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Top Ecommerce trends for 2020

/ Insights      / Top Ecommerce trends for 2020

Top Ecommerce trends for 2020

With 2020 now in full swing, there’s never been a better time to reflect on some of the ecommerce predictions made towards the end of 2019. Online retail experts expect sustainable shopping to grow in popularity, flexible finance options to be commonplace and mobile commerce to become as seamless as desktop shopping.

Curious to discover the other trends that will have an impact on your ecommerce business in 2020? Check out our top predictions and feel free to share some of your own in the comments below or on social.

Increase in mobile payments along with a growth in phone app push notifications

With more and more consumers making online purchases via their smartphones, ecommerce retailers will need to ensure the safety and efficiency of every transaction. Whilst traditional desktop purchases give consumers ample time to browse and compare, mobile shopping needs to be quick and easy for customers making purchases on the go. This means there should be little friction between when a product is selected and subsequently paid for; the fewer steps and clicks the better the user experience. To enhance the mobile shopping experience even further, plenty more retailers will be providing apps to their customers. This will ultimately see a rise in more persuasively written in-app push notifications to encourage customers to use the app more proactively. Additionally, apps allow retailers to capture even more granular data on customers shopping habits to offer more personalised recommendations.

Social commerce shows no sign of slowing down

With reality shows like Love Island creating huge influencers almost overnight, savvy ecommerce brands are always looking for creative ways to take advantage of Instagram’s popularity to sell products. Retailers like I Saw it First have become official sponsors of Love Island, launching exclusive collections sported by the stars of the popular show. Whether fans are following their favourite Love Island star or following the I Saw it First Instagram page, they can instantly make a purchase from within a post simply by clicking the shopping bag icon to be taken to the product page on the website. Other popular retailers like FashionNova have also benefited from Instagram’s in-app shopping feature that makes social commerce a much more seamless process.

Online stores come to life as physical experiences

Ecommerce only stores wanting to test the waters to see if their store will perform as well in a physical capacity are turning to temporary pop-up shops in a bid to conduct some market research. Whilst retailers like House of CB opened fully-fledged standalone stores in shopping centres, cult ecommerce brands like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and Glossier are bringing their massive followings across the ponds so British consumers can see what all the hype is about. This is a great way for retailers to test the waters with different audiences before committing to expensive retail space.

The growing backlash against excessive consumerism

The goal of any business is to make a profit but how can brands continue to do so when customers are becoming more conscious of issues like staff working conditions, sustainability and the environment? Brands without a strong corporate responsibility may experience negative feedback from consumers who want to align themselves with brands with a strong set of ethics and values. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday phenomenon adopted from the States has already seen some consumers threaten to boycott the likes of Amazon, with accusations that online retailers often put profit above staff wellbeing during the manic festive season. Customers concerned about employee conditions are turning to more sustainable brands with strong credentials and fair working practices. These brands may sell products that cost slightly more but the quality is better, the materials typically recycled and the staff are paid a fair wage. Additionally, green customers are looking for environmentally friendly options when they shop whether that’s recycled fashion or vegan meals. Indeed, Veganuary saw a record 400,000 people sign up to commit to a vegan diet for the month of January. Food retailers also experienced a sales lift with KFC selling a million vegan burgers in the first month they were on sale, while the food delivery service Deliveroo said orders of vegan dishes had increased by 78% compared with last year.

Flexible financing options for big and small purchases

Retailers looking for ways to encourage customers to spend more and frequently have often turned to loyalty programmes and store cards to do so. Now, retailers are moving towards flexible payment options to target millennials who may not always have the funds to hand for large shopping purchases. This is where payment platforms like Klarna and Clearpay come in. Customers no longer need to wait till payday to complete that big online shop, now they can purchase a shopping bag of items worth £100 and pay in four affordable instalments of £25. Only the merchants are charged to use the service and customers are only charged a late fee if they miss a payment, so it’s a practical service that suits both parties. If your average order value is large however, you may want to consider offering financing options to your customers. Even more importantly, customer financing has been proven to increase conversion rates by up to 25%. Good to know considering many basket abandonments happen at the shopping cart stage when many customers appear to be put off by the total amount.

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Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Development Technology Webdesign

Do I Need A New Website?

/ Insights      / Do I Need A New Website?

Do I Need A New Website?

Some digital marketing experts will tell you that a new website will solve all your sales and marketing problems, however this ignores the investment required and risks associated with designing, building and launching a new website for your business.

Just because something new and shiny looks good, does not mean it will necessarily be right for your business. Careful consideration should be given to why a redesign is necessary and what you are trying to achieve.

Which means that deciding to rebrand your website is a big step that should be carefully analysed, particularly if your existing site is successful and well found by Google. Implementing a redesign poorly can shatter your previous work without careful implementation by experts.

It may be that you can achieve your goals with better content and small tweaks to an existing design rather than starting from scratch. A new website should be treated as a growth project.

The pros must be weighed with the cons and you should have a clear objective. A new website is not always the right choice and using plugins and other additional functionality may be the right option for your business.

3 Possible Reasons For A Website Design

  1. Your website is not mobile friendly (Test it here)
  2. Your clients tell you your website is difficult to use
  3. Your website does not match your brand

These reasons are based on whether your website is able to get found by the right people, how easy it is to use and whether the design matches the expectations of your customers. If you are in doubt about any of these factors then a new website may be worth considering.

The decision on whether a client needs a completely new website or just some functionality tweaks depends on your business, your existing website and what you want to achieve.

If you have a project that may require additional design work and want to speak to an expert call us on +44 (0)20 8861 0115.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Apps Development Technology

Why Apps Are Serious Business

/ Insights      / Why Apps Are Serious Business

Why Apps Are Serious Business

There are estimated to be more than 40m smartphone users in the UK, that is more than two thirds of the population.

Smartphones are popular due to the different software apps that can be used within them. There is a misconception that these apps can only be used within the gaming, leisure and entertainment sectors.

The mass adoption of smartphone technology presents great potential for businesses both large and small to build apps that serve as tools to aid a business in its day-to-day operations and marketing.

At Aspiring Panda we are designing apps that have practical business applications.

Practical Business Apps Usage

Apps have the potential to increase efficiency by allowing businesses to send data whilst travelling. This is ideal for salesmen and tradesmen, enabling them to send job reports, quotes, and progress updates in real time back to head office.

This can allow managers to track the progress of jobs and customer projects remotely allowing for troubleshooting of issues and increase efficiency.

These apps can range from generic solutions – such as project planning or calendar apps – to bespoke solutions that are integrated into the company’s business processes and operations.

Apps To Help Your Customers                                                                                     

Apps have great potential to allow companies to improve their relationships with new and existing customers. Apps can allow customers to access information about a company on the go, as well as providing a simpler and improved customer experience.

Push notifications can also be used to prompt customers with the act to action, increase retention and how often users purchase.

A good example of this could be a restaurant app that sends out special offers to customers.

Is An App Right For Your Business?

Whether your business could benefit from an app is dependent on the unique nature of your business. The important thing is to analyse your business and to explore the ways in which an app can do any of the following:

  • Increase efficiency
  • Improve the customer experience
  • Create new sales platforms
  • Retain customers
  • Reach new customers

If you are unsure of how to go about this, then give us a call and we can talk about the best way to use mobile development to grow your business.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Development Productivity

Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

/ Insights      / Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

Since the creation of Aspiring Panda we have repeatedly used collaborations with other professionals to grow our business.

Although we are based in Harrow, we have offices and clients across the world ranging from education projects, app developments to complex web development.

We have used collaboration to work on projects ranging from education projects, app developments to complex web development.

Some of these we have been the lead contractor, others working as part of a large multi-disciplined team working on large scale projects with a long term delivery and impact timeline.

We would not have been able to be involved in the project without a positive and mutually beneficial collaborative relationship with the client and other providers.

 

Value Of Collaboration

Collaboration allows small agencies or those that are growing rapidly to increase their capacity, skill sets and product offering without the risks inherent in adding to the headcount.

Accenture summarised the need for collaboration in this white paper

“Companies need their critical workforces to perform smarter, faster and more productively. Achieving that goal requires embedding collaborative technologies deep into processes and incentivizing collaborative behaviors—ultimately transforming the way organizations turn knowledge into action.“

Collaboration involves working with businesses that may work in the same or similar sectors and requires a level of knowledge and trust in each other. Getting over the hesitancy of working with potential competitors is a cultural shift that creates more opportunities than problems it can create.

Since we started Aspiring Panda we have successfully developed a wide range of programming, app development and design skills. We are now looking to build collaborations to support the growth and expand the skillsets available to design agencies and boutiques.

 

If you would like to know more about collaborating with us on a project give us a call or drop an email to the team.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Development Technology web

A Guide to Mobile Responsive websites

/ Insights      / A Guide to Mobile Responsive websites

A Guide to Mobile Responsive websites

In the last five years the way in which we search the internet has changed. Internet traffic has moved from the desktop to the mobile device. This is powerful for consumers and retailers and contributed to a huge change in the way Google ranks websites.

This year Google changed the way it treats websites that are not designed to display correctly using smart phones and tablet devices. From the 23rd of April 2015 Google changed the algorithm that ranks search engines depending on whether a website is “mobile friendly”

This change is due to the change in internet searches, with more than 50% of web searches now made on mobile devices rather than on a desktop PC. This change means businesses need to ensure their website is mobile responsive or risk a decrease in visits to their sites.

Many Businesses Are Still Not Up To Date

However through our networking and the projects we have been working on it is clear that there are still a large number of businesses that have not updated their site to be mobile responsive.

Even six months after the changes were introduced we still meet businesses that have websites that are currently unresponsive.

How To Check If Your Website Is Out Of Date

To see if your website is mobile responsive or not you can visit the Google website and take the mobile friendly test.

If Google says that your website is not mobile friendly, then it is not too late to update your site, however we recommend that you make the changes as soon as possible to ensure that you do not miss out on mobile search tracking.

If you are unsure what these changes mean for your business or would like to speak to a digital marketing expert then give the Aspiring Panda team a call.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Apps Development

3 Tips on How to Find a Reputable App Development Company

/ Insights      / 3 Tips on How to Find a Reputable App Development Company

3 Tips on How to Find a Reputable App Development Company

The utilisation of bespoke mobile applications can allow businesses to increase revenues, reduce costs, and give managers increased visibility over business functions and employees.

However, finding a reputable app development company to implement the right solution or take forward your idea can be difficult. The market is saturated and it can be tricky on first glance to differentiate between a reputable app development company and one that is going to take you for a ride.

Check Their Portfolio

Success for companies within the mobile app development industry is built on delivering successful results to clients. This means delivering the required specification, within the agreed budget, and to your timescale.

When speaking to companies, ensure that you ask them what they have worked on before, and how that relates to your requirements. If they have experience only of simple or “off the shelf” apps, then a more complex or fully bespoke app may be outside of their knowledge base.

Therefore, review a client’s portfolio to see how it fits with yours.

Previous Client Reviews

The portfolio is a good sign of whether they can deliver what you are looking for. However it is their customers that will tell you how they go about it.

Look and see what their clients have to say about them: are they honest and upfront about deadlines? Do they deliver what they promise?

These are all important things to know before making a decision to work with an app development company.

Make Sure They Understand Your Brief

One of the areas where problems can arise between an app development company and the client is when there is confusion over what you are trying to achieve and in what timeframe.

When speaking to a company, they should take time to understand your needs and make it clear when they can deliver, and at what cost.

If these are not clearly defined when starting the project, then you are setting yourself up for disaster.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Development web

3 Website Factors That Affect What Your Customers Think Of You

/ Insights      / 3 Website Factors That Affect What Your Customers Think Of You

3 Website Factors That Affect What Your Customers Think Of You

A website is a valuable marketing resource, which says more about your business than you may think.

It is your opportunity to get your business discovered online whilst informing and selling to those that visit. A well designed and content rich website will pull people to your website, tell people what you do and generate a positive impression that will lead to business.

If your website is not up to standard then this can have a negative impact upon the sales and reputation of your business. Until these are addressed you may be selling your business short and losing opportunities.

There are a number of different factors that contribute to this and we have focussed on three that will affect what your customers think of your business because of your website

The Design

Despite being only around 20 years old as a commercial discipline, web design has changed a lot over 20 years.

The technology has changed meaning that designs not only have to be modern but accessible on a range of different devices. The design is still important as we subconsciously are aware of sites that are out of date, this does not mean businesses need state of the art sites just those that are modern and match customer expectations.

The Content

The content within your website is important, you have only a few seconds to get the interest of your audience or they will move on. This means the content must grab the audience and give them the information they need immediately. Content should also be free from simple spelling mistakes to avoid giving your audience the wrong impression.

Active or Passive

Previously you used to be able to get a website built and the job was done. Now due to the saturation of the web more is required to stand out.

Your website needs to be active to show that you are still trading and to encourage your users to take action. An active website could have a blog, social media integration and a range of other elements to move beyond the boring. What’s more Google love content such as videos and blogs so an active website is going to be more visible in a search.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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