December 2020

Building a business from scratch is a difficult venture. But with today’s digital age, entering the world of commerce is within reach — as long as you have the time and the strong will to do so.

Even if you haven’t tried creating a website before, a wide array of tools available now can help you easily build an online store. This article will be your quick guide on what you need to get started on your online business.

Why sell on a website?

Before people can purchase something from you, they first need to know about your business and what you’re selling. Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, more and more shoppers have shifted to buy online. If you still don’t have your own website, you’ll miss out on a lot of things including:

• Huge Market

The pandemic made a huge impact on the online business as eCommerce sales grow by 49%. Business owners who stayed offline during this pandemic will miss out on profits from the growing market of online shoppers.

• Cost Savings

Running an online store costs less than having a brick and mortar shop. A physical storefront will require you to pay for rental space, utility bills, proper licensing and permits, paychecks of staff that man the store, cleaning supplies, etc. These all add up to more expenses for your business and most of it is ongoing.

• Convenience

Online businesses make it easier for shoppers to buy whatever they want without driving and going to the store physically. Browsing online also makes selections easier and faster, which means people are more likely to spend money when it’s convenient to do so.

What do you need to start an online business?

Compared to a standard website or a blog, building an eCommerce website will be a bit different. Whatever product or service you intend to sell, there are primary things you need.

Here’s a rundown of the requirements when starting an online business:

1. Domain Name

To start your business, you will need a domain name as well as a web hosting plan. Without these two, your eCommerce website can’t go live. There are many providers you can use to secure this and you can either purchase them separately or all together.

2. Market Research

What do you plan to sell? What type of business do you want to run? If you already have something in mind, do you think someone will want to buy what you’re offering?

You definitely won’t want to let all your efforts go to waste only to find out that you’re not getting traffic and making sales. Ideally, you should conduct research for your small business to uncover a pressing need in the market and fill it with your product or service.

Find Trending Products

A good way to drive traffic and make sales right away is to align your business idea with things that are currently trending. Riding on what’s trending at the correct time will let you get the best out of it. Remember, don’t hop into a trending market when it’s already on the decline as you’d want to find a product that’s growing in popularity.

There are different ways to spot a trending niche, below you’ll find some of the most common.

• Google Trends – This tool allows you to check the past and future of specific product keywords. It analyzes popular top search queries in Google which allows you to get a better look if the market is waning or growing in popularity.
• TrendHunter – This site shows you different niches that are currently trending around the world. What’s more, it has quite a useful filter that lets you sort according to different industries.
• Influencers – These are people who have an expert level of knowledge or have a huge influence on social media in their respective fields. Because of their popularity on various social media platforms, chances are pretty high that the products promoted by these influencers sell well and are a viable niche.

Align It With Your Passion

After you’ve gathered a handful of niches to consider for your new business, narrow that list even further by doing self-evaluation. It’s easier to sustain your momentum if you actually love what you’re selling.

Once you’ve finished narrowing your list of potential niches to a group you care about, go a step further and validate your idea in the marketplace. For instance, you can go to Amazon product marketplace and do quick keyword research on the product. Find out what kind of things are people actually buying.

3. eCommerce Platform

Have you found the products you want to sell? Then, it’s time to get to the next step which is to find a suitable eCommerce platform. You have plenty of platform options, but for a new entrepreneur like you, some of the most popular options are:

• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• BigCommerce
• Magento
• Squarespace

Since you’re new to running a business online, find an eCommerce platform that offers a free trial, is easy-to-use, and flexible to your needs. Also, make sure you won’t have compatibility issues with the platform you intend to use so that you have access to plenty of themes and add-ons.

Most eCommerce platforms have a specific step-by-step guide to get your store set up. If you encounter problems as you build your website, don’t hesitate to reach out to designated customer support.

4. Elements to Include

Before you start building your online store, think about what functionalities you should include in your web design. At the least, it should be based on how people shop so that they can easily find what they’re looking for.

For instance, if you plan to sell pet food and supplies, you may have to organize your site based on the types of pet (e.g. cat, dog, fish, etc.). Then, add subcategories for each product type like foods, toys, or treats.

Here are the most essential elements you should include for your shoppers to have the best user experience.

• Search Bar

A search bar, box, or field is a website element that allows you to search through multiple pages for anything you want to find. For shoppers who know exactly what they’re looking for, a search bar allows them to go directly to the page that contains it.

• Customer Reviews

Shoppers greatly rely on customer reviews for credibility and quality of the products they intend to buy. Including a review feature like this one from ecomwarrior testimonials gives your shoppers a guarantee that what they’re buying from you is worth their money.

• Shopping Cart

Not all potential customers will see an item they like and go straight ahead to purchase. You need to install a shopping cart so that customers have the option to save items while they browse for more. You can also send follow-up emails as reminders to your customers who left their shopping carts to push through their purchases.

• Wish List

A wishlist functionality gives shoppers a place to point friends to a gift-giving event. Other than that, many people do research before buying a product as it gives them a chance to save items they like for future purchases.

Start selling!

Are you ready to start selling and dominate search engines? If you’re done creating your product pages and satisfied with the overall look of your site, then congratulations, you can now launch your store! Make sure everything’s polished before you begin selling – after all, you only have one shot to make a good impression.

Keep in mind to double-check every page for things that don’t work. Lastly, you may want to consider talking to an eCommerce expert for advice about what else you can improve on your online store to stand above your competition.

As businesses have moved into the modern era, many are looking to utilize digital solutions to better take advantage of the fact that more and people are spending their time online. With the increased proliferation of the internet in people’s lives, more and more people conduct most of their purchasing online. This means that businesses need to be where their customers are and be ready to engage with them in the digital arena. One of the best ways to do that is with a CRM.

But what is a CRM? A CRM, or customer relationship management software, is a program that allows you to manage and optimize relationships with customers. These customers don’t just have to be ones you connect with digitally; they can also be ones gained through cold calling, conventions or trade shows, and other non-digital methods of customer acquisition. A CRM can be used by a variety of areas within a business, including information management, marketing, sales, customer success, and finance. However, one of the main reasons that people use a CRM is to boost their sales teams.

How a Customer Success Team and a Sales Team Can Benefit from a CRM

A CRM, can, by its very nature, help you manage customer relationships. This most obviously translates into customer service, where a customer success team can identify where customers are in their customer journey and any pain points that may arise. Utilizing visualized reporting features that come with many CRMs, customer success teams can find the main points of a customer lifecycle where customer churn is more likely to occur. They can then tamp down on these areas and offer superior customer service so that customers are more likely to say.

Where a CRM is often underrated through is for its sales capabilities. Sales managers face two main issues: how to qualify and follow up on leads, and how to prioritize sales activities. A CRM helps to solve these issues by creating a database of all existing and potential customers, allowing sales teams to create buyer personas. Compiling this data is very helpful in determining the quality of a sales lead, and also giving salespeople past data to work with. This can help them determine which sales techniques are the most effective and which are a waste of their time. Furthermore, the sales team can streamline their sales pipeline and cut down on administrative tasks using a CRM. This saves time and hassle, allowing a sales team to focus on what they do best; driving sales!

While there are many other uses of a CRM, utilizing it for customer success and sales is a key way to drive immediate value from it. Not only is a CRM a great tool for companies to boost their bottom line, but it also frees up value manhours and improves customer acquisition and retention. Finally, a CRM is a digital-first tool that allows companies to streamline their digital operations, thereby helping them to find customers where they actually are, and not solely trying to find them through methods they may not want to be contacted through such as phone or direct mail.

by Alex Schnee

If you have been thinking about incorporating some new software into your business processes, then you want to make sure that you make the right choice when it comes the type you choose and what would be most helpful. Not all software investments are worth the money, and they can actually end up hurting your company if you don’t take the time to do some research into how it can benefit you.

Here are four things to keep in mind before you go ahead and purchase new tech for your business.

1. Who will use it?

Most likely, the type of software you choose to invest in will not benefit every single worker in your company unless you play on majorly overhauling your systems. Instead, you’ll likely be helping a select group of people who have outdated software. You’ll also need to take a look at your budget to make sure that your bottom line can handle this new addition—especially if it includes a payment plan where you will have to pay over a number of months or years.

2. Will it affect your security?

If you will be integrating this new software into your server, then you need to know that it won’t disrupt any security measures you have put into place. This is where using a cloud-based software like a deal room can come in handy. Not only do you know that your files and documents are secure, but they can be accessed at any time as opposed to just when employees are on their work computers. This can be extremely helpful if you have a remote team.

3. Will there be a learning curve?

How much time it might take for your employees to learn any technology should be factored in when you are thinking about investing in something new. If it requires additional help from the software provider or it will take up valuable time working on client projects or completing tasks. On the other hand, it might be worth it in order to keep up with the industry or to be able to offer additional services to customers.

4. When will you see results?

Implementing new technology doesn’t always mean immediate results, and you might have to wait a while to see the difference in your bottom line. This is especially true when you are investing in project management software in order to make your systems better. If you’re willing to be patient, then it might pay off. However, if you have gone a while and you are not seeing any tangible changes, then it might be time to reconsider whether or not this tech is necessary for your business’s success.

In summary

Determining whether you need an upgrade when it comes to your company’s software can make a big difference or it can end up costing you. By keeping these items in mind, you can find a solution that is more likely to benefit employees and you.

As more and more businesses move online, they also need to make efforts into properly understanding their customers. While using digital tools are great, they do nothing for a business without context into who their customers are. As such, many businesses have begun to integrate a holistic process to outline the steps that a customer undergoes when interacting with them. This process is called the customer success journey, and following it and using it to your advantage can help you optimize each step in the process and improve your customer’s experience. This will, in turn, help you generate more sales and retain more customers.

Because the customer success journey traditionally has used a ‘touch-based’ approach, it has been less holistic. With this approach, businesses only touch base with customers at key stages of interaction, such as when they are reviewing marketing materials or at the point-of-sale. While this may seem like it is promoting an overall superior customer experience, it takes a one-size-fits-all approach, and doesn’t consider the various ways in which a customer may interact with a business.  In fact, with this approach, businesses lump all customers into a singular journey, with the ‘touches’ created arbitrarily by the business itself.

Instead, businesses should create a customer success journey that takes a holistic approach. This means that businesses should view a customer’s journey as unique, and take a look at their business the way their customers do. A customer, of course, does not view their experience with a company as a specific set of seemingly unrelated actions. Instead, they build upon their previous experience with the company in order to set their ideas of what they want from the company going forward. This is a more dynamic approach, and considers the actual customer’s experience as a key part of the decisions being made about them.

Furthermore, customer journeys can be mapped by understanding the range of possibilities of a person’s experience with a business. This can be helpful when trying to train a customer experience team, who need to be trained for a variety of situations that may arise with various customers. If the customer success journey is not planned accordingly, then they will be forced into a linear trap where their efforts can only be used to solve a narrow range of issues. Beyond this, it is also important to qualitatively find the biggest weak points in the customer journey, and the only way to do that is to create a more holistic customer success journey.

Defining your customer journey as something that occurs from your customer’s point of view will help you make more data-based decisions about your customers. This can help to identify key areas where your business may need to update itself, and provide you a level of detail that you would not be able to gather if sticking to a more ‘touch-based’ customer journey map. To do this, you can use a digital tool such a CRM to track prospects and customers at all stages of the customer lifecycle so that you can have a stronger understanding of greater patterns and trends that occur as a result of your efforts.

Employer and employee relations in terms of retirement matters has been on congress radar for many years. Until December 2019, when the SECURE act was passed, the existing retirement plan needed a lot of reforms. SECURE is an acronym for Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement that is the foundation of a new retirement plan called pooled employer plans.

Pooled employer plans (PEP) are a fiduciary structure that allows unrelated employers to pool their resources for retirement purposes similarly, achieve economies of scales- a cost advantage ripped by companies when they produce efficiently. As PEP was expected to be geared up at the dawn of 2020, employers are given a chance to evaluate if their traditional retirement plans are fit for PEPs. Every retirement strategy comes with its limitations and benefits, and PEP isn’t left out of that bracket.

Do employers need PEP or it is just gossip in the congress?

The concept of employers merging their resources to achieve a single pooled retirement planned has been on the table for years. And, as its known congress matters move like a wounded snail! And it was happening to PEP,  So employers waited patiently behind boardrooms doors and finally, PEPs was approved.

The covenant

It is difficult for employers, especially in competing sectors, to settle in a common ground. But PEPs radicalized everything and today; employers can set their competitive challenges aside and agree on how they will improve their retirement plans. Such plans benefit both employers and retirees.

Achieve economic advantage

The employers are using PEPs to strategize their plans and enjoy economies of scale. With tough competitive environments, many employers were working to meet their costs, and the question about expanding their profit margins was non-negotiable; hence PEP was thrown as a saviour!

Here we are on the eve of the new decade; employers are using the power of economies of scale to set up prices plus, Pooled employer plans are helping them accessing broader investment opportunities. Generally, pooling of resources enables key players in the industry to agree on how to leverage prices and retain chief responsibilities in terms of investment and economies of scale.

Access to information

The SECURE act is the most expensive retirement reforms ever attained in a span of 10years. It not only solved the price problem, but many small employers also gained knowledge from its existence. Before the president signed it, congressmen submitted several proposals in the last few years on how to expand pooled employers plans.  A keen employer must have been following up such proceedings to be enriched with the necessary information that will benefit his fraternity.

More benefits

Before pooled employer plans ever existed, employers had their own traditional employer-sponsored retirement plans that were mainly localized. Apparently, PEPs brought the benefits of outsourcing administration and scaling up new hunting grounds for investments.

Any employer rolling out plans for PEPs is entitled to special legal protection. The legal obligations of plan sponsors as observed in a traditional employer-sponsored plan will no longer bother those who sign up for PEP; instead, they can use their time to focus on productivity. Moreover, their operations are under a substantial layer of fiduciary protection that didn’t exist earlier.

A pooled employer plans are a significant breakthrough in SECURE acts, which is helping employers achieve economies of scale and find new investment opportunities. Furthermore, both employer and retirees will reap the fruits of fiduciary protection.

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Reasons to hire SEO expert Sydney

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It is a fact that technology is progressing at a quick pace at present. The warehouses need to be equipped with the proper technology, which will enable them to keep up with the demand of production, manufacture, and consumers. A smart warehouse has been automated for enhanced efficiency, productivity, as well as accuracy.

The solutions which are implemented provide capability and flexibility to the workers out there along with their processes. An increasing number of startups invest in efficient technologies such as the JD Edwards ERP technology, which is renowned for its stability and reliability.

In this article, we have mentioned the top 3 warehouse technologies to look for in 2020.

1. Drones and robots

Warehouses are making use of small, maneuverable drones as businesses worldwide look for automating inventory and asset management. Stocks are stored up as high as 10 meters in some warehouses, and difficult-to-reach barcodes simply implementing equipment like ladders and forklifts, which require hours of labor.

However, speed and precision can be enhanced by drones carrying scanners that navigate the warehouse shelves and take an automated registry of stock. It is possible to read and locate RFID tags from a distance of 15 meters through cameras. Nevertheless, drones that are able to navigate tight areas without colliding are yet to be introduced.

On the other hand, robots have been programmed for guiding themselves and picking and packing orders into waiting trucks or carts. Several warehouses are already becoming fully automated through the usage of robots.

These robots operate on complicated algorithms that allow them to pick up inventory and also guide them to the exact grocery bag for dropping it into. While doing so, they make sure that they do not collide while roaming around filling orders.

2. 3-D printing and automated guided vehicles

It is possible for 3-D printing to bring the manufacturing close to consumers plus other end-users. For example, vehicle components manufactured in Asia have been assembled in Brazil and marketed in the US.

There is a high possibility of producing some components to move closer to the present market for cutting down on costs and shipment times. 3-D printing will minimize costs related to complicated trade for a large number of items since it will be possible to print them on demand close to their final destination.

As compared to robots, automated guided vehicles stick to guided routes in and around warehouses rather than functioning more independently. One notable advantage provided by automated guided vehicles is that they help replace forklift carts, and therefore, it is not imperative to alter a warehouse’s basic configuration.

These vehicles have been manufactured so that they will be coming to a safe halt if they collide against anything. This enhances efficiency since it is possible for automated guided vehicles to run continuously without any break.

3. Internet of Things

Internet of Things has been introduced only recently on the warehouse scene, and devices like sensors and wearables are already used in many warehouses. It is possible to minimize human error as well as manual labor by conveying pertinent information to other IoT gadgets.

Warehouse managers will also obtain real-time visibility of order fulfillment, thus enabling them to process the items more proficiently.

Although several of these advancements have been blocked by security concerns from reaching their full potential, quite a few technologies are being developed for improving the safety of implementing IoT sensor technology to significant logistics operations.

Microchips allowing more effectual encryption are among the several innovations that simplify security concerns regarding implementing IoT in warehousing, thus increasing efficiency shortly.

Conclusion

Warehouse technologies are evolving continually, and the global supply chain is set to undergo a significant revolution. This will penetrate homes equipped with IoT-enabled devices and leverage the cumulative assets for redefining the operation of supply chains.

The development opportunities are unlimited. Therefore, it is a matter of debate whether your company will be merely watching by standing on the sidelines or will take part in the excitement, which is impending.

This past year has been a difficult time for just about everyone. The development of the COVID pandemic created an unprecedented situation. This has created a severe medical crisis that quickly spread all over the world that quickly spiraled out of control and created an economic one as well. As numerous countries scrambled to try to limit the spread of this deadly virus, many economies were forced to shut down. Now, international shipping is facing a difficult time as well. How has the pandemic impacted international shipping? What does the future hold?

Disparate Regulations Make it Hard To Plan

When it comes to professional shipping companies such as Craters and Freighters, paying attention to local regulation is required for success. For example, cargo in one part of the world may face tighter restrictions than cargo in another part of the world. This is one of the biggest logistical obstacles that the international shipping community faces today. Even if businesses in one part of the country are able to open, the country from which they are receiving their shipping may not be open. As a result, this can lead to significant supply chain disruptions.

Breach of Contract Cases Could Be On the Rise

Another major issue that small businesses might be facing involves breach-of-contract cases. Particularly when it comes to businesses that operate over International borders, breach-of-contract cases are going to be a reality in the next few months. Because businesses might not be able to fulfill their orders are due to inventory being held up somewhere else, they might be in danger of breaching their contracts. The same could be true if businesses do not have the revenue to pay their suppliers due to limitations posed by the pandemic.

It is important to note that some international shippers might have a clause in their contract called a force majeure clause. In this situation, they may be able to claim this clause and avoid being found in breach of contract. This is something that will have to be argued in a court of law.

Adjustments for Increased Safety and Security

Finally, similar to other industries, those who work in international shipping have had to adjust their operations in order to improve their safety and security measures. This might include instituting social distancing among their employees, enforcing maks regulations, and changing the way they sterilize their shipment containers in between orders. All of this is important for making sure that people stay safe; however, this could increase the amount of time it takes business is to follow their orders while also increasing overhead costs by changing the equipment they use.

Looking at the Future of the Industry

These are just a few of the many ways that this industry has been impacted by the pandemic. Even though there are reports that a vaccine has been completed, it will be a while before this vaccine is distributed widely. Therefore, those in this industry need to be prepared for these disruptions to continue.