EcommercePlatforms.io

Author: Rodney Laws

  • Instagram Ecommerce Marketing: Making The Most Of The Gram

    Instagram Ecommerce Marketing: Making The Most Of The Gram

    Online business owner looking to grow your audience? Instagram has over one billion active users and is fast becoming the go-to social media platform for ecommerce marketing. 

    Instagram has come on leaps and bounds since being purchased by Facebook in 2012, pushing on to become one of the most popular social platforms on the web. 

    Adopting a well crafted Instagram ecommerce strategy can help your brand reach new audiences and generate valuable leads. In this article, we share the following marketing hacks to help you make the most of the Gram: 

    • Why Instagram is so good for ecommerce marketing
    • How to make the most of ecommerce marketing on Instagram (with tips)
    • Measuring your ecommerce marketing efforts on Instagram
    • Setting up an Instagram shop to capitalise on new leads

    Read on as we explore the world of ecommerce on Instagram and show you how to effectively craft engaging content and market your business to a community of loyal followers. 

    Why Instagram is so good for ecommerce marketing

    Ecommerce on Instagram is particularly successful because the platform allows marketers to grow a big following with minimal budget. 

    As a powerful marketing tool, Instagram can help brands (of any size) boost awareness and put themselves on the map — it has a hugely active user-base, framework for engaging content, and plenty more scope to get creative with your campaigns. 

    How to make the most of ecommerce on Instagram

     

    Instagram ecommerce marketer learning how to make the most of the Gram.

    Image: Pixabay

    To make the most of ecommerce on Instagram you need to pay close attention to the following elements: 

    • Content & imagery
    • Hashtags
    • User-generated content (UGC) 
    • Influencers
    • Instagram stories

    Read on as we delve into these factors and help optimise your Instagram account for ecommerce success 

    Content and imagery

    Every major social media platform boasts a unique selling point for ecommerce marketers.

    Twitter has snappy character-limited copy and Facebook provides access to active communities — but Instagram stands out by emphasising exquisite visuals through eye-catching imagery. 

    When marketing your ecommerce store on Instagram, it’s all about getting the balance right; too many product photos make you appear too sales-focused. Post too often and you risk crowding your followers’ timelines and annoying everyone. 

    Successful ecommerce Instagram campaigns are a rich tapestry consisting of a range of different posts: 

    • Company culture/lifestyle
    • Behind-the-scenes photos/videos
    • Exclusive footage from live events
    • Product promotion (note that we’ve put this last on the list — users don’t want relentless adverts for products or services)

    Create a varied catalogue of content and you’ll build a connection with your audience. 

    Equally, content is king, but only if it’s consistent. The world of social media is quick to forget, so it’s important to maintain your ecommerce marketing efforts over a long period. 

    Here are some ways to make sure you’re consistently posting good quality content on your ecommerce Instagram account: 

    • Automate the scheduling process using a service like Hootsuite
    • Create a content calendar outlining your plans over the next three to four months

    Staying fresh and consistent is at the heart and soul of any marketing strategy, so get creative and don’t let up. 

    Hashtags

    Twitter doesn’t have a patent on hashtags; they can be just as effective as part of your ecommerce Instagram marketing strategy. 

    Hashtags are essential categorising tools — they bring key topics together into a neat visual package, so it’s important to make sure your hashtag placements are on target so you can make the most of the platform. 

    To be a successful ecommerce brand on Instagram, your hashtag strategy has to: 

    • Use market research: just as keyword research is vital for SEO, identifying a bank of relevant hashtags ensures your ecommerce Instagram efforts are being targeted at the right audience for the right reasons. 
    • Embrace a diverse hashtag strategy: using relevant research, select a blend of generic and specific hashtags to drive impressions and engagement with your post. 
    • Get the technical specs right: think about how many hashtags to use per post (9-11 is a good rule of thumb for smaller brands) and where you place them. For instance, many users add hashtags to the first comment rather than their main post because it reduces clutter. 

    Hashtags are the ultimate complementary pieces to your Instagram posts. They help target your efforts and encourage engagement — but only if you know how to make the most of them, 

    User-generated content (UGC) 

    Experiencing a creative drought and struggling to come up with exciting new ideas? Don’t worry — over 95 million photos and videos are uploaded to Instagram every day, making it a content goldmine for your ecommerce business in every sense of the word. 

    Learn to embrace user-generated content (UGC) because it’s a fast and effective way to strengthen your Instagram presence without having to invest lots of time and effort. Best of all, you get massive exposure while leveraging your customer community, which proves hugely beneficial for any ecommerce brand. 

    The best way to take advantage of UGC and source original content is to host a contest via your Instagram account. Ask followers to submit snaps with branded hashtags (follow this guide if you’re unsure how to create one), set a theme such as ‘most inventive use of our product’ — and award a prize as a trade-off for brand exposure. Now you’ve got a whole bank of ready-made content for your socials. 

    Influencers

    Social media has made it possible for anyone to garner popularity without the exposure of mainstream media. As such, many established ecommerce brands are offering big money to leverage the use of these newfound celebrities.

    Often we think of these brand/influencer collaborations on a macro level like Molly-Mae Hague signing a six-figure fashion deal with online retail giant PrettyLittleThing. But in practice, influencer marketing can operate just as effectively for smaller brands with a much more niche focus. 

    Instagram is a hotbed for micro-influencers — social stars with a follower count around 10-100K whose reach may be smaller, but whose influence can still pack a punch when it comes to marketing your ecommerce brand. 

    Unsure about some benefits of working with a micro-influencer as part of your ecommerce Instagram marketing strategy? Read this guide and discover why your ecommerce business ought to establish an influencer marketing program to complement your Instagram efforts. 

    Instagram stories

    An Instagram story is a fast interactive way for your followers to keep updated with your brand by checking what you’ve done, where you’ve been, and what you’re planning over the last 24 hours. 

    While you might be familiar with this hyper-popular feature, do you know how to make the most out of it for ecommerce on Instagram?  

    Here are some top tips to help your ecommerce brand make the most of Instagram stories: 

    • Focus on media elements: think aspect ratios and quality source images — you don’t need to be a professional photographer, but you do need a grip on what’s aesthetically-pleasing to the user
    • Show unfiltered personality: despite the platform being rife with filters, showing an unfiltered personality on your Instagram stories helps you establish a more relatable connection with your audience. 

    Loosen the creative reins and have fun creating stories to go with your ecommerce marketing efforts on Instagram. 

    Selling on Instagram 

    Mastered the nuances of ecommerce Instagram marketing? Great news. Now it’s about time you learn how to capitalise on newfound leads by selling on the platform. 

    One downside to running an Instagram marketing campaign is the restrictions it poses on clickable URLs…

    Links are the lifeblood of ecommerce, allowing users to flow down the marketing funnel and land on your sales pages — but much to the dismay of many marketers, Instagram only allows clickable links in your profile bio or through a swipe up menu on Stories.  

    Thankfully, as the platform evolves its ecommerce offering, Instagram has become more accommodating to the odd like or two through some of its newer selling features: 

    • Instagram Shop
    • Checkout on Instagram

    Read on as we provide a quick overview of how to get involved with ecommerce on Instagram. 

    How to set up an Instagram Shop

    Want to get stuck into ecommerce on Instagram? As with Facebook Shops, you can create an Instagram Shop, where you can turn your account into a profitable sales channel. 

    Ecommerce sellers can integrate their product catalogues with their Instagram accounts through a shop tab on their profiles, but only if you can demonstrate your trustworthiness. 

    Setting up an Instagram Shop requires you to comply with a series of platform demands: 

    • Ensuring your business meets Instagram’s commerce policies
    • Sells physical goods in a supported market
    • The profile is set up as a business account and linked to a Facebook business page

    Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through? While setting up an Instagram Shop might feel like an unnecessary hassle, in practice, they remove friction from the purchasing process by helping shoppers check prices and learn more about specific products, all without leaving Instagram. Trust us, it’ll be worth it in the long run.

    How to set up Checkout on Instagram

    Instagram wants people to remain on the platform, so ecommerce stores have to rely on selling via its profiles rather than channelling traffic to its homepage. 

    Enter Checkout on Instagram: an upcoming fully-fledged and secure sales channel for ecommerce that opens up a more direct revenue stream for your online store. 

    Screenshot of the new Checkout on Instagram for Ecommerce stores.

    Image: Instagram Business

    Businesses can open a functional ecommerce shop on Instagram using Facebook’s Commerce Manager, or by integrating platform partners such as Shopify and BigCommerce. 

    Instagram’s latest Checkout on Instagram feature was first released as a closed beta for US users in 2019, with a few of these popular brands all involved:

    • Zara
    • Adidas
    • Dior
    • Prada
    • Kith
    • Mac Cosmetics 

    Fast forward a year or so and Instagram are announcing a much wider rollout of this exciting ecommerce tool, meaning all eligible stores and creator accounts have access to the feature. 

    If your ecommerce store isn’t already on Instagram then what are you waiting for? 

    Instagram helps ecommerce businesses engage their satisfied users, be this through creative content or a slick platform store. 

    With 1 billion users and counting, the role Instagram plays in social selling is growing faster than ever before. It’s time to get involved.

  • 6 Tips To Help You Decide What To Sell On Amazon

    6 Tips To Help You Decide What To Sell On Amazon

    As the world’s largest and best-known marketplace, Amazon is a great place for any merchant to start selling. 

    Amazon allows you to list products from an innumerable number of categories, ranging from pet products to bedwear. However, it should be noted that you will have competition from a staggering 2.5 million active marketplace sellers.

    So how do you find a product to sell that can get you noticed ahead of those 2.5 million? And are there certain products that sell better than others on Amazon? 

    We explain why it’s important to sell the right products and show you how you can find what they are. 

    Why it is important to sell the right items

    With all the millions of products listed on Amazon, it is often the initial reaction from many sellers to simply throw any of their products on the marketplace. However, that is rarely the best way to ensure your business is profitable. 

    Profitability on Amazon comes from finding items that will sell well on the Marketplace, at minimal expense to you. This could be down to lost production cost, or because they work well with Amazon’s schemes such as fulfilment by Amazon.

    Consistency of sales is also important. Even a large initial bulk sale may not be a sign of long term profitability. Whilst regular sales across several months of a similar amount are a good sign. 

    By selling the right items on Amazon, you will attain both profitability and consistency. Both of which combine to ensure your business is successful on Amazon in the long run.

    The technique behind finding the ideal product to sell

    There is a knack to selling on Amazon. Some of it is down to luck, but there is also an element of your success that you can control. In this case, that is finding the right product to sell. To find that kind of product, you simply have to consider one technique. Sell something that is in demand, with little competition.

    That may seem easier said than done, but you will need to do a degree of research when selling on Amazon anyway. So that gives you a good start, as you will already have an idea of the gaps in the market for your products. However, you can also consider products with certain characteristics, or even products in certain Amazon categories.

    The characteristics of perfect products for FBA

    FBA (fulfilment by Amazon) can go a long way to helping you sell profitably on Amazon. By signing your products up for FBA, you will pay a little extra to Amazon. However, FBA streamlines your entire sales process, helping you with year-round fulfilment. This can make the process more efficient and help you to make more money.

    Certain products are ideal for selling with FBA, as they meet all the necessary criteria set by Amazon. Here are some examples:

    Smaller products

    Smaller, lightweight products are ideal for FBA. This is because they cost much less in terms of shipping, and more can be shipped at once. In addition, their export and import costs are also lower.

    Year-round products

    Using FBA means your product should be available as often as possible. Especially as you will have your competitors hot on your heels. Customers do not want to wait months for a delivery. And Amazon does not want to be associated with brands that cannot fulfil orders quickly. Therefore, you should try to sell products that are available year-round.

    Easily manufactured products

    When considering a product to advertise on Amazon, you should also consider manufacturing. Easily manufactured products can be made at a greater pace than those that are more challenging to manufacture. They are also cheaper to make, whilst maintaining a good standard of quality. This allows you to sell at a greater pace, whilst still getting positive feedback and reviews from your customers.

    The best selling categories on Amazon

    Another element of finding the right products to sell on Amazon is the category. Amazon has a very wide range of categories for you to choose from. However, some experience far more sales than others. For example, books account for almost 16% of all sales on Amazon, so selling a book would be far more effective than selling pet supplies, which come in at just 2.8%. 

    You may also find that certain categories have increased restrictions on what can be sold. This can also play a significant role in deciding whether a category is worth selling on or not. One category where this may be the case is the food category. Certain national or state laws may prohibit the online sale of certain food items. Whilst other categories may have higher taxes, which deter sellers. 

    It is also important to note that even if a category is not one of the best sellers, there may still be numerous profitable products within it. So you shouldn’t rule out a product that has potential, just because it doesn’t fit into a bestseller category.

    Source: AMZ Scout 

    Top tips for finding the best products to sell on Amazon

    Below, we’ve highlighted some top tips to help you find the right products to sell on Amazon. 

    Avoid categories dominated by the bigger brands

    Big brands are often difficult to displace when it comes to online sales. This is because they already have an established reputation with many buyers and are a trusted label. Because of this, it is often better to avoid any category dominated by a big brand and focus your efforts elsewhere. 

    Look for more niche markets that bigger brands have not entered yet. Up and coming markets with plenty of demand are the most fruitful. However, you also need to be wary of those big brands entering the market after you. Try to keep an eye on any new faces in the niche you are focusing on.

    Spot profitable products

    If you believe you have found a few perfect product niches’ to sell on Amazon, you are off to a great start. However, you still need to consider the profitability of the product. Fortunately, all the information you need to check this will already be out there.

    Before making a final decision, you should check:

    • The products popularity
    • The categories popularity 
    • How much it would cost to ship
    • Is the product durable enough to withstand shipping?
    • Competitor pricing
    • Sellers fees
    • If it meets the criteria for FBA

    Many products will seem like an easy win of the face of things. However, once you delve deeper into their costs, it may be apparent that the fees are too high for the niche to ever be profitable. That is why you should consider all of the above elements to find the perfect, profitable product.

    Check top product listings

    By checking the products that currently hold the Buy Box for a listing, you can learn a lot. If a Buy Box product has plenty of reviews (1000+), a description that seems like it will never age, and includes things like a warranty, then you have likely stumbled upon an in-demand product.

    You can take this check a step further by considering how well the listing is optimised. If the seller has taken time to optimise their listing with a keyword filled description and title, the product is probably worth their while. This highlights the demand for items in the niche.

    Monitor your competitors

    Any store owner needs to be up to date with their competitors. And that is no different when selling on Amazon. If you monitor your competitors, you may notice patterns with their products, and what sells well. You may even notice that certain items sell well at certain times of the year.

    By monitoring your competitors, you can gain a better understanding of the current market for products and services in your area, as well as their pricing structure. Ideally, you will find a gap in the market for an in-demand product. That way you can offer something that people need.

    Use extensions to find niche markets

    Chrome add-ons, such as Unicorn Smasher, are a great way to collect data and find niche markets. By using an extension like this, you can find the monthly sales volumes on products via their keywords, and therefore spot products with low competition.

    In addition to that, you can also save products you are interested in and track them over time. This gives you a wider range of data, so you can spot opportunities with greater ease.

    Check Amazon’s best sellers rank

    The best sellers rank on Amazon can be very useful, as it shows products by recent and historical sales. In essence, Amazon BSR shows products that are in demand. This is useful for sellers, as you have the ability to check the categories of the products in the best sellers rank. If there are numerous products from the same niche, then it is clear that there is a demand for that niche and an opportunity for you to take advantage of.

    Final thoughts

    Selling on Amazon can be incredibly rewarding if done well. However, finding the right product to sell on the marketplace is essential for long term success and profitability. If you want to get ahead of Amazon’s millions of other sellers, then researching the market, competitors and Amazon’s wide range of product categories is exactly what you need to do to get you on the road to success.

    About the author

    Jacques van der Wilt is the founder and CEO of DataFeedWatch, a leading global feed management and optimisation solution that helps online merchants optimise their product listings for 1,000+ ecommerce channels in more than 50 countries.

     

  • Coronavirus Ecommerce Tips: 5 Ways Online Businesses Can Save Money During COVID

    Coronavirus Ecommerce Tips: 5 Ways Online Businesses Can Save Money During COVID

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    More people than ever are shopping online since the coronavirus outbreak changed the way we live our lives.

    Social distancing and societal lockdowns mean stay-at-home orders are up for businesses around the world — from online retailers like Amazon to online grocery suppliers such as Walmart and everything else in between. 

    This has seen enormous sales growth in the ecommerce industry, with China becoming the first country where more than 50% of its retail is now conducted online. 

    However, while total retail figures and online orders might be up, plenty of digital companies are feeling the pinch from COVID-19 and need to make savings to stay afloat. 

    We’ve highlighted five ways you can do this and the table of contents lists them in brief:

    • End brick and mortar commitments
    • Bin unneeded digital licences
    • Evaluate your product offering 
    • Introduce time tracking software 
    • Employ behaviour monitoring tools

    We’ve expanded on each of these below, recommending tools and strategies to help you implement them into your business. 

    Strip away your brick & mortar commitments to save cash

    On the face of it, brick and mortar might not seem like the biggest issue in digital commerce. Your company is online and your products are sold through your website, not via a physical till (as happens in department stores). 

    But we’re not talking about a department store. We’re talking about your office space — the building you used to conduct your business from, which the pandemic has shown you no longer need and that’s now a meaningless drain on your finances. 

    Offices are one of the greatest overheads for any business. Just to start, there is: 

    • Rent 
    • Electricity 
    • Insurance 

    Not to mention a whole host of other things you have to pay for to keep them in operation. 

    Strip away this expense and go fully remote, following the model used by these companies to easily manage your teams. Do so and you’ll find your ecommerce business saves money now and long after the pandemic has ended. 

    Pull the plug on any of your unnecessary digital licenses  

    Wastage is something that affects all businesses — even the best of them — at some point. Much as people do with gym memberships, you sign up for a product with the best of intentions and either don’t use it at all or fail to get value for money from it. 

    If you want to save money while we’re in the midst of the coronavirus crisis then you need to cut out the wastage — and digital licenses are a prime candidate for the chop. 

    Of course you need digital tools, but only the ones that make running your business easier and more efficient. A great way of highlighting which ones these are is to conduct a survey and ask your employees: 

    • What tools they use 
    • Why they use them 
    • How often they use them 

    The survey will help you in a couple of ways. Firstly, the “what” and “how” will highlight any tools that aren’t being used at all. Secondly, the “why” will let you see if there’s any possibility of ditching multiple tools and replacing them with a compact, singular option that does what’s needed. 

    Conduct this survey as soon as you can and then serve notice on your unnecessary digital license. Once your contracts end, you could find you make a series of small savings that add up to a lot of money for your company. 

    Assess your product offering and can those that aren’t selling 

    Your products are the reason you have a business. They are what brings in your ecommerce sales and puts money in your company account. 

    But your products only do this if people buy them — and one thing that’s clear from the coronavirus pandemic is that online shopping habits have changed. This has broadly benefited retailers but it’s not all been good news, with the beauty industry hit hard by COVID as shopping behaviour changes during the pandemic. 

    Some of your products will naturally be less popular (as in any business) and you might now be selling items that cost you money in (at least) these three ways: 

    • Making
    • Marketing
    • Monitoring 

    All of these things cost money, and if that doesn’t go solely towards products that are turning a profit then it’s money wasted. The flipside is that if you stop selling these items then you’ll save the cash allocated to those three things. 

    You can find out which items to bin by reviewing your online sales figures, assessing which items are spiralling downwards and then cutting them from your product offering. It’ll be easy to spot the savings on making these goods but marketing and monitoring might be trickier. However, what you will notice quickly is that you have extra resources available, which is certainly a reduction. 

    Use time tracking software to get the most from your resources

    Your employees are your greatest asset. They keep your business running by earning and processing online sales for you. Of course, they’re also your biggest expense because you have to pay them. 

    If you want to make savings during coronavirus then you need to make sure your staff are providing value for money. And you’ll need to make some changes to ensure this is the case. 

    No, no — we’re not suggesting you fire a bunch of your staff. This would suck the heart out of your company and erode its ability to generate revenue — not to mention the fact that it’s pretty heartless during the coronavirus pandemic. 

    However, what we are saying is that you should use time tracking software (like HourStack or Toggl) to make sure their resources are allocated properly. This is where: 

    • You can see if the right people are on the right tasks
    • You can find out if there’s any doubling up of work  
    • You can learn how long tasks are really taking 

    How does all this data save you money? Like this. Firstly, you can assign tasks to the people who can complete them most efficiently, so more work can be done. Secondly, you remove any duplicate entries, so you’re not paying twice for the same things. Finally, if tasks are taking longer than expected, you might need to increase your prices to accommodate for this. 

    By allocating your resources effectively you can make sure you get the most out of your employees and help put your company in a better financial position. 

    Use behaviour monitoring tools to aid your fulfilment process

    Fulfilment is integral to ecommerce businesses. It’s the part of the process that gets items to your customers, completing the online sales journey. 

    But it’s also a significant expense for those companies with an in-house delivery team, and it’s one where you could be losing money in the long term due to bad behaviour. What are we talking about? Let us explain. 

    When your delivery team takes an item to your online shoppers they use a company vehicle. This is an expense that’s accounted for. What’s not necessarily accounted for is how their driving impacts on the longevity of your vehicles. How? By driving in such a way that it increases the wear and tear on your automobiles. Behaviour monitoring tools (such as telematics) can help you to spot bad driving and increase the lifespan of your vehicles. Here’s how: 

    • You can see if your drivers are driving too quickly 
    • You can find out if your staff are taking corners too sharply 
    • You can learn if your employees are braking too harshly 

    All of these things can lead to wear and tear, costing you on repairs and replacements. They can also cost you more in fuel — again, hiking up the price of each delivery. By using telematics software you can save money by keeping your delivery vehicles on the road for longer. 

    But that’s not the only benefit of using behaviour monitoring tools. You also need to keep in mind that having vehicles out of action (while being repaired or replaced) creates supply chain issues. This means that these tools not only save your money but they also ensure you keep your promise to your customers of delivering their goods on time. 

    Treat COVID-19 as a chance to introduce regular reviews 

    We close not on a tip so much as a pause for thought. Coronavirus has changed the world and its effects will be felt long after it is brought under control and eradicated. 

    It has forced changes in our behaviours — and one of the key lessons you should take from this as an online retailer is that you should conduct regular reviews of your business. 

    Because while you might think everything is ticking along nicely, we guarantee there’s always at least one way you can save money. 

    So, whether it’s during your first quarter, after six months, when you reach the autumn of your business year or at the final part of your company calendar, conduct a review of your operations. We’re certain your finance team will be pleased with the results. 

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  • How To Create A Facebook Shop: Tips, Features & Benefits

    How To Create A Facebook Shop: Tips, Features & Benefits

    Facebook is a great way to promote your business, but it can also be a valuable sales channel — it’s quick and simple to set up, and you can make your products visible to thousands of people. 

    If you’re thinking of setting up a Facebook Shop then read this guide to find out where to get started, including:

    • The benefits of selling on Facebook
    • How to create a Facebook Shop
    • Selling on Facebook via Shopify and BigCommerce

    Read on to find out more about setting up a Facebook store.

    What is a Facebook Shop?

    Facebook Shops allows retailers to set up an online store that’s accessible from Facebook and Instagram.

    It’s a development of the Facebook Page Shop feature, giving retailers more freedom to create a more customised ‘storefront’. Among other things, this includes a cover image and brand colours so that it looks more like your own website or store than merely a Facebook page.

    Your Facebook Shop can be found through your business’s Facebook page or Instagram profile. It can also be linked to in your stories or discovered through paid ads. Shoppers can then view all the products you’ve listed in your Facebook Shop, save products for later, or place an order.

    If you’re in the US and you’ve enabled checkout then shoppers can complete the transaction without leaving the app. This functionality hasn’t been fully rolled out yet, so outside of the US, shoppers will be directed to your website to make purchases.

    When someone visits your Facebook Shop, they’ll be able to message your business through WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram to ask any questions or ask for delivery updates.

    Facebook Page Shop vs Facebook Shops: what’s the difference?

    The latest shopping feature for Facebook is fairly similar to the old one:

    • Facebook Page Shop: The old shopping feature that allowed you to display products for sale on your business’s Facebook page. Customers would have to check out on your own website.
    • Facebook Shops: The updated shopping feature that started rolling out in 2020. It allows you to add a storefront to your Facebook Page shop, and eventually, visitors should be able to checkout without leaving Facebook or Instagram.

    As you can see, this new updated shopping feature will allow easy in-platform shopping for customers, which should result in an increase in sales.

    What are the benefits of setting up a Facebook store?

    If Facebook or Instagram are one of the platforms your target customers are using, then you’re probably already using those platforms for your marketing to create awareness and connect with your audience. 

    So when someone has discovered your business, it makes sense to make it as easy as possible for them to make a purchase by directing them to your products in your Facebook Shop.

    With a Facebook Shop page, it’s possible to:

    • Add an unlimited number of products for sale
    • Organise your inventory into different collections and categories
    • Communicate with visitors and customers through Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram message
    • Review data on the number of sales and visitors to track your progress
    • Add your products to Facebook Marketplace where a wider audience can see them. 

    In the section below, we’ll go into more detail about how to create a Facebook Shop.

    How to set up a Facebook Shop

    What you need to create a Facebook store:

    • A Facebook account
    • A Facebook business page: You’ll need admin, Manage Page, and Manage catalogue permissions
    • Physical products to sell 
    • To agree to Facebook’s Merchant Terms
    • US only: A link to a valid bank account and a tax identification number

    Step 1: Getting started

    You can set up a Facebook Shop in Commerce Manager by going to the Create your shop page.

    From here, you can start setting up your store directly on Facebook or choose to import and sync products from other platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

    Screenshot of the first stage of setting up a Facebook store.

    Image: Facebook

    Step 2: Choose your checkout method

    On the next page, you can choose how your customers will checkout and pay for purchases from your Facebook Shop:

    • Checkout on a different website: you can redirect visitors to your own website to complete the transactions
    • Checkout with Facebook or Instagram: shoppers browse products on your Facebook or Instagram page and can complete their purchases without leaving the app
    • Checkout with messaging: When shoppers want to buy something they’ll have to send you a message through Messenger or Whatsapp. They won’t be able to checkout on the app or your site.

    Screenshot of setting up a Facebook shop process

    Image: Facebook

    Step 3: Pick your business page

    The next page asks you to pick the business and sales channel that you want to sell from. It will display all the business accounts that you manage and you can pick if you want to set up a store for your Facebook or Instagram account, or both.

    Step 4: Add products to your Facebook page

    You can then select an existing catalogue of products if you’ve already got one set up on Facebook, or you can create a new one. You can only pick one catalogue of products to use with your Facebook Shop, and you can’t switch to a different one at a later point, so it’s important to be careful and confident that you are choosing the right one.

    A Facebook catalogue is a collection of all the different product listings and details that you want to promote or sell through Facebook and Instagram. It’s where you can add product information and images that customers will be able to browse.

    You should add as much information and detail to your product descriptions as possible, and add multiple high-quality product images — just like you would for your ecommerce website. 

    Step 5: Review your store

    At this point, you can get a preview of your Facebook Shop and make any changes you might want. 

    You then agree to the Seller Performance and Accountability Policies and you can create your store.

    Step 6: Customise and publish

    Now you’ve created the Facebook Shop page — but it still won’t be visible to the public.

    Before you publish your free Facebook store, you can finish customising your storefront and product range, creating smaller collections of products from your catalogue. You can also customise the look of your store with cover image and colours, and choose a featured collection.

    Once you’re happy with your store you can publish it. Facebook can take up to 24 hours to review the shop, and then it will be live and visible for customers to start browsing.

    Selling on Facebook with Shopify

    If you’re already running your ecommerce site using Shopify then you can set up your Facebook Shop in a matter of minutes.

    You just need to set up Shopify’s Facebook sales channel from your Shopify account:

    • Set up a Facebook Business Manager that’s connected to your business’s Facebook Page and an ad account that the Business Manager has admin permissions for
    • Go to your Shopify admin and click on ‘Add sales channels’
    • Click ‘Add next to Facebook’ and then click ‘Update sales channel’ and follow instructions.

    Once you’re set up, Shopify can take your products and add them to your Facebook Shop page. 

    Your products are linked to your Shopify so that any changes you make to listings in Shopify are automatically synchronised with your Facebook Shop. Shopify can also provide tools to sell your products via Facebook Messenger.

    Selling on Facebook with BigCommerce

    BigCommerce can also connect your products from your ecommerce site to Facebook, and the set-up is very similar to using Shopify. 

    You just need to install a Facebook shop add-on to your BigCommerce account and your products can be added to Facebook.

    BigCommerce also provides an add-on for controlling Facebook Ads, which can make managing your Facebook channel a lot easier.

    What can’t I sell on Facebook Shop pages?

    Facebook prohibits the sales of a number of things including alcohol, prescription drugs,  and animals. You also can’t sell digital products or services — you have to be selling a physical product.

    Is a Facebook store free?

    Currently, Facebook doesn’t charge for setting up a Facebook Shop. As your sales are directed through to your ecommerce website you’ll just have to pay any of the fees associated with your usual sales process. 

    However, if you want to promote your shop page or your products using Facebook Ads then you will have to pay. 

    Setting up a Facebook store is incredibly straightforward and offers the potential to reach a huge audience of potential customers. 

    Consumers will be able to browse your products on Facebook and then come to your website ready to purchase (and once the upgrade has been rolled out, they’ll be able to shop in-platform too). And if you’re already using an ecommerce platform that integrates with Facebook Shops it makes managing the additional sales channel even easier — so there’s really nothing to lose and a lot to gain. 

  • Find Your Niche: How To Find A Niche For Your New Business

    Find Your Niche: How To Find A Niche For Your New Business

    Is your heart set on owning an ecommerce business, but you have no idea where to take this idea or how to get started? 

    Finding your niche — and choosing a successful business niche in particular — is no mean feat. You can list off all your inspirations, passions and talents, but still come up empty-handed. Why? Because finding a niche isn’t about settling on one idea — it’s about identifying countless profitable opportunities over and over again. 

    In this article we explore the following steps to find your niche: 

    • Getting to know the best business niches
    • Finding an ecommerce niche
    • Narrowing your search to find the perfect ecommerce niche

    Read on as we help you outline some quick but effective ways to narrow down a profitable niche and take your business in the right direction. 

     What are the best business niches?

    Thinking about the best ecommerce niches on a blackboard.

    Image: Pexels

    Niche hunting? Finding the best business niche is all about discovering what sells and why. 

    In this section, we discuss profitable niches and social trends to help you find your niche and discover killer opportunities to launch your business. 

    Trending niches

    As a business owner, you likely want to jump on movement early so you can maximise profit and ride a niche for all its worth. 

    Enter trending niches — a type of product/service possessing unique popularity here and now as a result of contemporary thinking or sudden events. 

    For example, this past year has birthed many trending niches, given the pandemic and a  looming threat of climate change has flipped many people’s lives upside-down. 

    Consequently, here are some trending niches rising in popularity through 2021: 

    • Home workout equipment
    • Cookware
    • Buy it for life
    • Low/zero waste cosmetic products
    • Home office supplies/tech
    • Sustainable clothing

    With people stuck indoors, it comes as little surprise many consumers are suddenly searching for gym equipment and home office supplies.

    However, it’s worth remembering that trending niches are liable to change, so you have to keep your finger on the pulse. Check the latest trending topics on social media, look at what’s hot at online marketplaces, and tap into a worldwide database by conducting research using Google Trends. 

    Most profitable niches

    Trending niches not taking your fancy? If you’re after a more solid foundation to launch your business, some niches stand the test of time and are almost always a safe bet: 

    • Dating and relationships
    • Pets
    • Personal fitness/health
    • Gadgets and technology
    • Finance
    • Self-improvement

    These niches aren’t riding a trend — they have weathered the storm and come up trumps for years and years. While the products inevitably change and evolve, you can safely assume these core niches will always remain profitable. 

    How to find an ecommerce niche

    Zooming in on your ecommerce niche with a magnifying glass.

    Image: Pixabay

    Ecommerce is proving to be the best way to explore and find your business niche. 

    Ecommerce brands can reach wider audiences anywhere in the world, which is perfect for identifying profitable niches in different regions and communities. 

    In this section, we pin down your business niche in relation to the world of ecommerce and discuss exactly how you can operate successfully online. 

    Identify your personal interests, passions & expertise

    Even though your hobbies won’t always transition into a strong business model, passion is a powerful force and a good place to start if you want to find your niche. If you’re planning to start up a new business, you’re going to be spending a lot of time immersed in your chosen area, so it will help a lot if you find joy in your niche. 

    Take some time to think about what motivates you and engages your inner ambitions. Coming to a blank? Here are some prompts to get the creative juices flowing: 

    • What’s your favourite thing to do with your free time?
    • What content do you consume the most and where? 
    • Does something about your current work motivate you? 

    Treat these questions as a rough guideline as you begin to build the framework for your business niche. 

    It’s good to get your answers written down — even if it feels obvious, you might be overlooking an important idea that sets your business off on the right track.

    Find your USP and use it to tell a story 

    In a perfect world, you want your products and services to be one of a kind. But in such an expansive market, you’re bound to come across others who do what you do — and so will your customers. 

    While it’s unlikely your business niche is completely groundbreaking, you can offer a USP (unique selling point) that sets you apart from the competition. 

    In particular, one unique selling point sets you apart from the crowd like no other — you. 

    Whatever business niche you choose, it’s you who makes the biggest difference. After all, customers want to buy from personable, like-minded people with a compelling backstory — not a faceless website with no story to tell. 

    Take Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory into consideration when choosing a niche and pinpointing your USP. This story model focuses on why you set up your business rather than what it is you sell/provide. Identify your unique story by answering these questions in descending order of importance:

    • Why do you do what you do?
    • How do you plan to fulfil your reasons? 
    • What does your business do? 

    Stories sell and your motivation should carry through the operation far beyond ideating your niche. Your story is what makes your brand  unique and stand out compared to the next business operating within your niche. 

    Confirm there is a market for your niche

    Found the right niche? By this point, you likely have a few ideas in mind that feel pretty good, but you won’t know for sure until you confirm there is a profitable market.  

    If there’s no market for your niche then your business won’t be able to make any money, which is a no-go even if your heart is set on an idea — you need to be flexible and rather ruthless when finding a profitable niche market. 

    Determine whether you’ve landed in the right place by researching global marketplaces like: 

    Browse through the top product categories and if you’re struggling to find searches, offers or many products within your niche, treat this as a red flag. It’s likely nobody  — or at least very few people — have been able to monetise your niche. 

    Don’t double down and try to draw blood from a stone. Swiftly move onto a niche with more selling potential. 

    Research your competition and stand out from the crowd

    Having competition in your business niche is inevitable and certainly not a bad thing.

    Often people avoid certain niches if the market looks oversaturated or the closest competition appears unbeatable. But this shouldn’t put you off. If you’re passionate about your niche, then go for it. 

    With that being said, don’t rely on passion alone — you also need to do your due diligence and research what’s front of you. By this, we mean to find out whether there is a specific way to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

    Unsure how to perform niche research and identify gaps in the market? Look out for these factors and gaps when researching competitors: 

    • Impersonal approach: stories sell and people want to know yours. Some businesses in your niche aren’t dedicating time to serve their audience or connect with them properly. 
    • Poor quality content: part of dominating an online niche is creating content that’s better (and more helpful to the user) than your surrounding competition. Think listicle blogs, explainer videos — and anything else which can set you up as a knowledgeable niche authority. 
    • Lack of competition in the SERPs: often search engine results pages are laden with ads and authority websites with unbeatable backlink profiles, making it extremely difficult for your business to rank on the first page of Google for a given niche. With tools like Ahrefs (more on this later) you can identify opportunities to dominate your niche by finding search terms with high volume and low difficulty ratings. 

    Found a way to differentiate your business from the competition in your niche? Now it’s time to start ranking on Google. After all, in the ecommerce world, it’s first page or bust. 

    Narrow your niche even further with keyword research

    Business is evolving and ecommerce — unlike its brick and mortar counterparts — is conducted with SEO in mind. 

    Search engine optimisation is the practice of improving the quantity and quality of site traffic through organic search engine results. And though core updates have sent this process through the wringer at times, keyword research remains an essential component of SEO, which helps your business become more visible in your chosen niche. 

    With this in mind, it’s important to narrow your niche down and target achievable but profitable high traffic keywords as part of your content strategy. 

    To do this, there are many online tools you can use. Ahrefs is our go-to research tool, but there are plenty of other paid and free options available: 

    • Moz Keyword Explorer
    • Quora 
    • Answer The Public
    • SEMrush

    Alternatively, you can manually crawl the SERPs and see for yourself what people are searching for — and locate the competition you need to beat. 

    Owning and running a business is an exciting prospect, but it means very little unless you successfully identify profitable niches to support it. 

    While the internet has made finding your niche far more accessible, ecommerce competition is more numerous and much fiercer than ever before. 

    Use this guide to find your business niche and start earning your stripes online.

  • 4 Ways To Combat Churn: The #1 Silent Killer For Every Subscription-based Business

    4 Ways To Combat Churn: The #1 Silent Killer For Every Subscription-based Business

    More often than not businesses tend to invest in customer acquisition tactics.

    While growth is of course important, it’s possible if your customers are leaving faster than they come. This is why prioritising your customer retention is so important — and this is where the concept of “churn” comes into play.

    What is churn?

    Churn (also referred to as attrition) is the percentage of customers who cancel or choose not to renew their subscriptions. Put simply, churn reflects the proportion of lost accounts during a given period of time.

    It is a very important metric as it reflects the health of the customer base and reveals the performance of the business.

    Churn indicates brand loyalty and customer satisfaction as well as presents “lost revenue”.

    How to calculate churn

    Customer churn is claimed to cost US businesses a whopping $136 billion a year. Yet, there is no clear consensus as to how to calculate it.

    The easiest (and most common) way to estimate churn is to take the number of users you lost within a set time period (e.g. monthly or quarterly) and divide it by the total number of customers at the beginning of that time period.

    In reality, businesses may prefer to focus on different types of churn:

    • Customer churn
    • Product churn
    • Recurring revenue churn

    Here are a few more slightly different formulas if you need more information (including formulas):

    Customer churn:

    Revenue churn:

    Regardless of how you calculate churn, your company’s focus should be reducing it, and the strategy may be the same for each type.

    What is optimal churn?

    Obviously, where there’s no uniform way to calculate churn, there’s no such a thing as optimal (normal) churn. 

    Zero churn is hardly possible because there are too many factors that can fail here: credit cards expire, people move or quit, customers move on to different tasks and simply don’t need your product any more.

    According to various studies, few companies see churn which is less than 5 per cent. But that is not to say that you have nothing to work on if your customer churn is 4%. In this area, there’s always room for improvement.

    How to reduce churn?

    Here are four steps to prioritise:

    Set up an effective dunning management routine

    Dunning management refers to all kinds of methods a business is using to handle failed credit card payments. 

    A credit card payment may be declined for a variety of reasons, including:

    • Exceeded credit card limits
    • Expired credit cards (especially when it comes to recurring payments, this will happen for just about every payment in your system unless your customer manually cancels it)
    • Payments being blocked by the customer’s bank, etc.

    It has been calculated that on average 12% of monthly credit cards will fail. This means that unless you manage these failed payments to revive them, your churn will be a minimum of 12%, 

    Coming from the same source, there are other astounding stats: only around 15% of failed payments are recovered every month.

    There are a few (pretty easy) ways to recover failed payments:

    1. Retry payments automatically

    Again, most payment processors will offer this as an option, so make sure you have it activated. PayPal lets you set a failure threshold for a plan as well as recover outstanding balances, for example, both of these options an be accessed from your PayPal recurring payment dashboards:

    Image: paypal.com

    1. Make the most of email automation, i.e. send automated notifications of declined payments and include instructions on how to fix an error.

    PayKickstart is one example of a payment management solution that allows users to customise the action to be taken when a payment fails as well as edit the email template that goes out to the customer.

    Don’t cancel your customer’s account right away: This can result in unnecessary frustration and lost accounts. Instead, send a series of emails to a customer notifying of a failed payment prior to cancelling.

    1. Use alternative notification methods, like text messages, voicemails, etc.)

    Emails get filtered by spam boxes, people forget to check one of their inboxes or they simply never notice yours in the list.

    To overcome possible communication failures, use an alternative method of getting in touch with your users. Invite them to opt-in for text messages, phone calls or push notifications. Also, mention that it is very important for them to get notified when something goes on with their accounts.

    Image: rebrand.ly

    1. Use pre-dunning, i.e. identify customers whose payment may be declined, for example, their card will expire. Many payment processors come with this feature, so start by investigating your billing system. 

    Use cancellation saver sequences

    Not all churn happens because of failed payments. Some of it occurs when your customer actually cancels their accounts.

    But even in those cases, much of that churn can be prevented.

    This is where cancellation saver sequences come into play. This is what it usually looks like:

    • When your customer clicks a link to cancel their account, ask them to choose the reason for cancelling
    • Depending on the reason they choose, provide them with a better alternative solution to cancelling (e.g. downgrading to a less expensive tier if they choose “Too expensive” as a reason for cancelling).

    Image: paykickstart.com 

    According to PayKickstart, businesses are able to save 30-50% of cancellations by using the cancellation saver option which is included in the revenue retention toolset. The feature also allows you to identify the most common reasons for cancelling and helps you adjust your product to eliminate those:

    Image Credit: paykickstart.com 

    Provide alternative payment methods

    If churn happens because of a payment failure, it’s often the payment processor’s fault. It might not support the customer’s country, or fails to connect to the customer’s bank account. In this case, it’s beyond your customer’s power to solve this unless there’s an alternative method offered.

    Customers may abandon checkout due to missing payment options, so offering several options is important for your conversion rates. But this also helps in reducing churn when a customer’s current method fails.

    Diversifying payment methods will also give you more data to process. Tools like Finteza offer in-depth analytics on which payment methods work better.

    With Finteza you can slice and dice your data to identify:

    • Which payment methods work better based on a traffic source
    • Which audience demographics prefers specific payment methods, etc.

    (Payment method analytics based on traffic source, i.e. Google search)

    Image:  Finteza.com

    Utilise customer feedback surveys

    Knowing your customers’ struggles is the best way to reduce churn. 

    Customers’ feedback will allow you to solve their problems before they are forced to cancel, but don’t expect your users to come to you with their problems.

    Only one in 26 customers are said to complain when they are unhappy. All the remainder churn quietly, without saying a word, unless you prompt them to share their feedback. 

    These days there are multiple easily-integrated feedback sharing solutions that will allow you to hear from your customers on a daily basis. These include plugins, feedback widgets, smart chatbots, and yes, cancellation saver sequence we discussed above.

    Image: usersnap.com 

    The good news, happier customers don’t just cancel less. Happy customers mean loyal customers and the benefits don’t stop there:

    • Happy customers sell: Almost 80% of customers would recommend a company to a friend where they’ve had a great experience.
    • Happy customers spend more: McKinsey found that happy customers tend to add services or upgrade their existing packages.

    Churn reflects the company’s ability to keep its customers which makes it the foundation of any company’s success. If you are not monitoring churn or working on reducing it, I hope the above tools and tips will help!

    Author Bio: Mark Thompson is the co-founder of PayKickstart an industry-leading billing and affiliate management platform for subscription-based businesses.  Mark loves the subscription-economy and helping startups and mature businesses maximise revenue.  As a 10-year online Entrepreneur, he has sold multiple 6 and 7 figure businesses, while generating over $20M dollars online.

  • BigCommerce vs Shopify: The Big Two Go Head To Head, But Which Is Best For Your Business?

    BigCommerce vs Shopify: The Big Two Go Head To Head, But Which Is Best For Your Business?

    Competition is the beating heart of ecommerce. It keeps stores evolving, vendors creative and products arriving on customers’ doorsteps. 

    Competition isn’t confined to opposing stores though. All across the world, first-time store owners are making their choice of ecommerce platform. But how do you decide which is best? 

    In this guide, we’ll put two heavy hitters of the ecommerce sphere up against each other to see which one comes out on top.

    BigCommerce vs Shopify: which is the most powerful, most adaptable and premium choice for your online store? 

    What is BigCommerce?

    With 90,000 stores in 65 countries worldwide, it’s hard to understate the popularity of BigCommerce.

    Since its founding in 2009, BigCommerce has offered users full autonomy over their own professional online stores, empowering them to add unique products, craft excellent content and process orders all by themselves. 

    The flexible BigCommerce is one of the most popular store builders on the market for both first-time business owners and experienced sellers. There are perfect plans for small to midsize businesses and large, high-volume operations. For a safe, efficient and enjoyable online selling experience, BigCommerce is hard to beat. 

    Read our full review of BigCommerce here. 

    What is Shopify?

    Shopify might be the bigger name of the two, but it ultimately doesn’t differ too much from BigCommerce.

    It also offers users the tools to build an industry-leading online store and even manage in-person sales through the Shopify POS service. 

    For over ten years Shopify has been the industry standard, becoming almost synonymous with the process of launching your own store as a side hustle. 

    In recent years, Shopify has focused on integration with other platforms, defining itself as a hub for all things ecommerce. Their blog and design options make them a versatile platform perfect for a number of industries. 

    Read our full review of Shopify here. 

    BigCommerce vs Shopify: a comparison overview

    In this guide, we will compare Shopify vs BigCommerce in more in-depth. However, we’ve created the comparison table below if you want a quick overview of the major positives and negatives of each ecommerce platform:

    BigCommerce Shopify
    Positives Brilliant built-in sales features. No installation needed.  A quality app store full of thousands of useful tools
    No transaction fees included in any plans Easy-to-navigate dashboard
    Up to 600 variants per product Unique themes make it easy to incorporate professional designs
    Negatives Advanced features less intuitive  Limited international scalability
    Store themes lack variety  Transaction fees unless users are using Shopify Payments function 
    Limited customisation in features Further investment needed to get the most out of templates and apps 

    Features

    If you want to find out which is better: Shopify or BigCommerce, then finding out more about the features of both will help you understand the differences between these seemingly similar sites. Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of the features on offer from both platforms. 

    BigCommerce vs Shopify: ease of use

    The best ecommerce platforms are always user-friendly, and Shopify and BigCommerce certainly fit the bill. 

    Both feature excellent and easy to use content management systems, modern dashboards and straightforward editing functionality. 

    However, Shopify is a platform focused on appealing to brand new users, while BigCommerce is one more concerned with helping them grow on the platform. 

    Product uploads

    Adding products is relatively easy on both platforms, with Shopify opting for a ‘form’ process each time a user uploads a new product. 

    BigCommerce, on the other hand, requires a bit more of a learning curve, with a detailed list of features to add to a product page on the left-hand side bar. This pays off after a little experimentation but isn’t ideal for someone looking to get their store up and running quickly. 

    There is a recognisable disparity between the number of product options and variants on offer. Shopify supports up to three drop-down menu options per product with an option for up to, while BigCommerce merchants are far less limited. 

    Image BigCommerce

    Design

    Shopify has long been recognised for its brilliant design flexibility. However, BigCommerce may have outclassed it with recent updates. 

    An intuitive drag-and-drop builder means design elements can now be added, removed and altered with ease. This is extremely accessible, especially in contrast to Shopify’s (now somewhat outdated) functionality of switching page elements from a list. 

    This drag and drop function is significantly more appealing to a generation of new store owners familiar with similar features. 

    The basic functions of Shopify are much more intuitive than BigCommerce. However, BigCommerce is undeniably more powerful and with similar developments to the drag-and-drop function, could soon outclass Shopify. 

    Shopify vs BigCommerce: scalability

    Both BigCommerce and Shopify have been accused of being ‘small business’ platforms. 

    Critics bemoan their lack of organic scalability, suggesting there is only so far you can take a business with a regular Shopify or BigCommerce plan — pushing users towards premium plans (as we’ll touch upon later).

    That’s not necessarily true though. As huge success stories on each platform such as SkullCandy (BigCommerce) and GymShark (Shopify) show, both platforms offer great scalability potential for growing brands. 

    Their regular payment plans all include — or provide access to — SEO and digital marketing features out-of-the-box, giving users the tools they need to quickly expand their enterprise online. Should business owners want to take things a step further, premium plans include access to advanced tools and APIs, including:

    • Automated customer service and loyalty processes, such as merchandising and fraud prevention 
    • Multi-currency support for international sales
    • Staff access management across multiple websites

    However, the presence of credit card fees on both platforms does highlight some potential scalability challenges. 

    In addition to transaction fees (covered in our ‘Price’ section), there are credit card fees to consider. These are charged by the company providing the payment gateway software that processes your customer’s payments. 

    Should you want to expand and offer more diverse payment options, you will have to accept saying goodbye to a small percentage of the fee. 

    Shopify offers ‘Shopify Payments’ as an out-of-the-box payment processor, offering varying credit card charges whether you’re selling online or in person. 

    BigCommerce has the slightly cheaper and more familiar option of processing its card payments through PayPal. This generally charges a cheaper rate than Shopify, particularly for larger business owners with high volumes of sales. 

    Should you want to take your store out into the real world and start selling in person, both stores have access to POS apps to turn your website into a pop-up store overnight. Shopify produces their own celebrated POS system, while BigCommerce gives you access to a number of third-party apps. 

    One again, this is another instance in which the two platforms are very close, although BigCommerce does edge it slightly on fees. 

    Shopify customer support email on mobile

    Image Unsplash

    Customer support

    On top of all the excellent features and room for scalability, it’s important to know you have comprehensive customer support backing your purchase. 

    Price and ease of use are essential points when comparing platforms, but what happens when the basic functionality of your store breaks or you’re struggling to implement a new feature? 

    BigCommerce and Shopify share a lot of similarities when it comes to customer support, including:

    • Live chat functionality
    • Forums
    • FAQ pages
    • Email support
    • Phone support

    BigCommerce will try and point you to FAQ, form and DIY solutions before speaking to you directly, although they do offer a “skip this step” option when you require additional support. 

    Likewise, Shopify also offers 24/7 support alongside DIY solutions to solve the issue in your own time. 

    Where Shopify does falter is in international support. If you aren’t on their list of countries supported by phone, it can be difficult to get in touch with them. However, when you do get in contact, customer support is generally quick and excellent. 

    Benefits of each platform

    If you’re trying to decide whether you should use Shopify or BigCommerce, looking at the key benefits of each will help. Let’s take a look at the main benefits of both BigCommerce and Shopify. 

    Benefits of BigCommerce

    • User friendly: Quick set up process that allows you to get selling almost immediately. 
    • Product options: A wider array of product options than Shopify. Tons of great custom fields and options for bulk product uploads, and easier to sell a wide variety of products.
    • Mobile friendly: Mobile themes make it easy to optimise your shopping cart for mobile devices. 
    • Reporting: State-of-the-art reports offering crucial insight into your business. Analytics available on all plans, unlike Shopify.
    • Bespoke design: Deeper access to code allows for bespoke website design.
    • Sell through multiple websites: Offers the flexibility to sell through large platforms such as eBay, Amazon and Facebook. Social integration available through Facebook.
    • Shipping providers: Supports all major shipping providers, allowing you to get your products to customers around the world quickly and easily.

    Benefits of Shopify

    • Easy set-up: No-fuss set up process with clean and user-friendly back end for store preparation and development.
    • Security: Excellent customer support backs up robust security processes. Shopify handles all server maintenance issues and upgrades to help product sensitive customer data. Shopify handles PCI compliance and SSL certificates can be enabled.
    • Mobile friendly: All Shopify themes are mobile responsive and designed to look great on all devices. iPhone and Android apps allow you to manage your stores on the go.
    • Diverse collection of themes: Over 160 unique themes to choose from in the Shopify Theme Store. Free and paid options that allow you to create a beautiful, modern website.
    • Thriving community and app store: Need something for your Shopify store? There’s an app for that. Reviews, customer wishlists, analytics, SEO, label printing services and more, all built and refined by a passionate Shopify user base.
    • Abandoned cart recovery: Keep those customers who leave your store without buying. Abandon cart recovery tracks and emails potential customers to remind them to complete their purchase. BigCommerce does not offer this feature.

    Example of Shopify Analytics 

    Image Shopify

    As you can see, many of each store’s primary benefits are quite similar. However, the stark differences are how BigCommerce offers more selling options while Shopify opens you up to a wide community of app and theme creators to give your website a more personal feel. 

    Depending on the avenue you want to take your store down, these key features will have a significant impact on your choice. 

    BigCommerce vs Shopify price

    Now let’s compare the pricing options for both platforms. 

    Platform Basic pricing plan Medium pricing plan Advanced pricing plan
    BigCommerce $29.95 $79.95 $299.95
    Shopify $29 $79 $299

    As you can see, BigCommerce and Shopify pricing plans are very similar.

    There are also tailed solutions BigCommerce Enterprise and Shopify Plus, which larger businesses can take advantage of. 

    Both platforms offer a discount of 10% per month when you opt to pay annually rather than per month. 

    Shopify actually offers a super cheap, Shopify Lite option for just $9 a month, which allows users to embed a Shopify button onto their existing website — essentially powering it with Shopify sales functionality. 

    While on the surface these two seem very similar, everything changes when transaction fees come into play. 

    This is the percentage the platform will take from each sale made. Here’s the basic data:

    • BigCommerce has no transaction fees on any plan 
    • Shopify includes a transaction fee of between 0.5% – 2% depending on the plan you have

    As mentioned earlier, Shopify fees can be avoided through the use of Shopify Payments. However, many store owners will prefer to use third-party processors such as PayPal. 

    Want to experiment with these platforms on a tight budget? Thankfully, both offer free trials. BigCommerce has a 15-day trial, while Shopify offers a 14-day one. 

    When you consider additional costs such as apps and transaction fees, BigCommerce is actually much better value for money. There will be some users willing to shell out that little bit extra for the Shopify brand and the familiarity it offers though. 

    Site migration

    Both BigCommerce and Shopify provide comprehensive guides for migrating your existing site onto the platforms:

    Migration from BigCommerce to Shopify

    Want to make the move from BigCommerce to Shopify? The Shopify support website includes a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know about how to migrate to Shopify from whichever platform you’re currently using. 

    Shopify has provided a step-by-step guide for site migration, from the very first step of exporting your product, customer, and order data from BigCommerce to any issues you may encounter along the way.

    Migration from Shopify to BigCommerce

    If you’re coming to BigCommerce from another ecommerce platform like Shopify, you should find site migration easy enough. 

    BigCommerce have even developed platform-specific catalog transfer apps — including for Shopify and Magento — that allow you to easily migrate all of your catalog data to your new BigCommerce store. 

    The BigCommerce support website includes a comprehensive overview of how to migrate from Shopify, including common scenarios, steps to take before you begin, and the migration itself. Plus, their support team is on hand for any further queries you might have.

    BigCommerce vs Shopify: which is best?

    The great news for prospective ecommerce store owners is that there is no clear winner between Bigcommerce and Shopify. That might not be the conclusive answer you were looking for, but both platforms make a great starting point and companion for your business growth journey. 

    While largely similar, here are some cases in which one platform outshines the other (if only marginally): 

    BigCommerce wins:

    • Pricing (particularly transaction fees)
    • More advanced features out-of-the-box

    Shopify wins:

    • Mature third-party support and ecosystem
    • Beginner-friendly interface 

    The devil is truly in the details when it comes to picking the right ecommerce platform. You might favour the flexibility of BigCommerce as your business grows, but start to miss the option of leaning on the user community Shopify boasts. 

    It’s important to do your own research and know what you’re willing to compromise on. 

    To avoid sitting on the fence though, we’ll go with Shopify. Not just because it’s the big name, but because the thriving community around it and easy-to-learn functionality makes it a great choice for seasoned store owners and beginners alike. 

  • How to Start Marketing Your Ecommerce Store on Pinterest in 2021 & Why You Should

    How to Start Marketing Your Ecommerce Store on Pinterest in 2021 & Why You Should

    Ecommerce businesses have larger potential audiences than ever before thanks to the far reach of the internet and the relative affordability of national and international shipping, but they’re also facing more competition than ever before. A small clothing business in Colorado can now reach customers in Germany… but that means businesses in Germany can reach customers near you, too.

    To thrive in the ecommerce world today, it’s crucial to know how to leverage the right marketing platforms so that you can better connect with and sell to your audience.

    Pinterest should be a go-to marketing platform for ecommerce businesses of all shapes and sizes in 2021, and in this post we’re going to go over why it’s so important and how to get started. 

    Why Pinterest should be your go-to marketing platform

    Pinterest is a high-value marketing platform that your audience will likely use to discover and research items before purchasing. There’s an abundance of proof that Pinterest frequently drives direct conversions, including the following:

    • 73% of users purchased something after seeing it on the platform 
    • High-income users are 2x more likely to use Pinterest than low-income homes, meaning the disposable income is more readily available
    • Pinners start the buying and planning process 2x earlier than other consumers on average
    • 39% of female users and 48% of male users will turn to Pinterest’s search engine for shopping decisions before “traditional” options like Google or Bing 

    People are using Pinterest to find new products, and if you aren’t on the platform, there’s a solid chance that you’re missing out on those sales as a result. 

    How to get started marketing your ecommerce store on Pinterest 

    There are several essential factors to consider when you’re ready to start marketing on Pinterest. You’ll need to set up a profile, work on strong content development, create engaging images, and connect Pinterest to your overall marketing strategy.

    You can get a comprehensive overview in this free Quickstart course here, but let’s take a look at the basics that you absolutely need to know now. 

    Setting up your profile 

    Start by setting up a business profile on Pinterest. This (as opposed to a personal profile) will give you access to analytics and the ability to run native ad campaigns. 

    Credit: Pinterest

    To create a strong profile, you should do the following:

    • Make sure your name is easily identifiable, using your brand name if possible 
    • Choosing the same profile picture that you’re using for other social media channels for increased visibility and brand recognition
    • Including keywords in your description, which should explain what your business does and what you can offer on Pinterest, to help users find your content and see that it’s relevant to them
    • Fill out all relevant fields, including your website address, so users can connect with you off-platform, too
    • Take time to claim your website through Pinterest, which will allow you to gain enhanced analytics and give you perks like having your profile picture show up in pins from your site

    Focus on educational, valuable content when possible 

    Pinterest is a place where people come to research, so while of course you’ll want to have product pins that link directly to product pages to promote sales, think outside the box, too. If you’re able to create valuable, educational content that your target audience would love, that’s a great way to steer them to your brand.

    A great example of this is Fenty Beauty. Their “shop” tab is filled with product pins, but you can also find an enormous library of pinned tutorials showing people how to use the products. This can drive immediate sales, and it’s a fantastic strategy. 

    Credit: Pinterest

    Creating engaging, click-worthy images

    Images are everything on Pinterest. Visuals are central to the platform, and the reality is that if they aren’t great, you’re unlikely to see a lot of traction here even if the content itself is solid.

    Consider testing images that have two or three bright, dominant colours, and unlike Instagram, you don’t need to worry quite as much about lots of negative space; close-up images often perform well here.

    In order to speed up visual creation, look into third-party tools like Tailwind that can help with image generation. You can have the tool automatically pull images from the site or upload them yourself, add text, and then choose different formatting and colour palettes to create a number of dynamic, visually-optimised pins in a matter of minutes. 

    Credit: Pinterest

    There’s no graphic design experience needed, and you’ll still end up with pins that look professionally-created. 

    Credit: Pinterest

    Connect Pinterest to your overall marketing strategy

    While Pinterest is an exceptional platform on its own, you’ll really have the best results with it if you connect it to your overall marketing strategy instead of treating it like a truly standalone entity. 

    See where Pinterest fits into your digital marketing funnel. If, for example, you’re able to send users from a pin to an educational blog post, you can use a CTA in that blog post to get them to sign up for your email newsletter. From there, you can use triggered autoresponders to follow up and nurture them into customers. 

    Plenty of pinners, after all, will likely add items to their cart before abandoning them for some reason. The ability to email someone within 12 or 24 hours after they’ve abandoned a cart with a coupon code can earn you a sale and a new customer. You can also set up PPC campaigns to retarget to users who added items to their cart but didn’t purchase, making your Pinterest marketing more effective. 

    Final thoughts

    Pinterest is an ecommerce marketing powerhouse, and that will hold strong through 2021. If you aren’t already using and prioritising the platform, the time to change that is now. Even though it does create one more profile that needs to be managed, the potential payoff here is massive, and if you don’t get started, there’s a good chance that you’re just handing your competition sales that should have been yours. 

    Keep in mind with all the resources and tools like Tailwind now available to brands and marketers, Pinterest marketing is easier than ever, making that payoff even sweeter. 

    Ready to get started marketing your ecommerce business on Pinterest? Sign up with your free trial at Tailwind today. 

    Author bio: Ana Gotter is a strategic content marketer specializing in business, finance, ecommerce, and marketing writing, though she’s worked across a range of industries. She works from her home in Orlando with her three dogs and can be contacted at www.anagotter.com.

     

  • Alibaba vs AliExpress: Two Titans of Asian Ecommerce With Distinct Purposes

    Alibaba vs AliExpress: Two Titans of Asian Ecommerce With Distinct Purposes

    There are some ecommerce giants that you’ve surely heard of. Consider huge retailers like Amazon that dominate sales, raking in huge profits. Think about big platforms like Shopify that allow sellers of all sizes to compete. There are others, though, that you may have missed.

    In the Western world, it’s perfectly possible — even likely — that the average shopper knows nothing about the titular titans of AliExpress and Alibaba. They might never have heard of them, yet they’re extremely influential across the globe even so.

    Given this, what do they do, and what do you need to know about them? That’s what we’re going to cover here. It’s Alibaba vs AliExpress. Let’s get started.

    What is Alibaba?

    Alibaba, run by the Alibaba Group, is an online marketplace that caters to the B2B world.

    Image Alibaba

    In other words, it deals in wholesale supply of ready-to-ship products. Interested parties can browse the massive and neatly-categorised range of products to find suitable items, then get the contact information for the relevant suppliers so they can reach out to them.

    Note that there are no one-click retail options on offer through Alibaba. It’s purely a resource for connecting suppliers and sellers. This also means that it isn’t intended to be used by end consumers. Many items have onerous minimum buys, and many suppliers won’t be willing to engage with buyers who aren’t looking to form lasting business partnerships.

    It’s admittedly possible to contact an Alibaba supplier and convince them to part with just one product at a bargain price, but it’s hardly a reliable option, and the amount of time you’d need to spend negotiating would likely ensure that the entire thing gained you little (if anything).

    What is AliExpress?

    What Alibaba is for the B2B world, AliExpress is for B2C retail.

    Image AliExpress 

    It’s a marketplace in which suppliers from throughout Asia can list their products for consumers to purchase. The range of products is similarly large, but there are no minimum buys, and there’s a full ordering system.

    The more online shopping you’ve done, the more likely it is that you’ve purchased something that was routed through AliExpress — even if you didn’t know about it. This is because AliExpress plays a huge role in the dropshipping world. Dropshipping is a process through which ecommerce sellers can list and sell items that they don’t actually stock: every order they receive is passed to a third-party seller for processing and fulfilment.

    Due to this, if you’ve purchased a reasonably common item from a retailer outside of Amazon and received it after an extended wait with a different brand name than what was in the listing, it’s very likely that it was sourced through AliExpress. This doesn’t mean that the item is of low quality, though. It may well be excellent value.

    The difference between Alibaba and AliExpress: how do they compare?

    There’s no particular need to compare these marketplaces because they’re owned by the same company and deal with the same products and suppliers. The difference between Alibaba and AliExpress lies purely in their purposes and target audiences. Alibaba is the wholesale platform for ongoing purchases at a business-level scale, while AliExpress is a consumer-friendly portal for shoppers who might otherwise order from Amazon or eBay.

    If you’re just looking to buy individual items, then you should steer clear of Alibaba unless you’re particularly eager to spend a significant amount of time haggling with suppliers (and probably needing to overcome a troublesome language barrier in the process).

    If you’re aiming to sell online, though, then here’s the breakdown. Alibaba is a great resource for helping you form independent supply deals, something that will be extremely useful if you’re trying to set yourself apart (perhaps by selling customised product variants or securing exclusive rights to sell certain items) or agree favourable terms through making bulk commitments.

    AliExpress, on the other hand, offers a seller two things: an easy route to buy products to sample, and a smooth path to dropshipping. The latter is most significant because dropshipping is tremendously useful for budding sellers. You don’t need to stock anything or deal with any shipping companies to sell that way — the profit margins are thin, but the worst-case scenario is that you don’t make any sales (which won’t lose you money aside from hosting costs).

    There are other supply routes for dropshipping (Cloudways has a good list of alternative services), but AliExpress is the biggest by a wide margin, with an unmatched selection of suppliers, myriad product categories, and support throughout the ecommerce world.

    Are Alibaba and AliExpress safe to use?

    There are two points of comparison worth using when thinking about safety and reliability. The first is the standard of a decent ecommerce service in the western world, and the second is the standard of the average marketplace offering access to suppliers in Asia.

    The first comparison isn’t particularly flattering. Products purchased through AliExpress can be much slower to arrive than anticipated. Items can show up damaged or with parts missing. In the worst cases, orders can fail to arrive at all — and the system for getting refunded is far trickier than anything you’d find from the average seller.

    The second comparison, though, is quite favourable. Other dropshipping and B2B marketplaces are significantly less reliable and provide even fewer ways of resolving any issues that may arise. Even if it’s due largely to the immense size of the Alibaba Group and the popularity of its services, it’s undeniably true that using Alibaba or AliExpress is a fairly safe option at this point. 

    In the end, the most important thing is that you know what can go wrong when you use AliExpress. Since Alibaba just puts you into contact with suppliers, the onus will be on you to ensure that they’re reliable and put solid terms into place — but with AliExpress, you’re stuck with whatever service you’re given, and that service is far from flawless.

    Should you use Alibaba or AliExpress?

    So, with all that considered, should you — as a seller — use AliExpress or Alibaba? Or both? 

    The answer depends on what kind of operation you’re running, and what you’re hoping to achieve. AliExpress is more commonly useful due to the usefulness of dropshipping, so you’ll find it difficult to avoid if you want to sell things without stocking them.

    With Alibaba, though, you need to communicate with suppliers to line up some suitable deals, and that’s something you might not be very comfortable doing. There’s also the awkwardness inherent to importing products from afar. It leaves you disconnected from the manufacturing process and puts you at the mercy of production methods that can change in a heartbeat.

    That said, there’s still a lot of sense in looking to products from the Asian market. If you’re discerning and know how to repackage items to sell them with substantial profit margins, some time spent browsing Alibaba could end up making you quite a lot of money.

    Overall, there’s no compelling reason why you shouldn’t view these marketplaces as valuable resources that you can use whenever justified. There’s nothing much wrong with them. They’re not scams or flashes in the pan. They’re well-established operations that have been around for a while and aren’t going anywhere.

    Alibaba vs AliExpress: conclusion

    Wrapping up, then, what’s the conclusion of the grand battle of AliExpress vs Alibaba? It’s a draw. 

    No, that isn’t right: it’s more akin to a no contest. These marketplaces aren’t at war. Not even close. They’re on the same side, owned by the same company and using the same suppliers and products to serve different purposes.

    You don’t need to pick one, then. Instead, you just need to know what they are, what they do, and how you can use them as resources to further your ecommerce venture. So if you need to do some dropshipping, head to AliExpress — and if you need to find some products to import from the Asian market, take a look at Alibaba. It’s really that simple.

  • The Best Ecommerce Hosting Providers For WooCommerce Stores: What Should You Choose?

    The Best Ecommerce Hosting Providers For WooCommerce Stores: What Should You Choose?

    The ecommerce world is very competitive and held to ever-rising standards of user experience. Due to this, ecommerce hosting isn’t something you can afford to take lightly. Choosing the right hosting solution is the key to having a store that can meet demand, deliver a top-notch shopping process, and keep running smoothly without needing constant maintenance.

    If you choose a managed service like Shopify or BigCommerce, it must be noted, then you don’t need to worry about comparing hosts. Hosting is supplied for you: you don’t have a say in the matter. Either you use the provided hosting or you find another platform. It’s simple and time-saving, but it isn’t for everyone — many sellers need freedom and control.

    So what if you want to run an ecommerce store with the largest number of setup options? Well, you’re going to be using WordPress with an extension such as WooCommerce — after all, the world’s most popular CMS is obviously going to have far more ecommerce hosting options than any other.

    This number of options can be daunting, though, particularly if you’re not extremely familiar with the hosting world. You need to know what your options are, what factors you should be considering, and what different providers bring to the table. You don’t want to use free hosting because it won’t be good enough, but you’re not sure how to spend. In short, you need a guide — and this is where we come in.

    In this roundup, we’re going to run through some of the best ecommerce hosting providers on the market today in the UK, giving you the information you need to make an informed choice. Reviews of web hosting companies are always interesting. Let’s begin.

    SiteGround

    One of the most well-known and widely-used hosting providers, SiteGround is popular (hitting a million domains back at the start of 2018) and for good reason — and it’s now a better option for ecommerce hosting than ever before due to the option to have WooCommerce pre-installed with a suitable ecommerce theme. If you don’t particularly enjoy the configuration process, this can be a huge help, saving you some time and effort.

    The basic tier is currently positioned at £5.99/mo (excluding VAT) if you pay for a year in advance, or £11.99 if you want to go month by month. This gets you one website with 10gb of space and a cap of 10,000 monthly visitors (which should be plenty for a modestly-sized store). The top tier is £12.99/mo if paid annually, or £29.99 if paid monthly, and has a 100,000 visit cap over as many websites as you want to create.

    Included in even the basic tier is an SSL certificate (vital for ecommerce), an email inbox, automation updates, daily backups, a CDN, 24/7 support, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If that 99.9% figure isn’t hit in a year, every percentage point drop will be compensated with a free month of hosting. With top-notch service and official recognition from WooCommerce, it’s the pick of the bunch.

    Bluehost

    Often pitted against Siteground in the battle for WordPress-hosting supremacy, Bluehost is certainly a contender. The most eye-catching thing about Bluehost is how little you can pay if you’re willing to make a lengthy commitment. Pay for a whopping 36-month term and you can get your bill down to just £2.96/mo (excluding VAT) for the Basic tier (allowing one website).

    Note also that the price hike for higher tiers is much gentler than it is for Siteground and others. The top Pro tier comes out at £10.44/mo (excluding VAT) for that same 36-month investment, and allows unlimited websites and storage, a CDN, an SSL certificate, and various privacy and backup services. That said, this hosting isn’t aimed at ecommerce — so what is?

    Well, if we look specifically at ecommerce hosting options, prices aren’t so attractive. We run into two tiers — Standard and Premium — with costs of £11.94/mo and £18.67/mo respectively (still excluding VAT), and that’s again with the 36-month commitment. This makes the service more expensive than Siteground’s equivalent. Is it worth it?

    You get a lot of the work done for you, with WooCommerce configured and a suitable theme installed, so that’s definitely helpful if you want a hands-off approach. But since you need to know how to work the system eventually, this isn’t that much of a boon. What we see with Bluehost, then, is a distinct set of options. You can go for maximum value using shared hosting (which has its pros and cons), or you can spend extra for some upfront convenience. 

    Overall, though, Siteground provides a better balance — and its support is much more highly rated.

    InMotion Hosting

    If you’re really looking to cut costs, InMotion can beat Bluehost with the value of its shared hosting, with its Lite tier starting at just $2.49/mo with a 36-month commitment (ostensibly on discount, though it’s likely a staple). For that money you get one website with 10gb storage and unlimited bandwidth — but the performance wouldn’t suffice for an ecommerce site.

    Since you need that performance, let’s skip to the specific WordPress-hosting options. They start at $7.99/mo, which gets you two websites and 100gb of storage, and you can keep going up through the tiers — though this is indicative of a broader issue, which is the presentation of options. There’s no user-friendly ecommerce option here: no dedicated tier for sellers.

    You can certainly use InMotion Hosting for ecommerce, but you’ll need to know what your requirements are ahead of time to get the best value: you’ll otherwise end up overpaying or simply failing to get the performance you need. Support comes highly recommended, at least, so you should be able to get some relevant pointers.

    iPage

    The value war continues with iPage taking the lead: for one website with unlimited bandwidth, a 36-month term will come to just $1.99/mo (or £1.99 for UK users). You can step things up with a WordPress-specific tier, but we’ll again skip to the most notable option: the eCommerce tier attached to its dedicated and intuitive website builder.

    Hitting the same $12.99/mo price point regardless of how many months you commit to, this tier gives you everything you need to get started with ecommerce. You use the provided builder to generate your site, then use the default features (including PayPal integration) to start selling. This presents an interesting option, then: if you’re willing to give up some customisability and use a defined builder, you can get great hosting value and reliability.

    Note, though, that iPage is owned by the same parent company as Bluehost, EIG — a company that has attracted a fair amount of criticism over the years (well, quite a lot). 

    It doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad experience, but it makes it tougher to suggest as an alternative to something like Bluehost. Siteground’s relative independence is a strength.

    Ionos by 1&1

    It may have confusing branding, but Ionos from German company 1&1 is a venerable hosting provider. 

    Alongside various other options, it offers managed WooCommerce hosting starting at £4/mo (excluding VAT) and going up to £18/mo (excluding VAT), though you can get a much lower rate for your first year. The middle Business tier seems like a good starting option.

    On paper, everything looks great, but the user experience doesn’t get rave reviews. The interface in particular attracts criticism for being dated and difficult to use, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Having all the ingredients for a great store won’t help you that much if you can’t figure out how to add and update your products.

    Because its first-year offers are so great, there’s an argument to be made for giving it a try anyway. Pay just £1/mo (excluding VAT) for a year and you can see how you fare. You can even run it alongside another hosting solution to form a stronger comparison. If you want to immediately invest in a long-term ecommerce hosting solution, though, this isn’t the best choice.

    Conclusion

    There are so many good hosting providers out there, even for WooCommerce in particular, that this was never going to be an exhaustive list. Instead, we set out to highlight some of the most interesting options around. Let’s recap, then:

    • Siteground is the classic default, doing everything well at a great price point. Unless there’s a specific reason why you need to avoid it, it makes all the sense in the world.
    • Bluehost is a solid alternative, with cheaper and more expensive options. If you want to make the ecommerce process as easy as possible, you can spend more here to make it happen.
    • InMotion Hosting is an intriguing proposition for those willing to do a lot of research. Pick the perfect configuration and you can achieve superlative value.
    • iPage presents a great middle-ground option to rival that of Siteground, but with more of a focus on using the provided builder. If that builder appeals to you, give it a shot.
    • Ionos might not have the most futuristic interface, but it offers great features, and its tempting introductory pricing may be enough to sway you.

    In the end, any of these options can serve as a great foundation for your WooCommerce store, so choose whichever one appeals to you the most and proceed with confidence.