Category: Business

How To Streamline Your Business Operations: Top Tips For Ecommerce Brands

We talk a lot about the outstanding accessibility of ecommerce, and for good reason.

If you have an internet connection and the desire to run your own online business, you can find a store-setup tool, create a suitable site, and start using something like dropshipping to offer various items. But the fact that busy junctions are technically accessible to pedestrians doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to take a casual stroll across a main road in the middle of rush hour.

That’s an extreme analogy, of course. Here’s another way of putting it: ecommerce is easy to pick up, but hard to master. Dabbling in the occasional novelty-shirt sale is a breeze, but actually building a successful online store is seriously difficult. Ecommerce merchants soon enough learn just how much work goes into the running of a moderately-popular store.

Choosing products, writing descriptions, getting the shipping right…. With so much to get done, it’s vital to streamline things as much as possible. If you can’t cut down on your workload, you’ll find it all but impossible to reach your ecommerce goals. Here are some straightforward tips for running a more streamlined business:

Trim your everyday expenses

You might wonder why we’d be talking about cutting expenses when the goal is to streamline things. After all, don’t you often spend in an effort to speed things along? Wouldn’t reducing your budget cause issues? Well, those points aren’t entirely unreasonable, but they don’t tell the whole story.

Look at it this way: the more you spend, the more finance work you have to do. If you’re anything less than entirely frugal, there’s sure to be a fair amount of unnecessary spending in your average month. Maybe you keep ordering lunch instead of having some homemade sandwiches, for instance.

Alternatively, you might have a rolling subscription to a media service that you haven’t used in a long while. Keep in mind that small expenses add up surprisingly quickly. By clearing out the cobwebs, you can reduce the time you spend tracking your spending and save some money that you can towards further streamlining efforts.

Eliminate unnecessary admin

If you’re a solopreneur, handling everything for your store, then your amount of admin will largely be set by the software tools you’re using (more on those next) — but if you have numerous employees, there’s an excellent chance that your week is packed with oversight tasks. Checking briefs, checking work, and generally being a filter.

That’s a fine idea, but it isn’t particularly practical when you’re trying to compete. Sooner or later you need to trust your employees to take initiative and work without your near-constant involvement. This will also free up time that you can put towards things that better warrant your skills and station (anything involving brand promotion, most notably).

Take advantage of software tools

The online world is packed with hyper-convenient pieces of software that can radically transform how you do things. For a great example of this, look to any tool that offers dynamic pricing. The process of manually adjusting product prices is a slow and annoying one: you need to double-check every update and periodically check other sellers to see where you stand.

A dynamic pricing tool from a company like Prisync will automatically track what your products are being sold for elsewhere and adjust your pricing without your input. All you need to do is set the parameters (how much you’re willing to undercut the competition, for instance, or how regularly you want your prices to update) and let the tool run.

You can also look for tools to promote your social media posts on a regular basis, or even help you write on-site copy. Automation in general can bring so much to any operation, so there’s no sense in wasting it when it’s available and more affordable than ever before.

Enhance your customer support

The bigger an ecommerce business gets, the more time goes towards dealing with customer queries and complaints. And since just one customer issue can take a long time to suitably address, even a modest number of support tickets each week can soak up a lot of time. You obviously can’t just disregard those issues without sustaining massive brand damage.

This is why you should implement chatbot software to automatically handle (or filter) new queries. When there’s something simple like a customer chasing the status of their order, the chatbot can provide the answer and wrap things up without you even noticing — and when the matter is too complex for an automated workflow to handle, it can be appropriately escalated.

Follow these straightforward tips for running a more streamlined business, and you’ll soon see an improvement in how your business operations run.

May 14, 2021
Why Progressive Web Apps Are Right For Your Ecommerce Website
Website technology is forever evolving to create a better experience for users.

One such example is the development of websites into apps and now, progressive web apps. Progressive web apps have become quite popular since their inception by Google in 2015 and why not?

Those organisations that have implemented PWAs have seen a minimum of 20% increase in their conversion rates. One such example is Editora Global, which saw a 40% increase in user engagement.

What are progressive web apps or PWA?

Credit: DreamzTech Solutions

Progressive web apps (or PWAs) are an enhanced version of the web browser. They are built the same way browsers are but have the feel of a native app.

PWAs don’t have to be downloaded from an app store or even uploaded to an app store for that matter. It is simple for both businesses and users. Being an extension of the browser, it takes up very little space on your device as compared to a native app and works seamlessly which ensures a good user experience.

Progressive web apps are not only gaining popularity because of their efficiency but also because building native apps would mean a considerable investment. All businesses cannot afford to build an app for every platform and additionally pay also for uploading their app to the app store. PWAs cost a fraction of what a native app costs and delivers more than a native app.

Benefits of progressive web apps for your website

Credit: Avenger

Easily installable

PWAs are very easy to install and let the user experience an app like feeling all while not being an app. From the start, where the user adds the icon to the home screen to the functionality, all are that of a native app.

PWAs work offline

A feature of PWAs that surpasses that of native apps is that PWAs have the ability to work offline. They load even when the network connection is very poor and you can access the PWA even if you do not have an active internet connection.

For example, if the PWA is related to news, you can view all the images and content even if the connection is lost in between or if you are proceeding to buy a product, you can add the products to your cart, offline, and can complete the payment process when you have an active connection.

They are fast loading

Any site that takes longer than three seconds to load is abandoned by 53% of the users. PWAs are designed to work and feel fast. The above statistic shows how short the attention span of the users are and also that no one has the time to wait and access a slow loading web page or app.

On native apps and websites, many times, maybe due to connectivity issues or other technical issues, the pages load very slowly, which are not at all appreciated by the users. By using PWAs they will have a seamless user experience with fast loading pages and ease of use like One such example is that of The Roasters. This business wanted a fast and responsive solution for their website, switched to PWA and benefited from doing so.

Cost-effective

Native apps are not cheap to develop. If we want to reach a larger audience, we have to develop apps for both Android and iOs, but the problem is that we have to develop different apps for different platforms.

Another drawback is that to upload these apps on their respective app stores, another fee is charged, which does not fit the budget of all businesses. Also, there is no surety that the user will go and download the app unless given a very strong reason to do so.

Coming to PWAs, they are cost-effective because they cost a fraction of what native apps do, and also that they are compatible with all platforms. However, they do have some drawbacks working on the iOS platform — although these are also being worked on.

Engaging

PWAs are fast and reliable. All these factors play an important role in user engagement. Just like native apps, graphics and videos can be uploaded to give a rich user experience, but what works even better for user engagement is that PWAs work offline too. All the images or the products are still visible and the app still works with the same speed offline — all of which can increase customer engagement by up to 50%.

For example, Cloth Face Masks, a brand creating designer face masks, wanted increased user engagement, so they switched to PWA and achieved it.

PWA will help you grow

It happens sometimes that although we have an app and website, or even just a website, we are unable to draw the required traffic or we are not able to grow our business in the way we want to. Do you ever think why this is happening? This is because there are still many people who do not have access to apps and also there are some people who find web browsers slow and uninteresting.

PWAs help you to attract customers that use mobile devices as well as web browsers. They have integrated the best of the browser and app that allows a business to grow as well as gives a good user experience to the user.

Improves the SEO and efficiency of the website

As PWAs increase user engagement, they in turn keep the users coming back to the webpage or searching for the business/products. This indirectly helps to drive organic traffic to the pages, thus helping in SEO.

Also, it helps to make the website more efficient as sometimes scrolling and slow loading pages become an issue while using the browser. These barriers have been overcome by PWAs as they provide the best user experience, as mentioned in the above points.

Popular brands that have benefited from PWAs

Credit: e-point

1. Flipkart

In 2015. Flipkart closed their mobile-only site and decided to solely focus on their native app, but even after dedicating all their resources to their native app, they did not get the desired results. This is when they thought of investing in a PWA, Flipkart lite.

The results of the PWA was as following:
- 3x more on-time presence with PWA as compared to their native app
- Users spend 3.5 minutes on Flipkart lite as compared to 70 seconds on the app.
- Flipkart lite uses thrice the less amount of data in comparison to the app.
- A 40% re-engagement rate was seen among first-time users.
2. Forbes

Forbes wanted to give their users a new user experience and hence decided to build their PWA which saw the following results:
- The PWA page loading time is 0.8 seconds as compared to the website which used to load between 3-8 seconds.
- There was a 43% increase in sessions
- 100% user engagement was achieved
3. Twitter

Twitter was one of the first to successfully implement PWA. their monthly users sum up to 328 million out of which 80% are mobile users, the main reason why Twitter decided to focus on creating its PWA, Twitter lite.

After building Twitter lite:
- There was a decrease of 20% in the bounce rate
- The per-page session increased by 65%
- There was also a 75% increase in the total number of tweets sent
4. Alibaba

With a global outreach in nearly 200 countries, Alibaba wanted to create something that focused on a rich user experience for both first-time customers and present customers. Their PWA is one of the reasons for Alibaba’s success:
- The total conversions increased by 76%
- The PWA drove 14% more users on iOS and 30% on Android.
- The user re-engagement rate increased 4x times as compared to the native app
Why is PWA the future of ecommerce?

Credit: e-point

PWA has changed the way people shop by giving them a great user experience, which, according to Alibaba, is the most important factor for success and also by helping to increase the traffic and visits to a webpage, like EthicSmart received 19,000 subscribers within a week of launching their PWA.

PWA has changed the game for mobile-driven ecommerce, by concentrating on fast-loading pages and a rich user experience.

There are many notions when it comes to understanding why PWA has such a great success rate. To get a better understanding of the same, given below, are a few reasons highlighting the features that have been the success factors for PWA:
- Decreases bounce rate
- Increases user engagement and re-engagement
- Increases the total time spent on the app
- Higher conversion rates
- User-rich experience
- Fast loading time
- Works even with poor connectivity
- Works offline
Let me list out few reasons as to why PWA is considered the future of ecommerce:

1. Takes up less space

Since PWA is an extension of the browser mistakes up very little space on your device. One of the main reasons people don’t install apps and also uninstall apps is due to the space it takes up on their device

2. Works like a native app

Everything about the PWA will give you the experience of a native app. From when you click on the prompt “add to home screen”, it starts downloading as would be seen if we install an app from the app store, the icon gets added to the device’s home screen like an app and it works, looks and feels just like a native app but without taking up space or consuming the data as a native app would.

3. Fast loading time

As mentioned above, in the success story of Forbes, their fast loading time of 0.8 seconds played an important role to ensure that the users came back to use the app. PWAs are built to load very fast. In this day and age, no one has the time to wait, if they do not get what they want fast, they will look elsewhere.

4. Costs less

The cost of building a PWA is lower than that of a native app. In fact, it may cost a fraction of what the native app would. Having said that, different platforms require different apps and with this comes the cost of uploading those apps on the app store — and there is no certainty that they will be downloaded. PWA cuts all these costs, ensuring any business of any scale can build a PWA.

Concluding remarks

PWAs being fast-loading, costing less, ensuring a great user experience and delivering to the users are only a few of the reasons for their success in ecommerce.

PWAs have changed the way users perceive their shopping experience. Native apps had certain issues like they cannot work in low connectivity or offline, as well as taking up a great deal of space on devices, all of which are not favourable for the users or their shopping experience.

Technology being dynamic, PWAs continue to change every day, always with the focus on changing the experience of mobile-first ecommerce. You can learn more about how this technology can help your business by checking out the Cenia PWA theme by CedCommerce.

Author bio: This article was written by the team at CedCommerce, a one-stop-shop for ecommerce solutions.
April 12, 2021
How To Use Technology & Telematics To Boost Business Efficiency In 2021
Business efficiency is a must if you plan on hitting its bottom line.

Because if you use your staff, time, resources and money inefficiently then the hard and simple reality is that your company won’t be as profitable as you want it to be.

Technology can help you address a wide variety of inefficiencies in your operations and boost your business efficiency in a broad number of ways.

We’ve highlighted SEO software, task management tools, social media tools and telematics software as four great examples of technology that can do this.

SEO software helps to increase your ranking in search engines

Credit: PX Here

SEO (search engine optimisation) is where you enhance the quality of your website and web pages to increase organic traffic to them.

It’s an incredibly important part of any online business because the more visitors you get, the greater the chances are of selling your products or services.

But to do this you need to rank well in search engines — the lower your ranking, the lower your chances of getting visitors and turning them into customers.

SEO software helps you establish which pages you should enhance and gives you the data you need to make improvements to them. This boosts your business efficiency because it ensures you use your time and effort wisely when optimising your site and web pages.

There are lots of great tools you can use to increase your ranking in search engines. This video from SEO expert Brian Dean highlights some of the best free tools you can use:

Embedded video temporarily unavailable. View the original video

So, decide which tool is right for your company and then use it to optimise your web pages and increase the number of visitors you get.

Task management tools help you keep to your business plan budget

Credit: Flickr

Tasks are a feature of every single business on the planet, regardless of industry and whether it’s in the public or private sector.

Managing the tasks you and your employees work on effectively is essential if you want to run a successful operation. Why? It’s simple. Your business model is built on tasks taking a certain amount of time. If they consistently take longer than you expect, then it’ll cost you more money than budgeted for and erode your profit margins. Task and project management software helps you avoid this.

Project and task management software lets you set up tasks and projects for your team members to work on. A project will be a specific team or client, while a task is the work undertaken — for example, writing a blog post (task) for your marketing team (project).

Using these tools allows you to review how long jobs are taking and the productivity rates of your employees, giving you the data you need to establish who the best people are for certain tasks. This means work is completed at maximum efficiency and your company stays in budget.

In sum, review the tools on the market, decide which one offers what you need, then introduce it to your business and start managing your employees more efficiently.

Social media tools can boost your marketing efforts

Credit: Pixabay

While social media has received plenty of negative attention in recent years, there’s no escaping the fact it remains ingrained in society — on both a personal and business level.

Your social media channels are an opportunity to increase awareness of your brand, keep existing customers engaged and attract new interest in your company. They’re a valuable marketing tool when used effectively.

With so many commercial positives to having a presence on major channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok or Pinterest (though it is generally best to stick to around three), it’s vital that your business has an efficient social media strategy. Social media tools can help with this.

Social media tools offer a range of benefits that help support your marketing efforts. The video below highlights some of the best tools your business can use:

Embedded video temporarily unavailable. View the original video

While these have both shared and unique benefits, the two key ones are automation and analytics.

Automation allows you to track mentions of your brand and set up notifications that bring these to the attention of the appropriate team members. It also lets you schedule posts and tweets, so your staff can carry out bulk uploads. This makes your media marketing more efficient because it saves your employees valuable time.

Analytics lets you see which posts/Tweets are getting the most engagement, what the best time is to publish your content and a range of useful demographic information. This is great for your business efficiency because it gives you the tools you need to create the content your users want and give it to them when they want it — which will help to boost sales.

So, decide which social media tools work best for your company, then use their automation and analytics benefits to run more effective marketing campaigns.

Telematics software helps ecommerce business owners with fulfilment

Credit: PublicDomainPictures

Fulfilment is the last stage in the buying journey your customers take. It’s when you deliver the products or services to them they’ve asked for and do so in the agreed timescales.

It is also when your business becomes the solution to the problem you promised to solve.

What this means is that inefficiencies in your fulfilment process can be catastrophic for your business. If you deliver the wrong items, items in poor condition, deliver at the wrong time, or fail to get the goods to your customers, it could do enormous damage to your reputation.

Telematics software can help you to avoid this. It’s technology that’s fitted to vehicles and records data on three key driver behaviours:
- How fast vehicles are driven
- How sharply corners are taken
- How harshly drivers brake
But why is this important and how does it make your business more efficient? We’ll explain.

If your drivers are braking too harshly, driving too fast and taking corners too sharply, it increases the motion in the back of their vehicles. This increases the chances of packages moving, being damaged and arriving to your customers in a condition they’re unhappy with.

Because telematics record all this driving behaviour information, it gives you the data you need to introduce changes in how your staff drive. This reduces the risk of your goods arriving in an unfit state, making it an efficient way of protecting your brand reputation.

If your business delivers goods to its customers then you might want to think about investing in telematics software, as doing this could be the difference between happy customers and furious ex-customers.

SEO software, task management tools, social media tools and telematics software are all examples of technology that can help to boost business efficiency now and into the future.

So, find the best examples of these technologies for your company (the ones that offer what you need and are available at the right price) then introduce them.
April 9, 2021
6 Simple Steps To Running A More Sustainable Ecommerce Business

The retail world has always suffered major issues with waste, and things didn’t change in that regard when the shift was made from brick-and-mortar stores to online operations.

With climate woes ever worsening and public awareness of issues at an all-time high, though, it’s clear that more and more sellers are coming to appreciate the importance of turning things around.

It doesn’t hurt that a well-executed sustainability strategy amounts to a clear win-win (well, it’s technically a win-win-win: a rare triple win). It’s good for the seller, saving them money and making them look better. It’s good for the buyers, alleviating the guilt that stems from supporting irresponsible companies. Oh, and it’s certainly good for the environment, which in turn is good for the seller and the buyers. After all, it’s where they all live.

But what does such a strategy involve? In this piece, we’re going to set out six simple steps you can follow to run a more sustainable ecommerce business. Let’s get started.

Choose a green hosting provider

When you’re choosing a host for your website, you need to think about more than cost.

Some hosting providers run all their servers using renewable energy sources — and the great thing about it is that there are still plenty of options out there if you want that (here’s a selection to give you some ideas). You don’t need to compromise performance or reliability.

It’s true that you might not be able to go for the highest-end hosting packages from the providers with the best support services, but the difference shouldn’t amount to anything capable of damaging your operation. This is the perfect first step towards sustainability.

Donate a portion of your profits

Maybe the simplest way to be more sustainable is to donate to charities that work towards environmental support (some to look at).

You don’t need to donate a huge portion of what you make, of course: anything you can spare will be gratefully received. You can secure your monthly profits before deciding how much to give, or you can simply put a small percentage of every transaction towards a good cause (making this clear to the buyer).

Use recycled shipping materials

Next comes the thorny issues of retail packaging, because there have been so many issues over the years with how products are stored and shipped. If you’ve ever ordered something online and seen it show up in a box that’s many times larger than it needs to be, you’ll know something about this. Too many sellers focus only on cost, leading them to use the cheapest possible packaging even if it’s terrible for the environment.

At this point, though, you can do better without paying massively more. There are many companies — like Polybags — that focus on producing recyclable packaging and shipping materials, so that’s a great place to start.

You can also get into the habit of sending more items in flexible wrapping instead of boxes. It doesn’t generally look as good, and there can be some minor scuffing on the packaging, but how often is that really an issue?

Cut down on business travel

There’s a good chance that you’ve already cut back on travel due to the pandemic lockdowns, but you may still be making semi-frequent trips to check out new products or negotiate deals.

Whenever you’re considering such a trip, think carefully about whether it’s really necessary. Could things be worked out at a distance? Much of the time, the answer is yes. If you really need to check out products first, have some samples shipped to you.

Partner with responsible suppliers

Sometimes the issue with cutting back on travel is that your prospective suppliers require in-person meetings before proceeding with any agreements. At this point, that’s a glaring red flag. There are plenty of manufacturers and production facilities in the world, and there’s no compelling reason to continue teaming up with irresponsible or irrational companies.

Instead, look out for other businesses that are committed to taking measures like those in this list: businesses that want to operate responsibly and make things better for everyone. You’ll get on better with them, and you’ll feel better for supporting them.

Create content on relevant issues

Blogging is an important process for ecommerce companies. It allows them to promote products, engage with their audiences, establish their expertise, and build up valuable SEO equity to help them rank for relevant and actionable keywords.

But blogs don’t need to be solely for self-promotion. They can also be used to spread good advice.

Through your blog, you can talk about the sustainability issues facing ecommerce and retail in general. You can advise on how to improve, call out companies that continue to use wasteful packaging, and encourage readers to get involved somehow through donating to environmental charities or trying harder to find and support other green businesses.

These are six simple steps you can take to run a more sustainable ecommerce business. Adopt some — or all — of these ideas and your company will become more environmentally friendly, while winning over more consumers and saving on overheads. Win-win-win.

April 2, 2021
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.
February 26, 2021
Underused Ways To Engage And Retain Customers In Ecommerce

How well do you engage and retain your customers? A recent survey among DTC brands found 28% to be the average customer retention rate. If you’re below that, your ecommerce business will probably benefit from upping its game at engagement and retention.

But we will not be talking about tactics like using reward points or fighting cart abandonment with a discount. They’re pretty clear and overused. We’ll go over some underused ways to engage and retain customers in ecommerce that are actually very effective.

The idea is to trigger targeted emails at specific times to engage the customer in a more natural, relevant way. There are so many opportunities for authentic interactions between brands and buyers that companies miss out on. Here are some examples of moments in the customer journey and how you can react to them in order to continue building the two-way relationship.

Content engagement

Most ecommerce businesses go down the road of constant, non-stop promotions. Once they get a lead’s email, they start bombarding them with offers all the time. Of course, getting sales is the ultimate goal but let’s be realistic.

People can only shop so much. Going through all your products categories and varying the discount in two emails a day is counterproductive. They will get bored, probably even annoyed. Research shows that 69% of US shoppers would unsubscribe from a company’s newsletter because of too many emails.

A better approach would be to alternate sales messages and non-promotional content. This way, you engage your audience without wearing them down with CTAs. This content can be information about your products and industry, new research you’ll be using, projects you’re involved in, partnership announcements, events, etc.

Anything about the interests you have in common with your customers will also do — maybe it’s a love for travelling, or sports, or skincare, or a particular type of music. Developing your content pays off because brand awareness and loyalty can soar when you blend brand and lifestyle.

So, in between promotions, send emails that are pure fun or useful advice. People will learn to open and read those emails since they’d be genuinely interested. And you’ll be the brand that comes to mind when they finally decide to buy something.

Credit: ReallyGoodEmails

Restock reminders

If you sell everyday items like personal hygiene products, pet products, food or drink items, etc. retention should be a top priority. Your products are meant to be used all the time, after all!

The least you can do is to set up automatic emails to trigger at a certain time after making a purchase. How long does your deodorant last? Set the email to go off a few days before that to remind people they need to restock if they don’t want to wake up to no deodorant. You can get creative here and play with urgency CTAs to get their attention with every email.

Credit: Clicks

These type of restocking reminders are useful for the customers (so they receive them well) and increase your retention and sales.

“Buy as a gift” offer

After a customer buys from you, you might find yourself in a position where you don’t have another product to offer them. This is the case of one-product stores and many DTC brands that start out with a small product range. Take Palmpress, for example. It sells a proprietary coffee press, two accessories and one kind of coffee. This means it could be difficult to convince people to keep coming back to Pampress once they’ve bought these products.

You can suggest that your (only) product will make a good gift. When looking for gifts, people are often worried about how to choose something good. If they’ve tried the product before, they’d be more at ease, which is a great advantage over other products. It should be an easy conversion so definitely reach out to your old customers especially around the holidays to give them the idea.

Gathering and using feedback

For a strong relationship with the customer, you should be open to feedback. People love sharing their opinions and that can actually help you. First, they are much more willing to give feedback after a negative experience — it’s just human nature. So you’ll know where to start improving. You will get ideas for products and services as well, which is great if you don’t know how to grow from here.

Also, asking people to share their thoughts makes them feel heard and important. This can be especially if you add a personal thank you, for example. They’d want to see if you implement any of it so they’d stay engaged with the brand. And even if that one experience had not been optimal, those customers might forgive you and come back because they see the effort on your part.

Feedback was the tactic Native used to become the wildly successful brand it is today. It went through over 20 formulas for their deodorant until it finally was what people loved and sales went crazy.

User-generated content challenges

UGC works both ways: it makes people think about and use your products more, but it also is authentic social proof for others.

It’s a great way to retain customers. They like it because they’ve already bought the product, no need to buy it again. And the exposure is intoxicating, especially in times when many people aspire to be a micro-influencer.

On the other hand, others will see your product in various settings, used by normal people, even someone they know. This is both persuasion and inspiration. It’s not just the perfect studio pictures they see on your site, the product is a lot more engaging when they see it as a part of life.

Below is an example of Boden’s user-generated style gallery. Products are tagged on the photos.

Credit: BodenUSA

These under-the-radar tactics could engage and retain your customers better than some of the more popular methods. Their power is in the fact they bring positive emotions for the customer, unlike some cold sales calls that are too harsh, intrusive and unhelpful. Try them for yourself!

Author bio: Murry Ivanoff is the CEO of Metrilo, an ecommerce analytics, CRM and email tool in one. Metilo helps ecommerce brands grow through customer engagement and retention.

February 22, 2021
How To Make Custom Packaging A Core Part Of Your Brand’s Image
The world of custom packaging is vast. Really vast.

But it’s imperative that online retailers understand this: ecommerce packaging is more than just a protective box.

And that’s true for two reasons.

One: packaging is a potent ecommerce marketing tool, as it’s the only channel that reaches 100% of your customers.

Two: the typical ‘box’ is just the tip of the iceberg.

In this article, we’re going to take a close look at the ‘why’ of those two previous points, and show you how you can make custom packaging work for your brand.

The unboxing experience

You’ve more than likely heard that phrase several times before reading it here, but what the unboxing experience actually is — and why it’s important — isn’t always straightforward.

Remember the anticipation you had around Christmas or a birthday as a kid? The excitement of knowing you’re getting something — you have no idea what, but you were so darn excited.

That excitement is an emotional response, and what happens to you in this phase of irrational childhood holiday excitement leaves an impression on you.

That same thing happens now as an adult — when that Amazon delivery arrives, there’s that ‘ohh’ bit of excitement, even though you know what you’re getting.

Why it’s important

The unboxing experience adds value not just to your product, but to your brand. It’s the stage that thrusts your product into the life of your customer and says ‘here I am, the thing that you brought, and buying me rather than a competitor was the right decision’.

When selling online, you’re limited by the number of touchpoints your brand has. More specifically, you can’t physically interact with customers before purchasing the way that retail brands can.

So by paying special attention to that first physical touchpoint (the packaging) helps you leave a lasting first impression and stay in the mind of your customers for longer.

Credit: packhelp.com

Custom packaging is also one of the most recognisable brand elements and is important when building customer loyalty. Haagen-Dazs is one of the best examples.

Credit: CandyBar

A 2016 survey found that speedy fulfilment and quality packaging brings almost 40% of customers back to make subsequent purchases. It also helps a brand feel more upmarket and premium.

But premium packaging doesn’t have to have a premium price tag. Effective packaging design adds value, yes, but effective packaging design is also packaging design that works in harmony with your branding.

Below is a fine example of that. Blue Moon Spiritual takes the graphic design of their website and their business branding and echo it on their packaging — both inside and outside.

Credit: packhelp.com

The result is an added sense of value for the customer and a consistent brand experience, from online purchase to that first physical touchpoint.

Many brand owners are apprehensive at the environmental costs of custom packaging — and their concern isn’t without warrant.

Sustainability and packaging

In 2018, packaging waste generated was estimated at 174 kg per inhabitant in the EU. This is an alarming number of purely packaging waste.

Much of this waste can’t be recycled or costs a lot of energy to recycle. PLA (single-use plastics) in the form of water bottles and the like, being the main culprit.

Credit: packhelp.com

While custom ecommerce packaging is part of this statistic, it’s important to note that the humble cardboard box is one of the most eco-friendly packaging solutions.
- FSC certified cardboard is made from either ethically sourced virgin pulp, or recycled content
- Petroleum and animal-based adhesives don’t work with wood pulp; only natural glues are used
- Large-scale printing facilities use soy-based inks by default
But, as you read earlier, there’s more to custom packaging than cardboard boxes. Tissue paper, wood wool and other inserts are also fibre-based materials and can easily be recycled.

Credit: packhelp.com

Biodegradable mailing bags made from corn by-product are becoming a popular alternative to single-use plastic mailing bags, as they can biodegrade in the right conditions.

Below you can see how Feeling Felt combines recycled cardboard and a biodegradable poly mailer as both primary and secondary packaging.

Credit: packhelp.com

Mushroom-based packaging is also growing in popularity, as is building reusability into your packaging design. Innovative plant subscription boxes encourage you to grow plants in the boxes that are mailed to you.

Below, you can see how British childrenswear brand, Monday’s Child, turned their mailing box into a dollhouse that their young customers use.

Credit: packhelp.com

Building reusability into your packaging design, as well as using recyclable and recycled materials ensures that your packaging does as little harm to the environment as possible.

Plus, you’ll be sure that your packaging ends its life in the most appropriate location.

More than just a box

Packaging is the material used to store your product between it being manufactured and being used for the first time. Most often (but not always), it consists of primary and secondary packaging.

Primary packaging is the packaging that has your product (and only your product) inside it.

Secondary packaging is the external packaging that’s used to keep your primary packaging secure throughout delivery.

But boxes aren’t always the best solution. Here’s a breakdown of the go-to packaging supplies for both primary and secondary packaging.

Ecommerce delivery packaging 101

Regardless of what you’re selling or where you’re sending it to, there are a few standard packaging solutions that online retailers can use (and customise):
- Corrugated cardboard boxes
- Mailing bags
- Tubes
There are also other packaging expenses to take into account:
- Void filler:
  - Bubble wrap
  - Wood wool
  - Packaging peanuts
  - Tissue paper
- Insulation
- Packing tapes & delivery pockets
Let’s take a closer look at some of these and see some examples.

Corrugated cardboard boxes

Corrugated cardboard is the go-to secondary packaging for just about anything. For custom shapes, dimensions, prints and finishes, corrugated cardboard can do it all.

Credit: packhelp.com

Mailing bags

Corrugated cardboard isn’t perfect — it’s heavy and can take up a lot of space in warehouses. Many brands that sell smaller and more durable products (clothing, accessories etc.) opt for some form of mailing bag or envelope.

Spanish fashion label Sunad knows their clothing doesn’t need the protection of a heavy cardboard box, and instead send their apparel to customers in an expandable mailing bag.

Credit: packhelp.com

Anthem, another Spanish designer, sends their clothing in a biodegradable poly mailer. Anthem knows their clothing can handle being thrown around in the back of a delivery van, but it still needs protection from dust, dirt and water.

Credit: packhelp.com

Void filler

Sometimes there’s a little space inside your box that needs to be filled — bubble wrap, while incredibly soothing, isn’t the most environmentally friendly way to take up space.

Custom tissue paper adds another layer of branding and is entirely recyclable.

Credit: packhelp.com

Wood wool, which is sheared wood, can be recycled just like paper pulp.

Below you can see how German brand Concrete Jungle uses dyed wood wool (dyed with recyclable inks, too) to add a little class and elegance (and security) to their unboxing experience.

Credit: packhelp.com

Insulation

Some products need to be thermally regulated throughout the delivery process — mainly medical products, health supplements and food goods.

Psibufet (Buffet for dogs) is a Polish subscription box company that delivers fresh, organic dog food monthly. The struggle is keeping that fresh food cool enough in the 48-hour window between it leaving the cool storeroom and arriving at its destination.

Credit: packhelp.com

Rather than using styrofoam, packaging engineers found that honeycomb cardboard corrugations did a great job and kept the goods below freezing for the required 48 hour period.

Tapes & delivery pockets

You can never be too safe. Many companies add that extra security level by sealing boxes or bags closed with a little extra tape. But if you’ve put all that time and effort into branded packaging, unbranded tape stands out.

Credit: packhelp.com

Another expense to be aware of is the simple little plastic pocket that’s used for delivery documents. If you’re shipping internationally, it’s crucial that you provide an external pocket to hold customs declarations and such.

Don’t forget pretty primary packaging either!

You’ve just read a whole lot about secondary packaging — the packaging that’s used in transit. But primary packaging, the last barrier between your customer and your product, is just as important. From custom QR Codes for smart packaging, playful colours to recycled and vintage packaging, there are a plethora of options that you can try to create a personalised experience for your customers.

Credit: packhelp.com

It’s this packaging that presents your product to the world; it builds anticipation and reminds the customer that they’re holding something special (because they are).

Here you can see how Hemp Juice uses its primary, secondary packaging, and CBD Oil label design to create a comprehensive experience across all packaging and labelling forms.

Credit: packhelp.com

The British telecom brand, Snakehive, uses two-piece product boxes that are coloured to complement their products’ colour palette.

Credit: packhelp.com

A brand like BMW is one you’d expect to spare no expense in providing a luxury experience.

And when sending keys to motoring journalists to test drive the latest M5, no expense was spared. BMW delivered the keys in a rigid drawer box, complete with a hot-stamped foil print and a velvet-lined interior.

Credit: packhelp.com

Conclusion

Packaging plays a massive role in your business. It is not just getting products from A to B, but also delivering a branded experience, retaining customers, and being part of your sustainable values.

It’s an expense that your ecommerce brand has to bear. Still, when done right, it can have a tremendous positive impact on your brand notoriety, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, your bottom line.

Author bio: Phil is a bearded Australian living in Warsaw, Poland. When he’s not trying to take Packhelp’s custom packaging to the world, he can be found trying not to kill his plants or writing for his blog expatspoland
February 19, 2021
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?

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

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:
- Amazon
- Alibaba
- ClickBank
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.
February 12, 2021
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.
February 1, 2021

Best Accountancy Platforms for Ecommerce Businesses

Finding the right accounting software for your ecommerce business is key to ensuring that you can properly manage your finances, keep track of your profits, and grow your business successfully.

But what is the best ecommerce accounting software for your business, and how do you decide?

We’ve got you covered with the below guide to accounting software for ecommerce owners. We’ve written up bitesize reviews of the best ecommerce accounting software providers — including the features, pros, cons, and cost of the ecommerce accounting software provider, along with ecommerce platforms they can be used on.

Read on to find out more:

	Cost	Features	Pros	Cons
Wave	Free	Income and expense tracking Unlimited users Bank and credit card connections Organize income and expenses into tax categories Invoicing functionality Receipt scanning	Affordable Mobile app available Basic reporting	No customisable reports Doesn’t have inventory tracking Can’t pay bills directly No live customer service
Xero	$9-60 per month	Bank connection and reconciliation Inventory management Invoicing Pay bills Manage expenses	Easy to use Affordable Customisable reports	Email customer support only Lacks some features small businesses need
QuickBooks	$12.50-$75 per month	Automatic daily syncs with ecommerce platform Inventory management Bank connections Invoicing	Integrations with most ecommerce platforms Easy to use Multiple reporting templates	Not the cheapest option Some reporting features are quite complicated
FreshBooks	$6 – $20 per month	Customisable invoicing Bank connection Expenses management	Simple to set up and use Integrates with most ecommerce platforms	Inventory tracking feature is limited Only supports single-entry accounting Basic reporting features
FreeAgent	$12-$24 per month	Expenses management Bank connection Reporting dashboard Estimates and customisable invoices	Easy to use Regular updates Good tax reporting features	Not the cheapest option for accounting software Limited customer support

Why ecommerce accounting is important for your business

Once you’ve picked your ecommerce platform, set up your store, and before you start selling, you need to put in place accurate and reliable accounting processes. This will help you to understand exactly how your business is doing, where the money is, and what areas you need to be working on improving. Accurate bookkeeping is going to ensure that you can build a stable business that’s able to grow.

Having a solid understanding of your finances will also help you to forecast how your business can develop — you’ll be in a much better position to predict your growth and build plans around it.

The other main reason that accounting is so important for your ecommerce business is that it makes it a whole lot easier to sort out your taxes at the end of each year.

What can go wrong if you don’t get your ecommerce accounting right

It’s important to stay consistently on top of your finances. Even neglecting them for a short time can lead to some serious problems for you and your business.

When it comes to sorting out your business’s taxes, you need to have all your paperwork in order, ready to share with your accountant or directly with the government. If you let things slide, you’re going to spend hours trying to find all the invoices, bills, and other documents.

This can cause much bigger problems in the long run. Submitting your tax returns late can result in hefty fines. You’re also going to end up paying fines if you find that some of your paperwork is missing, or you end up miscalculating your finances.

If you’re looking for investors or to get a business loan from the bank, you need to have all your financial documents in good order and ready to share. If you don’t have this all lined up, or there are some gaps in your finances, it’s going to look like your business is an unreliable and risky investment.

Failing to keep on top of your finances can also lead to cash flow problems — you won’t have a clear idea of how much money you have coming in, and how much is going out. This is when you’ll end up missing bill payments, or being unable to pay your staff, and once you start to have cash flow problems it’s hard to get yourself back on track.

What to look for in ecommerce accounting software

There are a lot of accounting platforms out there, and it’s hard to know which one will be best for your ecommerce business. The good news is, most of them will offer a free trial, so you can test them out and get to grips with how they work.

When you’re looking for accounting software, check whether it integrates with the systems and software you’re already using — it will make things a lot simpler if it works with your store platform to pull in your sales data.

You should also look for bank reconciliation features, where it connects with your bank account and pulls in all your transactions so that you can organise them. This also means that recurring payments such as rent can be automatically categorised.

Reporting is another important feature to consider — you want to be able to easily see weekly and monthly reports of your finances so you can keep an eye on everything. Your accounting software should also be able to produce tax compliant records.

Image: Pexels

The other key thing to think about is what customer support the platform offers. If something goes wrong with your accounting, you don’t want to be waiting days for a reply. Check out what support channels they offer and how quickly they respond. Do they have a good reputation as an ecommerce accounting software provider?

Some accounting software will include other features such as payroll processing or inventory management. While these might not be essential straight away, as your ecommerce business grows it might make life easier if you can manage these things all in the same place — and you might pay less than if you’re using other software as well.

Best accounting software for ecommerce businesses

If you know roughly what you’re looking for, but you’re struggling to decide between software options, you’ve come to the right place. Here is our list of best ecommerce accounting software for ecommerce businesses:

QuickBooks

Quickbooks works well for any size business, but its features and simple design make it particularly ideal for small and medium ecommerce businesses. It has affordable pricing plans that include everything an ecommerce business would need and make it suitable to use as your business scales — plus it integrates with all the main ecommerce platforms.

Features

Sync sales data: it’s easy to import orders and refunds from your ecommerce platform, or you can set up QuickBooks to sync them automatically once a day
You can connect your bank account to QuickBooks so that it imports all of your bank transactions and sorts them into different categories
You can manage expenses by uploading receipts using your smartphone or desktop computer and sort them or set it up to automatically categorise your expenses
QuickBooks has a mobile app that makes it easy to keep an eye on your finances from anywhere at any time
You can sync product and inventory levels from QuickBooks into your ecommerce platform
Unlimited telephone and online chat support

Pros

QuickBooks is easy to integrate with the majority of ecommerce platforms and banks, it’s straightforward to set up and use, and it offers some useful reporting features. It offers a lot of automation that will take a lot of repetition and admin out of keeping your finances in order.

They also have live telephone support so you can get help with any issues immediately.

Cons

Although the basics are pretty easy to use, some of the advanced features are quite complicated to get to grips with.

It’s also not the cheapest option for ecommerce accounting software, but it does offer all the important features that you would need.

Cost

Essentials plan – $12.50 per month

This includes all the basic functionality you might need when you’re getting started to input and track your income and expenses, send invoices, and pay bills.

Plus plan – $35 per month

This plan is usually the best for small or medium ecommerce businesses. You can run enhanced reports, manage inventory, and have up to five users.

Advanced plan – $75 per month

With their top plan, you can have up to 25 users with custom permissions, produce batch invoices and expenses, and you have access to training and 24-hour support.

Platform integrations

QuickBooks works with all the main ecommerce platforms and tools including Shopify, PayPal, Square.

Xero

If you’re looking for a slightly cheaper alternative to QuickBooks but with all the same key features then Xero is the best option.

It’s another web-based platform, with the essential accounting functionality such as importing transactions, managing expense, invoicing, and reporting, that a small business will need.

However, while their pricing plans are slightly cheaper they are a lot more restricted than QuickBooks.

Features

You can connect your bank account to import and reconcile transactions daily (only one account can be connected on the lowest plan)
Compatible with most ecommerce platforms to import sales data
You can track inventory, manage stock and add items into invoices and orders
Send online invoices with online payment options from your Xero account
View a dashboard to track all your finances
You can manage expenses and upload receipts
Xero has a mobile app that can capture expenses, send invoices, and reconcile transactions from anywhere

Pros

Xero is easy to set up and intuitive for users — plus it offers affordable pricing plans. It connects to all major banks and ecommerce platforms so there’s no need for manually importing any of your data.

Cons

One of the biggest downsides for Xero is that they only offer customer support via email, which means it can often take more than a day to get a response.

It also lacks some of the smaller features that you might want such as cloud storage and integrations with tax software.

Cost

Early plan – $9 per month

All of their plans have access to their main accounting features, but the basic plan only allows you to send five invoices and quotes per month, enter five bills, and reconcile 20 bank transactions.

Growing plan – $30 per month

You can send unlimited invoices and quotes, enter bills, and reconcile any number of bank transactions.

Established plan – $60 per month

As well as sending invoices, entering bills and reconciling bank transactions, the top plan also includes multi-currency transactions, expenses management, and project management features.

Platform integrations

As well as connecting with all major banks, Xero can be used with the main ecommerce platforms including Shopify, Squarespace, and BigCommerce.

Image: Pexels

Best free accounting software for ecommerce businesses

If you don’t want to pay for your ecommerce accounting software — or can’t — then there are still some great options out there for you.

Here is our favourite (and arguably the best) free accounting software for ecommerce businesses:

Wave

Wave is free cloud-based accounting software that offers most of the basic functionality that ecommerce businesses require. You can track income and expenses, send invoices, scan in receipts, and connect bank accounts or PayPal for a live record of transactions.

Features

Connect an unlimited number of bank accounts and payment methods to keep track of all incoming and outgoing transactions
You can view a dashboard of finances and export accounting reports that cover profit and loss, and cash flow
You can create and send customisable invoices, and set up recurring billing for any repeat customers or subscription-based services
Wave has a mobile app to check your finances. It also allows you to scan in receipts wherever you are even offline and these are then synced with your account the next time there’s an internet connection
You can run multiple businesses in one Wave account

Pros

Wave is specifically designed for small businesses and it includes all the features you would need with no limitations for free. It’s fairly simple to set up and get started, and it’s easy to use, with a good mobile app that allows you to keep track of things when you’re on the go.

Cons

While all the accounting software features are free you do have to pay to use Wave’s payment processor or payroll system.

It also lacks features that other paid software will have such as inventory management and time trackers, and you can’t set up multiple users on the same account. The reports you can produce are also fairly basic and can’t be customised.

Cost

It’s free to use Wave for accounting, invoicing, and receipts, which covers most of the features a small ecommerce business would require. If you want to make payments through the software there’s a charge per transaction ranging from 1% to 3.4% + 30¢ depending on which type of card you’re using.

Their payroll system starts at $20 per month plus $6 per active employee, and $6 per independent contractor paid.

Platform integrations

Wave can be integrated with your Shopify account to import all your transactions. It also works with PayPal, Shoeboxed, and Etsy, as well as all major banks.

Ecommerce businesses have a lot of options when it comes to accounting software, but it’s important to find one that meets your specific requirements, is easy to use, and that any accountant you’re working with is happy to use.

While, initially, you might look for free accounting software, as your business grows you might need some of the advanced features that other paid platforms offer — and it’s worth considering how easy it is to switch over. Whatever your needs, there is always an ecommerce accounting software option for you

December 11, 2020

Category: Business

Trim your everyday expenses

Eliminate unnecessary admin

Take advantage of software tools

Enhance your customer support

What are progressive web apps or PWA?

Benefits of progressive web apps for your website

Easily installable

PWAs work offline

They are fast loading

Cost-effective

Engaging

PWA will help you grow

Improves the SEO and efficiency of the website

Popular brands that have benefited from PWAs

1. Flipkart

2. Forbes

3. Twitter

4. Alibaba

Why is PWA the future of ecommerce?

1. Takes up less space

2. Works like a native app

3. Fast loading time

4. Costs less

Concluding remarks

SEO software helps to increase your ranking in search engines

Task management tools help you keep to your business plan budget

Social media tools can boost your marketing efforts

Telematics software helps ecommerce business owners with fulfilment

Choose a green hosting provider

Donate a portion of your profits

Use recycled shipping materials

Cut down on business travel

Partner with responsible suppliers

Create content on relevant issues

Why it is important to sell the right items

The technique behind finding the ideal product to sell

The characteristics of perfect products for FBA

Smaller products

Year-round products

Easily manufactured products

The best selling categories on Amazon

Top tips for finding the best products to sell on Amazon

Avoid categories dominated by the bigger brands

Spot profitable products

Check top product listings

Monitor your competitors

Use extensions to find niche markets

Check Amazon’s best sellers rank

Final thoughts

About the author

Content engagement

Restock reminders

“Buy as a gift” offer

Gathering and using feedback

User-generated content challenges

The unboxing experience

Why it’s important

Sustainability and packaging

More than just a box

Ecommerce delivery packaging 101

Corrugated cardboard boxes

Mailing bags

Void filler

Insulation

Tapes & delivery pockets

Don’t forget pretty primary packaging either!

Conclusion

What are the best business niches?

Trending niches

Most profitable niches

How to find an ecommerce niche

Identify your personal interests, passions & expertise

Find your USP and use it to tell a story

Confirm there is a market for your niche

Research your competition and stand out from the crowd

Narrow your niche even further with keyword research

Why Pinterest should be your go-to marketing platform

How to get started marketing your ecommerce store on Pinterest

Setting up your profile