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4 Tips to Optimize your Ecommerce Website for Tablets

Posted by Unknown June 26, 2013 3 comments

About 25% of Americans shop using tablet computers. The tablet is a highly popular device for online shopping. Even Smartphone were not quite as popular when they were in a comparable phase. Every ecommerce business owner will obviously want to cash in on the opportunity to serve this segment. Google is going to extend their Google Shopping in Mobile and Tablets, this is an added advantage of optimizing an ecommerce site for tablets.

The need of the hour is to build ecommerce website that performs just as well – or better – as it does on a laptop or desktop. The form, structure, design, and content on the original site should not only be accommodated in the tablet version but also work just as well – or even better.

So how do you optimize the tablet version of your site for best results?

Here are a few pointers:

Responsive Design for Tablet
Responsive Web Design: 
New tech enables developers to build websites that adapt to the screen that the user is using. So whether they visit your site on their Smartphone, tablet, or desktop, all components and content on your site are available with minor and aesthetically adapted changes to the regular site. The overall layout features, and graphics on the site are almost exactly the same as in the regular version, with some of the content made available on an on-demand basis. 

Finger and Stylus Friendly Navigation:  
Tablet owners are already accustomed to using their finger or a stylus to navigate. The navigation in your site should also support content sliders for easy access to your product pages. It should not depend on hovering because current tablets do not support the hovering feature. Navigation can be consolidated in a single icon, such as the increasingly popular three horizontal lines.
Image Optimization for Tablet
Images – Beauty with Brains: 
Images used on regular websites are not always optimized for aesthetic or even functional purposes. With new tech such as retina display, or the vastly improved screens on tablets, that kind of laxity will just not do. Images in the tablet version of your store or site should display well and load fast. The photographs of products should be of the best possible quality and still load fast. Some of your fast-loading images can be built using CSS. Load time can also be reduced by cutting down on the number of HTTP calls the site must make to load a page.

iPad and Tablet Friendly Technology: 
As technology evolves, better ways of displaying websites and new ways of enriching them are emerging fast. It would help to keep tabs on all such developments. Scoring points in this respect will be important for businesses that face intense competition.

Build a great tablet experience for your visitors and customers and attract much more traffic and custom off your website’s tablet version. If you’d like to know more, watch this space or get in touch with us.

+Akshay Vyas: Author and Moderator of "Ecommerce" Community, it has just reached to over 600 members. You should be a part of this community now, let's join.

Happy selling and Have a great day!

Why Inventory is most powerful Back-end Ecommerce Tool?

Posted by Unknown June 13, 2013 2 comments
Internet made e-commerce possible. Both business-to-business and business-to-consumer relationships can now be successfully managed. E-commerce giants such as eBay and Amazon have made their fortune over the last decade or so.
Inventory and Order Management for Ecommerce
Online shopping is a very significant internet activity in the US. That means there is a frenetic pace to the internet traffic and shopping transactions. Orders can be rapidly fulfilled only if inventory records are thorough, accurate, and up to date. To support such heavy online activity, an efficient back-end inventory system is a must. There are two popular programming technologies, Asp.Net and PHP – an inventory management software uses for. Inventory Control Software built with these technologies ensure more customization than built with others.

With this background, inventory management systems should be web-enabled and integrated to work seamlessly. Information such as SKUs, prices, product descriptions, and so on is a critical part of inventory systems. In addition, other product details, images, location by warehouse, thumbnails, etc. are also important. Adequate meta-tag information needs to be added to such software.
The best inventory systems also offer order fulfillment system and automatic updates capabilities. The inventory system needs to reflect a true account of the actual stock available at any given point in time. 

Other important attributes that inventory solutions include are, 
  • Order trigger reports generated when preset re-order levels are reached
  • Usage-trend reporting by product categories, which provide a snapshot on inventory utilization rates 
  • Support for bar-coding and RFID
  • Web-enabled feature that allows system log-ins from virtually any location that has internet access
  • Added flexibility to incorporate linking to other business systems (e.g., manufacturing systems, purchase order systems, and order fulfillment) 
  • Capability to generate inventory usage reports, order forecasts, and product return reports
The best inventory management system is one that enables businesses to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction through effective, timely, and memorable service. Running an online store or business without such a system, becomes terribly complicated and negatively impacts the business.

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