According to Forrester Research…

Online Shoppers   in the United States will spend $327 billion in 2016! That’s up 62% from $202 billion in 2011.

E-Retail   will account for 9% of total retail sales in 2016. Growth in the number of online consumers will climb 15 percent, up to 192 million in the U.S. from 167 million last year.

And the last shebang…Each buyer will spend more on average in 2016 — up 44% to $1,738 from $1,207 in 2012.

Do you have any interesting eCommerce facts? Comment below, we would love to hear from you!

Don’t forget to find more facts like these on our Facebook at Twitter!

Social media is so powerful because it helps customers connect directly with providers and other consumers. Businesses can promote their products and communicate with customers to establish relationships and spread awareness about their product(s), service(s) or brand(s). This would obviously lead to improvement in sales and offer better chances for future growth.

Using Social Media

So much to gain from tools that are essentially free, is this too good to be true? Well, the answer is Yes and No. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc. are freely available for use by anyone. But, using them well is quite another issue. If you are using them for business marketing purposes then they need to be treated as seriously as any other marketing tool. In order to be effective, social media marketing needs to be backed by a well-thought out marketing strategy and its execution needs to be carefully monitored, for any course corrections that might be required in future. Consequently, for success, social media requires resources like time and manpower that are not freely available.

Integrating social media into your existing business or ecommerce site can be quite time consuming. It also requires in-depth understanding of social media tools. You cannot just tinker around with it to see what happens. Social media should not be treated lightly, just the way you wouldn’t treat any other marketing tool like print ads or television commercials lightly. Since social media is used to directly connect with customers, you need to make sure that your customers always see the best face of your business.

The physical process of integrating social media platforms into a website is not very difficult. You can have the hyperlinked icons of various social media platforms and social bookmarking sites on your website and blog through a simple process of pasting codes and icons available from the social media sites into your website’s structure.

Using SMO to take your branding to an entire different level

One of the most popular services we have is our branding package with content writing. We have been able to make a company (with as few as one fan) look like they are a huge operation by branding the tools consistently. We then take it a step further and go into Twitter, Facebook and even our client’s blogs and post strategic content on their behalf.  Here are just a few of the sites we worked on:

CanopyMart.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanopyMart

Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/CanopyMart

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/CanopyMart

Blog: http://blog.canopymart.com/

TarpCoverSales.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TarpCoverSales

Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/TarpCoverSales

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TarpCoverSales

Blog: http://blog.tarpcoversales.com/

StemCellSupply.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StemCellSupply

Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/StemCellSupply

PVCFittingsDirect.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PVCFittingsDirect

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PVCfittingsdir

AnyMenorah.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnyMenorah

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AnyMenorah

Using Social Bookmarking

If you have an ecommerce site, one of your critical priorities should be to get it optimized for search engines. This would ensure that your website would appear among the top search results when users are searching for information/products/services that are available at your site. It’s one of the best ways of ensuring that your target customers are aware of your sites and are reminded about it at the right time.

Search engine optimization has proven itself as an effective method for getting qualified traffic to the website. SEO is not enough; we need to combine it with newer tools. Although SEO is still a must, we now have another very good tool for driving qualified traffic to websites. It’s called “social bookmarking”. Social bookmarking sites help in building quality, one way backlinks to specific websites. This increases direct and indirect targeted traffic to those sites and also gets them indexed by different search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

However, once more, I would like to emphasize the importance of planning. All social bookmarking sites are not same and there’s no point spending resources on all social bookmarking sites that are available just because they may be free to use.  Social bookmarking activities should be based on the nature of your business and the content of your site. For example, if your site provides financial services there’s no point bookmarking it in a site that primarily attracts teens (however well-performing it may be). You have to keep in mind that you require quality traffic to succeed. This means that people discovering your website through social bookmarking sites should be potential customers. You would also need to decide how to go about the process of using various social bookmarking sites. Ideally you should maintain a balance between promoting your products and providing value to the social bookmarking community. That’s how social bookmarking works and that’s the only way you will find your links appearing at the best places in social bookmarking sites. Moreover, the content you are bookmarking needs to be compelling. Otherwise, other people won’t bookmark it, which is an important element of social bookmarking.

Moving on to the technical side of things, in order to make it easy for your users to bookmark your content in various social media sites, you need to make the process as easy as possible. Don’t forget the icons! And make sure they are prominently displayed on your site. This is how you will be able to successfully integrate social media into your website. At our company, we are now even integrating sites like Facebook into the shopping cart experience. This gives your customers the option to tell the clients right then and there, while they are excited and in the moment, that they just bought from your site.

But, the one thing I must stress on is the content and maintaining these SMO sites. People want to see an active community. Quite honestly, consumers are tired of hearing why we think our products, services, and company is better than our competitors. They want to hear it from others, and when they do, they are more likely to buy from you. I know what you are thinking, when will you find the time to do all this? We are here to help, we have full time content writers and SMO specialist who will research, write, and then send to you for approval information relevant to your business. We also can except a list of topics and research the things you want, draft posts and then send for your approval. If you are not making noise and your competitors are, who do you think they will buy from?

If you are not sure about your in-house capabilities, you should not hesitate to outsource the work to a company like ours who uses all the latest ecommerce platforms and SMO tools to help you quickly and cost effectively integrate these features into your online business.

So are you ready? Lets start making some noise!

Earlier, small to medium sized business marketers could not help but look wistfully at the commercials made for the products of big companies. Those companies could afford to spend millions of dollars on the marketing campaigns and broadcast commercials on television, taking the major chunk of customers with them. Even if small to medium sized businesses could make inexpensive but creative videos of their products/services they had no way of marketing them effectively, as they could not afford to pay for television spots which was the only way to reach the masses.

The Effectiveness of Video Marketing

The development of Internet changed all that; it began with providing a level playing field to all kinds of businesses, whether they were big or small. For example, the small business could have a website as attractive and useful as the big one and it also had a fair chance of appearing among the top of major search engines’ results. This could be achieved through many effective online marketing strategies like article marketing, email marketing and social bookmarking. All of these are still used with varying degrees of success. But the world of Internet is rapidly evolving and new developments take place almost on a daily basis.

A fairly recent development is the increasing use of videos for marketing on the web. In fact, videos have become a rage as far as Internet marketing is concerned. An important reason why videos serve as powerful marketing tools could probably be that they offer users with a way more convenient way of absorbing information. More Internet users would prefer to watch a video than read a long article. The success of YouTube has led to the creation of hundreds of video distribution sites, most of which offer their services for free. So now, even small to medium sized business owners can shoot inexpensive but creative and interesting videos of their products and services, and upload them on their own websites as well as the many free video distribution sites like YouTube where they can be potentially viewed by hundreds and thousands of global users who visit these sites every day.

Making Your Product/Service Video Infomercial

Many online business owners may think that making product videos is not their cup of tea and they would invariably botch up the whole thing. To this let me clarify, I am not talking about creating a multi-million dollar commercial. What we aim to do here is simply create what is called an infomercial. It would involve shooting your product or service as it is being used, that’s all. All that you would need is a camcorder, (you may also use a mobile camera as nowadays they can also produce high quality videos), an interesting script and maybe a good speaker/presenter. Apart from showing the products being used you should also try to emphasize the benefits that your products would bring to the users and how it’s better than other similar products available on the market. Make sure you plan out the shoot in advance so that you know beforehand what kind of video you are aiming for – nothing botches up a video more than lack of planning. Spontaneous on-the-set improvisations do work, but without a concrete overall idea of how things should be you would need a lot of luck to get it right.

The simplest way of shooting an infomercial would be: take your equipment and presenter to a well-lit location and then shoot them as they introduce the product, use them, express satisfaction and talk about their benefits and advantages. Think about it, if you present all this in the form of an article most users may not go beyond a couple of paragraphs. With an interesting video, you have a better chance of keeping them engaged till the end.

You may record the audio on the spot or separately. The latter is recommended because that way you would be able to ensure high-quality and clear audio. You can later sync the audio and video in the editing session. If you are willing to spend a little more, then you can also jazz up the video by adding titles, nice transitions, graphics, 3D animation and special effects which show the product in a very impressive light.

Video marketing can help your ecommerce site achieve great success. If you are not confident about handling video marketing on your own, you can take professional assistance from an ecommerce services provider. A professional would help you create effective videos and also put together a powerful video marketing strategy that would bring considerable returns.

What is your favorite part of filming infomercials? Comment below, let’s chat!

If you are interested in teaming up or receiving more information on our Video Production Services, give us a call at (877) 282-7001!

FACEBOOK

Today, nearly two-thirds of small businesses are using Facebook for marketing purposes. With over 1 billion profiles, Facebook users like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times every day.

What does this mean for your business?

 If you learn how to reach the right audience (within their over 1 billion users), your page will turn browsers into fans and fans into customers. We are in the era of 3^rd party validation and Facebook for business turns recommendations between friends into the most powerful kind of word-of-mouth marketing. With features that foster engagement like Open Graph, shoppers can visit your website, find products they “Want” or “Own” and  your product information will automatically feed onto their Facebook timeline for friends to see.

Facebook really is perfect for small businesses because it is more personal than Twitter and more professional than Pinterest. You can compose longer posts and pay more attention to the local needs of your community. Small businesses with a professional and responsive Facebook page won’t stay small for long!

Tips on Facebook for Business:

1. Build your Facebook Page Thoroughly- Don’t forget to add your phone number, website and location if applicable.
2. Brand your Cover Photo- Consistency is key, we can help you with this.
3. Connect with your Current Customers- Validation, validation, validation!
4. Attract New Fans with Coupons- “Like Us on Facebook for Special Offers” never gets old!
5. Be Engaging- Post quality content and don’t limit your posts to only promoting what you have to sell.

TWITTER

More than 140 million active Tweeters tweet every 2-3 days in nearly every major country around the world. The average Twitter user is between 24-34 years of age and has 27 followers. There are more searches on Twitter than Bing & Yahoo combined every month and 79% of Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand they follow on Twitter.

What does this mean for your business? 

Many users go to their Twitter Dashboard first to search for trending topics and products. Did you hear me? Trends! This is perfect when your business is active on Twitter, has a large inventory and can serve the masses. Word gets around on Twitter-really, really, really fast. So if you’re an entrepreneur building computers as a hobby, Twitter may throw too much activity your way. If you are using the right keywords and hashtags, users worldwide will get the opportunity to find your business and you can fill their requests first if your on top of your game.

Tips on Twitter for Business:

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Follow- Follow-backs are huge on Twitter! #TeamFollowBack
2. Be Careful About The Retweet- Retweeting is great if someone is positively promoting your products, but be careful who you associate your business with.
3. Reply to Your Customers- The average Twitter user only has 27 followers and they want you to show them some love! As long as everything stays positive on both ends, you can keep the communication online.
4. Brand your Twitter Like Your Website- Brand recognition is a major player in building trust and relationships with customers. We can help you with this!
5. Follow Celebrity/Popular Twitter Profiles- Celebrity endorsements are sweet, but make sure you do your research and only follow companies and individuals that would reflect positively on your brand.

PINTEREST

Hands down, the female demographic dominates Pinterest. There are currently around 10.4 million Pinterest users and about 80% of them are females spending nearly 100 minutes a day on the site.

What does this mean for your business?

Well if your selling flower arrangements, cosmetics, hand-made soaps or cookbooks it means EVERYTHING! Since Pinterest is an almost strictly visual platform, businesses selling products that will photograph well and catch someone’s eye (or stomach) will surely prosper. Pinterest makes it easy to display numerous product categories in a very clear arrangement (perfect for lurking and sharing with others)!

Tips on Pinterest for Business:

1. Pin Frequently & Stay Active- Boards with very few posts won’t keep their attention for long!
2. Name your Boards Something Fun and Descriptive- Keep it current and intriguing. 
3. Promote your Pins on Other Social Media Sites- Share your pins on Facebook and Twitter! We can help you with this.
4. Don’t Forget to Add Links- Yes, for every photo! Nothing is more annoying to browsers when they are teased with something they need but don’t know where to find.

Did you find this post helpful? Do you use Social Networking to drive leads and sales for your business? Comment and let us know!

If Social Media isn’t your niche, give us a call and ask about our Social Media Optimization services at (877) 282-7001. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook & Twitter for eCommerce deals!

Text message marketing offers considerable flexibility and can be used in a wide variety of ways, some of which are:

Distributing Information – Companies can set up a hub of information on which interested customers can request for and receive information through their mobile devices. The simplest method involves the customer texting the name of the company/product/service to a given short code and receiving corresponding information. A business can create many options including a variety of codes that let customers select the kind of information they would like to receive on their mobile phones.

Exclusive Content – A very effective method of motivating potential customers to interact with your business through their mobile phones is to develop content exclusively for mobile subscribers. But do make sure that the content provides value to your subscribers. They should feel that it’s advantageous for them to keep receiving information from your business.

Increase Appeal by Enforcing Limitations – This is similar in spirit to the above. Make offers to your client that are only active for a limited period and can only be used by people who respond to the mobile short code with a given keyword. This is a great way of keeping your mobile subscribers interested in your text messages and also encourages them to interact. In fact, you could use this method to boost sales on an otherwise slow business day.

Use Mobile coupons – Mobile coupons form a very popular part of text marketing. They can be offered to serve a variety of purposes. Say you are coming out with a new drink; you can send your subscribers a mobile coupon that allows them to have that drink for free. This will serve the double purposes of trial and feedback, as well as product promotion. Apart from that you can send discount coupons for slow moving products or maybe just to give your customers something to feel good about once in a while.

Build Customer Relations – After a customer has made a purchase you can periodically send him/her follow-up messages focused on relation building and providing after sales services. A simple thank you note after the sale can produce a welcome effect. You can also offer information about the product purchased including its usage, warranty reminders, and associated offers in future.

Promote Special Events – Texts can be very useful for promoting events whether online or offline. You can invite users to opt-in for receiving regular updates of an event that you may be organizing or are associated with. You can then send information, trivia and reminders about the event on their mobiles.

Mobile marketing is an evolving and emerging new way of instant communication. You may need to help educate your customers on this new technology, but it will be worth it.  Beware of the general labeling of who is and who is not a savvy mobile user.

A personal note on this; my neighbor’s son goes to UCLA and came home over spring break, his mom pulled out her phone and sent a text, she was amazed at his reaction. He simply stated that she was too old to send text messages. She and I text between ourselves 2-3 times a day, to others maybe 20-40 messages, it is not about age it is about convenience.

On the other hand, my nephews were all gathered in the gaming room playing Xbox. One of my nieces was typing away, for my son. He was texting his girlfriend through her. He would talk she would type, she would read message, he would respond. As I watched this I suggested that it would be a lot easier to just pick up the phone, and call. The room went still; they even turned their red, game glazed eyes to me to inform me that talking is for geeks. No one talks on the phone anymore. Wow …what a reality check.

Mobile marketing can bring customer reach -Here are a couple of points that I found very interesting. More than 3 billion people worldwide have cell phones. Many of them do not have desktop computers, or even televisions.

Companies will be advertising and people will be buying, the trick is to be in the right place at the right time. If you are looking to start a mobile campaign, lets first be sure your website is mobile friendly.

What are your most loved mobile marketing strategies? Comment below and let’s talk!

Interested in learning more about Mobile Marketing? Call our consultants today, (877) 282-7001, to start a review of what your site currently has to offer the mobile visitor.

Is video important in a website?

Oh yes, a thousand times, yes. Videos can attract a visitor more efficiently than plain old vanilla content. Think about it this way – if you see a tutorial on how to plant a tomato seed in well written text, and the same thing in the form of an informative video on another site, which one would you rather see? Web statistics have always shown that websites with videos rank much higher than textual websites, no matter how high quality the written words may be.

Using video has become even simpler nowadays with the ever-increasing popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube.  All you have to do is look for a video on these websites that would be appropriate for your usage, and then embed the same in your website. So, you can get the benefits of adding videos, minus any significant effort at all.

Have you noticed lately all the video pull out when you search a term in Google? Well, they get it. They understand that we are very much living in a world of instant gratification, entertainment, and if at all possible…less reading for presenting products and services.

The videos show up in search results of major search engines, resulting in huge click through rates. Youtube videos are also optimized to ensure that those load quickly, even on the slower Internet connections, so you can expect excellent visibility from various types of audience groups.

So, what are the negatives of using YouTube videos on my site?

There are several drawbacks of using YouTube videos in your website. First off, Youtube automatically ranks videos, and displays the ones that are most popular at the moment. Which may or may not be the point you wanted to pull out to your client.

That’s not all. Also, videos embedded from Youtube often show ads at the end. If you are running a business website, and those ads are coincidentally from your competitors, well, you get the idea. This is a major problem with YouTube videos.

Now, tell me the positives. And how do you get the best use of videos from YouTube?

Here are just a few of many, many great ways you can use YouTube and benefit greatly. First of all, by taking a YouTube link and embedding it in your site, you can look as though you are running the video on your site, but not have to pay extra to your hosting company for bandwidth or video streaming. Second, you have the ability to brand your own YouTube channel. This will give you a very sophisticated branding arm, and control over what shows up. When you have your own channel you can stop competitors adds from showing up.

You can also hire a company like ours who knows how to optimize your videos for search within YouTube, and well as the major engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

YouTube will also convert your videos, give options for making your videos better and even give different quality options for those of you who shoot in HD.

So, what if I use custom made videos?

Sure, that is a great idea. But, don’t get to caught up in being the perfect take…look at all the videos that go viral today. They are made by real people doing the things they love. So if you or your staff want to start recording how-to videos, educational videos, sales videos, or general videos like “About Us”, category videos, or customer support, be real. Your passion is something they can relate to.

If you decide that you want to have professional videos, like the ones I do here at my company, we can do that as well. Whether you use us or do them yourself, make sure the custom-made videos for your website are professionally created. Be sure to hire a good video-producing firm and let them take care of the task for you. Be sure to ask the video producers for a logo of your company to be added to all the videos, preferably throughout the length of it, in a corner of the frames. This will serve as an excellent promotional tactic.

But, don’t just upload your video to your own website, upload it on video sharing websites and YouTube as well! Make sure you add a short description of your company when you upload the video. That way, you may get a little share of your traffic from those websites. Even if it is little in comparison to the regular traffic your website gets, you still gain something. After all, the service is free, so why not put it to good use?

So, are there such situations at all when I should not use videos?

Unfortunately, yes, there are situations where you may have to avoid using videos in your website. Firstly, if you are targeting an audience that has to live with slow internet connections, like those in third world countries, then you may be better off using less video, and more text in your website. Secondly, if you wish your site to be accessible via mobile phones, then you should think twice before embedding too much video. We are seeing more and more phones with the ability to play videos but you need to still offer a balance of text and video at this point.

There is another point of concern. If your video does not add much value to written words, then it is better to avoid using videos at all. For instance, if you are representing the business data about a company’s yearly transactions, you are better off representing those using charts, graphs, tables and photographs. This is a case where textual, image, and graphical content elements are more effective than videos for getting the job done. In a video, those will not be visible long enough for the audience to see, and if that happens, what would be the use of the video in the first place?

So, the bottom line is, whether or not you should add videos to your website will depend on your target audience, the information you want to convey through your website, and the platform (regular internet or mobile internet) that you choose to put your website on. Judge the situation carefully, before you go on with it. But, in general I will say yes, video is a huge differentiator between you and your competitors.

Don’t forget, video can be used as a duplication of you (the one with the perfect sales pitch, delivery and excitement)! Imagine how many times you have delivered an amazing presentation about your products and services and thought…wow. If I could just get my employees to duplicate and say what I just said, we would close every deal. Well you can, but you yourself will be able to capture the attention of your potential clients, and they will like the fact they see a face, when buying from your site.

We seem to be moving into the direction of a very cocooned society. But, funny thing is, we want to be talked to only when it is right for us. So let your video present 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when your clients are in the mood to learn more.

Here are just few recent websites that we have done videos for:

www.worldjewels.com

www.canopymart.com (Also check out their branded YouTube, Twitter and Facebook!)

www.tarpcoversales.com (Also check out their branded YouTube, Twitter and Facebook!)

What are your favorite YouTube features for business? Comment below, we would love to hear from you!

For more information on using video on your website, check us out on Facebook & Twitter then give us a call at (877) 282-7001!

 Optimize your Twitter with “Lists”

If you follow us on Twitter, we recently tweeted about the feature for Twitter called “Lists”. Twitter Lists allow you to categorize your leads into separate timelines for enhanced monitoring capabilities. Salespeople can track common industry topics amongst leads for better insight on what exactly is prohibiting their business from succeeding. The more you understand a lead and their business before calling, the more focus you can put towards how you can solve their problems during the call.

Example:

“Hey Tim, I was on Twitter earlier and noticed you have been experiencing some reoccurring difficulties with your current e-commerce platform. Would you like to discuss some options for improvement?”

Opening your sales call on a common ground of understanding will convey respect for their time and trust. Many individuals are irritated by cold calls, so keep it honest, to the point and extremely insightful to earn their attention.

Creating Twitter Lists

• Step One: Log into Twitter, locate the wheel-like icon on your toolbar
• Step Two: Click on the icon to view the drop-down menu, select “Lists”
• Step Three: Create a list for each of your targeted audiences
• Step Four: Add users! P.S. Make sure you choose wisely when making your List private or public

Do you have any Social Media tricks for landing sales leads? Leave your comments below, we would love to hear from you!

This is, however, the exception. Most business owners are just that, business owners and not eCommerce specialists or technical people. This simple fact means that they can and do have great trouble getting their eCommerce applications set up and ready to go. The reason is that most applications are designed for the technically minded, and not the business owner looking to increase their web presence and sales base.

There is JOY in Mudville people, because now you can have an eCommerce application that is truly simple to use, powerful, do everything you need it to do, and, well, is REALLY simple to use!!

WordPress now has the ability to also include full eCommerce capabilities, including (this is a SHORT list of the full features available):

• Full product catalog including multiple images
• Payment Gateway integration for almost ANY payment gateway out there
• Full custom shipping functionality with UPS, FedEx, USPS, or whatever your custom shipping needs are
• Custom Coupons to give $ or % off the sale
• Complete Admin support for Order and Customer Management
• Custom forms to gather information as your business model needs
• Completely customizable page layout, and can be different on every page of your website if needed

The most critical part that the business owner needs to know is that it is simple to use.

All of this additional functionality is delivered through the VERY user friendly and very familiar WordPress user interface, meaning anyone at the business can work on, contribute to, or manage a fully functional eCommerce website.

Why is all this important? Well if you are a business owner, you get to REMAIN a business owner. You no longer have to take time away from running your business to become an IT person. This alone is worth the price of admission (which is less that you might think.) For more information, to see a WordPress eCommerce demo, or to schedule a consultation please call us at (877) 282-7001 and we will be happy to show you how we can simplify your business life.

An example from a recent conversation with a customer support call is this: The customer wanted to start having his customer’s email/contact him to sign up for a newsletter. He thought that by organizing his customer’s into a list that he could market to was a great idea, and so did we!  My response was that is a great idea, but why not use the built in Contact Form in his solution? It would increase the number of “leads” he would gather and do it all electronically into a single database. His response was, “what form?”

After much discussion, it came out that he didn’t really understand “this stuff” and it was hard for him to understand. As a result we ended up making a list of everything he wanted to do on his site, and for all but ONE of his items there was an article, or a video, or BOTH on our Support Portal that more than covered what he needed to do and really helped this customer make great strides with his store and his sales.

Every eCommerce application has different functionality. However, there are a number of areas that you (as the business owner) need to look into learning as it can have GREAT effects on your web presence and your sales:

• SEO Abilities – This includes adding in all your Title Tags, Meta Tags, etc.
• Connect your store with Social Media like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.
• Custom Coupons – You can set up coupon codes that SHOULD BE included in your Order Confirmation emails. Then when a customer that just bought from you gets their confirmation, you can send them a coupon for xx% off their next order.
• Related Items and Upsell Items – Big increase in average sale is found right here! Show your customers the products they will ALSO want by utilizing these features in your store.
• Free Ground Shipping – This can be a HUGH motivator for the customer to buy from you and is a simple thing to set up in most applications.
• Customer Polls – Engaging your customers is another huge way to involve them, learn about your customer demographics, likes, dislikes, and the polls can be used to gather customer data for later marketing purposes

This list barely scratches the surface of what your eCommerce Application can do for you. I urge you to begin learning your application now, or you can start making a list of things you would like done, and then pay someone to do it all for you. Time or Money? Which do you have more of or would rather spend on your website?

5 Must-Have Mobile Apps for Business

1.    Pay with Google Wallet

Google Wallet is an app that keeps your payment options and rewards cards with you at all times. Google Wallet stores your debit and credit cards, rewards cards, and special offers in one “virtual wallet”- giving you optimal security within the “cloud”. Since your banking information is something that you certainly don’t want to expose to anyone who simply uses your phone, Google Wallet app users are provided with data storage and processing capabilities on the cloud computing platform rather than on your mobile device itself.

2.    Save time with Slice

Slice is an app that allows you to track and organize your online shopping on the go. I’m all about efficiency, and Slice not only tracks my orders, but also finds receipts in my email inbox and automatically organizes them for me within the app. This app also keeps record of your previous orders, saving you time when repurchasing. Sliceme off a piece of that! I’m also all about the pun. Additional Resources- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=85xKHNgyKAw

3.    Add your Signature with SignEasy

SignEasy is a great app for businesses who do a lot of printing, faxing, and shipping-so basically, all business. SignEasyallows you to sign PDF, MS-Office, Open-Office, HTML, images and more with up to three signatures and the date & time. Have an iPhone or iPad? You can insert buttons and checkmarks onto your document! In many countries, electronic signatures are legally binding.

Additional Resources- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hQFbRIrbJg

4.    Stay safe with 1Password

1Password will save you tons of scrambling! This app saves your web usernames and passwords and other highly secured information (social security numbers, licenses, etc.) that you need to keep safe and organized at all cases. 1Password locks your data behind a four-digit unlock code and a master password, both of which you create. This gives me tremendous comfort when I misplace my phone. This app even has a browser built directly in, so no more redirecting! 1Password even two-way syncs, safely and securely through the ‘cloud’ to your Mac or Windows computer using their free Dropbox service. Using OS X, Windows, or Linux? This app also features encrypted backup & restore capabilities for your computer. Additional Resources- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxiqt2tITd4

5.    Manage T-Do’s with Wunderlist

Wunderlist allows you to take your to-do list everywhere you go. Simply create a list and start adding tasks! You can even create a new task directly from your email inbox and mark it with reminders and notifications! With Wunderlist, you can share to-do lists via email or through your favorite social media pages like Facebook and Twitter. This is time-management at its finest ladies and gentlemen! Wunderlist supports multiple platforms, so whether you’re using a PC or Mac, your Android, your iPad and iPhone, or the web, your tasks will automatically synchronize and stay secured. This app also has the CloudApp integrated for optimal security. Save yourself the hassle, and turn your to-do’s into to-done’s! Additional Resources-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v77fCXU1tYY

Do you have a favorite mobile app for business that didn’t make my list? Comment below, we love to hear from you!