Technology has changed the way people shop. Today, people won’t think twice about surfing the Internet to buy something they need. In fact, online retail purchases increased by 16% in 2017 which says a lot about the change in consumers’ mindset. Indeed, it is critical for any business these days to have a great e-commerce site.
There are countless of online tools that online entrepreneurs and marketers can use in their marketing campaigns. Some tools allow users to interact with customers. Others are designed for managing the digital marketing tasks of users.
Are you not getting enough revenues even after launching a digital marketing campaign for your business? Do you want faster return for your marketing investments? Then it might be time to diversity your digital marketing efforts. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Do you want to get into the affiliate marketing bandwagon? As the e-commerce sector experiences rapid expansion, now is the perfect time to get into this field. You don’t need to be an IT expert to be able to make your mark.
Magento and WooCommerce are two open-source software programs designed for online merchants. There are plenty of similarities as well as differences between the two. Anyone who’s interested in putting up an online store and contemplating on using either software should take time to understand the pros and cons of these online commerce platforms.
These two platforms are free to use although the Magento enterprise edition comes with a charge. Both platforms are also easy to set up making them ideal for online merchants who don’t have any clue about building a website.
Another key similarity is that both WooCommerce and Magento are open source platforms. When we say open source, it means that the original source can be modified by web developers. It also benefits the online merchant as he or she can build a website that sufficiently addresses his/her concerns.
Since these are open source platforms, Magento and WooComerce come with many free and premium themes. This is also beneficial to online merchants because they can set up their sites quickly by choosing themes.
One of the major differences between the two is that WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. On the other hand, Magento is a standalone ecommerce platform.
Since it is a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce is more often used by people who have working knowledge of the WordPress platform. The interface of WooCommerce is also bereft of fancy design elements, which makes it more user-friendly for most people.
Magento requires more technical know-how. Users must be able to fine-tune every aspect of the platform to get optimal results. It may be a bit hard to master for novice users but it is ideal for business owners who desire complete control over the functionalities and features of their websites.
There’s no such thing as the better e-commerce platform between Magento and WooCommerce. It’s really up to the business requirements of the merchant. For novice users with limited budgets, WooCommerce is the better option because it is cheaper to develop and relatively easy to use.
But for larger firms who want more customization and a more robust framework, then Magento is the clear choice.
Adobe, the multinational US firm best known for its editing software, is set to acquire open source e-commerce platform Magento for $1.68 billion. The move is expected to give the San Jose, California-based firm the platform that it needs to compete in the intense e-commerce market.
Many observers believe that Adobe’s move will enable it to compete head-on with Salesforce, the San Francisco-based cloud computing firm which has its own marketing, sales and service cloud offerings. Salesforce bought another e-commerce platform, Demandware, in 2016 for over $2 billion.
Salesforce is the undisputed leader in the e-commerce market with revenues reaching more than $8 billion in 2017. It expects to exceed the $10-billion net income mark in 2018. The firm has set lofty goals for itself, hoping to reach $60 billion in revenues by 2034.
But with the acquisition of Magento, Adobe will now have the e-commerce platform that closes the loop with consumers. Adobe users will now be able to finalize a digital transaction that began online using digital marketing tools that Adobe is known for.
There’s also speculation that the deal will bring Adobe and Microsoft closer together. Less than a year ago, the two companies announced a partnership that would make it easy to share data between Microsoft’s CRM tool Dynamics 365 and website marketing tool Adobe Experience Manager. There’s potential that the two firms could form an even deeper relationship as they are also battling Salesforce.
It remains to be seen how this Adobe and Magento deal would work.
Some observers think that this is not the best deal for Adobe because its target audience is large enterprises while Magento has been focused on small and medium businesses.
However, other analysts say that Magento has bigger customers too such as Coca Cola.
This is not the first time that Magento has been acquired. Founded in 2008, it was purchased by eBay for $180 million in 2011. It went private four years later with assistance from Permira Funds.
Ecommerce firm Adroll has agreed to integrate its ad targeting and attribution with the cloud management service of Magento Commerce. The partnership is seen to benefit more online merchants in the future.
Bay Alarm Medical will be one of the first beneficiaries of the partnership between the two ecommerce firms. The Concord, California-based firm sells various medical alert systems. It has been a partner of Magento for the past four years and has worked with Adroll for nearly a decade.
Bay Alarm Medical director of sales and marketing Alan Wu believes that the integration between Adroll and Magento will spur the multi-touch attribution modeling that the company is developing. Multimedia attribution has often been dismissed as a nuisance to retargeting because the goal typically is to allocate credit to the consumer conduit instead of paying the firm responsible for the final click. Bay Alarm says that retargeting is still a priority for them because it is relatively cheap.
As part of the partnership, Adroll will give a percentage of its marketing fee to the Canadian e-commerce platform when shared customers boost sale through its ad technology. Adroll anticipates that by sticking with early stage ecommerce firms, it would more than make up for the small loss in profits.
Adroll President Scott Gifis said in a statement that the firm has always acknowledged the importance of partnering with early stage companies. While its retargeting services will take a backseat, Adroll is hopeful that it would generate income from clients that try other high-priced products such as attribution and prospecting.
Magento Commerce is one of the top ecommerce platforms in the world. Based in Austin, Texas, the firm also recently announced it raised $64 million in fresh investments to support its plans to expand internationally especially in Europe.
More and more females are getting into entrepreneurship. In fact, 4 out of 10 new entrepreneurs in the United States are women. Many of these new merchants are millennials who are making their mark on the e-commerce field. But what lessons can these successful online female entrepreneurs share with people who also aspire to make it on their own?
Here are some key lessons from the stories of some successful online female entrepreneurs:
These days, online entrepreneurs don’t have to sign up a big-name celebrity to promote their products and services. Tapping influencers is a more practical approach. Amanda Thomas, founder of online-based Luv Aj, has built a huge business by tapping influences that include models and singers. Thomas says she doesn’t discriminate influencers based on their social media following. She says an influencer with 50,000 followers can be just as effective as one with a million followers on Instagram.
Many people think that Instagram is simply for showcasing the latest offerings of an online store. But it should also be considered and utilized as an online selling platform. According to Thomas, her online store has used different ways for her Instagram followers to buy jewelry. For example, an Insatram post can be tagged to a product directly synced through their Shopify store.
Ecommerce platforms like Shopify can enable anyone to sell goods to any person in the world. Take the case of Mehera Blum, the founder of Blumera which sells luxury handbags, shoes, jewelry, and ready-to-wear. Blum uses Shopify as her e-commerce platform, allowing her to sell anytime, anywhere.
Shopify makes it easier for Blum to connect to her customers as she can focus more on customer service. She cites that Shopify also allows her to provide her customers with more product options taking into consideration their buying history.
Magento is one of the most commonly used ecommerce platforms in the world. More than a quarter of a million online stores worldwide are based on it. As a popular service, it offers a lot of functionalities such as the Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition or simply, Magento Cloud.
Launched in 2016, Magento Cloud is classified as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) similar to other Software as a Service (SaaS) programs. It is fully hosted and cloud-based with many functions and topnotch customer service features.
It is scalable, meaning it can handle high traffic, and flexible. And with the Apache caching system of Magento, it can lead to faster loading of pages which can lead to higher conversions and lower bounce rates.
It is an ideal platform for large companies in need of a more versatile ecommerce platform for their online stores.
One of the reasons why Magento Cloud is highly recommended to companies with online stores is the multitude of features of this PaaS. Here are some of its key features:
With these key features, it is not surprising that Magento Cloud has become very popular these days.
Magento Commerce and dotmailer have joined hands by integrating the former’s marketing automation platform to enable companies use data and come up with custom email campaigns. In a recent statement, the online marketing giants said the integration of their platforms would help users create multi-channel campaigns that can minimize abandonment of shopping carts and in the process, improve customer loyalty.
Strong return on investment for businesses is often attributed to personalized marketing, which is also essential for optimal cross-channel online marketing. In a study, DMA Insights says that 95% of marketers believe that email is a vital communication and demand channel. It is also highly valued in many companies.
With the dotmailer and Magento integration, brands will have an easier time designing and executing custom campaigns from the Magento Commerce dashboard. Some brands like Converse Australia, POLYWOOD and 7 for All Mankind have been getting positive results as a result of the said development.
POLYWOOD senior marketing techonologist Jason Detamore said the Magento Commerce and dotmailer integration gave their business the push to scale up quickly. He said the access to tools and data enabled POLYWOOD to deliver personalized experiences and more importantly, a roadmap for the future growth of the firm.
Magento Commerce senior vice president for product and technology Jason Woosely says that the partnership of the two firms will mean more merchants will benefit from the access to data and marketing tools that they need to create targeted and personalized online campaigns.
Some of the capabilities available to merchant-users are automated campaigns through various channels such as CRM, push notifications, and SMS as well as segmentation and personalization in real time through Magento’s store data. Users will also have access to drag-and-drop tools for quick and easy creation of marketing campaigns.
According to both firms, customers may access their free trial of the dotmailer marketing automation from Magento admin. The trial period lasts for 14 days.