Archive for the ‘E-Commerce’ Category

150 Million People Using Mobile Devices To Purchase Goods And Services By 2012

The GartnerGroup estimates that by the end of 2012, there will be 150 million people using mobile devices to purchase goods and services worldwide.

An ABI Research study predicted that shoppers will order $2.2 billion in physical goods via mobile devices in 2010 and by 2015, $119 billion worth of goods and services will be purchased via a mobile phone.

The data is clear – the trends speak for themselves – now is the time for you to develop and implement a mobile e-commerce strategy.

Magento Automatic Log Cleaning

If your Magento store has been running for any amount of time, you may be seeing your database growing beyond what you expected. Magento does some of its logging to the database and unless those log tables are cleaned out periodically they can quickly get quite large.

To set up automatic log cleaning, go to ADMIN: System->Configuration->System tab->Log Cleaning panel. Set the “Enable” field and the number of days worth of logs to save. (Set this according to your needs and server capacity.) Then set the frequency for ongoing log cleaning. (Remember, cron must be set up and running so this can be scheduled.)

If your version of Magento doesn’t have the Log Cleaning feature, you’ll want to manually clean out the log_visitor and log_url tables every once in awhile. Either of these methods will help keep your database size in check.

Magento hosting for E-commerce Website

When it comes to Magento hosting, you should look into VPS hosting.   VPS hosting is basically a dedicated server but at a less price.   One of the main reasons for recommending VPS is because Magento requires a lot of system resources and it performs well under VPS environment.  Yes, it is possible to run Magento on shared web hosting but it can lead to slow loading of web pages.   Also, you will get more security with VPS hosting because you are not sharing server resources with other users.  Furthermore, VPS hosting comes with a dedicated IP which is required for SSL.

Some of the core features of Magento include -

  • Search Engine Optimization:
    • It is 100 % search engine friendly.
    • Provides meta information for product and categories
    • Generate site map automatically
    • Offers Google site map
  • Site Management:
    • You can control many websites and stores from one administrative panel
    • Provides multi language support
    • Google website optimizer is integrated with the software
    • Also, includes powerful content management system
    • Ability to support Multi Language and Multi currency
    • You can use customized template to create unique website
  • Order Management:
    • The tool can create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order
    • Also, it can view, edit and create order from administrative panel
    • Additionally, it provides discount, select address and fix customer price
    • You can notify order through email
    • Provides the ability for new order through RSS feed
    • Can create Call center order
    • Can look into shopping cart, last ordered items, and compared products list
  • Web services API to make it easy to integrate third-party tools.
  • Integration with the United States Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS for real time rate quotes
  • Elaborate analytics and reporting options.
  • Can generate site map by itself
  • You can create many campaigns and buddy coupons with useful coupon rules.
  • Ability for digital and downloadable products.
  • Can integrate 50 payment gateways.
  • Can rewrite URL

There are many alternatives online when it comes to e-commerce but we strongly believe that Magento is one of the best e-commerce solutions that is available online.  Many users might go with e-commerce hosting solution that limit the ability of site admins and prevent them from having full control of their website.   However, with Magento hosting on VPS, users have full control over the server and the website backend.  Even when it comes to paying for Magento hosting, once can expect to pay around $40 per month with unlimited number of products and it will come with cPanel to help manage your website.  Overall, Magento hosting on VPS will give you full control of your server by giving you the ability to setup the server to your website needs.

What to Look For in E-Commerce Hosting?

E-commerce is a term which has become associated with web business as many millions of people are opening up their own storefronts on the web.

As the web is now populated with additional business sites, the clamor for pro E-commerce Web Hosting solutions have appeared that are perfect for business web hosting. Thousands of website hosting corporations are powering entrepreneurs with all of the tools they have to succeed on the web. Web hosts have gave the opportunity for companies across the world to target the core of their operation while maintaining all of the technical aspects in the background. Some of the Internets biggest commercial names have taken merit of powerful E-commerce hosting solutions including sites like eBay and Amazon.com. Aside from great features and promoting tools, your E-commerce site wants to be trustworthy and most importantly, secure.

This includes at least a 99% up time guarantee to make sure that your store should be available at any time together with support for security mechanisms that protect the integrity of your business. Security is awfully necessary as Web buyers are troubled about the protection of their Visa card details. With strict security and the backing of a trustworthy hosting service, you can assure secure transactions twenty-four / seven.

If you’re looking to profit from the rise of E-commerce and profit online, there are many things you must look for in a supplier :

Full time support : some kind of customer service and support should be available via telephone or e-mail. It also would not be a bad ideal to discover a host that offers support thru live discuss, support ticket system or online paperwork.

Full automation : In order for your E-commerce venture to be a hit, you want access to strong tools that automate assorted imperative jobs. Keep your eye out for applications that display complete charts of your site statistical data with an automatic backup use to revive your info in case something out of the normal should happen.  These tools can typically be found in a good control panel application.

Shopping cart software : This is one E-commerce feature you simply cannot do without. A trustworthy program will permit customers to checkout and mechanically work out shipping costs and process the exchange for you.

Pliability : A solid website host should be in a position to support your necessities as the business grows. If your traffic load gets heavy, you need quick access to further resources like bandwidth and disk storage.

Add-on Support : Today’s web is fierce with competition and the average website typically doesn’t cut.  You can make yourself stick out from rivals with support for assorted add-on software programmes and server-side programming languages.

Security : As discussed above, security is one of the most significant parts of E-commerce hosting. When looking for suppliers, look for features like anti virus protection, spam filters and other mechanisms to keep your business info secure.

By covering all of the necessities your E-commerce business can get off to an excellent start, permitting you to build a robust presence online and achieve fiscal success as an internet businessman. While this is no straightforward task by any means, more average people are establishing that it can be done.