Category Archives: E-Commerce

eCommerce Trends to Watch This Holiday Season

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Black Friday and the holiday shopping season are fast approaching, and customers know this just as well as retailers. Based on last year, between Labor Day and mid-November we can expect online customers to change their behavior by deferring purchases. As an industry, we have conditioned our customers to expect exceptional offers in the run up to Black Friday.

At SeeWhy, we track both conversions and shopping cart abandonment rates, and you can see this change in behavior in the data. Shopping cart abandonment rates normally average 70 percent, i.e. 7 out of every 10 people that place items in the shopping cart do not complete the transaction. But last year from Labor Day through November 15, the number of online sales fell by almost 56 percent compared with the volume for the previous month, and the shopping cart abandonment rate shot up, peaking at 83 percent.

But once holiday promotional offers were rolled out, the transaction volumes rose sharply, and the abandonment rate fell dramatically. You can see this in the graphs below.

Note also how the day of the week is very significant: During the weekends, customers were researching, not buying. The pattern of high shopping cart abandonment rates during the weekend is normal throughout the year as customers research online before potentially making a purchase during the week. However, this pattern was much more pronounced from mid-September through mid-November, reflected in a peak abandonment rate for the year.

What happened in mid-November, of course, was that Black Friday-specific promotions were being rolled out across the board, triggering seasonal buyingnot browsingbehavior and the ramp up to the peak on Cyber Monday.

Based on last years pattern, we should expect that, until the big Thanksgiving promotions get rolled out in mid-November, many customers will defer purchases, having become conditioned not to purchase online but to wait.

This reinforces what we have known for decades; promotions shift the timing of revenues and may not provide significant lift overall.

Well be monitoring both the discounting trends and the shopping cart abandonment rates through the rest of the holiday season, and it will be interesting to see whether the Holiday 2010 will be a rerun of 2009.

Introduction to Leading Open Source eCommerce Web Application Magento

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Magento is an open-source ecommerce web application created by Varien which was later re-christened as Magento Inc. It was launched on March 31st 2008 and it is built on the components of Zend Framework. Magento is available under the Open Software License version 3.0. The Magento Enterprise Edition (paid edition) which is aimed at larger companies was launched on 15th April 2009; this version provides a service agreement with Varien.

Those involved in eCommerce need an affordable, flexible design option when putting up their online stores. Magento was designed to meet this need. This open-source eCommerce solution is offered for free download and allows users to design, set up, and run their own eCommerce stores with great flexibility. Magento supports installation of modules through a web-based interface accessible through the administration area of a Magento installation. Modules are hosted on the Magento eCommerce website as a PEAR server. Magento formerly worked with osCommerce. They originally planned to fork osCommerce but later decided to rewrite it as Magento. Magento officially started development in early 2007. Seven months later on August 31, 2007, the first public beta version was released. On May 30, 2010 Magento mobile was released, it allows store owners to create native mobile storefront apps.

Magento uses PHP as a web server scripting language and the MySQL Database. The data model is based on the Entity-attribute-value model that stores data objects in tree structures, thus allowing a change to a data structure without changing the definition of the database. Any community member can upload a module through the website and is made available once confirmed by a member of the Magento team. Modules are installed by entering a module key, available on the module page, into the web based interface.

There are three categories of modules hosted on Magento Connect:
1. Core Modules
2. Community Modules
3. Commercial Modules

Core and Community modules can be installed from the administration area. Commercial module pages provide price information and a link to an external website. There are no limits to creativity with Magento. Magento is easy to install and at the same time easy to use. Magento is used in many websites and online stores and has been a one of the most used ecommerce web application since its release.

Utility of Clipping Path Service in E-commerce

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In this age of globalization the online base marketing becomes rapidly popular day by day. Due to the enhancement in technology, competition has boosted in every field especially in the product advertising and selling firms that need to advertise frequently their products so as increase their sales. Running a business in this era is not a simple work to perform. Somebody has to contract with a lot of things such as finding out ways to handle competition from peer companies.

Clipping Path:

By using Photoshop pen tool ensures preeminent quality and natural curves. Objects in images are clipped a digit of pixels surrounded by the images so with the intention of thumbs down shape will be screening with zooms, both on screen and on print. Skilled draws all clipping paths manually using single Photoshop pen tool to ensure generally exceptional quality. Once a path is drawn to an image, the expert applies clipping path on it so with the intention of as it is placed in the layouts like inside Design, Quark X Press, Photoshop, or Illustrator, it will trade show single the segment which was contains in the path. Thus, everything outside the path is dead, and loan can point out whatever background color loan wishes to use.

Clipping Path Service:

Advertising agencies, magazine editors, catalog, posters, direct mail, websites, photographers, design studios or other form of print and design company with the intention of the intention of making handled of whichever form of digital imaging with the intention of the intention of mostly need clipping path services. Clipping paths are generally used for complex images; images with the intention of are used in e-commerce cites. Products like Jewelry, garments and shoes, etc displayed online are have all been clipped.
Clipping path is very much valuable especially in graphic design projects with the intention of requiring mammoth images. There are certainly other ways to take outdated the background of the image, but using the Eraser tool of the photo control software will take clock and effort. Add to with the intention of the actuality with the intention of once taking background from substantial images can be very draggy once used with the Eraser tool. Complex images can moreover be very hard to take outdated like hairs, feathers, sand and leaves. This is where clipping path comes in.
Clipping path services denote such kind of image clipping, clipping path, image masking, , Photoshop masking, image colorization, photo masking, raster to victor, apply shadow, Photoshop clipping path services which provided by a clipping path company to the photographers, publishers, art directors & so on at very competitive cost.

There are thousands of outsourcing company with the intention of offers clipping path service these days and it quite challenging to go for since all of them augur outstanding quality and low cost. Before choosing an image clipping service provider, we must basic check the quality and accuracy of their work. Read their language, condition and facilities for testimonials. Check their status on the internet if really they have served customers the same way they promised over their website. It would be a large amount admirable if you can check out their services basic.
When you would like to prepare for hire the clipping path services, make confident that the clipping path company you have unambiguous to hire is consistent or dependable. On the internet everybody can stumble on many clipping path service providers offering services by the side of low-cost charge. In the field of the meantime, it is required we should find a clipping path service provider having brilliant experience in the appropriate business field. Most particularly for hiring the online clipping path service it is mandatory that the service provider able to provide the ability of 24 hours services. They have the vast aptitude to process images and can make your job pretty simple. Rest is if promise to complete the task on time with utmost quality. These vital services will massively help your business.
Look foreword to you can discover out the answer that rises in your mind for search unfailing image clipping website and gaining the reimbursement as you need.

Thank You,
Arifur Rahman
Chief Marketing Executive
ClippingDesign.Com

The Most Popular Payment Options For Ecommerce Website

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An eCommerce site must always have multiple payment options. If you run a shopping site, and you only have one payment method, you may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table. So what are some of the must-have payment options?

Paypal.

Everyone knows about Paypal. If you are not using Paypal, you are isolating a huge group of people. Paypal is a payment solution that allows its members to make payment without having to use a credit card. The credit card info has already been stored in the Paypal account. All the member has to do, is to login to his or her paypal account when making payment. That means entering an email address and a password. That is far more convenient than having to take out the credit card and enter the credit card numbers into the payment form.

In the event that a customer does not have a Paypal account, he or she can still proceed with payment without having to sign up for an account. In this case, the check out process would be very similar to the usual check out process. The customer will have to enter the credit or debit card number.

In addition, you can easily integrate Paypal into your shopping site as most eCommerce software supports Paypal.

Google Checkout.

Google is becoming a highly competitive player in the payment solutions space. Like Paypal, it also has millions of members. You can easily add Google Checkout buttons to your site by copying and pasting some code snippets.

Google Checkout is especially important if you are promoting your eCommerce site using Google’s very own pay per click advertising system. When you create an add in the system, your ad appears on the right hand side of the search results. If your site supports Google checkout, a small little shopping cart will appear in your ad. Visitors will know that your site supports this payment method just by viewing the ad.

This increases conversion rates because payment by Google checkout is very fast and convenient. For customers who have used Google checkout before, all they have to do is to enter their email address and password (just like Paypal). There are no lengthy forms to fill up. If he or she is a first time user, a new account will be created.

Conversion rates tend to be higher when you offer Google Checkout as a payment option because of the trust factor. Some customers may be afraid to make a purchase because they are unwilling to share credit card information with merchants. With Google checkout, they won’t have to share private information.

2Checkout.

2CO has been around for many years now. This is a payment processor that allows you to accept payments by credit or debit cards. Unlike Paypal and Google Checkout, customers will have to fill in their credit card info when making a purchase. The payments will be sent to 2CO, who will then verify the payments. The revenues will then be sent to the merchants via direct bank transfer or check.

Worldpay.

This is a very popular payment processing solution that is used by many large corporations. You must have your own merchant account if you want to use Worldpay. The setup allows revenues to be sent directly into your bank account.

The E-sign Act and UETA, Two Laws that Enabled E-Commerce

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Two laws were passed with the intention of making electronic signatures valid as a regular means of validation. These two laws are the ESIGN Act and the UETA, both of which made a lot of positive changes possible for e-commerce. Both laws have expanded the functions of electronic signatures, ushering in many new ways for companies to do business in the modern world. E-commerce is now alive and well, thanks to the passing of both laws which particularly support new business practices geared towards online business operations. Both the UETA and the E-sign Act are there to support and protect electronic signatures and the documents they are in, and have provided many benefits for e-businesses in the process.

The E-sign Act is officially known as the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, and is one of the United States laws that facilitate the use of electronic signatures and records for legal electronic contracts and documents both for interstate and international transactions. The E-sign Act makes sure that electronic documents are made legal and scrutinized under similar legal effects as regular paper documents. Nowadays, electronic records and signatures are considered just as valid and effective as regular paper contracts and documents thanks to the E-sign Act. Because of that, these e-documents are also under similar regulations as those imposed on paper documents.

The UETA (Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) is an act that was originally proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The NCCUSL has since then influenced the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and 47 local states into absorbing similar regulations within their own laws. The UETAs purpose works hand in hand with the E-sign Act as a means of having a governing law that concerns the retention of paper records and the use of electronic processes to validate e-documents as an alternative.

Prior to the UETA, physical copies and printouts of many documents were required by most states. This presented a problem with regards to storage and production of waste, especially in the case of banks, where every check had to be kept in storage for processing. The UETA made it possible for these companies to use paperless processes instead of handling physical paperwork all the time. Keeping everything in electronic data form not only makes storage a lot easier and less space consuming, but also supports the green movement by eliminating a lot of paper wastes and the need for carbon production via paper production.

The E-sign Act and the UETA have both contributed to the now widespread use of electronic signatures in many industries. Companies have seen the many benefits that these laws offer, and are looking at other ways to maximize the convenience present in using electronic signatures and records. The ease of use has helped many companies in wrapping up even the most complex transactions and business deals within a day. With the ongoing trend of businesses going towards web site-driven operations, these laws have definitely made the future of e-commerce a lot brighter.