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Top 2024 resources on user

Best user resource in 2024.
Learn more about user to improve your e-commerce strategy.

  • 10 User Generated Content Campaigns That Actually Worked [+Expert Insights] - User-generated content (UGC) has become increasingly important over the past few years. 
    Topics: actually, insights, generated, campaigns, customer, customers, product, brand, worked, community, ugc, usergenerated, expert, social, pages, content, user.
  • 10 tips from Philip Kotler to get your message across to the people who do want to buy from you - This expert tells us what to add to this model to be successful in the age of e-commerce.
    Topics: user, tips, right, experience, person, sure, philip, buy, product, tell, offering, shopping, kotler, message, remember.
  • 11 TikTok Video Ideas for Merchants - You’ve downloaded TikTok and browsed the videos. Now you’re wondering what content to create for your ecommerce business. There are many types of videos to attract leads without dancing on camera. Here are 11 ideas for all types of merchants.
    Topics: video, order, orders, followers, merchants, audience, user, product, ideas, videos, tiktok, small.
  • 12 Mobile Apps to Manage a Team - Business teams need to communicate and collaborate on projects and daily tasks, especially when working remotely. Here is a list of mobile apps to manage a team.
    Topics: plans, project, teams, price, mobile, apps, manage, team, projects, tasks, user, start.
  • 12 of the Best WordPress Popup Plugins in 2023 - Despite their overwhelmingly bad reputation, popups are a useful tool, but high conversion potential is not worth sacrificing user experience. Luckily, with the right WordPress popup plugins, you can leverage the high-conversion potential of popups without driving users away.)
    Topics: best, features, popup, page, free, popups, builder, user, plugin, forms, plugins, wordpress.
  • 14 of the Best Mind Mapping Software to Brainstorm Better Ideas - Do you ever feel like you have too many tangled thoughts to jot down? Mind mapping software can help you brainstorm, organize your thoughts, and visually sort information.
    Topics: team, mapping, brainstorm, best, plan, mind, software, better, map, ideas, user, maps, projects.
  • 17 Free Tools for Color, Code, SEO, UI, More - Rarely do small-to-midsize merchants need to spend a lot of money to improve the appearance and performance of their ecommerce sites. Here are handy, free tools for color, code, SEO, much more.
    Topics: free, search, snippets, ui, tools, web, seo, tool, code, icons, color, lets, user.
  • 17 Useful UX and UI Design Tools - User experience and user interface tools can help with every stage of website and mobile-app design — from early whiteboard brainstorming to testing your prototype with end-users. Here is a list of useful UX and UI design tools.
    Topics: ui, user, tools, ux, price, free, start, feedback, useful, prototypes, plans, create, design.
  • 3 experiments for early-stage founders seeking product-market fit - We interviewed three founders from our portfolio, all of whom ran discovery experiments to find their product-market fit at different stages of their company’s development.
    Topics: discovery, went, baby, productmarket, tiny, techcrunch, venture, sofia, experiments, fit, seeking, studio, customer, earlystage, user, founders.
  • 4 Data-Driven Ways to Create More Targeted Ad Campaigns - Digital marketing is undergoing a revolution. Agencies have more granular insight than ever before into how their campaigns are performing. The days of selecting media channels based on broad demographic data and relying on generalized ad impression numbers are over.
    Topics: digital, create, ad, buying, way, targeted, data, track, datadriven, campaigns, based, right, media, user, ways.
  • 45 Slack Tricks to Boost Productivity & Improve Collaboration - Slack is an undeniably popular messaging channel for businesses — it's used by over 12 million people worldwide, and 87% of its users say Slack improves communication and collaboration.
    Topics: productivity, tricks, collaboration, daily, improve, slack, using, used, create, users, worldwide, user, colleagues, boost, messages.
  • 5 Can't-Miss E-Commerce Personalization Ideas - It's time to move beyond mere product recommendations.
    Topics: ideas, search, personalization, items, ecommerce, display, cantmiss, visitors, shopping, user, site, website, personalized.
  • 5 Reasons Your Ecommerce Store Needs a Mobile App Today - The convenience fueled by widespread adoption of smart devices has resulted in a revolution.
    Topics: mobile, ecommerce, shopping, checkout, apps, reasons, users, customer, needs, interactive, user, app, different, experience, store, today.
  • 5 Things to Know Before Launching An Ecommerce Business - Make the online shopping experience as seamless, and social, as possible.
    Topics: content, ecommerce, know, customers, customer, product, launching, search, business, social, marketing, user, store, things.
  • 6 Shopify Store Examples to Inspire Your eCommerce Website Design - There are more than 20 million eCommerce stores in operation across the planet. So the e-entrepreneur has to think hard about how to stand out from the competition. It’s no easy task to shine through a sea of competitive and established e-stores. But the first step is to provide a good user experience. A good […]
    Topics: design, website, stores, ecommerce, site, products, product, online, inspire, examples, shopify, shop, user, store.
  • 68% of Web Analysts Don't Think SGE Will Negatively Impact Traffic: Are They Wrong? - SGE is Google's move to transform the search experience by integrating generative AI. With this massive change to SERPs, many marketers wonder if— or how — it will impact traffic.
    Topics: impact, aiintegrated, content, experience, users, analysts, user, traffic, sge, negatively, think, web, dont, ai, wrong, search.
  • 7 Exit Popup Tips to Get Your Store’s Exit-Intent Popups Right - After helping hundreds of websites with their exit popup strategy, this author thought it was time to share what he learned about exit popups along the way.
    Topics: need, user, stores, popups, popup, right, exitintent, tip, tips, convert, visitors, design, exit, help.
  • 8 Ways to Drive Product Sales on Instagram - More than 130 million users tap on an Instagram shopping post at least monthly. That activity, combined with new shopping features, confirms that Instagram is quickly turning into one of the largest mobile shopping platforms. In this post, I'll review the top avenues for getting your products in front of an Instagram audience.
    Topics: feed, user, shop, shopping, product, swipe, instagram, post, drive, ways, sales, tag, posts, products.
  • 8 Ways to Make Your Website Faster (and Why It Is Critical to Your Business) - Many factors contribute to a successful SEO strategy, and page speed is one of the most important ones.
    Topics: page, things, faster, business, pages, webpage, critical, ways, experience, website, load, speed, user, content, web.
  • 9 Thank You Page Examples to Improve User Experience - Landing pages may be the equivalent of making a good first impression, but thank you pages are the final memory you leave a website visitor with before they go.
    Topics: examples, opportunity, page, thank, provide, improve, users, user, site, content, experience, purchase, customer, event.
  • A Beginner’s Guide to Web Analytics - Pageviews, unique pageviews, new visitors, and returning visitors — they all sound similar, but these metrics are not the same. If you don’t know the difference, you could be misinterpreting your website analytics and making some ill-informed decisions. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
    Topics: analytics, beginners, guide, website, visitors, page, traffic, data, user, site, web, google.
  • A Look Back at 30+ Years of Website Design - Web design has come a long way since 1991, when the first ever website was published. Exclusively text-based, this site marked the beginning of what would become a digital revolution.
    Topics: today, look, websites, web, elements, user, todays, content, design, website, way.
  • A Marketer's Quick Guide to Dynamic Ads - Remember when you'd go to the mall, see something you liked, but then leave without it? Then you’d leave the mall and think about it the whole drive home, wondering if you made the right decision until you forgot about it. That was until you saw someone else with the exact item we wanted. Ah, the good ol’ days.
    Topics: based, product, search, marketers, ads, user, users, ad, quick, relevant, website, dynamic, guide.
  • A Nightmare on E-Commerce St - It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s… oops, wrong genre. It’s that time of year for all things spooky, scary, and spiced pumpkin latte. In keeping with the theme we present common eCommerce horrors sure to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Or, better yet, get the conversation going on how best to avoid them. So grab your sweater, light the fire, lock the doors, and curl up for tonight’s ghost story… A Nightmare On eCommerce Street. Our story begins with a widget and a dream. But what lurks behind the corner? The goblins of eCommerce gone bad: Design Flaws – considering you have a matter of seconds to make a good impression on your site or app, the architecture must produce a flawless user experience from end to end. If the customer experiences delays in page loads, has trouble finding an item or a menu function, or has problems with checkout, that is a lost sale and a lost customer. And unlike a spirit, they won’t return. Have professional developers and UI/UX designers build your site from the beginning with the customer experience at the forefront. The goal is intuitive, de-cluttered flow. An Unreliable Host – how many times have you experienced or heard of this nightmare: it’s the holiday season and a site goes down for two hours on Cyber Monday from traffic volume. That is one expensive roadblock for just two hours. You’ll need to do your homework to find a reliable and responsive host provider who reduces downtime to minutes, if it happens at all. Look for reliability and accessibility to support when issues arise. Problems of Scale – something to think about as you review your digital commerce plan is where you’re heading. Think about your needs of today as in budget, your technological maturity, your product offering, and how fast you want to go to market; but bear in mind where you want to be in 3-5 years. Playing catch up with upgrades is costly. When looking for an eCommerce platform, make sure to lean towards partners and solutions that grow with you. Don’t let eCommerce complexities be the death of your business! Lack of Touchpoints – this frightening tale goes back to site design. When we talk about eCommerce solutions one of the goals is to create an omnichannel experience. Rising smartphone and smart home voice assistant usage are changing how we shop. As a customer browses from in-store, to smartphone, to tablet or laptop, the user experience must fit the device depending how the purchase is made. And as we know, not all screens are created equal. A site must be optimized to eliminate user issues along the buying journey. If not, you risk losing a customer to a competitor who is at the ready to accommodate modern shopping habits. Ignoring the Data – analytics are key for eCommerce experiences. You need to be monitoring cart abandonment rates, conversion rates, buying patterns, and what pages customers are spending their time on and for how long. The more you get to know your customers the better you engage with them from discovery to purchase. Returned Product/Customer Dissatisfaction – no way of testing or trying on the product creates a barrier to customer satisfaction. This leads to buyer hesitation or worse yet, returns. Ecommerce technology has answered the call with augmented reality applications with features like virtual try on; and the ever-essential review function calm many of the fears customers face when buying online. A few key takeaways: Smart, informed design sets you up for success. With proven UX/UI methodologies and industry metrics in place, your site is built to outperform the rest with a seamless user experience your customers can trust   Lean on trusted partners who grow with you. Seek out providers who are less outcome-based and more solutions-based, from the host to the credit card processor   Plan for tomorrow with an eCommerce strategy for where you’re going   Meet the customer where they are. Build an experience for any device and offer diverse payment options aligned with your customers’ habits and preferences   Embrace data and technology. The eCommerce playing field is a competitive one. Analytics and a tech-forward mindset influence the day Looking for more good stories? Follow our blog. And Happy Halloween!
    Topics: st, ecommerce, nightmare, customers, customer, experience, host, user, think, site, buying, youre.
  • AB Tasty raises $40 million to optimize e-commerce user experience - AB Tasty has raised a new $40 million funding round led by Credit Mutuel Innovation, with existing investors Korelya Capital, Omnes, Partech and XAnge also participating. Overall, the startup has raised $64 million. The startup is focused on improving user experience on e-commerce platforms, travel portals, fashion websites and more. It lets you customize the […]
    Topics: customers, tasty, user, ab, trying, users, optimize, raises, end, round, lets, experience, features, ecommerce, techcrunch, million.
  • Ad Tracking: What It Is & How to Do It - Tracking ad engagement and impact has been historically hit-or-miss. There wasn't a universal standard for measuring the success of an ad campaign. In fact, the term ROI (return on investment) wasn't even widely used until the mid-1960s.
    Topics: cookies, users, ads, information, google, help, pixel, user, tracking, ad.
  • Ask an Expert: What Is ReactJS? - “Ask an Expert” is an occasional feature where we pose questions to ecommerce practitioners. For this installment, we’ve turned to Rajesh Bhimani, founder Skynet Technologies, a web development firm. He addresses the purpose and popularity of ReactJS.
    Topics: page, ecommerce, web, user, expert, released, ask, development, facebook, reactjs, mobile, react.
  • - What's the easiest way to extend the functionality of your WordPress.org website?  Answer: Plugins. For the uninitiated, a plugin is a software add-on you can use to add extra features to website platforms like WordPress.  WordPress boasts thousands of plugins… Continue reading Best WordPress Plugins: A Quick Round-Up for 2023
    Topics: page, best, quick, site, user, roundup, website, features, redirect, wordpress, plugin, plugins, billed.
  • Buyer Persona 101: Tips and Examples to Create Yours - In the eight years of my marketing career, I've always believed that good marketing ultimately boils down to how well you know your buyers.
    Topics: buyers, data, marketing, create, persona, buyer, user, tips, customer, customers, examples, personas.
  • CommerceCo Recap: 3 R’s Are Changing Targeted Advertising - For years, online sellers large and small have depended on targeted advertising to acquire and engage shoppers. But changes at leading tech companies, legislation, and consumer-privacy concerns are hastening the end of individual tracking and some forms of ad targeting.
    Topics: advertising, rs, changing, changes, tracking, recap, idfa, google, individuals, user, regulation, commerceco, cookies, targeted, ad.
  • Content Management Systems (CMS) and the Front End - What your customer sees and how they interact with your content matters. User experience is at the forefront of eCommerce success stories, and a key part of that experience is how you as a business create and manage content. A Content Management System (CMS) is software that helps you create, manage, and change content with rudimentary knowledge of code, or even no knowledge of code at all. Here we’ll take a look at different use cases for a CMS and how it relates to front end development. Let’s begin with a few basic comparisons: Front End – anything the user sees and interacts with, or rather the look and feel of your site and functionality like cart and navigation with no interaction with the code or development. Most often called the public facing portion of your site. Back End – what goes on in the server side. The analogy is a car engine with all its complexities; the back end consists of API, business logic, data storage, and user authentication; what largely is the developer’s world. When it comes to CMS, it’s usually managed as back-end functionality and it determines the content shown on the front end for any visitor on the site. A few examples of popular CMS names in the marketplace include Wix, Drupal, or WordPress. These applications allow for admin changes without the responsibility of knowing code. However, the confusing part is there are technically both front and back-end functionalities to a CMS. Let’s look at three CMS types: Traditional CMS – Like the names we’ve mentioned above, a traditional CMS allows an admin to create, publish and edit content with an easy front-end interface like an HTML editor. The file and codes are stored in a back-end database to run the CMS platform. The issue with a traditional CMS is the front and back ends are tightly coupled which results in a limited pre-built application which results in limited control as to where content goes. Headless CMS – this term comes from the decoupling of the front and back-end functions of the CMS. A headless CMS is deemed “front end agnostic”; there is no default presentation layer. What this means for eCommerce brands? In a headless CMS world, you are free to distribute content to as many “heads” as you desire driven by APIs. That may be smartphones, dedicated apps, or any channel of your choosing. Bear in mind when choosing a Headless CMS you’ll need to build out a front end customized for your needs. The great news is there are vendors who specialize in providing these development services. Watch our CEO Jamus Driscoll talk with Patrick Friday, CEO and co-founder of Vue Storefront about the differences between front end as a service and a CMS in an installment of the web series, “The One Question”.   In essence, a traditional CMS appeals to the marketing side of the house, and the headless side to the developer. While there are benefits to both, a hybrid approach is another option. Consider this scenario: marketers who may have little knowledge of the tech stack are dependent on IT support to get changes made to reflect the business need. This creates tension, bottlenecks, and stalled responses to change. And there’s more… Phase- driven innovation – You may start with website and rollout to channels gradually. Think of this as an omnichannel strategy eventually evolving into a dedicated app, or a broader business model (B2B, B2C, D2C) Integrate more tooling – once you’ve adopted a hybrid approach, you’ll have better experiences with analytics and CRM tools Empower your team – adopting a hybrid CMS allows for less friction between the business and tech sides   What does it mean to have a Composable architecture? Discover more about the latest approach to ecommerce, it's three core architectural tenets, and whether or not the approach is right for you. Read the Guide Take an at-a-glance comparison of each CMS type: Traditional CMS Ideal for marketers Ease-of-use interface Manage page structure and templates Little flexibility where content ultimately goes Headless CMS Flexibility to push content anywhere driven by APIs Better user experience Not as marketer friendly when changes arise Heavier dependence on IT Hybrid CMS The same flexibility for omnichannel content through APIs Ease-of-use interface for marketers Easier maintenance The Choice is Yours The ultimate decision of which option will work best really depends on your business needs and your team’s makeup. Consider how and who will be managing your resources, and what customer facing experiences you’re looking to create in a commerce platform.
    Topics: cms, approach, systems, headless, user, code, business, end, backend, create, content, management.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: What It Is and How to Measure It - We’ve all had it happen to us: we try to choose an option on a website, and right before we click, the page jumps away and we end up clicking something we didn’t mean to. Doh!
    Topics: experience, cls, performance, layout, content, web, cumulative, shift, page, site, website, measure, user.
  • Customer Experience Could Be The Reason Your Online Shoppers Aren’t Converting - All humans — including your customers — are emotional creatures.
    Topics: shoppers, customers, users, converting, website, online, customer, brand, experience, user, arent, reason, trust, product, products.
  • Data Tracking: What Is It and What Are the Best Tools - When data is surfaced, organized, analyzed, and applied effectively, you have the power to delight more customers and improve your business’s bottom line. But first, you need to obtain all of that valuable information.
    Topics: tools, web, page, tracking, best, track, tool, website, product, data, user, customer.
  • Dwell Time is the SEO Metric You Need to Track - This morning, I made a quick Google search.
    Topics: page, average, dwell, pages, user, readers, metrics, duration, track, good, session, need, metric, seo.
  • - Online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Vinted will now have to report sales made on their platforms by end users to the tax office. This is part of a new EU law. Private sellers will be reported when they make over 2,000 euros or have over 30 transactions per…
    Topics: countries, law, platforms, eu, report, sales, marketplaces, users, sellers, user, tax.
  • Ecommerce Chatbots 101: What Are They And Do You Need one? - There are any number of ways consumers today can connect with a brand and purchase products online – whether that’s on a website, in a mobile app, over email, on the phone, through social media, or in-store. While the number of options can at first seem disorienting, the majority of modern customers are using more than one channel to engage with brands and could have anywhere up to 20 touch points before buying. They demand convenience and speed and are more than willing to find an alternative when they have negative experiences, or their expectations aren’t met. When only 9% of consumers today say they’re brand loyal, it’s vital that companies make it as simple and frictionless as possible for customers to connect with their business. Whether they’re purchasing a product for the first time, a returning customer looking to connect with support or return products, businesses need to provide positive, seamless experiences. This is why chatbots have become such a hot commodity for ecommerce companies. According to drift, they are the fastest growing brand communication channel. Gartner even predicted that chatbots would power 85% of customer service interactions by 2020 and Nielsen found that 56% of online shoppers said they preferred to resolve issues through messaging apps than call customer service. Chatbots can even act as another purchasing pathway. In fact, ecommerce chatbot transactions are projected to amount to $112 billion by 2023. In this post we will dive a little deeper into chatbots and answer some of the top questions you might have, including: What are ecommerce chatbots? Why you should be considering them How chatbots work How to determine your chatbot strategy Examples of killer chatbots in action today What is a chatbot? So what is a chatbot? A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate human conversation, either as voice or text communication. They allow consumers to quickly and digitally interact with companies, without having to talk to a real person. In many cases, chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI)-based programs designed to provide answers or support for consumers based on pre-defined programs or specific keywords. They can also however, help facilitate live conversations between businesses and customers, speeding up response times to support inquires and improving the overarching consumer experience. What are the benefits of chatbots in ecommerce? According to HubSpot, 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less. Having the ability to answer questions 24/7, either automatically or via live chat, is the number one benefit of chatbots according to consumers (source: Drift). However, there are several other advantages, especially for ecommerce businesses: Boosted revenue through conversational commerce. This includes enabling a full cart & checkout process through chatbots, whether that’s in Facebook messenger or other social media pages, in messaging apps or event over text. Reduced abandoned shopping carts. You can trigger your bot to send a private message to consumers that never finished checking out a reminder and request to complete their purchase. According to chatbot magazine, Using abandoned cart chatbots alongside Messenger boosts eCommerce revenue by 7-25%. Prevent returns. Ecommerce chatbots can preemptively intervene in a shopping process that might go wrong based on certain behaviors. Save on customer support costs and give your team time back. According to IBM, chatbots can save businesses as much as 30% on customer support costs. Setting up chatbots to cover the basic support questions that you get over and over again will help you avoid having to consistently answer them live, meaning your team can focus on the more difficult inquiries, and you don’t have to hire more staff. Personalize shopping. Personalized recommendations are one of the most important features a business can leverage, and chatbots are one way to deliver them. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. Depending on the complexity of your bot, you can use it to understanding a customer’s preferences and cater product recommendations accordingly. Chatbots will ultimately help alleviate some of the most frustrating experiences online shoppers face, including hard to navigate sites, poor search experiences, the inability to find answers quickly, and poorly designed mobile experiences. How Chatbots work A key differentiator between chatbot tools is whether they’re rules-based scripting or leverage learning algorithms and natural language processing. Chatbots are programmed with conversation trees, a mapping of “bot says / user says” dialogs. Responses can be closed (predetermined) or open (type a question/response), or a mix of both. Image: Chatteron.io Demo Scripted scenarios are great for common customer support inquiries that can easily be served by quick answers or links to shipping and return policies, or similar content. Of course, this limitation may leave customers unsatisfied. Some rules-based chatbot tools allow you to transfer a user to a live agent if their questions can’t be resolved by the bot. More nuanced chat requires natural language processing to infer intent and to map open responses to bot replies. A chatbot using NLP (natural language processing) looks at a user’s utterance, parse out entities to infer intent. It then matches intent to predetermined intents you create, such as “showGifts.” Utterance is what the user says. For example, “I’m looking for a gift for my 3-year old son.” Intent is what it sounds! It’s what your user most likely wants to know or do. Entities are data buckets that include keywords and phrases with similar characteristics that modify user intent. For example, “gift ideas,” “gift suggestions,” “gift recommendations,” “gifts,” “best gifts for,” “presents for,” “present recommendations.” And “3 year old son,” “three year old boy” “3 yr old,” “toddler boy,” “son,” et cetera. Natural language programming can match intent to pre-built responses more flexibly than rules-based bots. But NLP without a machine learning component falls short of truly being “AI-driven.” AI chatbots will recognize patterns and optimize itself based on user interaction and feedback, but often require human training to fine-tune their algorithms. *Chatbot solutions that use NLP but don’t include training capabilities are not considered AI chatbots in this guide. Whether you choose a rules-based, NLP-enabled or full-on AI chatbot solution, be prepared to invest time in mapping out and scripting conversation trees, building sets of entities and defining intents. Many chatbots offer pre-built templates to guide your conversation, but still require contextual input from you. Also, keep in mind good AI requires more training before release than people think. Natural language processing doesn’t just “know everything” out of the box.   Looking to commerce enable your chatbot? Join the many brands leveraging conversational commerce today. Chat with an Elastic Path expert to see how our headless solutions will help. Go to Post Determining your chatbot strategy There are a few types of chatbots to consider, and which route you choose will depend entirely on your business strategy. You may want to enable support, personalized shopping, or even transactions from within your bot. You may also decide at the end of the day that you want your bot to be purely informational, helping users find resources and answer questions themselves. Minimum viable chatbot If your goal is simply to make live help available 24/7, relieve chat agents of the 70% of questions that can be handled by a chatbot, or configure light product recommendation dialogs, you’ll be covered by any business-user friendly, self-service tool. Most support Facebook Messenger and/or your own site widget, and many use natural language processing to match responses to intent. Facebook Messenger Marketing If chat is one part of a larger Facebook marketing strategy, including cart recovery, automated sequencing (remarketing) and ads, look for platforms that include these tools. Advanced chatbots If you see conversational commerce as a key initiative, you want more flexibility to train your AI, deploy to multiple messaging platforms, devices and touchpoints, and own your code. Look for a build framework that jives with your platform, cloud services and IT’s preferred programming languages. Choose your Channel(s) You may opt to host your own chatbot, or leverage third-party messenger applications such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, KiK or Skype. You may also want to jump into voice commerce, integrating with Alexa or Google Assistant. Why use Facebook Messenger Chatbots First-movers like 1-800-Flowers, ASOS, Sephora and Nike have all embraced Facebook Messenger, thanks to its high user adoption rates and in-chat purchase capabilities (63% of shoppers are willing to buy through SMS). Messenger chatbots support natvie payment through Facebook Pay (US only) or Stripe. Image: ChatbotGuide.org An added benefit -- whether a visitor engages with your Facebook chatbot or not, they can be retargeted through Messenger with offer codes, cart recovery messages, back-in-stock alerts and other notifications (with up to 80% open rate). Some Facebook chatbot vendors described below allow you to build and manage segmented “automated sequencing” campaigns in addition to building chatbot scripts. Why use your own chatbot To ensure all-inclusivity, consider using your own chatbot. You can use multiple bots, but keep in mind the impact on performance when running multiple scripts. You may choose to leverage Facebook Pixels for Messenger retargeting without using a Messenger bot as your on-site concierge. Why explore voice commerce While only 2% of Alexa owners made a voice purchase in 2018, voice-enabled commerce has since become a touchpoint within a broader shopping journey. Just over ten percent (10.8%) of digital shoppers used Alexa for shopping in 2020. 47% of smart speaker owners (around 25 million in the US) use voice assistants for product search and research, and 43% use them to make shopping lists. If you want to get in early on this action (like Walmart’s Voice Order), consider building Alexa Skills or Google Assistant applications. Identify Your Must-have Ecommerce Chatbot Features Regardless of whether or choose to build or buy your bot, you should know your must-have features before you get started. Make note of any of the following that apply to your project: Team collaboration Voice capabilities In-chat payments Live chat takeover Integration with email, CRM, accounting, analytics, etc Ability to train your AI Extensibility to devices, systems and third party platforms Multi-language support Tagging and user segmentation Remarketing and SMS notifications Built-in user and A/B testing Many bot options offer features that can address the above list Drag & drop UI Developer support 3 Examples of Chatbots in Action With the general growing acceptance of chatbots from customers, they have quickly become a staple channel for brands across a wide array of industries. 34% of online retail store customers accept AI chatbots, more so than in any other industry. While retail businesses and their consumers might have been some of the earliest adopters, we are seeing companies in a wide array of industries including travel, leisure, banking, and finance, implement chatbots as a part of their overarching business strategy. Lulus Popular online clothing retailer Lulus leverages their website chatbot to help customers understand more about what size will fit them, answer questions about tracking & orders, give stylist advice, and even offer specific bridal support.   Bank of America Bank of America, one of the leading banking brands today, offers a personal financial assistant, called Erica, that can be access via their online portal or through their mobile App. With Erica, users can quicky look up their bank account information, recent activity, pay bills, schedule appointments, report fraudulent activity, or request budgeting support. Users can also set up bill reminders, monitor recurring payments, or even credit score changes with FICO Score Insights. Erica reached 7 million users by 2019, one year after debut, and completed over 50 million secure client requests. .        Sephora Beauty giant Sephora is at the top of our list for a number of different ecommerce experiences, including providing one of the world’s leading omnichannel ecommerce experiences, and their chatbot is no exception. Sephora actually offers three different chat experiences, two on Facebook, and their Kik bot. Between the three, customers can book in-store beauty appointments, leverage the brand’s iconic AI Color Match (an experience allowing customers to find the best shade of makeup for their skin tone), find tips and how-to videos, and read reviews. In implementing Kik, Sephora noted that once a user engages, they will send on average 10 messages a day. Conclusion Chatbots are HOT. They help brands build better customer engagement by enabling them to answer questions or support inquires quicker, provide personalized recommendations, and can improve the bottom line by facilitating in-chat commerce and reducing returns and abandoned shopping carts. Any business looking to boost brand loyalty and revenue should consider adding a bot to their channel mix.
    Topics: need, messenger, shopping, chatbots, bot, chatbot, ecommerce, support, facebook, customers, user.
  • - Ecommerce success takes much more than just selling the right product at the right price to the right audience. Many times, buyer decisions are informed by things that have nothing to do with the nature or quality of the product… Continue reading Ecommerce Navigation Best Practices for 2024
    Topics: practices, menu, categories, product, navigation, ecommerce, best, website, search, right, user, bar.
  • Everything You Need to Know About Brand Experience - Online sales are reaching all-time highs as buyers become more comfortable with digital transactions — in 2021, for example, consumers spent a collective $14 billion online across Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
    Topics: know, need, customers, brand, social, consumers, user, experience, create, efforts, positive, customer.
  • Forms Testing: What It Is & How to Do It - The other day I decided that I wanted to buy some comfortable outfits to wear around the house. As I was online shopping, I started to fill out my shipping information in the online form. However, the form had a requirement that the "City" field could only be 20 characters long. Now, the city I live in is three words, and 22 characters typed out.
    Topics: form, users, online, requirements, elements, user, test, forms, important, set, testing, copy.
  • How AI Search Pushes the Commercial Web to its Edge - Today, online commerce is centered around driving traffic and conversions to websites. Lately, I’ve been thinking, what happens when ChatGPT-style search engines send people answers, rather than links?  In recent months, both Microsoft and Google released chat-enabled, question-answering search offerings powered by generative AI. Google also recently announced a conversational integration into its Shopping Graph. While some AI chat answers seem cut from the movie “Her,” others are surprisingly useful, compiling information from multiple sources. Frankly, chat answers take some getting used to for experts in “Googling” as we know it. But, it’s not hard to imagine how this change could be useful for high-intent shoppers. Case in point, a friend of mine was looking for a booster seat for her six-year-old son and spent hours trying to figure out whether he met the height and weight requirements of specific seats. She finally found the answer, embedded deeply within Amazon’s Q&A results, and bought that seat right away. This is a perfect example of a high-intent search that could have been drastically shortened by chat, leading to an immediate purchase. Microsoft aptly named its ChatGPT-powered browser “Edge.” I believe the commerce world will need to respond to AI with edge commerce. We're already seeing how edge commerce can play out in edge checkout, with social and email “buy now” buttons removing friction from the customer’s point of discovery. Push that a level further, and we may see the commerce website and commerce platform as we know it “unbundle” in response. AI as an extension of the API economy Developments such as plugins for ChatGPT fit neatly into a trend that’s been happening behind the scenes in tech — the API economy. While APIs are nothing new, these interfaces are what make modern software components integrate with one another. APIs share information across multiple technologies, many times from different providers. As venture capital firm A16Z predicted, “traditional, large programs are being broken down into and being offered as — or with data exposed to — services. But more importantly, these pieces and services are being recombined by other companies to create something new… it’s combinatorial innovation in action.” The problem is most underlying commerce systems are not set up with this connectivity and innovation in mind. Commerce platforms are often walled off and deeply entrenched. They frequently require a middle orchestration layer between APIs and legacy systems operating behind the scenes. These legacy systems might control order management, payments and other business-critical tasks. This technology workaround manifests itself to the shopper via a broken user experience. For example, a social media user might try to transact on an ad, finding that inventory is sold out on a social platform but available on a website. That’s a lack of integration on full display.  Other user experience issues abound — from irrelevant product recommendations to “shop the look” pages that don’t redirect shoppers to the exact items and colors in stock. Merchants that want to take advantage of AI chat-based search engines will need to think about the flexibility of their backend commerce systems. Think of the website as a “hub” of information that must be disseminated to a variety of different distribution channels as “spokes.” AI is just one of those channels. APIs must push and pull data efficiently and effectively to each distribution channel. Get hands on with an Elastic Path Free Trial Start building the commerce experience your unique business demands with a free Elastic Path Commerce Cloud account. Get in touch with us and we will setup a Free Trial store for you for six weeks. Sign up for a free trial What will these changes look like for shoppers?  The primary look and feel of a commerce website might not change for shoppers overnight. Incremental changes tend to happen first.  In fact, some commerce websites have already begun experimenting with ChatGPT integrations to help shoppers find what to buy, or to enhance product descriptions for better conversions. It’s not hard to imagine that as search habits change among consumers, chat-based search capabilities will be embedded into every commerce website.  I The structure of information behind the scenes will change, so that when a consumer asks a question, it’s not hard for the AI system to retrieve an accurate answer.  As a result, I imagine that Q&As become more prominent parts of every website. Digital storefronts will be able to replicate the store associate interaction - can I help you today? Data embedded within user reviews might pop up more readily for chat-based searchers. Customer service requests might be more easily resolved online, with robust knowledge-bases feeding into AI-powered customer service answer engines. These things all exist today but are cumbersome and most often deliver an unsatisfactory experience because they just respond with a link to some other data source that is barely relevant. Suddenly, the AI technology that powers them has become more powerful and accurate, and, most importantly, more relevant to the inquiry, all in real time. I also expect commerce sites to be able to push and pull their data to various services (powered by social commerce, search, brand partners, marketplaces, and more), so that shoppers can ask questions anywhere and get consistent answers. Shoppers should also be able to check out at the point of discovery, meaning that transactional technologies and underlying catalog infrastructure must be flexible and API-powered, as well.  AI search is still early in its development, and there are plenty of flaws. Chief among the challenges is misinformation, which makes it hard to trust the results of AI search. Today, it’s still messy. But, much like any technological shift, change happens gradually, then suddenly. A few decades ago, we couldn’t have imagined that smartphones would work their way so prominently into our daily lives. We’d never bark orders at a speaker to buy paper towels. That’s why it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine shoppers choosing the lowest-friction path toward finding what they need on an increasingly crowded and competitive web. For many, that may mean chatting with machines.
    Topics: today, commercial, ai, shoppers, website, change, search, data, user, commerce, systems, pushes, edge, web.
  • How Apple's iOS 14.5 Release Could Impact Advertisers - Imagine this: You run a successful online store and have a sleek app that makes shopping a breeze.
    Topics: users, app, mobile, user, ios, release, advertisers, apple, impact, privacy, apples, data, tracking.
  • How Augmented Reality Can Propel Ecommerce Growth - Have you tried to catch a Pokémon lately? Or experimented with silly Snapchat filters? Or attempted to fit the perfect…
    Topics: product, reality, ar, work, app, users, virtual, ecommerce, customers, user, does, augmented.
  • How Experiential Ecommerce is Digitally Reconceptualizing Human Connection - Experiential ecommerce is changing the way people shop online, as brands shift gears towards humanizing connection.
    Topics: shopping, reconceptualizing, digitally, human, feel, connection, consumers, experiential, brands, ecommerce, experience, user.
  • How Google's Head of Startups LATAM Helps Brands Globalize Their Business [+Tips for Marketers] - Nike. McDonald's. Airbnb.
    Topics: users, helps, startups, user, business, latam, youre, brands, barrence, market, marketing, globalize, marketers, local, international, head, product, tips, googles.
  • How HubSpot Manages a Giant Website With a Tiny Team - I can’t write a single line of code. So, it was a big surprise to me when I was asked to lead our new global web strategy team three years ago.
    Topics: manages, team, strategy, pages, web, management, website, user, giant, tiny, business, hubspot, conversion, site.
  • How an Ecommerce Company Went From Unicorn to Small Fish - India's ShopClues had positioned itself as an ecommerce giant before Amazon entered the picture. Then, a series of missteps led to the company's hard fall.
    Topics: went, amazon, business, tiger, valuation, user, unicorn, company, ecommerce, fish, small, million, flipkart, funding, shopclues.
  • How to Add YouTube Videos to Your Website: A Step-by-Step Guide - Video adds value to your website, and the right videos can help drive increased traffic and conversion. As noted by Forbes, users retain 95% of the message when they watch videos compared to just 10 percent by text, making video a great starting point to streamline connection with prospective customers.
    Topics: videos, youtube, stepbystep, video, website, guide, html, users, add, embed, user, site, code.
  • How to Increase Email Sign-ups With Better Forms (+Examples) - In the last 12 months, 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement. Cold prospects get to know and trust you, while you stay top of mind (or top of inbox). However, your team needs to drive signups to reap the benefits.
    Topics: signup, page, offer, examples, conversion, signups, user, form, forms, increase, visitors, website, leads, email, better.
  • How to Make the Perfect Product Page: Tips for Success - Tips to make the perfect product page for each of your store's products so you can drive more conversions & earn more profit!
    Topics: button, product, perfect, users, page, tips, buying, shoppers, images, products, user, going, success.
  • How to Protect Your Online Store - Your store’s security is critical, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Get the checklist of tools, strategies, and practices you need to protect your store!
    Topics: secure, online, security, place, protect, data, user, password, store, website, hackers, site.
  • How to Write the Best SOPs for Your Company - Imagine this: You’re a project manager at a boutique marketing firm tasked with training the new PM and getting them up to speed on how to do their job to meet expectations. To fulfill this request, you probably had to learn a series of actions already set in place. That series of actions is called a standard operating procedure, or SOP for short, and they help to routinize job functions. As your company requires more standardized processes to run, such as managing your iPaaS integrations or building email campaigns, SOPs become invaluable for keeping everything in-line. In this guide, we'll explain the basics of SOPs and how to write them. Then, we'll recommend our favorite software tools for creating and executing SOPs. Let's dive in.
    Topics: include, list, procedure, write, best, company, sop, user, month, writing, sops, processes.
  • Hreflang Tags: The SEO Attribute for Content in Multiple Languages - Have you ever visited a webpage that was in a different language, and your browser asked you if you wanted to change it to your first language?
    Topics: user, languages, content, engines, multiple, page, language, hreflang, search, different, attribute, tag, seo, tags.
  • Implementing Two-Factor Authentication Throughout Magento - We are responding to the growing security threat by supporting (and in some cases requiring) 2FA across multiple areas of the Magento ecosystem. Read more.
    Topics: magentocom, implementing, twofactor, user, ssh, authentication, 2fa, admin, account, security, cloud, magento.
  • In Google Ads, Balance Automated Bids with User Control - In "3 Handy Google Ads Scripts to Automate Tasks," I addressed methods to expedite pay-per-click management. But, in my experience, advertisers should cautiously embrace Google's push to automate campaigns. The key is to find the right balance of automation and user control.
    Topics: conversions, bids, google, cpa, bid, set, target, maximize, clicks, example, user, balance, ads, ad, control, strategies, automated.
  • Inside the Social Platform: The Design Choices That Could Help Threads Stay Viral (& What Could’ve Inspired Them) - In July 2023, Mark Zuckerberg launched Meta’s much-anticipated X competitor: Threads. Meta’s vision for this new social platform was to offer “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations” that was built on the foundation of Instagram’s existing community, content, and infrastructure.
    Topics: experience, social, inside, platform, inspired, instagram, help, user, content, couldve, users, viral, data, threads, design, stay, meta.
  • Make it Big Podcast: Optimizing Checkout for a Frictionless User Experience - Welcome to The Make it Big Podcast, a bi-weekly audio series about all things ecommerce by BigCommerce. In this episode,…
    Topics: big, frictionless, checkout, average, order, user, fast, podcast, click, product, payment, optimizing, payments, buy, way, experience.
  • MaxRewards banks $3M to reveal best payment methods that reap the most rewards - MaxRewards is a digital wallet app that manages credit cards and automatically activates benefits like rewards, cashback offers and monthly credits.
    Topics: methods, techcrunch, app, khan, watson, reap, maxrewards, cards, banks, card, credit, reveal, user, company, payment, rewards, 3m, best.
  • Mobile Conversion Rate: What It Is and How To Increase It - Is your website ready to attract and convert mobile website visitors into leads?  According to Adobe, companies with mobile-optimized sites triple their chances of increasing mobile conversation rate to 5% or above.
    Topics: user, landing, page, conversion, content, bounce, mobile, increase, visitors, smart, rate.
  • Mobile Form Design: A Beginners Guide to Converting Mobile Users - Think about a time when you were on the train, sitting in the airport, or simply lying on the couch, and you had to complete an online form on your smartphone. Did you ever pay attention to the mobile form design?
    Topics: beginners, fields, form, converting, experience, user, visitors, users, guide, forms, mobile, design, complete, screen.
  • Nourish + Bloom Market, first Black-owned, autonomous grocery, opens in Atlanta - The grocery store and bistro offer over 1,000 locally-sourced, healthy food products, including produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals.
    Topics: nourish, grocery, bloom, jamie, market, blackowned, user, started, store, hemmings, food, atlanta, opens, ago, autonomous, techcrunch.
  • October 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts - Since 2005 we've published thousands of articles, webinars, and podcast episodes to, hopefully, help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the most popular articles that we published in October 2020. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
    Topics: ecommerce, posts, read, courses, articles, user, list, content, day, popular, design, prime.
  • Privacy Changes on Apple Devices, Chrome Will Impact Targeted Advertising - Privacy-related changes impacting Apple mobile devices and Google's Chrome browser will make it more difficult for businesses to target advertising at specific customers across platforms, applications, and devices. At issue are two separate technologies that are connected because of their privacy implications.
    Topics: ios, privacy, app, apple, changes, idfa, devices, targeted, user, advertising, safari, ahene, facebook, advertisers, google, chrome, cookies, impact.
  • Quality Score: Why It Matters and 6 Steps to Improve It - Running an ad campaign is no small feat. From narrowing down your target audience to designing your landing page, there are many pieces to the puzzle.
    Topics: score, puzzles, users, ads, page, google, user, quality, ad, matters, landing, steps, improve.
  • Shein overtakes Amazon as the most installed shopping app in US - Shein‘s quiet rise has reached a crescendo as the fast fashion e-commerce app takes the crown from Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android in the United States, according to data from app tracking firm App Annie. Its ascent is quiet because the startup, despite reportedly exceeding a $15 billion valuation, maintains […]
    Topics: amazon, installed, capital, chinese, ecommerce, techcrunch, shopping, user, overtakes, shein, android, app, tiktok, ios.
  • - In today's fast-paced digital world, users expect sites to load quickly and efficiently. Slow website speed can lead to frustrated customers, decreased sales, and lower search engine rankings In this article, we will explore the importance of page speed for… Continue reading Shopify Site Speed Optimization for 2023 (Actionable Insights)
    Topics: insights, actionable, ensure, store, shopify, speed, website, app, load, user, optimization, slow, site.
  • Should Marketers Use Pop-Up Forms? A Comprehensive Analysis - As inbound marketers, we care about creating lovable experiences for our website visitors -- but we also want to generate as many leads as we can for our sales teams. Most of the time we can do both without any problem. But when it comes to pop-up forms, conflict does emerge.
    Topics: forms, dont, visitor, visitors, user, analysis, specific, marketers, page, popups, content, popup, comprehensive.
  • Speed Up Your Slowest Pages with Prefetching - In previous articles I’ve addressed ideas to improve page speed, such as with HTML caching and isolating slow loading resources. In this post, I'll explain how to determine your slowest pages and apply a simple fix to speed them up.
    Topics: web, prefetching, target, speed, browser, load, slowest, pages, page, slow, report, user.
  • Stripe expands its infrastructure play with Data Pipeline to sync financial data with Amazon and Snowflake - Stripe — the payments giant valued at $95 billion — is on a product sprint to expand its services and functionality beyond the basic payments that form the core of its business today. Today the company took the wraps off Data Pipeline, an infrastructure product that will let its users create links between their Stripe […]
    Topics: snowflake, infrastructure, sync, payments, play, financial, amazon, techcrunch, users, business, services, expands, user, data, stripe, pipeline, product.
  • Tackling touchpoints on your customer’s path to purchase - Many startups are hyper-focused early on with their ads' click-through rate (CTR) and the conversion rate (CVR) for purchases. This is good information, but it leaves so much more to be desired.
    Topics: touchpoint, purchase, marketing, best, user, ad, tackling, customers, email, retargeting, techcrunch, campaign, path, different, touchpoints.
  • Technical Marketing: Best Practices and Career Tips - You'll need a solid technical marketing strategy if you sell a complex product or service.
    Topics: products, technical, career, user, tips, industry, best, practices, need, marketing, skills, product, content.
  • The 10 Obstacles Keeping You From Great Product Design - From the hazards of linear thinking to "feature creep," roadblocks between your product design team and success, and how to overcome them.
    Topics: user, design, obstacles, users, approach, need, great, key, products, designers, keeping, product, team.
  • The 4 Most Important Pages on Your Website (& How to Optimize Them) - When you're knee-deep into the design of your website, it's hard to admit this fact: Some of the pages on your website are more important than others.
    Topics: optimize, website, cta, important, user, blog, hubspot, business, contact, information, page, pages.
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Usability Testing [+ Sample Questions] - In practically any discipline, it's a good idea to have others evaluate your work with fresh eyes, and this is especially true in user experience and web design. Otherwise, your partiality for your own work can skew your perception of it. Learning directly from the people that your work is actually for — your users — is what enables you to craft the best user experience possible.
    Topics: guide, users, beginners, testing, user, task, experience, usability, study, design, participants, questions, sample, product.
  • The Best 17 Website Plugins in 2022 - There may be a feature or experience you want to add to your website, but you don’t have the coding chops to build it yourself. A website plugin can help.
    Topics: plugins, help, site, social, wordpress, website, plugin, proof, case, best, user.
  • The Best 18 Online Quiz Makers for Boosting User Engagement in 2021 - Grabbing — and keeping — your audience’s attention has never been harder. Nowadays, people are bombarded with marketing 24/7, and yet in the last five years, the average attention span has actually dropped — to a mere eight seconds.
    Topics: quiz, free, best, plan, forms, online, user, data, engagement, maker, boosting, makers, quizzes, sourcepricing, tool.
  • The Best Shopify Themes for Conversion Rate Optimization - Use these Shopify themes that have been created with a streamlined user-experience & website design in mind to boost your conversion rate optimization!
    Topics: users, themes, product, site, best, optimization, conversion, customers, theme, shopify, rate, user, products.
  • The Death of the Third-Party Cookie: What Marketers Need to Know About Google's 2022 Phase-Out - What do marketers and Sesame Street monsters have in common? They LOVE cookies.
    Topics: advertising, cookie, death, thirdparty, user, need, phaseout, web, data, privacy, know, cookies, googles, marketers, google.
  • The Keys to More Ecommerce Conversions - Ecommerce conversion rate optimization and user experience are complementary, but the former works best when businesses focus on shopper expectations, competitive innovation, and the industry segment.
    Topics: business, experience, uber, cro, conversions, chen, user, expectations, keys, shoppers, ecommerce, ux.
  • The Major SEO Trends of 2020, According to HubSpot's Director of Acquisition - In SEO, everything is anchored in user experience. And that experience hinges on providing the information that a person searches for, in a way that search engines can identify. That’s how search engines provide relevant information to users.
    Topics: user, acquisition, search, site, hubspot, seo, google, director, users, content, trends, major, hubspots, according, intent, results.
  • The Most Annoying Types of Ads & What to Do Instead [New Data] - A 2019 Edelman study found that three out of four consumers avoid ads. In fact, 47% said they have changed their media habits to see fewer ads while others use ad blockers to prevent them altogether.
    Topics: right, revjet, annoying, consumers, video, data, study, types, instead, user, brand, popup, ads, ad.
  • The Plain English Guide to Google's Knowledge Graph - Before I began writing at HubSpot, I worked at two small businesses. Really small. Both had fewer than five employees. Honestly, any time "SEO" was mentioned the whole team got anxiety. There was no SEO expert — or even an employee who had vast experience in it. Marketing teams who lack knowledge in SEO often feel like they're playing catch up and aren't sure if they can deliver results for their clients. Trust me — I get it.
    Topics: panel, googles, knowledge, site, search, google, graph, plain, user, guide, english, information, page.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics in 2022 - Are you confused — even intimidated — by Google Analytics? Good news: you’re not alone. GA is notoriously complicated, and with the latest release — GA4 — things are just about clear as mud.
    Topics: users, site, pages, report, google, guide, data, page, ultimate, user, goal, analytics.
  • Top Technology-Driven B2B ECommerce Trends - B2B eCommerce has rapidly been changing over the past few years, and 2021 is no exception. With the disruption of COVID-19, new trends have emerged and the eCommerce landscape is transforming. B2B companies are implementing new strategies to adapt to the technological changes and take advantage of cloud-based technology, Headless Commerce, and progressive web applications (PWAs). Below are some of the major Technology-Driven B2B eCommerce trends of 2021, as well as some key calls to action for B2Bs to optimize their eCommerce strategy. The Cloud: The spread of cloud computing and cloud-based eCommerce has continued to grow, with many businesses migrating ERPs to the cloud to adjust to the disruptions of the pandemic. Cloud eCommerce solutions have helped brands to discover new cybersecurity technologies, leverage analytics, utilize big data, and take advantage of developments in the internet of things (IoT). Key data shows that: 30% of all IT budgets are allocated to Cloud computing, with 94% of enterprises already using Cloud services (Source) 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020, and the public Cloud service market is expected to reach $623.3 billion by 2023 (Source) 50% of enterprises spend more than $1.2 million on Cloud services annually (Source) More than $1.3 trillion in IT spending will be affected by the shift to the Cloud by 2022 (Source) 66% of enterprises have a central Cloud team or Cloud center of excellence (Source) ECommerce solutions presented by the Cloud are also touted for their ease of deployment, scalability, and lower costs of ownership. Some of the key benefits offered by cloud computing to B2B organizations’ eCommerce efforts include: Enhanced cybersecurity: With the evolving relationships between clients and Cloud Service providers such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft, both parties are responsible for separate aspects of cloud security. Bot detection, fraud protection, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) technologies have all grown, implementing real-time detection and automated response tools to maximize cybersecurity. Scalability and flexibility: Migrating an eCommerce system to the cloud provides a highly scalable environment, empowering B2B businesses to respond to market fluctuations. Businesses can take advantage of the cloud to meet changes in demand and adapt to new scenarios with speed, flexibility, and precision. Rather than installing new servers and experiencing development or implementation costs, organizations can modify capacity based on traffic, demand, and changing opportunities. Removing maintenance and risks: With The Cloud, B2B businesses can run their eCommerce software in a safe external data center, with both hardware and software being monitored and maintained. Working with a Cloud Service provider mitigates risk and shares responsibility. In addition to improving cybersecurity, B2Bs can reduce maintenance costs and avoid allocating resources towards uptime, back-ups, datacenter facilities, and data privacy. Growing digital sales channels: More and more B2B companies are becoming highly dependent on digital sales channels, as emphasized by new market-driven trends. With COVID- 19, digital sales channels have become increasingly important to B2B sellers, and migrating eCommerce to a cloud-based system enables firms to reallocate resources towards digital sales channels and adaptive digital practices instead. Headless Commerce: With headless technology, the data, business logic, and commerce engine are de-coupled from the front-end storefront. This “headless” architecture offers B2B organizations increased freedom, flexibility, and customization to develop unique front-end interfaces across multiple devices, simultaneously removing the constraints of back-end systems. Key data shows: 61% of retailers claimed to leverage Headless commerce in 2020 (Source) Approximately 80% of respondents to a Gartner survey claimed to either already use or made plans to use Headless Commerce or API-based architecture Page load times showed a 50% to 83% decrease in load time when a Headless architecture was used With Headless Commerce, developers can extend commerce functionalities across digital touchpoints, such as mobile applications and the Internet of Things (IoT). B2B manufacturers have taken advantage of Headless Solutions to provide improved customer experiences; they are creating fast and frictionless digital interfaces while distinguishing themselves from competitors through expedited internal innovation processes. With a headless architecture, B2B brands can deliver API-driven experiences using CMS, DXP, or custom front-end. In addition to the high flexibility, B2Bs are able to implement highly complex commerce requirements while saving time and maximizing their resources, avoiding issues related to development and back-end management without compromising on their overall vision. With the high demand for personalized experiences, B2Bs are using Headless commerce to discover and capitalize on new personalization opportunities, finding new ways to leverage less traditional forms of purchasing. Some of the key advantages of a Headless approach include: Faster loading times on webpages: Approximately 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if the webpage takes more than 3 seconds to load, with a 2-second delay resulting in the abandonment rate rising up to 87%. With Headless Commerce, the de-coupling of the front and- back-end functionalities results in customers having a far smoother and frictionless user experience, with less performance issues and enhanced speed. Unique, custom front-end design: Headless Commerce enables firms to customize the storefront on a strong taxonomy structure with rich product information. By de-coupling the front-and-back-end functionalities, B2Bs can ensure that their customers are presented a well-designed, sleek, and visually aesthetic site. Using further functionalities presented by a Headless architecture can empower self-service capabilities and ensure that users can avoid complex, layered structures. Consistency and Quality: Headless Commerce helps to reduce the loading time on product content from the back-end to the front-end. If information is stored in a PIM, poor optimization and inconsistent displays are avoided even further. Content can be modified and improved in bulk, formatting can be achieved with greater ease, and customization is bolstered. This helps create a greater level of consistency without requiring a comprise in quality, which can be particularly crucial for brands looking to scale, add new products, add new sales channels, or make major changes to their digital storefronts.   Deliver a smoother B2B experience Joinn Bryan Beck and ecommerce experts from Amazon Business and Elastic Path as they discuss the key to delivering a smooth B2B omnichannel experience. Watch the Webinar Progressive Web Applications: Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have emerged as a method for eCommerce businesses to provide their customers improved digital experiences. By using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs), eCommerce companies have enjoyed better page load times, engagement, and conversion rates. With the rise of mobile users and more than 50% of online traffic coming from mobile devices, improving user experience is the key to B2B companies bridging the gap between web experiences and mobile app functionality. PWAs have been touted for their high reliability, speed, and user engagement. Here are some key statistics that illustrate the power of PWAs: PWAs have 36% higher conversion rates than native apps (Source) PWAs register 50% higher customer and user engagement (Source) Businesses that have switched to PWAs have noticed a decrease in page loading speed of up to 10 times PWAs cost 3-4 times less than native mobile apps (Source) PWAs cost 33% less to maintain (Source) PWAs have an average bounce rate of just 42.86% (Source) By caching key resources and using service workers, PWAs can load instantly and meet buyers’ expectations for seamless and quick responses, all while providing a visual and immersive interface. Web-based PWAs can also be more easily discovered with SEO, ranked by search engines such as Bing and Google. In 2021, more and more B2B firms took advantage of PWAs to improve the search engine performance of their websites, and Gartner predicts that PWAs will only continue to rise in popularity. Some of the key benefits of PWAs for B2Bs include: Increased mobile traffic: Given the higher conversion rates, increased user engagement, and reduced bounce rates, PWAs have proven extremely effective in driving increased mobile traffic towards websites. This is key for B2Bs seeking to increase mobile engagement and take advantage of the increasing mobile usage demonstrated by the market. Decreased development costs: A single PWA can meet the requirements of all endpoints that it operates on, significantly reducing the effort, time, and cost associated with development. Despite this, PWAs also involve a shorter and simpler installation process, and can be customized to provide responsive and visually appealing user experiences. Improved performance: By caching and serving text, images, and rich content, PWAs improve efficiency and can operate like websites with better running speeds and load times. B2Bs stand to benefit by adopting PWAs, as they provide an improved user experience that translates to higher retention and lower bounce rates. This, combined with seamless offline operation, no issues with updating, and flexibility across endpoints makes PWAs an extremely efficient and effective alternative to native mobile apps. 2021 and Beyond: B2B eCommerce showcased new opportunities and high growth in 2021. These are just some of the technology-driven trends that represent how B2B companies are adapting to the changes caused by COVID-19, providing customers with fresh digital experiences, and leveraging new technology to deliver on buyers’ expectations. Check out our blog on the top Market- Driven B2B eCommerce Trends of 2021 to learn more about how 2021 has solidified B2B eCommerce in various industries and how B2Bs can form a new path forward.
    Topics: headless, trends, key, commerce, ecommerce, technologydriven, cloud, pwas, user, b2b, b2bs, mobile.
  • Topsort, an auction-based advertising startup, now valued at $110M after seed round - When Regina Ye was in college, she was a Shopify seller and recalls being so fed up with advertising solutions that she spent finals week staying up late to figure out how ads worked on Facebook and Amazon. “It was super complicated,” she told TechCrunch. “I was an early adopter of B2B marketplaces, but advertising […]
    Topics: startup, auctionbased, ads, customers, round, valued, company, user, ye, topsort, technology, early, seed, advertising, marketplaces, techcrunch, 110m.
  • Understanding Core Web Vitals for SEO - On rare occasions Google provides expectations of upcoming algorithm changes. For example, Google alerted us to the mobile-first index change and, also, the inclusion of SSL signals. Once again, Google has given us a heads-up with Core Web Vitals.
    Topics: core, lcp, google, search, signals, url, vitals, web, understanding, report, user, page, seo.
  • Understanding ‘Sessions’ in Google Analytics - The word "session" in an English dictionary reads something like "a period of time devoted to a particular activity." It could be, for example, an individual working on a specific task or goal. Google Analytics uses the term "session" in a similar manner.
    Topics: session, analytics, google, understanding, user, shopper, open, duration, sessions, minutes, starts.
  • User Engagement Is the New SEO: How to Boost Search Rank by Engaging Users - Many businesses aim for their websites to rank highly in search engines, but it's a moving target.
    Topics: video, search, user, boost, engaging, pages, rank, googles, page, seo, experience, engagement, google, users.
  • What Are Core Web Vitals? (+ How to Improve Yours) - “Core web vitals” — you‘ve probably heard this phrase buzzing in digital marketing. But what are the core web vitals? Picture them as the three pillars supporting your website’s performance.
    Topics: performance, core, page, user, improve, vitals, site, load, layout, fid, web.
  • What Are Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)? - Have you ever visited a website, looked at a product, left the site, but then seen an ad for that exact same product you were looking for on Google? I come across ads like this multiple times per week.
    Topics: user, remarketing, bid, search, google, users, business, lists, site, ads, rlsa.
  • What Are Website Traffic Exchange Sites? (And Why You Shouldn't Use Them) - Traffic matters. The more traffic your website generates, the greater your chances of capturing visitor interest, encouraging user action and generating sales.
    Topics: exchange, site, visit, website, sites, user, return, search, shouldnt, traffic, content.
  • What Bounce Rates Mean for SEO - Bounce rates only indirectly impact organic rankings. High bounces could indicate slow page loads, poor content, and other flaws — all of which do affect SEO.
    Topics: page, high, content, mean, seo, google, visitors, pages, user, bounce, rate, rates, ranking.
  • What is Customer Journey Analytics - A customer doesn’t just mindlessly purchase a product or service. They go through an entire journey, from discovering your brand, to purchasing your product or service, to sometimes recommending it to someone else. 
    Topics: map, help, customer, analytics, customers, journey, data, user, pain, points.
  • What is Search Retargeting & How Does It Work? - When a user is on Google and searches for "athletic shoes," companies like Nike and Skechers probably want their ads to continuously show up for those users online because they're currently in the market for a product they sell. But how could they do that when the user isn't searching for them and perhaps doesn't even know that their company sells athletic shoes?
    Topics: search, site, display, visitors, user, work, retargeting, youll, does, ads, brand, users.
  • What is User Story Mapping? Steps, Examples + Best Tools Available - Picture this: You're a product owner and your team has a backlog of features to implement.
    Topics: examples, available, team, start, steps, teams, mapping, tasks, tools, best, product, user, map, search.
  • Why Site Performance Matters and How to Improve It - Site performance (or lack thereof) is one of the biggest pain points eCommerce businesses face today, due in part to its direct correlation to conversion rate. If you don’t think site performance matters to your customer - your revenue, and your reputation, are at risk. I’ll cover why site performance matters and how best to improve it if you find yourself on the slower end of the speed trial. Consider this: It takes about fifty milliseconds, or .05 seconds, for users to form an opinion about your site and determine if they will stay or go. Think about your personal experience with a slower-paced load time on a site. How many times have you bounced off as quickly as you found it? From ordering a pizza to buying a couch, today’s consumer simply does not have time to wait.   Fifty-seven percent  of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed web application on mobile. Given the miniscule timeframe to make a good first impression on a consumer, plus the hefty influence of word-of-mouth first impressions by those same consumers (either favorable or less than), site performance is not a “nice to have,” it is critical. Poor site performance is expensive. Industries may vary as far as numbers, but let’s see on average what the damage looks like when it comes to what slow site speed will cost you. For example, if you’re running an ecommerce site that makes $100,000 per day, a one second page delay could  cost you $2.5 million  per year in lost sales. To put that in eCommerce behemoth terms, let’s take Amazon. Performance tests showed they would lose $1.6 BILLION every year if they slowed down by just one second. What is the Benchmark for Optimal Site Speed? The Google-recommended page load time is under  two seconds. Two seconds is the threshold for ecommerce website acceptability, while Google aims to keep load time under a half-second. Additional food for thought: 47% of consumers expect a page to load in two seconds are less, while studies show for every 100ms decrease in home page load speed results in a 1.11% lift in session-based conversion. Other factors that affect site performance to keep in mind: mobile device usage, bandwidth, and variable internet speeds by user region. So now that you’re aware of the high stakes of slow site speed, the good news is you have options for improving it. First things first, always be testing. Web Application Performance & Speed Testing Tools There are many products and services in the market to diagnose web application speed and performance. It’s important to have a clear picture of how your site is performing and be able to make tweaks quickly and easily. More benefits to these tools include: Find out how your site is performing across devices. Most users are visiting through a mobile device so optimization is key See how your site is performing across regions and countries Analyze and optimize for better rankings and UX Triage bottlenecks and make optimization decisions based on ROI and conversion rates Interested in Learning More About Elastic Path Commerce Cloud? Launch and optimize innovative experiences fast, with a modern, headless, SaaS, API-first, & microservices-based commerce platform. See the Future of eCommerce The Top Web Performance/Speed Testing Tools: Pingdom Speed Test GTmetrix Google PageSpeed Insights Yellow Lab Tools WebPage Test KeyCDN Website Testing Tools DotCom-Monitor Dareboost IsItWP Website Speed Tool GiftOfSpeed     Figure 1: A typical Web Performance Tool interface Source: Pingdom Next Steps: How to Improve on Speed and Overall Performance Now that you’ve invested the time in the proper tools to monitor and improve site speed, and understand the slim window to keep a user engaged and on the path to purchase, here are a few things to consider that affect speed: Dynamic vs. Static Content Management – The difference between the two is dynamic content is anything subject to change based on user input such as product, pricing, or descriptions. This content is stored in a database and is fetched when the user engages with it, otherwise known as async communication. Static content on the other hand is anything remaining the same in the experience such as the navigation menu. Both types of content have distinct yet crucial functions on a site but are managed differently. While static content typically loads faster there are ways to manage dynamic content to alleviate issues and slower load times. As you edit dynamic content you want to avoid editing the HTML code as this will cause breaks in your site. Additionally when managing dynamic content use proper caching and Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to bridge the gaps between dynamic and static content. Use a Faster Website Host – upgrading your website host can significantly affect your site speed. While you’d also be looking at site uptime, traffic volume (especially the ability to manage spikes during peak activity), customer support, and of course price. Here is a helpful Top 10 list of vendors to get started. You’ll want to review many providers and continuously comparison shop especially as you scale your business. Image Optimization - no surprise that visual content engages users. However, high quality imagery means larger files that eat up load time. Using resized and compressed files is a lighter lift for the server to load the image. Within imagery you’ll want to pay attention to the file format. There are four file types: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and SVG. A general rule of thumb is to avoid GIFs since they do drag on site speed. When choosing between PNGs and JPEGs, PNGs work well for graphics and screenshots, while JPEGs are ideal for photographs. The newcomer is the SVG file format, or scalable vector graphic that renders well in web applications and across other use cases. Lazy load plugins are also useful to only render photos where the user is browsing. Reduce HTTP Requests – HTTP requests occur when the browser sends a request to the server for information. The fewer requests a website must make the faster the site can load. The amount and the size of the requested files affects load times, however most engaging sites have both multiple and larger files. The best way to address this issue and is to run a full report on your site and assess what images are taking the longest to load and if in fact you need them. After you assess what’s needed, you can reduce the file size. Web Application Optimization is a Team Effort Web application design and management is a collaborative effort between IT and marketing teams. You’ll want to consider the user experience but also look at the technical load of what you’re providing to the user. Poor site speed results in bounce rates; essentially all the work you put into an engaging interface is null and void if the load times are sluggish. It takes the unique roles and goals of each side to create a memorable experience that consistently drives conversion.
    Topics: user, website, site, web, load, dynamic, matters, performance, content, application, speed, improve.
  • Why Verifying User Identities Is a Good Thing For Your Customers and Your Business - Online marketplaces are starting to authenticate users, and it's a key component to creating a safer environment for digital communities to thrive.
    Topics: users, thing, online, billion, ultimately, marketplaces, user, business, dont, tax, authenticating, businesses, good, trust.
  • X (Formerly Twitter) vs. Threads: What Brands Need to Know [Data] - We have an epic showdown in the thrilling world of social media warfare. It’s X vs. Threads, the battle of short-form social media. In one corner, we have X, the reigning short-form post champion embroiled in drama and controversy.
    Topics: need, vs, social, media, platform, user, instagram, x, brands, content, users, features, know, threads, data, twitter.
  • YC-backed LemonBox raises $2.5M bringing vitamins to Chinese millennials - Like many overseas Chinese, Derek Weng gets shopping requests from his family and friends whenever he returns to China. Some of the most wanted imported products are maternity items, cosmetics and vitamin supplements. Many in China still uphold the belief that “imported products are better.” The demand gave Weng a business idea. In 2018, he […]
    Topics: raises, supplements, lot, vitamins, chinese, wechat, techcrunch, bringing, yuan, ycbacked, lemonbox, 25m, products, millennials, user, weng, china.
  • You Might Be Wasting Your Time Fighting the Algorithm Updates. Here's What to Focus on, Instead. - If you're working in digital marketing for a business with an online presence (which, let's be real, is most businesses these days), there's a good chance that you live in dread of the infamous "Google algorithm update."
    Topics: instead, heres, wasting, algorithm, fighting, businesses, google, updates, focus, seo, user, business, users, content, good.