On-Demand Magento Support
Have you implemented a Magento site, but can’t seem to reach the development team when issues arise? Boomtown Internet Group provides on-demand Magento support post-development for both routine maintenance and emergencies. Our programmers know the ins and outs of the system, able to troubleshoot issues small and large. Having problems with a sluggish or unresponsive site? Allow one of our system specialists to analyze your server capacity and recommend potential remedies – prevent site crashes before they happen during seasonal rushes. We will become as involved as you’d like us to be; whether you need the occasional question answered or someone to act as site manager, our team is available for on-going support. We understand that your business depends on the functionality of your website – you can count on quick response time and quicker resolutions.

Magento Development and Design
Our developers have several years of experience working with various technologies including Java, CSS, Drupal, Word Press, PHP, Flash, and many others. We can create and integrate complex extensions with Magento and other third party ecommerce solutions. Our developers stay abreast of the latest updates in the world of Magento in order to deliver customized results in line with business goals. Not only do we grasp the coding aspect of ecommerce stores, but we also recognize the importance of design. Each Magento website is designed and developed closely following a set of best practices to ensure your online store is a success.

Magento SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Our experienced SEO team works closely with clients to ensure their businesses achieve maximum visibility in organic search results. This includes optimizing your ecommerce platform to drive as much revenue as possible from on-site and off-site optimzation. Magento is said to be one of the most SEO-friendly online shopping carts – our team will diligently assess which actions need to be taken in order to optimize products properly. We have a tight grasp on everything from basic configuration to advanced Magento SEO troubleshooting. Our goal is that your products are found online to enhance profit. Choose Boomtown for initial Magento SEO once your store is built – we will optimize all products and categories, configure basic technical aspects, and clean up code on your template. We are also happy to assist you with Magento SEO troubleshooting that stems from duplicate content, disabled product links, and other issues that naturally arise with the ebb and flow of online commerce.

Boomtown Internet Group strives to offer a complete ecommerce solution through our extensive Magento knowledge and support base. Our goal is for your Magento store to be fully functioning 100% of the time so you never lose out on potential revenue. Make the best of the powerful resources Magento has to offer with our help!

To learn more about Magento development or support, contact a Boomtown Internet Group representative today at 888-454-3330, or shoot us a message.

Tweet

Some of the tests we do to the website are subjective, especially in the layout and effectiveness areas, but most of the evaluations are based on metrics that are very measurable. This article attempts to share our website evaluation strategy so that business owners can use these ideas to measure their own sites and make positive changes to them.

Layout

The first thing we look at is the layout of the site. There are certain elements that are proven to work on websites, and they include quick branding and messaging, visual attractiveness, easily accessible navigation, video, awards or testimonials for trustworthiness, search functionality, a sitemap and custom error page, policies such as privacy and shipping linked from the footer, copyright and contact information in the footer, social icons with links to social media sites, and easy access to best sellers or main subjects. Obviously there are many other items that can go on a home page of a site, but in general, all these elements should be present on every site. Some of the questions we ask at this stage include:

• Does the website effectively promote the brand value online?
• Does the website showcase products and services – especially the most popular of these?
• Is detailed product and service information easy to access?
• Do visitors get a complete picture of what the website offers from the home page?
• Does the website have a section such as a blog that allows for user interaction?
• Is the website properly linked with social media sites?
• How user friendly is the website – we may test this by asking new visitors to perform a simple function on the site such as purchasing a product or sending a contact form.
• Does the contact or about us page have consistent information with local listings, and does it use hcard format for easy search access?

Navigation

The next thing we check is the navigation structure of the site. We want to make sure the navigation works easily for both visitors and search engines. Navigation should be done using cascading style sheets, a search feature (if necessary), drop-down menus with graphics (if applicable), and an easy to use footer with most searched links.

Sometimes certain call-to-action buttons can be visible from certain pages of the site, but the main navigation should be accessible and consistent on all pages. Breadcrumb navigation links at the top of the page allow visitors to see exactly where they are on the site, and are very helpful for search engines as well. At this point we also run a broken links report and check to make sure the navigation uses search phrases that will boost SEO with a good internal link structure.

It is very popular with newer websites to have drop-down navigation that can include more than one column (so that the website home page is still visible when the navigation is moused over), graphics, and even call-to-action links. Sometimes this navigation style is even duplicated in the footer. The footer (or section at the bottom of each page) needs to include important links and call to action buttons so that search engines and customers can find important pages on your website much more consistently and with relevance.

Content: Product and Service Pages

Each product and service page should be loaded with unique and compelling content, including specifications, images, videos if available, reviews, comparisons, related products or services, and any special deals or offers. The URLs of these pages should have the main search word in them, and microformats should be used for reviews, products and contact pages. Especially if the site is a shopping cart, it is important to take advantage of Google and Bing’s shopping feeds so that the website products show up during shopping searches. It is also very important for product and service pages to make it easy for people to rate and comment on them. Perhaps the most important aspect of the internal pages of your website is that each page should have compelling information, and be written as a “landing page” for a specific search result, just in case the visitor comes directly to that page via search, rather than finding it after viewing the home page.

A blog is also very important for most websites. In a blog, the company can not only express opinions and solicit comments from visitors, but it can also post articles about products and services, new offers, press releases, and how-to articles. The blog can allow for visitors to sign up via RSS (really simple syndication) or email subscription. Posts to the blog should use search phrases that would bring in potential visitors, and someone from the company should be responsible for making sure that comments are answered and posts are written frequently.

We also check that content on the website has not been duplicated on the web. Even redirecting the www to the non-www version of a website can make a huge difference in the way the site ranks on Google. Redirects made for this purpose should be permanent 301 redirects.

Technical Aspects

The site should be checked for load time (Google likes faster loading sites), broken links, HTML and other coding errors, and meta verification tags. It should also have an XML sitemap that contains every page of the site and it’s priority to search. An HTML sitemap and custom error page with an index of all the pages on the site will help visitors. Page titles and meta descriptions should all be unique and keyword rich. A properly optimized Robots.txt should be present, and exclude certain bots from accessing the site, as these slow down the load time. We also look at the domain itself to see how old and how long it has been registered (trusted by Google) and how well it describes the business.

Social Media

Social media continues to grow as people find new ways to use social networking websites and social media websites. Since it is easy to reach customers through social media we recommend creating profiles on several of the most used social networking sites (such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook), connecting these to your website, and updating them regularly.

SEO Considerations

Finally, we take a look how many links and the types of links that are pointing to the website. If the number of incoming links to the website is very minimal, we recommend an SEO and linking strategy because the more incoming links the better for search engine visibility and ranking.

At the conclusion of our report, we prioritize our findings and try to help individual companies work within their marketing budgets to create the most effective website possible.

Tweet

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a technology that is being used by millions of websites to help users keep track of updates from their favorite sites. It provides users a method receiving relevant and up to date information quickly without the hassle of searching through each and every website. RSS is essentially a news feed that allows selected websites to notify a person every time an update is issued.

Using RSS to Your Advantage

As a blogger you have a lot to gain by attaching an RSS feed to your blog.

Efficiency: Because the application of an RSS feed has changed the rate at which individuals receive their information, you now have the opportunity to give your readers valuable  information and updates faster than ever before.  RSS ensures that whoever subscribes to your blog will be notified when you post something new.  No more waiting and worrying about
whether or not people are know about your new blog post because with an RSS feed: if you post it , they will come.

Effectiveness: Everyday more and more bloggers are adding RSS feeds to their blogs.  Research shows that most huge and successful online business and internet portals employ the use of RSS to reach their target markets.  If it can work for businesses it can certainly work for your blog. When someone subscribes to your RSS feed you can be sure that that person is a loyal reader; someone who will participate and be interested to hear what you have to say. It prompts the receiver to act, making your blog more dynamic which in turn will attract more readers. An RSS feed also has the potential to drive in a lot of traffic to your blog. It offers exposure and promotion for your blog throughout the web and increases its visibility on search engines.

WordPress provides an RSS feed, but not the ability to track and manage RSS subscribers. You can use FD Feedburner plug-in to keep track of subscribers. Add the blog’s RSS feed to Feedburner and then copy and paste the resulting Feedburner feed URL into the plug-in and Feedburner will begin providing statistics on followers.

Podcast RSS plug-ins are also available to convert the blog RSS feed into an iTunes podcast feed. Podpress and Blubrry PowerPress support iTunes and audio/video players so that you can easily embed media files in your blog posts.

In addition, as more and more people use iPads and other mobile devices, applications like the Flipboard App for the iPad will make reading reams of RSS feeds much less cumbersome for your subscribers!

RSS is another great little gadget to help advance your blog to the next level.

Tweet

In order to have all of the pages of your website indexed by major search engines, it’s important to create an XML sitemap.  XML sitemaps translate all of your pages into machine-readable content so that it is more search engine friendly. Sitemaps are especially helpful for webmasters since they can submit all URLs as well as metadata to improve indexing of their websites.

http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators offers an extensive list of third party sitemap generators that fit your needs and can be created easily. All websites using SEO should have XML sitemaps now, especially with the rising competition of natural search. This list offers sitemap generators supported by Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Bing. These major search engines all conveniently use the same XML sitemap, which makes submission much easier.

Things to Keep in Mind When Creating A Sitemap:

• Sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs (max size 10MB uncompressed)
• You can break your sitemap into smaller sitemaps to avoid overloading your server. List them in a Sitemap Index File in your Webmaster account and submit to Google (no need to submit individual sitemaps, just the index)
• Make sure all URLs are listed in the same syntax, from one single host
• Remove session IDs from URLs
• Make sure your sitemap file includes your sitemap namespace
• Sitemap URLs must be UTF-8 encoded and readable by the webserver it is located on
• You can name the sitemap file what you wish, but Google recommends using a .txt extension
• Include nothing but the list of URLs in the text file

After creating your sitemap, make sure to submit it to search engines. One of the main purposes of an XML sitemap is to improve SEO, so be sure all search engines have your information.

Search Engine Submission Sites

Google: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ping?sitemap=

Yahoo: http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=SitemapWriter&url=

Bing: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=

Ask: http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=

Tweet

It also has a built-in optimized version for touch devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch.   Another great feature is that it supports the Authorize.net payment gateway too.

So who should consider using Wazala.com?  Clients who want to dip their toes into the ecommerce world to test the waters are perfect for this cart because it is a free way to add an online store to your existing blog, Facebook page, or website, without the expense and technical issues of coding.

All you have to do is log into the Wazala online store creator, create your store, and then embed the widget into your existing site.  That’s it.  There isn’t any other configuration necessary. You can customize almost everything including adding your logo, choosing a background color, adding your company info, customizing your shipping options and methods of payment.  Next you can upload your products into the store inventory.  This is really only good for stores with a very few products because there is no CSV or Excel file upload.  You have to enter every product by hand.

After the store is embedded into your site it works as a popup, and all the buying is done right in the popup.  As soon as the transaction is complete, the visitor returns back to your site.

I’d like to begin testing the store on some of our web design clients in Philadelphia area, who are considering adding ecommerce to their blogs, Facebook pages, or websites, but who are not ready to consider the expense coding either an open source cart, or using a hosted cart solution, and who only sell a few items.  For these types of clients, the Wazala store seems to be a perfect fit.

Tweet

• A unique domain that you own
• A secure merchant account and payment gateway for accepting debit and/or credit card payments
• Clear shipping and return policies
• An online shopping cart loaded with your products and their descriptions
• A contact page
• An FAQ page
• An About our Company page that provides your contact information, a history of your business, your associations, awards and partners, possibly information about your employees, customer testimonials, organizations you are a part of, and your company policies or motto.

The main reason most of these elements are “must-haves” is that they inspire trust by showing your credentials and history. As you begin adding the elements for your unique store, you will want to first consider your customer’s incentive to buy from an online store. There are several factors in the buying decision that are universal. These include

• Price – customers want to get the best deal
• Quality – customers want to make sure the product is of good quality or guaranteed
• Convenience – products should be easy to find, compare, and purchase
• Selection – a wide range of products should be searchable and categorized so they can be compared
• Information – customers should have everything necessary to make the buying decision
• Security – customers should feel they are conducting a safe transaction
• Payment – the cart should provide several methods of payment
• Shipping – customers want a guarantee that the product will arrive on-time and in good condition
• Returns – customers want a clear return policy in an easy to find location.

All these factors need to be eye-popping and obvious for an ecommerce website to be successful. In the past, we created an ecommerce checklist to address the questions that need to be answered before beginning an ecommerce website or redesigning one. On the assumption that you are ready to begin design, this article addresses the essential elements, especially those that have changed due to mobile technology and social media.

The shopping cart template is the framework of your cart, and gives a uniform look to all the pages of your site. The template includes the branding on your top header, the navigation, and the footer of your web pages. It is important that every page on your site has a unique title and description, customizable URL, and is easily read by search engines.

The header should contain your logo, your branding, buttons and information for your cart, an area for returning customers or wholesalers to login, and your contact number at the least. Your navigation should be easy to use, with organized categories that expand to show sub categories if necessary. Your footer should contain links to all the major pages on your site, your copyright, your address, and a sitemap.

There should actually be two sitemaps on your cart, an XML sitemap for easy communication with Google, Bing and other search engines, and an auto-generated sitemap that displays links to all pages and products. It is also nice to have a popular search terms page or glossary, which is helpful not only for your customers, but for search engines indexing your pages.

The home page of your site should show off your products and promotions. It should contain call to actions that are clear and easy to follow. For instance your “Add to Cart” button should be very obvious.

The 404 Error page should be customized to show people how to get back to the place they want to be in your site if there is a broken link, and they landed on a page that no longer exists. Here you can add a little humor and provide a sitemap to get the customer back on track to purchase your products.

Product descriptions are perhaps the most important element of your cart. There are several things that might encourage a customer to purchase online, and since they cannot physically touch the product, you have to provide enough information to persuade them to purchase. Your cart should allow for the following information about products:

• Comprehensive descriptions – each description should be uniquely written by you, and should include:
  • Benefits and uses
  • Price
  • Dimensions and weight
  • Availability (at least if the product is in stock)
  • Color, options and suggested accessories
  • Manufacturer instructions or assembly information
  • Ratings and customer reviews
  • Related products and suggested products
  • Upsells and cross-sells
  • Add to a wish list or email a friend options
  • Shipping calculator
• Pictures or videos – there should be multiple images for each product and the ability to zoom in for a better view.

Mobile Version – since mobile phones and other devices are growing exponentially, retailers need to provide the best shopping experience to customers browsing their carts from a mobile device. Your cart should automatically show the mobile version of your cart to these visitors. A nice feature to add is the QR Code (short for Quick Response) which contains the specific matrix barcode for your website URL that can be read by QR barcode readers and camera phones.

Search function and product browsing features such as:

• Ability to search for and filter products in categories like a price range and size
• Category landing pages
• Auto-suggested search terms
• Show recently viewed products

An easy checkout process is also essential. There should be two ways for customers to checkout. They should be able to checkout as a guest without saving their information into a database for faster shopping, or create an account that they can access the next time they shop on your site. Customers who create accounts should have the ability to save items to a wish list and share with others and edit their contact information and shipping addresses. They should be allowed to ship their purchases to multiple addresses and add gift messages. Once logged in, customer should be able to see their order status and history, be able to re-order, and be able to view recently ordered items.

The shopping cart should allow for many types of promotions including:

• Flexible Coupons for promotions like:
  • Percent Discount
  • Fixed Amount Discount
  • Free Shipping
  • Buy x, get y free or other product bundles.

The order management and fulfillment features of your cart are also very important. You will need the ability to search for and view orders, create invoices, receipts, shipping labels, and refunds for customers.

It is also very important that your cart have an interface to your backend inventory management and book keeping programs.

Reporting is crucial to selling online. Your cart should be connected to your analytics program so that you can see how visitors were using your site. You should also be able to log into the cart to download and view your sales, new orders, taxes, viewed and purchased products, abandoned carts, inventory, and customers.

Finally, but not least, the newsletter subscription is an important element for every shopping cart site. Newsletters can be used to notify subscribers about specials, discounts, re-orders, and items of interest. It is very important for store owners to use newsletters to grow relationships with their customers.

The process we use is to write all these features on strips of post-it-note type paper, then move them around on a whiteboard until we are satisfied that we have achieved a user-friendly layout. At this point we can take a picture of the whiteboard for future reference. We use this reference point to craft our PSD files which the programmers use to create the website template and CSS code.

Tweet

Define the Reason for the Redesign in Writing: On the other hand, you definitely don’t want to begin a website redesign just to keep up with your competition!  Therefore the number one goal before a web redesign is to create a list of quantifiable goals.  During the process of creating this list, it is very important to research both the current traffic on your site and the target audiences needs.  You can do this by reviewing website analytic data and looking for trends, and by surveying your own visitors and looking at your competitor’s sites.

• Interview loyal visitors on additional functionality
• List competitor’s functionality
• List any user complaints or questions

The idea is to come up with a concise list of new features that should be included in the website redesign.

Define the project: After you have your list created, the next step is to define the scope, budget, and resources necessary for the redesign project.  From the list, you can create a scope document defining the project.  You will probably already have a set budget for the project, and the juggling will be in making the scope fit within the budget.  Personnel Planning:

• Plan for one person to be the project manager and work with the web development team, and plan for several people to reread and edit the current content on the site and update it.  This is the perfect time for a website content audit.
• You may need to add more people to the project if the new functionality of the website is going to add or change personnel responsibilities.  These people can work to create procedure documents.
• If new videos, photos or audio are needed for the new website, these man-hours should also be noted.
• Some personnel may also be needed to re-populate the web pages if it is a content management system.  All these people should be identified and notified so that they can schedule time for the project.
• Review the available technology that can be used for the redesign.  After this review, factor in the cost of the technology, hosting, and development.

Solicit Ideas: The best way to achieve a successful redesign is to get feedback from your users, so that they feel like they were included in the redesign process.  This way they can make their requests and ideas known, and you can get their buy-in, which is critical to the success of the web redesign.

Use Wireframes: In the case where the redesign is an overhaul of the website, it can be very beneficial to create a wireframe as well as PDF files of the design.  Wireframes (a “sketch” of the website layout with notes about where links connect pages together and data that is shared between pages) help to organize the elements of the web pages and visualize how the pages will work together to perform their desired functions.  Using wireframes in conjunction with PDF files containing graphic representations of the pages (and their different states when visitors mouse over or click) allow designer, programmer and client to assess the web pages and their flow before the actual coding begins.  This helps to decrease revisions during the programming process.

During the website redesign process, it is important to make sure that the functionality desired in the future is also addressed.  If the site is going to need major revisions a few months after it is launched due to something not addressed during the design, this can be very costly.  It is better to try to prepare for all possible features and functions during the design process, whether or not they are actually coded.  Planning for the future can save money and time later because the technology chosen will reflect the future growth.

Keep the website dynamic! After a site is redesigned, tested, and live, it is important to evaluate the traffic patterns to ensure that the pages are working as they were intended.  Testing and refining pages is important, as is the addition of fresh new content.

For more information or website redesign help please contact Sue McCrossin. Sue McCrossin is owner of Boomtown Internet Group, a company focused on internet marketing and web design Philadelphia

Tweet

If you’re in the process of redesigning your old website or looking to create a new one, or if you’re unsure where to start or what to do for software or a content management system, the following blog post will offer guidance as to what CMS platforms are the most SEO-friendly.  It’s worth it to take the time to read and understand the benefits an inherently friendly CMS can offer—it’ll save you a lot of future time and stress.

You’ll need a CMS for your website if you update site content frequently (say, more than once a month), if you’re planning to run an onsite blog (this is highly recommended), if individuals who aren’t developers will be editing and maintaining site content, and/or if you’ll be managing your website from remote locations.  In many scenarios, a CMS is a good idea—it’s very rare nowadays for a company or site owner to choose a static site over a dynamic alternative like Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla.  These platforms are free, and extremely inexpensive to customize.

When making your CMS decision, ensure that your choice is search-engine friendly.  There are many basic SEO issues that plague the majority of content management systems (both custom made platforms and standard).  Choosing a CMS platform that minimizes these issues, you’ll reap the benefits of SEO and have a smoothly functioning platform for content delivery.

Common Problems With Non-SEO Friendly CMS Platforms:

1. They don’t allow for title tag customization.  A search engine friendly CMS allows for all title tags to be customized (page specifically).
2. Long, URL’s that aren’t static.  URLs pose problems for SEO when it comes to CMS platforms—ideally your platform should assist with URL creation and allow for custom keyword rich URLs, hyphenated for separation.  Your CMS platform should auto generate titles based on posting titles (if you’re lazy) or enable manual changing of URLs.
3. Not allowing meta tag customization.  Both meta tags, meta descriptions, and robot tags are critical for a good SEO friendly CMS.
4. Not allowing flexibility of internal anchor texts—having the ability to customize anchor text on internal links is critical.  In order to optimize your website, your CMS platform should provide the flexibility to handle custom input.
5. Not enabling custom HTML tags.  A SEO friendly CMS system has the ability to offer extra functionality when it comes to “nofollow” links, HTML tags, or other subheadline or headline tags.
6. Not allowing for 301 redirects.  Allowing for 301 redirects are an absolute must for SEO.  Unfortunately, some CMS platforms lack this feature—these redirects are crucial for taking care of expired content, pages with newer versions, solving duplicate content issues, multiple domain issues, etc…
7. No RSS pinging.  A CMS that doesn’t allow for pinging limits exposure—CMS that allow pinging are useful for articles, press releases, pages, and blog posts.
8. Poor image handling.  Alt tags on images are a must for SEO—they serve as “anchor text” for the search engines.
9. Poor categorization.  Just like URL creation, categorization should be flexible.  Any CMS platforms offering customizable navigation will be a SEO success.

No need to struggle with CMS problems when there are platforms like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal available.  Of course, the best CMS for your website does depend on your environment, website, budget, company, and SEO goals.  Choose a platform that offers “clean URLs”, open source modules for custom (or automatic) URL renaming, easy URL redirection, creation of XML sitemaps, meta tags, a content first page structure, easy navigation, and more.  Read our other blog posts on WordPress and Drupal to learn more about SEO friendly CMS options.

Tweet

Philadelphia businesses know there are endless amounts of e-commerce websites available, to the point where customers find it challenging to choose where they’d like to shop.  With the following e-commerce web design strategies, you’ll be able to get a leg up on the competition and understand which e-commerce strategies should be emulated.  The following are successful web design trends and web development strategies.

Useful (and Basic) e-Commerce Web Design Tips:  Philadelphia Web Development

1. Categorize your products and items properly, so customers can easily find what they’re looking for.  You’ll have to designate which categories and sub categories are appropriate so viewers are exposed to all site essentials and can efficiently navigate around.
2. Product descriptions are also necessary.  You’ll need to write clear and informative product descriptions, using SEO keywords when necessary for every product on your site.  Viewers like to know what it is they’re buying.
3. Keep it simple, keep it clear. Very clearly display all price related information next to products to maintain a level of trust with customers.  This means in addition to prices, you’ll need to prominently display discounts, special offers, shipping charges, or any other costs if they exist.
4. Make it easy for customers to pay. Your e-commerce website shopping cart should support as many payment options as are available, from PayPal, Credit Card, Google Checkout, etc so customers are provided with a variety of payment methods to accommodate the means of checkout they feel most secure with.
5. Security, assurance, confirmation. Keep in mind to only require the information necessary from customers so potential clients aren’t overwhelmed and lose focus.  Also, your customers will need a payment receipt or confirmation receipt after they’ve gone ahead and made a purchase, so remember to provide one.

Specific e-Commerce Web Design Tips:

Amazon.com’s success has come from much testing, retesting, and optimization, and remains the envy of many e-commerce marketers.  We can learn a thing or two from them and apply it to our own website in the process of web design and web development.  Several of these e-commerce web design trends don’t only look great, but they obviously work.

1. Offer your customers more then one picture to look at, preferably several that can be blown up, zoomed in, and viewed at many different angles.
2. Set up your ecommerce platform to offer comparison shopping.  This includes recommended products based upon consumer’s previous purchases, related items, or items “frequently bought together”.
3. Don’t underestimate the power of “big”.  Big is a popular web design trend, especially for e-commerce websites.  Modern, clear, and prominent designs are in—big logos, openly displayed coupons, and large images make large impressions.  This strategy also serves as a “call-to-action”.
4. Open source e-commerce platforms are easy to customize, convey professionalism, make navigation easy, and are easy to implement.  One e-commerce feature is “content sliders”, a very popular web design feature that displays a slideshow result of products/items for easy browsing and customer interaction.  Not only that, they serve as an easy way to manage and display content.  There are many customizable options available—choose one that best suits your product choices and page content.  Walmart, Borders, and Nordstrom make use of these.

Philadelphia businesses, explore your web design and web development options.  Incorporating the aforementioned e-commerce web designs is a sure way to improve user experience and gain a competitive advantage.  Learn more—discuss e-commerce options with a company that specializes in Philadelphia web design and Philadelphia web development.

Tweet

This is was an important announcement because mobile devices are fast becoming a common thing in our life, and mobile handsets and smart phones are being used as shopping devices. Using a mobile store, customers can conveniently purchase whenever and wherever they want via a streamlined payment process.  In fact mobile commerce has been identified as a new retail channel called m-commerce, and Philadelphia Website Design firms will soon be asked to begin building compatible applications.

Magento’s website boasts the following: Welcome to the world’s first mobile commerce platform. With Magento mobile, you can easily create branded, native storefront applications that are deeply integrated with Magento’s market-leading eCommerce platform.

So why the excitement about mobile commerce apps?

Many industry experts predict that mobile is the next “frontier” for commerce. There are two ways that users interact with ecommerce sites on mobile devices:  mobile web (browser) apps and native mobile apps.  Mobile web apps involve using themes to optimize the store website so that it renders well on phones and mobile devices.  Native mobile apps allow users to engage more deeply with ecommerce sites on their mobile devices.   Some native mobile applications even allow a user to begin making a purchase, add things into their shopping basket, and finish the purchase from a mobile device. This is becoming an important trend in mobile applications especially since eBay announced that they project $1.5 billion in mobile sales this year.

However the current m-commerce technology is inadequate to meet retailer’s demands, and there is a lack of universal standards. Magento Mobile is one of the first attempts to meet retailer’s needs with native commerce apps for mobile devices, and the meet up with Philadelphia Website Design representatives helped to convey the features of the platform to developers.

Philadelphia website design representatives were quick to point out that native mobile applications are complicated to manage and expensive to build.  Magento’s new mobile native application works only for the iPhone now, but it features commerce, customizable themes that include background images and button colors, and integration with your existing ecommerce and merchandizing tools, at affordable prices.   And the Magento representative on hand indicated that an Android compatible version of Magento Mobile will soon be released.

Tweet