Optimizing for festive season

The most important time for a retail business to achieve their targeted sales is the holiday season. A series of festivals and holidays, starting from Thanksgiving and Black Friday, continuing all the way to Christmas and New Year, sets the mood for purchasing amongst the people. So, it is the time of year retail businesses sell the most.

According to Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast holiday retail sales are likely to increase between 7% and 9% in 2021. Overall, Deloitte’s retail and distribution practice projects that holiday sales will total $1.28 to $1.3 trillion during the November to January timeframe.

While the pandemic made shopping difficult, eCommerce filled the gap left by the traditional retail stores. According to a study by emarketer, the eCommerce sales growth rate during the holiday season, which ranged between 11% and 16.2% from 2014 to 2019, spiked to a whopping 32% in 2020! While the growth rate is not expected to be that high in 2021, the average growth rate that eCommerce retail has enjoyed in the last few years is expected to continue.

So, it is extremely crucial for eCommerce businesses to prepare for the rise in demand in coming days. Unlike a traditional retail store that has limited space for accommodating and serving more people and managing higher demand, an eCommerce store has a much better scope for meeting a sudden surge in the demand without causing bottlenecks and inconvenience to the user. This in turn makes it possible for an eCommerce store to have a better conversion rate and overall sales. However, the opportunity presented by the holiday season can be seized only if there is proper site optimization.

What is site optimization?

The ultimate purpose of an eCommerce site is to achieve sales. When users visit your eCommerce store, anything that creates a bad user experience can deter them from buying from you. eCommerce site optimization is the process of identifying those factors and addressing them. Steps involved in purchasing something from an eCommerce store starts with being found by the customer and extends all the way to payment, invoicing, shipping, tracking the order, returns and refund. Bottlenecks and poor user experience can occur in any of these steps. Site optimization involves identifying and addressing these issues.

Site optimization can be classified into:

• On Site Optimization and
• Off-site Optimization

On Site Optimization

Following are some of the measures you can take to tweak and tune your online store and achieve on site optimization.

1. Make it easy for customers to find your business
In a crucial period like the holiday season, getting noticed and found by the customers can determine how successful you are. Online space provides a lot of choice to the customers, and businesses need to place themselves on the top of the search engine page to drive traffic to get noticed. So, the first step to site optimization is improving SEO. SEO helps you to increase the exposure and makes it easy for customers to find you when they search for a product they need and that you have. Mobile site optimization also determines your search page ranking; the higher your page is ranked and displayed on the search page greater is the chance of driving traffic to your site.

2. Enable customers to find products easily on your site
Once you can draw the customers to the site, they should be able to find the product they are looking for immediately. Improving the product search is one of the core elements of site optimization. Even if you already have a good search tool in your eCommerce site, companies launch a plethora of new products aimed at the holiday season. So, updating the product search to display these new products on top go a long way in making customers’ favorite products findable.

There are site optimization tools that enable you to classify the products clearly into different categories and make them easily findable using a vast array of filters. Search filters help customers narrow down their search and easily find the products they are looking for in a few easy steps. This vastly improves the user experience and hence the conversion rate. You can also identify which products don’t get found on your site search, using site optimization tools that provide detailed insights and adjusting product listings accordingly.

3. Improve speed with site speed optimization

The holiday season drives a lot more traffic than in other days. If the site is overwhelmed by the sudden increase in the number of visitors using the site, it will make shopping experience slow and laggy for the customers. This can force the customers leave the site and look elsewhere to buy what they want. So, it is important to do site speed optimization and prepare for the increased traffic by increasing the available bandwidth, using a more responsive design theme and template and reducing the loading times of the site by simplifying the code. You can also include a caching plugin to load content quicker.

4. Make site mobile friendly with mobile site optimization

The eCommerce traffic from mobile is significantly higher than the traffic from other devices. 72.9% of the site traffic that eCommerce sites generated in 2021 was from mobile devices. So, even if your eCommerce site is fully speed optimized for desktop devices, it will not prove fruitful if it is not optimized for mobile devices. In order to do mobile site optimization, you may need to:

• Improve Render Start Time (RST) to speed up loading time
• Use AMP open-source library to make the site snappy
• Create a native app for mobile platforms
• Simplify the code to make the site responsive
• Use Content Delivery Network

If you are looking to do a site audit for you eCommerce store and undertake performance improvement measures check out https://arizon.digital/consulting

5. Optimize product page
Users are spoilt for choice with the sheer number of products that are usually available on an eCommerce store. It is essential to have a product page optimized in terms of code, layout and content. The product page should be well laid out with a clear description, features and specifications for customers to see whether the product has everything they look for. The pages should contain clear, high quality images that accurately depict the product. The product image can be accompanied by ALT text and tags for search engines to easily find the page. You can also integrate product comparison feature for the customers to compare the product with competing products and decide better.

6. Enable quick and easy checkout
A lengthy and complicated checkout process provides users with a poor shopping experience. It is one of the main reasons for increase in shopping cart abandonment. To help users with a clean and quick checkout process, you may need to –

• Provide good visibility of the cart button
• Reduce the number of steps in checkout
• Remove additional steps before starting checkout, such as mandatory login
• Integrate guest checkout
• Avoid adding additional costs during checkout
• Integrate multiple payment options
• Provide space to enter discount coupons

7. Personalize offers, discounts and introduce flash sale
Offers and discounts are a part of the Holiday season. You can celebrate the festival season with a theme that instantly conveys to the customers that offers, discounts and sale are on. While you can highlight the discount coupons and the percentage of discount available on specific products, it is equally important to personalize them by displaying offers from the product categories that specific user has previously searched for or browsed on the site. This can help you increase conversion. There are site optimization tools that can help you automate this and display personalized offers for every user. Flash sales are a great tool for keeping customers engaged, as these are time bound, and the customers have to be on the site to make use of them.

8. Follow up with cart abandonment reminders
You can use site optimization tools to automatically identify cart abandonment and remind the users that the items are waiting for checkout, after a specified period of time. This will remind users in case they have forgotten it and push them to revisit the cart. You can also offer a discount for the items in cart and motivate the customers to buy items in the cart at a more attractive price.

Off-site Optimization

Following are some of the off-site optimizations that you can carry out to drive more traffic and achieve conversion.

1. Announce the sale on social media and promote it with ads.
2. Identify the new products and the ones in demand, and proactively stock them in enough numbers.
3. Manage inventory better and make sure that users never manage to place orders for products that are out of stock.
4. Improve logistics and make sure that you can ship all the products ordered by the customers.
5. Provide free shipping atleast for select products.
6. Strengthen the back-end server to handle peak load.
7. Create segmented mailing lists for different product categories and conduct a personalized email marketing to push relevant products to the customers.

About Arizon Digital

Arizon Digital is a company with in-depth knowledge and experience in providing eCommerce solutions across industries. We have deep expertise in building and delivering technology-based business solutions; and have successfully supported the eCommerce business of more than 250 customers. With exceptional client satisfaction, we have a proven track record of exceeding expectations and enabling businesses to achieve their full potential.

If you are looking to optimize your site do explore our Site Audit & Discovery Services. We will help you compare your eCommerce business performance against key metrics, provide data on website technical performance, and delivers insights on what changes need to be implemented.

7 Workflow Automation Ideas For eCommerce

All eCommerce businesses, whatever be their size and the vertical in which they operate, are looking to boost their bottom lines. It is a fact that eCommerce businesses operate 24×7. But that does not mean you have staff taking orders and fulfilling them every hour of the day and every day of the week. eCommerce businesses are automating key processes and adopting technology wherever possible to streamline operations and reduce the dependency on people. Workflow Automation is one such step in the right direction.

What is Workflow Automation in eCommerce?

When you run an eCommerce business, you come across many tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to error. These tasks are handled better by technology, for example, Inventory management. Keeping track of inventory and updating the stock details as and when sales happen can be tedious, cumbersome, and prone to error. When stock levels don’t tally, there are instances of stock-outs and overselling. It can result in a bad customer experience and lost sales. So in workflow automation, you replace a human activity with a digital alternative. If done correctly, this minimizes errors and frees up your resource, who can then engage in more meaningful work.

Many repetitive processes like email marketing, purchase order management, and customer support can get automated. In this blog, we will explore the benefits of workflow automation and some of the main processes that are getting automated.

Benefits of Workflow Automation

Enhance efficiency

eCommerce business owners often find themselves strapped for time and resources. Any improvements in the workflow that will enhance efficiency are welcome. For example, the fulfillment of orders can be quite time-consuming and repetitive. For order fulfillment, the same order details need to get updated in multiple locations for updating the inventory data, the back-end ERP system, generating shipping label, sending an order confirmation to the customer, etc. It can be a drain on the resources. The best way to increase efficiency here would be to automate the entire order management process.

Reduce Errors

eCommerce businesses handle large amounts of data regarding customers, inventory, transactions, etc. Consider the scenario where you have to enter the same data multiple times in various systems. You can be sure that errors will creep in, resulting in lost sales and a bad customer experience. Workflow automation eliminates manual data entry and reduces errors.

Save time and enhance productivity

Freeing your staff from doing repetitive jobs can help save time and enhance their productivity. They can focus on doing more important things that will help you grow your business.

Cut down on costs

With automation, you can complete tasks much faster and more precisely. For a small business with limited resources, workflow automation can help cut down on staff costs significantly.

Seven examples of workflow automation

So, in an eCommerce business, what are the areas in which we can use workflow automation?

Inventory management

All eCommerce businesses deal in hundreds of products. Keeping track of inventory and managing it plays a crucial role in the success of any eCommerce business. Adopting workflow automation in inventory management can be a lifesaver. There are automation solutions that connect the back-end ERP with the POS and the eCommerce store. It means that when you update the inventory in the back-end, it automatically gets updated in the POS and your eCommerce store. And, when a sale happens online, the information is captured, and the inventory gets adjusted in the POS and back-end. It ensures that inventory data gets updated in real-time and there are no instances of stock-outs and overselling.

Purchase Order automation

Once your inventory management is automated, you can set alerts to get notified whenever an item in stock falls to a predetermined level. You can then use automation to generate purchase orders automatically. You can even set first choice suppliers for each item and have the purchase order mailed to them. It ensures that stocks get replenished well in time. You don’t have to sift through stock sheets, vendor agreements, and emails every time you need have to reorder a product.

Supplier Onboarding

eCommerce businesses deal with multiple vendors for every product on their product catalog. Identifying the vendors, forming a relationship, working out payment and tax details is a long process. To further simplify, businesses are developing supplier portals that automate supplier identification and onboarding. All information regarding a vendor gets captured in the supplier portal along with the transaction details. With such supplier portals, managing vendors become easy, fast, and more accurate.

Order Management

Order Management involves all the steps in between receipt of an order and successful fulfillment. With workflow automation, you can automate many of these steps. Generating shipping labels is one of them. When you create shipping labels manually, errors are likely to creep in. Even a minor mistake can result in lost sales. Automating order management allows you to handle multiple tasks with a single click. You can send order confirmation emails, track the orders, and on successful delivery, the order gets marked as completed in the system.

Marketing

You need to spend time and effort in getting customers back to your site even if they are loyal customers. Regular customer communication is required to make this happen. But how do you keep track of customers, their purchase history, and what relevant communication will you send that will ensure that they come back to your site for more purchase. Here automation comes to your help. Automation helps you keep track of products that customers regularly buy from your site and send out reminders to reorder right when they are running out of it. That’s an effective way to nudge them to buy from you again. Yet another way to reach out to customers is by automating abandoned cart emails. Very often, people add products to their carts but don’t end up buying them. Cart abandonment emails are successful in getting a few of them at least to complete the purchase process.

Handling refunds and replacements

Product returns are part and parcel of the online business. What makes the difference is how you handle them. With automation, you can facilitate easy returns. You can mark products that can get replaced and those for which refunds will be processed. Automate the process for immediate action. How fast you respond to product cancellations will determine if the customers will return to your store for future purchases.

Customer support and service

According to estimates, by 2021, 85% of customer service interactions will get automated. It applies to eCommerce as well. Today you can configure your help desk to do an array of tasks. We are familiar with chatbots who answer customer queries effectively. But, automation can do much more than that. You can prevent canceled orders from getting into the fulfillment stage. You can send out relevant canned emails immediately based on keywords identified from customer emails. For example, delivery not received, wrong product delivered, etc. An immediate response helps pacify irate customers to some extent while the customer support gets about solving the issue.

To know more about how you can improve your eCommerce operations with workflow automation, connect with Arizon Digital.

B2B vs B2C eCommerce – The differences and similarities

We are all familiar with these two words – B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer). They are not new. They have been around for a long time and have been used to segment businesses broadly based on their customers. But we find a renewed interest in these terms lately. The reason for this is the growing online sales. There is a new word that has got added to them -which is eCommerce. And all discussions are happening around the growth witnessed, the differences and similarities in these two business models.

Now, smartphones have become an intrinsic part of our life. Internet access has reached all corners of the world and businesses are witnessing a sudden increase in their online customer base. The B2C businesses were the first to take advantage of this and make the transition into online retail.

We know that the eCommerce sector is one of the most rapidly-growing sectors worldwide, and today even the B2B segment is seeing a massive amount of potential in eCommerce. Building an e-commerce organization has become the top priority for many players in both B2B and B2C. In this blog, we discuss in detail the two business models, their key differences and similarities.

What is B2B eCommerce

When two businesses sell or transact online, it is called B2B eCommerce. For example, transactions between wholesalers and their retailers or manufacturers and wholesalers all fall under this category. With exposure to the internet and online sales, B2B customers have also evolved.

Earlier, a large part of the B2B industry had people from Generation X or even before. Today, more millennials are working in the B2B sector. Studies show that there over 73% of millennials are involved in the B2B buying process. They have grown up alongside technology, and all their buying happens online. And, they have come to expect a consumer-like eCommerce experience in their B2B purchase as well. Hence, all the big eCommerce platforms come built with powerful features that help you meet and exceed your customer expectations.

Advantages of B2B eCommerce

Increased Reach: Once you have decided to sell online, you are no longer restricted by your geographical location. The whole world can become your market place as long as you market yourself well, and potential clients can find you through the various search engines. This opportunity to sell to anyone anywhere makes it lucrative and worth putting in time and effort.

Enhanced customer engagement: Quick custom quotes, swift re-ordering process, order tracking, and online payments all focus on engaging with the customer and providing a first-class experience.

Mirrors the customer buying process from the tradition channel: B2B eCommerce has evolved to accommodate all of the complex buying processes and transactions unique to B2B selling.

Improved visibility and transparency: You can integrate your eCommerce store with back-end applications like ERP and CRM. It will help improve internal operations, efficiency, and customer relations.

What is B2C eCommerce

B2C stands for “business to consumer” ie. in B2C eCommerce, products are sold to individual customers directly. Globally the B2C eCommerce market is anticipated to touch 6.2 trillion USD by 2027. The increasing disposable incomes, penetration of the internet and smartphones, and the ever-increasing online customer base are driving this growth.

Key differences between B2B and B2 eCommerce

Buying Decision: In B2C eCommerce, the decision-maker is an individual. While in B2B eCommerce, there are multiple people involved in the decision-making process. The book ‘Challenger Customer’ says that on an average there are 6.8 decision-makers involved in the B2B buying process.

Life time value of customers: In B2C, most of the purchases are impulse, they are one-off transactions, and hence the relationship is short-lived. With so many options available, customers are always on the search for the next big deal. In B2B, businesses are keen on building long-term relationships. Repeat purchases are common and businesses strive to provide personalized services to promote long term relationships.

Pricing – Fixes Vs Customized: It is one fixed price for all customers in the B2Cmodel. Also, in B2C, you will find the transaction value is a lot smaller while the transaction volumes are large. Compared to B2C, the volume of transactions in B2B is lower, but the value of each transaction is high. Studies show that the average order for a B2C is $147 whereas, for B2B, it is $491.

The purchase process is also very complex in B2B. Initial quotes are shared, negotiations happen, and prices are customized for each customer based on the quantities ordered, relationship history, location, etc.

Order quantities: In B2B, very often there are Minimum Order Quantities. The option of buying just one number of an item may not be possible on B2B sites. While it is just the opposite in B2C. Here, merchants often set a maximum order quantity barrier for items depending on the popularity of the product and inventories available.

Customer base – In B2C, businesses usually have a large customer base. While in B2B, the target market is mostly niche, and hence they have a smaller pool of customers. The customers are identifiable, and businesses can plan defined marketing activities to target them more effectively.

Similarities

While there are significant differences between these two eCommerce models, they are not entirely different. The line between them is slowly blurring. There are B2B companies who are looking to sell directly to customers to expand their customer base. There are also instances where B2C companies are branching into B2B channels. Many B2C players are putting up their products on wholesale marketplaces that operate almost on the B2B model.

Also, the customers for both B2B and B2C sites are more or less the same. The sites they visit, the way they search the internet, the channels they visit for product information are all similar. In other words, there is a huge overlap in the way the players in both segments should market their sites and where they need to be present to be visible.

Few examples of successful B2B and B2C eCommerce sites

Grainger is one of the largest B2B industrial suppliers, and Quill is a site created by Staples to sell office supplies to B2B customers. HVACPartsShop.com is one of the best sources on the internet for HVAC repair parts and has been featured by BigCommerce as one of the most Innovative Ecommerce Brands of 2020.

Bliss World and Brussels Bonsai have been powered by Arizon Digital.

About Arizon Digital

Arizon Digital is a technology leader in retail and eCommerce solutions. We offer innovative services and solutions for B2B and B2C eCommerce businesses. We enable them to run their store better and achieve success and growth. Our solutions power the sites with the latest designs and functionalities that will enhance the customer experience. Arizon Digital operates out of Sugar Land, Texas. To know more about Arizon Digital, visit: https://arizon.digital/

For more information Contact: +1 (281) 241-9393 or write to [email protected]

When And How To Replatform Your eCommerce Store

In a highly competitive eCommerce space, the success of your business depends on many factors. The platform you have built your store on is one of the factors that have a major impact on your shop’s performance and success. eCommerce platforms are unique and are created to meet different requirements. So, not every platform is suitable for you. You need to regularly assess how your eCommerce platform stacks up against others in terms of meeting your needs and addressing your priorities. 

Why should you consider replatforming?

Scalability – Has your site outgrown the platform it’s built on?

When your business grows, you will have to expand the capabilities of your store constantly to keep up with the changing needs. For instance, when you start operations in another country, your site should be able to support a new currency, adhere to the tax rules, and add support for the language of the country. If your eCommerce site outgrows the ability of the platform to support such expansion, it can cause downtime, outages and errors, necessitating a replatforming exercise

Cost of Ownership – Are you spending too much too often?

The costs of having an eCommerce site and maintaining it are ongoing. Sometimes, the upfront costs can be ideal for your purpose, but the cost of upgrades, renewals, hosting, licensing and maintenance can be quite high, increasing the cost of ownership. If you find yourself spending on unforeseen expenses to keep your site running smoothly, then you should replatform.

Customer Experience – Is your customer happy with the experience?

Customer experience is of paramount importance for any eCommerce business. If your platform is dated or being phased out, it would have lagged behind in terms of user experience enhancing upgrades, performance, stability, and security. Replatforming is absolutely essential in those situations. Even some of the most contemporary platforms could be difficult to use and may not offer specific features/add-ons that let you customize the site extensively and serve your customers better. Features such as automated customer support are indispensable these days. You can replatform when you do not get the upgrades and features you need to meet your business objectives.

Integration – Is your eCommerce site integrated with the rest of your systems?

Integration with existing systems across the tech stack can make life easy. For instance, integrating with ERP Systems help you leverage data from across the organization and helps you make order management, inventory management, a nd other operations better and efficient. If your site does not integrate properly with your other systems, you may find yourself manually carrying out repetitive tasks. It will not only reduce the productivity and performance of your store but will also snowball across departments, consuming time and resources. When your eCommerce platform does not provide seamless integration with existing systems and plugins, you can consider replatforming.

A Step-by-step Guide to Replatforming

1. Assess your current performance

Get clear insights into the performance of your site with thorough data analysis. Identify the gaps and the areas that require improvement.

2. Identify your requirements and plan for the future

List the features that you need and identify your future needs. Plan ahead and choose a development path for the future. Take into account all the risks of replatforming before you decide.

3. Budgeting

Identify all the possible costs you may incur upfront and in the long run. Finalize a budget for the replatforming and assess whether the benefits of replatforming outweigh the investment.

4. Communicate with your Team

Replatforming has an impact on the operations of all the departments. It is important to engage with all the departments as well as decision-makers and get to know the requirements of everyone.

5. Shortlist the Most Suitable Platforms

List down the platforms that meet all your requirements, based on the identified needs and the finalized budget

6. Issue a Request For Proposal

An RFP helps to consolidate all the requirements, state the goals and objectives, and clearly communicate with all the parties involved.

7. Hands-on with Shortlisted Platforms

Gaining first-hand experience with the shortlisted platforms gives you better insights into the capabilities and foreseeable changes you may need to make to accommodate the new platform.

8. Choose Your Platform

Brainstorm the findings from your demo with all the stakeholders and choose the right platform for your needs.

9. Design a New Ecommerce Site

It is highly recommended to redesign the site completely by fully utilizing the features and capabilities of the new platform.

10. Backup and Migrate

Backup the data from the old eCommerce store and migrate all the data from the old site to the new one.

11. Optimize

Setup the shopping cart and checkout processes. Thoroughly test the ordering and shipping processes. Iron out all the issues and fine-tune those operations to provide a good customer experience. Do an SEO audit and make your site easily searchable on the Search Engine.

12. Test and Deploy

Test the new site thoroughly and scrutinize everything using the testing tools provided by the platform. Once you are satisfied, launch your brand new site and communicate with customers.

Arizon Digital – a reliable replatforming partner

When you take up a complex task like replatforming an eCommerce site, you need a wellexperienced partner who can assist you in every phase of the transition, right from the assessment and planning phase, all the way to testing and deployment. Arizon Digital is an expert in replatforming and data migration. With dedicated teams specializing in every popular eCommerce platform, Arizon Digital excels in facilitating the smooth and seamless transition of eCommerce stores from one platform to another. To know more about how we can help you with replatforming,

Is Your eCommerce Business Built On Magento 1.X?

It’s time to upgrade or replatform

Security and reliability are paramount for an eCommerce store, as customers’ trust on a store is rooted in these core security parameters. If customers feel that an e-commerce store cannot safeguard their private data such as their contact information, credit card details, etc., their trust would be shaken. It is critical to constantly update the store site with the latest security features and prioritize the safety and security of the e-commerce store and the customer data.

History of Magento

Magento is a popular e-commerce platform launched as an open-source platform 10 years ago. Being open-source made it flexible and accessible to all, and it was widely adopted by businesses of all sizes due to the cost advantages and ease of use it offers. As a result, today there are more than a million companies that rely on Magento to manage their e-commerce store.

One of the major downsides of open source platforms is the lack of proper support and fragmented developments by independent users that do not permeate to other users of the platform. This problem was addressed early during the rise of Magento, when it was acquired by eBay, and then later by Adobe. This has ensured that constant updates and security patches are regularly rolled out for the Magento platform.

Older versions vulnerabilities and security flaws

There are Open Source as well as Enterprise editions of Magento, and the latest version of Magento is Magento 2.3. With constant updates and support, the latest version is secure. The unsupported 1.x versions, on the other hand, have been the target of numerous attacks. A case in point is the recent warning from the FBI regarding the vulnerabilities in the MAGMI (Magento Mass Import) plugin that could be exploited by hackers to plant malicious code in the site and potentially steal the environmental credentials of an online store. While the Magento platform has received constant updates, many users have not updated to the latest version. This puts many of the eCommerce businesses built on Magento 1.x at risk.

Are you on Magento 1.x?

If your business is built upon an older Magento 1.x version, then your e-commerce store is highly vulnerable to the latest security threats. It is necessary and critical to update your eCommerce platform and immediately tighten the security of your store. Also, considering the 1.x versions will not be supported by Adobe, it is time to upgrade or migrate to another platform.

Migrate or upgrade with Arizon Digital Advantage

Arizon Digital specializes in consultation and platform migration from Magento 1.x to various other eCommerce platforms. We work with you closely to assess your current eCommerce store and identify your requirements. We can offer you a consultation and help you decide your upgrade or we can also help you migrate your eCommerce store to a different platform. Some of the possible options for migrating your Magento 1.x based eCommerce store are given below. We have expert teams for each of these platforms to facilitate smooth and seamless migration of your eCommerce store.

From Magento 1.x to Magento 2.3 (Free Edition)

Magento 2.3 is the latest version of the platform. The free edition itself is a powerful platform with the latest security upgrades. If you have a small/medium eCommerce business built on Magento 1.x, and if you are used to the ease of use and affordability of the Magento platform, the Magento 2.3 Free Edition is the one you should upgrade to.

Magento 2.3 (Free Edition) Advantages

• Future-proof
• Improved architecture and more robust underpinnings
• Loads faster and operates in a smoother fashion
• Offers a more modern and improved interface
• Provides good customer experience
• Offers better shopping tools
• Comes with plenty of new features
• More secure and robust
• Comes with better testing abilities

From Magento 1.x to Magento Enterprise (Premium Version)

The Magento Enterprise Edition is the paid version of Magento. It offers robust security and enterprise-level features that include advanced analytics, dedicated B2B functionality, advanced marketing, and promotional tools, etc. It also includes far better support and technical assistance. If you are a large business with a huge catalog, then the Magento Enterprise version is suitable for you. In addition to the features offered by Magento 2.3 Free edition, the enterprise edition offers the following.

Magento Enterprise (Premium Version) Advantages

• B2B functionality
• Ability to provide customer support
• Advanced catalog permissions
• Detailed analytics
• Strong technical assistance and support
• Visual Merchandiser
• Customer loyalty tools
• Optimized cloud commerce
• From Magento 1.x to Other ECommerce Platforms

Connect with Arizon Digital

There are various eCommerce platforms. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. It is important to go through each in detail and find out whether it suits your requirement or not, and whether it can offer you the desired features. To know more about Data Migration across platforms given below

• Magento to Shopify
• Magento to BigCommerce
• Magento to Woo Commerce
• Magento to Netsuite Commerce
• Magento to 3D Cart
• Magento to SAP Hybris
• Magento to Prestashop
• Magento to SQL

and explore how Arizon Digital can help you move or upgrade from Magento 1.x, connect with us at [email protected].

Voice Commerce: The next revolution in retail is here. Are you ready for the change?

With digital voice assistants becoming a part of every home, voice-enabled commerce is expected to become an integral part of the path to purchase in eCommerce. According to Juniper Research, digital voice assistants are predicted to grow to nearly 8 billion devices by 2023 compared to 1.5 billion devices as of today, creating the impetus for the growth of voice-enabled commerce. Way back in 2018, the management consultants OC&C predicted that the growing popularity of smart speakers would lead to an explosion in voice commerce, expanding to over $40 billion in 2022 for the UK and US markets, up from about $2 billion.

It is evident that a large number of people have already started using voice search as their primary means of making searches online. So, this technology is going to be indispensable for your business in the near future. Let’s take you through some of the interesting features that voice-enabled commerce possesses.

Better reach and engagement

Voice technologies enable consumers to search for product information at any time and from anywhere, thereby driving instant purchases

Makes reordering easy

Voice commerce will transform certain parts of eCommerce such as repetitive orders, or things you have already put on to your shopping list. You can have them reordered and sent home with just a simple voice command.

Automated Support based on buying behavior and purchase patterns

This feature is based on the customer data collected at various points from different sources like search history, previous purchase pattern, etc. By analysing all the personal information collected, your e-commerce store’s voice assistant can help make suggestions, close purchase and even direct the dealer to dispatch the delivery to the address given by the customer.

Speeds up your order and purchase process

With voice commerce, your customers don’t have to log in and fill out personal details to purchase a product online. This saves valuable time and makes it easy to purchase from your eCommerce store.

However, designing and developing an effective voice shopping strategy requires expertise and effort. It can be achieved only by voice applications that provide a consistent experience across channels and platforms.

To know more about voice commerce and explore how Arizon Digital can help you take that big step in voicecommerce, connect with us at [email protected]

Call +1 (281) 241-9393

Today’s Shoppers Want An Immersive Online And In Store Experience. Offer Them Buy Online Pick-Up In Store

Offer your customers the ability to Buy Online and Pickup in Store and Return in Store (BOPIS & BORIS)

In a time when big businesses offer same-day delivery of online orders, Arizon Digital’s BOPIS solution brings customers to you store. The state-of-the-art solution enables you to serve your customers faster, offers them convenience of online ordering and helps them avoid hefty shipping charges by letting them pick up orders from your nearby brick and mortar store.

What is BOPIS?

BOPIS stands for Buy Online, Pick up In Store. Online shopping is at an all-time high. At the same time, it often comes with high shipping charges. According to a recent Fisher study, 90% of online shoppers have mentioned high shipping charges and time taken for delivery as the main factors stopping them from placing online orders. BOPIS brings together the best of online shopping and shopping at the store. It allows customers to order anytime online, from anywhere. At the same time, it helps them save on hefty shipping fees by letting them collect the ordered items at the in-store pickup points.

A typical BOPIS solution works like this:

• The customer has the choice to pickup shipment method for individual items in the cart.
• For store pickup items, the customer can select the date and time for pickup and provide resource name and ID of who will pickup
• In store personnel confirms the ID and delivers the in-store pickup items

The Arizon Advantage

At Arizon Digital, we use technology to redefine stores for the digital age. We collaborate with you to create solutions that provide your customers the best shopping experience – online or in store.We create immersive customer experience that enhances the customer experience and improves conversion resulting in higher sales and customer loyalty.

RFID Based In-Store Sales Enablement & Product Tracking Solutions: Sometimes, Interest In A Product Does Not Convert Into Sales Because Of Lack Of Product Information

Customers show interest in various products and consider buying them. But most of the times, interest in a product does not get converted into sales because of reasons including lack of adequate information about the products, poor sales training, etc. In-Store Sales Enablement & Product Tracking Solutions leverage the latest technologies to bridge that gap, and they can have high-impact on conversion. It also offers you numerous other advantages in terms of analytics and inventory management, enabling you to find improvements in all aspects of your retail business.

• Poor sales training and unequipped sales personnel all contribute to low conversion rates.
• Bridge this gap with technology that automatically pulls product information from a central database and empowers sales personnel.
• Enable your sales team with live product catalogs & dynamic information that can help them guide customers through the purchase process successfully.
• Track product movement and sales live and analyse extensive statistics on best selling products and products that customers show interest in most.
• Link it with existing inventory management system and improve efficiency of procurement and stocking.

Arizon Digital’s Sales Enablement & Product Tracking Solution helps you skim through the vast bank of product and customer data through a simple and convenient interface. You can live track products, understand customer trends, performance and sales effectiveness easily.

Our solution

Now track inventory throughout the retail supply chain, from the warehouse all the way to the sales floor.

The RFID technology helps track inventory effectively, enabling retailers to have real-time stock information at their fingertips. Empowered with data, retailers can analyse product performance and have better control of stock. They can identify the fast-moving products and ensure that they are never out of stock, by means of pro-active and more efficient procurement.

They can identify the products that people show interest in, and give them an extra sales push for better conversion. It also reduces labour costs as there is no need for employees to physically check items. Every product can be identified with a unique identifying number. This offers extra security and reduction in retail shrinkage and loss.

That’s not all. The customer data that gets captured through this tagging can help retail stores make improvements, right from optimizing store layout to cross selling and up-selling products depending on customer preferences and buying behavior.

Connect with Arizon Digital an explore how RFID Technology can help you.

Call +1 (281) 241-9393

Worried about your eCommerce site performance and response?

It’s time to upgrade from Blueprint to Stencil theme.

What is Stencil?

Stencil is the latest theme framework engine from BigCommerce. Stencil helps build storefronts that engage shoppers and encourage checkouts on any device. Most of the BigCommerce’s new storefronts use Stencil as it comes armed with many new features and benefits.

5 reasons to upgrade from Blueprint to Stencil theme.

• Improved page speed
• Mobile Responsive
• SEO Friendly
• Easily Customizable
• High Availability Production Site

Moving from Blueprint to Stencil on BigCommerce will make your website better, faster, and more accessible. Stencil incorporates the latest design standards, best practices in technology, and SEO. The framework’s themes are optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop browsers.

If you are still using the legacy theme framework, Blueprint, it is highly recommended to switch to Stencil as it improves the storefront experience for both the merchants as well as customers.

A comparison between Blueprint and Stencil

Feature	Stencil	Blueprint
Industry-specific themes

Theme Features

All free and premium themes fully responsive
Display payment icons in footer	Easily configured via Store Design	Requires HTML/CSS customization
Toggle ‘Powered by BigCommerce’ in footer	Easily configured via Store Design	Requires HTML/CSS customization
Add a GeoTrust SSL Seal to Your Store’s Footer	Easily configured via Store Design	Requires HTML/CSS customization
“On Sale” Buttons on Products		Only on select themes
Toggle select social media icons in footer
Google AMP compatible

Theme Configuration

In-browser access to theme template files
Download and upload theme template files
Fine-tune color palette
Ability to choose custom fonts from available list
Merchandising controls (listed below) saved on a per theme basis
Support for Product Filtering (Faceted Search)
– Number of featured products displayed on the home page	Easily configured via Store Design	Must be configured in Store Settings
– Number of most popular products displayed on the home page	Easily configured via Store Design	Must be configured in Store Settings
– Number of new products displayed on the home page	Easily configured via Store Design	Must be configured in Store Settings
– Number of blog posts displayed on the home page	Easily configured via Store Design	Must be configured in Store Settings
Preview storefront while customizing
Cross-device preview (mobile, desktop, tablet)
Preview checkout while adjusting theme configuration

Checkout Experience

Access to checkout template files
Customize checkout page colors and fonts
Customize “Thanks for your order” page colors and fonts
Store logo links to the homepage
Ability to add trust seals to checkout page	Easily configured via Store Design	Must be configured in Store Settings
Ability to add Google Analytics tracking code
Ability to add non-Google Analytics tracking codes to checkout page		Requires HTML/CSS customization
Ability to add tracking codes to “Thanks for your order” page
Support for multiple shipping addresses
Access to Digital Wallets, PayPal Credit and other payment methods		Only with Optimized One-Page Checkout

Performance (Page Speed)

Desktop	90 (best in class)	79
Mobile	74	N/A
Akamai Image Manager

Theme Marketplace

Ability to buy themes from 3rd party marketplaces

Blueprint is being phased out and Blueprint themes will no longer be supported or updated by BigCommerce. It is time to upgrade.

Connect with Arizon Digital to make a smooth transition from the Blueprint to Stencil framework.

Call +1 (281) 241-9393