Tag: ecommerce

Become an eCommerce CMS Master: Everything You Need to Know (and More)

Posted on by Bimal Mirwani

It is so crucial to become an eCommerce CMS platform master! Why?

Well, if you sell products in your online store, then your CMS is your vehicle to success! The current economic instability has not stalled eCommerce sales as it is rising steadily.

Currently, it represents 14.3% of retail sales worldwide, but that figure is expected to surge up to 23% by 2023 (see, the insane growth of Amazon).

With more people making the switch to online shopping, eCommerce shop owners will be scrambling to take full advantage of this.

In order to boost grow their eCommerce business, they will need to establish their online presence or fortify the solid footholds they have already entrenched.

Needless to say, this will be a lot easier said than done, especially since competition is rife in the eCommerce industry and what the best eCommerce website is.

Nonetheless, entrepreneurs have an incredible opportunity to reap the rewards should they be up to the challenge.

If this aligns with your aspirations to dominate the eCommerce industry, the first order of business is to get to grips with the eCommerce CMS (content management system) landscape.

In this article, we will delve into the depths of eCommerce CMS to give you a better understanding of what they are and how they can benefit you.

Also, we will look at a selection of eCommerce CMS solutions in detail and give you an in-depth understanding of what an eCommerce store is and how you can profit from it.

Table of contents

What is an eCommerce CMS?

Knowledge of eCommerce CMS is crucial to online sales success

CMS stands for Content Management System. Essentially, it is software that makes it easy for eCommerce shop owners to create an online shop without the need to write code.

CMS makes it easier for users to alter the appearance and feel of their online stores, thus providing an efficient route to better market their products

Constituting an online shopping system, an eCommerce platform enables you to efficiently manage the products you want to sell without any hassle or need for a third party.

Put simply, it is a user-friendly system that handles an online store’s backend administrative operations.

To make it easier to understand, eCommerce content management can be separated into two categories:

Category #1 – Open-Source CMS

An open-source content management system is often free to download and gives the user complete control over the functionalities of the e-shop.

Some examples of well-known open-source CMS are Magento and WooCommerce.

With this type of platform, the maintenance, hosting, server, and software responsibilities fall on the store owner.

Category #2 – SaaS CMS

With a SaaS content management system or hosted CMS, the eCommerce shop is cloud-based and doesn’t require a separate server.

The software vendor handles data storage, updates, and everything is conveniently in one place.

In exchange for this simplified process, the user will be required to pay a subscription fee.

Examples of SaaS CMS are Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace.

Why is a CMS necessary?

Depending on their content marketing plan, most people will require a content management system for their online shop.

The more updates you post on your eCommerce site, such as blogs and product pages, the more you will benefit from a CMS.

Indeed, a well-chosen CMS makes your content creation and website design easy.

It reduces the development time, ensures your content is organized, accessible, and shareable, and facilitates collaboration with your team by allowing different users to work on the website simultaneously.

When choosing a CMS, ensure it is easy to use, SEO-friendly, automatically optimized for user experience and offers a range of useful integrations.

Top 3 eCommerce CMS platforms

There are many eCommerce content management platforms available out there, but picking the right one can be a time-consuming process.

To make your decision easier, we’ve presented three of the most popular eCommerce CMS platforms.

1. BigCommerce

eCommerce with BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the biggest eCommerce platform to date on the market.

With over 60,000 merchants of all sizes, it is a powerful platform to start and grow your eCommerce business.

Its popularity stems mainly from its SEO integration, fully hosted system, Level 1 PCI compliant, and attractive payment plans.

2. WordPress

eCommerce CMS platform, WordPress

WordPress is one of the most-used CMS platforms and, as an added incentive, it is free.

To open an online shop through WordPress, you simply need to install the WooCommerce plugin.

Furthermore, WordPress offers a wide range of other plugins and themes that can resolve the problem of missing features in no time. It also makes it easy to integrate backbend shop benefits, such as abandoned cart recovery.

3. Magento

eCommerce CMS platform, Magento

Magento is one of the most popular open-source CMS platforms. With more than 260,000 online stores worldwide, it offers great functionality and integrations.

In addition to Magento, you might want to consider WooCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, Prestashop, Sitecore, Drupal, or Wix.

Benefits of combining eCommerce with CMS platforms

eCommerce sales are what you want

Combining eCommerce with a CMS platform can propel your e-shop to the next level.

Here’s why:

1. It turns your blog into an online shop

2. It boosts traffic to your website

3. By driving demand for your products, you’ll become a leader in your industry

4. It makes shop orders, inventory, and content creation easy

5. Integrated secure payment provider available

Ecommerce CMS is the Way to Go

Ecommerce CMS helps users create and grow their online shop. Choosing the right CMS platform is essential for running a successful business and making it profitable.

It’s time to make a choice and watch the money come rolling in! Please give us a call if you’d like some support with setting up your eCommerce site.

Get in touch

What are some marketing tactics can you use to grow your sales for your online store?

All businesses should want to increase their sales. Here are some useful marketing tactic blogs to help you achieve this:

Are you a busy business owner? You may not have the time to run the marketing tactics you need to make money regularly. If this is the case, we encourage you to review some of our strategic marketing services to drive more sales:

What is Magento? Selling Online and Need an eCommerce Platform? You NEED to read this!

Posted on by Arran Saunders

There is a question asked many times (often by those that are new to eCommerce), and that is: “What is Magento?”

Our previous article on Shopify covered the massive growth of eCommerce websites recently. Since COVID-19, people are now choosing online stores over physical shops – not only out of convenience but in many places due to necessity.

Many people as well are looking at ‘hustling’ or looking for additional income. Having an online store and starting an eCommerce business is an option for hustling.

Fear not if your brick-and-mortar business isn’t attracting any customers at the moment. The answer is simple – all you need to do is move it online!

The eCommerce industry is worth billions, and it’s only growing year after year. There’s a reason Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon) is said to be the wealthiest man in the world!

However, it’s Asia that is leading eCommerce sales globally, followed closely by the United States and West Europe.

It has been predicted that by the year 2040, 95% of all global shopping will take place online. Without a doubt, our world has entered the digital era where technology is at the forefront of nearly every activity – and it shows no sign of slowing down.

If you want to succeed financially in eCommerce, using Magento Marketplace could be a great solution for you. Magento eCommerce enterprise edition is a great option for larger retailers wanting to enter the online store space.

Table of contents

What is Magento?

In short, Magento is an eCommerce platform that hosts eCommerce businesses of all types.

Magento is one of the top eCommerce platforms to use if you want to grow a new brand or take your existing business and direct it into online retail.

Magento has been around for 12 years (since 2008), so it’s evident they know what they’re doing.

They go through 100s of billion in gross merchandise volume annually and have been the choice of small and large businesses for years, despite steep competition in the industry.

The Magento eCommerce platform deals with huge names in retail, including electrical, furniture, and IT giant COURTS, fashion retailer Forever New, technology manufacturer ASUS, and sports nutrition company Bulk Powders.

In fact, 12% of retail stores globally use Magento. Many of these use Magento enterprise edition. This is a considerable percentage since this is such a competitive industry. Currently, there are platforms such as:

  • Magento
  • Squarespace
  • BigCommerce
  • WooCommerce
  • Shopify
The 3rd most popular eCommerce platform
USD155 billion in eCommerce transactions each year
Over 250,000 websites use Magento
Offers over 5,000 extensions for your eCommercesite

Before deciding which ecommerce platform to use, it’s vital that businesses delve deep into each platform, comparing the pros and cons of each to make an informed decision.

Why is Magento so popular in business?

Magento allows for unlimited customizations, headless architecture that is completely flexible, and continuous third-party integrations.

Its goal is to enable businesses to form unique and attractive shopping experiences that draw you in.

Many solutions are offered by Magento, all of which are easily scalable to suit different types of businesses, both big and small, and all with their own needs. There are:

  • 1. Magento Commerce
  • 2. Magento Business Intelligence
  • 3. Magento Order Management
  • 4. Adobe Commerce Cloud

Users and customers engage in a completely flawless experience due to Magento’s key highlights and features that play together beautifully.

Now that we know what Magento is let’s dig a little deeper and find out what the platform is famous for.

Seamless catalogue management.

1. Catalog Management

If you are getting married or have a baby shower coming up, Magento Commerce offers a fabulous gift registry.

In general, Magento allows you to import and export your catalog in batches quickly and easily. It allows for the uploading of countless images per product, which can save you lots of time.

It also allows you to enable the wish list option so that your valued customers can save the products they have their hearts set on for future purchases.

On top of all this, you can add search filters, product comparisons, and set payment and shipping options that your customers will choose depending on what they prefer.

This is all in the name of making their user experience and transactions as seamless as can be.

Magento offers an easy to use order management system.

2. Order Management

When it comes to order management, you can easily fulfill orders with a Point of Sale (POS) system, tablet, or computer and process huge volume orders with just a simple click of the mouse.

You can also create invoices and shipment notices in conjunction with each order.

Magento has an order management system that works efficiently and smoothly, bridging the gap between online and physical retail and providing the greatest of customer experiences!  

Easily integrate SEO plugins to Magento.

3. SEO and Marketing

SEO – Search Engine Optimization – what is eCommerce without it?

With Magento 2, you can integrate your online business with third-party tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite to raise your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings.

You also have the opportunity of creating and distribute promo codes through newsletters, EDMs, and offline.

Magento makes SEO objectives work even more in your favor: you can create SEO-friendly URLs and great landing pages to go with PPC campaigns.

Learn more about Magento SEO and what it can do for your business.

Magento offers plenty of options for customers.

4. Easy Checkout

Magento gives you multiple checkout options:

  • Shipment to different addresses (per single order)
  • Saved checkouts
  • Gift messages to recipients

Customers can buy multiple products at once and check them out all at once, conveniently and quickly, through the many different payment options compatible with Magento.

Magento offers an inbuilt analytics platform.

5. Analytics

To stay on top of things, you must continuously analyze your campaigns’ progress.

This way, you can tweak where necessary. Magento has an inbuilt analytics and reporting suite that allows you to monitor consumer trends and the opportunity to strategize. 

Conveniently, Magento analytics can integrate with Google Analytics, allowing you to gain access to a comprehensive suite of data that provides valuable insights into your website’s performance.

There are countless free packages on Magento.

6. Benefit from FREE Packages

Magento also offers free open-source eCommerce software together with its paid platform. It caters to enterprises that are small, medium or large.

The question is, how do you know which one is best for you?

If your business has less than 500,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units – scannable bar code), with very little attributes in your online store, and if you only do business in one country, then Magento Open-Source is the right choice for you.

There isn’t 24/7 support, so this option best suits a small business.

If you have a large online store involved in wholesale, Magento Commerce is the best option. If your business is mainly engaged with B2B as opposed to B2C and needs advanced marketing and analytical tools, Magento Commerce is definitely the way to go.

You get the opportunity of creating a unique user experience (UX), and there’s support for you 24/7. It is the ideal option when selling, or planning to sell, internationally.

Final thoughts: Why you should choose Magento

We have covered what Magento is and the various reasons so many online businesses use it. However, the question remains, “is this the platform for you?”

As you know, there are dozens of eCommerce products and platforms online, but not many have been around for more than a decade, with tons of success stories to go with them. There are numerous reasons why 7-8% of users convert yearly from competing platforms.

In comparison to all its competitors, Magento wins hands down. This is because it’s a fantastic multi-channel eCommerce platform that works quickly and is optimized to be user-friendly.

Magento also conveniently allows users to choose any hosting provider they want, instead of being forced to choose between a limited selection.

If you have an online business or plan to move your retail business online, go with Magento and watch your business explode with more customers than you could ever imagine!

Maybe you already have your Magento eCommerce store up and running. With so many product listings to manage, it can be time-consuming.

How to keep up looking after your sales? Let us help you with our Magento SEO services that will help you increase your sales – in no time!

Ask us about Magento

What else can you do to improve sales from your Magento eCommerce store?

As you know, keeping ahead of the competition for your eCommerce store requires constant investment. With so many Magento commerce merchants, what more can you do to drive sales? To help you, we have some great marketing blogs that can guide you to marketing success:

You probably have a lot on your plate if you are a busy entrepreneur running an eCommerce business. If this is the case, we encourage you to review some of our strategic marketing services to drive more sales and keep you ahead of the competition:

Ecommerce Fraud in 2020 – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on by Aaron Radcliffe

With Black Friday and the holidays right around the corner, it’s important to prepare your eCommerce business for fraudulent activity.

Because fraudulent activity is probably MUCH more likely than you realize…

Table of contents

What is eCommerce Fraud?

Ecommerce fraud occurs when someone uses information that is either stolen or fake to purchase a product or pay for a service.

ECommerce fraud happens more often than you think, causing substantial financial losses for every online business involved. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners has detected that 50% of all small businesses operating online will find themselves in fraudulent circumstances, costing them around a massive $114,000 USD annually.

The bad news is that if you accept a fraudulent payment, you may have the responsibility put on your shoulders for the financial loss. There are also phishing and hacking schemes you need to be aware of.

Ecommerce Fraud Statistics You Need to Know

  • The rate of credit card chargebacks rises 20% annually. In 2018, online businesses collectively experienced a $24 billion loss.
  • Most credit card fraud happens in the United States (38.6%).
  • Credit card fraud rose by 18.4% two years ago and is only getting worse.
  • Back in 2017, online shopping frauds expanded at a rate of 30%.
  • Three years ago, 16.7 million US consumers experienced identity theft. This cost these consumers a collective $16 billion.
  • Any industry can be hit by eCommerce fraud. This was noted a few years ago when eight major industries collectively lost $57.8 billion.

Types of Ecommerce Fraud

Identity Theft

Simply put, identity theft occurs when your identity is stolen. In 2018, 450 million records of personal information were stolen.

There are also people “pretending” to be other people – this is called phishing, and it occurs more than you realise!

Many scammers also steal other people’s accounts.

Chargebacks

Ecommerce businesses can lose $3.94 for every $1 due to a chargeback, and 40% of customers who use this tactic usually do so again within 60 days.

Chargebacks typically occur because the majority of customers don’t have the patience to get a refund directly from the eCommerce shop owner from where they purchased their product.

A great solution for this is Disputify , an eCommerce software solution that tracks, predicts and prevents customers who buy and receive online goods and then perform a false chargeback to get those items for free.

Shipping Fraud

Shipping fraud refers to the process whereby scammers receive stolen goods at their own home/business address that they’ve bought online. 

Billing Fraud

In this kind of fraud, scammers will use the address of the person’s identity they have stolen to buy merchandise.

It’s noteworthy to mention that Ecommerce fraud grows during the holiday season – especially around huge online sales during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the days building up to Christmas, costing businesses thousands. So, the question is, what measures and tools can be used to protect your online business against Ecommerce fraud?

6 Ways to Protect Yourself Against Ecommerce Fraud

class=

#1 – Monitor Transactions and Reconcile Bank Accounts Daily

You need to really keep an eye on things as far as your eCommerce business is concerned. Frequently review all your accounts and transactions, and look for things such as inconsistent billing and shipping information, and physical locations of purchasers. It’s wise to invest in tools that track customer IP addresses and let you know of any countries and addresses that are well known for fraudulent activity.

The kind of software mentioned above is IPAM software. It helps you keep track of all IP addresses, and translates between DNS and DHCP address information. There’s lots of different software available for this, such as SolarWinds IP Address Manager, BlueCat IPAM, LightMesh IPAM, and more!

It will also help you keep an eye out for any email addresses that look suspicious. Free and anonymous email addresses (like Yahoo and Gmail) belong to most fraudsters, as it’s so easy to create them.

class=

#2 – Require the Card Verification Value (CVV)

The Card Verification Value (CVV) is the little three or four-digit security code you’ll find at the back of credit cards. PCI (Payment Card Industry) rules prevent any sort of digital storage of the CVV with the credit card it’s attached to. That’s why it works so well! Unless a scammer has stolen a physical credit card, they won’t be able to purchase things that require the CVV. Use a CVV requirement in your checkout process of your online store, and less fraud will occur.

class=

#3 – Consider Setting Limits

Setting limits makes sense. Base this on your order and revenue trends. Limit the number of purchases and the total amount of dollars you’ll accept from a single account in a 24-hour period. This will help limit the financial damage should fraud occur.

class=

#4 – Use the Address Verification System (AVS)

Address Verification Systems look at the numeric parts of the billing address attached to a specific credit card, to the address that the credit company has for you.

AVS is an inbuilt fraud tool in most payment processing solutions, but always make sure it’s supported with your payment processor.

class=

#5 – Get Stricter with Password Requirements

Hackers can easily crack passwords using programs they’ve created. Enforce strict passwords for your customers – ones that require eight digits with at least one capital letter and one numerical figure, and you’ll have a better chance of keeping scammers at bay. Tell your customers why this is important, and they won’t mind spending a little more time coming up with a creative password.

class=

#6 – Keep Platforms and Software Up to Date

You need to make sure your operating system is up to date with the latest version, as this will protect your online business more in the long run. Providers regularly update their software with things such as security patches to help prevent fraud and protect you from the latest malware and viruses.

Also, keep an eye out for the latest anti-malware and anti-spyware software to help you keep safe online.

PCI & Online Payment Platforms

Finally, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), which includes American Express, Visa and MasterCard, has created the best practices you should use to keep yourself safe from Ecommerce Fraud. We encourage you to take a look at this.

You should also offer your customers the choice of using online payment platforms such as PayPal and Payoneer as these are very secure international online payment platforms. 

Conclusion

As long as Ecommerce exists, there will always be eCommerce fraud. Take the time to perform the necessary steps so that you don’t find yourself victimised by scammers and hackers who want to do you harm. This way, your eCommerce business will thrive, and you won’t have to worry about financial losses every year!

If you are interested in growing your eCommerce business with next-level Digital Marketing solutions, contact us today.

Significant negotiation clout
with our partners.

Our network of partners gives us access to first in-market media products, collaboration plans and inside intel, so we can keep you ahead of your competition.

Google Partner
LinkedIn Marketing Partner
ContentKing Partner
Tiktok Partner
Shopify Partner
Pinterest Partner
Hubspot Partner
Happy Hong Konger
Copyright © 2024 First Page.
Terms of Business | Money-back Guarantee
Callback

Send us a message and we will call you back

Your details are always securely stored.