Effective Ideas that Drive eCommerce Store Conversion

A seamless eCommerce customer journey is all about the transition from “buying” to “experiencing.” The key to growing your online business is to let your customers explore, decide, and share, and then learn from their experience. Over the years, A/B testing has evolved from a simple comparative study to a process backed up by a data-driven approach.

Businesses and website owners can utilize this approach at every stage of their customer journey. In this blog post, we take you through 15 A/B testing ideas for eCommerce conversion optimization that will make your cash registers ring faster than ever.

1) Have a Persistent Shopping Cart

Do you see that widget at the right bottom corner of Jabong’s homepage? Yes, that’s your persistent shopping cart. These items were added to the cart a couple of days ago, and as you can see, the cart is still intact with the items. What do you think happened here? A long-term cookie was established when the eCommerce site was opened. And now, the cart can be viewed during subsequent sessions for a given period of time. Magento defines persistent shopping carts as carts that keep track of unpurchased items that are left in the cart and saves the information for the customer’s next visit. A significant percentage of online retailers employ persistent shopping carts as it positively influences buyers’ purchase decision. This is because 56% of visitors tend to save their carts for later and take days or weeks to complete their purchase, and you need to ensure their carts are intact when they return. 

2) Drop the Rotating Carousels

Agreed that carousels help you showcase more products, offers, and promotions. However, they also tend to annoy your visitors and tend to slow your website down as they aren’t SEO-friendly. Instead, stick to good old, appealing static images or use carousels that allow auto-rotation to stop on hover. Take a look at how Target has spread out its offers, and promos on different sections of the homepage and done away with the slider: 
Grizzlyzoos used VWO to run an A/B test on their homepage to compare image carousels with static images. The results showed that while the old version (with carousel) only got 2.06% clicks, the optimized version (static image) fetched 40.53% clicks.

3) Reveal “Free Shipping” (or Shipping Fee) on the Product Pages

High shipping charges are a leading cause of cart abandonment, and no shipping charges is what beautiful shopping dreams are made of. eCommerce businesses that offer free shipping have multiple advantages over those who don’t. Read how adding free shipping increased AOV by 7.32% for NuFace. But we all have our financial constraints. If you charge for shipping, mention that cost upfront. Ozscopes goes a step ahead and provides a shipping calculator on their product page:
A Comscore study revealed that 47% of customers would abandon their carts if they are charged for shipping during the checkout. So, make sure your customers aren’t faced with any unpleasant surprises as a part of the checkout process. 

4) Bring All ‘Ways to Save’ Under One Roof

If there are multiple ways to claim discounts or freebies on your website – through coupon codes, loyalty points, and newspaper cuttings – then create a one-stop bar or menu for them. The bargain-hunting mamas will drop a tear or two out of sheer gratitude and will always love you the best for your considerate behavior. 

5) Provide Live Chat Support

An effective live chat software provides a seamless user experience by addressing confusion and doubts instantly and conveniently, leaving less room for drop-offs. Also, calling customer support over and over again is the last thing a user trying to make an online purchase would want. If you are thinking of efficiency in customer service, think live chat. Guide that reluctant visitor who has been confusedly hovering over various elements by initiating a helpful chat session.

6) Use Browsing History for Personalized Recommendations

Did you know that 45% of online shoppers are more likely to buy from an eCommerce store that offers personalized recommendations? So, if you aren’t leveraging user history on your online store to provide a personalized shopping experience and retargeting your customers, you are probably missing out on an enormous opportunity to increase your conversion rate.  Product recommendations are the ultimate eCommerce conversion optimization tactic that you need to include in your strategy. Keep track of user data such as location, traffic sources, preferences, purchase history so you can highlight products that are on top of your customers’ minds.  One of the biggest players in the eCommerce Store space when it comes to personalization of product recommendations is Amazon. Take a look at the screenshot below. Suppose you just viewed Dan Ariely’s book on behavioral economics. This is how your homepage is going to look the next time you land on it.

Originally Published at www.vwo.com

The 6 Best PayPal Alternatives Payment Gateways

PayPal’s great, but it’s far from the only option out there.

So why would you want to check out PayPal alternatives? Well, here are some key drawbacks to Online Payment Gateways solution:

1) PayPal doesn’t provide protection for sellers selling digital products and services

2) Many PayPal alternatives charge lower fees than PayPal’s 3.7 percent plus USD 0.30

3) PayPal has been known to freeze accounts for up to six months without prior warning

4) It can take a long time to withdraw money to your bank account – three to five days to be precise.

So if you’ve ever found yourself asking, “What can I use instead of PayPal?” we’ve got you covered.

In this article, you’ll learn all about the best PayPal alternatives available to help you decide which one is best for you and your business.

Best PayPal Alternatives

1. TransferWise

2. Google Pay

3. Stripe

4. Payoneer

5. Shopify Payments

6. Authorize.Net

#1: TransferWise

Best for: Individuals and service-based businesses with a high volume of international transactions. TransferWise dubs itself as “a cheaper way to send money internationally” and is a fantastic PayPal alternative if you make lots of international transfers. The payment solution claims to provide the “real” exchange rate, without inflating it with additional unseen fees. In one transaction of $2,000, Transfer-Wise cost a UK recipient £106.47 less than PayPal. But that’s not all. The service’s Borderless account provides users with a debit card, allows you to manage money in more than 40 currencies, run payroll, batch payments, charge clients, and more. Plus, with TransferWise for business, you’re able to invoice your customers in their own currency. So how can TransferWise provide such low fees for international transfers? Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to spend $1,000 on your friend in the UK. Your $1,000 would be deposited into TransferWise’s American account. Then, they would send your friend the equivalent in British pounds from TransferWise’s UK account, using the real exchange rate. In essence, the money never actually crosses borders! This also makes international transfers extremely fast.

#2: Google Pay

Best for Quick, easy, and free payments from a well-known brand. Google Pay is another popular PayPal alternative. This service is a fast, simple way to pay on websites, apps, and in-store using cards saved to your Google account. Simply add your credit and debit card payment details to your account, and enjoy faster, more convenient payments, wherever you are. Google Pay enables businesses to streamline the payment process for customers. Plus, businesses can also use Google Pay to deliver special mobile offers and recommendations to customers, and provide gift cards. The best part? This payment solution is largely free for customers and businesses.

#3: Stripe

Best for: Businesses wanting an intuitive and flexible API (application programming interface). Stripe is one of the most popular PayPal alternatives, particularly for online businesses. This payment solution believes payment problems are “rooted in code, not finance” and they consider themselves a “developers first” business. For this reason, the service is easy to integrate and customize using their simple API. And it’s no surprise that many large digital business tools like Shopify have fantastic Stripe integrations. (For details about Shopify payment integrations, click here.) You can accept payments from all over the world, and Stripe automatically deposits your money into your bank account – plus, mobile payments are available. Unfortunately, the transaction fees are very similar to PayPal’s. All in all, Stripe’s strength lies in its flexibility and customizable nature. However, this could be an issue for those with little programming knowledge.

#4: Payoneer

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses looking for an all-around solution. Payoneer helps businesses get paid quickly and securely. It’s particularly good for small and medium-sized businesses. In fact, this PayPal alternative places a special focus on market sectors such as eCommerce SEO Checklist, online advertising, freelancing, and vacation rentals. Like TransferWise, Payoneer provides a debit card to go with their online account, so you can withdraw funds from your bank or ATMs worldwide. Unlike Stripe, this service doesn’t require any programming knowledge and it doesn’t take long to set up an account. Payoneer’s pricing is simple too. The payment solution bills your fees monthly and transactions are free between Payoneer accounts. Unfortunately, credit card transaction fees are slightly higher than some other services, and you generally have to pay a fee when transferring money to a bank account.

#5: Shopify Payments

Best for: eCommerce businesses using the Shopify platform. Shopify Payments allows eCommerce businesses to accept credit and debit cards directly on their Shopify store, without a third party. Although this tool is only useful if you have a Shopify store, it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re looking to progress in eCommerce. Why? Because this PayPal alternative makes payments extremely easy for sellers. It’s completely integrated with your Shopify store, simple to get started, and allows you to accept all major credit cards. Plus, customers can sign up with Shopify Pay to make checkout easier. Shopify Payments also works with Facebook shops, Pinterest Buyable Pins, Facebook Messenger, Amazon, eBay, and more. What’s more, if you decide to sell in person, you can take card payments with Shopify POS (point of sale).

#6: Authorize.Net

Best for Small businesses wanting incredible customer support and security. Despite not being as large or well-known as some other PayPal alternatives, Authorize.Net has its merits. The service is a subsidiary of Visa and has the best user support in the business – provided free, from real people, 24/7. The payment solution has also been repeatedly praised for its reliability and security. Businesses will also be glad to know the service provides invoicing, recurring billing, point-of-sale checkout, and a robust API. The interface is intuitive, and the service also integrates with other payment providers, such as Visa Checkout, PayPal, and Apple Pay. However, this PayPal alternative isn’t particularly good for personal use as you can’t send and receive payments from family and friends.

Originally Published at www.oberlo.com

How Google Bert Update will affect E Commerce

Google BERT and Ecommerce

I let it be known – I'm a catchphrase based, alternate route, abbreviation, I'm-more brilliant than-Google sort of Internet client. Throughout recent years my quests have just contained the catchphrases that I realize will be successful in finding what I need.

With the new BERT update, I will never again do that, and neither will you. Correct? With this update, you can type your inquiries utilizing precisely the same words you may use to express your inquiry verbally, and Google will have the option to utilize those" filler" words to all the more likely comprehend your question.

What is the BERT Update?

BERT represents Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. It won't mean a lot to us unimportant humans, yet it's really the consequence of long periods of steady research and examination by Google.

Basically, what Google BERT and Ecommerce does is present a more elevated level of modernity when deciphering the filler words utilized in client inquiries.

On the off chance that you recall from your eighth grade English class, relational words, for example, "to" and "for" fill a basic need in our language. Relational words show the connection between a thing or a pronoun and some other word or component in the remainder of the sentence. They help to perceive the subject and object of a sentence, which at that point uncovers the expected importance.

The request for the words is likewise significant, and factors vigorously in the BERT calculation update.

That is the place the "transformer" some portion of the abbreviation becomes an integral factor. A transformer is an information investigation model (a calculation) whereby each word in a solicitation is contrasted with each other word in the solicitation, as opposed to deciphering each word in consecutive requests.

An Example of BERT at Work

If a user types “2019 Brazil traveler to USA need a visa” as their search query, Google can potentially interpret the sentence in the following ways:

l A person from the USA needing a visa to travel to Brazil

l A Brazilian traveler who needs a visa to travel to the USA

It is the word “to” that holds the key to understanding the query. It shows the direction and intent of the traveler. They are traveling “to” the USA, not the other way around. From that, the algorithm deduces that the user is seeking information on a visa to stay in the USA, not a visa to stay in Brazil. 

Does the BERT Update Affect Me?

Google claims that this update will improve around 1 in 10 search query results. There are over 5.6 Billion searches per day, which means that 560 Million searches will be improved with this update. That’s a lot more happy Googlers!

How it Affects Your SEO

If your organic SEO strategy for the past few years has been to keyword stuff, you haven’t done any on-page optimization, and your site content is thin – you’re in deep trouble. There’s no sugarcoating in these blog posts.
On the other hand, if you’ve been following our advice, and have been focusing on keeping your content “natural” in tone, posting regularly and often, and offering information that is unique – you’ll be fine.

I’m guessing you may need some help with the transition.
As an Internet user, your job is now to remember to compose your queries as naturally as you would speak. If you want to know how to DIY drywall, you want your query to be something like:

How do I hang drywall at home
or…
Do I need a professional to hang drywall
Or…
Hanging your own drywall

Can you now see how the user's intention is clear in these examples?
You don’t even need a question mark, because Google knows that the word “how” indicates that the query is a question. The word “home” helps to clarify that this is a DIY question, and the word “I” helps clarify that it is the actual homeowner who is asking.
But, if you pride yourself on your grammar skills and would like to keep using the question mark, go right ahead. It won’t affect the result. 

Weidenhammer has experienced SEO Checklist experts who can tune your website for maximum performance.
Give us a call and find out all of the ways we can help get you ranking for your important keywords, and way to keep you competitive as the technology changes.

 Originally Published At www.hammer.net

Why Blogging is Important for You eCommerce Business

Businesses of all kinds start blogging as a way to build up a long-term audience.

But the reverse is also happening where more and more bloggers start businesses as an extension of their publishing. And it makes sense.

eCommerce Blog

One of the biggest challenges new businesses face is building an audience for their products. Bloggers, on the other hand, often work backwards, building an audience first by consistently putting out good content, and then exploring ways to monetize their traffic.

Beginning a eCommerce Blog is simple on the off chance that you simply need to have a fabulous time. Be that as it may, in case you're pondering profiting as a blogger not far off, you'll should be key about how you set it up for progress.

This guide will investigate what you have to know to begin a blog and develop it into a wellspring of traffic and pay. And keeping in mind that it's intended for the individuals who haven't began a business yet, it's likewise significant for any organizations that need to get into the blogging game.

But first let’s answer an important question that may seem obvious at first.

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