Retail Marketing Trends to Look Out For 2018
What does 2018 hold for retail marketers? Here are some of the retail marketings that senior executives from some of the top marketing technology firms foresee to happen this year:
E-Commerce
E-Commerce
E-commerce, short for ‘electronic commerce,’ entails the trading in products or services using computer networks such as the Internet.
E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
Below you’ll find a bunch of our posts related to e-commerce. Some of the topics that our company bloggers cover include magento e-commerce, and the best ecommerce sites that are currently active on the web. Because e-commerce is a wide and expansive field that is constantly growing, our team is constantly on the go to cover all the latest and greatest news associated with e-commerce.
Since Hara Partners is an e-commerce solutions company, all of the e-commerce going-ons in the world are of the most maximal concern to us. Some of the topics that we covered in the past include Asian e-commerce, mobile e-commerce platforms, and e-commerce trends.
For your information, we’ve also listed some of the common types of e-commerce platforms below:
On-premise E-commerce software usually requires initial one time purchase investment in terms of licensing fees. Also, it implies extra costs related to hardware and installation services as well as data migration and on-going maintenance fees that are usually charged on a yearly basis for software updates and support. Some examples of typical on premise E-commerce platforms are Hybris, Sanna Commerce, Oorjit, and IBM WebSphere.
Software as a Service (SaaS)- is a cloud based delivery model in which applications are hosted and managed in a service provider’s datacenter, paid for on a subscription basis and accessed via a browser over an internet connection. Two examples of typical SaaS E-commerce solutions are Shopify and Demandware.
Open source e-Commerce is a free of charge platform that doesn’t imply licenses fee. Furthermore, open source users are also responsible for installing, maintaining, securing and configuring the software on their own servers. In order to set up an open source platform, basic technical expertise is required in the areas of web design and development. Software products that are distributed as open source are generally free, and users can access and modify the source code. Three examples of typical open source E-commerce platforms are PrestaShop, osCommerce, Magento and Thelia.
90% of the People are Willing to Give up their Personal Data
Best Digital Marketing Stats week
Nearly 90% of the People are Willing to Give up their Personal Data:
An Episerver survey showed that out of 4,000 people 3,480 people (which make it a total of 87% of the people) are willing to give up their personal information just to receive a good and reliable online experience. They also found out that people are more into technological equipment such as drones and smart mirrors and 90% of them would order them again.
Badmins: Magento shops brute install the cryptominers and scrape card deets
Hundreds and thousands of Magento e-commerce websites are compromised
Change your identity…..ugh, what the matter?
This week we have seen the Digital Marketing Stats!
This week we have seen the Digital Marketing Stats!
The previous year, the European Commission said that Google was gaining unfair advantages as compared to the other price comparison sites and requested to give some chance to competitors by bringing them to the equal terms as Google. But as it turned out this caused a very few changes of 0.04% in the product listing ads (PLA) in the UK. Overall there was a difference of only 6.1% of shopping and PLA was included from the competing sites, making the overall rate of rival ads still very low.
The Importance of Optimizing Websites for Voice Search
With the popularity of Siri and Alexa among today’s generation, online merchants should be astute enough to realize the importance of optimizing their websites for voice search. More and more people are now using voice commands to search the Internet, thus a website optimized for voice recognition stands a better chance of being found online by a prospective client.
Using e-commerce for buying electricity and gas
E-commerce has become central to buying electricity and other utilities
Gas and electricity stand as one of the principal sources of energy in our everyday life. A life without these two components is very hard to imagine. The keyword Electricity is a high paying one, as it sometimes can receive over a billion monthly searches! This includes keywords such as:
- Where to find cheap electricity.
- Electricity Company.
- Save money on gas and electricity bills.
This is why buying electricity and gas has become so easy online. The need for such utilities has given rise to online electricity tokens being sold. E-commerce companies have used the popularity of e-commerce in order to sell utilities to the public. Now individuals can use various payment methods to pay for electricity or gas online. It’s most likely that local convenience stores would not take bitcoins or WebMoney for electricity and gas. However, using e-commerce for buying electricity and gas will be an easy task.
Buying electricity and gas from third parties
It’s obvious that the modern digital era has made it easy for individuals to buy electricity and gas online. However buying electricity from official local government websites is difficult if you are using payment methods such as PayPal, Payoneer, or perfect money. Third party sellers have got the added advantage that they sell using a variety of payment methods even popular cryptocurrencies. This makes electricity and other utilities major e-commerce purchases.
The use of E-commerce gift cards in buying electricity and gas
It is obvious that e-commerce gift cards have become popular in purchasing stuff online. You can now even exchange them for money. E-commerce gift cards have become more popular than other currencies. This is due in part to the popularity of e-commerce. An Amazon gift card is a better store of value than a currency offered by the Burmese central bank.
E-commerce history
E-commerce History
E-commerce has a much modern history. It is however not possible to talk about e-commerce without stating the history of e-commerce. E-commerce is a method of making purchases on the internet. Making purchases on the internet began with the advent of the internet as we know it. The internet drastically changed the world as much as the modern computer did. The internet as we know it was invented in the second half of the 20th century. However, at this time, it wasn’t yet popular enough. The internet gained popularity around in the late 20th century. This is the period where we can talk about the dot-com bubble.
E-commerce History and the dot-com bubble.
It is unclear when the dot-com bubble began but as people started setting up digital companies they were no shortage of capital around silicon valley to do anything. A lot of speculative investors had started throwing money at any internet company as they thought that the rapid popularity of the internet was going to pay off in the near future. This created a bubble where most e-commerce companies did not survive.
E-commerce History of Amazon and E-bay
There is no doubt that Amazon and E-bay are two tech giants that have captured most part of the e-commerce industry. eBay was the first company to be established however in present day Amazon has become the favorite of many, becoming the largest company by market capitalization. Amazon didn’t appear in the scene till 1990 after the dot-com bubble. Amazon was started by Jeff Bezos who at the time was an asset manager in Wall Street. The first thing sold on Amazon was a book. Amazon at first was an e-book company before it turned into the Amazon we know today. Now the word Amazon has become synonymous with e-commerce. When you think e-commerce you think Amazon!
#e-commerce history
Fulfilling e-commerce orders
Fulfilling e-commerce orders
In the modern era fulfilling e-commerce, orders has become easy. A lot of younger entrepreneurs have been innovating methods to fulfill orders that are made by customers online this is due to the fact that the practice of fulfilling orders has evolved and is still evolving. Popular companies such as delivery companies such as DHL, USPS, and FedEx have incorporated e-commerce deliver methods in-order to the cutter for such customers. Two decades ago it was thought to be impossible to receive a package in less than 24 hours. Now people are imagining receiving their packages in less than an hour. This is due to the effective fulfillment process that is now being used by e-commerce companies. The entire process has been sped up by technological instruments such as robots and electronic barcode.
The role of delivery companies in fulfilling e-commerce orders
Delivery and postage companies are now central in e-commerce fulfilments as they perform the packaging and delivery of those goods. The best part about these companies is that they charge low prices and deliver packages in a timely manner with tracking. Imagine that someone in Bangkok can now receive his/her product from the USA in less than 48 hours This is because postage and delivery companies such as FedEx, DHL, and USPS have made the fulfillment process quicker and more simple.
Drones use in fulfilling e-commerce orders
Although drones started in the military sector they have become central to civilian life as well. Civilians use drones for photo shoots, videos, or surveillance for scientific research. Drones are going to be central in e-commerce fulfilments over the next couple of years. Already large companies such as Amazon and Walmart are already experimenting with drone fulfilments.
Will Shopify be Affected by the Facebook Scandal?
Online investment newsletter Citron Research says that the stock price and merchant base of Shopify will likely be affected by the Facebook profile harvesting scam. Citron has been one of the most vocal critics of Shopify and it remains to be seen how this latest comment will affect the e-commerce platform’s stock especially following the Facebook scandal.
Shopify is one of the more popular e-commerce solutions for budding entrepreneurs. It can be seamlessly integrated into Facebook pages. Customers can browse items from these pages prior to check out through Shopify.
Citron comments after Facebook scandal
According to Citron, Facebook has to scale back on personal information it shares with the Canada-based e-commerce platform. It also says that Shopify will find it harder to get new online sellers on Facebook. The investment authority also noted that shares of Shopify would likely trade down 29% lower in the weeks to come.
Shopify’s stock did slide by 4% in March although it pales in comparison to the 14% decline that Facebook stock experienced. Experts say that Citron’s comments hold some water as majority of the Shopify merchants are budding entrepreneurs who are the usual target of aggressive and conceivably bogus affiliate marketers.
Shopify has also been hit for being a haven for novice merchants, although the e-commerce platform still raked in an impressive $9.1 billion in gross merchandise during the last quarter of 2017.
Shopify and the Facebook scandal
However, that volume may be affected with Facebook’s latest crackdown on data mining and advertisers. There is also the possibility that Shopify will be affected by the #deletefacebook campaign. The ecommerce platform, after all, generates much of its revenue from merchant subscriptions and merchant solutions.
Last year, Shopify responded to Citron’s comments. The latter also fired back but the stock performance of Shopify in the last five months indicates which firm won that round. Now it remains to be seen how Shopify will perform this year, although it needs some help from Mark Zuckerberg’s creation in order to bounce back.
E-commerce payment gateway
E-commerce payment Gateway
E-commerce payments have become easier with the growth of some of the greatest payment gateways. The financial technology sector has become one of the fastest growing sectors in tech since 2008. This was mainly due to the rising commercial ties between countries. As we become more globalized there is also the need to design more efficient payment methods. In e-commerce one payment gateway that has stood out from the crowd is Stripe. Although most e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and woo-commerce have got native payment gateways there is still the need for more personalized payment methods.
Stripe Payment gateway
The stripe payment gateway has some form of popularity. It is used on some of the world’s most popular sites such as Lyft and target. The reason why stripe has become a major player in the online e-commerce market is that it is easy to use. The platform is also available for use on the Shopify and woo-commerce platforms. Due to the fact that Shopify and woo-commerce are the largest platforms in the e-commerce segment, this makes Stripe leverage the payment gateway. The payment platform has advanced development.
Cryptocurrency use and payment gateway companies
Most tech-savvy individuals will not deny that for once in their lives they have used bitcoin to make a transaction online. In the years 2017 Bitcoin become one of the most popular payment methods on the internet accounting for more than 100 million transactions. Most payment gateway companies wanted to take advantage of this bitcoin mania so they included the cryptocurrency as a payment method. Most e-commerce entrepreneurs have leveraged the popularity of crypto-currencies by using them as a payment method. This, in turn, has forced payment gateway companies to include the currency.