In this article, we’re going to show you how AI is changing the game, from picking out the perfect product recommendations to streamlining how shops manage their stock, all to give customers a shopping experience that’s spot on. Let’s dive in!

What is Artificial Intelligence in E-commerce?

AI in the ecommerce industry is revolutionizing the way we shop online, acting as an intelligent assistant that anticipates our needs and preferences to create a highly personalized and efficient shopping experience. Here’s a closer look at how AI is reshaping e-commerce:

Personalized Shopping Experiences:

• AI analyzes your browsing patterns, purchase history, and preferences to tailor product recommendations, making it feel like the shopping experience is uniquely designed for you.
• Companies like Frito-Lay and Home Depot leverage AI tools, such as IBM’s Watson, to analyze customer data in real-time, ensuring that recommendations and shopping experiences are as personalized as possible.

Advanced Inventory Management:

• AI-driven systems are optimizing inventory levels, ensuring that products are adequately stocked based on predictive analytics and real-time demand forecasting.
• Solutions like Fellow AI utilize image recognition technologies to monitor stock levels continuously, enabling faster restocking processes and minimizing out-of-stock scenarios.

Seamless Customer Service:

• AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, providing 24/7 customer service, answering queries, and even assisting in the shopping process.
• These AI systems learn from each interaction, constantly improving their ability to resolve customer issues and provide relevant information.

Fraud Detection and Security:

• AI algorithms are adept at identifying patterns and anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activities, enhancing security measures for online transactions and protecting both consumers and businesses.
• These systems can analyze vast amounts of transaction data in real-time to pinpoint suspicious activities, significantly reducing the risk of fraud.

Visual and Voice Search:

• AI is powering visual and voice search capabilities, allowing customers to search for products using images or voice commands, making the discovery process more intuitive and user-friendly.
• This technology is particularly useful in mobile e-commerce, where typing constraints can hinder traditional search methods.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies:

• AI enables dynamic pricing, where prices are adjusted in real time based on demand, competition, and other market factors, ensuring competitiveness and maximizing profits.
• This approach allows businesses to stay competitive while also responding to market trends and consumer demand more effectively.

Product Authenticity Verification:

• AI tools are being deployed to combat counterfeit products, using algorithms that can verify the authenticity of items, thereby protecting brands and consumers alike.
• This application is particularly relevant in luxury goods and branded items, where authenticity is a significant concern.

Enhanced Marketing Efforts:

• AI-driven analytics and data processing capabilities allow for highly targeted marketing campaigns, understanding customer segments more deeply and predicting which marketing strategies will be most effective.
• This results in more engaging and effective marketing efforts, leading to higher conversion rates and customer retention.

AI in e-commerce is not just about making shopping more convenient; it’s about creating a smart, responsive, and personalized ecosystem that understands and anticipates consumer needs, transforming the online shopping experience into something much more engaging and interactive.

How AI is Integrated in The E-commerce Industry

AI is among the top secrets for building a top e-commerce business. This technology is transforming the way ecommerce businesses operate and how customers shop online. From predicting what customers might want to buy next to managing warehouse stocks more efficiently, AI is everywhere.

Let’s break down some of the key areas where the impact of AI on sales is obvious, showing just how it’s become an essential part of the ecommerce world.

Machine Learning

Machine Learning, a subset of AI, is like the brain behind making ecommerce smarter. It looks at the patterns in how people shop, what they buy, and even when they decide to leave something in their cart. For instance, Netflix uses machine learning to recommend shows based on what you’ve watched before.

Similarly, e-commerce sites use it to suggest products you’ll love, making your shopping experience feel personal. This not only helps businesses increase sales but also makes customers feel understood and valued.

AI-enabled Inventory Management

Gone are the days of guessing how much stock to keep. AI-enabled inventory management uses data to predict exactly how much of each product will be needed, helping businesses avoid overstocking or running out of items.

Zara, a global fashion retailer, uses this technology to swiftly move designs from the runway to stores, ensuring they stock what customers want. This efficiency saves money and keeps customers happy because their favorite items are in stock more often.

Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants powered by AI are like having a personal shopper by your side. They can answer questions, provide recommendations, and even help with the checkout process.

Amazon’s Alexa allows users to shop using voice commands, offering a hands-free shopping experience. This convenience improves customer satisfaction and engagement, making shopping easier and more enjoyable.

AI Tools

AI tools in e-commerce extend far beyond recommendations and inventory. These sales apps and software programs are used by ecommerce websites for analyzing customer reviews to improve products, optimizing e-commerce websites for better user experience, and even detecting fraud to make buying safer for online shoppers.

For example, Shopify offers an AI tool that helps businesses understand customer feedback on a deeper level, allowing for real-time improvements. This not only enhances the shopping experience but also builds trust between the consumer and the brand. In addition, eBay deploys artificial intelligence in various elements of its operations.

The Power of Customer Data in E-commerce Businesses

Ecommerce companies rely on customer data as the lifeblood of their operations, unlocking insights into buyer behavior and fueling personalized experiences. AI plays a pivotal role in deciphering this data, transforming raw numbers into actionable strategies.

The Importance of Customer Data for Online Retailers

For online retailers, understanding customer data is like having a roadmap to success. It sheds light on what buyers love, what they skip, and why they come back. This goldmine of information helps businesses tailor their offerings, ensuring customers find exactly what they’re looking for.

By analyzing patterns and preferences, retailers can create shopping experiences that not only meet but exceed customer expectations, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty.

AI’s Role in Analyzing Customer Data

AI technologies take the heavy lifting out of analyzing customer data. They sift through vast amounts of information, identifying trends and behaviors that might not be obvious at first glance. This allows businesses to make informed decisions, predict future buying patterns, and deliver highly personalized marketing messages.

AI’s ability to learn and adapt over time means that the more data it processes, the better it gets at forecasting needs, ensuring businesses stay one step ahead in the highly competitive e-commerce landscape.

The Benefits of AI Technology in E-commerce

AI technology in e-commerce is transforming the shopping experience, offering benefits that make shopping online not just convenient but truly personalized and engaging.

Personalized Online Shopping Experience

AI is the powerhouse behind the scenes, crafting shopping experiences that feel personally tailored to each shopper. It cleverly uses data from your shopping habits and preferences to suggest products you’ll love and marketing that speaks directly to you.

This means less time searching and more time discovering products that feel like they were picked just for you. The result is a shopping experience that not only meets your needs but also introduces you to new favorites, fostering loyalty and encouraging you to come back for more.

Natural Language Processing in E-commerce

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is another AI gem that’s changing the game in customer service. It allows chatbots and virtual assistants to understand and engage with customers in a surprisingly human way. Need help finding a product or have a question about your order?

NLP-powered tools are there to help any time of day, making sure you’re supported throughout your shopping journey. This seamless communication helps smooth out any bumps along the way, making shopping online an even more pleasant experience.

Pricing Optimization

Pricing optimization is a crucial aspect of the e-commerce industry, and AI is revolutionizing how businesses approach it. By analyzing customer data, market trends, and competitor pricing, AI helps e-commerce businesses determine the optimal price for their products, leading to increased revenue, improved profit margins, and enhanced customer satisfaction.

AI-powered pricing optimization tools can sift through vast amounts of data, including customer behavior, market conditions, and competitor pricing, to pinpoint the best price for a product. These tools also consider factors such as inventory levels, shipping costs, and seasonal demand, ensuring that prices are competitive and profitable.

Moreover, AI enables dynamic pricing strategies, where prices are adjusted in real-time based on changing market conditions. This approach helps businesses stay competitive, boost revenue, and enhance customer satisfaction. For instance, Amazon uses AI-powered pricing optimization tools to adjust prices in real-time, helping the company remain competitive, increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction.

By leveraging AI for pricing optimization, e-commerce businesses can make data-driven decisions that enhance their profitability and customer experience.

Challenges and Solutions of Implementing AI in E-commerce

Implementing AI in the online shopping world isn’t always a walk in the park. Businesses might hit a few bumps along the way, but with the right approach, these challenges can be navigated successfully.

Ethical Concerns and Data Security

Using AI means dealing with a ton of customer data, which naturally brings up ethical concerns and data security challenges.

Customers are increasingly aware and concerned about how their data is used and protected. Businesses need to be transparent about their use of AI and commit to safeguarding customer data.

This means investing in robust security measures, following data protection regulations like GDPR, and being clear with customers about how their data is used to enhance their shopping experience. Building trust is key, and respecting customer privacy and security is a cornerstone of that trust.

Overcoming Technical Difficulties

Diving into AI can also mean facing some technical hurdles, from integrating AI technologies with existing systems to ensuring your team has the right skills to manage and maintain AI tools.

One solution is to start small with AI projects that can be easily integrated and offer quick wins, allowing businesses to learn and adapt. Additionally, investing in training for your team or partnering with AI experts can help overcome skill gaps.

Regularly evaluating and updating AI systems also ensures they stay effective and aligned with your business goals. Remember, patience and continuous learning are your allies in making AI work for your ecommerce business.

Creating a Strategy for AI Implementation

Implementing AI in e-commerce requires a well-thought-out strategy to ensure success. Here are some steps e-commerce businesses can take to create an effective AI implementation strategy:

1. Define Goals and Objectives: Start by determining what you want to achieve with AI implementation. Whether it’s improving customer experience, increasing revenue, or enhancing operational efficiency, having clear goals will guide your AI strategy.
2. Assess Current Infrastructure: Evaluate your existing infrastructure, including hardware, software, and data storage capabilities, to ensure it can support AI technologies. This assessment will help identify any upgrades or changes needed.
3. Choose AI Tools and Technologies: Select AI tools and technologies that align with your goals and objectives. This could include machine learning for predictive analytics, natural language processing for customer interactions, or computer vision for visual search capabilities.
4. Develop a Data Strategy: A robust data strategy is essential for AI implementation. Focus on collecting, storing, and analyzing customer data to support AI-driven insights and decisions. Ensure your data is clean, relevant, and accessible.
5. Train and Educate Employees: Equip your team with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use AI tools. Training and education will help employees understand how to leverage AI to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
6. Monitor and Evaluate Performance: Continuously monitor and evaluate the performance of your AI implementation. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and make adjustments as needed to ensure your AI initiatives are meeting your goals.

By following these steps, e-commerce businesses can create a strategic plan for AI implementation that aligns with their objectives and drives success.

The Future of AI in E-commerce

The future of AI in e-commerce looks bright, with innovations that promise to make online shopping even more intuitive, personalized, and efficient. As we look ahead, it’s clear that AI will continue to shape how we discover, interact with, and purchase products online, offering exciting opportunities for businesses to connect with their customers.

Predicted AI Trends in E-commerce

The integration of AI in e-commerce is transforming the landscape, offering both consumers and businesses enhanced experiences and operational efficiencies. Here’s a deeper look into the burgeoning AI trends in e-commerce:

• Hyper-Personalization:
  • AI algorithms are advancing to the point where they can predict consumer preferences with astonishing accuracy, recommending products tailored to individual tastes and needs.
  • These systems analyze past shopping behavior, browsing history, and other personal data to suggest items that a shopper is likely to purchase, often before the consumer recognizes the need or desire for such items.
• AI-Driven Visual Search:
  • This technology allows consumers to upload images to search for similar products online, drastically simplifying the product discovery process.
  • Visual search capabilities are becoming more sophisticated, enabling more precise matches and suggestions, thereby enhancing the shopping experience.
• Voice Shopping:
  • Shopping through voice commands is gaining traction, facilitated by the proliferation of smart speakers and voice assistants.
  • AI advancements are making voice recognition more accurate and contextually aware, allowing for a more natural and seamless shopping experience.
• Enhanced Backend Operations:
  • Supply Chain Optimization: AI is revolutionizing supply chain management by forecasting demand more accurately, optimizing routes, and reducing delivery times with e-commerce suppliers, leading to cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.
  • Advanced Inventory Management: AI systems are enabling more sophisticated inventory management practices, such as predictive restocking and identifying slow-moving items, ensuring that businesses can respond more dynamically to market changes.
• Customer Service Automation:
  • AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming more adept at handling customer inquiries, providing real-time assistance, and even resolving complex issues, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced operational costs.
• Augmented Reality (AR) Shopping Experiences:
  • AR is being integrated with AI to provide immersive shopping experiences, allowing customers to visualize products in their own space before making a purchase decision, thereby reducing uncertainty and increasing conversion rates.
• Fraud Detection and Prevention:
  • AI algorithms are constantly evolving to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions more effectively, safeguarding both the business and its customers from potential security threats.
• Personalized Marketing and Retargeting:
  • AI enables more personalized and targeted marketing campaigns by analyzing consumer behavior and preferences, resulting in higher engagement rates and improved ROI on marketing spend.
  • AI is also an increasingly large part of content creation and customer experience measurement. Learn more about AI in digital marketing and AI for content marketing.

These AI-driven trends signify a move towards more personalized, efficient, and interactive e-commerce experiences, underscoring the technology’s pivotal role in shaping the future of retail.

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Empowering Your Ecommerce Business with the Advancements in Artificial Intelligence

For e-commerce businesses looking to stay ahead, embracing these AI advancements is key. Start by integrating AI-powered tools for personalized recommendations and customer interactions, such as chatbots and personalized marketing messages.

Investing in AI for backend operations can also dramatically improve efficiency and reduce costs. Keep an eye on emerging AI technologies and consider how they might benefit your customers and your business.

Staying informed and adaptable will help you leverage AI not just for automation but for creating truly memorable shopping experiences that keep your customers coming back.

Sales and Demand Forecasting

Sales and demand forecasting is a critical aspect of the e-commerce business, and AI is significantly enhancing its accuracy and effectiveness. By analyzing customer data, market trends, and seasonal demand, AI helps e-commerce businesses predict sales and demand with greater precision.

AI-powered sales and demand forecasting tools can process vast amounts of data, including customer behavior, market conditions, and seasonal demand, to generate accurate predictions. These tools also consider factors such as weather, holidays, and economic trends, providing a comprehensive view of future sales and demand.

Moreover, AI enables predictive analytics, which uses statistical models and machine learning algorithms to forecast future sales and demand. This capability allows businesses to make informed decisions about inventory management, pricing, and marketing strategies.

For example, Walmart uses AI-powered sales and demand forecasting tools to predict sales and demand for its products. This technology has helped the company improve inventory management, reduce stockouts, and increase revenue.

By leveraging AI-powered sales and demand forecasting tools, e-commerce businesses can enhance their ability to predict sales and demand, make data-driven decisions, and drive business growth.

FAQ

What is AI in e-commerce?

AI in e-commerce refers to the integration of artificial intelligence technologies within online shopping platforms to enhance various aspects of the shopping experience. This includes personalized product recommendations, chatbots for customer service, predictive analytics for inventory management, and more.

How does AI enhance the online shopping experience?

AI enhances the online shopping experience by providing personalized recommendations based on past purchases and browsing behavior, improving search functionality with natural language processing, streamlining customer service through chatbots, optimizing pricing strategies through predictive analytics, and facilitating smoother logistics and inventory management.

What are the benefits of AI in e-commerce?

The benefits of AI in e-commerce include increased sales through personalized recommendations, improved customer satisfaction and retention with better customer service, reduced operational costs through automation of tasks like inventory management and pricing optimization, and gaining insights from large datasets to make data-driven decisions.

Can AI in e-commerce improve conversion rates?

Yes, AI in e-commerce can significantly improve conversion rates by offering personalized product recommendations that are tailored to each customer’s preferences and behaviors, providing real-time assistance through chatbots to address customer inquiries and concerns, and optimizing the overall shopping experience based on predictive analytics.

Is AI in e-commerce safe for handling customer data?

AI in Ecommerce platforms prioritize data security and privacy to ensure that customer data is handled safely. These platforms typically employ encryption protocols, access controls, and comply with relevant data protection regulations such as GDPR or CCPA to safeguard sensitive customer information.

How does AI impact inventory management in e-commerce?

AI optimizes inventory management in e-commerce by analyzing historical sales data, current market trends, and other relevant factors to predict demand accurately. This helps retailers to maintain optimal inventory levels, reduce stockouts, minimize overstocking, and ultimately improve profitability.

What does the future hold for AI in e-commerce?

The future of AI in E-commerce is promising, with continued advancements in machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision technologies. We can expect to see further personalization in product recommendations, enhanced virtual shopping experiences, more sophisticated chatbots, and seamless integration of AI across various aspects of the online shopping journey.

Image: Envato Elements

This article, "AI in Ecommerce: The Future of Online Shopping" was first published on Small Business Trends

Making your online storefront attractive is one of the key ways to attract and retain customers. Your website design and the WordPress theme you use can have a significant impact on the user experience. The easier and more intuitive it is for customers to shop from your site, the more likely they will keep coming back.

For this article, we’ll look at some of the best WooCommerce themes for your online storefront and explore what makes them stand out to help you select the best one.

What is a WooCommerce Theme?

It is also essential to begin by asking, what is WooCommerce? The straightforward answer is that it is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform designed for WordPress or offered as an eCommerce solution by web hosting providers.

Using a Woocommerce WordPress theme, you can turn your website into an e-commerce store and sell products or services. Customers can browse products, add items to their cart, and purchase from your eCommerce site quickly and easily with a WooCommerce theme.

How do you get WooCommerce themes?

Depending on business needs, you can get free WooCommerce WordPress themes or premium WooCommerce themes for your eCommerce shop. There are many ways to get a WooCommerce theme; here is how:

1. Look for the best WooCommerce themes, and select the one that works best for your online store.
2. Download the file to your computer so that you can upload the theme to WordPress.
3. You can install your WooCommerce WordPress theme using the WordPress dashboard feature.
4. Navigate to the dashboard and select Upload to import your WooCommerce WordPress theme.
5. Once it uploads, navigate to Appearance > Themes to activate the theme.

If you’re having trouble installing or activating your WooCommerce theme, you can find additional support on the WooCommerce site.

Best Free WooCommerce Themes

Choosing the right theme is absolutely crucial for the success of your online shop. Using a flexible WordPress theme, you can tailor the site to match your branding and create a strong impression for customers right from the start. For example, add a custom logo for more impact or custom widgets to make it more personal for users.

We’ll look at some of the best WooCommerce WordPress themes for online stores, including the best free WordPress theme and premium WordPress themes.

Astra

Astra is undoubtedly one of the most popular WordPress themes, and it’s one of the top favorite free WooCommerce themes. Astra is fully responsive, fast, lightweight, and customizable, making it a great option for online stores. It’s easy to integrate to WooCommerce plugins, and no coding experience is needed to make changes.

Storefront

Storefront is another popular eCommerce theme and is a great option for an online business. Storefront offers easy-to-navigate page layouts, different customization options and can be integrated with both WooCommerce and other WordPress plugins as needed. Choose from different layout colors, add custom widgets, and make your eCommerce store stand out with Storefront.

OceanWP

OceanWP is an excellent free WooCommerce theme that provides numerous features for an eCommerce website. This multipurpose WordPress theme allows for easy customization and includes responsive design, fast loading speeds, strong eCommerce functionality, and much more.

Botiga

If you’re looking for a fully responsive WooCommerce theme and a design that makes your online shop stand out, then Botiga is the right choice for you. One of the most elegant themes available, Botiga, is a free WooCommerce WordPress theme that balances out eCommerce functionality with design to create a great customer experience.

Zigcy Lite

Zigcy Lite is a great multipurpose theme that works well as an eCommerce WordPress theme. It has deep WooCommerce integration and is one of the best options for online stores looking to build a responsive and well-designed WooCommerce site for their business.

Excellent

Excellent is a contemporary WooCommerce theme designed for businesses seeking stylish themes that maintain complete WooCommerce integration. With various page templates available, there is ample opportunity for customization, and the theme is responsive, ensuring optimal performance on mobile devices.

Woostify

Woostify is one of the best free WooCommerce themes for WordPress because of its sleek design, easy navigation, and SEO-friendliness. It’s optimized for responsive design and is also very lightweight and flexible. Woostify can be adapted easily for different types of online stores, making it a great multipurpose WordPress theme for businesses.

Attire

Attire is a free WordPress theme for WooCommerce and has a lot of important elements to help online shops increase revenue. Attire features an SEO-friendly page layout for maximum effectiveness, alongside hundreds of customization options to make your site on-brand. Built for WordPress customizer Gutenberg, brands can easily construct an eCommerce site that fits their needs using a page builder with Attire.

Boutique

The name Boutique might imply that it is exclusively for fashion brands, but its versatility allows for much broader use! One of the greatest advantages of free WordPress themes for WooCommerce is the numerous customization options available to align the theme with your brand. The Boutique WordPress theme features various page layouts, a sleek and straightforward design, along with a stylish minimal layout that resonates well with customers.

Woovina

Woovina is a suitable option if you’re looking for a free WooCommerce theme that’s easily customizable. Woovina includes over 85 design elements you can use as needed, and no coding experience is required to build pages. Plus, with a deep WooCommerce integration, Woovina is perfect for your online store since it can be designed to match your branding. Using the free WordPress theme, you can quickly import pages, add products and have your site go live in no time.

Best WooCommerce Themes (Premium)

Another choice for your eCommerce store is to utilize a premium WooCommerce theme. Not all WordPress themes provide the necessary features and functionalities for your business, but a premium option can offer significantly more. With a premium theme, you can access benefits such as WooCommerce support, a drag-and-drop builder, and additional features. We will explore the top premium WooCommerce themes to assist you in selecting the ideal one for your business:

Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a multipurpose WooCommerce theme that can be used across many different business types. Hestia Pro has a clean and simple design as it is a one page WordPress theme. So you won’t need to worry about building out multiple pages and instead focusing on creating a great user experience.

Pricing: There are multiple pricing options available, ranging from 69 dollars to 299 dollars depending on business size, with features including support, updates, and more.

Neve

Like many other WordPress WooCommerce themes, Neve has both a free version and a premium version for businesses to choose from. Neve is a classic multipurpose WooCommerce theme that incorporates beautiful design with other features to increase user conversion rates and sales. In addition, it’s a flexible, easy-to-use premium WordPress theme for a WooCommerce store.

Pricing: Ranges from $59 to $259 and offers features like custom page layouts, WooCommerce boosters, and cloud storage.

Flatsome

Flatsome is a good option for businesses that want more of a sleek, professional look instead of a minimalist theme. In addition, Flatsome is one of the best WooCommerce themes for those that want an easy website to build and key eCommerce features. Flatsome is fully compatible with the WooCommerce plugin and includes many custom features to entice buyers.

Pricing: Flat regular license fee for $59.

WoonderShop

WoonderShop is an excellent choice if you are seeking a premium theme for your WordPress website. It comes with WooCommerce extensions and live page builders, allowing you to visualize how your site will appear to users as you create pages. Additionally, WoonderShop offers features optimized for conversion rates, helping to increase customer purchases while they browse your online store.

Pricing: $67 for one WordPress theme, $177 for all WordPress themes

eLab

eLab is one of the best premium WooCommerce themes because it includes many of the key features an online store needs to build trust with customers and boost sales. eLab premium themes include elegant designs, fast loading speeds, a secure site, and a fully responsive design to ensure that customers have a great experience no matter what device they are using.

Pricing: Flat license fee of $59

Ultra

As the name might suggest, Ultra is known for being one of the fastest and most flexible premium WordPress themes out there. So if you’re looking for an eCommerce theme that gives you more freedom to build pages as you like and create a site more reflective of your brand, Ultra is the best choice. Moreover, sites can be customized from top to bottom as needed, with multiple page templates to help you construct the best website for your online business.

Pricing: Starts at $59

Hugo

For online stores looking for more distinctive designs and a modern WordPress website theme, Hugo might be the best fit. That’s why Hugo is great for brands looking to upgrade their online shop with lots of different visual elements and a high-end look and feel. Including unique page layouts, WooCommerce support, custom widgets, and multiple color schemes, Hugo has a lot to offer.

Pricing: Single themes start at $34 and go up to $174 based on the type of support and update package chosen.

Cherbs

Although the website design might suggest this theme is better suited for the food industry, that’s not quite the case. Premium WordPress themes such as Cherbs can be tailored to various industries and companies and add a more unique touch for websites. The Cherbs WordPress theme includes a one-click installation process, Google fonts, all browser compatibility, and other features to keep customers engaged and interested as they browse the site.

Neto

Neto is a classic multipurpose WooCommerce theme with various features to help online businesses be as successful as possible. Neto includes many customization options for eCommerce stores, easy WooCommerce integration, WooCommerce plugin compatibility, mobile-friendly design, and customizable colors and layouts to help online shops stand out.

Pricing: Single themes start at $34 and go up to $174 based on the type of support and update package chosen.

Zuka

Like Hugo, ZukaZuka is also a clean and modern WooCommerce theme suitable for many types of retail businesses. Zuka has unique design elements and visual imagery to help brands stand out. Plus, Zuka includes unique tools to help eCommerce businesses drive sales, including a creative child theme for inner pages, premium plugin options, one-click page importer to make building your pages easier, and much much more.

What to Look Out for in WooCommerce WordPress Themes

Several key features help turn your eCommerce site from good to great, and it’s important to choose a theme that helps you achieve that.

So, if you want to build a stunning eCommerce website, here are some ways to go about evaluating an eCommerce theme for your business and what you should be looking for:

1. Responsive design: Ideally, your chosen theme should load quickly and easily on mobile devices and desktops to ensure the best customer experience.
2. Multiple page layout options: You should have the flexibility to create different page layouts and customize your site according to needs.
3. Social media integration: Including your social media channels on your site is an important marketing tool, so your WordPress Woocommerce theme should offer that.
4. No coding required: Your WooCommerce theme should be easy enough to use, with features such as a drag-and-drop page builder so that you can tailor your site as needed without needing a developer.
5. Easy customization: If you want to add custom backgrounds, various plugins, a unique logo, or additional features, seek out WordPress WooCommerce themes that provide multiple customization options for your site.
6. Regular updates: It’s important to choose a theme with regular updates as that means that developers ensure that the site is performing well and is keeping up with trends. Regular updates are also important to eliminate bugs and other issues, so choose a theme that offers regular support and updates to ensure your website performs at its best.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "WooCommerce Themes for Your Online Storefront" was first published on Small Business Trends

According to the latest stats, nearly 70 percent of eCommerce shoppers never buy the stuff they leave in their cart. For a small business, that’s a huge loss of opportunity to sell. What if you could regain the lost sales?

What is an Abandoned Cart Email?

An abandoned cart email, in essence, is a follow-up message to buyers who leave items in their shopping cart. It reminds them they haven’t made the purchase, enticing them to complete the transaction, thus improving your cart abandonment rate.

Why Do People Abandon Carts?

Interestingly, there are many reasons why people abandon their carts. Below are some of the most common ones:

• Just browsing: In many instances, shoppers add items to their carts only to abandon them because they are not completely interested in actually buying.
• Website issues: Poor connectivity and long loading times play a part in shoppers’ decision to abandon their carts.
• Comparison: Another reason for leaving carts is to compare the products on other sites.
• Price: Sometimes, shoppers lack the motivation to make purchases for high-priced products.
• Complicated checkout process: A long, complex process to checkout may result in shoppers leaving without making a purchase.
• Distractions: Shoppers may be too distracted to complete the purchase.
• They Forget: Some shoppers just forget they have abandoned their carts.
• Return or Exchange policies: Complex return or exchange policies may prevent shoppers from completing the purchase.

What to Include in Cart Abandonment Emails to Encourage Customers to Complete Their Purchase

Realizing the potential to convert abandoned shopping carts into actual purchases, many businesses today are leveraging cart abandonment mail. If done correctly, these emails can encourage users to complete the purchase and even explore more products. It is also just as important to have abandoned shopping cart email best practices in place.

Here are some pointers on what to include in cart abandonment emails.

A Reminder of the Product/Basket They Abandoned

The first thing that must be included in the email is a reminder of the product(s) the shopper has left behind.

A Link to Re-Visit the Same Shopping Cart

The next thing to add is a link where they can access the abandoned shopping cart.

A Reinforcement of Your Return Policy

A clear explanation of your return policy can help alleviate concerns that may have caused shoppers to abandon the cart in the first place.

Product Reviews

Product reviews are invaluable for establishing trust and demonstrating to customers the reasons they should proceed with their purchase.

Your Shipping Costs (Especially if There is Free Shipping)

Many shoppers leave their carts when they discover there’s a shipping cost. Clarifying the shipping fee, especially if there’s none, can help you entice the shopper.

A Memorable Subject Line

To ensure the shopper opens the email and completes the transaction, it’s useful to have a memorable subject line.

A Call to Action (CTA)

A simple and strong enough call to action can help encourage shoppers to act and complete the purchase.

Use This Abandoned Cart Email Template

The great advantage of an abandoned cart email is its simplicity. Below is a straightforward template that you can tailor to fit your business needs.

We noticed you left something in your cart.

We’re holding the item for you. But don’t wait too long. Order now!

Call to action: Order now.

The Best Abandoned Cart Email Examples to Boost Sales

Looking for more options in abandoned cart email templates? Here are some cart recovery email examples that may come in handy.

Nomad (Getting straight to the point)

Subject Line: Do you want to make a deal?

Nomad’s shopping cart email stands out with personalization. The email is signed off by a real person, which makes it unique and personalized.

Best Features:

• Short and gets to the point straight away: The email is succinct in describing the offer, which makes it more enticing for the recipient to act.
• Light-hearted tone: The cart abandonment email has an informal tone to create a stronger connection with the prospect.
• Signed off by a real sender: Emphasizing personalization further, the email is signed off by a real name.

Dollar Shave Club (Using humor to connect)

Subject Line: Where did you go?

Everyone likes to receive witty emails once in a while. Dollar Shave Club uses clever copy to strike a chord with its audience. The subject line is pointed, and once the reader opens the abandoned email for the shopping cart, Dollar Shave Club uses simple messages to attract its prospects.

Best Features:

• Short, personalized subject line: The short subject line doesn’t give away much but is effective in catching attention.
• Clever use of bullets: The benefits are laid out in bullets, which is a smart way to catch busy customers’ attention.
• 100% refund: The promise of a refund is helpful to remove any doubts from the customer’s mind.

Virgin Atlantic (Providing necessary information)

Subject Line: You’re almost there!

Being asked to click on too many links when reading an email is not great from a customer experience perspective. This is especially true for the travel industry. Virgin Atlantic’s email provides all the necessary information to keep customers engaged.

Best Features:

• Summary of important information: Flight summary helps customers get everything in the same email.
• Personalized text: Both the subject line and email text are directly addressed to the customer.
• Call-to-action button: The call-to-action button appears twice: in the banner image and text.

Target (Making it difficult to resist discount)

Subject Line: Price drop alert.

Target’s strategy is quite different. The company focuses on highlighting a discount on the items that have been left behind in the cart. The subject is not specific, but the email text provides information on the new discounts.

Best Features:

• Compelling call-to-action: Target’s call-to-action are pointed and effective.
• Similar items suggestions: The email also highlights other products the user might find interesting to boost sales.
• Focus on price drop: Target features both original and discounted prices to entice its prospects.

Casper (Keeping it simple)

Subject Line: Did you forget something?

Casper keeps things simple. The minimalistic approach with clever copy is useful when competing against different brands that bombard users with too much information.

Best Features:

• Clear call-to-action: The email has just two call-to-action buttons. One takes the user to the cart, while the other redirects to a customer testimonial.
• Simple layout: The email layout is minimal, which effectively connects with the customer.
• Interesting subject: A simple subject line that piques interest and entices the user to open the email.

Whisky Loot (Encouraging users to complete purchase)

Subject Line: Your cart is sobering up

Most users abandon their carts because they can’t seem to make up their minds about the purchase. Whisky Loot’s cart abandonment email addresses this challenge by giving users reasons to complete the purchase.

Best Features:

• Inclusion of a brief FAQ section: Whisky Loot’s email features a brief FAQ section designed to address common questions, assisting users in finalizing their purchase.
• Clever copywriting: Both the subject line and body copy make use of clever language to draw the users.
• Simple, compelling call-to-action: There’s just one call-to-action button (Treat Yourself) to encourage users.

Are abandoned cart emails worth it?

According to data, half of the customers who abandon their shopping carts are likely to complete the purchase when asked. Abandoned cart emails can help businesses convert these lost business opportunities into prospects.

Are abandoned cart emails legal?

As long as businesses have customers’ explicit consent, they can freely send abandoned cart mails to customers.

What is the best time to send an abandoned cart email?

It’s generally best to send out an abandoned cart mail three hours after the cart has been left out. Creating a cart email sequence is a great idea to follow up and ensure you get the audience’s attention.

How many abandoned cart emails should I send?

Ideally, you should plan to send 2-4 cart reminder emails. The first email can be sent three hours after the cart has been abandoned. The subsequent three cart recovery emails can be dispatched daily until the customer finalizes the transaction. From an email marketing standpoint, it’s beneficial to establish an email sequence to enhance the conversion rate.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Using an Abandoned Cart Email to Boost Sales through the Roof" was first published on Small Business Trends

The first obvious perk is the ability of your business to reach a larger customer base and access markets outside your proximity. Besides boosting your reach, you will also lower costs without having to open more physical stores or have greater staffing needs.

An ecommerce store will let customers locate your products quicker, compete with the competition on price and unique selling points, boost branding and information about your company, provide your customers with promotions such as coupons and bargains, allow you to better engage with your customers with increased interactions on your site and via social media, and of course sell 24/7!

If you are looking to expand your online presence, you will need to choose an eCommerce platform. Simply put, eCommerce platforms are website builders that help to create your online store from the bottom up, covering complex functions as well as handling both the front and back end of your site’s operations. These platforms help you build your online enterprise whether it be B2B businesses, B2C businesses, web marketing, or even designing your own customized site that is a mix of these.

Top Ecommerce Software Options for Small Business

When selecting eCommerce software for your online store, you’ll want to consider various features. Look for eCommerce platforms that offer drag-and-drop tools and include a payment gateway that supports credit card transactions.

You also want something with a free trial period so you can determine whether your new eCommerce store is right for you. Here are 12 of the best eCommerce options around to help you decide which is the right eCommerce platform for you.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms available to help you create your own online store. It has a drag and drop interface to easily set up your online store and it comes with a variety of themes that you can customize to suit your needs.

Shopify is user-friendly and easy to use since it lets users create their online store without requiring any coding or design skills. This platform provides access to both HTML and CSS, which are used to create content on the page, and it has its own servers. This means users don’t have to buy web hosting or install software anywhere.

Adding a product comes easy with Shopify. The onboarding wizard helps you walk through the process of adding your products, tweaking the look of your store, connecting your own domain, and setting up your payment options. If you are selling online, on social media, or in-store, Shopify lets you start selling with a $29 monthly subscription. A free 14-day trial is also available with no credit card required.

This eCommerce platform helps cover everything from marketing and payments, to secure checkout and shipping for your store. Its interface lets you set up and manage a variety of sales channels, undertake email marketing either through built-in tools or third-party apps, and everything else you need in terms of integration with Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and more.

Wix

Wix is a popular eCommerce builder that helps you create, design, and manage your eCommerce website and online store. It comes with a drag-and-drop builder that lets you add and remove features to suit your online business.

In addition, Wix comes with a good selection of both paid and free templates to customize that are also optimized for mobile display. In fact, Wix offers over 500 free mobile-optimized eCommerce themes.

It comes with free business tools that include Wix’s logo maker and a business name generator. When signing up on Wix, you fill out a questionnaire allowing Wix to use the input to automatically set things up for you. Toward the end of your onboarding process, you get the option to choose from the gallery of templates and make your own site, or answer a few more questions and let Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) do it for you.

Wix is packed with all the bells and whistles you need to build, run and scale up your eCommerce business. It helps you run your entire storefront and eCommerce website from one place and through the Wix owner app you can keep track of your business while on the move. You can also monitor and set up real-time push notifications.

Wix’s features include abandoned cart recovery, multi-channel integration, ‘buy now’ and ‘add to cart’ buttons, printable shipping labels, store card details, dropshipping integrations with ShipStation, and more. With Wix, users can tag their pages for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and sync with Google Calendar to send confirmation emails and reminders with bookings.

Plans for Wix start at $17 a month with features that include secure online payments, a free domain name, customer accounts, custom domain, free domain for a year, 20GB oc storage and videos of up to five hours.

Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop’s eCommerce software makes it easy to build your store’s website and grow your business. This eCommerce website builder offers you a choice of professionally designed, industry-specific templates all of which are not only mobile-friendly but are also SEO optimized and customizable. Its intuitive web design tool lets you customize your site by editing the HTML and CSS directly. You also have access to features like product and order management, SEO tools, email and social media marketing, and more.

This eCommerce solution provides a robust free plan that includes all features without any limits on products, storage, or bandwidth, as long as users opt for Shift4Shop’s in-house payment processing option.

This includes a complete suite of tools for marketing, inventory management, SEO, and customer support. This comes with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven fraud protection feature. However, Shift4Shop charges a transaction fee of 2.9% and a 30-cent transaction fee for using the free plan. Paid plans start at $29 a month and integrate with Square, PayPal, Klarna, Stripe, MailChimp, AWeber, Google, Facebook, Houzz, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free open-source eCommerce platform built for WordPress. It offers users extensive customization options, from the look of your online store to tailoring your customers’ experiences, the checkout process, and more. By adding the WooCommerce plugin to any WordPress site, you can set up a new web store to sell online with secure payments, configurable shipping options, and more, all out of the box for free.

WooCommerce comes with an intuitive plugin that helps configure your store’s page with store contact information, product content, payment details, shipping information, extras like automated taxes, and more. Its marketplace has hundreds of free and paid extensions that add features and functionality to your online business efforts.

They include promotions, coupon codes, inventory management, buyer reviews, and products. WooCommerce is scalable and can integrate with virtually any service, making it one of the few eCommerce platforms that allows people to start for free and grow their store as their business grows.

With WooCommerce, you gain access to a content management system, customizable design options, a wide range of extensions and WordPress plugins, various product and checkout page choices, product ratings and reviews that enhance your SEO, as well as advanced product sorting and filtering features.

You also get customizable checkout areas with guest checkout that includes automated emails, tax options, free shipping, and built-in payment processing to name a few. Payment wise, it comes bundled with PayPal; ability to accept major credit cards; and it integrates with Facebook, Sage, Zapier, MailChimp, ShipStation, Square, Stripe, Fulfilment by Amazon, and more.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers an extensive set of e-commerce tools to help boost your eCommerce efforts. This open SaaS platform makes it easy for users to edit their store’s website with a drag-and-drop solution with no coding required.

You also get a choice of customizable themes to design and customize your storefront theme with built-in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. This will allow you to create sections such as coupons and discounts, boost merchandising, enable digital wallets; and build SEO-friendly URLS along with other features.

In terms of email marketing and customer service, when a customer enters their email and then abandons their products in the shopping cart at checkout with BigCommerce, you can send an automated email to draw them back to their purchase.

You can also connect with your customers by integrating with other marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Google Shopping. You can scale up your store by managing the entire product catalog within the BigCommerce control panel. Similarly, you can push from an external system through BigCommerce’s Catalog  Application Programming Interface (API).

BigCommerce’s paid plans come with a monthly subscription of $29.95 per month and a free trial is also available.  With it, you not only can build your storefront but use the dashboard to help you plan through its inventory management tools. You can design personalized shopping experiences with customer groups. You can also choose from leading shipping and payment providers that include PayPal, Stripe, Square, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and Adyen.

Magento

The Magento eCommerce platform offers out-of-the-box features, the ability to customize your site’s layout and blocks, and seamless third-party integrations. This solution offers personalized content thanks to its easy drag and drop page builder that helps you to also incorporate product recommendations, customer segmentation and personalization, content staging and preview, an instant purchase option, merchandising and other features.

Magento is a free to download eCommerce software thanks to its open-source design and is scalable, which is great for growing companies with multiple stores. However, to incorporate some advanced eCommerce features, you will need to have some developer experience. It comes with a good selection of themes and template designs.

When it comes to selling, Magento allows customers to buy online or pick up in store, help ship inventory to the right store at the right time, and give your customers the buying options they want. It also helps fulfill those orders through a PC, Point of Sale (PoS), or tablet.

Magento Commerce offers its cloud-based services with the benefit of instant access to updates and improvements as they roll out. Use out-of-the-box tools, integration environments, and optimized performance for the front and back ends to ensure your store is running at 100% at all times. There is a paid tier available for enterprise users where pricing is set based on annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV).

Zoho Commerce

Zoho Commerce is an eCommerce platform that helps you build your own online store. You can pick a template, use drag and drop layouts, buy a domain, and launch your brand.

It also comes with all the tools you need to run a full-fledged eCommerce effort, including CRM, email marketing, marketplace integration, mobile commerce, and even a product configurator.

This gives you an impressive selection of capabilities that include product search, basic coupons, shipping integration, cash on delivery, newsletter subscription, SSL certificate, auto-publish social posts, customer reports, sales reports and others.

The Zoho Commerce multi-purpose dashboard lets you engage with customers, convert website visitors, encourage repeat purchases, and recover lost sales all in one place. Thanks to its real-time analytics and metrics, users can make informed decisions to tweak their offerings. This is in addition to all the regular tools you might need to run a full-fledged eCommerce business. You get access to tools that include accepting orders, tracking inventory, processing payments, shipping, marketing your brand, and analyzing your data.

Zoho Commerce also provides real-time reports and detailed analytics based on your online store’s performance. The starter plan comes at a monthly subscription of $25 a month.

Zoho Commerce offers integration with all the relevant sales, marketing, and finance apps within the Zoho suite. These include eZoho Inventory, Zoho SalesIQ, MailChimp, Avalara, Zoho CRM, PayPal, Razorpay, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and others.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder that’s specifically designed for small businesses. This includes creators who sell t-shirts, art, clothing, merchandise, prints, jewelry, and other products.

The platform lets you build an online store and comes with a user-friendly onboarding process with prompts and reminders to help you easily set up your store’s online presence. It comes with several pre-made themes while also allowing you to do your own coding to create your custom design by tweaking the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly. With Big Cartel, you can manage your store, fulfill orders, update products, check stats, and run promotions from any device at home.

The company provides a free, lightweight version of Big Cartel that allows you to manage up to five products without requiring credit card information. With this free plan, you receive one image per product, customizable themes at no cost, the capability to sell both online and in-person, real-time statistics, a custom domain, options to offer discounts and run promotions, shipment tracking, and an automated sales tax feature, among other benefits.

The robust paid version starts with a monthly subscription of $9.99 for up to 50 products. This paid plan offers additional capabilities that include theme code editing, Google Analytics, inventory tracking, the ability to offer discounts and run promos, and bulk editing.

OpenCart

OpenCart is an open-source, downloadable eCommerce solution that’s free to own, upgrade, and use with no monthly fees required.  Because OpenCart is based on PHP, users will need to have a background in that programming language. Support and updates are also available in compliments of its free community or dedicated commercial support. Its dashboard helps offer all the important information available at a glance including the look and features of your web store.

The platform includes total orders, sales, customers, people online, sales analytics, and other widgets. OpenCart offers users the ability to manage multiple stores from one admin interface where they can list products, choose a different theme for each store, localize store settings, and even set product prices per store.

When it comes to product features such as size and color features, OpenCart offers a solution for adding extra product variables.

This free option comes with a selection of over 13,000 modules and themes to expand your online store’s functionality. These include all the tools you need for service integrations, payment providers, shipping methods, social media, marketing, accounting, reporting, sales as well as language packs.

Additional perks include built-in SEO and the ability to manage products, customers, orders, taxes rules, coupon codes and more. It also integrates with multiple payment gateways that include PayPal, Amazon Payments, eBay, and others. To encourage sales and make conversions, OpenCart allows users the ability to offer discounts, coupons, and specials to help improve their bottom line.

WordPress

WordPress has an open-source eCommerce platform that offers users a full range of eCommerce options to build and run their online stores. These include building your landing pages from the ground up, hosting your site, buying a CRM system, designing payment systems, and handling subscriptions and useful plug-ins to create a fully customizable online store. WordPress comes with an easy-to-use site builder. This allows users to easily build elements of their site.

Considered by some the best eCommerce platform, this popular tool allows you to build your site while it also offering a good selection of extensions, themes, and plugins both free and paid that might suit your particular needs.

What makes WordPress stand out is that its interface is easy to navigate. Solid features, along with a clean, minimalist look, also make it a standout. You need no coding expertise to design and build your website. Because it is specifically designed for publishing, WordPress makes it easier to post content and is even mobile responsive. When it comes to analytics and metrics, you can incorporate Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and other tools to monitor your site’s visitors and their behavior.

The WordPress small business package starts at a monthly subscription of $25 billed annually. With it, you get hosting, payment collection, unlimited email support, live chat support, access to premium themes, upload videos, Google analytics integration, advanced SEO tools, and more. With this plan, you can also install plugins and extend functionality for your site with access to more than 50,000 WordPress plugins- everything you need for a commerce solution.

Ecwid

Ecwid eCommerce software helps you launch an online store by letting you create a website and helping you add images, checkout pages, social media integrations, and more with no coding knowledge required.

Control everything from a single dashboard with centralized inventory, order management, and pricing. Ecwid offers a forever plan for free where you can start selling your 10 physical products a month.

You can access more than 70 design themes and advertise on Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and Snapchat. You also get a mobile responsive shopping cart and other features. When you sign up for free, Ecwid gives you the option to integrate your store with your existing website and integrates with most web builders, including WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Joomla, Blogger, Tumblr, and others.

For those interested, an affordable upgrade plan is available at $15 a month with extra features. There are also no additional transaction fees on top of what your payment gateway charges, so it isn’t skimming any profit with hidden fees. In terms of payment, you can connect a Point of Sale system to an Ecwid store to accept payments from anywhere. This is in addition to selling on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google, WordPress eCommerce, ShopApp, Amazon, and more.

Volusion

Volusion’s eCommerce platform is a comprehensive site builder that lets users create their unique online store without any coding required.  You can customize your unique page layout through its drag-and-drop feature to build content blocks for social media, image galleries, videos, testimonials, and more. You can edit your page with ease through its rich content editor and even add search functionality to help customers find what they need easily.

With this ecommerce platform, you receive a range of useful features that provide all the tools necessary for managing inventory, processing payments, and selling an unlimited number of product options.

Volusion’s web app offers features that businesses need in regard to out-of-the-box solutions to push their products online.

Volusion even lets you manage your online store from your phone through its mobile app. There, you can check on your inventory, update prices, or take pictures of your product from your phone. You can market to more customers and grow your sales thanks to its built-in SEO management, newsletters, and CRM system. You can also manage your social media accounts and sell more across the web, all from the comfort of your Volusion dashboard.

Paid plans for Volusion start at a monthly subscription of $29 but a 14 day trial is available where you try a theme on your new site, customize it and see your store come to life. Volusion supports a wide range of payment gateways, including PayPal and Stripe and offers digital wallet options through Amazon and Apple Pay.

Best E-commerce Platforms and Software

Why does your business need an eCommerce store?

The advantage of an eCommerce store is that it allows you to conduct your business in a flexible manner from the comfort of your PC or mobile device while reaching a full range of customers regardless of your store’s location.

Thanks to the equalizing power of the internet, small businesses today can market their products online, generate more sales, and compete in the global marketplace. By starting an online business checklist, you can identify the pros and cons of having an eCommerce store. But here are some of the other benefits that come with having your own eCommerce store:

• Interact and Market Directly to Your Customers: Having your own eCommerce store provides you with a platform to market directly to your website’s visitors and customers without getting lost in the forest of competition. This means you can tweak your offerings, sell directly to customers without intermediaries, and get valuable insights into your customers’ buying behavior. You can engage with them directly by sending them marketing promotions, announcing new products, and offering discounts, wish lists, and loyalty programs. Your eCommerce store will also help you to increase your conversion rate. If customers and prospects are confident about your goods and services, they can immediately buy your product from your online store rather than visit your offline shop.
•  Boost your Brand: Your eCommerce store will not put any limitations on how you decide to leverage your brand and engage with your visitors and customers. You have full control over the messaging, its frequency, its look, and other facets that are important for you to build brand awareness and recognition. When coupled with your social media and other outreach, it will help make your brand prominent. This not only makes people more aware of your company and its products, but it might also interest them enough to make a purchase. By boosting your digital marketing, you can increase the ranking and awareness of your brand in search engines, which will help your target customers find you online easily.
• Provide Convenience for Customers: Another reason you may want an eCommerce store is the relative ease online shopping offers your customers. More and more customers today are doing their research on products online. Through online stores, customers can check important information in regard to pricing, store hours, product features, the availability of the product, and other valuable information. If your store can provide easy purchasing options online, then you are drastically reducing the amount of time and effort customers spend researching a product, evaluating it compared to the competition, and ultimately making the purchase- all in the same place.
• Make More Money: Studies indicate that more and more people are shopping online. This trend has been increasing year-over-year. In fact, most digital purchases are being made on mobile devices, replacing desktops. So, it is a no-brainer that businesses will need to get on the bandwagon if they want to tap into this opportunity. Increasing your business’s revenue should always be a top priority. As it not only reflects positively on your bottom line but also affords you more chances to make sales. Remember, your eCommerce business is open day and night around the clock. You are always open regardless of holidays or harsh weather as the website can be automated to do all sorts of things. Having a store online lets you run your business round the clock and make it accessible to potentially millions of customers worldwide. By creating an online store, you get to capitalize on opening up a whole new opportunity to generate revenue.
• Addition business model: With eCommerce, you can dabble in eCommerce business ideas such as drop shipping which is a business model in which you as a retailer do not keep goods in stock. Instead, you transfer the customer’s orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a third party who ships to the customer. This allows you as a seller to not worry about keeping items in stock, the stress of packing and dispatching.

What types of eCommerce platforms can I choose from?

Ecommerce platforms support your online business by covering everything you need. This includes everything from hosting to your custom domain, tools, and customer support. They offer tools for eCommerce stores that help manage every aspect of controlling and monitoring sales and marketing.

They also assist with shipping, inventory management, customer service, analytics, and more. The crucial factor is selecting the appropriate eCommerce platform that aligns with the unique requirements of your business.

The technical build of your eCommerce platform will determine what customized services and features you can provide your customers. Broadly speaking, there are three types of eCommerce platforms: PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), and open source.

• Software as a Service (SaaS): These are mostly considered to be ideal for smaller businesses since they are essentially out-of-the-box solutions built to handle the basic needs of a web store, such as hosting, providing secure payment gateways, catalog management, content management, and creation. And they make this possible without requiring a tech team or knowledge of coding to build or support it. They are designed for easy adoption by merchants and users who set up their store site in a relatively short amount of time with few hassles. However, the main drawback of SaaS eCommerce platforms is that users might be limited when it comes to customization. Though there is some leeway in terms of customizing user interface functionality, administrative layout, and unique integration, all are limited by the parameters set by the SaaS platform. With SaaS, users do not need to install and run software applications on any computer as everything is available over the internet when they login to their accounts. SaaS eCommerce platforms work under a subscription model with either monthly or annual fees. Examples: Shopify and BigCommerce.
• Open Source: Open source eCommerce platforms often come separate from the web hosting service. They do give users complete control of the platform, but there is a hitch. Users are required to completely manage their site including development and design; maintaining the website, monitoring the server; and dedicating a team to run and manage the day-to-day operations of the website.  Though they come at a relatively low price, unless you have a dedicated IT team or have knowledge of coding, they can be challenging. Open source platforms are often used best by larger enterprise companies that have the resources to properly build and run them. Examples: OpenCart, WordPress.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): PaaS eCommerce platforms can be described as a hybrid of the best features of both SaaS and open-source platforms. They allow users to have full control over their website without having to worry about hosting or infrastructure. These platforms are delivered through the web, giving developers the freedom to concentrate on building the website without having to worry about operating systems, software updates, storage, or infrastructure. Thus, they bring another level of flexibility when making changes to your store’s website. This means no downtime for your site as a consequence of changes or updates you might make on your site. Issues in regard to downtime, security vulnerabilities, or slow loading times are managed by the hosting service provider and taken care of quickly. Updates or security patches that are released by the platform will not negatively affect your site as there is across-the-board integration. Besides reducing the amount of coding needed, these platforms allow for scalability, usually come in cloud platforms, and are not limited by restrictions from the platforms. Example: Magento.

What are the most important features to look for in an eCommerce platform?

Before starting an online business checklist, it is essential to ensure that the eCommerce platform aligns with your specific business model. A common mistake is that many eCommerce businesses encounter failure due to a mismatch between their business model and the chosen eCommerce platform. This highlights the importance of understanding why eCommerce businesses fail. Below are some key features to consider when evaluating eCommerce platforms for your needs:

Versatile Payment Gateway: the main objective of your store is to generate more revenue for your business. As such, you should look for an eCommerce platform that offers your customers diverse payment options that include credit/debit cards; bank transfers; e-wallets payments; cash; mobile payments and third-party vendors like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay and others.

Good Security: This is another important issue to look for. As a business, you are legally responsible to protect your customers from fraud and scams. The best eCommerce platform not only should provide you with anti-fraud tools but also protect your business from security breaches, lost inventory and chargebacks. Look for a platform that supports HTPPS/SSL for a safe and secure checkout.

Affordable Pricing: As with any business tool, you should know exactly what you’ll be paying and what to expect. Almost all platforms come with a monthly fee, flat rate, or transaction charges. In some cases, you might be required to pay additional fees for hosting, updates, and possible hidden costs. It is important that you go through your due diligence by weighing the benefits and disadvantages of the eCommerce platforms and how much they are aligned with your specific needs and correspond to your budget.

Easy Setup: An ideal eCommerce platform should be easy to design, set up, and tweak without the need to be a developer or have any coding knowledge. Your online shop should be up and running in a couple of hours after you sign up. It should be easy to use and offer you the opportunity to choose from customizable templates. It should give you leeway in terms of aligning your brand and business model to build a professional-looking store website.

Easy integrations: As a business, you will need to offer your customers options. Look for a platform that can easily integrate with marketing channels such as Facebook and Instagram, does not clash with your CRM system and of course can accomodate popular eCommerce plugins and extensions.

SEO-friendliness: Your eCommerce site is only good if people know that it exists and use it. The best eCommerce platform should ensure that your online store ranks high in search results and is SEO-friendly so that customers can easily reach you to purchase your goods and services. This includes making sure your product content is easily available, your store has an easy-to-remember domain name and product reviews, and other relevant information regarding your online business is included.

Effective analytics. Your eCommerce site should provide you with actionable real-time insights on the behaviors of visitors and customers so you can make tweaks to boost sales. Look for platforms that collect email addresses and other contact information and provide information on sales, payments, order amounts, abandoned carts, and more.

Responsiveness Across Devices: Your store should be available over multiple devices. Particularly it should be mobile friendly as more and more customers are interacting with eCommerce sites using their smartphones. Your site should deliver on many fronts including product and catalog management, images that stand out, tracking of recently viewed products, and effective product management that will keep your customers coming back for more.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Best Ecommerce Platforms and Software for Your Online Store" was first published on Small Business Trends

Do you have products to sell? Don’t overlook Amazon Custom. Sellers who are already using it laud its features and call it a great experience that brings them more business.

With a wide range of customization options available, almost every product can be tailored to meet individual preferences. Customers appreciate products that can be personalized, making them unique and perfectly suited to their desires. Understanding what is print on demand can also aid in attracting a larger customer base.

What is Amazon Custom?

Amazon Custom is a “store” within Amazon. It’s a place where shoppers can find your products and choose to customize them.

Products can be customized with a logo, chosen images and/or text, or other options. Customization options are chosen by you, the seller.

Shoppers select their desired item and customization options, while you handle the custom service to fulfill all the orders.

Who Can Sell on Amazon Custom?

To sell on Amazon Customer, you must first register with Amazon as a professional seller, or be a member of Amazon Handmade.

Also, your products must be customizable for customers.

How Much Does Amazon Custom Cost?

As an Amazon professional seller you’ll pay the regular monthly subscription fee, $39.99, plus any selling fees.

So far, you can add Amazon Custom to your Professional Seller account at no cost. But Amazon reserves the right to add costs to the service if needed in the future.

Why Your Business Should Sell on Amazon Custom

Amazon Custom provides small businesses with greater opportunities to enter the customized products market. Customers eagerly seize the chance to personalize items, transforming them into unique gifts or promotional materials for their companies.

Here are more reasons:

• Products available on amazon custom are also featured in the extensive Amazon store, making it easier for buyers to discover all of your offerings.
• By using Amazon, you have the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of customers.
• Amazon Custom allows customers to personalize your products, to make all the products more distinctive.
• Amazon Custom gives you a new option for selling with a dedicated storefront for custom products.
• Your product listings can bring customers back to websites, which boosts business for sellers.

Customization Types for Sellers

What are the customization options that can be included in your product listing? Although there are three main customization types, the options a seller can offer are unlimited, which is similar to sites like Amazon Merch.

Image Customization

Customers upload an image, such as a business logo or name. Text can also be added. As customers add uploads to the customizable products, they can see a preview image and change colors if needed.

Text Customization

Customers can add text to products using color and font options. As sellers, you list the options that you offer in text customization. For example, your product customization can be embroidered, engraved, printed or painted – whatever method you use to customize products. The data to be added can be up to five lines.

Product Configuration

Product configuration is very product-dependent. Basically, customers build their own products using a drop-down menu of choices.

What Product Categories can a Seller Customize on Amazon Custom?

Amazon organizes the choice of custom products for shoppers by category. Here’s a look at key categories and departments from the list (there are many more!):

Home & Kitchen, Clothing, Jewelry, Handmade, Office Products, Sports and Outdoors, Cell Phone Case and Accessories, Pet Supplies, Baby, Tools and Home Improvement, Toys and Games, Auto Accessories, Garden and Outdoor, Arts, Crafts and Sewing.

How to Set Up an Amazon Custom Profile and Be Successful

Before you start selling your products, you must set up your account and customization information. The time you spend doing that will pay off with increased profits for your business.

Sign Up for Amazon Custom as a Professional Seller

Before you join the ranks of sellers selling custom products, you must register with Amazon as a professional seller. Or, you can also sell custom products through Amazon Handmade.

Create a New Product

With your seller subscription, you can utilize Amazon’s Seller Central as a listing tool. This tool allows you to create product listings and provide descriptions of the custom options you offer.

You don’t need tons of computer experience to work with the listing tool for customizations.

Add Customization Information to Your Products

Once you’ve added your product, you’ll use the ADD/EDIT button to add customization information for the product. For example, you may specify text options, such as how many lines of text are allowed. If you find that certain font text colors don’t work well with your product, you can limit color selections.

You may specify and list what type of images you can use, such as logos. You may choose to not use photographic images or certain other image customization options.

You’ll also include your terms for the cost of customizations.

Customers who go to your listings will use the Customize Now button.

Preview Your Product Listing

In the Amazon Seller Central tool, you can preview the customization options to check: 1. Whether the steps are set up correctly, and 2. How the customized products appear.

Start Selling

Sellers will soon know if their venture into custom product customizations sales is working!

Remember that custom products sales initiate through the Amazon website, but you fulfill the orders. In other words, shipping won’t be accomplished through the Amazon fulfillment service. You complete the sale, including customization and shipping.

How long does the application process for Amazon Custom take?

Amazon Custom typically responds to an email request to join within an hour!

The return email from Amazon will include all the links sellers need to get started. The links will take you through the steps to add a listing with the item’s image, its features, and descriptive content.

Sellers can also choose which category or categories where the item will appear. Choose the category where you think buyers are most likely to find it.

How do I add items to Amazon Custom in bulk?

Clients can order bulk “text” customizations only. For example, a buyer may be purchasing wedding reception take-home items for friends such as drink coasters. The buyer may wish to buy 200 drink coasters with text (up to 5 lines) and can order all 200.

Image customization and product configuration can not be done in bulk. The processes for that are manual, and must be done one by one for each addition.

How many customizations can I add to a product on Amazon Custom?

You can add both image and text customizations to one product. If set up by the seller, one product may have several spots where image and text can be placed.

For example, a quilt with nine blocks may have 9 spots for text; or one photo collage may have several spots for text, such as a name or more. It all depends on what you – the seller – are prepared to offer as more options.

How do I view my custom orders on Amazon?

You can click the Set Up button to preview how your finished product will appear. An order for each item will be sent to your Amazon Custom account.

Do I need permission from my manufacturer to sell on Amazon?

Absolutely. You need to be authorized by the manufacturer to sell the products you want to customize.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Amazon Custom Lets You Sell Customizable Products" was first published on Small Business Trends

With a strategy rooted in relentless innovation and customer obsession, Amazon has redefined the e-commerce landscape. As we delve deeper into Amazon’s numbers game, we uncover the keystrokes of progress and the algorithm of success that fuel its global supremacy.

Amazon’s Dominance: The Powerhouse in Numbers

Amazon’s dominance in the global e-commerce sector is evident through a series of compelling statistics that highlight its market presence and growth:

1. As of 2024, Amazon holds a commanding 37.8% of e-commerce sales, the highest market share among all e-commerce companies.
2. Amazon’s net sales have seen a significant increase, with a reported 14% growth to $170.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
3. The platform boasts over 310 million active users, making it one of the most convenient and leading e-commerce platforms in 2024.
4. Amazon has processed an astounding 4.79 billion U.S. delivery orders in 2022, which speaks volumes about its logistics capabilities.
5. With more than 12 million products on its platform, Amazon offers an extensive range of items catering to diverse consumer needs and preferences.

Amazon’s Market Share and Growth Statistics

6. There are almost 200 million Amazon Prime members in the United States alone.
7. Prime Day 2023 was an unparalleled success. With Prime members worldwide purchasing over 375 million items and accruing savings exceeding $2.5 billion.
8. Amazon has over 310 million active users, which underscores its status as one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in 2024.
9. In 2022, Amazon Logistics processed an impressive 4.79 billion U.S. delivery orders, highlighting its extensive logistics capabilities.
10. Amazon ships close to 1.6 million packages each day.
11. Amazon is the most visited online marketplace in the US with 2.4 billion monthly visits.
12. Amazon has more than 310 million active users.
13. There are 2 million independent sellers on Amazon—mostly small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

Amazon’s Revenue Breakdown

14. The North American segment saw sales increase by 13% year-over-year to $105.5 billion, while the International segment’s sales grew by 17% to $40.2 billion.
15. AWS segment sales rose by 13% year-over-year to $24.2 billion, reflecting the growing demand for cloud services.
16. Amazon’s net sales totaled $134.383 billion in 2023 Q2, up 5.52% over the previous quarter (2023 Q1) and up 10.8% year-over-year (2022 Q2).
17. Amazon’s net sales revenue worldwide in 2023 was nearly 575 billion U.S. dollars
18. Amazon’s brand value was $ 468.7 billion in 2023.

Understanding Amazon Marketplace: Key Statistics

Amazon Marketplace is not just a hub for transactions but a comprehensive ecosystem that caters to a diverse range of needs. It’s a place where Amazon customers can find everything they’re looking for, often starting their journey on the Amazon search results page, which is powered by sophisticated algorithms to deliver the most relevant items. Behind the scenes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the robust infrastructure and cloud computing power that fuels the marketplace’s vast and complex operations. This synergy between marketplace activity, customer experience, and technological prowess is what makes Amazon a leader in the e-commerce domain.

19. 55% of Amazon Marketplace sellers make over $60,000 per year.

20. New sellers on Amazon Marketplace make an average of $30,000 in their first year.
21. 27% of Amazon Marketplace Sellers make $1,000 or less per month.
22. 68% of Marketplace sellers turn a profit within their first year of selling.
23. In 2020 (during COVID-19 lockdowns), Amazon Marketplace SMBs netted over $160,000 in annual sales.

Amazon Seller Statistics

24. The average Amazon Marketplace seller made $200,000 in sales in 2023, up 17.6% year-over-year (YoY).
25. Amazon counts 1.9 million active sellers on Marketplace in 2023, with upwards of 548 new sellers per day.
26. Third-party sellers list nearly 350 million items on Amazon Marketplace and sell an average of 7,800 products per minute.
27. 60% of 2022 unit sales on Amazon were with independent sellers on Marketplace.

The Importance of Amazon Sellers

Amazon sellers are the backbone of the Amazon Marketplace, playing a pivotal role in its success. They bring a vast array of products to the platform, catering to the diverse needs and preferences of Amazon customers. Sellers enhance the shopping experience by providing unique items that might not be available elsewhere, contributing to the richness and variety of the Amazon search results page. Moreover, they utilize Amazon Web Services to efficiently manage their operations and reach a global audience. The symbiotic relationship between Amazon and its sellers fosters an environment where both can thrive, with sellers benefiting from Amazon’s extensive customer base and technological infrastructure, and Amazon benefiting from the sellers’ diverse offerings and innovation.

28. 1.9 million independent businesses sell on Amazon as third-party sellers.
29. 48% of Marketplace businesses are women-owned.
30. The average Marketplace seller spends $5,000 or less to open their store on Amazon; 24% of sellers open their stores for $500 or less.
31. 60% of all Amazon purchases are made through Marketplace from SMBs.
32. 46% of Amazon Marketplace stores take less than three (3) months to launch.
33. 53% of Marketplace sellers spend 10 hours a week or less working on their Amazon business.
34. Amazon Marketplace businesses ship from over 130 countries.

Amazon Sellers Statistics

35. 13% of American Amazon Marketplace sellers made over $100,000 in sales in 2021.
36. 0.54% of Marketplace sellers in the U.S. made over $500,000 in 2021 sales.
37. 0.01% of U.S. Amazon Marketplace Sellers made over $1 million in sales.
38. U.S. Amazon Marketplace sellers exported 260 million products to global buyers in 2022.
39. Delaware residents are more likely to sell on Amazon Marketplace than residents of any other state.

The Impact of Third-Party Sellers on Amazon

Third-party sellers on Amazon have transformed the marketplace into a vibrant and competitive space. These sellers contribute to the platform’s diversity, offering a wide range of products that enrich the Amazon search results page and enhance the overall Amazon customer experience. Their presence not only expands the selection available to shoppers but also fosters a dynamic environment where innovation and customer satisfaction are paramount. By leveraging Amazon Web Services, third-party sellers can operate more efficiently and scale their businesses, further amplifying their impact on Amazon’s ecosystem. The symbiotic relationship between Amazon and its third-party sellers is a testament to the platform’s ability to adapt and grow through collaborative success.

40. Third-party sellers list nearly 350 million items on Amazon Marketplace and sell an average of 7,800 products per minute.
41. 1.9 million independent businesses sell on Amazon as third-party sellers.
42. In terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), Amazon is home to the third-largest global online marketplace after Taobao and Tmall.

Third-Party Sellers Amazon Sales Statistics

43. From Black Friday to Christmas Day 2021, third-party sellers sold an average of 11,500 products per minute.
44. Registered third-party sellers can apply to sell their products under an Amazon specialty store program for an additional charge (usually $39.99 per month plus selling fees).
45. To qualify to sell on Amazon Renewed, third-party sellers must provide invoices of refurbished and pre-owned product sales totaling a minimum of $50,000 over 3-to-6 months.

Delving into Amazon Prime Membership Statistics

Amazon Prime Membership is a multifaceted program that extends beyond expedited shipping to offer a suite of benefits that cater to a wide range of consumer interests. One of the standout features of Prime membership is the exclusive access to Prime Day sales, an annual event that has become a hallmark of Amazon’s calendar. During Prime Day, members are treated to a plethora of deals and discounts across various categories, driving significant traffic and sales on the platform. This event not only incentivizes membership sign-ups but also showcases the value proposition of Amazon Prime, reinforcing its importance in the e-commerce ecosystem.

46. 71% of U.S. Amazon shoppers are Prime members.
47. Up to 75.9% of Amazon Prime shoppers are in the United States.
48. 157.4 million, or 59.3% of Americans, have Amazon Prime memberships.

Amazon Prime Subscription Statistics

49. As of 2024, Amazon Prime has over 230 million subscribers worldwide.
50. In the United States alone, there are 165 million Amazon Prime subscribers.
51. Amazon Prime Video boasted 210 million users in 2023.
52. The service also had 80 million Prime Music listeners in the same year.
53. Amazon generated approximately $35.22 billion in annual revenue from subscription fees in 2022

Amazon Prime Video

54. Amazon Prime Video has over 220 million global subscribers as of the latest data.
55. In the second quarter of 2023, Amazon Prime Video held the highest market share in the US SVOD market at 21%.
56. Amazon offers approximately 75 million videos on Prime Video, catering to a wide range of viewer preferences.
57. In 2022, Amazon Prime Video earned $5.16 billion.

Amazon Prime Members

58. As of the latest data, Amazon has over 200 million Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide.
59. In the United States, there are an estimated 167.2 million Amazon Prime members as of 2023, with a forecast to reach 176.2 million by 2025.
60. Sales during Amazon Prime Day reached $12.9 billion in 2023, showcasing the event’s massive scale and consumer participation.
61. The streaming service Amazon Prime Video has more than 175 million users, indicating the platform’s extensive reach beyond just shopping benefits.

Inside Amazon Sales: Crucial Sales Statistics

Amazon’s sales landscape is a testament to its dominance in the e-commerce sector. With a staggering net sales revenue of nearly $575 billion in 2023, Amazon has set a new benchmark for online retail success. This growth trajectory is expected to continue, with sales projected to reach an impressive $746.22 billion in 2023. The platform’s daily sales average at around $1.29 billion, highlighting the sheer volume of transactions that occur on Amazon every single day.

62. 60% of 2022 unit sales on Amazon were with independent sellers on Marketplace.
63. The average small- or medium-sized business (SMB) on Amazon Marketplace makes over $140,000 in annual sales.

Tracking Amazon Sales Over Time

64. Amazon’s annual net sales revenue reached nearly $575 billion in 2023, marking a significant increase over the years.
65. For the quarter ending December 31, 2023, Amazon reported revenue of $169.961 billion, a 13.91% increase year-over-year.
66. Over the past decade, Amazon has shown a consistent upward trajectory in revenue, growing from $34.204 billion in 2010 to $574.785 billion in 2023.
67. Reflecting its focus on innovation, Amazon was granted over 40,000 patents in the U.S. from 2010 to 2023.

Amazon Sales Performance Across Different Regions

68. In 2023, North America remained Amazon’s largest market, generating nearly $353 billion in net sales.
69. Amazon’s international segments brought in over$131 billion.
70. With net sales of $395.64 billion, the United States was Amazon’s biggest market in 2023.
71. Ranking second, Germany contributed $37.6 billion to Amazon’s net sales.
72. The UK followed closely with net sales amounting to $33.6 billion.

Amazon’s Customer Service Statistics

73. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score for Amazon.com was 84 out of 100 points in 2022.
74. A third of Amazon shoppers in the United States valued the rapid response to complaints or order issues.
75. High-quality customer service is crucial, with 77% of business leaders recognizing that offering personalized support experiences leads to increased customer retention.

FAQs: Amazon Statistics

What are some interesting statistics about Amazon?

Amazon boasts a commanding 37.8% of e-commerce sales globally, with net sales reaching $170.0 billion in Q4 2023 alone. It serves over 310 million active users, processing an astounding 4.79 billion U.S. delivery orders in 2022.

How many people use Amazon?

Over 310 million active users rely on Amazon’s services, making it one of the most popular e-commerce platforms globally.

What percentage of people use Amazon?

Amazon holds an impressive 37.8% share of the e-commerce market, demonstrating its widespread adoption among consumers worldwide.

How big is Amazon right now?

Amazon’s vast scale is evident in its revenue, which reached nearly $575 billion in 2023, and its market share of 37.8% in e-commerce sales.

Are Amazon sales up or down?

Amazon’s net sales witnessed a significant 14% growth to $170.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, indicating a positive trajectory.

How do I find out how many sales a product has on Amazon?

Product sales on Amazon can be tracked by analyzing seller statistics, including revenue and sales volumes, available through Amazon’s seller tools and third-party analytics services.

How many Amazon Prime subscribers are there?

As of 2024, Amazon Prime boasts over 230 million subscribers worldwide, with 165 million in the United States alone.

How have Amazon’s private label brands impacted overall sales statistics?

Amazon’s private label brands contribute to its overall sales growth, with statistics reflecting a diverse product assortment and increased revenue streams, though specific impact data may vary.

Read More:

• Most profitable Amazon products
• Amazon scams
• Amazon influencer
• Be good at sales

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "Amazon’s Numbers Game: Key Amazon Statistics" was first published on Small Business Trends

That’s precisely why more and more small businesses are experimenting with drop shipping.

What is Drop Shipping?

Simply put, drop shipping is a retail fulfillment method in which a business does not keep the products it sells in stock. When a drop shipping arrangement is put in place, a store will sell a product online.

Then, the business will purchase the item it has sold from a third party, and have that item shipped directly to the customer.

Bearing that in mind, drop shipping means that the merchant never actually touches the product being sold.

How Can I Use Drop Shipping for My eCommerce Business?

First and foremost, you’ve got to do your homework. If you run an existing eCommerce business, it’s worth conducting some extensive market research in order to figure out what you stand to gain or lose from striking a drop shipping agreement with a third party.

If you feel that drop shipping is right for your business, there are plenty of options to explore. There are a wide range of drop shipping companies that specialize in imports, exports and every niche product you could possibly think of — and they all come with their own fee structures, terms, pros and cons.

If you manufacture your own products, or are trying to free up space you currently occupy in a warehouse, eCommerce platforms like Amazon offer their own fulfillment services in which you can use their space and resource to store, sell and ship your inventory.

Just remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you might experience some trial and error in terms of finding the right drop shipping partners and a sustainable level of integration. But if you truly think drop shipping could bolster your eCommerce business, it’s definitely a possibility worth exploring.

Why Do Businesses Use Drop Shipping?

Drop shipping isn’t for everyone, but it does come with a clear set of advantages for certain businesses.

First and foremost, choosing to drop ship items means that you won’t need as much capital to get up and running. If you launch an eCommerce store using the drop shipping method, you don’t need to invest up front in any inventory whatsoever. In fact, you won’t need to purchase a single item until you’ve already sold it to a customer.

Likewise, small eCommerce businesses tend to drift towards the drop ship model because it has exceptionally few logistical constraints. By drop shipping, you won’t need to worry about managing a warehouse or renting space, shipping your orders or handling returns.

That means lower overhead, flexibility in terms of location and the ability to offer a huge selection of products of all shapes and sizes. This makes scaling up a whole lot easier, which can increase your bottom line substantially.

That being said, it’s worth pointing out that drop shipping does come with a few disadvantages, too. Margins are usually pretty low — and because you’re relying on the competency of suppliers and third parties to fulfill your orders, drop shipping takes a lot of business elements out of your control.

How to Get Started with Dropshipping

Expanding your eCommerce business with drop shipping can be an exciting venture. It allows you to offer a wide range of products to your customers without holding inventory, significantly reducing the overhead costs associated with traditional retail models.

To ensure a smooth start and sustained success, follow these detailed steps:

Research and Choose a Niche

Before taking the plunge into drop shipping, it’s imperative to conduct thorough market research to identify a profitable niche. Look for products that not only resonate with your brand’s vision but also have a demonstrated demand in the market.

Avoid highly saturated markets where competition might be too fierce for a new entrant. Utilizing tools like Google Trends, social media analysis, and competitor research can help in identifying trends and customer preferences.

Additionally, consider the logistics of shipping your chosen products, as items that are too large or fragile may present challenges.

Select Reliable Suppliers

The backbone of a successful drop shipping business is a network of dependable suppliers. Use platforms such as SaleHoo, Oberlo, or Doba to explore and connect with suppliers.

It’s essential to evaluate these suppliers carefully; request samples to assess quality, read through customer reviews for reliability insights, and conduct interviews to establish a good working relationship.

Remember, the supplier you choose will directly impact your product quality and customer satisfaction, so this step cannot be overstated in its importance.

Register Your Business

Securing the appropriate legal documentation is critical to establishing a legitimate and compliant business.

The requirements vary depending on your location but generally include obtaining a business license, a sales tax permit, and possibly an Employer Identification Number (EIN) if you’re in the United States. These registrations not only protect you legally but also build trust with your suppliers and customers.

Set Up an eCommerce Store

Choosing the right eCommerce platform is pivotal in the drop shipping business model. Opt for platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce, which are known for their ease of integration with drop shipping operations.

The platform should be user-friendly, supporting you in creating an engaging online store, and must offer essential features such as secure payment options, inventory tracking, and scalable solutions to grow with your business.

Design a Pricing Strategy

Developing a competitive yet profitable pricing strategy requires a delicate balance. Take into account the wholesale cost of products, shipping fees, competitor pricing, and your desired profit margin. Implementing a tiered pricing model or offering bundled products can also enhance value perception and encourage larger purchases.

Create a Customer Service Plan

Exceptional customer service is crucial in drop shipping, as it helps build customer loyalty and brand reputation.

Outline clear policies for returns and refunds, respond promptly to customer inquiries, and address any issues with orders efficiently. Remember, the customer’s experience with your store will influence their likelihood to return or recommend your business to others.

Develop Marketing and SEO Strategies

Visibility is key to attracting customers to your drop shipping store. Invest in a solid SEO strategy to improve your store’s ranking in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find you.

Additionally, leverage social media marketing, email marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to your site and convert visitors into customers.

Stay Informed on Trends

The eCommerce and drop shipping landscape is constantly evolving, with new trends and technologies emerging regularly. Stay ahead of the curve by keeping up-to-date with industry news, attending relevant webinars and conferences, and networking with other eCommerce professionals.

This continuous learning will enable you to adapt your strategies and offerings to meet changing market demands and maintain a competitive edge.

Drop Shipping in Ecommerce: Conclusion

Starting a drop shipping business can open up numerous opportunities for your eCommerce venture. By meticulously researching your niche, selecting reliable suppliers, ensuring legal compliance, setting up an efficient online store, and implementing strategic marketing and customer service plans, you can build a successful business.

Remember, the key to success lies in continuous learning, adaptability, and a relentless focus on customer satisfaction. With dedication and the right approach, drop shipping can significantly enhance your eCommerce business’s profitability and growth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOxugwC8Gg

Drop Shipping Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "What is Drop Shipping? Using It in Your eCommerce Business" was first published on Small Business Trends

To make matters worse, lots of online businesses fail when it comes to customer service by offering slow, delayed responses — or not offering them at all. Poor customer service can drive customers away faster than anything else.

In fact, 3 out of 5 customers have not completed a purchase due to poor service.

To prevent such issues from negatively affecting your small business, this guide first outlines valuable eCommerce customer service ideas. It then covers the crucial role of Google eCommerce customer service, focusing on boosting visibility, enhancing trust, and improving customer retention

eCommerce Customer Service Ideas

Providing stellar customer service with your e-commerce business can do wonders to make your company stand out amongst the competition.

This process is not always simple, but it can mean a world of difference when it comes to sales. Here are 5 ecommerce customer service ideas to consider.

1. Have an Easy-to-Understand Return Policy

One major concern many online customers have is the hassle of returning a product.

Since anywhere from 15-30% of online purchases are returned, having a clear return policy for your online business is extremely important.

Writing out detailed instructions, of which are listed multiple times on your site or in emails, assures customers they can purchase with confidence.

Be sure to clearly state if you provide a full refund, partial refund, or offer store credit.

You may also want to consider extending your return window, or even offering a lifetime guarantee. Offering easy and free returns influences 68% of online purchases, so you want to make the entire process as simple as possible for your customers.

Purple, an online mattress company, offers an excellent example of a well-defined return system.

Their site lists out details for each product, from bed sheets to mattresses, and clearly states which returns will be refunded and which will not. If customers have further questions or concerns, Purple also includes their return department’s email address and phone number so customers can contact a customer service representative directly.

2. Personalize Each Experience

Online customers crave a more personalized buying experience. In fact, over 70% of American consumers expect personalization from online businesses.

Personalization can include offering customers personal shopping account logins that record past purchases, shipping addresses, and suggest related items for their next order. One easy way to offer some personalization is by using marketing automation to send out triggered emails with special offers tailored the past shopping behavior of each customer.

Personalized shopping can take many forms. Don’t be afraid to get creative with it. More importantly, use personalization to address customer concerns in shopping online vs. at a physical store near them.

For example, Bluestone, an online jewelry company, found a unique way to bring their brand experience to the next level. Customers can set up an appointment online and a consultant will come directly to their homes, allowing them to try on the jewelry in the comfort of their own home.

This “try before you buy” service gives customers some peace of mind (especially before making an expensive purchase) as well as provides a personalized shopping experience by allowing the customer to choose which pieces to view.

The company even offers a “design your own” feature for rings, earrings, and necklaces – providing a truly personal experience for each customer.

3. Ask for Feedback

As the great musician Stevie Wonder once said, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” Customers are not very likely to leave a review, especially a positive one if you do not ask.

Sending out a follow-up email asking customers to rate their experience or to write a short review increases the likelihood they will leave feedback. Make sure you include their comments on your site or social media; as customer reviews play a major role in purchase decisions.

Take the instance of an online purchase for an air vent cover for a HVAC. Unless the item or purchase experience was exceptionally wonderful (or terrible), it’s highly unlikely for such a product to receive a review.

However, one company sent out a follow up email to its Amazon customers with links that made it easy for the purchaser to leave a quick comment and rate their experience:

4. Provide Live Chat

Having a live-chat option can increase customer satisfaction by leaps and bounds.

Plus, it’s an easy way to answer questions and concerns instantly. Rather than waiting for an email response, customers can receive assistance right away, which means they are less likely to leave your website without purchasing.

Outsourcing an online chat service is a great strategy, especially for smaller online businesses who can’t afford to hire round-the-clock customer service reps.

Sites like Influx will handle online chats 24/7 for your e-commerce business and provide peace of mind for you and your customers.

5. Provide Service via Social Media

Customer service via social media is expected by e-commerce customers today, and they want responses instantly. Many customers use social media because it’s easy for them to find a business and contact them directly.

There are, however, some downsides to using social media for this purpose. The big one being lack of privacy. Many companies reply to concerns with a link to their customer service page or respond with a private message.

Determine which of your social media platforms has the largest number of followers or activity, then promote your support services there. You can use social media monitoring tools to alert you when your brand is talked about online so you can respond to inquiries quickly.

eCommerce Customer Service Ideas Summary

The Importance of Google eCommerce Customer Service

• Boosts Visibility and Ranking: Superior customer service, reflected in reviews and ratings, enhances your store’s visibility by favorably influencing its ranking within Google search results, thereby attracting more potential customers.
• Enhances Trust and Credibility: Positive customer service experiences often lead to favorable reviews. On a platform like Google, these reviews build a brand’s credibility and encourage new customers to make confident purchases.
• Improves Customer Retention: Efficient and responsive customer service practices within your Google eCommerce platform mean customers are more likely to return. Satisfied customers often translate to loyal ones, and their continued engagement and repeat purchases can be invaluable.
• Facilitates Better Communication: Utilizing Google’s various tools, like Google My Business and direct messaging, helps maintain open lines of communication with your customers. This accessibility for inquiries or concerns makes the shopping experience more convenient and enjoyable.
• Provides Valuable Customer Insights: Interactions with customers, whether they are questions, complaints, or compliments, provide direct feedback on your products and services. This information is essential for any business looking to understand its customers better and adapt or improve based on their needs and preferences.

Final Thoughts

Providing a remarkable customer service experience in your e-commerce business isn’t just an option; it’s essential for standing out in a competitive market. An outstanding customer service strategy transforms one-time buyers into loyal customers and turns casual browsing into repeat purchases. By focusing on making the entire buying experience easy and personal, you ensure that customers feel valued and understood.

Ensure your website clearly lists return and exchange instructions, empowering customers to shop with confidence. Encourage them to review their experience. Feedback not only helps your business improve but also attracts new customers by showcasing real, positive experiences. Remember, in the digital world, your customer service is as visible as your products. Engage with your customers thoughtfully and promptly, whether it’s through personalized emails, live chat, or social media.

Innovate and think outside the box to meet customer needs in unique ways. From offering at-home trials to leveraging technology for a more personalized shopping experience, the possibilities are endless. Your efforts in providing exceptional customer service will not only help mitigate issues before they escalate but also build a strong, positive reputation for your brand.

By prioritizing customer service, you’re investing in the long-term success of your e-commerce business. Make every interaction count, and watch as your business grows, supported by a foundation of satisfied customers and positive word-of-mouth.

Ecommerce Business Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "5 Amazing eCommerce Customer Service Ideas" was first published on Small Business Trends

How do You Define a Niche Market?

Defining a distinct niche is key to building a successful small business. The reason why you need a niche is to help you focus on specific customers where you can really listen to what they want and need.

This will help you to position your business as not only an expert but a business that is offering unique solutions to your customer’s specific needs.

Starting a niche business can increase your business’ prospects for success. A niche market can help you garner attention, establish a loyal base of customers, and even opens up opportunities to expand into larger markets.

With a niche market, you can start small and grow gradually making it an ideal choice for small start-ups to enter markets and compete with bigger competition.

How a Niche Market Works

By identifying a niche market, you get to tap into a segment of a broader market with its own needs and preferences through the sale of personalized products and services.

There are several benefits to choosing a niche market, for one it helps to reduce the number of competitors your business has. Second, your business model focuses its efforts on a particular type of client giving you clearer direction for developing unique content or choosing a limited number of products to sell.

With such targeting not only do you get a better understanding of the needs of your customers but you can also create brand loyalty easily.

Why You Should Consider a Niche Market for Your Business

Simply put a niche market puts the quality of clients before a large customer base. By segmenting your clientele and pinpointing the type of clientele that is best suited to leverage your brand and products you can embark on a focused effort towards capitalizing on your efficiency.

You can select your niche market through geography (neighborhood, city, or even country); demographics (age, gender, education, or income level); psychographics (attitudes, values, interests); level of quality of the product (economic, handmade, premium); and price (discounted, moderate, luxury). This strategy will afford you the following competitive advantages:

• Brand loyalty: With a niche market, you engage with a smaller targeted audience. This allows you to focus on the quality of customer service and build lasting relationships with them.
• Cut costs on promotions and marketing: Since you know your targeted customer very well you can easily identify the best touchpoints with customers in terms of niche marketing and advertising. Because you run targeted ads specific to the needs of your target audience you cut your costs substantially when marketing your products and services.
• Less competition: Because you cater to a select type of customers you offer something unique compared to those companies that seek the mass market. This gives you an edge over them in terms of offering something unique.
• Potential high profits: Since you cater to the specific needs of your targeted customers you offer a particular type of product or service not available anywhere else. As such your clients will be inclined to pay a little extra more for your unique service.
• Show expertise: When you offer a specialized product to serve a niche market, you are in effect becoming an expert in your field. This makes you stand out as the best option to get the right answers for customers. These skills and expertise in one area can go a long way in attracting customers with specific needs.

What are the Criticisms of Niche Markets?

Despite the advantages of niche markets, there are also potential niche mistakes. Among these include:

• Limited Growth: Because niche markets focus on a subset of the entire market the number of clients you attract will be limited. As such you will focus on small production volumes and a few customers thus limiting your business’ potential for growth.
• Negatively impact profits: Having few customers will in return also negatively affect opportunities to make a profit. Unless you offer premium prices for your products and services serving a smaller target market, it can sometimes make it harder to earn good profits.
• Potential for competition to crop up: Business entry requirements in a niche market are often relatively low and do not rely on significant investments. As such you might face a sudden inundation of competition serving in your niche and eat into your market share.

16 Amazing Niche Market Examples

Because of the relative ease and smaller capital required to start a niche market, there are endless possibilities for entrepreneurs to enter the marketplace with their product or service and compete.

That’s what makes niche markets appealing. However not all niche markets end up succeeding like any enterprise these require thorough research on what your niche market will be.

How to go about your niche marketing activities and how you deploy your niche marketing strategies to deliver your message directly to your ideal clients in a way that will appeal to them is key. Below are some examples of niche markets taking the market by storm.

1. Vegan Baking

The global vegan food market reached a value of about $15.4 billion in 2020. Spurred by lifestyles, food restrictions, or allergies there is an increasing demand for vegan food.

One company that is tapping into this unmet demand is Divvies. Through its nifty marketing strategy, it has built a strong customer base that craves vegan nut-free cookies, popcorn, cupcakes, cookie, and sandwiches.

2. Home Security Products

Home security is a potential niche market you can explore. Whether you are away abroad or at the office you need to make sure that your home is secure.

One such company that tapped into the market is Ring which is a smart home security device producer that pioneered the video doorbell. The technology allows users to see, talk to, and record people who come to their doorsteps.

3. Casual Wear

Let’s face there is nothing as disappointing as going to a shop, finding a shirt that we like, and that the shop does not have one in our size. With Untuckit customers will not experience this as the company has more than 50 fits targeted at men and women.

4. Self-improvement

Self-improvement is a fast-growing niche market with more and more people looking to improve on their skills set as well as advance their careers.

By offering courses, webinars, coaching sessions as well as self-help books and videos you too can tap into this lucrative business. Companies like Skillshare have carved a niche Skillshare through their online learning platform offering thousands of classes on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more.

5. Gaming

In recent years the gaming industry has seen rapid growth over literally all platforms be they through consoles, PCs, and others.

Gaming enthusiasts these days are looking for custom-made hardware to suit their growing demands. Glorious PC Gaming Race is responding by offering gaming laptops, PC mice, mousepads, hangers for headphones and goggles, and more.

6. Social Conscious

Did you know that some 10% of the population is left-handed? Despite this, left-handed people often struggle to perform basic daily tasks in a world designed for right-handed people.

Things like measuring cups, tapes, rulers, household equipment, and devices are all designed with right-handed individuals in mind. Seeing this Lefty’s has a whole store dedicated to products for left-handed people that included left-handed kitchen items, school and office supplies, gifts, and more.

7. Sportswear

You might know the Under Armour brand but did you know that the company was started to meet specific needs in the market? In 1996 Kevin Plank the company’s founder and former football player wanted a shirt that wouldn’t be soaked with sweat after a few minutes playing football.

As such he developed a compression shirt made of material that stayed dry during intense physical exertions. Soon the brand became a global sports equipment company that manufactures footwear, sports, and casual apparel.

8. Freelance work

As homeowners, we often rely on others to run errands for us or help out with tasks. But how do you find the right person for the job? Gig apps like TaskRabbit can help connect you with people in your area willing to do these chores for a fee.

This gig app can help you get help in several jobs including plumbing, haircutting, teaching music, and others.

9. Fintech

Fintech has been an indispensable tool for business. Besides offering cost-effective options for consumers and businesses it helps to save money and integrates both physical and digital payment methods as one.

The company Square offers unique solutions to small businesses whereby they can accept credit cards using their phones.

Additionally, it offers solutions that include invoicing, virtual terminals, online payments, and tools to monitor and dispute chargebacks to help small businesses grow.

10. Health and Fitness

For years we have been obsessing over losing weight and getting in shape. In today’s market, there are many seeking help for weight loss, building muscles, having a healthy diet, supplements, fitness equipment, and more.

Health and fitness niches such as the Atkins Diet, Keto diet, Weight Watchers, and others continue to offer solutions to targeted customers.

11. Eco-friendly Living

With the growing emphasis on sustainable living, products that are both eco-friendly and functional are in high demand. From biodegradable products to items made from recycled materials, businesses are coming up with innovative solutions to reduce environmental impact.

One such company, Ecosia, is a search engine that plants trees with its ad revenue. Not only does it offer the same searching capabilities as other search engines, but every search supports a cause that directly benefits the environment.

12. Pet Specialization

Pets have always been beloved members of many families, but there’s a rising trend of products catering to very specific pet needs. For example, there are companies focusing solely on organic, breed-specific, or even meal-prepped pet food.

BarkBox, for instance, curates monthly themed boxes filled with unique toys and natural treats tailored to dogs, ensuring that furry family members get something new and exciting every month.

How to Find a Niche Market

To find your dream niche you will need to carefully deliberate on your options. The following steps can help you arrive at finding your true niche.

Research Potential Niches and Find Your Market Segment

You will need to take time to thoroughly research various niches before you settle on one.

Start with your passion and interest: To help you close in on your niche start with your passion and interests. This could be a hobby or skillset that you are particularly passionate about or good at.

See if there is a solution to a problem in the market: Remember a niche is all about a unique solution for unmet demand from your niche audiences. Research possible solutions by creating a visual map of all your ideas to develop your offering to the market where others are not delivering. See if your market segment is big enough to sustain your business and research marketing examples.

Keep an eye on the competition: Before launching your company and building your brand research your potential competitors. Measure how your product or solution weighs compared to what they are offering in terms of quality and price. Use Google trends and keyword research to do your competitive research.

Write your business plan: Your business plan is your blueprint to your company’s operations that include its product features, pricing strategy, production quality, branding, marketing strategy, financials, and operational features.

Identify Your Target Market

To establish yourself in a niche market, you will need to identify your target market based on your customers’  values, beliefs, and passions.

Research Your Target Market

Research your target audience based on what defines your chosen niche such as age, profession, hobbies, needs, and values. Since niche markets are highly targeted you should know as much as possible about your target market to build a healthy customer base so that your business thrives.

Decide on Your Product or Service

Decide on your product and service that is highly sought by your niche audience. Your offering should be based on your segmented customer’s unique needs, preferences, or identify what makes it different from other products and services in the market.

Figure Out How Your Product Solves Your Target Market’s Problem?

Remember you are offering a solution that is under-served in the market. To market a niche you will need to put your finger on your customer’s problem and solve it. Successful niche industries find pressing customer problems and do something to solve them in a way that is convenient, cost-effective, and timely.

Determine How Profitable Your Niche Is

It’s clear cut if you don’t make profits in your business enterprise you risk losing money and shuttering your business. Your product and service should have enough demand, be well-positioned in the market, and be priced right to not only provide a steady income but also be profitable.

Create a Niche Marketing Plan

Unlike mass marketing, niche marketing is designed to attract a specific subset of customers. This entails carving out a small part of the market whose needs are not fulfilled by focusing on a small group of buyers, with products or services that stand out from the competition, attract the right amount of people to boost profits. Some of the things to include in your niche marketing plan:

• Your business objectives for your niche market
• Your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunites, and Threats (SWOT analysis) of your niche market
• Identifying who your potential competitions in your niche market
• Determine your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) which is the unique benefits that your company offers which stand out from the competition
• Target markets and customers in the niche market
• Market strategy in terms of product, price, promotion, people, and process
• Budget
• Marketing channel  for marketing campaigns

Test Run Your Product

Before you go into full production mode and market a niche you will need to test whether your niche is profitable. Start small by introducing your product or service to your target market by running a campaign.

Try to get feedback from customers who’ve made the first purchases to see what they think. This will help you make last-minute tweaks to your offering based on design, service delivery, and pricing to determine you are guaranteed a steady flow of sales at the prices that customers will be comfortable with.

Launch a Profitable Niche Market Business

To launch a successful niche business you will first need to identify an underserved segment of the market and tailor your products or services to them.

You will also need to assess how you are going to market to this specific audience and keep tabs on your competition. And most importantly you will need to listen to your customers, ask them for feedback and rectify any mistakes immediately.

Utilizing Google Trends for Identifying Niche Markets

Google Trends is a powerful tool for identifying emerging trends, consumer interests, and potential niche markets. By analyzing search query data, businesses can gain insights into what people are currently interested in or what might become popular in the near future.

How to Use Google Trends for Niche Identification

• Keyword Research: Start by entering keywords related to your potential niche market into Google Trends. This will show you the interest over time for those terms, indicating whether a niche is growing, stable, or declining.
• Seasonal Trends: Google Trends can reveal seasonal patterns in consumer interest. For example, if you’re considering a niche in holiday-specific products, you can identify peak times when these products are most in demand.
• Geographic Insights: Google Trends provides data on where search queries are most popular, helping you identify geographic markets that may be more interested in your niche.
• Related Topics and Queries: The tool also shows related topics and queries, which can help you broaden or refine your niche based on what else your target audience is interested in.

By carefully analyzing the information provided by Google Trends, businesses can make informed decisions about entering a niche market, ensuring that there is a genuine and growing interest in the products or services they plan to offer. This strategic approach to niche identification can significantly increase the chances of success in a competitive marketplace.

Is Apple a niche market?

Though initially, Apple was a niche market it has grown over the years to become a market leader in tech with a valuation of over $2 trillion.

Which is better niche or mass market?

For small businesses, a niche market is as ideal as it comes with advantages that include low costs on promotions and marketing; less competition; and potential for high profits.

What are the best niche markets?

Some of the best niche markets include food, eco-friendly products; home and office equipment; health and beauty; and pet products.

What niche market is most profitable?

Some profitable niches include health and personal care; clothing and apparel; kitchen and groceries; office products; tools; and gaming.

Which niches are trending in 2024?

Various market trends have evolved recently, reflecting changes in consumer behavior, technology advancements, and societal shifts. Here are some trending niches that have gained prominence:

• Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Products: As awareness of environmental issues grows, there’s a rising demand for sustainable, eco-friendly products across various categories, including fashion, home goods, and personal care.
• Remote Work and Home Office Supplies: The shift towards remote work has increased the demand for home office supplies, ergonomic furniture, and technology solutions that facilitate productivity and comfort for remote workers.
• Health and Wellness Apps: With a growing focus on mental and physical health, apps offering wellness services, virtual fitness coaching, meditation, and personalized nutrition plans are in high demand.
• Plant-Based and Alternative Foods: The plant-based food market continues to expand, including alternative dairy products, meat substitutes, and snacks, driven by health concerns and environmental sustainability.
• Smart Home Devices and Automation: Smart home devices, including energy-efficient lighting solutions, smart security systems, and home automation products, are becoming increasingly popular as technology becomes more integrated into daily life.
• Personal Finance and Investment Tools: With the growing interest in personal finance management and investment, fintech products offering budgeting tools, cryptocurrency investment platforms, and robo-advisors are gaining traction.
• Subscription Boxes and Services: Personalized subscription boxes and services, ranging from gourmet foods and beverages to beauty products and hobby kits, continue to be popular, offering convenience and customization to consumers.
• E-learning and Online Education Resources: The demand for online learning platforms, courses, and tools has surged, catering to students, professionals, and hobbyists seeking to expand their knowledge and skills remotely.

These niches reflect ongoing trends towards sustainability, health and wellness, technology integration into daily life, and the growing importance of remote work and education, indicating potential areas for growth and investment in 2024 and beyond.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "What is a Niche Market?" was first published on Small Business Trends

We will explore everything you should know before opening your Shopify online store.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an eCommerce platform that helps businesses run their online stores. It offers an excellent alternative to opening brick-and-mortar stores to reach customers on a global level. It enables you to increase both your sales and reach without experiencing the growing pains that come with outlet expansion.

How Does Shopify Work?

Shopify is an easy-to-use application to start selling online. It also comes with a Point Of Sale (POS) app for payment of goods in physical locations.

Shopify offers merchants the ability to create a multi-channel experience that helps showcase the brand. With this subscription-based platform, you can create a website and use their shopping cart solution to sell, ship, and manage your products.

The Shopify eCommerce platform comes with a range of tools that help you analyze every aspect of your online store. With these tools, users can design customized online experiences for customers and maximize the Return on Investment (ROI) on their marketing spending.

The technology also helps cut costs across the board by automating customer relationship management, inventory management, transactions, and more.

What is Shopify Used for?

The Shopify platform is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, allowing business owners to set up their online stores quickly and effortlessly. The web-based platform, Shopify offers everything eCommerce shop owners require to succeed.

Here is what Shopify allows you to do:

Launch Your Own Online Store

With Shopify, you can easily set up your online store with minimal technical knowledge or experience.

From web hosting to integrated payment processing to shipping, the platform makes creating a fully functional eCommerce website easy.

On the Shopify theme store, you can find various customizable Shopify themes that allow you to create a unique look and feel for your online store.

Do Inventory Management Easily

Shopify allows you to manage your products and inventory, including adding, editing, and deleting products, setting pricing, and managing stock levels.

Process Payments Quickly

A great thing about Shopify is you can quickly process payments. You can integrate leading payment gateways to accept customer payments using multiple payment methods, including Apple Pay, PayPal, credit cards, and others.

Manage Orders

With Shopify, you can easily manage customer orders, process payments, track shipments, and issue refunds.

Check Finance

Shopify sellers can check critical financial information about their businesses easily. So if you want an overview of your sales, payments, pending sales data, or full finance reports, the Shopify platform is the way to go.

Grow Your eCommerce Business

The platform offers a wide range of marketing and sales features to help Shopify online stores grow their businesses.

From email marketing to social media integration to discounts and promotions, you have multiple tools at your disposal to grow your eCommerce sales. You can check the Shopify app store to find the right apps to build your business.

Is Shopify Good for Small Businesses?

Shopify comes with a full suite of features that helps you launch and manage your online store. And it doesn’t require any coding for users to start using it and requires no software installation or hosting services.

So whether you sell crafts online or want to start a large dropshipping enterprise, the platform can work for your needs.

What’s more, Shopify is also cost-effective with plans ranging from $29 to $299/month. Plus, there are no additional transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments.

The basic plan comes with features that include:

• Abandoned cart recovery, gift cards
• Discount creation
• Fraud analysis

Shopify starter plan also offers the ability to sell in a whopping 133 currencies. Also, you can easily assign inventory to retail stores, warehouses, or other locations you store products. Shopify is best known for its ease of use and modern web design feature.

Additional perks include the ability to include unlimited products and a custom domain. What’s more, Shopify Payment lets you accept credit cards (in addition to PayPal payments) without setting up a third-party payment gateway, customer support, and more.

Additional plans are also available if you need more users and advanced features for growing businesses which is good news if you are experiencing growth.

In addition to the above features, Shopify also enables online retailers to sell on social media such as Facebook, generate reports and analytics, and even offer mobile access.

Pros of Shopify

Shopify comes with a set of tools that helps ease your e-commerce efforts. Besides creating additional revenue and accessing more customers for your business through online sales, it also offers the following benefits.

Ease of Use

Shopify helps you sell goods or services with a minimal amount of configuration. It comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor where you can edit the look of your online store homepage without the need for any coding.

Plus, it offers a good alternative for those who want a complete solution, with no technicalities related to site development and hosting.

If you want more control over the look and feel of your homepage, you have the option to edit your site using code as well.

Mobile-Friendly Designs for Your Online Store

The benefits of having an online store are that it allows for a rapid buying/selling process and ease in terms of finding the best product for customers.

Online stores operate 24/7, allowing customers to get online any time of the day and buy products and services. This has led to more and more customers moving from the traditional brick-and-mortar store to buying goods and services on the Internet.

Shopify comes with a mobile-friendly design that helps customers use their mobile devices to shop at your e-commerce store. Shopify’s mobile responsive themes help draw more customers to your store from the palm of their hands. Installing the Shopify app lets you log in to your account and start running your store from your mobile device.

Shopify’s app runs both on iPhone and Android devices.

Excellent Shopify Support

With Shopify’s e-commerce platform, you get round-the-clock customer support.

Support comes from experts available 24/7 through email, live chat, or phone to help resolve any issues.

Through Shopify Learn, you get access to free tutorials, online courses, and webinars to get a better understanding of online sales.

Ability to Use Your Own Domain Name

With Shopify, you can use your domain name and connect it to the platform from your Shopify admin. In case you don’t have a domain name, you can either buy a domain name through Shopify or a third-party provider.

Social Media Integration

With Shopify, you can sell not only on the web but through social media, online marketplaces, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops. To boost your marketing and sales, you can integrate Shopify with Facebook and Instagram to reach your target audience as well. This makes Shopify one of the most popular social media business ideas today.

Shopify’s Ecosystem and Third-Party Apps

Shopify’s ecosystem extends beyond its core features, thanks to a comprehensive range of third-party apps available in the Shopify App Store.

These apps offer extended functionalities in areas like marketing automation, advanced SEO strategies, customer loyalty programs, inventory management, and more. Whether it’s enhancing your store’s marketing efforts or streamlining the fulfillment process, Shopify’s App Store is a treasure trove of tools that cater to a variety of business needs.

Shopify’s Integration Capabilities

A key strength of Shopify is its ability to seamlessly integrate with numerous third-party systems and platforms. This includes popular accounting software like QuickBooks, CRM systems such as Salesforce, and various email marketing tools like Mailchimp.

These integrations facilitate a seamless workflow, making it easier for businesses to manage their operations efficiently without leaving the Shopify environment.

Customization and Design Flexibility

Shopify’s platform is not just powerful but also highly customizable. Merchants can choose from a variety of themes and have the freedom to modify these themes to suit their brand’s aesthetic.

For businesses that require unique designs, Shopify offers the flexibility to create custom designs. This level of customization ensures that each Shopify store can have its own unique look and feel, resonating with the brand’s identity.

Shopify for Different Business Models

Shopify’s versatility makes it suitable for a wide range of business models. Beyond traditional e-commerce, Shopify efficiently supports various models like digital product sales, subscription-based services, and even complex dropshipping operations.

This makes Shopify an ideal platform for businesses looking to explore and innovate in how they sell online.

Shopify Analytics and Reporting Tools

Analytics and reporting are crucial for any online business. Shopify offers robust analytics and reporting tools that allow merchants to track their store’s performance, understand customer behavior, and make informed decisions.

These tools provide insights into sales trends, customer acquisition costs, and other key performance indicators essential for business growth.

Shopify’s SEO and Marketing Tools

Shopify comes equipped with a suite of SEO and marketing tools designed to improve your store’s visibility and attract more customers. From its built-in blogging platform to SEO-friendly site structure, Shopify ensures that your store ranks well in search engines.

Additionally, Shopify’s marketing tools allow merchants to create and manage effective marketing campaigns directly from their dashboard.

Customer Support and Community

One of the reasons behind Shopify’s popularity is its comprehensive support system. Shopify provides round-the-clock customer support, extensive documentation, active community forums, and various educational resources.

This support network is invaluable for merchants, especially those new to e-commerce, ensuring they have the necessary guidance to successfully run their stores.

Shopify’s Global Reach

Shopify’s platform is designed for global commerce. It supports international e-commerce features such as multi-currency transactions, global shipping integrations, and multilingual storefronts.

This global reach ensures that Shopify merchants can easily cater to customers around the world, expanding their market and increasing their sales potential.

Shopify’s Scalability

Shopify is a platform that scales with your business. From small startups to large enterprises, Shopify offers plans and features tailored to each stage of business growth.

Its ability to handle increased traffic, more products, and complex e-commerce operations makes it a reliable choice for businesses looking to grow without switching platforms.

Amazing Themes

With Shopify, you can customize or build the look and feel of your store by changing the website theme to suit your branding needs. Shopify’s Theme Store offers a collection of over 70 premium and free e-commerce templates.

Among Shopify’s best selling points is the availability of high-quality visual Shopify themes. Shopify offers diverse shop templates, of which a number of them are available for free. The templates are compatible with products, clothing and fashion, electronics, art, and other types of e-commerce sites.

These themes can be tweaked without requiring HTML or CSS knowledge and allow you to upload logos, change fonts, colors, and more. Users can also customize the layout of their homepage, add banners, slideshows, and more.

Dropshipper Friendly

Shopify touts to provide users with a lower-risk approach to start dropshipping. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, consider taking a dropshipping course or reading more about What is Shopify dropshipping?

Simply put, Shopify dropshipping lets you sell products by using a supplier that holds the inventory and ships the product for you. Through it, you can find a product to sell, find a dropshipping supplier, build your e-commerce store, upload your products onto your site, and launch and start marketing your dropshipping store.

Cons of Shopify

Like any application, Shopify can fall short in some aspects. For example, Shopify charges a monthly fee to use the platform while open source solutions are free to download, some of the cons of Shopify may include:

Theme Customization Challenges

The most common type of Shopify theme issue is probably compatibility with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code.

Often these issues relate to how different browsers, operating systems, and devices display your Shopify theme’s design and layout.

Transaction Fees

Although most shopping carts have dropped their transaction fees entirely over the years, Shopify has retained its 0.5% to 2.0% fees transaction fees. Users, however, have the option to have Shopify waive these fees when you accept payments through Shopify Payments.

Expensive Add Ons

Though Shopify offers almost every basic feature, it does lack many advanced features that e-commerce businesses might need.

To get these advanced features, you will need to purchase add-ons. In some cases, the cost of add-ons can significantly increase your monthly subscription fees.

Content Management Issues

Some issues related to content management when it comes to Shopify include the inability to edit tag pages; duplicate content; duplicate page titles; forced URL structure; and limits on page titles and meta descriptions.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify has something to offer for businesses of all stages and sizes. Shopify offers multiple plans: Basic, Shopify, Advanced, Starter, and Shopify Plus.

Though pricing is an essential aspect of any service, it is important to consider what solutions you need the most and which might not apply to you. The different Shopify plans on offer bring with them different features and abilities.

Shopify also offers a 14-day free trial for you to try out a Shopify account and see if the platform is the right fit for you.

Shopify Starter 

This plan comes with a budget-conscious monthly subscription of $5. With this plan, you can sell products through WhatsApp, SMS, email, social media, and more. It has essential features like a simple storefront, checkout, inbox, product pages, Linkpop, Shopify order management & integrated fulfillment network, and more.

Shopify Starter plan is ideal for businesses who want to test their business idea of selling online without opening a fully-functional eCommerce website.

Basic Shopify

This plan starts with a monthly subscription of $29 per month (if billed annually) and is ideal for businesses trying to build an online storefront.

It comes with basic e-commerce functionality. With this plan, you get to include two staff accounts, 24/7 support, unlimited products, an online store with a blog, and sales channels.

You also get a free SSL certificate, discount codes, manual order creation, and abandoned cart recovery. The downside is that if your products are expensive, there is a 2% transaction fee.

Shopify Plan

Shopify’s standard pricing plan is available for $79 per month (if billed annually) and is touted to offer everything you need for growing an eCommerce business.

It comes with everything you get in your Basic Shopify plan, including gift cards, professional reports, and five staff accounts. With this plan, you can add unlimited products with the abandoned cart recovery tool, which is a huge selling point.

With the abandoned cart tool, you can send automated emails based on your preferences. Transaction fees for this plan are set at 1% when not using Shopify payments.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus offers you all the tools needed to run a large operation. This plan comes with a whopping $2,000 monthly fee in exchange for whatever additional features you need.

Unlike other plans, this plan offers tailored-made solutions to your particular business model. Shopify advertises that you can get up to 18% higher conversion with Shop Pay and a 60% faster checkout.

You also get AR, video, and 3D media on product pages, along with localized shopping experiences with multiple stores, currencies, and languages, for B2B and direct to customers.

Additionally, you can customize your checkout, offer advanced discounts and shipping rates, and get unlimited transactions, products, and 99.99% uptime.

Advanced Shopify Plan

The Advanced Shopify Plan is designed for medium to large online businesses for a monthly subscription of $299 (billed annually). This plan comes with shipping, rock-bottom transaction fees, and more advanced reporting.

Also, the advanced plan offers users the ability to create custom reports that include reports on your at-risk and loyal customers. You also get unlimited product uploads, and your transaction percentage fees go down a bit when using external payment gateways.

You can upload as many products as you want, post as many videos and images as needed, and bring in all the traffic you require. Abandoned cart recovery also comes with this plan, which ensures you can reach those sales numbers that make the increased plan pricing worthwhile.

Transaction fees when not using Shopify payments for this plan are set at 0.5 %.

Taxes

As a business, you might need to charge taxes on your sales and then report and remit those taxes to the government.

Bear in mind that tax laws and regulations can be somewhat complex and can change often. In this regard, Shopify can be set to automatically handle the most common sales tax calculations.

You also have the option to set up tax overrides to address unique tax laws and situations.

Shopify doesn’t file or remit your sales taxes for you. This means you will need to register your business with your local or federal tax authority to handle your sales tax. The calculations and reports that Shopify provides can help make things easier when it’s time to file and pay your taxes.

How to Grow Your Shopify Business

Shopify has you covered when it comes to building your online store; however, having a web presence is only the beginning.

You will need to attract customers, promote your products, and offer excellent customer service to make sure you remain competitive. There’s no single sure-shot formula to guarantee the success of your online store.

However, there are some great tips that can raise your chances of success. Here are some tips to grow your online store.

Test Your Mobile Settings

Let’s face it, mobile devices are the new online frontier when it comes to online sales. Devices like tablets and smartphones are now the number one go-to devices for Internet browsing and purchasing. If you want to succeed in the online market, ensure your online store is mobile-responsive for maximum success.

Optimize for SEO

You will need to optimize your web store for SEO in order to drive more traffic to your store.

Your store’s online traffic will mostly come from search engines like Google. As such, you will need to rank high among your competition.

Ranking high in search engines can get you more daily traffic and is a cheaper form of capturing customers through search engines versus paid advertising.

Use High-quality Photos

The quality of images in your store impacts your brand image. If all the images on your eCommerce store are top-quality, your audience will perceive your store as more professional.

So always use high-quality images for products, social media, Instagram, or Pinterest.

Create Some Ads

To harness the power of online selling, you will need to effectively and efficiently reach your target audience.

You can run ads on Facebook, Google, Instagram, and other social networks. To be effective, however, you will need to identify the platform where your audience spends the most time and the media that are best for your niche.

You cannot overlook the benefits of online advertising for your business to deliver relevant, personalized, and timely messages to your customers. You can use paid media to target the right market but watch out for mounting costs.

Add Positive Reviews to Your Site

Social proof comes in handy when customers are on the fence about buying your products. Good reviews and star ratings help shoppers shortcut their research and make decisions faster and with greater confidence.

A positive reputation by way of reviews on your products and services positively impacts your sales.

Encourage customers to write reviews of your product and services to help garner that much-needed third-party validation. Good reviews can boost sales because consumers actually go through customer reviews—even those written by strangers.

Also, you should make a practice of regularly responding to reviews your customers leave. Try to address the grievances of your customers proactively to let them feel that you care for your audience.

Use Social Media to Give Your Sales a Boost

You can use social media to create a relatable brand for customers to support.

Social media allow your business to connect with customers, leading to a direct increase in sales and interactions with your brand. You can integrate your Shopify store with your blog and social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

The key to success is to understand you need to be consistent with social media if you want to gain a bigger online presence. The more you engage your target audience, the more loyal they will be, and the more your followers will grow.

Shopify enables you to grow your audience across 100+ social media channels and 80+ online marketplaces. And the best part is you can manage your products from one place.

Put Shipping Tracking on Auto

By offering shipping tracking, you not only provide real-time updates on the status of the delivery but more importantly peace of mind that your delivery is en route.

One of the main advantages of investing in a shipment tracking system is that you can greatly lower your logistics costs. Shipment tracking can help you reduce your expenses, as it allows both you and your customers to gain better insights into the status of a package.

Add Blog Posts

You can add blogs to your online store to provide customers with information and updates on your products and services.

Your blog posts can also drive traffic to your site by boosting your store’s SEO, converting visitors into customers, and increasing customer engagement.

Unlike investing in ads that could impact your bottom line with content marketing, you can drive free organic traffic to your store.

Ideally, you should create and share helpful content on your blog to help your audience make informed decisions. How-to guides, product comparison guides, and gift guides are some blog post ideas for your Shopify blog.

You should also think about writing guest posts on relevant websites to increase your brand exposure.

Offer Free Shipping

Free shipping is a powerful tool to sway your audience’s mind into buying. If you don’t incorporate free shipping, you may lose tons of leads to your customers. This is because 68% of US customers don’t buy things online for at least half of the time if the retailers don’t offer free shipping.

If you’re not in the position to offer a no-string attached free shopping policy, you can opt for conditional free shipping. For example, customers can avail of free shopping if the cart reaches a certain (or more). Conditional free shipping is also an excellent strategy to increase average order value (AOV).

In addition to free shipping, you should also offer an easy-to-return policy to delight your customers. As 52% of customers don’t purchase online, fearing a difficult return policy, having an easy-to-return policy can help you increase your sales.

Use Upselling and Cross-Selling Techniques

Though two different tactics, cross-selling and upselling work in tandem to grow your store’s revenue.

Cross-selling persuades shoppers to buy complementary products, and upselling persuades them to upgrade their purchases.

For example, someone is interested in buying a coffee maker from you. Persuading them to buy coffee powder from your store would be cross-selling. And encouraging the shopper to buy a higher model of a coffee machine than the model they have already added would be upselling.

Cross-selling and upselling are often done by showing related products to the shopper.

Run Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is the most effective tool to reach your target audience.

Plus, it is cheaper than other marketing avenues, like paid ads. And return on investment for email marketing is excellent. For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you will receive $42 in return.

Shopify makes it easy to leverage email marketing for small business owners. With Shopify Email, you can:

• Create branded emails easily
• Use a pre-built template that can automatically fetch products, pricing, and branding from your store
• Automate email campaigns quickly
• Manage and track all email campaigns in one place

The best part of Shopify Email is that you can send 10,000 emails (manual or automated) each month. After that, you just have to pay $1 per 1000 additional emails.

Shopify Email is available for all Shopify plans.

Take a Shopify Course

When you start selling on Shopify, you may not know all the things required to succeed. So taking a Shopify course can help you learn about how exactly Shopify works, SEO strategies to grow your business, and marketing strategies can set you on the path to success and increase your online retail sales.

The good news is Shopify has a rich library of learning resources to help you succeed. In these courses, you can learn a wide range of skills, from email marketing to SEO to Facebook ads.

And the best part is it does not cost you much to access these courses. Select a plan starting at $9 per month, and you can access these courses for free.

Shopify Collabs

To boost the success of your Shopify store, you have to increase the reach of the store. And collaborating with creators, influencers, and other brands is one way to do it.

With Shopify Collabs, you connect to an active community of creators, influencers, affiliates, and brands. You have to set up your profile and connect with brands or influencers that are in line with your products/services.

Shopify Alternatives

If you find Shopify costs higher, you can pick another alternative to start selling online.

The most important thing to look for when shopping for an e-commerce website builder or platform is that it lets you build, customize, and run an online store.

Most platforms in the market come with tools to help walk you through the entire process of setting up your e-commerce venture.

They will also offer help in navigating through the steps involved, such as hosting, design, pricing and payment options, marketing tools, and reports. Below are some of the Shopify alternatives:

Woo Commerce

Woo Commerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.

You can add the WooCommerce plugin to any WordPress site and set up a new store in minutes. You can even add features and extend the functionality of your online store with official extensions from the WooCommerce Marketplace.

This online selling platform is easy to use for both vendors and customers. It comes with free features that offer complex coupon campaigns, product and inventory management, order management, sales reports, a customer account area, control over shipping and tax charges, and more.

You can also manage your online store on the go through WooComemrce’s mobile app.

Wiz Ecommerce

Wiz eCommerce is a multipurpose WordPress WooCommerce theme. Wiz’s theme is suitable for any kind of eCommerce store, is fully responsive, and is lightweight.

You can tweak your landing page to your heart’s content, including the color scheme, social icons, scroll-to-top, custom background, and other features.

Wix

Wix is a cloud-based web development platform that offers lots of flexibility to customize whatever you want to do with your eCommerce store.

You can use it to promote your online business or showcase using Wix’s website builder. Its unstructured editor lets you drag and drop elements anywhere you want on a page and packs tools like restaurant ordering, music distribution, appointment scheduling, and more.

When it comes to themes, you will not run out of options as it offers more than 500 themes.

Squarespace

Squarespace is yet another alternative to Shopify for small businesses. It offers some great templates that can help your business to draw attention to your products, and are also easy to customize.

It lets you explore which tools you want to add to your online business —whether it’s setting up an online store, booking services, or adding third-party extensions.

Additional tools under its hood include an inventory system and analytical tools. To market your business, it comes with built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features, on-brand email campaigns, and social tools. These features make it easy to retain customers and grow your audience.

When it comes to Shopify Vs Squarespace, both offer free trial periods. So you can compare the features and user experience for yourself.

Is Shopify legit?

Yes, Shopify is legit. With Shopify, you can start your eCommerce business and manage it from anywhere, with no coding or design skills needed.

With it, you can sell products and services, add customer reviews, improve email marketing, publish your products on Facebook, or get in-depth analytics.

Shopify comes with a selection of free themes that can be loaded onto your store automatically, where you can start customizing any way you want.

You can choose free fonts or up the color scheme, add your own photos, arrange sections, and more. This makes Shopify ideal for beginners wanting to dive in or play around with the feel and look of their online store.

Shopify doesn’t limit the number of products you can offer in any way. You can sell unlimited products on all Shopify plans. It allows you to sell both online with your own website and/or in person with its Shopify POS system.

Shopify’s online store builder has features for everyone from novices to experts. There’s plenty of functionality that comes with this platform that can help you convert website visitors into buyers and one-time shoppers into loyal customers.

The Bottom Line

Shopify has established itself as one of the leading e-commerce platforms. It makes it easier than ever for businesses to start selling on Shopify.

The comprehensive suite of features offered by Shopify enables Shopify merchants to easily manage their stores, listing products and managing orders alike. On the Shopify dashboard, you can find the most valuable metrics that provide you with insight into the performance of your store and the behavior of your customers.

What are you waiting for? Register for a free trial of Shopify to check how this ever-popular e-commerce platform can help you start selling online.

Can I use Shopify on my phone?

Yes, You can use Shopify on your phone. By installing the Shopify app, you can log in to your account and run your online store from your mobile device. Your staff can also log in to the Shopify app, but they will have limited access. They can only view the areas of the Shopify app that they have permission for. But with the right access, they can review orders, products, and customers.

What is Shopify Plus?

Simply put Shopify Plus is a more robust version of the core Shopify plan and includes the following:

• A dedicated account manager: Unlike getting support through phone, email, and live chat Shopify Plus offers personalized and dedicated support to your store.
• It assigns what it calls a Launch Engineer to your website to help you navigate any obstacles that may arise during your store’s setup or migration stages.
• The Launch Engineer is on standby to help you iron out third-party integrations or find partners to work on projects specifically targeting your business.
• More theme customization and access to Liquid: With Shopify’s standard plans, you can only customize your Shopify theme using the editor, and can be challenging to switch to a completely new theme.
• However, Shopify Plus comes with a higher degree of flexibility in terms of customization, as you can access Shopify’s theme language, Liquid.
• With Liquid, you can make changes at the code level and also have greater control.
• Unlimited staff accounts: Shopify’s basic plan only allows a few limited staff accounts while Shopify Plus allows you to add unlimited staff accounts and additional permission settings.
• More control over the checkout: Shopify Plus lets you offer clients personalized offers to high-spending customers. You can also customize the checkout experience based on shopping cart values or any other condition.
• More API integrations: You also get more Application Programming Interface for your website to facilitate integrations with third-party apps such as GiftCard, User, and Multipass.
• Exclusive apps: You also get access to some top-end exclusive Shopify apps that are not available to regular Shopify users.

What is Shopify Lite?

The Shopify Lite plan allows you to create a simple e-commerce store within a few minutes. For just a $9 monthly subscription, Shopify Lite can help integrate e-commerce into your website or social media page, including a blog and Facebook.

You can merge your store with your current Facebook Business page by simply adding a Shop tab on the page while also displaying product galleries along with your own shopping cart inside Facebook. Besides getting an integrated Facebook store, you also get a live chat module powered by the Facebook Messenger app.

In addition to selling on Facebook and blogs, the ‘Shopify Buy button’ is the prominent main draw for Shopify Lite. This plan gives you the ability to provide embeddable modules for products and collections. You can also embed a shopping cart and customize each module for your brand.

Note: Shopify Lite is not available to new merchants. So new merchants can try the Shopify Starter plan.

Can I choose my own domain name with Shopify?

If you buy a domain through Shopify, your domain will automatically be configured to work with your primary domain. Usually, your primary domain has the format’ ***.myshopify.com’ when you sign up for Shopify. If you want to change the domain that’s displayed to customers while they browse your online store, then you can add a custom URL, such as www.****.com.

Alternatively, if you already own a custom domain from a third-party provider, then you can use a domain that you already own. You can either connect your custom domain to your online store or have the option to transfer management of the domain to Shopify.

Is Shopify good for beginners?

Yes, Shopify is widely considered to be beginner-friendly. It is an easy-to-use platform that lets users quickly set up an online storefront without learning complicated coding languages or having a deep understanding of web design.

What’s more, Shopify offers a range of easy-to-customizable themes. With a large active community of Shopify users, you can quickly get support and guidance whenever you are stuck.

The platform includes all of the tools and features needed to run an online store, including payment gateway integrations, shipping and tax options, and inventory management. So once you choose what to sell on Shopify, it’s easy to get up and running quickly.

So without any doubt, Shopify is an excellent choice for beginners to start selling online without having any coding or designing knowledge.

Can I pause my Shopify subscription?

Yes, if your store is eligible, you can pause your Shopify subscription.

To be eligible for this feature, your Shopify store should be on a paid plan, past the free trial. In case your Shopify store doesn’t meet these criteria, you cannot pause your Shopify subscription.

Eligible owners of Shopify stores should go to their Shopify admin panels and select Pause and Build.

Is Shopify better than Amazon?

It is difficult to say which platform scores more in Shopify vs. Amazon comparison. This is because both platforms serve different purposes.

Shopify is an e-commerce platform enabling you to build your own online e-commerce website and start selling online. On the other hand, Amazon is the biggest online marketplace that allows you to list and sell your products online.

The better platform between Shopify and Amazon is the one that aligns with your business goals.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "What is Shopify and How Does it Work" was first published on Small Business Trends