Information Technology (IT) and Ecommerce have become vertically integrated arms of one another, and the symbiotic relationship has only grown stronger year over year. The importance of good infrastructure cannot be overstated. It can make or break an online business.

Customers have high expectations of companies that choose to conduct business online. Security is an obvious concern, but people also want to find the product they want or need easily and quickly. In order to meet these expectations, there are many details working in the background to help make the customer experience pleasant, simple, and free from technical obstacles.

If you want an online presence that is effective, beyond using social media like Twitter, you will need a well thought out website that always works. That means the provider hosting your website must be reliable. Before you choose, prioritize what you want in your website. Will it be packed with various features or streamlined? Use those priorities as a guideline when you choose the web hosting service that will provide the backbone of your online infrastructure.

A poor performing website can make a huge difference in how long a visitor stays to read about your business or whether they leave without visiting additional sections. If pages do not load within seconds or if the site is unstable, customers will quickly move on to a better performing site. There are supplemental tools that will reduce or eliminate possible lag time. These are Content Delivery-Networks (CDNs).

CDNs are very simply a group of servers that deliver content to people who are on the internet. The goal is to get that content to the viewer as quickly as possible. In order to do this, CDNs are broken up into Points of Presence (PoPs). That is where the various groups of servers are physically and geographically located. The individual servers in each of these many groups are called edge servers. In essence, this means that CDNs have global reach.

When a request to view content on a website is made by someone interested in a product – be it tires, lipstick, books, or a tablet – that request is sent to the nearest content delivery network. Because the availability of a server is immediate, site speed is enhanced. Therefore, find a reputable, high performing CDN that will help increase your conversion rates. Not only should the CDNoptimize speed, it should be customizable as well. A few of the more popular ones are CloudFlare, Amazon CloudFront, and Swarmify.

The freedom of open source software has given developers the opportunity to manipulate and modify code in order to distribute new versions of a program. This means new and more interesting features are created daily. Fortunately, third party services have taken over the responsibility of hosting these different software applications. These services make the software available to users across the internet via cloud computing. Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of its three major categories. The other two are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which provides computing resources, and Platform as a Service (PaaS) which allows third parties to provide hardware and software tools.

All three are delivered over the internet. These three aspects of cloud computing are saving organizations a lot of time and money. Infrastructure is no longer built or held in-house. Companies must ensure that these components of the IT infrastructure are reliable in order to achieve success in ecommerce.

With technological advancements, there has been a widespread use of internet in every spheres of life as individuals are using internet for every tasks of everyday life. There are an increasing number of individuals who are using internet for buying products and services as it is considered as the most popular and preferred way of shopping. This is the reason why a large
number of businesses are going online and if you are also interested in selling products online and making a huge amount of money then the most important thing is choosing niche products. Starting on online business is a very lucrative opportunity that helps you get financial freedom as it enables you to earn high income while working according to your comfort and convenience.

If you want to become successful in your online business venture then you will need to choose good products to sell worldwide. These products are the goods for serving specific segments of customers as these products are most popular ones that are manufactured according to demands and in small batches according to the needs and requirements of specific group of customers. Therefore choosing niche products will determine the success of your online business and it depends on your creativity and research that will help you get choose the right products for your business. Hence you look for products with proven track records and high in demands as it will help you get a large number of customers who will be interested in buying your products online.

You will need to determine a niche market for your online business as it is the first and foremost step for getting a scalable,
successful and sustainable business. Moreover when you select good products to sell worldwide, it will help you grow your customer base and reach wider audiences in a short span of time. Niche marketing will help you succeed as you will get ahead of your competitors as you can also consider selecting non-refundable products so that you will not have to face any kind of issues or hassles. When you have selected niche products, you will have to face less competition because with smaller targeted market, you will not face more problems in retaining your present customers. Rather than marketing your
products among a wide audience base, you can also select a smaller group of people for promoting your products so that you can save a considerable amount of money on marketing and promotion. With easier to target customers, you will not have to spend a huge amount of money on marketing campaigns as you will get loyal customers for your business. Hence it is important that you strive to satisfy the specific market needs, define product features, set the product price and product quality for the market. You can do keyword research for finding the best products that you can consider for selling online as it is important that you choose niche products online as it will determine the successful of your online business. Online businesses strive on competition and you will need to work harder to stay ahead of your competitors which include offering products that seems more appealing to the customers so that they will prefer your business over that of your competitors.

A reliable e-commerce platform is essential for businesses that are into selling products and services online. If you are a start-up involved in selling something on a brick and mortar store, then there is a better chance of growth, provided you can sell your products online too. By selling online, you are connected to a wider audience and your products are available to your customers for 24/7. E-commerce specialists always recommend choosing the best small business enterprise e-commerce solution to launch an online store immediately.

When it comes to selecting the appropriate e-commerce software in the market, there are every chance of getting confused with so many platforms available. Being a small business and a start-up, the problem is more because you have to keep your initial costs low. So how to start picking the right enterprise e-commerce solution?

Below the 5 most popular e-commerce platforms to help you in the selection process:

1. Shopify: Considered to be one of the best e-commerce solutions. It comes with many functionalities to offer for small businesses. The biggest USP is that it is easy to use. You don’t need a strong technical background to use it. You can upload an unlimited number of products and there is easy control of inventory. Nothing much to pay for transaction fees. It is best suited for business owners who simply want to set up its business online without any technical problems. There are many free add-ons too. But the drawback here is that customization capabilities are limited in Shopify.

2. BigCommerce: It is a hosted platform and one of the most popular enterprise e-commerce implementations for small business. It provides for an attractive storefront, has SEO friendly features with properly formatted pages. The URLs are also simple, which make it easier for customers to stumble upon your e-store. The admin dashboard is also easy to use and control the backend operations.

3. Hybris: Though new, it has been designated as the leader in the e-commerce market by Forrester. Hybris platform is most suitable for big businesses but even small businesses can make use of this platform but with the help of hybris partners or hybris offshoring services. Hybris offers an omnichannel shopping experience for customers, which is the USP of this eCommerce platform. E-commerce consultants are in big favor of hybris platform for both small and big businesses, especially the B2B ones.

4. Yahoo store: Though Yahoo is considered as a search engine, but very few know that it has been providing e-commerce solutions to small businesses. In fact, this is one of the most reliable and cheapest options to start an online small business. It provides for a versatile storefront with proper payment and shipping facilities. A basic yahoo store can accommodate almost 50,000 products and so it is very helpful for start-ups and they don’t even need to upgrade even when their business begins to grow.

5. Volusion: This is also an extremely cost-effective e-commerce platform for small business. It is more or less similar to Shopify but cheaper. The only hitch is that there are limited customization options but for a start-up, this is a good platform. It also integrates well with eBay and Amazon, which means that you can run stores on these sites as well for maximum reach.

The first thing you will need before creating a website is a domain name. It is important to choose the right domain name as a bad one can hurt your business. You should choose a domain name according to the content and niche of your site.

What Is A Domain Name?

A domain name is a relevant and easy-to-remember set of words that we use to communicate with a DNS(Domain Name System) server. Domain name servers maintain a directory of domain names and translate them into IP addresses. The domain name is the identity of your blog or website.

Top Level Domain(TLD)

Top level domain extensions are the parent domains at the end of the domain names like ‘.com’, ‘.info’, ‘.gov’, etc. The top-level extensions follow the mid-level domain which makes your site unique, for e.g., google, facebook, twitter, etc. The complete domain name begins with a machine name like ‘www’.

Domain Name Auctions

Sometimes, it is not too easy to find the exact domain name that you want for your website or blog. If you want to buy a domain name owned by somebody else, you can try domain name auctions to find out if it is available for sale.

There are marketplaces online for buying and selling the pre-owned domain names. The auction sites usually charge a fee from the seller to list the domain. They can enlist their domain name and set a price, set a reserve, minimum reserve, etc. Bidders can make an offer to the sellers and buy the domain name they want for their site.

Finding The Best Domain Name For Your Website

It is best to stick to the ‘.com’ top-level extension if you want to create the site for a commercial purpose. You should take the following factors into consideration to choose a good domain name for your blog or site.

– Relevant

The domain name must be relevant to the context, topic, and niche of your website. Your visitors will come to know about your website from your domain name. You don’t want to give them a false idea about your website as it can lead to high bounce rates.

– Easy To Remember

It is critical to choose a domain name which is very easy to remember. Make sure that it does not contain any special characters or difficult to remember words. Keep your target audience in mind while choosing your domain name.

– Avoid Long Names

Generally, the shorter the domain name, the better it is. You should not choose a long domain name as it looks unprofessional and tends to repel the visitors away.

– Unique

It is not a good idea to choose a generic domain name as it is not good for branding purposes. Choosing a unique domain name is necessary to differentiate from your competitors in your niche.

– Branding

Your domain name is the most critical branding element of your online business. Besides the blog or website, your social media channels and your business will most likely be also known by your domain name.

To Sum Up

The domain name is the identity of your website. They are easy to remember to communicate with a DNS server and translate into an IP address. If you cannot find the domain name that you want for your site, you can probably find it on domain name auctions.

To choose the best domain name for your site, make sure that it is relevant to the content and niche of your site. It is important to find an easy-to-remember, unique domain name for branding purposes.

There are usually one or two companies that come to mind when we think of shipping. What many people don’t realize is that there are some great online shipping options available. By searching online, you can find some great shipping companies that will give you some outstanding options and pricing.

There are many shipping options on the Internet. In fact, the Internet has made it possible for people to find greater bargains, better customer service and convenience like never before. It’s easy to ship when using online services; rather it’s one package a month or many on one day. In order to use online shipping, you will need access to the Internet, a printer, a debit or credit card, and an account with the online shipping service.

If you find a shipping service that you want to use, you must first create an account. This is basic information about you and how you can be reached if there are any problems with your packages. You will need to provide your means or payment, rather debit or credit card. Many online shipping services will also accept PayPal for a payment option.

Once this is complete, you will then log in to your account and begin to prepare a shipment, which will eventually create your shipping label. You will have to answer some questions about the shipment, which may include:

• What are the dimensions of the box?
• How much does the box weigh?
• Will you need extra insurance coverage?
• Is there anything perishable in the box?
• Where is this shipment going?
• Where is this shipment coming from?
• What are you shipping?
• How would you like to ship?
• Would you like to add a shipping reference?
• How would you like to pay?
• Would you like to schedule a pickup?

Once you have answered the questions, you will then see a place where you can print your shipping label. The shipping label can be printed on standard labels or on regular copy paper that you can then attach to the package. If you chose to have the box picked up at your residence or business, you can arrange for that. If not, you take your shipment to a shipment drop off building. You can simply void the transaction through the website if you change your mind before the shipment goes out.

If you are mailing internationally, you may have to consider some other questions and fill out some forms that are necessary for shipment. For example, if your shipment consists of a package, rather than documents, you will need to fill out a commercial invoice. This is to satisfy Customs of other countries. The form is easy to fill out, only needing your name, address and phone number. Also, there should be a complete description of the goods that are being shipped. Generally, when shipping through an online shipping company, the form will be available through their website.

It’s quite easy to use an online shipping service. Rather it’s a domestic or international shipment, you will find most of your information online. You can easily find a good shipping company by looking around on web.

Making payments for goods and services has never been easier. However, with so many payment providers to choose from, one needs help from time to time on how to arrive at the best choice. This article gives you an insight into the various online payment systems available and how to make an informed choice based on your needs.

There are hundreds of payment providers the world over and a random Google search is the first step towards making a choice. Some of them are country specific while others are international. Examples include 2C2P in Singapore, Alipay in China, Apple Pay in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and Amazon Pay in the US, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Spain and UK. Despite all these, it is PayPal that has grown to the status of Worldwide Payment Provider.

Paypal

PayPal is an American company that enables payments to be made online as opposed to traditional paper mail and cheque methods. This does not only make distance a non-issue but also saves on time as payment can be made in seconds across continents. What more? It is hustle free. All one needs is to open a free PayPal account online.

One would argue that, why PayPal yet we have credit card companies? That argument seems plausible, not until one comes to terms with the security concerns of credit cards. Stories abound of people being defrauded by internet bullies who obtain their credit card information against their will and wipe their accounts clean in the name of non-existent online purchases. Not even reputable credit card companies like Visa and Master Card have been spared.

With PayPal, you don’t need to worry about your credit card information being shared with a third party. That it has over 200 million active account holders and over 7 million businesses is a proof to its trustworthiness. Its payment solutions are simply world class as it conveniently connects sellers to their buyers and vice versa. With just an email address and a password, you can sign up to PayPal and securely add your cards. This way, you allay the fear of your credit card information being shared with your buyers or sellers.

If you own a website and you are into e-commerce, you need WordPress payment plug-ins that will aide your online payment needs via PayPal. There is a wide variety to choose from. For a start, you can try payment plug-ins such as WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart, WP Easy PayPal Payment Accept or Ready! Ecommerce Shopping Cart, just to mention a few, depending on your needs.

Take WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart for example. It simply adds a button to your site called “add to cart” that enables you to easily pick what you want to buy or sell. This button can be included in any of your posts or pages as you wish. Your shopping cart can be displayed in the sidebar of your site for users to see the number of items in their carts at the moment. You customers are free to add or remove items or change the quantity to their satisfaction. Once an item is purchased, it sends a confirmation notice and provides a download link if it is a media sale.  PayPal is thus a versatile platform that solves all your ecommerce problems.

Before you begin your websites on-page optimization and link building, it is important to first research which keywords and search phrases will attract relevant visitors. To do this, there are a few tools and techniques which will help you make a decision on which keywords to target.

Keyword Research Tools

Probably the most popular keyword research tool on the Internet is the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool created by Aaron Wall. This tool currently exports data from Wordtracker which periodically compiles a database of over 330 million search terms collected from Dogpile and Metacrawler. From these Wordtracker results, this tool then estimates the daily search volume levels from Google, Yahoo, and MSN for each search term. Typing in a keyword or search phrase will also bring back a variety of related search terms that also generate volume. Previously this tool used results from Overtures keyword suggestion tool which generated volume results from their paid search network. Now that it uses Wordtracker, the volume results for this tool seem a lot more accurate.

Another tool to use is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This again will bring back a variety of related search terms for the keywords you type in and will provide search volumes, this time though in the form of a bar rather than an actual total number. Although this data is taken from Googles paid search results, it is still valuable information as you are gaining knowledge of search volume actually from Google and not third-party estimates. A useful result of this tool is the search volume trends which shows monthly totals throughout the year and allows you to judge seasonality and possible search volume dips and peaks.

Google Trends can be useful if you have previous knowledge of search volumes for a particular search term as it will allow you to compare this term to other searches. Again, results are in the form of graphs rather than actual numbers, but knowing volumes for a particular search term will help you judge the volumes for others. Google Trends also breaks the traffic down into regions which is essential as it will show if a search term is popular at the location you are targeting.

Using PPC Results

If you run Pay Per Click campaign for your website, the this can help quickly find useful search terms to target for SEO. If you do not run a PPC campaign the take a small budget, set one up and test a selection of relative search terms. Although it may not be possible to achieve a first-page ad for competitive search terms without blowing your budget, it can allow you to almost instantly gain and idea of whether other long tail search terms will generate visitors.

Competitors

It is always worth looking at your competitors websites to see which search terms they are targeting. If your competitors website has been searching engine optimized properly then you only have to look at their HTML title tags to see how they have gone about trying to target keywords.

Conclusion

Keyword research is an essential part of the SEO process. Get it wrong, and you could end up putting a lot of effort into gaining results for search terms that will not generate visitors. Get it right and you may quickly pick up a lot of traffic from uncompetitive search terms that go unnoticed by other competing websites. Using these tools and methods will help you make decisions on which search terms you choose to target and should help you on your way to creating a successful, busy website.