According to Statista, the growth projection for the eCommerce industry is between 14-15% in 2021 and approximately 11% in 2022. Last year, the industry witnessed a strong upsurge with a growth rate of 27.6%. With new buyers and product demands arising from distant corners of the world, it is understandable for thousands of eCommerce brands to expand their business operations globally. 

In this blog, we will discuss 7 steps to do cross-border trading and conduct smooth global operations. But before that, we have discussed the benefits of going global.

Table of Contents

• Benefits of Going Global
  – Access to Niche Markets
  – Increase in Customer Retention
  – Increase in Brand Reputation
• Simple Steps to Expand your eCommerce Business Globally
  – Create a Business Plan
  – Develop a Cohesive Marketing Strategy
  – Localize your Online Store
  – Outsource your workforce
  – Select Shipping Partners
  – Provide Robust Payments Options
  – Collect Feedback
• Marketplace Solutions for Business Expansion
• Conclusion

Benefits of Going Global

1. Access to Niche Markets

Industries having multiple niches and microsegments can benefit from global operations by increasing their accessibility to foreign audiences. For example, an eCommerce business specializing in Peer-to-Peer furniture rental can expand its target market by providing the same furniture rental services in multiple countries.

2.  Increase in Customer Retention

Businesses with diverse audiences, including consumers from middle to upper class can reduce the customer churn rate by launching multinational branches. This will happen in use cases where the loyal customers of an eCommerce business move abroad and become immigrants. Similar is the case with customers living abroad on work or study visas. Thus, along with getting access to foregin customers, global operations can also assist eCommerce brands in retaining their existing customers widely.

3. Increase in Brand Reputation

Expanding business across the borders will boost the brand reputation of eCommerce businesses. After expansion, they will be considered under the global players list, which can have a positive effect on the consumer mindset. Moreover, global operations also improve a company’s brand status in their native land, making them highly potential assets for funding.

Simple Steps to Expand your eCommerce Business Globally

Step #1: Create a Business Plan

Each market is unique, and it has a well-established ground set of rules to enter the market and establish a retail business. To satisfy that, eCommerce businesses require strategic planning.

Start with what you know and move ahead from there:

• Define short, medium, and long-term goals 
• Define the business model
• Map out your supply chain
• Create projects and allocate funds
• Conduct appropriate market research for deployment

Step #2: Develop a Cohesive Marketing Strategy

Decide the name of your global venture, i.e., whether you will be promoting your business under the same brand name or adding an extension. Similarly, register trademarks for your business and maintain consistency across all marketing channels. Secondly, you will need to define all marketing channels and touchpoints for effective campaigning. As your business will be new in a well-established market, it is best to explain your Unique Selling Points (USPs) very clearly through your marketing channels. 

Step #3: Localize your Online Store

Global business expansion will also require business owners to localize their online stores with the targeted region. This includes using a different festive calendar for introducing discount promos and other marketing campaigns. eCommerce businesses will also need to hire local customer support who can speak in the native language of customers and understand their various concerns. 

Also, the localization will be required for each targeted region. For this reason, it is wise to opt for multilingual and multi-currency eCommerce marketplace platforms that are scalable for conducting multinational operations. 

Another efficient way to localize is to hire polyglot customer support and sales personnel who can converse in multiple languages and resolve customer queries. 

Step #4: Outsource your workforce

Entrepreneurs can outsource various tasks such as content marketing, social media marketing, customer support, logistics, human resources and also hire a virtual assistant. Outsourced professionals will be well-versed in the native language of the target audience and aware about their culture. Thus, they would be able to do a better job than your in-house team.

Another benefit of outsourcing some work is the lower cost of services when compared to monthly salaries, plus additional savings on hardware resources and utility bills. Moreover, outsourcing a professional team is time saving. While business owners just need to find suitable outsourcing services to get started, hiring each talent manually will consume too much time and resources. 

Step #5: Select Shipping Partners

Shipping is a challenging aspect of conducting eCommerce businesses. It is also the last stage of many satisfying eCommerce operations. However, shipping rates and shipping speed are equally useful to begin the operation. To elaborate, it has been proven on several accounts that customers consider shipping price an important deciding factor. eCommerce stores with cheap or free shipping policies receive a competitive edge and attract more customers. 

The challenge that new entrants in the global eCommerce industry face is finding reliable shipping partners with reasonable shipping costs. Furthermore, to do some savings, eCommerce businesses are recommended to inform the customer about the payment of customs and other taxes (if any) during the checkout process. This will also prevent consumer disputes at a later stage. 

Some shipping options for global eCommerce businesses are: 

• Shipping directly from the headquarter country, which will be inclusive of international carrier charges and other trade regulations.
• Establishing warehouses in the target country and finding local inventory resources to cut down costs on international deliveries.
• Partnership with local shipment services to handle all shipments remotely. 
• Businesses based in the UK can sell on OnBuy for easy international shipping.  

Make sure to choose a sustainable shipping plan which provides ROI in the long run. Estimate yearly shipping and handling costs before jumping into the business to ensure steady profits.

Step #6: Provide Robust Payments Options

Consumers across the globe prefer to make payment through their trusted gateway platforms. For this reason, it is important to provide reliable payment gateways on your online store. Also note that every gateway services provider can charge you or your customers a small percentage of the transaction as service charge or transaction fees. Fof best value, look for the options that levy minimum service charges. 

Also, global and cross-border eCommerce transactions require your payment gateway to support multiple currencies. A multilingual setup will also streamline the payment experience for your customers. If entering into western markets, you can accept crypto currencies to attract high-income customers to your business. 

An important integration for global eCommerce stores is exchange rate converter that will eliminate the task of manually specifying pricing in various currencies and improve operational excellence. 

Step #7: Collect Feedback 

Consumer feedback is important for business growth. It helps entrepreneurs identify the shortcomings of their business and improve the value proposition. Consumer feedback can be collected from your first customers and used to improve international stores.

The different approaches to collecting consumer feedback are:

• Cold calling
• Emails
• Reviews and ratings page
• Feedback surveys

Marketplace Solutions for Business Expansion

Global expansion looks challenging on the first sight but is efficiently achievable with strategic planning. Following the aforementioned list, interested entrepreneurs can not only expand their business globally but also carry out smooth global operations. If warehousing and inventory seems to be the primary challenge, then our top recommendation for such entrepreneurs would be to expand to a marketplace business.

An online marketplace follows the asset light business model in which multiple vendors sign up on the platform and sell their products. This way, the business owner is only responsible for connecting the vendor with the customer whereas the vendor manages the inventory. The marketplace owner earns money through several revenue streams such as commission, featured listing, display advertising, subscription packages and more. 

Below is the list of renowned eCommerce software to help you expand your business globally:

Yo!Kart: Yo!Kart is a multi-vendor eCommerce platform with advanced capabilities to streamline eCommerce operations. It is also fully customizable and supports unlimited product listings and user profiles so that you can grow your business without worrying about the scalability of your software technology. Along with this, Yo!Kart also comes with one-year of free technical support. 

CedCommerce: CedCommerce is a Magento powered marketplace solution that supports both B2B and B2C operations. Like Yo!Kart, it also comes with unlimited listings and user-profiles. As the solution is developed on Magento, it comes with an open-source code, which is easy to edit for customization and feature expansion.

Arcadier: Arcadier is another feature-rich marketplace solution that simplifies eCommerce  operations for various kinds of businesses. It is a fully-hosted solution that  comes with monthly recurring prices. Although it has all essential features required to start an asset-light business, it comes with a limited number of transactions. 

Contact the respective sales teams of these solutions to understand how they can help you grow and promote your business overseas. Interested entrepreneurs can also book a personal one-on-one demo for Yo!Kart and CedCommerce. 

Conclusion 

All entrepreneurs with or without a local offline store can launch a global eCommerce store that can help them acquire more customers and gain an international presence. A global brand image will also give them a competitive advantage and open up various opportunities for partnerships, funding and conducting business. Lastly, the choice of the eCommerce solution would be crucial in streamlining the global business operations. For that reason, we advise you to do a careful selection of the solution.

COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a fundamental disruption of the health and economical conditions across the nations. During the lockdown, the businesses operations were at standstill,  we at FATbit were gathering market insights and comprehending consumer behavior. We are projecting the gathered information in an industry report of how businesses can navigate to profitability during and after the pandemic. Now when different countries are slowly moving towards normalcy, businesses have to rethink their strategies to adopt changing consumer behavior.

While some sectors are struggling to emerge from the adverse side effects of the lockdown, there are others like Grocery, Retail, Rental, logistics, etc. that are revising their operating model to become winners. An evidently conclusive decision that businesses have made is that they have to be innovative and define strategies for digital growth. 

Prepare Your Business For The Post-pandemic World

Business Leaders after the initial turn of events from the pandemic have anticipated a radical shift in the profits and business operations. According to the trends during this pandemic, the changes will not be homogenous across different sectors. The only way to come upon the surface as a winner is to focus on the local response. Here we have mentioned some strategies that market leaders are adopting to retrieve their business’s current standing in the post-pandemic world. 

Reintroduce – When Season 2 of any series is released after a long break, the director gives a recap of the whole series in the first few minutes, right? Similarly, customers need a loyalty recap of the business and their products. The need is to communicate directly with the customers and based on the needs/wants devise strategies accordingly.

Renegotiate – Before the D day, the wedding rehearsal is an important part. Similarly, Businesses have to rehearse to emerge more reliable and resilient than before. Leaders have to renegotiate their strategies based on current market scenarios.

Repurpose – Like mentioned earlier, trends that were picking up pace before the pandemic are likely to accelerate even after the pandemic.  Businesses have to understand their best capabilities and strategize to derive opportunities from them. One thing that will change is before pandemic businesses were expanding to become a global leader, after the pandemic, globalization is more likely to contract.

Racing Ahead – Businesses that race back to their old way of operating will not be able to derive business. Those will succeed who will adopt the right techniques to capture the current consumer behavior, market essence, and capture growth from customer ties. 

Opportunities in the Online Sector

Those entrepreneurs who are planning to start a digital venture have to understand that some sectors have witnessed exponential growth due to  Covid-19. According to the consumer’s behavior and needs, these sectors are more likely to become profitable even after the pandemic is over.

Health and Fitness Applications – Due to lock down and the scare of contagiousness, people are hesitant to visit the  health care facilities or fitness centers. Thus businesses have sprung to the opportunity to find digital mediums for customers. Wearable devices, calories counting applications, and online doctor consultation have become popular during the pandemic.

Online Retail – Similarly, customers are showing resistance to visit the brick and mortar store due to the pandemic, people are purchasing their daily necessities from the online marketplaces. Retail Entrepreneurs need to rethink their product offerings and niche according to consumer preferences.

Online Grocery and Food Ordering – According to Coresight Research U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2020, the online grocery industry is seeing an upward trend from last year as it grew 22% in 2019, propelled by high demand during the COVID-19, online grocery will surge 40% in 2020. The predicted growth of online grocery in 2020 has doubled in the first four months of the pandemic. The measures food ordering businesses are taking to ensure an optimum level of safety and cleanliness has also resulted in a growth of food ordering. 

E-learning Sector – Schools and educational institutes have been closed down since the wake of the virus. Parents and teachers are concerned about the half-finished curriculum, which has resulted in the rise of Elearning businesses. Even before COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology, with global tech investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019. The overall market for online education is projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025.

FATbit Technologies has actively participated in engineering Digital Solutions for startups and enterprises worldwide. Even now, when few businesses can not operate their offline stores, our digital solutions are helping clients navigate through the impact of COVID-19. We have digital Solutions for every business niche which will gain profitability during and after the pandemic. Our platforms help reduce the time to market and are suitable for different business requirements. 

Entrepreneurs and business owners are still adapting to the volatility in consumer behavior to strategize their plan for the post-COVID Era. In this report, we have given information that will be beneficial for every business. Understand which category your business falls in and then change according to the trend. 

The global digital health market is estimated to reach over $200 billion by the end of 2020, with a projected 41% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for the mobile health market as per Statista. Another statistic shows a forecast of the medical mobile apps market worldwide to reach over $11 billion by 2025. This projection was almost five times the estimated market size in 2017.

With the ease of accessibility and convenience, healthcare mobile apps are helping people lead healthy lives. By leveraging healthcare apps on iOS and Android devices, patients can now stay in touch with their healthcare service provider 24×7.

As people continue to follow healthcare mobile app trends, it has significantly eased the burden on the hospitals, improved patient monitoring, and provided better ways to connect with doctors. The mobile healthcare market, as a result, has prospered over the years.

To illustrate the importance of digital technology in healthcare, let’s look at the ten key healthcare mobile app trends in 2020.

Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD)

As the name suggests, PGHD is a health-related data characterizing the history of a patient, including details of disease (if any) and recovery. The abundant data is what mobile app users themselves create or record almost unknowingly. It is a healthcare mobile app trend that offers a comprehensive picture of patients’ health, filling gaps in information.

PGHD mainly includes symptoms of the disease, treatment history (with health details), details on the healing process, biometric data, lifestyle, habits, and more. A careful analysis of this data can significantly reduce patients’ visits to a clinic.

Wearable Devices

Smart wearable devices offer constant monitoring of health at all times. For instance, Fitbit, with its impressive line-up of smartwatches and wireless-enabled wearable devices, measure personal metrics (like steps walked, quality of sleep, heart rate, and more) with ease. Wearable devices in North America are projected to reach 439 million connections closely followed by the Asia Pacific region in 2022.

From breathing, chest movement to heart rate, wearable devices have various sensors to track and monitor these health parameters. This makes them an attractive proportion of healthcare mobile app development.

Telemedicine and Telehealth Apps

With a 120% growth rate, Telemedicine is among the fastest-growing segments in healthcare IT. Estimated to reach $113 billion by 2025, Telemedicine is a current healthcare mobile app trend. As the name suggests, Telemedicine involves the use of technology to exchange medical information. It is convenient, cost-effective, and offers better access to reliable doctors reducing absenteeism.

Telehealth apps like “doctor on demand” or “HealthTap” provide video calls with board-certified doctors right away or by appointment to patients. Based on the diagnosis, the doctor will send you a digital prescription as well. Healthcare apps like these have been quite popular among patients as the majority of people prefer to schedule a video call over clinic visits.

Communication Channels

With an effective communication process, the chances of treatment success also improve. There are several communication channels like instant messaging, real-time video calls, emergency calls (SOS signal), and more. Lately, speech recognition has become the communication channel that is forecasted to dominate the digital healthcare industry. By leveraging these effective communication channels in a mobile app, businesses offer real-time support to patients.

As quality user feedback becomes crucial, medical application experts cite improvement in communication channels – a new trend in the healthcare industry.

Geolocation

Geolocation is one of the main features in healthcare mobile applications and here’s why:

• Geolocation allows a patient to locate the address of nearby hospitals, pharmacies, clinics and more
• In case a person gets injured at an unknown location, the feature helps him/her make an emergency call
• Provide medical news and information regarding emergencies (such as areas of the hotspot during the COVID-19 pandemic), and more

The active use of geolocation in healthcare mobile apps is crucial during this pandemic as it can help fight against the spread of the virus. For instance, the Government of India recently launched Aarogya Setu – a mobile app that uses geolocation and Bluetooth data to alert users if there’s a COVID-19 patient nearby.

Similar approaches from the Singapore Government and MIT with TraceTogether and Private Kit: Safe Paths app highlights the active use of geolocation – a healthcare mobile app trend in 2020. To develop an app for contact tracing in your area, check out our practical guide on healthcare mobile app development.

Contact Tracing

To contain the emerging cluster of coronavirus infections and restore normalcy, experts around the world suggest the use of contact tracing technology. When combined with a mobile application, contact-tracing allows silent tracking of individuals and notifies the user if any of their contacts have been tested COVID-19 positive.

For instance, the Government of India recently launched Aarogya Setu – a mobile app that uses geolocation and Bluetooth data to alert users if there’s a COVID-19 patient nearby. Similar approaches from the Singapore Government and MIT with TraceTogether and Private Kit: Safe Paths app highlights the active use of contact-tracing – a healthcare mobile app trend in 2020. To develop an app for contact tracing in your area, check out our practical guide on healthcare mobile app development.

Data Protection

The biggest challenge for healthcare mobile apps is the protection of sensitive patient data from unauthorized access. As patients and health care workers continuously use mHealth apps to collect and share health-related information, special attention must be given to mobile data security. With popular mHealth apps like HealthTap or Doctor On Demand being HIPAA compliant, patient’s data is restricted from unauthorized access. Moreover, as new technologies emerge, data protection is bound to improve emerging as a new trend in healthcare app development.

mHealth Payment Services

Arranging cash and making the payment during a medical emergency is no longer an issue. With the widespread adoption of mobile payments, transaction processing has been enabling easier access to healthcare services, especially during emergency situations.

Brands like Instamed and Cedar Pay are offering secure and hassle-free mobile payment solutions to the patients by partnering with healthcare service providers. There are several payment methods like mobile wallets, Near Field Communication (NFC), payment portals, and more that can be integrated into a healthcare mobile app.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is widely used in healthcare systems to collect the necessary information from connected devices and transfer it to the healthcare service provider. Here, the connected devices mostly include fitness trackers in wearable devices allowing physicians to easily monitor the vitals of a patient.

It can alert the service provider if something happens to the patient or crosses the threshold value. A recent study revealed the use of the Apple Watch app to monitor and assess patients with depression. It demonstrates how IoT helps in dealing with depression and provides insight into a patient’s conditions.

Cloud-based solutions

Integrating Electronic medical records (EMR) and Electronic health records (EHR) with cloud-based solutions allow easier access to patient records, medical bills, insurance plans, and more. Cloud-based solutions make healthcare mobile app services more accessible. With cloud-based infrastructure, the healthcare service provider delivers better data security at a lower cost.

Conclusion

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of healthcare mobile app is increasing exponentially. It eases the burden on healthcare workers by connecting patients with doctors online and even offers contact tracing to prevent the spread of the virus.

With the Apple-Google partnership on COVID-19 contact tracing technology, efforts are made to offer a comprehensive solution. At FATbit Technologies, we strive to deliver healthcare mobile applications for healthcare businesses while implementing the latest trends to ease the burden on hospitals and patients. For a complete guide on healthcare mobile app development, click here.

Updated on: 17-03-2024

There’s a hesitation to share anything about your business with anyone — what if they steal your idea? There can be a reluctance to read about what others have done, for fear of either adopting bad advice or losing faith in your thoughts. If you talk to an eCommerce entrepreneur, they’ll tell you the biggest mistake one can make is not reading best eCommerce blogs. 

Well, I’m here to tell you to let go of that attitude and become a sponge. Starting a successful eCommerce business is challenging, and countless companies have come before you and made mistakes you can learn from without repeating them yourself. There are tons of incredible blogs dedicated to giving you free advice on ecommerce inspiration, marketing strategies, statistics on trends, and so much more. Pop your entrepreneurship bubble and absorb it all.

Best Ecommerce Blogs For 2024

1. Shopify

Let’s start in the big leagues. You’ve undoubtedly heard of Shopify, the ecommerce platform giant that you can sell your goods on — but did you know it also has an incredible blog dedicated to eCommerce marketing and running your own eCommerce business? It offers everything from practical tips and guides to features of other companies. Maybe you could be featured there one day.

2. Merchant Maverick

You want an excellent blog for small eCommerce business; Merchant Maverick has you covered. While a lot of larger companies have blogs that are focused on issues that other large companies are facing, Merchant Maverick gets down into all the nitty-gritty details of everyday challenges faced by small businesses. From an in-depth analysis of small payment processing apps to saving money on shipping costs, this blog is an excellent resource and is considered as one of the top eCommerce blogs.

3. FATbit Insights

FATbit Insights aims to be the one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs and is among one of the best eCommerce blogs, whether you’re just starting and need advice on eCommerce marketplace platforms, or you’re in the thick of it and need some marketing inspiration or web design ideas. The blog goes beyond eCommerce and enables an eCommerce entrepreneur to understand different aspects of running an online business.

4.  A Better Lemonade Stand

Where are you in your eCommerce business journey: Are you still creating it, are you ready to launch, or are you trying to grow? Lucky for you, A Better Lemonade Stand has content for whatever phase you’re in. It’s an excellent resource for guides, advice, and inspirational stories to help entrepreneurs all over.

5. Ecommerce Platforms

Running an ecommerce site is a lot of work. Not only do you have to handle marketing and operations, you also have to manage the infrastructure that makes your business work. Fortunately, there are a lot of ecommerce platforms out there that can help you manage everything from inventory management to shipping and logistics. Ecommerce Platforms aims to compare the most popular ones and give you an unbiased opinion to help you choose the best one for your needs.

6. 3dcart

What better resource is there for eCommerce expertise than the blog of one of the longest-running eCommerce platforms? 3dcart has been helping people build their own online stores for more than two decades, and their writers regularly release excellent articles with in-depth guidance based on the latest knowledge. Their archive is extensive, meaning there is a blog post to answer just about any question that merchants could have.

7. Get Elastic

On the technology side of things, Get Elastic has you covered and is considered as one of the best eCommerce blogs. It focuses on the latest and most significant breakthroughs and news in the tech sphere, from eCommerce trends to how new technology can (and will) impact your business in the future. Its latest articles focus on everything from cryptocurrency to the Internet of Things, but the most important reason to read it is to keep an eye on the future.

8. Ryan Robinson

For a more personal look at one entrepreneur’s journey, enter Ryan Robinson. He features other entrepreneurs on his Side Hustle podcast, along with guides to making money blogging, and he frequently writes long-form articles with everything you need to know about vital online marketing topics like keyword research and email marketing.

9. Printful

Printful: a custom, on-demand printing and fulfillment service, and excellent blog resource? Believe it or not, Printful has an incredible blog filled with a massive variety of unique content. They feature marketing advice (including a full Instagram hashtag guide), an eCommerce platform guide (SEO, Amazon, Shopify, Etsy), and even style and trend articles ranging from interior design tips to choosing the best heather grey shirt. They’re a goldmine of advice for businesses at every stage and in any industry.

10. Red Stag Fulfillment

While Red Stag Fulfillment is a third-party logistics company and frequently features 3PL topics, we also provide guides, resources, and infographics on just about anything eCommerce-related. We’re big on data-driven tips and practical guides you can apply to your own business.

11. TechCrunch ECommerce

TechCrunch is a little different than many of the other companies on this list, as it is solely a publishing company and not another business with a blog. Its sole job is to publish news, analysis, and articles about technology, and of course, it has an eCommerce section. For the latest tech news and profiles of up-and-coming tech-focused companies, stop by TechCrunch’s blog.

12. Multichannel Merchant

No-nonsense Multichannel Merchant is one of the top eCommerce blogs which offers a wealth of articles in three categories: eCommerce, Marketing, and Operations & Fulfillment. Taking more of a broad view, they publish everything you ever wanted to know in each space, including news, commentary, and guides.

13. Bootstrapping ECommerce

You’re on a budget, and you’re tired of reading articles advising you to spend thousands of dollars on platforms, software, and advertising. Bootstrapping eCommerce gets it. It gives excellent advice in its blogs, which are all focused on how to get started as an entrepreneur with the smallest investment possible.

Learn From the Best Ecommerce Experts

The most significant favor one can do for your burgeoning eCommerce business is to collect all the information you can from others who have been there and done that and use it to your advantage to do it better than you ever could have dreamed. What blog is your go-to for eCommerce tips and guides? Whom did we leave out? Let us know in the comments.

The greeting card businesses were experiencing profits until the digitalization kicked in. This leads to the odd notion among the majority that social media platforms and instant messaging apps like WhatsApp have totally killed the greeting card business.

The newfangled trend for eCards or eGreetings began when people became aware and tried to save trees. In every household, nine out of ten people buy cards every year, and the industry is a source of income for many.

Despite the challenges, business owners knew they catered to the sentiments of customers. Since the traditional times, greeting cards hold a special value as they are a part of the ingrained culture, an ideal way for expressing feelings and exchanging emotions.

Putting an end to the assumptions and myths, businesses thrived and connected with millennials who took the use of eGreetings to another level. Due to its creativity, the eCard business has been capable of attracting entrepreneurs. FATbit did in-depth research and gathered exclusive insights as to what the future holds for greeting card businesses.

Rise of Digital Age and eCards Business

A number of businesses excelled that offered more customized content on greeting cards. To resolve the environmental concern, the industry opted for cards made of recyclable paper. With the digital revolution, an unsaid rule prevailed – businesses without an online presence were not successful. eGreeting businesses provide customizable cards so that people can share their wishes/ thoughts for someone’s special days.

Market Segment

With the two channels of distribution, online and offline, the greeting card market is segmented into two types:

Seasonal Greeting Cards

Seasonal greeting cards are widely popular among people to send greetings on special occasions. There are a different variety of cards available for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc., that are exchanged, among people worldwide.

According to the greeting card association, Christmas cards are one of the most popular seasonal greeting cards purchased widely with Valentine’s Day card and mother’s day card in the second position.

Also Read: Holiday-themed Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs

Everyday Greeting Cards

Everyday greeting cards are the day to day greetings we send to our loved ones. The cards for someone’s housewarming celebration, birthday, morning wishes or sympathy.

Role Of Millennials

According to research by Hallmark Cards, millennials, born between 1981 and 1999, representing nearly 20 percent of the dollars spent on greeting cards and are growing their spending faster than any other generational segment.

Millennials have been obsessed with the digital forms of communication and are looking for personalization, especially when it comes to wishing someone for a special occasion. Greeting cards have come back in trend as it takes more than a few keystrokes and emojis to send it out.

The eCard business is all about making an emotional connection with people and greeting cards are part of the culture in countries like the United Kingdom, USA, and more. Targeting the peculiarity of human nature, it is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to start their online business.

Top Players

With the rise in online stores, the foot traffic in the offline stores became less as it only served the people with the last-minute rush. The below-listed players are an inspiration in the greeting card industry. Their uniqueness and marketing ideas lead them to profitability. At FATbit, we did a detailed study of the following websites that cater to customized greeting cards:

LovePop

The concept of starting the business in card making came into the mind of the founders Wombi Rose and John Wise while they were on a trip to Vietnam. The owners got inspired by the paper art form of Kirigami and immediately thought of starting their business.

The idea of turning the art form into business helped them reach new heights. The unique trend of pop cards gave them recognition among the other competitors.

Postable

It becomes a hectic task for customers to deliver the greeting cards to their loved ones as first they order the card online which gets delivered to their address. They then mail the greeting card to the original recipient of the card.

Postable takes the lead and makes it easy for the customers to send more personalized cards. It liberates you to add a message or story with handwriting fonts to make it more realistic. Postable mails the card for you at different locations. The average estimated revenue generated by postable is estimated at $6.1 million.

Hallmark Cards

Hallmark has the biggest collection of greeting cards for all occasions. The business is estimated at $4billion in revenue generation. It has a wide variety of occasions, languages, the tone which you can select to order the cards online, and more. They have a blog section where different creative ideas related to the greeting cards are described.

American Greetings

American Greetings designs and manufactures greeting cards. It is a huge distributor of cards wherein customers can pick a card from a variety of eCards and paper cards for all occasions. With annual revenue of $2.9 billion, they also sell their online gifts along with paper wraps and other materials for birthday decorations. Somewhat similar to Hallmark, they also assist the customer with different guides for different occasions.

Paperless Post

It is one of the known names in the online greeting card business. Paperless Post offers design-driven online and printed stationery, cards, invitation, and custom cards. It was the first company that launched printed stationery in 2012 and has raised $12.4 million in capital to date.

It is a popular online business that has partnered with designers like Kate Spade New York, one of the leading brands in accessories and handbags. Their new service of flyers is something customers appreciate which has shareable links that can be sent via any platform. It makes sharing of the card easier and reduces the trouble of sending it via mail.

There are still diverse features that can make the startups in this segment different from the rest. To get the attention of the target audience, entrepreneurs need to be more creative and deliver the services as promised.

Revenue Channels

Selling Of Cards

Online cards sold are a direct source of revenue for the business owner as the price of the card varies from the actual price of production. Apart from these additional services like customization also adds to the revenue of the online business.

Monthly Subscription

Customers shop cards occasionally and seasonally. A monthly or yearly subscription can provide benefits to customers as well as the business owner. The benefits included in the monthly subscription plan helps to attract customers towards the business.

Also Read: Which Revenue Model Will Be Ideal For Your Online Business?

Feature List

Every entrepreneur that makes its debut in eGreeting segment should make sure they have done their research and homework. The following is the list of website features that will help you gain deeper insight into the industry:

Reminders

As it is evident, the more user-friendly the site is, the more it helps in conversion. Therefore personalization is the key to success. This feature allows users to select the exact time and date on which the card should be delivered. This feature is important to remind if you skip any occasion amidst work.

Address Book

An additional feature for the convenience of the user would be an address book, which allows the customers to add as many addresses as possible. They can name a specific address according to the person making it easy for the customers to send mail in bulk to their loved ones.

Schedule A Greeting Card

Depending on the country, state, or city where the greeting card has to be delivered, you can schedule the delivery of greeting cards prior to the occasion. This helps in sending the cards in a more organized and effortless manner.

Send A Paper Card

Millennials prefer sending personalized messages and paper cards on special occasions. Therefore ‘send a paper card’ feature allows the users to send a card with a private message on it. As most of the cards have messages that are filled with emotions and do not resonate with the person receiving the card, sending a paper card with a personal message is manageable.

Hire A Writer/ Calligrapher

Paper cards have been liked by people as it is more personal than the eGreetings. millennials are liking the concept of paper cards as they are able to send messages in a more personalized way.

To add emotions, these online greeting card businesses can hire writers and calligraphers to give the card a touch of authenticity and to make it more realistic for the customers.

Affiliates/ Refer A Friend

In such a competitive business world, creating awareness for the brand becomes important. Affiliates help to promote and sell the products. The “Refer a Friend” feature can help to inspire more users to talk about your brand which effectively helps in the growth.

CSR Program

This is a branding concept that enables a business owner to give back to society while indirectly spreading awareness about their brand. This program also assists in fundraising that helps the community for a particular cause.

Shop Now/ Find A Store

The online businesses have partners that make it easy for them to function and generate revenues. This feature helps customers to avoid a last-minute rush and get the card/gift when they need the most. With the help of this feature, customers can straight away find a store and get the same card they are looking online. This makes the experience and card buying journey of the customers effortless.

Categories/ Products That A Card Customization Website Should Cater To

Apart from offering the basic holiday cards, below are some unique categories that the online card customization website should cater to:

Custom Photo Cards

Cards with messages and fancier appearance are gaining popularity among people. The online card businesses give control of creativity to the customers and allow them to design and add elements to their cards.

Customized Envelopes

With customized cards, people demand customized envelopes too. Therefore the online website should also provide the facility of getting personalized cards printed. The envelopes are widely popular for marriage cards, Christmas cards, etc.

Gift/ Gift Wraps

Along with greeting cards, entrepreneurs can benefit from offering customized gifts online. Taking into account human behavior, it can be expected that after buying cards the customer might want to buy gifts as well to go along with the card.

What’s New in eCards Business?

Cards For Blinds

Understanding how diverse the audience can be and by not leaving any customer segment untouched, business owners came up with the cards for the blind. Such cards were appraised for such thoughtful effort.

Sound Greeting Cards/ Personalised Music Cards

The business owners knew the true essence of giving cards. The culture, the human value, the sentiments are associated with the cards. With the help of technology, businesses came up with a new idea of presenting the sound cards which have music or sound as people would open their cards. These cards have the power of words to help the emotions. Sound greeting cards provide the facility to record and add the voice of your loved ones in a card along with the other traditional songs.

Eco-Friendly Greeting Cards

Nowadays the customers are more inclined to green initiatives with eco-friendly greeting cards and products. Most of the businesses focus on this concern of environment and gives priority to the eco-friendly greeting cards. Eco-friendly cards cannot be considered as the latest trend, business owners have been inculcating the idea of eco-friendly cards in their businesses.

The Future Of Online Greeting Card Industry

Technology complements the greeting card business as it helped them to stand out from the crowd and reach the valuable customers. In order to be recognized in this industry entrepreneurs should nurture their relationship with valuable customers.

Look around and see how your family and friends react to cards. It’s their reaction that is empowering and keeping the card industry alive. Agreeing with the fact that so many entrepreneurs think eCards business is complex, but understanding the behavior and offering uniqueness to the customers may become a competitive advantage. It’s a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to combine the card, artwork, gifts, and customizable content in their offerings.

Last Updated: 6th March, 2024

Conducting successful eCommerce business operations requires the business owner to pace up with the modern trends. The world witnessed several eCommerce marketing trends last year, like shoppable posts, omnichannel support and contact delivery. Several of these trends made it to the year 2024 and capitalizing on them can assist eCommerce business owners maintain and increase their turnover.

Top Ecommerce Trends to follow in 2024

The following list will enable you to:

• Identify successful trends 
• Keep up with those trends
• Avoid unsuccessful eCommerce strategies
• Analyze the effects of trends on your business

Without further ado, let’s begin.

1. SMS Campaigns Bringing Better Returns than Email

A short message service (SMS) informs consumers about upcoming deals or other special offers of your store. It helps them keep track of shopping opportunities and the time to close the right deals.

Some may question the effectiveness of text messages, but eCommerce marketers discovered that text messages convert 6 times more than emails. Due to direct reminders, instead of encrypted emails, SMS increases the odds of your customers seeing the message you send.

With the aforementioned facts, you should consider adding SMS to your business so you can reach out to more customers. This will keep them directly informed and continue to help you grow.

2. Customer Data Guiding eCommerce

Legitimate customer data collection has become an unobjectionable source of information for eCommerce businesses. It imparts the knowledge of consumer interests and shopping behavior. This includes purchases, click rates on emails, cart abandonment rates, etc. To simplify, customer data lets businesses know how customers act and how they make purchases so that the business can make adjustments in their sales funnel accordingly.

After conducting an in-depth analysis on customer data, eCommerce brands can provide the desired deals and products to consumers. If you don’t look at data, then you can’t learn about your customers. Customer data will always be considered as important because of its effectiveness.

3. Customizable Products Riding the Personalization Wave

Consumers like options and to adjust things according to their needs. Providing a customizable service meets those needs while giving them more choices. While some businesses may worry about the extra costs of customizable products, those costs are justifiable considering the benefits.

Think of it like this: some people may not want everything in a product. Maybe you sell wrist watches and the customer likes the dial and strap of two different watches. With customization, the customer can put the different dial and strap into a single watch.

The main reason behind the popularity of customizable products is that people like choices. In comparison to an eCommerce website that restricts consumer choices, the ones that increase them leverage the benefit of providing options. Product customization is a tactic that enables you to provide more options at less costs.

4. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)

Buy Now Pay Later is a payment option that gained immense popularity in the second half of the previous decade. According to LitExtension “In the plight of Covid-19 trauma, changing the way customers purchase products takes center stage in the conversion generating process. And, it looks like “Buy now, pay later” eCommerce is here to say.” It allows consumers with low cash reserves and high-credit scores to purchase their favorite items and pay at a later date when suitable. Klarna bank, Affirm and Afterpay are some financial institutions that widely support BNPL and have standardized it in the US.

According to intelligence collected by eMarketer, more than 20% of US consumers used Buy Now Pay Later in the year 2020. The top benefits of using the BNPL are:

• It helps people avoid using credit cards
• Is an interest-free payment option
• Ensures a speedy checkout process
• Has easier terms and conditions than finance

Buy Now Pay Later is also useful for eCommerce businesses as:

• It increases conversions in sales
• Reduces the cart abandonment rate
• Streamlines customer experience
• Builds brand loyalty

To install a BNPL method on your eCommerce store, you are required to sign up with Klarna, Affirm or any other BNPL service provider. After signing up, you can add their API to your eCommerce store.

5. Payment Options Attracting Customers

Along with Buy Now Pay Later, consumers are demanding various payment options. This could be due to the various benefits that banks and other financial institutions provide on their payment methods. However, for a business that provides a diverse range of products with some of them categorizing as quite “expensive,” it is required for them to provide various payment options.

When it comes to payment options, the correct approach to handpick them for your store is to consider consumer preferences and their location. You should also think about different channels that customers may want to use to make payments.

• Do they want to buy it through their credit card or a PayPal account?
• Can we work with checks or any other physical payments?
• What software can we use to handle different payment options?

When you expand the payment options, you allow more people to make payment on your store.

6. Subscription eCommerce Gaining Speed

Monthly or yearly subscriptions remove the recurring payment process for consumers. They also eliminate the repetitive ordering process and visits to supermarts. Due to this reason, many eCommerce sites use subscription business models as a way to get guaranteed money from their customers while consistently providing them their services and products.

Before creating a subscription package for your products, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can my customers afford a monthly subscription?
• What does my service provide that encourages people to pay monthly?
• If I start a subscription model now, how will my customers react?

If all the answers rest in favor, integrate a subscription management module on your platform and ensure timely delivery of the products.

7. Visual Commerce Using AR Tools

Visual commerce facilitated growth in various aspects of the eCommerce industry, such as customer experience, customer support, product demos, marketing and more. With the help of Augmented Reality, consumers can preview a product virtually before purchasing it.

Visual commerce using AR tools has been applied differently by the following businesses:

1. Virtual Makeup Try-Ons by Sephora : The world-famous beauty products firm, Sephora, launched an augmented reality app that allowed consumers to try makeup virtually without even without purchasing. The process also eliminated the company’s expenditure on manufacturing product samples.

Last Updated: 21st November, 2023

Whenever an aspiring entrepreneur decides to start a business, the first concern that comes in his mind is how to keep the cost to a minimum. Launching an online business isn’t all about just getting a website built and taking it online. There are several other procedures & unavoidable costs such as registering the domain, getting a server, business name registration, etc. However, there are other operational costs that can be minimized with the help of technology to keep the budget within the limit.

There are many tools& resources for startups that not only help in minimizing the cost, but also save time & make your business look & operate smartly. From recruiting to project management, CRM to email marketing, and every other critical element involved in running& growing a startup, today, there’s a tool for everything.

The only problem is your unawareness of these tools that can help you accomplish the same tedious, mundane tasks in no time and with minimal effort. So, let’s explore some of the best tools & resources for startups.

1. The Name App

To have a unique and easy to remember business name is important for brand recall.This particular tool saves you the struggle of finding the right domain name for your startup. What’s more, it also helps you in checking the availability of the username and in deciding social media profile names that resonate with your business. Simply login to The Name App’s official website or download it on your Apple device’s App Store (Sorry, Android Users, you’ll need to make do with the website for now).

2. GrowthHacker.tv

GrowthHacker.tv is a place where you can watch interviews of successful growth hackers and entrepreneurs who have made a mark in the digital world. The interview videos keep on playing on the website in a loop, which is accessible to visitors for free. But if you want to access a past video recording, then you would need to signup, which is paid. But wait, that’s not all. If you are visiting the website for the first time, you might get a promo code to access site’s content as a premium member for a week.

Also Read: 9 Growth Hacking Tips & Tools for Startups & Ecommerce Businesses

3. Moosend

Creating email campaigns can be easy. Delivering them at the right time, though, can be hard. That’s why you need an email marketing automation platform like Moosend to get started. Moosend will give you access to automation features to create, schedule and track the performance of your email campaigns. You can get to know Moosend through their free forever plan, offering unlimited emails for up to 1,000 subscribers. The paid plans will give you access to advanced features starting at $10 per month.

4. Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services, commonly known as AWS, is a web hosting service offered by the ecommerce mogul Amazon. Probably, one of the most dependable web hosting service available presently, AWS is scalable, flexible and currently offers over 90 services including database storage, content delivery, and other features & functionalities.

5. BrandCrowd

There’s nothing more important in starting a business than your logo. Logos provide that unique brand that customers will come to recognize. That’s why Logo design should take center stage in startup planning. Often, however, logos get very little thought and even less budget. If that’s the case for your business, you can turn to an online logo maker tool like BrandCrowd. With a minimal investment and a little time and effort, you’ll get a logo perfect for you. You can customize the colors, layout, fonts, and more. Then you can download your logo instantly and start sharing it with the world.

BrandCrowd also offers thousands of social media design templates that you can customize. If you’re a budding business, chances are you will need to post on social media regularly & BrandCrowd provides designs you can easily tweak to suit your brand message. It’s also cool that the templates are automatically customized with the colors from your logo – meaning you get a consistent brand message across all platforms.

6. MailChimp

To run a successful email marketing campaign and to keep your audience updated about offers, you need an efficient newsletter service. This is where MailChimp comes into the picture. MailChimp is a name that probably needs no introduction to the tech world. The good news, MailChimp offers a free startup package with all the basics features. Paid services begin from $10 per month. Alternatively, you can also take a look at ActiveCampaign and see which one of these suits you prefer.

7. Aytm

There are plenty of survey tools available in the market today. What sets Aytm apart from all those tools is the fact that it not only helps you in creating a survey form, but also helps you in reaching out to the right audience that will be interested in taking these surveys. A Quick tip: keep your questions open ended to get better insights.

8. Glasshat

Glasshat comes across as a super-efficient SEO tool that helps startup owners in planning their SEO and other digital marketing activities. This tool prepares a list of activities and also educates new entrepreneurs why a particular activity is important for their startup. While using Glasshat, it would be a good idea to add the Yoast SEO Plugin to your WordPress website so that you can mend your web content as per SEO guidelines.

9. Asana

Asana is a web & mobile based project management tool that was built for improving workflow at Facebook. Eventually, and inevitably, the efficiency of Asana made it a prominent name among almost all startup owners across the world. This project management software allows users to assign tasks as per their status, add assignees & get activity feed, view log reports, and a lot more. If you want to check Asana Alternative, we recommend Trello, an equally efficient project management system.

10. StockSnap.io

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this is why all businesses know the importance of using high quality images to create better engagement. StockSnap, as the name suggests, is a website from where you can get high resolution stock images. The website offers all these images absolutely free of cost. However, if you are looking for more options to get stock images and don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for the same, ShutterStock is the name you can always trust.

Related Read: 21 Creative Tools for Video Storytelling & Brand Marketing

11. Wave

Wave is a free online accounting tool for startups and small businesses. The website helps you track all your expenses and incomes, and also helps you with your taxes when the time comes – thus, can help you save a lot of time & effort, usually involved in these procedures. As the screenshot above depicts, this resource is quite reliable for having received media coverage from prominent players such as Forbes, CNBC, Bloomberg, PCMag.com and Inc. You can even set up a separate personal account to keep track of your various passive income sources and personal finances.

12. InvoiceBerry

Create and send invoices with ease thanks to InvoiceBerry. InvoiceBerry is an online invoicing software designed with small businesses in mind. The software allows you to create professional-looking, customizable invoices as well as keep track of your finances and generate various reports. Thanks to InvoiceBerry, you can automate and streamline your invoicing workflows, save your precious time, and focus on growing your business.

13. Xtensio

Xtensio is a collaboration tool every startup needs to create stunning presentations, pitches, reports, case studies, agendas. Its drag and drop functionality makes it easy to add images and videos, resize, change backgrounds and more. Any changes automatically save and sync across all device for all users. More importantly, it promotes brand consistency as users work under a customized dashboard.

14. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the answer to all your questions pertaining to customer support. From ticketing to tracking to FAQs, Freshdesk can help you sail through the ocean of customer support without breaking a sweat. Freshdesk offers startups a 30-day free trial, without having to enter the credit details. It’s other top features include multichannel helpdesk, automation, reports & analytics and a bunch of team specific products, such as for sales, admin, etc.

15. Hootsuite

This list wouldn’t be complete without Hootsuite, the most popular social media marketing management tool among startups. This nifty tool can help you manage over 35 most popular social media networks from just one dashboard. With Hootsuite included in your social media marketing mix, there’s no more clutter and missed out opportunities from social networks. Hootsuite saves the day, everyday

16. Optimizely

Conversion Rate is one aspect that each and every business depends on. We all know how important A/B testing is to ensure your ecommerce startup (or any business for that matter) is able to covert efficiently, and hence, Optimizely. The name is synonymous to A/B testing in the business world and helps you in fine tuning your webpages to ensure high conversion rate.

17. BetaList

Beta List is a prelaunch traction system that lets you list your startup before launching it, absolutely free of cost. Free submission entails a waiting period of two months after submission, while getting listed within a couple of days simply needs a nominal fee of $99. The prime benefit of this platform is that you get to showcase your startup idea in the community of business enthusiasts and get valuable feedback from them.

18. SemRush

SemRush is an all in one marketing toolkit that helps startup owners in carrying out their competitor research easily and effectively. SemRush’s other prominent services include technical SEO audit of your website, semantic core collection, ideas for generating organic traffic, and so on. From ecommerce moguls like Amazon to the Entertainment Conglomerates like Disney, many prominent names have trust in SemRush.

19. AngelList

AngelList is a platform that every startup must know about. Not only does it help startups connecting with potential investors, but also helps them find experienced professionals who would be interested in working for them. Unlike other job portals, on AngelList, professionals & startups require no middle man to connect. On the other end, it is also a good platform for investors to explore potential startups they would be interested back financially.

20. Google Docs/Sheets/Slides/Forms

A Free alternative to the MS Office suite, the office tools offered by Google help startup owners to create and share word documents, excel sheets, presentations and forms, and share them with their team members without having to send the edited files again and again. Its accessibility options further ensure only selected people can view the files, and you can also see who made what change to the file, as well as the entire edit history.

21. Hemingway

Hemingway is an online word editor that lets you analyze the readability of your content. It also tells you the changes you should make to your content to make it more readable by telling you which sentence needs what kind of fix. Grammarly also does the same with its paid version. The added advantage of Grammarly’s paid version is that it also verifies the originality of the content with its plagiarism checker.

22. Canva

Canva is an online graphic design tool used for generating social posts, blog graphics, Twitter headers, Facebook ads and the likes. The website holds a library of around a million fonts, photos, as well as icons. Users can select a design template or opt to create one from scratch using drag-and-drop features. Uploading, adding and creating images is quite an easy task with Canva. The basic account is free of cost. Additional graphics and photos uploaded by freelance designers can be used for just $1 each.

23. Hyperise

It is well-established that the human brain processes an image way faster than text. Hyperise is a SaaS tool that lets you add hyper-personalized layers to an image which captures visitor attention and improves conversion rates. With Hyperse, you can use your website visitor’s IP address or a prospect’s email address to build an enriched profile that includes the website logo, company details, website screenshots, user profile images, etc. to personalize your image or landing page with such information.

24. Shoptimizer

Shoptimizer is a fast WooCommerce theme from CommerceGurus built around the twin objectives of speed and conversions. Research has shown that even a one-second delay results in a 7% reduction in conversions, and Shoptimizer scores incredibly well across all the major speed benchmarking services. It includes theme options to automatically minify its stylesheet and load ‘critical CSS’ which has a dramatic impact on load times.

The key pages load almost instantly and the theme feels very responsive as a result. CommerceGurus have added a number of conversion features also, including a distraction-free checkout option, trust badges beside key call-to-action buttons, and a call me back option. When it comes to designing your own pages, the light, and lean Elementor page builder is deployed, allowing users to easily create beautiful layouts. There are also numerous theme options within the customizer which allows buyers to quickly change fonts, colors, and settings and see the results instantly.

25. Cloudways

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting provider that is built for online businesses. Based in Malta and serving a diverse global audience, Cloudways is all about simplicity and freedom. From the choice of five industry-leading cloud providers to 50+ 1-Click platform operations, Cloudways ensures that visitors do not have to face slow loading websites and security issues. Platform features include free SSL certificates, IP whitelisting, unlimited staging sites and a high-paying affiliate program.

25. ProofHub

ProofHub is a top-rated SaaS-based work management and team collaboration software. This software offers a suite of advanced features in a centralized location to enable project teams of all sizes to easily plan, organize, collaborate, and deliver projects of all sizes, on time. ProofHub empowers project managers (and other users) to assign tasks, set deadlines, and track their progress from start to finish to ensure timely completion and successful project delivery. You can access ProofHub from any device, any location, and add as many members to your team at a fixed monthly/annual price

Conclusion

We have curated this list after a thorough research, and each name in this list has been selected after much care and consideration. All these tools & resources are beneficial for startups and small businesses in keeping their operations seamless, easy and more efficient. Use them wisely, and you can easily propel your business to better prospects and better sustainability for years. Good luck!

And in case, you think we missed any useful tool that your startup uses, feel free to mention in the comment section below and make this blog post more resourceful for other readers.

Post Updated On: 31st July 2020.

Technology, design standards, and business trends change over time. And adapting to these changes is crucial for your business. It ensures that your website continues to meet your customers’ expectations and also reflects your brand image precisely. So, it is critical that your website gets a redesign once every few years.

In the long run, a legacy website design can have many negative impacts on your business – lower conversion, higher customer acquisition cost, declining sales, and so on.

Change can be difficult. But if it brings higher ROI, it is worth it. That’s why even established brands like Google (search results page), Facebook, LinkedIn, and others, never shy out from giving their website a fresh look from time to time.

In this post, we have covered a few key reasons why your business needs an engaging website design for seamless user experience and sustained business growth.

Front-end Reasons: To Deliver Better User Experience

Your Website Design Is Not in Sync with Latest Design Trends

Website design trends change every few years. Trends that are widely adopted, implant patterns in user’s mind, which consequently make websites (based on those design trends) naturally intuitive to users.

For instance, material design & flat design are two of the most popular design trends that many businesses are adopting these days. Over the past couple of years, most online users too have become quite used to them.

Like it or not, with a clunky design, your website would look outdated, so would your business. Consequently, you will have a hard time acquiring new customers, even if your product is really great & valuable.

Suggested Read: 8 Trending Website Design Patterns for Online Businesses

Your Website Design Doesn’t Accurately Reflect Your Brand Image

Businesses constantly look for ways to get ahead of the competition – sometimes through a new service, a new product, or even a new vertical. So the shift in business focus is inevitable for every organization, large or small. Since your website is the online face of your business, it must accurately depict the essence of your brand at any given point of time.

For instance, over the years, FATbit’s service spectrum has evolved constantly based on industry’s requirements (from website design & development to internet marketing services, and now to turnkey ecommerce solutions for startups) and so have our website design – to ensure it conveys the right brand message.

Also, notice that our current website design also follows the latest website design trend (flat).

Your Website Is Still Not Optimized for Mobile

Targeting the mobile audience is on the mind of every business; yet, it is surprising to see that thousands of websites still do not have a responsive design. And even if responsive, then offer very bad & cluttered user experience on mobile devices.

In 2015, Google rolled out the Mobilegeddon update to ensure only mobile-friendly websites appear in mobile search results. Last year, the search engine giant also announced that 60% of searches happen on mobile devices, and is also in the process of implementing mobile-first website indexing.

Therefore, ensuring that your website’s responsive design works flawlessly on a mobile platform is in the best interests of your business – whether we talk about customer experience or search engine ranking.

Back-end Reasons: For Better Operational Efficiency

Your Website Is Not Built with Latest Technology

One human year is considered equal to several internet years. This means that the technology moves a lot faster and changes very often. A trending technology or design can soon become redundant in the near future.  It gives us the idea how fast the technology is progressing; and how outdated your website might become if you don’t redesign it.

Website security, page load speed, code efficiency, outdated plugins, or outdated framework with respect to plugins you need to use – there are many reasons to upgrade the technology used by your website.

Newer technology frameworks are advanced in all forms. For example, the option to merge & compress JS & CSS files is available by default, which reduces website speed significantly. For security purposes, the option to use token for username & password, shield against SSL injections, etc. are also taken care of with the latest technology.

And on top of it all, with today’s technology, scaling & customizing websites have become much easier.

Related Read: Improve Page Speed: Tips & Online Tools Recommendations from Pro Developers

Your Website Is Not Based on a Flexible CMS

Most websites (especially business websites) require content updates from time to time. In older days, webmasters had to depend on the technical team for every bit of content update. But then the concept of CMS (Content Management System) arrived to give web owners much better control over their website content updates.

Over the years, CMSs have become more advanced, and today webmasters can make various content updates – manage text, graphics, forms, popups, etc. – quite efficiently.

If your website is still based on an outdated content management system, you are pointlessly wasting resources (including skilled human resources) on rather mundane tasks. This, consequently, results in higher operational costs, which you can easily reduce.

Your Website Is Not Built on an SEO-friendly Platform

Besides easy content updates, content management systems also play a crucial role in deciding how much & how easily your website can be optimized for search engines. For businesses that operate online or rely on online presence for customer acquisition, this should be a prime concern.Websites that are built on a readymade template but require dynamic URLs can benefit significantly from a design update with an advanced CMS.

Some other areas that must be checked to ensure the SEO-friendliness of the platform include – manageable Meta details, the scope for breadcrumbs, text-based navigation, sitemap, site search, duplicate content management, and redirection.

Conclusion

It’s a tough, competitive business world out there. To stand strong against the competition, you need to make sure that your business doesn’t miss out on anything crucial. While offering great products & services should definitely be your prime concern, you shouldn’t overlook your website’s performance.

All in all, a timely website redesign is like doing your homework – to ensure that you are on a good footing in the market when it comes to operational efficiency and delivering customers a rich experience. Beyond that, the value of your product can take care of the rest.

Millions of businesses live on internet these days. Whether it’s about selling shoes or academic notes, ecommerce has made everything doable with a click so we get everything online. There are various ecommerce sellers, however, the most interesting of ecommerce business models are the online marketplaces, which apparently rule this industry and are increasing day by day.

Online marketplaces operate on the simple revenue sharing business model. The service providers (Sellers) and service seekers (Buyers) visit the online marketplace to sell and buy products/services respectively and the owner of the marketplace earn revenue by charging a commission on each purchase made through the online marketplace.

Online marketplaces are ruling the internet and will continue to do so for at least next ten years. But to make money from this business model, you’ve got to be sure which of them are most demanded.
Knowing that delighting a customer is not a cakewalk for any new business, we have created a list of online marketplace based businesses that will continue to remain favorites of customers as well as investors in the coming time too. If you look at this sphere of ecommerce as a business opportunity, then check the following list:

Online Travel Activity Search & Booking Platform

The present generation likes to do everything online. And making travel arrangements is no exception. We plan our trips online, book tickets online, explore local activities online, and while travelling, we navigate our way online.

According to a Statista report, in 2015, more than 148 million travel related bookings were made online, cumulatively generating a whopping $533.5 billion. With 10% year-over-year growth, the online travel industry is growing at an impressive rate, offering abundant opportunities for new entrants.

There are many potential business models for aspiring entrepreneurs to enter this booming ecommerce sector. However, the most famous of all is online travel activity search & booking portals, as it has simplified the way people plan their trips, do bookings, and find local attractions.

Some of the key players of the industry include Expedia, Trivago, Priceline, & Tripadvisor.

Online Shopping Marketplace business

Online shopping is one of the biggest areas that have grown tremendously with the emergence of online marketplace business model. This transformation has not only benefited the buyers but also the small and medium sellers who needed an opportunity to expand their business.
Etsy.com is one such peer to peer marketplace focused on unique handmade and vintage items, empowering individuals to set up their online stores and reach out to thousands of potential buyers.

Other popular websites which are often considered generic in the class of online shopping include- amazon.com, ebay.com and flipkart.com.

P2P Car Renting Marketplace

Why book a cab when you can rent a self-driven car? Peer to peer car renting marketplace is booming business connecting car renters with car owners. Realizing the need of such a service, many entrepreneurs have started online car renting business. For such portals, booking fee of every booked trip is the major source of revenue generation.
Turo.com, This San Francisco based peer to peer car sharing marketplace got covered in the “Hottest on demand Startups” in 2015 by Forbes.

Others who have tasted their share of success from P2P Car sharing marketplace include- getaround.com, Zipcar.com and Drivy.com

P2P Freelancing Marketplace

Working independently has become more common across all generations and this has led to a new hiring paradigm. Companies especially the small and medium one’s are hiring freelancers for their projects rather than full time employees. Not only the employees but employers too prefer online marketplaces for finding targeted talent as they benefit more and get to meet qualified professionals at a reasonable cost.
If you understand this change, you are the one who will reap the maximum benefits from it. Freelancer.com, Fiverr.com and Fourerr.com are some of the online marketplaces for freelancers. Such marketplaces make money by charging fee on every successful completed project and with huge amount of registered users, these websites also manage to earn from on page advertisements.
Freelancer.com, the leading peer to peer marketplace for freelancing had around 18,000,000 users as of March 2016.

 P2P Home Renting marketplace

The online marketplace, which helps travelers book accommodation from local hosts is one of the most loved and popular marketplace; Airbnb is one such portal. By providing an economic lodging and breakfast solution Airbnb has created a name for itself and is one of the first online marketplaces providing such service. With travel industry growing at a considerable pace, the need for such marketplaces is increasing every day. Both travelers and hosts – by renting out vacant or unused space and booking homely accommodation benefit from it respectively.

With total valuation of $25 billion Airbnb has 60 million users and 640,000 registered hosts. Other P2P home renting marketplaces that act as inspiration for founding a similar business are FlipKey, HomeAway and GuesttoGuest.

Online Food ordering and delivery marketplace

Off late the trend of online food ordering and delivery marketplaces has been catching up. With food being a necessity and frequency of re-order being high many entrepreneurs are trying their hand at food business.
Easy to use and understand interface, large database of restaurants and good delivery service has helped online food ordering and delivery marketplaces like FoodPanda win customers and investors. Till now FoodPanda has received a funding of $218 million and partnered with more than 60,000 restaurants.

Revenue comes from the commission per order and the listing fee charged from restaurant owners for listing their restaurant and menu on site. Other popular online food ordering and delivery marketplaces are Zomato, JustEat and Delivery Hero.

Online marketplace for On demand local services

Yellow pages and local directories are things of the past, Online marketplace for local services have substituted them to a large extent. Service professionals for jobs like elder care, babysitting, plumbing, gardening, cleaning, errand etc. are now just a click away. On demand local services have simplified booking service providers in a big way. Studies show that the need of such jobs is growing rapidly. If you are keen to create a marketplace that offers secure future plus high prospects of earning, this could be a good option for you. Viewing the value for both the service providers and seekers, local discovery portals are considered the future of on demand economy.
Angie’s List, a US based marketplace for local services has over 3 million members and reported a revenue of $315 million in 2014. Angie’s List is one of the biggest online marketplaces for local service ranging from home improvement to health to auto and other professional services.

Other popular online local marketplaces are Thumbtack, Zaask and Task Rabbit.

If you too plan to start your online marketplace business, then this is the right time to put your best foot forward and take the online marketplace world by storm. FATbit team would be happy to assist you with website design and development task on this journey to success.

Last Updated: January 20, 2023

Doing business online nowadays is all about providing your audience with immersive user experience at an affordable rate. This has led to the emergence of various design trends that vary in terms of functionality, sustainability, and development costs. These trends enable us to keep up with modern demands and provide seamless browsing experience.

Last year, we saw the rise of conversational interfaces, AI and creative layouts. This year we continue to see these grow further and become more popular. The internet evolves every new day and so must every business out there. Below is a list of 15 web design and web development trends that will have a strong impact globally. Be it a simple business website, eCommerce store, or a marketplace, you’re going to witness the age of transformation.

AI and New Age Chatbots

AI and chatbots were the emerging trends last year and continue to be in the spotlight this year too. We can now actually see AI in action with conversational interfaces and voice assistants like Apple Siri and Google Home. Technology now incorporates these smart elements to give users a seamless digital journey.

With the rise and advancement of AI and machine learning, chatbots are getting more intelligent, smart and efficient. As developing them from scratch is not budget-friendly, third-party developers are also selling chatbot plugins that one can buy and integrate.

Bold & Better Colors

Bold color schemes have been increasingly used across all digital platforms for a while now. We can notice designers opting for more vibrant and flashy colors, creating striking combinations and effects. They are now trying to use colors that interact with everyone, including an audience with visual disabilities.

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

Illustrations Going Mainstream

Expect illustrations to take prominence both in the product design and marketing fields. Illustrations can be used as a powerful tool to give life to abstract concepts. They also help resolve any representational challenge that photography may pose. Illustrations allow designers to build digital products that cater to a diverse audience and are definitely something to look out for in 2023. Courses in graphic design are what you might need if you’d like to master your illustration skills this year.

DROPBOX DESIGN

Organic Backgrounds & Shapes

Earlier, most designs were dominated by card-based UI. However, since the past year, most apps and websites boast of aggressive and organic design. Now is the age of backgrounds with amoeboid blobs of bold colors, minimalistic shapes, dramatic diagonals, straight lines and other spherical shapes. They are not so expensive to design and create a clear interface.

ASANA

Innovative Typography

Typography is a powerful tool for catching your audience’s attention. Designers are now moving ahead of neo-grotesque san serif fonts that are still in fashion and exploring a huge variety of other typefaces. We can hope to see a beautiful synchronization between serif and sans serif fonts providing for dynamic user experience.

THRIVE

Say Goodbye to the Homepage and Hello to Single Page Websites

2023 aims to make multiple input channels prevail simultaneously and function in complete harmony with each other. Forward thinking businesses are letting go of the traditional homepage and are exploring other dynamic access points.

Websites are now evolving with an amalgamation of mobile apps, social media profiles and conversational interfaces in a single page. Their design pricing is decreasing and development is also focusing on voice and touch functionalities. We can look forward to more single page websites that offer information seamlessly, without complex navigations in the near future.

SWATCH

Motion UI

The motion UI library allows you to experiment and play around with your own animations. Motion UI helps you use animations in any way you want. There are many transitional effects to choose from like the CSS image hover effect that makes your website more interactive.

Motion UI enables you to tweak and transform almost every element on your website. Choose among various given parameters to create animations and have them behave whatever way you want.

SAVE_WHALES

Progressive Web Apps

The new-generation PWAs have taken the m-commerce world by storm. This latest trend saw its inception back in 2015, and there has been no turning back ever since. PWAs have a UX similar to mobile apps and deliver users a friendly mobile browsing experience. The interesting part is that they run on the browser, and are not as costly as native mobile app development.

Smart features give them an added benefit of higher customer engagement, better conversion rates, improved safety and reliability. We can expect to see PWAs mainstream this year with apps that are fast, user-friendly and dependable.

Blockchains

An ingenious invention by Satoshi Nakamoto, blockchains allows digital data to be shared or distributed but prohibits it from being copied. This technology was originally devised for Bitcoin, but now it also aids many applications for the e-commerce sector.

Blockchains keep all transaction parties in the loop; enable supply chain auditing, smart contracts, and failure-free decentralized storage for files. It also paves the path for crowdfunding and peer-to-peer commerce.

Better Security with SSL and HTTPS

Secure socket layer (SSL) allows your website to establish an encrypted connection between the server and the browser. SSL certificates will be used more this year as they protect sensitive data, eliminate the risk of cyber-attacks, phishing and also provide you with a good Google ranking. Websites using SSL certificates show an ‘S’ added to ‘http://’ with a padlock in the address bar.

Photo and Video Content

A good photo is worth a thousand words. Photos and videos are more attractive and less tedious than reading content. They also grab user attention quickly and make the storytelling process easier. Gone are the days of cheesy and lengthy content. Make sure your audio visual content is authentic and conveys a story or something of value to the customer. Videos also have advantages over GIF’s and can be incorporated seamlessly into the design.

Programming Language

Although functional programming has been around for quite some time now, we can look forward to more benefits with recent improvements in JavaScript like ES6 & ES7. The new updates allow programmers to simplify codes using arrow functions and object spreading makes it effortless to fabricate new elements from existing values. Async/Await now makes call functions more comprehensive in functional programming.

Powerful Storytelling

One thing that most design and product teams have concluded is that storytelling definitely matters. Building a story that sells just makes your product more human, which is something much more realistic than code and pixels. Treat your product/service as a sword in the hands of your consumer, who is ultimately the hero in your story. There will be a rise in designers using animation as their muse for storytelling.

Improved Online Support

The time is ripe for smarter and more helpful chatbots that answer customer queries, find suitable products and even help with payments. Whether you are selling electronics or edibles, a customer care chatbot is available on your website all around the clock. Chatbots also help in curbing the cost of deploying human resources.

Source: https://roof.ai/

Floating Navigation Menus

Conversion focused websites usually stick to fixed navigating menus, giving a simple and effective website to your audience. Designers are now taking fixed menus to the next level by detaching the navigation bar visually from other design elements and placing it below the browser’s chrome. The menu thus floats like a constant element on all webpages making it a universal object on your website.

THE LOUNGE

What’s the Bottom Line?

These are a few major trends that will influence websites this year. Now is the time to act smart and implement them. For business owners, not all of these trends are equally affordable and affect the overall website design pricing as well. You can ensure the trend you opt for provides the required functionality to justify the price.

The latest web trends, be it design or development, can work like benchmarks. They keep us in the loop and often help you lead the competition. Integrate these few changes to offer your customers the latest online user-experience this year.