Tag: store

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by Incredible Planet Staff

How To Optimize Your WooCommerce Sales with HumCommerce


Business

Most online store owners today are measuring the conversion rates and overall traffic from their visitors. Some might even be tracking return on investment based on sales and adwords costs.

Surprising number of online merchants are still only getting a fragmented overview of their visitors’ user experience. Unlike a real physical store where you can virtually see the customers as they browse through your website.  User experience of your online products is less obvious when it comes to online shopping. That is why you need the HumCommerce free WooCommerce plugin.

One of the big advantages that brick and mortar stores still have over online stores is this very aspect, but it does not need to be so. The default WooCommerce plugin allows store owners to extract some basic data about user interaction patterns. With this limited insight into the data it can sometimes become more confusing than revealing.

In general there are a lot of unknown variables that you can only guess about when using the default WooCommerce plugin for WordPress. 

There are many good plugins and systems for WooCommerce to help store owners understand the customers better.

Today we are talking specifically about HumCommerce.
The plugin is completely free and able to be downloaded on the official WordPress plugin directory.

HumCommerce user behavior analytics plugin can help WooCommerce stores improve their profitability in general.

In short, HumCommerce records user visits in great detail, revealing many previously hidden and unknown aspects of the user experience.

It has new age features that records and tracks dead links and broken error pages, to abandoned carts. The plugin aims to help store owners figure out how to optimize their store to retain customers and sell more. HumCommerce helps eCommerce stores to optimize checkout flow without breaking the bank or being too complex to understand.

Watch the short video to learn what exactly HumCommerce does.

How can HumCommerce help you improve cart abandonment?

Like WordPress itself, HumCommerce has a dashboard where the most important data is displayed in the form of session recordings. Every time you log in to your WordPress you can see how much revenue has been lost to errors and other problems on your website.

HumCommerce gives you 20 season recordings with problems daily. You need to decide whether to fix the problems or ignore them.

We all know that reducing abandoned carts is one of the more profitable things to work on when it comes to online shopping. With HumCommerce you are not only shown that a user stopped shopping, but also if the user had any error messages or dead links as they were doing so. This means you can easily find out exactly what happened to your abandoned carts, and hopefully fix them without too many problems.

The plugin also records the all user session itself, and offers to show false clicks. If you are not familiar with this term, it means that a user clicked some place on the website that was not a link. If you see many false clicks on your pages, it could mean that users do not know how to interact with your site, thus making them frustrated and confused. Fixing these false clicks can therefore be not only a good thing for the user experience, but also for your bottom line.

Conclusion

Hopefully by now you understand why adding HumCommerce free WooCommerce plugin to your online store can be a good thing. But you might be worried that all this seems like spying on customers.

HumCommerce does not record and personally identifiable information, meaning the plugin is also GDPR compliant. You can of course also use Google analytics at the same time, to get as many data as possible from your potential customers.

If you wish to improve profitability of your business, start using HumCommerce today. You will be grateful to the kind of insights you get with this free WooCommerce plugin.


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by Incredible Planet Staff

How Retailers Should Think About Online Versus In-Store Pricing


Business

Retail business is changing fast. Whether it is a small shop that sells limited items or a large departmental store, they need to stay competitive. Many brick and mortar stores are losing business to online stores because of convenience of shopping and lower prices. So, how should you set prices if you are selling through a physical store or even through multiple channels?

Setting the Price

Pricing has always been a difficult aspect of a retail business. How much margin can you set on the cost price? Physical store operations does involve a lot of overheads like rental for the space, displaying the items on shelves, labor costs etc. All these need to be taken into account when pricing items for sale in your physical stores.

Does this mean online selling is always cheaper? Not necessarily. As some studies have revealed, the delivery costs involved in online sales can sometimes make it a more expensive sales channel than in-store sales.

However, this is not the general rule, so mostly, web store prices are lower than in-store prices. So, setting prices for sales through physical stores becomes a challenging task. Price Optimization Software like Intelligence Node’s Incompetitor can help make this task easier.

Selling In-Store

In-store shopping gives a personalized experience, regular customers are recognized and greeted by the stores sales people. You also get to pick up and feel the items you buy. This sense of touch is still a very strong influence that brings many customers to physical stores.

No Single Formula for Setting Prices

When it comes to pricing, different factors come into play. Generally, online stores do not have the overhead of paying for store space, keeping a large inventory, paying salespersons and other staff. This enables online shops to offer items at lower prices.

Still, in-stores sales mostly avoid packing and delivery costs as the customers themselves pickup the items at the store. Sometimes, this can make a big difference as one study showed. The package and delivery to home involves overhead costs that can lower the profit margin of online sales as compared to in-store sales.  Even for retail stores that sell products like Home Appliances, the delivery costs will be lower as the items are mostly shipped to local areas.

Each channel offers its own unique experience, and each retailer has to decide pricing based on their own strengths and the products they are selling.

For instance, clothing and other apparel are better items to sell through physical stores. Statistics show that around 30 to 40% of clothing bought online tend to get returned. This is understandable because customers cannot be sure about the texture, feel, and fit of the clothes they buy online. So, they may be willing to pay a little more for items bought in-store, as they can be sure of the style, color, texture and fit of the clothes.

Online Vs In-Store

Many figures are quoted to show that online sales are still a small percentage of retail sales, but more and more retailers are adapting the web and mobile platforms to stay competitive. Online sales percentages are increasing each year and the younger shoppers prefer the convenience of online shopping and shopping on the mobile platform.

Should Physical Stores Always Match Online Prices?

This is highly subjective. Pricing is very relative. The same retail chain may have different prices on many items based on store location. If nearby stores selling similar products are selling at lower prices, other shops may also have to reduce prices to attract more customers.

The Web is a universal location, accessible anywhere and everywhere. So, you will always have to take into account the pricing strategy of online competitors to set your prices.

When shopping at physical stores, customers now have the facility to check online prices for the same item, using their mobile phones. Many customers may ask you to match the online price at the sales counter. If you feel that you are losing a lot of customers because of this price difference, then you might consider matching the price. If you can limit this price matching to a smaller percentage of your sales (around 10 to 15%), you may even gain more customers and more sales through this strategy.

In-Store Sales Strategies

Physical stores can use different pricing strategies to stay competitive. Based on the products you sell, you can set lower prices on certain SKUs, you can offer add-ons and incentives.

Lower Prices On Many Items: Retailers who sell groceries, cosmetics and other such products can offer certain items at much lower prices than the MRP. They can even offer them at lower prices compared to local competitors. Customers like this kind of pricing, they become regular buyers as they know that they can trust this store to offer them good prices on many items, even if they know that online prices are lower. This especially works with customers who value the touch and feel aspect of in-store shopping.

Value-Added Sales: In-store salespersons can induce customers to buy add-ons, related products and think of other ways to boost sales, which is not always possible through online stores. For instance, if a customer buys a new brand of dog treat, your salesperson can point out that the new brand is offering a set of dog treats at a promotional price. If they buy an oven, you can offer to include baking trays, cake molds, oven mitts and tongs as a bundle, at a discount rate. You can offer free delivery and installation for products like Refrigerators, Televisions etc.

Discounts and Sales: You can hold seasonal sales, offer discounts and coupons. Though online sellers also use these strategies, you can find ways to make these unique in your physical stores. Promote local goods, hold special sales to mark local events and occasions, and so on.

Price Optimization Software

Price optimization applications take in many metrics like your historical sales data, prices, items that move fast and items that stay on the shelves, competitors pricing and inventory strategies etc. So, they have a large data set to analyze and come up with competitive pricing strategies.

Still, before you use these softwares, you need to do a thorough study of your sales data yourself. You need to gather data on SKUs that sell quickly, SKUs that sell more during seasonal sales, slow moving items, pricing strategies used by local competitors as well as online rivals. If you have access to customer data, study customer preferences and buying trends.

Then, study your store’s strengths and weaknesses. Can you afford to sell certain items at lower prices? Is your shop well laid out so that select items can be prominently displayed to attract customers? Is your shop easily navigable, so that customers can easily go to different aisles and spot the products they want quickly? If not change the physical layout, if needed, add more salespersons. All these can help further attract more people to shop in your brick & mortar store.

Then use the price optimization software to help you set the prices for the various products you sell, dynamically change prices depending on market trends, competitors strategies, product matching trends in different categories and in different price segments, etc. Review your pricing strategy periodically. Stay informed and be ready for necessary pricing changes when needed. In the current scenario of increasing online and mobile platform sales, your In-store sales and pricing needs to be dynamic in order to stay competitive.

by Incredible Planet Staff

Not Your Grandfather’s Vinyl Banner


Business

Before the introduction of digitally printed vinyl banners, advertisers and promoters were limited when it came to the design options with vinyl banners. Earlier options included hand painted banners, which allowed some design flexibility, but were time-consuming and required an individual with a special artistic skill set to produce. Later on, banners made use of adhesive vinyl letters and clip art style graphics, which were just so-so, and extremely laborious to design and create.

All of this has changed now thanks to advances in large format printing. Banners today can achieve greater impact by providing much more design flexibility. Today’s custom banner design choices are endless and allow for the use of full-color logos and graphics as well as photographs. From small businesses to large corporations the vinyl banner has become a popular option used to promote products or events.

With advanced digital printing devices today, the process to create banners has been streamlined and is an extremely efficient process compared to the hand painted or vinyl text and graphics of the past. The printing is conducted directly to the scrim banner material which cuts out several steps that were used when vinyl graphics were used to create custom banners. Text can be outlined, shadowed, or enhanced by other artistic effects. The graphics can be printed in full vibrant color allowing consumers to say goodbye to dull single color clip art.

Advancements in digital printing created cost benefits as well and cut the expense associated with vinyl banners. Depending on the size, a banner can be created in minutes rather than hours or days. The ease and availability of online retailers have made for a competitive marketplace that has in return brought the cost of a banner down even more. Digitally printed banners offer exact color matching and full-color graphics at a fraction of the cost of banners of the past that were mainly plain block text.

The process of designing and purchasing a vinyl banner has been streamlined as well. In most cases, individuals can go online to design, and purchase a banner for delivery without ever leaving their home or office.  Some retailers even offer a proofing process that allows the customer to inspect and tweak their design until it matches the design they had envisioned.

The scrim vinyl banner material that makes up the banner itself is as strong as ever if not more durable compared to banners of the past. The real advancements have come with the U.V inks that have made using a printed banner a popular long term option. These advances have made vinyl banners durable with enough design flexibility that they have become the option most billboard companies use to display advertisements for their clients. In the past printed graphics were pasted to billboards. Today most billboards are set up to have large outdoor banners attached with ratcheted tie downs and straps.

Overall when you take into account the presentation and design flexibility, as well as the durability and cost advantages, today’s vinyl banners are a great solution for your business or perhaps a special banner to help celebrate an anniversary or birthday. The overall ease and convenience of online design and purchasing are icing on the cake. In the end, it is easy to see that Vinyl Banners have come a long way and consumers are the big winner.

by Incredible Planet Staff

11 Must Have Features for Your mobile shopping cart


Technology

Research has predicted that mobile e-shopping will shoot up at walloping $163 billion deals overall this year. Furthermore, that assessed that 85% of mobile clients will utilize mobile applications as opposed to mobile site.

Considering everything number aside, the most startling actuality here is even if 33% of mobile deals happen through mobile applications, just 10% of retailers overall offer mobile applications to its clients.

The blast in versatile ecommerce has prompted the formation of mobile applications and platforms. Deals using ecommerce Mobile App have grown 39% over a year ago to reach $123.13 billion this year in the United States. This implies m-commerce will represent 1/3 of all ecommerce deals.

Here is a rundown of 11 must-have elements for your mobile shopping cart.

Simple User Interface

A mobile screen is littler than that of a PC, henceforth, you’re constrained to utilize and show content on the screen. Further, whatever content you utilize must be orchestrated in an improved way, guaranteeing the client can relish all these features effortlessly. The home screen must be engaged, free and should just feature the most recent items and upgrades.

No requirement of registration

A regular ecommerce client never needs to shed the sweat behind a long multi-page registration or checkout process. You can make steps less demanding by enabling clients to register utilizing their favored social platforms. While checking out, inquire as to whether you can store their payment specifications for future buys. This will demolish entering information continuously and make checkout easy.

Incorporate larger images

Presently, since our ability to focus is restricted and we can take whatever gives us visual interest, it is proposed that your application should show fewer items under every category and every item ought to have a major, clear and engaging perspective. Visual Website enhancer uncovered in an investigation that your deal is probably going to increase by 10% when your pictures are sufficiently enormous to offer an attractive personality!

“Add to cart” option

Keep in mind to shorten the buying procedure. If there are excessively numerous means for checkout, you are well on the way to lose your client. Utilizing ‘Add to Cart’ button on your item leads your client to buy faster. This keeps their enthusiasm up and you get more deals.

Quick Checkout Feature

Mobile applications need to contain Quick Checkout element. The Quick Checkout feature enables customers to complete a request with predefined data from the quick checkout profile and consequently sets the transportation and billing addresses for the client.

Filters

Fashion or style applications and additionally couple of more ecommerce applications have two sorts of channels with one enabling different choices to be made, as in array where one can choose sorts of items and costs both and other being very specific. It must be remembered which channel suits your plan of action and how to mastermind the channels to help deals.

Research indicates “Price” button is the most clicked button in any application. Modify price button as per different classifications that an item remains available to be purchased.

Implement a progress bar

As said before, the whole checkout process should wind up ahead of schedule. On the off chance that your clients appear to encounter a more drawn out time than anticipated, consider utilizing a progress bar recommending what number of screens they need to go before checking out. This keeps them patient and encourages them to create better relationship with your site as well.

Include “Wish List”

Include somewhat fun and more advantageous shopping experience. Enable your clients to pick couple of items and store in “Wish List” or “Favorites” so that before buying the actual item, they can look through and think about every one of the items by and by. This encourages them purchasing the best item and be content having a memorable experience with you!

Mind-boggling themes

A mobile phone has a constrained space and if the outline is excessively jumbled, it would influence the client to navigate being confused. Guarantee the application utilizes space without compromising on plan and meets business needs. Also, the visual ought to be alluring, drawing in and must pass on to the users.

Inclusion of Push-Notifications

Probably the most effective ecommerce mobile applications are the ones that have Push Notifications into their list of features. Push notices have a tendency to demand immediate action like select endorsements, uncommon offers. You can combine up this component with analytics, and you would see a critical lift in sales in a matter of moments.

Consistent Navigation

You can simply your user’s experience by positioning the menu consistently all across the app. The list should carry only the crucial categories.

These are the primary features without which your shopping cart cannot exist, incorporate them and your mobile shopping cart will be supported like never before. Get the best ecommerce mobile app builder and enjoy exhilarating features you have never seen before.