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A Quick iOS App Development Checklist for Small Businesses
In 2008, Apple introduced the App Store to the world. Since then, businesses have released over 2.2 million apps to the store, which means competition is rife.
This is scary for a small business, so you need to put some real thought into your entire app strategy if you’re going to stand a chance of succeeding. From planning and development, through to analyzing app usage, every part of your strategy needs to be on point if you’re going to get those all-important downloads.
It’s not a simple task. However, there are some points that you must hit if you’re going to enjoy success on the App Store. Here is a handy checklist for small business mobile app development.
Check #1 – Research Your Audience
Understanding your audience is key to the development of a successful mobile app. After all, if you don’t know who’s going to use the app, you can’t add features with that audience in mind.
Use your existing customer data to help you work out who would want to use your app, and why. Examine current trends in your industry to find out where the audience is headed, and what it demands from a mobile app. This will help you to define the key features that your app has to offer to its audience.
Check #2 – Choose an Effective Development Team
There are many mobile app development teams to choose from, so you need to think carefully before making a decision. The key question here is do you need short or long-term development?
If you’re building an app as a one-and-done solution, you could hire the services of an off-site team. However, if you believe the app will require extensive maintenance and constant functionality upgrades, you need to look for a more long-term solution. In these cases, creating an internal team, or securing the services of a dedicated mobile app development team, will prove more beneficial.
Check #3 – Choose Between Native and Hybrid Development
If you’re absolutely sure that you will only release your mobile app on the App Store, native development is the way to go. You’ll be able to use the many unique features that iOS has to offer, which results in the creation of a more functional app.
However, if you want to expand your app’s reach to other platforms, a hybrid development model may benefit you. Yes, you’ll lose out on the added functionality that the native development model offers, but you’ll develop an app that you can release across every available platform.
From planning and development, through to analyzing app usage, every part of your strategy needs to be on point if you’re going to get those all-important downloads.
Check #4 – Examine Apple’s User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Protocols
Having a great-looking app means little if it doesn’t work the way your audience expects it to. How you implement your UI is just as important as how it looks.
Happily, Apple can help you here. The company has some strict UI and UX protocols that you must follow before it will approve your app for its store. Make sure that your entire team reads them, so you don’t delay the project.
Check #5 – Choose Between Swift and Objective C
On the face of it, Swift seems like the ideal choice for iOS mobile app development. Apple’s own programming language, Swift streamlines the development process, and has a lot of features that will prove useful during the development cycle.
However, its simplistic nature may not offer you the flexibility you need for larger projects. If you want to develop a complex app, it may be best to choose Objective C instead of Swift. In fact, most app developers prefer Objective C to Swift.
Check #6 – Select Your Target Devices
Though Apple has a less diverse selection of devices than Android, you still have to put some thought into which devices your app will work on. There are currently eight basic generations of the iPhone, many of which have different offshoots. Each device has its own framework that may change the way your app works on it.
As a result, you have to optimize towards the device that suits your app’s audience. After all, there’s little point in developing for the iPhone 8 Plus if most of your audience still uses the iPhone 6.
Check #7 – Make Content Easy to View
If your users have to veer all over the app to view its content, you’re going to find that a lot of people stop using the app. As a result, how you display your content is an important part of the user experience.
As a general rule, you should try to minimize scrolling. In particular, don’t include a lot of sections that ask users to scroll from left to right to view your app’s content. Beyond that, you need to choose font sizes that make the content easy to read without the need for zooming, while approaching content development with the general idea of making things as clear as possible.
Check #8 – Implement Peer Reviews
Every programmer works off his or her own experience, regardless of the tools that they have available. On larger projects, this means that you have a variety of programming “styles” to contend with, which may cause issues during the testing period.
You can avoid such problems if you create a peer review system. This ensures you have the desired coding structure in place, with checks to ensure the team adheres to the practices that you want it to follow.
Check #9 – Get Your iOS Distribution Certificate
There are two certificates that you will need to build an iOS mobile app. The first is the iOS Development Certificate, which allows you to create an app, and run it on a personal device during the development stage. If you’re building a mobile app for the Apple Store, you must have this certificate before work commences.
However, the second certificate may be even more important. You need the iOS Distribution certificate before you can submit your app to the Apple Store. Try to get this as early into the development cycle as possible.
Check #10 – Build Reporting Tools
Your work isn’t done when you have a working app. You’re going to need to measure user engagement so that you can make future updates.
This is where your reporting tools will come in handy. Build these tools on top of your app’s code so you get a constant stream of data that tells you more about how people use your app. You can use this data to spot trends and user pain points, which will allow you to make improvements. Apple offers its own iTunes Connect App Analytics for this purpose, though there are also plenty of third-party tools to choose from.
The Final Word
Small businesses have a pretty big mountain to climb when they decide to develop an iOS mobile app. This checklist will help you to create a project framework that ensures you develop a quality app, with the future in mind.
Interactivated can help you with your mobile app project. Contact us today to find out how our team can use its experience to build a great iOS mobile app for your business.
Buying Premade Modules or Developing Your Own - What Are the Advantages?
When thinking about strategies for developing a web store, we tend to consider two main options, much like we would for a website: a template based design versus a custom design. In fact, there’s another option, one that lies between the previous two. This third option is called modular design. A modular design can have significant advantages, depending on the type and size of website we're building.
Let’s think about building a site for a large webstore, one, featuring a considerable number of pages. A template design may seem tempting in this case because it is inexpensive and easy to set up. Also, because you are using a pre-formatted design, all the pages will have a similar appearance, making the whole site more consistent. However, the known caveat with this is that the design will not be unique and truly distinguishable from other webstore sites.
In contrast, we have a custom, page-driven design with a lot of focus on details. Because of time and budget constraints with an approach like this, you'll only be able to get a few pages with high-quality design. By focusing on the unit, you'll lose track of the big picture, so if the number of pages increases too much, the site you end up with will lack coherence.
To overcome this dilemma, your best bet is to go for a modular design. Because this design works with reusable modules, you can use said modules on several pages, just like a template design. But because each module can be customized, you'll get some of the uniqueness inherent to a custom design.
This brings us to another question. Should you buy pre-made modules or develop your own? As we'll see, building modules yourself can have some important benefits.
Customization of Third-Party Modules
There are some risks in developing your own software. For that reason, most people believed that it is best to buy modules from a third-party. However, buying pre-made packages also has disadvantages, and with the advancements in software development in recent years, the opinions on this seem to be shifting slightly.
When thinking about strategies for developing a web store, we tend to consider two main options, much like we would for a website When thinking about strategies for developing a web store, we tend to consider two main options, much like we would for a website: a template based design versus a custom design. In fact, there’s another option, one that lies between the previous two. This third option is called modular design. A modular design can have significant advantages, depending on the type and size of website we're building.
Companies that design pre-built modules usually do a good job covering all their customers' needs. Still, there is a chance that you won't find one that fits your requirements perfectly. Maybe you found a great, high-quality module, but you just wish it had that extra design or functionality detail.
Although this can happen, it is not very likely. Because they are aware of the potentially different requirements, module-developing companies often deliver complete packages that are packed with features.
In this situation, you may want to venture into the development field and customize the module to better suit your needs. Perhaps you want to remove a feature that you do not use and make your system just a bit lighter and faster. However, doing this could give you some trouble later on, as we'll see shortly.
Security Concerns
Let's talk about security, which is one of the main concerns for any website or webstore. When buying modules from a third party, you are exposed to potential security flaws existent in these modules. On the other hand, building the modules yourself gives you full control over the code, but no guarantee that it does not have vulnerabilities, either.
In fact, security flaws in pre-compiled modules are not such a big concern. Even if there are flaws in the first place, the companies that build the modules will often release security and general bug-fixing updates.
However, if you choose to previously customize the module, the upgrade process may not be so straightforward. Since you altered the source code, the package updates released by the third-party company may no longer be directly applicable. In this situation, you have two possible solutions, but none of them is perfect.
The first way is to not update the module at all and cling to an older version that has already been fully customized by you. However, this is not very wise, because the updates released by the third-party may contain important security fixes.
The second method is to keep updating the module. But if the update happens to make major changes in the code, you'll have yet another dilemma. You can reapply the customizations in the newer version, which will be incredibly time-consuming.
The alternative is to have the company release the most important security fixes as small patches of code that can still be applied directly to the older version. But even this solution won't last for long, because the newer versions of the module will end up straying so far from your version that it is no longer possible to create individual patches.
Developing Your Own Modules
Based on what we've said so far, we can see that buying modules for your webstore or website, albeit a generally good option, can also have some disadvantages. Pre-built modules can potentially include some functionalities that you do not require, or even not include some that you do.
As a solution, you can customize each module according to your needs, but that will make it difficult to apply updates or security patches.
So, if customizing a module developed by a third party is an option, why not consider developing your own? It may be more time-consuming, especially to get it up and running, but after the initial stage, it probably has more advantages than disadvantages.
Since you know exactly what your webstore will need, you can optimize each module right from the start. Furthermore, you have full control over the whole code, so you will develop your own updates. There won’t be any conflicts between your customizations and the security patches.
If you don't feel confident enough to develop the modules yourself, you can always hire a developer or third-party company to do it for you. It will be more expensive, but the result will be a fully functional webstore based on modules that perfectly suit your needs.
How Custom Web Development Can Actually Save You Money
To make the best possible choice, you’ll have to take into account the budget you are willing to allocate to your website design. But you’ll have to consider not only the short-term, but also the long-term gains of each option.
We’ll review the two choices, clarify what template design and custom design actually are, and point out some advantages and disadvantages of each. As you’ll see, a template design may be appealing at first as the cheapest option but could actually end up being more expensive in the long run.
Template Web Development
1. Visual Website Building Platforms Just as the name indicates, with a template design you’ll be building your website using a template or theme.
The most basic option here is to go for a visual platform where you can build your website using mostly drag-and-drop operations. These platforms usually host the website themselves, and the domain name is usually in a predefined format. You can use your own domain name, but for a fee.
These visual building platforms offer a quick way of getting your website up and running, but that doesn’t mean they are cheap. In fact, a Wix website, for example, can cost you more per month than a WordPress website if you upgrade to a package that includes, let’s say, your own domain and no ads.
Furthermore, these platforms are severely lacking in the versatility department. When you thought of your website as part of your project, you probably had some plans for it beyond showcasing your business. For example, you’d probably like it to rank high in search engines. However, with this type of solution, you won’t be able to do much optimization to make it search engine-friendly.
Also, if you’d like to have a more complex website with e-commerce or integrate features that are not supported by the theme you are using, it won’t be easy because you will not be able to touch the code.
2. Content Management Systems (CMS) As we go up in the "customizable" scale, we go down in the "ease of use" one. Content management systems give you more freedom and even allow you to customize the front-end code for your website, up to a certain degree. WordPress is one of the most used CMS, with Joomla and Drupal also popular choices. Let’s focus on WordPress for the sake of simplicity.
With a system like this, there are themes that offer a more "out-of-the-box" approach, while others are more customizable. In any case, you may find that building a WordPress website is not as easy as you initially thought, and end up hiring someone to do the job for you. Again, this applies especially to advanced features like e-commerce, SEO or built-in apps.
Upgrading your website’s functionality or changing its design after it is up and running can also be quite troublesome. Content management systems, or even the theme itself, may not be as versatile as it seems. You may have to change the theme and redesign the website.
Another aspect relevant to content management systems is that they rely on plugins to perform some functions, based on the user’s requirements. Now, it can happen that a plugin is no longer supported or for some reason is not compatible with some feature of your website.
Let’s consider yet another scenario: you needed to change the underlying code for your theme to give your website the functionality you intended. Now, WordPress relies on regular updates for the platform itself, as well as for the plugins and themes. It will be a headache to update the theme now that it has been modified.
What happens in each of these last two situations is that either you waste a lot of time solving the problem yourself (and time is money) or you end up hiring a specialist to do it for you, in which case you’ll also spend money.
As you are starting to see, what may seem like the quickest and cheapest option early on, may produce complications later down the road, and make you spend a lot more than you initially intended.
Custom Web Development
With custom web development, you get a completely different experience than with template web development. The idea here is to hire a specialized company to build the website for you. In that case, yes, you will have to set aside a good portion of cash, because good web designers don’t come cheap.
But don’t be disheartened just yet. This solution may be cheaper in the end, especially if you have a well-defined long-term plan, for both your company and your website.
First of all, the level of customization of your website will be much easier, and the appearance much more unique. The design team will initially try to get to know your company better and find out what the brand is like and what its core values are to then reflect that on the design itself.
You will also have access to more advanced backend features such as e-commerce or customer databases, without the integration problems that may arise with template-built websites.
Another thing to consider is if you want to expand your business and website in the future, but currently don’t have the budget available. You may choose a more basic website, but designed in such a way that it will be easy to integrate the features you have planned for the future, when your finances allow it.
This way, the custom web designer can continue to provide support for your website, but as part of your initial strategy, so you don’t spend more than was initially budgeted. Also, the website may be built in such a way that it’s easy for you to manage or change some content yourself.
Furthermore, a website designed through this process will probably be built with SEO in mind from the very beginning. And if you rank higher in search engines it has a chance of making your business grow, giving you a higher return on investment.
Wrapping Up
As we’ve seen, a custom website design requires an initial investment that can be significantly larger than a template design, in line with your needs. However, this is not the whole story.
With a template design, costs can quickly spin out of control once you start having problems managing what appeared to be a simple solution at first. Upgrading your website, updating themes or plugins, changing the design or adding some functionality can be a real nightmare if you’re not a specialist. You’ll end up having to hire a specialist to do the job for you and spend a lot more than you had planned.
Therefore, you should always at least consider a custom web design. It is true that it may seem more expensive, but essentially you get what you pay for and have far fewer unpleasant surprises. Unplanned expenses will be greatly reduced.
You will also get a fully customized website and provide a unique experience for your viewers. And don’t forget the search engine optimization. A better-ranked website can deliver an increase in customers or bigger revenue for your company. All of this goes to show how you can end up saving money when opting for custom web development.
SEO Trends for Web Stores
It doesn’t matter what type of website you’re running – if it doesn’t have a high ranking on popular search engines, people will have trouble finding it. This is particularly true for eCommerce websites, even more so if you’re a newcomer looking to build a loyal customer base for your web store.
Google is the undisputed leader among search engines, which also means that they’re the ones setting the rules for search engine optimization (SEO). In order to show users the results that are most relevant to their search criteria, Google’s tech experts are perfecting their search algorithms on a regular basis. As a result, the SEO rules for website administrators are changing all the time. If you want your web store to remain relevant in the very competitive eCommerce arena, it’s essential to stay on top of these rules.
Each year the same thing happens: it’s out with the old trends and in with the new ones. To help you find out what you can do to gain and maintain a high search engine ranking, we’ve compiled a list of this year’s major SEO trends for eCommerce websites. Most of the industry’s biggest players are using these to attract new customers and keep their revenue growing. Read on to learn more about these trends and see how your web store can benefit from incorporating them.
1. Optimization for Mobile Devices
You’re probably already aware of the fact that many visitors are using their smartphones, tablets, or iPads to access your web store. In fact, their number is growing at a much higher right than the number of desktop users. For this reason, Google has already taken some steps in switching over to a “mobile-first” ranking system. What this means is that in the not-too-distant future websites will be ranked based on their mobile content instead of what can be found on their desktop version.
It doesn’t matter what type of website you’re running – if it doesn’t have a high ranking on popular search engines, people will have trouble finding it.
To ensure mobile users enjoy their browsing and shopping experience with you, you must optimize your site to retain its design and functionality across a variety of devices. If you’re using WordPress with an eCommerce template, you need to make sure that the theme you chose is fully responsive. Also, it’s crucial to pay close attention to the content on your mobile website and put as much thought into it as you do when it comes to optimizing the desktop version of your web store for search engines.
2. Answer-Driven Content
When you ask Google a question, you’ll notice that it comes up not only with pages upon pages of search results, but also with an answer displayed on top of the first result page. The response they give you is taken from indexed website content that their algorithms deem to be the most relevant to your search query. These question-specific results are referred to as “rich answers,” and they’re appearing twice as often now as they did just two years ago. In a year or two, they might start popping up after each search.
This gives you a unique opportunity to have your web store featured on top of the search engine result page (SERP). At the same time, it could raise your website’s profile and reputation, which is especially useful in attracting new customers.
To achieve this, you need to research keywords relevant to the types of products you’re selling and incorporate them into your content. Furthermore, this content should be presented in the form of the answer to any questions your customers might have regarding specific products. More often than not, this won’t be possible to do on product description pages. However, your web store can benefit greatly from having a blog where you’ll post informative articles for your customers to read before buying from you.
3. Support for Voice Search
It was merely a few years ago when people were using digital assistants mainly to laugh at the erroneous results they would come up with. In the meantime, digital assistants have been perfected to the point where their error rate in terms of speech recognition has reached single digits. What’s more, there are plenty of different services to choose from nowadays, from Siri and Alexa to Google Now and Bixby.
There are several ways to ensure that your web store can take advantage of the growing popularity of these voice recognition assistants. Firstly, you should abstain from using complicated phrasing in product names and descriptions. Use simple, colloquial words and phrases that your customers are likely to use. Secondly, whenever possible, incorporate long-tail keywords in your content and make sure they come off as natural or conversational, and not something a machine could only come up with.
Finally, as highlighted above, more and more websites are producing answer-driven content. This can also help you with voice search, seeing as this type of content is presented as an answer to a series of relevant questions your customers might want to ask. So, if one of them asks Siri or Alexa something, and if your content provides a specific answer to that question, their digital assistant will likely lead them straight to your web store.
4. Locally-Tailored Results
Although first spotted in 2016, the trend of optimizing your web store to primarily target local customers is still in its early stages. As new technologies develop and wearable devices become more commonly used, experts predict that more eCommerce websites will employ these SEO techniques to offer results tailored to customers in one or more areas where they do the majority of their business.
So, if you’re offering free shipping or some additional services in a specific area, this is the market you should be focusing most of your attention on. This can help you establish yourself as a major local player and even stand out from your competition, no matter how stronger it may seem.
Most web stores are yet to incorporate local SEO into their search engine optimization practices. Instead, they rely on national or global strategies, depending on whether they serve international clients or not. However, it’s only a question of time before they recognize all the different ways in which this can benefit their businesses. Local SEO is bound to become a tough playing field, but if you focus on it now, you’ll get an early start and have enough time to conquer the local market before the others arrive.
Common Web Store Bugs That Can Send Users Away
One thing customers value the most in eCommerce websites is the convenience of shopping from their own home. After all, it’s much easier than having to go out, browse aisles upon aisles of products, and even check multiple stores at once to get the item they’re looking for. But if your web store isn’t up to your visitors’ standard – or worse, if its functionality is marred by bugs – they will go to another website and buy what they need from them. As a result, you’ll lose their business to one of your competitors.
Many eCommerce websites are riddled with bugs and they don’t seem to do anything to fix them. No matter how small they are, these bugs reduce the functionality of the site, thus driving potential customers away, while also keeping your revenue lower than it would have been without these issues.
Luckily, this can all be prevented with a well-devised quality assurance strategy and a lot of testing. If you spot any errors, you only need a bit of good coding to fix it before rolling out the page. Here we’ll take a look at some of the most common web store bugs and explain what you can do to prevent them.
1. Slow Loading Times
In the age of superfast broadband internet, if any page on your web store is taking too long to load, most customers will swiftly close the tab and start looking for the same product someplace else.
There are a few possible reasons why slow loading times occur. In many cases, it is to do with your web host. ECommerce websites need to be able to handle a lot of incoming traffic, especially in peak times. They also need optimum uptimes to remain online at all times. If your web host can’t handle these simple demands, you should immediately start shopping around for better hosting options.
One thing customers value the most in eCommerce websites is the convenience of shopping from their own home. One thing customers value the most in eCommerce websites is the convenience of shopping from their own home. After all, it’s much easier than having to go out, browse aisles upon aisles of products, and even check multiple stores at once to get the item they’re looking for. But if your web store isn’t up to your visitors’ standard – or worse, if its functionality is marred by bugs – they will go to another website and buy what they need from them. As a result, you’ll lose their business to one of your competitors.
Your web store may also be loading slowly if you’re not using a content management system (CMS) designed to be used for eCommerce websites. There are several reputable platforms that specialize in eCommerce nowadays and switching to one of them might solve your problems.
Finally, this can also happen if there are too many DNS lookups on one or more pages. Each individual element embedded on the page requires a DNS lookup of its own, and while they take no longer than 120 milliseconds to complete, they can all add up to 10 seconds or more. So, if a page filled with YouTube videos, images from other websites, Twitter feed, and Facebook like box is taking a while to load, try removing any elements you don’t need to see if it will load faster without them.
2. Poor Navigation
Because your customers appreciate the convenience your web store provides, if they can’t find what they want quickly, they’ll search for another website that allows them that. This is why it’s extremely important to organize your pages so that they’re easy to find and navigate.
Not that many years ago, users had to click half a dozen times and wait for the page to load each time only to get to the category or an individual product they were looking for. The convenient system of menus and submenus turned out to be a fairly simple solution to this problem. But things can get complicated even with menus, as some web stores don’t just use menus and submenus, but also add a few categories of sub-submenus, making everything look very chaotic as a result.
To keep your pages organized and easily accessible, you should strive for intuitive navigation. This means sorting your products into categories based on their features and functionality and ensuring that a minimum number of clicks is needed for customers to get to the product they’re looking for. Another thing that might help you is to take a look at your web store’s analytics to see what pages or sections of your site are turning your customers away and optimize them to prevent losing sales.
3. Inferior Search Engine
You’ll be surprised to find out that even today there are web stores that lack any search functionality. Similarly, there are those who have it, but it’s not working properly. Easy navigation is the key in turning visitors into customers, and high-quality search function is a great way to improve it even further. If you consider business psychology, you’ll also realize that customers who search for specific products are much more likely to buy them than those just browsing your website with no particular product in mind.
First of all, a good internal search engine will always return relevant results. Furthermore, it will give users the option to sort the results based on several key criteria. Last but not least, it should include a number of boxes users can check to filter out the results that aren’t relevant to their search term.
In many cases, you can tweak the existing search system to add these features. If not, there are a few open source search platforms you can integrate into your web store at a very reasonable price. They’re slightly more advanced than most built-in search engines, so it may take some time to learn the ropes.
4. Not Enough Checkout Options
Once your customers have found the product they were looking for and placed them in their shopping cart, they are redirected to the checkout page. If everything so far has been running smoothly, but the checkout page is not up to par, you risk losing their sale just one step before it is finalized.
There are a few important things customers look for in a checkout process. As a rule, it’s best to have a one- or two-page system in place, as they might lose their patience if they have to go through several pages and enter one or two bits of information on each of them. You can also save your customers’ time by giving them an option to store their information and create an account after they’ve finalized their purchase. If for some reason they don’t want to create an account, they can still buy the item they want.
Sometimes customers will need their items delivered sooner than they normally are. This is why you should give them at least two – preferably even more – different shipping options. Of course, faster shipping will cost them more than the regular, but they’ll usually have no problem paying for it. Finally, your web store will also benefit from giving your customers a choice of their preferred payment method, including different debit and credit cards, as well as using the popular online payment services.
The Final Word
If you can find one or more of these common issues in your web store, it’s time to start working out the kinks. It will benefit your business greatly, as you’ll grow a large pool of happy customers who keep coming back every time they want to buy the types of products you’re selling. What’s more, if they’re happy with their experience, they’ll recommend your services to their friends and families, thus helping improve your web store’s performance and increasing its revenue.
Interactivated site completely renewed
After a long period of working on the new Interactivated website, this week we finally went live with the new website and webshop. Not only can we inform you even better about our services, also we now offer Magento and Prestashop modules that are directly available for download from our website.
All the new things summed up:
- New logo, slogan and branding. High performance, Fast service!
- Modules directly downloadable from the Interactivated website.
- Numerous improvements on both the English as the Dutch Interactivated site.
- Integration with Kiyoh reviews for ratings of our services.
- New modules released for Kiyoh international, for both Prestashop as Magento.
- New modules for Magento cache pro, import/export Magento and more.
- Brand new High performance server setups for Magento.
- Big updates to responsive working for mobiles and tablet pc's.
- All new Magento packages with now even more interesting prices.
- A blog where we keep you updated on our latest news.
Building a Great Startup Website with Magento - 7 Keys to Success
Magento is a powerful platform for eCommerce startups and other new businesses. It combines a robust yet intuitive back-end with an appealing, highly-customizable front-end. The result is a great user experience, both for customers and store managers.
It’s no surprise then that Magento powers over 40% of eCommerce stores worldwide. Brands like Coca-Cola, Burger King, Tom Dixon, or Charlotte Tilbury all use Magento.
Magento comes out of the box with all the essential features your startup website needs. However, it can be further extended with thousands of modules and themes, which you can find in the new Magento Marketplace.
For site developers, Magento offers few if any limitations. Whether you want to build a simple store or an experimental one, Magento unleashes your creativity.
That said, building a successful startup web store comes with many challenges. You need more than a powerful platform like Magento to engage customers and keep them. Here’s what you need to build a great web store with Magento.
1. Rich Mobile Experience
In a world where so many mobile users shop on their phones and tablets, a successful eCommerce site needs more than mobile support. It must provide a rich user experience, with high-quality images, multiple product display views, and product visualization features.
Mobile users shouldn’t feel that they are missing anything from your desktop web store. Magento allows for the development of a mobile-rich eCommerce experience. From the first page to the last, your site feels hand-made for mobile users.
Magento is a powerful platform for eCommerce startups and other new businesses.
2. Affordable Development
Magento offers great value for every dollar spent on professional web development. That said, as a startup you don’t want to burn too much money on unnecessary features. With Magento there’s virtually no limit to what you can do with an eCommerce site. That’s why it’s important to know when to stop.
Startups who develop only the web store features they need have an advantage over the others. They can put more money into marketing, performance optimization, or community-building. Because of the wealth of options that come with Magento, developing a store on this platform is more than affordable.
3. Outstanding Performance
Performance is often a challenge for web stores with a large catalog. There’s nothing more annoying for a customer than to wait for a long list of products to load. Or for a product video to start streaming. And yet it happens all the time, even with the best of stores.
However, the latest Magento installment brings the fastest web store experience to date. When you combine Magento’s out of the box speed with a high-quality web hosting plan, you get a really fast store. Often, that’s all it takes to win over customers from sluggish competitors.
4. Personalized Experience
Most eCommerce startups face stiff competition at the time of their launch. This is especially true for stores selling health, beauty, food, fashion, or technology products. A powerful way for a new store to stand out is by providing a personalized user experience.
Magento supports a wealth of tools that allow stores to provide unique products. These include custom web to print, custom tailoring, virtual trial room, and product design modules. Empowering users to create their own unique products has never been easier.
5. Social Media Integration
For many eCommerce stores, social media has become the best marketing platform available. Whether we are talking about Facebook ads or YouTube product reviews, social media is cheaper than traditional advertising. Often, it also reaches a wider audience and allows for more targeted marketing.
Magento integrates flawlessly with all the major social networks. It allows you to add social media logins, comments, likes and more to your site. All these help you build a vibrant community of fans and followers. This is one of the key conditions for your store to survive in today’s competitive online market.
6. Engaging Design
For eCommerce stores, a beautiful design is no longer enough. Consumers are used to beautiful web stores, and take attractive designs for granted. What really makes the difference between web store designs is the level of engagement they provide.
Everything from the shape and placement of the buttons to the login and order forms contribute to a store’s engagement rates. Magento enables developers to hand-craft engaging online stores. It does this through a wealth of customization options and extensions.
With Magento, you can systematically eliminate all the dull elements on a web store. You can make everything fresh and engaging. You can start from one of the many free or premium themes available. From there, you can build a highly-memorable, highly-engaging web store.
7. Fast and Easy to Use Backend
However well-developed and engaging a webstore may be, if it’s not easy to manage, it will cost you time. This in turn will leave you less time for running your business, hence costing you money.
Managing an eCommerce store is far from easy. Product pages and catalogs have to be constantly updated. Ratings and comments need to be monitored and moderated. Broken links need to be fixed before customers discover them. Also, many eCommerce stores integrate a blog which they manage through the backend.
All top eCommerce platforms enable you to manage these in one way or other. However, Magento lets you refine and improve the default backend experience through extensions. Once your work on the front-end is over, you shouldn’t ignore the backend. Simplify and streamline it as much as you can. With Magento it’s easy.
Build a Great Web Store with Magento
As you can see, there are plenty of challenges to building a compelling web store. But with Magento you can develop your store one area at a time, polishing every part of it until it shines.
You can optimize it for mobile users and personalize the customer experience. You can make the design more engaging and integrate social media into it. You can also improve the backend. Best of all, you can do this while keeping web development costs in check.
With Magento all this is possible. Try Magento now.
Web Store Management Mistakes That Can Hurt Your Business
Running a web store can bring your products and services to customers from all corners of the world. Unlike most regular shops, your online store is always open and ready to take orders from anyone who stops by. This requires a lot of work on your end, too. It’s not enough to just list the products and wait for orders to start flooding in. You must stay on top of things at all times, ensuring that every single feature on your web store is working and that the user experience is as great as possible.
There’s no room for mistakes here, as they may turn potential customers away and result in potential financial losses. Here we’ll take a look at some of the most common mistakes people make in managing their web stores. They can be related to its technical aspects, as well as the content itself. We’ll also offer some very simple tips on how to avoid these ecommerce trappings.
1. Not Using the Right CMS
To be able to provide a great shopping experience to your customers, it’s essential to have a web store that’s functional and feature-heavy. You can’t accomplish this by relying on a content management system (CMS) that isn’t designed for web stores. Luckily, there are several software solutions that were made specifically for ecommerce purposes. These include Magento, Shopify, and WordPress. WordPress can also be used in combination with its dedicated ecommerce app or the Drupal Commerce plugin.
Once you settle on a CMS you’re going to use, you must always keep it up to date with the latest version released. This will allow you to introduce new useful features to your web store, but also to get rid of bugs and errors that are inherent to some outdated ecommerce platforms.
2. Lack of a Good Product Description
If you want your products to sell, you should include as much information as possible on their features and characteristics. Otherwise, you could potentially lose sales, as customers will search the web to find more information on the product they like. They are more than likely to find it on a competing web store and – if their price is comparable to yours – they’ll just complete their purchase there. The description should also include at least two or three high-resolution photos showcasing the product.
Many web store owners go with the generic description provided by the manufacturer only to find their sites blacklisted by all major search engines because of it. So, not only do you need to pay attention to product details to help your customers, but also to keep a high ranking with popular search engines.
3. Outdated Search Function
Running a web store can bring your products and services to customers from all corners of the world.
Speaking of search engines, you should know that your web store acts like one to visitors who are looking to buy specific products and want to see what their choices are. Even if they already know what they want to get, searching for the product is a much easier way to navigate the web store than going through a bunch of pages, categories, and subcategories.
Updating to the most recent version of your ecommerce platform of choice will allow for better, more refined search results. Your search engine should also offer the option to sort or filter the results based on the set criteria, including price, release date, manufacturer, or the average user rating, to name a few.
4. Not Showing User Reviews
Statistics show that about two-thirds of all online shoppers like to read product reviews from fellow users before making their decision on whether or not to buy the product. This is why it’s important to have a dedicated section on the page where customers can review and rate (usually on a scale of one to five stars) the products they’ve bought from you. They will cover a lot of information others may be wondering about that isn’t included – and often doesn’t even belong – in the description you provided.
If your customers aren’t too keen on writing reviews, you can give them an incentive to do so. You can introduce a reward system where a certain number of points will be given to them for each review they write. When they collect enough points, they can use them towards their next purchase and get a nice discount. You could also add more points if they provide their own photos of the product: most people like to see an actual photo instead of a touched up “beauty shot” supplied by the manufacturer.
5. Complicated Checkout Process
The checkout process usually involves two phases. When they first click the checkout button, your customers are redirected to the shopping cart page, where they can see all the items they’ve added while browsing your web store. A good shopping cart page should ideally give them an option to see the name of the product, a small photo, its price, and the quantity for each product they will be ordering.
Once that’s done, they proceed to the actual checkout page that gives them a choice of different shipping options and a preview of the shipping costs, as well as a form that asks them to enter their shipping and billing information, and to enter any related notes they might have.
Keep in mind that many users don’t want to register and log in before shopping, so in order not to alienate them, you should give them the option to save the information they entered for the next time they shop from your website. Furthermore, make sure to include checkboxes for different payment options, as well as the choice to send the product as a gift to someone else.
6. Poor Customer Support
There’s only so much information you can cover in the product description. Your customers will often want to know more before purchasing, so it’s essential to provide support. If you don’t have enough employees to ensure that someone is always available for a live chat 24/7, you can set up working hours for the live chat, and enable email support outside of that. This is also important if for some reason a customer wants to return the product they’ve ordered from you.
Another important thing is to provide information about how customers can contact you directly, be it a physical address or a (preferably toll-free) phone number. This adds a certain amount of credibility to your business and lets all visitors know that you’re running a reliable and trustworthy business.
Are Your App Store Screenshots Good Enough?
You’ve invested a lot of time and at least some money in the development of your app. You’ve removed all the bugs and the app is finally ready for release. Here’s the thing, though: if you don’t advertise your app properly, it’s very likely to fail – even if it’s the best app ever made. Many good products have been ignored by the audiences only because their creators didn’t know how to advertise them the right way. Despite their qualities, they were unable to secure a place in a highly competitive market.
If you’re an app developer, app stores are your marketplace; that is where you’ll be selling your product. Your success will depend on a few important factors, the quality of your product’s presentation being perhaps the most important one. When people first visit your product page, they will see your icon, the text description of the product and its features, and the screenshots you provide. If a visitor is having second thoughts about installing your app, great screenshots are a surefire way to win them over.
Why Screenshots Are Important
We are visual creatures, which is why our first impressions of someone or something are always based on their appearance. Judging a book by its cover is never the right thing to do, but that’s what we do by default. As an app developer, it is your duty to anticipate this behavior and use it to your advantage.
People who visit your app store product page are looking for an app just like yours that will help add convenience to dull everyday tasks. They are searching for an app that caters to their specific needs, one that will keep them entertained for hours on end, all the while being well-organized and easy to use. In some cases, they are looking to replace an app they don’t like anymore with a new one that provides a better user experience and more useful features.
In all likelihood, there are already some apps that offer similar functionality as yours does. One thing that will surely make it stand out from the rest is the quality of the user interface and additional features. The best way to showcase them is by including a few relevant screenshots as an illustration. Most people don’t want to go through the hassle of downloading and installing the app just to be able to see what it looks like. They will base their decision on the screenshots provided on the app page.
Finally, it’s much more convenient to have a handy preview of the app and its features than to read about them in text form. If people like what your app looks like in the screenshots and recognize its value over the competition based on what they can see, they will happily download it to their smartphones.
App Store Screenshot Requirements
The majority of today’s smartphones are running one of the two most popular operating systems – iOS or Android. If your app is iOS-ready, you’ll advertise it on the Apple Store. If it’s designed for Android-based smartphones, users can download it from the Google Play Store. Both stores allow app creators to include screenshots in their descriptions. As a matter of fact, they strongly encourage it.
Apple Store allows you to post between one and five screenshots, depending on how many features of your app you want to show off. You can upload them in either JPEG or PNG, although the latter has better compression levels and is thus more recommended. As far as the size goes, you don’t have to upload separate screenshots for all the different devices. If you upload a 5.5-inch (1242x2208px) screenshot that matches the screen size of the iPhone 7, the Apple Store will resize it accordingly.
Uploading screenshots to Google Play Store is similar: you get to post between two and five images in either of the two formats mentioned above. In terms of dimensions, the width of the screenshot can’t be under 320 pixels, whereas its height mustn’t exceed 3840 pixels. If you want your screenshots to be optimized for different devices, you will have to upload images for each of them. Otherwise, Google Play Store will automatically downscale their size to fit the screen.
Choosing the Right Style
Although your screenshots will depict different aspects of your app, their overall style should be the same. To help you with this, you can use a photo editing software like the Adobe Photoshop, or something better suited for screenshot making like the Screenshot Maker Pro or the Promotee.
You’ve invested a lot of time and at least some money in the development of your app.
When it comes to style, you should always go for the one that best reflects the spirit of your app. If your app is feature-heavy and has a user interface you’re very proud of, you can go for the classic style, where each screenshot showcases a specific feature. Make sure that neither of them feels out of place when seen next to the other screenshots.
Similarly, you could also show how your app looks on a specific device. To do this, take the screenshot, paste it on the device screen, and then add a nice, unobtrusive background to be used across all the images. To make your images even more engaging, you can add a short text on top that describes the feature illustrated in the screenshot. Use easy-to-red fonts, preferably those that match the style of your app. Also, don’t go overboard with the text: keep it short, sweet, and to-the-point.
There are plenty other screenshot style choices you can go for. For instance, while new apps will benefit from showcasing their features in the screenshots, more established players can use them to tell a story. The images don’t even have to include the device, but can serve as a tutorial of sorts. You can even opt for a combination of several different styles, where the first screenshot serves as a cover and the others show off the app’s features. As always, make sure all screenshots look as if they truly belong together.
Updating Your Screenshots
Don’t forget to update your screenshots whenever you make major changes to your app. The images you choose to display on your app store page should always reflect the latest look and style of the app itself. If the most recent version of your app is a vast improvement over the one shown in the screenshots, you’d surely want to advertise it. What’s more, you don’t want to risk disappointing your users after they download the app and realize that it looks nothing like the screenshots you provided.
A Simple Guide to Crowdfunding Your App
In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. Depending on how complex that idea is, you will sometimes need to invest money in addition to all the hours you’ll spend developing and testing your app. Securing funds for the development process used to be very difficult and would often end in failure. Luckily, this is a thing of the past thanks to crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding has become very popular in the past decade and has provided funds for many successful projects. It’s welcoming to all kinds of initiatives – from books and theatrical movies to covering medical costs and – app development. The concept is very simple: you describe your idea, provide as much information as you can, set your financial goal, and the people who find your idea interesting will donate money, thus bringing you closer to your target sum.
In this article, you’ll find some tips on how to create a crowdfunding campaign for your app and ensure it will result in a success.
Rewards-Based Crowdfunding
There are several different types of crowdfunding, each of them designed for a specific purpose. For app development, the best way to go is to launch a rewards-based campaign. This way, backers get special prizes for their donations. You can define different prizes for different donated sums as an incentive for your backers to donate more money.
Here’s an example of how this works: you’re working on an app that will be offered as a free download, but people will have to pay a small subscription fee in order to use it past the trial period. You have established that you need $1,000 to develop it. You can arrange it so that people who donate $25 get a free annual subscription, those who give $50 get three years of free subscription, whereas $100 gets you a free lifetime subscription. This is just an example; you can tailor this model to best suit your app.
Defining Your Target Audience
To be able to maximize your funding for the development process, you will first need to determine what the target group for your app is. The larger your target audience, the higher your chances are of securing the funds you need. Simply put, the app you’re working on needs to provide something of value to its users. If you’re developing something no one else has done before, that’s perfect. But if you’re catering to the same audience as other apps already on the market, you will have to do your best to one up them.
In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. In app development – as in every other area – the road to success starts with an original idea. Depending on how complex that idea is, you will sometimes need to invest money in addition to all the hours you’ll spend developing and testing your app. Securing funds for the development process used to be very difficult and would often end in failure. Luckily, this is a thing of the past thanks to crowdfunding.
That’s not to say that you should only work on apps that have mass appeal. Many successfully funded projects have targeted very small niches of users, but they’ve reached their goal on the strength of the idea behind them and the word of mouth that had built up on the internet. Whether you’re developing something for everyday use, a learning app, or a mobile game, you’ll get a fair chance to meet your goal.
Launching Your Crowdfunding Campaign
Several online platforms specialize in crowdfunding and have a long history of successfully funded projects. The most popular ones are undoubtedly Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and CrowdFunder. There’s also AppFunder, which – as its name suggests – is aimed at securing funds for app development.
After you’ve chosen the platform you like the most, it’s time to set up your campaign. The description you provide is the most important aspect of your campaign: if you don’t provide enough information in an interesting and well-organized way, you could fail no matter how great and original your idea is.
Format the description as you would an informative article, with subheadings, bolded text, and bullets for easier navigation. Describe your idea in an interesting, conversational way, but keep it concise and to-the-point. It’s always good to add some visual elements to your presentation, whether it’s some early sketches, screenshots of the prototype you’ve made, or – preferably – a video demo.
Another important aspect of your crowdfunding campaign is the target sum you want to secure. It’s important to plan every step of the development process carefully and ask for the exact amount you will need. If you’ve set a very high goal and offer no information or rewards to justify it, the audiences will recognize it and will ignore your campaign. Go for an objectively attainable goal and define the funding period according to it.
Advertising Your Campaign
Once you’ve set up your page and launched the campaign, you will need to tell people who aren’t members of the crowdfunding platform all about it. To reach the largest audience possible, you will need to have a strong online presence. Alternatively, if you have friends with many followers on social media, you should ask them to share the link to your campaign and help you spread the word.
In the past, there have been cases where a campaign had managed to build up such a strong word of mouth that it grabbed the attention of the traditional media. Reports on them were published in the newspapers and online, resulting in an increased interest in the initiative. This doesn’t happen by default, so your app will really have to be something special in order to attract this much attention.
Added Benefits of Crowdfunding
Developers with experience in crowdfunding will tell you to launch your campaign as soon as you have an idea and a plan on how to turn it into an app. In addition to securing funds for the development process, crowdfunding has two added benefits.
The first is that you get to test the waters and see whether there’s enough interest for the app you want to create. If you still don’t have any backers after you’ve pulled all stops to promote your campaign, it could be an indicator of how your app would perform once released. Perhaps it’s best to abandon your plans and start working on something new and better.
The second benefit is the fact that you get to promote your app. If your campaign proves successful, people will be talking about it on social media and message boards. So while you’re working on securing the funds you need, you will also get a strong word of mouth on the internet about your upcoming app. Once you release it, you’ll already have a built-in audience that will download it, test it, and send you some useful feedback.
How to Increase User Engagement for Your Magento Webstore
The ability to engage directly with customers is one of the biggest advantages that brick and mortar stores have over webstores. However, it’s not impossible to engage your users if you’re a small business operating a website. You just have to work a little differently.
Here we are going to look at some great tips for small businesses who want to improve user engagement for their Magento webstores.
1. Clustering
A fairly new concept in webstores, clustering involves bringing several items from different categories together. Think of it like using a mannequin to highlight an ensemble.
With clustering, you can emulate the high street experience and offer your users some ideas about how to combine various items in your store into a whole package. It’s all about upselling. A visitor may like a skirt you sell, and thus may feel tempted to buy products that go with it if you’ve used clustering.
2. Encourage Participation
Users engage with a webstore when they can interact with it. Happily, you have a few tools in your belt when you use Magento to build your webstore.
For example, you can use your blog to encourage discussion about the latest topics in your niche, as well as for creating content that draws the audience in the first place. Allowing users to review products is another way to get them to engage, as is hosting a forum when members of the site can interact with one another. Participation allows to connect with and develop loyalty to your site, which drives engagement.
3. Personalize Your Webstore
You don’t have the opportunity to personally greet your customers when they visit your website, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get messages out to them. Personalization has become a major tool for webstores in recent years.
Try to add a personal touch to things like your transaction pages. A lot of webstores also recommend products to their users based on previous purchases. Personalized emails that draw from the data the site collects take things a step further. All of these are ways for you to personalize the experience for your customers, despite the fact that you aren’t physically there to initiate a conversation.
4. Leverage Instagram
Social media platforms have become key influencers to many shoppers, so you should use them to your advantage. Take Instagram as an example. If you have a photogenic product, you should have an Instagram account so you can show it off to the masses.
That’s a good start, but there’s more that you can do to engage users. Many webstores now send free samples of their products to Instagram influencers who fall into their niche. Just one recommendation from somebody with a few million followers could lead to a spike in sales, all while building your brand on one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
5. Content Marketing
You always need to conduct a balancing act when it comes to the mix of content and products on a webstore. Too much content distracts away from the product, whereas a site that has no content looks barren in comparison to its competitors.
Even so, content marketing is key to success when it comes to engaging your users. Your blog should be a place where you talk about the latest news in your niche. Of course, you should also try to link the information you post to the products you sell. There are plenty of things that you can do. A cake seller may post some basic recipes, or a fashion website could create a small online magazine.
6. Give Away Free Stuff
Everybody likes getting something for nothing, so take advantage of that to build awareness of your brand. Use social media to hold competitions that will get people talking about your products and engaging with your website.
For example, you can put an item up for grabs on Facebook, under the condition that a user must “like” your post, share it, and comment on it to enter the draw for the prize. This engages the user and widens you net, so you can pull in some of the user’s friends. You may find that giving away one free item leads to you attracting a bunch of new users.
7. Reach Out to Other Content Creators
The ability to engage directly with customers is one of the biggest advantages that brick and mortar stores have over webstores.
You aren’t the only person who can create content about your products. There are plenty of bloggers out there who will happily write reviews for anything that you send their way.
There are two things you need to keep in mind to make this tactic work. The first is ensuring the product you send to a blogger is of sufficient quality to receive a glowing endorsement that will encourage the blogger’s followers to visit your webstore. The second is making sure you pick bloggers who fall within your niche and have audiences large enough to justify sending free products their way.
8. The Value Proposition
You need something to set yourself apart from the myriad of other webstores that users could engage in. Your value proposition shows people what you can offer them, without bogging them down in the details.
Focus on making your value proposition catchy and effective. You need to think about what your users need and how your product meets those needs. Also, make sure your value proposition has a call to action that directs the user to your product. If all aligns as it should, you’ll engage the user and direct them into your sales funnel in one fell swoop.
9. Speak to Your Customers
We come back to social media once again for our final point. Websites like Facebook and Twitter offer you ways to speak to customers that never existed before. You can use them to get a feel for what people think about your webstore, which allows you to highlight areas for improvement.
Beyond that, social media allows you to speak directly to your customers. Every post you make can spark a conversation about your webstore. Consider social media as an extension of your store and put every effort into building authority for your social media accounts.
The Final Word
It’s not easy to increase user engagement for your Magento webstore. With so many competitors out there, you need to put a lot of work in to attract customers and keep them engaged with your store once you have them.
These tips will help you make a start, but you need to put them into action every day. Happily, Magento offers plenty of tools that will allow you to do just that, so contact us today to find out how we can help you make the most out of your Magento webstore.
Professional Web Store Versus Average Web Store – What's the Difference?
Why are some web stores amazingly popular while others never take off? Is it just because they have better products and better marketing?
Most shoppers (71%) believe they will get a better deal online than in stores. Globally, 65% of online shoppers spend 30+ minutes comparing products before making up their minds. For them, hopping from one store to the next is easy.
For most shoppers, price is always an important consideration. But it’s not the only one. In fact, many shoppers are willing to pay a bit more for a good user experience. Just think about your own online buying habits for a second.
Why do you keep shopping on Amazon, eBay, or your favorite local eCommerce store? Is it really only a question of price? Neither Amazon nor eBay are the cheapest stores online. Your favorite local eCommerce store probably isn’t, either.
It’s all about the user experience. About how fast you can find and compare products. About how well the products are displayed and presented. It’s also about the feeling that the eCommerce store creates while you navigate your way through products.
Many people buy online simply because they enjoy the process. A great web design makes online shopping so much better.
The Average Web Store
The average web store today works on mobile and allows customers to buy products with relative ease. It features product images and descriptions in a convenient layout.
Why are some web stores amazingly popular while others never take off?
It incorporates a simple shopping cart feature that makes shopping pretty fast. It also integrates with social media to some extent.
Built with widely available themes or site builders, the average web store has a familiar look. In terms of design it doesn’t stand out. In terms of performance, it’s average. People aren’t annoyed by its speed, but they’re not impressed by it, either. Pages load just fast enough for customers not to feel annoyed and stay on the site.
The average web store comes with basic search engine optimization. It shows up after a Google search for relevant keywords, but it’s seldom at the top of the results. For most shoppers, it’s definitely an option, but not the first one.
Most importantly, the average web store doesn’t get that many recommendations. People may mention it and share it online. But they won’t talk about it too much. To them, it’s just a store that provides a range of products. People tend to forget about it once they buy what they need.
The Professional Web Store
The professional web store doesn’t only work on mobile. It provides a mobile experience that engages users. It’s not just optimized for mobile because Google calls for it.
Rather, it’s built with mobile users in mind for the simple fact that most people today use the web and shop online on mobile devices.
As to the product pages, they are optimized to generate engagement. They feature high-quality photos with interactive 360 degree product views. Product pages incorporate social media sharing and commenting, to encourage users to stay on the site longer and spread the word about it.
A professional web store often uses a custom theme or a customized premium theme. The result is a memorable design that’s been adapted to the needs of your targeted audience. No design element has been left to chance. The whole is cohesive and reflects the vision of your brand.
One of the big advantages of a professional design is optimal website performance. Fast loading times improve user satisfaction and your SEO rating. They make your website more mobile-friendly, which can bring you more mobile traffic.
Search engine optimization is something that the professional web store takes very seriously. More than keyword optimization, it uses on-page and off-page SEO strategies. Everything about the site design and content presentation is polished for Google and other search engines.
Off-page SEO, including backlink building and social media strategies, propel the professional web store to the forefront of the search results. SEO, in this case, isn’t just a one-off thing. Regular page checks are carried out to remove broken links, tag and resize images, add content tags, and more.
Professional web stores are also very good at local SEO. They are optimized for the key phrases local shoppers are most likely to use. They provide all the contact and location information local customers need so that they don’t have to call to ask for additional information.
More and more professional web stores are built for local mobile searches because mobile shoppers have higher conversion rates than most other shoppers.
The Bottom Line
With their careful design, SEO polish, and in-depth social media implementation, professional web stores are more than your average store. They create an intuitive and engaging user experience that keeps people returning to them. A professional store makes a strong statement that isn’t easily forgotten -- this store isn’t here only to make money but cares about the customer experience.
When you invest in a professional web store, you invest not only in high-quality design and features. You invest in the image of your brand online and beyond. The appeal of your website has a major impact on your brand image, and together with your social media marketing, it can raise it to new heights.
In a world full of products and services, customers search for more than quality and price. They search for a brand image that they themselves can identify with. Your web store gives you the opportunity to create a brand image that wins over people in a way that no ad or marketing campaign can.
At Interactivated, we believe in the power of web design and web development. We start with a robust yet flexible platform like Magento or WordPress and build your site from the ground up.
We give you the power to customize your site down to the smallest detail. We try out different features and test your site until it runs smoothly across all devices and web browsers. In this way, we build for you a professional web store that helps you grow your business.
Our expert team is on standby - day or night - to talk timelines, budgets, and bring your idea from concept to launch - seamlessly. No stress, no delays.
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