Why Small Businesses in Australia need an Ecommerce Website

In the recent past, ‘Shopping’ meant going out to the store or supermarket, picking the things we need, get them billed at the counter and driving back. However, things are changing fast, due to the introduction of internet and ecommerce.

Thanks to the advances in technology it is now possible to go on a shopping spree, sitting right in one’s living room. The necessity for physical travel is totally eliminated. You can sit in the convenience of your home and buy anything you want. If you don’t find what you are looking for in a particular website you can always search and find the site where you get it and order it the same day without any hassles.

Business need Online Visibility

Many of the customers want to purchase online rather than be bothered with the inconvenience of physical travel. It is the right time for small businesses to capitalize on the benefits of responsive web design and get linked with the rest of the world. There is a definite advantage to being accessible in 196 countries, rather than just your city or neighborhood.

Ecommerce Websites

The selling of products and services via the internet is termed as Ecommerce. Many companies have realized the positive impact of ecommerce on their business and accordingly set up their online stores.

What Sells Online?

While you decide to get on the bandwagon, here is a list of top-selling products.

1. Hard cover and E-Books: Books are one of the most popular products sold online. They are either downloaded as softcopy or PDF, or ordered online in Hardcopy format.

2. Computers, Tablets and Laptops: Due to the internet boom, there has been an increase in demand for laptops, tablets and desktops. Thanks to the various programs and applications, our conveniences are increasing by the day and so is the demand for the related computer hardware.

3. Software: As all our office applications are getting automated, there is a demand for Enterprise Resource Management (ERM), designing, web development, billing, virtual office and other software. Thus, many web development companies are responding well to meet the demand and selling software to suit their customers’ various requirements.

4. Consumer Electronics: There is a lot of demand for consumer electronic products like, phones, cameras, TVs projectors etc. The craze for consumer electronics is like no other; people are on the constant lookout for the latest products!

 5. Men’s and Women’s Apparel: Clothing is another product which will never go out of fashion, or rather is the sole ingredient of thereof.

6. Movie, Music, Self Help DVDs: Music albums and movies are one of the all time popular products and also are in great demand online.

7. Beauty Products: Beauty products are conveniently ordered online without the hazzle of visiting the stores again and again.

8. Jewelry:  Jewelry can be purchased online, as per our specifications. There is a wide range of choice and we can find the perfect product as per our requirements.

This clearly shows us the relevance of Ecommerce Web Design and why businesses must have their ecommerce websites to maximize their earning potential. If you like to have information about affordable ecommerce websites, contact click here.

Tips for Building Mobile Friendly Websites

The number of smart phone users around the world will cross the 2 billion mark by 2016. People will make use of their smart phones not only for calling and texting, but also for browsing the web for news, information, and even shopping. It is imperative that businesses must make their websites mobile-friendly or they may lose out on potential customers.

Use Good Framework for Responsive Site

You can use bootstrap for the same. Here the website’s elements are arranged in the form of a grid. The grid shifts and adjusts itself according to the display device like tab or smartphone. Thus the website elements are spaced appropriately to look good on a desktops, laptops, tabs as well as smart phones.

One more advantage of bootstrap is that it is free, open source and properly documented. It also applies a unified approach to web development and you have the same user experience, whether you access the site from a mobile or desktop; and what’s more is that you don’t require a separate URL for the mobile website.

Navigation must be Easy

When the website design is optimized for mobile usage, it must be navigable by the thumb. One shouldn’t feel the need pinch it to make things readable. Even if the site is mobile friendly, sometimes we find that the navigation buttons are very small and the wrong button will get pressed. The average width of a finger is 15mm or 45 pixels and therefore, the button’s selection area must be created accordingly.

Simplicity in Design

When you are optimizing a website for mobile usage, you must make sure that it loads fast. The website must not contain high quality video or images. The images must be optimized to facilitate faster loading time and a better user experience. Replace the heavy Java Script libraries like mobile jQuery with standalone JavaScript.

Content must be Concise

The user may be accessing the site via a mobile phone and obviously the mobile screen is much smaller. He may not have the time to scroll down and keep reading your website content forever. So keep it short and sweet.

Use Icons

Instead of explaining it in a dozen words, say it by mobile icons. The user will find it easier to just tap the call or email icon, rather than mentioning the same in words in your contact page.

Limit the JavaScript

Do not use excess JavaScript as mobiles may behave differently. It doesn’t mean that one mustn’t use it, but utilize it cleverly enough so that the speed of the mobile site doesn’t get affected.

Access to Basic Information

Make the basic information available to the user. For E.g. if you are a restaurant chain, people will be looking for your nearest branch address, map, contact and home delivery number. So, place your information accordingly.

User Friendly Forms

The forms must not ask for extensive information. They must just ask for a person’s basic information like name and email; the rest can be obtained in future correspondences.

Extensive Testing

The website must be tested extensively on different devices and browsers for making sure that the user experience is good. SolidifyApp, delight.io are some useful tools.

For affordable website design services,  contact WebCanny.

What kind of Websites are ideal for Business?

It is a well established fact that a business needs a website to surge ahead of competition. However one must decide which kind of website is required to cater to one need.

Some people may need a static website and some may need a dynamic one! It all depends on the nature of your business and nothing else. A dynamic website may be more expensive compared to static site. In this changing world of web design, one may need to keep pace with the latest web technologies and adapt accordingly.

Fixed or static Website: This website had a fixed width and doesn’t resize when it is viewed on mobiles and tablets. This could be quite irritating. In this fast changing world, where everything is at your fingertips or in your smart phone, a static website may not be in order. We may even have to pinch and zoom out, in order to view a simple website which can get even annoying at times. Apart from that

Liquid Design: This website layout is made using columns of data which are governed by percentages; these change according to the physical dimensions of the output device. As a result, the content of this website is fluid in nature; it takes shape of the output device – therefore the name ‘liquid’.

Responsive Web Design: The responsive web design is easy to view and can be accessed in a variety of devices! Thus the user doesn’t have scroll up or down in order to view the website. Navigation is easier and the flow of information appears smooth.

How do Responsive websites work?

The websites using responsive content are designed to take the pre determined shape of a browser. In fact the content is also set accordingly. For e.g., if the content is set in three columns, then if the browser resizes, the website content will be re-adjusted to display in two columns.

The quality of images and videos uploaded into the site depends on the internet connection speed. In case of slower connections, low resolution images and video are substituted in place of the heavy files.

Which Website to choose

Companies, who want to go for a new website, or design change, must consider a few points. They must be aware of the type of phones, their target audience is using. If they are using basic phones, then a fixed website will do the job. However, if the target audience is tech savvy and owns smart phones, then you might like to go for a responsive, website.  For more information contact WebCanny.