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<p>Call recording offers a contact center the capacity to record both phone calls and screen activity.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A company will generally record phone calls between its contact agents and customers with the intention of improving its service quality. Contact centers also engage in <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/features/call-center-recording/">call center recording</a> for a variety of other reasons including the impact of expense reports and - in extreme cases - potential litigation. However, the main reason stated is that calls are “recorded for quality assurance purposes.”&nbsp;
</p>
<h2>How Call Center Recording Works</h2>
<p>Call center recording focuses on both inbound and outbound communication between agents and customers. A contact center will have a dedicated platform that enables them to record audio from phone calls. Depending on the function of the contact center, the chosen software may also enable customer service agents to share their screen with the customer.
</p>
<p>Contact centers invest in call recording software to enable call monitoring and call evaluations. Contact center managers and team leaders can access a database of recorded phone calls and screen activity, relating to a precise time, date, and agent. They can monitor the audio of different stages of the call and gain valuable insights into exchanges.
</p>
<p>Managers need to track their <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/features/contact-center-analytics/">contact center analytics</a> to gauge what areas of the business can be improved. Managers can track the number of calls taken or made and they will know how long, on average, calls last providing the business with valuable data.&nbsp;
</p>
<h2>The Benefits of Call Center Recording</h2>
<p>Call center recording is highly beneficial to your contact center and more importantly, your company’s customers. Businesses are constantly seeking areas to improve and provide better experiences for their customers and call recording is an insightful and valuable tool in assessing these areas. The happier customers are, the more likely they are to spend money with your company for an extended time period.
</p>
<p>Here are some of the key benefits of call center recording:
</p>
<h3>Better Agents</h3>
<p>Many believe that a company is only as good as its customer-facing teams. Customers primarily engage with many businesses through its customer service and contact center agents. To ensure the best possible service, a company will need happier and more productive agents on the team. Some contact centers use <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/omnichannel-retail/#why-is-omnichannel-valuable-for-retailers">omnichannel strategies to engage customers</a> to provide customers with a universally improved consumer experience.
</p>
<p>By recording phone calls and building a database of calls that can be pulled up with a few clicks, a company will have more accountable contact center agents. Recorded calls also help the company in cases of liability. Some recorded calls can be transcribed as text, enabling managers and legal teams to read through the content of particular phone calls.
</p>
<h3>More Efficient Customer Calls</h3>
<p>The longer it takes to diagnose customer concerns and fix them, the more money a company stands to lose. Contact centers want to take on as many calls as possible without sacrificing time and quality. By using call center recording, a company expands its opportunity to improve <a href="https://www.dialpad.com/blog/customer-engagement-strategies/">customer engagement strategies</a>.
</p>
<p>Management teams can take the time to listen through selected calls taken and calls made. As they evaluate the quality of their phone calls, managers can determine areas for improvement. There will always be advancing technology and call center recording empowers managers in giving constructive feedback as to how the customer service agents are adapting to new in-house tech.
</p>
<h3>Improved Training</h3>
<p>In every industry, you ideally want to hire staff that can join your existing teams and contribute effectively. Contact centers usually hire customer service agents that have experience in the field, but that will also be adaptable to emerging technology. It’s essential to deliver scheduled training to contact center staff so they understand operations and how to <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-customer-experience/#what-is-the-ecommerce-customer-experience">deliver the best customer experience</a> possible.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Call center recording can also help a company train new team members. New employees can spend a session or two of the training period listening in on recorded calls and learn how to interact with different types of customers. Invest in call center recording tools, and you’re also investing in your call center agents.
</p>
<h3>Call Center Recording - The Verdict</h3>
<p>By implementing call center recording, contact center managers will have better-trained contact agents and a deeper understanding of how they work. Agents that can efficiently diagnose and address customer concerns with the aid of call center recording tools will boost customer satisfaction by providing the best possible service.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Not only will you have happier, more informed agents that are more competent and confident, but customers will also benefit from an all-round stronger monitoring and training process.&nbsp;
</p>


Glossary

What Is Call Center Recording?

<p>Cross-functional collaboration is the process where individuals from different departments in an organization with different areas of expertise come together to achieve a common goal. This collaboration could be organic or project-based.&nbsp;<br></p>
<p>An example of organic cross-functional collaboration could be when the sales manager approaches the marketing manager about expected future buying trends of the customers to plan campaign ideas around it.
</p>
<p>An example of project-based cross-functional collaboration could be when an organization decides to create a new product line and requires the collaboration of individuals from different expertise.
</p>
<h2>How to effectively implement Cross-functional Collaboration
</h2>
<p>An organization comprises individuals with various expertise who may be able to effectively achieve their departmental objectives. But without the interaction and involvement of individuals from different departments, it becomes difficult to achieve the overall organizational goal. Thus, the collaboration of individuals from different departments is critical to the survival of an organization. Here are some ways to effectively implement cross-functional collaboration:
</p>
<h3>1. Implement collaborative systems.</h3>
<p>To collaborate you need the tools to aid collaboration. There are many software platforms in the market that help set up a collaborative system. Depending on the industry and the organizational culture, you must choose a software platform that best suits your business. Most popular platforms today are cloud-based, ensuring they can be accessed across devices, locations, and time zones. Nonetheless, it is vital to adopt a collaborative system that works with minimal error and difficulty. Otherwise, for example, individuals will simply resort to saving files on local devices, which means other individuals are unable to collaborate on the same files.</p><h3>2.&nbsp;<a href="https://rocketium.com/is/workflow-automation/" target="_blank">Automate your workflows</a>.</h3>
<p>Workflow automation increases the efficiency of collaboration among different individuals. By automating straightforward tasks, you free up time and give each individual clear responsibilities so that they can focus on their tasks without worrying about other things. You have the ability to configure custom workflows, share them with all the individuals involved, which helps them focus on their specific functions. This leads to shorter execution times, as there is less unnecessary back and forth between individuals.&nbsp;
</p>
<h3>3. Hire and promote collaborative staff and leaders.</h3>
<p>Culture manifests itself as a series of collective human behavioral norms. So to create a collaborative organizational culture requires staff and leaders with a collaborative mindset. Not all people are good at collaborating. Knowing this, recruiters must test and identify candidates strong in this area. Whereas, promoting existing staff with a strong collaborative mindset to leadership positions helps in getting the rest of the staff to collaborate effectively.
</p>
<h3>4. Build trust and transparency.</h3>
<p>If there is no trust between employees working together in an organization, the collaboration will fail. Lack of trust disables individuals from different departments to communicate openly and, therefore, to work successfully towards the same objectives. Efficient collaboration requires honest and transparent communication. If lack of trust is an obstacle to collaboration in your organization, try starting with a few small opportunities for individuals to work together to get quick wins. In addition, consider rewarding individuals involved in cross-functional collaboration. Seeing short-term results and receiving rewards for achievement can help build trust among them.
</p>
<h2>Benefits of effective cross-functional collaboration
</h2>
<p>There are major benefits to implementing a robust collaborative system. Besides the obvious that the output of a multifaceted team is greater than the sum of its individual parts, here are some overlooked benefits of cross-functional collaboration that will help your organization grow holistically.
</p>
<h3>1. Knowledge sharing.</h3>
<p>Individuals get to learn more about other expertise. This creates employees with multifaceted skills and perspectives.
</p>
<h3>2. High-level insight.</h3>
<p>Provides insight into how different departments function. This helps employees understand the overall functioning of the organization which helps them gain clarity, and with clarity comes better decision-making.
</p>
<h3>3. Innovation.</h3>
<p>Innovation comes out of new combinations and this is true for cross-functional teams. When employees with different areas of expertise brainstorm together, there are bound to be new and innovative ideas.
</p>
<h3>4. Team spirit and employee engagement.</h3>
<p>Collaboration provides the opportunity for individuals from different departments to interact with each other, that they otherwise may not have. This builds an overall team spirit and creates a positive environment within the organization.
</p>
<h2>Conclusion
</h2>
<p>An organization comprises various departments with individuals from different areas of expertise. Managing, organizing, and aligning organizational goals can get difficult if each department functions autonomously. Every organization will have some degree of collaboration. But to truly get the maximum out of your workforce it is vital to set up a robust collaborative system.</p>

What is Cross-Functional Collaboration?

<p>In business, knowledge is power. The more a company can learn about consumers, technology, products, and more, the better. It’s why many firms invest in <a href="https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/blog/business-intelligence/" target="_blank">business intelligence solutions</a> and market research.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It’s also why research and development is critical to many organizations. Inventing and developing new products or solutions is how many firms get an edge on their rivals. If you’ve always been a little uncertain about R & D, never fear. We’re going to explain what it is, what it entails, and who does it.&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Two Types of Research and Development&nbsp;</h4>
<p>R & D is a catch-all phrase used to describe the process of a business obtaining new knowledge. That may be to build new products, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-automation/">streamline operations</a>, or improve a firm in other ways. Overall, R & D is about encouraging and fostering innovation.
</p>
<p>Tech is a sector most traditionally associated with R & D. Firms in the niche are forever looking for new software, solutions, or products. From <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/voip-services.html" target="_blank">VoIP services</a> to microprocessors, new innovations are forever in development. Not all R & D is the same, though. In fact, there are two principal types.&nbsp;</p>
<h5>1. Basic.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>Basic research and development is R & D for its own sake. Organizations embark on this research with the sole aim of growing their knowledge base. They’re looking to learn more about a given subject, concept, or phenomenon.
</p>
<p>For instance, an ecommerce firm may choose to research the latest innovations in <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-ai/">AI</a>. They’d have no practical application in mind, but what they learn could aid their business down the road.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<h5>2. Applied.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>Applied R & D represents the other side of the coin. It’s research undertaken with a specific need, process, or objective in mind. Where basic R & D is about gainer broader understanding, the applied branch is more focused.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>When a business embarks on applied R & D, it has a particular commercial goal in mind. That might be to develop a new product and take it to market. It may be to find a new system by which to run day-to-day operations.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Who Does Research and Development?</h4>
<p>When you hear the phrase R & D, your mind wanders to a picture of a huge lab filled with scientists. Research does, of course, happen on that grand kind of scale. Innovation isn’t the sole preserve of multinationals, though. Research and development gets done by large and small businesses alike.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h5>1. Large businesses.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>Bigger corporations have more significant budgets. That means they’re often best placed to spend the most on R & D. <a href="https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/gx/en/insights/innovation1000.html" target="_blank">According to PWC</a>, for instance, Amazon spent an astonishing $22.6 billion in the area in 2018 alone.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>In many cases, large businesses may have their own R & D departments. It’s also commonplace for those firms to utilize the resources of universities for research.&nbsp;</p>
<h5>2. Small businesses.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>Smaller companies usually don’t have the budget to run in-house R & D departments. Innovation is still vital, though, so they often go down the outsourcing route. That means contracting specialist firms to handle research and development on their behalf.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Precisely how this gets arranged will be down to the organizations involved. Sometimes a firm may have ideas about products or solutions, but lack the engineers or equipment to make them a reality. In other cases, an outsourced company may get given a far broader remit.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Either way, outsourcing gives smaller firms a route to more significant innovation. It could also help them build a more professional profile. It’s possible to provide a contractor with a <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/lp/vanitynumber.html" target="_blank">vanity number</a> or company email. That presents the appearance that your company does run its own R & D.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>When Does R&D Take Place?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>For most organizations, research and development is an ongoing process. It’s something that ticks along in the background of day-to-day operations. R & D – and especially the basic variety – is a long game. The idea is you’ll get your rewards down the road, but there are no guarantees.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Spending on research and development, then, is by nature a risky endeavor. You could get nothing more than a flimsy prototype of a product no one would ever buy. You may, though, find that game-changing new solution that propels your firm to another level. That’s why R & D gets seen as critical by most major companies.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Research and development is about broadening a firm’s knowledge base. By learning more and trying new things, an organization can grow and improve. Whether via a new product, method of implementing tech, or even <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/sustainable-packaging/">packaging</a>, R & D can catapult any company to success.&nbsp;
</p>

What is Research and Development?

<p>We live in an era of <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/data-inventory-management/">big data</a>. Never has more data been generated or collected daily. It took a while, but governments and authorities have now recognized the security implications. That’s led to regulation and legislation. All aimed to protect all our personal information.&nbsp;<br></p>
<p>One of the most prominent examples of such legislation is the EU’s GDPR. If your business interacts with consumers, you must understand the GDPR. That’s because all organizations that do business in Europe have to adhere to it. The following will give you a primer on what is a critical piece of legislation.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>What is GDPR?&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
<p>GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It’s thought by many to be the most robust data security and privacy law in the world. The legislation sets standards for privacy and security as regards data and personal information.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>The GDPR got drafted and passed by the EU. It’s remit, though, is far broader. All organizations that target or collect the data of EU citizens must meet GDPR standards. That’s regardless of where they themselves are based.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>Take, for instance, a business selling <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/lp/business-voip/small-business-voip.html" target="_blank">small business VoIP</a> software. If they collect data on EU-based website visitors, they must meet the standards set by the GDPR. It doesn’t matter if they’re based in the USA, Australia, or anywhere else besides.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>How Did GDPR Come About?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Organizations soon grasped the importance and value of personal data. Firms in all niches recognized that the information could give vital insights and opportunities. The public and the governments representing them were slower on the uptake.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<p>That led to a dire need for <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/consumer-data-privacy/">legislation to protect private data</a>. and ensure companies used data responsibly. The GDPR was the EU’s response to that need. It replaced a 1995 directive called the European Data Protection Directive. That piece of legislation had noble aims. It failed, though, to predict the exponential growth and potential of the internet.
</p>
<p>The GDPR entered into force for the first time in 2016.&nbsp; It was on May 25th, 2018, though, that the regulation came wholly into effect. From that point on, all organizations became required to be compliant.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>What Do You Need to Do to Be GDPR Compliant?</h4>
<p>GDPR is a complex matter. Adding ‘don’t leave sensitive info around’ to your <a href="https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/blog/moving-offices-2019-ultimate-checklist/" target="_blank">office move checklist</a> won’t cut it. The actual <a href="https://gdpr.eu/tag/gdpr/" target="_blank">GDPR document</a> is 88 pages long. The following are just five of the main takeaways to be aware of so that you can stay GDPR compliant.&nbsp;</p><h5>1.When you’re allowed to process data.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>The GDPR sets out six justifications for processing data. That means collecting, storing, or sharing private information. Those justifications are as follows:
</p>
<ul><li>If the processing is essential for a contract to which the data subject is a party.
</li><li>If you must process data to meet your own legal obligations.
</li><li>If processing data would save somebody’s life.
</li><li>If utilizing data is necessary for a task in the public interest.
</li><li>If you have a legitimate interest in using somebody’s data.
</li><li>If the subject of any data gives you explicit, unambiguous consent to process it.&nbsp;</li></ul><h5>2. Seeking consent.&nbsp;&nbsp;</h5>
<p>For many companies, it is by seeking consent that they can justify the collection or use of personal data. Under the GDPR, permission must be ‘freely given’ and ‘unambiguous’. Requests for consent, therefore, must be in ‘clear and plain language’.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>That’s why you get requests for consent to use your data when you buy anything from <a href="https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/contact-centre/overview.html" target="_blank">contact centre software</a> to groceries online.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h5>3. Data protection.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>Article 25 of the GDPR states that firms must ‘by design and by default’ consider data protection in all they do. That means every new product, service, or activity must account for data protection. Not as an afterthought, but as a matter of course.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h5>4. Data security.</h5>
<p>All businesses must handle data securely. That means implementing ‘appropriate technical and organizational measures’. Those may be anything from encrypting all <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/payment-gateways/">financial transactions</a> to drafting and adhering to a data privacy policy.&nbsp;</p><h5>5. Accountability.&nbsp;&nbsp;</h5>
<p>All organizations under the scope of the GDPR must always demonstrate their compliance. If you can’t produce evidence of compliance, your business isn’t compliant. These are some common suggestions for maintaining accountability:
</p>
<ul><li>Keep detailed records of all data collection, how it gets used, and why.
</li><li>Train all staff in your technical and organizational measures for data security.
</li><li>Include data privacy and security clauses in all contracts with third-parties.&nbsp;
</li></ul>
<h4>What Happens if Your Ecommerce Site Isn’t Compliant?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>If you process the personal information of EU citizens or residents, you’re subject to the GDPR. That means if you collect data on their use of your site, accept online payments, or anything in between. The penalties for violating the standards set by the legislation are deliberately punitive.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>There are two tiers of financial penalties to which you could be subject. The maximum any firm can get fined is set at €20 million or 4% of global revenue, depending on which is higher. Data subjects can also seek damages from you directly if you're in breach of the regulation.&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>
<p>The GDPR is a critical piece of legislation for the modern world. If you have an online presence, you’ll encounter sensitive information and private data. That makes you subject to the regulation. You should now have an idea of what that entails. To ensure compliance, however, it’s advisable for you to read the GDPR documentation in full.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

What is GDPR?

<p>When selling online, you’re going to have to <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/create-a-returns-and-exchanges-policy-that-sells/">deal with returns</a>. It’s unavoidable. As hard as you work to limit mistakes, some are still going to happen. Even when you’re not at fault, there are also circumstances when letting consumers send something back is good for business.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That’s only the case, though, when your mechanisms for returns are efficient. That’s where RMA systems come in. If that’s not an acronym that’s familiar to you, never fear. We’re going to explain precisely what such a system is, why you need one, and how to get it working correctly.&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>What is an RMA System?&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
<p>A return merchandise authorization (RMA) system is vital to firms selling over distance. That’s whether by mail order or – more likely – online. It’s the system by which you manage the return of products from your customers.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>The best RMA systems make it swift and straightforward for customers to send items back. What’s more, they make it simpler for you to exchange items, issue refunds, or take other actions. That’s only one of the reasons why all ecommerce stores need an RMA system.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Why Should an Ecommerce Store Have an RMA System?</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/customer-retention-strategies/">Customer retention</a> is vital to the survival of many businesses. SaaS firms who sell things like a <a href="https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/office/product-overview.html" target="_blank">cloud phone system</a> or collaboration software make it a focus. It’s also essential to ecommerce businesses, though. Boosting customer satisfaction is how those firms get return custom. A beneficial knock-on effect of that is a healthier bottom line.
</p>
<p>Nothing scares a consumer away from a brand more effectively than a bad experience returning a product. If a customer must go to extraordinary lengths to send something back, it creates a terrible impression. If returns fall through the cracks and a store fails to provide an exchange or a refund, it’s even worse. That’s what makes an RMA system so crucial. &nbsp; &nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Best Practices for Your RMA System&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>
<p>All ecommerce stores are different. There’s no one-size-fits-all system to suit every business. In the case of RMA, though, there are some fundamental best practices you ought to follow.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h5>1.Initiate the return online.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>The aim of your RMA system is to make the lives of your customers easier. It’s always going to be simpler for them to initiate a return online than to get forced to pick up the phone. That’s no matter how efficient the <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/internet-phone-service.html">internet phone service</a> your customer support agents use may be. Try to make it as easy to return a product as it was to buy it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h5>2. Give an option to customers to pick exchange items.</h5>
<p>When a customer initiates a return, give them the chance to pick a replacement product. This is an option that can form a crucial part of your RMA system. It’s also something that many customers will appreciate. If a simple shipping error meant they got the wrong item, they might still want their original choice. A straightforward exchange like that is better for your bottom line than giving a refund.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><h5>3. Allow customers to print labels.</h5>
<p>Whether they’re getting a refund or exchange, your customer needs to return the item they have. It’s your job to make the process free of both hassle and expense. Set up your RMA system to send shipping labels by email, which your customers can print. That way, you can assume the cost of the return and keep consumers happier. You may even wish to look into <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/business-phone-numbers.html">how to get a business phone number</a> specifically for dealing with returns. That’s another way to make the process as straightforward as possible for customers.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><h5>4. Make sure the returns are an extension of the buying transaction.</h5>
<p>Customers returning products will want to keep track of the process. They’re likely to email or call your staff to check how things are progressing. You want to respond to any queries swiftly and accurately. It helps in that regard for returns to get linked to the original transaction. That way, you can connect all the details within your order or CRM system to the return. When the customer chases their refund or exchange, all aspects will be at the fingertips of your <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-customer-service/">customer service</a> team.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><h5>5. Make the transactions easy to monitor.</h5>
<p>Linking returns to their original orders also makes them easier to monitor. Your RMA system should let you check on the progress of returns in a matter of seconds. You should know if a returning product is in transit or has arrived at your warehouse. You must also monitor how and when refunds get actioned, or exchange items dispatched. &nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>
<p>All ecommerce stores handle returns and refunds. Not all of them handle them well. Those that do are the brands with a robust RMA system. Such setups ensure that a shipping or other mistake doesn’t have to be a disaster. If your RMA system helps returns run smoothly, you can keep customers you may otherwise lose. 
</p>


What is an RMA System?

<p>Lots of people dream of setting up a business. Who hasn’t fantasized about being their own boss and making all the rules? Those that go through with it have lots of practical decisions to make, however.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A fundamental choice is that of what type of business to establish. One of the more commonly chosen alternatives is that of a sole proprietorship. What, though, is one of these companies? Why do many <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/quotes-for-entrepreneurs/">entrepreneurs</a> decide to set them up? What are their pros and cons? These are all the things you’ll learn by reading on.&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Defining a Sole Proprietorship</h4>
<p>A sole proprietorship is the simplest form of company that an individual can set up. It is not a legal entity and needs no official papers to get filed to start operating. In some states, though, you may need specific licenses or permits. As such, legally, a sole proprietorship has no separate existence from its owner.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>All you need to start this kind of business is to begin doing business. Create a home office with a laptop, <a href="https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/blog/switch-to-voip/">VoIP home phone</a>, and other equipment, and you’re almost there. As soon as you start selling your products or service, your sole proprietorship is up and running.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Rules of a Sole Proprietorship</h4>
<p>While sole proprietorships are the most basic form of business, there are rules. If you’re going to set up your own firm, you need to understand these from the get-go.</p>
<p>1.Trading name.</p>
<p>As mentioned, these types of companies aren’t legally distinct from their owners. As such, your business name will be the same as your personal name. If you’re John Smith, for example, you will trade under the name John Smith.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>It is possible, however, to establish a separate trading name. For this, you must file Doing Business As (DBA) papers. Say John Smith wants to sell solutions for <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/best-video-conferencing-for-small-businesses/">video conferencing for small business</a>. He might file a DBA for ‘JS Communications’.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. Taxes.</p>
<p>With a sole proprietorship, you are your business. As such, its income is your income. That means all turnover gets taxed on your personal income tax return. You won’t need to pay additional business taxes or file any differently than usual.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>3. Debts & liabilities.</p>
<p>Owners of sole proprietorships are personally liable for all liabilities. That means you must pay any debts from your own assets if those of the business can’t cover them. You can also get sued or litigated against personally if <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-data-breaches/">something goes wrong</a> with the firm.&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Advantages & Disadvantages of a Sole Proprietorship</h4>
<p>All business types have their pros and cons. The following are the most significant of those, as related to sole proprietorships.&nbsp;
</p>
<h5>Advantage 1. Simplicity.</h5>
<p>No company type is more straightforward to establish than a sole proprietorship. As soon as you start operating or sell, it’s set up. Keep in mind, though, that some firms will need licenses or permits in some states.&nbsp;
</p>
<h5>	Advantage 2. Low tax rates.</h5>
<p>The IRS doesn’t require a second set of business taxes to get paid for these companies. That means you’re taxed on your personal income, including that which comes through the business. This means the rate of tax you pay is lower than with other styles of company.&nbsp;
</p>
<h5>	Advantage 3. Control.</h5>
<p>You are your business. If you have an idea for selling your products in a new way, you don’t have to get approval in a <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.drift.com/learn/sales-meeting/__;!!J-1DKIBqn-Pi!SRb94ea44PkewRjCaryU4m9v_ME1mDIggAW1ckDzJcDnXWGF_zQ-XaVExME322I_jZVuqw$">sales meeting</a>. You merely start doing things the new way. In a sole proprietorship, you have ultimate control.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h5>Disadvantage 1. Unlimited personal liability.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>With ultimate control comes complete responsibility. There’s unlimited personal liability for owners of a sole proprietorship. That means you’re personally liable for all debts, losses, and legal action. If the firm fails, you’ll have to pay creditors from your personal assets.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h5>	Disadvantage 2. Raising finance.&nbsp;</h5>
<p>It’s far more challenging to get funding for this type of company than any other. Banks and lenders are unlikely to offer a business loan to a sole proprietorship. There’s also no stock to sell to raise funds. Owners of these kinds of business, therefore, often explore other avenues. Those may include crowdfunding or <a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/7-great-ideas-for-virtual-fundraising/">virtual fundraising</a>.
</p>
<h5>	Disadvantage 3. Lack of longevity.</h5>
<p>Without getting too repetitive, you are your business. As such, it’s rare for a sole proprietorship to outlast its owner. Once you retire or are no longer able to work, your company ceases to exist. These, therefore, aren’t the type of business to establish if you’re looking for a legacy.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</p>
<h4>Conclusion</h4>
<p>There are lots of styles of business from which an entrepreneur can choose. Sole proprietorships are by far the simplest. They often require no official paperwork and aren’t subject to extra business taxes. They do leave owners open, however, to having to settle all the firm’s debts personally. Those are the two principal factors to weigh if you’re thinking of setting up a sole proprietorship. 
</p>

What is Sole Proprietorship?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition:</strong> A PEST analysis is a four-point review of potential problems for a business, covering the Political, Economic, Social and Technological areas. Understanding what problems might arise, now or in the future, can help a company circumvent them and avoid a potentially crippling issue. Reviews of this type should be done on a regular basis (both by new and existing businesses), since the specific problems in each area can change over time.</p>
<h4>1. Political Analysis</h4>
<p>The political analysis asks questions such as:</p>
<ul>  <li>How much are we expected      to pay in taxes?</li>  <li>What labor laws will      affect our workers? (This includes not just the office, but safety      regulations for the warehouse, overtime pay during high-volume periods,      etc.)</li>  <li>Are there any laws that      would prevent our products from being sold in certain regions? (Individual      countries often have regulations to help promote their internal industry -      and this is <em>heavily</em>      affected by international trade agreements)</li> </ul>
<p>The answers to these questions are decided by the government (and, indirectly, by public opinion), so businesses need to understand both<strong> </strong>what effects current political policies will have on the store <em>and </em>what policy shifts are likely in the short, mid and long terms.</p>
<h4>2. Economic Analysis</h4>
<p>The next part of the PEST analysis focuses on economic factors. Many businesses focus on issues like inflation, minimum wage, and exchange rates (if selling items overseas), since these tend to have the most immediate impact on their bottom line. However, it's also important to consider the following:</p>
<ul>  <li>What is the cost of      acquiring capital? (i.e. How much of a return is needed to convince      investors to fund a given project?)</li>  <li>What is the company's      current financial position? (Not just in absolute value, but whether it's      trending to more or less secure.)</li>  <li>What will the company do      if there's an economic downturn? (Most notably, would it have the cash to      continue operating long enough to get through the average downturn, and if      not, can anything be done to change that?)</li> </ul>
<h4>3. Social Analysis</h4>
<p>The third part of the analysis covers social factors, including questions like:</p>
<ul>  <li>How fast is the      population growing? (Larger populations mean more potential customers, as      well as different priorities for shopping habits)</li>  <li>How conscious are people      about their health? (This is especially relevant for products that could      impact health, such as dieting and exercise aids.)</li>  <li>How are people thinking      about their careers, and how might that affect sales?</li> </ul>
<p>Effective social analysis allows online stores to cater their entire business to the current state of society &mdash; which, at the moment, has a profound emphasis on value and companies that do good in the world instead of being purely focused on profit. Millennials in particular did <em>not</em> enjoy the Great Recession, and companies selling to them need to take their social views into account when developing a business strategy.</p>
<h4>4. Technological Analysis</h4>
<p>Finally, online companies need to consider the technological aspects of their operation. This means asking questions like:</p>
<ul>  <li>What technology can run      the store most effectively?</li>  <li>How can the experience of      users be improved?</li>  <li>What will customers      expect from the store in the future?</li> </ul>
<p>Effective technological analysis also allows the company to plan a way to scale its growth, ensure cost-effective production levels and understand when major shifts in technology are likely to occur.</p>

Evaluate every factor that may influence your new business with a PEST analysis.

What is a PEST analysis?

<p style="margin-top:3%;">Definition: Cloud computing describes the hosting and delivery of information and on-demand computing resources on the Internet using a remote network of servers. The alternative is storing, managing or processing data on a local server or personal computer. Many technology applications that gained popularity as installed software are now preferred as cloud applications to the ease of use and reduced maintenance. </p>
<h4>Benefits of Cloud Computing</h4>
<p>Cloud computing has opened the world to consumers and online retailers. It offers many benefits over traditional computing; it has helped online businesses increase earning potential as well as offering customers access to thousands of stores. Additional benefits of cloud computing include<strong>:</strong></p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Scalability</strong> - It      can dynamically increase or decrease based on the online retailers      requirements.</li><li><strong><a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-is-cloud-computing/%7Bentry:3800:url%7D/">Data Security</a> </strong>- Information is stored on a remote server; if a personal computer or internal network fails, no information is lost.</li><li><strong>Accessibility</strong> - Remotely storing a catalog of products or services means that potential customers can access the ecommerce site from virtually anywhere in the world.</li><li><strong>Pay-Per-Use</strong> - Computing resources are measured at a granular level, end users only pay for the resources they require.</li></ul>
<h4>Private, Public or Hybrid?</h4>
<p>Making the choice of whether to invest time and money into private, public or hybrid cloud computing can be a difficult decision for online merchants simply because of the ambiguity of the three choices. The highlights of these three types of cloud environments are:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Private</strong> -      Cloud services are delivered by a single organization, data center or      infrastructure to internal users.</li><li><strong>Public </strong>- Third-party providers deliver services hosted in the cloud over the internet. They are usually sold as pay-per-use services. These services include applications for customer and transaction management.</li><li><strong>Hybrid</strong> - Capitalizes on the advantages of both public and private environments.</li></ul>
<h4>Cloud Computing Service Categories</h4>
<p>In addition to private, public and hybrid cloud environments that host and <a href="/blog/ecommerce-big-data/">store your data</a>, clouds are also separated into service categories used for different types of computing. There are three basic service categories <a href="/articles/ecommerce/saas-vs-paas-vs-iaas/">SaaS, PaaS and IaaS</a>:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Software      as a Service (SaaS)</strong>: The most popular among online      retailers, allows merchants to run direct sales applications such as      shopping carts in the cloud without their customers having to download or      install programs to make a purchase.</li><li><strong>Platform as a Service (PaaS)</strong>: Although not as prevalent in the ecommerce world, PaaS is used for applications and development such as Apprenda, which runs applications like Java.</li><li><strong>Infrastructure      as a Service (IaaS)</strong>: Primarily focuses on      providing datacenter infrastructure on-demand. Examples include Amazon Web      Services used by Netflix to house their database of movie and television      offerings.</li></ul>
<p><em><strong>Learn how Bigcommerce's </strong>SaaS ecommerce solution<strong> is redefining online shopping with </strong><a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-is-cloud-computing/%7Bentry:3015:url%7D/">important features and functionality&nbsp;to grow your ecommerce website</a><strong></strong><strong>.</strong></em></p>

Cloud computing is emerging as the predominant platform for software and data sharing.

What Is Cloud Computing? (Updated for 2019)

<p><strong>Definition:</strong> "Stickiness" is an informal measure of how well a brand resonates with consumers, including both quantifiable and quantitative attributes. Sticky companies are more memorable and receive more referrals, and the best way to improve it is creating a website that emphasizes the company's unique nature.</p>
<h4>3 Ways to Improve Company Stickiness</h4>
<p>A brand's stickiness is determined by every aspect of the company, from customer service to website navigation. Tying it all together and creating a unique and cohesive customer experience is </p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Improve user experince: </strong>How users experience the site      is a major factor in stickiness. In general, sites that load quickly and      are intuitively easy to navigate are stickier - fancy designs might look      nice at first, but if users grow frustrated with trying to find something,      they're unlikely to come back or even complete their first order. </li><li><strong>Don't just market products &mdash; promote your brand:</strong> At the same time, businesses should emphasize the      elements that make it unique. If visitors see the store as just another      place to shop, the company isn't sticky - it's <em>forgettable</em>. Remember that it's extremely difficult to      get users to remember a brand after only one exposure to it - they need to      be exposed to the brand's unique traits several times before it will stick      in their minds, and that's why it's important to follow up on purchasing      customers with email, social media, and other methods of interacting with      them.</li><li><strong>Encourage users to interact:</strong> Adding interactive components to a website and social presence creates a two-way relationship that goes beyond a simple transaction. In addition to incentive-based interactive      measures such as <strong>discount codes</strong>,      adding social media linkage buttons to your ads is another method of      encouraging consumers to interact with your brand</li></ul>

One way to think about how your brand resonates with consumers is stickiness.

Increasing stickiness for an online business

<p><strong>Definition:</strong> A VAN (value added network) is a private network provider that focuses on offering network services such as <a href="https://www.virtru.com/secure-email-encryption/" target="_blank">secure email, message encryption</a> and management reporting. Their goal is to facilitate EDI (electronic data interchange) among online companies, providing a convenient way for ecommerce businesses to securely communicate and share data.</p>
<h3>How a VAN is created</h3>
<p>When a common carrier such as a telecom company leases communication lines to a network provider and that provider then enhances those lines by adding additional services, it has created a Value Added Network. While EDI is the primary focus of VANs, the improvements or enhancements a network chooses to add is what differentiates networks.</p>
<h3>What VANs do for online businesses</h3>
<p>When it comes to sharing standard based or proprietary data, VANs make it easier for online businesses to share by becoming the one point of contact for them. They then ensure all of the necessary information is shared with the intended receivers, reducing the number of direct contacts the business has to make on their own.</p>
<p>Value-added networks act as the middle man between business entities and work in a system very similar to email. However, unlike email that transmits unstructured text, VANs are used to transfer structured, standardized data. They are most often operated by larger companies such as telecom conglomerates but can also be operated by smaller firms. Companies are typically charged either a monthly fee or a per-character charge for VAN contracts.</p>
<h3>Value Added Networks solidify the supply chain</h3>
<p>Whether an ecommerce enterprise is a new start-up or has a well established online presence, they undoubtedly have a variety of daily tasks that require communication between teams and companies. Sharing information and facilitating communication between companies, retailers and suppliers in real time is key for efficient supply chain management.</p>
<p>A value added network helps to simplify the process by securely facilitating communication and the sharing of data between trading partners. Reducing the number of parties a company needs to communicate with frees up time for managers, executives and online business owners to focus on other important details.</p>
<p>A secure, real-time value-added network can help online businesses achieve:</p>
<ul>  <li>Increased automation -      such as receipt notifications when an order is placed</li>  <li>Closer business      relationships - frees time to focus on building closer relationships</li>  <li>Shorter sales cycle      leading to more sales - automation allows for faster order processing      times</li> </ul>
<h3>Value-Added Networks Today</h3>
<p>With the proliferation of online commerce, businesses are presented with cost-effective supply chain management options. VANs have had to adapt to maintain a place in the ever-growing online business arena; they have done so by focusing on specific industries and expanding their range of services. From humble beginnings, VANs now offer translation, document mapping and a wide range of customized packages to suit any business or industry.</p>

Value Added Networks can increase efficiencies for larger companies.

What is a Value Added Network? VANs for Online Business

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition</strong>: SWOT refers to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis generates a list of what an organization does best and worst. It also defines areas for improvement and potential threats in the marketplace. Given the continually evolving online environment, the process is particularly relevant to businesses engaged in ecommerce.</p>
<h4>Why perform a SWOT analysis?</h4>
<p>Performing a SWOT analysis helps one thoroughly understand his or her business by presenting a viewpoint of the company's operations from a different angle. For new businesses, this analysis is critical to the organization's planning process. It can, however, be performed at any time. A company's unique “SWOTs,” as they are often referred to, will help get a new business on the right track.</p>
<h5>Strengths and Weaknesses</h5>
<p>The strengths and weaknesses component of SWOT are internal to the business. As an example, one strength may be an organization's intellectual property while low domain authority or poor physical location may be a significant weakness. While these internal positives and negatives can be altered, doing so usually takes a considerable amount of work.</p>
<h5>Opportunities and Threats</h5>
<p>Opportunities and threats are usually external to the organization. An example of an opportunity is the potential to establish a fresh relationship with a new supplier while a possible threat may be a new competitor.</p>
<h4>Who Should Be Involved In the SWOT Analysis?</h4>
<p>A SWOT analysis is only effective if it takes everything into consideration. No area of the company should be left out, making it important to include representatives from every department or team. The analysis may bring issues to light that were not previously on a company's radar. </p>
<h4></h4>
<ul><li></li></ul>

Honestly assess your business and where it stands in the market with a SWOT analysis.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong></strong><strong>Definition:</strong> An LLC (Limited Liability Company) is a legal status of a commercial entity that combines the limited liability feature of corporations with the tax and flexibility advantages of a partnership. A single individual, multiple individuals, corporations or even other LLC businesses can be LLC members.</p>
<h4>The Advantages and disadvantages of LLC Status</h4>
<p>Many single-owner ecommerce start-ups opt to register as an LLC rather than operate under a sole proprietorship, and many multi-owner online companies that could choose partnership status choose LLC status instead. The advantages of being an LLC listed below also hold true for many brick-and-mortar businesses:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Tax      advantages: </strong>Corporations are taxed entities, but LLCs (like      partnerships) have all profits and losses "passed through" the      business to its members. This means that each member pays taxes on his      share of the profits on personal tax returns. </li>  <li><strong>Limited      Liability: </strong>Like a corporation, personal assets of members are, for      the most part, exempted from any liability for decisions of the business.      This reduces the risk to members if the business is buried in debt or      sued.</li>  <li><strong>Less      Paperwork and Fees:</strong> An LLC eliminates much of the      paperwork corporations must file, and the cost of registering an LLC is      less than for corporations.</li>  <li><strong>Greater      Flexibility:</strong> Members are free to split up profits almost any way      they wish, normally based on capital and work contributed to the business.</li>  <li><strong>Greater      Credibility: </strong>The fact that the business is registered with the state      and bears the LLC suffix often makes customers feel safer doing business      with a company.</li>  <li><strong>Owning      a Name: </strong>Registered LLCs own the rights to their business' name,      barring anyone else from using it.</li> </ul>
<p>A few of the most notable disadvantages of being an LLC are:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Frequent      Dissolutions: </strong>State laws often provide that LLCs are dissolved once      any of its members withdraw from the agreement. It is possible to      re-register again as a new LLC or to put provisions in the original      contract to prevent dissolution, but all LLC closures must be registered      with the state and all assets disbursed among members.</li>  <li><strong>Higher      Personal Taxes:</strong> While business taxes are eliminated, if the LLC      becomes extremely profitable and the members remain few, high      self-employment taxes could result.</li>  <li><strong>Start-up      Costs:</strong> While cheaper to start than a corporation, LLCs do      have fees that make them more costly to initiate than sole proprietorships      or partnerships.</li> </ul>
<h4>How to Form an LLC</h4>
<p>Each state will have minor differences in how to form an LLC, but the basic steps are as follows:</p>
<ol>  <li><strong>Name      the New Business:</strong> The registered LLC name must      differ from other LLCs in the state, avoid any restricted words, and end      with "LLC" or "Limited Company."</li>  <li><strong>File      "Articles of Organization": </strong>This      means filing a document with basic information on the company, such as its      name, location, and its members' names.</li>  <li><strong>Establish      an "Operating Agreement": </strong>This      refers to an agreement that outlines the business' finances and structure.      It is not usually mandatory, but highly recommended.</li>  <li><strong>Obtain      Licenses:</strong> Once registered, the LLC will need all licenses and      permits applicable to the business type and the state or locality.</li>  <li><strong>Make      an Announcement: </strong>In a few states, a formal      announcement of the new LLC's existence is required in a local newspaper.</li></ol>

Find out what businesses should consider registering as an LLC

What is an LLC? Online business and Limited Liability Corporations

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition</strong>: Co-marketing is a joint marketing effort between two or more companies to simultaneously promote both businesses. The marketing can take many forms from logos and links on websites to full-fledged website overhauls and special packaging.</p>
<h4>Is co-marketing the same as co-branding?</h4>
<p><strong>Co-branding </strong>takes place in the product development stage to promote a single product; <strong>co-marketing</strong> is when two companies leverage their visibility to promote individual products. Co-marketed products belong to each entity individually, whereas co-branded products belong equally to both companies. </p>
<h4>How can comarketing be beneficial for online retailers? </h4>
<ul>  <li><strong>Extending      current market reach</strong> - The web is a very big place      and only the largest brands can fully saturate their markets. Co-marketing      with a partner in the same market provides access to consumers that each      company may have not yet reached, or gives additional legitimacy to the      company with existing consumers.</li>  <li><strong>Expanding      into new markets</strong> - Co-marketing campaigns with partners in different      markets opens up a whole new consumer base. Each company in the      relationship has the opportunity to reach outside their usual market to      attract new consumers. Although a company may be new to the market, it is      granted credibility by its relationship with its partner.</li>  <li><strong>Stretching      the advertising budget</strong> - Co-marketing requires      advertising effort from both parties so the cost is shared. By combining      forces, each company spends less than they would otherwise on their own.</li> </ul>
<h4>Extremely successful instances of co-marketing</h4>
<ul>  <li><strong>Intel      Inside</strong> - In 1991, computer manufacturers teamed with Intel      and placed "Intel Inside" logos on their products. This campaign      gave Intel a larger presence and extra legitimacy which helped it to      become the most recognizable computer processor manufacturer.</li>  <li><strong>Zynga      and the World Food Program</strong> - In 2011, Zynga joined forces      with the World Food Programme (WFP). Players were able to buy in-game      items with the WFP logo. Proceeds from those purchases were sent to the      WFP. The WFP website listed Zynga which gave them exposure to supporters      of the charity.</li>  <li><strong>Disney      Interactive and YouTube</strong> - In Nov 2011, Disney      Interactive and YouTube joined together to create original content on      Disney.com that would be served by YouTube. Disney Interactive got      increased awareness for them with YouTube users. YouTube benefited from      the high profile relationship and greater exposure to the family/child      demographic.</li></ul>

Co-marketing campaigns can help an ecommerce retailer expand their audience.

What is co-marketing? Joint marketing campaigns and ecommerce

<p><strong>Definition:</strong> The Small Business Administration (SBA) is an agency of the Federal Government that exists to serve, support and protect the interests of small businesses. The SBA offers educational resources to help entrepreneurs manage the complexity of growing a business. </p>
<h4>What can the SBA do for small businesses? </h4>
<p>The SBA offers service and support through four primary methods - many of which can help small businesses survive their first few years.</p>
<p><strong>Government Contracting</strong></p>
<p>If a given business offers a service that the government would find useful, the Small Business Administration can help it bid for, and receive, a contract to provide that service. The government has a statutory goal of <strong>23%</strong> of prime contracting dollars going to small businesses - which comes to about $100 billion going to small business contractors every single year. Even a small fraction of that money is enough to help many small businesses survive, making this an invaluable opportunity for any company it applies to.</p>
<p><strong>Access to Capital</strong></p>
<p>Small businesses tend to need money, however, and that's where the second office comes in. This part of the Small Business Administration focuses on connecting businesses with access to all levels of funding, from microtransactions to venture capital. Given the relative ease of this system, many small businesses prefer to run their initial needs through the SBA, and only begin acquiring capital on their own once they're established.</p>
<p><strong>Training for Entrepreneurs</strong></p>
<p>In addition to the two categories above, the Small Business Administration offers instruction for entrepreneurs, with a particular emphasis on education, training and technical assistance for new companies. Much of this development work is provided free of charge, either over the internet or face-to-face at one of the (many) SBA training locations. A few training sessions have a nominal fee, but the price is kept well within a range even brand new businesses can afford.</p>
<p><strong>Advocacy for Small Businesses</strong></p>
<p>While it's true that large corporations tend to have a lot of regulatory clout, small businesses are not alone - the SBA is frequently called to Congress to testify about the ways proposed legislation might affect small businesses, and it conducts significant amounts of independent research the small businesses can use to get a better sense of their current environment and how to overcome the challenges they face.</p>
<h4>How to get help from the SBA</h4>
<p>The SBA is an ideal starting place for new and yet-to-launch businesses to review their business plan and understand their options. We recommend contacting your <a href="https://www.sba.gov/tools/local-assistance/districtoffices">local district office</a>, which can explain all of the programs and services in greater detail.</p>

Find out how the SBA can help your business.

What is the Small Business Administration? Growing your business with the SBA

<p><strong>Definition</strong>:&nbsp;The 404 Error Page (“Page Not Found”) is one of the most recognizable errors on the internet. You have certainly experienced it when you clicked on a broken link or mistyped a URL, and the website could not find the page that you had requested. Technically speaking, a 404 is the standard status code that is shown when a server cannot find the content that was requested.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As <strong>404 errors can have a significant, negative impact on the user experience and search engine optimization (SEO)</strong>, this article will explore why they occur, the impact, how you can identify them, and how you can resolve them.</p>
<h4>Why do 404 error codes occur?</h4>
<p>A 404 response code can be caused by the user, an external website or your own website.</p>
<p>User:
</p>
<ul><li>Manually enters an incorrect URL
</li></ul>
<p>External Website, Email or Ad:
</p>
<ul><li>Links to your website with an incorrect URL
</li></ul>
<p>Your Website:
</p>
<ul><li>The server is not properly configured to fulfill the requested action.
</li><li>The page has moved to a new location (new URL) without a redirect set in place
</li><li>The page is temporarily unavailable, perhaps because it is being worked on.
</li><li>The page has been permanently deleted with no redirect set in place
</li><li>An internal link is found on the website with an incorrect URL</li></ul>
<p class="type-large"><strong>How do 404 errors affect your Website</strong></p>
<p class="type-large">404 errors can result in lost revenue</p>
<p>Traffic is critical for ecommerce revenue.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Generally speaking,&nbsp;<strong>Traffic x Conversion Rate x Average Order Value (AOV) = Estimated Revenue&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>
Given that approximately <a href="https://springtrax.com/key-stats-about-404-errors/default.htm">74% of those who will encounter a 404 error will leave and never return</a>, <strong>404 error pages significantly impact your conversion rate and, in turn, your revenue</strong>.</p>
<p class="type-large">404 errors result in a poor user experience</p>
<p>Not only do 404 errors make it more difficult for a shopper to find what they are looking for, they <strong>create a poor shopping experience</strong>. In a global marketplace, you not only need to have shoppers find your store and products, you need to convince them that you are a trustworthy source to purchase from. Errors on your site diminish the confidence the buyer has that you will properly fulfill their order in a timely manner with quality products.</p>
<p class="type-large">404 errors will negatively impact your SEO</p>
<p>Besides losing customers when a 404 error is actually displayed, <strong>there are negative SEO impacts to having a high 404 error rate:</strong>
</p>
<ol><li>While Google indicates that 404 errors do not directly hurt your rankings, sites with consistently high 404 error percentages can be seen as less reliable for searchers. Cleaning up bad links, broken images and missing pages can increase search rankings.
</li><li><strong>Broken links can result in lost traffic and page rank that might otherwise be passed to your site.</strong></li></ol>
<p class="type-large"><strong>How to identify 404 errors</strong></p>
<p>The first step to fixing 404 errors is to identify them. To do this there are several options:
</p>
<ul><li><a href="https://search.google.com/search-console/about"><strong>Google Search Console</strong></a> will show some 404 errors in its Index Coverage Report based on crawling URLs found in your sitemap and linked to from other websites. 
</li><li>The <a href="https://swerveredirects.app/"><strong>Swerve Redirects</strong></a><strong> app</strong> tracks 404 errors encountered by users in real time.
</li><li><strong>Site Crawlers</strong> such as <a href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/">Screaming Frog SEO Spider</a> will crawl your site to identify broken links found within your website</li></ul>
<p class="type-large"><strong>How to greatly reduce 404 errors</strong></p>
<p>To ensure 404 errors don't get out of hand, <strong>it is considered a best practice to regularly check for and fix broken links</strong>. When remedying 404 errors, there are three easy ways to classify them:
</p>
<ul><li><strong>Broken internal links</strong>: these are links that are found on your own website that result in a 404 error. To resolve these, you want to fix the link itself. Find and modify the link for every 404 error. Use the “Linked From” field in the tools above to find the page(s) where the broken link originates.
</li><li><strong>External links</strong>: these are inbound links that originate from somewhere outside of your website. As you generally do not have the ability to edit the target of an external link, set up a 301 redirect to point the broken URL at the appropriate target URL. For example, if another website links to <em>www.example.com/red-black-shoe...</em> in error, you would create a redirect to the correct URL, <em>www.example.com/black-red-shoe...</em></li><li><strong>Direct navigation</strong>: these are errors that result when a user directly types a page URL into the browser but either mistypes or tries to go to a page that does not exist. As these are unique, there is not a way that they can be prevented. A 301 redirect can be created, but is likely not necessary.</li></ul>
<p>To fix 404 errors with a 301 redirect, you can manually create 301 redirects one by one in the Control Panel. You can also prepare a CSV file and <a href="https://support.bigcommerce.com/s/article/301-Redirects#bulk-upload">bulk import</a> it in the Control Panel. Alternatively, the Swerve Redirects app allows you to quickly fix 404 errors with 301 redirects in a single step.
</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> In some cases it may make sense to leave a 404 error alone.</p>
<p class="type-large"><strong>How to improve the 404 error experience</strong></p>
<p>It is inevitable that some 404 errors will be encountered on your site. However, there are ways of improving the user experience for those that encounter them.
</p>
<p class="type-large">Make navigation menu & search bar accessible</p>
<p>Be sure that your site navigation and search bar are available. This allows a shopper to continue their search for the intended page. While many will still leave, some may actually continue and find their own way.
</p>
<p class="type-large">Create a custom 404 page experience</p>
<p>Most 404 error pages offer the same bland experience. As important as this page is, it generally receives very little attention and effort. Consider creating a <a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/404-error-pages-one-more-time/">custom 404 error page</a> to better engage the user. 
</p>
<p class="type-large">Offer a promotion</p>
<p>Try to turn the negative experience into a positive one by offering a promotion or benefit of some sort. You might consider sharing a coupon code to convert what would have been a bounce into a customer.</p>
<p></p>
<p><em>Many thanks to BigCommerce Partner <a href="https://inkblotdigital.com/" target="_blank">Inkblot Digital</a> for their contribution to this article.&nbsp;</em></p>

404 error codes negatively impact user experience but can't be outright prevented.

What are 404 errors, and what do they mean for ecommerce stores?

<p><strong>Definition</strong>: Reputation management (RM) describes proactive and reactive business efforts to influence consumer perception of a brand. Online reputation management applies these practices to search engine results, focusing on branded queries. All retailers &mdash; whether online, offline, or both &mdash; can benefit by staying abreast of their online reputation and seeking to intervene where possible. </p>
<h4>Why online reputation matters</h4>
<p>Reputation management has always been an important business practice, but has been completely reshaped by the internet. According to a 2012 survey, <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows.html">70% of consumers trust online product reviews and opinion-posts, while only 58% trust statements about a brand found on the brand's own website.</a> That puts online businesses at a disadvantage if negative reviews and assessments of their brand gain traction in Google searches &mdash; regardless of their truth or merit. Customers who are extremely pleased or grossly dissatisfied can directly impact the public perception of a brand. Online reputation management acknowledges the importance of what consumers can find out about you and looks at what a business can and can't control. </p>
<h4>Proactive steps to improve online reputation</h4>
<p>The first step to online reputation management is knowing what's out there. Identify important brand queries for your business such as "[brand] review" and set up Google alerts to monitor any major changes. This can include newly-published articles, reviews, and merchant listing websites. </p>
<p>But monitoring your reputation is just the first step. To exert as much control as possible over online reputation, consider the following tactics:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Request      that false information be removed, particularly from reputable sources. </strong>For      particularly bad offenses, consider submitting legal take-down requests      when libel has occurred. Also put out online press releases at      authoritative websites that clear the air regarding false criticisms.</li>  <li><strong>Encourage      online reviews and customer testimonials about your products.</strong> A      2015 study found that <a href="http://www.inc.com/drew-hendricks/building-a-reputation-management-strategy-for-2015.html">85%      of consumers read such reviews, that 71% trust businesses more after      reading positive reviews, and that 65% prefer brands with a large number      of positive online reviews</a>.</li>  <li><strong>Be      "transparent" to increase customer confidence and encourage      conversions.</strong> Don't be overly concerned about bad reviews on your      brand because customers expect to encounter at least some negative reviews      - when none exist they may lose trust in the review site. In such cases      they may suspect that reviews have been artificially manufactured or      unfairly censored.</li>  <li><strong>Know      when to respond to negative reviews. </strong>Delete      "fake" reviews that are part of a slander campaign all emanating      from the same account/IP address. Delete information that is factually      inaccurate when the inaccuracies are likely to alarm potential customers.      Protect your site visitors from impolite, vulgar or obscene language      and/or images by publishing and enforcing a review policy at your site.      However, leave a placeholder and a reason for removal after deleting any      reviews.</li></ul>

Your company's online reputation can determine its success — find out how to influence it.

What is online reputation management for ecommerce?

<p><strong>Definition</strong>: Geo-targeting is the practice of creating and delivering online advertisers to users based on their location. Geo-targeting can improve marketing ROI for online merchants by taking advantage of regional trends.<br></p>
<h4>Why ecommerce stores utilize geo-targeting</h4>
<p>Region-specific marketing is currently utilized <span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">in a variety of marketing campaigns. A fairly basic marketing concept can be used</span>, but it is presented to a location or market that has shown a demand for that specific product or service. This can be a certain State, City, neighborhood or even a specific building. Programs like Google Adwords lets you target these specific locations and tailor your marketing. On a more broad scale, you can target a certain demographic based on their language.</p>
<p>Some publishers and networks have even developed <span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">performance-based marketing plans based on geo-targeted ads</span>. Ads and marketing are only placed and paid for when there have been proven results to show that this venture is worth it. It has always been very effective to target a certain demographic based off of their age, gender, or career. This can be taken even further by taking a look at certain locations and what demographics reside there. Website data can be used to determine what geographic locations are most frequently perusing a site and that area can be targeted as well.</p>

Targeting advertisements to specific regions helps online merchants improve ROI.

What is geo-targeting?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition</strong>: HTTPS (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure) is the encrypted update to the HTTP protocol, adding a layer of security and reducing a website's susceptibility to attacks. Using HTTPS provides an assurance to customers and helps secure user data. </p>
<h4>How HTTPS provides a more secure browsing experience</h4>
<p>HTTPS creates a "secure connection," meaning three things:</p>
<ol>  <li><strong>Users are connected to the intended website and not an imposter. </strong>The https:// in the address bar and the appearance of the lock icon      indicate an HTTPS connection, which while not a foolproof guarantee you      have the right Web address, at least comes much closer to it than does      HTTP. </li>  <li><strong>Encrypted Data protects      login IDs, passwords, credit and debit card numbers, and other personal      information</strong> that is entered. The encryption works regardless of which      direction the data is sent. This point is of particular importance to      online retailers and their clients since it guards ecom transactions      against identity thieves.</li> </ol>
<h4>HTTPS Now Increases Websites' SEO Performance</h4>
<p>As of the summer of <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html">2015, Google starting using HTTPS as a ranking signal</a> that will boost SEO results. Their motive was to automatically send users to a more secure connection during their Google searches, and they have even publicly called for the eventual Internet-wide use of HTTPS encryption.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thesempost.com/google-plans-to-make-https-ranking-signal-stronger/">For now, search ranking algorithms use HTTPS as a very lightweight signal, affecting less than 1% of searches</a> and only acting as a sort of "tie breaker" for otherwise equal-quality content. However, Google has plans to strengthen the impact of HTTPS in the future, thus making "secure search" even more secure.</p>

Find out why more merchants are moving to HTTPS

HTTPS: What is it, and what ecommerce merchants need to know

<p style="margin-top:3%:"><strong>Definition:</strong> Discount codes are personalized or publicly-released codes offered to customers as a purchasing incentive that reduces the price of an order. Discount codes can be an effective means for ecommerce stores to attract shoppers and encourage repeat customers.</p>
<h4><span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">Three common methods for offering discount codes</span></h4>
<ul>  <li><strong>Percent      Discount</strong>- The percent discount offers a flat percentage off a      shopper's complete order. This is applied to just the purchase and would      not include the shipping or taxes.</li>  <li><strong>Free      Shipping</strong>- This discount code saves the consumer from having to      pay the shipping charges on an order. It can be specified to only include      orders shipped within the country.</li>  <li><strong>Fixed      Dollar Discount</strong>- This code will offer a set amount off a purchase. A      minimum purchase threshold can be set, or it can apply to any order value.      For example: $10 off any purchase of $50 or more, or simply $5 off any      purchase. They can even be offered for specific purchases (e.g. <em>buy ten candles and receive $10 off the purchase</em>),      or for only certain items purchased.</li> </ul>
<h4>Offer discount codes for a limited period of time</h4>
<ul>  <li><strong>Time      Frame: </strong>Discount codes convey a sense of urgency, which means      they can't last forever. An example would be to have them used by a      certain date, within a certain time period such as two weeks or even by      the end of the current month they are offered in. There can also be a set      number of times the code will work on the merchant's site, such as      unlimited times within the current month, or as a one-time use only.</li>  <li><strong>Limited      Availability: </strong>The number of codes offered is dependent on the type of      promotion. If discounts apply to one product in particular, the quantity      must be tied to inventory. For store-wide codes, the objective is often to      promote the ecommerce brand. In that case, the more a discount code is      used, the better. </li> </ul>
<h4>How to Build an Effective Discount Program</h4>
<p>A link can be placed at the point of checkout for the consumer to click and receive a discount code to apply to purchase, or a link to click which will send the consumer to a discounted section. There can also be a link for the consumer to print a coupon offering an additional savings. To achieve maximum results from your discount program, spread the word about it via your company's website and social media accounts. In addition, make sure to reference discount code availability in any SEM campaigns you run.</p>

Discount codes give many customers the motivation they need to make a purchase.

What is a discount code, and how they can entice customers

<p><strong>Definition: </strong>TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), also referred to as <em>the Internet Protocol Suite,</em> is the World Wide Web's core communication system that enables every Internet-connected device to communicate with every other such device simultaneously. It is, in essence, a computerized syntax (language) that is installed on every computer, both for public (<em>Internet</em>) and private (<em>intranets </em>and <em>extranets</em>) networks. The development of this protocol has enabled the internet &mdash; and as a result, online commerce &mdash; to grow quickly. </p>
<h4>How it works</h4>
<p>TCP/IP is a two-layered program: the higher layer (TCP) disassembles message content into small "data packets" that are then transmitted over the Internet to be re-assembled by the receiving computer's TCP back into the message's original form. The lower layer (IP) plays the role of "address manager" and gets each data packet to the correct destination. IP addresses are checked by every computer in a network to ensure messages are forwarded as needed.</p>
<p>TCP/IP runs on the client-server communication model, meaning that the user of a first computer (the client) makes a service request, such as forwarding a Web page, to a second network computer (the server). TCP/IP also relies on point-to-point communication, meaning that communications move from one host computer to another within a pre-defined network boundary. Finally, TCP/IP is said to be <em>stateless </em>because each request is new and unrelated to all previous requests, making network pathways free to be continuously used by all.</p>
<h4>TCP/IP and Higher-Level Applications</h4>
<p>Many higher-level apps that ecommerce businesses need to be familiar with utilize and/or are built on TCP/IP. These apps constitute a higher layer of protocol language and are often packaged along with TCP/IP as a single "suite." Examples include:</p>
<ul>  <li>HTTP (the Internet's      Hyper-text Transfer Protocol)</li>  <li>FTP (the Internet's File      Transfer Protocol)</li>  <li>Telnet, which enables      logging on computers from remote locations</li>  <li>SMTP (Simple Mail      Transfer Protocol)</li> </ul>
<p>Accessing the Internet via analog phone modems will involve the use of one of two special protocols: SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) or PPP (Point to Point Protocol). The function of these protocols is to "encapsulate" data-packets in a form that allows them to be sent over dial-up phone connections to the access provider's modem.</p>
<p>UDP (User Data-gram Protocol) is an alternative to TCP that is sometimes used for very specialized purposes. It uses hyper-simple, "connection-less" transmission that requires only a minimal amount of protocol. It is mostly used for low-latency, loss-tolerant connections between online apps.</p>
<p>TCP/IP-related protocols used in the exchange of router data include:</p>
<ul>  <li>ICMP (Internet Control      Message Protocol)</li>  <li>IGP (Interior Gateway      Protocol)</li>  <li>EGP (Exterior Gateway      Protocol)</li>  <li>BGP (Border Gateway      Protocol)</li></ul>

The TCP/IP makes the internet run smoothly so merchants can sell online.

What is TCP/IP?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition: </strong>Astroturfing is the informal term for campaigns or messages that appear to be naturally occurring, but are actually being defined by a company. Astroturfing hides the financial and business associations between the originating company and the message, potentially making corporate messaging more palatable to a public that might reject forthright propaganda.</p>
<p>The term "astroturfing" is a play on the term "grassroots movement," since the grass is fake. Astroturfing has been attempted by online businesses who present a product as being highly desired and sought out by a certain customer base via company-sponsored message board posts, blogs or articles when there is no evidence to support such an assertion. </p>
<h4>Examples Of Astroturfing Online</h4>
<p>While astroturfing has been a factor in public outreach for decades, usually through public advocacy groups with hidden funding, it is especially prolific on the Internet. Some examples include:</p>
<ul>  <li>Company-employed bloggers      posting product reviews which pretend to be unbiased.</li>  <li>Creating multiple fake personas      (also called "sockpuppets") on popular message-board sites such      as Reddit, Digg, or 4Chan, who spread similar posts to create an illusion      of a populist idea.</li>  <li>Paid social media      accounts, such as on Facebook or Pinterest, which focus on specific brands      of products.</li>  <li>Pay-for-play deals with      independent bloggers, exchanging gifts or trips for positive coverage.</li>  <li>Advertisements appearing      to be from private websites or public-interest groups, redirecting to      corporate-written pages.</li>  <li>Doing any of the above with      the intention of attacking a rival company, rather than promoting one's      own products.</li> </ul>
<h4>Consequences of astroturfing: why this practice should be avoided</h4>
<p>Astroturfing is an extremely controversial practice that is often discouraged or disparaged.</p>
<p>While many forms of online content - such as manufactured memes - often tread a thin line between outreach and astroturfing, blatant efforts are viewed very unfavorably by the public at large. Being caught openly astroturfing can embarrass an online business and potentially do significant damage to its public relations if the incident is wide-spread or well-publicized.</p>
<p>Additionally, many Western countries have explicit laws regulating overt or especially deceptive forms of astroturfing. For example, in both the US and EU, it is legally required for all paid promoters to disclose their financial relationship with that company, including bloggers and social media authors. </p>
<p>It is estimated that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?_r=5&pagewanted=all&">up to one-third</a> of all online reviews are falsified, making some forms of astroturfing unfortunately common. Effective marketing, customer service, and product quality make the need for astroturfing unnecessary &mdash; if uncovered, the dangers of losing credibility or potentially facing legal action outweigh any potential benefits. </p>

This form of marketing deception can land a company in hot water.

What is astroturfing, and why your business should avoid it

<p><strong>Definition</strong>: SWOT is a comprehensive audit and competitive analysis that analyzes the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats facing a business. An honest SWOT analysis helps a retailer identify what it's doing well, where it can improve, and where it fits in the competitive landscape. </p>
<h4>What Is The Purpose of Conducting A SWOT Analysis?</h4>
<p>Performing a SWOT analysis helps one thoroughly understand his or her business by presenting a viewpoint of the company's operations from a different angle. For new businesses, this analysis is critical to the organization's planning process. It can, however, be performed at any time. A company's unique “SWOTs,” as they are often referred to, will help get <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/how-to-start-online-business/" target="_blank">a new business</a> on the right track.</p>
<h5>Strengths and Weaknesses</h5>
<p>The strengths and weaknesses component of SWOT are internal to the business. As an example, one strength may be an organization's intellectual property while <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/b2b-seo-strategy/" target="_blank">low domain authority</a> or poor physical location may be a significant weakness. While these internal positives and negatives can be altered, doing so usually takes a considerable amount of work.</p>
<h5>Opportunities and Threats</h5>
<p>Opportunities and threats are usually external to the organization. An example of an opportunity is the potential to establish a fresh relationship with a new supplier while a possible threat may be <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/how-perform-competitive-analysis/" target="_blank">a new competitor</a>.</p>
<h4>Who Should Be Involved In the SWOT Analysis?</h4>
<p>A SWOT analysis is only effective if it takes everything into consideration. No area of the company should be left out, making it important to include representatives from every department or team. The analysis may bring issues to light that were not previously on a company's radar. </p>
<h4>How to Perform a SWOT Analysis</h4>
<ul>  <li>Begin by making a list of      strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.</li>  <li>Consider holding a group      brainstorming session to pinpoint factors in each category.</li>  <li>Alternatively, you can      ask each team member to work on his or her own, then share and compile the      results.</li>  <li>Don't concern yourself      with elaborating on the factors of each category on the first attempt.      Start out with bullet points to identify relevant factors in each      category.</li>  <li>Once the brainstorming is      complete, build a final version of the SWOT analysis listing all of the      factors in each category with the highest priority placed at the top and      the lowest at the bottom.</li></ul>

A business reaching the next level is often dependent on a thorough SWOT analysis.

What is a SWOT Analysis, and why is it important?

<p><strong>Definition:</strong> The Better Business Bureau (often abbreviated to BBB) is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve trust between consumers and businesses by encouraging businesses to adhere to good codes of conduct. It is comprised of over 100 independent local organizations that report to a governing council and offers reports on more than four million businesses, including both traditional and ecommerce businesses.</p>
<h4>Services Offered By The Better Business Bureau</h4>
<p>The Better Business Bureau offers two main services to the public, both at no charge to them.</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Maintains a</strong> <strong>publicly searchable database of businesses</strong>.      While the amount of information for each company varies, most contain      basic information about the company (who owns it, what it does, etc.), how      many complaints have been filed against it, and what visitors to their      site thought of it.</li>  <li><strong>Offers</strong> <strong>dispute resolution</strong> by allowing      visitors to file complaints and businesses to resolve them. On average,      about 3/4 of filed disputes will be resolved.</li> </ul>
<p>In an effort to maintain neutrality, the Better Business Bureau does <em>not</em> recommend or endorse companies, products, or services.</p>
<h4>How are BBB ratings calculated? </h4>
<p>Rankings are calculated on a scale of A+ to F, similar to the grading system used in many public schools. There are 13 different points on which businesses can be graded, covering everything from how long the company has been in business to how it handles dispute resolution.</p>
<p>There are two major ways for a company to acquire a bad rating. They can either <strong>fail to do things well</strong> (such as not responding to complaints in a timely manner) or they can <strong>directly make a mistake</strong> (such as getting caught up in a problem with the government).</p>
<p>Companies that obtain a bad rating can usually improve it by resolving the problem(s) and sending documentation of this resolution to the BBB.</p>
<p>For a better understanding of how ratings are calculated and how each point is weighed, visit <a href="https://www.bbb.org/council/overview-of-bbb-grade/">the BBB's overview of the process</a>.</p>
<h4>Are consumers influenced by BBB ratings? </h4>
<p>Yes. The Better Business Bureau is one of the top 1,000 websites visited in the United States (<a href="http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bbb.org">as calculated by Alexa</a>), and each year they answer over one hundred million inquiries about how local businesses are operating. The BBB would not have this kind of traffic volume if consumers as a whole didn't see it as a trusted, valuable resource.</p>
<p>Thus, consistently having a bad rating can result in significant loss of customers over time.</p>

Maintaining a positive BBB reputation is key for successful businesses.

What is the Better Business Bureau (BBB)?

<p><strong>Definition</strong>: Quality Assurance (QA), more fully <em>Software Quality Assurance (SQA)</em>, is a set of policies applied to every stage of the software engineering process that are meant to ensure high-quality production methods. Quality assurance is in place to ensure that all updates, product launches, and patches are rolled out to exact standards and with no service disruption.</p>
<p>SQA is distinguished from Software Quality Control (SQC) in that the former concerns implementation of production methods that tend toward a resultant quality product while the latter refers to an actual end-of-the-line inspection of the products themselves.</p>
<h4>SaaS Platforms Eliminate QA</h4>
<p>Ecommerce software is extremely complex and difficult to build, support, and QA-test, making in-house systems an expensive and logistically-challenging endeavor. SaaS ecommerce platforms enable businesses to outsource the software development, maintenance, and QA processes associated with running an online store. </p>
<p>Some of the most important benefits of using SaaS for ecommerce and other businesses include:</p>
<ul>  <li>Elimination of not only      the need to develop and run QA on new software but also of the need to      install applications on in-house computer systems. This alleviates a great      burden for IT personnel and may allow for a reduction in the number IT      staff members hired.</li>  <li>Cost savings accrue since      software is not purchased but only "rented," therefore requiring      less in-house hardware. </li>  <li>Quality and security are      generally enhanced since software-related tasks are relegated to      experienced experts with intensive "niche knowledge" in their      field and who are focused solely on the single task of keeping the SaaS      platform continuously functioning at optimal levels.</li> </ul>
<h4>How QA Processes Work</h4>
<p>QA is generally conducted by establishing protocols that aim at conforming software products to any one of numerous preexisting standards/models, the ones most commonly adhered to being:</p>
<ul>  <li>ISO 9000</li>  <li>CMMI</li>  <li>Six Sigma</li> </ul>
<p>Both manufacturing and maintenance aspects of QA processes are continually honed and adjusted by software development corporations to more efficiently and more completely meet all specifications involved in their chosen standard/model. To accomplish this goal, QA experts minutely define and rigorously enforce QA processes. They then probe for systemic weaknesses and implementation failures and correct them. Production staff training and randomized auditing are also important tools utilized in QA.</p>
<p>Some areas covered by QA in most QA programs include:</p>
<ul>  <li>Software Design and      Development Method</li>  <li>Source Code Control and      Code Review</li>  <li>Software Configuration      Management</li>  <li>Project Management</li>  <li>Requirements Development      and Management</li>  <li>Estimation and Testing</li>  <li>Release Management and      Product Integration. </li></ul>

Quality Assurance keeps ecommerce software running - find out why.

What is QA (Quality Assurance)?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition</strong>: Corporate Social Responsibility (also known as CSR, corporate conscience, and corporate citizenship) is the integration of socially beneficial programs and practices into a corporation's business model and culture. CSR aims to increase long-term profits for online and offline businesses by enabling them to become more efficient and attract positive attention for their efforts. </p>
<h4>What Benefits Does CSR Offer to Businesses?</h4>
<p>Both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar businesses stand to benefit from the implementation of CSR strategies. Some activities that fall under the umbrella of CSR, with their corresponding benefits, include:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Prevent      financial ramifications</strong>: Compliance with the spirit      and letter of the law &mdash; both nationally and internationally &mdash; through      self-regulatory processes will prevent fines, put your business "low      on regulators' radar screens," and lower legal expenses.</li>  <li><strong>Increase      employee loyalty: </strong>Treating your employees fairly      and generously is a part of corporate social responsibility. By providing      good jobs and encouraging high professional and moral standards, you      increase employee loyalty, and by procuring only those overseas products      produced at factories where workers were treated ethically, you gain      support among "Fair Trade" advocates.</li>  <li><strong>Maintain      a positive reputation: </strong>Demonstrated consciousness in a      variety of areas can garner publicity and give a business tangible proof      of their conduct, which can be proudly displayed on a company website.      These include: <ul>   <li><strong>Environmental       consciousness: </strong>Reducing waste, recycling, minimizing carbon       footprint, and other best practices can . Using or producing only       sustainable products, lowering energy usage, and supporting environmental       causes will boost a business's "green reputation" among       environmentally concerned clients.</li>   <li><strong>Social       Concern: </strong>Donating to humanitarian causes that fight persistent       poverty, help the victims of epidemics like AIDS or Ebola, or assist       those displaced by hurricanes or earthquakes shows concern for issues       that consumers are more and more aware of in our modern, interconnected       world.</li>   <li><strong>Local       Community: </strong>Involvement in local community projects, either       through financial donations, employee participation, connecting your       customers with project leaders, or promotion of the project through       advertising and fundraising enhances your CSR credentials with clients in       the given location. </li>  </ul></li>   </ul>
<h4>How can online businesses use their website to engage customers in CSR?</h4>
<p>Online businesses can utilize and incorporate the above methods, but there are additional digital opportunities to give back: </p>
<ol>  <li><strong>Helping      the environment through "website sustainability," </strong>meaning      lowering the carbon footprint of webpages by removing screen clutter, replacing      video clips with slide shows and improving ease of navigation.</li>  <li><strong>Allowing      clients to choose a charity</strong> that receives a portion of      profits. Many customers appreciate their input being taken into account      and are more likely to return when they feel personally connected to the      beneficiary of a charitable campaign. </li>  <li><strong>Promoting      additional social/humanitarian causes</strong> with      display ads on the website, blog content, and social media posts.</li> </ol>
<p><strong><em>Learn more about how corporate social responsibility can directly increase revenue at the Bigcommerce Blog: </em></strong><a href="https://blog.bigcommerce.com/double-bottom-line-giving-back-can-boost-business/"><em><strong>Double Your Bottom Line: How Giving Back Boosts Business</strong></em></a></p>

Being socially responsible isn't just for looks — it can directly lead to lower expenses and higher profits.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition: </strong>Accounts Payable (AP), also known as payables, are funds owed by a company to other businesses as a result of purchases of goods and services from them. Online businesses typically process invoices for third party services, but AP can also include bank loans.</p>
<h4>When do online businesses use AP Transactions?</h4>
<p>Anytime a business obtains goods/services before actually paying for them, a short-term IOU is created, which counts as an AP transaction when finally paid. Some of the most common AP transaction types include:</p>
<ul><li>Payroll transactions, including both regular salaries and bonuses</li><li>One-time service fees to contractors, consultants, and others for specific tasks performed</li><li>Invoices for new equipment/tools, packaging materials, office supplies, and other goods needed to continue operations</li><li>Utilities, Internet service, and Web hosting</li><li>Short-term loans used to expand facilities, launch new products, or to get through an economic downturn</li><li>Advertising expenses, both online and offline</li></ul>
<h4><strong>The Importance of Good AP Management</strong></h4>
<p>The great importance of wisely managing accounts payable is clear from the basic fact that there is a time limit within which they must be paid in full to avoid going into <em>default. </em>Another factor is keeping suppliers happy by promptly responding to their inquiries and effectively communicating to them your requests. Finally, there are sometimes opportunities to gain discounts by paying accounts payable significantly far ahead of the due date (say around 45 days or more early).</p>
<h4><strong>Accounts Payable for Online Businesses: What You Need to Know</strong></h4>
<p>Ecommerce businesses rely on AP loans as much as anyone else, but in ecommerce (and increasingly in brick-and-mortar establishments), automation software has enabled far greater efficiency. Both time and money are saved, first of all, simply by eliminating the need to circulate paper invoices. However, there are other ways that ecommerce AP programs can be beneficial, including:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Save time and increase efficiency </strong>by automating AP processes on a network platform that integrates the whole procurement-to-pay cycle.</li><li><strong>Easier access </strong>to line-item data invoice status and payment timing take the tediousness out of finding the information you need to make AP-related decisions.</li><li><strong>Cash and working capital </strong>are freed up because there is greater visibility of cash inflow and outflow (both amount and timing). This also makes it more practical to take advantage of discounts that pay far better than the minimal interest banks are paying out at present.</li><li><strong>Optimized payment processes </strong>from effective Accounts Payable management reduces a business' days payable outstanding (DPO), which, in turn, improves a business's reputation with suppliers.</li></ul>
<p><strong><em>Learn how Accounts Payable can be automated with an ERP: </em></strong><a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/7-business-functions-affected-by-sales-tax-and-how-erp-integration-simplifies-compliance/"><strong>7 Business Functions Affected by Sales Tax, and How ERP Integration Simplifies Compliance</strong></a><a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/7-business-functions-affected-by-sales-tax-and-how-erp-integration-simplifies-compliance/"></a></p>

Accounts payable is an important business function that helps an operation run smoothly.

What is Accounts Payable for online businesses?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/customer-attrition.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Customer attrition - also known as customer churn, turnover, or defection - is when clients or customers end their relationship with a company (1). Most businesses classify a customer as churned after a certain period of time when the customer has not interacted with or purchased from the company. Service-based businesses that are largely driven by promotional offers - like cellphone and Internet service providers - are perhaps most affected by customer attrition. However, any business that depends on revenue from continued relationships with consumers should give close scrutiny to this key growth metric.
</p>
<p>When analyzing data and using it to predict future market behavior, most businesses make a distinction between voluntary and involuntary attrition, which signifies whether or not the customer deserted the company due to dissatisfaction. Voluntary attrition occurs when the customer abandons the services of one company in favor of another. Involuntary attrition occurs when personal circumstances are the reason for leaving, including death, relocation to another area or health problems. Most companies focus only on voluntary churn in their attrition analysis models.
</p>
<h4>Benefits of tracking attrition</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Customer attrition is a <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-metrics/">key metric of business health</a>. In most industries, the cost of acquiring new customers exceeds the cost of marketing to existing ones, so monitoring attrition on a regular basis can help you project future growth or declines. Many companies now track customer lifetime value as a key benchmark when planning the marketing costs for acquisition, but it's hard to find this data without first investigating customer churn.
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Customer loss</strong>: Knowing how many customers you are losing and what their average lifetime value is will allow you to determine the percentage of overall business lost.</li>
	<li><strong>New sales needed</strong>: After figuring out how much business has been lost, you can determine the new business needed to offset and exceed those losses. Businesses will also need to weigh these new initiatives against the costs associated with acquiring new customers.</li>
	<li><strong>Customer retention rate</strong>:  When you know the customer attrition rate, you also know how many customers the business has retained. Comparing the two can sometimes offer valuable insights into the factors that contributed to churn.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Measuring customer attrition</h4>
<p><strong></strong>There are several ways to measure churn. Some companies measure gross attrition while others focus on net attrition in their analyses. Gross attrition measures the total number of customers and revenue lost during a given period of time. Net attrition measures customer loss while factoring the gain of new customers in the same group and location. Examples of how to measure attrition include:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Counting how many customers have been lost</li>
	<li>Calculating the percentage of churn against the entire customer base</li>
	<li>Determining the value of business churned on a repeating basis</li>
	<li>Calculating the percentage of business churned on a repeating basis</li>
</ul>
<h4>Why do customers leave, and how can companies reverse this trend?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>A study of communications service providers by Bain & Company found that businesses often make wrong assumptions about why customers leave (3). A lack of communication, from the customer all the way to the CEO, is often a major contributing factor, allowing companies to overlook certain realities about attrition:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Dissatisfaction is built over time</strong>: Executives often believe that the last event that occurred before a customer's departure - like a promotional offer from a competitor - was what caused the defection. Competitive offers do often trigger the switch, but only after a longer period of dissatisfaction has characterized the customer journey. Sometimes these negative experiences can last years before the customer makes a jump to your competitor. Bain's study points out that early and decisive supervisor intervention during an escalating problem can reverse eroding trust on the part of the consumer and restore satisfaction.</li>
	<li><strong>Fixing one problem does not fix all problems</strong>: The study also claims that companies often think fixing one problem will reduce churn, when in fact there may be multiple root causes contributing to this decline. Customer dissatisfaction can stem from many areas, including pricing, installation, technical problems, customer service and billing. Only detailed customer feedback can help businesses understand and address these problems.</li>
	<li><strong>A satisfied customer is not enough</strong>: Companies sometimes take satisfied customers for granted, assuming that as long as no problems exist, they should expect the business relationship to continue for the foreseeable future. But a satisfied customer is not always a fan. Companies should surprise and delight customers, particularly high-value ones, when opportunities present themselves. Customers who are also advocates are usually more forgiving when mistakes occur, leaving the company less vulnerable when a problem pops up.</li>
	<li><strong>Empower employees to share feedback and solve problems</strong>: Having systems and processes in place for customer satisfaction is not enough. Businesses must integrate customer feedback into the operations of the company and channel those comments to the employees who are most able to respond quickly. Companies that make customer experience a high priority tend to encourage departmental collaboration and team problem solving that will lead to structural improvements.</li>
</ul>
<p>Customer attrition is a reality for all businesses that rely on revenue from continuing customer relationships. While it may be impossible to stop churn from happening altogether, companies can take steps to understand and respond to the root causes of customer dissatisfaction while seizing opportunities to "wow" satisfied customers, turning them into advocates that will <a href="/blog/conversion-rate-optimization/">support your growth</a> for years to come.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://blog.surepayroll.com/customer-attrition-matter/" target="_blank">What is customer attrition and why does it matter?</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://blog.clientheartbeat.com/customer-churn-rate/" target="_blank">Customer Churn Rate: 15 Tactics to Improve Your Churn Rate</a>"<br>3. "<a href="http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/breaking-the-back-of-customer-churn.aspx" target="_blank">Breaking the back of customer churn</a>"
</p>

Customer attrition

Customer attrition - also known as customer churn, turnover, or defection - is when clients or customers end their relationship with a company.

What is customer attrition?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition:</strong> B2C (Business-to-Customer) ecommerce is the exchange of goods or services over the internet between online stores and individual
customers. Consumer preference for the convenience of online shopping &mdash; coupled
with the ease of <a href="/articles/ecommerce/sell-online/">starting an online store</a> &mdash; has made ecommerce among the fastest
growing sectors of the economy.
</p>
<h4>The origins of B2C
	for Ecommerce
</h4>
<p><span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">The origins of ecommerce</span> date back to the late 1990s. With increased internet usage, many businesses saw the benefits of selling directly to consumers over the web. There are now over <span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">100,000 B2C ecommerce</span>
	businesses in the United States alone.
</p>
<p>Ecommerce growth is rapidly increasing: online sales predicted by some analysts to grow
approximately 10% in 2015 over 2014 levels. The estimated $279 billion worth of
ecommerce sales in 2015 compares to 2010 sales of $176 billion. Online sales as
a percentage of all retail sales, projected at a range of 9-11% for 2015, still
leave the industry significant room for market-share driven growth.
</p>
<h4>Why B2C Ecommerce is Experiencing
Rapid Growth
</h4>
<p>Ecommerce simplifies the shopping experience for both consumers and vendors. Successful online stores can be launched in a matter of days, while shoppers appreciate the ease of making important purchases from the comfort of their own home. </p>
<h4>How to utilize marketing to drive online business growth</h4>
<h4></h4>
<p><span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">B2C ecommerce is one of the fastest growing sectors of the
economy, it is not without competition. Many web-based B2C companies thrive by identifying a niche with competitive opportunity.
	</span>
</p>
<p>Developing a strong web marketing presence is crucial for online businesses. Customers can walk down the
street and stumble upon a physical store; on the web, this type of encounter requires
visibility across one or more channels such as 
	<span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">SEO, SEM, and affiliate referrals</span>.
Marketing for online businesses isn't optional, but 
	<em>necessary</em> to continually drive new users to their store.
Though more proactive effort is required for online businesses, ecommerce platforms greatly simplify these efforts with built in marketing features and simple
3rd party integrations.
</p>
<h4>User-friendly design </h4>
<p>Shoppers at physical storefronts are acutely aware of the store layout, cleanliness, and ease of finding products and information. These factors are equally present for ecommerce businesses, with shelves and shiny floors replaced by: </p>
<ul><li><strong>Color scheme: </strong>A website that's hard on the eyes will turn off some users. Make sure the text is clearly visible in contrast to the background and the colors reflect your brand &mdash; in a good way. </li><li><strong>Navigation: </strong>No matter how informative the content or attractive the products, consumers need to find it. Simple navigation that clearly points users in the right direction is essential for maximizing the hard work you put in to assemble inventory and </li><li><strong>Layout: </strong>Much like navigation, the page itself needs to be presented in an attractive manner. Don't clutter the page with too much info: use tabbed menus if necessary so browsers aren't overwhelmed. </li></ul>

What is B2C Ecommerce? The Online Shopping Boom, Explained

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition: </strong>A content delivery network (CDN) is a collection of distributed servers located <span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass" style="font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.75; background-color: initial;">across the globe </span>that store files accessed by website visitors. Web content transmitted with the assistance of a CDN is delivered according to users' geographic locations, the content delivery server and the website's origin.</p>
<p><span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">CDNs enable ecommerce stores to quickly deliver content such as images and other files, regardless of bandwidth (traffic levels) or the user's location. Without CDNs</span>, load times for ecommerce stores would be a considerably longer for users hundreds or thousands of miles away from the host servers (such as international customers for US-based stores). </p>
<p><strong>CDNs and Location</strong></p>
<p>A user's geographical proximity to the CDN server dictates how fast the content is delivered. Those who are located closest to the server will receive content quicker than those who are positioned further away. Aside from delivering content, CDNs also guard against significant spikes in web traffic that would otherwise cause significant load times or even server crashes. </p>
<p><strong>How CDNs Work</strong></p>
<p>A website visitor's request to view online content is handled by the nearest server. The CDN's role is to:</p>
<ol>  <li><strong>Copy      the requested website's pages</strong> to a server network      dispersed along a number of different geographic locations.</li>  <li><strong>Cache      the website's content</strong>s and redirects the user's      request from the initial site's server to the CDN closest to him.</li>  <li><strong>Deliver      the cached content</strong>. The CDN communicates with the      initial server to transfer content that was not previously cached. </li> </ol>
<p>All of this takes place behind the scenes, outside of the user's view. A user will only know that a CDN is accessed if there is a difference between the delivered URL and the requested URL.</p>
<p><strong>Why ecommerce stores rely on CDNs</strong></p>
<p>Interactions between businesses often rely on CDNs, as do businesses that serve online content to customers. <span class="contentcommentpluginspanclass">Ecommerce stores serving a global audience utilize CDNs to ensure that all customers have a pleasant user experience, regardless of location. </span></p>
<p>CDNs are used for applications beyond ecommerce, including catalyzing video, games, voice, mobile content etc. Websites that feature videos or other large media files generally utilize a CDN. In a nutshell, CDNs are critical to providing lightning-quick access to web content. If CDNs did not exist, users would be loading files from across the country or the world rather than accessing them through nearby servers.</p>
<p>Ecommerce platforms such as Bigcommerce <a href="/articles/Public/Content-Delivery-Network/">come equipped with CDNs</a> so customers from anywhere in the world can access a store without interruption. </p>

Content Delivery Networks enable users to quickly access a website — regardless of their location.

What is a CDN? Content Delivery Networks and ecommerce

<p><strong>Definition</strong>: Competitive intelligence, or “CI," is the gathering and analysis of information to predict competitive
activity and inform future business operations & strategy. Competitive Intelligence helps online business gauge the marketplace and identify areas to compete against other ecommerce stores within an industry or niche. </p>
<h4>Why competitive intelligence matters</h4>
<p>CI is a critical means of forming new
business strategies, presenting valuable insight into
marketplace happenings. After research and structured analysis are performed,
the information and insight gleaned often proves critically important to a
business's strategies and operations. CI allows for the development and shaping
of such strategies to better compete with other businesses. It also helps a
business prepare for the launch of a new product, enter a new market or make
any other type of strategic move.</p>
<p>It must be noted that most organizations use
CI as a benchmark that helps determine where they stand in relation to other
competing businesses. It can even be used to better understand the efficacy of
competitors' product messaging and general market positioning. Ultimately, competitive intelligence is a means of explaining why certain companies win while others fail.</p>
<h4>How to study the competition</h4>
<p>Competitive intelligence helps an online business evaluate what their competition is doing &mdash; both positive and negative. Up-to-date CI reveals market trends before they're formally identified by industry news publications, helping companies to stay ahead of the competition. Though CI
efforts require an extensive collection of data, the work can be integrated
into existing analyses without an abundance of effort or time. </p>
<p>Competitive intelligence often focuses on some or all of the following areas: </p>
<ul><li><span></span><strong>Pricing: </strong>Knowing how your product pricing compares to others in the industry is a great place to start with competitive intelligence. This is an arduous task to complete manually, so <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/automated-competitive-analysis/">consider using an automated service</a> to do this for you. </li><li><strong>Search Marketing: </strong>A major competitor may have a leg up on you simply due to a couple SEO or SEM techniques. From content strategy to title tag format, you can find a variety of quick wins by <a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-competitive-analysis-and-why-it-important/">auditing competitors</a>. </li><li><strong>Product Selection:</strong> If a competitor prominently displays a product you don't currently offer, it may be a sign of opportunity. </li><li><strong>Website Design:</strong> As Steve Jobs liked to say &mdash; <em>Good artist borrow; great artists steal</em>. While you want to make sure you maintain a unique identity, some of the best website optimizations can be informed by the competition. Just make sure you don't make an outright clone of another website and always employ a change in the spirit of your company's brand. </li></ul>
<p>Learn more about <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/small-business-boot-camp-competitive-analysis/">how to perform a thorough competitive analysis</a> for online businesses. </p>

Competitive intelligence is a key component of keeping an online business ahead of the curve.

What is competitive intelligence? Why every online business studies the competition

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Wireframes.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">A wireframe is a simple line drawing depicting the layout of a website before any decoration is added. It is typically the next step in site design after site mapping. Designers use this bare-bones presentation to show clients or other stakeholders how page elements will relate to one another and function. It outlines size, placement and orientation of every part of your Web page.
</p>
<p>As the name suggests, a wireframe is the design's skeleton. Once the layout of the wireframe is finalized, designers add all the flourishes and effects that make a Web page look like a Web page - choosing color schemes, images and logos, then overlaying them atop the wireframe like a paint-by-numbers painting.
</p>
<p>While designers are often eager to play with color and form, and stakeholders are equally eager to see their website designs in full color, wireframing is an opportunity to try multiple and mutually exclusive layouts in a form that is easy to work with or tear apart. The generic presentation is an asset to this process, as it takes a great deal less time to draw a wireframe than a fully realized design. An experienced designer is able to wireframe all the major pages of a website in a fraction of the time she would take to create a single full-color <a href="https://miro.com/templates/concept-map-maker/" target="_blank">concept map</a>.
</p>
<h4>Wireframing basics</h4>
<p><strong></strong>By the time a design team reaches the point of wireframing, it should already know everything that will be included in the site architecture:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Navigation and sub-navigation labels</li>
	<li>Applications such as <a href="/blog/shopping-cart-software/" target="_blank">shopping carts</a>, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-are-wish-lists-and-why-are-they-important/" target="_blank">wish lists</a> or <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/effective-social-media-use-ecommerce-marketing/" target="_blank">social media plug-ins</a></li>
	<li>Functionality such as drop-down menus, slide shows or animation</li>
</ul>
<p>While a website's design will continue to evolve, the entire team should already be in agreement as to what the site needs to serve the user.
</p>
<p>Wireframing is meant to solidify a site's functionality and layout. Study the wireframe and determine whether the most important site functions are prominent and easy to use.
</p>
<p>Some companies begin user testing at the wireframe stage - bringing in outside subjects and giving them a series of tasks to perform. For instance, if a subject is unable to find the shopping cart on a wireframe, it may need to be resized or moved to make it more obvious.
</p>
<p>Once a wireframe is approved and agreed upon, the site layout should be locked. Major changes made in subsequent design steps will cost more time and money.
</p>
<h4>Wireframing tips</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Resist the urge to add content to wireframes. They should be entirely content-free so as not to distract from studies of form and function.
</p>
<p>Other best practices for wireframing:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>While they can be drawn by hand, it is better to use an illustration program (e.g. Adobe Illustrator). Designers like to move, copy and delete elements on the fly</li>
	<li>Any content area that will contain text should be filled with lorem ipsum - nonsense Latin meant to stand in for actual content</li>
	<li>Images should be represented by a box filled with an X</li>
	<li>Even if a logo has been finalized, fill the logo area with an empty box of the estimated size labeled "logo." You may discover that the logo needs to be redesigned to fit the layout</li>
	<li>Navigation, on the other hand, should accurately represent the site's final navigation. Size, orientation and order may need to be changed if navigation labels don't fit into the given space</li>
	<li>When designing a website, use pixels as your unit of measurement. It is standard for the Web. Many illustration programs have tools for measuring pixels</li>
	<li>Make wireframe dimensions exact, down to the pixel. These dimensions will carry down through every subsequent design step and to the final, coded site</li>
	<li>If your website is responsive, create wireframes for each screen size</li>
</ul>
<p>Wireframes are the foundation of good design. They encourage experimentation and promote innovation. Once the blueprints are drawn, experimentation ends.
</p>

Wireframes

A wireframe is a simple line drawing depicting the layout of a website before any decoration is added.

What is a wireframe, and why is it important?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Minimum-viable-product.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Popularized by the lean startup movement, minimum viable product helps a team gather the greatest amount of insight about consumers while using the least amount of resources (1). Startups with a low tolerance for risk that want to introduce a product to customers use this strategy, which is an iterative process that relies on testing ideas and prototypes, collecting and analyzing data, and refining the product until the desired result is achieved.
</p>
<p>Minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product that has several key attributes (2):
</p>
<ul>
	<li>It costs less for the business to produce while showing enough value to get people to try it.</li>
	<li>It holds enough appeal to gain the loyalty of a consumer group known as early adopters.</li>
	<li>It channels consumer feedback to the business, which it can then use to refine and improve future product development.</li>
</ul>
<h4>The lean startup movement</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Minimum viable product is an idea set forth by the lean startup movement, which provides a scientific method for helping startups get a product to market faster and smarter (3). The lean startup movement embraces the concept of growing a business through iterative product releases, experimentation and validated learning. The assumption is that <a href="https://foundr.com/how-to-start-a-startup/" target="_blank">when starting a startup</a>, you want to&nbsp;not only spend less money, but also eliminate uncertainty by testing their vision continuously.
</p>
<p>Lean startup entrepreneurs believe that many businesses fail because they invest a great deal of time and capital into perfecting a product without showing even a basic prototype to the customer first. By omitting this step, businesses miss critical feedback that could help them predict how the larger target market will react to the product and whether improvements should be made that will create a better outcome. The lean startup method takes a different approach. Instead of asking "How can the product be created?" it asks "Should the product be created?"
</p>
<p>This model introduces products to consumer groups in limited doses with the goal of enlisting early adopters who offer useful data in addition to revenue. This data is then used to optimize the continuing development of the product until market satisfaction is achieved.
</p>
<p>MVP is an effective tool for ecommerce owners who want to leave room for experimentation and test the waters before getting a new product up and running.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://practicetrumpstheory.com/minimum-viable-product/" target="_blank">Minimum Viable Product</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27809/minimum-viable-product-mvp" target="_blank">Minimum Viable Product (MVP)</a>"<br>3. "<a href="http://theleanstartup.com/principles" target="_blank">The Lean Startup Methodology</a>"
</p>

Minimum viable product

Popularized by the lean startup movement, minimum viable product helps a team gather the greatest amount of insight about consumers while using the least amount of resources.

What is minimum viable product?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Fair-use.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Imagine that there is a striking image that perfectly encapsulates your brand. Unfortunately, the image is copyrighted. What portion of the image can you use without incurring a legal liability? The answer falls within the rules of fair use.
</p>
<h4>What is fair use? </h4>
<p><strong></strong>Fair use is a doctrine of U.S. copyright law. It outlines the legal boundaries of utilizing copyrighted material without the copyright holder's permission.
</p>
<p>The fair use doctrine has been codified and refined over many decades of legal precedent. As such, it is not a hard and fast set of rules (1). Whether a work is considered fair use is determined solely by the courts. If a copyright holder believes your application of their material is not fair use, he or she is within right to bring suit. The courts will decide if the purpose qualifies under the fair use doctrine - an often long and expensive process for everyone involved.
</p>
<p>The broad categories that fall under fair use are:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>parody</li>
	<li>commentary and critique</li>
	<li>news reporting</li>
	<li>teaching</li>
	<li>scholarship</li>
	<li>research</li>
</ul>
<p>Below are a few examples of proper fair use:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>a film reviewer intersperses clips of a movie throughout a YouTube film review</li>
	<li>a teacher copies a single chapter from a book and gives it to her students</li>
	<li>a researcher quotes passages from another article to support a claim</li>
	<li>a musician takes the melody of a popular song and records new lyrics</li>
</ul>
<p>Section 107 of the US copyright code describes four factors for determining whether a work is fair use or not (2). They are:
</p>
<ol>
	<li>The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes</li>
	<li>The nature of the copyrighted work</li>
	<li>The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole</li>
	<li>The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work</li>
</ol>
<p>There is no pre-determined percentage of an image, or number of words, or number of musical notes that activates copyright law. Nor does acknowledging the holder of the copyright in your derivative work absolve you from the obligation to seek the holder's permission.
</p>
<p>In the vast majority of cases, works used in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise (e.g. advertisements or ecommerce website design elements) do not qualify as fair use.<br>There are, however, instances where a company's products could be construed as falling within the fair use doctrine. For example, if your company sells t-shirts emblazoned with the face of a celebrity that has been altered for humorous purposes, that purpose might be fair use.
</p>
<p>Seek the advice of a lawyer before profiting from any treatment of copyrighted material. Ideally, businesses wishing to utilize copyrighted material always gain permission from the copyright holder first.<br>An ethical business either finds the copyright holder and pays them for their work, or hires an artist who can create something new.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/" target="_blank">Stanford University Libraries - What Is Fair Use?</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html" target="_blank">Copyright.gov - What is Fair Use?</a>"
</p>

What is fair use, and why is it important?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Google-Webmaster-tools.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that helps you evaluate and maintain your website's performance in search results (1). Offered as a free service to anyone who owns a website, Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is a conduit of information from the largest search engine in the world to you, offering insights into how it sees your website and helping you uncover issues that need fixing.
</p>
<p>You do not need to use GWT for your website to appear in search results, but it can offer you valuable information that can help with your marketing efforts.
</p>
<h4>How GWT can help monitor your website's performance</h4>
<p>1. It verifies that Google can access the content on your website.<br>2. GWT makes it possible to submit new pages and posts for Google to crawl and remove content you don't want search engine users to discover.<br>3. It helps you deliver and evaluate content that offers users a more visual experience.<br>4. You can maintain your website without disrupting its presence in search results.<br>5. It allows you to discover and eliminate malware or spam problems that may not be easily found through other means.
</p>
<h4>How GWT helps you understand how Google search views your website</h4>
<p>1. It tells you the most popular queries causing your website to appear in search results.<br>2. It tells you which queries are driving the most traffic.<br>3. You can see which websites are linking to yours.<br>4. You can evaluate how well your mobile website is performing for people searching on tablets and phones.
</p>
<h4>How to set up GWT</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Before accessing any data, you have to verify that you are the owner, or authorized representative, of the website. There are five ways you can verify your website. One is not really better than the other, so you can choose which option is the easiest for you (2).
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Uploading an HTML file</strong> - Google gives you a file with a specific name that you have to upload to the root directory of your website. The file itself is blank. Its only purpose is to help prove that you have access to the website's FTP server and can drop files where they need to go. Once the file goes into the root directory, just click on the "verify" button in GWT, and you will have access to data.</li>
	<li><strong>Adding an HTML tag</strong> - You can also verify the website by adding a meta tag provided by Google that you can drop into the header of your homepage. Once this is in place, click on the "verify" button to view data. It's important to note that sometimes homepage code can be challenging to find with certain content management system (CMS) themes, particularly WordPress. It is also possible that your code might disappear when you update your homepage, revoking your access to GWT data until the tag is replaced.</li>
	<li><strong>Select the provider of your domain</strong> - Google gives you the option of selecting your domain name provider in a drop-down list. Click on your provider, and Google will walk you through the steps of verifying your website.</li>
	<li><strong>Use Google Analytics</strong> - As the administrator of your website's Google Analytics account, you can verify the website using asynchronous tracking code placed in the head of your homepage.</li>
	<li><strong>Using Google Tag Manager</strong> - this is a tool that allows you to enter and manage all the tracking tags for your website, including GWT.</li>
</ul>
<p>Once your account is set up and your website is verified, you will have access to plenty of actionable data that can help you optimize your website. You can receive alerts from Google, adjust settings to deliver specific information to your inbox, submit XML site maps and view user queries where your website appeared in search. Learn the basics of using GWT, and you will have a great resource on which to base your future marketing decisions.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/4559176?hl=en" target="_blank">What is Google Webmaster Tools?</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2191991/google-webmaster-tools-an-overview#" target="_blank">Google Webmaster Tools: An Overview</a>"
</p>

What is Google Webmaster Tools?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Duplicate-content.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Duplicate content is when snippets or entire pages of your website content appear in more than one location on the Internet (1). This causes problems with your search engine optimization (SEO) because when search engines scan these sources that contain duplicate content, they don't know what page to show to the user.
</p>
<p>Search engine crawlers seek out information through unique URLs it finds through various links, sometimes leading it to the exact same content through different URLs. Managers of large, dynamic websites often create two or more URLs that link to the same content without even realizing it. This is a very common occurrence in website development. Having duplicate content does not always result in a penalty from Google, but these issues are important to address. Duplicate content can cause search engines to ignore your page, or worse, your entire website (2).
</p>
<h4>Google's Panda update and duplicate content</h4>
<p><strong></strong>In February 2011, Google released an algorithm update, popularly known as Panda, which prevents websites with low-quality or thin content from ranking well in search results. This change was a reaction to widespread content theft in the Web development community.
</p>
<p>Since then, Google has released several updates to Panda and now offers tips to webmasters about how it distinguishes the good from the bad. Duplicate content is a part of a broader evaluation of what determines quality content, and Web developers have become much more attentive to them than in the past. Before attempting to address duplicate content, business owners should first understand what causes the issue in the first place.
</p>
<h4>Why ecommerce websites often have duplicate content</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Ecommerce websites are particularly susceptible to duplicate content because they often have multiple categories and product pages with shared attributes. An online store that has 80 products, each with similar features and descriptions, can easily look like overlapping duplicate content to Google bots. Even though the process can be time consuming, writing unique descriptions for all of your products can be the best way to prevent your pages from looking the same to a search engine crawler.
</p>
<h4>Other causes of duplicate content and how to fix them</h4>
<p><strong></strong>There are dozens of reasons why duplicate content can pop up on a website, and most of the time the culprit is a technical mistake (3).
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Variations in the URL</strong>: People often make the mistake of believing that Web pages are separate files stored on a Web server. The reality is that the same content can often be accessed by many different URLs. For instance, many marketers like to append URLs with parameters that enable them to track inbound traffic in Google Analytics. Google sees this as a completely new URL that points to exactly the same content as another. Most marketers believe that UTM parameters don't cause major SEO problems, but one way to address this is to use a canonical tag in the Web page code, specifying the URL that represents the preferred version of the page.</li>
	<li><strong>Domains with and without www</strong>: Browsers today will display to a website to the user regardless of whether or not he or she typed "www." Duplicate content issues arise when search engines see both www and non-www addresses as two different versions of the same page. Again, the best way to fix this is to use a rel=canonical tag in the code, telling Google which page is the best version for scanning.</li>
	<li><strong>Session IDs</strong>: When a user shops on your website, they need to be able to store items in their carts while they browse other pages. This information is called a session ID, a piece of code that is unique to every user. Sometimes this code is embedded in the URL structure, essentially giving every user their own URLs for your website, and all of them will be read by search engines as duplicate content. Most ecommerce platforms offer an option to remove session IDs from the URLs. You will need to change this in your settings.</li>
	<li><strong>Pagination</strong> - If you paginate longer posts within your website, or create comment pages, you can end up creating duplicate pages. Most CMS systems offer an option to disable that feature in settings and head off the problem.</li>
</ul>
<h4>How to tell if your website has duplicate content</h4>
<p><strong></strong>You can see if your website has duplicate content by checking your Google Webmaster Tools account. Look in the section called "Optimization," and there you will see "HTML Improvements." Duplicate items will be listed there. You can also use SEO analytics programs, like Moz, which have crawl diagnostic tools that will tell you if problems exist.
</p>
<p>Even though most duplicate content is unintentional and rarely earns a penalty from search engines, it's a good practice to stay attentive to how Google is reading your website, particularly if you add new content or products often.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="https://yoast.com/articles/duplicate-content/" target="_blank">Duplicate content: causes and solutions</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://moz.com/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world" target="_blank">Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World</a>"<br>3. "<a href="http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/duplicate-content" target="_blank">Ugh! Is your site suffering from duplicate content?</a>"
</p>

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is when snippets or entire pages of your website content appear in more than one location on the Internet.

What is duplicate content, and how do I fix it?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/IP-addresses.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">An IP address makes communication over the Internet possible. Technically titled a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, Web users and computer-network specialists simply refer to it as an "IP address." It enables two-way communication between digital computers, smartphones, tablets, printers, servers, scanners, routers and modems through the Internet.
</p>
<p>Internet protocol means a set of rules or guidelines for the Web. IP addresses help govern activity online through a network grid of systematic rules, completing requested tasks across the globe.
</p>
<p>Devices are assigned IP addresses automatically through the software in the server or router assigned to a computer. The formatting is universal, which is why computers in America can connect to those anywhere else in the world. As long as a digital device is connected to the Internet, it can be pinpointed. When one computer reaches out to another computer, both the initiating and receiving locations are identified by the online grid that uses IP addresses to connect the devices. At any given time, there are billions of connected devices that can be pinpointed around the globe using just IP addresses.
</p>
<h4>What does an IP address look like?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>All IP addresses consist of four sets of numbers separated by a single period. Each number set contains one to three digits and ranges between zero and 255. A hypothetical IP address looks like this: 45.186.2.209.
</p>
<h4>Static IP addresses</h4>
<p><strong></strong>A static IP address does not change over time. It is a straightforward and reliable way for digital devices to reach a particular online location. There are several key pieces of information a static IP address reveals about a particular device including the continent, country, region and city in which the computer is located, not to mention the exact latitude and longitude. It also provides information on the device's Internet service provider. This is an excellent type of IP for voice over Internet protocol and online game websites, both of which require swift connection to and identification of a device's exact location. While a static IP address may be considered slightly less secure than a dynamic IP address, practicing safe Internet usage practices should suffice in protecting users from harm. Servers, routers and firewalls usually use static IP.
</p>
<h4>Dynamic IP addresses</h4>
<p><strong></strong>A dynamic IP address is not permanent. In fact, a digital device using a dynamic IP is assigned a new address each time it accesses the Internet. Static IP addresses are limited, so many Internet service providers will set aside some dynamic IP addresses to dole out to subscribers temporarily.  Not only is this more cost effective for the ISP, it allows more bandwidth for subscribers than static IP addresses. Dynamic IP addresses are assigned through dynamic host configuration protocol, which allows the server to choose a new IP address each time the device signs online.
</p>
<h4>IP and ecommerce</h4>
<p><strong></strong>It behooves an ecommerce store owner to obtain a dedicated (static) IP address because this helps prevent identity and information theft from completed online business transactions. Most security technology used by ecommerce operators requires static IP addresses for complete functionality. A secure sockets layer certificate, which alerts consumers that any credit card and personal data entered online is safe, requires dedicated IP. It also is better at supporting high traffic volume on an ecommerce site. For any business that wants to avoid a constantly crashing site or delivering incredibly slow page loads to users, a dedicated IP address is the best choice.
</p>
<p>While a complete understanding of the way an IP address works isn't necessary to a successful online business, it is helpful in making some major company decisions.
</p>

IP addresses

An IP address makes communication over the Internet possible.

What are IP addresses and what do they mean for ecommerce?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Crowdfunding-is-the-art-of-raising-money.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Crowdfunding is a method of raising money online through the support of many different donors. Owners of crowdfunding pages announce a specific amount of money they need to raise in order to fulfill a goal or begin an enterprise. They also must determine an exact date by which the money has to be raised. <a href="/blog/benefits-and-drawbacks-of-crowdfunding/">Crowdfunding</a> is often the platform of choice for small business start-ups, artistic projects and charitable endeavors looking to reach a global audience. By taking in small donations from many parties, business owners can reach their target amount and begin developing their product (1).
</p>
<p>Backers of crowdfunded projects vary greatly. Unlike many new businesses, crowdfunded businesses are made possible by the general public rather than wealthy investors. In most cases, about 25 to 40 percent of a project is funded by the owner's first, second and third degree relations - family, friends and acquaintances. There are typically donation brackets on crowdfunding pages; each donation amount garners the donor a different gift. These gifts can range from a signed DVD copy of the completed movie that is being funded to free tickets to its premier, depending on the project and its owners. After a crowdfunding page has earned a steady following and consistent funds from those first three tiers of backers, it often picks up on a wider scale and reaches its niche markets around the world (2).
</p>
<p>To set up a crowdfunding page, the owner must describe their project and its purpose in great detail. Potential donors need to understand exactly where their money is going. The most successful crowdfunding pages contain videos that demonstrate the product or mission in depth, introduce key players, present a back story and describe the project's potential effect on a global scale. This helps donors match a face to the organization.
</p>
<p>With more than 450 crowdfunding platforms currently in existence and a World Bank report stating that revenue from this method could reach $96 billion by 2025,<a href="{entry:3015:url}"> ecommerce website&nbsp;owners</a> would be wise to get involved if they have not already.
</p>
<p>1. "What is Crowdfunding and How Does It Benefit the Economy" - Forbes
</p>
<p>2. "The 6 Waves to Watch in the World of Crowdfunding" - Entrepreneur
</p>

Crowdfunding is the art of raising money

Crowdfunding is a method of raising money online through the support of many different donors.

What Is Crowdfunding? (Updated for 2022)

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Mobile-devices-connect-with-beacons.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">If you have purchased a smartphone within the past couple of years, you're likely already in possession of a device that works with beacons. What are those? They're a fairly simple piece of technology that allows companies to communicate wirelessly with mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets (1). Using low-energy Bluetooth connections, beacons can either send to or collect information from these devices, which is one reason that retail organizations and marketers in particular are excited about the prospects of the technology.
</p>
<h4>Why beacons are so appealing to marketers</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Because so many consumers are smartphone or cellphone owners, beacons present an excellent opportunity to connect and engage with them whenever they're within range of the beacon technology. Marketers can track the movements of customers within a retail spot, measure how long they stay in a store and send targeted messages based on location (2). In other words, beacons are very similar to the website tracking and analytics tools that companies use to monitor the pathways that consumers take to reach a purchasing decision on ecommerce sites.
</p>
<p>This is one of the big reasons they have such an appeal for marketers. Companies can use the specific location of shoppers in stores - as the beacon picks up the Bluetooth signal from their smartphone - to deliver promotions and personalized messages. If a retailer has a <a href="http://vajro.com/" target="_blank">branded mobile application</a>, it's even easier to send push notifications to highlight specific discounts or sales.
</p>
<h4>How beacons connect offline and online worlds</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Retailers with both a brick-and-mortar and ecommerce presence can use beacons to connect shoppers who are walking down physical aisles with digital storefronts. If consumers walk past a particular display, the retailer can send them to an online portal that may provide discounts or even cross-sell opportunities.
</p>
<p>One of the leaders in this arena is the technology giant Apple. The company's iBeacons work with iPhones and iPads to connect consumers with retailers as they walk through a physical location, which is the same as any other beacon. One of the differences is the level of control shoppers have over how their mobile apps communicate with the beacons (3). Then, retailers can analyze in-store traffic based on how many people walk past their beacons. Similarly, marketers can monitor what kind of influence their push notifications have on ecommerce sales.
</p>
<p>Beacons are typically seen as a resource for brick-and-mortar stores, but there are significant applications for ecommerce retailers as well.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/beacons-and-ibeacons-create-a-new-market-2013-12">Beacons: What They Are, How They Work, And Why Apple's iBeacon Technology Is Ahead Of The Pack</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://www.fourthsource.com/ecommerce/beacons-dead-long-live-beacons-18951">Beacons are dead. Long live beacons</a>"<br>3. "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/2608498/mobile-apps/what-you-need-to-know-about-using-bluetooth-beacons.html">What you need to know about using Bluetooth beacons</a>"
</p>

Mobile devices connect with beacons

Using low-energy Bluetooth connections, beacons can either send or collect information to and from these devices, which is one reason that retail organizations and marketers in particular are excited about the prospects of the technology.

What are beacons?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/High-bounce-rates.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Bounce rate is a Web analytics term that measures the percentage of single-page sessions your site has. So when a shopper visits a page on your site and leaves the site without going deeper into the site or viewing more pages, that person contributes to your bounce rate (also known as an exit rate). There is no standard set measure of a "good" or "bad" bounce rate, so this Web analytic is most useful in the context of other metrics (1).
</p>
<p>Many visitors who leave a site after viewing a single page (called the entrance page) made their way to that page from a search engine. A quick exit might mean that the visitor found the information he or she was looking for and doesn't have a need to view additional pages on the site.
</p>
<p>More commonly, though, a high bounce rate can point to a problem, such as usability issues, confusing design, lack of enticement to explore further, or content that doesn't match what the user is after. Optimizing your site pages so they better correlate with the search terms that are bringing users to your site can be one way to lower your bounce rate. You can also change any ads or keywords to more closely reflect the page's content.
</p>
<p>Other factors that may contribute to a high bounce rate include (2):
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Bookmarks: If a user has a particular page of your site bookmarked, every time he or she visits it and leaves is considered a bounce.</li>
	<li>Single-page sites: Sites that consist of only one page tend to have high bounce rates because Google Analytics doesn't register multiple page views unless users reload that page.</li>
	<li>Splash pages: Some landing pages-particularly those that gate access to a site's content-can contribute to a higher bounce rate.</li>
	<li>Incorrect tracking implementation: If you're relying on a tool to track the bounce rate of your site, check that you've added the tracking code to all of your pages.</li>
</ul>
<h4>How to improve your bounce rate</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Because there's no set standard of a good or bad bounce rate, it's important that you measure your site's bounce rate only against past metrics from your site. Improving this rate is as individualized as the site itself, but in general:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Scrutinize specific data</strong>. Your site-wide bounce rate can be hard to parse, but if you break it down by platform (mobile vs. desktop) or specific traffic sources, you'll have an easier time creating targeted changes and measuring the impact.</li>
	<li><strong>Adjust design factors</strong>. Layout, navigation and interactive elements can all contribute to a high bounce rate if they present usability barriers for your visitor.</li>
	<li><strong>Give it time</strong>. Allot enough time in between any changes so that you can collect sufficient data and evaluate the impact each change has had on your bounce rate.</li>
</ul>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27952/bounce-rate" target="_blank">Bounce rate</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en" target="_blank">Learn what a bounce rate is, and how to improve it</a>"
</p>

High bounce rates

Bounce rate is a Web analytics term that measures the percentage of single-page sessions your site has.

What are bounce rates?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/CSS-lets-you-control-the-design.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is the coding language that gives a website its look and layout. Along with HTML, CSS is fundamental to web design. Without it, websites would still be plain text on white backgrounds.
</p>
<p>Before the development of CSS in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web pages were extremely limited in both form and function. Early browsers presented a page as hypertext - plain text, images and links to other hypertext pages. There was no layout at all to speak of, merely paragraphs running across the page in a single column.
</p>
<p>CSS allowed several innovations to webpage layout, such as the ability to:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Specify fonts other than the default for the browser</li>
	<li>Specify color and size of text and links</li>
	<li>Apply colors to backgrounds</li>
	<li>Contain webpage elements in boxes and float those boxes to specific positions on the page</li>
</ul>
<p>They put the "style" in style sheets, and for the first time, Web pages could be designed.
</p>
<p>The first commercial browser to read and utilize CSS was Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3 in 1998. To this day, support for certain CSS functions varies from browser to browser. The W3C, which still oversees and creates Web standards, recently released a new standard for CSS - CSS3. With CSS3, developers hope that all major browsers will read and display every CSS function in the same way.<br>
</p>
<h4>How does CSS work?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>To understand the basics of how CSS works, you must first understand a little about modern HTML. Web developers lay out pages according to the "box model." A Web page is a series of boxes, each containing a discrete element. These boxes are nested, one inside another.
</p>
<p>For example, a page's header is a box, and it contains several smaller boxes comprising all the elements that make up a header: logo, navigation, social media buttons, shopping cart buttons, etc. Using CSS, a developer assigns styles to the "header" box. In this example, let's assume that the developer makes the text inside the header purple, Arial font and fifteen points high.
</p>
<p>Here's where the "cascading" part of cascading style sheets comes into play. The font styles applied to the header cascade down to all the elements contained inside the header. Elements containing text such as navigation, links or calls to action will all be purple, Arial and fifteen points high.
</p>

CSS lets you control the design

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It is the coding language that gives a website its look and layout.

What is CSS, and why is it important?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Content-curation.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Content curation is the process of finding and collecting online content and presenting the best pieces in a structured way. Unlike content marketing, curation does not involve creating your own content. Instead, you are researching and sharing information created by other people that your audience will appreciate and respond to. Like all other aspects of marketing, content curation adds value to your brand and creates lasting relationships with your customers.
</p>
<h4>How is content curation used?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Content curation is omnipresent on the Web. All places where content is shared and discussed are <a href="http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Resources/Defining-EContent/What-is-Content-Curation-79167.htm">good examples of content curation</a>, including RSS feeds, social media posts, news aggregation websites, and links and articles referenced in blogs. There is no standard type of content either. Websites often curate and share text, video, audio, images and infographics.
</p>
<h4>Why is it valuable to the user?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>As more businesses embrace inbound marketing, the Web has become increasingly crowded with content. Business owners across the globe are trying to stake a claim in their industries and producing a massive amount of content as they do it. This leads to a situation often referred to as content saturation. When there are so many publishers writing about a given subject, consumers are challenged to sift through it and find quality information. Businesses that curate content, as well as publish their own material, are helping customers quickly get good information from the best sources in the industry.
</p>
<h4>Three popular strategies for content curation</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Many businesses collect helpful articles from other resources online, organize them and share them with readers, essentially making their brands an online magazine that shares the best content found on relevant topics users will like. The goal is to make your website a "one-stop" destination for the best information about your products and services, eliminating the need for consumers to research related topics elsewhere.
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>"Best of" aggregator blog posts</strong> - Some brands curate articles throughout a specified period of time and publish them on a certain day of the week or month. This creates an expectation among their readers that the best articles will be provided to them in a digestible format and at a predictable time. One example is Hootsuite's weekly post called "This Week in Social," where they share the latest trends, announcements and features from the world of social media. </li>
	<li><strong>Email newsletters</strong> - Email is another great channel for content curators because it offers direct contact with the consumer. You can deliver the quality content directly to them, saving the users from having to search for it. Many email <a href="http://www.aweber.com/index-trialzero.htm">marketing sites like AWeber</a> offer A/B testing, where you can <a href="http://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-b-testing-how-online-businesses-increase-revenue-split-testing">test different headlines</a> and see what draws the greatest response.</li>
	<li><strong>Sharing on social media</strong> - Offering valuable information from other industry leaders can reap big rewards on social media. It demonstrates confidence and expertise to your followers, showing them you know your business well and value the opinions of other influential people.</li>
</ul>
<h4>SEO benefits of content curation</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Content curation can also boost your search engine optimization efforts by helping you earn inbound links from other influential websites. This is a process that's sometimes referred to as preciprocation. Start by making a list of authoritative, influential sites that have shown a willingness to link to other resources, either through blog content, news round ups, or "how to" tutorials. Share their articles on your social media and email marketing channels, and make sure they are aware after you've done it. Also, you should interact with them in their blog comments or through email. Make sure your interactions with them demonstrate that you have a genuine appreciation for their work by asking good questions and making thoughtful comments. The next time you write about a related topic, reference them in your article, and after you distribute it to your fans, ask your link prospect if they would consider sharing it with theirs. Do not expect quid-pro-quo. Even though your company has promoted their work, it does not obligate them to do likewise. Still, your chances of getting shared and linked to are far greater when you have put in the effort of developing a genuine relationship with your prospect.
</p>
<p>Content curation benefits everyone. It benefits the publisher whose work you are sharing, it benefits your users by saving them time from having to look for great information, and it benefits you by keeping your customers engaged and enjoying your brand. By curating content, you can generate new ideas for your own content strategy while earning the respect of your peers in the industry.</p>

Content curation

Content curation is the process of discovering and collecting online content and presenting the best pieces in a structured way.

What is content curation?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Schema-markup.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Schema markup is code, or microdata, that you put on your website to help search engines provide more relevant and useful results to users (1). This microdata includes hints that help search engines categorize and interpret information that you want to highlight, and then present it in rich snippet form. Widely regarded as a valuable yet underused resource, schema offers businesses an opportunity to share a more immediate path to information users are looking for and increase search engine rankings at the same time.
</p>
<p>In a rare occurrence of collaboration between search engine giants, Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yandex (a Russian search engine that's experimenting with search without links) created a centralized hub called Schema.org (2) where webmasters can access the tools for schema markup.
</p>
<h4>What does schema do?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>When a search engine crawls your website, it is trying to get a sense of your navigation, layout and content. Schema doesn't change the way your website is crawled, but it can change the way the information is displayed. It assigns meaning to the content, rather than just telling the search engine what the page says (1).
</p>
<h4>Why is it useful for businesses?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Using schema, search engines can easily identify and display snippets of information that your customers may be looking for, like business hours, contact info and even payment types (3). In addition, it may be useful to apply markup to words and phrases that have different meanings in various contexts. This code is not visible at all to users unless they look at your source code.
</p>
<p><strong>Business location</strong> - By wrapping markup around your address, phone number and hours, this snippet could increase your local SEO visibility.
</p>
<p><strong>Customers reviews</strong> - According to a 2012 survey published by Search Engine Land (4), 72 percent of customers trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from someone they know personally. Review sites like Yelp and UrbanSpoon offer local business a lot of exposure based on the consumer's appetite for reviews. Using schema to highlight on-page reviews and testimonials can help you convert new customers.
</p>
<p><strong>Events </strong>- Local businesses often have a difficult time promoting upcoming events. Schema offers several filters you can apply to the information and give search engines a greater understanding of the content. Sections include sporting events, festivals, music, food, comedy and several others. Using specific markup can help you achieve better results in SERPs.
</p>
<p><strong>Google Plus Authorship</strong> - Businesses that blog on a consistent basis may want to consider using markup to connect their content to author profiles on Google Plus. By applying the rel=Author tag, Google can more easily categorize that person's content on the Web, which could, in theory, increase traffic, business credibility and Author Rank.
</p>
<h4>Types of microdata</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Microdata is a set of tags that came with HTML5 that allow you to communicate better with search engines. The most used item is a "thing," which contains four attributes: a name, description, URL and image (7). Specific types of data share properties with broader types, inheriting those attributes from its parent. For instance, a place is a specific sub-type of a "thing." The most commonly used items are:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Creative works, like books, movies and music</li>
	<li>Embedded items that are not text, like images and videos</li>
	<li>Events</li>
	<li>Organizations</li>
	<li>People</li>
	<li>Places, like local businesses</li>
	<li>Products and offers</li>
	<li>Reviews</li>
</ul>
<h4>How do I implement schema on my website?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Schema.org offers information that includes types of microdata, the vocabulary schema uses and how to test your markup.
</p>
<p>Types of micro data include:
</p>
<p><strong>Itemscop and itemtype</strong> - Adding an itemscope element to the HTML tag that encloses information tells the search engine what the item is about. For instance, if the information is about the movie "Star Wars," then in the tag preceding your &lt;h1&gt;, you would put "itemscope." Now you need to specify what type of item it is. You do this by adding the itemtype attribute right after the itemscope. Itemtypes are offered as URLs, defined in the schema.org list. Your tag that comes after the itemscope would look like this: itemtype=<a href="http://schema.org/Movie">http://schema.org/Movie</a>
</p>
<p><em>"Search engines can easily identify and display snippets of information that your customers are looking for with schema."</em>
</p>
<p><strong>Itemprop</strong> - You can additional information about the movie by telling search engines who directed it. Add a tag that include itemprop="director" before giving information about George Lucas will help the search engine understand that he directed Star Wars.
</p>
<p><strong>Embedded items</strong> - You can embed additional data within an item property you have already created. For instance, now that you have identified George Lucas as a type of person who is a director, you can also add properties such as birth date. You would do this by adding another itemscope right after the corresponding itemprop.
</p>
<p>There are also resources on the Web offering form generators that will build the code for you after you specify the categories and properties needed. MicroData Generator is one website that has a section for local businesses (5). Google also has a testing tool where you can check your markup for problems (6).
</p>
<p>Schema markup helps your website communicate with search engines that are increasingly focused on semantics. By giving them a greater understanding of what your content means, rather than just what it says, you can highlight sections of valuable data and gain greater visibility in organic search.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/get-started-using-schema/" target="_blank">How to Boost Your SEO By Using Schema Markup</a>"<br>2. "<a href="http://schema.org/" target="_blank">Schema.org</a>"<br>3. "<a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-use-schema-markup-for-local-seo/60245/" target="_blank">How to Use Schema Markup for Local SEO</a>"<br>4. "<a href="http://searchengineland.com/study-72-of-consumers-trust-online-reviews-as-much-as-personal-recommendations-114152" target="_blank">Study: 72% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations</a>"<br>5. "<a href="http://www.microdatagenerator.com/local-business-generators/" target="_blank">Local Business Generators</a>"<br>6. "<a href="https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/" target="_blank">Testing Tool</a>"<br>7. "<a href="https://schema.org/docs/gs.html#microdata_why" target="_blank">Why use microdata?</a>"
</p>

Schema markup

Schema markup is code, or microdata, that you put on your website to help search engines provide more relevant and useful results to users.

What is schema markup?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Average-order-value.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;"></p>
<h4>What is Average Order Value?</h4>
<p><strong>Definition: </strong>Average Order Value (AOV) is an ecommerce metric that measures the average total of every order placed with a merchant over a defined period of time. <a href="/blog/4-tips-increase-average-order-value-boost-revenue-video/" target="_blank">AOV is one of the most important metrics</a> for online stores to be aware of, driving key business decisions such as advertising spend, store layout, and <a href="/essentials/features/manage/accept-payments/" target="_blank">product pricing</a><a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/features/accept-credit-cards-and-payments/" target="_blank"></a>.</p>
<h4>How to calculate AOV &mdash; and why businesses should do it frequently</h4>
<p>The formula for calculating AOV is revenue divided by number of orders.</p>
<p><strong>  Revenue <br>___________            = Average Order Value<br>Number of orders <br></strong></p>
<p>AOV is determined using sales per order, not sales per customer. Although one customer may come back multiple times to make a purchase, each order would be factored into AOV separately.</p>
<p><em>Average Order Value</em> does not describe gross profit or profit margins, but offers insight into how those figures come to be. For example: an online clothing retailer selling three shirts priced at $15, $21, and $29 with an AOV of $19. This indicates two trends about consumer behavior on the storefront:</p>
<ol><li>Customers are not buying multiple items.</li><li>The low-end shirts represent the majority of sales.</li></ol>
<p>Assuming the more expensive items have higher margins, there is an important opportunity to improve positioning and marketing efforts for those products. By increasing AOV, online businesses <a href="/blog/advanced-conversion-tips/">increase their ROI</a> and ROAS for all marketing efforts. The higher your AOV, the more you are getting out of every customer &mdash; and as a result, out of every dollar spent to acquire those customers. </p>
<p>AOV should be monitored as closely as <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-metrics/" target="_blank">any other business metric</a> &mdash; preferably daily or weekly. When there are any dips or peaks, every aspect of the business should be closely examined to understand what may have driven the trend. New campaigns, buying seasons, and any cosmetic alterations to a website are possible factors that may affect fluctuations in AOV.</p>
<h4>Don't forget these metrics when evaluating AOV</h4>
<p>Like any ecommerce metric, its significance is tied to related business performance. Two important metrics to consider in tandem with AOV include:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Lifetime      Revenue Per Visitor:</strong> This is the <em>total</em> <a href="/blog/customer-lifetime-value-loyalty/" target="_blank">value of each customer</a> and      notes the average amount they'll order over time. If this is too low,      customers aren't making multiple purchases, which means a lower return on      all investments in advertising.</li>  <li><strong>Cost      Per Conversion:</strong> This metric notes how much it costs to get each      customer to convert, and should be subtracted from Average Order Value to      display the actual profit per order.</li></ul>
<h4>How to improve Average Order Value</h4>
<p>Understanding the average value of all orders is useful, but <em>not</em> the only way to calculate an average. For example, a store can <strong>segment customers into multiple groups based on their purchase history</strong>. Many stores split their customer base into thirds (Low, Medium, and High spenders), but it's also possible to segment customers based on frequency of orders, the types of products they're purchasing, or any other method that suits their needs.</p>
<p>Once customers have been broken up, they can be targeted with advertising tailored to their group. High spenders and frequent customers can be entered into a loyalty program that rewards them, while low spenders can be targeted with offers and cross-sells to try and improve their value.</p>
<p>Other methods of raising Average Order Value include:</p>
<ul>  <li>Bundling, <a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-difference-between-upselling-and-cross-selling/" target="_blank">upselling, and cross-selling</a>      additional products and services</li>  <li>Adding a<a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com.au/ecommerce-answers/why-offer-free-shipping-how-to-turn-a-profit-from-this-popular-perk/"> free shipping</a>      threshold (typically not too high above the average order value, but high      enough to ensure the company can afford it)</li>  <li>Applying a set discount on      minimum order values (and, if relevant, bulk orders)</li> </ul>
<p><strong></strong>          </p>
<p><strong>Don't try every method of raising the order value at once.</strong> Instead, test each option and figure out which is most effective for the store in question, then stick with what works.</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/AOV.html" target="_blank">AOV definition</a>"
</p>

Average order value

Average Order Value describes a key component of customer behavior.

What is Average Order Value?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Universal-Analytics.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Universal Analytics is a version of Google Analytics that set a new standard for how user data is collected and organized. Introduced in the fall of 2012, Universal Analytics offers new tracking codes for websites and features that can more accurately measure user behavior (1). Both Google Analytics (GA) and Universal Analytics (UA) are available to users. However, Universal Analytics is the only officially supported version today. Google is encouraging all users to migrate their properties to Universal.
</p>
<p>Both Universal and Google Analytics offer similar data to users, although UA gives the account owner more in-depth information about user behavior:
</p>
<h4>User ID</h4>
<p><strong></strong>A user who visits a website using multiple browsers and devices will appear to be multiple users in GA. When UA introduced user ID, it enabled reporting of all activity as coming from a single person. Now businesses can assess their user count more accurately, follow the signed-in user experience more closely and access Cross Device reports (2).
</p>
<h4>Tracking code</h4>
<p><strong></strong>UA introduced three new tracking codes to help users gather more useful insights about their website visitors:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Analytics.js</strong> - This is a code that measures how users interact with your website.</li>
	<li><strong>Google Analytics SDKs</strong> - This code is designed for mobile tracking.</li>
	<li><strong>Measurement Protocol</strong> - This collects data from other devices, including game consoles.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Offline data</h4>
<p><strong></strong>The UA application protocol interface enables tracking from outside sources, including lead generation systems and even call centers. The business can now get a bigger picture of the customer's behavior by importing offline data, like point-of-sale transactions.
</p>
<h4>Configuration of your analytics </h4>
<p><strong></strong>UA also gives businesses more ways to configure their accounts:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Organic search sources</strong>:You can modify how organic searches are reported in your data. GA sifts through your inbound traffic and separates the search traffic from other sources, like advertisements, and labels it "organic search traffic." GA will recognize traffic coming from the most popular search engines, assign it to the first engine that has a matching domain name and query parameter, and report it in your data (3). The problem is, when traffic comes from two different places with the same query parameter (like "Q"), GA will report that traffic as coming from the same source. For example, images.google.com and google.com might show up as the same organic traffic source, even though you consider them different. Using UA, you can change this designation and change the list to prioritize how user sessions are reported.</li>
	<li><strong>Session and campaign timeouts</strong>: People often visit websites and then leave them up on their browsers while doing other things. This can skew your session length reporting. The default setting in UA closes a session after 30 minutes and a campaign after 6 months (4). You can now adjust the settings to end sessions and campaigns when you desire. If your ecommerce website logs a user out automatically after a specified period of time, you should set your timeouts to match that length of time. If you don't have an auto-logout function and your website has a lot of content that will take users some time to go through, you may want to lengthen the session time. Conversely, if your content is light, you can shorten the session time.</li>
	<li><strong>Eliminating Referral Sources</strong>: GA labels any traffic that arrives from another source as a referral, as opposed to organic search traffic (where users find your site through a search query) or direct traffic (where users find you by entering your domain on the address bar of their browsers). Analytics immediately recognizes the source the user left just before landing on your website and lists the domain name in your referral traffic source report (5). With UA, you can now instruct Analytics to eliminate certain domains from the referral source report. This can be useful if your ecommerce platform uses a third-party shopping cart. By excluding that referral source, you can prevent your Analytics from counting the same session twice when the user returns to your website on the order confirmation page.</li>
	<li><strong>Ignoring search terms</strong>: When a user finds your website through a search query, Analytics logs those keywords and displays many of them in your reports (6). Many of these keywords are hidden from view, replaced with the term "not provided," but your keywords report will show at least some phrases people used to find your website. UA allows you to exclude certain search terms so those sessions don't count as search traffic. Instead, they will be listed as direct traffic. In most cases, the queries that generate the greatest amount of search traffic to a website are "branded keywords" or phrases that include the company's name. Most businesses try to optimize their websites for non-branded keywords, like industry related services and products. You can now exclude all branded keywords from your organic search reports and keep your analytics focused on more helpful metrics.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Creating custom metrics and using enhanced ecommerce</h4>
<p><strong></strong>UA offers additional customization opportunities like the ability to collect data that's unique to your business and goals. You can also tag your site with a plugin that offers advanced ecommerce reports that will give you greater insight into the effectiveness of your internal and external marketing.
</p>
<p>Universal Analytics gives people the opportunity to mold their reporting around the unique aspects of their business model and behavior of their users. It eliminates duplicate session reporting, while allowing you to import metrics from outside sources and get more insight into how well your website converts customers. By customizing your analytics to your business goals, you can gain a clearer understanding of how well your strategy is working, and optimize your overall business development.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.amazeemetrics.com/en/blog/google-analytics-vs-universal-analytics-which-one-choose" target="_blank">Google Analytics vs. Universal Analytics: Which One to Choose?</a>"<br>2. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2790010?hl=en" target="_blank">About Universal Analytics</a>"<br>3. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2795821" target="_blank">Customize organic search sources</a>"<br>4. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2795871" target="_blank">Session and campaign timeout handling</a>"<br>5. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2795830" target="_blank">Referral exclusions</a>"<br>6. "<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2795833" target="_blank">Search term exclusions</a>"
</p>

Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics is a version of Google Analytics that set a new standard for how user data is collected and organized.

What is Universal Analytics?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><strong>Definition</strong>: A business blog is a standalone website, or section of an existing business' domain, devoted to writing about subject matter related to their company's industry and its sub-fields. Business blogs have become a fundamental component of successful web marketing and utilized by most online businesses. </p>
<h4>How blogs help spur ecommerce growth</h4>
<p>Blogs help online businesses engage more customers and build up topical authority for SEO. The following considerations apply when attempting to maximize the utility of company blogs:</p>
<ul>  <li><strong>Blogs      containing highly relevant keywords</strong> within unique pieces of      content will be rewarded with a higher ranking on search engine results.      The higher a company's search engine result, the more potential customers      it will attract.</li>  <li><strong>If a      company can provide compelling blog content </strong>that      generates significant customer interest, it will likely prove to be a      legitimate customer recruiting tool.</li>  <li><strong>Today's      blogs are more engaging than ever </strong>thanks to the ease of integrating media and the number of educated writers with a unique voice. <a href="http://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-embedding/">Videos, images, and links</a> to other media can be embedded into a blog to make it a truly helpful and well-rounded. Mobile-friendly blogs further their reach by making their content easily accessible to users on any type of web-friendly device .</li> </ul>
<h4>Why  every business should maintain a blog</h4>
<p><strong>Where there's a business, there are people who want to learn about it.</strong> No matter how mundane an industry may appear to some people, there are others who are eager to read compelling content on the subject. And in industries without an abundance of blogs on their subject matter, a business can quickly become a trusted source. </p>
<p><strong>A blog increases a website's online “footprint”</strong> while simultaneously establishing the company as a reputable source in the field. Such a reputation attracts attention from online publications and social media, exposing a business to future customers and business partners.</p>
<h4>Checklist for a successful blog</h4>
<p>Blogs don't come with a noteworthy downside, but can fail to capitalize on their potential. </p>
<ol>  <li><strong>Pick      interesting topics:</strong> If a blog post isn't going to      answer a common question or provide a unique perspective, it's potential      impact is minimal. </li>  <li><strong>Target      relevant keywords: </strong>Once a business-relevant topic      has been chosen, target the keywords that will help it rank for high      search volume queries. That doesn't mean that blogs should be <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-keyword-stuffing/">forcefully      overloaded with keywords</a>; rather, write for impactful      keywords that naturally make sense in the context of the blog. </li>  <li><strong>Promote:      </strong>The biggest mistake ecommerce businesses (and online      marketers of all kinds) make is producing fantastic content and not      effectively promoting it. Leverage other online platforms such as social      media and email marketing to make sure your audience knows about new blog      posts. </li>  <li><strong>Write      often: </strong>One-off or sporadic blog posts can certainly have an      impact, but a successful blogging program requires consistency and      diligence.</li></ol>
<p><strong>Learn more about</strong> <strong><a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-inbound-marketing/">how to manage a successful ecommerce blog</a>. </strong></p>

Blogging

Business blogs expand an ecommerce store's reach and strengthen its domain.

What is a business blog — and why they're essential for ecommerce success

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/link-building.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Link building is the process of <a href="http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building" target="_blank">attaining inbound links</a>, or convincing sources on the Web to add hyperlinks on their websites that point to yours. Inbound links are a concern for businesses and marketers on the Web because they are one of the most important factors that impact search engine rankings, especially on Google. This gives inbound links the potential to significantly affect your business.
</p>
<p>In order to understand the <a href="https://appinstitute.com/weird-world-link-building/">importance of link building</a>, it's worthwhile to revisit why links are important on the Web in the first place.
</p>
<h4>Links are paths between pages on the Web</h4>
<p><strong></strong>A link is really just a path for visitors and search engines to get from one page to another on the Internet. Search engines use links to scan the Web and find relevant websites when people search. Links are also important within a single website, helping users and search engines easily navigate and find the information they need.
</p>
<h4>Why are links important to SEO?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Google pioneered the use of backlinks as a major search engine ranking signal in the late 1990s, using them as a "vote" of popularity. Google's algorithm assigned different values to backlinks based on a link's location and the strength of the linking website.. Since then, Google and other search engines have created more sophisticated algorithms that evaluate even more aspects of link data, combining that information with many other metrics that ultimately determine how high a website ranks for a given term or phrase.
</p>
<p>Despite the addition of other ranking signals, inbound links still have a major impact on rankings. What makes link building challenging is the way search engines grade the quality and relevance of links pointing to a website. Having more links than your competitors no longer guarantees that you will achieve higher rankings. In fact, links can now get your website penalized from Google.
</p>
<h4>Penguin and Google's war on link spam</h4>
<p><strong></strong>In the spring of 2012, Google rolled out an algorithm update that drastically changed the future of search engine optimization. Dubbed "Penguin," the update aimed to prevent websites that used spammy or "black hat" <a href="https://seo.co/link-building/" target="_blank">link building tactics</a>.
</p>
<p>Webmasters who had previously loaded up their sites to improve their search engine standings - using tactics like buying links, dropping them in directories and blog comments, and trading them through link networks - suddenly saw their traffic plummet. Google started issuing <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604824?hl=en" target="_blank">manual</a> or algorithmic penalties to websites with inbound links deemed "unnatural," resulting in a drastic drop in rankings or, in some cases, outright banishment from SERPs. Google updates Penguin several times per year, with plans to eventually release a version that&nbsp;<a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-we-are-working-on-making-the-penguin-updated-continuously-222247" target="_blank">updates in real time</a>. Webmasters combat Penguin penalties by monitoring their internal and inbound links, removing what they can and <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en" target="_blank">disavowing</a> (asking Google to ignore) the rest.
</p>
<h4>Link building today</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Google has introduced several adjustments to the Penguin algorithm update, continuing to refine the way it assesses links and the quality of websites based on that. As Penguin evolves and gets better at spotting unnatural links, it's more important than ever for webmasters to stay up-to-date with ill-advised tactics. Guest posting is one recent example of a marketing tactic that was highly effective for branding and building traffic; but when Google recognized that some marketers were using it exclusively for link building purposes, they cautioned against possible penalties.
</p>
<p>As long as search engines use links to determine rankings, marketers will continue to find <a href="https://www.growthramp.io/seo/link-bait/">new ways of generating inbound links</a>. The safest approach is to keep within the spirit of Google's guidelines. Focus on links as a conduit to audiences that will appreciate your content, rather than a signal for a search engine crawler. Instead of focusing exclusively on how to build links, channel some of those efforts into creating valuable content that webmasters and users worldwide genuinely want to share.
</p>

Link building

Link building is the process of attaining inbound links, or convincing sources on the Web to add hyperlinks on their websites that point to yours.

What is link building?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Splash-pages.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">A splash page is a special introductory Web page that users see before they can continue on to the main content of the site. Also known as a landing page or splash screen, this introductory page often contains high-design visuals, such as animated graphics or logo-centric designs (1).
</p>
<p>Some splash pages automatically bring the user to the main site after a certain number of seconds, while other sites require the users to navigate past the splash page. Interactivity on this page is generally limited to a few simple control buttons or text options, such as learning more about the company, registering or logging into the site, or moving onto the main site.
</p>
<p>For some sites, splash pages act as a gatekeeper. For instance, if a site's content is limited to registered users, a splash page may prompt log-in or registration for the site. If an online store requires customers be a certain minimum age, a splash page can require them to enter their date of birth before allowing them access to the site's main content.
</p>
<p>Splash pages can add visual impact to an online store and offer an element of necessary functionality for those sites that require some type of gated access. However, site developers must weigh these pluses against some possible drawbacks. Splash pages that rely on Flash may require users to have a Flash plug-in to properly view the page. Also, especially intricate splash pages may take a long time to fully load, which means they have the potential to negatively impact a site's average page load time. That could damage your site's search engine rankings and sales conversions (2).
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/splash_page.html" target="_blank">Splash page</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="http://www.techopedia.com/definition/5198/splash-page" target="_blank">What does <em>Splash page</em> mean?</a>"
</p>

Splash pages

A splash page is a special introductory Web page that users see before they can continue on to the main content of the site.

What are splash pages?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Google-uses-page-load-time.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">With so many sites at their fingertips, today's online shoppers <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/site-speed-stability-and-security-the-ecommerce-non-negotiables-all-online-businesses-must-deliver/" target="_blank">don't have to suffer slow websites</a>. If one of your pages doesn't appear lightning-fast, your customer will move on to speedier online stores-and rather than <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/conversion-rate-optimization-site-speed/" target="_blank">converting those clicks into sales</a>, you'll have delivered a bad customer experience instead.
</p>
<p>In fact, a one-second delay in page load time has been shown to cause a 7 percent loss in conversion and 11 percent fewer page views. For an online store earning $50,000 a day, that one-second delay adds up to more than $1 million in lost sales each year (1).
</p>
<p>In its simplest terms, page load time is the average amount of time it takes for a page to show up on your screen. It's calculated from initiation (when you click on a page link or type in a Web address) to completion (when the page is fully loaded in the browser). Usually measured in seconds, page load time is made up of two different parts:
</p>
<ol>
	<li>Network and Server Time: based on how speedy the internet connection is and how swiftly static assets like photos and other files are served up</li>
	<li>Browser Time: how long it takes for the browser to parse and execute the document and render the page to make it available for user interaction</li>
</ol>
<p>The same Web page can easily have different page load times in different browsers (e.g. Safari vs. Internet Explorer), on different platforms (e.g. mobile vs. desktop), and in different locations. If your site is served by one data center in the U.S. but you sell to customers in Australia and the U.K., for instance, those international shoppers are likely to experience much lengthier load times. But if your site's static assets are copied onto different data centers around the world, the page will pull from the data center that's closest to where your shoppers are. That can drastically speed up page load times.
</p>
<p>Different pages on the same site can also have radically different load times, because of developer decisions like richer design elements, beefier functionality, and more content on a page. There are several online tools for determining average page load times, meaning it's possible for your Web development team to focus on streamlining your slowest-loading pages first.
</p>
<h4>Why page load time is important</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Search engines like Google use page load time in algorithms that <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/advanced-seo-tactics/" target="_blank">determine search engine rankings</a>, meaning they're more likely to guide shoppers to sites that load quickly (2). Speed isn't the only thing to focus on-there are more than 200 signals in Google's search algorithm, and page load time is just one of them. Even small tweaks can shave time off and help boost your rankings.
</p>
<p>Beyond the rankings, <a href="https://www.woorank.com/en/edu/seo-guides/page-load-time" target="_blank">optimizing your page load time</a> is a great way to help users get where they're going faster-and happier shoppers are more easily converted into sales. Users who are frustrated by a slow-loading site are likely to "<a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/4-tips-improve-ecommerce-bounce-rate-right-now-sellmore-video/" target="_blank">bounce</a>" - that is, visit your store once, leave and never return. The Aberdeen Group found that 40 percent of shoppers abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Loyal customers who slog through a slow experience aren't unaffected either: A one-second delay (or three seconds of waiting) <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/more-speed-more-sales-your-store-is-now-powered-by-the-bigcommerce-cdn/" target="_blank">decreases customer satisfaction by 16 percent</a>. Lower satisfaction means your slow-loading pages aren't just impacting that one customer visit-page load time can prevent customers from wanting to return to your site or recommend it to their friends.
</p>
<p>1. "'<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/customers-are-won-or-lost-in-one-second-finds-new-aberdeen-report-65399152.html" target="_blank">Customers Are Won or Lost in One Second,' Finds New Aberdeen Report</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html" target="_blank">Using site speed in web search rankings</a>"
</p>

Google uses page load time

With so many sites at their fingertips, today's online shoppers don't have to suffer slow websites.

What is page load time and why is it important?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Product-bundles.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Product bundles are several individual goods or services that are sold to consumers as one combined package. Sometimes called "package deals," product bundles are generally made up of complementary items or, less frequently, similar items. When retailers offer multiples of the exact same item, this is generally referred to as a "multipack," not a product bundle (1). Examples of product bundles would be a fixed-price meal at a restaurant or a beach kit that includes sunscreen, sand toys, flip flops and towels as one saleable item.
</p>
<p>Some retailers only sell certain inventory items as part of a product bundle rather than offering them as either individual or bundled items. For retailers who sell the same items both individually and as part of a product bundle, the bundle tends to cost less than if a customer were to purchase those items individually. Making the savings explicit is one way to <a href="/blog/conversion-rate-optimization/" target="_blank">entice the user to purchase</a> the bundle, though they might have intended to only purchase a single item on the site.
</p>
<p>Bundles may be marketed as distinct items at any point in the online shopping experience, including the homepage. Or they can be automatically generated by online tools when a customer tries to complete the transaction, as in an "add this and save" <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-promotions-discounts/" target="_blank">promotion offer</a>.
</p>
<p>Product bundles can be especially popular with customers who appreciate the bundle's discount. They also appeal to customers who value speed or simplicity over the ability to tailor their product options.<br>For online retailers, product bundles are appealing for several reasons:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Bundling can effectively increase <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/4-tips-increase-average-order-value-boost-revenue-video/" target="_blank">average order value</a>, by selling more without incurring higher transaction costs.</li>
	<li>Bundling makes it harder for customers to price-comparison shop and bounce to the site with the absolute lowest price point.</li>
	<li>Bundling can encourage cross-selling if the product bundle includes items from new categories</li>
</ul>
<p>1. "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200442390" target="_blank">Product Bundling Policy</a>"
</p>

Product bundles

Product bundles are several individual goods or services that are sold to consumers as one combined package.

What are product bundles?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Brand-advocates.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Online businesses depend a great deal on word-of-mouth to garner customers. Increasingly, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing/">word-of-mouth advertising</a>&nbsp;happens via Internet communication and <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/effective-social-media-use-ecommerce-marketing/" target="_blank">social media</a>. Every time one of your satisfied customers tells a friend about your product or service, she creates a new potential customer.
</p>
<p>Brand advocacy is a new promotional strategy, one that evolved naturally out of social networks. To use it effectively, you must understand the medium and build relationships with the messengers.
</p>
<p>Brand advocates approach the Internet differently than average users, often with different goals in mind when they communicate to their social networks. Brand advocates seek to become taste makers and influencers. They are highly prolific and are concerned with building a personal brand. They want to be widely known as a trusted source of information. They review consumer products because they feel passionate about the subject matter and wish to educate their audience.
</p>
<p>These people are often Internet-savvy and well-versed in the language and culture of online communities. Many of them have large Twitter or Facebook followings. Some produce YouTube videos where they review and discuss their purchases.
</p>
<p>Successful brand advocates become brands themselves, and their opinions carry a great deal of weight within their chosen communities.
</p>
<p>The most famous and extreme case of brand advocacy is Oprah. If Oprah recommends a book or product to her audience, it is guaranteed to become a best-seller.
</p>
<h4>Humble beginnings</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Most brand advocates do not have Oprah's following - they are far more modest. On average, brand advocates have between 200 to 300 followers. Brand advocates with more than five hundred followers are considered highly influential.
</p>
<p>This may not sound like a lot, but for small businesses, a few sales can make a big difference. In addition, people in the brand advocate's circle discuss their purchases among themselves, too, creating a brand visibility feedback loop. Getting people to talk about your brand is the goal.
</p>
<p>It is crucial to remember that brand advocates do not champion brands because they are being paid. In fact, paying a brand advocate for an endorsement is considered a conflict of interest and is frowned upon as an ethical violation. Integrity is a brand advocate's currency, and a loyal community can turn hostile if ethical lapses are discovered.
</p>
<p>They champion brands because they are excited and passionate about the products. Some brand advocates develop a relationship to the businesses they review, but receiving discounts or free merchandise is not their primary motivation. They would talk about the products even if they got nothing.
</p>

Brand advocates

Online businesses depend a great deal on word-of-mouth to garner customers.

What are brand advocates?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Millennials.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Regardless of an online business' size, understanding the target customer is paramount to success. There are innumerable ways to segment and leverage shopper data, including geographic location, likes and dislikes, and spending habits. With so many variables, dividing customers into broadly-defined groups is an effective way to begin segmentation. One bucketing process is age demographics.
</p>
<h4>Age Demographics and Segmentation</h4>
<p><strong></strong>
</p>
<p>While behavior and tastes vary widely within <a href="https://www.kyleads.com/blog/demographic-segmentation" target="_blank">demographic groups</a>, there are also many consistencies that can be targeted with general best practices. There are different tactics to employ based on each age demographics preferred mode of communication, feeling about advertising, and familiarity with technology. Your target age demographic is infused into every aspect of a business: curation of products, website look and feel, checkout process, customer service and much more.
</p>
<h4>Generation Z</h4>
<p><strong></strong>The youngest generation of shoppers is the hardest to define, in part because they haven't reached adulthood. Generation Z refers to people born after the early 2000s, comprising adolescents and children. While much of Generation Z won't <em>directly</em> make online purchases, they have a major influence on the parents that spend a collective $24.9 billion on back-to-school shopping alone. This generation also possesses the technological proficiency to browse for products online.
</p>
<p>Marketing to this group is best accomplished by connecting with parents. Getting brand familiarity with busy parents looking to minimize the number of decisions they have to make is key to success
</p>
<h4>Millennials</h4>
<p><strong></strong>There are roughly 75 million millennials in the Untied States, defined as people aged 18-34. Generation Y, as it's also known, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/01/16/this-year-millennials-will-overtake-baby-boomers/">recently surpassed baby boomers</a> in number. These young adults are either finishing school or participating in the workforce. Similar to Generation Z, these young adults are generally proficient with technology. They tend to have <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/" target="_blank">higher-than-average levels of debt</a> but also are optimistic about their future economic status.
</p>
<p>Millennials have lower levels of traditional brand loyalty but recognize and value positive experiences with businesses. <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/marketing-to-millennials-ecommerce/">Effective marketing to millenials</a> often invokes a personable tone and must be consistent across all channels. Millenials form perception of         &mdash; and interact with         &mdash; businesses on social media, leading to a major shift in the way . Millennials generally use mobile devices often, so a mobile-friendly website is a must.
</p>
<h4>Generation X</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Generation X, by and large the children of the baby boomers, range in age from roughly 35 to 50 years old. Once viewed as upstarts, Gen X is now beginning to occupy higher and higher positions on the corporate ladder and having children of their own. Stereotypically characterized as having a higher-than-average sense of apathy and lacking a strong level of respect for authority, this generation now consists of parents, homeowners, managers and executives in many instances.
</p>
<p>This is the last generation where a significant majority grew up without home computers, although they now have plenty of experience using laptops and desktops as well as mobile devices. Members of Generation X don't have high levels of trust for businesses and, in some respects holding an attitude similar to millennials, don't have particularly strong brand loyalty. Frustratingly for ecommerce merchants, Generation X has been defined in many respects as a middle-of-the-road group - they <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/05/generation-x-americas-neglected-middle-child/">self-report as less unique</a> or distinct than millennials or baby boomers.<br>
</p>

Millennials

While behavior and tastes vary widely within age demographic groups, there are also many consistencies that can be targeted with general best practices.

What are the major age demographics in ecommerce?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/JavaScript.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;"><a href="https://www.fraudlabspro.com/resources/tutorials/add-fraudlabs-pro-agent-javascript-bigcommerce/">JavaScript is a programming language</a> used primarily by Web browsers to create a dynamic and interactive experience for the user. Most of the functions and applications that make the Internet indispensable to modern life are coded in some form of JavaScript.
</p>
<p>The earliest incarnations of JavaScript were developed in the late 1990s for the Netscape Navigator Web browser. At the time, Web pages were static, offering little user interaction beyond clicking links and <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/site-speed-stability-and-security-the-ecommerce-non-negotiables-all-online-businesses-must-deliver/" target="_blank">loading new pages</a>. For the first time, JavaScript enabled animation, adaptive content and form validation on the page.
</p>
<p>For many years, JavaScript only functioned on a limited number of browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the largest browser base, did not support JavaScript until much later. Instead, Microsoft created its own proprietary client-side script called JScript. In the early days of <a href="https://www.istudy.org.uk/course/professional-web-development-course/" target="_blank">Web development</a>, programmers who wished to create dynamic websites were often forced to choose one browser family over the other. This was less than ideal because it made the Internet less universally accessible.
</p>
<p>JavaScript did not become standardized and widely adopted until 1999. Even after standardization, browser compatibility remained an issue for over a decade.
</p>
<h4>How does JavaScipt work?</h4>
<p><strong></strong>JavaScript is what is known as a client-side script. Most Web applications, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-seo-checklist/" target="_blank">such as a search engine</a>, work because of an interaction between the user's device (e.g. computer, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mobile-ecommerce-seo/" target="_blank">phone or tablet</a>) and a remote server. The software on the remote server sends information to the client (i.e. the user's machine) and the software on the client side reads the information and renders a Web page on screen.<br><br>A client-side script is a programming language that performs its tasks entirely on the client's machine and does not need to interact with the server to function. For instance, if you have a Web page loaded on your computer and your Internet service provider goes down, you are still able to interact with the Web pages already loaded on your browser. You will not, however, be able to navigate to new Web pages or access any data located remotely.
</p>
<p>Some of the dynamic website enhancements performed by JavaScript are:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Autocomplete</li>
	<li>Loading new content or data onto the page without reloading the page</li>
	<li>Rollover effects and dropdown menus</li>
	<li>Animating page elements such as fading, resizing or relocating</li>
	<li>Playing <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/product-video-marketing-examples/" target="_blank">audio and video</a></li>
	<li>Validating input from Web forms</li>
	<li>Repairing browser compatibility issues</li>
</ul>
<p>While JavaScript is a client-side language, some of its most powerful features involve asynchronous interaction with a remote server. Asynchronous simply means that JavaScript is able to communicate with the server in the background without interrupting the user interaction taking place in the foreground.
</p>
<p>Take a search engine for example. Today, search engines almost all have an autocomplete function. The user begins typing a word into the search box and a list of possible search terms or phrases appears below. The experience is seamless. Suggested search terms appear without reloading the page.
</p>
<p>In the background, JavaScript reads the letters as the user types, sends those letters to a remote server and the server sends suggestions back.
</p>
<p>The software on the server side analyzes the words and runs algorithms to anticipate the user's search term. Such programs are diabolically large and complex. The JavaScript on the client's machine is as simple and small as possible so as not to slow down the user's interaction. The communication between JavaScript and the server-side program is limited by the user's bandwidth. This is why developers prioritize efficiency in JavaScript functions and make the amount of data communicated between the programs as small as possible.
</p>
<p>Only once the user selects a search term does the entire page reload and produce the search results. Engines such as Google have reduced or eliminated the need to reload, even for that step. They simply produce results using the same asynchronous process.
</p>
<h4>The future of JavaScript</h4>
<p><strong></strong>While JavaScript is not the only client-side scripting language on the Internet, it was one of the first and it is still the most widely used. Many developers believe that JavaScript is inefficient and finicky, so they have made many improvements to the language over the years. Enterprising programmers have created JavaScript libraries - more concise languages constructed from the building blocks of JavaScript that are less complex and can be targeted for specific applications.
</p>
<p>For instance, JQuery is a JavaScript library that simplifies and expands many of JavaScript's animation and interactive functions, while Backbone.js makes responsive design easier.<br>JavaScript has become integral to the Internet experience as developers <a href="http://www.coorva.com/" target="_blank">build increased interaction and complexity into their applications</a>. Search engines, ecommerce, content management systems, responsive design, social media and phone apps would not be possible without it.
</p>

Java Script

JavaScript is a programming language used primarily by Web browsers to create a dynamic and interactive experience for the user.

What is JavaScript, and why is it important?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Personas-are-valuable-tools.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">A persona is a group of people who demonstrate similar behaviors in various aspects of life. These groups are analyzed and categorized by marketers who want to understand how to motivate individuals to purchase products and services, and eventually become brand loyalists (1).
</p>
<p>Often personified by a fictional character, like "CEO Charlie," personas focus on the qualitative aspects of specific market segments that are useful in determining their goals, desires and limitations. This information is used to customize a business's marketing mix, including messaging, packaging, features and distribution. Personas are also useful to online business owners who wish to improve the user experience on their websites by crafting the language, design and navigation according to the goals of the desired audience.
</p>
<h4>Why personas are important</h4>
<p><strong></strong>In previous years, companies used more homogenous strategies to market to consumers. They picked a broad section of the market that seemed like a good fit and created a "one-size-fits-all" approach to reach them. When <a href="https://www.inmyarea.com/resources/cable-tv/cable-provider-discounts-might-not-know" target="_blank">cable and satellite media services</a> gained widespread use, niche advertising began to grow in importance. Consumer choices were expanding, making it more difficult for marketers to reach significant numbers of people without buying advertisements on multiple media channels.
</p>
<p>Today, the marketing paradigm has shifted even more toward the consumer. People not only have more choices of what to buy, they now often choose how to customize a product to their tastes after purchasing. Today, consumers expect brands to focus on their individual needs and desires before bringing products and services to market.
</p>
<h4>How to profile buyer persona</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Like any marketing activity, creating buyer personas with accuracy depends to some extent on the resources of the business. Some have the time and budget to conduct in-depth interviews with hundreds of people, questioning buying preferences, habits and behaviors.
</p>
<p>These interviews typically work best when conducted in-context, such as at the user's workplace or at home, where marketers can uncover environmental attributes that may not be easily discovered in a research facility (1). After the business has identified similarities between people, they categorize them into personas and conduct a second round of interviews that focus on each group. The goal is to validate the first sample of data and fill in any gaps left by the previous interview.
</p>
<p>Some businesses lack the resources to hire a research firm to discover personas and may instead have to gather research others have already done, or try to do it themselves by talking to customers. Persona behaviors are largely influenced by shared attributes in market segments. These attributes may include, but are not limited to (2):
</p>
<p>Gender - the sex of the user is a very important factor in some products and services, but not all of them. The business owner should know whether gender plays a role in his or her marketing mix, and if so, how much.
</p>
<ul>
	<li><strong>Age</strong> - This is the simplest part of any persona profile. Age can influence a variety of factors, including the person's values, goals, interests, anxieties and purchasing power.</li>
	<li><strong>Profession</strong> - This applies to B2C companies only, since B2B companies will know which professions suit them. Profession can impact how the persona may use your products and services, particularly if the solution you provide is career-oriented.</li>
	<li><strong>Finances </strong>- This is one of the most important considerations in a persona profile. While it is important to determine the financial means of your target customer, it is equally important to know how they determine value. Are they willing to pay more for a premium service, or do they view your product category as a commodity where the lowest price always wins?</li>
	<li><strong>Intent</strong> - Knowing why the consumer buys your product is important for knowing how to position it to new buyers. The product could serve a tangible purpose, solving a specific problem, or it could be a lifestyle choice, aligning their self perception with brands they like.</li>
	<li><strong>Leisure time</strong> - How does your target audience spend its free time? Knowing details about interests, hobbies, eating and media habits can present new opportunities for you to reach these people.</li>
	<li><strong>Shopping habits</strong> - What other products and services does this persona buy? Determine what else they are looking for, and seek ways you can serve them better with your own offerings.</li>
</ul>
<h4>How to invest your business into persona marketing</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Surface level demographic information is no longer enough. Businesses need to have a deep understanding of why customers behave the way they do and what they expect from the companies they buy from. Understanding their motivations makes it possible to mold your solutions, products, designs, campaigns, customer support and other aspects to conform to their expectations. Once companies have the data they need, they need to put it to good use.
</p>
<p>Persona information should be shared generously between all levels of an organization, as each and every department contributes in some way to the customer experience. Every touchpoint a customer has with a brand - whether in the introductory, research or buying phase - should be enhanced by the business's knowledge of that persona.
</p>
<p>Likewise, any silo within a company that learns something new should share it with the entire organization. Company leadership should always encourage the cross-pollination of information so persona profiles can be refined and improved.
</p>
<p>Personas are incredibly important to business success today, and maintaining a deep understanding of them requires a constant, ongoing effort. Customer needs change, and companies should evolve with them, maintaining a constant dialogue and improving their offerings as they go.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-foundation-of-a-great-user-experience" target="_blank">Personas: The Foundation of a Great User Experience</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="http://www.petersandeen.com/introduction-to-buyer-personas/" target="_blank">9 Steps to Profiling Buyer Personas</a>"
</p>

Personas are valuable tools

A persona is a group of people who demonstrate similar behaviors in various aspects of life.

What is a persona?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Browser-caching.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">You've heard the word cache before, but don't know exactly what it means in context of the Web. In common parlance, caching means placing something in storage (usually in secret) on the chance that it may come in useful later (e.g. a weapons cache). A browser or Web cache does exactly that, except with program and website assets. When you visit a website, your browser takes pieces of the page and stores them on your computer's hard drive. Some of the assets your browser will store are:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Images - logos, pictures, backgrounds, etc.</li>
	<li>HTML</li>
	<li>CSS</li>
	<li>JavaScript</li>
</ul>
<p>In short, browsers typically cache what are known as "static assets" - parts of a website that do not change from visit to visit.
</p>
<p>What to cache and for how long is determined by the website. Some assets are removed from your machine in a few days while others may remain in your cache for up to a year.
</p>
<p>When many people hear that websites are storing assets on their machines without their knowledge or permission, they get a bit nervous. After all, we're placing a great deal of trust in Web developers, hoping that they won't put anything destructive or malicious on our devices.
</p>
<p>The benefits of browser caching far outweigh the risks. Good firewalls, virus scanners and common sense are all you need to keep your machine safe.
</p>
<h4>The benefits of caching</h4>
<p><strong></strong>When you visit a website for the first time, your browser has a conversation with the remote server that hosts the site. Your browser sends a request, and the server sends back one of the website's assets. The page HTML is the first to download and it becomes the blueprint by which the site is constructed. As your browser reads the HTML code, it sends out more requests to the server to send more pieces of the page, mostly the static assets mentioned above.
</p>
<p>This process takes up bandwidth. Some Web pages will take a great deal of time to fully download and become functional because they have a lot of pieces or their assets are large.
</p>
<p>For instance, you may notice that when you first open a Web page, the text appears before the images. That's because text is small and takes little time to download, whereas a high-quality image may take several seconds (an eternity in computing time) to populate.
</p>
<p>Caching improves and speeds up browsing. Once you've downloaded an asset, it lives (for a time) on your machine. Retrieving files from your hard drive will always be faster than retrieving them from a remote server, no matter how fast your Internet connection.
</p>
<p>Take a typical ecommerce site. Certain assets, such as the logo, will appear on every page in the exact same location no matter where you are on the site. Without caching, your machine would have to download that logo every time you clicked on a new <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-elements-are-needed-product-pages/" target="_blank">product page</a>.
</p>
<p>Along with large images, complex sites use large JavaScript files - necessary for applications such as shopping carts, interactive images and wish lists. Imagine how <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/how-optimize-ecommerce-store-conversions/" target="_blank">conversion rates</a> would be negatively impacted if a user had to wait five to ten seconds for a "Buy Now" button to appear beneath a product. A fast, fluid browsing experience is essential to making customers feel comfortable and encourage conversions. In addition, the next time you visit the cached ecommerce site, those assets will still be available on your device for faster loading.
</p>
<p>Mobile devices are frequently limited by bandwidth. Some mobile data plans also have bandwidth caps or charges. The less a user has to download of a website, the better for them.
</p>
<h4>Some pitfalls</h4>
<p><strong></strong>You've enabled asset caching for your website. The next day, you decide to change the color of your logo. You swap out the old logo for the new one and check your live website to see how it looks. But the old logo is still there.
</p>
<p>Assuming you completed the image swap correctly, the problem is usually caching.
</p>
<p>Your machine has a cached version of your logo on the hard drive. It never bothers to request a new download of the image. Therefore, your machine will not obtain the new logo until the cache file it has on hand expires.
</p>
<p>Old versions of cached files cause all sorts of issues for users if their devices don't have the latest version of the file - mismatched formatting, broken JavaScript and incorrect images are just a few.<br>For the most part, this doesn't happen because the server knows which assets have been updated and need to be replaced on the user's machine. However, if one of your customers complains that the site is broken for them and no one else, then you should advise them to clear their browser cache.
</p>
<p>All the major browsers have a "clear cache" button. Some are easier to find than others. Hitting that button erases all of your cached files. Try it. Visit a page you frequent and note how long it takes to load. Clear your cache. Visit the page again and note how much longer it takes for the page to load.
</p>
<p>Browsers also allow you to clear the cache only for certain websites. If only one website is having caching issues, clear the problem site and leave your others intact to keep your browsing fast and fluid.
</p>

Browser caching

You've heard the word cache before, but don't know exactly what it means in context of the Web.

What is a browser cache, and why is it important?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Ecommerce-software.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;"><a href="https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/">Ecommerce software</a> is the engine behind the scenes of an online store, making it possible to easily manage inventory, add or remove products, calculate taxes, and everything else required to manage a website and fulfill orders.
</p>
<p>Ecommerce software simplifies intricate processes in a friendly user interface that enables people non-technical backgrounds to oversee an entire ecommerce operation. Despite the ease of use that ecommerce software brings to an online business, it is a multifaceted and complex machine.
</p>
<h4 style="font-variant: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Types of Ecommerce Software</h4>
<p>Ecommerce software comes in two basic flavors, with many varieties of each:
</p>
<p><strong>On-Premise: </strong>Installed and managed on-site by developers who facilitate manual updates, fix problems and do general troubleshooting. Traditionally, merchants went with on-premise solutions due to the increased flexibility from hosted solutions. <br>
</p>
<p><strong>SaaS: </strong>Software as a Service (or "hosted") solutions are much more hands-off from a technical standpoint. The only development requirements are for additional design and custom features &mdash; all updates, patches, and newly-released features are done automatically or with one-click integrations. Hosted ecommerce software has evolved to the point where the customization and flexibility, previously exclusive to on-premise, is robust, making it more than sufficient for most online retailers. Ecommerce stores using SaaS software can be launched in 1/3 of the time and at a much lower cost than on-premise solutions.
</p>
<h4>What does Ecommerce software do?</h4>
<p>The purpose of ecommerce software is to put everything you need to run your store in one place. While the platform itself doesn't fulfill every task, integrations with leading providers make it possible to seamlessly run a business without jockeying between different services. Accounting software, ERP, <a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-3pl-third-party-logistics-and-ecommerce">3PL</a>, social media &mdash; such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest &mdash; and much more can be linked to ecommerce software so data sharing is not manual.
</p>
<h5>Ecommerce software: </h5>
<p><strong>Simplifies marketing: </strong>Built-in SEO and easy optimization allow online stores to rank higher in organic search engines such as Google for increased discovery and lower customer acquisition costs. <br>
</p>
<p><strong>Automates shipping and taxes: </strong>Printing shipping labels, calculating sales taxes based on customer location, and sending notification emails to customers. <br>
</p>
<p><strong>Manage products: </strong>From <a href="/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-sku-how-online-business-use-it/">SKUs and variations</a> (size, color, quantity) to product names and images, ecommerce software allows an online store manager to get a high-level view or drill down to the specifics without any technical knowledge required. <br>
</p>
<p><strong>Customer & order management: </strong>Managing an order from inception to delivery is crucial to the success of any business. Ecommerce software lets you filter by customer, check order status, and make changes on the fly. Integrations with email platforms <a href="/apps/mailchimp-email-campaign-manager/">such as Mailchimp</a> provide another medium for managing customer communications. 
</p>
<p><strong>Enhance overall user experience: </strong>If customers can't find what they need &mdash; and fast &mdash; then ecommerce software hasn't done it's job. Hosted solutions offer <a href="/enterprise-ecommerce-solution/performance">service-level agreements to guarantee uptime</a>, and simple website management with analytic insights help you find optimization opportunities. 
</p>
<h4>Brick-and-mortar businesses moving online </h4>
<p>Physical storefronts are not an alternative to online businesses: in fact, they can enhance each other. An online presence greatly expands a business' reach and brand awareness, opening up sales to the entire web (as opposed to nearby customers only). Ecommerce is estimated to comprise 10% of the economy in 2015, with <a href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/physical-goods-omnichannel-smbs-lead-the-ecommerce-growth-spurt/">predicted growth of 44%</a> by 2019. Many physical stores are adopting ecommerce due to the the ability to reach more people and expand their brand across all channels. They can now display, solicit and ship their products or services to the end-user, or the customer who bought what they're selling. </p>
<p><strong><em>Learn how <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/">ecommerce software from Bigcommerce</a> is revolutionizing online retailing. </em></strong><br></p>

Ecommerce software

Ecommerce software enables businesses of various sizes to easily manage their online storefront.

What is ecommerce software?

<p style="margin-top:3%;"><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Category-page.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Categories group individual Web pages together based on a similar subject or theme. Widely used in blogging platforms like WordPress, categories give order and structure to a website's content, or its taxonomy. Categories organize your content in a way that should make it easy for the user to find what he or she is looking for, and category pages serve as an index of all the pages and posts that belong to that particular subject.
</p>
<p>Adding a post or page to a website should always include assigning it to a category, and you don't have to limit it to just one. Posts can be added to as many categories as you wish, but it's a good idea to keep user intent in mind when organizing your content. If the target customer struggles to find what he or she is looking for, then you should rethink your strategy.
</p>
<h4>How categories work</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Categories are often hierarchical, where the subject serves as a parent to a child page, several children pages or even grandchildren pages. This gives the website a top-down, general-to-specific taxonomy that helps users drill down to find what they are looking for. For instance, an online apparel store might have a parent category like "Men's Shirts" with "Men's Denim Shirts" as a subcategory page, and under that page you might have several more children pages featuring shirts of different sizes, colors and styles. As the user moves from the homepage to a category page, the URL structure will display the hierarchical structure in descending order from left to right, from "<a href="http://www.bigecommerce.com%22/">www.bigecommerce.com"</a> to "<a href="http://www.bigecommerce.com/categorypage%22">www.bigecommerce.com/categorypage"</a> to<a href="http://www.bigecommerce.com/categorypage/productpage.%22">www.bigecommerce.com/categorypage/productpage."</a>
</p>
<p>Hierarchical organization is not the only method to set up the taxonomy for your ecommerce platform, but it is the most common, mainly because visitors understand and are comfortable with the structure.
</p>
<h4>Common mistakes with category pages</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Although category pages are widely used, they tend to get overlooked as a crucial piece of an online marketing strategy. Category pages are a crucial part of the overall user experience and can have a big impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
</p>
<p>Using boilerplate text - category pages often serve as an index page where the user passes through on his way to one of the children pages, so webmasters often overlook the language and presentation of the page itself. Many categories feed into one another through parent child relationships, and because of this, on-page text often gets copied and pasted from one to the next. Taking this chunk of duplicate content and nesting it on the category page can hurt your on-page SEO. When Google bot scans a page, it looks for unique content, and if the text is copied from another page on the site, it doesn't know which page is better to rank. Writing unique introductory text for each category page is a time consuming task, but in the end it may help your page to rank higher in search engine results. If you have hundreds of category pages that need rewriting, you might consider hiring a freelancer to make the process less daunting.
</p>
<p>Forgetting to include reviews  - companies often cram their websites with volumes of promotional text, touting the benefits of their products and services, but more often than not, people are influenced by consumers like themselves who have written about their own experiences with the product. Consumers rely on ratings so they can better understand whether the product fits their unique needs and get a sense of the performance, reliability and customer service the company offers. Having several legitimate 4-5 star views displayed on your category page can increase user conversions drastically.
</p>
<p>Omitting internal links that can increase sales - most webmasters recognize the value of including anchor text and other links that take the user deeper into the website. However, many businesses do not offer links to categories and products that are related to the page the user is on. If you present accessories or items that "customers also bought," you may <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/ecommerce-checkout-pages">convince them to checkout</a> with more items in their shopping cart. Another way to offer popular items is by displaying "most searched products" beside the internal search bar. This will tell users what other people are seeking and give you insights into the popularity of your product mix at the same time.
</p>
<p>Category pages are extremely useful for keeping a website coherent and helping customers get to what they are looking for quickly, but they can also be used as a business development tool. You can take category pages to a whole new level by using them to increase conversions and enhance your overall SEO.</p>

Category page

Categories group individual Web pages together based on a similar subject or theme.

What is a category page?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Social-logins.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Social logins allow visitors to use existing login information from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus to sign into third-party sites (1).
</p>
<p>It's most broadly used to authenticate the user, or verify the user's identity, but it can also be used as an authorization mechanism to allow users to post site content to their social networks. When used in this way, social logins are often implemented using OAuth, a secure protocol that grants third-party applications a "session token" so they can post to providers on behalf of the user.
</p>
<p>For the consumer, the main advantages of social logins are speed and convenience. Signing in with a social login generally takes just seconds. And when they use a social login, they're spared from creating a new login account and remembering a new password for the site. Integrated social posting also makes sharing content from third-party sites across their social networks more convenient.<br>For online retailers and Web developers, social logins can provide multiple benefits, including richer user data, more registration and greater social promotion.
</p>
<p>When retailers offer social login, they can gather valuable insights about a user's demographics and social network. This info can include the user's public profile, address, hometown, phone number, email address, likes, and Facebook friend list or Twitter following list. With Facebook, Web and app developers are able to tailor which information they request from the consumer, which may help overcome privacy hesitations from the user. Retailers may be required to demonstrate how the information they access will be valuable to the consumer, such as when using a consumer's likes to curate product offerings (2).
</p>
<p>Social login has also been shown to boost registration for third-party sites. More than 90 percent of consumers say they've left a site rather than complete a traditional registration system, according to market research firm Janrain (3). The firm's data shows that offering social login can increase registration conversion by more than 50 percent.
</p>
<p>For consumer sites that offer social functionality, such as commenting, sharing or gaming features like earning badges, social login allows for easier engagement. That social activity can be a cost effective, user-generated means of marketing your site and its products.
</p>
<p>Many sites that offer social login also offer traditional online registration so that customers who don't have a social networking account or don't wish to employ social login aren't precluded from registering on the site. That can be particularly appealing for consumers who have expressed privacy concerns over social login.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="https://dev.twitter.com/web/sign-in" target="_blank">Sign in with Twitter</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="https://developers.facebook.com/products/login" target="_blank">Facebook Login for Your Apps and Websites</a>"
</p>
<p>3. "<a href="http://www1.janrain.com/rs/janrain/images/Industry-Research-Value-of-Social-Login-2013.pdf" target="_blank">The Value of Social Login</a>"
</p>

Social logins

Social logins allow visitors to use existing login information from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus to sign into third-party sites.

What are social logins?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/business-continuity-plan.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">A business continuity plan outlines the procedures to keep your ecommerce operations up and running following a physical or technology disaster. Not having a plan in place puts your business's revenue and reputation in peril in the event of a data breach, warehouse disaster, IT server emergency or any other sever disruption.
</p>
<h4>Why write a business continuity plan?</h4>
<p>Having a written plan in place in place before disaster strikes allows your team to focus on execution during a crisis, rather than making frantic decisions in the moment.  For instance, <a href="https://www.eye4fraud.com/" target="_blank">if your company suffers an email cyber attack,</a> the business continuity plan would outline your team's response and divvy up responsibilities, such as alerting the email provider. With the major steps outlined, you can immediately spring to action. A business continuity plan prepares you to respond quickly and <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/89510" target="_blank">mitigate any potential damages</a> caused by the crisis.
</p>
<h4>Many businesses are at risk</h4>
<p>Despite the well-known advantages of having a business continuity plan, nearly three out of four small businesses don't have  one in place, according to a survey by Alibaba, Vendio and Auctiva. That's especially noteworthy when you consider that each year, <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-website-security/" target="_blank">1 in 5 online businesses falls victim to fraud</a>. Most mid-sized companies that use an on-premise ecommerce platform have <a href="http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2009/CompetitiveEdge/ReducingDowntime.pdf" target="_blank">16 to 20 hours of downtime each year</a>&mdash;and each hour carries a hefty price tag of $70,000.
</p>
<p>It's worth noting that ecommerce sites powered by Software as a Service (Saas) solutions don't typically suffer such costly downtime. Security measures on these sites tends to be much more robust. Businesses using an ecommerce platform would still want to formalize a business continuity plan, but would likely shift their concerns to other vulnerabilities, such as email security.
</p>
<h4>A poor response can signal disaster for your business</h4>
<p>An online store's reputation and revenue both hang in the balance following such an event, and not all ecommerce sites are able to recover. In addition to the loss of revenue and cost of recovery, you must be wary of customer data getting into the wrong hands. <a href="/blog/pci-compliance/">Taking the necessary steps for PCI compliance</a> to prevent a data breach in the first place is crucial, because even a refined response may not be enough. Customers who feel that a data breach wasn't handled effectively are unlikely to return&mdash;no matter how loyal they've been in the past. In fact, some 60 percent of companies that experience a major data loss go out of business within six months.
</p>
<h4>Best practices for business continuity planning</h4>
<p><strong>1. Start by focusing on risk assessment. </strong>What are the most likely disasters, breaches and unexpected events given your online store's industry, your customer base, and the location of your warehouses and data servers? You'll need to consider both <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/essentialguide/Essential-guide-to-disaster-recovery-and-business-continuity" target="_blank">online risks</a> (security breaches, significant server downtime) and offline risks (earthquake, medical emergency that makes the business owner unavailable).
</p>
<p><strong>2. Get the whole team involved. </strong>Make sure all of your employees understand the continuity plan so that your availability doesn't bottleneck a response in the face of a disaster. Distribute copies of the business continuity plan to all team members and store them digitally in multiple places (server, email) so that the loss of one platform doesn't cripple your recovery efforts. Integrate the business continuity planning into the on-boarding of any new employees and periodically review it with the entire team as new risks emerge or response strategies evolve.
</p>
<p><strong>3. Safeguard against preventable risks.</strong> The old adage rings true in modern business: prevention is the best cure. While you won't be able to completely eliminate the risk of a data breach, for instance, you can go over proper protocols with employees to greatly minimize the risk that one will impact your online store. Train your team members on security deficiencies, such as creating strong passwords and safeguarding company data. You can also review response drills with your ecommerce team to ensure that everyone knows the overall plan and their expected role in executing it.
</p>

Business continuity plan

A business continuity plan outlines the procedures to keep your ecommerce operations up and running following a physical or technology disaster.

What's a business continuity plan?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Open-source-software.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Open source is a <a href="/articles/ecommerce/ecommerce-platforms/" target="_blank">type of licensing agreement</a> that allows users to freely modify a work, use said work in new ways, integrate the work into a larger project or derive a new work based on the original. By removing barriers between innovators, open source promotes a free exchange of ideas within a community to drive creative, scientific and technological advancement.
</p>
<p>Although, it is most commonly used in the software industry, professionals utilize open source licenses in many industries: biotech, electronics, fashion, robotics and teaching to name a few. This article will focus exclusively on the software applications.
</p>
<p>By placing an open source license on an original work, a person or organization agrees to:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>Make the entirety of the program's code available to the public</li>
	<li>Allow anyone to modify, enhance or re-engineer a program's code</li>
	<li>Allow the creation of derivative works</li>
	<li>Allow the program to be utilized for any purpose the user wishes (1)</li>
</ul>
<p>An open source licensing agreement stands in contrast to "proprietary licensing." When a user first starts a piece of proprietary software (e.g. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, iTunes) the user typically agrees that they will not alter or modify the source code and will only use the software in the ways prescribed by the manufacturer. The back-end code of proprietary software is kept secret from the public, and anyone attempting to re-engineer or copy the code is subject to legal action by the software's owner.
</p>
<h3>Why open source?</h3>
<p><strong></strong>The idea of open source stems from the technology community. From the earliest days of computers, programmers and engineers developed new technologies <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-co-marketing-joint-marketing-campaigns-and-ecommerce/" target="_blank">through collaboration</a>. For instance, a programmer in San Jose develops a new application, then another programmer in Singapore studies the application and discovers ways to improve it. The knowledge is shared, and the entire community benefits from the collective innovation.
</p>
<p>In many ways, the creation of the open source license was a direct response to proprietary manufacturing. The not-for-profit Open Source Initiative (OSI) was founded in 1998. It administers open source licensing around the world, promotes open source development, facilitates community and educational initiatives, and gives conferences (2).
</p>
<h3>The open source cycle</h3>
<p><strong></strong>Many people believe that creating an open source product means giving that product away for free. While many open source applications are free, developers are entitled to sell their work to the public. However, the license dictates that they are not allowed to <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/online-business-laws/" target="_blank">copyright or patent</a> the derivative work, or keep any part of its code secret. Therefore, others may create derivative works that perform the same function better, for nothing.
</p>
<p>The open source license naturally propagates to all applications that derive from the original. By agreeing to the license, users are also bound to it. Once a piece of software is made open source, all versions of the software will be open source in perpetuity.
</p>
<p>Instead of selling open source products directly, businesses tend to build services on top of an open source foundation. A stronger base improves all businesses that depend on the software.
</p>
<h3>The Internet is open source</h3>
<p><strong></strong>The fundamental functions of the Internet are built on open source technologies. The Linux operating system regulates the operation of Web servers, and the Apache Web server application negotiates data transfer between the worldwide server infrastructure and personal devices. Countless Internet applications are also open source.
</p>
<p>Large Internet companies, like <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/facebook-advertising-guide/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="/blog/google-shopping-ads/" target="_blank">Google</a>, have even opened up some of their proprietary innovations to the open source community. Disseminating the technology improves the experience for all users by creating efficiencies and making the entire Internet more streamlined.
</p>
<p>Open source licensing encourages innovation through collaboration. Without it, many of the technologies we take for granted today would never have developed, or would be locked away behind patent law. The open source movement is the reason that technology has developed at such a breakneck pace for the past few decades.
</p>
<p>1. "<a href="http://opensource.org/definition" target="_blank">The Open Source Definition</a>"
</p>
<p>2. "<a href="http://opensource.org/about" target="_blank">About the Open Source Initiative</a>"
</p>

Open source software

Open source is a type of licensing agreement that allows users to freely modify a work, use said work in new ways, integrate the work into a larger project or derive a new work based on the original.

What is open source, and why is it important?

<p><img src="https://www-cdn.bigcommerce.com/assets/answers/Seasonal-shopping.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;">Retailers, both online and offline, have to deal with a deceptively simple concept: seasonality. In short, there are periods of time during the year when businesses receive higher and lower volumes of customers orders. As Forbes indicated in a recent article, every company goes through slumps while other points in the year are difficult for companies to keep up with demand.
</p>
<p>The most obvious examples of this can be seen during the fall and winter holiday seasons. Thanksgiving Day, <a href="/blog/black-friday-ecommerce/">Black Friday</a>, <a href="/blog/small-business-saturday/">Small Business Saturday</a>&nbsp;and <a href="/blog/cyber-monday-marketing/">Cyber Monday</a> tend to cause retailers serious headaches if they aren't prepared to handle a massive spike in orders. In fact, a graph from October 2014 showed the seasonal fluctuations in sales beginning from 2000 (1). Not surprisingly, ecommerce has taken off sharply since online retail really began to take hold in the early 2000s. What's somewhat surprising is that ecommerce sales rise more sharply during the fourth quarter of every fiscal year than in-store sales.
</p>
<p>Accordingly, it's not out of the ordinary for many of the major ecommerce stores to adjust their business models, supply chains, inventory and shipping strategies during peak times of the year.
</p>
<h4>The influence of holidays</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Typically, seasonality occurs or coincides with celebrations. For instance, the aforementioned Thanksgiving holiday shopping days, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which broke a record for online sales in the U.S. last year, are linchpins for ecommerce success. Shoppers spend roughly $1.5 billion - a rise of 28 percent - through online channels to take advantage of discounted and limited-time offers (2). However, this primarily American phenomenon has taken off in neighboring country to the North, Canada.
</p>
<p>In other parts of the world, cultural and national celebrations typically influence ecommerce. For instance, one of the major Indian festivals, Diwali inspires shoppers to make purchases online during the month of November. Meanwhile, Single's Day, a recently invented holiday in China, was one that broke ecommerce sales records in the Asian nation. Instead of celebrating the love between couples and married people, Single's Day inspired people going it solo to spend money on their friends without significant others. The result was weekend of online sales that reached $3 billion between two of China's leading ecommerce sites.
</p>
<h4>Seasonality differs for each online company</h4>
<p><strong></strong>Taking into account that each ecommerce store will likely sell a specific type of product, spikes and slumps in sales are going to happen at different points of the year. For instance, online flower shops and candy stores will likely see a major jump in sales during Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, but they might not see much action during the Fourth of July. Conversely, an ecommerce merchant selling Americana and patriotic merchandise will have the greatest success during celebrations honoring the U.S.
</p>
<p>Whatever the ecommerce store specializes in, it needs to figure out when their seasonal slumps occur so that they can effectively figure out the cause. That's the first step in finding a solution and making certain that holidays aren't the only time your ecommerce store sees business.</p>

Seasonal shopping

Retailers, both online and offline, have to deal with a deceptively simple concept: seasonality.

Glossary

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