The navigation bar of a ecommerce website houses multiple answers inside it such as how to find x? Which product is in my size/colour? What all things i added to my cart? Etc.

A well designed and thought out navigation bar is the most essential aspect of ecommerce website. It helps in connecting the users journey in various aspects of the website beginning from search to shopping cart. This stands for one of the crucial feature of ecommerce website.

Why Navigation Bar Is Important And How It Can Attract Customers?

Navigation bar is the hub for all activities surrounded in the ecommerce website. From the beginning to the finish of the buying process.  Developers from Ecommerce website development company in india, suggest that navigation bar is the one where customers instinctively get all the information right from the product to the shopping cart. All information in e-commerce websites are comforting but a poorly designed navigation bar can impede the customers journey causing them to bounce out of your website and seek the help of your competitor website.

There are majorly three function that navigation bar performs:

1. If a customer is informed about what they want, then the work of navigation bar should be to make the customer reach the product without any delay.
2. In case customer does not know what they are looking for yet the customers knows about the brand, the navigation bar should inspire and take the customers to somewhere where they can find the brand to make desired purchase.
3. The navigation bar should also communicate what is the brand all about.

When a customers land on a website, the marketer has less than 10 seconds to impress them. These 10 seconds are meant to give the customers a complete information about various brands, what you are selling and what makes you different from your competitors. Now, the question is how customers can be encouraged to view further page?

This is where a well designed navigation bar can help. This will make customers take right purchase decision and understand the audience and the brand in a very short span of time.

Is There A Rule When Designing A Navigation Bar?

Developers from Website development company jaipur suggest that a well designed navigation bar should not have more than 7 options all together. Offering too many options in navigation bar make customer confused and they end being frustrated eventually leaving the website completely.

The second law of designing navigation bar is called “Hicks law”. Hicks law is the time customers use to make decision and this time increases with the increase in the number of alternatives. This law is broadly used for user experience because it makes complete sense.. The users may get more option, the more confused customers would become in choosing any single option.

Generally the initial and the end of the navigation bar options gets maximum clicks while the middle ones remains forgotten. This theory is supported by analytics and heat maps. It is important to think that structure of the site and occur from the first and last option on the nav bar is the place where customers feel the most connection. Therefore, it is important on the part of the marketer to use important piece of information at the start and end to generate adequate sale.

Is Adding Search In Navigation Bar Be Useful?

Search holds a very prominent role in giving satisfaction to customers. When search is added to navigation bar, it makes it easy for customers to get more information what the site is about and what all things are getting sold?. Customers can directly make them way to their desired product by simply typing the name of the product such as “ i want a green dress” or “ i need a red bag”.

This way customers will going to determine their own journey and a smart search function can get them to check out things much faster.

Is It Beneficial To Get The Brand Ethos Come Across The Navigation Bar?

There seems a real significance in appropriately naming the collections of your ecommerce website. For bigger brand playing around with names cannot confuse customers as they are aware of what should be expected but for startups and small companies, it is important to play safe. If you have a specific brand tone then prefer experimenting with it as it can help your brand stand out from the competition.

What All Things Should Be Completely Avoided In Navigation Bar Of Your Ecommerce Website?

The first thing to keep in mind is, never to put all your products under product category. This way you lose the opportunity to showcase customers what all things you can offer. If you navigation bar only have category like “about us”, “product”, “contact us” then you are not providing any idea or inspiration to the customers. This kind of approach will make customers go away as all the information seems to hidden.

The second important thing is aesthetics. There are at times we see “x” thing closes the browser window and links are underlined or  a certain colour. These aspects should be well thought during the design process so that the aesthetics of the website does not get destroyed. If your font is underlined, or in a certain colour, users may get frustrated as they may find it as link but when clicked, they reach nowhere. Therefore, for a better user journey consider giving eye to aesthetics.

Conclusion

A well designed navigation bar should include the logo or the homepage link, some type of search place, your cart and the primary collection. In case, there is a scope of space, you can consider adding delivery information which can be added by graphics or banners below the navigation bar.

The key to success is obviously testing, therefore, keep testing and use analytics to find what exactly attracts the attention of the customer and implement them.

Ecommerce platform are expanding at a phenomenal level. You can find numerous ecommerce websites making huge business, however, more than successful the rate of unsuccessful is getting higher. Why?

The major reason is not withstanding the growing competition!

In order to stay in the market, ecommerce marketers will have to get themselves updated with the best practices of the industry in order to gain recognition from the search engine and also from the customers.

2018 is here with new opportunities and prospects for ecommerce business. In order to beat the competition in the most effect way, we have listed some best practices to follow in 2018 for enhancing  your ecommerce business.

Selling products and service in 2018 will obviously have a different approach than the ones performed earlier. To generate greater amount of lead and secure maximum conversion, ecommerce websites will have to utilize the some of the best practices and the latest trend. This post is dedicated to point out some best practices for ecommerce website for 2018.

Let us begin:

• Optimizing delivery of goods and services

Several research conducted by ecommerce development company in india highlights some of the realities related to delivery system of ecommerce websites. The research indicated that 39% of ecommerce users refuses to come back to a particular website due to bad delivery experience. Thus, it is really important to have a good delivery system in ecommerce business.

Usually bigger ecommerce venture has lot of capital to invest in creating a sound system of delivery but for smaller online ecommerce business matching this can be really difficult. For a smaller ecommerce business switching to a creative way for solving this problem is ideal. These ecommerce marketers can use personalized shipping option. It is not accountable for profit or loss, offering free shipping to stand among the competition. Several studies indicate that people prefer convenience over cost, thus, offer delivery date, time and place personalization at a price to keep the customers happy without casting any influence on profit.

• Become master in mobile user experience

Research indicate that over 60% of searches in internet are done on mobile phones. Mobile buying stands for one-third of all ecommerce sales. Consultant from Digital marketing company india states that by 2017, it was approx 19% of all ecommerce transactions that took place by mobile devices and by 2018, this would be expected to increase by 27%. If you go by statistics, it is really important that ecommerce business should be well prepared about ecommerce site for mobile users and also make sure to tailor the experience specifically for the audience. Consider implementing mobile first design strategy that keeps mobile shoppers above in the mobile apps.  We suggest marketers to make a great mobile experience for the users and enhance your sale quotient for coming years.

• Have full control over website security

Security is the most vital part of any online business. Ecommerce marketers will have to take every step that can make their website highly secured from hackers and malwares. Having good security system can give users a satisfaction and security and increases the chances for better customer acquisition. Marketers should verify security practice to protect the users data and their important personal details. A breach in security may discourage users from choosing your brand and taking any further step.

One of the best ways to improve security of your website is by better ux design. It is believed that the decision made in UX design make a website immune or vulnerable for causing security issue. To minimize the security breach, make sure to implement smart UX design in the website. A good ux design enables users to take minimum step to finish checkout process while keeping the information intact. A well optimized security aspect ought to bring a great brand reputation.

• Use animation

Animations has been really engaging for users across different mediums. Professionals from SEO company in Jaipur states that animations are really easy to add to ecommerce sites and it brings good amount of customer engagement as well. With a small addition such as simply adding an animation hover can project your to be modern and highly responsive for users. Using animations make the website look visually appealing and grabs the users attention thoroughly. Consider including animation design elements in:

• Hidden menu bar or sidebar
• Buttons to add item in shopping cart
• Call to action button
• The background of webpage
• Unlimited scrolling element

You should consider using animation which is bright coloured and fun. Adding custom animation can be a great way to stand different from the competitors.

• Become an omni channel seller

Omni channel seller stands for the presence of marketer in various platforms apart from the one it holds. In this cut throat competitive world, the presence of marketers at various platforms such as social media sites is really important. It is the research which indicates that ecommerce websites with good social media presence has 32% more sale as compared to people who don’t have. However, simply joining platform like social media will not be enough to boost sales. One has to master of these platforms to bring significant results from the feature of the platform. This means marketers should be well aware for identifying targeted audience, recognize which site is visited the most by the targeted audience and post relevant content to keep the users engaged. Omni channel marketing can little cumbersome and time taking but it will definitely bring some serious benefits for your ecommerce website in 2018.

• Abide the best practices of SEO

Search engine optimization cannot have any shortcuts. It is responsibility of the marketers to keep the site updated with the latest changes made by the search engine. This way site’s can maintain its SERPS ranking and also provide great amount users satisfaction. For 2018, abide these following best practice of SEO:

1. Cut short the sales pitch: The users in 2018 is least interested in listening to unnecessary advertisements that are bombarded on them, creating immense irritation. From 2017, google has started penalizing sites which use unnecessary intrusive interstitials like pop up box and lighboxes.
2. Implementing breadcrumb navigation: For users getting lost within ecommerce websites is really common. To helps shoppers find the right path of your site and buy what they are looking for, use breadcrumb navigation. This is perfect for websites with different category pages
3. Optimizing page loading time: Loading speed holds a crucial role in online business. If the website takes a longer time, users will definitely choose to bounce out of the website. It is therefore recommended to use various tools to analyse the loading time of the website in order to acquire more shoppers and maintain the ranking on SERPs as well.

Summarizing

2018 is expected to be bright and glorious for ecommerce marketers. Online shopping has become a great way to do multiple purchase without moving an inch from your location and thus people love to prefer it.

With the right website design, marketing strategy and best practices of online business, you can make your ecommerce websites reach new height for success. Use these tips which are stated above to give your ecommerce website a makeover and get immense successful in 2018.

Content marketing is one of the effective ways for any brand to place themselves in the competitive market. Content marketing holds so much prominence as customers interact with only those content that interest them in contrast with the traditional marketing strategies.

If you go about statistically then content marketing can increase your conversion rate by almost 6 times more than any traditional marketing practice.

According to a survey conducted by the consultants from best SEO company in jaipur, the average conversion rate of a website increases by approx 2.9% as compared to average of sites without a content strategy, 0.5%. This kind of statistics is capable enough to give people idea about the importance of content marketing strategy. In the ecommerce business, the important of content marketing is increasing only without any depreciation.

Looking into the prominence of content marketing in ecommerce venture, we have come up with this post that will highlight the process of how to develop a content marketing strategy that works for enhancing growth.

Let us dive into the world of content marketing for ecommerce platform

Before we begin,let us understand why brand needs content strategy.

Why Your Brand Needs A Serious Content Strategy?

There are several research which are conducted in the past and some are still ongoing to prove the effectivity of content marketing. According to the findings obtained from demand metrics:

• Content marketing is capable to generate approx thrice more lead than the traditional marketing practices
• Content marketing is around 60% less expensive than any other marketing channel
• 82% of consumers have positive opinion about the brands or the company after reading the customized content.
• 70% of consumers feel a close connection with the brand as a result of content marketing strategy.
• 60% of consumers loves to read about the platform or the brand they prefer
• 70% people prefer learning about any brand through articles than advertisements
• 72% of customers believe that they have made a relationship with a brand due to the content they have came across.

The beauty of content marketing lies in enhancing every aspect of the brand. It speaks a volume about the brand to its customers and establish a direct connection that has better appeal than traditional practices. Thus, it helps in improving communication between brand and clients.

Let us discuss some general benefit of content marketing strategy:

• Brand awareness

Experts believe that customers feels much more connected with brands that produce customized content, using content marketing as a tool for reaching out to customers and establishing a relationship.

The more valuable is the content, the more people will connect with the brand and get associated with it. Prefer posting authoritative content such as how to guides to position yourself as the expert of the niche industry.

• Search engine optimization

A highly valuable, authoritative, original content is meant to bring great boost in SEO. capturing the attention of the customers on social media, posting the articles at relevant places, guest post on friendly sites are all excellent strategies for bringing new business. A great content piece can make its position itself by getting likes and shares at various platforms. This way the brand also gets a trust impression.

• Establishes relation with other brands

Content marketing also helps in establishing a network of connection within other brands and companies of the niche industry. Content exchange and guest posting can be highly beneficial to establish a brand, enhance SEO, and also make a social proof for customers

• Influence conversion

People only buy things from any brand or people to whom they can trust. If your content is genuine, valuable then it can create a trust factor which can obviously bring better conversion. A well strategized call to action or product link can be really useful for the entire content strategy by directing users where you need to go.

content influencing conversion is particularly very important for ecommerce brands as the content can guide the customers easily through the buying process with the right content at each stage.

• Build loyalty

A good content strategy make people come back to the  brand or the platform post purchase. This way it will help in generating repeat purchase and increases the value of the customers.

How Can Ecommerce Platforms Get Specifically Benefited From Content Marketing?

For an ecommerce platform, content marketing can be a deciding factor of success. Research indicates that:

• 60% of people prefer buying product after reading completely about it
• 90% of people find customized content really helpful
• 86% of customers are always ready to pay more for getting better customer satisfaction.

Professionals from website design company points out that designing a ecommerce website user friendly cannot yield result , if the content used in the website does not connect the customers on a emotional ground. Establish an emotional bond within the ecommerce platform and the customers is what makes content marketing so much important for ecommerce business

Some of the benefits of content marketing for ecommerce includes:

• Aids in product research

This is the era of internet and over 80% of people prefer making valid research before buying any particular product online. Another very interesting statistics states that 60% of customers prefer to do product search on search engine. These statistics implies that websites with a effective content marketing strategy holds a better chances of attracting the shoppers.

Content in the form of product review or buying guide is highly useful for shoppers and definitely gets the attention of people. Establishing your prominence in product research will the ecommerce platform to proves its authority and generate huge amount of visitors.

• Effective style of sales pitch

Always remember information is always enticing and welcoming while sales pitch are frustrating for customers. When you create a unique, informative piece of content, it will attract more shoppers as compared to any sales pitch. The biggest advantage of content marketing is it promotes the brand in the most user friendly way that does not seems forceful for shoppers.

• It enhances the shopping experience

According to a research conducted by ecommerce website designing company, people enjoy the experience of shopping along with the end result. A content which is highly valuable enhances the experience of the customers journey with various kinds of insights and ofcourse entertainment. It is also found that the presence of good relevant content provide users the option to enhance the amount of time customers spend for shopping.

• It shows the products in the right context

A good amount of customized content has the ability to complement your product in the context and show the value in the most meaningful way. A strong emotion tie up let the shopper imagine what they are about to buy and what they actually need, thus, it helps in increasing the urge to buy more!

• Gives a timely boost at each stage of sales funnel

The most critical advantage of content marketing in ecommerce platform is helping shoppers to move along with the sales funnel.

This diagram stated above can give you a substantial idea.

1. Awareness: Make sure to post your content to new channel, share the post on social media. Make sure to guest post on friendly websites to get your SEO strategy intact.
2. Interest: Use informative post such as how to guide, buying guides, quizzes; social proof such as reviews, critics view, case studies, testimonials etc. Product information- product video, clever product description etc.
3. Action: campaigning-arrangement for sales or everyday low prices; facilitating he buying process: more accessible to CTA, single click buying, streamline the checkout process
4. Customer service, loyalty and advocacy: customer satisfaction: social media referral, social proof on social media, and efficient customer services

Summary

The above discussion when gone thoroughly can help you realize how important is content marketing is for online retailers who need a huge amount of growth in their business. A well designed and executed content marketing strategy can bring to you:

• Great branding experience
• Good customer relationship
• Less cost and more ROI
• Better SEO
• More valid access to product information
• More trustworthy than traditional advertising
• Boost each stage of sale funnel and help in growing the sale faster

Are you a ecommerce marketer? Or are you planning to become one?

In any of the state the question of whether to choose hosted or self hosted checkout solution must have knocked you sometime.

Eventually, there are lot of options available and choosing among them will depend upon your business and its needs.

When it comes to self hosted checkout option, it requires the marketers to manage all aspects of checkout by yourself. Indeed it offer more control but it also involves designing and building the checkout flow and most importantly maintaining the various moving parts involved with it.

Another option available is hosted solution. This gives a all in one solution where one can easily configure the checkout but also the cart hosting, security, and other back end payment requirements which are handled by constant updated platforms which can be integrated into the other business system.

There are many kind of advantages and disadvantages that each of the hosting system posses. Usually small and medium ecommerce companies are served well with hosted solution. In exchange for transaction fee, their chosen platforms take care about the technical aspect of accepting online payment, giving more time and resources to run the business.

This post is dedicated to highlight the advantage of hosted checkout solution.

• They are absolute quick to launch

Developers from Ecommerce website development company suggest hosted payment platform reduces the technical barriers to slow down the entry your business in the market because everything is already built for you.

However, deploying the most basic version of self hosted online checkout requires the coordinated efforts of several moving parts which includes:

• Checkout page design
• Checkout page hosting
• Checkout page security
• Checkout page translations
• Payment gateway agreements
• Payment options
• Currency support

For running self hosted online checkout, each of these elements needs to integrate so that it works seamlessly. To coordinate these elements together a team of very skilled professionals are needed, which means picking up for hiring skilled professionals from various fields. This kind of process is not only lengthy but also distract the attention of the marketer from the development and growing the business.

In contrast to this,hosted solutions are easily to setup the checkout process. It requires functionality from “out if the box” and self services customization is supported.

2. Have a optimized checkout option with the help of experts

Unless as a company you have a dedicated amount of resource to develop and integrate elements needed for the checkout option, a hosted solution will be the most effective option. It provides access to all the tool and flexibility which can help your ecommerce business to get better conversion.

For enhancing the sale of your business, your ecommerce platform should be mobile friendly for customers and highly flexible to ensure the customers can complete the payment as quickly as possible. This means that all barriers and hesitations are removed like displaying the right language, local currency, and accepting different payment mode.

In case of you being the expert of your industry, a hosted payment solution let you leverage expert in your ecommerce business, thus,providing more time to focus on growing the business while reducing the risk of missing revenue.

3. Reliable and secure

In a self hosted option although it never goes down completely but it is accompanied by several issues such as your cart may not display the product properly or the payment solution is rejecting legitimate credit cards. These kinds of payment options can create a huge impact at the bottom of the conversion and the whole process is dependent on your team to identify and fix the problem accordingly.

In addition to it, there are also range of security threats that fraud practice that has to be dealt by the marketer.  Professionals from Internet marketing company india highlights that in terms of hosted payment platform, the onus for the payment and its security module is handled by the hosted checkout platform and ensure that the security is maintained.

4. Agile

Adding certain component or functionality in self hosted checkout option cannot guarantee that it can work harmoniously after the implementation process. Furthermore, you may end up developing a team which would handle the simplest change such as adjusting prices or cross-sell options to your checkout path.

In terms of hosted solution, it provides you the ability to change the checkout experience through self serve platform. Be it changing price, addition of free trials or implementing the process of rigorous billing process, a hosted platform is just the ideal option to quickly support all the strategy you implement.

5. The platform is highly easy to expand and scale

If expansion is your goal, hosted solution can keep up with it for making your ecommerce venture expands even more. Not only does it support currencies, language and payment to make your international expansion really easy but it also easily accommodate the increased transaction volume

Conclusion

Running a online business is not a work of eating a cake! It is hectic ongoing process that requires to figure out how to attract and retain customers, provide exceptional service and also give quality product. Along with all these responsibilities, the last thing you want yourself to be indulged in technical management, manual calculation and compliance. Therefore, hosted solution is just the ideal way to knock the door of safe, secured and hassle free gateway for your ecommerce business.

More info: https://goo.gl/MhcQRG