommerce industry brings a set of unique perks to most retailers. Not only does it provide the luxury of shopping but also reduces costs and strengthens the top line and bottom line of the organization.

Recommendation Systems

Ecommerce application development companies offer intuitive web and mobile apps simplifying online ordering for retail customers. They integrate AI that gathers data based on user’s interests that also drive the rate of up-selling. Amazon is the best example that offers a customized web page to millions of users. Amazon’s recommendation engine is well-known for the use of AI in e-commerce to generate suggestions.

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Another industry magnate, Netflix, saves $1 billion a year, thanks to AI-powered systems that deliver 75% of content to users through targeted and customized recommendations. These technologies are built on top of big data.

Consumers can also receive non-trivial recommendations aligned to their current location. All in all, AI keeps track of your previous shopping habits and makes intelligent suggestions for similar items that you’ll enjoy just as much.

Definitely, the growth of Artificial Intelligence in the eCommerce industry has increased productivity with fully automated data processing to ease lives.

Chatbots in eCommerce

In 2020, nearly 77% of the most successful businesses generated leads through chatbots.

ChatbotChatbots are algorithm-based customer service tools built to enhance customer experience.

According to a study conducted by Bain & Company, businesses that connect and communicate with customers service requests on social media cite a 20% to 40% increase in revenue from those consumers.

Chatbots, which replace human workers, help to make more productive use of the resource by giving them more opportunities to contribute.  High user rating and recommendation, increased sales, and user retention spiked the integration of chatbots in the eCommerce space. Reduction in shopping cart abandonment curbed lengthy checkout procedures. This factor was seen as a major reason for success in retaining customers.

For example, Agromall, a Philippines-based eCommerce store sells consumer goods. Their bot makes it easier to extract key information, delivery details, and talk to a support agent.

The bot was designed with two main objectives in mind:

  • To streamline the sales process.
  • Customers can chat with an agency at any point of the sales process, which will enhance the live chat and service experience.

Argomall’s store bot uses Google’s Site Search API for customers to enter keywords like “Sony TV” and other products.

The results?

After its launch, Agromall generated a whopping 23x increase in ROI, thanks to its chatbots that is the major driving tool for sales and customer service.

Chatbots have made their mark with exponential growth in revenue due to their automated order placement and personalized search results. People who use messaging apps to connect with brands are 53% more likely to shop with a company they can contact.

AR and VR Transforming Ecommerce

Retailers are aiming to create intuitive and friendly shopping experiences by combining current e-commerce stores with immersive technology like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). These innovations have revolutionized the e-commerce industry and altered the way companies operate.

The “try before you buy” phrase has earned its reputation in the eCommerce world. All thanks to the AR & VR Technology that possesses the ability to visualize a product of your choice.

How can the power of AR and VR change the future of shopping?

AR and VR can enable customers to visit interactive showrooms and experience products. Customers get to make informed purchase decisions by simply scanning a product through a Smartphone and viewing a list of products available on numerous eCommerce platforms. It lets you flip through retail stores and flipping through product descriptions and dimensions.

AR and VR in Ecommerce
(Source – ecommercegermany.com)

Some of the greatest eCommerce companies are leveraging virtual reality to create incredible experiences and gain a competitive advantage.

Customers are more likely to purchase from brands that use immersive technology to market themselves, according to a recent survey.

On the other hand, retailers can now create virtual versions and take complete control of the exact replica of their physical store. Designing and modifying an online marketplace according to the fluctuating customer trends and product preferences is what the future looks like.

Building an immersive environment capable of simulating real-life is perhaps one of the greatest advantages AR and VR bring to the e-commerce industry.

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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AR and VR can allow consumers to immerse themselves further into the e-commerce experience, enabling the opportunity for rapid growth and increased sales, irrespective of a 360-degree video catalog delivery or simply an interactive digital experience.

AI Integrated Ecommerce App Development

Some of the greatest eCommerce app developments enable custom-made solutions using AI to make the right inquiry to the users. Customer analysis, climatic conditions in a specific location, and historical data from previous records can all be used to forecast sales for eCommerce customers.

With SaaS in full swing, it’s critical to hire eCommerce developers who can evaluate and automate a large number of customer interactions and processes on a daily basis. The stress on ever-increasing demands of automation challenges in web and mobile app development companies has had a huge impact on online shopping performance. The demand to hire eCommerce developers with a focus on end-to-end solutions increases the stress of offering a significant increment in user fulfillment.

That being said, automated eCommerce development translates into conveying the right message at the right time to the right set of customers.

AI-driven solutions can piece together a variety of insights to automate eCommerce developments for easing the lives of users. Making informed decisions in a matter of seconds is what AI in eCommerce stands for.

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Tools to Make Your Development Team More Productive

Posted on by Gabe Nelson

Productivity is something that every software development team struggles to optimize. The good news is that there are many different tools available that can help to improve your productivity and efficiency.

With the new era of technology, many new resources have become available that can take advantage of automation.

You can theoretically build a workflow pipeline that is completely automated from the point that you write your code and deploy it into your software with an update.

It can be hard to imagine the full development potential that can be achieved when using advanced tools to optimize your productivity.

By conducting the appropriate research and making the appropriate preparation for your development team’s workflow, you can also take advantage of these incredible tools that rely on the latest technology.

Hosted CI/CD from Semaphore CI

Semaphore has an excellent CI/CD tool that is specifically designed to enhance automation and productivity.

With enhanced performance and more customization than ever before, it’s hard to argue with Semaphore’s claims of being an industry leader.

You may double your development potential when using the Semaphore CI/CD utility because it allows you to take advantage of high-quality features that have specifically been developed to optimize code deployment and automation.

Program your pipelines and scale as needed for the flexibility that you require.

One of the great things about this utility is the fact that it is so customizable. Very few tools are as flexible as Semaphore’s CI/CD tool and you can easily improve your DevOps workflow and utilize any language or platform that you require.

There are very few limitations and that alone should be enough to improve your development productivity by a significant margin.

One of the best ways to use the Semaphore CI/CD tool is to set up an automated multi-stage release pipeline that ensures that all of your build updates are of the highest quality.

The last thing that anybody wants to do is deploy faulty code with errors or glitches. By using the Semaphore CI/CD utility, you can improve productivity and efficiency, without sacrificing any quality in your builds.

Improve Your Development Workflow with Orangescrum

Orangescrum is a project collaboration tool with having scheduling utility that can be used by large development teams to organize a list of agenda items that need to be completed within a certain timeframe.

This has got to be one of the best resources available for software developers right now because it is designed to be organized and efficient.

One of the reasons that Orangescrum is so convenient is because it updates in real-time and can even provide instant notifications to members of your development team.

If you want to meet your pre-defined deadline, simply integrate them into Orangescrum and allow your development team to plan their work accordingly.

You will likely notice a much more organized workflow with a clear agenda that remains in focus at all times.

In many cases, other resources fail to provide the functionality that is required to remain productive, efficient, and organized.

Those are three of the most important factors during the development process and by having a tool like Orangescrum to support those concepts, you will likely notice a major improvement in development productivity and efficiency.

Take Advantage of Video Conferencing Software

Real-time communication has never been more important in the world of software development and there are now many different ways to take advantage of video conferencing software like Skype or Zoom to enhance productivity.

Video ConferencingSource: Pixels

Development teams that work remotely may not be able to communicate effectively without video conferencing software.

Communicating with emails or text messages can work, but it’s hard to transfer large amounts of information without actually hearing somebody speak.

Video conferencing software may not be the best solution for every development team, but it’s a fantastic piece of technology to utilize if communication or productivity is lacking in your development workflow.

If most of your development team is working remotely for one reason or another, it’s probably not a bad idea to take advantage of video conferencing software to serve as a communication channel between members of your development team.

You will likely notice an immediate increase in efficiency, communication, and overall productivity for your project.

Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Source: Pixels

You have now had the opportunity to learn about three excellent resources that can be used to improve the development productivity in your workflow.

These tools focus on automation, communication, and organization.

All three of these factors are extremely important and you should absolutely weigh them into your consideration before making a final decision.

Some of the resources may not be right for your specific situation and that’s perfectly fine as long as you understand the types of benefits that you may be sacrificing.

You might already have a system in place to address those potential concerns.

With that being said, there’s no doubt that automated CI/CD pipeline integration from Semaphore CI is absolutely exceptional for automated build deployments.

The ability to take advantage of automation is going to improve your productivity significantly.

Video conferencing software and an organizational tool like Orangescrum may be able to help your workflow in slightly different ways.

There’s obviously a good chance that you may already be using video conferencing software or a planning system like Orangescrum.

You should take a significant amount of time to research different tools that are not listed here as well because there are many great productivity tools that can help to make your workflow more efficient and simplified.

What Privacy Policy Stands in SaaS Application Development?

Posted on by Jay

Recently, WhatsApp has updatedits user data privacy policy and this update creates so much hush between end-users.

Even tech giant Elon Musk also tweeted about it.

By the way, we do not want to make any comment on that nor want to make any comparisons.

But any user data of any application is a primary concern in today’s market. Service providers must satisfy their end-users by making much-required transparency of data privacy policies.

A few years back, there was only a fundamental shift in how companies do business online, and about data privacy. But after the intervention of cloud-based business strategy things have changed.

Now building credibility as a cloud-based business is harder than ever.

Let’s take the SaaS market. To make the subscription payments option available, the SaaS companies need a strong focus on keeping customer data secure and communicating that security to their users.

Just letting strengthen the privacy concerns are not enough though – the SaaS Application builders need concrete security measures in place that customers can easily understand.

Here we have put together some of the basic information and best practices on data security policies to help you get started with securing your SaaS application. Let’s dive in!

Basic things about SaaS security

SaaS security refers to the data privacy and safety of user data in subscription-based software i.e. Orangescrum, Wakeupsales, etc.

Each day, SaaS companies access, and analyze various data of customers. Even including the credit and debit card details.

As a SaaS founder, If you fail to keep those data safe, it will have a direct and lasting impact on your user retention and business growth.

With high-profile leaks like Cambridge Analytica happening more often, customers are increasingly concerned with their data privacy.

Concerning the customer data safety, different country’s regulatory bodies have issued various security guidelines like GDPR, EU-US and the Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks, etc. These are mandatory to follow as a SaaS company.

And all these guidelines declares “Doing so ensures that whatever data your product has access to, it’s kept secure in a way that customers can understand—whether you’re dealing with internal or external issues.”

Also, the SaaS companies need to consider the data leakage.

As well as keeping secret your customer data you need to protect these customer data from outside attacks also. Or I can say you need to create a secure environment to run your SaaS application.

So, you need to make a dedicated strategy for your SaaS product during the development process.

The best practices to ensure data privacy and security:

Whether you’re developing a new SaaS product or rolling out a new feature, it’s important to consider how these changes will impact your SaaS Application’s security.

SaaS Secrity Layers
Image Source: Profitwell

Keep the following best practices in mind to ensure your data privacy and security.

Encrypt your data

Encrypting the internal or user data should be the top priority through every layer of your technology stack.

A proper encryption ensures that the customer data isn’t immediately out there for all to see.

And let this know to your customers that your product is always keeping all sensitive billing information safe by communicating your encryption policies.

Not to mention, there are many common encryption protocols to use, each ensuring that the data you rely on isn’t stored in plain text.

Make privacy a priority

Privacy and security statements are required by most compliance and regulatory protocols, but that’s not all they’re good for.

By creating a robust statement for your own product, it educates both your team and your customer in how to handle valuable data.

Work with your development and legal teams to define the specific information that should be included in your own privacy policy.

Educate your customers

According to Gartner research, customers will be responsible for 95% of cloud security failures by 2020.

Whenever you onboard new customers or push important updates to current ones, make sure that you’re actively reaching out to let people know how it will impact their security.

More and more SaaS companies are moving to an entirely cloud-based infrastructure and most customers don’t understand the implications of this move.

Make sure your customers know how to keep their information safe to minimize security issues.

Backup user data in several locations

Lots of businesses aren’t prepared for data breaches, which makes effective customer data management very important.

Backing up your data in several locations ensures that no single system failure will damage your security.

Many cloud platforms SaaS companies rely on will provide this functionality as a part of their product, but you need to be diligent with backups to avoid potentially disastrous losses of customer data.

Consult a cyber-security firm

Third-party security firms can provide valuable industry insight into what you need to do to keep your platform secure.

Their testing protocols ensure that your software, network, and infrastructure is kept safe at all times.

As you’re building out your product, these third-party providers can also help you create plans for if/when a breach occurs.

Require stronger passwords

Even when they understand the risk of this practice, many people still use the same password for every login.

Prevent users from making their data vulnerable by requiring strong passwords when they create accounts.

Consider setting up authentication protocols and case sensitivity guidelines.

As the subscription economy continues to mature, a focus on security will only become more important. Always evaluate your current protocols to make sure you’re staying compliant as your company grows.

Takeaways

With a strong focus on SaaS security, you build trust in your product and foster an ecosystem that customers feel comfortable using.

Andolasoft puts user data security first

At Andolasoft, we are compliant with EU and US privacy regulations, we never sell your valuable customer data, and regularly perform security audits and penetration testing.

Check out our security statement for specific information on how we keep our SaaS business secure.

As people become more well-versed in their personal security, more secure products will also be more attractive to buyers.

Want to discuss more on SaaS Application data privacy? Let’s discuss!

 

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.

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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.

Develop an E-commerce App Your Customers Love

Posted on by Scarlett Brown

So, as time grew tough and people are expected to stay indoors longer than ever, don’t you consider taking your business to your customer’s home? The mobile revolution is here affecting lives stronger than ever before.

Having a mobile E-Commerce app is the trend today.

It is the easiest way to reach your audience and provide them the services. Apps have become an indispensable part of our lives.

With the scope of the Internet expanding so well, apps seem to be a cheap solution for targeting a wider audience ensuring connectivity, across boundaries, across regions, across districts, and domains.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, online delivery of essential goods and services are no more a choice but has become a government priority.

The scope has expanded to the regions where it was unheard of. The capacity is being extended and explored. This is a high time to leverage on an E-commerce app and help push your sales and profits in the upward direction.

Principles of a Successful and High Returning Ecommerce App

Before you plan to take your business online, let’s talk about the basic principles of a successful and high returning eCommerce app that would help your audience enjoy your services from the comforts of their bedrooms.

Principle 1: Assessment for Customers

When you decide to take your business to your audiences’ devices make sure it has everything that they would need. All the services, products, and variations should be mentioned clearly and easy to navigate. The ability to bring on-screen what your customer wants is the key here.

Principle 2: Life Is Easy for Customers

It is important that the app you are about to launch serves its purpose well. It should be designed and developed in a way that the user can easily navigate through it and make payments. If your users get what they want in the shortest navigation, your app is going to slay the market, surely.

Principle 3: Element of Surprise for Your Customers

This is one thing that is going to earn you great ROI. Surprises are something that everyone loves! Add some interesting elements, offers, and discounts for your customers that would make them stay connected with your business. And if you have something interesting that your customers need to know about then just a few notifications. Interesting way to market, isn’t it?

Principle 4: Space for Your Customers

Give your customers some space for themselves. They need to express their gratitude, complaints, and reviews. This is a great way to see if your customers love your product or not. Also, this would increase their engagement with the app. You can click here to hire salesforce consulting services to come up with a CRM your customers can engage with easily.

Done!

These are the four principles on which the foundation of an E-commerce app is built. It is important that your e-commerce app developer sticks to these principles before bringing something else on the stage. Now that we know the principles let’s further move ahead and see how to develop an E-commerce app your customers would love.

Develop an E-commerce App That Sells!

When speaking of e-commerce app development a lot of organizations have sailed through the turn of tides in the app market. They all excel in building applications that are unique for each customer. Here’s a detail of the process of building an eCommerce app that succeeds in today’s market scenario.

1. Define the Niche

The first thing before you set a store is to know what you are going to sell. This is the first step. Identify your niche and enlist the products and the variations that you plan to sell. Studying your audience and the targeted area is a great move. When your niche is decided, the buying tendencies, popular items, importing certain stuff, etc. can be explored better. Knowing the niche would help you determine the design and style of your app.

2. List Essential Features

When the product engineer plans your app, it is important they enlist the features that need to include in your app. These features should fulfill the purpose of your app and help the audience reach the desired item in the least number of clicks. Some essential features that the simplest e-commerce app to the most creative ones should have, are mentioned here:

  • Authentication feature for app set up
  • Categories and subcategories to search for the product
  • Review system to increase user engagement
  • Integrate payment methods
  • Interesting and compelling push notifications
  • 24*7 customer support
  • Features for intuitive analysis

These are just a few features that even the basic e-commerce app has. You can further add features that would make things easier for you and impress your customers.

3. Design Element Aesthetic

The pinnacle of success of your app is its visual appeal. The user aiding design makes it easier for the customer to interact with the app. Coming up with a design that interacts with the user and provides keys and buttons to navigate easily is something that your customers would love. The important points to consider here are:

  • Placement of essential features
  • Simplifying check-out process
  • Ease of order placing
  • Simple tracking

These are a few things that your product engineer needs to consider before the implementation and development part begins.

4. Find the Right Platform

Now, that we have moved to the development part, it is important to find the right platform for developing your e-commerce app. It could be android, ios or PWA. Many on-demand app developers make it easier for their clients to select the right platform considering the region of their operation, the economic situation of priority customers are all the determining factors of platform selection. The right platform makes it easier for you to reach the target market and generate the expected ROI.

5. Test Your Application

As the platform is decided, we next move to e-commerce application development. Often developers ensure the working of functionalities and features with the help of a QA and testing team. Some of the standard test cases that are considered are:

  • Execution pattern e-commerce application
  • Online payment functionality
  • Compatibility with web browsers
  • SEO and mobile responsiveness
  • Social Media integration

Testing and quality analysis of the app is important. Once the app clears this phase, you can be assured of bringing in the market a flawless app.

6. Launch Your App

Now is the right time to launch your app. In the first phase, you would rather be interested in marketing strategies to make your app popular before it is brought in the market. Most companies use traditional techniques like social media promotions, google ads, video ads, and many other techniques like gaming, offers, etc to take the app to the right audience as quickly as possible.

And with this, you are all set to hit the market with your e-commerce mobile application!

Bonus

One thing that keeps any e-commerce based company moving ahead of its competition is its way of treating the customer and responding to their queries. One needs to be really creative and think out-of-the-box to reflect their care and affection for the customers. Find out innovative strategies to engage your customers with the app and you are ready for the long run.

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Wrapping It Up!

A dexterous study of the steps here would help you come in the market with an app that reflects well. Most full-stack developers follow these steps to make sure that their client’s app is unique and innovative and hits the road to success in a matter of weeks.

If you are looking forward to coming up with an e-commerce app like amazon or eBay, all you need is have a basic plan ready. Once you have a basic plan of what you need, hitting the market with a high reflecting app would become a child’s play.

5 Reasons The purpose that an Enterprise App will offer an Advantage to Many Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Sunny Chawla

These days many individuals utilize mobile apps in their smartphones to achieve their daily errands. From taxi booking to online food conveyance, on-request business apps have become an indispensable piece of life.

Along these lines, mobile applications diminish our time, exertion, and build profitability.

A few years back, an entrepreneur ought to have solid physical visibility to set up an association with the customers.

However, presently things have changed and it is conceivable for all intents and purposes to associate with the customers.

In this way, specialists and entrepreneurs can concentrate on their center business and associate with customers through a mobile application like in on-request business.

Beneath I have referenced the best five reasons on how an application for your endeavor can give you an edge over different ventures using Uber clone script.

Improved Scalability

Apps can give you more reach and help you to associate even with individuals who had no clue about what you did previously. This gives an opportunity to grow the business and give quality items and administration.

For all intents and purposes, you can tap more customers even past your place of reach.

With AI-based chatbots, CRM, steering of grumblings, auto-callback choices, and simplicity of installments, your undertaking gets an unequaled edge to continue and scale.

It’s just plain obvious, it is difficult to do all the above with a physical nearness since you are constrained to contact customers just around you and in the long run, it influences your business scalability.

Improved Trust Through Security and Safety

Maintaining a business through mobile apps includes dealing with a lot of client information. To defend this information and increase the client’s trust there is innovation like blockchain.

Individuals think that its simple to utilize computerized installments rather than money since it is agreeable for them and apps with innovation like blockchain improve their certainty.

Additionally, on account of any complaints, installment discounts should be possible flawlessly which further expands the unwavering quality of the business.

Exceptional User Experience

At present, with only a tap on your smartphone, you can arrange food by sitting at your home and the food will be conveyed at your doorstep in minutes.

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This is the sort of progress made by the apps at present. The same sorts of administration are being offered by taxi booking, jack of all trades booking, and some more.

The major in addition to point is that you don’t have to have physical contact with the specialist co-op.

Additionally, you can choose the administration dependent on appraisals and audits by past clients. Visit clients are given devotion focuses, cashback, and offers.

This sort of better client experience encourages you to cover more customers and hold more customers. Audits and appraisals can assist you in improving the administration.

Numerous on-request firms use Uber clones and Uber-like apps for their business administrations which is like the Uber application to give the best UI/UX structure for the clients.

Quality information and reports

You generally need to improve the business to be in accordance with the pattern. Better information about the business can be transformed into helpful data that can be utilized for business improvement.

Apps can be utilized to check client utilization by the socioeconomics, area, time, types, and so on.

This joined with the data from the information examination instruments can be utilized to deliver reports which are utilized to improve the income of the business. Furthermore, AI and AI can be utilized to quantify the conduct of clients.

Growing The Customer Base

With improved scalability, security, trust, and client experience, we can say that the client base will increment definitely.

At the point when your business is an on-request type aggregator model, you need to offer support to a huge base of clients.

Individuals who see surveys and appraisals and in the event that it is on the positive side, they request that others utilize the administration, in this manner the business improves due to verbal.

Also, the cost-adequacy that apps can give is unequaled with the standard physical style of activities. What’s more, this in this manner helps in getting an extending client base.

Final Thoughts

To accomplish the previously mentioned factors through physical communication with the customers takes years. Be that as it may, with an application, you can accomplish this without any problem.

On the off chance that you have any thought of beginning an on-request firm, at that point utilizing a Uber clone gives a much-expected edge to you over others.

Apps give you a shield in this serious field and an edge over others in the advanced world.