outsourcewebdesign.in

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

How to make your e-commerce website effective?

Posted on 05:02 by Unknown
What is an Ecommerce Website?

Before trying to understand the usability of an Ecommerce website one should first try and understand what an Ecommerce website actually is, i.e., what are the things that separates it from other type of websites. In an Ecommerce transaction all dealings take place over the internet. Thus an Ecommerce website is providing a platform for executing the online transactions. It is designed in such a way that it integrates the functionality, like displaying a catalog of products & services and accepting online payments. We can also say that it’s simply a website developed for allowing businesses to sell their products and services to the customers via internet.

Things to keep in mind while creating an Ecommerce Website

Through ecommerce solutions one can get any product or service within a few clicks of a button from anywhere across the world.

One should go for the similar approach that it would adopt while starting a new business or launching a new product. Following are a few things that should be kept in mind while creating Ecommerce websites. 

Products or Services: Initially, one needs to decide the products or services he/she is going to offer to the customers and the ways or channels through which they’ll like their products or services to be found over internet.

Detailed Description: The detailed description of all the products and services should be taken into account. A Comparison between their products and other similar products can also be showcased along with the description of the products. Customer reviews, case studies, testimonials can also be added for making the website more effective and successful.

Computing Platforms: One can also create an Ecommerce website that can support a number of computing platforms enabling the customers to act in accordance with their wish and to buy anywhere and anytime possible.

Site Layout: The site lay out and structuring is very important aspect. This takes in everything like templates, text, color schemes, themes, navigation, etc. The site layout should be simple and consistent across all browsers and hand held devices.

Advance Check out Options: One can make the site more efficient by adding various advance check out options while creating an Ecommerce website with all the details such as multiple destinations delivering, gift wrapping, customized notes transferring, etc.

Auto Responder Feature: One should make sure to include an auto responder feature in the ecommerce solutions if they wanted to track down the customer’s history of purchases. Extra benefits such as automated follow up messages and tracking links can also be included.

Payment options: One needs to decide about how he/she is going to accept the payments. Because unless one have the means of taking payments from customers it’s less worthy to showcase the products or services on the website.

Security: If the payment option is there on the website then it’s the responsibility of the webmaster to locate a way for protecting the customer’s privacy and important security information like their names, addresses, credit card details, bank account details, etc as it is very tough to recover the customers trust once it gets lost.

Hosting: One will certainly need to choose a hosting service for making the site live. It should be reliable as well as affordable. One should also consider points like the website size, future expansion plans etc.

Coding: Every website especially Ecommerce website needs regular changes or updates. As coding is the architectural foundation for the website one should either know or learn how to code or hire someone to do it for him/her.

One should develop an E commerce website in such a manner that the users and visitors are not only aimed towards the product or service pages but also are convinced enough to make the purchase. After all making the visitor purchase is the sole purpose behind developing an ecommerce website.

Read More
Posted in | No comments

Monday, 22 July 2013

Responsive Website or a Mobile Website?

Posted on 01:31 by Unknown
With ever changing trends and a multi fold increase in Mobile Internet users, more and more companies today are aiming to create websites which would make their services available to mobile users. It is a fact that what seems to be more important on a desktop might not be equally important or useful for a mobile user who is accessing the page on a much smaller screen and is on the go. That is why, thinking properly before you choose to build a website for the smaller devices, for your company or business is so important. 

1. Responsive Web Design

A responsive website is basically a website which can adapt itself on different screens regardless of the device you are playing it on. You build one single responsive website and it re-sizes itself accordingly across any device.

2. Mobile Sites

A mobile website is similar to a regular website and can be accessed with the help of different browsers, the only difference being it is created for small-screen devices. Mobile sites are optimized for on-the-go users, contain limited (or rather, necessary) content and are lighter and faster than responsive websites.

Responsive Web Design V/S Mobile Sites

When comparing these two, you really need to keep in mind as to what the purpose of the site is going to be. If it is a website aimed at providing its users a mobile experience which involves quick decisions like buying and selling, then a separate mobile site is a better option. However, if you need to constantly add and update it with new trends, then a single responsive designed site is a better option. This is because, when it comes to easy updating, mobile sites can be a pain because the site would need to be updated twice (desktop version and mobile version).

Also, it depends on what your budget is when you are planning to create a site. A mobile site requires low development charges compared to responsive design sites which need sophisticated coding and heavy technicalities. Other advantages that a separate mobile site holds over responsive design sites include DIY options and affordable web development. When it comes to optimization and SEO, and adding conversion and redirect codes, responsive designed websites rule the roost.

The above comparison clearly shows that there are pros and cons for both the choices. It depends on you and the nature of your business as to what would be the best fit for your situation. It’s better to research well and understand your own business for best results.
Read More
Posted in | No comments

Friday, 5 July 2013

Enhance your Travel Business

Posted on 08:58 by Unknown
Are you looking forward to enhance your tour and travel business or build a strong image in tour and travel industry? Well one of the vital steps that you must undertake is to get a travel portal developed. The travel industry has opened up to a vast number of people in the last several years because of the internet. However the internet has also made the industry vastly competitive with margins wearing down and too many players in the market. There is increasing pressure on players in the travel business to improve margins and retain business. This has given rise to the need of getting travel portal developed so as to increase the volume of traffic coming to your travel website. If you are a part of the growing international travel industry, travel portal development will enable your business to generate greater business volumes and yield higher returns on investment. 

But just getting a portal developed is not enough. You should take care that your travel portal should encompass all the qualities and features of a good travel portal. Ensure that your travel portal provides all tours and travel administrative tools that help you advance with the changing demand of the present travel business.

  • To start with home page, make sure that it is attractive as well as informative. Select the pictures and theme that fulfill both these requirements.
  • The travel portal should completely outline the details of the tour packages.
  • It should be full of search features. This allows users to search for holiday locations based on their interests and specifications on budget and country.
  • It should facilitate online booking of tickets for different modes of transport. In this way the travelers can enjoy better planned holiday.
  • The travel portal software should be efficient enough to allow users to make online payments for holiday accommodations. 
  • Additional features such as currency converter, weather forecasts for listed countries, 24x7 auction and lost-and-found service will be an added advantage.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) modules within your travel applications in order to enable real time interaction with customers through e-mail or chat. This can substantially help you to instantly resolve any issues of travelers.
  • Content Management Systems (CMS) that feature easy-to-use website editing tools that would make maintenance much easier for your staff. 

With all these above features you can increase the global presence of your travel business. Ask your designers and developers to use PHP, to deliver functionality-rich and user-friendly websites. With travel portal development it is quite easy now to manage your tour and travel business.

Read More
Posted in | No comments

Thursday, 4 July 2013

Considerations before Hiring a Web Designer

Posted on 21:52 by Unknown
Website Designers and Developers can be an extension to your marketing and branding team since these professionals have a significant amount of influence over how your website looks and functions.
Choosing an individual freelancer or agency to do design or development work should include considering things like specific platform experience, responsiveness, rate and billing practices, and even the tool set the service provider will use to communicate or manage requests.
In this article, you’ll find a few considerations for choosing a designer or developer.
1. Platform Experience
Even if you’re just starting out in e-commerce, it is probably a good idea to choose an e-commerce platform before choosing a professional designer or developer.
Not all ecommerce platforms are the same. As an example there are significant differences between opening and managing an online retail site built on Magento or on Volusion. For some online retail businesses, Magento will be a much smarter choice, while other ecommerce merchants will almost certainly be better served with Volusion or Shopify. All of these are good ecommerce platforms, but some do certain things better than others.
Once you have chosen an ecommerce platform seek out a developer, designer, or agency that has specific platform experience. While almost any good PHP developer could work on a Magento site, it might take that developer a significant amount of time to become familiar with the platform especially if he has not worked with Magento before. It would not be unreasonable that even a seasoned developer would need something like 40 hours or more, just to become familiar enough with Magento to successfully write an extension.
Even once a developer has worked with a platform it can take time to become familiar with a specific theme or implementation. Often this is 10 hours or more.
2. Responsiveness
Some development or design firms are good about getting back to you immediately, while others — often individual freelancers — almost certainly won’t be.
In some cases, this might not matter much. Imagine a designer creating a new graphic design for a future site update. If that designer doesn’t respond immediately, it is most certainly not a big deal. But if your site is suddenly broken and shoppers cannot complete their orders, you need a development partner that is available in a moment’s notice.
3. Hourly Rates and Billing
Hourly rates vary greatly for designers and developers; be certain to get a few quotes.
If you’re hiring a service provider for a set number of hours, you’ll want to be able to carry over any leftover hours. As an example, if you contract for 20 hours a month, you should regularly pay for those twenty hours. If, however, in one month you only use 15 hours, you should have 25 hours available in the next month. You’ll still pay the same each month. Don’t expect a discount, but you should be able to carry those hours over. You will also want the option to be able to purchase additional hours in a given month.
Finally, find out how you will be billed for project management hours. If you have contracted for 20 hours of work it may be that case that as many as 4 or 5 of those hours will be consumed in project management time that is time spent speaking to you, reading your emails, and communicating with other design or development team members. Some firms will charge you for these hours just like any other time, some firms will charge a lower rate, and still other firms won’t charge specifically for project management.
4. Tool Set
Often a developer, designer, or agency will have a particular set of software tools used to communicate questions, share project related information, or provide status updates. This tool set will be something that you’ll use very often. Make sure that it works for you.
As a rule try to avoid ticket based systems. These are acceptable for, say, hosting providers. But your relationship with a designer or developer should be more intimate.
Also look for solutions that will allow you to share video or audio files with the developer or designer since these are always better than written descriptions.


Read More
Posted in | No comments
Newer Posts Older Posts Home
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Some Tips before you venture out to develop a Travel Portal
    Portal Development is a system containing web functionality which provides features so as to authenticate, rectify and identify the person u...
  • How to build great client relationships
    Most of the times we are lucky enough to have great clients . They’re the people who have a good sense of what they want, and are happy to d...
  • Google Adwords Vs. Facebook Ads
    For a SMEs, Google Adwords is a very economical way of advertising. Today 70% of the search industry is controlled by Google. People comes t...
  • Pointers for a successful company strategy
    Strategy is the art of doing the  right things  at the  right moment . Do you have a written company strategy? No? This is disastrous: Only ...
  • Responsive Web Design
    Desktop, Smartphone, Tablet, today we’re designing for more de­vices, input types and resolutions than ever before. Determining which device...
  • Why is discipline important to succeed in business?
    " Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment " – Jim Rohn The above statement is very much true because without it,...
  • Requirements & Specifications - Part II
    The following list describes the various kinds documents that belong to the body of requirements and specifications document. All are not ma...
  • Customer Needs
    To ensure a project to be a success and to ensure a happy client at the end of the project life cycle, efforts has to be made upfront to und...
  • Why is Positive Company Culture so Important?
    A positive organizational culture is much more important than one might think, and managers would do well to understand that a positive cult...
  • Responsive Website or a Mobile Website?
    With ever changing trends and a multi fold increase in Mobile Internet users, more and more companies today are aiming to create websites wh...

Categories

  • Graphic Design
  • Logo Design
  • Magento
  • Open Source
  • Open Source Customization
  • OsCommerce
  • Web Design
  • Web Development

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (8)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ▼  July (4)
      • How to make your e-commerce website effective?
      • Responsive Website or a Mobile Website?
      • Enhance your Travel Business
      • Considerations before Hiring a Web Designer
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  March (2)
  • ►  2012 (54)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (6)
    • ►  July (20)
    • ►  June (16)
    • ►  April (5)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2011 (4)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
  • ►  2009 (2)
    • ►  December (2)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile