8 Aspects you must Consider Before Building a Mobile App for your Company

Mobile apps have become the soul for every web store. If you are planning to improve the visibility off your web store then launching a mobile app would be one of the basic step in doing so. Most of the successful web stores have already launched their mobile app which provides equal ease and better facilities from the web store. Most of the time, a customer would prefer to shop on mobile apps rather than using the desktop sites due to various advantages. It becomes an important aspect for improving the web store growth.

In the meantime, the growth in number of mobile phones has increased considerably and the easy reach of the internet to mobile phones has made it easy for the web stores to collect the customers through mobile apps. Therefore, the shifting of trend is a very natural reflex. In the eCommerce world, “More opportunities will keep striking, if you are open to innovation”. Thus, the idea of making service better in a creative way helps the web store owner to gain more profits from the web store. IT also ensues the customer’s return to the web store to make future purchases.

The mobile apps are a collection of various features. Most of the time launching a mobile app must not be the easiest thing to do. It requires a lot of research and study in order to launch a fully satisfying mobile app. The basic idea of the web store about launching the mobile app is that it should be an improved version of their web store. To justify the mobile app a lot of study has to be conducted else the chances of its failure are quite large.

Let us discuss some of the step that must be considered before launching the mobile app for the web store.

1. Take a survey

Any mobile app would not be a success, if it takes into consideration about the basic requirement of the customer. Thus, taking a survey before launching the app may provide the web store with the basic understanding of the customers. The web store may be molded according the results from the survey and at the same time services can be modified.

2.  Easy login options

The access to mobile apps must be made easy and better. It may be a possibility that some of the customer may be using the mobile app for the first time, so they may hesitate in filling up the lengthy forms. Therefore the mobile apps must provide the easy login options for the customers like social login or browse the store as guest.

3.  Make it attractive

One of the basic requirement of the mobile app is attractiveness. More customers are likely to engage them if the different aspects of the mobile app are customized. For instance if the customer is willing to know a product better than the mobile app must provide with a separate section of product description to meet customer demands.

4.  No Compatibility issues

Every customer would use a different phone while their phone may be running in different platforms. Thus, making the mobile app to be compatible with various platforms like iOS, Windows, Android etc. It helps the customers to explore the web store from any mobile phone irrespective of the platform their phone works on.

5.  Better interaction

The better way of connecting to the customers is by providing the customers with interactive elements in the mobile app. It can be done by introducing various theme layout for different categories of items. The interaction can also be improved by providing an easy way of exploring the web store.

6.  Multiple language

An increased concern for most of the web store is language issues. Most of the time customers prefer to browse the web store preferring the language they are most comfortable with. Thus, mobile apps must be provided with multi-lingual support feature such that the customers doesn’t have to face any difficulty in making purchase due to the language issues.

7.  Better navigation

The navigation of the mobile app must be kept easy and simple. The customers would love to explore various section and categories of the web store. Thus, the mobile app must be provided with more links and ages for different products so that customers can get a better insight of the web store.

8.  Simple checkout

The process of making purchase is tiring enough, so the mobile app must be provided with the option of simplified checkout to the store visitors. The customers should have the ease to make their payments and exit the store within few clicks. It ensures a happy and satisfied customer.

Over to You

The mobile app may prove to be a great option in making the web store attain success. The idea of launching mobile app may look easy but there are always several complications achieved in doing it Thus, the web stores must take a deep look in the trends that may help them boost their sales.

6 Social Media Aspects that Every Online Marketer Needs to Consider

The collective idea of making the eCommerce easy and better for the customers takes their interaction in consideration. For customers the first liability is to find a platform to connect with the sellers. Once they are set with the platform then the task of choosing products comes into action. So, it becomes quite necessary for the web store owners to provide the customers with the most comfortable options. It helps the customers to shop better and shop more. The search for alternatives and trending starts here for the web stores.

If we take a look at the popular and trending social media platform then Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most popular ones. With a user base of more than 4 billion, they fit in quite well to serve the purpose for the web store owners. The rate of conversions are directly related to the product visibility. Thus, utilizing social media platform smoothens the marketing process. The only point that must be kept in mind is whatever the approach is used by the seller, it must be able to engage more visitors.

The availability of multiple features on social media allows the web store owners to be more expressive in terms of service provided. The web stores can come up with different ideas in order to enhance the visibility of the web store. The platform is ready to provide more opportunities, it just depends upon the seller if he can grab all of them.

Let us discuss some of the social media aspects which must be considered by the online seller to grow better.

Ads and promotion

Lately, the popularity of the social media has turned them into promotional grounds. Due to their vast outreach and user basis, these platforms prove to be a better option for promoting the web stores. The store details along with product description is well received to a very large traffic. It somehow makes it easy for store owners to gain required number of customers using the social media platform. More people get to know about the web store, if an advertisement featuring the web store is posed in these social media sites.

Wall Post

The trend of wall post is mostly related to Facebook and twitter. The web store owners has option to promote their products by using a wall post. The post itself is a small version of the product promotion. One of the added advantage for Prestashop site owners can be utilized by using Prestashop FB wall post plugin. A module which generates automatic and manual wall post depending upon the seller’s convenience. It helps the stores to promote their products based on the customer’s interaction on social media.   

Social media store

The main desire of a customer from the web store is not only products but at the same time multiple features. One of the best way to sell products is by providing them to the customers. A social media store like FB store ensures the seller to make sales on products using Facebook. This approach is appreciated highly by the customers as they don’t have to browse the web store in order to make a purchase on the products.

Campaigns

One of the most effective way to lure visitors to the web store is by organizing campaigns and contests on social media sites. Most visitors would love to be a part of these organized programs. They help the sellers in getting a good traffic to the web store. As, most of the time a visitor will be encouraged to browse the web store once they get any discounts and offer without even being a part of the web store. It is effective and at the same time, it improves product visibility.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is an important strategy in order to showcase the branding and services of the web store. It doesn’t necessarily involve the idea of promoting the products but provides the visitors with an insight of the store. The customers need to be made aware about the web stores functioning. Thus, content marketing is an effective way. The web stores can come out creatively on the social media sites

Email Marketing

The idea of Email may seem obsolete but still they find better use in gathering a better traffic for the web store. The sellers may use social media platforms for reaching out to potential buyers. The social media platform is a good place to collect data from the users by providing them an insight of the store through promotional videos. Most of the time, visitors would provide their Email information in return to some offers. So, the sellers may try every possible chance to get know the visitors better. It helps in making services better for the customers according to their preferences.

Over to You

The power of social media is not any unknown. The multiple and immense features that the seller may utilize on the social media platform can prove quite useful and handy when trying to make profits. The social media trends are an assured way of boosting the web store performance to a very large extent.

This Would Also Interest You:

• How to get and set a PrestaShop Facebook Addon on your website?
• What makes the PrestaShop Facebook Login Extension a necessity?
• 5 aspects that makes FB Wall Post a must-have for eCommerce Stores
• 5 Solid Evidence a Facebook Store can double your Conversions
• 5 Ways Facebook Album can Help you Stay Ahead

4 eCommerce Website Implementations that you Need to Incorporate Now

The success of a web store depends upon a lot of factors. To state some of them would be amount of products, various deals and discounts provided, customers feedback and reviews. Thus, in order to make a store success, the seller need to work on all aspects of the store. Most of the time stores would focus on growing better products base for the customers but the customers need more than that. The customers want a total package where they could get quality products and at the same time a better sopping experience. In order to be precise the store must take the customer’s convenience into consideration for their better engagement.

According to a survey, “About 53% of the users demand a better experience over better products while shopping”. Thus, the seller must come up with different innovative ideas to provide customers with better services. It helps in enhancing the store visibility and at the same time also helps the customers to relate better to the products. Thus, helping the seller make better sales and generate immediate conversions.

The primary concern of the seller must be customer’s experience on the web store. For that, the seller may provide various options and features on the web store which makes the process of shopping easy and fun for the customers. The customer will feel better about making a purchase from the store.  The stores must be covering all the important features which makes it a better platform to shop with, providing customers to access various features without having to go through any trouble. It results in a happy and satisfied customer, who will readily return to the web store in order to make any future purchases. Thus it helps in retention of customers too.

Let us discuss some of the implementations which can make the website a better place for customers.

1.  One page checkout

One of the most annoying thing for the customers after they are done with the shopping is completing the transaction process. Most of the time a customer has to go through several pages in order to complete the transaction. Thus, it results in an annoyed customer. Therefore, the web stores must incorporate a one page super checkout feature for the customers. The customers can fill up all the necessary details and make the payment for their products in the same page. It saves customers a lot of time and efforts. 

2.  Infinite scroll

               

One of the better approach to engage the customers on your web store is by providing the option of browsing all products under one page. The Prestashop Infinite scroll module helps the web stores to allow the feature of browsing the products infinitely. The customers don’t have to switch the pages again and again in order to keep browsing for the products they are looking for. It helps the customers by making their search better and at the same time engages the customers to keep searching for their favorite products and make purchase.

3.  Exit pop ups

One of the increasing concern of the web store owners is the increasing number of abandon cart rates. Thus, the seller must come with better ideas to lower the number of abandon carts Therefore, the exit pop ups can help the seller to do so. Whenever a customer is about to exit the store the exit pop up comes with a deal or offer for the customer. It encourages the customers to take the offer and complete the purchase they were about to exit. It helps the seller in making better sales and at the same time the number of abandon carts are decreased to a considerable amount.

4.  Social loginizers

The increasing influence of social media has grown a vast impact on users. Most of the time if a visitor wants to access the web stores than they may be required to fill up lengthy and time consuming forms. By introducing social loginizers the customers don’t have to fill forms for different web stores repeatedly. Most of the time the visitors can just use their social media account details in order to access the web store. It helps both seller and thee customers. The customer gets access to the web store while the seller is provided with the permission based data of the customers. It helps the seller in making future sales.

Over to You

The success of any web store is not the result of products in the store. Most of the time the sellers must work collectively in terms of providing better services and features to enhance customer’s experience on the web store. Thus, following the marketing hacks and making use of different features helps the web store to grow a lot and make higher sale.,

6 Ways Mobile Apps can Help your eCommerce Business

The introduction of the mobile phones to eCommerce is not new. The rising popularity of mobile phones has led the eCommerce store owners to shift their business to the mobile platform. After all, mobiles do serve the purpose of online marketing in a very easy and simple way. Most of the time, customers want to access the web stores without having to go through lengthy process of sign ups and filling out those forms. The mobile store helps the customers to browse eCommerce store with much more convenience.

As, the number of mobile users is growing day by day, so it proves to be an effective way for the eCommerce store owners to connect to  their customers in a more defining way. One of the advantage of using mobile apps is the large access to mobile phones. Thus, it helps the sellers to reach out to maximum people and at the same time it helps in boosting the sales and make better conversions.

If you are a Prestashop site owner than you can easily switch your web site to mobile app by using Prestashop Mobile App builder module.  Let us take a look on some of the evolution in mobile eCommerce which can help the stores to grow more and better

Better traffic

The accessibility of mobile phones has grown up to more than 3 billion peoples. Thus, it ensures that more users can help the seller in re directing a better crowd to their stores. The introduction of m-commerce can help the web stores to get a better traffic on their stores which will be a good sign for better sales. It also helps in making more conversions.

Reachability

Mobile phones are reachable at almost every place. Customers don’t have to reach out to desktop sites in order to make a purchase. They can easily reach out to their mobile phones and make purchase. It has helped the seller to reach out to maximum potential buyers who would have otherwise given a second thought of making a purchase. A better option to make purchase will surely help the seller to reach out more.

Convenience

Mobile apps are more convenient when compared to desktop sites. One of the immediate advantages of mobile apps is the convenience. Most of the time a customer will hesitate to go through desktop sites and make a purchase. With the introduction of mobile aps marketing has become way too easy. The customers can now reach out to their mobile app any time and make a purchase on any of the product they like. It has helped the customers to make immediate purchase.

Direct sales

Mobile apps helps in making direct sales. The visitor can use the mobile app to browse the web store and see the product and make a purchase. Unlike, desktop sites where they have to go through all the products and then settle down for their likes after searching many options. Mobile apps provide direct approach to get the products. The customers just has to select category and make a purchase. It just gets better with using the mobile apps for customers in order to make a purchase.

Better approach

Seller always keep the customers experience as priority. If the customers have a better experience with a web store than they are more likely to visit the store again. Thus, keeping this factor in mind the seller need to make a better approach to reach out to customers. The customers can visit the store using mobile apps making a purchase and getting better deals. Thus, mobile app ensures a better marketing opportunity for both sellers and the customers.

Social Sharing

One of the best feature provided by the mobile apps is social sharing. Most of the time when a customer likes the product they want to share it with their friends, thus mobile apps prove a great way to do that. They enable the customers to share the products with others. It helps in promoting the product even without the seller promoting it directly. The mobile apps are quite handy and can always be used to grow market. The social feature of mobile apps makes the store more prone to growing and get better sales.

Conclusion

Most of the time a customer would like to make purchase through mobile apps due to better convenience. Hence, the seller must be oriented towards providing customers with better services. The m-commerce is taking over the market rapidly and if a store owners doesn’t change with trend than they are most likely to lose a large portion of potential buyer. It will reduce the sales made.

For More Information About Prestashop Mobile App Builder Module Visit Here:-

Module Link: https://www.knowband.com/prestashop-android-mobile-app-builder

User Manual Link: http://www.knowband.com/blog/user-manual/prestashop-nautica-mobile-app-builder/

How Can Facebook Album Ease Out The Pain Of Social Media Marketing?

The task of keeping up with the market and making sure that the customer is informed about your products is a tough job. In order to reach out to maximum customers adopting effective marketing strategy is a must. The introduction of marketing through social media has made it easier for the sellers to interact with the customers. Social media is one of the most powerful tool to increase the visibility of your eCommerce businesses and grab more online attention. 

Different approaches must be initiated by the sellers to reach out to their target audience. The introduction of social media marketing has enabled the seller to keep the customers informed and convey everything they want to with minimum effort. It helps in making the customers stay abreast about the market trends without actually visiting the web store. 

One of the best way to promote your products and offerings is by using images. If you are an eCommerce merchant and want to promote your products on Facebook, then, Prestashop Facebook album module can help you in a better way. It helps the seller to post the images of the products on Facebook without much efforts.

Let us discuss some ways in which using Facebook album can increase your sales.

Better exposure

One of the immediate advantage of using Facebook album is the exposure it provides to your products and services. The attached images of the products describes the product in a much better and engaging manner. The number of likes, shares and the comments can help the customers to understand the product better and take their purchase decision at the same time. Most of time the customer would not show interest in purchasing a product, if it is lacking any solid description. Thus, Facebook album removes this drawback and enables the seller to bring out the product in a much better way.

Satisfied customers

According to a survey, “46% of the customers tend to buy a product which has a photo attached with it”. Thus, it makes the customers decision more easy to buy the product. Most of the time, when a customer sees photo attached with any of the product, they can get a better insight of that product. Therefore, they can see the product without physically seeing it. The customers who buy the product after viewing a photo are more satisfies as they have a feel of actually seeing the product before receiving it.

Improved Web traffic

The introduction of promoting brand on Facebook using photo album has proved a great advantage for the sellers. The seller can now promote their product on Facebook by just posting few pictures. As the photos hit the social media, the visitors can view them and if they like then thy can be redirected to the web store from the post. Thu, new visitors can be lured to the web store by using this approach. It helps in increasing the web traffic up to a very large extent and keeps them engaged. The probability of someone entering the store can be increased up to a large extent by promoting the product using photos on social media. It boost the web traffic on the store.

Social sharing

The concept of social sharing is quite helpful for the sellers. It is the promotion of their products without actually promoting it. According to a research, “Most people prefer to make a purchase on certain product after someone gives an approval”. Thus by introducing the product promotion o Facebook by photo album, it ensures the sharing. Most people who find the product attractive can share it with their family and friends, which will enables the visitors to view the products. Thus, indirectly engaging re and more visitors to the web store. This helps the seller in increasing the number of conversions.

Compatibility

The Facebook photo album is quite compatible with the web store. In order to promote the products, the seller doesn’t need to actually upload the picture to the Facebook. They can upload al the photos at once to the web store and then the image swill be automatically synchronize to the Facebook. It is very fast and effective form of promoting the product without making any additional efforts. It ensures thigh product sales and improved rate of conversions.

Conclusion

Social media marketing has become an important aspect of product promotion. Thus, in order to be reach out more potential buyers the sellers must divert their focus towards Social media. More often, it also enables the seller to stay updated about the current trend in the market. Following proper steps to tap the eCommerce audience on Facebook might help in achieving better response.

For More Information About Prestashop FB Album Module Visit Here:-

Module Link: https://www.knowband.com/prestashop-fb-album

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ3nvttNc18

User Manual Link: https://www.knowband.com/blog/user-manual/prestashop-fb-album-module

How can a Mobile App boost the Conversions of your eCommerce store?

Technology is growing day-by-day. The thing that is in trend today, might become obsolete tomorrow. Thus, it becomes an important factor for everyone to keep themselves updated with the current trend. If we talk about the present scenario of eCommerce stores, a lot has changed since they have come into existence. From just a few selected websites to the various shopping mobile apps, it has changed a lot. The sellers who adapted the trend survived the market, those who didn’t have been kicked out by other eCommerce stores. The market is and always has been the “Survival of the fittest”.

Right now, if we take a look at the current trend, we will see that the eCommerce stores are very quickly moving to the mCommerce ecosystem. Note that the popularity of mobiles has led the sellers to shift their business to the customers through mobile apps. The mobile apps are replacing the traditional method of shopping through desktop sites. It has become an inevitable trend for every eCommerce store owner to launch a mobile app in order to promote their business.

If you are a magneto site owner and you wish to stay in trend then Knowband has come up with something that concerns you. The Magneto Mobile App builder is for  all the magneto site owners who are looking to develop a mobile app for their web store. 

Let us discuss the utility of Mobile App in boosting the conversions.

Reachability

According to, when a survey, “Around 74% prefer using a mobile app to make purchase from eCommerce store”. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that the optimum chance of growth of a web store is more when the customers are provided with a mobile app. This feature makes sure that the product visibility is increased and more customers engage themselves on the web store. The introduction of mobile store will surely improve the traffic on your site, thus, increasing the rate of conversions.

Easy access

Right now, mobile phones have become a part of daily life of people. People prefer to use smartphones over desktop computers for web searching and shopping as they are easy to carry. Therefore, launching a mobile app for your web store is like providing the customers with an easy way to shop. Most of the people like to save time while shopping, hence, mobile app seems a perfect match. They can just pull out a phone from their pocket and the make purchase. Hence, upgrading your eCommerce site to a mobile platform will surely reduce your distance with your prospective customers.

Compatible

The mobile apps developed by our app builder are compatible with all OS like Windows, iOS, and Android. Hence, it provides users with an option to use them on their phone irrespective of the platform. The compatibility feature highly initiates the customers to use your web store. According to a survey, 34% customers use android phone to make purchase while 20% use iOS to make purchase”. Thus, an application that is compatible with the mostly used devices can make it easier for the customers to shop from your web store.

Convenience

Mobile app is a proved solution to provide more convenience to the customers in comparison to the eCommerce websites. Mobile app provide many features that can’t be provided on regular desktop sites. For example, one touch checkout, retina ready display, voice searches and others. The mobile app comes out to be the winner in terms of convenience when compared to desktop sites. Moreover, the store owners can also support the fact that they can provide better options with apps rather than desktop sites.

Future aspects

If we take a look at the future trends, we will observe that the mobile phones are likely to overtake computers, in terms of daily utility. Therefore, it becomes an important factor for the eCommerce store owner to get their business going through mobiles. Thus, our mobile app builder serves the purpose here. This is one concept that if ignored might result in loss of considerable number of potential buyers. Eventually reducing the web traffic and lowering your conversion rates. Hence, going mobile is a must for all the eCommerce business owners.

Conclusion

eCommerce mobile applications have become the latest trend in the market. If sellers wants to grow their business then ignoring this factor might result in heavy loss of revenue. Just stay abreast with all the mCommerce consideration will eventually help you optimize your growth and you’ll surely achieve the much-needed competitive edge.

For More Information About Magento Android Mobile App Builder Module Visit Here:-

Module Link: https://www.knowband.com/magento-android-mobile-app-builder

User Manual Link: https://www.knowband.com/blog/user-manual/magento-mobile-app-builder/

5 Considerations while Making your Business Mobile

Extending from eCommerce to an m-Commerce platform is an effortless way that can give you an edge over the rest of the pack. Mobile is not just about what you do with your phones, it's about doing more and getting innovative with it every single day. This is one of the effortless ways to engage the wider range of customers. In fact, bringing the operations to the mobile platform is likely to pay off in the near future not just to the larger companies, but to the smaller enterprises as well. As the mobile industry is expected to expand, even more, a positive mobile experience for your customers is an imperative part of your success. 

Whether you already delved into the mobile platform or you are working towards getting into, here are 5 things to keep in mind. Check them out.

　　

Find your customers

　　

Finding the right customer database is the key to running a successful business. Check and monitor the traffic of the site for the mobile visitors. Keep an eye on the segment and analyze their buying behavior. Having an effective database of the prospective before you hit the mCommerce marketplace is advisable. While making a desktop purchase, the shoppers subscribe to the email list. You can pitch them the idea of downloading your app frequently. The customers who don't immediately unsubscribe from the email list are likely to become your prospective customer. Direct the mobile strategy, i.e., SMS alters to the customer who has been in touch with you for long. Analyze the growth and the changes in the mobile platform of your business segment in the last few year. At the same time, consider the expected market condition in the near future. 

Build a user friendly app

The eCommerce site should be optimized in such a way that whether it is opened on the desktop, smart phone, iPad or any other tablet, the site should look virtually the same. However, just having a website is not enough. Building your mobile application can be an ideal way to create ongoing relationships with the customers. Use an effective Android mobile app builder. The app should eliminate the various common hurdles that occur while shopping online and provide a brilliant first-hand experience to the shoppers. According to Amazon, every 100 milliseconds in loading time reduces the sale by 1%. The experience of the shopper should not be hindered by the complicated and time-consuming payment process. Knowband offers seamless Android app builder for PrestaShop, Magento and OpenCart store. These mobile apps provide free demo as well and let you get customized mobile app as per your business requirements and needs. 

Effective security

As the shopping experience is becoming handy, the risk of security breach is becoming more prominent. The app should have additional security feature in order to protect customer information. In order to reduce the potential threats, businesses must add SSL certificates to their stores as well as mobile apps. Make sure that you check the security features during the development. Not just in the beginning, you need to conduct regular security checks from time to time.

Original content

　　

Image Source: blog.lemonstand.com

Every online business whether big or small needs an effective content marketing strategy. As per a report, the average conversion rate of sites with content marketing is 2.9%, compared to the conversions of the sites without a content strategy is 0.5%. The consumers tend to view the contents related to the product before placing the order. Here are the few aspects that need to be kept in mind in this regards.

• The contents of your store should include some research work. Analyze the search behavior of the customers. Make a list of the types of information that ideally a customer needs. 
• The blog post, product description, and other such information should be aimed at fulfilling the need of the customers. The blog that includes the terms usually used by the consumers may bring new, targeted traffic to your website.
• Reviews from other customers is another important aspect. According to an article published in Forbes, 88% of the online shoppers never buy a product without checking the reviews. 
• Above all, the images of the product have the potential to increase the conversions. So, the product images should be of good quality.

Adopt omni-channel marketing strategy

The omni-channel marketing allows the customer to have a seamless shopping experience, regardless of the channel or device. Promote your business to the target market through a variety of channels. This will provide you a greater reach and optimize your conversion rate. The customers should be able to engage with your store, either through the app or social media or the catalog. The products and services should be accessible on the handset or desktop. The entire experience of the customer should be seamless and consistent across all the channels.

Final say

With over 50% of Google searches being performed on mobile devices, making your eCommerce business mobile is inevitable for being successful in the long run. As you get into the mobile business, make sure that you keep these factors in the mind.  You will be on track to end up with a user-friendly mobile store.

Mobile apps can be a wise choice while going for m-Commerce with your business. You can leverage our Android mobile app builders to get an affordable mobile app for your eCommerce store. 

5 Reliable Ways To Boost Your Social Media Engagement

Achieving customer engagement is one of the key aspects to boost the conversions. This engagement is not just essential on the website. In the world where the social media presence is the deciding factor, staying in close knit with the customers at the various social media platforms is the key.

Are struggling in achieving this milestone for your eCommerce store? Then, you are at the right place. For all the online marketers, the write-up has compiled some of the key points that may help you enhance your visibility on the social media. Check them out.

Understand the audience behavior

Finding your niche market is the key component of creating a successful engagement. While the hitting the right target audience can help you customize the campaign, getting an insight of the user behavior will help you strike the pain areas. Use the social analytical tool to understand what they are looking for and what are the things that intrigue their interest. This will help you refine and customize your messages as well as posts. Choose the right channel for promoting your products. The choice of the social media platform should depend on the user behavior. For instance, Facebook and Instagram are perfect for fashion stores while the sites offering educational stuff should target LinkedIn, Twitter.

Select the right time for the post

A study reveals that a Facebook post goes ‘stale’ after about 1 hour and 20 minutes. While on Twitter, 95% of re-tweets happen in an hour. So, no matter how strong your content, you need to find the right time in order to get maximum hits. Compare the activity of the audience on different days and different hour of the day. Post the most engaging contents when the users are most active on the Internet. Here are some of the suggestions for posting on the various social media platforms.

• Twitter – Post at least 14 times per day. The best timing for the post starts from midnight to 10:00 p.m. Never post more than once per hour.
• Facebook – 2 posts per day, seven days a week, 10:08 a.m. and 3:04 p.m.
• LinkedIn – 1 post per day is enough, and the ideal time is 8:14 a.m. No post is recommended on weekends

Provide Social Login options

Studies have shown that 77% of users believe that social login is a good registration solution. These figures explains the importance of social login option in your eCommerce store. The login and checkout option reduces the risk of the abandoned cart and reduces bounce as well as exit rates. Moreover, it even provides you with the social media details of the users. This can be further used for follow-ups and reminders ads. These follow up notifications have been observed to have been to have more conversion. At the same time, it is less annoying for the customers than the email and SMS prompts. The Prestashop Social Login plugin is one such option that can provide your visitors to browse through their social media account without going through the lengthy registration process.

Response quickly

Just engaging the customers by attracting their likes and comment s are not enough. The customers are more likely to use these platforms to file their complaints and dissatisfactions.  Be active enough to resolve the queries and take the negative feedbacks of the consumers further. Any complaint will attract double the attention than the positive ratings. While the social media platforms offer a convenient means to stay in touch with your prospective customers, it may turn hazardous if not handled properly. You need to stay on your toes while sending your responses. Auto-responders may add to the negative image. At the same time, make sure that you appreciate the positive response of the users as well.

Engage with the audience on a personal level

When every eCommerce business unit is adopting the same strategy, you need to find out a way to stand out from the crowd. Creating a personal connection with the customers is the way. Many eCommerce giants send birthday wishes along with their product promotion mails. The personalized messages will help create an emotional bond with the consumers. However, make sure that you intervene in the personal space of the customers. 

Conclusion

Most of the eCommerce store users are still on the fence about introducing the social login option on their store. While other who have installed this option have failed to make use of the same for boosting the social engagement. The Knowband store offers a simplified option to add this functionality on the various eCommerce platforms such as Prestashop, Magento or OpenCart. The social login plugins facilitate the registration process and help the store owners tap useful information. Find your solution and take your business to the next level.

5 Time-tested Add-ons that can Tackle your Abandoned Carts

Shopping cart abandonment is a prominent and likely inevitable problem in the eCommerce scenario. Ignore the situation is like running the risk of missing out on a potential honeypot of new and repeat customers. The curse of abandoned cart depends on how you handle it. You can either ignore it or you can find out ways to handle it. This blog has specifically compiled some of the addon and plugins that can come handy for the Prestashop store owners. The users that didn’t reach the payment is actually an opportunity for the future. The Prestashop abandoned cart module can utilize the unconverted accounts for future sales by following up with the users through email pitches and other such tactics. By sending reminder emails, you will be able to follow-up with those prospects who failed to complete the purchase and left their cart abandoned.

At the same time, the below-listed addons can reduce the possibility of abandonment. Arm up your store with these plugins and take your business to the next level.

Social login addon

Not having the option of guest login is one of the main reasons for the abandoned cart. While you can always give the option of guest login to your visitors, providing them the option of social logins is another way to convert these random visitors into the lead. The Prestashop Social login plugin is one such addon that provides a one-click check in for the users. 

Here are some of the features offered by the plugin.

• Allows the customers to sign-up directly using their social accounts. The Quick login makes shopping easier by reduces unwanted check in process. 
• It is mobile, tablet and desktop Responsive. It is quite easy to install this plugin on your Prestashop store. 
• The admin can enable/disable social accounts from the back end of the web store. 
• It helps track the most popular social accounts used by customers based on the reports generated. 
• Thus, enables follow-ups and future conversions.
• The extension can be used on any eCommerce store and is compatible with multiple themes 

One page checkout

The lengthy checkout process and long forms are one of the turns offs for the online shoppers. Keep the entire checkout process as simple as possible. The Prestashop one-page checkout module is one of the ways to keep the checkout process hassle-free. Minimizing your checkout flow. it makes sure that the visitor is not annoyed just before making the payment.

The module can optimize the conversions by offering following benefits to the users.

• It not just makes the checkout process fast, but secure as well.
• It has an in-built Facebook/Google+ Login.
• It enables product image preview even in cart section
• Offers option to add coupon code at the checkout page along with the convenience of changing the product quantity in the cart
• Allows the user to remove any product from the cart
• The plugin is mobile and tabs responsive and compatible with all browsers

Return manager

Nothing can stop the customer from placing the order more than the lack of return and refund guarantee. And in order to ensure the customers, you need to be sure of handling the return request efficiently. The Prestashop return manager takes this pressure off your shoulder. It adds the functionality of managing the return requests for any order placed by registered or Guest user on a PrestaShop store.

The features offered by the plugin to the users are as follows.

• It provides 3 options namely Get Credit, Replace or Refund to customers 
• Creating an interface in between the customer and the admin, it allows fast processing of the return requests.
• The customers can even return the partial quantity of purchased products.
• The mobile responsive addon allows the shopper to view his return status and history in his account.

Payment options

The prices of the product and the shipping charges are considered to be the main reason for abandoned carts. As the end-users can always compare the prices of the product with competitor site. However, this is not the only reason. Not providing enough payment option to the shoppers can cost you some conversions. Prestashop Paypal Direct Payment is one way to allows the admin to get the payment into his Paypal account directly even from the customers who don't have a Paypal account. Thus, the customers can make the payment using their credit or debit cards.

Listed below are some of the benefits of using this extension.

• The module does not redirect the users to PayPal page for making the payments.
• Customers will make the payments right from the website interface itself.
• The module supports 24 currencies from around 190 countries

One click checkout

The unwanted hassles and too many procedures to be followed before landing on the payment gateway is hazardous for an eCommerce store. Imagine a person already has a few products added in the cart, but he has no intentions of buying them as yet. Now if he wants to buy one product, he'll have to remove all the products from the cart, in order to make the payment for one. He would rather switch to another site than getting all these edition and deletion. The one click checkout module allows your customers to do a quick checkout with a single product without modifying their existing cart. Thus, he can make the transaction of a single product without removing the products from the cart.

Features offered by the addon is as follows:

• Can be Customize as per your need. 
• The 'Buy Now' button can be easily customized to match the theme.
• Holds the current cart and checks out the current product only.
• It can be translated in 17 different languages.

Over to you

Despite the fact that 67.45% of the customers are not completing their purchases online is scary for some eCommerce store owners, it opens up a huge opportunity for them. Identify the vital reasons of conversion killers that affect a user’s shopping behavior and capture his interests with innovative improvision. 

Simple Approach To Protect Your Customer Data From Hackers

Have you ever been hacked? If No, that’s great.

Have you ever been on an attack but saved the data breach? If yes, congrats because you are serious about keeping your customer data damn safe. 

In today's scenario, it should not come as surprise if someone attempts a breaching into your customers' data. It has become pretty general nowadays considering that more than 9 billion customers data record have already been stolen by the hackers since 2013. 

So, if you have ever been hacked or there has been a breach of your customer data, it's because you have not applied correct security measures to safeguard your customer data.

How would you safeguard yourselves?

Hackers with higher ambition would try to breach into the big names but the smart ones will mark the medium and small enterprises into their list. The small and medium enterprises generally leave a loophole in an attempt to save some cost, and that’s where the black hats get a chance to peek into the customer data.

If you want to secure your website and customers data from breaches, you can take a few simple steps like these to immune your site.

1. Use a secure social login plugin

Depending on your CMS, or eCommerce platform search, analyze, test, and implement a secure social login plugin for customer logins. Social login allows the customers and users to sign-up or login to your website using their social media account credentials.

The traditional account registration through emails addresses is not much liked by the users. Moreover, the email based registrations leave the customer data vulnerable to breaches and attacks since you are storing the account authentication information on your server. 

By using social login you can easily eliminate this vulnerability as with this, customers don't need a dedicated email address and password to log in. They simply use their Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Instagram account to login. 

The authentication data is just verified by your website, you don’t really store them on your server. That part is still safe on the social network account of the user. So, when you don’t even store the customer authentication data with you, how can someone steal it from you? Not possible. That’s why implementing a social login on your website is damn crucial.

Knowband offers the social login modules and plugins for Magento, PrestaShop, and OpenCart. It's a secure module that offers more than 14 social login options like Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, Yahoo, and much more. 

• Social login for Magento
• Social login for PrestaShop
• Social login for OpenCart

2. Host on cloud 

Some of you might disagree with this point, as the cloud might not be able to serve best for the bigger enterprises. However, it is still the best way for small and medium sized businesses to host on the cloud. Microsoft Azure and AWS can be a good choice. In fact, the Azure Marketplace offers the hosting for almost every popular platform. Recently Microsoft has also partnered with PrestaShop for scalable cloud hosting and maintenance solutions. 

Hosting on bigger cloud servers like Azure and AWS will secure your website with the high-end security these companies provide.

3. Encrypt your customer data

It doesn't matter if you have hosted on a private or a cloud server, hackers might eventually find a way to your customer data. In that case, the best way would be to encrypt your customers' data using high-end hashing algorithms. This encryption will ensure that no one else can decipher the data except the one who has the key.

In this way, even if someone even breaches into your customer data, they won't get anything useful except the gibberish and encrypted texts. Of course, you will have to keep your decryption key safe with you.

4. Use two step authentication 

Two step authentication will add an extra layer of security to your customer login. The customers after entering the correct credentials will be asked to provide a temporary One time password sent to their mobile number for logging into their user account on your website.

By using this authentication process on your site you can ensure a safe vault for the customer data. Even if someone is smart enough to bypass the first step authentication of email and password, he won't be able to log in until the second step verification is done. As the access to the second step authentication data will be with the original user, it's not possible for the black hat to breach into the account. 

A similar two step verification is also used by the Google for securing the Gmail accounts.

5. Don’t give full access to every employee and don’t encourage BYOD

The biggest loopholes are created from within the organization. I am not pointing that there is a mole in your organization, but even a small mistake by your employees can put your customers' data at risk. To prevent such vulnerability, it best if you allow only a limited access to your employees according to the job they perform. Provide the access to the customer data to only the limited people whose tasks are associated with the customer information. The lesser the access to the customer data the more it is secured against breaches due to mistakes.

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device culture can be great for the convenience of your employees but not for the security of your customer data and other crucial data. It's best to use the company's hardware for all the organization's related work. If employees are allowed to use their own hardware, it obvious their system will have crucial data and information stored on them. Just imagine what could happen to the data if any of such systems get lost? Moreover, it is also not ensured that employees' private device is well secured with latest updates and anti-virus protection. It's best to give them the well-secured company's hardware and do not allow them to do any office work on any other private system. 

Final thoughts

It's a simple list of simple ways to achieve a great security of your customers' data. You can realize these tips without facing any hard time. Just the straight forward cautions to get serious security. Finally, you must understand the importance of safeguarding your customers' information, it's no more an option but a necessity. Sooner you realize, better it is for your business.