Do you have an eCommerce business? Are you looking for new ways to help it grow? If this sounds like you, then you’ve come to the right place. Below, you can read all about the best Google SEO tools for eCommerce businesses.
Google Structured Data
If you haven’t heard of Google Structured Data before, that’s okay because we’re going to explain it anyway! Google Structured Data is essentially how Google understands web pages. It collects data from a site to gather information. Google Search uses this data to enable either enhancements or unique search results.
Google Search uses snippets from a website’s data to identify labels that will allow people to find your page by searching for specific keywords or categories. You want this for your online store because potential customers are more likely to find you.
How does it work?
You can use structured data to help Google distribute your content. To optimize your structured data, you should be enabling actions and marking content properties wherever you can.
Google Structured Data uses content markup, which describes your content. If you’re figuring out your markup content, make sure that you use larger values first, followed by smaller properties. You can use the name, URL, etc.
Google Structured Data also uses action markup. It allows you to create actions within your content; for example, if you have video content on your site, you can use WatchAction.
How to:
Let’s start off with markup content. There are three things you have to do to create markup content.
The first one is that you have to determine what you’ll be publishing on your eCommerce site. You have to decide if you’re writing articles, creating music, etc. Making this decision will allow you to optimize your online store.
Secondly, you need to decide which properties to select. Do this by going to your markup references and look at all of your available features so that you can add the data to your content pages.
The last thing you need to do is pretty simple: just test it all out with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
Next, we move onto action markup. Action markup requires you to do two things.
The first thing you have to do is make yourself a markup template. This will allow you to create values that you’ll later include in your site’s HTML. You can create features on your site like offering your customers subscriptions if you’re selling products in individual packages. This is relevant for videos, episodes, or even newspapers. You can test your markup content with the feature mentioned above: Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
Carousel for Products and Posts
Carousel shows multiple search results on Google that are similar to your site’s content. Not only this, but carousel can create results of similar items from your website. This will increase your sales because if, for example, someone is shopping for clothing at another store, your site can pop up right next to it and your potential customers are likely to check to see what you’re all about. Not only this but if they see similar products on your site, they might want to buy more!
Featured snippets and image
When it comes to snippets, you should make sure that only information that is available to visitors and potential clients is included. If you want to add an image, make sure that it’s of high quality.
At a minimum of 696 pixels wide, you’re more likely to get good results with high-resolution images. You should always include pictures if you have an eCommerce store because it’ll give visitors an idea of what your products look like.
Rich snippets for reviews, emoji
Rich snippets are especially useful because they allow you to add extra content for articles, recipes, products, and reviews, the latter of which we’ll be discussing here. Reviews are especially useful because when people shop online, they want to know whether your products and your business in general, are good. You have to implement rich snippets by using structured data.
Google will display a variety of reviews, from critic reviews to review snippets. You can have these appear as a search result with Google Knowledge Cards.
Google Voice Search: how to use it for online store
Voice search is on the rise, which means you don’t only have to optimize your site for desktop computers anymore, but for voice search. Essentially, voice search is when you use features like Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Assistant, or Microsoft’s Cortana to search the internet.
When HigherVisibility surveyed 2000 people, around 27% of them were found to use virtual assistants daily, which is why you should be considering Google Voice Search as a useful Google SEO tool when you’re trying to optimize your online store.
‘How to’ section as a valuable content on your website
The first thing you have to do if you want to use Google Search for your online store is to verify it with Google Search Console. This will allow you to check whether your site and its multiple pages are mobile-friendly.
If you want to use Google Search, you shouldn’t block CSS, JavaScript, images, etc. on your mobile site. You should also avoid using Flash because many mobile browsers aren’t able to support it, which means your customers and visitors won’t be able to use Google Search on your site.
You should also make sure that your site doesn’t take too long to load because your customers won’t be willing to wait around. You can do this by improving plenty of small things; you can, for example, compress your images.
When you’re searching keywords with Google Search, you speak to it as you would another person. Because of this, you have to optimize your site to reflect dialogue. To do this, you should write your content as if you’re answering a question. You can use Google’s “People also ask” feature to find out what people are searching.
Youtube videos on your website
If it’s possible, you should try to include Youtube content on your site. That’s because when Google searches through your pages for quality, videos are one of the factors that increase this quality. Furthermore, people are more likely to stay on your page for an extended period if you have video content.
Since Google isn’t able to decipher a video, however, you should also include images and text around it that will bring in more traffic and allow Google to decipher what your page is about. This way, when people search for specific keywords, it’ll bring them right to you.
What is Magento Business Intelligence for eCommerce Business?
RJMetrics was known to have insightful business intelligence products. Their expertise went beyond a good RJMetrics review, or two and Magento® purchased them. The goal was to give Magento customers the absolute best in eCommerce solutions. E-commerce has now been accepted as standard practice for most businesses.
Since analytics has become so popular, you should aim to integrate it into your eCommerce operations. After all, analytics helps us make better business decisions. It uses your own business’s data to show the effects of your choices. Magento has the perfect solution: Magento Business Intelligence.
Meet Magento Business Intelligence
Magento Business Intelligence is a revolutionary data analytics tool for eCommerce. It gives you valuable insights that you need about promotions, customers, and products. It should be your first choice if you need any of the following in your business:
Advanced Tool for eCommerce Business Analysis
Business analysis is essential for any business activity, even more so for eCommerce businesses. Magento Business Intelligence has advanced tools to perform in-depth analysis of your data.
Magento Business Intelligence can integrate with 3rd party data sources and APIs. You can now use these integrations to do so much more than before.
Powerful Dashboard for B2B Merchants
Magento is an expert in all aspects of eCommerce. Using this knowledge, they have developed useful dashboards for B2B merchants. They know what kind of data is essential to you and what will help your business. Magento 2 Business Intelligence puts that data at your fingertips.
Top Benefits of Magento BI
Here are some ways that Magento Business Intelligence can help your business.
Saves Your Time
Magento Business Intelligence Essentials has automated many features. For example, reports only have to be created once. They will update themselves. This frees up time that can be spent on more important things.
Magento Business Intelligence also saves time by presenting data in informative ways. You won’t have to spend time doing that and can focus on other important things.
Carries Out Advanced Analysis
Magento Business Intelligence performs sophisticated data analysis on your data. This ensures that the report you receive is relevant and practical. All analytics are based on proven informational models. The goal is to show you what your company numbers are telling you.
Provides Magento Reporting Tools
Magento Business Intelligence has comprehensive reporting tools at your disposal. They show you essential key performance indicators at a glance. Magento reporting tools are built to be as easy to use as possible. They provide indisputable facts based only on your company data.
Includes Efficient B2B Features
Magento 2 Business Intelligence has distinctive advantages for B2B. It has new dashboards, and better data analytics explicitly built for B2B. You have access to features like multi-tier data analytics and interactive consoles. They are made to help B2B merchants get the most out of their eCommerce solutions.
Here are some of the impressive features built into Magento Business Intelligence:
5 Ready-to-Use Dashboards
Magento BI dashboards with 75 available reports are already available for use. The Companies dashboard shows customer health using their existing data with your company.
The Quotes dashboard displays data related to quote conversion rates and time spent on negotiation. The Sales Rep dashboard shows sales team performance with using a quote to order rates, unfulfilled quotes, etc. The Catalogs dashboard shows the success rate of your product ranges, based on product sales. The reports are related to each dashboard subject.
As you can see, Magento BI has every aspect covered. Your company overview is comprehensive and thorough.
Integration of Google Analytics and Magento Data
With Magento BI, your existing Magento data can be integrated with Google Analytics. It will show the relationship between your website traffic and your online store. You will be able to learn how best to fine-tune your website configuration to get maximum traffic. You can also see which parts of your website affect your sales negatively and positively.
Magento BI gives you two kinds of report builders: SQL and Visual. The SQL Report Builder lets users run SQL queries straight to the PostgreSQL data store. The Visual Report Builder provides an easy way to visualize your Magento data. You can create charts, add metric easily and arrange it in a way that suits you.
Export Data to Excel and CSV
Raw Magento data can be exported into an Excel or CSV file. This data can also be linked to the tables it came from so that it refreshes regularly. This allows you to share this information with other stakeholders in a common format.
Email Summaries
Email summaries are text-based table versions of reports. This allows them to be viewed on mobile devices. Sometimes, mobile devices can distort the visual structure of a report and make it unreadable or confusing. Email summaries solve this problem. It prepares reports more accessible and easier to read if you’re on the go.
Ten User Accounts
Magento 2 Business Intelligence gives you ten user accounts that you can assign as you see fit. All users may have advanced permissions, but you can restrict certain permissions. These permissions allow each user to perform certain tasks or access specific Magento data. Each user can also have their own set of dashboards which can be shared with other users. If the dashboard has data that the receiver doesn’t have permission to see, those reports won’t appear in the Magento analytics dashboard.
Magento vs ATG Oracle Commerce: Your Choice for B2B
In physical retail buildings, it’s all about what the inside of your store looks like. Online, though, the eCommerce platform you choose will determine everything. If you’re currently investing in B2B, you might be wondering which the best option is: Magento® 2 or Oracle Commerce? And what benefits do Magento customers have compared to Oracle Commerce customers? Below, we’ll tell you all about both platforms and which one is best for your needs.
Comparing Magento to Oracle
Difference between Magento and Oracle Commerce
First and Foremost, we’re going to discuss the differences between Magento 2 and Oracle Commerce because this will help you choose between the two.
Advantages
Oracle
Oracle Commerce (also called ATG) is geared toward retail companies, and it allows its customers to launch new websites, customize campaigns, and more.
Oracle sets itself apart from other platforms because it allows customers to batch transactions together. This means that if you have multiple transactions to pay for, you can group them all. The extensive documentation covers all issues, so by setting it out you will make clear how to use a/b testing feature or other additional functionality.
Magento
In comparison, Magento is a platform that tailored for many different eCommerce businesses. It provides clients and customers with everything they need for marketing, as well as business tips and omnichannel features.
Magento 2 is especially useful for enterprises because while it costs more, there are more features and add-ons available. Not only this, but technical support is always available. Extra features with Magento Enterprise edition include customer loyalty programs and management features. If you’re on a budget, the Magento community edition can offer anything you need if you own a smaller or midsized business. Magento platform already has lots of followers and because of the number of features, two editions and popularity it is the most widely used e-Commerce software in the world.
Disadvantages
Oracle Commerce
The cost of running Oracle makes it less desirable to most customers. Not only this, but most find it rather hard to operate. Competitors like SQL Server offer user-friendly options for creating online websites. Magento 2 has also come with more solutions for users; for example, they offer a “drag-and-drop” option to make designing easy. The timeline of the Magento websites is 4-5 months to get up and running, while for Oracle Commerce it may be 1-4 years (depends on the project complexity.)
Magento
Magento is an open-sourced platform, which means it’s incredibly customizable. That said, this feature makes it more complex for people who want to make customizations. You might also want to hire a developer, and this will cost you more money.
Magento offers businesses the flexibility they need for B2B. According to their site, Magento is the #1 platform for B2B in 2017. They also enable customers to make their own catalogs and negotiate price.
Beyond this, Magento 2 offers an instant purchase checkout. This feature stores past credit and shopping information to make the process faster. Afterward, customers can use Magento shipping, which is a feature that has multi-carrier shipping.
Oracle focuses on each business to offer them a personalized experience rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. This company is continuously evolving to accommodate for Oracle ATG Web Commerce Clients. The platform allows people to manage their entire eCommerce website from the same channel.
With Oracle, sites and single-purpose campaigns can be built and; thereby, launched quickly compared to other platforms. Oracle customers can use Oracle Commerce Experience Manager, which allows business owners to set up their website without assistance. You can control anything from the layout to the merchandising.
Website Security
Oracle works primarily with Cloud. While most people have severe (and valid) concerns about cloud security, Oracle attempts to help by providing customers with the best security policies around the world. Organizations can create and effectuate their security policies to help clients and company owners to feel more secure.
Magento keeps its clients and customers up-to-date with regular security updates. With Magento, shopping or surfing online has never been safer. Magento allows you to run security scans on your page and for advanced developers, the platform offers Yara. This is a program which checks for malware throughout your platform and files.
MageReport is another opportunity for you to enhance web security. With this program, you can scan for ransomware, brute force attacks, visbot malware, and more! It will also examine your site’s third-party extensions.
Server Requirements
Server requirements for Magento 2 include Apache 2.x and Nginx 1.7.x. Whichever server you’re using, you should make sure that it can run scheduled jobs with PHP.5 and that it can override options in access files. Oracle can use Internet Explorer 7.x and 8.x, Firefox 3.5 and 3.6, as well as Safari 4 and 5.
Magento 2 Vs. Oracle Commerce: Usage Prospects
Oracle Commerce Customers
Oracle Commerce runs about 0.1% of the entire Internet. There are 15 322 physical businesses in the United States that use Oracle. Next, we have Germany with 395 locations and the United Kingdom with 347. Oracle is gaining the majority of its clients from Magento and AbleCommerce.
Around 0.3% of the top one million eCommerce businesses are built with Oracle and about 1.2% of the top 100, 000 websites online. A total of 20, 064 live websites are using Oracle Commerce and historically, 8, 501 websites have used Oracle.
Magento 2 Customers
The United States is the country that has the most physical business using Magento 2. The U.S. has 753 physical locations, while the United Kingdom has 115 and the Netherlands has 71. Magento is also reported to be gaining the majority of its customers from WooCommerce and Opencart.
Overall, Magento runs 216,024 currently live websites out of all eCommerce businesses online. As for Magento 2, 21,313 sites are using it now, and this number continues to grow.
Oracle Commerce vs. Magento 2: What is Your Choice?
When it comes to your online site, it’s important that you choose the best platform for your business. Two of the best competitors are Magento and Oracle. Oracle is focused mainly on retail companies, so if this doesn’t suit your company, then you should consider going with Magento instead.
Let’s summarize!
How to Become Magento Partner: Follow the Magento Partners Program
Each year, Magento® sees around $50 billion in overall business. It is clear that the platform is popular due to its reliability. Now it’s possible to go a step further and become a Magento Associate Partner. Let’s take a closer look at the conditions of the program.
What Is a Magento Partner Program?
The Magento Partner Program is mutually beneficial. It lets you and Magento align your business resources and goals. Partners are businesses that become a part of Magento’s ecosystem of technologies and network companies. Finding other partners is easy, just find a Partner page to browse the Magento Partner directory.
What Are the Types of Partnership?
You can enter into two types of partnerships: Solutions Partners and Technology Partners. Each type has its own conventions and benefits. But surely they have got some differences in requirements.
Magento Solution Partner
Solution Partners are associates who can develop new solutions for clients using the Magento platform. Over 250 000 brands make use of it. However, not all clients have the development expertise to make full use of its potential. That’s where a Magento Business Solution Partner can help.
Over 300 consulting companies that became part of this program are succeeding with solutions for their clients. As a part of the partnership, they get access to product training and enablement in marketing and sales. They also get access to valuable resources to help drive growth in their companies. Magento has created four partnership levels to assist Solution Partners according to their scope and requirements.
Business Partners: Companies that either just started their experience of partnership or specialize in implementing Magento Community Edition. Mainly they are serving small to midsize companies.
Professional Partners: Experts who serve to emerge mid-size brands. They implement Magento Commerce Edition regularly in their solutions and stay current with all B2B innovations.
Enterprise Partners: Performing the full-service offerings, they specialize in more significant Magento technical solutions. Enterprise specialists have proven their commerce development capabilities and vested commitment by delivering the best customer experience. They are also keen on vertical expertise.
Global Elite Partners: Companies specialize in full-service project integration with their certified developers and B2B experience. By demonstrating high levels of excellence in the world of eCommerce, they can manage highly sophisticated solutions for top-tier clients.
How to Become Magento Solution Partner
If you would like to know how to become a Magento Solution Partner, merely contact Magento, and they will get you started on the application process. Once the application process is completed, you will be notified, and you can be in a community.
Magento Technology Partner
An Extension Builder Partner is a 3rd-party company that builds extensions for the Magento platform. These extensions enhance Magento’s capabilities. It can also enable integration with other products.
What Are the Types of Extension Builder Partners?
There are two of them: General Partners and Select Partners. Both partner types revel most of the program benefits. However, Select Partners do enjoy bigger discounts on Magento Training. They also get prioritized extension quality processing. This helps to ensure their upgraded extensions go live on the Magento Marketplace as soon as possible.
How to Become Technology Partner?
All potential Magento Technology Partners need to have a Magento extension that is already built. You should pass a review done by a Magento team, and have the Magento developer account. An extension is not essential for companies that specialize in performance and hosting. Simply contact Magento, and they will take you through the entire process.
Benefits of Becoming Magento Official Partners
A Magento partnering is a commitment to mutual growth and benefit. It allows you to access the largest eCommerce ecosystem in the world. The Magento community is vast. You can network with a huge community which is a doorway to a wealth of resources. It offers you many valuable tools and services that are designed to help grow your company. These range from excellent discounts on development tools to regular access to informative workshops. So, they will do their utmost to help your business grow as big as it can.
Pitfalls
As with all programs of this nature, there are always hurdles to overcome. In the case of Magento, they are very few. The benefits far outweigh the negatives. However, let’s look at them so you can get the complete picture of the Magento Partner Program.
Your Company Revenue and Fees
Magento does charge a fee to join the Partner Program. This is dependent on the size of your company or the revenue that your company receives.
The annual fee to join the Solution Partner Program is $5 000 for Registered and Professional Partners. The fee for Enterprise Partners is $10 000. This fee gives you all the value that comes from being affiliated with this vast community. You also receive individual tech support, marketing opportunities, and a free Enterprise production and development license
There are two ways to join the Technology Partner program. One option is to participate as an Xcelerate Tech Partner. This option only requires an annual fee based on your revenue and partner level.
The other option is to become an Xcelerate Extension Builder. This requires an annual program fee and a 30% revenue share. Select Partners pay $10 000, and Premier Partners pay $20 000.
Magento 2.2 Features and Main Upgrades
Magento® has proven itself time and time again in the business world. It is the preferred choice of thousands of online stores. Magento prides itself on always providing its best possible version to its users. It has the most productive features currently available. Let’s take a look at what highlights and upgrades it has undergone.
What’s New in Magento 2.2?
You can look forward to these impressive new features in Magento 2.2:
Advanced Reporting
Magento 2.2 offers improved reporting for customer, products, and orders. This feature is free and available across the Enterprise and Community editions. It can be accessed from the Magento console for admins. It is a working trial of the Magento Business Intelligence (BI) solution. This makes for a more comfortable transition into Magento Business Intelligence Essentials. It combines data from Magento and Google Analytics. This gives you powerful data visualizations of your business. You can adjust the reports per specified date ranges. You can also view all reports from a single dashboard. So you can see each metric’s performance in the context of each other. You don’t have to open many tabs or switch between reports.
Fraud Protection
Signifyd is a subscription service that has been integrated with Magento 2.2. It gives merchants chargeback and fraud protection. It can be implemented on an on-demand basis for individual orders. The full package applies this feature to all orders. Signifyd takes on total risk by offering 100% chargeback protections. It is available with Magento Enterprise and Community editions.
Since Signifyd protects many merchants already, they can flag suspicious behavior. If this happens, Magento keeps a special lookout on that user information (e.g., Email address, IP addresses, etc.) on its other websites. When the same information tries to order with another merchant, you get notified.
Magento 2.2 B2B Features
The cost and complexity of building a Magento B2B site are now reduced. It is possible by including company account features as a standard inclusion. Merchants can support companies that have more than one buyer. Accounts can be managed using Magento’s easy self-service tools. Buyer accounts can be arranged into a hierarchy like their company purchasing structure. Now you can define roles and permissions for each user.
The request-for-quote workflow is streamlined and can be fully managed within Magento. Quotes can be requested directly from the shopping cart. They can contain additional comments and even documents to support their request. Customers can then view the status of the quote and correspond with the merchant. As a merchant, you can enjoy similar features when issuing a quote. You can also add comments, additional documents, and quote expiry dates. There are also negotiation tools within the quote to help you. You may adjust the actual order cost and/or shipping cost to suit your customer’s needs. You can also include suggestions/ substitutions and show how the quote is affected.
The purchasing process is much smoother and faster. Speed is essential to the success of your business. Ordering by SKU becomes easy. Customers can upload a file (CSV) containing SKUs to start their orders. Magento will confirm if they belong to the assigned catalog and if they are available. Images and descriptions of products get displayed to the buyer for verification. Requisition lists allow for easy re-ordering of frequently purchased items. Quantities can be easily tweaked. Customers can repeat previous orders without putting the same list together again. Repeating includes the same items, shipping address, and payment options.
The Payment on Account feature lets you extend credit to companies. You can enable and disable Payment on Account per website if you have more than one. You may also control which payment methods customers can use. You may also specify which countries are eligible to apply it. Minimum and maximum order amounts for credit purchases may be set. There is a comprehensive set of credit management tools available. These tools put you in complete control of who and how you extend credit to. Your customers get shown full details of their credit status with you. All past credit transactions are available to view.
Customized Catalogs and Price Lists lets your customer see relevant items to them. Products and categories get displayed according to settings for each customer. Custom pricing can be set for individual customers. You may use fixed or dynamic pricing for percentage discounts. Any changes to shared catalogs will run in the background and not affect work. Users get notified when the process ends.
There are new web APIs for new features. It enables simple ERP integrations for various new features. This integration uses the same authentication and documentation as current Magento 2 APIs.
Platform Changes
Magento 2.2 enhances security by only using unserialize() calls when necessary. Magento also uses a redesigned hashing calculation to improve safety for sensitive data. The developer experience has been enhanced by improving cron, and JS exceptions logging around plugins in the core is limited. Original call parameters have been added to after plugins. So debugging plugins is less demanding. The technology stack and library components are updated. The developer experience of the UI component has been improved.
Mass Asynchronous Operations enable simple improvement of long-running processes in business. It assumes that business logic manages all retries. This is clear in B2B Shared Catalogs.
Pipeline deployment flow enables you to run separate stages in the processes for building and deploying. There are many new CLI commands to make configuration much more comfortable between environments. A production environment upgrade can now happen in under 60 seconds. This meet’s Magento’s goal to help new and emerging business technology.
Enhanced Performance
There are significant indexer improvements within Magento 2.2. Clients may use your store even while the indexers are running. Long-running indexers work in groups to manage memory and run times better. The cart has also seen improvements. Carts with over 300 items are now supported. Quantity changes activated by checkout are not invalidated anymore. Varnish “Grace” and “Saint” modes get enabled as a default setting. New B2C and B2B benchmark files are part of Magento 2.2.
Top Great Magento and eCommerce Events 2018 You Must Visit
When you have a business, especially in eCommerce, you always search answers for the specific questions and brand new strategy and marketing ideas to stay in the game. For anyone who’s interested in eCommerce, you should consider going to some great Magento® and eCommerce events 2018. This will give you the opportunity to learn about specific companies and to get new skills for your business. Below, you can find a list of the top great Magento and eCommerce events that you should visit in 2018.
Where: As the name suggests, Engage Toronto is being hosted in Toronto, Ontario, CA.
For whom: This seminar is only hosted for merchants.
About: Top companies like La Vie en Rose, Structube Leaders from Magento, Dotmailer, Signifyd, inRiver, Dynamic Yield and Absolunet will be providing discussions. At this event, you’ll be able to speak with merchants to figure out solutions to problems you might be having. On top of it, all of your meals and cocktails are included!
Meet Magento complements the annual Imagine conference and hosted by the Magento team so you wouldn’t miss the most important industry, marketing, and technology news. A broad range of sessions, networking activities, exhibitions and pleasureful parties gathered under one roof.
For whom: Register as a general attendee or as a merchant.
About: This seminar is meant for those who want to be kept up-to-date with everything in the world of eCommerce and with Magento’s ecosystem. The event takes two days, and you can even submit a proposal to be one of the speakers. The venue is Palau de Congressos de Catalunya.
For Whom: As you can network with key merchants, partners, and developers so this is the primary audience there.
About: This year marks the eighth year anniversary of this event, and it gathers people from all over the world. Merchants and agencies from 50 different countries are combined to discuss, inspire, and appreciate Magento.
For whom: You can meet there eCommerce business owners, merchants, and marketers.
About: eTail is essentially the TED Talk of the eCommerce world. This event allows for only the best of the digital commerce world to share their stories and talk about everything going on in the industry. Companies like H & M, Tesco, Coca-Cola, etc. attend the conference.
For whom: This summit will be necessary for the eCommerce business owners.
About: Thousands of people attend these summits to learn about what’s new and hot in the eCommerce world. From teaching you about marketing to the best selling models, anyone invested in eCommerce should be attending these events.
About: This exhibit features many known companies like IBM, Samsung, Paypal, Mastercard, etc. For two days and one night, you can work to grow your own business by creating new connections and listening to some of the best speakers in the world.
For Whom: The core importance is for merchants and sellers.
About: This two-day event serves to increase sales and improve business strategies for anyone in the eCommerce world. Their event site claims that instead of listening to speakers discuss their own business, you can learn about products you should be ordering from Amazon, production companies you can order from in Asia, etc.
For Whom: Would be useful for retailers and businesses, who want to show their product at the exhibition part.
About: The Internet Retailing Expo event is one of the most significant multichannel events for both retailers and suppliers in the UK. You can gain knowledge in eCommerce and sales with the best speakers and present your company at the local exhibition.
For Whom: An essential event for anyone who wants to enter the eCommerce and who are already involved in it.
About: If you want to find out the greatest eCommerce trends for the future such as voice shopping, product subscriptions or personalization, challenge your ideas and get more inspiration from success stories and cases shared by speakers and professionals during the sessions, you should check in there.
Where: Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
For Whom: Connects retailers, webshops, direct sellers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and brands.
About: You will be listening speakers who know a lot of trends, practice the best tactics and use the hottest innovations in e-commerce. Meet, connect and collaborate with more than 1500 attendees on the place.
The Benefits of Magento Commerce 2.2 for B2B Business
Technological advances have changed what customers want out of their online buying experiences. Buyers prefer fast processes and the flexibility to make purchases 24 hours a day. If you’re a B2B seller, the stakes are higher because one sale can make or break your profit margin. Don’t worry. Magento® has you covered. Read about the benefits of Magento Commerce 2.2 for B2B business below.
Magento 2.2 Enterprise and eCommerce B2B Trends
Buyers demand immediacy and convenience. Companies are competing in customer experiences, not only lower prices. Accenture research shows that B2B buyers who shop online behave the following way:
Studies show that 63% of B2B buyers research half or more of their work purchases online. Most of them use their smartphones. 53% of B2B buyers have indicated they will make half or more of their work purchases online by 2018. Failure to meet changing preferences can be costly. According to Accenture research, 71% of B2B buyers indicated that they would switch suppliers if it meant they would receive a better digital experience.
Magento solutions integrate with any backend system and offer all the B2B functions you could want in your online store. There is less complexity to deal with. Best of all, this is accomplished at a lower total cost. That makes it easier for you to afford all the features and functions that your B2B customers want.
The key benefits that you get by choosing Magento Commerce 2.2 for B2B are invaluable. Magento lets you get to the market faster because all solutions are cloud-based and business-ready. It allows you to build customer loyalty by offering useful self-service account management tools. Magento also helps you grow sales with their fast and straightforward purchasing features. A quick buying process is vital to your customers. Magento supports personalized buying experiences for different customer segments, all from one platform. It integrates with any backend system with ready-made connectors and Magento’s wide variety of REST APIs. There is no need to replace or rip-and-repair existing backend. That means your store goes online in a shorter period and at a lower cost.
Magento Commerce 2.2 Capabilities
Now that we know what Magento 2.2 EE can do let’s take a look at some features that will accomplish this.
Magento Commerce 2.2 for B2B business includes support for company accounts, not only individuals’ accounts. When your customer is another business, you can be sure that they have their buying infrastructure in place. That means you could be dealing with multiple buyers within the same company. Each would have their buying roles and limits. You can set their buying privileges, roles, and permissions into their accounts.
Self-Service Tools
Magento Commerce 2.2 for B2B companies has several useful self-service tools. Buyers can track their orders, quotes, and credit. There is no need for them to make contact with you to make queries. All the information they need will be available to them at any time via their self-service portal.
Customized User Experiences
Magento 2.2 features offer significant customizations for your customers’ front-end experiences. Catalogs and price lists will adjust what your customers see. These functions depend on what kind of products they prefer. So, you can offer set prices or dynamic pricing to companies. User experiences can also be segmented according to different locations and product lines. So customers can be presented with only products available in their location or their preferred product line.
Magento B2B features enable you to extend credit to your customers. It will increase sales, customer retention and loyalty to your business. Your customers will get access to their self-service tools to manage their credit. You can control credit limits and monitor overall and individual credit usage.
Online Quote System
Magento Commerce 2.2 helps you improve quote response times using a helpful online quote system. It enables users to submit quote requests straight from their online cart. They will also be able to do this using previous quotes and orders. All communication between parties is integrated displayed in the quote-management system. This feature helps track quote adjustments and the reasons for such. All updates are also logged in the quote history so you can see adjustments as they are made. The online quote system can easily handle additions and substitutions. All quotes can be tracked using its self-service portal.
Let’s take a look at some of the unique enhancements and features that have been made to Magento 2.2 B2B:
New order forms. Now the new forms are incredibly quick. They also now accept uploaded CSV files which helps save the customer time by loading all required items at one time.
Requisition lists. Your customers can now set up requisition lists with products that are frequently purchased. It also saves them time by helping repeat their usual orders automatically.
Reordering feature. Your customers can also reorder using previous orders. Their new order will merely repeat the past order using all its existing product, account and payment details.
Running in the background. When making shared product catalog changes, Magento 2.2 works in the background allowing you to keep working while the shared catalog gets updated. That means more productivity and less downtime.
More useful APIs. The number of Magento 2 APIs has increased to 4 times the previous amount. All new features have simple APIs to handle company accounts, credit limits, shared catalogs, quote management and requisitions lists. There’s also a handy API for tier pricing to adjust prices for several products quickly.
Improved reporting. The Magento 2.2 B2B business intelligence reports now offer four other dashboards. This feature provides valuable insights into essential business aspects. You can quickly view analytics for the entire quote-to-order process to monitor quotes vs. actual orders. You can also track sales rep KPIs which shows you how your sales reps are performing. It also shows company metrics and general customer “health” from an overall perspective. Catalog performances are also easy to view now.
SAP Hybris vs Magento 2: A Guide for B2B Companies
B2B focuses primarily on selling services to other companies. If this sounds like something you’re trying to offer, then you might want to figure out which platform to launch your store on. If so, then you should look in toward both Magento® 2 and SAP Hybris. Below, we have made a complete guide of the two so that you find out which one suits you and your needs.
Magento Commerce vs Hybris
To start, let’s look at some of the advantages of Magento Commerce Edition:
Advantages
Customizations. The shopping cart is completely customizable so that you can choose your favorite settings for payment processes, as well as accepted methods and gateways.
SEO features. Magento offers SEO tools and configurations so that you can boost your ranking in Google.
Analytics. It offers you analytics so that you can monitor your store’s performance. It can be achieved by using Google Analytics or through the reports that are provided by Magento.
Integrations. The platform is open-source, so it’s easily customizable.
Customer service. Magento’s customer service can be reached both on the phone and online for anyone who is registered for Magento Enterprise.
Price. Unlike SAP Hybris, you can get an edition of Magento (the community edition) for free. The enterprise edition will cost you money, but it is tier-based.
Single UI for managing the page.
Disadvantages
Server Costs. You’re responsible for your upgrades because you run your business on your server. And it must be powerful.
Blog issues. It doesn’t have a full-fledged inbuilt blog.
Complex support. It needs a lot of computational resources. But the platform is flexible itself, and additional extensions can add all that you need.
Now let’s check the Hybris’s positive and negative sides.
Advantages
Easy management. You can manage all of your information on the same page, as well as different businesses and suppliers on the same platform.
Easy personalization. You can personalize all of your services, navigation, etc. so that it tailors to yours and your customers’ needs. You can change your payment options and processes.
Account management. B2B customers will be able to manage their accounts, as well as their orders. Studies show that nearly 80% of people will turn down offers unless they’re personalized, which is why this might seem beneficial to you.
Open-source. SAP Hybris is an open-source technology wrote on Java, which means that is can be edited within Spring Framework and integrated into any existing systems.
Customer management. When some websites have a high number of clients visiting, their servers aren’t able to support it and either the page or browser crashes. With SAP Hybris, your site will have adequate scaling and can support a high number of visitors.
Disadvantages
High Price. At its base, SAP Hybris is reported to cost at least 5 thousand dollars. For those interested, you can get a quote from the company, itself.
Project duration. It takes 12-24 months to complete a project with SAP Hybris, so this might be too long for you.
Additional cost. It charges money for support.
Small support. It doesn’t have a big community of developers, so it’s difficult to find a good specialist.
Difference between Magento 2 and SAP Hybris
SAP Hybris will be suitable for big financial, insurance or telecommunication organizations, who need not the just manageable platform but the possibility to provide their clients a multi-channel e-commerce solution with fully-integrated tools and capacities. Magento 2 offers wide range of digital marketing tools that will help to integrate customers in the shopping process. It offers better analytics, as well as more customization and unlimited number of extensions.
There are a lot of big name companies that use SAP Hybris, including Reitmans Canada, Lancome. Almost 20 percent of companies using SAP Hybris deal with retail and another 10 percent are wholesale stores.
Magento 2 has attracted plenty of enterprises, and companies that use the platform include the following: Nike, Ford, Fox Connect, Coca Cola, etc. Magento was reported to have been used by over 20 percent of the market in 2013 and has only improved its statistics since then.
Usage Statistics of Magento 2 and Hybris
Many businesses use SAP Hybris, and of these companies, there are over 4 thousand physical locations in the United States. Germany comes in second place in having the most physical locations, with just over 8 hundred. Nearly 10 K live websites use SAP Hybris.
Magento has over one thousand businesses with physical locations in the United States, with another 100 in the United Kingdom. Nowadays, more than 20 K live websites are based on Magento 2.
Who Else Chooses Magento 2 and Hybris?
For the most part, it can be observed that Hybris is gaining its customers from Magento 2 and Oracle Commerce. Nearly 40% of these customers are based in the United States, which holds the majority of Hybris’ customer market.
Like SAP Hybris, the majority of Magento’s clients comes from the United States; in fact, just over 60% of it does. Magento gets most of its clients from Shopify, WooCommerce, and Lengow.
SAP Hybris vs Magento 2: What Suits Your Enterprise?
Overall, Magento 2 offers more solutions and customizations for businesses. Whether it’s a massive business or an enterprise, there are extensions and add-ons that you can add to make your store better.
Let’s sum up all said before!
Magento 2 Security Best Practices – How To Protect Your Store
Magento® 2 has proven to an extremely secure platform for eCommerce stores. It is no wonder that it is considered the best choice for your online store. Magento 2 is built with robust security features that make it the safest platform to build your online shop on. Your transactions are protected, and your customers’ data is kept safe. However, additional security measures are always recommended. Extra layers of security strengthen your overall cybersecurity profile. It can get overwhelming when deciding how to approach security implementation. Let’s simplify this by answering some of the most popular questions.
Why It’s Important to Take Care of Online Store Security?
The success of an online store depends on how secure it is. The primary concern of every online customer is “Will my information/money be safe if I use this online store?”. As the owner of an eCommerce website, you have an ethical obligation to implement proper security measures. If you cannot provide a safe place for customers to shop, you can bet that they are going to take their business to another online store. That means fewer customers buy from your store and the inevitable profit drop. So, it’s vital to protect your online store data. Let’s highlight the main steps you can take to keep your Magento 2 online store protected.
What Tools are Used in Magento 2 for Security?
Magento 2 has some impressive security tools that you can use to beef up your online store.
Improved Tools for Password Management
Passwords are your customers’ first layer of protection. Unfortunately, passwords are also among the first security measures to fall in a cyber-attack. Magento 2 has met this challenge by using SHA-256 hashing algorithms in its password management system. This encryption protocol is virtually unbreakable.
Use Magento 2 Secure URL
Magento 2 allows you to turn your websites standard URLs into secure URLs quickly, once you have an SSL certificate activated for your store. Magento 2 will automatically generate secure URLs for you, as an administrator. They will begin with the prefix “https,” as opposed to the unprotected “http” pages.
Setup Files Permissions
Magento 2 helps you manage your user file permissions by recommending the best configurations. You are encouraged to accept them because Magento 2 is an expert in user authorization. But you are also able to adjust them in whatever way suits you. It is the perfect combination of convenience and control.
Magento 2 Security Updates
Magento 2 includes regular updates to its security measures. You can be assured that they are always working to make your store as secure as possible. It is vital that your website is continuously maintained. Cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated. But Magento 2 will frequently tweak your online store to make sure it is always as secure as it could be.
How to Check Security of Magento 2 Online Store?
You can find an incredibly handy testing tool at magereport.com. All you have to do is enter the URL of your online store. MageReport will assess your website and see all known weak points. All these vulnerabilities will be listed so you can address them accordingly. It will clear up any uncertainties about how secure your Magento store is. It is a free service that assesses your security status and offers possible fixes.
What to Do If Magento 2 Security Issues are Detected?
If you do come across any security issue, you should report it to the Magento Security Center as soon as possible. Your reported problem will be evaluated and rectified. As a Magento 2 online store owner, your feedback is critical to Magento. We recommend you report these security issues directly to Magento first, before sharing them on public forums and communities. That will save precious time in rectifying the problem. Also, try to include as many details as possible. This way you will also assist by directing Magento to the root of the problem.
What Can You Do to Protect Magento 2 from Fraud?
Regularly Update Your System
You should always keep your online store updated with the latest Magento 2 security updates. This will ensure that your shop is still under the best possible protection by Magento. You will be notified when new updates are released. This will be accompanied by details of what improvements have been made so that you know what to expect after every update.
Secure Your Computers from Viruses and Malware
Ensure that all your computers and devices are protected by a good antivirus and malware protection software. These measures will help stop cyber-attacks from even getting near your online store. This extra layer of cyber-protection will keep the rest of your computer environment safe, not just your online store.
Keep an Eye on the Issues If They Arise
Magento 2 is such a secure platform that it’s easy to become inattentive to security issues. We urge you always to stay vigilant and alert. If you do manage to catch an issue, you should report it to Magento Security Center.
Use Some of Magento 2 Security Extensions
Magento 2 has a great selection of security extensions that you can integrate into your online store. Magento 2 Enterprise Edition has the built-in module for controlling administration security. For example, the Admin Actions Log extension by Amasty gives you full control over your administrators. A comprehensive log of all the actions performed by your backend managers. It keeps records of logged operations, login attempts, and user visits history.
Summary
Magento 2.2 has shown why they are the number 1 choice for your online store’s security. It is reliable and secure enough to resist fraud. And it also sensitive enough to detect even the subtlest cyber-attacks. At present, there are no apparent threats to the Magento 2 platform. But that does not result in any complacency on their part. Magento 2 is continuously watchful of trends in cyber-attacks and moves quickly to address even the hint of a security issue.
If you would like more information about the Magento 2 security features or set up some extensions to protect your store from malware and fraud, we will provide you with our Magento Support services. Please feel free to contact us at WEB4PRO.
5 Modern eCommerce SEO Tips That Can Boost Your Traffic in 2018
Do you want to know how to boost traffic to your website? Whether you have an online store or you’re running your blog, SEO can increase your traffic. Below, we’ve written a comprehensive guide that provides you with a checklist of eCommerce SEO, how to optimize your store for voice search, set up multilingual websites, create exciting content, and how to improve website performance.
eCommerce SEO Checklist
Here, we have a checklist for you to go through so that you can make your e?ommerce site the best it can be.
Start From Scratch
Set meta tags. Meta tags are essential for any SEO blog, article, etc. Meta tags are elements that describe what a blog post is about. Rather than having the meta tags posted directly on the website as you might see on Instagram or Twitter, they must be incorporated into the page’s code in <head> section. Make sure that all your product pages and category pages have the unique titles and descriptions – the main meta tags for each page. Also, don’t forget to add the Alt-text attribute to all images you upload to your website. To learn more about meta tags, check out our guide for basics of SEO friendly content: tags and structure.
Create user-friendly URLs. Every page you launch should have a URL that makes it easier for customers to navigate. You should also use descriptive keywords in your URL to categorize where your pages and subpages go on your website.You should make sure to use different URLs for every page, and you should also try using a 301 redirect when you do because it’ll send your viewers to the new URL.
Use Google Search Console. You should use this tool to search your pages and sites for any errors, such as duplicated content, meta tags, and missing meta tags, issues with your sitemap, and robot.txt file because these are all errors that hinder user experience. Also, it helps to maintain the website visibility for search engines and provides the information about the keywords which help the searchers to find your web pages.
Optimize Your Store for a Voice Search
With Siri, Corona, and other voice search software which becomes more popular, you should also know how to optimize your store for them. Google Voice Search will allow you to search for what you’re looking for rather than having to type it into the search engine.
According to research, voice commands to Google Voice Search has been on the rise since 2010; so much so that it has gone by sevenfold.
When optimizing your site for a voice search, you should consider using long-tail keywords, which are sentences or words that are specific to your store.
There are plenty of people who prefer to use smaller keywords, but long-tail keywords make up more than half of all searches. When you’re using these keywords, though, you should also consider that voice searches are more conversational, and you’ll have to create keywords that are more natural to people’s speech as well. Such phrases will attract more people to your store because your content will reflect what they are looking for.
How To Pick Long-Tail Keywords
Try Google Keyword Planner. It is an excellent tool for anyone who wants to learn which keywords they should be using. Just type in your subject and click on the tab that reads “Keyword Ideas.” That will show you any keywords that are in-demand. Also, there are plenty of free tools, such as Moz Keyword Explorerthat can help you to choose the right keyword ideas for your online store.
Pick the seed keywords. Now, you need to pick the keywords that are most relevant to your topic because these are the ones you’ll use to create long-tail keywords.
Research and find long-tails. Next, copy one of the keywords you’re going to use and search for long-tail variations.Answerthepublic.com is a perfect free tool for picking up the long-tail keywords. Also, don’t hesitate to use the section in Google search results: People also search… It will help you to learn more about your potential customers’ query.
Work on Website Performance and AMP
If you want to boost your traffic, nothing will help you more than having a website that runs the best it can. To check your website performance, run Google Speed Insights to learn the level of speed and Pingdom to determine the website page loading time for different regions. Also, there, you’ll see the recommends on how to improve the website speed. The excellent rate for the website is less than 3 – 2 sec, according to Akamai Research. And page loading speed have a great impact on your online store conversion rate. How come? Learn in in this article: page loading speed and conversion.
For mobile sites, you can do this through what is called accelerated mobile pages, otherwise known as AMP. The reason why AMPs are so fast is that they’re entirely designed to run like clockwork. If, for example, you have an image that’s going to pop up further down the page, AMPs will prevent the image from downloading right away when the page loads; instead, it’ll download and appear visible to viewers when these viewers are scrolling by it.
This kind of performance in open-source coding for publishers and it aims to load pages on mobile more quickly. You can also make your site run faster by removing unnecessary pages and parts of the code, which will cram your server and make it run more slowly.
If you have a slow website, customers will be less likely to return to your site. That’s why you should try your best to improve your website performance.
Set Up Multilingual and Regional Websites
It is one of the more overlooked aspects of the eCommerce industry. Simply put, not everyone in the world speaks a single language, so you’ll immediately limit your clientele if you decide to keep your website run under one language available.
While you’re at it, you should also consider registering a site under Google My Business because it will allow people to create reviews about your business. Not only this, but you’ll be able to add pictures, offer coupons, etc.
The more active you are on Google My Business, the more you’ll be able to expand your brand reach. When you get a build-up of positive reviews, you’re more likely to become a suggested company when potential customers search for businesses similar to yours.
Create Interesting and Useful Content
To attract more people to your business, you also need to create engaging content that will make your customers come back for more, and that will have them talking about your company on social media.
One of the best forms of engaging content is video content. That’s because a large number of your clients will be looking at your website on their mobile phones, and sometimes they’d rather watch a video than read a long article that forces them to swipe up and down continuously. According to platforms like Shopify, including videos on your website will likely raise your sales by as much as 85%.
Beyond videos, though, you should also include guests posts, blogs, etc. These capabilities will bring different opinions to your business, and will subsequently appeal to a more significant number of people.
You should also consider creating long-form articles and, according to experts, the text content is usually around 2000 words in length. A study that was conducted in 2017 suggests that the average article length for the top ten results on Google was at least 1000 words and more. A blog is a great idea to help your customers with useful advice and build a long-read content.
And remember, usefulness and uniueness are the key factors for content success. Even a product page can look like a masterpies. Be as authenetic in your product description, as you can be, tell the most useful informetion you can provide about your product. Just look:
Optimizing eCommerce Store
Running an eCommerce website is a tough business, and you should always look for new ways to improve it so that you increase your traffic this year. There are many ways in which you can increase your traffic, and we’ve listed the top five in the above article.
In short, you can increase your business sales by improving your website’s performance, creating new and unique content, setting up multilingual sites, following the above SEO checklist, and optimizing your store for voice search.
If you are not sure how you can set up all these things, here is a list of excellent expert resources that will bring all pieces to their places:
