Top 7 reasons why shopping carts are abandoned

Shoppers abandon more than half of the shopping carts instances just before final checkout. This has reduced conversion rates to a large extent. If you want to boost sales and increase revenue, you would need to reduce shopping cart abandonment. You can hire a company that offerseCommerce shopping cart solutions to help with it.

Knowing why shopping carts are abandoned, and the problems that customers face, could help you device a method that helps reduce shopping cart abandonment. Here are some of the reasons why shopping carts are abandoned that you could investigate before you hire an agency that provides eCommerce shopping cart solutions,

1. High product costs:

People avoid buying when they find that the price of products no your website are high. They may know of alternate sources online that sell the same product at a lower price, so it is obvious they will not buy it from your store.

2. Long, complicated checkout process:

People visit your website, like some products, and then add them to their cart. However, they leave your store empty handed. Why? Having to navigate a complicated and time-consuming check out process that asks for a lot of information could be the culprit. So, make sure you create a simple one-page checkout.

3. Shipping issues:

Various shipping option related issues could also contribute to cart abandonment; like high shipping cost, slow shipping or listing the cost at later steps in the checkout process. For retaining customers, deliver it as soon as possible and offer either free shipping or keep shipping costs as low as possible. One of the most important tips here is to mention the shipping cost on the product page itself. If you surprise customers with high shipping cost while they checkout, most of them will leave your cart without purchasing.

4. Forced registration:

Most people tend to leave your store without purchasing when they are forced to register an account on the website. Most visitors find filling up huge forms and registering on a website annoying. So, if you don’t want to lose customers, it is advisable to allow guest check out.

5. Lack of payment options:

Most people have started buying online, but it is not necessary that all of them have started paying online. Few people choose to pay cash, and they will abandon cart if they do not find a ‘cash on delivery’ payment option. So, make sure you offer the maximum payment options possible.

6. Lack of product information:

Most visitors know exactly what they want to buy and they look for certain features in the product description. They will not buy a product if they do not find the feature they are looking for, mentioned in the description. So, make sure you use as much detail while describing products and provide images, features, benefits and specifications wherever possible.

7. The urge to look around:

Some people visit online stores to research products they are interested in and not with an intention of buying. They just want to have a look at products to check out the latest trends in market. This is one of the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment.

Now that you are aware of some of important reasons that lead to cart abandonment, and determine that there are issues that you may want to resolve, it is recommended that you consult a professional eCommerce shopping cartsolution provider and get the issues resolved to augment your conversion rate at the earliest.

Top 4 tips for developing an iPad web application successful

We live in an age where mobile users outnumber those who use a desktop. We live in the world of mobile devices and apps. Websites are no longer sufficient for any business. An app contributes to the success of any and every business; irrespective of whether the app is a web app or a mobile one. This post is for things less talked about; web apps for tablets like the iPad. A web app for an iPad is an amazing idea, and you can get it built from iOS developers working at an iPad web application development company.

Although you hire professionals, there are a few things that you must know about web application development for iPad’s, so that you can keep an eye on the iOS developers that you hire and check if they are going on right path.

Here are some of the best tips for iPad web application development

1. Know your customers, understand their problems and begin with a goal designed to solve those problems

Before getting your iPad web app developed, you must think about your end users. Only if you know what problems they are facing, will you be able to come up with an app that can solve their problems. Come up with an app that your customers cannot do without, and you have won a major battle. In short, you must know your targeted audience before the development process begins, irrespective of whether you are building a business app or an iPad game.

Ask yourself the following questions:
Who will be my end users?
What are their problems?
How can my app solve their issues?

Always remember that you will find it very hard to get an app that can serve everyone. So, narrow down your target audience and focus on them first.

2. Jot down your design ideas

It is always a good idea to draw out your design first. The best thing about designing an app for iPad is that the efforts and time spent proves worthwhile. An app makes use of a highly visual medium, and you can make it look really pretty. However, make sure you keep the end users and their problems in mind while designing your app. Another great thing is that, you will not have to worry about cross device and cross browser compatibility because, if the app works well on your iPad, it is going to work on others too!

3. Know the constraints

You must know some of the most common limitations of an iPad if you want a web app to work well. Some of the limitations include no flash, no mouse cursor and no CSS fixed positioning. Moreover, scroll bars will not act as you expect them to! Also, there are high chances of height and width issues when using frames.

4. Use your Fingers

The most important difference between browsing your laptop or desktop and browsing an iPad is that, you can use your fingers to browse on the iPad. However, some of the best ways to optimize website on iPad is to redirect users on the basis of device or browser, set viewport size to adjust content, use different style sheets for portrait and landscape mode, use iScroll and make use of ‘Add to Home Screen’ button. Use HTML 5 and CSS 3 to optimize the users experience on the iPad.

Every professional knows the step by step process they need to follow when developing web application for an iPad. However, keeping the points mentioned above in mind, will help them develop a better app. So, in order to get the best app make sure you share these tips with the web development company you hire.

3 tips to build an engaging eCommerce application

In this tech savvy world, it is easy to get an online store built. All you have to do is hire a company that provides eCommerce application development services and discuss your requirements with them. However, building a mobile app for your store is not that simple.

When you invest time and money into eCommerce application development, you would expect that the app you get should be worth it. You would want that your app should be amazing enough to engage shoppers for longer periods, and possibly convert them into customers.

While the process of developing an eCommerce application is quite easy, there are certain points that one should keep in mind, to ensure that the final product is an engaging one.

Here are some of the most important tips and tricks to build an engaging eCommerce application

1. Simple and convenient:

Gone are those days when people are attracted to anything that looks gaudy. Today, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. People like clean and simple designs irrespective of whether it is on a website or a mobile app. So, if you want customers to use your app for longer time, make sure you create one with a simple design. 

Convenience is one of the most important factors to consider when building a mobile app, especially for an online store. Customers visit your store with the intention to buy something. Make it easy for them to find products they are looking for. Include elements like advanced search functionality, proper bifurcation of products into relevant categories, filtering and sorting options as well as an easily visible add to cart button are but a few of the elements that help shoppers find products quickly. Avoid using pop ups, as they distract customers and annoy them the most.

2. Emulate your website: 

Although you do not have a mobile app, yet it is obvious that you would have a website for your store. Therefore, if you already have a website and are now planning to get an app, the trick is to imitate the design of your website. The most important reason behind this is ‘to not lose your existing customers’.
It is easier to earn new customers, but tougher to retain existing ones. So, if you don’t want your existing customers to go away, you must mirror the design of your website into your app, so that your existing customers who have been purchasing from your website, don’t get lost in your app. Make them feel comfortable using your app and give them a delightful browsing experience.

3. Live chat

Live chat is one of the best ways to engage customers for a longer time while they use your eCommerce app. Many shoppers have queries while making a purchase, and appreciate getting solution to them before placing an order. You can provide your customers with instant solutions using live chat. This will not only increase customer engagement, but also increase conversion rates.

You could also incorporate other elements like social media, personalization, easy checkout, blogging and newsletters to name a few, to further engage customers while they use your app.

Now that you are aware of some of the most important elements that could help you engage the customers using your eCommerce app successful, remember to share the points mentioned above with the eCommerce application development company you plan to hire to develop your eCommerce app.

Essential Qualities of a Good Website Design and Development Company

In this modern world, businesses have realized the importance of websites. Every business wants to beat their competition and top the charts. Hence, it is vital for every business to have a website of its own. A website not only lets the business showcase their products and services, but also helps them engage customers. A website is a promotional tool for every business, and can provide the business with a platform to make sales and generates revenue online.

However, building a professional website requires finesse, and every business may not always be able to build a website that reflects their brand, and promotes them effectively on their own. Instead, hiring a website design and development company makes this task very easy to accomplish.

Many companies offer web development services, and it is sometimes daunting to choose the best one. However, a business can use a few tricks to ensure that they choose the most appropriate website design and development company.

Here are some qualities or signs, of a good websitedesign and development company….

1. Experienced and expertise: An agency is more likely to be good if it has certain years of experience and a team of expert professionals.

2. Proven Methodologies and Process: they follow a specific process - right from client interaction, analysis, market research and planning, to design, development, testing, deployment and maintenance. A company that follows a systematic process is less likely to face problems.

3. Varied Portfolio: Have a look at their portfolio to get an idea of the type of work they do. If they have worked on a diversity of projects, and if you have a similar requirement, you can consider them.

4. Positive testimonials: No matter how good a company talks about itself, learning that their clients give positive feedback, could convince you that they are the real deal. So, if you see positive testimonials from their clients, you could consider them trustworthy.

5. Good Blog: Look for the blog on the web development company’s website. A good company will always have a team of enthusiast who wants to share their knowledge with other people, through their blogs.

6. Communication: The website development process involves a lot of communicating back and forth, so communication channels should be kept open. If a company demonstrates great communication skills, it would be easy for you to stay in touch with them. They should also be willing to update you with the status of your project on a regular basis. If the developer’s communication skills are great, you can consider that company.

7. Offer support and maintenance: If you want to update your website after it has been launched, or maybe make some changes two years down the line, the same company should provide you with maintenance services. Check if they provide web support and maintenance services.

These are the main qualities of good a websitedesign and development company. So, the next time you look to hire someone to work on a website for you, look for one that exhibits these qualities so that you end up choosing the right pool of resources and get the best website for your business.

Importance of Card Design in Web Design and Development

Mobile devices are the rage of the day. You look around you and see almost everyone using his or her mobile to access data from all kinds of sources through APIs and SDKs. The card-style interface is perfect in terms of usability, and offers an extremely personalized experience; one that allows for the optimal display of an aggregation of many individual pieces of content – on screens that come in all shapes and sizes. Card designs have gained prominence in website designing. These rectangles, containing images and text have proved so successful in web design and development, that they have become a default option in order to strike a balance between aesthetics and functionality.

In this article, we will highlight the pros and cons, and list some best practices to follow while using card-layouts in web design and development.

Pros and Cons of Using Cards

• The responsive nature of modern websites makes cards easy to use. The rectangular shape of cards smoothly resizes to fit both horizontal and vertical orientations of mobile devices. This pattern provides a consistent user experience across different devices.
• Cards provide a perfect view of content from different sources, aggregated to fit a website framework. Card-layouts provide information in easy to scan blocks, providing the viewer the freedom to view content immediately, and as they wish.
• Cards perfectly align with different design concepts, even flat and minimalist ones. This allows for the arrangement of content in an extremely structured manner, such as magazine-style format.
• In card design, equality means the world. Every card carries equal importance. As a result, there is no need to rank all the content.

Cons

• This type of design can come across as a replica of Pinterest. The concept is so common, that it could appear overused or lacking originality.
• Cards require plenty of interactions and usability. There is a risk of visual confusion, especially if the site contains lot of information, and is data heavy.
• Developing a card design layout requires careful attention to details and absolute mastery of designing for smaller spaces. Each card must contain the perfect visual balance between images, text, and subtle secondary actions.

Cards Layout: Best Practices to make it Work

Make use of White Space: It is important to avoid a ‘cluttered’ feel. Do not get intimidated by space, rather make optimum use of the white space or negative space wisely.

Get Creative: You would think that cards are structured, but that does not mean cards need to be mundane. You do not need to be afraid to add something in order to personalize. However, avoid using concepts that are heavily used, use interactive animation, subtle colors or unique fonts instead.

Millennial or Baby Boomers; Target your Audience: Your cards interface should be effortless and easy to navigate. Make designing a user experience that appeals to your audience, your priority. It is important to set context in a way that helps the target audience consume the content you wish to present.

Use simple typography: ‘Simplicity rules’ especially when applied to typography. Try sans-serif typeface with medium weight for the card headline.

Future of Cards and Material Design

Card style is the future of design and is here to stay, especially considering the influence of Google ‘Material Designs’ on Android app design. Cards are highly interactive and structured by nature and one of the most rapidly developing design disciplines. It is undoubtedly the future of web design and development.

Search Engine Optimization Tips that will Shape Your Rankings in 2016

SEO techniques are changing at a rapid pace thanks to the updates that Google periodically makes to its search engine algorithm. This also means that the rankings of websites fluctuate rapidly. Although black hat search engines rankings are ‘a thing of the past’, SEO has evolved phenomenally and still works.

Here are few SEO tips that will help you stay ahead in 2016:

#1 Great Content

“Content is King!” You must have heard this phrase many times by now. However, this fact is not going to change. You do not have to worry about Google’s lethal algorithm. Develop a habit, and continue to write engaging content that entertains, informs, and entices the reader. Remember, your content is the key to attracting traffic and is very critical to achieving top rankings for competitive phrases. Inbound links are the biggest way to influence search engines. Creating incredible content that people will want to share is still the best way to earn links. Do not focus just on keyword research and stuffing keywords into text content on your website. The practice of sacrificing on creating truly engaging content will only cost you dearly in the end.

#2 Competitor Analysis

This is not a new concept, yet it continues to be one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO. Competitor analysis is the basis of SEO. Competitor analysis is nothing new, and companies have been researching their competitor’s links for years. However, by analyzing a competitor’s back-links and manually reviewing which links are high in value and noteworthy, you can perform a link outreach and try to get a link from the same site.

#3 Optimize for All Search Engines

It appears that search engines like Yahoo and Bing may slowly takeover Google’s market share in 2016. This may not happen overnight. Nevertheless, several other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing are working hard to become the default search engine on popular web browsers instead of Google. As a result, it makes sense to optimize for other search engines as well.

#4 Mobilegeddon 

By implementing mobile-friendly ranking algorithms like Mobilegeddon and the Google Mobile Friendly Update On April 21, 2015, Google has given a boost to mobile-friendly pages. Mobile SEO will continue to rise in popularity over the coming year making it important that your mobile marketing strategy is in place.

#5 Don’t just rely on Google

Google rankings may fluctuate. Although it may account for the majority of your traffic today, but what if future algorithm updates hit your website hard. What if your Google visibility, goes away tomorrow? Keep in mind that several other forms of Newsletters and subscriber-based content will help you hold on to traffic / customers no matter what search engines algorithms do. So reach out to your audience and continue to leverage content marketing by creating great content, focusing on blogs, using social media etc. — this will help you grow your audience and survive the whims and fancies of search engines.

Finally:

Search Engines have extremely powerful bots crawling the web. However, humans still do things like pick up phone and call you to get answers about your services, and they also sign up for your newsletters. Ensuring that the content on your sites is user centric and not keyword stuffed - is the best way to improve bottom-line results, and is one SEO technique that will never fail.

Little Known Ways to Hire Android Developers

With millions of users across the globe, Android is one of the most popular platforms. Many companies are in a mad rush to launch Android app to gain market traction. If you are planning to outsource Android application development or hire Android developer, everything boils down to understanding entire mobile development processes.

How to hire the right dedicated developer for your Android app? Whether to hire Android developer or freelance developer? There are several questions that are likely to bog you down. It is important that you select the best Android developer.

Here are few tips to hire Android developer that meets your business goals.

Look for Experience

When you decide to outsource the project to Android app developer, you should focus on developer’s experience. It is important to find out whether the developer has worked on similar projects in the past. If you find that app developer has worked on a similar project, there are greater chances your project would be completed successfully.

However, in the app world there are no credits given to who developed the app. Don’t shy away from speaking directly with developer’s current and former clients. This will substantiate the claims of developers and help you verify whether they actually created the apps they claimed.

Don’t Get Bogged Down by Price

It is important to keep budget considerations in your mind. However, don’t make low-cost deals a sole consideration in decision making. You need to be clear about cost and milestones. Keep in mind that companies charging questionably less compared to competitors are cutting corners and often indicates low development standards.

Never undermine testing

The Android world is highly fragmented and diverse world. There are several device size and versions of operating systems. It is very difficult to maintain consistency across all devices. Ask your Android developer about testing procedures and bug fixing. You need to find out how quickly the bugs will be fixed.

Get contract mechanism in place

Remember, app is all about idea and execution. You need to protect your app idea at all costs. Before you hire Android developer, you should sign a non-disclosure agreement or a legally binding contract that clearly states app and source code ownership. Don’t skip this step as it is crucial to protect intellectual property rights as well as customized features.

Communication skills matter

Android app development lifecycle is a collaborative process. The quality of your app directly depends on your ability to clearly communicate app functionality to Android developer. Does your Android app developer prefer Skype chat, email, and phone communication or use a project management tool? You need to know how frequently your dedicated developer will provide status update about the project. All the terms of contract should include support and communication with developers as it improves the quality of app.

 
Finally

It is difficult to hire Android developer and the process of selecting the right developer could be painstakingly slow and time-consuming. But this entire process can save time, resources and money in future.

Qualdev offers flexible models to hire Android developers in New York as per your own requirements. R Get in touch with your requirement and let’s discuss your Android app idea.